Leland’s Journey through Wiltshire. 133 
Knoyle), near Hindon. To this he was presented in 1534, 
nominally, by Cicely Bodenham, the last Abbess of Wilton, in 
whose patronage it lay, but, no doubt, really by the Crown.! In 
the Valor Ecclesiasticus? taken that year, “John Laylond, Pre- 
bendary of Newnton,” returns the annual value of the prebend at 
£5 5s. net. 
Though Leland had received his commission in 1533, before the 
actual dissolution of the religious houses, (which took place .p. 
1535), he does not appear to have begun his “ perambulation” 
until two or three years after that event; viz., about a.p. 1588. 
It oceupied him for several years. He then retired to the Rectory 
of St. Michel’s in le Querne in London, with the intention of 
producing from the notes and collections which he had made upon 
his travels, a grand work on English antiquities. But this he was 
not permitted to accomplish. His reason became affected, though 
from what particular cause is not exactly known. Fuller’s account 
is: “This Leland, after the death of his bountiful patron King 
Henry VIII., [January, 1548], fell distracted and so died: 
uncertain, whether his brain was broken with weight of work, or 
want of wages: the latter more likely, because after the death of 
K. Henry, his endeavours met not with proportionable encourage- 
ment.” There seems to be but little foundation for this. It is 
more probable that the real cause was the one assigned by other 
writers, viz., over excitement of the intellect under the prospect of 
the herculean task before him. Upon his derangement being made 
known to King Edward VI., letters patent? were issued in 1550, 
granting the custody of his person, as ‘ John Leyland, junior,” 
to his brother “ John Leyland, senior ;” and confirming to him for 
his maintenance all his ecclesiastical preferment, as well as an 
annuity of £26 13s. 4d., which was, perhaps, the salary that had 
1 Wilts Institutions, p. 204. 2V. E. for Wilts, p. 131. 
%In the lengthy and precise Latin document issued upon this occasion, of 
which there is a copy in the introduction to Leland’s Collectamea, vol. 1. p. XLVIII., 
the unfortunate antiquary is described with an extravagant variety of legal 
epithets, as “‘demens, insanus, lunaticus, furiosus, phreneticus.” 
