THE ELLIOTS.

THE name spelt variously Elliot or Eliott is that of a border clan rather than of a family. Six distinct branches are enumerated by genealogista, but the family with which we are now concerned claims a descent from GILBERT Emorr, of Stobbs, in the county of Roxburgh, a border chief of considerable renown, known by the sobriquet of "Gibbie an' the Gouden Garters," who married Margaret, daughter of Walter Scott, second Baron of Harden, better known as " Maggy Fendy," and received along with her as dowry, in fulfilment of her father's promise, "the half of a Michaelmas moon," or the plunder he could obtain from the Eng- lish border during that period. "Gibbie" and "Maggy " had six sons. The eldest, William Eliott of Stobbs, was made a knight ban- neret on the field of battle by King Charles in 1643, and in 1666 a baronet of Nova Scotia. His grandson, Sir Gilbert, of Stobbs, had eight sons, from the eldest of whom, Sir John, is descended the present Sir William Eliott of Stobbs and Wells, in Roxburgh,— and the youngest of whom, George Augustus Eliott, was the celebrated defender of Gibraltar. The latter was born at Stobbs in 1718, educated first at home and afterwards at Leyden, where he obtained a conversance with the French and German languages. He was then placed at the military school of La Fare in Picardy, the moat celebrated in Europe, and then conducted by the great engineer Vauban. He perfected the knowledge thus acquired by actual service in the Prussian army, then the model army of the Continent. He returned home, however, a stripling in his seventeenth year, and arresting the attention of Colonel Peers, in command of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, he entered that regiment as a volunteer. He remained in the regiment for a twelvemonth, and then exchanged to the Engineer corps at Woolwich, whence through his uncle, Colonel Eliott, he joined the 2nd troop of "horse grenadiers" as adjutant. In this position he greatly contributed by his exertions to make the two troops of "horse grenadiers" the finest heavy cavalry in Europe. He served abroad in Germany with his regiment in the war which ended in 1748, and was wounded at the battle of Dettingen. ' He rose successively (by purchase) in this regiment to a lieutenant- coloneky. On arriving at this rank he resigned his commission in the Engineer corps, which he had up to that time held along with his other commission, and which he might have still retained. He had acquired by this time great proficiency in gunnery, a famous engineer, Bellidor, having been his instructor. In 1759 he was appointed aide-de-camp to George IL, and resigned his lieutenant-colonelcy in the heavy cavalry, being appointed to raise and discipline the first regiment of light cavalry, called after him " Eliott's." He gained for this regiment also a high character. His habits were at this time most ascetic. He was a strict vegetarian, only drank water, and never slept more than four hours at a time. He held command in several expeditions during this period, especially in that against Havannah. After the peace George ILL granted his regiment the title of "the 15th, or King's Royal Regiment of Light Dragoons," as a special mark of favour, their colonel declining any special mark of distinction for himself. During the peace he was for a time com- mander of the forces in Ireland, and on being recalled thence at his own request was appointed to the command at Gibraltar. Here he stood successfully the celebrated three years' siege by the combined French and Spanish forces which filled Europe with admiration, and made his name at once a "household word" in England as well as Scotland. His rigid discipline, and the abstinent habits with which his example had inspired his soldiers contributed, not a little, along with his experience and skill in engineering and gunnery, to this brilliant result. On his return home General Eliott was thanked by Parliament, while on June 14, 1787, the King raised him to the British Peerage as Lord Heathfieid, Baron of Gibraltar. He was also made a Knight of the Bath. He did not long live to enjoy these honours, dying at Aix-la-Chapelle July 6, 1790, of a second stroke of palsy, while endeavouring to reach Gibraltar, where he wished to end his life.

He married a daughter of Sir Francis Drake, and left by her a son, Francis Augustus, who succeeded him as second Lord Heathfield, but dying January 26, 1813, without issue, the title became extinct.

We now return to "Gibbie an' the Gonden Garters," whose fourth son was Gawen or Gavin, of Midlem-Mill, in county Roxburgh. Gilbert., second son of this Gawen Elliot, born in 1651, was des-

tined for the profession of the law, but getting involved in politics, on July 16, 1685 was found guilty of treason and forfeited for being in arms with the Earl of Argyll, for whose expedition he had, it was said, solicited and obtained supplies from Geneva and the Protestant Churcheo of Germany. The processes of treason describe Elliot is a " writer" in Edinburgh. He was pardoned as far as his person was concerned, and a little more than two years afterwards applied to be admitted an advocate, when his examiners, it is said, "stumbled to meet with him till he first showed his remission, lest it might infer converse against them." Elliot, however, had not changed, though he may have concealed, his political tendencies. He was one of the Scotch gentlemen who waited on William of Orange in Holland to consult with him about his expedition to England. On the success of the Revolution his forfeiture was rescinded, and he was appointed one of the Privy Council. In 1700 he was created a Baronet of

Scotland, and had from the King a charter of the lands of Head- shaw and Dryden, which grant Queen Anne subsequently-

ratified. On the 28th of June, 1705, he took his seat in the Court of Session by the title of Lord Muir°, a name derived from an estate in Roxbarghshire which he had purchased from the coheiresses of Walter Riddell, of Newhouse. Sir Gilbert Elliot also became a Lord Justiciary. He died about the year 1718. Wodrow the historian says of him, "Mr. Elliot, since Lord Minto, is lately dead, and filled one room in the Bench of Justiciary, where an unjust sentence was given forth against him, as well as a place in the College of Justice he so well deserved, by his unshaken probity and boldness against all uhrighteousness and vice." The following anecdote is told of him :—" When Lord Mint() visited Dumfries, of which Mr. William Veitch was Minister; after the Revolution, he always spent some time with his old friend, when their conversation often turned on the perils of their former life. On these occasions his Lordship was accustomed facetiously to say, 'Ah! Willie, Willie, had it no been for me, the pyets had been pyking your pate on the Nether Bow port ; ' to which Veitch replied, 'Ah! Gibbie, Gibbie, had it no been for me ye would hae been yet writing papers for a plack a page." Lord Mintes eldest son, Sir Gilbert (second baronet), who was born in 1693 or 1694, also adopted the law as a profession, became a Lord of

Session June 21, 1726, a Lord Justiciary August 20, 1733, Sand

afterwards Lord Justice Clerk, and took the same designation of "Lord Minto." He also sat in Parliament in 1725, and was the friend and political associate of John, Duke of Argyll, whom he as- sisted in the management of Scottish affairs. "It was in his time that the grounds at Minto began to be laid out and improved. A pond head was thrown across the glen in 1735, and considerable alterations: and additions made to the house in 174t-5. Before this the only _

trees near the house consisted of an avenue of old ash." A row or larches were also planted, probably in 1736, which were among the

first that were introduced into Scotland. "There is a tradition that the seed was sent in a frank by John, Duke of Argyll, sown in flower-pots, and kept in the hot house till, by the advice of the Sardinian Ambassador, who chanced to be on a visit, the planter were removed out of doors, where they attained a great height_ The house was also improved, and a fine library collected there. Sir Gilbert's family were all very accomplished, and one of them, his daughter Jane, was remarkable as a conversationalist, in the days when the art of conversation still remained, and is still better known as the author of the beautiful verses 'Flowers of the Forest "—a lament for Flodden :—

"I've heard them lilting at our ewe milking, Lasses a lilting before dawn o'day ;

But now they are moaning on ilka green loaming- The Flowers of the Forest are a' weds away!"

It is so happy an imitation of the tone and manner of old poetry, that Sir Walter Scott says "it required the most positive, evidence to convince me that the song was of modern date." Thin lady was equally remarkable in other respects. During the rebellion of '45, her father being forced to conceal himself from a • party of Jacobites among the crags, then only covered with broom and long grass, she received and entertained the officers, and by, her presence of mind and composure averted the danger. Sir- Gilbert, who was a proficient in music and is said to have intro- duced the first German flute into Scotland, died suddenly at Minto in March, 1766, and was succeeded by his son, the third Sir Gilbert Elliot, who seems to have been intended also for a lawyer, but was tempted off into political life, and was returned member of Parliament for the county of Selkirk in 1754, and afterwards for Roxburghshire from 1765 to 1774. In 1756 he was a Lord of the Admiralty, Treasurer of the Chamber, 1762, Keeper of the Signet of Scotland, 1767, and Treasurer of the Navy, 1770. He '

was an eminent Parliamentary orator, and a cultivated man in general literature, he being the author of the graceful pastoral,— "My sheep I neglected, I broke my sheep-hook, And all the gay haunts of my youth I forsook ; No more for Amynta fresh garlands I wove, Ambition, I said, should soon cure me of love. But what had my youth with ambition to do? Why left I Amynta! Why broke I my vow!"

Sir Gilbert was also the author of a letter to David Hume on which Dugald Stewart has pronounced a high eulogy for its sound philosophy and purity of English style. He died in February, 1777. He had married Agnes Murray Kynynmond, heiress of MELGUND, in Forfarshire, and Kynynmond and Lochgelly, in Fife- shire, and the family in the next generation assumed the names of Murray-Kynynmond in addition to that of Elliot. Sir Gilbert was succeeded by his son, the fourth Sir Gilbert Elliot, who ran a very distinguished public career. Hewes born at Edinburgh, April 23, 1751; was placed at a school in England, and in 1768 entered as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, which he left for Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the English Bar. He soon after left England for the benefit of his health on a Continental tour, and at Paris excited the attention and praise of Madame du Deffand. In 1777 he married Anne Maria Atnyand, eldest daughter of Sir George Amyand, Bart. In 1774 he had been elected member of Parliament for Morpeth, and though not a frequent speaker he acquired a considerable reputation in the House. His political career was not a very consistent one. He supported the war with America till nearly its close, when he joined the Opposition, became associated with Fox, and supported the Coalition Ministry. On the fall of the latter he went into strong opposition to Pitt's Government, was twice put forward as their candidate for the Speakership by Fox's party, and went along

with that statesman in all his views and policy respecting public affairs down to the breaking out of the French Revolution. Then (although he had expressed very democratic opinions previously) he became, with so many other Whig politicians, seriously alarmed, and abandoning his connection with Fox, became as strenuous a supporter of Pitt's Government. In 1793 he was appointed one of a commission in the Mediterranean to treat with and encourage the French loyalists at Toulon, and on the recapture of that town by the Republicans he procured an asylum for the refugees in Elba. On the Corsicans under General Paoli rising against the French Republicans Sir Gilbert, after a negotiation with the General, concluded terms with him by which the island "annexed" itself to England with a separate constitutional government, modelled on English ideas. In his despatch on this occasion Sir Gilbert thus stuns up the affair, or rather his own hopes of it :—" His Majesty has acquired a crown—those who bestow it have acquired liberty." Sir Gilbert presided as Viceroy in a general assembly of the Corsicans June 19, 1794, a new code was adopted, and Sir Gilbert in an earnest speech exhorted the Corsicans to live quietly under their new constitution. Unfortunately the islanders were scarcely fitted for institutions and laws little in harmony with their own customs and prejudices, and a jealousy also arose between Elliot and Paoli which even led to proceedings by the former against one of his own officers for being on too friendly terms with the Corsican General. The friends of the French Repub- licans gradually gained the ascendent in the popular feeling of the island, partial risings took place, a French invading force appeared, and it was evident that they would receive considerable support from the islanders. Under these circumstances the English Go- vernment resolved to evacuate the island and abandon their new sovereignty, and, accompanied by Paoli, the occupying garrison carried out this purpose, though not in the most creditable manner, in October, 1796. The services of Sir Gilbert were, however, recog- nized by the Crown on his return to England, and on October 26, 1797, he was raised to the British Peerage as Baron Mint*, of the county of Roxburgh, with permission to adopt the arms of Corsica into the armorial bearings of his family. He supported the Union with Ireland, and early in 1799 was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Court of Vienna, where he resided, and was employed in very important negotiations down to the end Of the year 1801. He adhered to Lord Grenville in the years that followed, and in 1806, on the formation of the Fox- Grenville Ministry, was appointed President of the Board of Cpntrol. This proved the stepping-stone to a much wider field of action, for in 1807 he was appointed Governor-General of Bengal, as successor to Lord Cornwallis, and during his five years' term displayed qualities of a very high order. He was a bad administrator, having a curious inability to interest himself in ordinary work, but the last war with Napoleon roused him, and in two years he swept every European flag, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Danish, out of Asia, and laid every Asiatic settlement, from the magnificent island of Java to the little dependency of Chandernagore, at the feet of his Sovereign.

In February, 1813, he was raised two steps in the peerage as Earl of Minto and Viscount Melgund, and returned to England in 1814, but immediately afterwards his health broke up, and he died on his way to Scotland on June 21 in that year. He is described as a good scholar. and linguist. He continued the im- provement of the family estate, and rebuilt Minto House.

He was succeeded as second Earl of Minto by his son Gilbert, who also took an active part in political life as adherent of the Whig party, was Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Berlin, and First Lord of the Admiralty. His roving and somewhat ambiguous commission in Italy in 1848 excited considerable at- tention at the time, and the judgment of his conduct was much questioned, though the Liberal views of which he made himself the exponent laid the foundations of the confidence in England lately exhibited in that country. He died July 31, 1859, in the very crisis of the next Italian struggle, which, though more successful, was the necessary sequel of the former one, in which he so warmly sympathized. One of his daughters is the wife of Earl Russell. His successor, William Hugh Elliot-Murray-Kynynniond, third and present Earl of Minto, was rather active in the House of Commons as Viscount Melgund, and there expressed somewhat extreme Radical opinions, but he has made no public appearance since his accession to the title. The family of Elliot has of late years enjoyed a considerable share of the administrative appoint- ments of the country, and has had the credit of aspiring to still more, and their political influence is popularly considered immense. They are, generally speaking, able, accomplished men, with warmer popular sympathies than are usually found in connection with that diplomatic class of statesmen to which they essentially belong.