Dec. 29. 1849.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 133 
hand to it. Whatever he wrete upon this subject pro- 
bably fell, together with all his other remaining papers, 
into the hands of Major Henry Watson, of the En- 
gineers, in the service of the India Company, being in 
all a large chest full of papers. This gentleman had 
been a pupil of Mr. Simpson’s, and had lodged in his 
house. After Mr. Simpson’s death Mr. Watson pre- 
vailed upon the widow to let him have the papers, pro- 
mising either to give her a sum of money for them, or 
else to print and publish them for her benefit. But 
nothing of the kind was ever done; this gentleman 
always declaring, when urged on this point by myself 
and others, that no use could be made of any of the 
papers, owing to the very imperfect state in which he 
said they were left. And yet he persisted in his refusal 
to give them up again.” 
In 1780 Colonel Watson was recalled to India, 
and took out with him one of the most remark- 
able English mathematicians of that day, Reuben 
Burrow. This gentleman had been assistant to 
knew the hand, or understood the circumstances to 
which it referred, or not. Such papers, whether 
we understand them or not, have a possible value 
to others; and indeed, as my collections have 
always been at the service of my friends, very few 
indeed have been left in my hands, and those, pro- 
bably, of no material value. 
I wish this system were generally adopted. 
Papers, occasionally of great historical importance, 
and very often of archzological interest, would | 
thus be preserved, and, what is mor e, used, as they 
would thus generally find their way into the right 
hands. 
There are, I fancy, few classes of papers that 
would be so little likely to interest archeologists | 
in general, as those relating to mathematics ; “and 
yet such are not unlikely to fall in their way, often 
and largely, if they would take the trouble to se- 
cure them. I will give an example or two, indi- 
eating the kind of papers which are desiderata to 
——_ 
the mathematical historian. 
1. A letter from Dr. Robert Simson, the editor 
of Euclid and the restorer of the Porisms, to John 
Nourse of the Strand, is missing from an other- 
wise unbroken series, extending from 1 Jan. 1751 
to near the close of Simson’s life. The missing 
letter, as is gathered from a subsequent one, is 
Feb. 5.1753. A mere letter of business from an 
author to his publisher might not be thought of 
much interest: but it need not be here enforced 
how much of consistency and clearness is often 
conferred upon aseries of circumstances by matter 
which such a letter might contain. This letter, 
too, contains a problem, the nature of which it 
would be interesting to know. It would seem 
that the letter passed into the hands of Dodson, 
editor of the Mathematical Repository: but what 
became of Dodson’s papers I could never discover. 
The uses, however, to which such an unpromising 
series of letters have been rendered subservient 
may be seen in the Philosophical Magazine, under 
the title of “Geometry and Geometers,” Nos. i. 
iii. and iv. The letters themselves are in the 
hands of Mr. Maynard, Earl’s Court, Leicester 
Square. 
2. Thomas Simpson (a name venerated by every 
Beeoncter) was one of the scientific men consulted 
the committee appointed to decide upon the 
plans for Blackfriars Bridge, in 1759 and 1760. 
“Tt is probable,” says Dr. Hutton, in his Life of 
Simpson, prefixed to the Select Exercises, 1792, “ that 
this reference to him gave occasion to his turning his 
thoughts more seriously to this subject, so as to form 
the design of composing a regular treatise upon it: for 
“his family have often informed me that he laboured 
hard upon this work for some time before his death, 
and was very anxious to have completed it, frequently 
remarking to them that this work, when published, 
would procure him more credit than any of his former 
publications. But he lived not to put the finishing 
Dr. Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory ; and to 
his care was, in fact, committed the celebrated 
Schehallien experiments and observations. He 
died in India, and, I believe, all his papers which 
reached Engl: ind, as well as several of his letters, 
are in my possession. This, however, is no further 
of consequence in the present matter, than to give 
authority to a remak I am about to quote from 
one of his letters to his most intimate friend, Isaac 
Dalby. In this he says: — “ Colonel Watson has 
out here a work of Simpson’s on bridges, very 
complete and original.” 
it was no doubt by his dread of the sleepless 
watch of Hutton, that so unscrupulous a person 
as Colonel Watson is proved to be, was deterred 
from publishing Simpson’s work as his own. 
The desideratum here i is, of course, to find what 
became of Colonel Watson’s papers; and then to 
ascertain whether this and what other writings of 
Simpson’s are amongst them. A really good work 
on the mathematical theory of bridges, if such is 
ever to exist, has yet to be published. Tt is, at 
the same time, very likely that his great originality, 
and his wonderful sagacity in all his investiga- 
tions, would not fail him in this; and possibly a 
better work on the subject was composed ninety 
years ago than has yet seen the light — involving, 
perhaps, the germs of a totally” new and more 
effective method of investigation. 
T have, I fear, already tr espassed too far upon 
your space for a single letter ; and will, therefore, 
defer my notice of a few other desiderata till a 
future day. yer 
Shooter’s Hill, Dee. 15. 1849. 
THE STLYE OF SUCKLING —THE TWO 
NOBLE KINSMEN. 
SONG IN 
The song in your second number, furnished by 
| 
a correspondent, and considered to be in the style \ 
