The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

JOHN EVELYN 17j

industrious man now brought to show the Duke, having
taken all the coasting from the mouth of the Thames,
as far as Wales, and exactly measuring every creek,
island, rock, soundings, harbors, sands, and tides, intend-
ing next spring to proceed till he had finished the whole
island, and that measured by chains and other instru-
ments : a most exact and useful undertaking. He affirmed,
that of all the maps put out since, there are none extant
so true as those of Joseph Norden, who gave us the
first in Queen Elizabeth's time; all since him are erroneous.

12th February, 1683. This morning I received the
news of the death of my father-in-law, Sir Richard
Browne, Knt. and Bart., who died at my house at Sayes
Court this day at ten in the morning, after he had
labored under the gout and dropsy for nearly six months,
in the 7 8th year of his age. The funeral was solemnized
on the 19th at Deptford, with as much decency as the
dignity of the person, and our relation to him, required;
there being invited the Bishop of Rochester, several
noblemen, knights, and all the fraternity of the Trinity
Company, of which he had been Master, and others of
che country. The vicar preached a short but proper
discourse on Psalm xxxix. 10, on the frailty of our mortal
condition, concluding with an ample and well-deserved
eulogy on the defunct, relating to his honorable birth
and ancestors, education, learning in Greek and Latin,
modern languages, travels, public employments, signal
loyalty, character abroad, and particularly the honor of
supporting the Church of England in its public worship
during its persecution by the late rebels' usurpation and
regicide, by the suffrages of divers Bishops, Doctors of
the Church, and others, who found such an asylum in His
house and family at Paris, that in their disputes with the
Papists (then triumphing over it as utterly lost) they
used to argue for its visibility and existence from Sir R.
Browne's chapel and assembly there. Then he spoke of
his great and loyal sufferings during thirteen years' exile
with his present Majesty, his return with him in the sig-
nal year 1660; his honorable employment at home, his
timely recess to recollect himself, his great age, infirm-
ities, and death.

He gave to the Trinity Corporation that land in Dept-
ford on which are built those almshouses for twenty-four in milk up to the knees, mademmodiouslyh expectation