ncillor, his advice
being asked in private, by Elizabeth or by her ministers, and not across
the table, where his arrogant manner might have introduced discussions
fruitless to the State. In 1598, when he was at the zenith of his power,
he actually succeeded, as we shall see, in being proposed for Privy
Council, but the Queen did not permit him to be sworn. Nothing would be
more remarkable than Elizabeth's infatuation for her favourites, if we
were not still more surprised at her skill in gauging their capacities,
and her firmness in defining their ambitions.

Already, in 1583, Walter Raleigh began to be the recipient of the
Queen's gifts. On April 10 of that year he came into possession of two
estates, Stolney and Newland, which had passed to the Queen from All
Souls College, Oxford. A few days later, May 4, he became enriched by
obtaining letters patent for the 'Farm of Wines,' thenceforward to be
one of the main sources of his wealth. According to this grant, which
extended to all places within the kingdom, each vintner was obliged to
pay twenty shillings a year to Raleigh as a license duty on the sale of
wines. This was, in fact, a great relief to the wine trade, for until
this time the mayors of corporations had levied this duty at their own
judgment, and some of them had made a licensing charge not less than six
times as heavy as the new duty. The grant, moreover, gave Raleigh a part
of all fines accruing to the Crown under the provisions of the wines
statute of Edward VI. From his 'Farm of Wines' Raleigh seems at one
time to have obtained something like 2,000_l._ a year. The emoluments
dwindled at last, just before Raleigh was forced to resign his patent to
James I., to 1,000_l._ a year; but even this was an income equivalent to
6,000_l._ of our money. The grant was to expire in 1619, and would
therefore, if he had died a natural death, have outlived Raleigh
himself. We must not forget that the cost of collecting moneys, and the
salaries to deputy licensers, consumed a large part of these receipts.

While Raleigh was shaking down a fortune from the green ivy-bushes that
hung at the vintners' doors, the western continent, at which he had
already cast wistful glances, remained the treasure-house of Spain. His
unfortunate but indomitable half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, recalled
it to his memory. The name of Gilbert deserves to be better remembered
than it is; and America, at least, will one day be constrained to