300 BRITISH BIRDS. 



published in 1660. In the preface to that work Ray 

 writes as follows : — 



" Jam quoniam honestum est fateri per quos profeceris, 

 generossimi Juvenes, D. Franciscus Willughby et D. Petrus 

 Courthorpe * Armigeri, natalium splendore ingenii sublimitate. 

 Suavite morum, fide, virtu te illustres, non rei duntaxat 

 herbariae callentissimi, sed in omni Hterarum genere versa- 

 tissimi, amici nostri, plurimum honorandi, non sunt a nobis 

 silentio transmuttendi, ni ingrati & arrogantes esse velimus. 

 Horum opera nos saepius usos & ab his non mediocriter 

 adpitos fuisse in hoe opuseulo, Concinnando, libere & ingenue 

 profitemur." 



In 1663 Willughby, who had already accompanied Ray 

 in some of his expeditions in Great Britain, went with 

 him on his journey to the continent, but they parted 

 company the next year at Montpelier, and Willughby 

 continued his journey through Spain alone. It should 

 here be mentioned that Willughby's name appeared as 

 one of the original Fellows of the Royal Society on its 

 incorporation in 1663-4. In 1665, on the death of his 

 father, Willughby succeeded to the estates of Wollaton 

 and Middleton, and in 1668 married Emma, daughter 

 of Sir Thomas Bernard, by whom he had two sons and a 

 daughter. His great devotion to work seems to have 

 overtaxed his strength, and on December 22nd, 1670, 

 Dr. Martin Lister, writing to Ray, says, " I am very glad 

 Mr. Willughby is near well again. Methinks he is very 

 valetudinary, and you have often alarm'd me with his 

 Illnesses." In the beginning of June, 1672, "he fell into 

 a pleurisie Avhich terminated in that kind of fever called 

 Cattarrhalis." 



He died on July 3rd, 1672, "to the immense grief of 

 his friends and all good men that knew him, and the 

 great loss of the commonwealth in general." Thus was 

 frustrated his project of a voyage to the New World, 

 " that he might perfect the History of Animals." 



* Mr. Peter Courthorpe, of Danny, in Sussex ; a friend and pupil of 

 John Ray's, to him Ray dedicated the " Collection of English Words," 

 pubUshed in 1674. 



