SIR RICHARD GRENVILLE [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In
your issue of June 18th there was an interesting review of Mr. Rowse's book on Sir Richard Grenville, in which, and it would appear also in the book under notice, Sir Richard's final action in the ' Revenge ' is attributed to a motive best described as Berserk. It is the spirit immortalised by Tennyson and commonly accepted, but I have always felt, and hoped, that Sir Richard had another and a much more intelligent object in view than merely to prove that he had " never turned his back on don or devil yet."
Howard's fleet was in evil case ; riddled with sickness and in no shape to fight ; they were surprised by the Spaniards in great force, and had to make good their escape. Is it not fair to Sir Richard's reputation as a man of sense to assume that he sacrificed the ' Revenge ' to fight a deliberate delaying action ? He held up the whole Spanish fleet for two days and thus enabled the rest of the English to get away in safety.
If that explanation can be accepted his act was true heroism, and on an altogether higher plane than that usually attributed
New University Club, St. James's Street, S.W. 1.
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