Astronomy and mathematics: Samuel Vince reading in his rooms at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, by the light of a shaded lamp. Aquatint by F. Jukes with engraving by J. K. Baldrey after R. C. Chilton, c.1784.

"Helluones" means "bookworms" in Latin. Vince is studying a mathematical section of a book with running title similar to Principia naturalia. Other academic publications scattered about the study include Meditationes algebraicae, Vince on the infinite series, and Problemata. On the back wall are a diagram of "Halley's scheme: transit of Venus" and a chart of "An analysis of Mr Locke's politics [?] ideas". A pendulum clock gives the time as 9.15 (presumably pm, as it is dark). On the floor, his emaciated cat attempts to solve mathematical conundrums in the Ladies' Diary: "in 1768, Vince's early competence in mathematics allowed him to propose one, and answer ten, of the serious mathematical problems regularly set in the Ladies' Diary" (Oxford dictionary of national biography). Vince was subsequently Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge (1796-1821)