Leland, John, English antiquary, born in London; travelled much on the Continent and amassed vast learning; held a commission from Henry VIII. to examine the antiquities and libraries of England, in fulfilment of which charge he spent six years in collecting a world of things that would otherwise have been lost, and the rest of his life, till he went insane, in arranging them (1506‒1552).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Leland, Charles * Leland, John