their relation to the Progress of Science. 181
Willughby also settled an annuity of £60 a year upon Ray,
which seems to have been his main income for the last
twenty-seven years of his life; and he accordingly took up
his residence at Middleton Hall, where, on June 5th, 1673,
he married Margaret Oakeley, who assisted him in teaching
the children, and, though twenty-five years his junior, made
him a faithful wife, surviving him for some years.
In this same year, 1673, he issued an account of his conti-
nental travels, with a valuable catalogue of the plants observed
which differed from those of England. Many of these had
not previously been described by continental botanists. This
work is, however, equally interesting from a digression it
contains on British and foreign localities for fossils, and the
various opinions as to their origin, in which Ray un-
hesitatingly declares against the theory of a plastic force,
and expresses his belief in their organic origin. He drew up
a tri-lingual Dictionary or Nomenclator Classicus, for the use
of his pupils; and, whilst busily engaged in arranging and
completing the materials left behind by his friend, issued in
1674 a most interesting 'Collection of English Words not
generally used,' i. e., of provincialisms, arranged in a northern
and a southern series ; to which he appended lists of English
birds and fishes, and an account of the smelting of metals in
this country.
By 1676 he had got ready for the press the 'Ornithology'
left unfinished by Willughby, which was published in that
year in Latin and in 1678 in English, both editions containing
copper-plates engraved at the expense of Mrs. Willughby.
On the death of Lady Cassandra Willughby, the mother of
his friend, in 1676, his pupils were taken from Ray's care,
and he removed to Sutton Coldfield, about four miles from
Middleton, and thence, at Michaelmas, 1677, to Falkbourne
Hall, near Witham, not far from Black Notley, where his
mother was still living. She, however, died in March, 1678,
which, perhaps, led to Ray's final settlement at his native
place. Though he brought out a new and enlarged edition
of his 'Catalogus Plantarum Angliae' in 1677, and Wil-
lughby's 'Ornithology' in Latin in 1678, these removals