Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/146

 140 LANDOR mains of L. E. L.," by Laraan Blanchard (2 vols., London, 1841). LANDOR, Walter Savage, an English author, born at Ipsley Court, Warwickshire, Jan. 30, 1775, died in Florence, Italy, Sept. IT, 1864. His parents were very wealthy, and he was educated under private tutors and at Rugby and Oxford. Being rusticated for firing a gun in the quadrangle, he never returned to the university to take his degree. He was designed at first for the army and then for the bar, but ultimately devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits. On the death of his father he suc- ceeded to the family domains, and purchased other estates in Monmouthshire ; he expended 7,000 in improving them, and built a mansion which cost 8,000 ; but in 1806, in disgust with some of his tenantry, one of whom had abscond- ed several thousand pounds in his debt, he sold off his entire property, a part of which had been in his family for 700 years, ordered the mansion to be demolished, and determined to live abroad. In 1808, at the outbreak of the insurrection in Spain against Napoleon, Landor raised a body of troops at his own* expense, conducted them to Gen. Blake in Galicia, pre- sented 20,000 reals to the cause, received the thanks of the supreme junta, and was appoint- ed a colonel in the Spanish army. He re- signed his commission on the restoration of King Ferdinand and the subversion of the con- stitution. In 1811 he married Julia Thuillier de Malaperte, of Bath, a daughter of the baron de Nieuveville. From 1815 to 1835 he resided in Italy, then returned to England and resided at Bath till 1858, when he removed again to Italy. For several years he occupied the pal- ace of the Medici at Florence, and then pur- chased the villa and garden of Count Gherar- desca at Fiesole. He published a small volume of poems in 1795, and " Gebir," a long poem, in 1798 ; but he first really became known as an author by the publication of " Count Julian," a tragedy (1812). In 1820 he published at Pisa his Latin Idyllia Heroica, with an appendix in Latin prose on the reasons why modern Latin poets are so little read. His literary reputa- tion was greatly increased by his prose work en- titled " Imaginary Conversations" (5 vols. 8vo, London, 1824-'9). These supposed dialogues between remarkable personages of past or pres- ent times illustrate the peculiarities of the dif- ferent interlocutors and of the periods in which they lived, and also abound in paradoxical and original opinions. They were followed by "Pericles and Aspasia" (1836), "A Satire on Satirists and Admonition to Detractors" (1836), the "Pentameron and Pentalogia" (1837), and the dramas " Andrea of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples" (1839). All these works were written in Italy. During his resi- dence at Bath he published the "Hellenics" (1847) ; " Popery, British and Foreign " (1851) ; "Last Fruit off an Old Tree" (1853); "Let- ters of an American " (1854), under the pseu- donyme of Pottinger; "Antony and Octavius" LANDSEER (1856); "Dry Sticks Fagoted" (1858); and frequent contributions to the "Examiner" newspaper. The last named book contained some most objectionable poems, libelling a lady of Bath to whom Landor had conceived an intense personal dislike, for which a judg- ment of 1,000 was obtained against him. An edition of his collected works was published in London in 1846 (2 vols. 8vo; reprinted in 1853). The first complete edition of his works was commenced in 1874 (7 vols. 8vo, London). His life has been written by John Forster (London, 1869; new ed., 1874). All of Lander's wri- tings contain highly intellectual passages, but his poems especially display an effort to repro- duce the genius and style of Hellenic poetry, and seem foreign to modern habits of thought. His brother, the Rev. ROBEET EYKES LAN- DOR, is the author of several works, including two remarkable novels, "The Fawn of Ser- torius" (2 vols., 1846) and "The Fountain of Arethusa" (2 vols., 1848). LANDSBERG, a town of Prussia, in the prov- ince of Brandenburg, on the Warthe, 40 m. N. E. of Frankf ort-on-the-Oder ; pop. in 1871, 18,531. It is walled and well built, contains a gymnasium, a Realschule, three churches, an almshouse, and lunatic and orphan asylums. It has iron founderies and manufactories of woollen and linen cloth, hosiery, leather, pa- per, and machinery, and an important trade in wool, lumber, and corn. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. See PAEK. LANDSCAPE GARDENING. See PAEK. LANDSEER. I. John, an English engraver, born in Lincoln in 1769, died Feb. 29, 1852. His reputation was founded on the engravings furnished for Bowyer's edition of Hume's " History of England " and Moore's " Views in Scotland" toward the close of the last century, and on a series from the works of Rubens, Snyders, and other artists. In 1806 he delivered a course of lectures on engraving at the royal institution, which were published in 1807. At the same time he was elected an associate engraver in the royal academy, an honor which he accepted for the purpose of removing the restrictions against the admission of engravers to full membership. Failing in this object, he devoted himself chiefly to liter- ary pursuits, and started at different periods two art journals, both of which speedily failed. He also published a quarto volume on engraved gems and hieroglyphics. His "Descriptive, Explanatory, and Critical Catalogue of five of the Earliest Pictures in the National Acade- my" (London, 1834) is full of amusing gossip. His best engraving is the "Dogs of Mount St. Bernard," from one of the earliest pictures of his son, Sir Edwin Landseer. II. Thomas, eldest son of the preceding, born about the close of the last century. He adopted his father's profession, and executed many en- gravings in mezzotint from his brother Ed- win's pictures. One of his best known works is an engraving of Rosa Bonheur's celebrated