Warmington.
Sir W. Raleigh in Virginia (Vol. iv., p. 190.).
—That Mr. Hallam should have forgotten to correct an incidental allusion is natural enough; and that Raleigh in person discovered Virginia was commonly believed. Sir Walter Scott, for instance, believed it, as appears by a passage at the end of Kenilworth. But the very title-page of Hariot's account of the discovery of Virginia (whether in the English of 1588, or the Frankfort Latin of 1590), negatives the idea of Raleigh assisting in person. And the Biographia Britannica, or, I believe, any similar work of authority, will show that no biographer of note has affirmed it. It was an expedition fitted out by Raleigh which discovered Virginia.
M.
It appears by the Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia, by Strachey, so ably edited by Mr. Major for the Hakluyt Society, that Sir Walter Raleigh sent out his first expedition to Virginia in 1584, under Captain Amadas; in 1585 a fleet under Sir R. Grenville, which he intended to have commanded in person, but jealousy at court prevented him. In 1587 a second fleet was sent to Roanoak under Captain White, in 1590 supplies by Captain White, and in 1602 he sent Samuel Mace. Neither Oldys nor Cayley mention his having gone there; and as they carry on the events of his life pretty clearly year by year, I think, in reply to the Query of MR. BREEN, that there is pretty good evidence to show that he never was there.
E. N. W.
Southwark.
Siege of Londonderry (Vol. iv., p. 162.).
—Can B. G. give any information respecting the list of persons who received grants of land in the county of Londonderry after the conclusion of the war in 1691? Also, whether he knows of an old ballad (cotemporary I believe) called "The Battle of the Boyne?" I have an old history of the siege of Derry, by Mr. George Walker, 1689. I should be glad to know what the pamphlet contains, and whether the family of Downing are mentioned in it.
A. C. L.