Layard

Layard, Austen Henry, Sir, G.C.B., was born in 1817. Born in Paris, he spent his boyhood in Italy, and at 16 went to London to study law. In 1839, while on the banks of the Tigris during an overland journey to Ceylon, he was struck by the ruins which were said to be those of Nineveh. In 1845 he obtained leave to explore, and in the following years brought to light four palaces, one of which is thought to have been built by Sardanapalus. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe gave him pecuniary aid in his researches, and Parliament made a grant for the purpose. He was Foreign Secretary (1861-66), and during the Russo-Turkish war was ambassador at Constantinople, and sympathised with the Turks. Among his yvritings are Nineveh and its Remains (1849), Monuments of Nineveh (1853), Early Adventures in Persia, Babylonia, and Susiana (1887).