LEYDEN, JOHN, M.D.,
a distinguished poet and linguist, was born at Denholm,
Roxburghshire, September 8, 1775. His ancestors, for several
generations, were farmers, and his father was all his life engaged
in rural occupations. Hi received the rudiments of his education at
the parish school of Kirktown. His desire for learning determined
his parents to train him for the church, and after acquiring Greek
and Latin, under the charge of Mr. Duncan, a Cameronian minister at
Denholm, he was entered a student at the university of Edinburgh in
November 1780. Besides the theological, he also attended the medical
classes, and in addition to the learned languages acquired French,
Spanish, Italian, German, and the ancient Icelandic. In 1796, on the
recommendation of Professor Dalzell, he became private tutor to the
sons of Professor Campbell of Fairfield, whom, during the winter of
1798, he accompanied to St. Andrews.
The travels of Mungo Park, and the progress of discovery in
Africa, having directed his attention to the history of that
interesting quarter of the world, in 1799 he published a small
octavo volume, entitled ‘Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the
Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Western
Africa, at the close of the eighteenth Century;’ an enlarged edition
of which was afterwards published by Mr. Hugh Murray, in 3 vols.
8vo. About 1799 and 1800 he contributed various poetical pieces,
both original and translated, to the Edinburgh Magazine, which
attracted considerable notice at the time. By Mr. Richard Heber,
then residing in Edinburgh, whose acquaintance he had made in Mr.
Constable’s shop, he was introduced to the best society of the
Scottish capital, and became the friend of Scott, Lord Woodhouselee,
Mr. Henry Mackenzie, and other eminent literary men. Although Leyden
displayed in company a bluntness and independence of manner, with a
disposition to egotism, and a fondness for disputation which were
far from agreeable, he was by no means ignorant of the rules of good
breeding; and the better qualities of his character commanded the
respect and admiration of all who knew him.
In 1800 he was licensed to preach, but his style was
unpopular, and he himself was dissatisfied with his own discourses.
In 1801 he contributed the ballad called the Elfking to Mr. Lewis’
‘Tales of Wonder;’ and in 1802 he assisted Mr. Walter Scott in
procuring materials for the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,’ to
which he furnished some spirited ballads. He also republished ‘The
Complaynt of Scotland,’ an ancient and rare tract, with a learned
Preliminary Dissertation, Notes, and a Glossary; and edited
‘Scottish Descriptive Poems,’ consisting of a new edition of
Wilson’s ‘Clyde,’ with a reprint of an interesting poem, entitled
‘Albania,’ being a panegyric on Scotland, written in nervous blank
verse, by an anonymous author, in the beginning of the eighteenth
century. The Edinburgh Magazine being, in 1802, united with the old
Scots Magazine, Mr. Leyden conducted this publication for about six
months, contributing to it several occasional pieces of prose and
poetry. In 1803, on the eve of his leaving Britain for ever, he
published ‘The Scenes of Infancy,’ a pleasing poem, descriptive of
Teviotdale.
In 1802 Leyden had commenced overtures to the African Society,
to be employed on an expedition into the interior of Africa. To
prevent the execution of this project, some of his friends applied
on his behalf to the Right Hon. William Dundas, who procured for him
the appointment of assistant-surgeon in the East India Company’s
service, on the Madras establishment. After six months’ unremitting
application to the study of medicine, he was successful in obtaining
his diploma as surgeon, and soon after took his degree of M.D. He
arrived in Madras in 1803, and immediately directed his attention to
the acquirement of the Oriental languages. He was speedily nominated
surgeon to the commissioners appointed to survey the ceded
districts, but his health gave way under the climate, and he was
obliged to retire to Prince of Wales’ island, where he resided for
some time. His application to study was incessant, and even severe
illness could not induce him to relax from his unwearied pursuit of
knowledge. In addition to the Sanscrit, Arabic, Persian, and
Hindustani, he made himself master of many of the languages spoken
in the Deccan, and obtained an extensive knowledge of the Malay and
other kindred tongues. By the influence of the governor-general,
Lord Minto, he was promoted to the professorship of Hindustani in
Bengal college, and shortly afterwards was appointed to the office
of a judge of the Twenty-four Purgunnahs of Calcutta. In 1809 he was
constituted one of the commissioners of the court of requests, and
in the following year assay-master of the Calcutta mint. In August
1811 he accompanied Lord Minto in the expedition against Java, and
died in that island, on the 28th of the same month, after
three days’ illness.
In the tenth volume of ‘Asiatic researches’ will be found an
interesting treatise by Leyden ‘On the Languages and Literature of
the Indo-Chinese Nations;’ and in the eleventh volume, some striking
observations ‘On the Rosheniah Sect,’ a class of heretics among the
Afghans. His translation of the ‘Malay Annals’ was published after
his death by his friend Sir Stamford Raffles; and the other MSS.
which he left behind him consisted of valuable treatises on Oriental
literature, with various translations and several grammars of
different Eastern languages. His ‘Poetical Remains,’ with a Memoir
of his Life, by the Rev. James Morton, were published in one volume
8vo, in 1819. In 1826 appeared ‘Memoirs of the Emperor Baber,’ an
Indian hero, translated by Leyden. An animated sketch of his life is
to be found among the Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott.
