484
college of Edinburgh, where he had long been prin-
cipal, amongst a set of select friends, equally distin-
guished for their learning and piety, he removed to
Broadhurst, an estate in Sussex belonging to his
sister, Mrs. Light water, for whom he entertained the
strongest affection. Here he lived ten years, occu-
pied in study, meditation, and prayer, and doing all
the good in his power. He distributed through the
hands of other persons whatever he possessed beyond
the means of subsistence—so unostentatious was he
in his charity. He was in every instance through
life most generous in pecuniary matters. When
principal of the college of Edinburgh he presented
the city with 7150, the income of which was des-
tined for the support of a student in philosophy.
The college of Glasgow is also indebted to him for
two bursaries, or for a sum the interest of which is
to be appropriated to support two students. On the
hospital of St. Nicholas, Glasgow, he bestowed 7150,
the proceeds of which were to be given to two poor
men of good character. Three such persons are now
enjoying the benefit of that sum, which yields 74,
I os. annually to each of them. This forms but a
small specimen of the good works he performed
during his long and valuable life.
Five years after he had retired from the business
of active life, he was surprised and alarmed at receiv-
ing from his sovereign the following epistle:
" Windsor, July 16, 1679.
"My LORD,—I am now resolved to try what
clemency can prevail upon such in Scotland as will
not conform to the government of the church there;
for effecting of which design I desire you may go
down to Scotland with your first conveniency, and
take all possible pains for persuading all you can of
both opinions to as much mutual correspondence
and concord as may be; and send me from time to
time characters of both men and things. In order
to this design I shall send you a preceipt for two
hundred pounds sterling upon my exchequer till you
resolve how to serve me in a stated employment.
Your loving friend,
"CHARLES R."
"For the Bishop of Dumblane."
has been preserved in the university of Edinburgh, over which
he so long and ably presided.
"Whatsoever others may judge, they that know what past
before my engaging in this charge, will not (I believe), impute
my retreat from it from levitie or unfixedness of mind, con-
sidering how often I declared before hand, baith by word and
write, the great suspicion I had that my continuance in it
would be very short; neither is it from any sudden passion or
sullen discontent that I have now resigned it; nor do I know
any cause imaginable for any such thing, but the true reasons
of my retiring are plainly and briefly these:
" I. The sense I have of the dreadful weight of whatsoever
charge of souls, and all kinds of spiritual inspection over people;
but much more over ministers; and withall of my own extreme
unworthiness and unfitness for so high a station in the church;
and there is an episcopal act that is above all the rest most for-
midable to me—the ordaining of ministers.
"2. The continuing and deeply increasing divisions and
contentions and many other disorders of the church, and the
little or no appearance of their cure for our time; and the little
hope, amidst those contentions and disorders, of doing anything
in this station to promote the great design of religion in the
hearts and lives of men, which were the only worthy reasons
of continuing in it, though it were with much pains and reluct-
ance.
"3. The earnest desire I have long had of a retired and
private life, which is now much increased by sicklyness and
old age drawing on, and the sufficient experience I have of
the folly and vanity of the world.
"To add any farther discourse, a large apologie in this
matter were to no purpose; but, instead of removing other mis-
takes and misconstructions, would be apt to expose me to one
more, for it would look like too much valuing either of myself
or of the world's opinion, both of which I think I have so much
reason to despise."—Bower's History of the University of
Edinburgh, vol. i. App. No. 6.
Leighton was now in his sixty-eighth year; and
however flattering such a notice might be to a mind
of an inferior grade, to his, which was exclusively
bent on preparing for a heavenly kingdom, it gave
only pain and apprehension. What were the vain
disputes of angry men to him? besides, he could
have little or no hopes in succeeding in the mission.
He was saved however the trouble of trying the ex-
periment, as the Duke of Monmouth, with whom
the humane plan originated, fell into discredit, and
the offer made to Leighton was never again renewed.
This was the only serious interruption he met with
in his retirement. Burnet saw him two years after,
and says, "I was amazed to see him at above seventy
look so fresh and well, that age seemed as it were to
stand still with him. His hair was still black, and
all his motions were lively; he had the same quick-
ness of thought and strength of memory; but above
all, the same heat and life of devotion that I had
ever seen him in." "When I took notice to him,"
continues this celebrated writer, "upon my first see-
ing him how well he looked, he told me he was very
near his end for all that, and his work and journey
were now almost done. This at the time made no
great impression on me. He was next day taken
with an oppression, and it seemed with cold and
with stitches, which was indeed a pleurisy." This
disease he foretold was doomed to be his last; he
grew so suddenly ill, that speech and sense almost
immediately left him; and in twelve hours after the
first attack he breathed his last, without a straggle,
in the arms of his long-revered and faithful friend
Dr. Burnet, on the 26th June, 1684, at the ad-
vanced age of seventy-four. The place in which his
pure spirit departed from its earthly tenement was an
inn in Warwick Lane, London; and it is somewhat
singular that he often used to say, that if he had the
power to choose a place to breathe his last in, it
would be an inn. "It looked," he said, "like a pil-
grim's going home, to whom this world was all an
inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion
of it." He thought, too, that the distress of friends
and relations at the time of death was apt to with-
draw the mind from serious thoughts; to keep it from
being wholly directed to God. He bequeathed his
books to the cathedral of Dumblane, and the residue
of his limited fortune to his sister, Mrs. Lightwater,
and her son, to be distributed as they thought fit to
charitable purposes. After the character already
given of him by his friend Burnet, it would be
superfluous to add anything here.1
His body was interred in the burial-ground of
Horstead Heynes, in the parish which for ten years
had been honoured by his residence. A simple in-
scription marks the spot where his remains are laid.2
The family of his sister is now extinct, and the estate
is in the hands of another. His brother Sir Elisha,
it may be here stated, died a few months before him,
and was interred in the same place.
LEITH, GENERAL SIR JAMES, G.C.B., a hero
of the Peninsular war, was the third son of John
Leith, Esq. of Leithhall, Aberdeenshire, where he
1 The writings of Archbishop Leighton are thus enumerated
in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica:—"Sermons, London, 1692,
4to.   Prelectiones Theologicee, 1693, 4to.    A Practical Com-
mentary on the Two First Chapters of the First Epistle of
St. Peter, York, 1693, 2 vols. 410; also in 2 vols. 8vo—an
admirable commentary, which has been often reprinted.  Three
posthumous tracts; viz. Rules for a Holy Life; a Sermon; and
a Catechism,  London,   1708,   12mo."   The best edition of
Leighton's whole works is that by Jarment, in 6 vols. 8vo,
1806.
2 Depositum Roberti Leightounii, Archiepiscopi Glasguensis,
apud Scotus, qui obiit xxv. die Junii anno Dni, 1684, zetatis
suae 74.