ELVAS, formerly JELVES, is a city and frontier town of Portugal, in the province of Alentejo, situated on a hill covered with olive trees. The streets are irregular and narrow, and so full of dirt, that it is difficult to wade through them, even in dry weather. The town contains four parish churches, and six religious houses, besides a monastery of capuchins without the gate. El vas is the first and most important fortress in Portugal. The town is strongly fortified, and is defended by two citadels situated on the adjacent hills. One of these is called Fort St Luzia. The other was erected by the Count of Lippe Buckeburgh, and has, thererefore, re ceived the name of o forte de .Vossa Senhora de grata de Lilzpe The prince of Waldeck considered it as a mas ter•piece of fortification, and as superior to any thing that he had seen. The great aqueduct of Elvas, called os arcos de Amoreira, from its commencing near a mul berry tree, is a very splendid work. It is a Portuguese league in length ; and in the neighbourhood of the town, where it passes across a valley, it consists of four rows of arches, one upon another, of a considerable height. Elves, being the chief town of a corregimento, is go verned by a corregidor, a /irovedor, and a juiz de fora. The bill on which Elvas stands is formed of granite, con sisting of white quartz, felspar, and mica, and in some parts containing steatite. On the declivity of the hill, the granite is covered with a whitish grey foliated lime stone, with sulphurous pyrites and fahltrz interspersed. Elvas first acquired the name of a city in the reign of Don Manuel, although it is said to have been rebuilt by Don Sancho II. who granted the conditions under which the settlers accepted the lands. The population of the town and district was 12,000. West Long. 7°, North Lat. 38° 44'. (•) ELY, the name of a town of England, in the county of Cambridge. It is situated on a rising ground on the river Ouse, in the marshy district called the Isle of Ely. The town is of great antiquity, and is supposed to have derived its name either from Elig, from the great number of eels with which the river abounded, or from the Saxon word helig, which signifies a willow, in consequence of the great number of willows which grew in the neighbourhood. The streets are irregular,
and excepting the principal one, which contains some good houses, they are neither lighted nor paved. The principal public building in Ely is the cathedral, which was begun in 1093, and finished in 1106. It appears to be a work of different periods, and is a mixture of Saxon, Norman, and English architecture. The length of the cathedral from east to west is 535 feet, but the length within is only 517. The transept is 190 feet long, and the lantern 170. The western tower is 270 feet high, and the tower on the south wing 120. The length of the nave is 203 feet, and the height of its roof 1040. Of late years the choir has been removed to the cast end of the cathedral, and in 1792 a handsome painted window has been put up above the altar. St Mary's Chapel, now Trinity Church, stands near the east end of the cathedral. It was begun in the reign of Ed ward 11. and is esteemed one of the most perfect build ings of that age. It is 200 feet long within, 46 feet broad, and the vaulted roof 60 feet high. It has neither pillars nor side aisles, but is supported by buttresses surmounted with pinnacles. The Episcopal palace is built of brick, and the houses of the prebendal les are near the cathedral, and stand on the site of an ancient convent endowed by one of the kings of the East An gles. There is here a free grammar school for 42 noys, besides two charity schools. The inhabitants are chLfly employed in gardening, the adjacent grounds being pi in cipally laid out in gardens, which supply the neighbour ing towns, and even Cambridge, with vegetables. The following abstract of the population of Ely is for the year 1811, and includes Chettishain in St Mary's and Stuntney in Trinity Parish.
See Bentham's History and Antiquities E/y ; Mil ler's Account of Ely Cathedral; Lyson's Magna Britan nia, vol. ii.; and the Beauties. of England and Trales, vol. ii. pp. 151-169. (w) ELY. See FIFESH1RE.