150 



NOTES. AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. VIII. Aug. 20. '59. 



ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON's WORKS. 



(2°*S. viii. 41.) 



It is seldom discreet in an author to break a 

 lance with his Reviewer. I certainly should not 

 have asked leave to reply in your columns to the 

 strictures of Eirionnach, had they been confined 

 to what I am really answerable for, which is, the 

 Memoir of Archbishop Leighton. There is no- 

 thing in those strictures uncandid or uncourteous, 

 — nothing unbecoming the pen of a Christian gen- 

 tleman ; and this is all we may fairly claim from 

 the literary critic. 



Accordingly, I should have deemed it inexpe- 

 dient to bestir myself against your correspondent's 

 animadversions on the Memoir^ especially as I am 

 well aware of its many imperfections. Since its 

 first appearance — now between thirty and forty 

 years ago — I have entreated the publishers to 

 give me an opportunity of revising and improving 

 it, but, for whatever reasons, these reiterated en- 

 treaties have been vain. 



The mistake into which Eirionnach has fallen, 

 and which draws this letter from me is, that he 

 represents me as the editor of the volumes in 

 which the biographical sketch first appeared. 

 Hence the whole mass of those grievous inaccura- 

 cies which disgrace the edition in question is 

 heaped upon my head, although I am as innocent 

 of them as Eirionnach himself. Not one proof- 

 sheet of the four volumes, with the exception of 

 the Memoir, ever passed under my eyes. 



The case is simply as follows. A very dear 

 friend of mine, the late Hon. and Rev. R. L. 

 Melville, had promised Mr. Duncan to compile a 

 Life of Leighton for his projected edition of the 

 Works. For this, as my preface states, some new 

 and invaluable materials had been obtained. It 

 pleased God, however, that before my friend had 

 girded himself to the work, an illness came upon 

 him which obliged him to leave England, with the 

 prospect of being long away. He, therefore, re- 

 quested me to undertake the " labour of love " 

 which he was forced to relinquish ; and I could 

 not but yield to his instances, though grieved on 

 his own account, as well as for the public, that a 

 substitute had not been found more gifted than 

 myself with his own eminent qualifications. 



Now the task which he devolved upon me was 

 entirely restricted to the preparation of the Me- 

 moir. For the faults and deficiencies of that pro- 

 duction I am open to your correspondent's criti- 

 cisms, for which there would, I think, have been 

 less foundation, had I been permitted to amend 

 and enlarge my first sketch. But, while willing 

 to bear my own burden, I shrink from the re- 

 proach of being in any degree implicated in this 

 slovenly and unscholarlike edition, so justly cen- 

 sured by Eirionnach, of the great and good pre- 



late's works. I had, however, been made aware of 

 the existence of these blemishes; and was enabled 

 by a learned friend to place a long, though incom- 

 plete, list of them in the publisher's hands about two 

 years ago ; and I have reason to hope that when a 

 new edition issues from the press, it will bear the 

 marks of careful revision. 



I am able to inform Eirionnach that the at- 

 tempt to raise a sum of money, first for the pur- 

 pose of restoring Leighton's tomb, and then to 

 support and perpetuate the schools of Horsted 

 Keynes, had but partial success. The first object 

 indeed was achieved, and there is now a monu- 

 ment to the revered saint in the parish church- 

 yard, with an inscription from the elegant pen of 

 the present rector. I regret to add that, after 

 this inexpensive work was paid for, there remained 

 but a trifle for the schools. 



The more pleasing portrait of Leighton to which 

 Eirionnach alludes, is copied from an engraving 

 for which I was indebted to the kindness of Mr. 

 Perceval White, and which he satisfied me was 

 an authentic likeness. John N. Pearson. 



Eirionnach, in his able and careful review of 

 the various editions of the works of the worthy 

 and learned Archbishop of Glasgow, seem* to 

 speak as if he was in doubt as to the exact title of 

 one of them. That referred to is in my possession, 

 bearing to be '■'Select Wo7'hs of Archbishop Leigh- 

 ton, some of which were never before printed, 

 To which is prefixed an Account of the Author's 

 Life and Character. Edinburgh, Printed for Da- 

 vid Wilson, and sold by him and the Booksellers 

 of Edinburgh and Glasgoio, mdccxlvi." 8vo. pp. 

 600., with twenty-three additional pages of preli- 

 minary matter, and a portrait in an oval inscribed 

 " The Most Reverend Rob'. Leighton, D.D. late 

 Arch-bishop of Glasgow, EtatAO, 1654, R. Strange, 

 Sculp" The contents of the volume (on a sepa- 

 rate page) are 



" Some Account of the Author's Life and Character — 

 Eighteen Sermons — An Exposition on the Creed, Lord's 

 Prayer, and Ten Commandments, with Two Discourses, 

 and Short Catechism, In which the Errors of the former 

 Edition are corrected — Ten Sermons never before pub- 

 lished." 



As this edition is seldom to be had, and as the 

 Preface of " the Publisher to the Reader " com- 

 municates a little rather interesting information 

 in regard to the position of some of the bishop's 

 printed works and certain of his MSS. at the 

 above date, when Wilson published, it may be 

 worth a reprint, as follows : — 



" I here offer to your Perusal some of the Practical 

 Works of that eminent and worthy Divine, Dr. Robert 

 Leighton, viz. Eighteen Sermons, an Exposition on the 

 Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, both 

 which were formerly published ; but the former Edition 

 of these being very scarce and but rarely' to be met with, 

 it was by the Desire and Advice of several judicious and 



