moulding, sculptured figures and tracery, and are among the finest in Ireland. At Mellifont are the remains of the first Cistercian monastery founded in Ireland, in 1142, with a massive gatehouse, an octagonal baptistery and chapter-house. Carlingford and Drogheda have monastic remains, and at Dromiskin is a round tower, in part rebuilt. Ardee, an ancient town, incorporated in 1376, has a castle of the 13th century. At Dunbar a charter of Charles II. (1679) gave the inhabitants the right to elect a sovereign. Louth, 512 m. S.W. from Dundalk, is a decayed town which gave its name to the county, and contains ruins of an abbey to which was attached one of the most noted early schools in Ireland.
LOUTH, a market-town and municipal borough in the E.
Lindsey or Louth parliamentary division of Lincolnshire,
England, on the river Lud, 14112 m. N. of London by the Grimsby
branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 9518.
By a canal, completed in 1763, there is water communication
with the Humber. The Perpendicular church of St James,
completed about 1515, with a spire 300 ft. in height, is one of the
finest ecclesiastical buildings in the county. Traces of a building
of the 13th century are perceptible. There are a town hall, a
corn exchange and a market-hall, an Edward VI. grammar
school, which is richly endowed, a commercial school founded
in 1676, a hospital and several almshouses. Thorpe Hall is a
picturesque building dated 1584. In the vicinity are the ruins
of a Cistercian abbey (Louth Park). The industries include
the manufacture of agricultural implements, iron-founding,
brewing, malting, and rope and brick-making. The town is
governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors. Area,
2749 acres.
Louth (Ludes, Loweth) is first mentioned in the Domesday record as a borough held, as it had been in Saxon times, by the bishop of Lincoln, who had a market there. The see retained the manor until it was surrendered by Bishop Holbeach to Henry VIII., who granted it to Edward, earl of Lincoln, but it was recovered by the Crown before 1562. Louth owed much of its early prosperity to the adjacent Cistercian abbey of Louth Park, founded in 1139 by Alexander bishop of Lincoln. The borough was never more than prescriptive, though burgesses were admitted throughout the middle ages and until 1711, their sole privilege being freedom from tolls. The medieval government of the town was by the manor court under the presidency of the bishop’s high steward, the custom being for the reeve to be elected by eighteen ex-reeves. The original parish church was built about 1170. During the 13th and 14th centuries nine religious gilds were founded in the town. Fear of confiscation of the property of these gilds seems to have been one of the chief local causes of the Lincolnshire Rebellion, which broke out here in 1536. The disturbance began by the parishioners seizing the church ornaments to prevent their surrender. The bishop’s steward, who arrived to open the manorial court for the election of a reeve, agreed to ride to ask the king the truth about the jewels, but this did not satisfy the people, who, while showing respect to a royal commission, seized and burnt the papers of the bishop’s registrar. After swearing several country gentlemen to their cause, the rebels dispersed, agreeing to meet on the following day under arms. Edward VI. in 1551 incorporated Louth under one warden and six assistants, who were to be managers of the school founded by the same charter. This was confirmed in 1564 by Elizabeth, who granted the manor of Louth to the corporation with all rights and all the lands of the suppressed gilds at an annual fee-farm rent of £84. James I. gave the commission of the peace to the warden and one assistant in 1605; a further charter was obtained in 1830. Louth has never been a parliamentary borough. The markets said to have been held from ancient times and the three fairs on the third Sunday after Easter and the feasts of St Martin and St James were confirmed in 1551. Louth was a seat of the wool trade as early as 1297; the modern manufactures seem to have arisen at the end of the 18th century, when, according to the charter of 1830, there was a great increase in the population, manufactures, trade and commerce of the town.
See E. H. R. Tatham, Lincolnshire in Roman Times (Louth, 1902); Richard W. Goulding, Louth Old Corporation Records (Louth, 1891).
LOUVAIN (Flem. Leuven), a town of Belgium in the province of Brabant, of which it was the capital in the 14th century before the rise of Brussels. Pop. (1904) 42,194. Local tradition attributes the establishment of a permanent camp at this spot to Julius Caesar, but Louvain only became important in the 11th century as a place of residence for the dukes of Brabant. In 1356 Louvain was the scene of the famous Joyeuse Entrée of Wenceslas which represented the principal charter of Brabant. At that time it had a population of at least 50,000 and was very prosperous as the centre of the woollen trade in central Belgium. The gild of weavers numbered 2400 members. The old walls of Louvain were 412 m. in circumference, and have been replaced by boulevards, but within them there is a considerable extent of cultivated ground. Soon after the Joyeuse Entrée a serious feud began between the citizens and the patrician class, and eventually the duke threw in his lot with the latter. After a struggle of over twenty years’ duration the White Hoods, as the citizens called themselves, were crushed. In 1379 they massacred seventeen nobles in the town hall, but this crime brought down on them the vengeance of the duke, to whom in 1383 they made the most abject and complete surrender. With this civil strife the importance and prosperity of Louvain declined. Many weavers fled to Holland and England, the duke took up his residence in the strong castle of Vilvorde, and Brussels prospered at the expense of Louvain. What it lost in trade it partially recovered as a seat of learning, for in 1423, Duke John IV. of Brabant founded there a university and ever since Louvain University has enjoyed the first place in Belgium. It has always prided itself most on its theological teaching. In 1679 the university was established in the old Cloth Workers’ Hall, a building dating from 1317, with long arcades and graceful pillars supporting the upper storeys. The library contains 70,000 volumes and some 500 manuscripts. Attached to the university are four residential colleges at which the number of students average two thousand. In the 16th century when the university was at the height of its fame it counted six thousand.
The most remarkable building in Louvain is the Hôtel de Ville, one of the richest and most ornate examples of pointed Gothic in the country. If less ornate than that of Oudenarde it is more harmonious in its details. It was the work of Mathieu de Layens, master mason, who worked at it from 1448 to 1463. The building is one of three storeys each with ten pointed windows forming the façade facing the square. Above is a graceful balustrade behind which is a lofty roof, and at the angles are towers perforated for the passage of the light. The other three sides are lavishly decorated with statuary. The interior is not noteworthy.
Opposite the Hôtel de Ville is the fine church of St Pierre, in the form of a cross with a low tower to which the spire has never been added. The existing edifice was built on the site of an older church between 1425 and 1497. It contains seven chapels, in two of which are fine pictures by Dierich Bouts formerly attributed to Memling. Much of the iron and brass work is by Jean Matseys. There is also an ancient tomb, being the monument of Henry I., duke of Brabant, who died in 1235. There are four other interesting churches in Louvain, viz. Ste Gertrude, St Quentin, St Michael and St Jacques. In the last-named is a fine De Crayer representing St Hubert. Some ruins on a hill exist of the old castle of the counts of Louvain whose title was merged in the higher style of the dukes of Brabant.
LOUVER, Louvre or Luffer, in architecture, the lantern
built upon the roof of the hall in ancient times to allow the smoke
to escape when the fire was made on the pavement in the middle
of the hall. The term is also applied to the flat overlapping
slips of wood, glass, &c., with which such openings are closed,
arranged to give ventilation without the admission of rain.
Openings fitted with louvers are now utilized for the purposes of
ventilation in schools and manufactories.
