(the Right Honourable George Augustus, Lord Heathfield), was the youngest son of the late Sir Gilbert Elliot, Baronet of Stobbs (A) in Roxburghshire, and was born about the year 1718. He received the first rudiments of his education under a private tutor; and at an early time of life was sent to the university of Leyden, where he made considerable progress in classical learning, and spoke with flu-

(A) The ancient and honourable family of Elliot of Stobbs, as well as the collateral branch of Elliot of Minto in the same county, and of Elliot of Port-Elliot, in Cornwall, who are originally from Normandy. Their ancestor, Mr Aliott, came over with William the Conqueror, and held a distinguished rank in his army. There is a traditionary anecdote in the family relating to an honourable distinction in their coat, which, as it corresponds with history, bears the probability of truth. When William set foot on English land, he slipped and fell on the earth. He sprung up and exclaimed that it was a happy omen—he had embraced the country of which he was to become the lord. Upon this Aliott drew his sword, and swore by the honour of a soldier, that he would maintain, at the hazard of his blood, the right of his lord to the sovereignty of the earth which he had embraced. On the event of conquest, King William added to the arms of Aliott, which was a baton or, on a field azure, an arm and sword as a crest, with the motto, *Per fata per ignem fortiter et recte*. Since raised in our service. From Germany he was recalled for the purpose of being employed as second in command in the memorable expedition against the Havannah; the circumstances of which conquest are well known.

On the peace his gallant regiment was reviewed by the king, when they presented to his majesty the standards which they had taken from the enemy. Grati¬fied with their fine discipline and high character, the king asked General Elliot what mark of his favour he could bestow on his regiment equal to their merit? He answered, that his regiment would be proud if his majesty should think, that, by their services, they were entitled to the distinction of Royals. It was accordingly made a royal regiment, with this flattering title, "The 15th, or King's Royal Regiment of Light Dragoons." At the same time the king expressed a desire to confer some honour on the general himself; but the latter declared, that the honour and satisfaction of his Majesty's approbation of his services was his best reward.

During the peace he was not idle. His great talents in the various branches of the military art gave him ample employment. In the year 1775, he was appointed to succeed General A'Court as commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland; but did not continue long in this station, not even long enough to unpack all his trunks: for finding that interferences were made by petty authority derogatory of his own, he resisted the practice with becoming spirit; and not choosing to disturb the government of the sister kingdom on a matter personal to himself, he solicited to be recalled. He accordingly was so, and appointed to the command of Gibraltar in a fortunate hour for the safety of that important fortress. The system of his life, as well as his education, peculiarly qualified him for this trust. He was perhaps the most abitement man of the age; neither indulging himself in animal food nor wine. He never slept more than four hours at a time; so that he was up later and earlier than most other men. He so insured himself to habits of hardiness, that the things which are difficult and painful to other men, were to him his daily practice, and rendered pleasant by use. It could not be easy to starve such a man into a surrender, nor easy to surprise him. The example of the commander-in-chief in a besieged garrison had a most persuasive efficacy in forming the manners of the soldiery. Like him his brave followers came to regulate their lives by the most strict rules of discipline before there arose a necessity for so doing; and severe exercise, with short diet, became habitual to them by their own choice. The military system of discipline which he introduced, and the preparations which he made for his defence, were contrived with so much judgment, and executed with so much address, that he was able with a handful of men to preserve his post against an attack, the constancy of which, even without the vigour, had been sufficient to exhaust any common set of men. Collected within himself, he in no instance destroyed, by premature attacks, the labours which would cost the enemy time, patience, and expense to complete; he deliberately observed their approaches, and seized on the proper moment, with the keenest perspicacity, in which to make his attack with success. He never spent his ammunition in useless parade or in unimportant attacks. He never relaxed from his discipline by the appearance of security, nor hazarded the lives of his garrison by wild experiments. By a cool and temperate demeanour, he maintained his station for three years of constant investment, in which all the powers of Spain were employed. All the eyes of Europe were on this garrison; and his conduct has justly exalted him to the most elevated rank in the military annals of the day. On his return to England, the gratitude of the British senate was as forward as the public voice in giving him that distinguished mark his merit deserved. Both houses of parliament voted an unanimous address of thanks to the general. The king conferred on him the honour of Knight of the Bath, with a pension during his own and a second life of his own appointment; and on June 14, 1787, his majesty advanced him to the peerage by the title of Lord Heathfield Baron Gibraltar, permitting him to take in addition to his family arms, the arms of the fortress he had so bravely defended, to perpetuate to futurity his noble conduct.

His lordship died on the 6th of July 1790, at his chateau at Aix-la-Chapelle, of a second stroke of the palsy, after having for some weeks preceding enjoyed tolerable good health and an unusual flow of spirits. His death happened two days before he was to have set out for Leghorn in his way to Gibraltar; of which place he was once more appointed to the defence in the view of an approaching war.—He married Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Drake of Devonshire; and had by her (who died in 1769) Francis-Augustus, now Lord Heathfield, lieutenant-colonel of the 6th regiment of horse.—It is not quite certain whether the late lord has left a dowager lady. We are told, in a public newspaper, "that he closed a life of military renown at the most critical season for his memory. He had acquired the brightest honours of a soldier, the love and reverence of his country; and he fell in an exertion beyond his strength, from an anxiety to close his life on the rock where he had acquired his greatest fame. Even the last efforts of his age and decay were in him proofs of a noble mind; for after he had wasted his strength in the service of his country, he devoted his last act to private gratitude. The day of his death was actually fixed for the day of his marriage, from an endearing wish that the object of his youthful love might be the relic of his honoured age, and that he might exalt to the rank of a British peerage the tender and affectionate female, who, in a foreign island, had foreshadowed him on the bed of sickness."

Another account says, "He has left his pension of 2000l. per annum (which he was impowered by the crown to dispose of to any second life he thought proper) to his long-beloved Irish mistress, to whom it is said he was married at Aix-la-Chapelle a short time before his decease."—A third says, also, that "he was married, and that he has settled a jointure of 400l. on his lady, and bequeathed the remainder of his fortune to his son."—But by a fourth we are informed, that he "has left by his will to J. Trayton Fuller, Esq; who married his daughter, 20,000l.; to a Lieutenant Rockler of the artillery, 600l.; and to Mr Mackay his secretary, 400l. The rest and residue to his son, now Lord Heathfield. In the will there is no bequest to, nor any mention made of, a young lady to whom it had been stated his lordship was about to be married and had left an ample fortune to."

ELLIPSIS, ELLIPTIC, or ELLIPTICAL, something belonging to an ellipse.