Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/316

Elmsley of nineteen he exhibited his first picture at the Royal Academy. At the exhibition of the British Institution in 1838 his 'Crucifixion' occupied a prominent place, and in the succeeding year he made a second appearance at the Academy with 'The Martyrdom of Becket.' Both these pictures are now in one of the catholic churches in Dublin, the 'Becket' being a bequest to the church by Mr. O'Donnell, for whom it was painted. 'Rienzi in the Forum,' produced in 1844, and several Italian pictures exhibited at the British Institution, were the result of a visit paid by the artist to Italy. Elmore's Italian experiences and study accentuated his feeling for semi-historical subjects, and his representation of the 'Origin of the Guelph and Ghibelline Quarrel,' exhibited in 1845, established his reputation as an historical painter. The work was sold for 300l., and it also gained him his entrance as an associate into the Royal Academy. Among the late important works by this artist were: 'The Fainting of Hero,' from 'Much Ado about Nothing,' executed in 1846; 'The Invention of the Stocking Loom,' a picture which achieved great popularity, 1847; 'The Deathbed of Robert, King of Naples, the Wise and Good,' 1848; 'Religious Controversy in the Time of Louis XIV,' 1849; 'Griselda,' 1850; and 'Hotspur and the Fop,' 1851. Elmore was adequately represented at the International Exhibitions of London 1851 and 1862, and at the Paris Exhibitions of 1855 and 1878. Among the more popular of the works thus exhibited were 'Mary Queen of Scots,' 'After the Fall,' and 'Lucretia Borgia.' Elmore was elected an academician in 1877. He died in London, 24 Jan. 1881.

[Ann. Reg. 1881; Men of the Time. 10th edit.]  ELMSLEY or ELMSLY, PETER (1736–1802), bookseller, was born in Aberdeenshire in 1736, and succeeded Paul Vaillant (1716-1802), whose family had carried on a foreign bookselling business in the Strand, opposite Southampton Street, since 1686. He, with Cadell, Dodsley, and others, formed the literary club of booksellers who produced many important works, including Johnson's 'Lives of the Poets.' Gibbon writes to Lord Sheffield, 2 Oct. 1793: 'My first evening was passed at home in a very agreeable tête-a-tête with my friend Elmsley,' and the following month he speaks of lodging in a 'house of Elmsley's' in St. James's Street (Memoirs, 1814, pp. 408, 411). Elmsly was intimate with Wilkes, and directed the sale of his library. Miss Wilkes ordered that 'all her manuscripts, of whatever kind,... be faithfully delivered to Mr. Elmsly,' but he died before her (Gent. Mag. lxxii. pt. i. 467). To the usual Scottish schooling Elmsly added a large fund of information acquired by his own exertions in after life. He knew French well. His business career was honourable and prosperous, and many of the leading book collectors and literary men of the day were on friendly terms with him. A short time before his death he gave up his business to a shopman, David Bremner, who soon died, and was succeeded by Messrs. James Payne & J. Mackinlay, the one the youngest son of Thomas Payne of the Mews-gate, the other one of Elmsly's assistants.

Elmsley died at Brighton, 3 May 1802, in his sixty-seventh year. His remains were conveyed to his house in Sloane Street, London, and were buried at Marylebone 10 May. He left a widow. A handsome share of his large fortune fell to his nephew, the Rev. Peter Elmsley, D.D. (1773-1825) [q.v.]

 ELMSLEY, PETER (1773–1825), classical scholar, born in 1773, was educated at Hampstead, at Westminster, and at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 1794, M.A. 1797, B.D. 30 Oct. 1823, D.D. 7 Nov. 1823. He left the university without a fellowship, but with a reputation for great learning. He took orders and was presented in 1798 to Little Horkesley in Essex, which he held till his death. He inherited a fortune from his uncle, Peter Elmsley [q.v.], the bookseller. About 1802 he lived in Edinburgh, and was intimate with the founders of the 'Edinburgh Review,' to which he contributed the articles on Heyne's 'Homer,' Schweighaeuser's 'Athenæus,' Blomfield's 'Prometheus,' and Porson's 'Hecuba.' He was also a contributor to the 'Quarterly Review.' From 1807 till 1816 he lived at St. Mary Cray. Mrs. Grote, in the life of her husband, George Grote, the historian, says that Elmsley was in love with her, and by a false assertion that she was engaged to some one nearly prevented the marriage with Grote. After 1816 he resided chiefly at Oxford. He visited France and Italy several times to collate manuscripts of the classics, and spent the winter of 1818 in the Laurentian Library at Florence. In 1819 he was engaged with Sir Humphry Davy in superintending the development of the papyri from Herculaneum. In 1823 he was appointed principal of St. Alban Hall, Oxford, and Camden professor of ancient history in the