Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/330

 come.’ In anticipation of his departure, he produced ‘A Farewell to England,’ a very beautiful poem in the Spenserian stanza, which was eventually published in Alaric Watts's ‘Poetical Album’ in 1829. No man, as his correspondence proves, could have entered upon a dangerous undertaking in a finer spirit, or with more ardent hopes of benefiting his country and the world; but these anticipations were doomed to disappointment. Arriving at Malta in September, he made the acquaintance of Captain George Francis Lyon [q. v.], who volunteered to accompany him in place of Captain Frederick Marryat [q. v.], who was to have been his associate, but had been prevented from joining. After long delays at Tripoli, and a short expedition to the Gharian mountains, Ritchie, Lyon, and their servant, Belford, transparently disguised as Moslems, quitted Tripoli for Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, on 22 March 1819. The expedition was grievously mismanaged, not by the travellers, but by the home authorities, who supplied them inadequately with funds and burdened them with ill-selected merchandise, which proved unsaleable. After numerous attacks of illness, Ritchie, worn out and almost in want of the necessaries of life, expired at Murzuk, in the south of Fezzan, on 20 Nov. 1819; and Lyon, after visiting Tegerry, made his way back to the coast. Ritchie, trusting to the retentiveness of his memory, had left few observations in writing; but Lyon's quick perception, literary gift, and skill as a draughtsman rendered the account of this abortive expedition, which he published in 1821, one of the most entertaining books of African travel.

Ritchie was undoubtedly a man of superior character and ability, whose life was thrown away in an ill-conceived and ill-supported enterprise, for the mismanagement of which he was in no way responsible. His scientific attainments were considerable, and he wrote many elegant pieces of verse besides his ‘Farewell to England,’ which is entitled by power of expression and depth of feeling to a permanent place in literature.

[Lyon's Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa; Gerhard Rohlf's Reise, Leipzig, 1881; Keats's Poetry and Prose, ed. Forman, pp. 79, 114, 178; Haydon's Diary; private information.]  RITCHIE, LEITCH (1800?–1865), novelist, is said to have been born at Greenock in 1800. He was at first an apprentice in a banking office, but at an early age proceeded to London with letters of introduction to literary people. Soon recalled by his father to take a situation in a Glasgow firm trading with America and the West Indies, he commenced in 1818, with some friends, a fortnightly publication, ‘The Wanderers,’ which ran to twenty-one numbers (4 April 1818 to 9 Jan. 1819). The Glasgow firm becoming bankrupt, he again went to London, and, besides contributing to periodicals, brought out a volume entitled ‘Head Pieces and Tail Pieces, by a Travelling Artist,’ 1820. He now adopted literature as a vocation, sending articles to the ‘Foreign Quarterly Review,’ the ‘Westminster Review,’ and other serial works, and publishing ‘Tales and Confessions,’ 1829, and ‘London Night Entertainments.’

The ‘London Weekly Review,’ on which he had been employed, passing into other hands, he and the late editor, James Augustus St. John, took up their residence in Normandy, where Ritchie produced ‘The Game of Speculation,’ 1830, 2 vols. (reprinted in the ‘Parlour Library,’ No. 58, 1851), and ‘The Romance of History, France,’ 1831, 3 vols.; 2nd edit. 1872. This last work served to bring him to the notice of the literary world, and from this period he had abundant work. In addition to his other engagements, he, in connection with William Kennedy [q. v.], started a monthly periodical named ‘The Englishman's Magazine,’ which ran to seven numbers (April to October 1831), when his illness caused its abandonment.

He was next engaged by Charles Heath to write two series of books of travels, to appear under the titles of ‘Turner's Annual Tour,’ 1833–5, and ‘Heath's Picturesque Annual,’ 1832–45. In connection with this commission he visited many places abroad, the result being twelve illustrated volumes to which he supplied the letterpress. He also edited the ‘Library of Romance,’ 1833–5, in 15 vols. For some time he was editor of the ‘Era,’ a sporting and dramatic newspaper, and was subsequently first editor of the ‘Indian News and Chronicle of Eastern Affairs’ (No. 1, 11 June 1840), with the copyright of which he was eventually presented by the proprietor; Ritchie afterwards sold the newspaper.

The latter part of his life was spent in Scotland in editing ‘Chambers's Journal,’ and in assisting in the editing of other works brought out by his employers. On 19 June 1862 he was granted a civil list pension of 100l. Retiring to London, he died at 1 Earlswood Terrace, East Greenwich, on 16 Jan. 1865. He left a daughter, Mrs. Hughes, who resided at Perry Green, Great Hadham, Hertfordshire. Besides the works already mentioned, he