SIR J. E. SMITH. 



69 



Mr. Ray (or as he wrote his name for a while about 

 this period, Wray,) having thus the world before him, 

 made an arrangement with Mr. Willughby for a tour on 

 the continent ; and in this plan two of his pupils were in- 

 cluded Mr. Nathaniel Bacon and Mr., afterwards Sir 

 Philip Skippon. They sailed for Calais in April 1663 ; 

 but being prevented by the state of political affairs from 

 prosecuting their journey through France, they traversed 

 the Low Countries, Germany, &c. ; proceeding by Venice 

 into Italy, most of whose cities they visited either by sea 

 or land , as well as Malta and Sicily ; and returned by 

 Switzerland, through France, into England in the spring 

 of 1666. 



Mr. Willughby, indeed, separated from the rest of the 

 party at Montpellier, and visited Spain. An ample 

 account of their observations was published by Ray in 

 1673, making a thick octavo volume. The travellers ap- 

 pear to have been diligent and acute in every thing rela- 

 tive to politics, literature, natural history, mechanics, and 

 philosophy, as well as antiquities and other curiosities ; 

 but in the fine arts they assume no authority, nor display 

 any considerable taste or knowledge. Mr. Willugliby's 

 account of Spain makes a part by itself, and a rich 

 critical catalogue of such plants, not for the most part 

 natives of England, as were observed in this tour, con- 

 cludes the volume. Haller gives to Ray the credit of 

 having discovered several species in Switzerland previously 

 not known as natives of that country. 



Ray passed the summer of 1666 partly at Black Notley, 

 and partly in Sussex, studying chiefly the works of Hook, 

 Boyle, Sydenham on Fevers, and the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, " making few discoveries," says he, " save of mine 

 own errors." The following winter he was employed at 

 Mr. Willughby's, in arranging that gentleman's museum 

 of natural history and coins, and in forming tables of 

 plants and animals for the use of Dr. Wilkins in his 

 famous work on an Universal Character. He now also 

 began to arrange a catalogue of the English native plants 



