Editing Austen Henry Layard (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Much of Layard's boyhood was spent in Italy, where he received part of his schooling, and acquired a taste for the fine arts and a love of travel from his father; but he was at school also in England, France and [[Restoration and Regeneration (Switzerland)|Switzerland]]. After spending nearly six years in the office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen, he was tempted to leave England for [[Sri Lanka]] (Ceylon) by the prospect of obtaining an appointment in the Civil Service, and he started in 1839 with the intention of making an overland journey across Asia.<ref name="EB1911"/>

After wandering for many months, chiefly in Persia, with [[Bakhtiari people]] and having abandoned his intention of proceeding to Ceylon, he returned in 1842 to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] capital [[Constantinople]] where he made the acquaintance of [[Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe|Sir Stratford Canning]], the British Ambassador, who employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European Turkey. In 1845, encouraged and assisted by Canning, Layard left Constantinople to make those explorations among the ruins of Assyria with which his name is chiefly associated. This expedition was in fulfilment of a design which he had formed when, during his former travels in the East, his curiosity had been greatly excited by the ruins of [[Nimrud]] on the [[Tigris]], and by the great mound of [[Kuyunjik]], near [[Mosul]], already partly excavated by [[Paul-Émile Botta]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Excavations and the arts===
[[File:Mr. Layard at Kooyoonjik.jpg|thumb|250px|left|A. H. Layard at Kuyunjik. Drawing by [[Solomon Caesar Malan]], 1850.]]
Layard remained in the neighbourhood of Mosul, carrying on excavations at [[Kuyunjik]] and [[Nimrud]], and investigating the condition of various peoples, until 1847; and, returning to England in 1848, published ''Nineveh and Its Remains'' (2 vols., 1848–1849).<ref name="EB1911"/>

To illustrate the antiquities described in this work he published a large folio volume of ''The Monuments of Nineveh. From Drawings Made on the Spot'' (1849). After spending a few months in England, and receiving the degree of [[Doctor of Civil Law|D.C.L.]] from the [[University of Oxford]] and the [[Founder's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], Layard returned to Constantinople as attaché to the British embassy, and, in August 1849, started on a second expedition, in the course of which he extended his investigations to the ruins of [[Babylon]] and the mounds of southern [[Mesopotamia]].  He is credited with discovering the [[Library of Ashurbanipal]] during this period.  His record of this expedition, ''Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon'',<ref>{{cite web|last1=Layard|first1=Austen Henry|title=Discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon...|url=https://archive.org/details/HHaAntigua90435LAYDis|website=Internet Archive|publisher=G. P. Putnam and Co.|access-date=8 March 2018|date=1853}}</ref> which was illustrated by another folio volume, called ''A Second Series of the Monuments of Nineveh'', was published in 1853. During these expeditions, often in circumstances of great difficulty, Layard despatched to England the splendid specimens which now form the greater part of the collection of [[Assyria]]n antiquities in the [[British Museum]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Layard believed that the native [[Syriac Christian]] communities living throughout the Near East were descended from the ancient [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]].<ref name="Cross 2005">{{cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |last= Cross |first= Frank Leslie |year= 2005 |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 |quote= In the 19th cent. A. H. Layard, the excavator of Nineveh, first suggested that the local *Syriac Christian communities in the region were descended from the ancient Assyrians, and the idea was later popularized by W. A. Wigram, a member of the Abp. Of Canterbury’s Mission to the Church of the East (1895–1915).|page=119 }}</ref>

Apart from the archaeological value of his work in identifying Kuyunjik as the site of [[Nineveh]], and in providing a great mass of materials for scholars to work upon, these two books of Layard were among the best written books of travel in the English language.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Layard was an important member of the [[Arundel Society]],{{sfn|Layard|1903|loc = Vol.1, p.vi}} and in 1866 he was appointed a trustee of the British Museum.<ref name="EB1911"/> In the same year Layard founded "Compagnia Venezia Murano" and opened a venetian glass showroom in London at 431 Oxford Street.
Today [[Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano]] is one of the most important brands of venetian art glass production.

===Political career===
[[File:Austen Henry Layard, Vanity Fair, 1869-08-28.jpg|thumb|upright|Caricature from [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], (Aug 1869) captioned "He combines the love of truth and art with equal devotion and success"]] 
Layard now turned to politics. Elected as a Liberal member for [[Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency)|Aylesbury]], Buckinghamshire in 1852, he was for a few weeks [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs|Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs]], but afterwards freely criticised the government, especially in connection with army administration. He was present in the [[Crimean Peninsula|Crimea]] during the [[Crimean War|war]], and was a member of the committee appointed to inquire into the conduct of the expedition. In 1855 he refused from [[Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Lord Palmerston]] an office not connected with foreign affairs, was elected [[Rector of the University of Aberdeen|lord rector]] of [[University of Aberdeen|Aberdeen University]], and on 15 June moved a resolution in the [[United Kingdom House of Commons|House of Commons]] (defeated by a 359–46 majority<ref>Briggs, Asa: ''The Age of Improvement, 1783–1867'' (2nd edition), p. 377. Routledge, 2000</ref>) declaring that in public appointments merit had been sacrificed to private influence and an adherence to routine. After being defeated at Aylesbury in 1857, he visited India to investigate the causes of the [[Indian Mutiny]]. He unsuccessfully contested [[York (UK Parliament constituency)|York]] in 1859, but was elected for [[Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)|Southwark]] in 1860, and from 1861 to 1866 was Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the successive administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell.<ref name="EB1911"/> After the Liberals returned to office in 1868 under [[William Ewart Gladstone]], Layard was made [[First Commissioner of Works]] and sworn of the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=23449 |date=11 December 1868 |page=6581 }}</ref>

===Diplomatic career===

Layard resigned from office in 1869, on being sent as envoy extraordinary to Madrid.<ref>{{citation |title = Sir Henry Layard| work= Eminent persons: Biographies reprinted from the Times| volume = VI (1893–1894)|publisher=Macmillan & Co.|page=134|year=1897|url=https://archive.org/stream/eminentpersonsbi06londiala#page/130/mode/2up }}</ref> In 1877 he was appointed by Lord Beaconsfield [[List of diplomats from the United Kingdom to the Ottoman Empire|Ambassador at Constantinople]], where he remained until Gladstone's return to power in 1880, when he finally retired from public life. In 1878, on the occasion of the [[Berlin Congress]], he was appointed a [[Order of the Bath|Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Retirement in Venice===
[[File:Henry Austen Layard Fratelli Vianelli BNF Gallica.jpg|thumb|upright|Austen Henry Layard (1883)]]
Layard retired to [[Venice]]. There he took up residence in the sixteenth-century palazzo on the grand canal named [[Ca Cappello]], just behind [[Campo San Polo]], and which he had commissioned historian [[Rawdon Brown]], another long-time British resident of Venice, to purchase for him in 1874.<ref>{{cite ODNB| url =http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16218?| title =Layard, Sir Austen Henry (1817–1894), archaeologist and politician | first = Jonathan |last = Parry | year = 2006 | doi =10.1093/ref:odnb/16218 }}</ref>
In Venice he devoted much of his time to collecting pictures of the Venetian school, and to writing on Italian art.
On this subject he was a disciple of his friend [[Giovanni Morelli]], whose views he embodied in his revision of [[Franz Theodor Kugler|Franz Kugler]]'s ''Handbook of Painting, Italian Schools'' (1887). He wrote also an introduction to [[Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes]]'s translation of Morelli's ''Italian Painters'' (1892–1893), and edited that part of ''[[Murray's Handbooks for Travellers|Murray's Handbook]] of Rome'' (1894) which deals with pictures. In 1887 he published, from notes taken at the time, a record of his first journey to the East, entitled ''Early Adventures in Persia, Susiana and Babylonia''. The late nineteenth century English novelist [[George Gissing]] thought it 'one of the most interesting books' vowing to 'read it again some day'.<ref>Coustillas, Pierre ed. London and the Life of Literature in Late Victorian England: the Diary of George Gissing, Novelist. Brighton: Harvester Press, 1978, p.318.</ref> An abbreviation of this work, which as a book of travel is even more delightful than its predecessors, was published in 1894, shortly after the author's death, with a brief introductory notice by Lord Aberdare. Layard also from time to time contributed papers to various learned societies, including the Huguenot Society, of which he was first president.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He died on 5 July 1894 at his residence 1 Queen Anne Street, Marylebone, London.<ref>Philip Temple, Colin Thom, Andrew Saint (2017) [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/sites/bartlett/files/chapter10_queen_anne_street.pdf Survey of London: South-East Marylebone] Volumes 51 and 52 Yale University Press</ref>  After a post mortem autopsy his remains were cremated at the Woking Crematorium in Surrey.  His ashes were interred in the cemetery of [[Canford Magna Parish Church]] in Dorset, England.