The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

i6/7 JOHN EVELYN

the Rebellion falling out, he followed the King's Army,
and receiving an HONORABLE WOUND IN THE FACE, grew
into favor, and was advanced from a mean fortune, at his
Majesty's Restoration, to he an Earl and Knight of the
Garter, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and first
. favorite for a long time, during which the King married
his natural son, the Duke of Grafton, to his only daughter
and heiress, as "before mentioned, worthy for her beauty
and virtue of the greatest prince in Christendom. My
Lord is, besides this, a prudent and understanding person
in business, and speaks well; unfortunate yet in those he
has advanced, most of them proving ungrateful. The
many obligations and civilities I have received from this
noble gentleman, extracts from me this character, and I
am sorry he is in no better circumstances.

Having now passed near three weeks at Euston, to
my great satisfaction, with much difficulty he suffered
me to look homeward, being very earnest w.ith me to
stay longer; and, to engage me, would himself have
carried me to Lynn-Regis, a town of important traffic,
about twenty miles beyond, which I had never seen; as
also the Traveling Sands, ahout ten miles wide of Eus-
ton, that have so damaged the country, rolling from
place to place, and, like the Sands in the Deserts of
Lyhia, quite overwhelmed some gentlemen's whole estates,
as the relation extant in print, and "brought to our So-
ciety, describes at large

13th September, 1677- My Lord's coach conveyed me
to Bury, and thence baiting at Newmarket, stepping in
at Attdley-End to see that house again, I slept at Bishop-
Stortford; and, the next day, home. I was accompanied
in my journey by Major Fairfax, of a younger house
of the Lord Fairfax, a soldier, a traveler, an excel-
lent musician, a good-natured, well-bred gentleman.

i8th September, 1677. I preferred Mr. Phillips (nephew
of Milton) to the service of iny Lord Chamberlain, who
wanted a scholar to read to and entertain him some-
times.

lath October, 1677, With Sir Robert Clayton to Mar-
den, an estate he had "bought lately of my kinsman, Sir
John Evelyn, of Godstone, in Surrey, which from a des-
picable farmhouse Sir Robert had erected into a seat
with extraordinary expense. It is in such a solitudearson of Ar-