Researches," 1831; "History of Madagascar," 1839; "Narrative of a Tour through Owhyhee," 1826; "A Vindication of the South Sea Missions from the misrepresentations of M. Von Kotzebue;" "History of the London Missionary Society," 1831; and "Village Lectures on Popery," 1851.—J. B. J.
* ELLISSEN, Adolf, a German miscellaneous writer, was born at Gartow, near Luneburg, March 14, 1815, and completed his education at the university of Göttingen. In 1837-38 he travelled in Greece, and after his return settled again at Göttingen, where in 1847 he was appointed assistant-keeper of the library. Since 1849 he has repeatedly been elected deputy to the Hanoverian diet. He has published translations of Montesquieu's Esprit des Lois; of several works of Voltaire; of Chinese and modern Greek poems, as well as a number of literary essays and treatises.—K. E.
ELLISTON, Robert William, an eminent actor, was born in London, 7th April, 1774; his father, the second of three brothers, being a respectable watchmaker and jeweller. His uncle William was a graduate of St. John's college, Cambridge, where he took a high degree, and was afterwards elected master of Sidney Sussex college, 1760. Another uncle was an officer in the navy, and served under Admiral Boscawen. Destined for the church from his earliest years, he was placed in St. Paul's school, London, from which it was intended he should be removed after a time to Sidney college; but an early predilection for dramatic art probably, in the first instance, fostered by the introduction of plays and speeches into the annual exhibitions of the school, caused him to regard the vocation marked out for him with much indifference, and in an impulsive moment he left school, and started for Bath, where, having obtained an introduction to the manager of the theatre, he entered upon an engagement, and made his first appearance on the stage, 21st April, 1792, in the character of Tressell in Richard III. So successful were his efforts during the course of this engagement, that he speedily became the leader of the circuit, and after a very limited period, made his appearance before a London audience in the Haymarket theatre, in the part of Octavian in the Mountaineers. His reception was of the most flattering description. In addition to a remarkably elegant figure and good features, he possessed a voice of great mellowness and sweetness, nature having, as it were, endowed him for the stage. As an actor his versatility of talent was remarkable; and although his forte was comedy—in many characters of which he has never been excelled—his efforts in tragedy were of such merit as to rank him among the most eminent in that department of his art. Shortly after his appearance in London he became manager and lessee of Drury Lane theatre, the interior of which was entirely rebuilt under his direction; and this he held, in conjunction with other theatres in the country, for several consecutive seasons. Mr. Elliston married at Bath, in 1796, the beautiful and accomplished Miss Rundall, and left a large family. He died ten years after his wife, on Friday, July 8th, 1831, and was buried in St. John's church, Waterloo Road, London, where a tablet to his memory is erected in the chancel.—E.
ELLWOOD, Thomas, was born at Crowell in Oxfordshire in 1639. His father, who became a justice of the peace, taking the parliament side in the civil war which had then commenced, removed with his family to London for safety, in which city they formed an intimacy with Lady Springett, afterwards the wife of Isaac Pennington. This intercourse with the Penningtons was instrumental to young Ellwood's joining the society of Friends, and afterwards to his becoming the pupil and friend of the poet Milton. In 1661 he was invited by Milton, then blind and residing in Jewin Street, to read to him works in the Latin tongue—an offer which he gladly accepted. This privilege, however, he did not long enjoy, having been lodged in Newgate for attending a prayer meeting. After his release he made a visit to his quondam master, then removed to Giles Chalfont. Milton called for a manuscript, and putting it into the hand of his intelligent young friend, bade him take it home and read it at his leisure. "When I came home," says Ellwood, "and had set myself to read it, I found it was that excellent poem, Paradise Lost. After I had, with the best attention, read it through, I made him another visit and returned him his book, with due acknowledgment of the favour he had done me by communicating it to me. He asked me what I thought of it; which I modestly but freely told him; and after some further discourse about it, I pleasantly said to him—'Thou hast said much here of Paradise lost; but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?' He made no answer, but sat some time in a muse, then broke off that discourse and fell upon another subject. After the sickness was over—the plague in London—and the city had become safely habitable again, he returned thither; and when afterwards I went to wait on him there (which I seldom failed of doing whenever my occasions drew me to London), he showed me his second poem called Paradise Regained, and in a pleasant tone said to me—'This is owing to you; for you put it into my head by the question you put to me at Chalfont, which before I had not thought of.'" The autobiography of Ellwood, from which the above passage is extracted, is an animated narrative of great interest, pourtraying in a lively manner the sentiments and habits of the people of that day. It is a record also of the sufferings and early history of that religious body to which from conscientious convictions he attached himself in early life, and of which he remained a faithful and honoured member till his death in 1713. Among his publications was an epitome of the Bible entitled "Sacred History," in 3 vols.—S. F.
ELLYS, Anthony, a learned prelate, was born in 1693, and died in 1761. He graduated at Clare hall, Cambridge, and having taken orders shortly afterwards, was presented to one or two good livings, which, towards the end of his career in 1752, he was to exchange for the bishopric of St. David's. In the last-mentioned year he published a "Reply to Hume's Essay concerning Miracles;" and after his death there appeared two volumes of a work, on which he was understood to have been engaged the greater part of his life. "Tracts on the Liberty, Spiritual and Temporal, of Protestants in England," was the title of the first volume, and "Tracts, &c., of Subjects in England," of the second.—J. S., G.
ELLYS, Sir Richard, Bart., eminent as a biblical critic and as a patron of men of learning, was the descendant of a wealthy family settled in Lincolnshire. His mother was a granddaughter of Hampden. It is probable that he was educated at Oxford, and that he spent some time at several Dutch universities. He sat some years in parliament. His benefactions to authors were repaid by dedications, through which his name is now best known. He wrote "Fortuita Sacra," a critical work, in which he attempted the elucidation of twenty-four difficult passages of scripture, illustrations of which had occurred to him in the course of his extensive reading. He died in 1742.—J. S., G.
ELMER. See Aylmer.
ELMES, Harvey Lonsdale, son of James Elmes, one of the most distinguished of the English architects of our century, was born in 1815. He was educated in his father's office, and served some time in the offices of other architects and surveyors. When still quite young, he was attracted by an advertisement in the Times for designs for a new town-hall at Liverpool. He felt disposed to try his skill, and Haydon the painter encouraged him to do so. He won the £500 premium, and in 1841 had the satisfaction to commence his great work, St. George's hall. But now Elmes' troubles commenced, and his health was a victim to his enthusiasm and excitement. He was attacked by a disease of the lungs, and finally died at Jamaica on the 26th of November, 1847, in his thirty-third year only, leaving a wife and child unprovided for. His remuneration for this great work was insufficient. The architect's commission was limited to a sum not exceeding £90,000—little more than half the cost of the building; and as the work also proceeded slowly, while adorning Liverpool with one of the noblest architectural structures of modern times, Elmes acquired for himself only a bare subsistence. The remuneration, with all expenses, is said to have averaged only £450 per annum. This great building, now being completed, was continued by Mr. R. Rawlinson and by Mr. Cockerell. It is of the classical renaissance, in which the Greek elements chiefly abound. It is Corinthian, and its great feature is a vast vaulted hall in the centre.—R. N. W.
* ELMES, James, an architect and writer upon architecture, born in London in 1782. Having learned building under his father, and architecture under Mr. George Gibson, he entered upon his career as an architect at an early age, and offered designs for numerous public and private buildings in London, which were successful in keeping his hands full of business. In 1804 he gained the silver medal at the Royal Academy. He was for some time surveyor and civil engineer to the port of London; but this post, as well as that of vice-president of a society for the diffusion of the knowledge of the fine arts among
