Page:The house of Cecil.djvu/231

 THE FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY 201

the book of the state and condition of Island, you told me that you esteemed books more than gold, as you showed last year, when I could not procure you to accept a small token of the good I received by your means ; which astonished me much until Sir John Stanhope told me it was your practice not to take anything of charge from those you liked best of." l

As to his other personal pleasures, it is not necessary to pay attention to the scurrilous gossip which charged him with immoral pursuits. 2 But we learn that he was fond of play, and on one occasion lost 600 in one night. 3

He also delighted in buying and selling land and houses in all parts of the country, and engaged in various mercantile and maritime transactions. On one occasion he purchased a fourth share of the Refusal, of Plymouth, 120 tons, " now at sea, in cause of reprisal, and of all the prizes and gains that have been or shall be taken during the voyage." This was a most fortunate specu- lation, as within a fortnight, the Refusal returned, in company with two other ships, bringing two prizes which they took coming out of Lisbon. One was a ship of 400 tons, laden with sugar, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, indigo, and other goods, intended for Venice ; the other, a " flyboat " of 140 tons, with muskets and calivers, gum, lacquer,

1 January 3rd, 1599 (Hatfield MSS., IX. 8).

2 It is curious, by the way, that in one of his letters (to his servant Roger Kirkham, 1605), he speaks of " my younger son," a person not known to the genealogists (Lodge's Illustrations, III. 171). What became of this youth ?

8 This was in 1603 (Cal. S. P. Dom. ; James I., VI. 283).

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