LANDOH. 



was born in England in 1771, and bred a quaker. quantity. Those friends who knew her best have 

 In 1798, he commenced schoolmaster, adopting the no suspicion that she intentionally committed sui- 

 plan of instruction invented by Dr Bell at Madras, cide. While they scout this idea, they readily 

 who in 1797, published a pamphlet on the subject, ' admit that, from her peculiar temperament, she 

 entitled " An Experiment in Education, made at was one extremely likely to resort to a desperate 

 the Male Asylum of Madras, suggesting a system ' remedy for the cure of any personal ailment. What 

 by which a school or family may teach itself, under ; removes further the suspicion of suicide is, that a 

 the superintendence of the master or parent." i letter was found on her desk, which she had writ- 

 Joseph, however, always denied being indebted to j ten to a friend in Scotland, dated the moining of 

 Dr Bell for his system. He received great en- her death, in which she expresses herself as satisfied 

 couragement from many persons of the highest ; and pleased with Cape Coast and its inhabitants, 

 rank, which enabled him to travel over the king- and as rinding every thing there much better than she 



(lorn, delivering lectures, giving instructions, and 

 forming schools. Flattered by splendid patronage, 

 and by unrealised promises of support, he was in- 

 duced to embark in an extensive school establish- 

 ment at Tooting, to which his own resources prov- 



had expected. On the day of her death an inquest 

 was held on her body, at which Emily Bailey, her 

 servant, deponed, that between the hours of eight 

 and nine in the morning, having received a note 

 addressed to Mrs Maclean, from Mr Swanzey, she 



ing unequal, he was thrown upon the mercy of went to her room for the purpose of delivering the 

 creditors. Concessions were, however, made to same to her, and found some difficulty in opening 

 his merit, which not considering as sufficient, be , the door, in consequence of Mrs Maclean having 

 abandoned his old establishment, and left England i fallen against it ; that deponent, on entering the 

 in disgust ; and about the year 1820, went to I room, discovered Mrs Maclean lying on the floor 



America, where his fame procured him friends, and 

 his industry rendered him useful. He died at New 

 York, Oct. 24, 1838, in consequence of having 

 been run over by a waggon the day before. The 

 titles of his publications were as follow: "Im- 

 provements in Education as it respects the indus- 

 trious classes of the community, containing, among 

 other important particulars, an account of the In- 

 stitution for the Education of One Thousand Poor 

 Children," 1803. " A Letter to the Right Hon. 

 John Foster, on the best Means of Educating and 

 Employing the Poor in Ireland," 1805 ; 8vo. 

 " An Appeal for Justice, in the cause of Ten 

 Thousand Poor Children, and for the Honour of 

 the Holy Scriptures; being a Reply to the Visita- 

 tion Charge of Charles Daubenny, Archdeacon of 

 Sarum," 1807. " Outlines of a Plan for the 

 Educating of Ten Thousand Poor Children, by 

 establishing Schools in country towns and villages, 



with an empty bottle in her hand, (which bottle 

 being produced was labelled " Acid Hydrocianicum 

 Dilutum, Pharra. Lond. 1836,") and quite sense- 

 less. Mr Maclean stated, she was very subject to 

 spasms and hysterical affections, and had been in 

 the custom of using the medicine contained in the 

 small bottle produced, as a remedy or prevention, 

 which she told him had been prescribed for her by 

 her medical attendant in London. Mr Cobbold, 

 the surgeon in attendance, gave his opinion " that 

 death was caused by the improper use of the me- 

 dicine. The body after death was perfectly 

 natural; he imagined that Mrs Maclean, not hav- 

 ing received the usual benefit from the prescribed 

 quantity, was induced to exceed it, or that the 

 spasms may have come on when she was in the act 

 of taking the medicine, and thus involuntarily a 

 greater quantity may have been swallowed. He 

 had no hesitation in ascribing her death to this 



and for uniting works of industry with useful ; cause ; ten drops would be sufficient to cause 



knowledge," 1807; 8vo. "A Spelling Book for 

 the use of Schools," 1808 ; 12mo. " Account of 

 the Progress of J. Lancaster, from the year 1798," 

 1811; 8vo. "Substance of a Lecture delivered 

 at the Freemasons' Tavern," 1812 ; 8vo 



LANDON, LETITIA ELIZABETH, a highly gifted 

 writer, known to all lovers of poetry by her initial 

 signature of " L. E. L.," was the daughter of an 

 army-agent, and was born and educated at Chelsea. 

 The date of her birth we have not ascertained, and 

 indeed we have to regret generally the extreme 

 meagreness of our information regarding her per- 

 sonal history. She was the niece of Dr Landon, 

 dean of Exeter, who died on the 29th of Decem- 

 ber, 1838, two months after her own most melan- 

 choly end. It is supposed that she has depicted 

 the real history of her own childhood, in her vol- 

 ume called " Traits and Trials," 1837. On the 

 7th of June, 1838, she was married to George 



death in ten or fifteen minutes, to a person not in 

 the habit of using it ; was so fully convinced that 

 the medicine was the cause of her death, that he 

 did not think it necessary to open the body." The 

 jury returned a verdict that death was caused "by 

 her having incautiously taken an over-dose of 

 prussic acid, which, from evidence, it appeared she 

 had been in the habit of using as a remedy for 

 spasmodic affections, to which she was subject." 



The fate of " L. E. L." excited a very genera^ 

 sympathy throughout the country. To talents of 

 a high order, she had other claims to admiration, 

 in personal charms of no ordinary attraction, and 

 in a disposition the most generous and affectionate. 

 " Brilliant as was her genius," says one of her 

 friends, " her heart was after all the noblest and 

 truest gift that nature in its lavishness had be- 

 stowed upon her, upon her who paid back the 

 debt which she owed for these glorious endow- 



Maclean, Esq., governor of Cape-Coast Castle, I merits of heart and mind, by an indefatigable exer- 

 South Africa, and was only just settled in her new ; tise of her powers for the delight of the public, 

 residence there, when her death took place, on the and by sympathies the most generous and sincere 

 loth October, same year, under very afflicting cir- ' with human virtue and human suffering. More 

 cumstances. On the morning of that day, she was perfect kindness and exquisite susceptibility than 

 found dead in her own room, with an empty hot- : hers was never supplied as a graceful and fitting 

 tie in her hand, labelled " Acid Hydrocianicum ! accompaniment to genius, or elevated the character 

 Dilutum," (diluted prussic acid.) It is supposed of woman." 



that she had taken some of this medicine as a cure j The following sketch of Miss Landon's literary 

 for spasms, to which she was subject, but had in- ' career is given in the Athenaeum. " The early 

 advertently or accidentally exceeded the proper [ loss of her father, and the early manifestation of a 





