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ELMSLBT, PETER. 



he became in 1803, under Mr. Colman, principal actor and acting 

 manager of the Uaymarket Next year be succeeded John Kemble 

 at Drury-Lane; bat, after the burning of the theatre, he quarrelled 

 with Tbomai Sheridan and led the company. He now took on his 

 own account the small houae then occupied ai the Circus, to which he 

 (are the name of the Surrey Theatre. There he and his company 

 perform< d aome of Shakiperei playi and aeveral operas, altering ti.em 

 ao at to evade the licence of the patent theatres ; and in 1S05 he pub- 

 lished his only literary effort, < The Venetian Outlaw,' a drama, in three 

 acts, adapted from the French. 



On the reopening of Drury-Lane Theatre, Elliston, again a leading 

 actor in its company, delivered Byron's address and performed ' Ham- 

 let' In 1819 he became the lessee of thst theatre, at a rent of 

 1 0,2001. ; and be held this lease till his bankruptcy in 1826. From 

 the date of that event he sunk into a subordinate position. Aft r 

 speculating in the Olympic Theatre, ho became again manager of the 

 Sunvy ; and there, till near the close of bis life, lie continued occa- 

 sionally to perform. He died of apoplexy on the 7th of July 1831. 



Elliston has been asserted, not without some show of reason, to 

 hare been the very best comedian of our time. Others surpassed him 

 in particular excellences ; but none united so many of the merits 

 eseentisl to eminent success in the highest walk of comic acting. So, 

 likewise, he rote higher perhaps in tragedy than any other actor who 

 was distinguished for excellence in comedy: he was admirable in 

 those tragic parts which do not pass altogether out of the sphere of 

 ordinary life. The weaknesses and eccentricities of his own character 

 have furnished to Charles Lamb and others the themes for an infinite 

 fund of good-humoured raillery. His predominant failing was inor- 

 dinate self-esteem. He was rain of himself as an actor, vainer of 

 himself as a manager : and in both phases his vanity was continually 

 breaking out in incidents which, while they were irresistibly diverting, 

 exhibited a humorous whimsicality, and a fervid sincerity of self-de- 

 ceiving imagination, making him one of the most curious objects upon 

 which a kindly observer of human oddities could exercise his scrutiny. 



KI.MK:j, JAMES, was formerly in practice as an architect, aud 

 was at one time surveyor and civil engineer to the port of London. 

 lie was born in the city of London on the 15th of October 1782, and 

 acquired a knowledge of building under Us father, and of architec- 

 ture under Mr. George Gibson. He gained the silver medal iu 

 architecture at the Royal Academy in 1804, and afterwards designed 

 and carried ont public and private buildings in London, and the 

 neighbouring counties, and in Ireland. He relinquished his principal 

 office, and that of vice-president of a society " for the diffusion of the 

 knowledge of the Fine Arts among the people" in 1823, through 

 loss of sight, which however he partially recovered a few years since. 

 Mr. Klmet is the author of a memoir of the ' Life and Works of Sir 

 Christopher Wren, 1 published in 1S23. More recently he has published 

 a volume on ' Sir Christopher Wren : bis Life and Times.' He is also 

 the author of well known works on The Law of Dilapidations, and 

 on Architectural Jurisprudence ; and has printed a volume of 

 ' Lectures on Architecture,' a ' General and Bibliographical Dictionary 

 of the Fine Arts,' ' Klmos's Quarterly Review,' ' The Annals of the 

 Fine Arts,' and other works, with some of which Haydon was con- 

 nected as contributor and projector. He also supplied the literary 

 matter for Jones's 'Metropolitan Improvements in London in the 19th 

 Century,' and articles on Bridge Building and other subjects for the 

 Encyclopedia Metropolitans.' One of bis latent works, 'Thomas 

 Clark son : a Monograph,' appeared in 1864. 



ELMES, HARVEY LONSDALE, son of the preceding, was born 

 near Chichetttr, about the year 1814. He was sent to school at 

 Mortlake in Surrey, and subsequently was taken into the office of 

 his father, who had removed to London ; and at the age of twenty-one 

 he Joined his father in partnership, and together they designed and 

 superintended buildings in Park-street and the South Mall, St. James's 

 Park. His independent fame datet from his success in the competition 

 for the building of St. Ueorge's Hall, Liverpool; hit design being 

 chosen from the drawings of eighty-six competitors. Ho was then 

 aged twenty-three. The building was at first intended for a music hall 

 only, and a foundation-stone was laid on the 28th of June 1888, though 

 not quite on the present site. A competition for the Assize Courts 

 shortly succeeded the other ; and in this also Klines was successful, 

 there being seventy-five competitors. It was however decided to erect 

 oa* grand edifice, i.d for this a fresh design by Elmes was approved 

 of In 1841, when the work at length commenced. It was carried ou 

 under the architect's direction till the year 1847, when he was obliged 

 to succumb to the encroachments of a faUl malady, and, after a brief 

 sojourn at the Isle of Wight, he quitted England for Jamaica, with 

 the hope of restoration in a warm climate, but died at Spanish Town 

 00 November 26, 1847, in the thirty third year of his age. He had 

 delegated the superintendence of hi* groat work during his expected 

 abseucc, to his friend Mr. R. Kawlinson. Mr. Cockerel! having agreed to 

 atUnd to architectural detail. Under the first of these gentlemen the 

 ball was arched over, contrary to many predictions which the architect 

 had bore* the brunt of fe.ling probably that what bad been accom- 

 plished in the works of the Roman* should be allowed to present no 

 Insurmountable difficulty in the present century. The present deco- 

 rative character of UM interior, and some of the external accessories, are 

 due to Mr. Cocken-ll, who also designed the sculpture of the pediment. 



To understand the importance of Elmes's great work, it would bo 

 necessary to review the history of architecture, and esp< ci .lly the 

 adaptation of Greek models, during the course of some years pre- 

 ceding the date of the St George's Hall de-ign. The proper use of 

 ancient models bad been completely lost sight of, and especially as to 

 Greek architecture. In many parts of the kingdom buildings were 

 erected, supposed to be classic il, but which realised neither art nor 

 the lower quality, the very imitation. Thus an idea had begun to 

 prevail that the Greek system was to limited in its scope, whilst at 

 variance with modem requirements, as to be in itself the cause of 

 the failure in certain ambitious productions. Elmes however repeated 

 the proof how that it is possible to use the works of preceding minds, 

 and yet to realise the grandest new conception. Considered AS to the 

 attributes of art, Elmes's work is more Greek than many modern 

 buildings which may exhibit even accurate reproduction. The design 

 may well be claimed by this country as amongst the noblest efforts of 

 architecture in Europe. 



After yuan spent most worthily in the pursuit of art, Elmes had 

 not realised anything commensurate with thu extent and merit of his 

 exertions. An average of 4501. a year, subject to deductions for 

 travelling, clerks, office and other heavy expenses, was all that one who 

 had the highest gift*, received from tint work which farms the chief 

 adornment of a rich provincial town ; and after his death a subset 

 was raised to provide a moderate income for his wife and child. 



ELMOKE, ALFRED, A.R.A., born in 1816, at Clonakilty, Cork, 

 first attracted attention in London by the pi .-lures of the ' Crucifixion, ' 

 exhibited at the British Institution in 1838, and the ' Martyrdom of 

 Thomas h Becket,' painted for Daniel O'Connell, and exhibited at the 

 Royal Acidetny in 1840. Mr. Elmore now went for awhile to study 

 the great historic painters at Rome, and on hU return in 184S sent a 

 picture without a title to the Academy. From this time he has been 

 a tolerably regular contributor to the walls of the Royal Academy, 

 but he has selected a somewhat lower branch of the historic art fur 

 his special culture than his early essays promised. His chief pictures 

 have been 'Rienzi in the Forum,' 1841 ; ' The Origin of the Guvlph 

 and Ghibeline Quarrels at Florence,' 1815, which secured his election 

 the following November as Associate of the Royal Academy ; ' The 

 Fainting of Hero,' 1816 ; ' The Inventor of the Stocking- Loom,' 1847 

 (this, perhaps the most popular of Mr. Elmore's pictures, has been 

 very well engraved); 'The Death b-d of Robert King of Naples,' 

 1848; 'Religious Controver-y in the time of Louis XIV.,' and a 

 subject from ' Tristram Shandy,' 1819 ; ' Grinelda,' and a subject from 

 the 'Decameron,' 1850; 'Hotspur and the Fop,' 1851; 'A Subject 

 from Pepys's Diary/ 1852; ' Queeu Blanch ordering her son Louis IX. 

 from the presence of his Wife, 1 1853; and 'The Emperor Charles V. 

 at Yuste,' 1856, a very skilful rendering of a passage from Stirling's 

 ' Cloister Life of Charles V.,' but having the fault too common with 

 Mr. Elmoru's works, of requiring a commentary to render its intention 

 clear a fault not in any degree dependent on the composition or 

 execution of the painter, but inherent in the choice of subject 



ELMSLEY, PETER, was born iu 1773, and educated at West- 

 minster and Oxford. In 1798 he was presented to the chapelry of 

 Little Hurkcsley, in Essex. By the death of his undo Elmsley, the 

 well-known bookseller, he succeeded to a competent fortune, wiich 

 enabled him to live in independence, and devote his whole time to 

 literary pursuits. For tome time after bis uncle's death he resided 

 in Edinburgh, and was one of the earliest contributors to the ' Ivlin- 

 bur f h Review.' The articles on ' Wytteubach's Plutarch,' 'Schwi-ig- 

 hiiuser'd Athennns,' 'Blomfieldt jlischylus,' and 'Person's Hecuba' 

 are generally understood to have been written by him. While at 

 Edinburgh he superintended an edition of Herodotus (1804, 6 vols. 

 12ino), in which he gave the first proof of the love of Atticisms 

 which, always distinguished him, by introducing into the text the 

 Attic forms of the tenses, in spite of all the manuscripts. He was 

 alto an early contributor to the ' Quarterly Review : ' his paper on 

 ' Mai Maud's Euripides ' (in the seventh volume) is well-known to 

 scholars. As toon as the state of Europe permitted, Elmsley went 

 abroad, and collated manuscripts in the continental libraries. He 

 spent the whole of the winter of 1818 in the Laureutian library at 

 Florence. In 1819 Elmsley was appointed by the government to 

 assist Sir Humphry Davy in unrolling and deciphering the papyri at 

 Herculaneum ; but the attempt was not attend- d with success, :m I in 

 the prosecution of his duties Elmsley caught a fever, from which he 

 never fully recovered. 



On bis return to Oxford he became Principal of St. Albnn's Hall, 

 and Camdeii Professor of Modern History in that university. Jlo 

 died of a disease of the heart on the 8th of March 1825. Elumlcy's 

 acknowledged works were editions of Greek plays. He published the 

 'Acharnians of Aristophanes' in 1809; the ' tEdipus Tyrannus of 

 Sophocl s ' in 1 81 1 ; the ' Heracleidm, Medea, acd Bacchic of Euripides ' 

 in the years 1815, 1818, and 1821; and the ' Oviipus Coloncus of 

 Sophocles' in 1823. His transcript of the 'Florentine Scholia ou 

 Sophocles ' was published after his death. As a scholar, Elmsley did 

 not pretend to be more than a follower of Person, but he did far more 

 for Greek scholarship than any English scholar who followed that 

 great critic. His character has been drawn with great truth by the 

 celebrated G. Hermann of Leipzig (in the ' Wien. Jahrbiicber,' vol. liv. , 

 p. 236) : " The way laid open by Porson was pursued and enlarged 



