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Title: Richard Lovell Edgeworth
A Selection From His Memoir

Author: Richard Lovell Edgeworth

Editor: Beatrix L. Tollemache

Release Date: October 27, 2005 [EBook #16951]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH ***

Produced by Marjorie Fulton

Richard Lovell Edgeworth
A SELECTION FROM HIS MEMOIRS

EDITED BY
BEATRIX L. TOLLEMACHE
(HON. MRS. LIONEL TOLLEMACHE)

RIVINGTON, PERCIVAL & CO.
KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN

LONDON

1896

By THE SAME AUTHOR

Engelberg, and Other Verses. With Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 6s.

Jonquille, or, The Swiss Smuggler. Translated from the French of
MADAME COMBE. Crown 8vo. 6s.

Grisons Incidents in Olden Times. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.

LONDON RIVINGTON, PERCIVAL & CO.

LIFE IS AN INN

THERE is an inn where many a guest
May enter, tarry, take his rest.
When he departs there's nought to pay,
Only he carries nought away.

'Not so,' I cried, 'for raiment fine,
Sweet thoughts, heart-joys, and hopes that shine,
May clothe anew his flitting form,
As wings that change the creeping worm.

His toil-worn garb he casts aside,
And journeys onward glorified.'

B. L. T.

RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH

CHAPTER 1

Some years ago, I came across the Memoirs of Richard Lovell
Edgeworth in a second-hand bookshop, and found it so full of
interest and amusement, that I am tempted to draw the attention of
other readers to it. As the volumes are out of print, I have not
hesitated to make long extracts from them. The first volume is
autobiographical, and the narrative is continued in the second
volume by Edgeworth's daughter Maria, who was her father's constant
companion, and was well fitted to carry out his wish that she should
complete the Memoirs.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth was born at Bath in
1744. He was a shining example of what a good landlord can do for
his tenants, and how an active mind will always find objects of
interest without constantly requiring what are called amusements;
for the leisure class should be like Sundays in a week, and as the
id