However, this topic must be viewed in a new light following on a recent discovery by Oxford University’s English Department in general and Doctor Hoo, Professor of Medieval Syntax in particular.
The discovery was made when conservationists were engaged in restoration work on the Oxford copy of the First Folio Edition of Shakespeare's plays to cull the death watch beetles, woodworm, silverfish and other fibre-eating creatures that Oxford breeds in abundance and which were beginning to make inroads into Henry V, Part I.
In fact, the inside cover had been so badly chewed that it needed to be entirely replaced and as conservationists removed the last traces of the original, it became clear that faint spidery lines dimly seen between the unchewed bits had actually been notations in Newton's own handwriting and this suggested that Newton's esteem for gems of English literature was not overly high.
The full text ran to 27 closely spaced lines and revealed that Newton's original telescope, an example of which still exists was NOT designed as a reflecting telescope but rather was an achromatic refractor, with the rather small objective being what had hitherto been considered to be the eyepiece, while the concave mirror was in fact the single element eyepiece.
One looked in from the top of the tube at the focussed light coming in from the tiny objective, which was really only suitable for lunar observation rather than deep sky objects, or planets which, aside from their positions, did not overly interest him.
Only when Edmund Halley accidentally looked in from the "eyepiece" end and saw a bright image did Newton realise his mistake and cantankerous old goat that he was claim he had intended to invent a reflector all along and was merely "testing" Halley.
At least he had the decency in the newly discovered text to dedicate his discovery to Halley.
The existing Newtonian dating from Newton's time was long believed to be a contemporary copy, and the text revealed that Newton had actually presented the original to his mistress and love of his life, Moll Flanders who used it to supplement her income on slow nights by charging passing people sixpence for a look at the moon, this in fact being the motivation for his invention of the instrument so as to provide for Moll in her old age.
Newton in fact was a little trusting and thought that he was Moll's only lover and that she was a member of the lesser gentry.
She had explained her nights walking the streets of London as indulging her passion for astronomy by searching the sky for naked eye comets and similar extended objects.
It is believed that the Bishop of Oxford had glued a sheet of paper over Newton's writing so as to protect his memory and so as to not give strange ideas to new students.
Apparently Newton and Moll Flanders had been an item ever since attending Sunday school together and she had inspired many of his scientific insights, starting with comparative anatomy and going on to the laws of physics.
It seems he made up the story about his thoughts on gravity being inspired by the sight of a falling apple as in reality the idea had come to him as she fed him grapes and instead of dropping them all straight into his mouth threw some in a curved arc which soon had got him thinking.
From these humble grapes came the laws of gravity, motion, the principle of moments, and the concepts of air drag on trajectory in spite of Moll doing her utmost to distract him.
Newton never officially married, and there has been speculation that he and Moll had secretly been wed at Gretna Green, though they certainly would have spent most of their time leading separate lives - he on his researches and academic career at Cambridge while Moll pursued a professional career in London.
This at least spared Moll the embarrassment of, in the course of married life, inadvertently encountering the many scientific and ecclesiastical colleagues of her husband with whom she had developed a mutually satisfactory professional relationship, as she had no desire to trouble him with such mundane matters which in any event were totally outside his knowledge or comprehension.