Clarke, EDWARD DANIEL

Clarke, EDWARD DANIEL, traveller and author, born at Willingdon in Sussex in 1769, studied at Cambridge, and from 1790 to 1799 was employed as tutor and travelling companion in several noblemen's families, making the tour of Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. In 1799 he set out on an extensive tour with a young man of fortune; they traversed Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Finland, Russia, the country of the Don-Cossacks, Tartary, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Greece, and did not return to England till 1802. In 1808 Clarke was made first professor of mineralogy at Cambridge. He presented to the university library a number of valuable marbles collected during his travels; his manuscripts he sold to Oxford; and the university of Cambridge purchased his collection of minerals. Ordained in 1805, he held two livings from 1809 until his death, 9th March 1822. His Travels (6 vols. 1810-23) were received with extraordinary favour; his other works, chiefly on antiquarian subjects and mineralogy, are now of little value. See his Life, by Bishop Otter (1825).