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 A close friend of Thomas Day, Edgeworth was a lively affectionate
man and another occupant of Stowe House in the later years of the 18th
century. Whilst sharing his friend's radical social and political views,
Edgeworth channelled his ideas into several practical schemes. With his
mechanical interests, Edgeworth investigated telegraph communications agricultural
machinery, and improved means of transport. It was the latter which brought
him to the attention of Erasmus Darwin and the Lunar Society.
In 1773 he married Honora Sneyd, Anne Seward's protegee,
who had earlier rejected Thomas Day. After Honora's death three years later,
he married her sister, Elizabeth. who had also rejected Day.
Like Darwin and Day, Edgeworth was interested in education
and, with his famous daughter, Maria, he wrote a charming book, 'Practical
Education'.
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