16 



MEMORIALS OF RAY 



lemn league and covenant/' occasioned Mr. Ray to resign 

 his fellowship, he refusing to sign that declaration. But 

 the reason of his refusal was not (as some have imagined) 

 his having taken the " solemn league and covenant," (for 

 that he never did, and often declared that he ever thought 

 it an unlawful oath;) but he said he could not declare, for 

 those that had taken the oath, that no obligation lay 

 upon them, but feared there might. And one thing that 

 unfortunately then happened was (as Mr. Brokesby in- 

 formed me,) that he was at that time absent from his 

 college, where he might have met with satisfaction to his 

 scruples, and was among some zealous Nonconformists, 

 who too much influenced him by the addition of new 

 scruples. And we may also ascribe somewhat to pre- 

 judice of education in unhappy times. 



Having now left his fellowship, and visited most parts 

 of his own country, he was minded to see what Nature 

 afforded in foreign parts; and accordingly I find Mr. 

 Willughby and him consulting, towards the latter end of 

 this year, about travelling the next spring, and consider- 

 ing whom they should invite to go with them;* and 

 having persuaded Mr. Skippon (afterwards Sir Philip) 

 and Mr. Nathaniel Bacon f (two of Mr. Ray's pupils) to 

 go along with them, they all four, next spring, viz. on 

 April 18th, 1663, went over from Dover to Calais, and 

 from thence through divers parts of Europe; which I but 

 barely mention, as Mr. Ray himself, in the year 1673, 

 published the observations they made in that tour. 



Towards the latter end of their journey, Mr. Willughby 

 and Mr. Ray parted company, the former passing through 

 Spain, and Mr. Ray from Montpelier, through France, 



* See the preface to Mr. Ray's Foreign Travels. 



f Bacon, Nathaniel, wrote several works on the laws and government 

 of England ; amongst others, ' An historical and political discourse of the 

 Laws and and Government of England from the first times to the end of the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth, with a Vindication of the ancient way of Parha- 

 ment in England, collected from some MS. Notes of John Selden, Esq. ; ' 

 London, 4to, 1647. A fifth edition in folio was published in 1739. An- 

 other edition was printed in 1760. 



