some degree of conciliation with Episcopacy, but the only result was to embroil himself with the hot-headed Episcopal party as well as with the Presbyterians. In utter despair, therefore, of being able to be of any further service to the cause of religion, he resigned the archbishopric in 1674 and retired to the house of his widowed sister, Mrs Lightmaker, at Broadhurst in Sussex. Here he spent the remaining ten years, probably the happiest of his life, and died suddenly on a visit to London in 1684.
It is difficult to form a just or at least a full estimate of Leighton’s character. He stands almost alone in his age. In some respects he was immeasurably superior both in intellect and in piety to most of the Scottish ecclesiastics of his time; and yet he seems to have had almost no influence in moulding the characters or conduct of his contemporaries. So intense was his absorption in the love of God that little room seems to have been left in his heart for human sympathy or affection. Can it be that there was after all something to repel in his outward manner? Burnet tells us that he had never seen him laugh, and very seldom even smile. In other respects, too, he gives the impression of standing aloof from human interests and ties. It may go for little that he never married, but it was surely a curious idiosyncrasy that he habitually cherished the wish (which was granted him) that he might die in an inn. In fact, holy meditation seems to have been the one absorbing interest of his life. At Dunblane tradition preserved the memory of “the good bishop,” silent and companionless, pacing up and down the sloping walk by the river’s bank under the beautiful west window of his cathedral. And from a letter of the earl of Lothian to his countess it appears that, whatever other reasons Leighton might have had for resigning his charge at Newbattle, the main object which he had in view was to be left to his own thoughts. It is therefore not very wonderful that he was completely misjudged and even disliked both by the Presbyterian and by the Episcopal party.
It was characteristic of him that he could never be made to understand that anything which he wrote possessed the smallest value. None of his works were published by himself, and it is stated that he left orders that all his MSS. should be destroyed after his death. But fortunately for the world this charge was disregarded. Like all the best writing, it seems to flow without effort; it is the easy unaffected outcome of his saintly nature. Throughout, however, it is the language of a scholar and a man of perfect literary taste; and with all its spirituality of thought there are no mystical raptures, such as are often found mingled with the Scottish practical theology of the 17th century. It was a common reproach against Leighton that he had leanings towards Roman Catholicism, and perhaps this is so far true that he had formed himself in some degree upon the model of some of the saintly persons of that faith, such as Pascal and Thomas à Kempis.
The best account of Leighton’s character is that of Bishop Burnet in Hist. of his Own Times (1723–1734). No perfectly satisfactory edition of Leighton’s works exists. After his death his Commentary on Peter and several of his other works were published under the editorship of his friend Dr Fall, and those early editions may be said to be, with some drawbacks, by far the best. His later editors have been possessed by the mania of reducing his good archaic and nervous language to the bald feebleness of modern phraseology. It is unfortunately impossible to exempt from this criticism even the edition, in other respects very valuable and meritorious, published under the superintendence of the Rev. W. West (7 vols., London, 1869–1875); see also volume of selections (with biography) by Dr Blair of Dunblane (1883), who also contributed “Bibliography of Archbishop Leighton” to the British and Foreign Evangelical Review (July 1883); Andrew Lang, History of Scotland (1902). (J. T. Br.; D. Mn.)
LEIGHTON BUZZARD, a market town in the southern parliamentary
division of Bedfordshire, England, 40 m. N.W. of London
by the London & North-Western railway. Pop. of urban district
(1901) 6331. It lies in the flat valley of the Ouzel, a tributary
of the Ouse, sheltered to east and west by low hills. The river
here forms the county boundary with Buckinghamshire. The
Grand Junction canal follows its course, and gives the town
extensive water-communications. The church of All Saints
is cruciform, with central tower and spire. It is mainly Early
English, and a fine example of the style; but some of the windows
including the nave clerestory, and the beautiful carved wooden
roof, are Perpendicular. The west door has good early iron-work;
and on one of the tower-arch pillars are some remarkable
early carvings of jocular character, one of which represents a
man assaulted by a woman with a ladle. The market cross is
of the 14th century, much restored, having an open arcade
supporting a pinnacle, with flying buttresses. The statues in
its niches are modern, but the originals are placed on the exterior
of the town hall. Leighton has a considerable agricultural
trade, and some industry in straw-plaiting. Across the Ouzel in
Buckinghamshire, where Leighton railway station is situated,
is the urban district of Linslade (pop. 2157).
LEININGEN, the name of an old German family, whose lands lay principally in Alsace and Lorraine. The first count of Leiningen about whom anything certain is known was a certain Emicho (d. 1117), whose family became extinct in the male line when Count Frederick, a Minnesinger, died about 1220. Frederick’s sister, Liutgarde, married Simon, count of Saarbrücken, and Frederick, one of their sons, inheriting the lands of the counts of Leiningen, took their arms and their name. Having increased its possessions the Leiningen family was divided about 1317 into two branches; the elder of these, whose head was a landgrave, died out in 1467. On this event its lands fell to a female, the last landgrave’s sister Margaret, wife of Reinhard, lord of Westerburg, and their descendants were known as the family of Leiningen-Westerburg. Later this family was divided into two branches, those of Alt-Leiningen-Westerburg and Neu-Leiningen-Westerburg, both of which are represented to-day.
Meanwhile the younger branch of the Leiningens, known as the family of Leiningen-Dagsburg, was flourishing, and in 1560 this was divided into the lines of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hartenburg, founded by Count John Philip (d. 1562), and Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim or Falkenburg, founded by Count Emicho (d. 1593). In 1779 the head of the former line was raised to the rank of a prince of the Empire. In 1801 this family was deprived of its lands on the left bank of the Rhine by France, but in 1803 it received ample compensation for these losses. A few years later its possessions were mediatized, and they are now included mainly in Baden, but partly in Bavaria and in Hesse. A former head of this family, Prince Emich Charles, married Maria Louisa Victoria, princess of Saxe-Coburg; after his death in 1814 the princess married George III.’s son, the duke of Kent, by whom she became the mother of Queen Victoria. In 1910 the head of the family was Prince Emich (b. 1866).
The family of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Heidesheim was divided into three branches, the two senior of which became extinct during the 18th century. At present it is represented by the counts of Leiningen-Guntersblum and Leiningen-Heidesheim, called also Leiningen-Billigheim and Leiningen-Neidenau.
See Brinckmeier, Genealogische Geschichte des Hauses Leiningen (Brunswick, 1890–1891).
LEINSTER, a province of Ireland, occupying the middle and south-eastern portion of the island, and extending to the left bank of the Shannon. It includes counties Longford, Westmeath, Meath, Louth, King’s County, Kildare, Dublin, Queen’s County, Carlow, Wicklow, Kilkenny and Wexford (q.v. for topography, &c.). Leinster (Laighen) was one of the early Milesian provinces of Ireland. Meath, the modern county of which is included in Leinster, was the name of a separate province created in the 2nd century A.D. The kings of Leinster retained their position until 1171, and their descendants maintained independence within a circumscribed territory as late as the 16th century. In 1170 Richard Strongbow married Aoife, daughter of the last king Diarmid, and thus acquired the nominal right to the kingdom of Leinster. Henry II. confirmed him in powers of jurisdiction equivalent to those of a palatinate. His daughter Isabel married William Marshal, earl of Pembroke. Their five daughters shared the territory of Leinster, which was now divided into five liberties carrying the same extensive privileges as the undivided territory, namely, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Kildare and Leix. The history of Leinster thereafter passes to the several divisions which were gradually organized into the present counties.
LEIPZIG, a city of Germany, the second town of the kingdom of Saxony in size and the first in commercial importance, 70 m. N.W. of Dresden and 111 m. S.W. of Berlin by rail, and 6 m. from the Prussian frontier. It lies 350 ft. above the sea-level, In a broad and fertile plain, just above the junction of three small rivers, the Pleisse, the Parthe and the Elster, which flow in various branches through or round the town and afterwards
