* * * *

[After three years of married life, my mother returned to her
father's house in Burntisland, a widow, with two little boys. The
youngest died in childhood. The eldest was Woronzow Greig,
barrister-at-law, late Clerk of the Peace for Surrey. He died
suddenly in 1865, to the unspeakable sorrow of his family, and the
regret of all who knew him.]

* * * * *

I was much out of health after my husband's death, and chiefly occupied
with my children, especially with the one I was nursing; but as I did
not go into society, I rose early, and, having plenty of time, I resumed
my mathematical studies. By this time I had studied plane and spherical
trigonometry, conic sections, and Fergusson's "Astronomy." I think it
was immediately after my return to Scotland that I attempted to read
Newton's "Principia." I found it extremely difficult, and certainly did
not understand it till I returned to it some time after, when I studied
that wonderful work with great assiduity, and wrote numerous notes and
observations on it. I obtained a loan of what I believe was called the
Jesuit's edition, which helped me. At this period mathematical science
was at a low ebb in Britain; reverence for Newton had prevented men from
adopting the "Calculus," which had enabled foreign mathematicians to
carry astronomical and mechanical science to the highest perfection.
Professors Ivory and de Morgan afterwards adopted the "Calculus"; but
several years elapsed before Mr. Herschel and Mr. Babbage were
joint-editors with Professor Peacock in publishing an abridged
translation of La Croix's "Treatise on the Differential and Integral
Calculus." I became acquainted with Mr. Wallace, who was, if I am not
mistaken, mathematical teacher of the Military College at Marlow, and
editor of a mathematical journal published there. I had solved some of
the problems contained in it and sent them to him, which led to a
correspondence, as Mr. Wallace sent me his own solutions in return. Mine
were sometimes right and sometimes wrong, and it occasionally happened
that we solved the same problem by different methods. At last I
succeeded in solving a prize problem! It was a diophantine problem, and
I was awarded a silver medal cast on purpose with my name, which pleased
me exceedingly.

Mr. Wallace was elected Professor of Mathematics in the University of
Edinburgh, and was very kind to me. When I told him that