Aged 12, Newton was sent to school in Grantham. The Free Grammar School of King Edward VI had been founded in the 14th century. Grammar schools were so called because that's mostly what they taught, Latin grammar.

Latin is a language ...

. .. first it killed the Romans ... . .. now it's

killing me.

Isaac proved to be able to catch up on Maths himself, but without Latin he would have been permanently handicapped. Latin was the international language of European scholarship; in it were written all the important works. Newton's command of Latin, which he came to read and write as fluently as English, enabled him to absorb these books, and when the time came, to communicate his own discoveries back to Europe.

22

Windmills At school Newton would leap ahead whenever he put his mind to his studies. But he would often neglect them for strange inventions and showed "an extraordinary inclination for mechanical works", even on the Sabbath.

I KNOW/ SHOULDN'T,

BUT. ..

"He had got little eawe, hatchete, ham mere and a whole

ehop of toole, which he would uee with great dexterity."

23

Nature and Art Two books inspired him, and would permanently affect his whole life. The first was John Bate's The Mysteries of Nature and Art. The approach it fostered - practical experiment, craftsmanship, chemistry, analysis, organizing into categories - stayed with Newton for the rest of his life.

1• ,.,, fn~tr•l '"""· 1'bc 6rft of Water works. Thcfccend ..r Fire workt. , Thcchinlof Dnwiug. Walhin~;,

Limmiag. Paillliag.llld ED· ping.

Thcfoattll offimclry ElpcrimCIDb,J

The second was empty, it was a notebook bought for twopence halfpenny. Newton entered notes from Bate at one end, and at the other made alphabetical lists of words under various headings: Artes, Birdes, Cloathes &c. Such careful organizing and categorizing of information would become the mature Newton's hallmark. This notebook, the first of thousands, described among other things how to make a sundial.

24

What's the Time? Behind the organ in Colsterworth church, set in the wall, is a stone.

"Newton: aged 9 years cut with his penknife this dial."

At Grantham, Newton lodged with Mr. Clarke, the Apothecary. He filled the house with sundials.

"In the yard of the house he would drive pegs to mark the hours and half hours made by the shade, which by degrees from some years of

observations, he had made very exact, and anybody knew what time it was by Isaacs dials."

Newton's fascination with the Sun's movement never left him. In old age, if asked the time he would consult a shadow instead of looking at the clock.

25

Fireworks

26

You muft take a peece of linnen cloth of a yard or more in length; it must bee cut after the form of a pane of glaffe; fasten two light fticks croffe the fame, to make it ftand at breadth; then fmeare it over with linfeed

oyle, and liquid varnifh tempered together, or elfe wet it with oyle of peter, and unto the longeft corner faften a match prepared with

faltpeter water upon which you may faften diverfe crackers, or fquibs; betwixt every of

which, binde a knot of paper fhavings, which will make it fly

the better; then tie a thin rope of fufficient length to raife it unto

what height you fhall defire and

guide it withal I. ..

Strange Inventions ... then fire the match, and raife it againft the wind in an open field; and as

the match burneth it will fire the crackers, and fquibs, which will give diverfe blows in the ayre; and when the fire is once come unto the ftoupell*, that

will fire the cloth, which will fhow very ftrangely and fearfully.

*ftoupell =fuse

When darkness fell Isaac would sneak out and fly his exploding kite over the village ...

" ... wonderfully affrighting all the neighbouring inhabitants for some time, and causing not a little discourse on market days, among the country

people, when over their mugs of ale."

27

Sober Silent Thinking Lad The apothecary's stepdaughter, Miss Storer, claimed in later life to have had a romance with the teenage Newton, who made dolls' furniture for her and her friends.

HE WAS A SOBER SILENT THINKING LAO,

NEVER KNOWN SCARCE TO PLAY WITH BOYS ABROAO.

"Tho' not 60 lu6ty a6 h/6 antaeoni6t, he had 6o much more 6pirlt and re6oiution that he beat him. l6aac pulled him alone by the

ear6 & thru6t hi6 face aeain6t the eide of the church, to U6e him

like a coward and rub h/6 no6e aeainet the wall."

He was no sissy, however. She particularly remembered one dispute between her brother Arthur and young Isaac.

PERHAPS I SHOULD INVENT THE SPRAY CAN.

Extreme thoroughness in the prosecution of a dispute would also be an enduring characteristic. But his usual behaviour when faced by a wall was to draw on it. Birds, men, ships, plants, John Donne, schoolmaster Stokes, circles and triangles, King Charles I.

28

First Experiment

Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1658

On the day of Cromwell's death a great storm swept England. The country folk said the Devil was riding the storm to come for Cromwell's soul. Isaac jumped, but not for joy. He was measuring the force of the storm by variously leaping with the wind and against it.

Isaac Newton's childhood was spent under a military dictatorship - that of Cromwell's New Model Army of Puritans known as Roundheads. They had fought for the right of Parliament rather than the monarchy to hold supreme power in England. But having defeated the royalist Cavaliers in civil war, Cromwell dissolved Parliament!

"His school fellows generally were not very affectionate toward him. He was commonly too cunning for them in everything. He who has most understanding is least regarded."

What was worse, his mother took him away from school altogether.

29

Low Employments When Isaac was 17, the family tried to make a farmer of him.

I ·I

I CANNOT 8ROOK SUCH LOW EMPLOYMENTS.

On market days he bribed his servant to run things and retired to the Apothecary's house where there was a great parcel of books. The books were left by Dr. Clarke the apothecary's brother, a student of Henry More at Trinity College, Cambridge.

HE LEFT MAN ANO HORSES FORA

GREAT PARCEL OF 800KS.

He even ran up a criminal record.

30

THIS WAS A FEAST TO

HIM, EXCLUSIVE OF ANY THOUGHTS

OF OINNER.

YOU ARE HERE8YE FINE{) :36 4d FOR SUFFERING YOUR SHEEP TO 8REAK YE STU88S ON 2:3 LOOSE FURLONGS, ANO A FURTHER 16 ON EACH OF TWO

COUNTS, FOR SUFFERING YOUR SWINE TO TRESPASS IN YE CORN FIELOS, ANO FOR

SUFFERING YOUR FENCE TO 8E OUT OF REPAIR.