188 Mr. T. T. Wilkinson on Mathematics and Mathematicians : 



William Crakelt, now in my possession, I gather that he was 

 the editor of the mathematical department of the London Maga- 

 zine, a periodical of considerable repute towards the close of the 

 last century. His papers in the Mathematical Miscellany, the 

 Geometrical Delights, &c., prove him to have been a mathema- 

 tician and astronomer of no mean abilities. Mr. Hugh Brown was 

 the translator of Euler's edition of Robins's Gunnery, which, 

 with the assistance of Mr. Burrow, as is now evident, he improved 

 considerably. The publication of the first number of Carnan^s 

 Lady's and Gentleman^s Diary was now determined upon ; but 

 of tne articles named in the memorandum, only the second, 

 third, and fifth were inserted. The places of the others were, 

 supplied by some valuable geometrical discussions, which are the 

 more remarkable on account of their systematic character. Mr. 

 BuiTOw in this respect set the example of attempting the classi- 

 fication of geometrical inquiries, which it would have been well 

 to have followed out more fully than has been done in most of 

 our mathematical periodicals. 



" Tuesday, August 8. I called this morning on Major Wat- 

 son and asked him about getting into the South Sea House, but 

 he had no acquaintance with any of the Directors. I told him 

 about the Stationers' Company having allowed Hutton £100 a 

 year, and he said he would call on Mr. Hett to inform him that 

 he had heard of a new publication which he thought would inter- 

 fere with their Diaiy : — this he intended as a trial whether they 

 would think it worth their while to stop my mouth as well as Hut- 

 ton's, and in the same manner. I met poor John Clarke, of 

 Lincoln, who gave me an enigma. He had given in a plan to 

 Lord North of making a settlement in some part of South 

 America, near the river Amazon, on some country unclaimed by 

 any European power ; but he had got nothing for it, and was 

 almost starving ; he had not even a shilling in the world. I told 

 his case to Major Watson in order to interest him in it if I could, 

 but he did not seem to take the notice of it I could have wished ; 

 he said, however, he should be glad to see his plan of the Ame- 

 rican affair.^' 



Major, afterwards Colonel Watson, of the Royal Engineers, 

 was a pupil of the celebrated Thomas Simpson, and became pos- 

 sessed of all his papers after his decease. He appears to have 

 been the steady friend of Mr. Burrow, whom he employed in 

 measuring an arc of the meridian in India, an account of which 

 was drawn up by Professor Dalby of the Royal Military College. 

 The intended hint to the Stationers' Company is characteristic of 

 the motives which led to the destruction of their lucrative mono- 

 poly, and confirms Mr. Carnan's stereotyped announcement on 

 the successive title-pages of this now celebrated almanac. Mr. 



