strange things.

You write that the Museum at Oxford was rob'd, but doe not say whether
your noble present was any part of the losse. Your picture done in
miniature by Mr. Cowper is a thing of great value, I remember so long
agoe as I was in Italy, and while he was yet living, any piece of his
was highly esteemed there; and for that kind of painting he was
esteemed the best artist in Europe.

What my present opinion is concerning formed stones, and concerning
the formation of the world, you will see in a discourse that is now
gone to the presse concerning the Dissolution of the World: my present
opinion, I say, for in such things I am not fix't, but ready to alter
upon better information, saving always ye truth of ye letter of ye
scripture. I thank you for your prayers and good wishes, and rest,

Sr, your very humble servant,

JOHN RAY.

I have seen many pheasants in a little grove by the city of Florence,
but I suppose they might have been brought in thither from some
foreign country by the Great Duke.

Surely you mistook what I wrote about elms. I never to my knowledge
affirmed that the most common elm grows naturally in the north: but
only thought that though it did not grow there, yet it might be native
of England: for that all trees doe not grow in all countreys or parts
of England. The wych-hazel, notwithstanding its name, is nothing akin
to the "corylus" but a true elm.