30 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS. 



made, more or less systematically by students of natural history, 

 though such collections might never rise to the dignity of a 

 museum. Our great Essex naturalist, John Ray, must surely 

 have possessed a collection. His friend and benefactor, Francis 

 Willughby, we know collected extensively and secured the 

 advantage of Ray's curatorial assistance. In a letter to Martin 

 Lister, dated June 18, 1667, Ray says: "The most part of the 

 winter I spent in reviewing and helping to put in order Mr. 

 Willughby's collection of birds, fishes, shells, stones, and other 

 fossils; seeds, dried plants, coins, etc." 37 



It is clear therefore that the Willughby collection was of a 

 very comprehensive character. Ray, being a man of restricted 

 means, could hardly indulge in a similar manner, however wide 

 his sympathies may have been ; but that he had some kind of 

 collection is clear, for we are told that " whatever he had 

 preserved relative to any branch of natural history he gave 

 before his death to his neighbour, Air. Samuel Dale." 38 The Ray 

 collection therefore passed to his executor, and the herbarium 

 was presented by him to the Physic Garden at Chelsea, but 

 ultimately found an appropriate resting place in the British 

 Museum. 



One of the earliest, and still one of the best, natural history 

 museums ever founded by a local society in this country is the 

 museum at Saffron Walden. Soon after the foundation of a 

 Natural History Society in that town, in 1832, it was resolved 

 " that a museum be founded to include specimens in the several 

 departments of natural history, with antiquarian remains and 

 such other articles as might be of general or local interest." 

 The collections were accommodated at first in the house of Mr. 

 Jabez Gibson, who had been mainly instrumental in organizing the 

 society, but in 1834 they were removed to the building specially 

 erected for their reception by Lord Braybrooke. This museum 

 was opened on May 12th, 1835. 



That the special value of a local collection was recognized 

 at that time is evident from a statement circulated before the 

 building was opened, in which it was said that " the con- 

 centration of Specimens peculiar to the District in which 

 the Museum is established will form a leading feature in its 



37 Dr. Derham's Life in Memorials of John Kay. Edited by Edwin Lankester.Ray Society: 

 1845, p. 17. 



38 Sir J. E. Smith in the Ray Society's volume, p. 85. 



