Lerida

Ler'ida, a town of Spain, capital of a province (area, 4775 sq. m. ; pop. 285,417 in 1887, having decreased from 314,530 in 1860), on a tributary of the Ebro, 114 miles by rail W. by N. of Barcelona. The second city of Catalonia, it has a castle and two cathedral churches, one an ancient Byzantino-Moorish edifice, now used as a barracks, the other a modern GrAeco-Roman building. It manufactures woollens, cottons, leather, paper, and glass. Pop. 25,311.

Lerlns

Lerlns (Lerang'), a group of French islands in the Mediterranean, 2 1/2 miles SE. of Cannes. In a fortress on Sainte-Marguerite (anc. Lerona), 4 miles in circumference, the Man with the Iron Mask and Marshal Bazaine were confined, Bazaine escaping hence in 1874. On Saint-Honorat (anc. Lerina), 2 miles in circuit, are the ruins of a once famous monastic school.

Lerwick

Lerwick (Ler'wik), the county town of Shetland, on the east coast of Mainland and on Bressay Sound, 116 miles NE. of Kirkwall. Demolished and refounded in the 17th century, it has been much improved since 1850, and has a town-hall (1883), county buildings (1872), water and drainage works (1871); whilst, to meet the growth of its shipping and fisheries, extensive harbour-works were carried out during 1883-86. Pop. 4541.

Lesbos

Lesbos, or Mytilene, a Turkish island in the Aegean, 10 miles from the coast of Asia Minor, north of the Gulf of Smyrna. Area, 676 sq. m.; pop. 36,000, mostly Greeks. The ancient capital was Mitylene; the existing town, Castro, 'a straggling dirty village' (pop. 12,000), stands on a peninsula on the east coast, and has a mediaeval castle and a shallow harbour. The modern town of Agiasso has 8000 inhabitants. Between 700 and 500 b.c. Lesbos was the flourishing home of poets and literary men - Alcseus, Sappho, Ter-pander, Pittacus, Theophrastus, Theophanes, etc. It belonged successively to Macedonia, Pontus, Rome, and Byzantium, and from 1355 to 1462 was owned by a Genoese merchant family, who lost it to Mohammed II.

Leslie

Leslie, a town of Fife, 12 miles SW. of Cupar, and 3 W. of Markinch. It has fiax-spinning, bleaching and paper works. Pop. 3621.

Lesmahagow

Lesmaha'gow (Celt., 'green of St Machutus'), a Lanarkshire village, on the Nethan, 6 miles SW. of Lanark. It was the seat of a Tironensian priory (12th a). Pop. 1737. See a work by J. Greenshields (1864).

Letchworth

Letchworth, in Herts, is the first practical development of the 'garden city' movement, and was commenced in 1903. It is on the Great Northern Railway, between Hitchin and Cambridge, and 34 miles N. of London. Pop. in 1905, 1600.

Letterfrack

Letterfrack, a tourist centre on the west coast of County Galway, 8 1/2 miles N. of Clifden.

Letterkenny

Letterkenny, a town of Donegal, on the Swilly, 16 miles WSW. of Londonderry. Pop. 2370.

Leucadia

Leucadia. See Leukas.

Leuchars

Leuchars, a Fife village, 4 miles WNW. of St Andrews, with a fine Norman church. Pop. 711.