Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/563

 ELWES pieces. It has a cathedral, college, seminary, theatre, several churches and convents, and manufactories of arms and jewelry. It is supplied with water from a distance of three miles, by means of a fine Moorish aqueduct. During the peninsular war it was a place of great importance ; and in March, 1808, it was taken by the French under Junot, and held till the convention of Cintra in August, 1808. ELWES, John, an English miser, born in South- wark about 1714, died Nov. 26, 1789. His own family name was Meggot, but he ex- changed it for that of his uncle, Sir Harvey El- wes, from whom he received a large inheri- tance. At an early period of his life he at- tended Westminster school, and became a good classical scholar. He was sent to Geneva to complete his education, and there distinguished himself as one of the boldest riders in Europe. After returning to England he indulged in ELYMAIS 555 gambling, frequenting the most noted gaming houses. He next took to hunting, and his sta- ble of fox hounds was considered the best in the kingdom ; yet he kept but a single servant to attend to all his cows, dogs, and horses. From his parsimonious mode of life his fortune rapidly increased, and when worth half a mil- lion he refused to accept a seat in parliament unless on the express stipulation that he should be brought in for nothing, and was elected for Berkshire in 1774. His miserly habits in- creased with his fortune, and during the latter years of his life he abandoned gaming, hunting, and every comfort, and died the possessor of 800,000, after having suffered greatly from fear of poverty. ELY, a city of Cambridgeshire, England, on an eminence near the Ouse, 16m. N. N. E. of Cambridge ; pop. about 8,000. It consists prin- cipally of one street, and contains many old Ely Cathedral. buildings. It is the seat of a bishopric which was founded in 1107. Its cathedral is a splen- did structure, built in successive centuries from 1174 to 1534, and presenting a singular mixture of the Saxon, Norman, and early English styles. The churches of St. Mary and of the Holy Trinity are also remarkable both for their age and splendor. A famous convent was founded here about 670 by Ethelreda, wife of Egfrid, king of Northumberland, and she became its first abbess. It was destroyed by the Danes in 870, and 100 years later was rebuilt by Ethel- wold, bishop of Winchester, who placed in it monks instead of nuns. Ely has manufactures of earthenware and tobacco pipes, breweries, flax and hemp-seed oil mills, lime kilns, exten- sive gardens in its vicinity, the produce of which is sent to the London and Cambridge markets, and several benevolent institutions and schools, among which is a grammar school founded by Henry VIII. It is the capital of a division of Cambridgeshire called the " Isle of Ely," separated from the rest of the county by the Ouse. This district is included in the re- claimed marsh known as Bedford Level. ELYMAIS, a province of ancient Elam, be- tween the river Eulseus and the Persian gulf. The notices of it in classical writers are very confused ; but it was more probably a district of Elam than an independent territory S. of it, or merely a town. The books of Maccabees and Tobias name it as a city of Persia, to which Antiochus Epiphanes laid siege ; but not one of the ancient writers who speak of this expedition mentions the place. Elymais is often used as equivalent to Elam. (See ELAM.)