position, and (later) on Latin palaeography with specimen pages selected by himself from Bodleian manuscripts. He was assiduous in maintaining friendly, though cautious, relations with foreign scholars–‘not Baehrens’, however; and he showed much intrepidity in visiting distant libraries in search of codices. His work both as commentator and as textual critic is characterized by vast erudition and minute investigation, but is perhaps deficient in decision and logical exactness. He was, however, under no illusions about the art of emendation; in Catullus he believed that he had ‘divined the truth’ in one, or perhaps two, passages only (preface to Commentary, second edition, p. xiv).
Both by constitution and by habit Ellis was a recluse; his simplicity, his dependence on physical help, his unconventional but frequent hospitality, and not least his impressive devotion to scholarship, attracted the interest not only of his colleagues but also of many of the undergraduates, especially the rising scholars of about 1880 to 1900. At the same time the naïveté, not always unintentional, of his remarks about his acquaintances and his or their tastes, opinions, appearance, and his casual familiarity with the improprieties of his favourite authors, made him somewhat embarrassing in social life, and led to the circulation of numerous stories about him. Some of these, referring to his own eccentricities or mistakes, he could be easily induced to relate and discuss; new material could be obtained by artful questions; and eventually there was a considerable body of anecdota, some of which have found their way into reminiscences of Oxford life in connexion with Balliol, Trinity, or Corpus. His dress and manner were peculiar, and he was frequently caricatured; but there is a fine portrait of him in the hall of Trinity College, painted by G. P. Jacomb-Hood in 1889, and a posthumous bust in bronze by A. Broadbent in the Bodleian gallery.
[Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1910, ix. 294; The Times, 14 October 1913; personal knowledge; an admirable appreciation of Ellis’s work and character was contributed to vol. vi, 1913-1914, of the Proceedings of the British Academy by his successor in the Corpus professorship, Mr. A. C. Clark.]
ELWES, GERVASE HENRY [CARY-] (1866–1921), singer, born 15 November 1866 at Billing, Northamptonshire, was the elder son of Valentine Dudley Henry Cary-Elwes, of Billing Hall and Brigg Manor, Lincolnshire, by his second wife, Alice, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Henry Ward, and niece of the third Viscount Bangor, of Castle Ward, North Ireland. He was educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston, under Cardinal Newman, and at Woburn School under Lord Petre; and subsequently, from 1885 to 1888, at Christ Church, Oxford. Deciding to enter the diplomatic service, he went in 1889 to Munich for a year: there he studied German and French and also the violin. Returning to London he engaged in further study for his career, and in 1891, on the advice of Sir Nicholas O’Conor, took a post as honorary attaché to the British embassy at Vienna, where he spent a year; he also widened his musical knowledge by composition lessons, and became personally acquainted with Brahms. He then moved to Brussels, where he spent three years, incidentally studying singing with Demest. This was his last diplomatic appointment. Owing to his father’s failing health, he resigned his profession in 1895 and returned to England, settling down on his father’s Lincolnshire property and working at forestry. Five years afterwards he was advised by Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty to adopt singing as a career; and he studied in London with Henry Russell and for two winters with Bouhy in Paris, completing his technique under his chief master, Victor Beigel. He sang in public for the first time in Paris in December 1902, and in London in the spring of 1903. He owed to Miss May Wakefield (the organizer of the Westmorland festivals) and to Professor Johann Kruse some of his earliest important engagements. Subsequently he sang several times in Belgium and Holland, and also, in 1907, toured Germany with Miss Fanny Davies. He went three times to America, and on his third visit was killed (12 January 1921) by an accident at Boston (Backbay) station, either overbalancing himself or being struck by a moving train.
Elwes married in 1889 Lady Winefride of the eighth Earl of Denbigh, and had six Mary Elizabeth Feilding, fourth daughter sons and two daughters. In 1909 he succeeded, on his father’s death, to the family property: at the same time he discontinued the use of the name Cary which he had previously borne.
Some few months after his death, a ‘Gervase Elwes memorial fund’ was instituted by his friends and admirers, the income being utilized for the assistance of young musicians of talent and for the furtherance of various musical causes
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