John Leyden (1746–1839): A farmer from the area around Hawick, Roxburghshire, and father of the linguist and poet, John Leyden (1775–1811; DNB). In 1826 Southey wrote to Leyden to thank him for a copy of the Memoirs of Zehir-ed-Din Muhammed Baber, Emperor of Hindustan, published earlier that year. This combined his late son’s unfinished translation from the Eastern Turkish original with one by William Erskine (1773–1852; DNB) from a Persian version of the text.

Samuel Le Grice (1775–1802): Soldier. The younger brother of Coleridge’s school fellow, Charles Valentine Le Grice (1773–1858). Educated at Christ’s Hospital, where he was a contemporary and friend of Charles Lamb, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained an army commission and died in Jamaica.

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864): Writer and poet (in English and Latin) whose 1798 Gebir, Southey declared, contained ‘some of the most exquisite poetry in the language’. Landor inherited wealth in 1805 and in 1808 met Southey at Bristol, offering to pay for the publication of future poems that Southey might write. Thus encouraged, Southey completed The Curse of Kehama (1810), sending drafts to Landor, and Roderick the Last of the Goths (1814). In 1812 Landor himself published a blank verse tragedy on Spain, Count Julian, with Southey’s help.

John Prideaux Lightfoot (1803–1887): Eldest son of Southey’s schoolfriend from Westminster, Nicholas Lightfoot. He was a clergyman and long-serving Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1854–1887.

Nicholas Lightfoot (c. 1771/2–1847): Clergyman and schoolmaster. Son of Nicholas Lightfoot of Moretonhampstead, Devon. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford (matric. 1790, BA 1794). Perpetual curate for Churcheton, Devon from 1795 and Rector of Stockleigh Pomeroy from 1831–1847. Southey met Lightfoot at Balliol and their friendship endured until his death. Southey briefly considered sending his brother Edward Southey to be educated by Lightfoot and in later life stayed with him during visits to the south west of England.

Mary Lawrence (1780–1859): A Unitarian member of the circle of William Roscoe in Liverpool, whom Southey met on his visit there in February 1808. Lawrence ran a school, the Gateacre Academy, with her sisters Sarah and Eliza. A native of Birmingham, she moved to Leamington in later life.

Robert Eyres Landor (1781–1869): Writer and clergyman. Youngest brother of Walter Savage Landor.

Julia Landor (née Thuillier; 1794–1879): The daughter of an unsuccessful banker, she married Landor on 24 May 1811. They lived firstly on Landor’s estate at Lanthony and then in Italy. The Landors had three sons and one daughter, but by the 1830s their marriage was troubled. Landor left his wife in 1835 and settled first in England and then Italy.

Joseph Lancaster (1778–1838): The educationalist whose monitorial system of teaching mirrored that of Southey’s friend Andrew Bell. Although a Quaker, and opposed to corporal punishment, Lancaster’s disciplinary methods, involving public humiliation and confinement, lost him Southey’s approval. Bell relentlessly promoted his own Anglican educational system over Lancaster’s, and Lancaster found greater success in the United States, Mexico and South America.

Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830): Portrait painter. The son of a Bristol innkeeper, he was self–taught and displayed his brilliant talents as a draughtsman from childhood. He established himself as a fashionable painter in 1790 with a portrait of Queen Charlotte (1744–1818; DNB) and was much patronised by royalty. He was knighted in 1815 and was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1820. Southey wrote to him that year in response to an invitation he had received to the Academy’s Annual Dinner. Sir Robert Peel later commissioned Lawrence to paint Southey’s portrait.