Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/121

Edwards , D.D.' (1799), 'Cupid and Psyche' (1800), &c In 1773 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. He was employed by the Society of Antiquaries to make a drawing from the picture in the royal collection of 'The Interview between Henry VIII and Francis I at Calais; 'for this drawing, which occupied him six months, he received 110 guineas. He was also employed by Lord Bessborough to repair a ceiling painted by Sir James Thornhill at Roehampton, by Mr. Bell on designs for his Shakespeare and other publications, and by Mr. Robert Udny. Owing to the kind assistance of the last-named he was enabled to visit Italy, and left for Rome in July 1775, returning in September 1776. In 1781 he obtained a premium for landscape, and in this year he presented a paper to the Royal Society on the damage wrought by the great storm at Roehampton. In 1782 he painted three ceilings for the Hon. Charles Hamilton at Bath. About this time too he was employed a great deal by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, for whom he made many drawings; in 1784, however, some disagreement led to a breach between them. In 1786 he painted for Mr. Estcourt a 'Hunting Party,' containing portraits of the Duke of Beaufort and his sons; in the following year he was painting scenes for the theatre at Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1788 he was appointed professor of perspective at the Royal Academy, and subsequently published a treatise on that subject. He was occupied for some time on a picture representing 'The Interior View of Westminster Abbey on the Commemoration of Handel.' This he completed and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793. In 1799 he was induced by Boydell to paint a scene from 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona' for the Shakespeare Gallery. He lost his mother in 1800, but continued to support his sister until his death (19 Dec. 1806). He was buried in St. Pancras churchyard. Edwards was a proficient in etching, and in 1792 published a set of fifty-two etchings. There is a volume in the print room of the British Museum containing others, and also some of his unsuccessful essays in that art. He designed numerous illustrations, wrote verses, and played the violin. He compiled and published a volume entitled 'Anecdotes of Painters' (1808), intended as a supplement to Walpole's work; though rather loosely put together, it contains valuable records of contemporary artists which might otherwise have perished. A portrait engraved by Cardon after his own drawing is prefixed to the work; the original drawing, with two others by Edwards, is in the print room at the British Museum.

 EDWARDS, EDWARD (1803–1879), marine zoologist, was born on 23 Nov. 1803, at Corwen, Merionethshire, where he received his education. He started in life as a draper at Bangor, Carnarvonshire, which business he carried on until 1839, when he retired from it. In the following year he established a foundry and ironworks at Menai Bridge, which he appears to have carried on for several years with much success. In 1864, being interested in observing the forms of marine life in the beautiful waters of the Menai Straits, he began to study the habits and characters of the fish in their native element. He was induced to attempt an artificial arrangement for preserving the fish in health in confinement, so as to be enabled to study their habits more closely. By an imitation of the natural conditions under which the fishes flourished, he succeeded in introducing such improvements in the construction of aquaria as enabled him to preserve the fish for an almost unlimited period without change of water. His most notable improvement was his 'dark-water chamber slope-back tank,' the result of a close study of the rock-pools, with their fissures and chasms, in the rocks on the shores of the Menai Straits. This improvement retarded for a long time the falling off in the taste for domestic aquaria, and the principle of Edwards's tank was most successfully adopted in all the large establishments of this country, and in many of the continental and American zoological schools. To the pursuit of this interesting branch of natural history Edwards devoted the last years of his life, dying, at the age of seventy-five, on 13 Aug. 1879, after an attack of paralysis.

 EDWARDS, EDWARD (1812–1886), librarian, was born in 1812, probably in London. Of his education and early employments we have no account, but in 1836 he appears as a pamphleteer on subjects of public interest, and his productions evince considerable information as well as mental activity and intelligence. He wrote on national universities, with especial reference to the university of London, whose charter was then under discussion; on the British Museum, at