496 ELDON ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE blossom. There are two very variable species of elder indigenous to Great Britain ; the S. Canadensi8 and 8. pubens are the only species peculiar to North America ; southern Europe has three species, and China one. ELDON, John Scott, earl of, lord chancellor of England, born in Nevvcastle-upon-Tyne, June 4, 1751, died in London, Jan. 13, 1838. He became a fellow of University college, Oxford, in 1767, in 1771 gained a prize for an English prose essay, and in 1772 forfeited his fellowship by a runaway marriage. The forfeiture not taking effect for a year, he resumed his studies at Oxford with the intention of taking orders, if a living fell vacant during that period. This not having been the case, he devoted himself to the study of the law, removed to London in 1775, and entered the office of a conveyancer. He was called to the bar in 1776, and for sev- ral years attended the northern circuit without much success. In 1780-'81 he distinguished himself in the case of Ackroyd 0. Sinithson and in the Olitheroe election case, and his pro- fessional success was assured. His receipts ranged from 6,054 in 1785 to 10,557 in 1798. He was made king's counsel in 1783, and in the same year became a member of the house of commons, where he kept his seat till he entered the house of lords. He was knight- ed in 1788, and appointed solicitor general, and in 1793 attorney general, which office he held till 1799, conducting the state trials of 1794 against Home Tooke, Hardy, and others. In 1799 he was appointed chief justice of the com- mon pleas, created Baron Eldon of Eldon, and entered the house of lords. He proved a con- summate common law judge. He became lord chancellor in 1801, and held the office for 26 years, with the exception of the time (1806-'7) during which it was filled by Erskine. As head of the court of chancery, though distin- guished for his knowledge of the law and the acuteness and subtlety with which he applied it, he encumbered the court with arrears, and caused great prejudice to the suitors imme- diately interested by his delay in rendering his judgments. The language in which they were stated was also obscure ; but the extreme care with which they were prepared gives them high value as precedents. In the cabinet he had great influence ; and under George III. he was said to have sometimes used the great seal in the name of the king even when the king was suffering from mental incapacity. He took part in all important debates in the house of lords, vigorously supported tory principles, and was earnest in his opposition to parlia- mentary reform and to the Catholic emancipa- tion bill. He was created Viscount Encombe and earl of Eldon in 1821. See " The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, with Selections from his Correspondence," by Horace Twiss (3 vols. 8vo, 1844), and " Lives of the Lord Chancellors, "by Lord Campbell. EL DORADO (Span., the golden), a country which, during the 16th and 17th centuries, and to some extent during the 18th century, was sup- posed to lie somewhere in the new world. Men's imaginations were inflamed by the riches actu- ally discovered in Mexico and Peru, and they conceived a belief that there was an undiscov- ered country in which gold was even more abundant. Many attempts were made to dis- cover it. Orellana, the lieutenant of Pizarro, reported that he had obtained definite infor- mation in regard to it on his voyage down the Amazon in 1540-'41. He pretended to have visited Manoa, its capital, and to have seen there immense treasures of gold and jewels. Martinez, a Spaniard, asserted that he resided seven months in the country, and gave full particulars in regard to its ruler and inhabi- tants. The two expeditions of Sir Walter Ra- leigh to Guiana (1595 and 1617) were under- taken in quest of this country. The faith in its existence was so enduring that Spanish ex- peditions on the same errand took place even in the latter part of the 18th century. EL DORADO, an E. county of California, drain- ed by three forks of the American river and by the Cosumnes; area, 1,872 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 10,309, of whom 1,582 were Chinese. It is crossed by the Sierra Nevada. It is one of the richest mining counties in the state, and mining is the chief industry. Besides gold, rich copper ore and excellent marble are found. There is also considerable timber and tillable land. The Placerville and Sacramento Valley railroad terminates in the county. The chief productions in 1870 were 3,997 bushels of wheat, 8,642 of barley, 6,235 tons of hay, 215,530 Ibs. of butter, 50,096 of wool, and 118,831 gallons of wine. There were 2,098 horses, 3,809 milch cows, 5,402 other cattle, 17,387 sheep, and 4,123 swine; 39 quartz mills for the production of gold, 21 saw mills, and 2 flour mills. Capital, Placerville. ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE, queen of France and afterward of England, born about 1122, died about 1203. She was the eldest daughter and heiress of William IX., duke of Guienne or Aquitaine, and was married in 1137 to Prince Louis, who in the same year succeeded to the throne of France as Louis VII. She was a lover of poetry and art, and could not sympathize with her ascetic husband. She accompanied him on the second crusade to the Holy Land in 1147. At that time he com- plained of her preference for other men, and on their return from Asia they were divorced, March 18, 1152. A short time afterward she bestowed her hand upon Henry Plantagenet, the future Henry II. of England. This alliance, which made Henry master of Eleanor's pos- sessions in France, produced protracted wars between the two countries. She bore him many children ; but his infidelities and neglect having changed her love into hatred, she in- cited her sons Geoffrey and Richard to rebel against their father, was arrested in 1173, and remained in confinement until after Henry's death in 1189. She was released by his sue-
