Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/68

  The strange adventures of the hardie Snayle Who durst (vnlikely match) the weathercock assayle.

When Carew next appeared as an author it was in topographical literature. 'The Svrvey of Cornwall. Written by Richard Carew of Antonie, Esquire,' had been long in hand, though it was not published until 1602, the subscription on the last leaf being 'Deo gloria, mihi gratia, 1602, April 23.' He meditated in 1606 the issuing of a second edition, 'not so much for the enlarging it as the correcting mine and the printer's oversights,' but it was not republished before 1723, when there was prefixed to it a 'life of the author by H**** C*****,' a catch-penny device intended to delude the world with the belief that it was the composition of a member of the family of Carew, but it was in reality a dull compilation by Pierre des Maizeaux. The 'Survey' and the life were reissued in 1769, and another edition of the 'Survey,' with notes by Thomas Tonkin, was printed for Lord De Dunstanville in 1811. Carew's history of Cornwall still remains one of the most entertaining works in the English language. In its pages may be discerned the character of an English gentleman in the brightest age of our national history, interesting himself in the pursuits of all around him and skilled in the pastimes of every class. The industries of the county and its topographical peculiarities are depicted with considerable detail, and if there is little genealogical information in its pages the characters of its celebrities are described with quaintness and with kindliness. Carew's 'pleasant and faithfull description' of Cornwall was the phrase of Fuller, and the words were well chosen. He was also the author of 'An Epistle concerning the excellencies of the English tongue,' which appeared in the second edition of Camden's 'Remains,' 1605, and was reprinted with the 1723 and 1769 editions of the 'Survey of Cornwall.' The merits assigned by him to the language are significancy, easiness to be learnt, copiousness, and sweetness. This little essay possesses the charm which is inherent in all Carew's writings, but it would have passed out of recollection by this time but for its mention, in a comparison of English and foreign writers, of Shakespeare's name. A manuscript volume of his poems was formerly in the possession of the Rev. John Prince, the commemorator of the worthies of Devon. Mr. James Crossley suggested that Carew might be the R. C. who translated Henry Stephens's 'World of Wonders,' 1607 (Notes and Queries, 6th ser., viii. 247, 1877). Several of his letters to Camden are among the 'Cottonian MSS.,' (Julius C. v.) A letter to Sir Robert Cotton is printed in 'Letters of Eminent Literary Men' (Camden Soc., 1848, pp. 98-100).

 CAREW, RICHARD (d. 1643?), writer on education, was the eldest son of Richard Carew, the poet and antiquary [q. v.] The chief facts in his life are set out in the opening sentences of his 'True and readie Way to learne the Latine Tongue.' He was put to school in his 'tender youth, and so continued for nine or ten years.' Three years were spent at the university of Oxford — he was probably the Richard Carew who matriculated at Merton College on 10 Oct. 1594 — and three more in studying law at the Middle Temple. After this course of instruction he was despatched with his uncle on an embassy to the king of Poland, and as the king was at the time on a visit in Sweden Carew followed him thither. On his return he was sent by his father into France, with Sir Henry Nevill, ambassador to Henry IV, to 'learn the French tongue,' and in the third book of Charles Fitzgeoffry's 'Afianiæ ' is an epigram addressed to him on his return from his French travels. In 1614 he was one of the members for the county of Cornwall, and in 1620 he represented Michell, a Cornish borough in which the family connections possessed great influence. He was twice married, his first wife being Bridget daughter of John Chudleigh of Devonshire, and the second wife being Miss Rolle of Heanton. He was created a baronet on 9 Aug. 1642, and his death took place about 1648. On 3 Sept. 1640 there was licensed by the Company of Stationers 'a booke called "The Warming Stone."' This was by Carew, and it was a treatise written to prove that a 'warming stone' was 'useful and comfortable for the colds of aged and sick people' and for many other diseases. The author was himself said to have been 'cured of several distempers by it,' and its virtues were attested by numerous cases around his family seat. Editions of this tract are known to have been published in 1652, 1660, and 1670. Carew was one of the persons who examined the attendants at Antony Church on the thunderstorm on Whitsunday 1640, and an account of the storm which was written by him, appeared in the 'Western Antiquary,' i. 44-5. In 1664 Samuel Hartlib published 'The true and readie way to learne Latine tongue attested by three excellently learned and approved authours of three nations,' of which Carew was the English author. Hartlib was 