80 
MEMOIR OF 
before they had fully weighed and considered so 
new a subject, as that was, at that time, a part of 
learning but little studied and cultivated, thac 
lay confused, and without any, or no better than 
no method, but which those two great men so 
cleared up, methodized, and advanced, thatto them 
may be ascribed a great deal of that perfection to 
which Natural History is now arrived.” 
In the year 1667, Mr Willughby being in the 
thirty-second year of his age, and still intent on 
prosecuting his researches into Natural History, 
undertook another journey in company with Mr 
Ray, into the west of England. 
They set out from Mr Willughby’s seat at 
Middleton Hall, on June 25th, and travelled 
through the counties of Worcester, Hereford, 
Gloucester, Somerset, and Devon, into Cornwall, 
as far as the Land’s-end, where they arrived August 
17th, and thence returned through Hampshire to 
London on September 13th following. In this 
journey, they described many fowls, fishes, and 
plants, and took notes of the mines and method 
of making salt, &c. 
So great and deserved was the reputation which 
Mr Ray had now obtained, that he was in this 
year invited to become a member of the Royal 
Society, and was admitted a fellow November 7th. 
In the year 1668, in the thirty-third of his 
age, Mr Willughby married Emma, second 
daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Bernard, 
and by whom he had three children, Francis, 
Cassandra, and Thomas. 
