namely, twelve basses, fifteen tenors, thirteen counter-tenors, sixteen boys, six castrati, and thirty instrumentalists. The fame of Lassus was now spread throughout all Europe, and "the prince of musicians," as he was styled by his contemporaries, was overwhelmed with marks of favour from the most distinguished sovereigns and princes of the continent. In 1571 he received an invitation, accompanied with the promise of great emoluments, from the king of France, Charles IX., who, having issued his letters authorizing the establishment of an academy of music, is supposed to have invited Lassus to his court with the view of consulting with him as to the means of making this newly-founded institution most effective. He had, however, scarcely set foot in France when that monarch died—an event which determined him to retrace his steps towards Munich with all possible despatch. The duke received him with open arms, restored him to all his appointments, and by an act secured to him an income of four hundred florins for the remainder of his life. Pope Gregory XIII., unsolicited, created him on the 6th of April, 1574, a knight of St. Peter of the golden spur, and he was installed with all the honour and ceremonies observed on such occasions. In the following October Duke Albert died. His successor, William V., surnamed the Pious, not only extended to Lassus the same patronage and friendship as his predecessor, but proved equally acceptable to the musician, who was wont to say—"I prefer a master who is a connoisseur to all those who are but amateurs." In drawing this notice to a close, we regret to say that a cloud obscured the latter days of this great composer's life, which had been of an activity and productiveness which we can scarcely imagine. The mind which had produced so many works—masses, magnificats, passiones, motets, psalms, &c., in number said to exceed two thousand—having been strained beyond its powers, at length gave way. Orlando did not, however, long survive the loss of his reason. He died in 1595, and was interred in the church of the Franciscans at Munich, where a splendid monument—now removed, but happily rescued from destruction—marked the resting-place of the phoenix of musicians—"Hic ille est Lassus, lassum qui recreat orbem."—E. F. R.
LASSO, Rudolph von, a musician, eldest son of the preceding, born in Munich, was organist to Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. In conjunction with Ferdinand Lasso, his brother, he collected and arranged the Latin works of his father, which after his death were published under the title of "Magnum Opus Musicum, Orlando de Lasso," &c., Munich, 1604.—E. F. R.
LATHAM, John, an English physician and naturalist, born in 1740. He was educated at Merchant Tailors' school; studied anatomy under Dr. William Hunter; and completed his medical studies at the various schools and hospitals in London. In 1763 he commenced business as a general practitioner at Dartford, where he had an extensive practice, and acquired a considerable fortune. In 1795 he received the honour of M.D. from Erlangen, and in 1796, after thirty-three years of assiduous practice, retired to Romsey in Hampshire. From some cause or other he lost a great part of his fortune, and then retired to the house of his son-in-law, Mr. N. Wickham, at Winchester. He died in 1837 at the age of ninety-seven. At an early age Latham showed a great taste for the study of natural history, and formed a large collection of birds. In 1771 he had become the correspondent of Pennant, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir A. Lever, &c., and assisted the latter in arranging his museum. In 1781 he commenced the publication of his "General Synopsis of Birds," which he completed in 1787, the plates being all etched by himself from specimens prepared and stuffed by his own hands. In 1821 he began his larger work, the "General History of Birds;" and, though upwards of eighty years of age, he was able to retouch the plates which he had previously etched for his synopsis. Though best known by these ornithological works, Latham was the author of excellent medical papers.—W. B—d.
* LATHAM, Robert Gordon, an eminent philologist and ethnologist, was born at Billingborough, Lincolnshire, in 1812. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, in 1833 he made a tour in Norway, a work on which country—"Norway and the Norwegians"—he published in 1840. Becoming a physician, he was led to combine the study of ethnology with those other philological pursuits, for his devotion to which he was early distinguished. Dr. Latham has been both professor of English literature at University college, London, and assistant physician to the Middlesex hospital. The editor of Johnson's Dictionary is also the author of the translation of the works of Sydenham, published by the Sydenham Society. His "Natural History of the Varieties of Man," 1850—condensing and generalizing the new information acquired since the appearance of Prichard's great work, distinguished, too, by considerable novelty in its system of classification—and his "Descriptive Ethnology," 1859, are among the chief of his contributions to ethnological science, which include the "Ethnology of the British Colonies" and "Man and his Migrations," 1851; the "Ethnology of the British Islands," 1852; the "Native Races of the Russian Empire," 1854; and the "Handbook of the Ethnology of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham," where the formation of that department was intrusted to him. His principal works on philology (mainly English philology) are an elaborate and exhaustive work on the "English Language," 1851—fourth edition, 1855; a smaller "Handbook of the English Language," 1851—fourth edition, 1855; and various elementary English grammars. He has also published, 1856, a work on "Logic and its applications to Language," and an edition, with ethnological dissertations and notes, of the Germania of Tacitus. In 1860 appeared his "Opuscula, essays chiefly philological and descriptive," papers read before learned societies, such as the Ethnological and Philological, or contributed to their Transactions. Dr. Latham has been engaged for years in preparing a new edition of Johnson's Dictionary, founded on that of Todd. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, of the Royal Society, &c.—F. E.
LATIMER, Hugh, one of the most distinguished of the English reformers, was born at Thurcaston in Leicestershire in the year 1490, some say 1491. His father was a yeoman with a "farm of three or four pounds by the year at the uttermost," on which, according to his son's account, he plentifully maintained "half a dozen men," sent the young Hugh to school, married his sisters "with five pounds, or twenty nobles a piece," and moreover, "kept hospitality and gave alms to the poor." Trained up in a happy country home, Latimer retained something of the yeoman and rustic all his days. He was taught by his father all manly exercises, and especially the use of the cross-bow—"God's gift to the English nation above all other nations"—"how to draw, how to lay his body on the bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as other nations do, but with the strength of the body." About fourteen years of age he was sent to Cambridge, where he proved a diligent and able student. In 1509, whilst yet an undergraduate, he was chosen fellow of Clare Hall; in the following January he took his degree of B.A., and proceeded to that of M.A. in July, 1514. Up to this time, and some time after this, he continued an adherent, and even a zealous adherent of the old faith—"I was as obstinate a papist," he says, "as any in England." Soon after this, however, he came under the influence of Bilney, who had already from his independent study of the Greek Testament imbibed the reformed doctrines. Bilney had marked the zeal of the young Romanist, especially on the occasion of his taking the degree of bachelor in divinity, when he lectured against Melancthon and his opinions. He sought his company, and by his private confessions of his own views and feelings, awakened a new spirit in Latimer. "So from that time forward," he says, "I began to smell the word of God, and forsook the school doctors and such fooleries." "Whereas before," adds Fox, "he was an enemy, and almost a persecutor of Christ, he was now a zealous seeker after him." Latimer now began to advocate the new doctrines in Cambridge, with the same energy that he had espoused the old ones. "He preached mightily in the university, day by day, both in English and ad clerum, to the great admiration of all men, who aforetime had known him of a contrary severe opinion." The result of Latimer's preaching was greatly to excite the doctors and monks at Cambridge, "who flocked against Mr. Latimer on every side." Many were touched by his stirring words, and "brought from their evil works, as pilgrimage and setting up of candles, unto the work that God commanded expressly in his holy scripture, and to the reading and study of God's word." The date of Latimer's conversion is supposed to be about 1521. His activity became so obnoxious to "divers papists in the university," that they made a "grievous complaint" against him, and he was summoned, first before the bishop of Ely, and then before Wolsey, who held a conference with him, detailed in Strype's Memorials, and dismissed him with permission to preach such doctrines as he represented he alone preached. "If the bishop of Ely cannot abide such doctrine," were Wolsey's emphatic words of parting, "you shall
