Charles Isaac Elton, Vanity Fair, 1887-08-06

Charles Isaac Elton, QC (6 December 1839 – 23 April 1900) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifacts, archaeological and historic si ...

, and politician. He is most famous for being one of the authors of the bestselling book '' The Great Book-Collectors''. He was born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Educated at Cheltenham and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

, he was elected a fellow of Queen's College in 1862. He was called to the bar at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

in 1865. His remarkable knowledge of old real property law and custom helped him to an extensive conveyancing practice and he took silk in 1885. He sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

for

West Somerset West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of ; it was the least populous non- unitary district in England. According to f ...

in 1884–1885 and for

Wellington, Somerset Wellington is a market town in rural Somerset, a county in the west of England, situated south west of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the t ...

, from 1886 to 1892. In 1869 he succeeded to his uncle's property of Whitestaunton Manor, near

Chard, Somerset Chard is a town and a civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon and Dorset borders, south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 13,000 and, at an elevation of , Chard is the ...

. During the later years of his life he retired to a great extent from legal practice, and devoted much of his time to literary work. He died at Whitestaunton. Elton's principal works were * '' The Great Book-Collectors'' (1864); * ''The Tenures of Kent'' (1867); * ''Treatise on Commons and Waste Lands'' (1868); * ''Law of Copyholds'' (1874); * ''Origins of English History'' (1882); * ''Custom and

Tenant Right Tenant-right is a term in the common law system expressing the right to compensation which a tenant has, either by custom or by law, against his landlord for improvements at the termination of his tenancy. In England, it was governed for the most ...

'' (1882). * ''William Shakespeare: His Family and Friends'' (1903), ed. from posthumous papers by A. Hamilton Thompson

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born ...

often quotes his poem "Luriana Lurilee" in her novel '' To the Lighthouse'' (1927),"Charles Elton's 'A Garden Song'", ''Notes and Queries'' (2007) 54(2) pp. 171–173; although the poem itself was not published until 1945.

References

* Virginia Woolf Web
"Luriana Lurilee"
retrieved 23 November 2006.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elton, Charles Isaac 1839 births 1900 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies English King's Counsel Writers from Southampton UK MPs 1880–1885 UK MPs 1886–1892 English antiquarians Politicians from Southampton