LADYBANK, a police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland, 5½ m. S.W. of Cupar by the North British railway, ½ m. from the left bank of the Eden. Pop. (1901) 1340. Besides having a station on the main line to Dundee, it is also connected with Perth and Kinross and is a railway junction of some importance and possesses a locomotive depot. It is an industrial centre, linen weaving, coal mining and malting being the principal industries. Kettle, a village 1 m. S., has prehistoric barrows and a fort. At Collessie, 2½ m. N. by W., a standing stone, a mound and traces of ancient camps exist, while urns and coins have been found. Between the parishes of Collessie and Monimail the boundary line takes the form of a crescent known as the Bow of Fife. Monimail contains the Mount, the residence of Sir David Lindsay the poet (1490-1555). Its lofty site is now marked by a clump of trees. Here, too, is the Doric pillar, 100 ft. high, raised to the memory of John Hope, 4th earl of Hopetoun. Melville House, the seat of the earls of Leven, lies amidst beautiful woods.
LADYBRAND, a town of the Orange Free State, 80 m. E. of Bloemfontein by rail. Another railway connects it with Natal via Harrismith. Pop. (1904) 3862, of whom 2334 were whites. The town is pleasantly situated at the foot of a flat-topped hill (the Platberg), about 4 m. W. of the Caledon river, which separates the province from Basutoland. Ladybrand is the centre of a rich arable district, has a large wheat market and is also a health resort, the climate, owing to the proximity of the Maluti Mountains, being bracing even during the summer months (November-March). Coal and petroleum are found in the neighbourhood. It is named after the wife of Sir J. H. Brand, president of the Orange Free State.
LADY-CHAPEL, the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and attached to churches of large size. Generally the chapel was built eastward of the high altar and formed a projection from the main building, as in Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Wells, St Albans, Chichester, Peterborough and Norwich cathedrals,—in the two latter cases now destroyed. The earliest Lady-chapel built was that in the Saxon cathedral of Canterbury; this was transfered in the rebuilding by Archbishop Lanfranc to the west end of the nave, and again shifted in 1450 to the chapel on the east side of the north transept. The Lady-chapel at Ely cathedral is a distinct building attached to the north transept; at Rochester the Lady-chapel is west of the south transept. Probably the largest Lady-chapel was that built by Henry III. in 1220 at Westminster Abbey, which was 30 ft. wide, much in excess of any foreign example, and extended to the end of the site now occupied by Henry VII.’s chapel. Among other notable English examples of Lady-chapels are those at Ottery-St-Mary, Thetford, Bury St Edmund’s, Wimborne, Christ-church, Hampshire; in Compton Church, Surrey, and Compton Martin, Somersetshire, and Darenth, Kent, it was built over the chancel. At Croyland Abbey there were two Lady-chapels. Lady-chapels exist in most of the French cathedrals and churches, where they form part of the chevet; in Belgium they were not introduced before the 14th century; in some cases they are of the same size as the other chapels of the chevet, but in others, probably rebuilt at a later period, they became much more important features, and in Italy and Spain during the Renaissance period constitute some of its best examples.
LADY DAY, originally the name for all the days in the church calendar marking any event in the Virgin Mary’s life, but now restricted to the feast of the Annunciation, held on the 25th of March in each year. Lady Day was in medieval and later times the beginning of the legal year in England. In 1752 this was altered to the 1st of January, but the 25th of March remains one of the Quarter Days; though in some parts old Lady Day, on the 6th of April, is still the date for rent paying. See Annunciation.
LADYSMITH, a town of Natal, 189 m. N.W. of Durban by rail, on the left bank of the Klip tributary of the Tugela. Pop. (1904) 5568, of whom 2269 were whites. It lies 3284 ft. above the sea and is encircled by hills, while the Drakensberg are some 30 m. distant to the N.W. Ladysmith is the trading centre of northern Natal, and is the chief railway junction in the province, the main line from the south dividing here. One line crosses Van Reenen’s pass into the Orange Free State, the other runs northwards to the Transvaal. There are extensive railway workshops. Among the public buildings are the Anglican church and the town hall. The church contains tablets with the names of 3200 men who perished in the defence and relief of the town in the South African War (see below), while the clock tower of the town hall, partially destroyed by a Boer shell, is kept in its damaged condition.
Ladysmith, founded in 1851, is named after Juana, Lady Smith, wife of Sir Harry Smith, then governor of Cape Colony. It stands near the site of the camp of the Dutch farmers who in 1848 assembled for the purpose of trekking across the Drakensberg. Here they were visited by Sir Harry Smith, who induced the majority of the farmers to remain in Natal. The growth of the town, at first slow, increased with the opening of the railway from Durban in 1886 and the subsequent extension of the line to Johannesburg.