enthesis, a warning may be given that anyone who wanders
from east to west along the south coast of Devon will be wearied beyond
measure by the numbers of rooms, banks, porches, and gardens, shown as
the identical spot 'where Sir Walter smoked his first pipe.' Dr
Brushfield, in an exhaustive article on 'Raleghana,' counts only six
places, but _they_ reach from Penzance to Islington, and one is in
Ireland.

After the last dreary voyage, rendered fruitless by the contemptible
double-dealing of James I, and during his trial, Sir Walter's
self-possession and courage showed at their best. 'From eight in the
morning till nearly midnight he fronted his enemies with unshaken
courage. The bluster of Attorney-General Coke roared around him without
effect. "I want words," stormed the great prosecutor, "to express thy
viperous treason."

'"True," said Raleigh, "for you have spoken the same thing half a dozen
times over already."'

It was characteristic of his grand views of life that within the four
walls of a prison he should undertake no less a work than the History of
the World. The unfinished history shows a depth of learning and dignity
of style, very wonderful in the writings of a man who spent his life in
incessant and absorbing action. It must have been the vast number of the
chances and changes of life he had seen around him, and himself
experienced, that inspired him to write that splendid apostrophe: 'O
eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast
persuaded; what none have dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world
have flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised; thou
hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride,
cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two
narrow words, _Hic jacet_.'

Not only in his visions of colonies was Raleigh far in advance of his
time. Major Hume quotes his ideas on trade and commerce, the
statesmanship displayed in his _Prerogative of Parliaments_, and his
writings on the construction of ships and naval tactics, to show that in
each subject he had arrived at conclusions now generally accepted, but
only discovered by the public long after his death. This biographer ends
by describing him as 'perhaps the most universally capable Englishman
that ever lived.'

Sir Walter's last lines were written a few hours before his death, in
his Bible:

'Even such is Time, that takes on trust
Our youth, o