[1] See the _Abstract of Final Report of Commissioners of Irish Poor
Enquiry_, &c., by G. C. Lewis and N. Senior (1837).
[2] Translated into German by Liebrecht (Hanover, 1858).
LEWIS, HENRY CARVILL (1853-1888), American geologist, was born in
Philadelphia on the 16th of November 1853. Educated in the university of
Pennsylvania he took the degree of M.A. in 1876. He became attached to
the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania in 1879, serving for three years
as a volunteer member, and during this term he became greatly interested
in the study of glacial phenomena. In 1880 he was chosen professor of
mineralogy in the Philadelphia academy of natural sciences, and in 1883
he was appointed to the chair of geology in Haverford College,
Pennsylvania. During the winters of 1885 to 1887 he studied petrology
under H. F. Rosenbusch at Heidelberg, and during the summers he
investigated the glacial geology of northern Europe and the British
Islands. His observations in North America, where he had studied under
Professor G. F. Wright, Professor T. C. Chamberlin and Warren Upham, had
demonstrated the former extension of land-ice, and the existence of
great terminal moraines. In 1884 his _Report on the Terminal Moraine in
Pennsylvania and New York_ was published: a work containing much
information on the limits of the North American ice-sheet. In Britain he
sought to trace in like manner the southern extent of the terminal
moraines formed by British ice-sheets, but before his conclusions were
matured he died at Manchester on the 21st of July 1888. The results of
his observations were published in 1894 entitled _Papers and Notes on
the Glacial Geology of Great Britain and Ireland_, edited by Dr H. W.
Crosskey.
See "Prof. Henry Carvill Lewis and his Work in Glacial Geology," by
Warren Upham, _Amer. Geol._ vol. ii. (Dec. 1888) p. 371, with
portrait.
LEWIS, JOHN FREDERICK (1805-1876), British painter, son of F. C. Lewis,
engraver, was born in London. He was elected in 1827 associate of the
Society of Painters in Water Colours, of which he became full member in
1829 and president in 1855; he resigned in 1858, and was made associate
of the Royal Academy in 1859 and academician in 1865. Much of his
earlier life was spent in Spain, Italy and the East, but he returned to
England in 1851 and for the remainder of his career devoted himself
almost exclusively to Eastern subjects, which he treated with
extraordinary care and minuteness of finish, and with much beauty of
technical method. He is represented by a picture, "Edfou: Upper Egypt,"
in the National Gallery of British Art. He achieved equal eminence in
both oil and water-colour painting.
LEWIS, MATTHEW GREGORY (1775-1818), English romance-writer and
dramatist, often referred to as "Monk" Lewis, was born in London on the
9th of July 1775. He was educated for a diplomatic career at Westminster
school and at Christ Church, Oxford, spending most of his vacations
abroad in the study of modern languages; and in 1794 he proceeded to the
Hague as attaché to the British embassy. His stay there lasted only a
few months, but was marked by the composition, in ten weeks, of his
romance _Ambrosio, or the Monk_, which was published in the summer of
the following year. It immediately achieved celebrity; but some passages
it contained were of such a nature that about a year after its
appearance an injunction to restrain its sale was moved for and a rule
_nisi_ obtained. Lewis published a second edition from which he had
expunged, as he thought, all the objectionable passages, but the work
still remains of such a character as almost to justify the severe
language in which Byron in _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_
addresses--
"Wonder-working Lewis, Monk or Bard,
Who fain would'st make Parnassus a churchyard;
Even Satan's self with thee might dread to dwell,
And in thy skull discern a deeper hell."
Whatever its demerits, ethical or aesthetic, may have been, _The Monk_
did not interfere with the reception of Lewis into the best English
society; he was favourably noticed at court, and almost as soon as he
came of age he obtained a seat in the House of Commons as member for
Hindon, Wilts. After some years, however, during which he never
addressed the House, he finally withdrew from a parliamentary career.
His tastes lay wholly in the direction of literature, and _The Castle
Spectre_ (1796, a musical drama of no great literary merit, but which
enjoyed a long popularity on the stage), _The Minister_ (a translation
from Schiller's _Kabale u. Liebe_), _Rolla_ (1797, a translation from
Kotzebue), with numerous other operatic and tragic pieces, appeared in
rapid succession. _The Bravo of Venice_, a romance translated from the
German, was published in 1804; next to _The Monk_ it is the best known
work of Lewis. By the death of his father he succeeded to a large
fortune, and in 1815 embarked for the West Indies to visit his estates;
in the course of this tour, which lasted four months, the _Journal of a
West Indian Proprietor_, published posthumously in 1833, was written. A
second visit to Jamaica was undertaken in 1817, in order that he might
become further acquainted with, and able to ameliorate, the condition of
the slave population; the fatigues to which he exposed himself in the
tropical climate brought on a fever which terminated fatally on the
homeward voyage on the 14th of May 1818.
_The Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis_, in two volumes, was
published in 1839.
LEWIS, MERIWETHER (1774-1809), American explorer, was born near
Charlottesville, Virginia, on the 18th of August 1774. In 1794 he
volunteered with the Virginia troops called out to suppress the "Whisky
Insurrection," was commissioned as ensign in the regular United States
army in 1795, served with distinction under General Anthony Wayne in the
campaigns against the Indians, and attained the rank of captain in 1797.
From 1801 to 1803 he was the private secretary of President Jefferson.
On the 18th of January 1803 Jefferson sent a confidential message to
Congress urging the development of trade with the Indians of the
Missouri Valley and recommending that an exploring party be sent into
this region, notwithstanding the fact that it was then held by Spain
and owned by France. Congress appropriated funds for the expedition, and
the president instructed Lewis to proceed to the head-waters of the
Missouri river and thence across the mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
With Jefferson's consent Lewis chose as a companion Lieut. William
Clark, an old friend and army comrade. The preparations were made under
the orders of the War Department, and, until the news arrived that
France had sold Louisiana to the United States, they were conducted in
secrecy. Lewis spent some time in Philadelphia, gaining additional
knowledge of the natural sciences and learning the use of instruments
for determining positions; and late in 1803 he and Clark, with
twenty-nine men from the army, went into winter quarters near St Louis,
where the men were subjected to rigid training. On the 14th of May 1804
the party, with sixteen additional members, who, however, were to go
only a part of the way, started up the Missouri river in three boats,
and by the 2nd of November had made the difficult ascent of the stream
as far as 47° 21´ N. lat., near the site of the present Bismarck, North
Dakota, where, among the Mandan Indians, they passed the second winter.
Early in April 1805 the ascent of the Missouri was continued as far as
the three forks of the river, which were named the Jefferson, the
Gallatin and the Madison. The Jefferson was then followed to its source
in the south-western part of what is now the state of Montana. Procuring
a guide and horses from the Shoshone Indians, the party pushed westward
through the Rocky Mountains in September, and on the 7th of October
embarked in canoes on a tributary of the Columbia river, the mouth of
which they reached on the 15th of November. They had travelled upwards
of 4000 m. from their starting-point, had encountered various Indian
tribes never before seen by whites, had made valuable scientific
collections and observations, and were the first explorers to reach the
Pacific by crossing the continent north of Mexico. After spending the
winter on the Pacific coast they started on the 23rd of March 1806 on
their return journey, and, after crossing the divide, Lewis with one
party explored Maria's river, and Clark with another the Yellowstone. On
the 12th of August the two explorers reunited near the junction of the
Yellowstone and the Missouri, and on the 23rd of September reached St
Louis. In spite of exposure, hardship and peril only one member of the
party died, and only one deserted. No later feat of exploration,
perhaps, in any quarter of the globe has exceeded this in romantic
interest. The expedition was commemorated by the Lewis and Clark
Centennial Exposition at Portland, Oregon, in 1905. The leaders and men
of the exploring party were rewarded with liberal grants of land from
the public domain, Lewis receiving 1500 acres; and in March 1807 Lewis
was made governor of the northern part of the territory obtained from
France in 1803, which had been organized as the Louisiana Territory. He
performed the duties of this office with great efficiency, but it is
said that in the unwonted quiet of his new duties, his mind, always
subject to melancholy, became unbalanced, and that while on his way to
Washington he committed suicide about 60 m. south-west of Nashville,
Tennessee, on the 11th of October 1809. It is not definitely known,
however, whether he actually committed suicide or was murdered.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Jefferson's _Message from the President of the United
States_, _Communicating Discoveries made in Exploring the Missouri,
Red River and Washita by Captains Lewis and Clark, Dr Sibley and Mr
Dunbar_ (Washington, 1806, and subsequent editions) is the earliest
account, containing the reports sent back by the explorers in the
winter of 1804-1805. Patrick Gass's _Journal of the Voyages and
Travels of a Corps of Discovery under the Command of Capt. Lewis and
Capt. Clark_ (Pittsburg, 1807) is the account of a sergeant in the
party. Biddle and Allen's _History of the Expedition under the Command
of Captains Lewis and Clark_ (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1814) is a
condensation of the original journals. There are numerous reprints of
this work, the best being that of Elliott Coues (4 vols., New York,
1893), which contains additions from the original manuscripts and a
new chapter, in the style of Biddle, inserted as though a part of the
original text. As a final authority consult R. G. Thwaites (ed.), _The
Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_ (8 vols., New
York, 1904-1905), containing all the known literary records of the
expedition. For popular accounts see W. R. Lighton, _Lewis and Clark_
(Boston, 1901); O. D. Wheeler, _The Trail of Lewis and Clark_ (2
vols., New York, 1904); and Noah Brooks (ed.), _First across the
Continent: Expedition of Lewis and Clark_ (New York, 1901).
LEWISBURG, a borough and the county-seat of Union county, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., on the W. bank of West Branch of the Susquehanna river, about 50
m. N. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1900) 3457 (60 foreign-born); (1910) 3081. It
is served by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading railways.
It is the seat of Bucknell University (coeducational), opened in 1846 as
the university of Lewisburg and renamed in 1886 in honour of William
Bucknell (1809-1890), a liberal benefactor. The university comprises a
College of Liberal Arts, an Academy for Young Men, an Institute for
Young Women, and a School of Music, and in 1908-1909 had 50 instructors
and 775 students, of whom 547 were in the College of Liberal Arts. The
city is situated in a farming region, and has various manufactures,
including flour, lumber, furniture, woollens, nails, foundry products
and carriages. Lewisburg (until about 1805 called Derrstown) was founded
and laid out in 1785 by Ludwig Derr, a German, and was chartered as a
borough in 1812.
LEWISHAM, a south-eastern metropolitan borough of London, England,
bounded N.W. by Deptford, N.E. by Greenwich, E. by Woolwich, and W. by
Camberwell, and extending S. to the boundary of the county of London.
Pop. (1901) 127,495. Its area is for the most part occupied by villas.
It includes the districts of Blackheath and Lee in the north, Hither
Green, Catford and Brockley in the central parts, and Forest Hill and
part of Sydenham in the south-west. In the districts last named
well-wooded hills rise above 300 ft., and this is an especially favoured
residential quarter, its popularity being formerly increased by the
presence of medicinal springs, discovered in 1640, on Sydenham Common.
Towards the south, in spite of the constant extension of building, there
are considerable tracts of ground uncovered, apart from public grounds.
In the north the borough includes the greater part of Blackheath (q.v.),
an open common of considerable historical interest. The other principal
pleasure grounds are Hilly Fields (46 acres) and Ladywell Recreation
Grounds (46 acres) in the north-west part of the borough; and at
Sydenham (but outside the boundary of the county of London) is the
Crystal Palace. Among institutions are the Horniman Museum, Forest Hill
(1901); Morden's College, on the south of Blackheath, founded at the
close of the 17th century by Sir John Morden for Turkey merchants who
were received as pensioners, and subsequently extended in scope;
numerous schools in the same locality; and the Park Fever Hospital,
Hither Green. The parliamentary borough of Lewisham returns one member.
The borough council consists of a mayor, 7 aldermen and 42 councillors.
Area, 7014.4 acres.
LEWISTON, a city of Androscoggin county, Maine, U.S.A., on the
Androscoggin river, opposite Auburn, with which it is connected by four
steel bridges, and about 36 m. N.E. of Portland. Pop. (1900) 23,761, of
whom 9316 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 26,247. It is served by the
Maine Central, the Grand Trunk, the Portland & Rumford Falls and the
Lewiston, Augusta & Waterville (electric) railways. The surrounding
country is hilly and the river is picturesque; in the vicinity there are
many lakes and ponds abounding in salmon and trout. The Maine fish
hatchery is on Lake Auburn, 3 m. above the city. Lewiston is the seat of
Bates College, a non-sectarian institution, which grew out of the Maine
State Seminary (chartered in 1855), and was chartered in 1864 under its
present name, adopted in honour of Benjamin E. Bates (d. 1877), a
liberal benefactor. In 1908-1909 the college had 25 instructors and 440
students, and its library contained 34,000 volumes. The campus of the
college is about 1 m. from the business portion of Lewiston and covers
50 acres; among the college buildings are an auditorium (1909) given by
W. Scott Libbey of Lewiston, and the Libbey Forum for the use of the
three literary societies and the two Christian associations of the
college. The literary societies give excellent training in forensics.
The matriculation pledge requires from male students total abstinence
from intoxicants as a condition of membership. There are no secret
fraternities. From the beginning women have been admitted on the same
terms as men. The Cobb Divinity School (Free Baptist), which was founded
at Parsonfield, Maine, in 1840 as a department of Parsonfield Seminary,
and was situated in 1842-1844 at Dracut, Massachusetts, in 1844-1854 at
Whitestown, New York, and in 1854-1870 at New Hampton, New Hampshire,
was removed to Lewiston in 1870 and became a department (known as Bates
Theological Seminary until 1888) of Bates College, with which it was
merged in 1908. Lewiston has a fine city hall, a Carnegie library and a
public park of 10½ acres, with a bronze soldiers' monument by Franklin
Simmons, who was born in 1839 at Webster near Lewiston, and is known for
his statues of Roger Williams, William King, Francis H. Pierpont and U.
S. Grant in the national Capitol, and for "Grief" and "History" on the
Peace Monument at Washington. In Lewiston are the Central Maine General
Hospital (1888), the Sisters' Hospital (1888), under the charge of the
French Catholic Sisters of Charity, a home for aged women, a young
women's home and the Hesley Asylum for boys. The Shrine Building (Kora
Temple), dedicated in 1909, is the headquarters of the Shriners of the
state. The river at Lewiston breaks over a ledge of mica-schist and
gneiss, the natural fall of 40 ft. having been increased to more than 50
ft. by a strong granite dam; and 3 m. above the city at Deer Rips a
cement dam furnishes 10,000 horse-power. The water-power thus obtained
is distributed by canals from the nearer dam and transmitted by wire
from the upper dam. The manufacture of cotton goods is the principal
industry, and in 1905 the product of the city's cotton mills was valued
at about one-third of that of the mills of the whole state. Among other
industries are the manufacture of woollen goods, shirts, dry-plates,
carriages, spools and bobbins, and boots and shoes, and the dyeing and
finishing of textiles. The total factory product in 1905 was valued at
$8,527,649. The municipality owns its water works and electric lighting
plant. Lewiston was settled in 1770, incorporated as a township in 1795
and chartered as a city in 1861. It was the home of Nelson Dingley
(1832-1899), who from 1856 until his death controlled the Lewiston
_Journal_. He was governor of the state in 1874-1876, Republican
representative in Congress in 1881-1899, and the drafter of the Dingley
Tariff Bill (1897).
LEWIS-WITH-HARRIS, the most northerly island of the Outer Hebrides,
Scotland. It is sometimes called the Long Island and is 24 m. from the
nearest point of the mainland, from which it is separated by the strait
called The Minch. It is 60 m. long and has an extreme breadth of 30 m.,
its average breadth being 15 m. It is divided into two portions by a
line roughly drawn between Loch Resort on the west and Loch Seaforth on
the east, of which the larger or more northerly portion, known as Lewis
(pron. _Lews_), belongs to the county of Ross and Cromarty and the
lesser, known as Harris, to Inverness-shire. The area of the whole
island is 492,800 acres, or 770 sq. m., of which 368,000 acres belong to
Lewis. In 1891 the population of Lewis was 27,045, of Harris 3681; in
1901 the population of Lewis was 28,357, of Harris 3803, or 32,160 for
the island, of whom 17,175 were females, 11,209 spoke Gaelic only, and
17,685 both Gaelic and English. There is communication with certain
ports of the Western Highlands by steamer via Stornoway every
week--oftener during the tourist and special seasons--the steamers
frequently calling at Loch Erisort, Loch Sealg, Ardvourlie, Tarbert,
Ardvey, Rodel and The Obe. The coast is indented to a remarkable degree,
the principal sea-lochs in Harris being East and West Loch Tarbert; and
in Lewis, Loch Seaforth, Loch Erisort and Broad Bay (or Loch a Tuath) on
the east coast and Loch Roag and Loch Resort on the west. The mainland
is dotted with innumerable fresh-water lakes. The island is composed of
gneiss rocks, excepting a patch of granite near Carloway, small bands of
intrusive basalt at Gress and in Eye Peninsula and some Torridonian
sandstone at Stornoway, Tong, Vatskir and Carloway. Most of Harris is
mountainous, there being more than thirty peaks above 1000 ft. high.
Lewis is comparatively flat, save in the south-east, where Ben More
reaches 1874 ft., and in the south-west, where Mealasbhal (1885) is the
highest point; but in this division there are only eleven peaks
exceeding 1000 ft. in height. The rivers are small and unimportant. The
principal capes are the Butt of Lewis, in the extreme north, where the
cliffs are nearly 150 ft. high and crowned with a lighthouse, the light
of which is visible for 19 m.; Tolsta Head, Tiumpan Head and Cabag Head,
on the east; Renish Point, in the extreme south; and, on the west, Toe
Head and Gallon Head. The following inhabited islands in the
Inverness-shire division belong to the parish of Harris: off the S.W.
coast, Bernera (pop. 524), Ensay, Killigray and Pabbay; off the W.
coast, Scarp (160), Soay and Tarrensay (72); off the E. coast, Scalpa
(587) and Scotasay. Belonging to the county of Ross and Cromarty are
Great Bernera (580) to the W. of Lewis, in the parish of Uig, and the
Shiant Isles, about 21 m. S. of Stornoway, in the parish of Lochs, so
named from the number of its sea lochs and fresh-water lakes. The
south-eastern base of Broad Bay is furnished by the peninsula of Eye,
attached to the main mass by so slender a neck as seemingly to be on the
point of becoming itself an island. Much of the surface of both Lewis
and Harris is composed of peat and swamp; there are scanty fragments of
an ancient forest. The rainfall for the year averages 41.7 in., autumn
and winter being very wet. Owing to the influence of the Gulf Stream,
however, the temperature is fairly high, averaging for the year 46.6°
F., for January 39.5° F. and for August 56.5° F.
The economic conditions of the island correspond with its physical
conditions. The amount of cultivable land is small and poor. Sir James
Matheson (1796-1878), who purchased the island in 1844, is said to have
spent nearly £350,000 in reclamation and improvements. Barley and
potatoes are the chief crops. A large number of black cattle are reared
and some sheep-farming is carried on in Harris. Kelp-making, once
important, has been extinct for many years. Harris has obtained great
reputation for tweeds. The cloth has an aroma of heather and peat, and
is made in the dwellings of the cotters, who use dyes of
long-established excellence. The fisheries are the principal mainstay of
the people. In spite of the very considerable reductions in rent
effected by the Crofters' Commission (appointed in 1886) and the sums
expended by government, most of the crofters still live in poor huts
amid dismal surroundings. The island affords good sporting facilities.
Many of the streams abound with salmon and trout; otters and seals are
plentiful, and deer and hares common; while bird life includes grouse,
ptarmigan, woodcock, snipe, heron, widgeon, teal, eider duck, swan and
varieties of geese and gulls. There are many antiquarian remains,
including duns, megaliths, ruined towers and chapels and the like. At
RODEL, in the extreme south of Harris, is a church, all that is left of
an Augustinian monastery. The foundation is Norman and the
superstructure Early English. On the towers are curious carved figures
and in the interior several tombs of the Macleods, the most remarkable
being that of Alastair (Alexander), son of William Macleod of Dunvegan,
dated 1528. The monument, a full-length recumbent effigy of a knight in
armour, lies at the base of a tablet in the shape of an arch divided
into compartments, in which are carved in bas-relief, besides the
armorial bearings of the deceased and a rendering of Dunvegan castle,
several symbolical scenes, one of which exhibits Satan weighing in the
balance the good and evil deeds of Alastair Macleod, the good obviously
preponderating. Stornoway, the chief town (pop. 3852) is treated under a
separate heading. At CALLERNISH, 13 m. due W. of Stornoway, are several
stone circles, one of which is probably the most perfect example of
so-called "Druidical" structures in the British Isles. In this specimen
the stones are huge, moss-covered, undressed blocks of gneiss. Twelve of
such monoliths constitute the circle, in the centre of which stands a
pillar 17 ft. high. From the circle there runs northwards an avenue of
stones, comprising on the right-hand side nine blocks and on the
left-hand ten. There also branch off from the circle, on the east and
west, a single line of four stones and, on the south, a single line of
five stones. From the extreme point of the south file to the farther
end of the avenue on the north is a distance of 127 yds. and the width
from tip to tip of the east and west arms is 41 yds. Viewed from the
north end of the avenue, the design is that of a cross. The most
important fishery centre on the west coast is Carloway, where there is
the best example of a broch, or fort, in the Hebrides. Rory, the blind
harper who translated the Psalms into Gaelic, was born in the village.
Tarbert, at the head of East Loch Tarbert, is a neat, clean village, in
communication by mail-car with Stornoway. At Coll, a few miles N. by E.
of Stornoway, is a mussel cave; and at Gress, 2 m. or so beyond in the
same direction, there is a famous seals' cave, adorned with fine
stalactites. Port of Ness, where there is a harbour, is the headquarters
of the ling fishery. Loch Seaforth gave the title of earl to a branch of
the Mackenzies, but in 1716 the 5th earl was attainted for Jacobitism
and the title forfeited. In 1797 Francis Humberston Mackenzie
(1754-1815), chief of the Clan Mackenzie, was created Lord Seaforth and
Baron Mackenzie of Kintail, and made colonel of the 2nd battalion of the
North British Militia, afterwards the 3rd battalion of the Seaforth
Highlanders. The 2nd battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders was formerly
the Ross-shire Buffs, which was raised in 1771.
LEXICON, a dictionary (q.v.). The word is the Latinized form of Gr.
[Greek: lexikon], sc. [Greek: biblion], a word-book ([Greek: lexis],
word, [Greek: legein], to speak). Lexicon, rather than dictionary, is
used of word-books of the Greek language, and sometimes of Arabic and
Hebrew.
LEXINGTON, BARON, a title borne in the English family of Sutton from
1645 to 1723. Robert Sutton (1594-1668), son of Sir William Sutton of
Averham, Nottinghamshire, was a member of parliament for his native
county in 1625 and again in 1640. He served Charles I. during the Civil
War, making great monetary sacrifices for the royal cause, and in 1645
the king created him Baron Lexington, this being a variant of the name
of the Nottinghamshire village of Laxton. His estate suffered during the
time of the Commonwealth, but some money was returned to him by Charles
II. He died on the 13th of October 1668. His only son, Robert, the 2nd
baron (1661-1723), supported in the House of Lords the elevation of
William of Orange to the throne, and was employed by that king at court
and on diplomatic business. He also served as a soldier, but he is
chiefly known as the British envoy at Vienna during the conclusion of
the treaty of Ryswick, and at Madrid during the negotiations which led
to the treaty of Utrecht. He died on the 19th of September 1723. His
letters from Vienna, selected and edited by the Hon. H. M. Sutton, were
published as the _Lexington Papers_ (1851). Lexington's barony became
extinct on his death, but his estates descended to the younger sons of
his daughter Bridget (d. 1734), the wife of John Manners, 3rd duke of
Rutland. Lord George Manners, who inherited these estates in 1762, is
the ancestor of the family of Manners-Sutton. An earlier member of this
family is Oliver Sutton, bishop of Lincoln from 1280 to 1299.
LEXINGTON, a city and the county-seat of Fayette county, Kentucky,
U.S.A., about 75 m. S. of Cincinnati. Pop. (1900) 26,369, of whom 10,130
were negroes and 924 were foreign-born; (1910 census), 35,099. It is
served by the Louisville & Nashville, the Southern, the Chesapeake &
Ohio, the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific, the Lexington &
Eastern, and electric railways. The city, which lies at an altitude of
about 950 ft., is situated near the centre of the celebrated "blue
grass" region, into which extend a number of turnpike roads. Its public
buildings include the court house and the Federal building, both built
of Bowling Green oolitic limestone. Among the public institutions are
two general hospitals--St Joseph's (Roman Catholic) and Good Samaritan
(controlled by the Protestant churches of the city)--the Eastern Lunatic
Asylum (1815, a state institution since 1824), with 250 acres of
grounds; a state House of Reform for Girls and a state House of Reform
for Boys (both at Greendale, a suburb); an orphan industrial school (for
negroes); and two Widows' and Orphans' Homes, one established by the Odd
Fellows of Kentucky and the other by the Knights of Pythias of the
state. Lexington is the seat of Transylvania University (non-sectarian;
coeducational), formerly Kentucky University (Disciples of Christ),
which grew out of Bacon College (opened at Georgetown, Ky., in 1836),
was chartered in 1858 as Kentucky University, and was opened at
Harrodsburg, Ky., in 1859, whence after a fire in 1864 it removed to
Lexington in 1865. At Lexington it was consolidated with the old
Transylvania University, a well-known institution which had been
chartered as Transylvania Seminary in 1783, was opened near Danville,
Ky., in 1785, was removed to Lexington in 1789, was re-chartered as
Transylvania University in 1798, and virtually ceased to exist in
1859.[1] In 1908 Kentucky University resumed the old name, Transylvania
University. It has a college of Liberal Arts, a College of Law, a
Preparatory School, a Junior College for Women, and Hamilton College for
women (founded in 1869 as Hocker Female College), over which the
university assumed control in 1903, and a College of the Bible,
organized in 1865 as one of the colleges of the university, but now
under independent control. In 1907-1908 Transylvania University,
including the College of the Bible, had 1129 students. At Lexington are
the State University, two colleges for girls--the Campbell-Hagerman
College and Sayre College--and St Catherine's Academy (Roman Catholic).
The city is the meeting-place of a Chatauqua Assembly, and has a public
library. The State University was founded (under the Federal Land Grant
Act of 1862) in 1865 as the State Agricultural and Mechanical College,
was opened in 1866, and was a college of Kentucky University until 1878.
In 1890 the college received a second Federal appropriation, and it
received various grants from the state legislature, which in 1880
imposed a state tax of one-half of 1% for its support. In connexion with
it an Agricultural Experiment Station was established in 1885. In 1908
its title became, by act of Legislature, the State University. The
university has a College of Agriculture, a College of Arts and Science,
a College of Law, a School of Civil Engineering, a School of Mechanical
and Electrical Engineering, and a School of mining Engineering. The
university campus is the former City Park, in the southern part of the
city. In 1907-1908 the university had 1064 students. The city is the see
of a Protestant Episcopal bishopric.
Lexington was the home of Henry Clay from 1797 until his death in 1852,
and in his memory a monument has been erected, consisting of a
magnesian-limestone column (about 120 ft.) in the Corinthian style and
surmounted by a statue of Clay, the head of which was torn off in 1902
by a thunderbolt. Clay's estate, "Ashland," is now one of the best known
of the stock-farms in the vicinity; the present house is a replica of
Clay's home. The finest and most extensive of these stock-farms, and
probably the finest in the world, is "Elmendorf," 6 m. from the city. On
these farms many famous trotting and running horses have been raised.
There are two race-tracks in Lexington, and annual running and trotting
race meetings attract large crowds. The city's industries consist
chiefly in a large trade in tobacco, hemp, grain and live stock--there
are large semi-annual horse sales--and in the manufacture of "Bourbon"
whisky, tobacco, flour, dressed flax and hemp, carriages, harness and
saddles. The total value of the city's factory products in 1905 was
$2,774,329 (46.9% more than in 1900).
Lexington was named from Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775 by a party of
hunters who were encamped here when they received the news of the battle
of Lexington; the permanent settlement dates from 1779. It was laid out
in 1781, incorporated as a town in 1782, and chartered as a city in
1832. The first newspaper published west of the Alleghany Mountains, the
_Kentucky Gazette_, was established here in 1787, to promote the
separation of Kentucky from Virginia. The first state legislature met
here in 1792, but later in the same year Frankfort became the state
capital. Until 1907, when the city was enlarged by annexation, its
limits remained as they were first laid out, a circle with a radius of 1
m., the court house being its centre.
See G. W. Ranck, _History of Lexington, Kentucky_ (Cincinnati, 1872).