Science biography: A voyage round Newton

The last major private repository of manuscripts and correspondence by Isaac Newton and his circle was held in the extraordinary library at Shirburn Castle in Oxfordshire, UK, seat of the earls of Macclesfield. In the late 1970s, I sought access to the documents while pursuing a doctorate at the University of Oxford. I was politely, but firmly, refused. My mentor, Hugh Trevor-Roper, pleaded with the earl, who countered that the last time an Oxonian had entered the library, a book had gone missing. Trevor-Roper apologized on the university's behalf, and asked when the incident had occurred. “In 1747,” came the curt reply.