Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 16.djvu/389

 second edition. It had scarcely the success of her earlier stories. Her style had gone out of fashion. In the spring of 1834 she made a tour in Connemara, described with great vivacity in a long letter printed in her ‘Memoirs.’ Amidst her various occupations Miss Edgeworth's intellectual vivacity remained. She began to learn Spanish at the age of seventy. She kept up a correspondence which in some ways gives even a better idea of her powers than her novels. She paid her last visit to London in 1844. She gave much literary advice to Captain Basil Hall, and she discussed her own novels in reply to friendly critics with remarkable ability. She knew more or less most of the eminent literary persons of her time, including Joanna Baillie, with whom she stayed at Hampstead, Bentham's friend, Sidney Smith, Dumont, and Ricardo, whom she visited at Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire. Miss Austen sent her ‘Emma’ upon its first appearance. Miss Edgeworth admired her work, though it does not appear that they had any personal relations.

During the famine of 1846 Miss Edgeworth did her best to relieve the sufferings of the people. Some of her admirers in Boston, Mass., sent a hundred and fifty barrels of flour addressed to ‘Miss Edgeworth for her poor.’ The porters who carried it ashore refused to be paid, and she sent to each of them a woollen comforter knitted by herself. The deaths of her brother Francis in 1846 and of her favourite sister Fanny in 1848 tried her severely, and she was already weakened by attacks of illness. She worked to the last, and in April 1849 welcomed the appearance of Macaulay's ‘History,’ in which a complimentary reference is made to her in an enthusiastic letter to an old friend, Dr. Holland. She died in the arms of her stepmother on 22 May 1849.

Miss Edgeworth was of diminutive stature, and apparently not beautiful. No portrait was ever taken. It seems from Scott's descriptions of her that her appearance faithfully represented the combined vivacity and good sense and amiability of her character. No one had stronger family affections, and the lives of very few authors have been as useful and honourable. The didacticism of the stories for children has not prevented their permanent popularity. Her more ambitious efforts are injured by the same tendency. She has not the delicacy of touch of Miss Austen, more than the imaginative power of Scott. But the brightness of her style, her keen observation of character, and her shrewd sense and vigour make her novels still readable, in spite of obvious artistic defects. Though her puppets are apt to be wooden, they act their parts with spirit enough to make us forgive the perpetual moral lectures.

Miss Edgeworth's works are: 1. ‘Letters to Literary Ladies,’ 1795. 2. ‘Parent's Assistant,’ first part, 1796; published in 6 vols. in 1800; ‘Little Plays’ afterwards added as a seventh volume. 3. ‘Practical Education,’ 1798. 4. ‘Castle Rackrent,’ 1800. 5. ‘Early Lessons,’ 1801; sequels to ‘Harry and Lucy,’ ‘Rosamond,’ and ‘Frank,’ from the ‘Early Lessons,’ were published, 1822–5. 6. ‘Belinda,’ 1801. 7. ‘Moral Tales,’ 1801. 8. ‘Irish Bulls,’ 1802. 9. ‘Popular Tales,’ 1804. 10. ‘Modern Griselda,’ 1804. 11. ‘Leonora,’ and ‘Letters,’ 1806. 12. ‘Tales from Fashionable Life’ (first series, ‘Eunice,’ ‘The Dun,’ ‘Manœuvring,’ ‘Almeria’), 1809; (second series, ‘Vivian,’ the ‘Absentee,’ ‘Madame de Fleury,’ ‘Emilie de Coulanges’), 1812. 13. ‘Patronage,’ 1814? 14. ‘Harrington’ and ‘Ormond,’ 1817; ‘Harrington’ was reprinted with the ‘Thoughts on Bores,’ from 15. ‘Comic Dramas,’ 1817. 16. ‘Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth’ (vol. ii. by Maria), 1820. 17. ‘Helen,’ 1834. 18. ‘Orlandino,’ 1834.

Miss Edgeworth's books for children have been reprinted in innumerable forms, and often translated. The first collective edition of her novels appeared in fourteen volumes, 1825, others 1848, 1856.

[The Cornhill Mag. for 1882 (xlvi. 404, 526) and Miss Helen Zimmern's Maria Edgeworth in the ‘Eminent Women’ series, 1883, give a full account of Miss Edgeworth, based in each case upon unpublished memoirs by her stepmother, a copy of which is in the British Museum. See also Lockhart's Life of Scott and the Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth.]  EDGEWORTH, MICHAEL PAKENHAM (1812–1881), botanist, youngest son of Richard Lovell Edgeworth [q. v.], by his fourth wife, Frances Anne Beaufort, was born 24 May 1812. In September 1823 he entered the Charterhouse, whence he removed to Edinburgh in 1827. Here he began the study of oriental languages, and acquired his grounding in botany under Professor Robert Graham. After a distinguished career at Haileybury, he went to India in 1831 in the civil service. He was appointed to Ambala, and afterwards to Saharunpore, where his administration gained both the approbation of his superiors and the grateful appreciation of the natives. In 1842 he came home on leave, married Christina, daughter of Dr. Macpherson, King's College, Aberdeen, in 1846, and returned the same year to India. On his way out he took advantage of the steamer coaling at Aden to look about for plants. He published the results in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ under the title of