JOHN LELAND, the father of English antiquaries, was born in London, and educated at St. Paul's school, under William Lilly, the celebrated grammarian. At the customary age he entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. He subsequently removed to All-souls, Oxford. After a residence of several years in that college, during which he paid particular attention to Grecian literature, he visited Paris, perfected himself in the Latin and Greek by his intercourse with Budæus, Faber, Paulus Emilius, Ruellius, and Francis Sylvius; and before his return became acquainted with the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. To these he subsequently added the Welch and Saxon.

On his taking orders, Henry VIII. made him one of his chaplains, gave him the rectory of

Popeling, in the marches of Calais, appointed him his library-keeper, and conferred on him the title of his antiquary. He thus became the first, and he was also the last antiquaryroyal, in England. In this character, his majesty, in 1533, granted him a commission' under the great seal, to investigate the antiquities of England; and with this view, to search the libraries of all cathedrals, abbeys, priories, colleges, and other repositaries of the records of antiquity. In this antiquarian research, he spent above six years, observing with particular care all the tumuli, coins, inscriptions, &c. which he met with, and directing his footsteps, with curious vigilance, to all the remains of Roman, Saxon, or Danish buildings; visiting likewise all the sea-coasts, as well as midland parts of the country.

Prior to Leland, all the literary monuments of antiquity, were totally disregarded, and students from Germany, apprised of this culpable indifference, were suffered to enter our libraries unmolested, and to cut out of the books reposited there, whatever passages they thought proper; which they afterwards published as relics of the ancient literature of their own.

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country. The havoc thus made of the remains of our ancient learning, as well as by the subsequent dissolution of the monasteries, Leland beheld with regret; and he wrote to secretary Cromwell, to intreat his assistance in rescuing from the injuries of time, the writings of ancient authors. He then began a diligent search, and every literary relic he could find, he faithfully copied and registered, some of which he afterwards reposited in the king's library, retaining others in his own custody. For this meritorious toil, the king, in 1542, presented him with the valuable rectory of Hasely, in Oxfordshire; the year following preferred him to a canonry of King's College, now Christchurch, Oxford; and about the same time collated him to a prebend in the church of Sarum. He died on the 18th of April, 1552, after having been two years in a state of insanity.

The writings of Leland are numerous, consisting of poetical pieces in Latin, and even in Greek, as well as of antiquarian productions. My concern is only with the last. These I shall mention in the order in which they were composed, or rather printed.

1. Assertio inclytissimi Arturii, Regis Britan

nie.

Elenchus Antiquorum Nominum, Lond.

1543, 4to.-This work has been translated into English by R. Robinson, under the title "Ancient Order, Society, and Unity laudable of Prince Arthur and his Knightly Armory of the Round Table; with a Three-fold Assertion, 1582."

2. "The Laborious Journey and Search of John Leland, for England's Antiquities, given of him as a new year's gift to king Henry VIII. in the 37th year of his reign."

After a short account of his travels and collections, he informs his majesty, that he had digested into four books, an account of the illustrious writers of this realm, with their lives and monuments of learning.

Whereas it pleased your highness, upon very just considerations, to encourage me, by the authority of your most gracious commission, in the twentyfifth year of your prosperous reign, to peruse and diligently to search all the libraries of monasteries and colleges of this your noble realm, to the intent that the monuments of ancient writers, as well of other, as of this your own province, might be brought out of deadly darkness to lively light, and to receive like thanks of the posterity, as they hoped for at such time as they employed their long and

share of his attention and kind offices, though he had filled such a number of honorable and dignified stations during a period of twenty years, he had not accumulated, at his final resignation of all public business, property enough to purchase a hundred pounds per annum. While in the practice of the law, no fee could bribe him to defend a bad cause.

More was a man of genius, and of a mind enriched with all the learning of his time. He gave early proofs of superior talent. Before he was nineteen, he had acquired a critical knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages, was well versed in rhetoric, and other branches of elegant literature. He was not only intimately acquainted with the Greek and Roman classics; but it appears from his Eutopia, his most celebrated work, that he had imbibed the generous spirit of antiquity, and embraced sentiments which would be deemed free even in modern times. Unhappily, however, his fine genius and excellent understanding were disgraced by the grossest bigotry and superstition, The fact would appear incredible, were there not various other examples on record of the subjection of the most splendid talents to similar weaknesses. Though