LOSTWITHIEL, a market town and municipal borough of Cornwall, England, on the river Fowey 3o2 m W. of Ply mouth by the G.W. railway. Pop. (1931) 1,325. Lostwithiel probably owed its existence to the neighbouring castle of Restor mel. The Pipe Rolls (1194-1203) show that Robert de Cardinan. lord of Restormel, paid ten marks yearly for having a market at Lostwithiel. He surrendered to the burgesses all the liberties given them by his predecessors (antecessores) when they founded the town. By Isolda, granddaughter of Robert de Cardinan, the town was given to Richard, king of the Romans, who granted to the burgesses a gild merchant sac and soc, toll, team and infangenethef, freedom from pontage, lastage, etc., throughout Cornwall, and exemption from the jurisdiction of the hundred and county courts, also a yearly fair and a weekly market. His son Edmund decreed that the coinage of tin should be at Lostwithiel only. In 1609 a charter of incorporation provided for a mayor, recorder, six capital burgesses and seventeen assistants and courts of record and pie powder. The boundaries of the borough were extended in 1733. From 1305 to 1832 two members represented Lostwithiel in parliament, but under the Reform Act (1832) the borough became merged in the county. For the victory gained by Charles I. over the earl of Essex in 1644, see GREAT RE BELLION. The church of St. Bartholomew has a fine Early English tower surmounted by a Decorated spire. A bridge of the 14th century crosses the river. The shire hall includes remains of a building, called the Stannary prison, dating from the 13th cen tury. The G.W. railway has workshops here.
His wife looked back and was changed to a pillar of salt, but Lot with his two daughters escaped first to Zoar and then to the moun tains east of the Dead Sea, where the daughters planned and exe cuted an incest by which they became the mothers of Moab and Ben-Ammi (i.e., Ammon; Gen. xix.). The account of Chedor laomer's invasion and of Lot's rescue by Abraham belongs to an independent source (Gen. xiv.), the age and historical value of which has been much disputed. (See further ABRAHAM ; MEL CHIZEDEK.) LOT, a department of south-western France, formed in 1790 from the district of Quercy, part of the old province of Guyenne. It is bounded N. by Correze, W. by Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne, S. by Tarn-et-Garonne, and E. by Aveyron and Cantal. Area 2,017 sq.m. Pop. (1931) 166,637. The department is that part of the south-western slope of the Massif Central which is drained by the river Lot, navigable with the help of locks, while its northern portion is crossed by the parallel Dordogne, both streams flowing west to the Garonne-Gironde. On its eastern side, towards the heights of Cantal, there are hills 2,56o ft. in height. The centre of the department is occupied by a calcareous Jurassic plateau called the Causses, 700-1,300 ft. (Causse de Martel north of the Dordogne, Causse de Gramat or de Rocamadour between Dor dogne and Lot, and Causse de Cahors south of Lot). On the west, stream dissection has formed a series of hills fringing the plain of Aquitaine. Water soaks through the porous surface of the causses and vanishes down its many fissures (igues) and springs emerge lower down to form large streams in the narrow and beautiful valleys. Temperature varies greatly between the warm valleys and the highlands of impermeable rock in the east ; rainfall is somewhat above the average for France. Wheat, oats, maize, buckwheat and rye are the chief cereals. Wines are well known. The north-east cantons produce large quantities of chestnuts, wal nuts, truffles, plums, and potatoes are also grown. Sheep abound, but cattle, pigs, horses, mules and goats are also reared, as well as poultry and bees. Some iron and coal are mined, and a little zinc. Limestone is quarried. The three arrondissements are those of Cahors, the capital, Figeac and Gourdon ; there are 29 cantons and 331 communes.