[League, The], specially a coalition organised in 1576 by the Duke of Guise to suppress the Reformed religion in France by denying civil and religious liberty to the Huguenots, and specially to prevent the accession of Henry IV. as a Protestant to the throne.
[Leamington] (27), a fashionable Warwickshire watering-place of modern date on the Learn, 15 m. SE. of Birmingham. It has chalybeate, saline, and sulphurous springs, to which visitors have gathered since the end of 18th century; brewing and kitchen-range making are carried on; Leamington and Warwick return one member of Parliament.
[Leaning Tower], specially a campanile of white marble at Pisa, in Italy, 178 ft. in height, and which leans 14 ft. off the perpendicular.
[Lear], a legendary British king, the hero of one of Shakespeare's tragedies, the victim of the unnatural conduct of two of his daughters.
[Lear, Edward], English painter, and author of "Book of Nonsense," composed for the grandchildren of the Earl of Derby in 1848, and after of "More Nonsense Rhymes," which were widely popular with young people; painted landscapes in Greece and Asia Minor (1812-1888).
[Leather Stocking, Natty], a character in Cooper's novel the "Pioneers," "a melodious synopsis of man and nature in the West."
[Leathes, Stanley], prebendary of St Paul's, born in Bucks; has held several clerical appointments; is professor of Hebrew in King's College, London, and is author of a number of works bearing on Christianity; b. 1830.
[Lebanon] (i. e. "the White Mountain"), a range on the northern border of Palestine, which rises to a height of 10,000 ft., and is divided into two by a valley, the ancient Coele-Syria, which the Leontes and Orontes water, the eastern range being called Anti-Lebanon.
[Le Brun, Charles], a celebrated French painter, born in Paris; studied in Rome, settled in Paris, and patronised by Colbert; he exercised for about 40 years a great influence on the art of the period; he decorated Versailles and the Louvre, but with the death of his patron he sunk into obscurity and pined and died (1619-1690).