hat 'those
that never had a fee-simple could not grant a fee-simple.' About
Christmas 1608 Lady Raleigh brought the matter up again, and leading her
sons by the hand she appeared in the Presence Chamber, and besought
James to give them a new conveyance, with no flaw in it. But the King
had determined to seize Sherborne, and he told her, 'I maun hae the
lond, I maun hae it for Carr.' It is said that, losing all patience,
Elizabeth Raleigh started to her feet, and implored God to punish this
robbery of her household. Sir Walter was more politic, and on January
2, 1609, he wrote a letter to the favourite, imploring him not to covet
Sherborne. It is to be regretted that Raleigh, whose opinion of James's
minions was not on private occasions concealed, should write to Carr of
all people in England as 'one whom I know not, but by an honourable
fame;' and that the eloquence of his appeal should be thrown away on
such a recipient. 'For yourself, Sir,' he says, 'seeing your day is but
now in the dawn, and mine come to the evening, your own virtues and the
King's grace assuring you of many good fortunes and much honour, I
beseech you not to begin your first building upon the ruins of the
innocent; and that their griefs and sorrows do not attend your first
plantation.' Carr, of course, took no notice whatever, and on the 10th
of the same month the estates at Sherborne were bestowed on him. At
Prince Henry's request the King presently purchased them back again, and
gave them to his son, who soon after died. Mr. Edwards has discovered
that Sherborne passed through eight successive changes of ownership
before 1617. To Lady Raleigh and her children the King gave 8,000_l._ as
purchase-money of the life security in Sherborne. The interest on this
sum was very irregularly paid, and the Guiana voyage in 1617 swallowed
up most of the principal. Thus the vast and princely fortune of Raleigh
melted away like a drift of snow.

In the summer of 1611, Raleigh came into collision with Lord Salisbury
and Lord Northampton on some matter at present obscure. Northampton
writes: 'We had afterwards a bout with Sir Walter Raleigh, in whom we
find no change, but the same blindness, pride, and passion that
heretofore hath wrought more violently, but never expressed itself in a
stranger fashion.' In consequence of their interview with Raleigh and
other prisoners, the Lords recommended that 'the lawless liberty' of the
Tower should no longer be allowed to c