LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. X.XX1X 



it in a present to the Reverend and ingenious ,Mr. 

 Alexander Irvine, one of the ministers at Elgin in 

 Scotland. 



I then made a smaller and neater orrery, of 

 which all the wheels were of ivory, and I cut the 

 teeth in them with a file. This was done in the 

 beginning of the year 1743; and, in May that 

 year, I brought it with me to London, where it 

 was soon after brought by Sir Dudley Rider. I 

 have made six orreries since that time, and there 

 are not any two of them in which the wheel-work 

 is alike : for I could never bear to copy one thing 

 of that kind from another, because I still saw 

 there was great room for improvements. 



I had a letter of recommendation from Mr. Ba- 

 ron Eldin at Edinburgh to the Right Honourable 

 Stephen Poyntz, Esq; at St. James's, who had 

 been preceptor to his Royal Highness the late 

 Duke of Cumberland, and was well known to be 

 possessed of all the good qualities that can adorn 

 a human mind. To me, his goodness was really be- 

 yond my power o expression : and T had not been 

 a month in London till he informed me that he had 

 wrote to an eminent professor of mathematics to 

 take me into his house, and give me board and lodg- 

 ing with all proper instructions to qualify me for 

 teaching a mathematical school he (Mr. Poyntz) 

 had in view for me, and would get me settled in it. 

 This I should have liked very well, especially as I 

 began to be tired of drawing pictures, in which, I 

 confess, I never strove to excel, because ray mind 



