The District of Lucknow lies on both sides of the river Gumti, and has an area of 967 sq. m. Its general aspect is that of an open champaign, well studded with villages, finely wooded and in parts most fertile and highly cultivated. In the vicinity of rivers, however, stretch extensive barren sandy tracts (bhúr), and there are many wastes of saline efflorescence (usár). The country is an almost dead level, the average slope, which is from N.W. to S.E., being less than a foot per mile. The principal rivers are the Gumti and the Sai with their tributaries. The population in 1901 was 793,241, showing an increase of 2.5% in the preceding decade.
The Division of Lucknow contains the western half of the old province of Oudh. It comprises the six districts of Lucknow, Unao, Sitapur, Rae Bareli, Hardoi and Kheri. Its area is 12,051 sq. m. and its population in 1901 was 5,977,086, showing an increase of 2.06% in the decade.
See Lucknow District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1904). For a fuller description of the city see G. W. Forrest, Cities of India (1903).
LUÇON, a town of western France, in the department of Vendée, 23 m. S.E. of La Roche-sur-Yon, on the railway from Nantes to Bordeaux, and on the canal of Luçon (9 m. long), which affords communication with the sea in the Bay of Aiguillon. Pop. (1906) 6163. Between Luçon and the sea stretch marshy plains, the bed of the former gulf, partly drained by numerous canals, and in the reclaimed parts yielding excellent pasturage, while in other parts are productive salt-marshes, and ponds for the rearing of mussels and other shell-fish. Luçon is the seat of a bishopric, established in 1317, and held by Richelieu from 1607 to 1624. The cathedral, partly of the 12th-century and partly of later periods, was originally an abbey church. The façade and the clock tower date from about 1700, and the tower is surmounted by a crocketed spire rising 275 ft. above the ground, attributed to the architect François Leduc of Tuscany. The cloisters are of the late 15th century. Adjacent is the bishop’s palace, possessing a large theological library and Titian’s “Disciples of Emmaus,” and there is a fine public garden. A communal college and an ecclesiastical seminary are among the public institutions. During the Vendean wars, Luçon was the scene of several conflicts, notably in 1793.
LUCRE (Lat. lucrum, gain; the Indo-European root is seen in Gr. ἀπολάυειν, to enjoy, and in Ger. Lohn, wages), a term now only used in the disparaging sense of unworthy profit, or money that is the object of greed, especially in the expression “filthy lucre” (1 Tim. iii. 3). In the adjective “lucrative,” profitable, there is, however, no sense of disparagement. In Scots law the term “lucrative succession” (lucrativa acquisitio) is used of the taking by an heir, during the lifetime of his ancestor, of a free grant of any part of the heritable property.
LUCRETIA, a Roman lady, wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, distinguished for her beauty and domestic virtues. Having been outraged by Sextus Tarquinius, one of the sons of Tarquinius Superbus, she informed her father and her husband, and, having exacted an oath of vengeance from them, stabbed herself to death. Lucius Junius Brutus, her husband’s cousin, put himself at the head of the people, drove out the Tarquins, and established a republic. The accounts of this tradition in later writers present many points of divergence.
Livy i. 57-59; Dion. Halic. iv. 64-67, 70, 82; Ovid, Fasti, ii. 721-852; Dio Cassius, frag. 11 (Bekker); G. Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman History, i.