CLARKE, EDWARD DANIEL LLD., &c., was descended from a literary family, and born at Willingdon in Sussex on the 5th of June 1769. lie received part of his early education in the grammar-school of Tunbridge, at that time conducted by Dr. Vicesimus Knox, and thence proceeded in 1786 to Jesue College, Cambridge. Having taken his degree, be WWI engaged by the Duke of Dorset in 1790 as tutor to his nephew, Mr. Ii. Tufton, with whom in the course of the following year he made the tour of Great Britain. Clarke had always been fond of books of travel, and this journey confirmed his passion, and led to his first essay in travel-writing. He published his journal, but without his name, and was very soon ashamed of it. The edition, which was in 2 roll 8vo, with plates in aquatinta, is now extremely scarce. In 1791 be made a trip to Calais, and seems to have been delight;d beyond measure at putting his feet on foreign land. In the course of the following year be engaged as a travelling companion to Lord Berwick, with whom he went through Franco, Switzerland, and Italy. lie returned to England at the end of 1793. In the course of the following year he went again to Italy by the Rhine and the Tyrol, and returning again to England he was chosen fellow-elect of his college, a barren honour without any emolument. For want of a better occupation he for some time thought seriously of joining the Shropshire militia, in which he was offered a lientensncy: but in September 1791 he became tutor in a distinguished Welsh family (that of Sir Thomas Mostyn), with whom he resided SOMO time in Wales, where ho made the acquaintance of Mr. Pennant. lie was afterwards connected in the same manner with the family of Lord Uxbridge, with a member of which he made the tour of Scotland and the Western Isles in 1797. In all these excursions be kept journals, and practised himself in the art of observing scenes and objects, and describing them. About this time he was elected fellow of his college, and being in addition appointed bursar, he took up his residence at Cambridge at Easter, 1798. In the spring of the following year he set out with Mr. Cripps, a young man of fortune, on a tour to the countries north of the Baltic. This journey, which was at first intended to occupy only six months, was continued through more than three years and a half, during which master and pupil traversed Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, Tartary, Ciresasia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, part of Egypt, Greece, Turkey in Europe, and finally returned from Con stantinople. scree the Balkan Mountains, through Germany, France,
&c., to England. In consequence of their donations to the University of Cambridge, and other 'perils, Clarke received the degree of LL.D., and Cripps that of ILA. Among their valuable donations was a frag ment of • colossal statue of tho Eleusinian Ceres, of the best period of Grecian art. Clarke was also the means of securing for his couutry the ancient sarcophagus, generally but incorrectly called that of Alexander the Great, now in the British Museum. lie made consider• able collections of medals, minerals, and rare plants; many of the latter be procured from Professor Pallas in the Crimea. The valuable collection of manuscripts which lie had made (luring his travels he sold to the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In 1807 he began at Cambridge a mule of lectures on mineralogy, which had become his favourite aubjict; and at the end of the following year the university established • regular professorship of mineralogy in his favour. Having been ordained iii 1805, he received the college living of liariton, and about four years later he obtained the living of 'Veldts= from Sir William Rosh, whose daughter he had married in 1800. From this time his life was almost entirely passed at Cambridge or in its immediate neighbourhood. In I S10 he published the first volume of his ' Travels;' the second volume appeared in 1812, the third in 1814, tho fourth in 1S16, and the fifth In 1819. A concluding volume, edited by Robert Walpole, was brought out after his death, making the sixth volume, 4 to. His' Travels; by which he is chiefly known, are the most popular of his works, and.are written in a style which invariably captivates the render. Full of enthusiasm, and gifted with • prolific imagination, ho throws a charm over all that he describes; but unfortunately his judgment was not sufficiently formed by proper discipline, and neither his observations nor his conclusions can always bo relied on. ills essays and experiments in physics chiefly appeared in TI101118011'S Annals of Philosophy,' which contain his accounts of the blowpipe, cadmium, &c. In 1803 he published ' Testimonies of different authors respecting the colonel Statue of Cores,' and in 1805 ' A Dissertation on the Sarcophagus iu the British Museum. Ho died at Pall Mall, Loudon, on the 9th of March 1822, and was buried in Jesus College Chapel on the 18th of tho same month. (Life and Remain., of Edward Daniel Clarke, by the Rev. William Otter, M.A., 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1825.)