Whatever the overland route to the London destination, 
perhaps it allowed Raleigh to visit the southwest on some 
sort of business of his own, on his and Spenser's way to 
the court.  CCCHA mentions Spenser/Colin hearing Raleigh's 
or the Shepherd of the Ocean's poem Cynthia, which is the 
queen's name in CCCHA.  The Shepherd of the Ocean's wife 
in that poem seems to be figured in Marin, whose name may 
have otherwise previously appeared in that of the Marinell 
("will not marry") whose coastal treasure (and rich coast) 
falls within Britomart's power.  The dedicatory sonnet, 
"To the right noble and valorous knight, Sir Walter 
Raleigh, Lo. Wardein of the Stanneryes [tin mines and 
smelters still to be seen in Cornwall today]," refers to 
Raleigh's poem celebrating the queen as an unpublished 
piece with a project like Spenser's:  "Yet till that thou 
thy Poeme will make knowne, / Let thy faire Cinthias 
praises bee thus rudely showne."  Whatever the route 
overland, it might have had something to do with Raleigh's 
being a Devon-born man from the southwest, where he had 
various business (including, one might guess [?], 
Sherbourne Castle in Wiltshire, leased in 1592 by the 
queen to Raleigh, who was smitten by it).  Raleigh was 
very popular in the southwest -- and was thus instrumental 
in recovering much of the East Indian carrick Madre di 
Dios' stolen treasure (1592), including a large cut for 
the queen (a return on the crown's investment in this sort 
of activity).  (Raleigh, in contrast to the other 
investors, in this case lost money.)  -- Jim N.

On Sun, 17 Feb 2013 20:56:36 +0000
  Charlie Butler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Do we know what route Spenser and Ralegh took when they 
>sailed to Britain
> to visit the Court in 1590?
> 
> I assume they started from Youghal, where Ralegh's house 
>was. The
> description in *Colin Clout *then has them passing Lundy 
>in the Bristol
> Channel. After that, however, where did they go? The 
>poem speaks of "An
> high headland thrust far into the sea, / Like to an 
>horn, whereof the neame
> it has". Presumably this is Cornwall, though if they 
>were sailing around
> Land's End it's hard to see why they went so far east 
>into the Bristol
> Channel as to pass Lundy. But then I'm no sailor - maybe 
>it was safer that
> way?
> 
> And where did they make eventual landfall? The poem has 
>them disembark at
> "a loftie mount ..., Which did a stately heape of stone 
>of stones vpreare,/
> That seemd amide the surges for the fleet". The obvious 
>candidate is St
> Michael's Mount near Penzance, which fits the physical 
>description
> perfectly. But it seems an awfully hard way to go to 
>London - about 250
> miles by muddy Elizabethan road, when you're on a ship 
>with one of the
> world's greatest sailors and could skim along on the 
>prevailing westerlies
> to the mouth of the Thames in half the time.
> 
> Anyway - perhaps all this is well known stuff, but if 
>anyone can add more
> certainty to my speculations, or else put me right, I'd 
>be grateful.
> 
> Cathy (Charlie as was - it's a long story)

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James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121