Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

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Sfthoma The principal towns are, Revel, Weifenberg, Borch-
Eftrenia- ^0^m* Narva, Nyflot, Habfal, Derpt, St Elin, Pernau,
dura. and Roderfwick.
V——- In former times the inhabitants of this country car¬
ried on a good trade in corn, which was dried in ftoves :
but wars have much depopulated the country, infomuch
that not a fourth part of it is inhabited, and a great num¬
ber of gentlemen’s feats lie in ruins.
ESTOPPEL (formed of the French eftouper, oppi-
tare, objiipare, “ to ftop, or block up”), in Law, an
impediment or bar of action, arifing from a man’s
own aft or deed ; againft which a man is forbidden,
by law, to fpeak, though it be to fay the truth.
ES L OVERS, in Law, is ufed, by Brafton, for that
full enance which a man, committed for felony, is to
have out of his lands or goods for himfelf and his
fam ly during imprifonment. In Hat. 6 Edw. I. it is
ufed for an allowance in meet or clothes. In fome
manors, the tenants have common of ejlovers ; that is,
neeeflary botes or allowances out of the lord’s wood :
in which laft fenfe, eftovers comprehends houfe-bote,
hay-bote, and plow-bote} fo that if a man have in
his grant thefe general words, de ratwnabili efoverio in
bofcis, &c. he may thereby claim all three.
Eilovers is alio ufed for alimony, which, if the huf-
band refufes to pay, there is, befides the ordinary pro-
cefs of excommunication, a writ at common law, de ejio-
venis habendis, in order to recover it.
ESTRAY, nr Stray, fignifies any tame bead:, as
Iheep, oxen, fwine, and horfes, or fwans, found with¬
in a lordfhip, and not owned by any man ; in which
cafe being cried, according to law, in the church, and
two market towns adjoining, if it be not claimed by
the owner within a year and a day, it becomes the
lord’s of the foil where found. If the owner claims
it within the year and day, he muft pay the charges of
finding, keeping, and proclaiming them ; and he may
feize it, without telling the marks or proving his proper¬
ty, which may be done at the trial if contefted. If the
bead dray within the year to another lordfhip, the fird
lord cannot retake it. An edray mud be fed and kept,
uninjured, and without labour, till it is reclaimed or the
limited time expires.
ESTREAT, Extractum, in Law, is ufed for the
true copy or duplicate of fome original writing, efpe-
tially of amercements or penalties fet down in the rolls
of a court, to be levied by the bailiff or other officer, on
every offender.
ESPREMADURA, a province of Spain, has New
Cadile on the ead, Leon on the north,. Andalufia on
the fouth, and Portugal on the wed. It is 175 miles
in length, and 100 in breadth 5 and its principal towns
sre Calatrava, IVIenda, and Badajoz, on the river
Guadiana 5 Alcantara, on the Tajoj and Cona and
Placentia, to the north of this river.
This province enjoys a very pure and healthful air,
and its mountains are full of avild and tame animals ;
they having woods and foreds for the one fort, and pa-
dures for the other. The fields are planted with fruit-
trees, which bear all kinds of delicious fruit. The vine¬
yards produce excellent wines of all colours, and the
fields yield plenty of corn.
EstREmadura, a province of Portugal, near the
mouth of the Ragus or lajo, bounded on (lie north
Beira, on the ead and fouth by Akntejo, and on
2
the wed by the Atlantic ocean. It is about 8S miles Eftrenw.
in length, and 45 in breadth. This province is di-
vided into fix comarcas, viz. Litria, Lilbon, Tomar £tch“>g.
Santaren, and Alanquar, to the north of the Tagus j
and that of Setubal, to the fouth of this river. Thefe
are likewife the principal toAvns. Edremadura is
equal, if not preferable, to any other province in Spain
or Portugal. The didricl of Santaren produces fuch
plenty of corn, and feeds fo many docks of Iheep,
that it may enter into competition with Sicily. The
fruits and the wines are all excellent ; and it was here
that the fweet oranges brought from China were
fird planted, and of which there are large quantities
transported to foreign parts, with the wines and other-
fruits. The fields are covered with dowers aimed all
the year, from Avhich the bees colled large quantities
of fine honey. The olive-tree are numerous, from
which they have excellent oil. The rivers abound
with good fiffi, and the mountains have quarries of fede¬
ral kinds.
E1CHING, a method of engraving on copper, in
which the lines or drokes, indead of being cut with a
tool or graver, are eaten in with aquafortis. See Ex-
GRAVING.
Etching is of a later invention, though not very-
modern, than engraving with the tool j of which it
was at fird only an imitation, that was pradifed by
painters and other artids, who could much fooner
form their hands to, and attain a faculty of, working
in this way, than with the graver. But being then
neverthelefs confidered as a counterfeit kind of engra¬
ving, and therefore inferior to the other, it was culti¬
vated in a very confined manner j the clofenefs of the
refemblance of the work to that performed by the
tool, being made the ted of its merit, and confequent-
ly the principal objed of aim in thofe who purfued it.
This fervile confinement of the art of etching to the
imitation of the original kind of engraving, was a-
great caufe of retarding its advancement towards per-
fedion, as many of the mod able maders cramped
their talents with the obfervanee of it : this may be
feen in the indances of Sadclers, Swaneberg, Villa-
mena, and particularly Le Boffe j who, in his treatife
on engraving, has laid down as a principle, that the
perfedion of this kind corifids in the dole fimilitude
of the work with that done by the tool. This abl'urd,
prepoffeffion has been fince worn out: and the method (if
working Avith aquafortis has been fo far improved, that
indead of being noAv deemed a fpurious kind of engra¬
ving, it evidently appears, in many modern works, the
foundation of ao excellence that could never ha\’e
been produced without it : fince, though the neatnefs
and uniformity of the hatches, which attend the ufe
of the tool, is more advantageous with refped to por¬
traits ; yet the liberty and facility of the other manner
give a much greater opportunity to exercife the force
of genius and fancy in hidory-engraving ; where the
effed of the whole, and not the minute exadnefs in
fin idling all the parts, conditutes the principal value.
There are Iavo methods prqdifed of engraving in this
Avay ; the one with a hard varnidi or ground, the other
with a foft. The fird w-as formerly much uffd, being
better accommodated to the intention of imitating the
engraving with the toolas the firmnefs of the body
of the vamilh gave more opportunity of retouching the
lines,