Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/21

Leland land or Layland, senior, and directed that the income derived from the benefices of Haseley and Pepeling should be applied to his maintenance. Leland died without recovering his reason on 18 April 1552, and was buried in the church of St. Michael le Querne. His monument bore a long laudatory inscription in English, with some Latin elegiac verse. The church, which was destroyed at the Great Fire, and was not rebuilt, stood at the west end of Cheapside.

Leland is the earliest of modern English antiquaries. His industry in accumulating facts was remarkable, and as a traveller he was a close observer. His ‘Itinerary’ carefully notes the miles distant between the places that he visited, the best way of approaching each city, and most of the objects of interest likely to interest an historian. But manuscripts attracted him more than architecture, and he rarely rises in his descriptions of buildings above his designation of the abbey of Malmesbury as ‘a right magnificent thing.’ On very rare occasions he notices local customs or popular botany. In his ‘Collectanea’ he shows himself to be a conscientious genealogist, but he was not an historical scholar. He defends with unnecessary zeal the truth of the Arthurian legends, and condemns the scepticism of Polydore Vergil. His English style is rough and disjointed, and both his ‘Itinerary’ and ‘Collectanea’ read like masses of undigested notes. As a Latin poet he is deserving of high regard. His poems are always graceful and imaginative, and exhibit at times, as in his ‘Cygnea Cantio,’ an appreciation of natural scenery which is not apparent in his ‘Itinerary.’ He wrote in very varied metres, and knew and appreciated the best classical models. Ovid, Lucretius, Martial, and Euripides are among the authors quoted by him. He is said by Polydore Vergil and Thomas Caius to have been personally vain and self-conceited, but his extant writings hardly corroborate this verdict. He had none of the virulence characteristic of the early professors of protestantism, and did not disdain social intercourse in his travels with abbots or friars. Pits's suggestion that his mental failure was due to his remorse at having abandoned Rome rests on no foundation.

Leland published little in his lifetime. All his works are now very rare. The titles of the pieces issued under his personal superintendence are: 1. ‘Næniæ in mortem Thomæ Viati equitis incomparabilis,’ dedicated to the Earl of Surrey, an elegy on the death of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder, with a woodcut portrait of Wyatt, which has been attributed to Holbein, London (Reginald Wolfe), 1542, 4to (Brit. Mus. and Lambeth), reprinted in Hearne's edition of ‘Leland's Itinerary,’ vol. ii. 2. ‘Genethliacon illustrissimi Eaduerdi Principis Cambriæ, Ducis Coriniæ et Comitis Palatini, libellus ante aliquot annos inchoatus. Nunc vero absolutus et editus,’ a poem on the birth of Edward, prince of Wales, dedicated to Henry VIII, with an explanation of the ancient names of places used in the poem—‘Syllabus et interpretatio antiquarum Dictionum quæ passim in libello lectori occurrunt,’ London (R. Wolfe), 1543, 4to (Brit. Mus.); reprinted in Hearne's edition of the ‘Itinerary,’ vol. ix. 3. ‘Assertio inclytissimi Arturij, regis Britanniæ. Elenchus antiquorum nominum,’ London (John Herford), 1544, 4to (Brit. Mus., one copy on vellum), a defence of the authenticity of the Arthurian fables in reply to Polydore Vergil; an English translation was published with the title: ‘Ancient Order, and Societie and Unitie Laudable of Prince Arthur and his knightly Armorie of the Round Table; with a threefold Assertion, Englished from Leland by R. Robinson, 1582’ (cf., Brit. Bibliographer, 1810, i. 109–35). 4. ‘Kυγνειον Aσμα. Cygnea Cantio. Commentarij in Cygneam Cantionem indices Britannicæ Antiquitatis locupletissimi;’ a Latin poem in 699 lines in choriambic tetrameter, dedicated to Henry VIII, whose exploits are celebrated in the song of a swan swimming between Oxford and Greenwich; elaborate notes in Latin prose on the places mentioned include quotations from eighty classical and mediæval writers; Windsor is very sympathetically described. London (Reginald Wolfe), 1545, 4to, with woodcut (Brit. Mus.); another edition, 1658, 12mo; reprinted in Hearne's edition of the ‘Itinerary,’ vol. ix. 5. ‘Nænia in mortem Henrici Duddelegi equitis,’ London (John Mayler), 1545, 8vo (, 573); reprinted in Ross's ‘Historia Regum Angliæ,’ ed. Hearne, 1716, and in the 1770 edition of the ‘Itinerary.’ 6. ‘Bononia Gallo-mastix in laudem victoriæ felicissimi Henrici VIII Anglici, Francisci, Scotici;’ verses on Henry VIII's capture of Boulogne in 1544, London (John Mayler), 1545, 4to (, 573); reprinted in Hearne's edition of the ‘Collectanea.’ 7. ‘Eγκωμιον της Eιρηνης, Laudatio Pacis’ (the ‘Praise of Peace’), London (R. Wolfe), 1546, 4to, a Latin poem (Brit. Mus.); reprinted in Hearne's edition of the ‘Collectanea,’ vol. v. 8. ‘The Laboryouse Journey and Serche of J. Leylande for Englande's Antiquitees geven of him for a Newe Yeares Gifte to King Henry the VIII in the 37 Yeare of his Raygne, with Declaracyons enlarged by J. Bale,’ London, 1549, 8vo (Brit. Mus.); edited by John Bale, with long