to the singing gallery, are now painted; and the pulpit-cloth and the other furniture, are sumptuous and magnificent.

His library, which he himself built, on his com ing to reside at Hatton, is a large well propor tioned room. But, no longer capable of holding all his books, which, we have heard, he has since been obliged to distribute among other apartments. So voracious, indeed, and insatiable is his helluosity, that we doubt whether, if his books continue to accumulate as they have hitherto done, the whole house may be ample enough to con tain them. For scarcity of edition, taste in selection, and wide range of literature, a more valuable collection has, probably, never been made by any single scholar, who was not a man of high rank, or splendid fortune.

About the year 1771, the doctor married Miss Maisendale, by whom he has had several children. Two only are now living. The eldest was married, not long since, to the eldest son of Col. Wynne. The other is unmarried.

X. Y.

DR. CHARLES

DOCTOR CHARLES HUTTON.

THIS extraordinary person, F. R. S. and mem ber of several learned academies in Europe and America, is the present Professor of Mathematics to the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; having adorned that chair for upwards of twentysix years, and greatly contributed, by his industry and judgement, to raise the course of education at that seminary to the most distinguished pitch of credit and usefulness.

That great talents, and the highest respectability of character and manners in life, do often emerge, by the force and energy of individual powers, from low and obscure origin, are facts, which, perhaps, have at no time been better illustrated than in the instance of this gentleman, whose distinguished abilities and application have raised him to the most respectable eminence in life and literature.

Dr. Hutton is a native of the town of Newcastleupon-Tyne, in Northumberland, where he was born about the year 1737, of parents, who, though among the lower ranks in life, were always at the top, and among the most respectable, of their station; a circumstance which Dr. H. himself has also at all times preserved through the various conditions and situations which he has filled in life.

1799-1800.

H

At

At an early age he was sent to a school in his native place, where he soon made a rapid progress in the first rudiments of education, being always among the foremost in his classes. In consequence of these promising appearances, his parents were encouraged and persuaded, by their neighbours, to continue this, their youngest son, whom they considered as the hopes of the family, at countryschools in the vicinity of Newcastle, till he arrived at near the age of manhood, while his elder brothers were sent to laborious employments.

Here he acquired all the little learning to be obtained at such village-schools, consisting of reading, writing, and accounts, with a little Latin, and the rudiments of practical geometry, mensuration, surveying, &c. In all the school-exercises, he was among the foremost ranks, and the chief favourite of his masters, not seldom to the envy and ill-will of his school-mates. If a question or calculation more difficult than ordinary occurred, he was sure to select it, being always emulous to be at the top of every thing in hand. Besides, having always manifested, from the earliest stage of infancy, an uncommon docility, notability, and simplicity, of manners, these endearing qualities rendered Charles Hutton, at all times, the wonder and little favourite of every one, more especially among the females of his acquaintance.

Mostly in this way was his early youth passed away, till the loss of his parents compelled him to think of some sort of employment for subsistence;

and,

and, being without any regular occupation, he commenced country-schoolmaster about the 18th year of his age; a line of life in which he has continued ever since, in various places, with the most ample success, having risen by his talents to the top of his profession.

This commencement of his occupation was at the village of Jesmond, about two miles from Newcastle, where he remained a few years, instructing the children of that neighbourhood, and improving himself by close study, and eagerly reading all the mathematical and other books he could purchase with the savings out of his little income: by which means he found his mind and powers gradually opening, his knowledge considerably extended, and, with it, his ardent love for the mathematics, and thirst for knowledge in general.

In this pursuit, his exertions were greatly stimulated and his little stock of knowledge increased, by resolving the questions in that most useful al manac, the Ladies' Diary; a little work, which, though seemingly mean and insignificant, has been the occasion of rearing more mathematicians in this country than half the other books professedly written on the subject; a benefit for which his gratitude has amply repaid, by his annual labours for that little book, during an uninterrupted succession of more than forty years; by which endeavours that work has been raised to the highest pitch of respectability among the learned mathematicians

in this country.

H 2

During

Even

During the few years of his residence at this place, too, another remarkable circumstance took place in the condition of our young school-master; by his becoming, for a time, a close and zealous follower of the Methodists, and at length he ventured even to write sermons, and to preach among them. From his very earliest infancy, Mr. H. had always been of a cast of mind and disposition at once serious, sincere, affectionate, devout. when a boy, of only ten or twelve years, by reading some old devotional tracts, (for, he eagerly devoured all sorts of books that fell in his way,) he had wrought himself up to such a pitch of enthusiasm, that, among other acts of devotion, he formed a little retired arbour in a wood, through which the path lay in his way to school, that he might step aside to pray in it, for a few minutes, as he passed to and from school.

And about this time he made a considerable sacrifice to the sincerity of this disposition, by destroying all the ballads and popular little books of tales and stories usually read at a tender age; a sacrifice the more extraordinary, as he had gathered together a great number of them, at the expense of all the little money that was given him from time to time; the practice of collecting a mass of what he considered as curious books having been a predominant passion with him through all the stages and changes of his life. It was never sufficient for him to read a book, and then part with it again; but he must also

possess it

as