156 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



Among many important engravings from his 

 pictures mention may be made of three fine plates 

 on a large scale engraved by Charles Turner and 

 published by W. D. Jones, of Oxford, in 1807 ; these 

 are "Dead Game," "Black Game" and "Red 

 Game." 



Elmer died at the age of seventy-nine, in 1796, 

 having exhibited for the last time three years pre- 

 viously ; he was buried at Farnham. Dying as he 

 had lived, unmarried, he bequeathed his property 

 (which included, as already remarked, a large number 

 of his own works), to his nephew. These were ex- 

 hibited at the Large Room in the Haymarket in the 

 spring of 1799, under the title of " Elmer's Sports- 

 man's Exhibition." Many of them were disposed 

 of at good prices, and the remainder were removed 

 to Gerrard Street, Soho, where they were acciden- 

 tally destroyed by fire on 6th February, 1801. The 

 catalogue of these pictures consisted of 148 lots, 

 and the Introduction describes it as a collection of 

 pictures of dead pheasants, partridges, hares, "and 

 the numerous etceterae of what painters call still 

 life." It proceeds : — "To blazon the merit of Mr. 

 Elmer is quite unnecessary, as for more than half-a- 

 century his talents have been universally admitted 

 and universally admired. 1 le took Nature, English 

 Nature, for his model, and in his works she herself 

 appears as in a mirror. ' I'he story of the ancient 



