pations intermitted,
I have so travelled in your dominions both by the sea coasts
and the middle parts, sparing neither labour nor costs, by
the space of six years past, that there is neither cape nor
bay, haven, creek, or pier, river, or confluence of rivers,
breaches, wastes, lakes, moors, fenny waters, mountains,
valleys, heaths, forests, chases, woods, cities, burghes,
castles, principal manor places, monasteries, and colleges,
but I have seen them; and noted, in so doing, a whole world
of things very memorable." Leland moreover tells his
majesty--that "By his laborious journey and costly
enterprise, he had conserved many good authors, the which
otherwise had been like to have perished; of the which part
remained in the royal palaces, part also in his own
custody," &c. As Leland was engaged six years in this
literary tour, so he was occupied for a no less period of
time in digesting and arranging the prodigious number of
MSS. which he had collected. But he sunk beneath the
immensity of the task. The want of amanuenses, and of other
attentions and comforts, seems to have deeply affected him.
In this melancholy state, he wrote to Archbishop Cranmer a
Latin epistle, in verse, of which the following is the
commencement--very forcibly describing his situation and
anguish of mind:

Est congesta mihi domi supellex
Ingens, aurea, nobilis, venusta,
Qua totus studeo Britanniarum
Vero reddere gloriam nitori;
Sed fortuna meis noverca coeptis
Jam felicibus invidet maligna.

Quare, ne pereant brevi vel hora
Multarum mihi noctium labores
Omnes----
CRANMERE, eximium decus priorum!
Implorare tuam benignitatem
Cogor.

The result was that Leland lost his senses; and, after
lingering two years in a state of total derangement, he died
on the 18th of April, 1552. "Proh tristes rerum humanarum
vices! proh viri optimi deplorandam infelicissimamque
sortem!" exclaims Dr. Smith, in his preface to Camden's
Life, 1691, 4to. The precious and voluminous MSS. of Leland
were doomed to suffer a fate scarcely less pitiable that
[Transcriber's Note: than] that of their owner. After being
pilfered by some, and garbled by others, they served to
replenish the page