4 
not Newton’s, and it was most improbable that the poor 
Trinity College Sizar would, when a Bachelor of Arts (that is, 
between January, 1665, and July 7, 1668) have cared, or, if he 
had cared, could have had the means to obtain a portrait of 
himself. He apprehended that because the portrait repre- 
sented a young man with his hand on a globe, some imagina- 
tive person had supposed that it must be a representation of 
the great philosopher who had explained the system of the 
universe. But this portrait represents one of the poorest 
specimens of humanity; and certainly not a Newton, but 
rather a Simple Simon. The Marquis of Exeter’s picture 
has hardly any greater claim to be regarded as a Newton. 
It represents a man with a bald head, but we have the 
clearest evidence that Newton was not bald* The two 
Yanderbank portraits representing him the year before his 
death without his wig, show that he had a beautiful head of 
silver white hair. There is another portrait of Newton 
by Thornhill, taken at an earlier period, which represents 
him without his wig, but with short white hair and no trace 
of baldness. The Portsmouth Kneller of 1689, which repre- 
sents him when he was 47 years old, shows him without a 
wig and with abundant grey hair. This is a sufficient 
ground for rejecting this picture ; but no one who has studied 
the portraits of Newton could be brought to believe that 
this is a representation of the great philosopher. Last year 
when reading his paper, Dr. Crompton remarked that he 
had been unable to discover where the original Knfeller of 
Newton, engraved by Houbraken, was to be found. He then 
pointed out that in some impressions of the Houbraken 
print it was stated to be in the possession of Mr. Conduit. 
Dr. Crompton went to the Earl of Portsmouth’s seat at 
* Mr. Conduit, Newton’s nephew by marriage, when describing Newton’s 
personal appearance, says, “ With a fine head of hair as white as silver, with- 
out any baldness, and when his peruke was off, was a venerable sight.”-— 
Brewster’s Life of Newton, 1855, vol. ii-, p. 413. 
