te. Ralegh was able practically
to contradict it by his return, after a visit to Munster of a few
months. In a letter of December, 1589, he assured his cousin Carew,
'noble George,' then Master of the Ordnance in Ireland: 'For my retreat
from Court, it was upon good cause to take order for my prize. If in
Ireland they think I am not worth the respecting, they shall much
deceive themselves. I am in place to be believed not inferior to any
man, to pleasure or displeasure the greatest; and my opinion is so
received and believed as I can anger the best of them. And therefore, if
the Deputy be not as ready to stead me as I have been to defend him--be
it as it may. When Sir William Fitzwilliams shall be in England, I take
myself for his better by the honourable offices I hold, as also by that
nearness to her Majesty which I still enjoy.'

[Sidenote: _At Youghal._]

He could truly deny any permanent manifestation of a loss of royal
goodwill. He had been receiving fresh marks of it. He was about to
receive more. His Irish estate afforded sufficient ground for absence
from Court, though no less agreeable motive had concurred. He had
rounded off his huge concession by procuring from the Bishop of Lismore,
in 1587, a lease of Lismore Manor at a rent of L13 _6s. 8d._ He was
building on the site of the castle a stately habitation, which his
wealthy successors have again transformed out of all resemblance to his
work. He had conceived an affection for the Warden's house attached to
the Dominican Friary at Youghal, Myrtle Grove, or Ralegh's House, as it
came to be styled. Its present owner, Sir John Pope Hennessy, who has
made it the occasion of a picturesque but bitter monograph, thinks he
liked it because it reminded him of Hayes Barton. Other observers have
failed to see the resemblance. At present it remains much as it was when
Ralegh sat in its deep bays, or by its carved fire-place. The great
myrtles in its garden must be almost his contemporaries. He had his
experiments to watch, his potatoes and tobacco, his yellow wallflowers,
in the pleasant garden by the Blackwater. He had to replenish his farms
with well affected Englishmen whom he imported from Devon, Somerset,
and Dorset. In 1592 it is officially recorded that, beside fifty Irish
families, 120 Englishmen, many of whom had families, were settled on his
property. He was developing a mineral industry by the help of miners he
had hired from Cornwall. He was conducting, at a