The immediate neighbourhood of Leipsic has been the scene of numerous battles, two of which are of more than ordinary importance, viz., the battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 (vol. xi. p. 334), and the great battle of Leipsic, known in Germany as the Völkerschlacht, fought in 1813 between Napoleon and the allied forces of Russia, Germany, and Austria.
Towards the middle of last century Leipsic was the seat of the most influential body of literary men in Germany, over whom Gottsched (q.v.), like his contemporary Samuel Johnson in England, exercised a kind of literary dictatorship. Then, if ever, Leipsic deserved the epithet of a “Paris in miniature” (Klein-Paris), assigned to it by Goethe in his Faust. The young Lessing produced his first play in the Leipsic theatre, and the university counts Goethe, Klopstock, Jean Paul Richter, the Schlegels, Fichte, Schelling, and numerous other eminent writers and thinkers among its quondam alumni. Schiller also resided for a time in Leipsic, and Sebastian Bach, Hiller, and Mendelssohn all filled musical posts there. Among the famous natives of the town are the philosopher Leibnitz and the composer Wagner.
See the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Leipzig, 1870 sq.; Grosse, Geschichte der Stadt Leipzig, 1837–42; Sparfeld, Chronik der Stadt Leipzig, 2d ed., 1851; Gretschel, Die Universität Leipzig, 1830; Moser, Leipzig’s Handel und Messen, 1869; Hasse, Die Stadt Leipzig und ihre Umgebung geographisch und statistisch beschrieben, 1878; the Mittheilungen of the Statistical Bureau of Leipsic; and the Schriften of the Leipsic Historical Society.
(J. F. M.)
LEITH, a municipal and parliamentary burgh of Midlothian, the chief seaport of the east coast of Scotland, 134 miles north by east of Edinburgh, with which it is connected by Leith Walk and other lines of street. It is built on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, at the mouth of the Water of Leith, which, crossed by seven bridges, divides it into North and South Leith. Stretching along the coast for about 314 miles from Seafield on the east to Granton on the west, the burgh includes the fishing village of Newhaven, the suburb of Trinity, and part of Wardie, and extends to an area of 1978 acres. It figures as Inverleith (“mouth of the Leith”) in the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey (1128); and many of its houses, in narrow wynds and along the eastern waterside, have an antique and decayed appearance. The earliest date on any is 1573; but one, at the Coalhill, is thought to be the “handsome and spacious edifice” built for her privy council by the queen regent, Mary of Guise. Nothing remains of D’Essé’s fortifications (1549) or of Cromwell’s “fair citadel” (1650); but it was Cromwell's troops that raised the battery mounds upon the Links, a grassy expanse of 1140 by 400 yards, bought for a public park in 1857. Leith Fort, the headquarters of the royal artillery in Scotland, dates from 1779; the quaint old Tolbooth, where Maitland of Lethington poisoned himself (1573), was demolished in 1819; and the public buildings one and all are modern, most of them classical structures. They comprise the town-hall (1828), the custom-house (1812), Trinity house (1817), with David Scott’s Vasco de Gama and other paintings, the exchange buildings, the corn exchange (1862), the markets (1818), the slaughter-house (1862), the post-office (1876), the public institute (1867), the poor-house (1862), the hospital (1872–76), John Watt’s hospital (1862), the high school (1806), and Dr Bell’s school (1839). In December 1881 eight board schools had 4839 children on the roll, and an average attendance of 3932.
Of twenty-seven churches, belonging to nine different denominations, the only ancient one is that of South Leith parish, which, founded in 1483, and dedicated to St Mary, was originally cruciform, but now, as “restored” in 1852, consists of merely an aisled nave and square north-western tower; David Lindsay preached in it before James VI. a thanksgiving sermon on the Gowrie conspiracy (1600), and in its graveyard lies the Rev. John Home (1722–1808), author of Douglas, and a native of Leith. Other places of worship are North Leith parish church (1814–16), with Grecian spire of 158 feet; North Leith Free church (1859), in Germanized Gothic, with spire of 160 feet; and St James’s Episcopal church (1862–69), a cruciform structure, designed in Early English style by the late Sir G. G. Scott, with apsidal chancel, a spire of 160 feet, and a peal of bells.