RAY AND WILLUGHBY. 23 



Derham's words, ' Mr Ray so closely applied himself to 

 his studies, that what he missed of at Braintree School, 

 he sufficiently attained to at Trinity College; having 

 acquired great skill in Greek and Latin, and, I have good 

 reason to think, in Hebrew also. Beside which, I find 

 by some of his papers written about that time, that he 

 was very early an excellent orator and naturalist; and 

 upon the account of his great diligence, learning, and 

 virtue, he was soon taken notice of by the College, and 

 at about three years' standing was chosen Minor Fellow 

 of Trinity, on September 8th, 1649, together with his 

 ingenious friend Isaac Barrow; and as Dr Duport had 

 been tutor to both of them, so he used to boast of them, 

 as Mr Ray's fellow-collegian, the late pious and learned 

 Mr Brokesby, informed me, who saith that he, in discourse 

 with Dr Duport, reckoning up several gentlemen of worth 

 that the doctor had been tutor to, the doctor said the 

 chief of all his pupils were Mr Ray and Dr Barrow, to 

 whom he esteemed none of the rest comparable.' * 



On taking his degree as Master of Arts, Ray was 

 elected Major Fellow of Trinity, and subsequently filled 

 several highly honourable posts in his college, being 

 successively Greek lecturer, mathematical lecturer, and 

 humanity reader. At this period of his life Ray was 

 not in holy orders ; but as the custom of the time was, 

 he nevertheless was in the habit of delivering sermons 

 both in his college and before the university. Such 

 college sermons were usually termed 'commonplaces,' 



title-page the signature, "Tho. Baker, Coll: Jo: Socius ejectus.' It belonged to 

 Thomas Baker, a well-known antiquary of his day, who was one of the ' non-juring ' 

 clergy of 1690, and was ejected from his Fellowship in 1716. 

 * ' Select Remains and Life of Ray, by William Derham, D.D. 



