by patent 6 Nov. 25 Eliz. (1583)." (_Carew MSS._) Bryskett was a
man much employed in Irish business. He had been Clerk to the Irish
Council, had been a correspondent of Burghley and Walsingham, and had
aspired to be Secretary of State when Fenton obtained the post: possibly
in disappointment, he had retired, with an office which he exercised by
deputy, to his lands in Wexford. He was a poet, and a friend of
Spenser's: and it may have been by his interest with the dispensers of
patronage, that "one Spenser," who had been his deputy, succeeded to his
office.

In this position Spenser was brought into communication with the
powerful English chiefs on the Council of Munster, and also with the
leading men among the Undertakers as they were called, among whom more
than half a million of acres of the escheated and desolate lands of the
fallen Desmond were to be divided, on condition of each Undertaker
settling on his estate a proportionate number of English gentlemen,
yeomen, artisans and labourers with their families, who were to bring
the ruined province into order and cultivation. The President and
Vice-President of the Council were the two Norreys, John and Thomas, two
of the most gallant of a gallant family. The project for the planting of
Munster had been originally started before the rebellion, in 1568. It
had been one of the causes of the rebellion; but now that Desmond was
fallen, it was revived. It had been received in England with favour and
hope. Men of influence and enterprise, Sir Christopher Hatton,
Walsingham, Walter Ralegh, had embarked in it: and the government had
made an appeal to the English country gentlemen to take advantage of
this new opening for their younger sons, and to send them over at the
head of colonies from the families of their tenants and dependants, to
occupy a rich and beautiful land on easy terms of rent. In the Western
Counties, north and south, the appeal had awakened interest. In the list
of Undertakers are found Cheshire and Lancashire names, Stanley,
Fleetwood, Molyneux: and a still larger number for Somerset, Devon, and
Dorset, Popham, Rogers, Coles, Ralegh, Chudleigh, Champernown. The plan
of settlement was carefully and methodically traced out. The province
was surveyed as well as it could be under great difficulties. Maps were
made which Lord Burghley annotated. "Seignories" were created of varying
size, 12,000, 8000, 6000, 4000 acres, with corresponding obligations as
to the nu