90 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



frames, done by the first Earl of Bristol, which, if 

 they were joined in the middle by a portico covering 

 the old building, would be a noble front. The design 

 of such an one I have been amusing myself with 

 drawing; but it is a question whether Lord Digby 

 will not be better amused than to execute it. The 

 finest room is a saloon, fifty feet long, and a parlour 



fortunes, and the sight of your poor child ; your mourning cannot 

 avail me that am but dust. I trust my blood will quench their 

 malice who desired my slaughter, that they will not seek also to 

 kill you and your's with extreme poverty. To what friend to 

 direct you I know not ; for all mine have left me in the true 

 time of trial. Most sorry am I, that being thus surprised by 

 death, I can leave you no better estate. God hath prevented all my 

 determinations ; that great God that worketh all in all. And if 

 you can live free from want, care for no more, for the rest is 

 but vanity. Remember your poor child for his father's sake, who 

 loved you in his happiest estate. I sued for my life, but (God 

 knows) it was for you and your's that I desired it ; for know 

 it, my dear wife, your child is the child of a true man, who, in 

 his own respect, despised death and his mis-shapen and ugly 

 forms. I cannot write much. God knows how hardly I steal this 

 time when all are asleep ; and it is also time for me to separate my 

 thoughts from the world. Beg my dead body, which living was 

 denied you, and either lay it in Sherburn, or in Exeter Church, 

 by my father and mother. Time and death calleth me away. 

 The everlasting God, powerful, infinite, and inscrutable God 

 Almighty, who is goodness itself, the true light and life, keep you 

 and your's, and have mercy upon me, and forgive my persecutors 

 and false accusers, and send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. 

 My dear wife, farewell. Bless my boy, pray for me, and let my 

 true God hold you both in his arms. Your's that was, but now 

 not my own, Walter Raleigh.' 



