406 LAY 
Shakefpeare and Milton ufe it likewife indifcrimirtately for 
every kind of fong. Lai fee ms a word purely Francic and 
Saxon ; it is neither to be found in the Arnioric language, 
iior in the dialed of Provence. The French poetefs Marie, 
who, in the time of St. Louis, about the middle of the 
thirteenth century, t ran fated feveral tales from the Ar- 
itioric language of Bretagne, calls them Lais ; but the term 
is of much higher antiquity. After its adoption by the 
Englifh poets, it foon became a generical term in poetry 
for every fpecies of verfe, as fong is now ; but both thele 
words Itill retain their particular acceptation as well as ge¬ 
nerical ; for by a fong is underftood a fliort poem fet to a 
tune, and this was the particular meaning of lay, in the 
laft century, among our mufical writers. 
LAY, adj. [ laicus , Lat. from Xa.t&, Gr.] Not clerical ; 
regarding or belonging to the people as diltinct from the 
clergy .—Lay perfons, married or unmarried, being doc¬ 
tors of the civil law, may be chancellors, officials. See. 
Aylijfts Parergcn. 
All this they had by law, and none repin’d ; 
The pref’rence was but due to Levi’s kind ; 
But, when fome lay preferment fell by chance. 
The gourmands made it their inheritance. Dryden. 
Lay Brothers, among the Romanifts, thofe pious but 
illiterate perfons, who devote themfelves at fome convent 
to the lervice of the religious. They wear a different ha¬ 
bit from that of the religious; but never enter the choir, 
nor are prefent at the chapters; nor do they make any 
other vow except of conftancy and obedience. In the 
nunneries there are alfo lay fillers. 
Lay Corporations. See Corporation, vol. v. 
Lay Investiture of Bishops. See Investiture, 
vol. xi. 
Lay Fee. See the article Tenure. 
LAY, a town of France, in the department of the 
Rhone and Loire: eight miles fouth-welt of Roanne. 
• LAY, Allampi, or Alampou, a town of Africa, in 
the kingdom of Ningo, on the Gold Coall. 
LAY-CHOU'I, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Pe-tche-li': ten miles eall of Y. 
LAY-DE', a town of Africa, in the country of the 
Foulis, on the Senegal : forty-five miles fouth-eaft of 
Goumel. 
LAY-KAN', a fmall ifland in the Eaftern Indian Sea, 
near the fouth-welt coaft of Celebes. Lat. 5. 32. S. Ion. 
119. 51. E. 
LAY-MEBAM'BA, a town of Peru, in the jurifdic- 
tion of Chacapoyas. 
LAY-MOU', a town on the fouth coaft of the ifland 
of Ceram. 
LAYAU', a town of the ifland of St. Vincent, fituated 
•®n the weft-coaft, in a bay at the mouth of a river, to 
both of which it gives name. Lat. 13. 8. N. Ion. 61.81. W. 
LAYA'VEN POINT, a cape on the north coaft of 
Mindanao. 
LAY'BACH, a town and capital of Carniola, on a na¬ 
vigable river of the fame name, which fo divides it that 
one part of the town lies in Upper and the other in Lower 
Carniola. The citadel, which is ancient, has a church, 
and is inhabited by a conftable, who has the title of burg- 
grave, and twelve foldiers. Laybach is the fee of a bi- 
jhop, erected in 1461, by the emperor Frederic IV. and 
the prelate was a prince of the empire. Befides the cathe¬ 
dral, it contains feveral churches, and about 500 houfes: 
twenty-eight miles north-eaft of Triefte, and thirty-four 
weft-fouth-weft of Cilley. Lat. 46. 12. N. Ion. 14. 
3°. E. 
LAY'BACH, or Lau'bach, a river of Carniola, which 
rifes about a mile welt of Ober Laubach, and runs into 
the Save three miles fouth of Kreutberg. 
LAY'BACH, or Lau'bach, (Ober,) a town of Car- 
niola: eleven miles louth-welt of Laybach, and nine 
fouth-eaft of Hydria. 
L A Y 
I,AY'COCK, a village in Wiltfhire, containing about 
1400 inhabitants. It has two fairs, July 7 and December 
21; and formerly had a market. Here is faid to have been 
a caftle in the time of the Britons ; and a nunnery was 
built here in 1133, which is now the feat of the countels 
of Shrewfbury; and here is preferved an original copy of 
Magna Charta. Roman coins have been often dug up near 
this place, in a field which has thence acquired the name 
of Silver-field. It is three miles from Corffiam, and five 
from Chippenham. 
LAY'COCK BA'Y, a btly on the north-eaft coaft of 
Barbadoes; one mile north-weft of Cuckold’s Point. 
I,AYE,/ [ley, old Fr.] Law: 
A woman worthy of immortal praife. 
Which for this real me found many goodley layes, 
And wholefome (tatutes to her hulband brought. Spcnfer. 
LAYE, a river of France, which pafies by Bethune, 
Si c. and runs into the Lys fix miles eaft of St. Tenant. 
LAY'ER,/ [from layi\ A llratum, or row; a bed ; 
one body fpread over another.—A layer of rich mould 
beneath, and about this natural earth to nourifh the 
fibres. Evelyn.—A fprig of a plant.—Many trees may be 
propagated by layers. Miller .—A hen that lays eggs.— 
The oldeft are always reckoned the beft fitters, and the 
y.oungeft the beft layers. Mortimer. 
LAY'ING,/ The aft of placing horizontally. The aft 
of extruding eggs. 
In gardening, it is the procefs or operation of placing 
layers in the foil, for propagating trees, flirubs, and 
plants. It is effefted by laying branches and young 
(hoots of trees and plants in the earth, from two or three 
to five or fix inches deep, leaving their tops out, that the 
part laid in the earth may emit roots, and become a plant. 
The layers, when well rooted, ffiould be feparated from 
the parent, and planted in the nurfery, or other proper 
place, to acquire due ftrength and fize, for the purpofes 
-for which they are defigned. And they require different 
lengths of time for becoming rooted, from a few months 
to two or more years. 
There are great numbers of flirubs and trees that are 
capable of being increafed by layers ; but the practice is 
more particularly applicable to the flirnbby kind, as their 
branches grow near the ground, convenient for being laid 
down. It may, however, be praflifed with fuccels on 
fruit-trees and foreft-trees, when their branches are fitu¬ 
ated low enough for being laid, though the varieties of 
many fruit-trees are better propagated by grafting and 
inoculation; as to which, fee the article Horticulture, 
vol. x. p. 399-402. The vine and fig, however, often 
admit of being increafed by layers ; and foreft-trees, for 
Ihe continuance of varieties; as the plants raifed in this 
method continue exactly the fame as the parent-plant 
from whence they were raifed. This is a certain method 
to continue any approved variety, as well as to increafe 
fuch flirubs or trees as do not produce feeds here, and 
which cannot be eaflly obtained. It is likewife an expe¬ 
ditious and eafy mode of propagation; as by it many new 
plants are often raifed in a few months, which would 
take two or three years to bring them to the fame fize 
from feeds. In many forts it is fo eafy, that all the (hoots 
or any branch fituated near the ground, or convenient 
for laying down, may be made diftinft plants. 
It may be noticed that, for all forts of the tree or flirub 
kinds, it is generally performed on the young (hoots of 
the preceding fummer, which fliould be laid down in 
fpring or autumn ; but fometitnes on (hoots of the fame 
year, in fummer, efpecially in the hard-wooded evergreen 
trees and flirubs, that do not (trike root readily in the 
older wood. Many lbrts of trees that have their wood of 
a loofe foft texture often grow pretty freely by layers of 
them, of two or feveral years growth. But in herbaceous 
plants capable of being propagated by layers, fuch as car¬ 
nations, pinks, double fweet-williams, &c. the young 
3 (hoots 
