Edgeworth amused himself
by making a clock for the steeple at Brereton, and a chronometer of
a singular construction, which, he says,'I intended to present to
the King ... to add to His Majesty's collection of uncommon clocks
and watches which I had seen at St. James's.'
The autobiography from which I have been quoting was begun by
Edgeworth when he was about sixty-three, and it breaks off
abruptly at the date of 1781. The illness which interrupted
his task did not, however, prove fatal, for he lived nearly
ten years afterwards.
His daughter Maria takes up the narrative, and in her
introduction she says, 'In continuing these Memoirs, I shall
endeavour to follow the example that my father has set me of
simplicity and of truth.'
The following memorandum was found in Edgeworth's handwriting:
'In the year 1782 I returned to Ireland, with a firm determination
to dedicate the remainder of my life to the improvement of my
estate, and to the education of my children; and farther, with the
sincere hope of contributing to the amelioration of the inhabitants
of the country from which I drew my subsistence.
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