or Kuyp, Albert, one of the best landscape painters of the Dutch school, was born at Dort in 1606. Of his personal history nothing else, not even the date of his death, is known. His father, Jacob Gerutze Kuyp, was himself a distinguished painter; and though Albert Kuyp adopted a very different manner, and attempted a wider range of subject, it was in his father's studio that he received his art training. For a very long time he was extremely ill-appreciated in his own country, and was scarcely known abroad even by name. England was the first country to discover and rightly value his merits, which are now universally acknowledged. The numerous specimens of his art in all the leading English galleries, private as well as public, show how great a favourite he is in that country. According to Wangen: "In loftiness of conception, knowledge of aerial perspective, with the greatest glow and warmth of the serene atmosphere, Kuyp stands unrivalled, and may justly be called the Dutch Claude. In the impasto, the breadth and freedom of execution, he greatly resembles Rembrandt." It is no doubt on his landscapes that Kuyp's fame chiefly rests, yet his cattle groups and (though perhaps in a less degree) his sea pieces, are in their several ways equally excellent. Dr Waagen, in his Art Treasures of Great Britain, criticizes specially the numerous masterpieces of Kuyp which he found in the various public and private collections. L

A semi-vowel or liquid, forming the twelfth letter of the alphabet. It is derived from the old Hebrew lamet, or Greek lambda. In the ancient Greek, the Celtic, and the Etruscan alphabets, the letter is formed by two straight lines making an angle with each other, but sometimes placed horizontally, and sometimes vertically. The Brazilian and Japanese alphabets are said not to possess the letter at all. It is sounded by intercepting the breath between the tip of the tongue and the fore part of the palate, with the mouth open, and makes a sweet sound, with something of an aspiration; hence the Britons and Spaniards usually doubled it, or added an h to it, in the beginning of words, as in Iban or than, a temple, sounding nearly like phl. Amongst the Ionians the letters r and l were frequently interchanged. The Romans often put l for r in words taken from the Greek, as the Italians have done in words taken from the Latins, e.g., balatatro from barathron, and pellegrino from peregrinus. In the derivative languages of more modern times we find l of the original language disappearing in numerous instances, and its place supplied by other letters. Of these may be mentioned d, i, n, u. For example, admirail (English) from admirante (Spanish), piaga (Italian) from plaga (Latin), Bologna (Italian) from Bononia (Latin), and autre (French) from alter (Latin). In French, ll after ai, ei, oui, as in travaillier, &c., is pronounced nearly the same as our y. The same remark applies to the Italian gl before i, as in egli. In Spanish, ll is liquid, as in the foregoing case, and, as in the Welsh, may be placed at the beginning of a word, e.g.—llanercor. In English words of one syllable it is doubled at the end, as tell, bell, knell; but in words of more syllables than one it is single at the end, as evil, general, constitutional. It is placed after most of the consonants in the beginning of words and syllables, as black, glare, adle, eagle, but before none. Its sound is clear in Abel, but obscure in able, and the like.

As a numeral letter, L denotes 50; and with a dash over it thus, L 5000. Used as an abbreviation, this letter stands for Lucius. (See ABBREVIATIONS.) La is the syllable by which Guido denotes the last sound of each hexachord. If it begins in C, it answers to our A; if in G, to E; and if in F, to D.