Life in Oxford for Gregory turned out, as is often the case, to be rather different from his anticipations. He had looked forward to years of studious peace; but the reality, while it answered his expectation in giving him much time for study, had surrounded him with men prepared to be unfriendly towards him. ‘The Scotchman’ received much contumely in Oxford, possibly more than would otherwise have been the case, because he was so well known to the outside world. Some of Hearne’s Collections have the full flavour of the sort of annoyance to which he must have been subjected, an annoyance none the less irritating to Gregory because the facts so generally disagreed with the views expressed about him. Compare the two following passages, which are evidently meant to describe the same circumstance. ‘In 1702, David Gregory produced at Oxford his most important treatise, _Astronomiae Physicae et Geometricae Elementa_. In this were included several propositions communicated by Newton, being results which their author had not obtained at the time of the publication of the first edition of the _Principia_, but was anxious to bring before the public at once without waiting for the second edition of his own work.’ * * * ‘It may here likewise be observed that men well skilled in Mathematics scruple not to say that David Gregory has stole most of his astronomy from Isaac Newton, whom he has mentioned with some little acknowledgment but not so often as he should have done, which, as ‘tis said, has put Sir Isaac on a new edition of his _Principia_.’ How different these two stories are it is easy to see, and although Sir Isaac never expressed the sentiments assigned to him by Hearne, nor, it is likely enough, would Gregory ever have this charge made directly to him, yet it is impossible but that the Savilian professor occasionally felt the sting of such mischief-making.