Leyden or Leiden

LEYDEN or LEIDEN, a city in the province of South Holland, the kingdom of the Netherlands, on the Old Rhine, and a junction station 18 m. by rail S.S.W. of Haarlem. It is con nected by steam tramway with Haarlem and The Hague respec tively, and with the seaside resorts of Katwyk and Noordwyk. There is also regular steamboat connection with Katwyk, Noord wyk, Amsterdam and Gouda. The population of Leyden which, it is estimated, reached 1 oo,000 in 1640, had sunk to 30,000 between 1796 and 1811, and in 193o was 70,825.

Leyden is an ancient town. Its early name was Leithen, and it was governed until 1420 by burgraves, the representatives of the courts of Holland. The most celebrated event in its history is its siege by the Spaniards in 1574. Besieged from May until October, it was at length relieved by the cutting of the dikes, thus enabling ships to carry provisions to the inhabitants of the flooded town. The weaving establishments (mainly broadcloth) of Leyden at the close of the 15th century were very important, and after the ex pulsion of the Spaniards Leyden cloth, Leyden baize and Leyden camlet were familiar terms. These industries afterwards declined, and in the beginning of the 19th century the baize manufacture was altogether given up. Linen, carpets and woollen (blankets) manufactures and printing, are now the most important industries, while there is a considerable transit trade in butter and cheese.

Katwyk, or Katwijk, 6 m. N.W. of Leyden, is a popular seaside resort and fishing village. Close by are the great locks constructed in 1807 by the engineer, F. W. Conrad (d. 18°8), through which the Rhine (here called the Katwyk canal) is admitted into the sea at low tide. The shore and the entrance to the canal are strength ened by huge dikes. In I52o an ancient Roman camp known as the Brittenburg was discovered here. It was square in shape, each side measuring 82 yds., and the remains stood about io ft. high. By the middle of the i8th century it had been destroyed and covered by the sea.

The two branches of the Rhine which enter Leyden on the east unite in the centre of the town. There is a large open space, the Van der Werf park, named after the burgomaster, Pieter Andriaans zoon van der Werf, who defended the town against the Spaniards in 1574. This open space was formed by the accidental explosion of a powdership in 1807, hundreds of houses being demolished, including that of the Elzevir family of printers. At the junc tion of the two arms of the Rhine stands the old castle (De Burcht), a circular tower built on an earthen mound in Roman or Saxon times. Of Leyden's old gateways only two—both dating

from the end of the i 7th century—are standing. The Hoog landsche Kerk, or the church of St. Pancras, was built in the 15th century and restored in 1885-1902. The most interesting buildings are the town hall (Stadhuis), a 16th century Dutch building; the Gemeenlandshuis van Rynland (1596, restored 1878) ; the weight house built by Pieter Post (1658) ; the former court-house, now a military storehouse; and the ancient gymnasium and the so-called city timber-house (Stads Timmerhuis) (1612), both built by Lieven de Key (c. 1560-1627).

In spite of a certain industrial

activity and the periodical bustle of its cattle and dairy markets, Leyden remains essentially an academic city. The university was founded by William of Orange in 1575 as a reward for the heroic defence of the previous year. Originally located in the convent of St. Barbara, the university was removed in 1581 to the convent of the White Nuns, the site of which it still occupies, though that building was destroyed in 1616. The presenCe within half a century of the date of its founda tion of such scholars as Joseph Scaliger, Hugo Grotius, Jacobus Arminius and Daniel Heinsius at once raised Leyden university to the highest European fame, a position which the learning and reputation of Jacobus Gronovius, Hermann Boerhaave, Tiberius Hemsterhuis and David Ruhnken, among others, enabled it to maintain down to the end of the 18th century. Among the insti tutions connected with the university are the national institution for East Indian languages, ethnology and geography; the fine botanical gardens, founded in 1587; the observatory (1860) ; the natural history museum ; the museum of antiquities (Museum van Oudheden), with valuable Egyptian and Indian departments; a museum of Dutch antiquities from the earliest times; and three ethnographical museums, of which the nucleus was P. F. von. Siebold's Japanese collections. The university has now five facul ties, of which those of law and medicine ate the most celebrated, and is attended by about 1,200 students.

The municipal museum, founded in 1869 and located in the old cloth-hall (Laeckenhalle) (1640), contains a varied collection of antiquities connected with Leyden, as well as some paintings. Jan van Goyen, Gabriel Metsu, Gerard Dou and Rembrandt were natives of this town. The Thysian library occupies an old Renais sance building of the year 1655.