idow of Otho Gilbert, of Compton, Devonshire.
After passing some time at Oriel College, Oxford, about the year 1568,
where he distinguished himself by his genius and attainments, at the age
of seventeen he joined a volunteer company of gentlemen, under Henry
Champernon, in an expedition to assist the Protestant Queen of Navarre.
He remained in France five years, and while in Paris, under the
protection of the English embassy, he witnessed the massacre of St.
Bartholomew's day. On returning to England he was for a while in the
Middle Temple; but whether as a student is uncertain. His leisure hours
were devoted to poetry. In the year 1578 he accompanied Sir John Norris
to the Netherlands. In the following year he joined in Sir Humphrey
Gilbert's first and unsuccessful voyage. Now, when at the age of
twenty-seven, it is said that of the twenty-four hours he allotted four
to study and only five to sleep; but this is rather improbable, for so
much activity of employment as always characterized him, demanded a
proportionate degree of repose. In 1580 he served in Ireland as captain
of horse, under Lord Grey, and became familiar with the dangers and
atrocities of civil war. In 1581, the following year, he became
acquainted with the poet Spenser, then resident at Kilcolman. Disgusted
with a painful service, Raleigh returned to England during this year,
and it was at this period that he exhibited a famous piece of gallantry
to the queen. She, in a walk, coming to a "plashy place," hesitated to
proceed, when he "cast and spread his new plush cloak on the ground" for
her to tread on. By his graceful wit and fascinating manners, he rose
rapidly in Elizabeth's favor, and "she took him for a kind of oracle."
His munificent and persevering efforts in the colonization of Virginia
ought to have moderated the too sweeping charge of levity and fickleness
brought against him by Hume.

During the year 1583 Raleigh became member of Parliament for Devonshire;
was knighted, and made Seneschal of Cornwall and Warden of the
Stanneries. Engaged in the expedition whose object was to place Don
Antonio on the throne of Portugal, Sir Walter for his good conduct
received a gold chain from the queen. The rivalship of the Earl of Essex
having driven Raleigh into temporary exile in Ireland, he there renewed
his acquaintance with the author of the "Faery Queen," who accompanied
him on his return to England.

Sir Walter was arrested in 1592, and confined i