Life probably was engraved; by that of 1588, formerly in Sir Carew
Ralegh's house at Downton, and now in the National Portrait Gallery; by
one belonging to Mr. J.D. Wingfield Digby; by one, dated 1618, in the
possession of Mr. T.L. Thurlow; and by the best, in Mr. George Scharf's
decisive judgment, the picture in possession of Sir John Farnaby
Lennard, at Wickham Court, Kent. The last, the original of Houbraken's
engraving, was painted in 1602 for the Carews of Beddington. Young
Walter, then eight years old, stands by Ralegh's side, a handsome boy,
richly dressed, with features, as they remained in later life, like his
father's, and the same air of command. A picture, described as by
Cornelius Janssen, sold at Christie's rooms in December, 1890,
represents a visage worn and sombre, the hair on the head thin. As the
artist's first commonly acknowledged portraits taken in England are
dated 1618, the work, if by Janssen, must have been executed after
Ralegh's second Guiana expedition, and might naturally exhibit these
traits. There are also several contemporary miniatures, one, in
particular, at Belvoir Castle. This is of especial interest, on account
of the age inscribed, sixty-five, and the year, 1618, which imply a
belief that he was born later than 1552. From the date, 1618, and the
representation of a battle, on the companion miniature of young Walter,
apparently by the same hand, it may be inferred that the portrait of the
father was, as that of the son must have been, painted after the second
voyage to Guiana. Probably, to judge from the combination of Lady
Ralegh's and her husband's initials on the back, it was executed for
her. In it, to a degree even beyond the portrait attributed to Janssen,
the hair of the head is pathetically white. Though elsewhere the marks
of age have not been so openly betrayed, all the extant portraits,
unless that in the National Portrait Gallery be an exception, were
executed after he had reached middle life. He may be beheld in most of
them as he appeared to his rivals and partisans, the veteran knight in
magnificent apparel, pearls, and silver armour, haughty and subtle,
tanned, hardened, and worn with voyages to the Spanish Main and fighting
at Cadiz, 'Ralegh the witch,' the 'scourge of Spain,' the 'soldier,
sailor, scholar, courtier, orator, historian, and philosopher.' We do
not see the daredevil trooper of Languedoc and Munster, the duellist,
the master of the roistering watch-beati