E L W E S. ' 485 
vifions in the laft ftage of putrefaction fooner than have a 
frefli joint from the butcher. 
Mr. Elwes had refided about thirteen years upon his 
uncle’s^ellate in Suffolk, when the conteft for Berkfhire 
,p re fen ted itfelf on the diffolution of the parliament; and 
when, to preferve the peace of that county, he was nomi¬ 
nated by lord Craven. Mr. Elwes, though he had re¬ 
tired from public bufinefs for fome ye’ars, had /till left 
about him fome of the feeds of more aCtive life, and he 
agreed to the propofal. It came farther enhanced to him, 
by the agreement, that he was to be brought in by the 
freeholders for nothing. Ail he did on the occasion was 
dining at the ordinary at Reading; and he got into par¬ 
liament for eighteen-pence! Though a new man, Mr. 
Elwes could not be called a young member ; for'hewa.s 
at this time nearly fixty years of age. But he was in 
pofTeffion of all his activity; and, preparatory to his ap¬ 
pearance on the boards of St. Stephen’s chapel, he ufed 
to attend conftantly during the races and other public 
meetings in all the great towns where his voters refided. 
At the different affemblies, he would dance among ft the 
youngeft to the laft, after riding on horfeback, frequently 
in the rain, to the place of meeting. 
The honour of parliament made no alteration in the 
•drefs of Mr. Elwes; on the contrary, it feemed to have 
attained additional meannefs; and nearly to have reached 
that happy climax of poverty, which has rriore than once 
drawn on him the companion of thofe who palfed him in 
the flreet. For the fpeaker’s dinners, however, he had 
one fuit, with which the fpeaker in the courfe of the 
feflions became very familiar. The rninifter likewife was 
well acquainted with it; and at any dinner of oppolition 
Hill wa§ his apparel the fame. The wits of the minority 
ufed to fay, “ that they had full as much reafon as the 
rninifter to be fatisfied with Mr. Elwes, as he never turned 
his coat.” At this period of his life Mr. Elwes wore a 
wig. Much about the time when his parliamentary life 
ceafed, that wig became worn out; fo then, being older 
and vvifer as to expence, he wore his own hair; which, 
like his expences, was very fmall. All this time the 
income of Mr. Elwes was increafing hourly, and his pre¬ 
lent expenditure was next to nothing; for the little plea- 
lures,he had once engaged in, he had now given up. He 
Kept no houfe, and only one old lervant, the huntfman, 
and a couple of horfes : he refided with his nephew ; his 
two fons he had ftationed in Suffolk and Berkfhire, to 
look after his refpeftive eftates ; and his drefs certainly 
was no expence to him; for had not other people been 
more careful than himfelf, he would not have had it even 
mended. 
As Mr. Elwes came into parliament without expence, 
he performed his duty as a member w'ould have done in 
the pure days of our conftitution. What he had not 
bought, he never attempted to fell; and he went forward 
in that ftra-ight and direft path, which can alone fatisfy a 
reflecting mind. Amongft the fmaller memorials of the 
parliamentary life of Mr. Elwes may be noted, that he 
did not follow the ctiftom of members in general, by fit¬ 
ting on any particular fide of the houfe, but fat as occa- 
fion prefented itfelf, on either indifcriminately; and he 
voted much in the fame manner, but never rofe to fpeak. 
In his attendance at the houfe, he was always early and 
late; and he never left it for dinner, as he had accuf- 
tomed himfelf to falling, fometimes for twenty-four hours 
in continuance. 
When he quitted parliament, he was, in the common 
phrafe, “a filh out of water!” The ftile of Mr. Elwes’s 
life had left him no domeftic fcenes to which he could 
retire; his home was dreary and poor; his rooms re¬ 
ceived no cheerfulnefs from fire; and while the outfide 
had all the appearance of a “ Houfe to be let,” the in- 
fide was a defect; but he had his penury alone to thank 
for this, and for the want'^of all the little comforts and 
.confalations which Ih.ould attend old age, and fmooth 
the palfage of declining life. At the clofe of the lpring 
Vol. VI. No. 3 «6. 
of 1785, he wifhed again to vilit, which he had not done 
for fome years, his feat at Stoke, in Suffolk. But then 
the journey was a mod ferious objeCt. The famous old 
fervant was 'dead ; the horfes that remained with him 
were a couple of worn-out brood-mares ; and he himfelf 
was not in that vigour of body in which he could ride 
fixty or feventy miles on the fuftenatice of two boiled 
eggs. The mention of a poft-chaife was a crime—*“ He 
afford a poft-chaife, indeed! where was he to get the 
money?” At length he was carried into the country as 
he was carried into parliament, free of expence, by a gen¬ 
tleman who was certainly not quite fo rich as Mr. Elwes. 
When he reached Stoke, once the feat of more aCtive 
fcenes, - and where his fox-hounds .had fpread fomewhat 
like vivacity around, he'remarked, “he had expended 
■ a great deal of money once very foolilhly; but that a 
man grew wifer by time.” 
The rooms af this feat, which were much out of repair, 
and would have fallen in but for his fon, John Elwes, efq. 
who refided there, he thought too expenfively furnilhed, 
as worfe tilings might have ferved. If a window was 
broken, there was to be no repair but that of a little 
brown paper, or piecing in a bit of broken glafs. To 
fave fire, he would walk about the remains of an old 
greenhoufe, or fit with a fervant in the kitchen. During' 
the harveft, he would amtife himfelf with going into the 
fields to glean the corn on the grounds of his own te¬ 
nants; and they ufed to leave a little more than ebramon 
to pleafe the old gentleman, who was as eager after it as 
any pauper in the parilh. In the advance of the feafon, 
his morning employment was to pick up any dray chips, 
bones, or other things, to carry to the fire, in his pocket. 
As no gleam of favourite paflion, or any ray of amu le¬ 
nient, broke through this gloom of penury, his infatia- 
ble defire of faving was now become uniform and fyftema- 
tic. He ufed Hill to ride about the country on one of the 
brood mares ; but then he rode her very economically, on 
the foft turf, adjoining the road, without putting himfelf 
to the expence of fnoes, as he obferved, “ The turf was 
fo pleafant to a horfe’s foot!” And when any gentleman 
called to pay him a vifit, and the boy who attended in 
the ftables was profufe enough to put a little hay before 
his horfe, old Elwes would liily fteal back into the fta- 
ble, and take the hay very carefully away. That very 
ftrong appetite which Mr. Elwes had in fome meafure 
reftrained during the long fitting of parliament, he now 
indulged mod voracioufly, and on every thing he could 
find. To fave, as he,thought, the expence of going to a 
butcher, he would have a whole fheep killed, and To eat 
mutton to the—end of the chapter. When he occafion- 
ally had his river drawn, though fometimes horfe-loads 
of fmall filh were taken, not one would he fuffer to be 
thrown back; for he obferved, “ He fbould never fee 
them again!” Game in the laft: Hate of putrefaction, and 
meat that walked about his plate, would he continue to 
eat, rather than have new things killed before the old 
provifion was finilhed. With this diet, the charnel-houf® 
*of fuftenance, his drefs kept pace, equally in the laft ftage 
of abfolute diffolution. Sometimes he would walk about 
in a tattered brown-coloured hat, and fometimes in a red 
and white woollen cap, like a prifoner confined for debt. 
His (hoes he never would fuffer to be cleaned, left they 
ftiould be worn out by the brulh. But (till, with all this 
felf-denial, that penury of life to which the inhabitant 
of an alms-houfe is not doomed, fti 11 did he think he was 
profufe, and frequently fay, “ He rand be a little more 
careful of his property.” His difquietude on the fub- 
jeCt of money was continual. When he went to bed, he 
would put five or ten guineas into a bureau; and then, 
full of his money, after he had retired to reft, and lome- 
titries in the middle of the night, he would come down 
to fee whether it was fafe. 
The feene of mortification at which Mr. Elwes was 
now arrived, was all but a denial of the common iiecefla- 
ries of life; and indeed it might have admitted a doubt, 
6 H whether 
