INTRODUCTION. xxv 



drawings, at the disposal of Ray, the father 

 of systematic Natural History in Great Britain, 

 who has acknowledged the assistance he derived 

 from him in his editions of Willughby's 'Orni- 

 thology' and 'Ichthyology,' especially in the 

 former. But Browne, it seems, found it more 

 easy to lend than to recover such materials ; 

 for he complains, several years afterwards, that 

 these drawings, of whose safe return he was 

 assured, both by Ray and by their mutual 

 friend. Sir Philip Skippon, had not been sent 

 back to him."* 



I have endeavoured to reproduce as accu- 

 rately as possible the text of the notes and 

 letters, which, as will be seen from the 

 example photographed for the frontispiece of 

 this volume, was often very difficult to decipher. 

 The originals of the notes and of seven of the 

 nine letters to Merrett, as also the two letters 

 in Appendix A., are in the Sloane Collection 

 of MSS. in the British Museum Library ; 

 those numbered vii. and viii., as well as two 

 letters in Appendix D., which have not hitherto 

 been printed, are in the Bodleian Library ; 

 and the letter to Dugdale in Appendix B. 

 is extracted from the " Eastern Counties 



• See letter to his son, Dr. Edward Browne (Wilkin, i., p. 337), also 

 Appendix C. 



