He succeeded so well that in the following year he opened a village school at Beilby.

He went on educating himself, and learnt a little of everything.

He next removed his school to Kirpenbeck, near Stamford Bridge; and it was there," proceeded Mrs.Cooke, "that I got to know him, for I was one of his pupils." "He first learned mathematics by buying an old volume at a bookstall, with a spare shilling.

That was before he began to teach.

He also got odd sheets, and read other books about geometry and mathematics, before he could buy them; for he had very little to spare.