He was learned and eloquent, witty and agreeable in society, and was opposed to the “Conventicle” and “Five Mile” Acts, and to all forms of persecution.  He wrote Hortus Mertonensis (the Garden of Merton) in Latin, but his chief work was Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the World discovered in Essays and Characters (1628), the best and most interesting of all the “character” books.

EASTLAKE, ELIZABETH, LADY (RIGBY) (1809-1893).—­dau. of Dr. Edward Rigby of Norwich, a writer on medical and agricultural subjects, spent her earlier life on the Continent and in Edin.  In 1849 she m. Sir Charles L. Eastlake, the famous painter, and Pres. of the Royal Academy.  Her first work was Letters from the Shores of the Baltic (1841).  From 1842 she was a frequent contributor to the Quarterly Review, in which she wrote a very bitter criticism of Jane Eyre.  She also wrote various books on art, and Lives of her husband, of Mrs. Grote, and of Gibson the sculptor, and was a leader in society.

ECHARD, LAURENCE (c. 1670-1730).—­Historian, b. at Barsham, Suffolk, and ed. at Camb., took orders and became Archdeacon of Stow.  He translated Terence, part of Plautus, D’Orleans’ History of the Revolutions in England, and made numerous compilations on history, geography, and the classics.  His chief work, however, is his History of England (1707-1720).  It covers the period from the Roman occupation to his own times, and continued to be the standard work on the subject until it was superseded by translations of Rapin’s French History of England.

EDGEWORTH, MARIA (1767-1849).—­Novelist, only child of Richard E., of Edgeworthstown, Co.  Longford, was b. near Reading.  Her f., who was himself a writer on education and mechanics, bestowed much attention on her education.  She showed early promise of distinction, and assisted her f. in his literary labours, especially in Practical Education and Essay on Irish Bulls (1802).  She soon discovered that her strength lay in fiction, and from 1800, when her first novel, Castle Rackrent, appeared, until 1834, when her last, Helen, was pub., she continued to produce a series of novels and tales characterised by ingenuity of invention, humour, and acute delineation of character.  Notwithstanding a tendency to be didactic, and the presence of a “purpose” in most of her writings, their genuine talent and interest secured for them a wide popularity.  It was the success of Miss E. in delineating Irish character that suggested to Sir W. Scott the idea of rendering a similar service to Scotland.  Miss E., who had great practical ability, was able to render much aid during the Irish famine.  In addition to the works above mentioned, she wrote Moral Tales and Belinda (1801), Leonora (1806), Tales of Fashionable Life (1809 and 1812), and a Memoir of her f.