The fine vaulted roof of the nave of Norwich Cathedral was his work, and so was the hideously ‘restored’ screen in which the organ stands. He is often mentioned in the ‘Paston Letters,’ and always with a certain grudging recognition of his popularity in the diocese. Blomefield states (without giving any authority) that ‘he maintained 12 students in Physick Hostle in Cambridge.’ When Bishop Pecock, who was himself a fellow of Oriel, preached his famous sermon at Paul's Cross in April 1446, he handed a copy of it to Bishop Lyhert, who incurred much danger and some persecution for the favour which he showed his friend. As ambassador of Henry VI to Savoy in 1449 he is credited with having prevailed on the antipope, Felix V, to resign his claim to the papacy, and thus to have brought the schism to an end. Blomefield has given very full abstracts of his will and testament, which are still preserved in the registry at Norwich. He died at Hoxne on Whitsunday, 24 May 1472, and was buried in his own cathedral. Weever has given us some lines from the inscription upon his tomb. His rebus may be seen sculptured in many parts of Norwich Cathedral—a hart lying in the water. As to the spelling of his name, it is spelt Lyhert by his proctor at Rome in 1446, by the notary who kept his register of institutions, and by the scribe who drew out his will.
[Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 418; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 535 et seq.; Weever's Funerall Monuments, p. 869; Gascoigne's Loci e Libro Veritatis, pp. 28, 42; Maziere Brady's Episcopal Succession, i. 44; Le Neve's Fasti; notes from the Sacrist's Rolls of the Priory of Norwich and from the bishop's own Register (No. xi.) by the present writer.]
LYLE. [See also Lyall and Lyell.]
LYLE, DAVID (fl. 1762), stenographer, was the author of an ingenious treatise entitled ‘The Art of Short-hand improved, being an Universal Character adapted to the English Language, whereby every kind of subject may be expressed or taken down in a very easy, compendious, and legible manner,’ London, 1762, 8vo. He describes himself on the title-page as a master of arts, having probably taken that degree in one of the Scotch universities. His name is not to be found in the lists of graduates in arts at Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, and Edinburgh. In the dedication of his work to the Earl of Bute he states that by his lordship's good offices he was enabled to bring his new mathematical instruments to great perfection, and that he had completed a set of them for the use of the king. The introduction to his method of stenography contains a masterly exposition of the theory of the art and trenchant criticisms of the systems of Weston, Macaulay, and Annet. He was by no means successful, however, in reducing his theory to practice; for although his beautifully engraved tables of words present an imposing and ornamental appearance from their neatness and brevity, a close examination reveals the fact that their shortness is produced, in the majority of instances, by omitting words and syllables necessary to the sense. His vowel scheme, on a strictly phonetic basis, was more extensive than any previously attempted. But the merits of the system are purely theoretical.
[Gibson's Bibliography of Shorthand, pp. 122, 180; Lewis's Hist. of Shorthand, p. 128; Rockwell's Teaching, Practice, and Literature of Shorthand, 2nd ed. p. 105; Shorthand, i. 7, 22, 40, 62.]
LYLE, ROBERT, second Baron Lyle (d. 1497?), justiciary of Scotland, was only son of Robert, first Baron Lyle, by his second wife, Margaret Wallace. In 1471 it appeared that he had been wrongly put in possession of Gaithop in Ettrick Forest by Lord Boyd, to the prejudice of George Tait, to whom it had been let. He must have acquired the lands before November 1469, the date of the overthrow of the Boyds. In March 1472 he was an ambassador for the conclusion of a truce with England, and was probably on intimate terms with James Douglas, ninth earl of Douglas [q. v.], then a pensioner at the English court. Lyle was soon afterwards accused of treasonable correspondence with Douglas, but on 22 March 1481–2 he was tried before an assize in parliament and acquitted. In 1484 and 1485 he was engaged on embassies to England (cf. Letters and Papers illustrative of the Reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, ed. Gairdner, i. 59, 61, 64), and received charters of lands in Renfrewshire and Forfarshire. In 1485 he was a lord in council. In May 1488 he is stated to have been one of those (chiefly lowland nobles) opposed to James III, and went to England with others under a safe-conduct; he was in England when James was killed on 11 June 1488, and returned before 25 July. Lyle now became great justiciary of Scotland, and was one of the commissioners for opening parliament on 18 Oct. 1488. He was one of those entrusted with the charge of Renfrewshire, the Lennox, and the lower ward of Clydesdale during the king's minority (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ii. 208), but he joined the great conspiracy headed by Mar, Lennox, Forbes, and the Master of Huntly to avenge the
