A Lesson with Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight, for the Scholars of Brixington Academy

 

A Lesson with Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight,

wherein are discussed divers Topics of Great Importance

for young Scholars in all Partes of the World to-day,

and principally for the young Scholars

of the Academy of Brixington in the fair Town of Exmouth,

following their visit to the Church of All Saints in Budley

 

The fair Town of Exmouth that ye see here is proud of its fine Academy of learning in the village of Brixington.  ‘Twas from here that the learned schoolmistress Dame Sarah did aske us that we should speake to her young scholars of the said Academy when they did visit our home village of Budley.

 

Photo by Christine Chittock

Naturally for our meting in the Church of All Saints did we weare our finest apparel and other accoutrements: our fur-lined cloak, our pearl-encrusted doublet, accompanied by our pipe, our best beard, our rapier and our most extreme arrogance.

The scholars of Brixington were much delighted and impressed. And there did they enquire of us most curiously and pertinently, while noting diligently answers to their many questions.

 

Above: Hayes Barton; Raleigh’s letter of 1584 to Richard Duke; Sherborne Castle, Dorset

We firstly told them how we were born in the year of grace fifteen hundred and fifty-two at Hayes Barton, the farmhouse that ye see here situated near the fair village of Budley. And how in our later years did we essaye to purchase the said farmhouse from Master Richard Duke, Lord of the Manor of Otterton. But in vain, for he did refuse our honest request, and thus did we build the Castle of our later years at Sherborne in the fair county of Dorset rather than at our birthplace of Budley.

 

 

Vicars Mead and Drake’s School. Photos by Peter Bowler

The scholars did admire Vicars Mead, our early place of learning and the home of the learned and reverend priest John Forde in the village. There being at that tyme no fine Academy such as that of Brixington, or indeed the village Academy of today which be named after Mistress Joan Drake of blessed and revered family memory.

 

We did show them the ancient image of the sailing ship carved on an oak bench in the Church of All Saints where we sat, and how we learnt of matters nautical from the image, and how ‘twas on such a vessel that we did sail to the fair land of France from the fair county of Devon along with many other young Gentlemen of noble lineage.

 

 

The History of the World, published in 1614

We did cause some surprise to the young scholars of Brixington on recounting how our youthful adventures in France during those violent and cruel times did verily form parte of our education, as we do mention in our great History of the World. 

We did explain how the French nation had been divided between those who did go to one type of church and those who did go to another, and the young scholars did hearken most attentively to our lesson.

 

St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre 1572  by François Dubois. 

This painting by a worthy Frenchman doth in sooth show the horrid cruelty wrought by other Frenchmen in the Massacre of St Bartholomew on the 24th day of August in the year 1572. 

For that cruelty and persecution in the land of France did this Church of All Saints in Budley welcome in the next century a refugee Frenchman, Master Daniel Caunieres, as vicar, as we explained to the young scholars. For many even in the land of our birth are ignorant of this most curious and wondrous fact.

 

As we were to write later in The Historie of the World during our captivitie in this my cell in the Tower of London, the greatest calamitie that can befall any countrie be verily when one side be set against another in civil war.

 

Queen Elizabeth I – ‘The Darnley Portrait’  

We did convey most strongly to the young scholars our admiration for our most fair Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth the first of that name; how in her wisdom she had steered this fair country of England in a middle way in matters of religion to keep it strong and stable, and free from the calamity of civil conflict. 

 

The young scholars did at this point question us on this matter of the Queen and ourselves, for our reputation as the royal favourite is universally known. Verily did they understand that ‘twas our amazing good looks which had so charmed our Sovereign Lady, for we did shew them this awesome portrait of us which hangeth in the church of All Saints, which did the scholars much admire.

 

Miniature portrait of Raleigh by Nicholas Hilliard in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Master Nicholas Hilliard, an excellent artist of Exeter, did capture most admirably our fine features in this painting. And assuredly our fabulous attire and display of the most fashionable jewels did most cunningly flatter the Queen.

 

The young scholars did admire the pearls that did adorn us as ye see 'ere. We did instruct them how pearls were a symbol of purity and loved by our Virgin Queen, for she did tell her people of England that she would devote herself to them rather than to any husband, and thus did she remain pure and virginal. 

 

Verily did I pledge my loyalty to her and not to that Scottish upstart and total creep whom ye see here and who later did sit unworthily on the throne of England, and did order my shameful death. And ‘twas here that we did warn the good scholars – teaching them the word tyrant to describe those such as the Scottish creep who believe overmuch in the power of princes against the people and parliament.  

So devoted to us was our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth that she did keep us close to her at Court. Indeed at first she did not permit us to explore foreign lands. Thus it was that we engaged others in our service to explore the lande that we did call Newe England in the continent of America.

 

Our artist and mapmaker Master John White did paint most faithfully such peoples and did respect their way of life. For we were determined not to treat the peoples of the New World with such cruel savagerie as the Spaniard had displayed in his treatment of the Inca tribes.  Ye see here Master White's awesome paintings which do include the village of Pomeiooc in Virginia, which they do call now North Carolina.

 

‘Twas at that moment that we did shewe the young scholars the curious image on yet another ancient bench in carved oak in the church, which doth depict, so sayeth some, a native personage of the Indian nation. For ye seeth here what seemeth to be a head dress of feathers. Yet others dispute such a notion, which maketh a fierce controversie and puzzlement tween some denizens of the village of Budley and divers learned historians.

‘For has the carver created the image of a Native American warrior?’ as we did ask the scholars. ‘Or is this indeed the Green Man who does inhabit the woods and forests of our fair county and others?’ Some of the attentive scholars did spy a feather, while others did protest that such were mere leaves.

 

And so to our travels, for finally after much argument and persuasion our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth did permit us to cross the seas, and we did make our first voyage to the south part of America and the land of Guiana in the year of grace 1595.

Sadly we did make no discoverie of gold, but on the island of Trinidad we did mete with a curious black lake over which we did walk. We did quiz the young scholars as to why this should be so, but they had no answer. We were pleased to explain that this was the vast lake of asphalt, from which our roads all over the world be made.

The Post Office of the Island of Trinidad hath honoured me most nobly with a fine postage stamp proving our discoverie of this wondrous substance and the awesome debt owed to me by the travelling mankind. Verily, we do indeed prefer to tell of that exploit rather than relate the tales of ‘spuds and ciggies’ which doth most lamentably amuse the vulgar multitude.  

 

© Ronnie Heeps

In sooth there be some today who compare our discoveries and voyages to the New World with those that be planned for Outer Space by bold adventurers of the 21st century like Master Richard Branson, now knighted. 

Ye see us here portrayed as we voyage by starship, complete with space suit embellished with Tudor rose, cunningly devised by the Scottish artist Ronnie Heeps in the year of 2006 and entitled 'Wee Raleigh Star Commander'. Likewise hath Master Heeps portrayed our greatnesse in other paintings now in the Castle of Elizabeth on the Island of Jersey.

That painting by Master Heeps entitled ‘The Smoker’ doth put me in mind that ‘twas on this occasion that the good scholars did quiz me on the matter of the pipe that we held, for we have been said to have introduced tobacco from our travels in distant continents into the fair land of England. We made haste to inform them that the pipe hath been empty for many years, it being known that the custom of smoking is most harmful to the body, and yet in our tyme was considered of medicinal aid.

 

 

Many other discoveries did we make on our voyages, including most rare plants which we did use in medicinal compounds, thus gaining our reputation as a learned physician during that shameful captivitie in the Tower of London. At the said Tower, guarded for centuries by the Beefeaters, ye may see today the medicinal garden where we did grow herbes to make such remedies against noisome diseases.

 

We did also shewe the young scholars of Brixington a jar of marmalade which doth contain the fruit known as Seville or sour orange, for it were during our voyages that we did first introduce the seed of this fruit into the fair land of England, and the tree did bear regular crops from the year of 1595 until the Great Frost more than a century later.

For many years hath we believed that a marmalade blessed with the name of ‘Sir Walter’s Choice’ should be made in the fair county of Devon to honour us with our discoverie, it being too little known, the vulgar multitude being too taken up by silly stories of puddles and bicycles.

Herewith a label designed and created by ourselves for the jars of such an awesome delicacy which we believe likely to become a best-seller, for we know that among the distinguished lovers of such fine substance be numbered Master Paddington Bear and our late lamented Sovereign Lady the Queen Elizabeth the Second of that name.

 

Ye see here the plant myrtle with its fragrant flowers which we did first bring into this fair land of England. Methinks such myrtle plants might one day be planted by a skilled gardener around our statue next the church in the village of Budley. Our young scholars of Brixington did learn that the word ‘botany’ is the science of plants.  

There be a second word that the scholars did note down as we spelled it out to them, and did indeed recite together in loud voice so as to echo in the vaults of the Church of All Saints. 

For there can be no more glorious aim for scholars than to be ‘a polymath’. Which is how we are proud to be described today! For our knowledge and experience in many fields of the arts and sciences was in sooth most vast and a fine example for young scholars of modern times who seemeth lacking in knowledge of such matters, and do suffer from the abominable scourge and curse of closèd minds which do crib and confine them.  

To conclude our lesson for the young scholars we will be proud also to speake of another man of the county of Devon, born some 40 yeares after ourselves in the fair village of Budley. Like us did he cross the sea to the land of America, and there  to help our West Countrie fishermen in their search for the precious cod which sustaineth many poore and hungry people.

There in the land which we call New England did he explore in its northern parts and did gain a reputation as a peace-loving friend and ally of the Native American folk to whom he gave shelter in that troubled era.

   

He did bear the name of Roger Conant, and like ourselves did have a fine family bench in this ancient church. Like ourselves he did shew himself to be a leader of men, and yet we must admit him to be in some ways more deserving of praise for he was undoubtedly a more modest type, to be perhaps known as ‘a humble leader’ and in sum we must avow, ‘a nicer bloke’.  

 

© John Washington

We would further call him not ‘a polymath’ but ‘a peacemaker’, for he did display most notable and awesome courage to prevent bloodshed. The occasion being a quarrel that may have turned into the first civil war in the Land of America, when he did intervene between the choleric and pugnacious Captain Myles Standish of the Plymouth Pilgrims and the West Countrie fishermen at Cape Ann, near to the towne of Gloucester in Massachusetts.

This famous scene from the year 1625 hath been most cunningly depicted by the learned painter from Salterton named Master John Washington, who hath most fittingly named the work ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ which now hangeth in the church of All Saints close by to where the Conant familie sat at worship.  

Much time did we spend in explaining this painting and the precious art of peacemaking so needed today.  For ‘twas at that moment that we did confess to the young scholars that our own warlike and pugnacious conduct was of some regret to us now that we have reached a wiser age, and especially so with regard to our time in the island of Ireland. 

Thus did we tell the scholars that with advancing years we and they will look back on actions that now appear most ignoble and shameful.

 

 

‘Home from Church 1605’ and ‘The Petition, 1673’

© John Washington

Ye see here two more paintings from the divine brush of Master Washington. He hath firstly  depicted young Roger in Budley as he leadeth his family home from church in the year 1605.

And secondly, this painting by Master Washington doth imagine the scene where old and venerable Roger, surrounded by his numerous family, composeth his humble petition to change the name of the town of Beverly to Budley. Most sadly and without reason was his petition rejected by the overbearing magistrates of the city of Salem which he did founde. 

 

This blue plaque at the Church Hall in Budley doth commemorate the sad event. Nonetheless he did accept graciously the decision, he being of a peaceable nature and respectful of the wishes of the majoritie much unlike some of the leaders of nations to-day who resemble the tyrants of old.

 

Ye find in the State of Massachusetts in America his statue in the city of Salem, the name of which doth indeed mean Peace in the Arabic and Hebrew languages and which may stand as a lesson to all humankind as we sorely contemplate the troubles of this too cruel and strife-ridden world.

 

Photo by Peter Bowler. Further photos at https://www.eastbudleigh.org/brixington%20school.htm

Such was our meeting with the good scholars of the Academy of Brixington, which did  conclude with our teaching them the words ‘Fare thee well’. 

And in return they did teach us the modern custom of a ‘High Five’ with which we did make our farewell to numerous of the scholars as they did process past us, our most extreme arrogance having been strangely lost. 

And then at the moment of that discoverie were we put in mind of those words  ‘Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’

 

Readers whom it may please to follow our previous ventures at the fine Academy of St Peter in the towne of Saltertoun and to the Brewerie of Black Tor be advised to click on these links. Whereupon ye will be presently transported through Time and Space as though by wingèd Mercury to the said places.

To the fine Academy of St Peter https://raleigh400.blogspot.com/2018/06/back-to-school-for-sir-walter.html

To the Brewerie of Black Tor https://raleigh400.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-merrie-tale-about-ale.html