398 APPENDICES 



dition to-day as it was 130 years ago when occupied by 

 Joseph Dalton, the hand-loom weaver, and his gude-wife, 

 Deborah, the parents of the great chemist. On opening the 

 door is seen the house-part where the family lived and where 

 stood the hand-loom at which the father worked to gain 

 daily bread for his wife and children. Here may also be 

 noticed the recess in which was placed the chaff bed where 

 the couple lay and where their son John was born. 



The independence of spirit and determination of mind 

 shown by the boy were soon noticeable. One day, when only 

 between eleven and twelve years of age, he pasted up a notice 

 on the door of his father's barn to the effect that John Dalton 

 had here opened a school for children of both sexes, on 

 reasonable terms, and containing another piece of character- 

 istic information, viz. " that paper, pens, and ink," articles not 

 frequently met with in Eaglesfield in those days, " could be 

 purchased within." 



Some strange scenes were witnessed in that school. The 

 boy's pupils were of all ages, from infants to big boys and girls 

 of sixteen or seventeen. The infants sat on the " Principal's " 

 knee, to learn their a-b, ab. The big boys were often not only 

 crassly ignorant but some were rough and bad. John Dalton, 

 in the exercise of his authority, desired to chastise these 

 unruly ones, but this was sooner said than done, the boys 

 rebelled and offered to fight their small master. How the 

 matter ended history sayeth not, but I will wager that the 

 pluck and Quaker firmness of the young master was equal 

 to coping with the bluster of the ignorant and ill-bred 

 bully. 



Dalton thus describes his own early years : " The writer 

 of this was born at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, in 

 Cumberland. Attended the village school there, and in the 

 neighbourhood till eleven years of age, at which period he 

 had gone through a course of mensuration, surveying, 

 navigation, &c." So you see he knew something, this 

 weaver's son, when eleven years old. His schoolmaster used 

 to Set him questions in mathematics, stiffish problems they 

 were. " Now, John," said the master, " hast thou done 

 that ? " " No," said John, " but " (speaking in his native 

 Cumbrian dialect) " yan med dew it." Again, an hour after, 

 the same question was asked, " No," he replied, " I can't dew 

 it to-neet, but maybe i'th'morn I will," and, true enough, 

 sleep helped the work, and in the morning the answer was 

 forthcoming. This story gives the keynote to the character 

 of the boy and the man. It was indomitable perseverance, 



