ful of the much-abused army ‘crammers.’ He held a commission for twenty years in the 4th royal Middlesex militia (now 5th battalion royal fusiliers), in which he was appointed ensign in 1859, lieutenant in 1862, captain in 1866, retiring with the honorary rank of major 1 Feb. 1879. He died at Riverside House, Sunbury, 10 Oct. 1889, in his sixty-fourth year.
Lendy's special subject was fortification of the period prior to the introduction of the polygonal system, and his work on the subject was, in its day, by far the best text-book in the English language. He published:
- ‘Principles of War,’ London, 1853, 12mo.
- ‘Maxims, Advice, and Instructions in the Art of War,’ translated from the French, Paris, 1857, 16mo; New York, 8vo.
- ‘Elements of Fortification, Field and Permanent,’ London, 1857, 8vo.
- ‘Campaigns of Napoleon, 1812’ (campaigns of Wellington), privately printed, 19 parts, London, 1861.
- ‘Fortification: Lectures addressed to Officers reading for the Staff,’ London, 1862, 8vo.
- ‘Practical Course of Military Surveying and Plan-drawing,’ London, 1864, 8vo.
- ‘Marmont's Modern Armies,’ translated from the French, London, 1865, 8vo.
- A revised edition of Lavallée's ‘Military Geography,’ London, 1868, 8vo. Lendy was an active supporter of horticulture, and distinguished as an amateur grower of orchids.
[Broad Arrow, 19 Oct. 1889; Brit. Mus. Cat. Printed Books; Gardeners' Mag. 19 Oct. 1889.]
LE NEVE, JOHN (1679–1741), antiquary, born on 27 Dec. 1679 in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, was only son and heir of John Le Neve, by his second wife, Amy, daughter of John Bent, merchant and tailor, of London; his grandfather, another John Le Neve, was first of Cavendish in Suffolk, and then of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London. His father's first wife was Frances Monck, first cousin to the first Duke of Albemarle. One of his father's brothers, Richard, a sea-captain, died gallantly in action with the Dutch in 1673, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, while another of his uncles, Edmund (d. 1689), was a barrister of the Middle Temple.
John's mother died on 12 Dec. 1687, when he was eight years old, and he was sent to Eton as an oppidan when he was twelve. His father, who died on 20 July 1693 when John was fourteen, was, like both his wives, buried in Westminster Abbey. John succeeded to a little property, and his kinsman Peter Le Neve [q. v.], whose exact relationship has not been traced, became one of his guardians; another was his first cousin, John Boughton whose sister he married in 1699. From Eton he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1694 and matriculated in 1696, but left without a degree.
His first work seems to have been issued in 1712-14, under the title of 'Memoirs, British and Foreign, of the Lives and Families of the most Illustrious Persons who died in the years 1711 and 1712,' 2 vols. 8vo. This was probably suggested to him by his kinsman Peter, whose collections were freely at his service.
Le Neve's greatest work, his 'Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, or an Essay towards a regular Succession of all the principal Dignitaries,' &c., appeared in 1716 in folio. It was a work of immense labour. Le Neve utilised Bishop Kennett's 'Collections,' and Browne Willis said the bishop was its real compiler. But this is an exaggeration. Le Neve chiefly depended on original researches, which he pursued at a time when documentary evidence was difficult of access. The reception of the book did not encourage him to undertake a supplement, but before the end of the century twenty copies, fully annotated and brought up to date by eminent antiquaries, were extant. John Gutch was strongly urged to edit a new edition (cf. Nichols, Lit. Illustustrations, v. 342-4). At length, in 1854, Thomas Duffus Hardy issued at Oxford his elaborate edition, in 3 vols. 8vo, in which Le Neve's 11,051 entries were extended to thirty thousand. In 1716 Le Neve also issued the 'Life of Dr. Field, Dean of Gloucester,' London, 8vo, but of this he is only known to have written the preface. In 1717 he published in one 8vo volume, avowedly as 'a specimen of a much larger work,' 'Monumenta Anglicana, being Inscriptions on the Monuments of several eminent Persons deceased in or since the year 1700 to the end of the year 1715, deduced into a series of time by way of Annals; at the end of which year is added an Obituary of some memorable Persons who died therein, whose Inscriptions (if any yet set up) are not come to hand.' He quotes largely from MSS. P. L., which no doubt is Peter Le Neve MS. Diary, afterwards printed in part in the 'Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society.' Many of the inscriptions were communicated by the masons who set them up. In his modest and sensible preface he states that he was incited to begin the work by Weever's 'Funerall Monuments,' published in 1631. In 1718 he issued separately two more volumes, covering the periods 1650-1679 and 1680-1699. In 1718 appeared a fourth volume, covering the period 1600-49, and
