gabled dwelling, for a time the residence of the ill-fated soldier
captain, Sir Walter Raleigh. You remember, perhaps, that he was
mayor of Youghal in 1588. After the suppression of the Geraldine
rebellion, the vast estates of the Earl of Desmond and those of one
hundred and forty of the leading gentlemen of Munster, his
adherents, were confiscated, and proclamation was made all through
England inviting gentlemen to 'undertake' the plantation of this
rich territory. Estates were offered at two or three pence an acre,
and no rent was to be paid for the first five years. Many of these
great 'undertakers,' as they were called, were English noblemen who
never saw Ireland; but among them were Raleigh and Spenser, who
received forty-two thousand and twelve thousand acres respectively,
and in consideration of certain patronage 'undertook' to carry the
business of the Crown through Parliament.

Francesca was greatly pleased with this information, culled mostly
from Joyce's Child's History of Ireland. The volume had been bought
in Dublin by Salemina and presented to us as a piece of genial
humour, but it became our daily companion.

I made a rhyme for her, which she sent Miss Peabody, to show her
that we were growing in wisdom, notwithstanding our separation from
her.

'You have thought of Sir Walter as soldier and knight,
Edmund Spenser, you've heard, was well able to write;
But Raleigh the planter, and Spenser verse-maker,
Each, oddly enough, was by trade 'Undertaker.''

It was in 1589 that the Shepherd of the Ocean, as Spenser calls him,