LEXINGTON, a city in the heart of the "blue grass" region of Kentucky, U.S.A., 75m. S. of Cincinnati; the county seat of Fayette county. It is on Federal highways 25, 27, 6o and 68, and is served by the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Louisville and Nash ville, and the Southern railways. The population was 41,534 in 1920 (3o% negroes) and was 45,736 in 1930 by the Federal census. Lexington is one of the largest loose-leaf tobacco and bluegrass-seed markets in the country; the headquarters for many coal producers of eastern Kentucky; and the chief centre in America for the breeding of thoroughbred horses. It has a large wholesale and retail trade. Before the establishment of national prohibition it was famous for its Bourbon whiskey. Natural gas and hydro-electric power are available. The city has a commis sion form of government. Bank debits in 1926 amounted to $281,024,000, and the assessed valuation of property in 1927 was $72,052,958. There are two race-tracks (for running and for trotting) and the semi-annual horse shows and race meets are brilliant events. Man-o'-War and many other noted racers were bred and raised on the celebrated stock-farms roundabout. Lex
ington is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishopric. It is the seat of the Eastern Kentucky hospital for the insane (established 1815; a State institution since 1824) the State reform schools for girls and for boys; Transylvania college (established 1783), the oldest institution for higher education west of the Alleghenies; and the University of Kentucky (1865), which in 1926-27 had an enrolment of 2,485. Lexington was named by a party of hunters who were encamped here in 1775 when news of the battle of Lex ington reached them. Permanent settlement (largely from Virginia and North Carolina) began in 1779. The town was incorporated in 1782 and was chartered as a city in 1832. The first newspaper published west of the mountains, the Kentucky Gazette, was es tablished here in 1787, to further the movement for the separation of Kentucky from Virginia. The first State legislature convened here in 1792. Lexington was the home of Henry Clay from 1797 until his death in 1852. His estate, "Ashland," is one of many beautiful homesteads in the environs.