Leake, WILLIAM MARTIN

Leake, WILLIAM MARTIN, topographer of Greece, was born in London on 14th January 1777, and, having in 1794 obtained a commission in the artillery, was sent out five years later to instruct the Turks. He was employed on various other missions in the Levantine countries, till in 1823 he retired a lieutenant-colonel from the army; in 1838 he married the widow of Marsden, the orientalist; and he died at Brighton on 6th January 1860. With critical acuteness and soundness of judgment he combined great learning and an admirable power of clear statement. His principal works are Researches in Greece (1814); The Topography of Athens (1821); Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor (1824); Travels in the Morea (1830); Travels in Northern Greece (1835); Greece at the End of Twenty-three Years' Protection (1851); and Numismatica Hellenica (1854). See Memoir by the Rev. J. H. Marsden (1864).