Chapter Lamington to Landscape Gardening of L by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Lamington to Landscape Gardening

Lamington, a follower of sir Geoffrey Peveril.—Sir W. Scott: Peveril of the Peak (time, Charles II.).

Lamira, wife of Champernel, and daughter of Vertaigné a nobleman and a judge.—Fletcher: The Little French Lawyer (1647).

Lamkin (Mrs. Alice), companion to Mrs. Bethune Baliol.—Sir W. Scott: The Highland Widow (time, George II.).

Lammas. At latter Lammas, never; equivalent to Suetonius’s “Greek kalends.”

Lammas Day is “Loaf-Mass” Day (August 1), on which occurred a special festival for the blessing of bread.

Lammikin, a blood-thirsty builder, who built and baptized his castle with blood. He was long a nursery ogre, like Lunsford.—Scotch Ballad.

Lammle (Alfred), a “mature young gentleman, with too much nose on his face, too much ginger in his whiskers, too much torso in his waistcoat, too much sparkle in his studs, his eyes, his buttons, his talk, his teeth.” He married Miss Akershem, thinking she had money, and she married him under the same delusion; and the two kept up a fine appearance on nothing at all. Alfred Lammle had many schemes for making money: one was to oust Rokesmith from his post of secretary to Mr. Boffin, and get his wife adopted by Mrs. Boffin in the place of Bella Wilfer; but Mr. Boffin saw through the scheme, and Lammle, with his wife, retired to live on the Continent. In public they appeared very loving and amiable to each other, but led at home a cat-and-dog life.

Sophronia Lammle, wife of Alfred Lammle. “A mature young lady, with raven locks, and complexion that lit up well when well powdered.”—Dickens: Our Mutual Friend (1864).

Lamoracke (Sir), Lamerocke, Lamorake, Lamorock, or Lamarecke, one of the knights of the Round Table, and one of the three most noted for deeds of prowess. The other two were sir Launcelot and sir Tristram. Sir Lamoracke’s father was king Pellinore of Wales, who slew king Lot. His brothers were sir Aglavale and sir Percival; sir Tor, whose mother was the wife of Aries the cowherd, was his half-brother (pt. ii. 108). Sir Lamoracke was detected by the sons of king Lot in adultery with their mother, and they conspired his death.

Sir Gawain and his three brethren, sir Agrawain, sir Gahêris, and sir Modred, met him [sir Lamoracke] in a privy place, and there they slew his horse; then they fought with him on foot for more than three hours, both before him and behind his back, and all-to hewed him in pieces.—Sir T. Malory: History of Prince Arthur, ii. 144 (1470).

Roger Ascham says, “The whole pleasure of La Morte d’Arthur standeth in two special poyntes: in open manslaughter and bold bawdye, in which booke they are counted the noblest knights that doe kill most men without any quarrell, and commit foulest adulteries by sutlest shiftes: as sir Launcelote with the wife of king Arthur his master, sir Tristram with the wife of king Marke his uncle, and sir Lamerocke with the wife of king Lote that was his aunt.”—Works, 254 (fourth edit.).

Lamorce, a woman of bad reputation, who inveigles young Mirabel into her house, where he would have been murdered by four bravoes, if Oriana, dressed as a page, had not been by.—Farquhar: The Inconstant (1702).

Lamourette’s Kiss (A), a kiss of peace when there is no peace; a kiss of apparent reconciliation, but with secret hostility. On July 7, 1792, the abbé Lamourette induced the different factions of the Legislative Assembly of France to lay aside their differences; so the deputies of the Royalists, Constitutionalists, Girondists, Jacobins, and Orleanists, rushed into each others’ arms, and the king was sent for that he