one of the largest of the Hebrides or western islands of Scotland, extending 100 miles in length from north to south, and from 13 to 14 in breadth, consisting of a great number of isles and rocks, and parted by the sea into two divisions, called Lewis and Harris, the former lying to the westward of the other. Lewis belongs to the shire of Ross; is divided by several channels, distinguished by several names, and portioned out among different proprietors; but the Lewis, strictly so called, stretches about 36 miles in length, from the north point of Bowling-head to the southern extremity of Huslinns in Harries. The air is temperately cold, moist, and healthy; great parts of the low ground is flooded with lakes; the soil is arable in many places, and has been counted fruitful in Smeller's oats, barley, rye, flax, and hemp. The soil in these parts is a light land, which the inhabitants manure with foot and sea-ware; but great part of the island is covered with heath. The labouring people dig the land with spades, and break the clods with small harrows, the foremost teeth of which are made of wood, and the remainder of rough heath, which smooths what the others have broke; and this harrow is drawn by one man, having a strong trace of horse-hair across his breast. Of their corn they not only make malt for ale, but likewise a strong spirit called treffarag, which is the whisky, or uiguebaugh, three times distilled. Lewis abounds with convenient bays and harbours, namely, Lochtorrvay, on the east side; the Birken isles, about seven miles farther southward; Loch-crefort, three miles more to the south; Loch-seafort, about five miles still farther in the same direction; Lochcarway, a capacious and secure harbour, about 24 miles to the south-west; and Loch-rague, four miles more southerly on the same coast: all these bays abound with cod, ling, and herring: here are likewise whales of different sizes, which the natives drive into the bays, and kill with harpoons. Fifty young whales have been killed on this coast in one season; and their flesh was eaten by the natives, who count it salutary and toothsome, distinguishing it by the name of seafood. These bays afford great plenty of shell-fish; such as clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, limpets, welks; and such a prodigious quantity of spawn-fish is sometimes cast up from the sand off Loch-tua, that they infect the air, and render it unhealthy to the neighbouring inhabitants, who are not able to consume them, either by eating, or using them as manure for the ground. Some of these lochs and bays likewise produce small coral and coralline. The fresh-water lakes are well stored with trout and eels, and the rivers yield plenty of salmon. Along the coast are found a great number of caves, which serve as shelter for the seals. seals and otters, which are also eaten as dainties by the inhabitants; and vast numbers of sea-fowl build upon the rocks and promontories.

The land-animals reared in this island, are cows, horses, sheep, goats, hogs, and deer; all these are of a diminutive size. The beef, mutton, and pork, are juicy and delicious; the horses are active and hardy; the deer, which are of the red kind, confine themselves to the chase of Oiferaval, about 15 miles in compass, which affords tolerable pasturage; but in the winter, when the ground is covered with frost and snow, these animals are forced to feed on sea-weed, and endure all the rigours of the season, without any shelter from wood or copse, for there is not a tree to be seen; nevertheless, the roots of very large trees, which have been cut by the ax, are found in different places. There is likewise a small grove of birch and hazel on the south-west side of Loch-Stornoway.

The inhabitants of Lewis are in general well-proportioned, tall, fair, sanguine, strong, and healthy. The small-pox sometimes makes terrible havoc among them. The other diseases to which they are subject, are the chin-cough in children, the fever, the diarrhoea, dysentery, sore-throats, jaundice, rashes, pleuritis, coughs, and rheums. As a medicine for the diarrhoea and dysentery, they administer the kernel of the black Molucca beans, powdered and drank in boiled milk; and sometimes the patient swallows a small dose of their strong whisky diluted with water. This is likewise preferred to children in the small-pox, when the pulse sinks and the pustules do not fill. Inflammatory disorders they cure by repeated bleeding; coughs and colds are removed by drinking plentifully of warm brochan, or water-gruel, with butter or honey, taken at bed-time; which not only acts as a balsamic pectoral, but wonderfully promotes the discharge of sweat and urine. When the wula is elongated, they slip off part of it with a pair of scissors; for the jaundice, they sluice a pail-full of cold water by surplice on the patient's naked back, or scar the vertebrae with an actual cautery when he dreams of no such application. Green wounds they cure with ointments made of vulnerary plants and fresh-butter.

The natives of Lewis are quick of apprehension; ingenious in mechanics; and much addicted to poetry and music, many of them learning to play on the bagpipe and violin. They are in general sober, circumspect, and hospitable; dexterous in shooting, swimming, leaping; bold and skilful mariners; and so temperate, that they will tug at the oar all day, without any other provision than bread and water, with a snuff of tobacco.

Along this coast we see several natural mounts or forts, called Dun, such as Dun-rowly, Dun-coradel, and Dun-eiltan. There are also the remains of some old castles, and other monuments of antiquity. At Stornoway village we see the ruins of a fortress destroyed by the English garrison sent thither by Oliver Cromwell. To the northward of Brago there is a round tower built of large stones, three stories high, tapering towards the top, with a double wall, and a circular staircase between, by which one may go quite round the building. On the heaths and summits of hills there are several cairns or heaps of stones, which served either for graves or beacons. In the parish of Barvas we see a single stone called the thrysoel, standing upright, above 20 feet high, and almost as much in breadth. Three stones, about 12 feet high each, are seen standing on the north side of Loch-carbay; and many others standing single at great distances, and in remote parts of the island. But the most remarkable monument of this kind appears by the village of Clafernuiis. Here we find 39 pyramidal stones standing upright, about six or seven feet high from the surface, each about two feet in breadth. They are placed in form of an avenue, eight feet wide; the distance between every stone amounting to six feet, and a single piece stands at the entrance. This avenue leads to a circle of 12 stones of the same dimensions, with one in the centre 13 feet in length, and shaped like a rudder: on the east, south, and west sides of this circle, are four stones, such as those that compose this round and avenue, forming three lines, or as it were rays, from the body of the circle. This is supposed to have been a Druid temple; and tradition reports, that the chief Druid stood by the large stone in the centre, and harangued the audience. At the distance of a quarter of a mile there is another circle of the same nature; but without the range and avenue. In all probability, these, as well as the monuments we have described in our account of the Orkneys, and Stone-henge on Salisbury-plain, were places of worship erected by the Druids in time of Pagan superstition. The chief town in Lewis is called Storm-bay, from its situation at the head of the bay known by this name: it is a village, consisting of about 60 families, with a church, a grammar-school, and some public-houses: here also resides the steward for the laird of Macleod, who is a proprietor of the island.

There is a considerable number of inferior adjacent isles and rocks, some of which hardly deserve to be mentioned; such as the small island Garve at the mouth of Loch Carbay, Berinay, Fladda, Bernera Minor, and Bernera Major, Kialify, Cavy, Caray, Greum, Pabay, Shirem, Vexay, Wuya the Larger and Lesser, and the Flannan islands, which the seamen denominate the northern hunters. These are visited every summer by the inhabitants of the Lewis, who go thither in quest of fowls, eggs, down, quills, and feathers, as well as to shear or kill the sheep that are kept here for pasture. As these islands are very steep and rocky, the visitors, after having landed and climbed up the rock by a ladder, uncover their heads, and, making a turn sun-ways, thank God for having escaped the danger they have undergone. In the largest island are the ruins of a chapel dedicated to St Flannan, from whom the isles derive their name. Thither the fowlers repairing, strip themselves of their upper garments, which being laid upon a stone, they advance towards the altar, and repeat three prayers; an exercise which is performed every morning and evening. They observe many other superstitious customs during their residence on these rocks; and when they have landed their boat with their purchase, return to the larger islands. Among the isles belonging to the Lewis, we may likewise take notice of the small isle of Pigmyes, so called, because bones resembling those of human creatures, but of very small dimensions, have been dug out of the ground.

The islands of Lewis are divided into the two parishes Lewis of Barvas and Eye, and in each of these one minister is settled; but there is a great number of churches and chapels dedicated to different saints, in the different isles which compose this clutter. All these were sanctuaries before the reformation, but now they are divested of that privilege. The people of these islands are Presbyterians, with a few Protestants of the English communion, and a still smaller number of Roman Catholics. The Protestants observe the festivals of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Michaelmas; on the last of which the individuals of both sexes perform an universal cavalcade.

Louis, the name of several kings of France. See France.

Lewis VII. anno 1137, was the first who had the courage to oppose the encroachments of the popes on the regal authority: pope Innocent II. excommunicated him for appointing an archbishop of Bourges; but Lewis defended his prerogatives, and put the priests to death who had been the authors of the quarrel. In 1147, he put himself at the head of an army of 80,000 men, and marched against the Saracens, in the second crusade, but was defeated; and returning into France by sea, was taken by the Greeks, but rescued by Roger king of Sicily. His queen Eleonora accompanied him in this expedition; and being suspected of infidelity with Saladin, a young Turk, Louis divorced her, and she was married six weeks after to Henry duke of Normandy, (Henry II. king of England). Lewis died in 1180, aged 60.

Lewis IX. anno 1226, (canonized), was one of the greatest monarchs of France; equally memorable for his valour and his virtues, but unfortunately misled by the superstition of the times: he sacrificed his own repose, and the welfare of his kingdom, to the folly of crusading. In 1248, leaving France to the care of his mother, he embarked for Egypt, attended by his queen, his three brothers, and the flower of the French nobility. At first, his victories were rapid: he took Damietta in 1249; but the following year he was defeated and taken prisoner by the Turks, with all the nobility in his train, and the greatest part of his army. The sultan sent to him in prison, to demand an exorbitant sum for his ransom; and his answer being truly noble, deserves to be recorded: "Tell the sultan, that a king of France is not to be ransomed with money; I will give the sum required for my people, and Damietta for myself." These terms were accepted, and a peace of 10 years ensued. Upon his return to France, he diminished the taxes, revoked those which the cupidity of the financiers had introduced; issued several salutary edicts; founded several churches and hospitals; and effectually overturned the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the court of Rome, by his pragmatic sanction in 1269, which established the independency of the Gallican church. Thirteen years residence in his capital indemnified his subjects for his absence; but his pious zeal prevented the enjoyment of this happiness: he embarked for the sixth crusade in 1270; and died the same year, at the siege of Tunis, aged 55.

Lewis XI. anno 1461. His oppressions obliged his subjects to enter into a league against him, styled "Ligue du bien public," in which his brother the duke of Berri and some of the principal nobility were concerned: they solicited succours from John duke of Calabria, who joined them with 500 Swiss (the first introduction of Swiss soldiers into the French armies). His reign was almost one continued scene of civil war; and it is computed that 4000 of his subjects were executed in public and privately, either for being in arms against him, or suspected by him. In his last illness, he drank the warm blood of children, in the vain hope of restoring his decayed strength. He died in 1483, aged 60. The posts for letters were established in his reign, owing to his eagerness for news; the first institution of this nature in Europe.

Lewis XII. anno 1492, styled the Just, and the Father of his people; memorable for his valour in the field, and his wisdom in the cabinet. A great general; but unfortunate towards the end of his reign, when he did not command his troops in person: his orders transmitted from home were misinterpreted, or wilfully disobeyed; and he had the mortification, before he died, to see the total expulsion of the French from the possessions he had acquired for them by his personal bravery. At 53 years of age, he married the princess Mary of England, sister of Henry VIII., and being of a delicate constitution, fell a victim (according to the French historians) to amorous dalliance; for he died in about two months after his nuptials, in 1515.

Lewis XIII. anno 1610, increased the military reputation of his country, and made considerable additions to its domains. The beginning of his reign was occupied in civil wars with his mother and his Protestant subjects; in which he was excited to continue by his famous minister, cardinal Richlieu, who attended him to the siege of Rochelle, the bulwark of the Huguenot party. This place was reduced by famine to surrender, in 1628, after a siege of more than a year. Upon this, and other occasions, the king gave proofs of great personal bravery. His attachment to his ally the duke de Nevers, who succeeded to the duchy of Mantua, but was refused the investiture by Charles VI. emperor of Germany, involved him in a war with that prince, the Spaniards, and the duke of Savoy; in which Lewis was victorious, and obtained a treaty of peace, by which the duke of Mantua was guaranteed in the possession of his dominions. In 1655, a new war broke out between France and Spain, and the emperor took part with the latter; it lasted 13 years against the emperor, and 25 against Spain, with various success; and the different armies kept on foot, in the Low Countries, on the frontiers of France, and in Italy, in the first years of this war, paved the way for the signal successes of Lewis XIV. the campaigns of these armies being a military school of discipline and experience for the French officers, besides giving them a knowledge of the countries which became the seat of war in the next reign. Lewis XIII. died 1643, aged 41.

Lewis XIV. le Grand, (king at five years of age), anno 1643. He was at first styled Dieu-donné, because the French considered him as the gift of heaven, granted to their prayers after the queen had been barren 22 years. This princess (Ann of Austria) was declared regent by Lewis XIII. and saw herself under a necessity to continue the war against Philip IV. king of Spain, her brother. The duke d'Enquin was made general of the French armies; and so signal was the success of this renowned warrior, (afterwards prince prince of Condé, and known by the style of the Great Condé, that his victories brought on the advantageous treaties of Munster in 1648, between France, the emperor Ferdinand III. and Christina queen of Sweden; the basis of the aggrandizement of France in this reign; the principal events of which, and of the next, are related under the articles BRITAIN, UNITED PROVINCES, &c. Lewis XIV. died in 1715, aged 77.

Lewis XV. (his great-grandson) succeeded in 1715. He was styled, in the course of his reign, the well-beloved, which he lost some years before he died; and was detested and despised by his subjects for his shameful attachment to a young girl, under the title of his mistress, who, by the ministry of her patron the duke d'Aiguillon, governed the kingdom, and invaded the ancient rights and privileges of the people. He died in 1774, in the 64th year of his age, and 59th of his reign.