Carew, Richard

(1555-1620)

   Carew is best known for his long poem Survey of Cornwall (1602; modern edition, 1953). He had estates in Cornwall and through his marriage he inherited a part of the Coswarth property in Cheshire. A genius, he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford, at the age of eleven years; a skilled linguist, he was proficient in Greek, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. He was a justice of the peace, high sheriff of Cornwall, member of Parliament for Saltash, and deputy-lieutenant of Cornwall serving under Sir Walter Raleigh, as colonel of the regiment, charged with protecting Cawsand Bay. He was an active member of the Society of Antiquaries, and he also translated several texts. His last work was The Excellencie of the English Tongue (1614). Some of his other poems: "A Herrings Tale," "River Lynher," "The Recovery of Jerusalem."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition, 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Faber Book of Poems and Places. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Faber & Faber, 1980. Representative Poetry Online (http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet371.html). Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).