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L A U 
LAUR, a' river of the duchy of Wurzburg, which runs 
into the Saal three miles north of Mumierftadt. 
LAUR, a town of the duchy of Wurzburg: two miles 
north of Munnerftatt. 
LAUR, a town of Perfia, in Chufiftan : fifty miles eaft 
of Toftar. 
LAU'RA, a woman’s name. See Petrarch. 
LAURA, f. [Gr. primarily fignifying village, ftreet, or 
hamlet.] A name given to the refidence of certain ancient 
monks. Authors cannot agree about the difference be¬ 
tween a laura and a monaftery ; foir.e pretend, that a laura 
was a monaftery wherein there lived at leaft a thoufand 
monks ; but this is nowife credible. The more natural 
opinion is, that the ancient monafleries were the fame with 
the modern, confiding of large buildings divided into 
halls, chapels, and cells, poffeifed by the monks, each of 
whom had his apartment; but the laura were a kind of 
villages, whereof each houfe was inhabited by one or two 
monks at the moft; fo that the houfes of the Chartreux 
feem, in fome ineafure, to reprefent the ancient laurre, 
and thofe of the other monks proper monafteries. The 
moll celebrated lauras mentioned in church-hiftory were 
in Palefiine; as the laura of St. Euthymus, at four or five 
leagues diftance from Jerufalern ; the laura of St. Saba, 
near the brook Cedron ; the laura of the Towers, near 
the river Jordan, &c. 
LAU'RA, a place near Alexandria in Egypt. 
LAV'RA, a town of Rufiia, in the government of 
Mofcow : thirty-lix miles north-eaft of Mofcow. 
LAU'RA, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of Na- 
gore : twenty miles weft of Catchwana. 
LAURAC' LE GRA'ND, a town of France, in the 
department of the Aude: fifteen miles weft of Carcaffonne, 
and five fouth of Caftelnaudary. 
LAURA'DIO, a town of Portugal, in the province of 
Eftramadura, on the fouth fide of the Tagus : fix miles 
fouth-fouth-eall of Lifbon, and ten north-north-weft of 
Setuval. 
LAURAGA'IS, before the revolution, a fmall country 
of France, in Upper Languedoc, of which Caftelnaudary 
was the capital. 
LAURA'NA, a feaport of Iftria, with a fmall harbour, 
in the gulf of Quarnero: eight miles fouth of Caftua. 
Lat. 45. 28. N. Ion. 14. 17. E. 
LAURDAU’NG, a mountain pafs in Bengal, from 
Burwa to Nagpour: twenty-five miles north-weft of Doefa. 
LAU'RE, a town of Portugal, in the province of Alen- 
tejo : thirty miles weft-north-weft of Evora. 
LAU'RE, a town of France, in the department of the 
Aude: eight miles north-eaft of Carcaffonne. 
LAUREA'CUM, in ancient geography, a town at the 
confluence of the Ens and the Danube; now Larch. 
LAU'RE AT, or Laureate, f. [from laurus, Lat.] An 
officer of the houfehold of the kings of Great Britain, 
whofe buflnefs confifts only in compoiing an odfe annually 
on his maiefty’s birth-day, and on the new year; fome- 
t'urtes alfo, though rarely, on occafion of any remarkable 
victory. Of the firft inftitution of poets laureate, Mr. 
Wharton has given the following account in his Hiftory 
of Englifh Poetry. ‘‘Great confufion has entered into 
this fubjedt, on account of the degrees in grammar, which 
included rhetoric and verfificaticn, anciently taken in our 
univerfities, particularly at Oxford ; on which occafion, 
a wreath of laurel was prefented to the new graduate, who 
was afterwards ufually ftyled Poeta laureatus. Thefe fcho- 
laftic laureations, however, feem to have given rife to the 
appellation in queftion. I will give fome in fiances at Ox¬ 
ford, which at the fame time will explain the nature of 
the ftudies for which our academical philologifts received 
their rewards. About the year 1470, one John Watfon, 
a ftudent in grammar, obtained a concefiion to be gradu¬ 
ated and laureated in that fcience, on condition that he 
compofed one hundred Latin verfes in praife of the uni- 
verfity, and a Latin comedy. Another grammarian was 
diftinguifhed with the fame badge, after having ftipulated, 
L A U 
that, at the next public adt, he would affix the fame num¬ 
ber of hexameters on the great gates of St. Mary’s church, 
that they might be feen by the whole univerfity. This 
was at that period the moft convenient mode of publica¬ 
tion, About the fame time, one Maurice Byrchenfaw, 
a fcholar in rhetoric, fupplicated to be admitted to read 
lectures, that is, to take a degree, in that faculty; and 
his petition was granted, with a provificn, that he fiiould 
write one hundred verfes on the glory of the univerfity, 
and not fuffer Ovid’s Art of Love, and the Elegies of 
Pamphilus, to be ftudied in auditory. Not long after¬ 
wards, one John Bnlman, another rhetorician, having 
complied with the terms impofed, of explaining the firft 
book of Tuily’s Offices, and likewife the firft of his Epif- 
tles, without any pecuniary emolument, was graduated in 
rhetoric ; and a crown of laurel was publicly placed on 
his head by the hands of the chancellor of the univerfity. 
About the year 1489, Skelton was laureated at Oxford, 
and in the year 1493 was permitted to wear his laurel at 
Cambridge. Robert Whittington affords the la ft inftance 
of a rhetorical degree at Oxford. He was a fecular prieft, 
and eminent for his various treadles in grammar, and for 
his facility in Latin poetry; having exercifed his art 
many years, and fubmitting to the cuftomary demand of 
a hundred verfes, he was honoured with the laurel in the 
year 1312. 
“ With regard to the poet laureate of the kings of Eng¬ 
land, he is undoubtedly the fame that is ftyled the king's 
verifier, (Henry d’Avranches,) and to whom 100 Ihillings 
were paid as his annual ftipend in the 36th year of Henry 
III. anno 1251. But, when or how that title commenced, 
and whether this officer was ever folemnly crowned with 
laurel at his firlt inveftiture, I will not pretend to deter¬ 
mine, after the refearches of the learned Selden on this 
queftion have proved unfuccefsful. It feems moft proba¬ 
ble, that the barbarous and inglorious name of verjijier 
gradually gave way to an appellation of more elegance 
and dignity ; or, rather, that at length thofe only were in 
general invited to this appointment, who had received 
academical fanclion, and had merited a crown of laurel in 
the univerfities for their abilities in Latin compofition, 
particularly Latin verfification. Thus the king's laureate 
was nothing more than ‘ a graduated rhetorician employed 
in the fervice of the king.’ That he originally wrote in 
Latin, appears from the ancient title verfijicator ; and may 
be moreover collected from the two Latin poems, which 
Bafton and Gulielmus, who appear to have refpeftively 
afted in the capacity of royal poets to Richard I. and Ed¬ 
ward II. officially compofed on Richard’s crufade, and 
Edward’s fiege of Striveling caftle. 
“Andrew Bernard, fucceflively poet laureate of Henry 
VII. and VIII. affords a (till ftronger proof that this offi¬ 
cer was a Latin fcholar. He was a native of Thouloufe, 
and an Auguftine monk. He was not only the king’s 
poet laureate, as it is fuppofed, but his hiftoriographer, 
and preceptor in grammar to prince Arthur. He obtained 
many ecclefialtical preferments in England. All the 
pieces now to be found, which he wrote in the character 
of poet laureate, are in Latin. Thefe are, An Addrefs 
to Henry VII. for the moft aufpicious beginning of the 
10th year of his reign, with an Epithalamium on the mar¬ 
riage of Francis the dauphin of France with the king’s 
daughter; A New Year’s Gift for the year 1515; and, 
Verfes wifhing Profperity to his Majefty’s 13th Year. He 
has left fome Latin hymns ; and many of his Latin profe 
pieces, which he wrote in the quality of hiftoriographer 
to both monarchs, are remaining. 
“I am of opinion, that it was not cuftomary for the 
royal laureate to write in Englifh till the reformation of 
religion had begun to diminifli the veneration for the La¬ 
tin language; or, rather, till the love of novelty, and.a 
better lenfe of things, had banifhed the narrow pedantries 
of monaflic erudition, and taught us to cultivate our na¬ 
tive tongue.” 
Sir John Hawkins obferves, that there are no records 
-which 
