RAY. 29 



They were the favourite pupils of their master. 

 Ray took his degree of Bachelor of Arts, and 

 then that of Master of Arts, becoming then a 

 Major Fellow. In 165 1 he was chosen the Greek 

 Lecturer to the College ; two years afterwards 

 Mathematical Lecturer, and in 1655 Humanity 

 Reader. Then he was made Junior Dean and Col- 

 lege Steward, and he became the tu tor to many 

 men of subsequent worth, especially to Mr. Francis 

 Willughby, of Middleton Hail, in Warwickshire. 

 During these years Ray wandered over the country 

 collecting and studying plants. He wrote the O^ 

 story of his journeys in and about Eingland, calling 

 t hem " Itinerar ies." His tirst jouFne}rwas in 1658, 

 and he rode from Cambridge to Northampton ; he 

 passed by Higham Ferrers and saw the outside of 

 a great stone building called a college, and he 

 wrote that Northampton was indifferently hand- 

 some, the houses being built of timber, notwith- 

 standing the plenty of stone dug in that county. 

 He saw in a Mr. Bowker's garden " divers 

 physical plants," and he noticed the luxuriance of 

 the lupinus there. Then he went to Warwick by 

 Daventry, and saw Holdenby House. At Shuck- 

 borough he did not see the star-stones he had 

 heard of. He visited Warwick, but cared more 

 for Guy's Cliff than for the rib of the dun cow 

 and Guy's sword ; and then he went into 

 Derbyshire, and investigated the Pool's-hole, 

 near Buxton, and noticed the wild flowers of 

 the hills. Travelling on to North Wales, he visited 



