“In the mean time my education was advancing at Playford.  The first record, I believe, which I have of my attention to mechanics there is the plan of a threshing-machine which I drew.  But I was acquiring valuable information of all kinds from the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, a work which without being high in any respect is one of the most generally useful that I have seen.  But I well remember one of the most important steps that I ever made.  I had tried experiments with the object-glass of an opera-glass and was greatly astonished at the appearance of the images of objects seen through the glass under different conditions.  By these things my thoughts were turned to accurate optics, and I read with care Rutherford’s Lectures, which my uncle possessed.  The acquisition of an accurate knowledge of the effect of optical constructions was one of the most charming attainments that I ever reached.  Long before I went to College I understood the action of the lenses of a telescope better than most opticians.  I also read with great zeal Nicholson’s Dictionary of Chemistry, and occasionally made chemical experiments of an inexpensive kind:  indeed I grew so fond of this subject that there was some thought of apprenticing me to a chemist.  I also attended to surveying and made a tolerable survey and map of my uncle’s farm.

“At school I was going on successfully, and distinguished myself particularly by my memory.  It was the custom for each boy once a week to repeat a number of lines of Latin or Greek poetry, the number depending very much on his own choice.  I determined on repeating 100 every week, and I never once fell below that number and was sometimes much above it.  It was no distress to me, and great enjoyment.  At Michaelmas 1816 I repeated 2394 lines, probably without missing a word.  I do not think that I was a favourite with Mr Crosse, but he certainly had a high opinion of my powers and expressed this to my father.  My father entertained the idea of sending me to College, which Mr Crosse recommended:  but he heard from some college man that the expense would be L200 a year, and he laid aside all thoughts of it.

“The farm of Playford Hall was in 1813 or 1814 hired by Thomas Clarkson, the slave-trade abolitionist.  My uncle transacted much business for him (as a neighbour and friend) in the management of the farm &c. for a time, and they became very intimate.  My uncle begged him to examine me in Classical knowledge, and he did so, I think, twice.  He also gave some better information about the probable expenses &c. at College.  The result was a strong recommendation by my uncle or through my uncle that I should be sent to Cambridge, and this was adopted by my father.  I think it likely that this was in 1816.

“In December 1816, Dealtry’s Fluxions was bought for me, and I read it and understood it well.  I borrowed Hutton’s Course of Mathematics of old Mr Ransome, who had come to reside at Greenstead near Colchester, and read a good deal of it.