CHAPTER II.

MARIA EDGEWORTH.

THE story of the greater and more eventful portion of Miss Edgeworth's life is told in the "Memoirs" of her father, begun by himself and concluded by her, a biography crammed with lively social sketches and valuable anecdotes, which it would be well for some publisher to put before the public in a cheap edition.

The Edgeworth family is an old one, having been originally established at Edgeware, Middlesex, and giving a name to or receiving one from that place. The stock was transplanted from England to Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth, when Edward and Francis (sons of Roger Edgeworth, a monk, who like his Master Henry the Eighth first wrote against the reformers, and then influenced by feminine charms exerted his abilities in pleading for them), under the patronage of Essex and Cecil emigrated to the emerald island.

The chronicles of the house of Edgeworth are amusing beyond description, so full are they of romantic occurrences and eccentric actions. Jane Edgeworth, the daughter of Sir Edmond Tuite, Knight of Sonna, Westmeath, wanted her husband to take out a baronet's patent, so that as "Lady Edgeworth" she might take place at church over some lady she deemed her inferior; her churlish husband refused to pay a large sum of money for so excellent a purpose, and, on her arguing and declaring she would never again go to church, told her she might stay at home or go wherever she pleased. The lady interpreted her lord's words literally, went off to Henrietta Maria in France, and

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remained in attendance on that Queen till her Majesty's death. Another Edgeworth, a captain, who was a boon companion of Charles the Second, and was knighted by that merriest, or rather most riotous, of sots, rendered himself illustrious by foolish extravagance with money. To furnish means for his pleasures in London, he raised a sum by mortgage on one of his estates, and kept the cash (till it was squandered) in a stocking at the top of his bed, he and his lady dipping their hands into the long purse without consulting each other. He was a well-looking fellow and passionately fond of dress, and positively, being without funds in his pocket, sold the ground plot of a house in Dublin for a high-crowned hat and feathers. Yet this man died rich; with years came prudence; he pushed his interest at court, held several lucrative posts, and on quitting the world left each of his eight sons a comfortable landed estate, and his widow a large jointure. The eldest son of this Sir John, Colonel Francis Edgeworth, was a wit, and a gambler. One night at a party he lost at play all the money he could command, and then going to his wife, who was with the ladies in an adjoining room, asked her for her ear-rings to stake. Like a good wife she lent them, and such fortune accompanied them, that he won back all he had lost. In gratitude to his wife he promised her with an oath never again to play with cards or dice. He doubtless intended to keep his word, for shortly afterwards he was found with a friend in the hay-yard, the two amusing themselves with drawing straws out of a rick, and betting on which should draw the longest. Now in possession of a coach and four, and now with scarce a wheelbarrow, this fine Irish gentleman " of the old school" tasted the extremes of coarse luxury and privation. He left his affairs in such disorder that his son well nigh lost all his estate, or rather failed to find it; but the counsels of a good guardian and some successful lawsuits eventually made him a

wealthy heir. One of these suits was rendered notable by the detection of a fraud. A witness, aged and of venerable aspect, was brought into court as the witness of a certain deed, the genuineness of which was disputed. The old man stated he had been a retainer of the Edgeworth family, and had been accustomed to transcribe papers for the gentleman who had executed the deed in question; and that foreseeing a dispute would arise and the deed be declared a forgery, he had put a sixpence under the seal, which would appear on the wax being broken. It was broken, and a sixpence was discovered, but it was dated five years subsequent to the date of the deed. This incident, it will be remembered, Miss Edgeworth made use of in one of her very best novels.

The winner of this suit married in 1732, Jane Lovell, a daughter of Sir Samuel Lovell, a Welsh Judge, a son of that Sir Salathiel Lovell, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, who, as Recorder of London, made himself conspicuous at the trial of the seven bishops. Sir Salathiel lived till he was ninety-four years of age, and sc far lost his memory that instead of recorder he was called the obliviscor of London. "Sir," said a pert young barrister pleading before him, "you have forgotten the law." "Young man," was the reply," I have forgotten more law than you will ever remember." An equally good story is told of Samuel Lovell, the Welsh Judge. Travelling on circuit near Beaumorris, his coach was overtaken by the tide, and set fast in the sand. Higher and higher came the water, but the judge sat without moving. His registrar crept out of the coach through one of the windows to the driver's seat, two other attendants quitted the interior of the vehicle through the same or a similar aperture and clambered to the roof-top. But still the judge remained in stolid dignity with the water creeping higher and higher round his legs. His companions implored him to come out, and follow their advice and example. "I will follow," replied the lawyer,

"if you can quote any precedent for a judge's mounting a coach box."

But to return to the Edgeworths. The son of the last mentioned Richard Edgeworth (winner of the suit and Miss Lovell), died in his seventieth year, in 1769, and was succeeded in the family estate of Edgeworthtown, by his son, Richard Lovell Edgeworth. This gentleman was a man remarkable for considerable intellect, goodness of disposi tion, and eccentricities, as well as excellences of character. He was first sent to Trinity College, Dublin, for an education, and then to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Before he was twenty, however, he ran away with a young lady without fortune, to Gretna Green, and married her. Ere he died, he knew something about matrimony, for he was married, like Fielding's father, four times, his third wife being the sister of his second, and he had twenty-one children. In early life he was a man of fashion; his concluding years were spent in zealous exertions for the benefit of his tenantry, and poorer neighbours-in improving the system of agriculture, reclaiming waste land, and devising schemes for the education of the poor. He wrote on mechanical inventions, and on professional education, and, with his daughter Maria, produced an "Essay on Irish Bulls," and a work of considerable merit on the education of children. Many persons, doubtless, will not feel much deference for his opinion on such a subject, on learning that he educated his son on the plan proposed in Rousseau's Emile. "I dressed my son," the father wrote, "without stockings, with his arms bare, in a jacket and trousers such as are quite common at present, but which were at that time novel and extraordinary. I succeeded in making him remarkably hardy; I also succeeded in making him fearless of danger, and, what is more difficult, capable of bearing privation of every sort. He had all the virtues of a child bred in the hut of a savage, and all the knowledge of things, which could

well be acquired at an early age, by a boy bred in civilized society." But if he had all the virtues of a savage, he was also possessed of the vices of one. He was a very selfwilled, hot-tempered, and dogged little rascal, and was in due course sent to sea, because he was fit for nothing else. He died at the early age of thirty-one years, in 1796, his father following him to the land of shades, on 13th of June, 1817.

Of the family of twenty-one, Maria Edgeworth was the second child, and eldest daughter. She was born on the 1st of January, 1767, and died in her 83rd year, on the 21st of May, 1849. Her independent literary career began with the present century. In 1800 appeared "Castle Rackrent," an Hibernian tale, taken from facts, and from the manners of the Irish Squires, before the year 1783. In 1801 appeared "The Moral Tales," and in 1804, were published three volumes of "Popular Tales." To enumerate all her works would be difficult and tedious. The most important of them are "The Absentee," "Ennui," "Manoeuvring." "Almeria," "Vivian," and the other tales of fashionable life; "Belinda," "Leonora," "Patronage," "Harrington," and "Ormond." And we must take care so as not to be asked why we except from the list of her more important works, her childrens' stories, such as "Rosamond and Frank," "Little Dog Trusty," and "The Cherry Orchard."

It is always difficult to state the limits of a successful author's influence, for when intellect appeals to, and rouses intellect, it is impossible to trace the effect of the original thought, giving a new impulse to, and taking a new color from every mind it strikes against. But, in Miss Edgeworth's case, there are circumstances that assure us we cannot easily over-estimate the consequences of her writings. She directed her abilities to the field of fictitious literature, when it was perhaps in a more unhealthy state thanit had ever