ABSTRACT
Thomas Harriot was 30 when he appears to have been introduced by Sir Walter Ralegh to Henry Percy, Ninth Earl of Northumberland, who was four years his junior. The occasion was an informal supper party on 13 March 1590/91 at Russell House, Charing Cross, which Northumberland was renting for £100 a year at the time, since neither of the two Northumberland Houses in London were available to him: Northumberland House, Aldgate, was virtually derelict and Northumberland House, Aldersgate, was occupied by his mother. Other 'strangers' present for the meal of lamb, chicken, game and fish were the young Earl of Southampton, Richard Percy, Northumberland's younger brother, and their friend Master Cromwell. 1
