by his attainder, and his estates forfeited, but his personal property was now restored to him. In 1602, when he had assigned the manor of Sherborne to trustees for the benefit of his son Walter, he reserved the income from it to himself for life. This life interest now fell to the king, but on 30 July 1604 a sixty years' term of Sherborne and ten other Dorset and Somerset manors was granted by the crown to trustees to be held by them for Lady Ralegh and her son. Soon afterwards a legal flaw was discovered in the deed of 1602 conveying Sherborne to the trustees of the son Walter. After much legal argument the judges in 1608 declared the whole property to be forfeited under the attainder, and the arrangement of 1604 to be void. Lady Ralegh, in a personal interview, entreated James to waive his claim, but withdrew her opposition on receiving a promise of 400l. a year for her life and that of her son, together with a capital sum of 8,000l. The Sherborne property, which was of the estimated rental of 750l., was thereupon bestowed on the king's favourite, Robert Carr, earl of Somerset. Shortly before Prince Henry's death in 1612 he begged it of James, who compensated Carr with 20,000l. The prince intended to restore the estate to Ralegh, but died before he could effect his design, and Carr retook possession, but on his attainder in 1616, Sherborne was sold to John Digby, earl of Bristol, for 10,000l. (Stebbing, pp. 244, 261–4; Carew Ralegh, Brief Relation, 1669).
Ralegh was treated leniently in prison. He had apartments in the upper story of the Bloody Tower, where his wife and son, with their personal attendants, also lived, at the rate, for household expenses, of about 200l. a year. But his health suffered from cold (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 107), and frequent efforts were made by his enemies to concoct fresh charges of disloyalty against him. In 1610 they succeeded in depriving him for three months of the society of his wife, who was ordered to leave the Tower. In Prince Henry, however, he found a useful friend. The prince was mainly attracted by Ralegh's studies in science and literature, to which his enforced leisure was devoted. For the prince, Ralegh designed a model of a ship. Encouraged by him, he began his ‘History of the World,’ and for his guidance designed many political treatises. In a laboratory, or ‘still-house,’ allowed him in the Tower garden for chemical and philosophical experiments, he condensed fresh from salt water (an art only practised generally during the nineteenth century) (cf. Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1606–7), and compounded drugs, chief among which was his ‘Great Cordial or Elixir.’ Ralegh's own prescription is not extant, but Nicholas le Febre compounded it in the presence of Charles II on 20 Sept. 1662 (Evelyn, Diary, ii. 152), and printed an account of the demonstration in 1664. At the same time whatever books Ralegh chose to buy or borrow were freely at his disposal, and he interested himself in the scientific researches of his fellow-prisoner, Henry Percy, ninth earl of Northumberland [q. v.], into whose service he introduced Harriot, his old friend and fellow-worker.
As early as 1610, possibly earlier, Ralegh sought permission for another venture to the Orinoco. He was willing to command an expedition himself, or to serve as guide to any persons appointed. ‘If I bring them not,’ he wrote, ‘to a mountain covered with gold and silver ore, let the commander have commission to cut off my head there’ (Edwards, ii. 393). His proposal received some encouragement, and in 1611 or 1612 certain lords of the council offered to send Kemys with two ships, on condition that the charge should be borne by Ralegh if Kemys failed to bring back at least half a ton of gold ore similar to the specimens. Ralegh objected that it was ‘a matter of exceeding difficulty for any man to find the same acre of ground again in a country desolate and overgrown which he hath seen but once, and that sixteen years since.’ ‘Yet,’ he wrote, ‘that your lordships may be satisfied of the truth, I am contented to adventure all I have, but my reputation, upon Kemys' memory;’ the condition on the other side being ‘that half a ton of the former ore being brought home, then I shall have my liberty, and in the meanwhile my free pardon under the great seal, to be left in his majesty's hands till the end of the journey’ (ib. ii. 338–9). There can, however, be little doubt that Cecil, now earl of Salisbury, did not encourage the scheme, but the king yielded to the representations of Sir Ralph Winwood [q. v.], Ralegh's steadfast friend, and of Sir George Villiers (afterwards duke of Buckingham) [q. v.] The warrant for his release was dated 19 March 1615–16; but it appears that he was actually discharged from the Tower two or three days earlier, though he continued throughout the year under the guard of a keeper (ib. i. 563; ii. 341; Gardiner, ii. 381).
During the following months he was busy in preparations for the voyage. He had no support from the crown, and he and his wife adventured all they had, including the 8,000l., or as much of it as had been paid in compensation for the resumption of Sherborne, and some land of hers at Mitcham
