Walter Raleigh impossible for Raleigh to have discovered the potato in the places he visited. Due to Raleigh's role in the popularisation of smoking, John Lennon humorously referred to him as "such a stupid get" in the song "I'm So Tired" on the "White Album" "The Beatles" (1968). Various colourful stories are told about him, such as laying his cloak over a puddle for the Queen, but they are probably apocryphal. Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; (or 1554)29 October 1618), also spelled Ralegh, was an English landed gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, politician, courtier, spy and explorer. He was cousin to Sir
Sir Walter Raleigh (essay) in what we have no experience, and alone does the rude pioneer work of the world. In winter is its campaign, and it never goes into quarters. "Sit not down," said Sir Thomas Browne, "in the popular seats and common level of virtues, but endeavor to make them heroical. Offer not only peace-offerings, but holocausts, unto God". Sixteen years later, in 1859, Thoreau delivered his lecture A Plea for Captain John Brown (published as an essay in 1860). The essayist's judgment of the character of John Brown resumed and expanded upon the themes launched here. Sir Walter Raleigh (essay) Sir