of the family of Sir John Newton, a baronet of the same county, and this statement has been adopted by most succeeding biographers. The family, Mr Conduitt adds, came to Woolsthorpe from Westley, also in Lincolnshire, but originally from Newton in Lancashire. It appears from some letters which have been published, that the Sir John Newton here mentioned was at all events not unwilling to acknowledge Newton as one of his kindred, after his great discoveries had raised the latter to fame and eminence. Sir Isaac himself too states, in the pedi gree which he gave in to the college of arms on his being knighted, that he had always, from his boyhood, understood himself to be a relation of this baronet. His father Isaac he makes in that account to be the eldest son of Robert Newton of Woolsthorpe, who died on the 20th September, 1641, and who was the son of a Richard Newton of the same place, who died in 1588. The father of Richard was, he says, a John Newton of Westley, who died in 1563, the son of another John Newton of the same place. This genealogy, however, is confessedly compiled merely from incidental notices in parish-registers, which record only the deaths of the several persons mentioned, without stating their relationship. By Mr Turnor's account, which may probably be depended upon as accurate, the manor of Woolsthorpe was in the possession of the Thimblebys of Corby from 1474 till 1562, from which time, till 1614, it was held by the Burys of Ashwell, from whom it was purchased by a Robert Underwood, who demised it to Robert Newton in 1623. This must have been the grandfather of Sir Isaac. We have entered with the more minuteness into the examination of this matter, in consequence of the additional interest which has of late been attached to the question of Newton's descent by the publication of certain statements which would make it appear that he was of Scottish extraction. In No. iii. of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, published in July 1820, there is given a letter, dated Glasgow 12th April, 1792, from Dr Reid to Dr John Robison, in which the writer relates, that sometime about the year 1760, before he left Aberdeen, he was informed by Mr Douglas of Fechel, who was father of the late Lord Glenbervie, that Mr Hepburn of Keith had told him he had heard James Gregory, professor of mathematics in Edinburgh, say that Newton himself had mentioned to him upon one occasion when they met in London, that he was of Scottish descent. His grandfather, he said he had learned, had come from one of the Lothians with James VI. to London, where he had spent the greater part of his fortune in an unrewarded attendance upon the court. Reid afterwards ascertained from Hepburn himself, and also from a Mr Keith, that they had frequently heard Gregory tell this story. He was also informed that there still survived several children of a Sir John Newton of Newton in one of the Lothians-he could not recollect which-who remembered that their father had once received a letter from Sir Isaac, requesting to have an account of his family, of which, however, the proud old knight had never thought it worth his while to take any notice. Such is the substance of Dr Reid's letter. It seems to be scarcely possible to doubt that Newton had really given Gregory this account of his ancestor. The conversation in which it was communicated probably took place towards the end of Sir Isaac's life, and long after he had drawn up, from the best information which he then possessed, the pedigree which he gave in (in 1705) to

the college of arms. It appears from his papers, still in existence, that he felt great curiosity to ascertain the history of his family, having given directions at one time that every notice respecting individuals of his name that could be found in the parish-registers of the neighbourhood of his birth-place, should be extracted and transmitted to him. The story of his ancestor having been a Scotsman, he may possibly have obtained in answer to these inquiries. At all events, it is rather confirmed than otherwise, by the fact stated by Mr Turnor, that the Newtons did not come into possession of Woolsthorpe till 1623, and by the evidently conjectural nature of all that portion of the family-genealogy as commonly given, which refers to the supposed progenitors of Sir Isaac's grandfather.

When Newton was born, he was so little, as it seems he had often heard his mother say, "that they might have put him into a great mug, and so unlikely to live, that two women, who were sent to Lady Pakenham's at North Witham for something for him, did not expect to find bim alive on their return." So Mr Conduitt has recorded on Sir Isaac's own authority, in a note which Mr Turnor has printed. On the 27th of January, 1645, his mother married the Reverend Barnabas Smith, minister of the neighbouring parish of North Witham; but her son was left at Woolsthorpe under the care of his grandmother Ayscough. At the usual age he was put to a day-school, first at Skillington and afterwards at Stoke, remaining at the latter till he had reached his twelfth year. He was then sent to the endowed grammar-school of Grantham, boarding in that town at the house of a Mr Clarke, an apothecary. "Every one that knew Sir Isaac," writes Dr Stukeley, "or have heard speak of him, here recount the pregnancy of his parts when a boy, his strange inventions, and extraordinary inclination for mechanics, that, instead of playing among the other boys when from school, he always busied himself in making knickknacks and models of wood in many kinds; for which purpose he had got little saws, hatchets, hammers, and a whole shop of tools, which he would use with great dexterity. In particular, they speak of his making a wooden clock. About this time a new windmill was set up near Grantham, in the way to Gunnerby, which is now demolished, this country chiefly using water-mills. Our lad's imitating spirit was soon excited, and by frequently prying into the fabric of it as they were making it, he became master enough to make a very perfect model thereof, and it was said to be as clean and curious a piece of workmanship as the original. This sometimes he would set upon the house-top where he lodged, and clothing it with sail-cloth, the wind would readily turn it; but what was most extraordinary in its composition, was that he put a mouse into it which he called the millar, and that the mouse made the mill turn round when he pleased; and he would joke too upon the millar eating the corn that was put in. Some say that he tied a string to the mouse's tail, which was put into a wheel like that of turnspit dogs, so that pulling the string made the mouse go forward by way of resistance, and this turned the mill. Others suppose there was some corn placed above the wheel, this the mouse endeavouring to get to made it turn. Moreover, Sir Isaac's water-clock is much talked of. This he made out of

a box he begged of Mr Clarke-his landlord's wife's brother. As described to me, it resembled pretty much our common clocks and

clock-cases, but less; for it was not above four feet in length, and of a proportionable breadth. There was a dial-plate at top with figures for the hours. The index was turned by a piece of wood, which either fell or rose by water dropping. This stood in the room where he lay, and he took care every morning to supply it with its proper quantity of water; and the family upon occasion would go to see what was the hour by it." The same gossipping chronicler, retailing the information which he derived from the old people of the neighbourhood, goes on to relate that among other evidences which the young philosopher gave of his mechanical genius were his experiments upon paper-kites. "He took great pains," they say, "in finding out their proportions and figures, and whereabouts the string should be fastened to the greatest advantage, and in how many places. Likewise he first made lanterns of paper crimpled, which he used to go to school by in winter mornings with a candle, and tied them to the tails of the kites in a dark night, which at first affrighted the country people exceedingly, thinking they were comets." He also, it seems, used to drive pegs into the walls and roof of the house to mark the course of the sun; and these contrivances the people used to call familiarly "Isaac's dials." This practice of drawing sun-dials on the walls he appears to have continued after he left school, and returned to Woolsthorpe. The house here was rebuilt by Mr Smith, as it now stands, sometime after his marriage with Newton's mother; and some of these dials are still to be seen upon the walls. He also, while at Grantham, exercised himself in drawing, although he does not seem to have had any one to give him instructions in that art. Some of his performances in this line were upon paper, which he inserted in wooden frames, fashioned and neatly painted by himself. Others were drawn upon the walls of his room, which, accordingly, when Clarke's house was taken down about 1710, were covered with "birds, beasts, men, ships, and mathematical schemes," very skilfully delineated. It is likewise worthy of remark, that, in his youth, Sir Isaac was an expert versifier. One specimen at least of nis talents in that line is preserved. When Stukeley was making his inquiries he met a Mrs Vincent, a widow gentlewoman living in that neighbourhood, and then eighty-two years of age. Her mother had been Clarke's second wife, and she had been an inmate of the same house with Newton during the seven years he boarded with her stepfather. "She says," continues Stukeley, "Sir Isaac was always a sober, silent, thinking lad, and was never known scarce to play with the boys abroad at their silly amusements, but would rather choose to be at home even among the girls, and would frequently make little tables, cupboards, and other utensils for her and her playfellows, to set their babies and trinkets on. She mentions likewise a cart he made with four wheels, wherein he would sit, and by turning a windlass about, he could make it carry him round the room where he pleased.” "Sir Isaac and she," proceeds the Doctor, " being thus brought up together, 'tis said that he entertained a love for her; nor does she deny it; but her portion being not considerable, and he being a fellow of a college, it was incompatible with his fortunes to marry, perhaps his studies too. 'Tis certain he always had a kindness for her, visited her whenever in the country, in both her husbands' days, and gave her 40s. upon a time whenever it was of service to her. She is a little woman,