I was with him constantly, and I was amused and interested in
seeing how he made his way through their complaints, petitions,
and grievances with decision and despatch, he all the time in good
humour with the people and they delighted with him, though he
often rated them roundly when they stood before him perverse in
litigation, helpless in procrastination, detected in cunning or
convicted of falsehood. They saw into his character almost as soon
as he understood theirs.
Mr. Edgeworth had in a very remarkable degree that power of ruling and
administering which is one of the rarest of gifts. He seems to have
shown great firmness and good sense in his conduct in the troubled times
in which he lived. He saw to his own affairs, administered justice, put
down middlemen as far as possible, reorganised the letting out of the
estate. Unlike many of his neighbours, he was careful not to sacrifice
the future to present ease of mind and of pocket. He put down rack-rents
and bribes of every sort, and did his best to establish things upon a
firm and lasting basis.
But if it was not possible even for Mr. Edgeworth to make such things
all they should have been outside the house, the sketch given of the
family life at home is very pleasant. The father lives in perfect
confidence with his children, admitting them to his confidence,
interesting them in his experiments, spending his days with them,
consulting them. There are no reservations; he does his business in the
great sitting-room, surrounded by his family. I have heard it described
as a large ground-floor room, with windows to the garden and with two
columns supporting the further end, by one of which Maria's writing-desk
used to be placed--a desk which her father had devised for her, which
used to be drawn out to the fireside when she worked. Does not Mr.
Edgeworth also mention in one of his letters a picture of Thomas Day
hanging over a sofa against the wall? Books in plenty there were,
we may be sure, and perhaps models of ingenious machines and different
appliances for scientific work. Sir Henry Holland and Mr. Ticknor give a
curious description of Mr. Edgeworth's many ingenious inventions. There
were strange locks to the rooms and telegraphic despatches to the
kitchen; clocks at the one side of the house were wound up by simply
opening certain doors at the other end. It has been remarked that all
Miss Edgeworth's heroes had a smattering of science. Several of her
brothers inherited her father's turn for it. We hear of them raising
steeples and establishing telegraphs in partnership with him. Maria
shared of the family labours and used to help her father in the business
connected with the estate, to assist him, also, to keep the accounts.
She had a special turn for accounts, and she was pleased with her
exquisitely neat columns and by the accuracy with which her figures fell
into their proper places. Long after her father's death this knowledge
and experience enabled her to manage the estate for her eldest stepbrother,
Mr. Lovell Edgeworth. She was able, at a time of great national
difficulty and anxious crisis, to meet a storm in which many a larger
fortune was wrecked.
But in 1782 she was a young girl only beginning life. Storms were not
yet, and she was putting out her wings in the sunshine. Her father set
her to translate 'Adèle et Théodore,' by Madame de Genlis (she had a
great facility for languages, and her French was really remarkable).
Holcroft's version of the book, however, appeared, and the Edgeworth
translation was never completed. Mr. Day wrote a letter to congratulate
Mr. Edgeworth on the occasion. It seemed horrible to Mr. Day that a
woman should appear in print.
It is possible that the Edgeworth family was no exception to the rule by
which large and clever and animated families are apt to live in a
certain atmosphere of their own. But, notwithstanding this strong family
bias, few people can have seen more of the world, felt its temper more
justly, or appreciated more fully the interesting varieties of people to
be found in it than Maria Edgeworth. Within easy reach of Edgeworthtown
were different agreeable and cultivated houses. There was Pakenham Hall
with Lord Longford for its master; one of its daughters was the future
Duchess of Wellington, 'who was always Kitty Pakenham for her old
friends.' There at Castle Forbes also lived, I take it, more than one
of the well-bred and delightful persons, out of 'Patronage,' and the
'Absentee,' who may, in real life, have borne the names of Lady Moira
and Lady Granard. Besides, there were cousins and relations without
number--Foxes, Ruxtons, marriages and intermarriages; and when the time
came for occasional absences and expeditions from home, the circles seem
to have spread incalculably in every direction. The Edgeworths appear to
have been a genuinely sociable clan, interested in others and certainly
interesting to them.