Now,
There
Was
A
Man!
Our writer visits the
Tower of London and
gets better acquainted
with a North Carolina
hero.
By IIKTTK ELLIOTT
Any man who is called, at various
times in his career, a fox. a damned
upstart, a monster, and the greatest
Lucifer whoever lived, has to be a man
worth knowing.
A man who wore a pearl in his car.
cured a queen of the pox (or whatever
it was Queen Anne had) with his
homemade brew, wrote a million-
word. six-volume history of the world,
and directed sea battles from his prison
cell, is a man who did big things, and
sets our pulses racing.
Further, a man who invented a way
to make fresh water from salt water,
who was a soldier and a sailor, a
chemist, arts patron, linguist, essayist
and poet, astronomer, antiquarian,
geographer, explorer, musician, and
engineer, among other things, was a
man to be reckoned with, and still is.
Sir Walter Raleigh. Now. there was
a man! And my home town was named
20
Stotuc o* Sir Woltcr Raleigh which Hands in Inde¬
pendence Ploio at the Stote Capitol grounds in the
North Corolino city which beors his nomc (below)
The writer's snopshot of London Tower ot blossom
time (photo of stotue by Will McIntyre).
for him! What a lot we have to live up
to!
Do Your Homework
If you arc an average North Caroli¬
nian, your acquaintance with Sir Wal¬
ter probably begins and ends with the
cloak-in-lhe-mud story. Or with the
ill-fated Lost Colony. Or with his pipe¬
ful of tobacco. Raleigh is so much
more. All you have to do is gather up a
few of his biographies, plus George
Garrett’s Death of the Fox, steep
yourself in the great man’s life and
times, and trot over to London via the
new cheap air fares for a brand new
look at The Tower of London where
Raleigh spent his last years. When you
return you’ll have immersed yourself
in an experience that will. I guarantee,
give your life a new direction.
Raleigh is the role model for us all —
brave, proud, strong, loving, true-
blue. and there was never any doubt, at
all. that he was a man who never suf¬
fered an identity crisis.
My second visit to The Tower
proved, tot), that my first visit was
rather typical — getting shoved about
by hordes of other Tower tourists and
longing to get out of there in one piece.
My second visit, happily, gave me a
sense of being at one with the mists of
history. Then. too. because I had done
my homework and had seen the Tower
with new eyes. I could be an interest¬
ing guest at parties: “Travel? Why yes.
I went to London recently. Visited the
Tower. Did you know that Sir Walter
Raleigh got his wife pregnant while he
was a prisoner there?” Immediately,
my audience perks up and begs for
more. I become, in its eyes, a sophisti¬
cate. who is "well-traveled.” a person
to be listened to.
A Fascinating Kra
Back to your planned trip to the
Mother Country and your homework.
Libraries are full of histories and biog¬
raphies. jammed with books on kings
and battles and dates to remember.
Since we live in a specialized era (there
are itineraries for archeologists,
nudists, gamblers and so on), your re¬
search will be confined to the
Elizabethan Era. Garrett's book is
tough sledding because of its inward
writing and archaic lilt. However, once
you arc used to Garrett's style, you
begin to waft back in time to touch,
smell, taste, hear and see the rich fab¬
ric of the Elizabethan era — Raleigh’s
velvets and jewels, the unwashed
Court. Elizabeth’s coarse jokes, the
final blow of the axe. the depth of
greed, lust, hate and ambition that
marked this most fascinating segment
of Britain’s history.
Of Raleigh's many biographers. I
liked Donald Barr Chidsey best be¬
cause he humanized my hero. Chidsey
is downright incensed at the gossip
surrounding Raleigh and his wife.
THE STATE. March 1978
