[ [398] J. Watt, jun., to M. R. Boulton, 8th June, 1804.
[ [399] Watt to Boulton, Sidmouth, 14th October, 1804.
[ [400] Watt to Boulton, Exeter, 22nd October, 1804.
[ [401] Paris’s ‘Life of Davy,’ i. 198–200.
[ [402] Cited in Muirhead’s ‘Mechanical Inventions of James Watt,—Correspondence,’ ii. 269.
[ [403] One of these, thrown out in a letter to Watt, may be mentioned—a speculation since revived by the late Dr. S. Brown of Edinburgh,—the transmutation of bodies. “These are wonderful steps,” said he, “which are every day making in chemical analysis. The analysis of the alkalis and alkaline earths by Guyton, by Henry, and others, will presently lead, I think, to the doctrine of a reciprocal convertibility of all things into all. It brings to mind a minister lecturing on the first chapter of one of the Gospels, when, after reading, ‘Adam begat Abel, and Abel begat,’ &c.,—to save himself the trouble of so many cramp names, he said, ‘and so they all begat one another to the 15th verse.’ I expect to see alchemy revive, and be as universally studied as ever.”
[ [404] Watt to Boulton, 13th May, 1804.
[ [405] Watt to Boulton, 14th October, 1804.
[ [406] De Luc to Boulton, Windsor Castle, 25th January, 1807. It had been arranged that George III., the Queen, and the Princesses, should pay a visit to Soho in 1805, though the King had by that time become quite blind. When told of Boulton’s illness, and that he was confined to bed, his Majesty replied, “Then I will visit Mr. Boulton in his sick-chamber” (MS. Memoir by Mr. Keir). The royal visit was eventually put off, the Council advising that the King should go direct to Weymouth and nowhere else.
[ [407] The following is the inscription on the mural monument erected to his memory in the side aisle of Handsworth Church, in the composition of which James Watt assisted:—