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Sir Walter Elliot, K.C.S.I., LL.D., who died at his seat, 

 Wolfelee, near Hawick, N.B., on the 1st March, 1887, at the mature 

 age of 84 years, was born in Edinburgh, January 16th, 1803, the 

 eldest son of James Elliot, Esq., of Wolfelee, by his marriage with 

 Caroline, daughter and co-heiress of Walter Hunter, of Polmond, 

 county Peebles. Sir Walter was educated at Haileybury College, 

 where he obtained the certificate of " highly distinguished," and 

 entered the service of the East India Company in 1820. In 1823 he 

 received his first appointment as Assistant Political Agent for the 

 South Mahratta District. After holding various other offices in the 

 Revenue and Political Departments of the Madras Government, he 

 was made, in 1837, Private Secretary to his cousin, Lord Elphinstone, 

 then Governor of Madras. Erom 1837 to 1854 he was a Member of 

 the Board of Revenue, and during that time was intrusted with 

 the supervision of the Northern Circars, then in a very unsatis- 

 factory condition. In 1854 he became Member of Council, and 

 retained this position until he retired from the Indian Service in 

 1859. 



Throughout his career in India and during the whole period of his 

 subsequent life in this country until a very recent date, when his eye- 

 sight failed him, Sir Walter Elliot was constantly at work on various 

 points connected with the Natural History, Ethnology, Antiquities, 

 and Languages of India, in all of which subjects he was deeply 

 versed and took the most profound interest. Though his publications 

 were not very numerous, his notes and collections in all these 

 departments were extensive^ and were in many cases utilised in the 

 way of contributions to the writings of his fellow- workers in these 

 various branches of science. One of his most important earlier papers 

 was a Catalogue of the Mammals found in the Southern Mahratta 

 country, published in the ' Madras Journal of Science ' for 1839 

 which was one of the first attempts made to give a connected account 

 of the mammal-fauna of the Indian Peninsula. In the same journal 

 and in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' will be found 

 other zoological contributions from his pen. Sir Walter was also well 

 acquainted with Indian plants, and after his return to this country 

 contributed several articles to the ' Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal ' on the farinaceous grains and the various kinds of pulse 

 used in Southern India. But it is, perhaps, as an Indian antiquarian 

 that his name will be ultimately best known to posterity. The 

 sculptured slabs from the famous Buddhist Tope of Amravati which 

 adorn the walls of the great staircase in the British Museum, were 

 procured by him, and presented to the Court of Directors, who 

 transferred them to the national collection. Besides these, a splendid 

 collection was accumulated at Wolfelee of coins, copper plates, arms, 

 and other Indian ethnological objects. Sir Walter Elliot was for 



