Queen Of Science. Somerville Mary

little in this work when my marriage with my cousin, William Somerville8 (1812), put an end to scientific pursuits for a time.

31 James Ferguson (1710–76), Astronomy Explained on Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles (1756).

32 ‘These books and all the other mathematical works belonging to my mother at the time of her death have been presented to the College for Women, at Girton, Cambridge’: note from original edition. ‘Isoperimetrical’ problems are problems concerning figures with the same perimeter. The titles given are approximations of the French (or Latin) titles.

33 See also p. 80. The Edinburgh Review and The Quarterly Review were rival reviews. The Edinburgh was established in October 1802 by Francis Jeffrey, Henry Brougham (q.v.) and Sydney Smith (q.v.). Francis, Lord Jeffrey (1773–1850), who was its editor until 1829, was educated at Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities and became a judge and an MP. As a critic, Jeffrey approved of Byron, Scott and Keats but is known as the scourge of Wordsworth and the Lake Poets – his review of Wordsworth’s ‘The Excursion’ famously begins ‘This will never do.’ He was also severe, although less so, on Mary Somerville’s friend, Joanna Baillie. Although early contributors to the Edinburgh included Tories like Scott, its sympathies became clearly Whig and in February 1809 the Quarterly was set up as a Tory rival. Scott’s son-in-law Lockhart (q.v.) was an important contributor and its editor from 1825–53. The Quarterly’s antipathies were directed rather to Keats and Shelley than the older Romantics.

       SIX

      Somerville Family – Dr Somerville’s Character – Letters – Journey to the Lakes – Death of Sir William Fairfax – Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott

      [With regard to my father’s family, I cannot do better than quote what my grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Somerville, says in his Life and Times: – ‘I am a descendant of the ancient family of Somerville of Cambusnethan, which was a branch of the Somervilles of Drum, ennobled in the year 1424. Upon the death of George Somerville, of Corhouse, fifty years ago, I became the only male representative of the family.’ There is a quaint old chronicle, entitled ‘Memorie of the Somervilles,’ written by James, eleventh Lord Somerville, who died in 1690, which was printed for private distribution, and edited by Sir Walter Scott, and gives ample details of all the branches of our family. Although infinitely too prolix for our nineteenth century ideas, it contains many curious anecdotes and pictures of Scottish life.

      My father was the eldest son of the minister of Jedburgh, and until his marriage with my mother, had lived almost entirely abroad and in our colonies. It was always a subject of regret to my mother that my father never could be induced to publish an account of his important travels in South Africa, for which he had ample materials in the notes he brought home, many of which we still possess. Without being very deeply learned on any one special subject, he was generally well-informed, and very intelligent. He was an excellent classical scholar, and could repeat long passages from Horace and other authors. He had a lively interest in all branches of natural history, was a good botanist and mineralogist, and could take note of all the strange animals, plants, or minerals he saw in his adventurous journeys in the countries, now colonised, but then the hunting-grounds of Caffres34