450 ESSEX AND THE EARLY BOTANISTS.
windows had been removed from the front side of the house some
years ago, and this to a certain extent had modernised the
appearance of the building. But inside the arrangement of the
house was most characteristic of its builder. Cupboards were to
be met with in every conceivable situation, in the parlours and
bedrooms, on the landings and under the stairs, some as large
as pantries, others only a few feet square, with small openings in
the walls of the passages and rooms. These cupboards were
doubtless contrived by the illustrious naturalist with a view to the
safe custody of his botanical and zoological specimens. The
woodwork of the cottage was entirely of oak, massive oak doors
and doorways, wide planks of oak flooring, black beams of oak
across the low ceilings. Bay's study was upstairs, situated at the
back of the house, over the scullery where the fatal fire broke out,
and looking across the garden towards the west. This seems to
have been the one warm room of the house, which Bay speaks of
in one of his letters as 'exposed to the north and north-east
winds,' and as 'inconvenient to one who is subject to colds
and whose lungs are apt to be affected.' And that unpre-
tending chamber, with its sloping ceilings, its wide oaken
boards, its ancient lattice-windows, was haunted by the most
interesting associations. There the illustrious naturalist accom-
plished what Linnaeus rightly called 'his immense labours'; there
he examined and arranged his specimens; there he received
his scientific friends; there he wrote his numerous works,
including the Synopsis of British plants, which may fairly be
regarded as the foundation of every succeeding English
flora.
During his residence at Notley Bay was fortunate in the
intimate friendship of his disciple and near neighbour, Samuel
Dale, an apothecary of Braintree and a botanist of very considerable
attainments. The two friends worked in the closest harmony at
their favourite pursuit; and to Dr. Dale Bay was indebted for
many of the localities of Essex plants mentioned in his Synopsis.
Other distinguished men of science, like Sir Hans Sloane, and
Compton, Bishop of London, sometimes visited the great natural-
ist; and in 1699 we find Mr. Petiver and the Rev. Adam Buddie,
afterward vicar of North Fambridge, near Maldon, at Black
Notley. Buddie was the great authority on grasses and mosses ;
and his herbarium, now in the South Kensington Museum, is,
with Dr. Dale's, among the earliest collections of British plants
in existence. Most fascinating is the task of examining these