74 
MEMOIR OF 
which they had seen in High and Low Germany, 
and especially about the Danube and the Rhine, 
were lost on their return.* This event, no doubt, 
occasioned the work of Mr Willughby on fishes 
to have been far less perfect than otherwise it 
would have been. Mr Willughby made a col- 
lection, during his travels, of birds, fishes, shells, 
fossils, seeds, dried plants, coins, many of which 
are now in existence at Wollaton Hall. 
While he was in Spain, he found a letter from 
Dr Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, importunately 
urging him to make a voyage to the Peak of 
Teneriffe, adding, that if Mr Willughby must 
return home, and Mr Ray would undertake it, the 
Royal Society would defray all the expenses and 
send to him at Cadiz all necessary instructions, 
and a catalogue of the observations which they 
desired to have made. 
December 17, 1665, Mr Willughby being in 
the thirtieth year of his age, lost his excellent 
father, Sir Francis Willughby, Knt. and became 
possessed of his estates, and with them, of the 
noble mansion of Wollaton Hall in Nottingham- 
shire, and of Middleton Hall in Warwickshire ; 
the latter of these became his general place of 
residence during the remainder of his life, though 
we sometimes find him at Wollaton Hall, and 
some of Mr Ray’s letters to different persons are 
dated thence. At Middleton Hall he had a good 
library, classical and philosophical, containing 
Philosophical Letters, p. 180, 181. 
