Brothers-in-Law

Abstract

With some relief we return to the less demanding avocations, and the Diary, of Ralegh’s brother-in-law. After the aspirations and dejections, the insincerities and sincerities alike, the strains within and upon Ralegh, it is pleasant to come back to the simpler soul, the less ambitious occupations, of Arthur Throckmorton. Over some matters their interests converged and we shall find them co-operating, or rather, the lesser man lending himself to the purposes of the more dynamic. Throckmorton followed in Ralegh’s wake on the expedition to Cadiz; he broke his friendship with Essex for his brother-in-law’s sake and went over to his side. They were both engaged in the characteristic Elizabethan activity of establishing an estate and building a house, the one at Sherborne, the other at Paulerspury.