settlement, a group of stone and brick buildings present a different
appearance, perfectly preserved over the centuries. This is Woolsthorpe
Manor, the birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton. The outbuildings and
barn are to the east, but to the westward-facing ancient stone farmhouse
lies an apple orchard, with one exceptionally old, craggy apple tree, still
bearing fruit. The tree has survived pestilence, fire, lightning strike, and
mayhem, and like its famous former lord of the manor, has stood the test
of time.
The limestone manor house has two floors; Newton’s bedroom is
upstairs, with a large window facing the apple orchard. Low doorways,
expansive fireplaces for cooking, and creaky, uneven floors give further
reminder of the age of the structure. The artistic significance of the apple
tree’s appearance from his window is outweighed by the scientific,
practical usefulness of a smaller second window in the room, facing south.
This is the window that Newton used as his source of sunlight, perfect for
capturing light during long English winters, particularly when he needed
uninterrupted shafts of white light. The “chief architect of the modern
world”^24 conceived the future in this simple country abode.
Isaac’s challenging entry into the world turned cruel when his mother
married an Anglican priest from a nearby parish whose precondition for
marriage was to leave young Isaac behind. Raised by his maternal
grandmother in Woolsthorpe, one wonders if his solitary inclinations and
lifelong difficulty with relationships arose from childhood trauma. He
would never marry and lacked deep friendships, begging the question of
autism or other social-disconnection conditions. When Isaac was ten, his
mother, again widowed, returned to the farmhouse, with three half-siblings
in tow. Instead of adapting to life with his own family in Woolsthorpe,
Isaac faced another challenge of being shipped off to boarding school
eight miles up the road in Grantham, living with the local apothecary.
In Grantham, Newton became well acquainted with the works of René
Descartes, the brilliant French philosopher who, along with Bacon, is one
of the chief founders of the new Western philosophy. “I think, therefore I
am” is Descartes’s most famous quotation, but his lasting influence was in
mathematics and physics, and most important, his insistence on a
mechanistic view of the world and cosmos. He echoed Bacon with his
insistence on empirical investigation and an emphasis on a scientific