vice in the ambassade in Spaine, and added two wings to sir W. Ralegh's lodge; in short and indeed 'tis a most sweet and pleasant place and site as any in the west, perhaps none like it. In his youth his companions were boysterous blades, but generally those that had witt, except otherwise upon designe to gett them engaged for him,-e. g. St. Charles Snell, of Kington Saint Michael, in North Wilts, my good neighbour, an honest young gent. but kept a perpetual sott, he engaged him to build a ship (The Angel Gabriel) for the designe for Guiana, wch cost him the mannor of YattonKeynell, the farme at Easton-Piers, Thornhill, and the church lease of bps. Cannings, wch ship, upon sir W. R.'s attainder, was forfeited; no question he had other such young. In his youthfull time, was one Charles Chester, that after kept company with his acquaintance, he was a bold impertinent fellowe, and they could never be at quiet for him; a perpetuall talker, and made a noyse like a drum in a roome, so, one time at a taverne, sir W. R. beates him and seales up his mouth, his upper and neather beard, with hard wax. From him Ben Jonson takes his Carlo Buffono, jester, in Every Man out of his Humour. I have now forgott whether Sr. Walter was not for the putting of Mary Q. of Scotts to death; I thinke, yea; but, besides that, at a consultation at Whitehall after queen Elizabeth's death, how matters were to be ordered, and what ought to be donne, sir W. R. declared his opinion, 'twas the wisest way for them to keep the staff in their owne hands, and sett up a commonwealth, and not be subject to a needy beggarly nation it seems there were some of this caball who kept not this so secret, but that it came to king James's eare, who at . . . . . when the English noblesse mett and received him, being told, upon their presentment to his majesty, their names; when sir W. R.'s name was told; "Ralegh," said the king, "O my soule, mon, I have heard "rawly of thee." He was such a person (every way), that (as K. Ch. I. says of the lord Strafford) a prince would rather be afrayd of, then ashamed of. He had that awful ness and ascendency in his aspect over other mortalls, that the K.. It was a most stately sight, the glory of that reception of his majty, where the nobility and gentry were in exceeding rich equipages, having enjoyed a long peace under the most excellent of queens; and the traine was so exceeding numerous, that their obedience carried a secret dread with it. K. James did not inwardly like it, and with an inward envy sayd, that though so and so as before, he doubted not but he should have been able on his owne strength (should the English have kept him out) to have dealt with them, and got his right. Sayd Sr. W. R. to him, "Would to God "that had been put to the tryall." "that?" sayd the king." Because," sayd Sr. W. " that "then you would have knowne your friends from your foes." But that reason of sir W. was never forgotten nor forgiven. "Why doe you wish Old major Stansby, of . . . . . Hants, a most intimate friend and neighbour, and coetanean of the late earle of Southampton (Ld. Treas.), told me from his friend, ye earle, that as to the plott and businesse about the Ld Cobham, &c. he being then governor of Jersey, would not fully, or &c.d unless they would goe to his island, and there advise and resolve about it; and that really and indeed sir Walter's purpose was, when he had them there to have betrayed them and the plott, and so have them delivered up to the king, and made his peace. Q. Elizabeth loved to have all the servants of her court proper men, and, (as before said Sr. W. R.'s gracefull presence was no mean recommendation to him,) I thinke, his first preferment at court was captaine of her majestie's guard. There came a country gentleman (a sufficient yeoman) up to towne, who had severall sonnes, but one an extraordinary proper handsome fellowe, whom he did hope to have preferred to be a yeoman of the guard. The father (a goodly man himselfe) comes to Sr. W. R. a stranger to him, and told him that he had brought up a boy, that he would de [Sic. EDIT.] sire (having many children) should be one of her majestie's guard; qth Sr. W. R. "Had you spake for yourselfe I "should readily have graunted your desire, for your person "deserves it, but I putt in no boyes". Sd the father, " Boy 66 come in;" the son enters, about 18 or 19, but such a goodly proper young fellow, as Sr. W. R. had not seen the like, he was the tallest of all the guard. Sr. W. R. sweares him immediately; and ordered him to carry up the first dish at dinner, where the Q. beheld him wth admiration, as if a beautifull young giant, like Saul, taller by the head and shoulders then other men, had stalked in wth the service. In his youth, for severall years, he was under streights for want of money. I remember that Mr. Th. Child, of Worcestershire, told me that S Walter borrowed a gowne of him when he was at Oxford, (they were both of the same coll.,) which he never restored, nor money for it. When he was attacked by the officer, about the businesse which cost him his head, he was carryed in a boate (a wherry), I thinke only with two men. K. James was wont to say, that he was a coward to be so taken and conveyed, for else he might easily have made his escape from so slight a guard. He was a prisoner in the Tower. yeares; quære, where his lodgings were? He there (besides his compiling his History of the World) studyed chymistry. The earle of Northumberland was prisoner at the same time, who was the patrone to Mr. Hariot and Mr. Warner, two of the best mathematicians then in the world, as also Mr. Hues (de Globis). Serjeant Hoskins (the poet) was a prisoner there too. I heard my cosen Whitney say that he saw him in the Tower. He had a velvet cap laced, and a rich gowne, and trunke hose. At the end of the History of the World, he laments the death of the most hopefull prince Henry, whose great favourite he was; and who, had he survived his father, would quickly have enlarged him, with rewards of honour. So upon the prince's death ends his first part of his History of the World, with a gallant eulogie of him, and concludes, Versa est in luctum cithera mea; et cantus meus in vocem flentium. He had an apparatus for the second part, which he, in discontent, burnt, and sayd, "If I am not worthy of "the world, the world is not worthy of my workes "." He was sometimes a poet, not often. Before Spenser's Faery Q. is a good copie of verses, which begins thus, "Methinkes I see the grave where Laura lay:" at the bottome W. R. which, 36 yeares since, I was told were his. His intimate acquaintance and friends were .... Earle of Oxford. St. Francis Drake. Nicholas Hill. . . Cavendish. Mr. Tho. Hariot. Sr. Walter Long of Draycot in Wilts. Cavaliero Surff. Ben. Johnson &c. When serjeant Hoskyns was a prisoner in the Tower he was Sr. Walter's Aristarchus. Old St. Thomas Malett, one of the justices of the king's bench, tempore Car. I. et II. knew Sr. W. and I have heard him say, that notwithstanding his so great mastership in style, and his conversation with the learnedest and politest persons, yet he spake broad Devonshire to his dyeing day. His voice was small, as likewise were my schoolfellows, his gr. nephews. He was scandalized with atheisme; he was a bold man, and would venture at discourse, which was unpleasant to the church-men. I remember my first Ld Scudamour sayd, ""Twas basely sayd of Sr. W. R. to talke of the anagramme "of dog." In his speech on the scaffold, I heard my cosen Whitney say (and I thinke 'tis printed) that he spake not one word of Christ, but of the great and incomprehensible God, with much zeale and adoration, so that he concluded • His booke sold very slowly at first, and the bookseller complayned of it, and told him that he should be a loser by it, which putt sir W. into a passion; and sayd that since the world did not understand it, they should not have his second part, which he tooke and threw into the fire, and burnt before his face. he was an a-christ, not an atheist. He took a pipe of tobacco a little before he went to the scaffold, wch some formall persons were scandalized at, but I thinke 'twas well, and properly donne to settle his spirits. I remember I heard old father. Symonds (è societate Jesu) say, that.. a father, was at his execution, and that to his knowledge he dyed with a lye in his mouth, I have now forgott what 'twas. The time of his execution was contrived to be on my lord mayor's day, (viz. the day, after St. Simon and Jude,) that the pageants and fine shewes might drawe away the people from beholding the tragedie of one of the gallantest worthies that ever England bred. Buryed privately under the high altarf at St. Margaret's church, in Westminster, on . . . . in which grave (or neer) lies James Harrington, esq. author of Oceana. * * * * Mr. Elias Ashmole told me that his son Carew Ralegh told him he had his father's skull, that some yeares since upon digging up the grave his skull and neck-bone being viewed, they found the vertebra of his neck lapped over so that he could not have been hanged. "Twas S. W. R.'s the epigram on Robert Cecill earle of Salisbury who died in a ditch 3 or 4 miles west from Marleborough, returning from Bathe to London; "Heere lies Robert our shepherd whilere." This I had from old St. Thomas Malett one of ye judges of the king's bench, who knew sir W. Ralegh and did remember the passages. A copie of Sr.W. Ralegh's letter, sent to Mr. Duke, in Devon, writt with his owne hand. Mr. DUKE, I wrote to Mr. Prideaux to move you for the purchase of Hayes, a farme sometime in my father's He was buried as soon as you are removed from the top of the steps towards the altar, not under the altar. From Elias Ashmole, Esq. Hayes is in the parish of East Budleigh. He was not buryed at Exeter by his father and mother, nor at Shirburne in Dorset; at either of wch places he desired his wife (in his letter the night before he dyed) to be interred. His father had 80 yeares in his farme of Hayes, and wrote esquier. |
