84 



MEMORIALS OF RAY : 



desire, in the church of Black Notley, but the authors of 

 the ' Biographia Britannica' are probably more correct in 

 saying that he declined the offer made him by the rector 

 of a place of interment in the chancel, choosing rather to 

 repose with his ancestors in the church-yard. He perhaps 

 thought, with bishop Hall, that " the house of God ought 

 not to be made a repository for dead carcases." However 

 this might be, the latter account is confirmed by the ori- 

 ginal situation of his monument, erected at the expense, 

 in part at least, of bishop Compton. The long and elegant 

 Latin epitaph has often been published. Its author was 

 the Rev. William Coyte, m.a., father of the late Dr. Coyte, 

 of Ipswich, and the original manuscript is now before us, 

 containing the information that Bay was interred in the 

 church-yard. In 1737 the monument in question, which 

 seems to have been a sort of altar-tomb, being nearly 

 ruined, was restored at the charge of Dr. Legge, and re- 

 moved for shelter into the church, where therefore it be- 

 came a cenotaph, as an inscription added on this occasion 

 terms it. Eorty-five years afterwards the tomb again 

 underwent a repair, by the care of the present Sir Thomas 

 Gery CuUum and others, who subjoined a third inscrip- 

 tion, as follows : 



Tumulum hunc, 

 a nonnuHis humanitati, et scientise 

 naturali, faventibus, 

 olim conditum, 

 et aliormn bona diligentia 

 postea restauratum, 1737, 

 nunc e vetustatis situ et sordibus 

 panci de novo revocarmit, 1792. 

 av^pcjv eiTKpavMV rracra yrj ratpog. 



A more lasting monument was dedicated to the memory 

 of our great English naturalist, in the genus of plants 

 which bears his name.* The opinion we have there in few 

 words expressed of his high rank in botanical science it is 

 hoped the present more diffuse account will justify. It 

 must be lamented that he made, as far as we can learn, 

 no collection of dried plants which might serve to ascer- 



* See page 87. 



