History' (1856) ; 'The History of France' (1858); the letterpress for Colnaghi's 'Photographic Historical Portrait Gallery' (1860), comprising about three hundred short biographies ; a volume of 'Ballads' (1865) ; and two anthologies, 'A Poetry Book of Elder Poets' and 'A Poetry Book of Modern Poets ' (both 1879). She was always fond of travel. As early as 1862 she published 'Sights and Stories : being some Account of a Holiday Tour through the North of Belgium.' In the summer of 1872 she made a tour in the Dolomite Mountains, which was described in 'Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys' (1873), with illustrations from her own sketches.
In the winter of 1873-4 she paid that visit to Egypt which resulted in changing the course of her life. She went up the Nile in a dahabiyah as far as the second cataract. On this occasion she also visited Syria, crossing the two Lebanon ranges to Damascus and Baalbek,and returning through the Levant to Constantinople. Up to this time she had felt no interest in egyptology beyond having been attracted by Sir Gardner Wilkinson's books in her girlhood. It is characteristic of the new spirit which seized her that her book on Egypt occupied two years in writing. She found it incumbent to learn the hieroglyphic characters, to form her own collection of antiquities, and to verify her personal experience from libraries and museums. 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile,' with facsimiles of inscriptions, plans, maps, and upwards of eighty illustrations by the author (1877, 2nd ed. 1889), though superseded as a guide-book, retains its authority as an introduction to the spirit of the ancient civilisation which still dominates the Nile valley.
The wanton destruction of antiquities that she witnessed everywhere in Egypt inspired Miss Edwards with the idea that the only remedy was to be found in scientific excavation. With this object she drew up circulars and issued appeals to the press, which ultimately resulted in the foundation of the Egypt Exploration Fund. Her first ally was Reginald Stuart Poole [q. v.], who brought with him many of the authorities of the British Museum. Sir William James Erasmus Wilson [q. v.] contributed liberally in money. But nothing could be done in Egypt by English enterprise until Maspero succeeded Mariette as director of museums and antiquities in 1881. The Egypt Exploration Fund was formally founded in 1882 with Miss Edwards and Poole as joint honorary secretaries ; and in the following year M. Naville was despatched to excavate the store city of Pithom and determine the route of the exodus. In every winter from that time onwards the society has sent at least one expedition to Egypt, usually under the charge of M. Naville or Professor Flinders Petrie, and has published annually a record of the results. So long as she lived Miss Edwards devoted herself to the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund, abandoning all her other literary interests. As it was tier contagious enthusiasm that originally brought the members together, so it was her genius for organisation that smoothed over difficulties and insured success. With her own hand she wrote innumerable letters, acknowledged the receipt of subscriptions, and labelled the objects presented to museums. During this period she regularly contributed articles on egyptological subjects to the 'Times' and the 'Academy,' is well as to other journals at home and abroad. She also attended the Orientalist Congress at Vienna in 1885, where she read a paper on 'The Dispersion of Antiquities.'
During the winter of 1889-90 Miss Edwards went to the United States on a lecturing tour, which was one long triumphal progress. She visited almost all the New England states, and proceeded as far west as St. Paul and Milwaukee. On the occasion of her last lecture at Boston she was presented with a bracelet 'from grateful and loving friends the women of Boston.' Enjoyable as this tour was, it was unfortunately marred by an accident at Columbus, Ohio, whereby she broke her left arm. Though she managed to see through the press a book consisting mainly of the substance of her American lectures 'Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers' (1891), the title of which was not of her own choosing and even undertook a series of lectures in England, she never recovered her former robust health. Since 186-1, when she left London, her home had been at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol, where she shared a pretty house, called 'The Larches,' with an aged friend. This friend died in January 1892, and Miss Edwards did not long survive her. At that time she was herself bedridden with influenza ; but she was moved to Weston-super-Mare, and there she died on 15 April 1892. She was buried in the churchyard of Henbury.
Miss Edwards bequeathed her egyptological library and her valuable collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College, London, together with 2,415l. to found a chair of egyptology (the only one in England), for which she destined as the first occupant Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie.
