LEYDEN, JOUN, a poet and orientalist of some celebrity, was b. at Denbolm, a village of lioxhurglishire. Scotland, Sept. 8, 1775. his parents were in humble circumstances; but seeing his desire for learning, they made an effort for Ids education; and after pass ing through the ordinary course of study in the university of Edinburgh, he was licensed as a preacher or " probationer" of the church of Scotland. During the years of his uni versity course, he had, however, learned much that formed no necessary part of it, and in particular, several of the languages of modern Europe, and some of the oriental lan guages. He was a most ardent and enthusiastic student. His varied gifts and attain ments soon recommended him to the attention of some of the most eminent men of the i time in Ediuburgh. In 1799 his first work issued. from the press, A Historical Account the Discoveries and Settlements (f Europeans in _Northern and Western Africa. About this time, also, he contributed many translations from the northern and oriental Inn guages, and original poems to the Edinburgh Magazine. He contributed to Lewis's Piles of I•onder, and aided Scott in amassing materials for his .Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. Ile was editor for one year of the Scots Mago.sine. In order to obtain opportunity of gratifying the strong desire which he felt to visit oriental countries, he studied medicine, anti in 1802 sailed for India. having received the appointment of assistant•surgeon on the Madras establishment. Before leaving his native country he completed his Scenes of
lop nu, a poem containing much that is beautiful; but on which, however, his reputa tion does not rest so much as on his minor pieces, and particularly his ballads. After his arrival at Madras, his health soon cave way, and he was compelled to remove to he ardently prosecuted the study of the language, literature, history, etc., of the Indo-Chinese tribes. Having resided for a time in Penang, he left it for Calcutta, on being appointed a professor in the Bengal college; and lie soon afterwards exchanged this office for that of a judge at Calcutta. When the expedition against Java was under taken, Leyden obtained leave to accompany the governor-general thither; and at Batavia, in the exploration of it library which contained ninny Indian manuscripts in its musty recesses, he contracted a fever, of which he died after it few days' illness, Aug. 28, 1811. Leyden's versification is soft and musical; but ''he is an elegant rather than a forcible post." His attainments as an orientalist were extraordinary. The chief evidence extant of them, however, is an Essay on the Languages and Literature of the Indo-Chinese published in the Asiatic Researches. His Poetical Remains were published in 1819; and .11 new edition of his Poems and Ballads, with memoir by sir W. Scott, in 1853. A monument to Leyden was erected in Deuholm. In 1875—his centenary—two new editions of his poems appeared.