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JOHN RAY, THE NATURALIST.
In the parish of Bromfield, in north-west Cumberland is a house called Gill
House. It is so called because the little stream known as Langrigg Beck which
runs past it flows in a ravine, or gill, just at that spot, gills being scarce in that
part of Cumberland, though common in the lake country. The house is about
3 miles south of Abbey Town. On looking through Hutchinson's "History of
Cumberland" (1794) lately, I found some interesting particulars about the Reay
family, whose long residence at the Gill I had known before, though I had never
suspected their connexion with the great naturalist.
Hutchinson remarks that the Gill, belonging to Mr. John Reay, is deserving of
notice not only for the beauty of its situation, but much more for having belonged
to the Reays, as long perhaps as any estate in the kingdom has been in one family.
He adds:—"A very fair and faithful account is given of it in a late 'Gentleman's
Magazine,' which therefore we willingly adopt, though the owner be unknown."
It appears that there is a tradition that the chief of the Reay family had a grant
of the lands of Gill from the Scottish King William the Lion. Ever since a Reay
has been the owner of the Gill. Below is the "Gentleman's Magazine"
account :—
" William Reay, Bishop of Glasgow, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth
century, at his own expense, built the noble bridge there, still remaining, over the
Clyde, was of Cumberland parentage, and of this family. The tradition of the
family is not exact, whether it was the father or the grandfather of the celebrated
naturalist, John Ray, who migrated from them : but it is certain that his name,
and that of his family, was once written Reay and pronounced with two syllables
like ea in real. On their removing into the South, before they finally settled in
Essex, they sometimes spelled it Wrey, sometimes Wray, and at last Ray. The
naturalist himself, it is well-known, first spelled his name Wray ; but afterwards
dropped the W, on the idea, perhaps, that Reay was but a local pronunciation,
or provincial vulgarism. * * * * * It was in Cumberland, his paternal
country, in his wanderings over Alston Moor, and other equally wild and romantic
places, that Mr. Ray laid in that vast stock of natural history which reflects so
much honour on his name. And here, also, he collected, from the simple and
unlettered inhabitants, those pithy proverbs or sentences, which, at that time,
appeared to his friends in the South to be almost a new language, and to proceed
from a new race of people; and which still render Ray's Proverbs a standard
book."
Mention is made of some other Reays. or Rays, who were burning and shining
lights in their respective parishes, but readers of the Essex Naturalist will
hardly feel much interest in any but the illustrious native of Black Notley.
T. V. Holmes.
[The above note is printed for the purpose of calling attention to the singular
tradition referred to, in the hope that our readers may be able to furnish some
evidence in confirmation or confutation of the same. We must confess to having
very grave doubts as to the truth of the supposition that Ray was ever a Cumber-
land man; there is no hint of such a thing in any of the published materials for
his biography. We believe that both Mr. H. W. King, and Prof. Boulger are of
the same opinion. We shall be glad to receive any notes bearing on the subject.
—Ed.]