A loving cup is a shared drinking container traditionally used at weddings and banquets. It usually has two handles and is often made of silver.^[1] Loving cups are commonly used as trophies^[2]. They can be found in several European cultures, including the Celtic quaich and the French coupe de marriage^[3]

References[link]

1. ^ "Loving cup". Encyclopaedia Britannica online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/349630/loving-cup. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 
2. ^ Trophy Loving Cup
3. ^ "Loving Cup Ceremony". CelebrateIntimateWeddings.com. http://www.celebrateintimateweddings.com/lovingcup.html. Retrieved 2009-03-23. 

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David Dixon (born 28 October 1947) is an English actor and screenwriter. He was born in the Nightingale Maternity Home, Derby, near his father's shop in 94 London Road and brought up there before the family moved to 14 St. James's Road, Normanton in 1959.

Dixon's most notable role was in the 1981 BBC TV series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in which he starred as Ford Prefect. He also received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Ariel in the 1980 BBC version of "The Tempest". He would later rejoin the Hitchhiker's Guide by lending his voice to the "Ecological Man" and the "Zirzla Leader" in Fit the Twentieth of the Radio Series, while Geoffrey McGivern, who had originally played the character on radio, returned to the role of Ford.

Despite a relatively sparse TV and Film career, David Dixon has over the years acquired a loyal fan following online who call themselves "Dixonites". ^[1]

Filmography[link]

• A Family at War (1970) (TV series) – Robert Ashton
• Escort Girls (1974) – Hugh Lloyd
• Jumping Bean Bag (1976) (BBC TV Play For Today) – Ozymandias Freemantle
• The Legend of Robin Hood (1975) (miniseries) – Prince John
• A Horseman Riding By (1978) (miniseries) – Keith Horsey
• Lillie (1978) (miniseries) – Prince Leopold
• A Family Affair (1979) (miniseries) – Clifford
• The Tempest (1980) (TV) – Ariel
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981) (miniseries) – Ford Prefect
• The Missionary (1982) – Young Man
• Cold Warrior (1984) (miniseries)
• Tutti Frutti (1987) (TV) – Stuart Gordon Inverarrity
• Circles of Deceit: Dark Secret (1995) (TV) – DI Ransome
• A Touch of Frost: Fun Times for Swingers (1996) (TV) – Barry Curzon
• Original Sin (1996) (TV) – Dr Wardle

External links[link]

• The Dixionary, David Dixon fanpage
• Dixonites Livejournal community
• David Dixon at the Internet Movie Database

References[link]

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John Ray
John Ray
Born	(1627-11-29)29 November 1627 Black Notley, near Braintree
Died	17 January 1705(1705-01-17) (aged 77)
Nationality	English
Fields	Naturalist

John Ray (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".^[1]

He published important works on botany, zoology, and natural theology. His classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum, was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type system, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences that emerged from observation. Thus he advanced scientific empiricism against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics. He was the first to give a biological definition of the term species.^[2]

Early life[link]

John Ray was born in the village of Black Notley. He is said to have been born in the smithy, his father having been the village blacksmith. He was sent at the age of sixteen to Cambridge University: studying at Trinity College and Catharine Hall.^[3] His tutor at Trinity was James Duport, and his intimate friend and fellow-pupil the celebrated Isaac Barrow. Ray was chosen minor fellow^{[clarification needed]} of Trinity in 1649, and later major fellow.^{[clarification needed]} He held many college offices, becoming successively lecturer in Greek (1651), mathematics (1653),and humanity (1655), praelector (1657), junior dean (1657), and college steward (1659 and 1660); and according to the habit of the time, he was accustomed to preach in his college chapel and also at Great St Mary's, long before he took holy orders on 23 December 1660. Among these sermons were his discourses on The wisdom of God manifested in the works of the creation,^[4] and Deluge and Dissolution of the World. Ray's reputation was high also as a tutor; and he communicated his own passion for natural history to several pupils, of whom Francis Willughby is by far the most famous.

Career[link]

When Ray found himself unable to subscribe as required by the ‘Bartholomew Act’ of 1662 he, along with 13 other college fellows, resigned his fellowship on 24 August 1662 rather than swear to the declaration that the Solemn League and Covenant was not binding on those who had taken it.^[5] Tobias Smollett quoted the reasoning given in the biography of Ray by William Derham:

"The reason of his refusal was not (says his biographer) as some have imagined, his having taken the solemn league and covenant; for that he never did, and often declared that he ever thought it an unlawful oath: but he said he could not say, for those that had taken the oath, that no obligation lay upon them, but feared there might."^[6]

His religious views were generally in accord with those imposed under the restoration of Charles II of England, and (though technically a nonconformist) he continued as a layman in the Established Church of England.^[5]

From this time onwards he seems to have depended chiefly on the bounty of his pupil Willughby, who made Ray his constant companion while he lived, and at his death left him 6 shillings a year, with the charge of educating his two sons.

In the spring of 1663 Ray started together with Willughby and two other pupils on a tour through Europe, from which he returned in March 1666, parting from Willughby at Montpellier, whence the latter continued his journey into Spain. He had previously in three different journeys (1658, 1661, 1662) travelled through the greater part of Great Britain, and selections from his private notes of these journeys were edited by George Scott in 1760, under the title of Mr Ray's Itineraries. Ray himself published an account of his foreign travel in 1673, entitled Observations topographical, moral, and physiological, made on a Journey through part of the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, and France. From this tour Ray and Willughby returned laden with collections, on which they meant to base complete systematic descriptions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Willughby undertook the former part, but, dying in 1672, left only an ornithology and ichthyology, in themselves vast, for Ray to edit; while the latter used the botanical collections for the groundwork of his Methodus plantarum nova (1682), and his great Historia generalis plantarum (3 vols., 1686, 1688, 1704). The plants gathered on his British tours had already been described in his Catalogus plantarum Angliae (1670), which work is the basis of all later English floras.

In 1667 Ray was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1669 he published in conjunction with Willughby his first paper in the Philosophical Transactions on Experiments concerning the Motion of Sap in Trees. They demonstrated the ascent of the sap through the wood of the tree, and supposed the sap to precipitate a kind of white coagulum or jelly, which may be well conceived to be the part which every year between bark and tree turns to wood and of which the leaves and fruits are made. Immediately after his admission into the Royal Society he was induced by Bishop John Wilkins to translate his Real Character into Latin, and it seems he actually completed a translation, which, however, remained in manuscript; his Methodus plantarum nova was in fact undertaken as a part of Wilkins's great classificatory scheme.

In 1673 Ray married Margaret Oakley of Launton; in 1676 he went to Sutton Coldfield, and in 1677 to Falborne Hall in Essex. Finally, in 1679, he removed to Black Notley, where he afterwards remained. His life there was quiet and uneventful, although he had poor health, including chronic sores. He occupied himself in writing books and in keeping up a wide scientific correspondence, and lived, in spite of his infirmities, to the age of seventy-six, dying at Black Notley. The Ray Society, for the publication of works on natural history, was founded in his honor in 1844.

Ray's definition of species[link]

Ray was the first person to produce a biological definition of what a species is. This definition comes in the 1686 History of plants:

"... no surer criterion for determining species has occurred to me than the distinguishing features that perpetuate themselves in propagation from seed. Thus, no matter what variations occur in the individuals or the species, if they spring from the seed of one and the same plant, they are accidental variations and not such as to distinguish a species... Animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently; one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa".^[7]

Ray's works[link]

Ray published about 23 works, depending on how one counts them. The biological works were usually in Latin, the rest in English. For ease of reading, the short titles below are in English.^[8]

• 1660: Catalogue of Cambridge plants.
• 1668: Tables of plants
• 1668: Catalogue of English plants plus Fasiculus (an appendix)
• 1670: Catalogue of English proverbs.
• 1673: Observations in the Low Countries and Catalogue of plants not native to England.
• 1674: Collection of English words not generally used.
• 1675: Trilingual dictionary, or nomenclator classicus.
• 1676: Willughby's Ornithologia. "In fact, the book was Ray's, based on preliminary notes by Francis Willughby".^{[8]p52 [9]Chapter 12} "Willughby and Ray laid the foundation of scientific ornithology".^[10]
• 1682: New method of plants.
• 1686: History of fishes +frontis & 187 engraved plates. Plates subscribed by Fellows of the Royal Society. Samuel Pepys, the President, subscribed for 79 of the plates.
• 1686–1704: History of plants. 3 vols, vol 1 1686, vol 2 1688, vol 3 1704. The third volume lacked plates, so his assistant James Petiver published Petiver's Catalogue in parts, 1715–1764, with plates. The work on the first two volumes was supported by subscriptions from the President and Fellows of the Royal Society.
• 1690: Synopsis of British plants.
• 1691: The wisdom of God. 2nd ed 1692, 3rd ed 1701, 4th ed 1704 (each enlarged from the previous edition). This was his most popular work. It was in the vein later called natural theology, explaining the adaptation of living creatures as the work of God. It was heavily plagiarised by William Paley in his Natural theology of 1802.^{[8]p92 [9]p452}
• 1692: Miscellaneous discourses concerning the dissolution and changes of the world. This includes some important discussion of fossils. Ray insisted that fossils had once been alive, in opposition to his friends Martin Lister and Edward Llwyd. "These [fossils] were originally the shells and bones of living fishes and other animals bred in the sea". Raven commented that this was "The fullest and most enlightened treatment by an Englishman" of that time.^[9]p426
  • 1713 Three Physico-theological discourses. This is the 3rd edition of Miscellaneous discourses, the last by Ray before his death, and delayed in publication. Its main importance is that Ray recanted his former acceptance of fossils, apparently because he was theologically troubled by the implications of extinction.^[11]p37 Robert Hooke, like Nicolas Steno, was in no doubt about the biological origin of fossils. Hooke made the point that some fossils were no longer living, for example Ammonites: this was the source of Ray's concern.^[12]p327
• 1693: Synopsis of animals and reptiles.
• 1693: Collection of travels.
• 1694: Collection of European plants.
• 1695: Plants of each county (Camden's Brittania).
• 1696: Brief dissertation.
• 1700: A persuasive to a holy life.
• 1705. Method and history of insects. (Post-mortem and unedited)
• 1713: Synopsis of birds and fishes.

Libraries holding Ray's works[link]

Including the various editions, there are 172 works of Ray, of which most are rare. The only libraries with substantial holdings are all in England.^[8]p153 The list in order of holdings is:

The British Library, Euston, London. Holds over 80 of the editions.

The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.

The University of Cambridge Library.

Library of Trinity College Cambridge.

The Natural History Museum Library, South Kensington, London.

Legacy[link]

"Ray sweeps away the litter of mythology and fable... and always insists upon accuracy of observation and description and the testing of every new discovery".^[9]p10

Ray's works were directly influential on the development of taxonomy by Carl Linnaeus. In 1844, the Ray Society was founded, named after John Ray, and has since published over 160 books on natural history.

In 1986, to mark the 300th anniversary of the publication of Ray's Historia Plantarum, there was a celebration of Ray's legacy in Braintree. A "John Ray Gallery" was opened in the Braintree Museum. The scientific society at his old college, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, is named the "John Ray Society" after him.^[13]

References[link]

Other sources[link]

• Raven, Charles E. 1950: John Ray, naturalist: his life and works
• Ray, John 1686: Historia plantarum species, etc. 3 vols. Vol. I. Londini: Clark.
• Ray, John 1713a: Synopsis methodica avium & piscium: opus posthumum, etc. (vol. 1: Avium) [in Latin]. William Innys, London. Digitized version
• Ray, John 1713b: Synopsis methodica avium & piscium: opus posthumum, etc. (vol. 2: Piscium) [in Latin]. William Innys, London. Digitized version

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: John Ray

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Ray

• The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation by John Ray, the seventh edition, corrected, London: printed by R. Harbin, for William Innys, at the Prince’s-Arms in St Paul’s Church Yard, 1717. (First edition, 1691)
• Synopsis methodica avium (also on The Internet Archive) and Synopsis methodica piscium at Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum
• The John Ray Initiative: connecting Environment and Christianity
• [1]
• A preliminary English translation of John Ray's Methodus plantarum nova (1682)
• A preliminary English translation of John Ray's Dissertatio de variis methodis
• John Ray Biography (UCMP Berkeley)
• The first biological species concept (Evolving Thoughts)