348 GEORGE EDWARDS.
being to assist those students in their research who were not
equal to the expense of his great work.
The nobility and gentry frequently honoured Edwards with
their friendship and generous support, and he mentions with
peculiar pleasure the fact that he was patronised by four great
men who were, perhaps, the foremost promoters of learning,
science and arts, of any during the 18th century. These were
the Duke of Richmond, Sir Hans Sloane, Dr. Mead, and Martin
Folkes. He was also a great friend of William Bowyer, of
Leytonstone, the printer to the Society of Antiquaries.
His collection of drawings, which amounted to upwards of
nine hundred, was purchased by the Earl of Bute. It con-
tained a great number of English and foreign birds and animals,
not accurately delineated or described previously.
After the publication of the last work, his sight began to fail,
and his hand lost its former steadiness. Being now in his 70th
year, he retired from public employment to a little house
which he had purchased at Plaistow; previous to which he
disposed of all the copies, as well as plates, of his works, to
James Robson, a bookseller in New Bond Street.
The conversation of a few select friends and the perusal
of books were the amusement of the evening of his life ; occa-
sionally varied by an excursion to some of the principal cities
in England.
Mr. Edwards was of a middle stature, rather inclined to
corpulence. He was of a liberal disposition and a cheerful
address. All his acquaintances experienced his benevolent
temper, and his poor neighbours frequently partook of his
bounty.
His diffidence and humility were always apparent, and to
persons who bad a taste for studies congenial to his own he
was a most entertaining as well as communicative companion.
A portrait by Dandridge was engraved by J. S. Millar in
1754, this was considered a most striking likeness. Dandridge
was the son of a house painter.
Some years before his death the alarming ravages of a cancer
in the face, which baffled all the efforts of medical skill
deprived him of the sight of one of his eyes ; he also suffered
much from the stone, a complaint to which at different periods
of life he had been subject. Yet it has been remarked that in