CLARKE, Edward Daniel

CLARKE, Edward Daniel, a celebrated traveller and mineralogist, was born at Willingdon, in the county of Sussex, on the 5th of June 1769. He received the rudiments of his education at Uckfield, and at ten years of age he was removed to the grammar school of Tunbridge, where, however, it does not appear that his progress was very satisfactory. In the spring of 1786 he obtained the office of chapel clerk at Jesus College, Cambridge; and the year following he lost his father, after which he had to struggle with many difficulties. He never rose to any thing like scholastic eminence; his favourite pursuits were of a different character, being principally literary. In 1790 he took his degree, and shortly afterwards obtained the office of private tutor to the Honourable Henry Tufton, nephew to the Duke of Dorset. In 1792 he was fortunate enough to obtain an engagement to travel as a companion with Lord Berwick, through Germany, Switzerland, and the classic ground of Italy. This was a most fortunate appointment. It opened up to him a means of gratifying a passion for

travel, which reigned paramount in his mind over every other. After crossing the Alps, and visiting a few of the principal cities of Italy, including Rome, he repaired to Naples, where he remained nearly two years. During his stay he made several excursions to Vesuvius, in one of which, during an eruption, he narrowly escaped the fate of Pliny the Elder. He had the daring hardihood to ascend to the edge of the crater while it belched forth its broad columns of liquid fire, which glowed with all the splendour of the sun.

Mr Clarke finally returned to England in the summer of 1794, after having been disappointed in the expectation of undertaking a journey to Egypt and the Holy Land. He soon afterwards undertook the care of a young gentleman, with whom he continued about twelve months. After unsuccessfully attempting a periodical work, he became a tutor in the family of Lord Uxbridge, with one of the members of whose house he made a tour of Scotland, keeping a regular journal, as was his usual custom while travelling, and noting down every remarkable object or event which occurred during his journey. The next circumstance of his life which it is necessary to record was his connection with a young gentleman of Sussex, whose studies he superintended for a year at Cambridge, and afterwards accompanied in his travels over a considerable portion of the Continent. This was the most important event of his life, and laid the foundation of his future fame.

Mr Clarke and his friend Mr Cripps set out from Cambridge in May 1799, and after traversing Norway and Sweden, proceeded to Russia, from thence through the Crimea to Constantinople, then to Rhodes, and afterwards to Egypt, where, however, their stay was short, the country being still in the possession of the French. From Egypt they set out for Palestine; and, after visiting Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, and other remarkable places, they returned to Aboukir Bay. Subsequent to the capitulation of Alexandria, Mr Clarke was of considerable use in securing for England the statues, sarcophagi, maps, manuscripts, &c. which had been collected by the French savans. Greece was the next country visited by our indefatigable travellers. From Athens they proceeded by land to Constantinople through ancient Thrace; and, after a short stay in that city, they directed their course homewards, through Rumelia, Austria, Germany, and France, and arrived in England after an absence of upwards of three years.

Mr Clarke, who had now obtained an immense reputation, took up his residence at Cambridge, where, with very few intervals of absence, he continued to reside till the day of his death. Cambridge was indebted to him for a statue of Ceres which he had sent home from Greece; and, to show the sense which was entertained of his merits, and the value placed upon the relict of antiquity with which he had presented the university, he received from it the degree of LL.D. In 1805 he published a "Dissertation on the Sacrophagus in the British Museum," which gave considerable satisfaction to the learned. He had now formed a matrimonial alliance, and also entered into orders, shortly after which event he received a living, and about three years afterwards a second. Towards the end of 1808 Dr Clarke was further honoured with the Professorship of Mineralogy, then first instituted. Thus were his most sanguine wishes crowned with success; and his perseverance and talents rewarded with one of the highest honours which the university could bestow. The manuscripts which he had collected in the course of his travels were sold to the Bodleian Library for £1000, and by the publication of his travels which next followed, and which came out volume by volume, he realized altogether a clear profit of £6595.

Besides regularly delivering his lectures on mineralogy, and discharging the duties of his clerical office, Dr Clarke occupied himself with various other pursuits, particularly with chemistry, to which he was ardently attached. In this science he made several discoveries, some of which, effected by means of the gas blow-pipe, an agent which he himself had brought to a high degree of perfection, are of great importance. His health, however, never properly established after his return from his latter travels, began to give way under ardent study and long-continued excitement. He was removed to London in order to obtain the first medical advice; and after lingering for a short while, he expired there, on the 9th of March 1821. Public honours were paid to his remains, which were conveyed to Jesus College, Cambridge, where his fellow collegians erected a monument to his memory. In all the relations of life Dr Clarke was the most amiable of men. The leading qualities of his mind were enthusiasm and benevolence, while the capacity of enduring long-continued mental as well as physical exertion was likewise characteristic of him. His ardour in the pursuit of knowledge was remarkable, and he possessed the happy power of bringing his whole energies to bear upon any individual subject with which he chose to occupy his attention. The following are his principal works:—Testimony of different Authors respecting the Colossal Statue of Ceres placed in the vestibule of the Public Library at Cambridge, with an account of its removal from Eleusis, 8vo, 1801–1803; The Tomb of Alexander, a Dissertation on the Sarcophagus brought from Alexandria, and now in the British Museum, 4to, 1805; A Methodical Distribution of the Mineral Kingdom, folio, 1807; A Letter to the Gentlemen of the British Museum, 4to, 1807; A Description of the Greek Marbles brought from the shores of the Euxine, Archipelago, and Mediterranean, and deposited in the vestibule of the University Library, Cambridge, 8vo, 1809; Travels in various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa; part first, containing Russia, Tartary, and Turkey, 4to, 1810; part second, containing Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land, section first, 4to, 1812; section second, 1814; the last volume was published in 1819. In this year also appeared his octavo volume on the Gas Blow-pipe, and in the year following a Dissertation on the Litnus. Besides these works, Dr Clarke wrote a number of articles for scientific journals.