The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

DIARY OF NEWMARKET

followed. It does only well in very small and trifling
rooms, but takes from the state of greater. Besides, this
house is placed in a dirty street, without any court or
avenue, like a common one, whereas it might and ought
to have been built at either end of the town, upon the
very carpet where the sports are celebrated; but, it being
the purchase of an old wretched house of my Lord
Thomond's, his Majesty was persuaded to set it on that
foundation, the most improper imaginable for a house of
sport and pleasure.

We went to see the stables and fine horses, of which
many were here kept at a vast expense, with all the art
and tenderness imaginable.

Being arrived at some meres, we found Lord Wotton
and Sir John Kiviet about their draining engines, having,
it seems, undertaken to do wonders on a vast piece of
marsh-ground they had hired of Sir Thomas Chicheley
(master of the ordnance). They much pleased them-
selves with the hopes of a rich harvest of hemp and cole-
seed, which was the crop expected.

Here we visited the engines and mills both for wind
and water, draining it through two rivers or grafts, cut
by hand, and capable of carrying considerable barges,
which went thwart one the other, discharging the water
into the sea. Such this spot had been the former winter;
it was astonishing to see it now dry, and so rich that
weeds grew on the banks, almost as high as a man and
horse. Here, my Lord and his partner had built two or
three rooms, with Flanders white bricks, very hard. One
of the great engines was in the kitchen, where I saw the
,fish swim up, even to the very chimney hearth, by a
small cut through the room, and running within a foot
of the very fire.

Having, after dinner, ridden about that vast level,
pestered with heat and swarms of gnats, we returned
over Newmarket Heath, the way being mostly a sweet
turf and down, like Salisbury Plain, the jockeys breath-
ing their fine barbs and racers and giving them their heats.

23d July, 1670. We returned from Burrow Green to
London, staying some time at Audley End to see that
fine palace. It is indeed a cheerful piece of Gothic
building, or rather antico moderno, but placed in an ob-
scure bottom. The cellars and galleries are very stately.spoil many noble houses and rooms, if