Craven and ninety-eight for Paman. On the morning of the election, a protest in which Newton's name appeared was read and entered in the Regent House. But the vice-chancellor admitted Paman the same morning, and so ended the first contest of a non-scientific character in which Newton took part. Newton's poverty On 8 March 1673 Newton wrote to Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society:"Sir, I desire that you will procure that I may be put out from being any longer Fellow of the Royal Society: for though I honour that body, yet since I see I shall neither profit them nor (because of this distance) can partake of the advantage of their assemblies, I desire to withdraw." Oldenburg replied to this with an offer to apply to the Society to excuse Newton the weekly payments, as in a letter of Newton's to Oldenburg, dated 23 June 1673, he says, "For your proffer about my quarterly payments, I thank you, but I would not have you trouble yourself to get them excused if you have not done it already." Nothing further seems to have been done in the matter until 28 January 1675, when Oldenburg informed the Society that "Mr. Newton is now in such circumstances that he desires to be excused from the weekly payments." Upon this "it was agreed to by the council that he be dispensed with, as several others are." On 18 February 1675 Newton was formally accepted into the Society. The most probable reason why Newton wished to be excused from these payments is that, as he was not in holy orders, his fellowship at Trinity College would lapse in autumn 1675, with a consequent reduction in his income. But he received a patent from the Crown in April 1675, allowing him as Lucasian professor to retain his fellowship without being required to take holy orders. This must have relieved Newton's financial worries since in November 1676 he donated £40 towards the building of the new library of Trinity College. Universal law of gravitation It is supposed that it was at Woolsthorpe in the summer of 1666 that Newton's thoughts were directed to the subject of gravity. They are said to have been inspired by Newton's seeing an apple fall from a tree on his mother's farm, a version for which there is reasonable historical evidence. In one version of the story, the apple is