LATHOM HOUSE. r'J9 LATHYRUS. place ffave its name to the proprietor, Robert Kitzlienry (Earl of Lathora). In tlie reign of Edward III. it passed with the heiress Isabel into the family of the Stanleys, who owned it for about three centuries. At that time it was a mansion stron;jly fortified by a moat, palisades, and a wall with nine towers. In 1044 Charlotte, t'ountess of Derby, in the al)senee of the Earl, defended it heroically for four months against a Parliamentary army under Fairfax. Later, however, it was taken and destroyed. The pres- ent house, erected about 1750, is a large fine building, furnished with a colonnade of Ionic pillars, and the park belonging to it is four miles in circuit. LA'THROP, Geobge Pabson'S (1851-98). An Amerii'an journalist and jioct, born at (Jalui, Sandwicli Islands, .August 25. 1S5I. He was edu- cated in Xew York and Dresden (18U7-70) ; re- turned thence to Xew York; began, but soon abandoned, the stu<ly of law; went to England; married there (1871) Rose, second daughter of Xathanief Hawthorne. (See L.turop.Ro.se Haw- thorne.) He was from 1875 to 1877 assistant editor of the Alhtntic ilonthhi : then till 1870 editor of the Boston Courier; afterwards resided in Concord and Xew York. He founded tlie American Copyright League (1883). He pub- lished: Rose find llridf Tree, poems (1875); ^tuihi of Ildirthiirne (1870) ; Aflergloir. a novel (1870) ; A Masi/ur of Poets (1877) : an edition of Xathaniel Hawthorne's H'ort.?, with a biog- raphy (l,88:i); An Eeho of I'rission (1882): In Ihe Distance (1882); ftpanish Yistas (188.S); History of the Union League in Philadelphia [S3) ; yen-port (1884); Gold of Pleasure (1892) ; Dreams and Days, ver.ses (1892) ; and other works of minor significance. With his wife he publislied Annals of Georgetown Convent and .1 Stori/ of Courage (1894). LATHROP, Joiix (?-105.'5). An American Congregational clergj'man. whose name is vari- ously spelled Lothropp or Laythrop. He was born in England, studied at Oxford, took holy orders, and was rector of ii church at Egerton, Kent, until about 1024. when he succeeded Henry Jacob as ])astor of the first Independent or Con- gregational church in England. This London congregation was much harried by the ecclesiasti- cal authorities. Lathrop's wife died while he was imprisoned ( 10.'?2-.34) , and. having lost a part of Iiis church through a schism on the ques- tion of baptism, in 10.34 he removed to ilassa- chusetts. beconiing fir-t pastor at Scituate. and in 10.39 at Barnstable. One of the authorities for Prince's history of Xew England is "an orig- inal register, wrote l)y the Rev. .John Lothrop," which contains a record of the afTairs of these two towns. LATHROP, .John Hiram (1799-1800). An -AniericMu ■■ducator, born at Sherburne, X. Y. He gradiuited at Y'ale in 1819, was tutor there from 1822 to 1820. and then entered the legal profession ; but after six years left it and be- came a teacher first at Xorwieh. Vt., then at Gardiner, Maine. He was jirofessor of mathe- matics and natural philosophy from 1829 to 1833. and of law, history, and economics from 1835 to 1840. at Haniiiton College, and was president of the University nf Missouri from 1840 until 1849. after which he was .successively chan- cellor of the University of Wisconsin, president of Indiana University, professor of English lit- erature in the University of Missouri, and again president of the last-named institution from 18G5 until his death. LATHROP, Rose ILvwTiiORXE (1851—). An AuKricin poet and philanthropist, daughter of Xathaniel Hawthorne. She was born at l^no.x, Mass.; lived in England and Portugal (1853-GO) ; and studied art at Dresden and in London, where she married George Par-ons l^athrop (q-V.) in 1871. She wrote many stories and sketches; a volume of poems. Along the Shore (1888) ; and Memories of Hawthorne, with Iier husband (1897). In 1890 she established in Xew York City Saint Rose's Free Home for Cancer: and soon after, with the title of Mother Mary Alphon- sa, she l)ecanie head of a Dominican comnumity of the Third Order and director of a charitable home in that city. LATHS AND LATHWOOD (AS. Icett, OHG. U.itla. i.rr. I.iille. lalh, lliin plate; connected with MHG. laden, lade, board, and with Ir. slat, Bret. laz, rod, Welsh Uath, rod). Laths are small strips of wood thinner and narrower than the batten (q.v. | or furring strip. They are of various lengths, rarely more than four feet, and .Tro made either by splitting lathwood, which is the Xorway spruce fir {f'inus Abies), or else they pre sawn from the small portions of the lumber. Laths are used for nailing to the uprights of partition walls, and to the rafters of ceilings; they are placed slightly apart to receive the plaster, which, by being juessed into the intervals between the laths, is retained, and when dry is held securely on the wall. Slaters' laths are longer strips of wood nailed on to the frame- work of the roof for the purpose of sustaining the slates or tiles, which are fastened to the laths by nails. LATHTRUS (XeoLat., from Gk. AdSupos, sort of pulsel. A genus of jjlants of the natural (uder IvCguminosa". The leaves of many species are fvirnishcd with tendrils, and are pinnate, but often with only one pair of leaflets. The species are niniierous, annual and perennial herbs, na- tives of temperate countries in the Xorthern Hemisphere and the moimtains of tropical .Vfrica and Soutli America. Few are .merican ; some are natives of Great Britain: some have very beautiful flowers of considerable size, on account of which they find a place in flower-gardens, as Lathijrus latifolius and Lathi/rus si/lrestris, the latter a native of England ami the former of the south of Europe, both perennials, and known by the name of everlasting pea. The sweet pea {Lnthyrus odorattis) . a native of the East, one of the best known ornaments of our flower-gardens, is a liard.v annual, estwmcd not onlv on account of the beauty of its flowers, but of their delight- ful fragrance. The most couunon British species is the meadow vetchling {lAitlinrus pratensis), with bright yellow flowers. l.allnirus sntirus, the chickling vetch or lentil of Spain, a native of the south of Europe, with flowers generally of a bright blue color and winged pods, is culti- vated in India, and in Germany. France, and other countries for its seeds, the flour of which, however, is mixed with other Hour rather than used alone, on account of narcotic qualities which it possesses, and which caused its cultivation for food to be interdicted in Wiirttemberg in 1071. An incurable paralysis of the limbs has some-
