Background
Elgood was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, one of a family of 7 boys and 2 girls.
Elgood was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, one of a family of 7 boys and 2 girls.
After a private education at various schools, including Bloxham, he studied art at Leicester Art School under Wilmot Pilsbury, and then architectural drawing at the South Kensington Schools in London.
Elgood"s father died in 1874 necessitating a return home to look after the family business, although he continued to paint part-time. He exhibited several times at the Fine Art Society between 1890–1925. Elgood became known mainly as a painter of historic gardens, travelling throughout England, France, Spain and Italy in the course of his professional life.
Many of his pictures were used to illustrate Some English Gardens (1904) by the famous garden designer Gertrude Jekyll and Italian Gardens (1907) which Elgood wrote himself.
In 1908 he settled in an old 16th-century timbered house called "Knockwood" in Tenterden, Kent, where he designed and constructed his own formal garden in the grounds. He also designed and had constructed a farmhouse (in a vernacular style) and 2 local war memorials.
In the early 1880s, he was free to resume art full-time, becoming a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (Rhode Island) in 1882 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (Republic of Ireland) a few years later.