Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/677

Rh  1em 1em  EDGEWORTH, (1744-1817), father of the subject of the foregoing notice, and her associate in many literary undertakings, was born at Bath in 1744. The greater part of his life, however, was spent at Edgeworthtown, or Edgeworthstown, in the county of Longford, Ireland, where the Edgeworth family had been settled for upwards of 150 years. He was of gentle blood his father being the son of Colonel Francis Edge- worth, and his mother, Jane Lovell, being the daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge. Richard s mother taught him to read at a very eaiily age ; his young imagination was nurtured on the beautiful stories in the book of Genesis and on Shakespeare s characters of Coriolanus and Julius Caesar; and, when he was only seven years old, a Mr Deane explained to him the uses and structure of several pieces of machinery, a circumstance to which he ever afterwards traced his strong love for mechanical science. The Rev. Patrick Hughes initiated him in Lilly s Latin Grammar an office he also performed for Goldsmith, who was born on the property of the Edgeworths and his public education began, in August 1752, in a school at Warwick. He subsequently attended Drogheda school, then reputed the best in Ireland ; and, after spending two years at a school in Longford, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in April 1761, from which he was transferred to Corpus Chris ti College, Oxford, in October of the same year. While still at college, he made a runaway match, marrying at Gretna Green one of the daughters of Mr Paul Elers, an old friend of his father, by whom he had a son, who was born before Edgeworth reached his twentieth birth-day, and his daughter Maria. Shortly after the birth of his son, he and his wife went to Edgeworthtown, where he met a severe trial in the death of his mother. Her dying advice to him, to &quot; learn how to say no,&quot; was the germ of Vivian, one of Miss Edgeworth s best novels. For some time after this Edgeworth devoted himself to scientific reading and ex- periments ; and he claims to be the reviver of telegraphic communication in modern times (Memoirs, second edition, i. 144). His home was now at Hare Hatch, in Berkshire, where he endeavoured to educate his son according to the method explained in Rousseau s Emile. In later life, how ever, he saw reason to doubt many of Rousseau s views (Memoirs, ii. 374). At the same time he went on keeping terms at the Temple, and formed the greatest friendship of his life with Thomas Day an able man, of noble character, excessively eccentric, and known to all boys as the author of Sandford and Merton, which was written at Edge- worth s suggestion. In 1769, on the death of his father, he gave up the idea of being a barrister ; but, instead of immediately settling on his Irish estate, he spent a con siderable time in England and France, mainly in Day s company. In Lyons, where he resided for about two years, he took an active part in the management of public works intended to turn the course of the Rhone. He was summoned to England by the death of his wife, with whom his autobiography tells us plainly he was not happy. Edgeworth hurried to Lichfield, to Dr Erasmus Darwin s, one of his greatest friends, and at once declared his passion for Miss Honora Sneyd, which had been the cause of his flight to France two years before. They were married (1773) in the cathedral, and after residing at Edgeworthtown for three years, settled at Northchurch, in Hertfordshire. When six years of great domestic happiness had elapsed, Mrs Honora Edgeworth died, after recommending her husband to marry her sister Elizabeth which he did, on Christmas Day 1780. In 1782 Edgeworth returned to Ireland, determined to improve his estate, educate his seven children, and ameliorate the condition of the tenants. Up to this point Edgeworth has told his own story. The rest of his life is written by his daughter, and opens with an account of the improve ments he effected, and a lengthy panegyric on Mr Edge- worth as a model landlord (Memoirs, ii. 12-36). In 1785 he was associated with others in founding the Royal Irish Academy ; and, during the two succeeding years, mechanics and agriculture occupied most of his time. In October 1789 his friend Day was killed by a fall from his horse, and this trial was soon followed by the loss of a daughter, who had just reached her fifteenth. 