A function for creating small, temporary eshell buffers that will be "somewhat associated" with a particular buffer (since it is named after the directory that file is in).

little-eshell.el

(defun eshell-here ()
  "Opens up a new shell in the directory associated with the current buffer's file."
  (interactive)
  (let* ((parent (if (buffer-file-name)
                     (file-name-directory (buffer-file-name))
                   default-directory))
         (height (/ (window-total-height) 3))
         (name   (car (last (split-string parent "/" t)))))
    (split-window-vertically (- height))
    (other-window 1)
    (eshell "new")
    (rename-buffer (concat "*eshell: " name "*"))

    (insert (concat "ls"))
    (eshell-send-input)))

(global-set-key (kbd "C-!") 'eshell-here)