Memoir of Sir Walter Elliot oj Woljelee. 359 



first half of this century, laid the foundation of Oriental 

 learning in British India. 8uch men were Sir W. Jones 

 Oolebrook, H. H. Wilson Prinsep, Max Miiller, Sir Monier 

 Williams, Reinhold Eost, and, I may add, Sir W. Muir, the 

 honoured Principal of our University. 



Sir Walter was so widely known for his acquaintance with 

 ancient literature, coins, sculptures, and zoology, that his 

 botanical work might easily escape attention. In fact, various 

 notices of the subject of this memoir have appeared, written by 

 zoologists, antiquaries, and ethnologists, who have delated upon 

 his varied and extensive attainments.* Walter Elliot was 

 born in Edinburgh in 1803, son of James Elliot of Wolfelee, 

 a junior branch of the old Border family — Elliot of 

 Lariston. 



His early education was under a private tutor at home and in 

 Cumberland. Afterwards he went to a school near Doncaster, 

 and then to Haileybury College, which he left with distinction 

 in 1821, to take up his appointment in the East India 

 Company's Civil Service at Madras. 



He served in the Southern Mahratta country from 1821 to 

 1833, when he returned to England by the Red Sea. In 

 1826 and 1828 he had personal meetings with Mountstuart 

 Elphinstone and Sir John Malcolm, then Governor of Bombay. 

 At the insurrection of Kittur, his superintending officer, 

 Thackeray, father of the novelist, was killed, and he was 

 taken prisoner, and detained several weeks in peril of his 

 life. 



During his long public career he kept a diary, and 

 one learns from it with how much eagerness he studied the 

 natural history of the Province. His observations appeared, 

 in 1839, in the Madras Journal of Science. "The Catalogue 

 of the Mammalia found in the South Mahratta Country" is 

 often referred to by naturalists and sportsmen. The habits 

 of the animals were described, and measurements of each 

 were made by himself. 



In 1836 he returned to India as private secretary to Lord 

 Elphinstone, then Governor of Madras, and the remainder of 

 his service was spent in that Presidency. At the same time, 



* Nature, April 7 (W. T. Blandford) ; Linn. Soc. Proc. (P. Sladen) ; 

 Indian Antiquary ,• Roy. Asiatic Soc. Proc. (Sir A. J. Arbuthnot.) 



