68
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
barium and that which Ray had bequeathed to him on his death
in 1705. The Wording of the bequest is as follows:—
Also I give and devise unto the Master, Wardens, and Society of Apothe-
caries of the City of London all such of my Books on Botany as at present
they have not, and also all my Hortus Siccus, or collection of dried plants,
including those collected by my kind friend and neighbour the late
learned Mr. John Ray; upon condition the said Master, Wardens, &c.,
shall, within twelve months next after my Decease, make or erect proper
conveniences in their Physick Garden at Chelsea, in the County of Middle-
sex, for the Reception thereof, and under such Regulations for the keeping
and preserving them as shall be agreed on and approved of by Sr. Hans
Sloane, Bart., M.D., President of the Royal Society, London, and my
Executor hereafter named.112
On 21st June (less than a week after Dale's death), at a
Court of Assistants (the Master, Mr. Joseph Miller, presiding),
it is recorded113 that
Mr. Isaac Rand acquainted the Court that Sir Hans Sloane had met the
Committee for the Garden and declared it as his opinion that it would be
most proper to have Dr. Dale's legacy of books and plants kept in a press
or presses by themselves, and not mixed with other books or plants ;
[whereupon, it was] agreed that the Committee for the Garden provide a
proper press or presses for keeping the said books and plants by them-
selves, and that something be wrote on the said presses denoting the
donation.
Now, which particular members of the Dale Family men-
tioned above may We suppose the three portraits in question
to represent ?
I submit that, in all probability (though there is no definite
proof), they portray Thomas Dale the Younger (1749-1816),
M.D., of London (Pl. I.), his wife (Christian name unknown)
(Pl. II.), and his son Alfred (Pl. III.) In that case, the dilapi-
dated fourth portrait, now destroyed, probably represented
Catherine Sarah Dale, eldest daughter of this Dr. Thomas
Dale (the two younger daughters mentioned in his will having
probably not been born at the time the portraits Were
painted). Dr. Thomas Dale would have been twenty-six years
of age, and his son six or seven, in 1775, which agrees very Well
with the apparent age of the two as represented in the portraits.
There were other members of the Dale Family; but all
112 The books remained at Chelsea till 1843, when they were transferred to the Society's
Library at Apothecaries' Hall. The valuable collections of plants were transferred in 1862 to
the Botanical Galleries of the British Museum, where they now are.
113 See the Minute Book of this date (also Mr. W.Bramley Taylor's Catalogue of the Library,
edited with an Introduction by Mr. J. Edmund Harting, p. iv.: 1913).