Chapter Newland to Nicholas of N by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Newland to Nicholas

Newland (Abraham), one of the governors of the Bank of England, to whom, in the early part of the nineteenth century, all Bank of England notes were made payable. A bank-note was called an “Abraham Newland;” and hence the popular song, “I’ve often heard say, sham Ab’ram you may, but must not sham Abraham Newland.”

Trees are notes issued from the bank of nature, and as current as those payable to Abraham Newland.—Colman: The Poor Gentleman, i. 2 (1802).

Newspapers (The Oldest).

Stamford Mercury, 1695. The editor says that No. 6833, July 7, 1826, means that the paper had arrived at the 6833rd week of issue, or the 131st year of its existence.

Nottingham Journal, 1710. Northampton Mercury, 1720. Gloucester Journal, 1722.

Chalmers says that the first English newspaper was called the English Mercury, 1588; but Mr. Watts has proved that the papers so called, now in the British Museum, are forgeries, because they bear the paper-mark of George I. The English Mercuries consist of seven distinct articles, three printed, and four in MS.

Newton.

Newton … declared, with all his grand discoveries recent,
That he himself felt only “like a youth
Picking up shells by the great ocean, truth.”
   —Byron: Don Juan, vii. 5 (1824).

Newton discovered the prismatic colours of light, and explained the phenomenon by the emission theory. This theory is not now accepted; the wave theory of Dr. Young has superseded it.

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night.
God said, “Let Newton be;” and all was light.

Pope: Epitaph, intended for Newton’s Monument in Westminster Abbey (1727).

Newton is called by Campbell “The Priest of Nature.”—Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

Newton and the Apple. It is said that Newton was standing in his mother’s garden at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in the year 1665, when an apple fell from a tree and set him thinking. From this incident he ultimately developed his theory of gravitation.

When Newton saw an apple fall, he found,
In that slight startle from his contemplation,…
A mode of proving that the earth turned round,
In a most natural whirl called gravitation.
   —Byron: Don Juan, x. 1 (1824).

Newton’s mother had married the Rev. B. Smith, and had returned to the manor-house of Woolsthorpe, where Newton was born. Mr. Conduit, who succeeded Newton at the Mint, was the husband of Catherine Barton, granddaughter of Mrs. Smith (Newton’s mother).

Newton and his Dog. One winter’s morning, while attending early service in Trinity College, Newton inadvertently left his dog Diamond shut up in his room. On returning from chapel, he found that the little pet had upset the candle on his table, and several important papers were burnt. On perceiving this irreparable loss, he exclaimed, “Oh, Diamond, Diamond, thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done!”—Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (“Life of Newton,” p. 26, col. 2).

When Ainsworth was finishing the letter “S” of his Latin Dictionary, his wife, in a pet, threw the whole manuscript of the dictionary into the fire, but by marvellous perseverance he set to work at once to repair the loss.