Page:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life.djvu/89

 of the town & country, to pay a visit to Isaac's mouse miller, & the farmers readily supplyd him with handfuls of corn, on market days.

he likewise made a good wooden clock, that went by weights, in the usual manner: this being a bare imitation, as before, was not sufficiently pleasing to him. but he made another clock which is much talked of still, on quite a new principle. it went by water dropping into a cistern: & was famous for its exactness. he constructed this out of a firdeal box which he beg'd of Mrs. Clarks bror. it was in shape much like other clocks; a case about 4 foot high, a dyal plate, painted by himself with figures: a wooden index that show'd the hour. this index was turn'd by a perpendicular piece of wood, rising, as the water filled the cistern: I suppose either by rack-work, as they call it, or by a string winding its self round an axis.

this clock always stood in his own garret where he lay. & he took care every morning to supply it with a proper quantity of water. & the family upon occasion, went up thither, to be well informd upon the time of day. & it was left in the house long after he went to the University: destroyed, probably, when the house was pulled down, & rebuilt.