Montemayor, the Aminta of Tasso, and The Gentle Shepherd of Allan Ramsay. The celebrated Paul et Virginie is an echo of the same story.
See J. Dunlop’s History of Prose Fiction (1888), and especially E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1900). Longus found an incomparable translator in Jacques Amyot, bishop of Auxerre, whose French version, as revised by Paul Louis Courier, is better known than the original. It appeared in 1559, thirty-nine years before the publication of the Greek text at Florence by Columbani. The chief subsequent editions are those by G. Jungermann (1605), J. B. de Villoison (1778, the first standard text with commentary), A. Coraes (Coray) (1802), P. L. Courier (1810, with a newly discovered passage), E. Seiler (1835), R. Hercher (1858), N. Piccolos (Paris, 1866) and Kiefer (Leipzig, 1904), W. D. Lowe (Cambridge, 1908). A. J. Pons’s edition (1878) of Courier’s version contains an exhaustive bibliography. There are English translations by G. Thorneley (1733, reprinted 1893), C. V. Le Grice (1803), R. Smith (in Bohn’s Classical Library), and the rare Elizabethan version by Angel Day from Amyot’s translation (ed. J. Jacobs in Tudor Library, 1890). The illustrated editions, generally of Amyot’s version, are numerous and some are beautiful, Prudhon’s designs being especially celebrated.
LONGWY, a fortified town of north-eastern France in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, 89 m. N.N.W of Nancy by rail. Pop. (1906) 8523. Longwy is situated on a plateau overlooking the Chiers, a right-bank affluent of the Meuse, near the frontiers of Belgium and Luxemburg. It comprises an upper and a lower town; the former, on a hill, 390 ft. above the Chiers valley, commands the Luxemburg road, and is strengthened by an enceinte and a few out-lying fortifications. There is garrison accommodation for 5000 men and 800 horses, but the permanent garrison is small. The lower town is the industrial centre. The 17th-century church has a lofty square tower, the hôtel de ville dates from 1730, and there is a fine hospital. Iron is extensively mined in the district, and supplies numerous blast furnaces. Several iron and steel works are in operation, and metal utensils, fire-proof ware and porcelain are manufactured. Longwy (Longus vicus) came into the possession of the French in 1678 and was at once fortified by Vauban. It was captured by the Prussians in 1792, 1815 and 1871.
LÖNNROT, ELIAS (1802–1884), Finnish philologist and
discoverer of the Kalevala, was born at Nyland in Finland on
the 9th of April 1802. He was an apothecary’s assistant, but
entered the university of Åbo in 1822, and after taking his
successive degrees became a physician in 1832. But before
this, as early as 1827, he had begun to publish contributions
to the study of the ancient Finnish language, and to collect
the national ballads and folk-lore, a field which was at that
time uncultivated. In 1833 he settled as a doctor in the country
district of Kajana, and began to travel throughout Finland and
the adjoining Russian provinces in his leisure time, collecting
songs and legends. In this way he was able to put together
the great epic of Finland, the Kalevala, the first edition of which
he published in 1835; he continued to add to it, and in 1849
issued a larger and completer text. In 1840 Lönnrot issued his
important collection of the Kanteletar, or folk-songs of ancient
Finland, which he had taken down from oral tradition. The
Proverbs of Finland followed in 1842. In 1853, on the death
of Castrén, Lönnrot became professor of the Finnish language
and literature at the high school of Helsingfors; he retired from
this chair in 1862. He died on the 19th of March 1884.
LONSDALE, EARLS OF. This English earldom is held by
the ancient family of Lowther, which traces its descent to Sir
Hugh Lowther, who flourished in the reign of Edward I. Sir
Hugh’s descendant Sir Richard Lowther (1529–1607) received
Mary queen of Scots on her flight into England in 1568, and in
the two following years was concerned with his brother Gerard
in attempts to release her from captivity. He was sheriff of
Cumberland and lord warden of the west marches. A house
built by Gerard Lowther at Penrith is now the “Two Lions
Inn.” Sir Richard’s eldest son, Sir Christopher Lowther (d.
1617), was the ancestor of the later Lowthers, and another son,
Sir Gerard Lowther (d. 1624), was judge of the common pleas
in Ireland.
One of Sir Christopher’s descendants was Sir John Lowther, Bart. (d. 1706), the founder of the trade of Whitehaven, and another was John Lowther (1655–1700), who was created Viscount Lonsdale in 1696. Before this creation John had succeeded his grandfather, another Sir John Lowther (d. 1675), as a baronet, and had been member of parliament for Westmorland from 1675 to 1696. In 1688 he was serviceable in securing Cumberland and Westmorland for William of Orange; in 1690 he was first lord of the treasury, and he was lord privy seal from March 1699 until his death in July 1700. Lonsdale wrote: Memoirs of the Reign of James II., which were printed in 1808 and again in 1857. His family became extinct when his son Henry, the 3rd viscount (1694–1751), died unmarried in March 1751.
James Lowther, 1st earl of Lonsdale (1736–1802), was a son of Robert Lowther (d. 1745) of Maulds Meaburn, Westmorland, who was for some time governor of Barbados, and was descended from Sir Christopher Lowther; through his mother Catherine Pennington, James was a great-grandson of the 1st viscount Lonsdale. He inherited one of the family baronetcies in 1751, and from three sources he obtained immense wealth, being the heir of the 3rd viscount Lonsdale, of Sir James Lowther, Bart. (d. 1755) of Whitehaven, and of Sir William Lowther, Bart. (d. 1756). From 1757 to 1784 he was a member of parliament, exercising enormous influence on elections in the north of England and usually controlling nine seats in the House of Commons, where his nominees were known as “Sir James’s ninepins.” He secured the election of William Pitt as member for his borough of Appleby in 1781, and his dispute with the 3rd duke of Portland over the possession of the socage manor of Carlisle and the forest of Inglewood gave rise to lengthy proceedings, both in parliament and in the law courts. In 1784 Lowther was created earl of Lonsdale and in 1797 Viscount Lowther with an extended remainder. The earl’s enormous wealth enabled him to gratify his political ambitions. Sir N. W. Wraxall (Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, ed. H. B. Wheatley, 1884), who gives interesting glimpses of his life, speaks of his “prodigious property” and quotes Junius, who called him “the little contemptible tyrant of the north.” He was known as the “bad earl,” and Horace Walpole and others speak slightingly of him; he was, however, a benefactor to Whitehaven, where he boasted he owned the “land, fire and water.”
He married Mary (1768–1824) daughter of George III.’s favourite, John Stuart, 3rd earl of Bute, but died childless on the 24th of May 1802, when the earldom became extinct; but a kinsman, Sir William Lowther, Bart. (1757–1844), of Swillington, became 2nd viscount Lowther. This viscount, who was created earl of Lonsdale in 1807, is chiefly famous as the friend of Wordsworth and the builder of Lowther Castle, Penrith. His son, William Lowther, 3rd earl of Lonsdale (1787–1872), held several subordinate positions in various Tory ministries, and was lord president of the council in 1852. He died unmarried, and was succeeded by his nephew Henry (1818–1876), whose son Hugh Cecil (b. 1857) succeeded his brother as 6th earl of Lonsdale in 1882.
Other prominent members of the Lowther family are the Right Hon. James William Lowther (b. 1855), who became speaker of the House of Commons in 1905; Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther (b. 1858), who became British ambassador at Constantinople in 1908; and the Right Hon. James Lowther (1840–1904), who was a well-known Conservative member of parliament from 1865 onwards, and chief secretary for Ireland from 1878 to 1880.
LONSDALE, WILLIAM (1794–1871), English geologist and palaeontologist, was born at Bath on the 9th of September 1794. He was educated for the army and in 1810 obtained a commission as ensign in the 4th (King’s Own) regiment. He served in the Peninsular War at the battles of Salamanca and Waterloo, for both of which he received medals; and he retired as lieutenant. Residing afterwards for some years at Batheaston he collected a series of rocks and fossils which he presented to the Literary and Scientific Institution of Bath. He became the first honorary curator of the natural history department of the museum, and worked until 1829 when he was appointed assistant secretary and curator of the Geological Society of London
