an epithet used by seamen to distinguish that part of the hemisphere to which the wind is directed, from the other part whence it arises; which latter is accordingly called to windward. This expression is chiefly used when the wind crosses the line of a ship's course, so that all on a side of her is called to windward, and all on the opposite side to leeward. Hence,

Under the Lee, implies farther to the leeward, or farther from that part of the horizon whence the wind blows: as,

Under the Lee of the Shore; i.e. at a short distance from the shore which lies to windward. This phrase is commonly understood to express the situation of a vessel anchored, or sailing under the weather-shore, where there is always smoother water, and less danger of heavy seas, than at a great distance from it.

Lee-Larches, the sudden and violent rolls which a ship often takes to the leeward in a high sea, particularly when a large wave strikes her on the weather-side.

Lee-Side, all that part of a ship or boat which lies between the main and the side farther from the direction of the wind; or otherwise, the half of a ship, which is pressed down towards the water by the effort of the sails, as separated from the other half by a line drawn through the middle of her length. That part of the ship which lies to windward of this line is accordingly called the weather-side. Thus admits a ship to be sailing southward, with the wind at east, then is her starboard or right side the lee-side; and the larboard, or left, the weather-side.

Lee-Stone. See Lee-Penny.

Lee-Way. See Navigation.

(Nathaniel), a very eminent dramatic poet of the last century, was the son of a clergyman, who gave him a liberal education.—He received his first rudiments of learning at Westminster school; from whence he went to Trinity college, Cambridge.—Coming to London, however, his inclination prompted him to appear on the theatre; but he was not more successful in representing the thoughts of other men, than many a genius besides, who have been equally unfortunate in treading the stage, although they knew so well how to write for it. He produced 11 tragedies, all of which contain a very great portion of true poetic enthusiasm. None, if any, ever felt the passion of love more truly; nor could any one describe it with more tenderness. Addison commends his genius highly; observing, that none of our English poets had a happier turn for tragedy, although his natural fire and unbridled impetuosity hurried him beyond all bounds of probability, and sometimes were quite out of nature. The truth is, this poet's imagination ran away with his reason; so that at length he became quite crazy; and grew so mad, that his friends were obliged to confine him in bedlam, where he made that famous witty reply to a coxcomb scribbler, who had the cruelty to jeer him with his misfortune, by observing that it was an easy thing to write like a madman:—"No (said Lee), it is not an easy thing to write like a madman; but it is very easy to write like a fool." Lee had the good fortune to recover the use of his reason so far as to be discharged from his melancholy confinement; but he did not long survive his enlargement, dying at the early age of 34. Cibber, in his Lives of the Poets, says he perished unfortunately in a night-ramble in London streets.—His Theodosius and Alexander the Great are stock plays, and to this day are often acted with great applause. The late Mr Barry was particularly fortunate in the character of the Macedonian Hero.

Lee-Penny, or Lee-Stone, a curious piece of antiquity belonging to the family of Lee in Scotland, and of which the following account has been given in the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1787.

It is a stone of a dark red colour and triangular shape, and its size about half an inch each side. It is set in a piece of silver coin, which, though much defaced, by some letters still remaining is supposed to be a shilling of Edward I. the cross being very plain, as it is on his shillings.—It has been, by tradition, in the Lee family since the year 1320 odds; that is, a little after the death of King Robert Bruce, who having ordered his heart to be carried to the Holy Land, there to be buried, one of the noble family of Douglas was sent with it, and it is said got the Crowned Heart in his arms from that circumstance; but the person who carried the heart was Simon Lockard of Lee, who just about this time borrowed a large sum of money from Sir William de Lenday, prior of Air, for which he granted a bond of annuity of ten pounds of silver, during the life of the said Sir William de Lenday, out of his lands of Lee and Cartland. The original bond, dated 1323, and witnessed by the principal nobility of the country, is still remaining among the family papers.

As this was a great sum in those days, it is thought it was borrowed for that expedition; and, from his being the person who carried the royal heart, he changed his name to Lockheart, as it is sometimes spelt, or Lockhart, and got a heart within a lock for part of his arms, with the motto Corda ferata pando.—This Simon Lockhart having taken prisoner a Saracen prince or chief, his wife came to ransom him; and on counting out the money or jewels, this stone fell out of her purse, which she hastily snatched up; which Simon Lockhart observing, insisted to have it, else he would not give up his prisoner.—Upon this the lady gave it him, and told him its many virtues, viz., that it cured all diseases in cattle, and the bite of a mad dog both in man and beast. It is used by dipping the stone in water, which is given to the diseased cattle to drink; and the person who has been bit, and the wound or part infected, is washed with the water. There are no words used in the dipping of the stone, nor any money taken by the servants, without incurring the owner's displeasure. Many are the cures said to be performed by it, and people come from all parts of Scotland, and even as far up in England as Yorkshire, to get the water in which the stone is dipped, to give their cattle, when ill of the murrain especially, and black-leg.—A great many years ago, a complaint was made to the ecclesiastical courts against the laird of Lee, then Sir James Lockhart, for using witchcraft.—It is said, when the plague was last at Newcastle, the inhabitants sent for the Lee-penny, and gave a bond for a large sum in trust for the loan; and that they thought it did so much good, that they offered to pay the money, and keep the Lee-penny; but the gentleman would not part with it. A copy of this bond is very well attested to have been among the family papers, but supposed to have been spoiled, along with many more valuable ones, about 50 years ago, by rain getting into the charter-room, during a long minority, and no family residing at Lee.

The most remarkable cure performed upon any person was that of Lady Baird of Sauchtonhall, near Edinburgh; who having been bit by a mad dog, was come the length of a hydrophobia; upon which, having sent to beg the Lee-penny might be sent to her house, she used it for some weeks, drinking and bathing in the water it was dipped in, and was quite recovered. This happened above 80 years ago; but it is very well attested, having been told by the lady of the then laird of Lee, and who died within these thirty years. She also told, that her husband Mr Lockhart, and she, were entertained at Sauchtonhall by Sir Robert Baird and his lady, for several days, in the most sumptuous manner, on account of the lady's recovery, and in gratitude for the loan of the Lee-penny so long, as it was never allowed to be carried away from the house of Lee.

N.B. It was tried by a lapidary, and found to be a stone; but of what kind he could not tell.

Leech, in zoology. See Hirudo.

Leeches in a ship, the borders or edges of a sail which are either sloping or perpendicular.

The leeches of all sails whose tops and bottoms are parallel to the deck, or at right angles to the mast, are denominated from the ship's side, and the sail to which they belong; as the starboard-leech of the main-fall, the lee-leech of the fore-top-fall, &c. But the sails which are fixed obliquely on the masts have their leeches named from their situation with respect to the ship's length; as the fore-leech of the mizen, the after-leech of the jib or fore-stay fall, &c.

Leech-lines, certain ropes fastened to the middle of the leeches of the main-fall and fore-fall, and communicating with blocks under the opposite sides of the top, whence they pass downwards to the deck, serving to truss up those sails to the yard as occasion requires. See Brails.

Leech-Rope, a name given to that part of the bolt-rope to which the border or skirt of a sail is sewed. In all sails whose opposite leeches are of the same length, it is terminated above the earing, and below the clue. See Bolt-Rope, Clue, and Earing.

Leeds, a town of the West Riding of Yorkshire, 196 miles from London, has a magnificent stone-bridge over the river Aire to the suburbs. It was incorporated by King Charles I. with a chief alderman, nine burgesses, and 20 assistants; and by Charles II., with a mayor, 12 aldermen, and 24 assistants. It has been a long time famous for the woollen manufacture, and is one of the largest and most flourishing towns in the county, yet had but one church till the reign of Charles I. By the late inland navigation, it has communication with the rivers Mersey, Dee, Ribble, Ouse, Trent, Darwent, Severn, Humber, Thames, Avon, &c. which navigation, including its windings, extends above 500 miles in the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Lancaster, Westmoreland, Chester, Stafford, Warwick, Leicester, Oxford, Worcester, &c. Here is a long street full of shops, and a hall for the sale of cloth, built in 1758. The merchants of this place, York, and Hull, ship them off at the latter, for Holland, Hamburg, and the north. After ringing of the market-bell at six or seven in the morning, the chapmen come and match their patterns, when they treat for the cloth with a whisper, because the clothiers standings are so near each other; and perhaps 20,000l. worth of cloth is sold in an hour's time. At half an hour after eight the bell rings again, when the clothiers make room for the linen-drapers, hardware-men, shoemakers, fruiterers, &c. At the same time the shambles are well stored with all sorts of fish and flesh; and 500 horse loads of apples have been counted here in a day. There is a magnificent hall, where they also sell great quantities of white cloth; and here is a noble guildhall, with a fine marble statue of Queen Anne, erected about the year 1714. Its river being navigable by boats, they send other goods, besides their cloth, to Wakefield, York, and Hull, and furnish York with coals. There is a house called Red-hall, because it was the first brick-building in the town, and K. Charles I. had an apartment in it, which is ever since called the King's chamber. There is another place called Tower-hill, on which there was once a tower; besides which, there was a castle which King Stephen besieged in his march to Scotland. Here was also a park, where are now inclosures. There is a workhouse here of free-stone, where poor children are taught to mix wool, and perform other easy branches of that manufacture, and a part of it has been used many years as a hospital for the reception of the aged poor. Here are three almshouses, and two charity-schools of blue-coat boys to the number of 100. In the ceiling of St Peter's, its only parochial church, the delivery of the law to Moses is finely painted in fresco by Parmentier. It is a venerable free-stone pile built in the cathedral fashion, and seems to have been the patch-work of several ages. The increase of building in Leeds in the year 1786, was nearly 400 houses. There is a Presbyterian meeting-house here, erected in 1691, called the new chapel, which is the stateliest, if not the oldest, of that denomination in the north of England; and in the town and its suburbs are several other meeting-houses, as is always observable in towns of great trade and manufacture. It is noted for some medicinal springs; one of which, called St Peter's, is an extreme cold one, and has been very beneficial in rheumatism, rickets, &c. Here is a hospital for relief of the poor, who had been honest and industrious, endowed with 80l. a-year, besides 10l. a-year for a master to read prayers and instruct them; also a free school. Its markets are Tuesdays and Saturdays, and the market-laws are more strictly observed here than anywhere. It has two fairs in the year. Leeds, though a large town, sends no members to parliament.

botany. See Allium.

town of Staffordshire in England, 155 miles from London. It lies among the barren moorlands, has a manufacture of buttons, a market on Wednesday, and 7 fairs in the year. In the churchyard, at the south-east corner of the chancel, are the remains of a Danish cross, now upright, and 10 feet high from the ground, beneath which are three steps. In Blue-hills in the neighbourhood are coal-mines; and Leeuw, and a salt stream comes from thence, which tinges the stones and earth through which it runs with a rusty colour, and, with the infusion of galls, turns as black as ink. Here are rocks of a most surprising height, without any turf or mould upon them.