en two and three miles off. Polwhele saw it at
Otterton House shortly before 1793. Afterwards it disappeared. Dr.
Brushfield found the original, as he believes, at Plymouth, in the 1888
collection of Armada and Elizabethan relics. It is the property of Miss
Glubb, of Great Torrington. The letter was written from the Court, on
July 26, 1584, by Mr. Duke's 'very willing frinde in all I shal be able,
W. Ralegh,' and runs as follows: 'Mr Duke--I wrote to Mr Prideux to
move yow for the purchase of hayes a farme som tyme in my fathers
possession. I will most willingly geve yow what so ever in your
conscience yow shall deeme it worth: and if yow shall att any tyme have
occasion to vse mee, yow Shall find mee a thanckfull frind to yow and
yours. I have dealt wth Mr Sprinte for suche things as he hathe at
colliton and ther abouts and he hath promised mee to dept wth the moety
of otertowne vnto yow in consideration of hayes accordinge to the valew,
and yow shall not find mee an ill neighbore vnto yow here after. I am
resolved if I cannot 'ntreat yow, to build att colliton but for the
naturall disposition I have to that place being borne in that howse I
had rather seat my sealf ther then any wher els thus leving the matter
att large unto Mr Sprint I take my leve resting reedy to countervail
all your courteses to the vttermost of my power.'

[Sidenote: _Colaton Ralegh._]

His offer was not accepted, the Dukes, it is conjectured by Polwhele,
not choosing to have so great a man for so near a neighbour. According
to a local tradition, he carried out his alternative project of building
at Colaton Ralegh, on land which he may be presumed to have bought of
his father or eldest brother. In the garden of the Place he is said to
have planted, as elsewhere, the first potatoes grown in England. But
himself he never rooted there, though he was described as 'of Colaton
Ralegh' in a deed of 1588. The royal bounty soon tempted him away; and
he sold any property which had entitled him to that designation. The
estate of Sherborne, which is inseparably connected with his memory,
consisted of an ancient castle and picturesque park, together with
several adjacent manors. It had belonged to the see of Salisbury since
the time of Bishop Osmund, who cursed all who should alienate it, or
profit by its alienation. Ralegh was not deterred by the threat. He is
rumoured to have been impressed by the charms of the domain as he rode
past it on his journeys fro