Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/259

 9'" S. XII. SEPT. 26, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

251

A letter of Ralegh's in the Bodleian Library is dated 8 October of that year, and is printed in full in Edwards's vol. ii. 35. It was addressed to the Earl of Leicester from Windsor, and shows that he could not have accompanied Capt. White. The fifth voyage took place in 1590, when Ralegh was most probably in Ireland in the company of Spenser.

These remarks are sufficient to point out that Ralegh did not accompany all his own planned expeditions to Virginia ; had he done so the fact would have assuredly been chronicled by Hakluyt. There is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the declaration made by Prof. J. K. Laugh ton and Mr. Sidney Lee, the authors of the memoir of Ralegh in the ' D.N.B.,' that " he had no personal share in the actual expeditions, and he was never in his whole life near the coast of Virginia."

How the tradition arose is a matter of conjecture. The circumstance of the new land having been discovered by ships sent out by, and belonging to, Ralegh would soon be associated in the mind of the public with his name as that of the actual discoverer. The tradition would soon be the natural outcome of such a belief. Mr. D. M. Stevens, of Guildford, made a curious suggestion that it originated in an error in translation. Towards the conclusion of his well-known work Hariot remarks, " The actions of those (such) as haue beene by Sir Walter Ralegh therein (and there) imployed " ; and this was translated in De Bry's Latin edition of the 'Voyages' as "qui generosum D. Walterum Raleigh in earn regiones comitati sunt." (<N. &Q.,' 3 rd S.i. 147-8.)

In his 'Life of Ralegh,' prefixed to the edition of the ' History of the World ' of the latter, published in 1736, W. Oldys seems to have been the earliest biographer of our Devonshire worthy who pointed out that the statements generally prevalent as to the discovery of Virginia by Ralegh himself were "all fancy and fiction." Since then all writers on the subject appear to have aban- doned the earlier tradition.

Turning to the Guiana voyages, your correspondent evidently had in his mind's eye Ralegh's disastrous second one which took place in 1617-18, and led to his unmerited execution. He seerns to be unaware that the first was made in 1595, i.e. in Elizabeth's reign, of which a full description is contained in his work 'The Discoverie of Gviana,' published in the following year.

Considering the amount of historical know- ledge required to be possessed by schoolboys

at the present day, I am afraid they would fare very badly if they fell into the same errors as those exhibited by your corre- spondent. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Salterton, Devoq.

The pronunciation of Raleigh seems to be Rawley, if we may credit John Aubrey :

"I have heard my grandmother say that when she was young, they were wont to talke of this rebus, viz. : The enemie to the stomack, and the word of

disgrace,

Is the name of the gentleman with a bold face. I have now forgott (vide History) whether Sir Walter was not for the putting of Mary, queen of Scotts, to death ; I thinke, yea. But, besides that, at a consultation at Whitehall, after queen Eliza- beth's death, how matters were to be ordered and what ought to be donne, Sir Walter Raleigh declared his opinion, 'twas the wisest way for them to keep the government in their owne hands, and sett up a commonwealth, and not be subject to a needy beggerly nation. It seemes there were some of this caball who kept not this so secret but that it came to king James's eare ; who at (vide ' Chro- nicle') where the English noblesse mett and recieved him, being told upon their presentment to his

., , i i ci- Tir_it__ T>~I~:~U>,,

'Brief Lives,' edited by Andrew Clark, M.A., 1898, ii. 182, 186.

ADRIAN WHEELER.

SIR FERDINANDO GORGES, LORD PALATINE OF MAINE (9 th S. xii. 21, 41, 154). For over ben years I have been engaged in writing up

he history arid pedigree (for private use) of

he descendants of the Norman de Georges. During that period I have collated a mass of data alas ! not even yet complete for want of proof. I came across no single printed record of any branch of the family that did not prove inaccurate on subsequent compari- son with registers and authentic MSS. This refers to many of the Visitations which are supposed to be contemporary evidence. As
 * he MS. of my book is now in the printer's

hands, I must reply to MESSRS. PINK, HEMS, and H. C.'s queries en bloc, if they will dndly excuse this method under the circum- stances. A good deal of confusion has arisen

n regard to some of the Gorges in conse- quence of the many Ferdinandos (named after their illustrious relative) in existence at the same time, and there being two

Jol. John Gorges in the field during the same period, the name being constantly spelled "George" in official documents of
 * he date required. The one I have

already mentioned as second son of Sir ?erdinando died and was buried at St. Margaret's, Westminster, 6 April, 1656; will