40 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



sister, Cassandra, afterwards married the Duke of 

 Chandos. Thomas, the younger son, was one of 

 the ten peers created, all on the same day, by 

 Queen Anne, and received the title of Lord 

 Middleton. The care of his pupils, and of the 

 literary concerns of their deceased parent, now 

 interrupted Mr. Ray's botanizing excursions, and 

 caused him also to decline the offer of Dr. Lister, 

 then a physician at York, to settle under his 

 roof. Bishop Wilkins did not long survive Mr. 

 Willughby, and his death made another chasm in 

 the scientific and social circle of our great natural 

 philosopher, who felt these losses as deeply and 

 tenderly as any man. He sought consolation in 

 a domestic attachment, fixing his choice on a 

 young woman of good parentage, whose name 

 was Margaret Oakley, and who resided in the 

 family at Middleton Hall. He was married at 

 the parish church, June 5th, 1673, being then in 

 the forty-fifth year of his age, and his bride about 

 twenty. This lady took a share in the early 

 education of his pupils, as far as concerned their 

 reading English. She is said to have been recom- 

 mended by her character, as well as by her person, 

 to the regard of her husband. She bore him three 

 daughters who, with their mother, survived him. 



The first fruit of our author's leisure and retire- 

 ment was a book on a new classification of plants, 

 published in 1682. His principles of arrangement 

 are chiefly derived from the fruit. The regularity 

 and irregularity of flowers, which took the lead in 



