Holland, in which church are several ancient monuments to the memory of the family.

DENTON HOUSE is the property and residence of Sir William Earle Welby, Bart. M. P. The mansion, which is a large handsome building in the modern style, has received considerable additions from the proprietor. It stands on a fine elevation, in a well planted park, which is generally, and deservedly admired for the pleasing irregularity of the ground, and for the fine woods and water with which it is highly ornamented.

>>In the western corner of this Soke, eight miles south of Grantham, is the village of COLSTERWORTH, which will ever be celebrated in the records of history, for having given birth to that great luminary in the hemisphere of science, SIR ISAAC NEWTON. Of whom it may be more justly said, than of any person who has either preceded or followed him :

Processit longe flammantia mænia mundi

Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque."

Lucretius, Lib. 1.

Isaac Newton was born at the manor house of Woolsthorpe, a hamlet in this parish, on Christmas-day 1642; about three months after the death of his father, who was a descendant from the elder branch of the family of John Newton, Bart. and was lord of this manor. When a child, Isaac lived with his maternal Grandmother Aiscough, and went to two small day schools, at Skillington, and Stoke, till he was twelve years of age. At which time he was sent to the free grammarschool of Grantham, where, under the tuition of Mr. Stokes, he shewed a partiality for mechanics, and displayed early tokens of that uncommon genius, which afterwards " filled, or rather comprehended the world." After continuing at Grantham a few

years,

years, his mother took him home, for the purpose of managing his own estate; but his exalted mind could not brook such an occupation, and he returned again to school. Soon afterwards he went to Cambridge, where he was admitted into Trinity College the fifth of June, 1660. The first books he read with his college tutor, were Sanderson's Logic and Kepler's Optics. A desire to discover, whether there was any truth in the pretensions of judicial astrology, a science then popular, induced him to study mathematics. And having discovered its fallacy, in a figure he raised for the purpose, from a few Problems in Euclid, he ever after discarded the contemptible study. He however at that time turned aside Euclid, looking upon it as a book containing nothing but obvious truths, and applied himself to the study of Descarte's Geometry. To try some experiments on the doctrine of colours, advanced by that philosopher, he purchased a prism, in the year 1664; when he discovered the hypothis to be erroneous, and at the same time laid the foundation of his own theory of light and colours. About that period he discovered the method of infinite calculus, or Fluxions; the invention of which was claimed by Leibnitz, although it has been proved*, that the "Lecalcul differential" was borrowed from the English philosopher. In the year 1665, having retired to his own estate, on account of the plague, the falling of an apple from a tree in his garden first suggested his system of gravity. And it is a singular case, that he laid the foundations of nearly all his discoveries before he was twenty-four years of age; and communicated them in loose tracts and letters to the Royal Society. Of those an ample account is given in the "Commercium Epistolicum." In 1667 he was elected fellow of his own college, and Dr. Barrow resigned the professorship of mathematics to him in 1669. In 1671 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. In 1688 he was returned by the University of Cambridge to the Convention Parliament, in which he sate till its dissolution. The Earl of Halifax, then Chancellor

* «Commercium Epistolicum, D. Johannis Collins, et aliorum de Analysi præmata: jussu Societatis Regiæ in lucem editum, 4to. Londini', 1712.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a great patron of learning, obtained for him the appointment of Warden of the Mint. This afforded him frequent opportunities of employing his time and skill in mathematics and chemistry; and occasioned him to produce his table of Assays of foreign Coins," printed at the end of Dr. Arbuthnott's "Book of Coins." In 1697, he received from Bernovilli a celebrated Problem, which was intended to puzzle all the mathematicians in Europe; but our philosopher solved it in a few hours. In 1699, he was made "Master and Worker of the Mint;" and in 1701 he appointed Mr. Whiston his deputy in the Mathematical Chair at Cambridge, allowing him the whole emoluments for the performance of its duties: though he did not resign the professorship till 1703; in which year he was chosen President of the Royal Society. This situation he held till his death, which happened the 21st of March 1726-7. He had previously received the honour of knighthood from Queen Anne, at Cambridge, in the year 1705. Sir Isaac was of the middle stature, of a comely aspect, temperate in his diet, and of a meek disposition. He was courteous and affable; and modesty and generosity were eminently conspicuous in his character. He was never married, and the manor and estate descended to the heir at law, Mr. John Newton, who sold it to the family of Turnor, of Stoke Rochford; and is now the property of Edmund Turnor, Esq. of that place*. The manor-house is still standing.

"Here NEWTON dawn'd, here lofty wisdom woke,

And to a wondering world divinely spoke.

If Tully glow'd, when Phædrus' steps he trod,

Or fancy formed philosophy a God ;

If sages still for Homer's birth contend,

The sons of science at this dome must bend.

All hail the shrine! all hail the natal day;
Cam boasts his noon, this cot his morning ray."

HARLAXTON,

* Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton, sent by Mr. Conduitt, to Monsieur Fontenelle, in 1727, and published in Turnor's "Collections for a History of the Town and Soke of Grantham."

-HARLAXTON, a small village, situated on the turnpike-road leading from Grantham to Melton, and three miles distant from the former place, has a handsome church with a beautiful spiré. Some of the windows are singular in their form, having circular heads, each contained within a square label. The manor, and principal part of the property of Harlaxton, belonged in the time of Henry the Seventh to a family of the name of Blewitt'; one of whom it is supposed built the old and curious Manor House. This underwent many alterations by a subsequent possessor, Sir Samuel de Ligne! The house is built of stone, and on the south side it is guarded by a broad and deep moat, with a bridge over it. The entrance into the outer court is by an arched gateway, and the inner court is separated from the outer by a handsome balustrade. Some of the windows are pointed, and others have square labeled' heads. The grand gallery, which is one hundred feet in length, fourteen wide, and televen feet high; and the dining room, which is forty feet by thirty-one, were superbly fitted up; and the windows richly decorated with painted glass, by Sir Daniel de Ligne In the great bow windows are coats of arms of de Ligne, de la Fountaine, de Cordes, and other relations of tlie de Ligne family, who emigrated together, and became refugees in this country. In other windows are emblematical devices, and representations of events, recorded in scriptural and profane history. Several fine portraits of the de Ligne and Lister families, executed by Cornelius Janssen, are here preserved. One of these, which has excited particular interest, is that of Susanna Lady Lister, painted in her wedding dress, by C., Janssen, 1626, when Lady Thornhurst. She was considered the most distinguished beauty of her time, and was presented in marriage to Sir Geoffry Thornhurst, by King James the First, in person. The present proprietor, who is lord of the manor, is George de Ligne Gregory, Esq. In the year 1740, an Urn was found here, it contained burnt bones and coins of Gallienus, a Claudius Gothicus, and of other emperors, with a seal inscribed, "Sigillum comitatus Cantabridgiæ." In the fields near VOL. IX.

*

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this

this village, near the mansion, as a man was ploughing, he discovered a stone, and under it a brass pot, in which was a helmet of gold, set with jewels; and also silver beads, and "corrupted writings." The helmet, supposed to have formerly belonged to John of Gaunt, who had a hunting seat here, was presented to Catharine, Dowager Queen of Henry the Eighth, and deposited afterwards in the cabinet of Madrid.

GREAT PONTON, or PAUNTON, an ancient village, is situated on the river Witham, three miles and a half south of Grantham, and near the Ermine-Street. In this place, and at Little Ponton, an adjacent village, have been found numerous Roman coins, urns, bricks, mosaic pavements, arches, and vaults. Stukeley observes, that this "must needs be the CAUSENNIS." With this opinion Salmon coincided, and agreed with him to place the OLD PONTEM at east Bridgford, in Nottinghamshire. But Horsley fixes it at Southwell. Ponton has probably been a station, though it does not appear to fall under any one mentioned in the Itinerary. "The fosse way, partly paved with blue flag stones laid on edge, runs by this place from Newark to Leicester +." The Church, which is a fine building, was, according to Leland, completed A., D. 1519, at the expence of Anthony Ellis, Esq. merchant of the staple, who lies interred in the chancel; and whose arms are represented on the different parts of the steeple, with the motto, "Thynke, and thanke God of all." It is justly admired for its proportion, has eight ornamental pinnacles at top, and is seventyeight feet high.

Six miles south of Grantham is STOKE ROCHFORD, or SOUTH STOKE. Its church, which serves for the parishes of Stoke Rochford, North Stoke, and Easton, Bishop Sanderson describes as fair and well built, having " a chancel with three quires and goodly

*Leland's Itin. Vol. I. fol. 31.

+ Gough's Camden, Vol. II. p. 250.