Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/87

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Lane
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Lancham

warden followed him, and seems to have recovered the money (Broderick, Mems. of Merton, p. 296). In 1689 he commanded a troop in James II’s army in Ireland, was wounded and taken prisoner at the Boyne, and remained in confinement at Dublin until 1690. About Easter in either that or the following year he returned to Merton, and ‘esteemed that place a comfortable harbour of which before, by wo much ease sndglenty, he was weary and sick.' In 1895 he was practising as an advocate in Doctors' Comms, (com, mm ewan", p. 102), but no further mention of him can be traced.

Lane is said by Wood to have had a hand in the ‘English Atlas printed at the Theater, Oxford, for Moses Pitt,’ 1680-4 5 vols. fol. William Nicolson [q. v], afterwards archbishop of Cashel, was the chief literary director of this colossal work. Lane's name does not ages: in connection with it, but he may well have been ons of the numerous minor collaborators. He is also said to have translated into English Nepos’s ‘Life of Epaminonadas' Oxford, 1684, 8vo, in addition to which, remarks Wood, 'he hath written certain matters, but whether he’ll own them you may enquire of him.'

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 480; Wood's Fasti Oxon. ii, 368; Bridge's Northamtonshire, ed. Whalley, ii. 65; Graduati Cantabr.]

T. S.

LANE, WILLIAM (1746–1819), portrait draughtsman, was born in 1746, and commenced his career as an engraver of gems in the manner of the antique, exhibiting works of that class at the Royal Academy from 1778 to 1789. Between 1788 and 1792 he engraved a few small copperplates, including portraits of Mrs. Abington and the Duke and Duchess of Rutland after Cosway, and Charles James Fox after Reynolds. 1785 lane exhibited some crayon portraits, and later became a fashionable artist in that style; his drawings were slightly executed in hard coloured chalks, and admired for their accuracy as likenesses. He was patronised bu the prince regent and many of the nobility, and from 1797 to 1815 was a large contributor to the exhibitions. A few of Lane’s works have been engraved; in 1816 was engraved his portrait Sir James Edward smith, M.D. F.R.S., by Frederick Christian Lewis [q. v.] He died at his house in the Hammersmith Road, London, 4 Jan. 1819.

Anna Louisa Lane, who was Lane's wife or sister, sent miniatures to the Academy in 1775, 1781, and 1782.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1819, i. 181; Royal Acad. Catalogues.]

F. M. O'D.

LANEHAM, ROBERT (fl. 1575), writer on the Kenilworth festivities of 1575, was a native of Nottinghamshire. He attended successively St. Lincoln’s and St. Paul’s schools in London, and apparently reached the fifth form at the latter. He read Æsop and Terence and began Virgil. On leaving school be was apprenticed to a mercer of London named Bomsted, and in due course began business on his own account. He travelled abroad for the purposes of trade, especially in France and Flanders, and his travels were subsequently extensive to enable him to become an efficient linguist in Spanish and ‘Latin' (i.e. probably Ita1ian), as well as in French Dutch. The Earl of Leicester, attracted by his linguistic facility, seems to have taken him into his service, and helped him and his father to secure a patent for supplying the royal mews with beans. Finally, he was appointed door-keeper of the council chamber, and appears to ave accompanied the court on its periodical migrations. He was thus present at the great entertainment given by Leicester to Queen Elizabeth from 9 to 27 July 1575, and wrote a spirited description of the festivities in the form of s letter to his ‘good friend, Master Humphrey Martin,’ another mercer of London. The letter, which was dated ‘at Worcester 20 Aug. 1575,' was published without name of place with the title ‘A Letter: whearin part of the entertainment untoo the Queens Majesty at Killingwoorth Castle, in Warwick Sh’eer in this Soomers Progress, 1575, iz. signified: from a freemd officer attendant in the Coourt (Ro. Le. of the coounty Nosingham untoo his freend a citizen and merchaunt of London.' At the close Laneham describes himself as ‘mercer, merchant adventurer, clerk of the council chamber door, and also keeper of the same.' The accounts of the last week's festivities are somewhat scanty. Copies are in the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries. Laneham writes with much spirit, and his spelling is quaint and unconventional. Towards the close of the tract he gives an interesting account of himself. He claims to be a good dancer and singer, and an expert musician with the guitar, cithern, and virginals. Stories he delights in, especially when they are ancient and rare, and a very valuable part of his ‘Letter’ deals with the ballads and romances in the library of his friend Captain Cox of Coventry [q. v.] He was a lover of sack and sugar, and refers jovially to his rubicund nose and complexion. The work was reissued at Warwick in 1784 and was reprinted in Nichols's ‘Progresses of Queen Elizabeth.' Sir Walter Scott quoted from it in his novel of ‘Kenilworth' (1821),