Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/176

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Elder
170
Elder

city. He had considerable ability as an artist, and made many fine drawings of ancient buildings and other memorials of the past. He died at Coventry on 22 May 1862, in his seventy-first year.

[Gent. Mag. November 1862.]

ELDER, CHARLES (1821–1851), painter, gained some success as an historical and portrait painter. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1844, to which he sent 'Noli me tangere,' and at the Academy in 1845, sending 'Sappho.' He was a frequent contributor to the exhibitions, among his works being 'Florimel' (Royal Academy, 1846'), 'The Death of Mark Antony' (Royal Academy, 1847), 'Rosalind' (Royal Academy, 1850), 'Jael' (British Institution, 1850). Elder died 11 Dec. 1851, aged 30, leaving a widow and three children. Two of his pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy in the following year, viz. 'On the Thames near Twickenham' and 'An Italian Fruit Girl.' Among the portraits painted by him were those of the Marquis of Bristol and Mr. Sheriff Nicol.

[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict, of Artists, 1760-1880; Gent. Mag. 1852, new ser. xxxvii. 210, 312; Catalogues of the Royal Academy and other exhibitions.]

ELDER, EDWARD (1812–1858), headmaster of Charterhouse School, the son of John Edward Elder of Barbadoes, was born on 1 Oct. 1812. At the age of twelve he was sent to Charterhouse, where he remained till 1830, when he gained an open scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford. There he took first class honours in literis humanioribus and won the Ellerton theological essay prize. He graduated B.A. 1834, M.A. 1836, D.D. 1853. He held a tutorial appointment at Balliol till 1839, when he became headmaster of Durham Cathedral grammar school. This school, which he found in a languishing condition, he may be said to have made. So great was his success as a teacher and his popularity among his pupils, that when in 1853, on the nomination of Dr. Saunders to the deanery of Peterborough, he was appointed head-master of Charterhouse, many of the Durham boys, among them Professor Nettleship, migrated to London with him. At Charterhouse he worked no less hard than at Durham, but he was prevented from giving full scope to his abilities by occasional attacks of illness, which necessitated his absence from the school. Latterly his mind altogether gave way. On 6 April 1858 he died. A tablet to his memory was placed by some of his friends and pupils in Charterhouse Chapel, immediately facing the founder's tomb. Beyond contributing several articles to Smith's 'Dictionary of Classical Biography and Mythology,' Elder published nothing.

[List of Carthusians, 1879; Haig-Brown's Charterhouse, Past and Present, 1879, p. 156; Times 9 April 1858; information kindly supplied by Dr. Haig-Brown and Canon Elwin.]

ELDER, JOHN (fl. 1555), Scotch writer, a native of Caithness, passed twelve years of his life at the universities of St. Andrews, Aberdeen, and Glasgow, and appears to have entered the ministry. He came to England soon after the death of James V of Scotland in 1542, when he presented to Henry VIII a 'plot' or map of the realm of Scotland, being a description of all the chief towns, castles, and abbeys in each county and shire, with the situation of the principal isles. In an accompanying letter to Henry, Elder is very severe on David Beaton, denouncing him as the pestiferous cardinal, and his bishops as blind and ignorant; in the subscription he styles himself clerk and a 'redshank,' meaning by the latter designation, it is supposed, 'a roughfooted Scot or highlander.' This letter, which is now preserved in the British Museum, Royal MS. 18, A. xxxviii., was printed in vol. i. of the Bannatyne Club 'Miscellany.' In the Record Office is another letter by Elder addressed to Mr. Secretary Paget, and dated from Newcastle, 6 Oct. 1545. It gives an account of the operations of the army under the command of the Earl of Hertford in the invasion of Scotland between 8 and 23 Sept. 1545, minutely detailing their daily proceedings, with a list of the towns burnt each day (Cal. State Papers, Scottish Ser., i. 57). At Mary's accession Elder turned Roman catholic, as appears from his letter addressed to Robert Stuart, bishop of Caithness, 'from the Citie of London... the first... of January, 1555,' which was published as 'The Copie of a Letter sent in to Scotlande of the ariuall and landynge and... marryage of... Philippe, Prynce of Spaine to the Princess Marye Quene of England, solemnisated in the Citie of Winchester... whereunto is added a brefe overture or openyng of the legacion of Cardinall Poole from the Sea Apostolyke of Rome, with the substaunce of his oracyon to the kyng and Quenes Maiestie for the reconcilement of the realme of Englande to the unitie of the Catholyke Churche. With the very copie also of the Supplycaciō exhibited to their highnesses by the three Estates assembled in the parliamente wherein they... haue submitted thēselyes to the Popes Holy