1835.] First Astronomer- Royal. 325 



I set myself to read without any director in it, but not un- 

 successfully. For here I laid the ground of my mathemati- 

 cal knowledge ; and in that winter, before Christmas, my 

 father taught me my arithmetic, with the doctrine of frac- 

 tions, and the Golden Rule of Three, direct and converse, 

 which I learned sufficiently promptly. At Christmas, or a 

 little after, I went to Uttoxeter, whether my father sent me 

 for my health's sake, and took with me Fale's Art of Dial- 

 ling ; and having seen a quadrant formerly, whose fabric, 

 it was told me, was laid down in that book, I set myself 

 presently to calculate a table of the sun's altitudes, at all 

 hours, in the equator, tropic, and some intermediate parallel 

 in the latitude of 53°, by his tables of natural Sines; which 

 I did (in Lent that year) without any help, and before that 

 I heard of any artificial tables ; and accordingly framed 

 myself a quadrant, of which I was not meanly joyful. 



This winter I was weak, and my disease held on with me 

 till the summer, when it mended a little. This summer, 

 (1663) I prosecuted my studies; for, returning home, I was 

 brought into company with Elias Grice, who told me of the 

 artificial tables, and showed me (as I remember) Wingate's 

 Canon. I likewise now got Mr. Stirrup's Art of Dialling., 

 which I read this summer, and some other authors on ma- 

 thematical subjects, — as Mr. Gunter's Sector and Canon; 

 and soon after I acquired Oughtred's Canon of mine own. 

 In all which I read some parts cursorily, not abiding a 

 tedious prelection of any throughout, without the help or 

 directions of any one ; not being permitted (because they 

 were scarce to be met with) the help of any one so much as 

 to expound a term unto me. 



My studies were discountenanced by my father as much 

 in the beginning as they have been since ; but my natural 

 inclination forced me to prosecute them through all im- 

 pending occurrences. And, indeed, I think this mathe- 

 matical quality no other than innate unto me ; my father, 

 in his younger years, having been as much affected with 

 arithmetic as I at present with geometry and astronomy. 



Having gotten the artificial Canon, I calculated several 

 both general and particular tables, fitting the particular ones 

 to the latitude of (Derby, my residence) 53° 0', which will 

 be found amongst my papers. I had some violent pains 



