LOMBARDS, a German people, settled at the beginning of our era about the lower Elbe.  In the 5th century we find them in Moravia, and a century later established, a powerful people, between the Adriatic and the Danube.  They invaded Italy in 568, and in three years had mastered the North, but abandoning their Arian faith they gradually became Italianised, and after the overthrow of their dynasty by Charlemagne in 774 they became merged in the Italians.  From the 13th century Italian merchants, known as Lombards, from Lucca, Florence, Venice, and Genoa, traded under much odium, largely in England as wool-dealers and bankers, whence the name Lombard Street.

LOMBARDY (3,982), an inland territory of Northern Italy between the Alps and the Po, Piedmont, and Venetia.  In the N. are Alpine mountains and valleys rich in pasturage; in the S. a very fertile, well irrigated plain, which produces cereals, rice, and sub-tropical plants.  The culture of the silkworm is extensive; there are textile and hardware manufactures.  The chief towns are Milan, Pavia, and Corno.  Austrian in 1713, Napoleon made it part of the kingdom of Italy in 1805; it was restored to Austria in 1815, and finally again to Italy in 1859.

LOMOND, LOCH, an irregularly-shaped lake in Dumbarton and Stirling shires, 22 m. long and of varying breadth; contains a number of small wooded islands; on the eastern shore rises Ben Lomond to the height of 3192 ft.

LONDON (5,633), on the Thames, 50 m. from the sea, the capital of the British Empire, is the most populous and wealthiest city in the world.  An important place in Roman times, it was the cap. of the East Saxons, and has been the metropolis of England since the Norman Conquest; it possesses, therefore, innumerable historic buildings and associations.  Often devastated by plague and fire, its progress has never been stayed; its population has more than quadrupled itself this century, and more than doubled since 1850.  The City of London proper occupies one square mile in the centre, is wholly a commercial part, and is governed by an annually elected mayor and aldermen; is the seat of a bishopric, with St. Paul’s for cathedral.  The City of Westminster is also a bishopric under a high steward and high bailiff, chosen by the dean and chapter.  These two cities, with twenty-five boroughs under local officers, constitute the metropolis, and since 1888 the county of the city of London, and send 59 members to Parliament.  Streets in the older parts are narrow, but newer districts are well built; the level ground and density of building detracts from the effect of innumerable magnificent edifices.  Buckingham, Kensington, and St. James’s are royal residences; the Houses of Parliament are the biggest Gothic building in the world; St. Paul’s, built by Sir Christopher Wren, contains the remains of Nelson and Wellington, Reynolds, Turner, and Wren himself.  Westminster, consecrated 1269, is the burial-place of England’s greatest poets and