EAR 
® AR-PIERCING, adj. Having a fkriVl founfi.—Th’ 
tar-piercing fife. Shakefpeare . 
EAR-RING, f. Jewels fot in a ring, and worn at the 
ears ; ornament of a woman’sear : 
With gold and filver they increafe his (lore, 
And gave the precious ear-rings which they wore. Sandys. 
EAR-SHELL, f. A fpecies of fliell refembling the 
form of the ear. 
EAR-WAX,/! The cerumen or exudation which lu¬ 
bricates the inlide of the ear.—The ear being to (land 
open, becaufe there was forne danger that infefts might 
creep in thereat ; therefore hath nature loricated or 
plaiflered over the dues of the hole with ear-wax, to en¬ 
tangle infeCts. Ray. 
EAR'ABLE, adj. Arable ; fit to be ploughed ; tilla¬ 
ble. Scott. 
EARCH, a river of North Wales, which runs into the 
Lea, near Pvvllhely, in Caernarvonfliire. 
EAD'ORBURG, /. [from the Sax.] The metropolis; 
the chief city. Obfolcte. 
EA'RED, adj. Having ears, or organs of hearing. 
Having ears, or ripe corn. 
The covert of the thrice-earV field 
Saw (lately Ceres to her pafiion yield. Pope. 
Tilled ; ploughed. Dent. xxi. 4. 
EAR'ING, f. The a£t of (hooting out in ears ; the aft 
of tilling the ground ; the act of gathering the ears of 
corn. In fey-affairs, that part of the bolt rope which is 
left open at the corner of the fails in form of a ring. 
E AR'ING-TIME, f. The time of harveft. 
EARL,/, [cojrl, Saxon ; eoryl, Erfe.] A title of no¬ 
bility, formerly the higheft of this nation, now the third : 
Thanes and kinfmen, 
Henceforth be earls , the firft that ever Scotland 
For fuch an honour nam’d. Shakefpeare. 
This title feems to have originated with the Saxons, 
and is the mod ancient of the Englifh peerage, there 
being no title of honour ufed by the prefent nobility 
that was likewife in life by the Saxons, except this of 
earl, which was ufually applied to the fird in the royal 
line. Verdegan derives this word from the Dutch ear , 
i. e. honour, and ethel which dignifies noble : but wlience- 
foever it is derived, the title earl was at length given to 
thofe who were affociates to the king in his council and 
(martial aCtions; and the method of fnvediture into that 
dignity was per cinBuram gladii, -without any formal char¬ 
ter of creation. Dugdale’s Warxoickjh. 302. William the 
Fird, called the Conqueror, gave this dignity in fee to 
his nobles, annexing it to this or that county or province ; 
and alloting them for the maintenance of it a certain por¬ 
tion of money ariling from the prince’s profits, for the 
pleadings and forfeitures of the provinces. Camd. And 
formerly one earl had divers fliires under his government, 
and had lieutenants under him in every (hire, fuch as are 
now (heriffs ; asappearsby diversof ourold datutes. Cuwel. 
But about the reign of king John and ever fince, our 
kings have made earls of counties, See. by charter; giv¬ 
ing them no authority over the county, nor any part of 
the profits arifing out of it ; only fometimes they have 
had an annual fee out of the exchequer, &c. An earl, 
comes, was heretofore correlative with cbmmitatus ; and an¬ 
ciently there was no earl but had a fiiire or county for his 
earldom ; but of late times the number of earls very 
much inqreadng, feverat of them have chofen for their 
titles fonte eminent part of a county, confiderable town, 
village, or their own feats, &c. Belides thefe local earls, 
there are fome perfonal and honorary ; as earl-mardtal of 
England ; fee titles Constable, Court of Chivalry ; 
raid others nominal, who derive their titles from the 
names of their families. Lex Confitutionis, p.78. Their 
place is next to a marquis, and before a vifeount : and 
as in very ancient times, thofe w ho were created counts 
®r earls, were of the blood royal, out Britifh monarchs to 
E A U 175. 
this day call them in all public writings, x< Our mod dear 
coufitithey alfo .originally did, and (fill may, u(e the 
dyle of nos. See Count, Peers, Sheriff. 
EARL, a townfhip of the American States, in Lan- 
cader county, Pennfylvania, 
EARL-MARSHAL,/ He thatTias chief care of mi¬ 
litary folemnities : 
The marching troops through Athens take their way ; 
The great earl-marjhal orders their array. Dryden. 
EARL'DOM, /. The feigniory of an earl ; the title 
and dignity of an earl.—The duke of Clarence having 
married the heir of the earl of UTder, and by her haying 
all the earldom of Ulder, carefully went about redreffing 
evils. Spevfer. 
When I am king, claim thou of me 
The earldom of Hereford. Shakefpeare. 
EARLE (V/illiam Ber.fon), a gentleman of lingular ■ 
benevolence and philanthropy of mind, defeended from 
an ancient family long fettled at Newton-Toney in Wilt- 
diire. He was born at Grately in Hampfhire ; but redded 
long in the Clofe, Salifbury. Poffeffed of literary en¬ 
dowments of the highed order ; well verfed in the whole 
circle of the belles lettres, but particularly blelfed with 
a mod exquidte tade for mude, his time and talents 
feemed devoted to thefe engaging purfuits ; yet, amidd 
them, he forgot not the humble and lowly among men, 
but was ever relieving their necedities, and letfening 
their wants. The following bequeds will evince the ge- 
nerodty and goodnefs of his heart. To the'matrons of 
bidiop Seth Ward’s college, in rhe Clofe, Salifbury, he 
bequeathed the Aim of two thoufand guineas ; to St. 
George’s hofpital, Hyde-park-corner, to Hetheiington’s 
charity for the relief of the blind, to the Philanthropic 
fociety, and to the fund for the relief of decayed muli- 
cians, a contingent legacy of one thoufand guineas each ; 
to the three hofpitals edablidied at Wincheder, Salifbury, 
and Bridol, one hundred guineas each ; to the refp.eCtive 
parilhes of the Clofe, St. Edmund, St. Thomas, and St. 
Martin, in Salidniry, fifty guineas each ; for different 
charitable purpofes in the paridi of Grately, Plants, the 
Aim of four hundred guineas ; and to the poor cottagers 
in Grately, his tenants, the fee fimple of their cottages ; 
and to the paridi of North Stoke, in Somerfetdiire, thirty 
guineas. As a man of literature, and a friend to the arts, 
he bequeathed to the royal fociety two hundred guineas; 
to the fociety of antiquaries two hundred guineas; and 
to the prefident of the fociety for the encouragement of 
arts, manufactures, and commerce, two hundred guineas,, 
for the purchafe of books for the public libraries of thofe 
three refpeCtable .focieties ; to the Bath agricultural fo¬ 
ciety one hundred guineas. Widiing to add a beauty to 
the many which now adorn one of the fined Gothic druc- 
tures in the world, he bequeathed the fum of four hun¬ 
dred guineas for erecting a window of painted glafs in the 
great wed nave of Salidniry cathedral, which has fince 
been magnificently completed. To encourage the art he 
loved, and give a grateful tedimony of his partiality to 
the Salifbury concert, he has left an annual iubfeription 
of five guineas for ten years, towards its fupport; and a 
farther fum of 150 guineas for the three next triennial 
mufical fedivals at Salifbury after his deceafe. Befides 
the above public legacies, he amply remembered his 
friends ; and bequeathed many others, with a view to en¬ 
courage merit, and to reward indudry and goodnefs. He 
died at Salidniry, on the 21b of April, 1796 ; and on the 
30th his remains were privately interred in the paridi- 
church of Newton Toney, near thofe of his anceftcrs*. 
EA'RLESS, adj. Without any ears 
Earlefs on high hood unabaYh’d Defoe,. 
And Tutchin flagrant from the fc.ourge below. Pope. 
E AR'LINESS, f Qukkoefs of any aCtion with re- 
fpeft to fomething elfe : as, earlinefs in the morning, the 
act of rifing fcon with refpedt to the fun; 'earlinefs of 
growth. 
