Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/71

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statuary were separately published (English and Italian) in 1741, with many of the plates drawn by Leoni. His first work was Bramham Park, near Leeds in Yorkshire, built for Lord Bingley, 1710, partly destroyed by fire in 1865. Moor Park, Hertfordshire, 1720, Leoni's greatest work, was built at great expense, on the site of the original brick mansion by Wren, for B. H. Styles, esq.; the wings with the chapel were taken down between 1789 and 1799. In 1721 he designed Queensberry House in Old Burlington Street for the Duke of Queensberry and Dover (rebuilt in 1790–2); in 1725 Latham House, Lancashire, for Sir Thomas Booth; in 1723–1732 the south front of Lyme Hall, Cheshire, for Peter Legh, esq., with alterations in the existing building; in 1730 Bold Hall, Lancashire, for Peter Bold, esq.; in 1732 Clandon Park, Surrey, for the Earl of Onslow; in 1740 Burton or Bodecton Park, Sussex, for R. Biddulph, esq.; and Moulsham Park, Essex, for Benjamin, earl Fitz-Walter, which was demolished about 1810. Leoni died 8 June 1746, aged 60, and was buried in Old St. Pancras churchyard. He left a widow, Mary, and two sons, John Philip and Joseph. He made no will, and appears to have died in poor circumstances.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Dict. of Architecture; Walpole's Anecdotes (Wornum and Dallaway), pp. 767–8; Lysons's Environs, iii. 355, for inscription on Leoni's tomb; Langley's London Prices, 1748, p. xi. For descriptions and plans of buildings mentioned, see Allen's York, iii. 313; Neale's Seats, ii. v. 2nd ser. i.; Repository of Arts, 1825 p. 127, 1828 p. 126; Wright's Essex, i. 87; Dallaway and Cartwright's Western Sussex, ii. 283; Aikin's Manchester, pp. 316, 440; Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus (Woolfe), ii. 81–2 (and Gandon), iv. 30–1, 94–8, v. 50–5; Brayley's Surrey, ii. 60, iv. 66; Wheatley's Piccadilly, p. 74; Morris's Seats, v. 53; Morant's Essex, ii. 3; Twycross's Mansions, iii. 16–20, 27, v. 92–8; Ralph's Critical Review of Buildings, pp. 194–5; Admin. Act Book, June 1746.]

B. P.

LEOPOLD GEORGE DUNCAN ALBERT, Duke of Albany (1853–1884), fourth and youngest son of Queen Victoria and the prince consort, was born at Buckingham Palace on 7 April 1853. So delicate was his health that his baptism was deferred until the ensuing 28 June (Coronation day), when the rite was performed at Buckingham Palace, his sponsors being George V, king of Hanover (after whom he was named George), Prince Ernest of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Augusta, princess of Prussia (afterwards German Empress), and Princess Mary of Cambridge, afterwards Duchess of Teck. The prince was named Leopold after his great-uncle, Leopold II, king of the Belgians, Albert after his father, and Duncan in compliment to Scotland. His ill-health debarred him from the ordinary sports of boyhood, and even precluded a systematic course of education. His mind, however, was active, he early evinced a love of books—Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott were his favourite authors—and he showed remarkable aptitude for music and modern languages. He was instructed in the rudiments of religion and science by Canon Duckworth, Dean Stanley, and Professor Tyndall. Later on his principal tutor was Mr. (later Sir) Robert Hawthorn Collins, afterwards comptroller of his household, with whom he went into residence at Oxford in 1872, matriculating at Christ Church (27 Nov.) He lived at Wykeham House, St. Giles's, near the parks; attended, in the garb of a gentleman-commoner, the lectures of the professors of history, poetry, music, fine art, and political economy, and studied science at the museum and modern languages at the Taylorian Institution.

On coming of age in 1874 the prince was sworn of the privy council, and granted an annuity of 15,000l. In the winter of 1874–5 his life was threatened by a severe attack of typhus fever. In 1876 he left the university with the honorary degree of D.C.L., and established himself at Boyton House, Wiltshire, whence he removed in 1879 to Claremont. Part of the intervening years he spent in travel in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and in 1880 he made a tour in Canada and the United States. In 1878 he was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 1879 vice-president of the Society of Arts. He was a graceful and effective public speaker, and took a lively interest in social questions. In 1879 he spoke in favour of the movement for university extension (Mansion House, 19 Feb.), advocated the cause of technical education in presiding at the prize distribution at the Birkbeck Institute, Chancery Lane (25 Feb.), took the chair and spoke at a meeting at Grosvenor House in support of the Royal Institution in aid of the Deaf and Dumb (16 May), and opened Firth College, Sheffield (20 Oct.). In 1880 he laid the foundation-stone of the Oxford High School (14 April). In 1881 he presided at the first meeting of the Kyrle Society (27 Jan.), opened University College, Nottingham (30 June), advocated the establishment of a national conservatoire of music at a soirée at Manchester (12 Dec.), and laid the foundation-stone of the Princess Helena College at Ealing (17 Dec.)