Layard, SIR AUSTEN HENRY

Layard, SIR AUSTEN HENRY, G.C.B., English traveller and diplomatist, was born in Paris, March 5, 1817, and passed his boyhood in Italy. At sixteen he was sent to London to study law. In 1839 he set out on an overland journey to Ceylon. Travelling along the banks of the Tigris in 1840, he was struck with the ruins of Nimrud, pointed out by tradition as the site of Nineveh (q.v.), and felt an irresistible desire to examine the remains. In 1842 Botta, consul at Mosul, conducted some extensive excavations at Khorsabad; and Layard, returning to the region, again directed his attention to Nimrud. It was 1845 before he could obtain the requisite means and facilities for his search, and he then, with the help of some Arabs, began secretly to dig in the mound supposed to contain the ruins. His excavations were resumed in 1846 and 1847, and his energy and perseverance were rewarded by the discovery of the ground remains of four distinct palatial edifices. The most remarkable discoveries were made in the North-west Palace, supposed to have been built by Sardanapalus. The walls had been lined with large slabs of gypsum or alabaster, covered with bas-reliefs and cuneiform inscriptions. Many of these were sent to England by Layard, together with gigantic winged human-headed bulls and lions, and eagle-headed deities. They were placed in the British Museum, of which they have since remained the chief attraction (see ASSYRIA). Layard at first conducted his search at his own expense; he was in 1845 liberally assisted by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, then British ambassador in Constantinople; and eventually, as the value of these specimens of the Assyrian art began to be known, the House of Commons voted a sum of £3000, which was applied by the trustees of the British Museum in continuing the excavations under Layard's superintendence. On his return to England he published a narrative of his explorations under the title of Nineveh and its Remains (1849), and another work entitled Monuments of Nineveh (1853). He was presented with the freedom of the city of London, received the honour of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, and was Lord Rector of Aberdeen University in 1855-6. In 1852 he became M.P. for Aylesbury, and in 1860 for Southwark; in 1861-66 he was Under-secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and thereafter Chief Commissioner of Works. In 1869 he went as British ambassador to Spain; and in 1877-80 he was ambassador to Constantinople. His markedly philo-Turkish sympathies during and after the war with Russia provoked comment at home. In 1878 he received the Order of the Bath. In 1887 he published his Early Adventures in Persia, Babylonia, and Susiana. He died 5th July 1894.