119
JOHN RAY, THE NATURALIST.
AS Mr. T. V. Holmes points out (Essex Naturalist, iii. 296), the passage
in Hutchinson's "History of Cumberland," suggesting that Ray's father
or grandfather was a native of that county, that this fact led to his especially
studying the natural history and proverbs of that county, and that it was there
that he "laid in" his "vast stock of natural history," is based upon an account
in the Gentleman's Magazine. This account is, I find, in a letter in that magazine
for 1794, vol. lxiv., part I, p. 420, signed "Cumbriensis," and it is almost ver-
batim the same as that in Hutchinson. Farther on in the same letter, however,
"Cumbriensis" writes :—
" It is very likely, Mr. Urban, that there may be many errors and mistakes
attending the above legendary or traditional account ; indeed, I think I see
some myself, especially with regard to the dates ; for I had it from uneducated
people of the family, whose vanity may have induced them to magnify."
Now this account must be judged as a whole, and if the tradition of the
naturalist wandering as a young man to any extent over Cumberland moors as
over "his paternal country" be shown to be practically baseless, that of the
original migration thence of his ancestors will be to some extent at least
discredited.
Remembering that the great naturalist's father was only a village blacksmith,
and, therefore, even if likely to have had a long and distinguished ancestry, not
to be expected to keep much of a record of it, we may well believe that, if he,
or even his father, had migrated from a distant part of England, he would have
handed on some tradition of the fact to his illustrious son. Whether it was, as
is probable, from not having any such distinguished ancestry, or from some
other cause, it is certain that John Ray shows none of that fondness for gene-
alogy that is so common in the writings of many of our more voluminous
English authors. Nevertheless we might well expect that if any such a tradition
lurked even vaguely in a man's mind it would find some place in a private diary,
written, without any view of publication, on the occasion of the first visit of that
man to the country of his ancestors.
Now, though there is many an hiatus in our materials for a life of Ray, these
might be far more imperfect than they are, and they tell us much as to the early
life, studies and travels of our Essex naturalist. We know that he was born at
Black Notley and was sent to Cambridge from Braintree Grammar School by
Squire Wyvill, and that at Cambridge he went in succession through numerous
onerous and dignified college offices : we know the route of his first tour, under-
taken mainly for botanical objects, in 1658 ; and that it was from Cambridge that
he issued his first natural history work, the "Catalogus plantarum circa Can-
tabrigiam," in 1660. Not only have we his "Itineraries," or journals of his
tours, as originally edited by Derham and re-issued by Dr. Lankester in his
"Memorials of Ray ;" but the original manuscript of these journals is in the
Botanical Department of the Natural History Museum, with many passages
erased by Derham, though still legible, which show conclusively that they were
mere private notes, obviously not meant for publication.
Not until 1661, when he was thirty-four, did Ray visit Cumberland, being
then on his second tour, accompanied by his vacation pupil, Mr. Philip Skippon.