FRANCIS WILLUGHBY. 43 



author well qualified to form the opinion,* that 

 " their descriptions are wide, frequently incorrect, 

 and in few cases characteristic. They had no 

 idea of disposing the objects of which they treated 

 in a manner resembling that to which we have 

 been accustomed since the time of Ray and 

 Linnaeus." 



It is now the place, agreeably to the object of 

 the foregoing sketch, avowed at the commence- 

 ment, to submit to the reader's attention the 

 chief particulars in the history of the English 

 Naturalist, Francis Willughby, Esq. of 'whom, 

 although his name occurs in almost every treatise 

 on Natural History, and often with high com- 

 mendation, yet no Memoir has been published 

 calculated to illustrate the varied excellencies of 

 his character, or to do justice to the genuine 

 claims of his improvements in science. 



Francis Willughby was born at Middleton, in 

 Warwickshire, in the year 1635. He was des- 

 cended from two ancient families, each of the 

 name of Willughby ; namely, from that of Wil- 

 lughby de Eresby in Lincolnshire, a baronial 

 family of high antiquity and historic renown, on 

 his grandfather's side ; and from the family of 

 Willughby of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire, 

 which derived its name from one of its earliest 

 possessions, Willughby on the Wolds, in that 

 county, on his grandmother's side. His grand- 

 mother's family derived its first prominence from 

 the career of Sir Richard de Willughby, Knight, 

 * Macgillivray. 



