Henry S Eland

Added January 2026

An informative article, Eland the Stationers, is online as part of the Exeter Memories website. I would like to state that most of the following is based on this very informative article.

Henry Septimus Eland

Henry Septimus Eland was from a prosperous Northamptonshire family and travelled Europe on the Grand Tour. His appreciation for art was aroused and he collected items that would later be displayed in his house in Exeter. Henry married an Exminster girl, Emma Jane Pearce, in April 1871, and they toured Scotland in 1871, a journey made popular by Queen Victoria.

Eland purchased Clifford's bookseller´s business at 24 High Street, Exeter, August 1869, but only a year later, in August 1870, he moved to 236 High Street and set up a bookshop with lending library and art gallery. Within a month he had purchased the stock of another Exeter bookseller, E J Arnold. It quickly became a place that the landed gentry would frequent, especially the ladies.

Eland´s in the High Street, Exeter. Courtesy Exeter Memories website.

From 1890, Eland's instituted two annual art shows, one for local artists and one for invited work. Some 200 water colours and paintings were on permanent display for purchase. However, Henry Eland was also printer and publisher. Although the majority of works were theological in nature or dealt with art and architecture, sometimes in cooperation with London publishers, many books appeared of local interest: Devonshire celebrities by Thomas Lawrence Pridham was probably one of his earliest ventures in 1869; Art in Devonshire: with the biographies of artists born in that county by George Pycroft (1883): We Donkeys in Devon originally penned by Volo non valeo (1885), was republished two years later and attributed to Maria Susannah Gibbons and the companion We donkeys on Dartmoor; Hannah Cox O'Neill´s Devonshire idyls, etc. (1892/1893); the Second edition of Devonshire antiquities ... With illustrations, etc by J. Chudleigh (1893); and The visitors' guide to Exmouth With map. This originally appeared in 1882 and a New edition followed c. 1887. Eland's had opened a branch at the Strand, Exmouth which was still trading in 1960 (and a third branch at Axminster).

Henry Septimus Eland died on the 1st July 1901, leaving the business in the hands of trustees until his two sons, Frank and Fowler were 25 in 1909. The publishing side of the business seems to have ceased with his death.

In the Second World War Eland's shop was completely destroyed in the raid of 4th May 1942. After a number of relocations, in 1997 they moved into Mol's Coffee House, Cathedral Close. In 2006, a notice in the Express and Echo announced they were to close, after 136 years of providing Exeter with stationery, books and artwork.

The visitors' guide to Exmouth originally appeared in 1882; although undated a text on royal visits clearly indicates date - ... last year (1881) ...; a New edition followed c. 1887, likewise dated on the text. The map is described below. Two other maps sold by Eland were maps based on Cary´s Improved Map. The first is held at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee as part of the American Geographical Society Library. Eland's new cycling and touring road map of 60 miles about Exeter including north Devon. The second, Eland's cycling and touring road map of Exeter is in the author´s collection. Both have the half-mile circles seen on other maps and this time based on Exeter.

1. Title (top left): Map to Eland's Exmouth Guide (all capitals). Artist´s signature (bottom right below map): Charles Pinn, Surveyor, Exeter. printer´s signature bottom left: Eland, Litho Exeter.

The map covers an area from Marpool Hall in the north, and the coastline and the beach in the south. The Exe River is the western boundary with the promontery with the Docks. Lime Kiln Lane forms the eastern boundary with two roads to Budleigh Salterton shown. The railway to Railway Station and Docks is shown. Size: 28 x 32 cm.

Eland´s Visitors´ Guide to Exmouth, with map. Henry S Eland, Exeter and Exmouth (1882). Sixpence. (all capitals). KB.

Eland´s Visitors´ Guide to Exmouth, with map. New Edition. (1887). BL.

   

Sources used by original author (illustrations): Besleys and Kellys Directories, an unpublished memoir by Henry Holladay, Geraldine Eland for the interior of the shop, Exeter Burning by Peter Thomas and the Devon Libraries Local Studies webpages and the Holladay Family Archive for the photo of Septimus Eland. Books published found on JISC Discover. Map information from Kit Batten.

For Cary´s Improved Map of England and Wales as issued by Cary and others - click here.

To return / access the Catalogue of Maps in this work - click here