Leyden, or LEIDEN, a town of Holland, stands on the Old Rhine, 5 miles from the North Sea, and by rail 9 miles N. by W. of the Hague and 31 W. of Utrecht. It is a typical Dutch town, spotlessly clean, with canals bordered by avenues of trees, and sleepy squares and streets. Its predominant characteristic is an air of academic repose; and the town is the seat of a celebrated university, which formerly attracted students from all parts of Europe, including Sir Thomas Browne, Evelyn, Boswell, Goldsmith, John Wilkes, Alexander Carlyle, Alexander Monro, and several other distinguished Scottish surgeons, and numbered amongst its professors some of the greatest names in the world of learning: Grotius, Descartes, Salmasius, Scaliger, Boerhaave, Hemsterhuis, Ruhmken, Valckenaer, &c., besides Arminius and Gomarus, have all either studied or taught at Leyden. It was founded in 1575 by William of Orange as a reward to the citizens (they themselves selecting this boon in preference to a remission of taxes) for their heroic defence against the Spaniards from October 1573 to October 1574. At the present time it is frequented by about 800 students, and has some fifty professors and teachers. Its collateral institutions include a library of 160,000 volumes and 5000 MSS., many of them valuable oriental and Greek MSS.; a botanic garden, which has counted Linnaeus and Boerhaave amongst its directors; a museum of natural history, one of the finest and best arranged in Europe; a museum of antiquities, with especially valuable Egyptian monuments; an ethnographical museum, the nucleus of which was Siebold's Japanese collection; and an observatory. The senate-hall is hung with the portraits of more than a hundred celebrated Leyden professors. The town art museum contains pictures by Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Gerard Douw,
Lucas of Leyden, the family Mieris—all natives of the town, and others. Here too were born some of the Elzevirs, the celebrated printers, who carried on a branch of their business in Leyden, and John of Leyden, the Anabaptist. The quaint and picturesque town-hall dates from 1574–98. There are nearly a score of churches, the most notable among them being St Peter's, with monuments to Boerhaave, Scaliger, Camper, Arminius, &c., and St Pancras, with a monument to Van der Werf, the hero of the siege. In the centre of the town stands an old round tower, which is said to date from the Roman occupation. Leyden was in the 15th century famous all over Europe for its manufactured cloth, baize, and camlet. The same industries, but to a much less extent, together with the manufacture of cotton, twine, and yarn, the dyeing of cloth and leather, &c., are still carried on. Leyden is the seat of a school of navigation. In 1650 the population numbered 100,000; but a century later it had fallen to three-quarters of that number, and by the beginning of the 19th century to 30,000. In 1876 it was 40,724, and 46,379 in 1889. In 1807 a portion of Leyden was destroyed by the explosion of a barge laden with gunpowder on one of the canals.