re: #163 Obdicut

Though with the caution that they’re not strictly accurate, contain lots of anachronisms and impossibilities. But that’s all overmastered by the ripping goodness of the yarn.

I was surprised at how much was true. In “System of the World” when Daniel was meeting at the thief’s ken, and the “old man” on the floor, poxed and consumed, crawled over to the fireplace and threw in a handful of chemical, and the puff of smoke went up the chimney and the Kings men ran in, and we find out the “old man” was Sir Isaac Newton, I thought that was all fiction.

No, Newton did go undercover looking for counterfeiters, he did hang out in unsavory places like that…

There is even a whole book on the subject.

Newton and the Counterfeiter