ELDER DEMPSTER CO. 



2839 



ELEANOR 



Elder Dempster Co. British 

 steamship line. It was founded in 

 1868 by Alexander Elder and John 



Elder Dempster Co. flags. 

 African Steamship Co. Risht, British 



Left, 



iritish 



"and" African Steam Navigation Co. 



Dempster, and greatly developed 

 after 1879 by Sir Alfred Jones. 

 The Beaver Line, one of its under- 

 takings, was sold in 1903 to the 

 Canadian Pacific Railway, but the 

 services to S Africa, W. Africa, and 

 the W. Indies were retained. The 

 firm was reorganized as a registered 

 company in 1910, the control being 

 acquired by Lord Pirrie and Sir 

 Owen Philipps. At present it man- 

 ages the British and African Steam 

 Navigation Co., the African Steam- 

 ship Co., the Elder Line, and the 

 Imperial Direct Line. Liverpool, 

 London, and Rotterdam are the 

 chief ports from which the ships 

 go to Africa. The head offices are 

 at Colonial House, Water Street, 

 Liverpool, and the London office 

 at 4, St. Mary Axe, E.C. 



An offshoot, the Elders and 

 Fyffes line, was started in 1902 by 

 Sir Alfred Jones to bring bananas 

 and other fruit from the W. Indies. 

 Elder Statesmen. In Japan an 

 informal body of statesmen who, 

 having retired from the public 

 service, are called upon by the 

 emperor for advice and council on 

 occasions of national emergency or 

 difficulty. The word is sometimes 

 used in a general sense for men of 

 similar character in Great Britain. 

 Eldon, JOHN SCOTT, IST EARL OF 

 (1751-1838). British lawyer. Born 

 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, June 4, 

 1751, his 

 father was a 

 coal merchant 

 in that town. 

 He was edu- 

 cated at the 

 Gramma r 

 School, New- 

 castle, and at 

 Q ni versity 

 College, Ox- 

 ford, where he 

 gained a fel- 

 lowship and 

 was for a time 

 a tutor. He did 

 not, as at first intended, enter the 

 Church, but in 1776 was called 

 to the bar and soon began to prac- 

 tise in London. Success was not 

 immediate, but it came, and in 

 1782 he became a K.C. 



In 1782 Scott entered parlia- 



After Lawrence 



ment as M.P. for Weobley. He 

 forced himself into notice by fre- 

 quent speeches, and in 1788 Pitt 

 made him solicitor-general. In 

 1793 he was promoted attorney- 

 general, and in 1799, having in the 

 meantime conducted the prosecu- 

 tion of Home Tooke, and others 

 holding republican ideas, he was 

 made chief justice of the court of 

 common pleas, and a peer, as Baron 

 Eldon. In 1801 he became lord 

 chancellor, leaving office on Pitt's 

 death in 1806. 



In 1807 Eldon returned to the 

 post of chancellor, which he was 

 destined to fill for 20 years, holding 

 the office for a longer period than 

 any other chancellor. During that 

 time he was the most powerful 

 man in Lord Liverpool's reaction- 

 ary cabinet. He left office in 1827 

 and died Jan. 13, 1838. 



Eldon married Miss Surtees, the 

 daughter of a banker, having run 

 away with her in 1772. His 

 two sons died before him, and his 

 titles he had been made an earl in 

 1821 passed to his grandson John 

 (1805-54). The title is still held by 

 his descendants, the earl's eldest son 

 being known as Viscount Encombe. 

 Eldon' s elder brother, William 

 Scott, was also a distinguished 

 lawyer ; hi 1821 he was made Baron 

 Stowell. See Life, H. Twiss, 1844 ; 

 Lives of the Lord Chancellors, Lord 

 Campbell, 3rd ed., 1848. 



El Dorado (Span., The Gilded 

 One ). Name successively applied 

 to a gilded man, a golden city 

 known as Manoa or Omoa, and a 

 region abounding in gold and 

 precious stones, reputed to exist 

 in S. America. The El Dorado 

 legend apparently originated in a 

 custom said to have been observed 

 by an Indian tribe dwelling on the 

 table-land of Bogota at the instal- 

 lation of a new chief. His naked 

 body, after being smeared with 

 balsam, was covered with gold- 

 dust, and he plunged into the 

 sacred lake of Guatavita, whilst 

 the assembly cast gold and precious 

 stones into the water. 



The Spaniards in America put 

 such faith in the El Dorado legend 

 that the governors of Guiana were 

 styled also governors of El Dorado. 

 They organized many fruitless ex- 

 peditions in search of this legen- 

 dary city, Manoa, the earliest being 

 led by a German governor of 

 Guiana, Ambrose Dalfinger, in 

 1529. In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh 

 claimed to have located Manoa on 

 an island hi Lake Parima, but 

 this lake was proved by the 19th 

 century German traveller, von 

 Humboldt, to be non-existent. 

 The name El Dorado came to be 

 applied to any place reputed to 

 abound in easily acquired wealth. 



Eleanor of Aqui- 



taine, Queen of 



Henry II 



Eleanor (c. 1122-1204). Queen 

 of Henry II of England. The 

 daughter of William, duke of Aqui- 

 taine, her first 

 husband was 

 Louis VII of 

 France, to whom 

 she was married 

 in 1137. Her 

 dowry was the 

 great duchy of 

 Aquitaine. In a 

 short time 

 Eleanor and 

 Louis were on 

 bad terms, and 

 in 1152 the marriage was dissolved. 

 In the same year she married Henry 

 of Anjou, who became king of 

 England in 1154. She was the 

 mother by Henry of the turbulent 

 princes who disturbed his reign. 

 Indulgent to them, the queen was 

 concerned in the revolt of 1 173. Al- 

 though of a great age, she moved 

 about in France trying to help John 

 in his fight against Richard. She 

 died April 1, 1204. See Queens of 

 England, A. Strickland, vol. i, 1840. 

 Eleanor (d. 1291). Queen of 

 Henry III of England. The daugh- 

 ter of the count of Provence, she 

 was brought 

 up amid the 

 poets and trou- 

 badours there, 

 and was more 

 a c c o mplished 

 than most 

 ladies of her 

 time. In 1236 

 she was mar- 

 ried to Henry 

 at Canterbury. 

 Throughouther 

 residence in England she was most 

 unpopular. The charges against 

 her resolve themselves into a love 

 of foreign relatives and avarice. In 

 1276 she entered a religious house 

 at Amesbury, Wiltshire, where she 

 died, June 25, 1291. Her two sons 

 were Edward I and Edmund, earl 

 of Lancaster. See Queens of Eng- 

 land, Agnes Strickland, vol. i, 1840. 

 Eleanor (d. 1290). Queen of 

 Edward I of England. The daugh- 

 ter of Ferdinand III, king of Cas- 

 tile, she was married to Edward in 

 Oct., 1254. She fled to France 

 in 1264 when her husband was 

 worsted by the barons, and was 

 hi Palestine with him in 1270. 

 She died at Harby in Nottingham- 

 shire, Nov. 28, 1290,and was buried 

 at Westminster. The king erected 

 crosses at the places at which her 

 body rested on the journey 

 Lincoln, Grantharn, Stamford, 

 Geddington, Northampton, Stony 

 Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, S. 

 Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and 

 Charing. See Queens of England, 

 Agnes Strickland, vol. i, 1840- 



Eleanor of Prov- 

 ence, Queen of 

 Henry III 



