Eddystone Lighthouse, a lighthouse in the English Channel, erected to mark a group of rocks lying in the fair-way from the Start to the Lizard. The rocks are covered only at the flood. The first lighthouse was of wood, and built by Henry Winstanley in 1696. It was carried away in the storm of 1703. Another lighthouse, also of wood, was built in 1709 by Rudyerd, but was burned down in 1755. It was succeeded by one built by Smeaton between 1757 and 1759, a circular tower 85 feet high; but, as the foundations on which it stood became much weakened, a new structure, designed by Sir J. N. Douglass, was built between 1879 and 1882 on the neighbouring reef. Its light is visible 17½ miles.
Edelweiss (ā-dėl-vīs; Ger., 'noble white'), Leontopodium alpīnum, a composite plant inhabiting the Alps, and often growing in the most inaccessible places. Its flower-heads are surrounded by a spreading foliaceous woolly involucre, and its foliage is also of the same woolly character. It is not difficult to cultivate, but is apt to lose its peculiar woolly appearance.
E´den (Heb. eden, delight), the original abode of the first human pair. It is said to have had a garden in the eastern part of it, and we are told that a river went out of Eden to water this garden, and from thence it was parted into four heads, which were called respectively Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates (Phrat), but this does not enable us to identify the locality. It was not the whole of Eden that was assigned to man for his first habitation, but the part towards the east, to which the translators of the Authorized Version have given the name of the Garden of Eden, and which Milton, in Paradise Lost, calls Paradise, that word (originally Persian) having in its Greek form (paradeisos) been applied to the Garden of Eden by the translators of the Septuagint.
Eden, a river in England, in Westmorland and Cumberland, falling into the Solway Firth after a course of 65 miles.—Also, a river in Fifeshire, Scotland.
Edenta´ta (ē-), or Toothless Animals, the name applied to a primitive order of mammals mostly native to the neotropical region, but also represented in South Africa and South Asia. The body is often covered by horny scales or bony plates, the digits are clawed, and the teeth either imperfect or absent altogether. I. New World forms.—(1) Ant-eaters. Toothless, with long narrow snout, and protrusible tongue. Covered with dense fur. The great ant-eater (Myrmecophăga jubata) lives on the ground; the much smaller Tamandua and Cycloturus are arboreal. (2) Sloths. Toothed arboreal leaf-eaters, covered by coarse fur, and provided with very strong curved claws, by which they hang upside down from branches. The three-toed sloth (Bradypus) has three digits in the fore-limb, the two-toed sloth (Cholæpus) only two. (3) Armadillos. Burrowing forms protected by a strong carapace of bony plates, and possessing numerous imperfect teeth. (4) Extinct types. The so-called ground sloths were of large size, Megatherium being nearly as large as an elephant, and Mylodon not much smaller. Glossodon, allied to the latter, survived into the human period. Glyptodon resembled a gigantic armadillo. II. Old World forms.—(1) The aard-vark (Orycteropus) is a burrowing African form about the size of a pig, covered with coarse hair; long ears and snout; 20 imperfect grinding teeth. (2) Scaly ant-eaters or pangolins (Manis), native to South Africa and South Asia, are toothless forms not unlike the American ant-eaters in build, but the body is covered dorsally and laterally by large overlapping scales.
Edes´sa, the name of two ancient cities.—1. The ancient capital of Macedonia, and the burial-place of its kings, now Vodhena. It is probably the same as the still more ancient Aegæ. Philip II was murdered at Edessa in 336 B.C.—2. An important city in the north of Mesopotamia, which, subsequent to the establishment of Christianity, became celebrated for its theological schools. In 1098, in the first Crusade, Edessa came into the hands of Baldwin, but ultimately became part of the Turkish Empire. It is thought to be the modern Urfah or Orfa.
Edfu, or Edfoo´ (ancient Apollinopolis), a village in Upper Egypt, province of Assouan, on the left bank of the Nile, with manufactures of cottons and pottery. Its ancient magnificence is attested by several remains, especially a temple, founded by Ptolemy Philopator (181-145 B.C.), the largest in Egypt after those of Karnak and Luxor. Pop. 12,594.
Ed´gar (the Peaceful), one of the most distinguished of the Saxon Kings of England, was the son of King Edmund I. He succeeded to the throne in 959, and managed the civil and military affairs of his kingdom with great vigour and success. In ecclesiastical affairs he was guided by Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was a great patron of the monks. He died in 975, and was succeeded by his son Edward the Martyr.
Edgar Atheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside and son of Edward the Outlaw, was born in Hungary, where his father had been conveyed in infancy to escape the designs of Canute. After the battle of Hastings, Edgar (who had been brought to England in 1057) was proclaimed King of England by the Saxons, but made peace with William and accepted the earldom of Oxford. Having been engaged in some conspiracy against the king, he was forced to seek refuge in Scotland, where his sister Margaret became the wife of Malcolm Canmore. Edgar subsequently was reconciled to William and was allowed to live at Rouen, where a pension was assigned to him. In 1097, with the sanction of William Rufus, he undertook an expedition to Scotland for the purpose of displacing the usurper Donald Bane, in favour of his nephew Edgar, son of Malcolm Canmore, and in this object he succeeded. He afterwards took part in Duke Robert's unsuccessful struggle with Henry I, but was allowed to spend the remainder of his life quietly in England.