DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
13
came from Suffolk ; but Mr. Ray took it for a mistake, thro' the sending
not the same original numerical plant, [Mr. Ray] having never heard such
virtue in the Otis or Sesamoides ; but such virtue is known to belong to
the Plantains ; so, considering this plant was sent by the name of 'Starr
of the Earth' [and] that the Coronopus is call'd in Suffolk by the name of
'Starr of the Earth,' he sayd undoubtedly that the right plant should
have been the Coronopus, [surmising that] the plant might not be sent
with the name, but taken up at second hand."
That there were others who believed in the power of the
Coronopus is clear from a note in another part (p. 303) of Allen's
book :—
"Bite of Mad Dog:—Mr. Smith, of Helen's Bumstead, told me he
had known several men and beasts cur'd only by giving them the Star of
the Earth, wch. seeds like Plantain and is the Coronopus."
Before I pass from these passages relating to Ray, I am pleased
to be able to announce another interesting discovery which has
been made since (and, this time, as a result of) the publication
of my former paper on Allen.
In that paper, I reproduced the Ray Society's engraving
(1848) of "Dewlands," at Black Notley, the house Ray
built for his mother and in which he himself afterwards lived
many years and ultimately died. This I did, believing it to be
the only existing representation of the house, which was destroyed
by fire in 1900. Nevertheless, I asked any reader who knew
of the existence of a photograph to communicate with me27; and,
before my request had been published many days, I heard from
our member, Mr. H. S. Tabor, of Fennes, Bocking, that he had a
photograph, taken by himself shortly before the house was burned.
That photograph he was kind enough to place at my disposal,
and I reproduce it herewith (Pl. I.), believing it to be the only
photograph of the house ever taken. It shows the house from a
different point of view from the engraving—namely, from the
north, instead of from the east.
Entries of purely personal interest, such as are frequent in the
other volume, are rare in this, as stated already.
One of the few such records (pp. 331 and [361]), "What I
learned from Dr. Gale, Maister of St. Paul's School, my maister."28
The record is too vague to be worth reproducing, but we learn
that Dr. Gale had" commend[ed] Mr. Ray and his Vocabulary."29
27 See ante, xvi., p. 147 n.
28 See ante, xvi., p. 148.
29 A Collection of English Words not Commonly Used, 1674 (second ed., 1691).