hath no great estate, might therby loose £260 a yeere For the King can be no man's tenant nor which I pay. hold land of any vassall. I did desire it free the rather, in hope to bargayn with your Lordship for it. For ther is no seat within the cumpass of your titells so fitt for your Lordship as that. And I will make it appere that your Lordship may save £10,000, in respect of building, imparking, and setling, elcewher. It was once entayled uppon my brother's children. But I might have revoked it agayn, and ment it. I beseich your Lordship do me that grace as I may be therin no less free then heretofore. And if your Lordship do not find reason in my offer towards your sealf (my debts being payd), I protest before God I will then tie it, as your Lordship shall advise me or command mee. And, howsoever, I shall remayne your Lordships faithfull sarvant to the end, Addressed: W. RALEGH. To the right honorable my singuler good Lord, the Lord Vicount Endorsed: "1605. Sir Walter Ralegh to my Lord." LETTER CXXXIX. 1605. CXL. TO SIR ROBERT COTTON, BART. From the Original. MS. COTTON, Julius C iii. fol. 311 (British Museum). Holograph. Mutilated. Without date. Written during his imprisonment in the Tower; probably between the years 1605 and 1612. *** The learned biographer of Cotton, Dr. Thomas Smith, has taken it for granted that Sir Walter Ralegh's object in 1 The words printed within brackets I supply from a copy of the letter, which was made anterior to the fire at Ashburnham House. IETTIR After 1605? To Sir addressing this letter to Sir R. Cotton was to obtain materials for the continuation of the History of the World. This may well have been so. It is, however, matter rather of conjecture than of proof. Sir Walter's object may have been that Brief H›tory of England' in particular, on which we know that he was also employed, whilst in the Tower. ". . . Quorum hire, writes Dr. Smith, when speaking of the great scholars whose studies Cotton had helped to promote,—“carceris in Turre L dinensi pœnam luens, in Secunda Universalis Historic Ar antiquitates Britannicas indagaturus, ut quosdam Codices tur typis impressos, tum manu exaratos, sibi utendes dare at Cottonus, literis petit." Cotton's answer is not extant. But his character is a sufficient assurance of its nature. SIR ROBERT COTTON, IF yow have any of thes old books, or any manuscrips, wherin I cann reade any of our written antiquites, if yow pleas to lend them mee [1 for a little while. I will s]wifly restore them; and thinck my sealf miche [behoulding unto yow; or, if yow have any old French history wherin our nation is mentioned, or any [else, in the loan of what language solever. [From the Tower.] Requests various books of History. Your poore frind, Sigebert's Cronikells.2 Vincent's Speculum historiale. Gervasius Tilesberius.3 Phillip Bergomus.4 1 See note on the preceding page. W. RALFGH 2 Sigeberti Gemblacensis Coenobitæ Chronion, ab anno 381 ad annan 1131. 3 Gervasii Tilbericnsis De Imperio Romano, et Gottorum, Lombară, cum, Brittonum, Francorum, Anglorumque regnis, Commentatio; known also as Otia Imperialia ad Ottonem IV. Imperatorem. Supplementum Chronicorum Orbis, ab initio Mundi ad annum 1485: by James Philip Foresti, of Bergamo. From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. cxx. § 36 (Hatfield). Holograph. LETTER CXLI. Jan. 29. DOUBTING that something may be sayde unto your Lordshipe of my proceeding towching Sherburne, I humblie pray your Lordshipe to judg of me herein by 1607-1608. the same goodnes and charitie which hath hitherto directed all your actions. For, that the graunt required of mee and others is indeed fearfull unto us, I cannot 1 Histoire de l'estat et république des Druides, &c. Par Noël Taillepied. (Printed at Paris in 1585.) 2 Probably but another title for the well-known Historia Majoris Britannia, tam Angliæ quam Scotia. 3 Chronicon Universale, attributed (on very doubtful authority) to James Lessabé, a Fleming, who flourished in the earlier part of the sixteenth century. 4 Perhaps Chronicon Abbatia Eveshamensis . . . à fundatione ad annum 1213. Annales Monasterii de Theokesberia, ab anno 1066 ad annum 1263. MS. Cott. Cleopatra, A vii. Chronica de regibus Anglia, .. à tempore Bruti usque ad annum 1301. MS. Cott. Dom. iii. 1. In the original, Ralegh's list of books is put at the top of his letter. To the Lord Treasurer Salisbury. [From the Tower.] LETTER 1507-1508 jan. 29. Ce a proposed Cover ance of his Sherborne estate to the King. deny: because wee therin pass unto His Majestie those things which are out of our powre to performe, and wherby those that joyne with mee do not only inthrale their own estates, but my wife and sonn therby forfeat their anuetie. For if those that never had fee simple graunt a fee simple; if wee covenant to graunt all the lands free and unstated; if wee also binde ourselves to deliver all writings, evidences, court-roles, &c.-which wee never had.-wee do presently fayle, and fall under I know not how many inconveniences, dangers, and trobies; and from which the proviso offred doth no way deliver us. I protest before the majestie of God that I deale cleerly in this busenes, and that as I have alreddy delivered many things for the good of the Lord that shalbe, so will I make it appeere that I will reserve nothing in my knowledg that may assure those lands to the propriator. Only this mich I humblie desire that, as I would be gladd never to heere the place named henceforth, so in parting from it, I might also part from all future troble and vexation concerning it; and that for those bonds and covenants entred into for the injoying of estates and anueties by me and mine, I may be with them which have dealt for mee freely and cleerly discharged. I mean for such and no other as do appeare just, and are found by the last survey. And if it shall please your Lordshipe to be advised by mee heerein, I thinck it farr better that such a graunt be devised for us to signe, so indifferent and equall, as that the same shall not hold any dispute in Parlement, then that the parties which joyne with mee therin shall secke to bee releived in that great court, and so their desires retarded which would be gladd of a free passage and expedition LETTER CXLI. Jan. 29. For the rest, if Mr. THELWAL have told your Lordshipe that hee found unwillingnes in me to bee att any charg for the patents, it is trew that I prayd him that all 1607-1608. might come free unto us, but my meaning was for the future. For this charg is not great, and in lew therof I am content (because it cannot be otherwise) to yeild so mich longer time to the farmers of Custome as the interest would amownt to £40. For as ther is demanded above tenn pound for the tallies, so do the officers tell us that the fees going out of the £400 wilbe att the least £20 yeerly, which, if wee had had a lease of land, would have bine saved, and to which I would have held my sealf, had I not feared your Lordshipes construction that I sought delay and a prolongation of the busenes. But in all these I submit my sealf to your Lordship's charitie, and rest your humble sarvant, Addressed: W. RALEGH. To the right honorable my singuler good Lord, the Earle of SALSBURIE, Endorsed, in Lord Salisbury's hand : "29th Ja. 1607. Sir Walter Raleigh." 1609. CXLII. TO JOHN SHELBURY, STEWARD OF THE MANOR From the Original? Domestic Correspondence: James I. vol. xliii. § 6 . (Rolls House). Apparently, Holograph? I insert this letter-but not without some hesitationbecause it is calendared at the Rolls House as a genuine |