1595.

July 14.

Law, and confers on him, at a nominal rent, a good estate. III. 15. This grant comprises sixty acres, more or less of wood, in the forest of Zelwood in the county of Somerset, known as the Pitts; which Bacon receives from the Crown on a rent of seven pounds ten shillings a-year, payable at the feasts of St. Michael the Archangel, and of the Annunciation of the Virgin.

16. If Elizabeth pauses in her choice of a Solicitor- Aug. 7. General, her servants see that Bacon's hopes are for the

moment dead. Lady Ann hears this bad news at Gorhambury, and writes to console her son.

LADY BACON TO ANTHONY BACON.

Aug. 7, 1595.

If Her Majesty have resolved upon the negative for your brother, as I hear, truly, save for the brust a little, I am glad of it. God in His time hath better in store I trust. For considering his kind of health and what cumber pertains to that office, it is best for him I hope. Let us all pray the Lord we make us to profit by His fatherly correction; doubtless it is His hand, and all for the best, and love to His children that will seek Him first, and depend upon His goodness. Godly and wisely love ye, like brethren, whatsoever happen, and be of good courage in the Lord, with good hope.

A. B.

And how does Bacon bear this prospect of defeat? Merrily, it seems. There is a glimpse of him in his mother's notes to Anthony :-" With a humble heart before God, let your brother be of good cheer. Alas! what excess

16. Lambeth MSS. 651, fol. 211.

III. 16. of bucks at Gray's Inn! And to feast it on the Sabbath! God forgive and have mercy upon England!"

1595.

Sept.

17. A fleet has gone from Plymouth under Drake. A fleet more terrible to the Don is arming under Raleigh. Drake is a marauder, Raleigh a statesman. If he can

burn Nombre di Dios and spoil the carracks of Margarita, Drake will be at peace. Raleigh, fresh from his romantic voyage to the Amazon, flushed with the hope of conquest and discovery, is bent on founding States.

Bacon, who sees in Raleigh, not alone the nimble wit, the proud courtier, the dashing seaman, but the leader of vast horizon, of philosophic thought, would like to keep Essex on easy terms with him; the two men holding, as far as might be, a common course in politics and in war. Their loves and hates are the same. Each longs for war; a war of books and laws against Rome, a war of pikes and culverins against Spain. Each in his own person represents the youth and genius of the time: Essex that of the nobles, Raleigh of the gentry. Each of the two seems to Bacon needful to the other and to the common cause the Queen's kinsman to uphold it against timid counsels at court, the founder of Virginia to maintain it against Philip's admirals on the Spanish Main. A frank and loyal union of these two men would have given England the free use of all her arms; in the long run it would have saved them both from the block. With tongue and pen Bacon labours to make peace between them. He seeks to push the new expedition. In spite of Raleigh's pride, which often mars his work, he repeats to Essex that Raleigh will be his stanchest and safest friend.

17. Elizabeth to Raleigh, Nov. 1595, S. P. O.; Notes of the Supplemental part of the Entertainment given at York House, Nov. 17, 1595, S. P. O.

1595.

Sept.

Essex is preparing to receive the Queen at York House III. 17. in the Strand with a grand entertainment and a sumptuous masque given in her honour; for which Bacon is composing characters and words. The play being given in Essex's name, here are the means for a striking and conspicuous compliment to Raleigh. Bacon frames a scene of the masque in happy allusion to the Amazon and to Raleigh's voyage.

18. Essex has not the grace to let it stand. The glory of Raleigh breaks his rest, for he himself aspires to be all that Raleigh is-renowned in war even more than in letters and in courts. He strikes his pen through Bacon's lines, which drop from the acted scene and from the printed masque. A contemporary copy of this suppressed part remains in the State Paper Office: a proof how much, five years before the Earl rushes into high treason, Bacon leans to the side of her Majesty's Captain of the Guard.

The opportunity thrown away by Essex, Burghley and Cecil hug to their hearts. They give, not only their countenance to Raleigh, but their money to the Guiana voyage; Burghley contributing five hundred pounds, Cecil a new ship, the hull of which alone costs him no less than eight hundred pounds.

Nov.

1595.

19. The Earl's want of tact and temper is more hurt- Nov. 5, ful to his friends than to his foes. He does Raleigh no great harm; he causes Bacon the most grievous loss. Give me this place of the Solicitor-he drums and drums at the Queen's ear. She thinks her law officers should be chosen by herself, and for their good parts, not to please

18. Entertainment given to the Queen at York House, Nov. 17, 1595; Sydney Papers, i. 377.

19. Warrant Book, Nov. 5, 1595.

1595.

Νον.

III. 19. the fancy or make good the pledges of a carpet knight. She will not do a right thing for a bad reason or in a wrong way. Her courts are crowded with able men. She is old enough to choose a servant for herself. As Essex grows hot, she cools: when he storms upon her and will not be denied, she turns from the spoiled boy, her nomination made. Bacon must wait; Fleming shall be her

man.

20. Lord Campbell says, as writers have said from the days of Bushel, that the Earl atoned to Bacon for his failure by a gift of Twickenham Park. It happens, however, that Twickenham Park was not, and never had been, the Earl's to give. That lovely seat, which blooms by the Thames, close under Richmond Bridge, fronting the old palace, and some of the elms of which stand, venerable and green, in the days of Victoria, had belonged to the Bacons for many years. In 1574, while Essex was a boy at Chartley, Twickenham Park, together with More Mead and Ferry Mead, the adjoining lands, had been granted by the Queen to Edward Bacon on lease. The lease is enrolled, and a copy of it may be read in one of the appendices of this book. Francis lived in the house, as his letters prove, long before his patent of Solicitor passed the Seal. It had all the points of a good country house; a green landscape, wood and water, pure air, a dry soil, vicinity to the court and to the town. From his windows he could peer into the Queen's alleys; in an hour he could trot up to Whitehall or Gray's Inn. Every plant that thrives, every flower that blows, in the south of England, loves the Twickenham soil. There were cedars in the great park, swans on the river,

20. Rolls, Mar. 3, 16 Eliz., Record Office.

singing-birds in the copse; every sight to engage the eye, III. 20. every sound to please the ear.

He loved the house, and lived in it when he could steal away from Gray's Inn. It was his house of letters and philosophy, as the lodging in Gray's Inn Square was his house of politics and law. In fact, when the Earl ferried over from Richmond Palace, he leapt from his barge on to Bacon's lawn.

21. Unable to pay his debt by a public office, Essex feels that he ought to pay it in money or in money's worth. The lawyer has done his work, must be told his fee. But the Earl has no funds. His debts, his amours, his camp

of servants eat him up. He will pay in a patch of land. To this Bacon objects: not that he need scruple at taking wages; not that the mode of payment is unusual; not that the price is beyond his claim. Four years have been spent in the Earl's service. To pay in land is the fashion of a time when gold is scarce and soil is cheap. Nor is the patch too large; at most it may be worth 12007. or 15007. After Bacon's improvements and the rise of rents, he sells it to Reynold Nicholas for 18007. It is less than the third of a year's income from the Solicitor-General's place. Bacon's doubts have a deeper source. Knowing the Earl's fiery temper, and sharing in some degree his mother's fears, he shrinks from incurring feudal obligations to one so vain and weak. Hurt by his hesitation, Essex pouts and sulks; being, as he truly says, the sole cause of this loss of place, he will die of vexation if he be not allowed in some small measure to repair it. Bacon

21. Sir Francis Bacon, his Apologie in certain imputations concerning the late Earl of Essex, written to his very good Lord the Earl of Devonshire, 1604, 13, 16.

1595.

Nov.

F