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LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
DIARY AND COREESPONDENCE
JOHN EVELYN, E.R.S.
VOL. m.
Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive
in 2007 witli funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/diarycorresponde03eveliala
D I A K Y
AND
CORRESPONDENCE
OF
JOHN EVELYN, F.E.S.
AUTHOE OF THE " 8TLVA.
TO WBICB 18 BUBJOrNKO
Eije Prtbate CorregpontJence
BKTWBEN
KING CHARLES I. AND SIR EDWARD NICHOLAS,
AND BETWEEN
SIR EDWARD HYDE, AFTERWARDS EARL OF CLARENDON,
AND SIR RICHARD BROWNK
EDITED EROU THE ORIGINAL MSS. AT WOTTON.
BY WILLIAM BEAT, ESQ. F.A.S.
A NEW EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES.
CORRECTED, REVISED, AND ENLARGED.
VOL. III.
LONDON :
HENRY COLBURN & CO., PUBLISHERS,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1852.
sbAS
V' 3
LOXDOy :
BEADBCBT AXO BVAXS, FBHrTBBS, WBITKFBIABI.
CONTENTS.
THE EVELYN CORRESPONDENCE.
T?ie Letters to which an asterisk is ■prefixed, are -printed, here for the first time.
* Dr. Isaac Basire to John Evelyn. October 2, 1647
* John Evelyn to Sir Richard Browne. December 6, 1647
* The same to the same. April 21, 1648
* The same to the same. May 4, 1648
* The same to the same. May 12, 1648
* The same to the same. May 15, 1648
* The same to the same. May 18, 1648 .
* The same to the same. Whit Simday, 1648
* The same to the same. Jime 1, 1648 ....
* The same to the same, June 6, 1648
* The same to the same. June 15, 1648 ....
* The same to the same. October 19, 1648 .
* The same to the same. October 23, 1648
* The same to the same. December 18, 1648
* The same to the same. March 22, 1648-9
* The same to the same. March 26, 1649 .
* The same to the same. March 29, 1649
* The same to the same. April 2, 1649
* The same to the same. April 5, 1649 ....
* The same to the same. April 16, 1649
* The same to the same. No date. Middle of April, 1649
* The same to the same. April 23, 1649
* The same to the same. May 10, 1649 ....
Page
3
5
7
10
13
16
18
20
22
25
28
30
31
33
36
39
41
43
44
45
47
49
50
CONTENTS.
John Eyelyn to Sir Richard Browne. May 14, 1649
The suae to the same. June 7, 1649 . .
Alexander Ross to John Evelyn. May 20, 1650
The same to the same. July 21, 1650 .
John Evelyn to Lady Qarret. October 9, 1651
John Ck>8in to John Evelyn. December 18, 1651 .
The same to the same. April 3, 1652
John Evelyn to Edward Thurland. April 25, 1652
Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn. March 17, 1663-4
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. February 9, 1654-5
The same to the same. March 18, 1654-5
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn- January 25, 1655-6
The same to the same. April 16, 1656
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. April 27, 1656 .
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. July 19, 1656
Dr. Thomas Triplet to John Evelyn. August 7, 1656
Dr. John Wilkinsto John Evelyn. August 16, 1656
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. September 15, 1656 .
The same to the same. November 21, 1656 .
John Evelyn to his brother G. Evelyn. December 15, 1666
Francis Barlow to John Evelyn. December 22, 1656
John Evelyn to Francis Barlow. December 23, 1656
John Evelyn to Mr. Maddox. January 10, 1656-7
John Evelyn to the Lieutenant of the Tower. January 14, 1656
John Evelyn to Edward Thurland. January 20, 1656-7.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. February 22, 1656-7
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle. May 9, 1657 .
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. May 9, 1657 .
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. May 15, 1657
Reverend Edward Snatt to John Evelyn. May 25, 1657 .
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor. June 9, 1657
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. June 9, 1657 .
The same to the same. August 29, 1657
John Evelyn to Sir Richard Browne. February 14, 1657-8
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. February 17, 1657-8 .
Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn. March 25, 1658
Vuge
52
CONTENTS.
Jeremy Taylor to John Eyelyn. May 12, 1658 .
John Evelyn to Edward Thailand. November 8, 1668
John Evelyn to George Tuke. January, 1658-9 .
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. April 9, 1659
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle, April 13, 1659
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. June 4, 1659 .
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle. August 9, 1659
The same to the same. September 3, 1659
The same to the same. September 29, 1659
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. November 3, 1659
The same to the same. February 10, 1659-60
John Evelyn to Dr. John "Wilkins. February 17, 1659-60
* Samuel Hartlib to John Evelyn. 1660 .
* John, Lord Mordaunt to John Evelyn. April 23, 1661
* Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn. Jime 10, 1661 .
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle. September 13, 1661
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn. November 16, 1661
John Evelyn to Thomas Chiffinch. 1661 .
John Evelyn to Lady Cotton. September 9, 1662
John Evelyn to Mr. Vander Douse. September 13, 1662 .
John Evelyn to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Croone. July 11, 1663.
John Evelyn to Dr. Pierce. August 20, 1663 .
The same to the same. September 17, 1663 . . . .
* Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn. June 21, 1664
John Evelyn to Mr. Spratt. October 31, 1664
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle. November 23, 1664
John Evelyn to Lord Cornbury. February 9, 1664-5
John Evelyn to Sir Thomas Clifford. April 2, 1665 .
John Evelyn to Dr. (afterwards Sir Christopher) Wren. April 4,
* Sir Thomas Clifford to John Evelyn. May 11, 1665
John Eveljm to the Duke of Albemarle. May 30, 1665
John Evelyn to Sir Thomas Clifford. June 16, 1665
John Evelyn to Sir Peter Wyche. June 20, 1665
John Evelyn to Lord Cornbury. June 21, 1665
The same to the same. September 9, 1665 . . . .
The same to the same. September 12, 1665
1665
CONTENTa
1666
Sir Philip Warwick to John Evelyn. September 16, 1665
John Evelyn to Sir Philip Warwick. September 30, 1665
John Evelyn to Sir William Coventry. October 2, 1665
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. January 3, 1665-6 .
John Evelyn to Lord Combury. January 20, 1665-6 .
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. March 26, 1666
The same to the same. March 26, 1666
John Evelyn to Sir Samuel Tuke. September 27, 1666
• Philip Dumaresque to John Evelyn. November 12, 1666
• John Evelyn to Lord Chancellor Clarendon. November 27,
John Evelyn to Dr. Wilkins. 1666
• Sir George Mackenzie to John Evelyn. February 4, 1666-7
John Evelyn to Abraham Cowley. March 12, 1666-7 .
Abraham Cowley to John Evelyn. May 13, 1667
• Sir John Langham to John Evelyn. July 30, 1667
• John Evelyn to Sir John Langham. 1667
John Evelyn to Henry Howard. August 4, 1667 .
John Evelyn to Dr. Batburst. September 9, 1667 .
John Evelyn to the Earl of Sandwich. December 13, 1667
• Sir George Mackenzie to John Evelyn. 1668 .
• Sir Robert Moray to John Evelyn. June 14, 1668
John Evelyn to the Rev. Joseph GlanviL June 24, 1668
John Evelyn to the Earl of Sandwich- August 21, 1668
John Evelyn to Doctor Beale. August 27, 1668
Henry Howard to John Evelyn. Sept. 15, 1668 .
The same to the same. September 22, 1668
John Evelyn to Sir Thomas Clifford. February 1, 1668-9
• Dr. John Fell to Dr. Bathurst. March 7, 1668-9 .
John Evelyn to Henry Lord Howard. March 14, 1668-9
• Dr. Isaac Basire to John Evelyn. May 22, 1669 .
• Dr. Bathurst to John Evelyn. August 12, 1669
John Evelyn to Dr. Meric Casaubon. January 17, 1669-70
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasurer. January 20, 1669-70
Dr. Meric Casaubon to John Evelyn. January 24, 1669-70
John Evelyn to Dr, Meric Casaubon. January 24, 1669-70
• Margaret, DucheBB of Newcastle, to John Evelyn. Feb., 1669-70
CONTENTS. ix
Page
* The Rev. N. Jameson to John Evelyn. April 11, 1670 . . .226
* Philip Dumaresque to John Evelyn. July 13, 1670 . . . . 227
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasurer. August 31, 1671 . . .228
John Evelyn to the Rev. Father Patrick. September 27, 1671 • 231
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasurer. November 14, 1671 . . 238
• Theodore Haak to John Evelyn. November 27, 1671 . . .241
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasiu"er. August 21, 1672 . . . tft.
John Evelyn to Lord Combury. September 17, 1672 . . . 242
• Lord Mordaunt to John Evelyn. April 11, 1673 . . . . 243
John Evelyn to the Duchess of Newcastle. Jime 16, 1674 . . 244
John Evelyn to Dr. Meric Casaubon. July 15, 1674 . . . . 246
♦ Dr. Thomas Good to John Evelyn. December 13, 1675 . . 247
♦ John Evelyn to Dr. Good. 1675 248
* Dr. Thomas Good to John Evelyn. March 2, 1675-6 . . .249
• Dr. John Fell (Bishop of Oxford) to John Evelyn. April 26, 1676 250
* Anne, Coimtesa of Sxmderland, to John Evelyn. February 11,
1677-8 ib.
* The same to the same. March 3, 1677-8 251
* The same to the same. October 28, 1678 ib.
* The same to the same. December 25, 1678 252
♦ Mr. Henry Green (a Florist) to John Evelyn. June 24, 1679 . 254
John Evelyn to the Countess of Ossory. June 5, 1680 . . , ib.
John Evelyn to Dr. Morley (Bishop of Winchester). June 1, 1681 255
John Eveljm to Samuel Pepys. June 5, 1681 ... . 256
John Evelyn to Mr. William London. September 27, 1681 . . 257
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. December 6, 1681 . . . 260
* Dr. Edward Tyson to John Evelyn. March 15, 1681-2 . . . 264
John Evelyn to the Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Fell). March 19, 1681-2 tb.
• The Rev. Thomas Creech to John Evelyn. 1682 . . .267
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. September 19, 1682 . . . ib.
• The Rev. Thomas Creech to John Evelyn. May 6, 1683 . , 272
• Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. April 14, 1684 . . . . 273
• Sir Robert Southwell to John Evelyn, November 3, 1684 . . 274
♦ Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. March 21, 1684-5 . . . 275
* The same to the same. September 12, 1685 276
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. September 23, 1685 . . . ib.
CONTENTS.
279
280
281
282
284
Sunuel Pepys to John Evelyn. October 2, 1685 ....
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. January 4, 1685-6 . . .
Henry, Earl of Clarendon, to John Evelyn. August 7, 1686 .
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. August 16, 1686 . .
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland. September 12, 1686
John Evelyn to the Viceroy of Ireland (Lord Clarendon). Septem-
ber, 1686 285
Robert Ball to John Evelyn. January 80, 1687-8 . . . . 286
Sir Henry (afterwards Lord) Capell to John Evelyn. October 19,
1688 .... 287
John Evelyn to his Son. December 18, 1688 . . . . ib.
John Evelyn to the Coimteas of Sunderland. December 22, 1688 . 290
John Evelyn to Lord Spencer. 1688 293
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys. August 12, 1689 . . . .294
Samuel Pepys to John Evelyn. August 30, 1689 . . . . 312
John Eveljm to Samuel Pepys. October 4, 1689 . . . .313
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland. July 25, 1690 . . 815
The same to the same. August 4, 1690 817
Henry Bemde to John Evelyn. October 25, 1690 . . . . 319
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. January 1, 1690-1 . . .820
John Evelyn to Anthony k Wood. Kay 29, 1691 . . . . 821
Sir Richard Bulkeley to John Evelyn. April 13, 1692 . . .322
The Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn. October 3,
1692 328
John Evelyn to the Bishop of Linoohi. October 15, 1692 . . 825
John Evelyn to his Brother. January 5, 1692-3 .... 830
Sir Dudley Cullum to John Evelyn. January 5, 1692-3 . . . 831
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. Apnl 20, 1698 . . . . 382
John Evelyn to Mrs. M. Tuke. No date 888
John Evelyn to Dr. Plot August 27, 1693 335
John Evelyn to Lord Spencer. September 4, 1698 . ... 836
Dr. Plot to John Evelyn. October 2, 1693 887
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn. October 26, 1698 . . . ib.
Jamee Quine to John Evelyn. March 28, 1694 .... 888
The Bishop of Lincoln to John Evelyn. April 5, 1694 . . . 839
Sir Dudley Cullum to John Evelyn. May 14, 1694 . . . ib.
CONTENTS.
Page
Jolin Eyelyn to the Bishop of Lincoln, May 29, 1694 . . . 340
John Evelyn to Eclmuiid Gibson (afterwards Bishop of London).
May 31, 1694 ... 341
John Evelyn to Mr. Benjamin Tooke (Printer). June 2, 1694 . . 342
The Bishop of Lincoln to John Evelyn. June 19, 1694 . . 343
James Quine to John Evelyn. January 9, 1694-5 . . . . 344
Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn. April 20, 1695 . . . 345
The same to the same. July 19, 1695 iJ.
John Evelyn to "William Wotton. March 30, 1696 . . .346
William Wotton to John Evelyn. April 7, 1696 . . . . 352
The same to the same. May 24, 1696 353
John Evelyn to Lord Godolphin. June 16, 1696 . . . . 354
Dr. John Williams to John Evelyn. June 19, 1696 . . .359
John Evelyn to Mr. Place. August 17, 1696 360
John Evelyn to William Wotton. October 28, 1696 . . .363
John Evelyn to Dr. Richard Bentley. January 20, 1696-7 . . 365
Abraham Hill, F.RS., to John Evelyn. January 26, 1696-7 . . 366
The same to the same. February 26, 1696-7 367
Dr. J. Woodward to John Evelyn. September 25, 1697 • . ti.
The same to the same. October 5, 1697 368
John Evelyn to Dr. Bentley. December 25, 1697 . . .369
William Wotton to John Evelyn. January 2, 1697-8 . . . 370
Dr. Thomas Gale to John Evelyn. January 19,1697-8 . . 371
William Wotton to John Evelyn. January 20, 1697-8 . . . ib.
John Evelyn to Dr. Godolphin (Provost of Eton). February 8,
1697-8 373
John Evelyn to Mr. Henshaw. March 1, 1697-8 . . . . 375
Archdeacon Tenison to John Evelyn. November 17, 1698 . . 376
The same to the same. November 28, 1698 377
John Evelyn to Archdeacon Nichokon (afterwards Bishop of
Carlisle). November 10, 1699 878
' The Reverend Joshua Walker to John Evelyn. February 7,
1700-1 382
* Archdeacon Nicholson to John Evelyn. March 25, 1701 . . 383
' The same to the same. May 9, 1701 384
William Wotton to John Evelyn. January 22, 1701-2 . . 385
tU CONTENTS.
Fag*
• The Rev. Richard Richardson to John Evelyn. June 2, 1702 . . 886
WiUiam Wotton to John Evelyn. January 28, 1702-3 . . .887
The some to the same. August 18, 1703 388
John Evelyn to William Wotton. September 12, 1703 . . 890
William Wotton to John Evelyn. October 30, 1703 . . . 898
* Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn. December 5, 1704 . 899
CORRIQENDA-
Dele the word "Londoh," at the top of every other page, accidentally retained
throughout this volume as in continuation of the date of the Diary in the volume
preceding.
Page 18, the page is wrongly numbered 13.
„ 146, last line of second note, for " his lifetime," read " her lifetime."
„ 189, second letter Is misdated, " 27th April," instead of " 27th November."
„ a07, insert date of the letter, " 27th August, 1668."
„ 217, " Evelyn " is printed " Evelgn."
„ 244, the date " 15th July," ought to be " 15th June."
„ 844, in the date of the letter insert the year " 1694-5."
„ 860, date of letter should be " 1696," not " 1796."
The reader is also requested to give greater precision to the dates of the letters
named below, by the corrections indicated. The letters themselves are given in their
proper sequence ; but the fact of the new year beginning, as it then did, on the 25th of
March, does not always appear with sa£Scient distinctness.
Page 86, " 1649," ought to be " 1648-9."
„ 67, the date " July 21," ought to be " July 21, 1650."
„ 83, the year " 1657," ought to be " 1666-7."
„ 129, for " 1660," read " 1869-60."
• „ 198, for " 1667," read " 1666-7."
„ 216 and 317, the date " 1669," should be " 16684."
„ 260, the date to second letter should be " 1677-8."
„ 261, the date to first letter should be " 1677-8."
„ 264, the date to first letter should be " 1681-2."
„ 276, for " 1684," read " 1684-6."
„ 286, for " 1688," read " 1687-8."
„ 820, for « 1691," read " 1690-1."
„ 831, for " 1693," read " 1693-8."
„ 866, the year " 1697," ought to be " 1696-7."
„ 867, the date " February, 1697," ought to bo " February, 1696-7."
COERESPOXDENCE
JOHN EVELYN, F.R.S.
CORRESPONDENCE *
OP
JOHN EVELYN, F.R.S.
Dr. Isaac Basiref to John Evelyn.
Rouen, October 2nd, 1642.
Sir,
I had a good hope of an occasion to come over
myself in person to give you thanks for your favourable
communication of that twin of printed letters, which
you were pleased to send me. They came opportunely,
for I made present use of one of them to disabuse some of
the many who mistake the king's person and his cause.
What success it may further have I shall acquaint you at
my coming over, God vrilling, within these few weeks.
Meanwhile, my work here is with tongue and pen (with
the advice of the king's public ministers here) to save the
king and the church, which service is reward sufficient,
considering the goodness, truth, and justice of the cause,
* The letters which were not included in the previous Editions of this
Correspondence, are indicated in the Tables of Contents, by asterisks
prefixed.
f Allusions to Basire will be found in the first vol. of the Diary, pp. 357
and 370, and in the additional notes, p. 417. His loyalty was rewarded by
preferment under Charles the Second, to whom he was wont to preach sermons
of considerable unction, proving the perfection of the English Church, and
that England was " the very land of Goshen." The letter before us confirms
the statements in the Diary as to the early period of the Civil Wars at which
Evelyn was engaged and active.
B 2
4 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
for Trhich my heart deceives me fp-eatly, if I durst not even
die. To God Almighty 1 betake it, for support and speedy
good success, and shall bear witness of your always ready
co-operation towards it ; and the servants of it, indeed,
increase and multiply the number of the king's faithful
ministers, in which number, Sir, we shall honour you as
one of the chief, who is
Your most humble servant,
Isaac Basire.
P.S. — I do reserve a few obsen'ations upon the printed
letter, for conference on, for my next.
John Evelyn to Sir Richard Browne.
[The succeeding twenty-four letters were written secretly by Evelyn to
Sir Richard Browne, at this time ambassador from England to the Court
of France, and whose daughter Evelyn had married in the previous
summer. The signature principally adopted, "Aplanos," was the corrup-
tion of a Greek word, expressive of the constancy of his opinions ; and
the fictitious address was to "Mr. Peters." The letters throw consider-
able hght on the party feelings and movements of the stirring time they
describe. It was the period known in the history of the "Great Rebellion"
as that of the Second Civil War, when the attitude of the Independents
had alarmed the more timid of the Presbjterians in the city and else-
where, and simultaneous tumults in Kent, Essex, and other counties,
seconded by a rising in Wales, seemed to threaten a general recommence-
ment of strife. The letters of Evelyn embrace this period, and that which
immediately succeeded the death of the King, when the daring pohcy of
Cromwell and the parliamentary leaders suggested more wary tactics to
the partisans of the King's son. They are full of error and mis-statement
which it is not necessary to correct, and which on the writer's part implied no
intention to mislead, except so far as the ardent expectations of his party
heightened and coloured his views. A comparison of the authentic accounts
with those of Aplanos, in the matter of the Surrey petitioners, as of other
well-known incidents referred to, suggests simply to what extent the imme-
diate excitement of those momentous days told upon the respective hopes
and fears of all who were engaged in them. And it is most interesting to
observe the change of tone in these communications after the tragedy in
Whiteliall. The letter dated the 2Gth of March (see p. 39) may be called in
some sort tlie manifesto of that intelligent pai'ty of royalists among whom
Erelyn became afterwards more distinguished, and whose watchwords,
derived from the experience of Charles's melancholy reign, were " the
Protestant profession,'' " the old way of a free parliament," and " the known
Uws of the land."]
1647.] JOHX EVELYN^.
Sir,
London, 6 December, 1647.
Being about a day old in town, since my Sussex
journey, where I have put mine estate in some better
posture than it was, and am much obliged to my uncle
William for his company, I have employed yesterday and
a part of the present to inform myself of intelligence fit
to furnish you withal ; for which purpose I went yesterday
as far as Chelsea, and dined with Sir John 31, who shewed
me extraordinary courtesy, and more than twice conjured
me to make trial of his friendship upon all occasions, as
if somebody had expressly bespoken him ; that evening 1
made a visit to my Lord of 36, and my character goes
among all mine acquaintance for the civilest traveller that
ever returned; for I was expected all ribbon, feather, and
roman90, which has turned much to my account, though
better spoken from another. I have been this day at
St. James's to have moved Mr. 118 in the fresh prosecution
of our business, and brought it to a personal treaty with
his friend the Colonel ; but he being gone to \-isit his
uncle, who lies a dying, as others think, sick out of design,
as usually he is once a month, to have leisure to tell and
dispose of his vast treasure, I could not compass mine
intention as I hope very shortly to do. From here I called
upon 131, where, though I found your cousin Fanshawe
and my Lord Arundel of Wardour (very good company),
yet I brought back little news but what you will find
enclosed in this pamphlet, being very ingeniously the
full substance of what is positively true.
It is said that his Majesty is in straiter custody in the
Isle of Wight than ever he was at Hampton Court, but
this is not generally believed. The propositions are cer-
tainly to be sent him some time this present week, and
many there are who are confident he will sign them. For
my part, I think the personal treaty a mere juggle, and
that his Majesty shall never be the nearer to London, if
they have power to adjourn, where and when they please.
The King's case is just like the disarmed man, who,
whether he agree that his antagonist shall keep his weapon
or not, is forced to let him have it. The Parliament have
0 CORRESPONDENCE OF [londoh,
gotten the power, and now they ask his Majesty by these
propositions whether he assent they sliould keep it, when,
as in truth, they are agreed upon it already, in despite of
his teeth. From whence I conchide that if he sign them,
he will be but in statu quo nunc, and if he refuse them, in
far greater peril than ever he was yet, since he was sold to
those tyrants. But, that which is news indeed, the agita-
tors are for certain reconciled with the army, and, since
the last council, held by them (as I take it) on Saturday
last, as high and strong as ever they were; which is a
mutation that makes us all at a maze what project is now
a- working. You will shortly hear of Cromwell's vision,
and how, on Piiday night last he being strucken blind
for the space of four hours, during which he had a confer-
ence with God, persuading him to adjust with the holy
agitators, he next day put it in execution. To-morrow we
look for strange things ; these monsters and some prin-
cipal of the army being expected at the parliament, some
say, absolutely to dissolve them, others, more discerning,
to purge them again of about 70 moderate humours that
hinder operations. Quorsum h(BC? O Heavens ! we are now
more in the dark than ever, and I protest unto you things
were never more unriddleable than at this instant of time,
after so many fair and promising expectations. I have
lately newly learned that the army are generally marching
into Hampshire : what that signifies I give you leave to
judge ; as well as conjecture of their affections to the set-
tling of his Majesty, by those letters of my Lord Digby,
published on purpose to enfever the people against him, as
one that practised a parley in Ireland to subdue them in
England.
This, Sir, is all our news at present; and I cordially wish
that, in case it be no better, it would suddenly be worse,
that so we may know where to apply ourselves and interest,
in which (I do not doubt) but I shall prove serviceable unto
you effectually. In the mean time I must not forget to
advise you of a secret which was imparted me by a real
friend who wishes you well for my sake, my old cousin 34,
51, 7, 13, 20, 2, 14, a quick, honest, shrewd man, and one
1 dare confide in ; and it was that he should be told by one,
who was very intimate with his Majesty, that 82 had an
ill opinion of you, as if you had held intelligence with some
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 7
here, for which (seeing there was no conjuring him to r.is-
cover me the persons) I rendered him many thanks : but
conjecture, from the daily conversation of your brother
Sir D. 41, and Mr. 32 with him, that it must be one of
them ; and of them rather the first, because, for the latter,
I have ever heard him declare himself so much your friend :
but this is a time that shall well warrant all suspicion;
and as I hope it will nothing discourage you, as innocence
and a good conscience is a perpetual feast, so I am con-
fident you will not forget to make such use thereof as
stands with your interest, and excuse me for this impartial
boldness which I always assume in rendering you the best
intelligence I can learn; for so is my duty, and I am
resolved to discharge that so long as I have the honour
to remain, Sir, Yours,
Aplanos.
I counsel you to make God your friend and trust, nor
fear what men can do. My next shall inform you how
far my brother and I are proceeded ; but the time now
prevents me, and he in the country, to fetch up money.
Sir, I beseech you make what enquiry you can, to
inform me how I may write to my co. Thom. ; for I have
important business with him, which I may do him service
in, if I knew how to convey him advice.
Superscribed — "A Monsieur, Monsieur Peters, Au Lion d'Argent
vis-a-vis le Grand Moyse, rue de Foures Faubourges, St. Germain, Paris."
And endorsed — " From my son Evelyn, 6 December, 1647."
Londoiif 2l8t April, 1648.
Sib,
These two posts having failed me of intelligence
from your parts, makes me a little pause, it being now a
time amongst us of many expectations from you in order
to the motion of His Highness the Prince of Wales.
Since my last to you, which was April 13th, the good
news from Scotland holds, though haply their pretensions
prove more specious than the conclusion real ; I make no
recapitulation, because I know they are amongst your
weekly extraordinaries. There is no fear of the compliance
of the parliament, city, and army, with their demands.
8 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
which are covenant and presbytery, if our brethren will
be content to tolerate independency, out of hope to be
masters of that, when they shall have obtained the other ;
but on the other side, if the army have the wit to see this,
I have answered mine own objection as I wished, and do
verily believe that if the Parliament join issue with the
Scots in this sense, the independent part of the army
Mith the discontents and loyal subjects both of city and
country, will bring his Majesty in upon another score.
But these are only my private suggestions, for which there
is yet little presumption. Poyer*, whose forces are not
above 3000 horse and foot, my last intelligence being
erroneous, has in Wales very newly defeated a consider-
able party of horse lately sent against him ; and if Inchi-
quin so far overpower him in those parts as to make a
handsome head, and protect such as shall recruit, without
doubt that may prove a great advantage to the affairs and
expectations now on foot : but of this nothing can be said
till he land, which is more talked of than believed. God
bless Poyer till that time.
Letters are come this day from the north, altogether
owning Sir Thomas Glenham and the rest as no incen-
diaries, and making good our former intelligence of their
realities and preparation for the field, in pursuance of those
resolutions you have heard ; which gives small satisfaction
to our states here. That there has been, and is, tampering
with the King is certain ; I both hear, and hope he will
be wise.
Sir John Geare appeared yesterday before the Lords,
where he, refusing to kneel, was fined £500. His
charge was only read ; but in his going through the Hall he
dispersed among the people a thousand printed papers,
wherein he summoned all the free subjects of England to
stand stoutly to their ancient privileges, affirming them to
• Poyer, a dissolute but brave Welsliman, and a Colonel in the army of
the party called Presbyterian royalists, took a prominent part in the Second
Civil War, by holding out Pembroke Castle for several days against the
siege of Cromwell. He surrendered on the 11 th July, 1648, and on tlie 8th
March, 1G48-9, having been voted guilty of treason, was shot in Covent
Garden. He, and two other Welsh Colonels, found guilty at the same time,
had been allowed to draw lots to determine which single life should expiate
the guilt of all ; and the lot fell to Poyer.
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 9
have no power to try him as a delinquent, nor acknow-
ledging them any other than a surreptitious and arbitrary
authority : which was a thing so well and rationally penned,
that the gallant spirit of the yet living Judge Jenkins
is e^ddently seen to act, maugre all their malice and
endeavours to the contraiy. The very same course took
resolute John Lilburne, who, in the same manner, scattering
his papers about the Hall, was suddenly accompanied by
divers gentlemen and strangers to the bar, where he
obtained (against all opposition) an Habeas Corpus, and
is now, with others of his crew, in the army, prosecuting
cur Great Cromwell as an unjust usurper and murderer
of the free people of England.
Besides the business in "Wales, other parts are in great
suspicion; so that you see upon what threads the aflfairs
of this kingdom depend, the issue whereof none can con-
jecture, other than strange and dangerous on all sides;
for I am verily persuaded that the Grandees * here will
push it to the uttermost, and make a bloody catastrophe of
it if the Scots be but resolute ; for they are so affrighted
with what they have done, that they can neither look
back nor advance, but with a strange despair or extra-
ordinary hazard ; and they would certainly run where their
treasure is, had they not engaged so many men of fortune,
whom they have fooled to believe themselves as desperate
as they, which I fear wiU gain them a strong party, being
already masters of the City by a mere plot of their own, in
pursuance of others in hand. But God is above all, and I
hope will convert all to the best. On Monday next is the
general call, and then we shall be fuU of news : this being
all at present.
Sir, I do herein enclose other letters, which I shall
request you to convey. In the meantime, having (by
much diligence) recovered the box, I delivered it the same
day unto the lady, who returns you many great acknow-
ledgments for the favour. My brother is in town ; and I
think I shall suddenly dispose of some monies in very good
hands, to my best advantage, being now quite off from
purchasing, till the times be better, and the lands more
supportable, which are now coming on us afresh. My
* By the Grandees, he means the men in power on the Parliament side.
10 CORRESPONDKNCE OF [londou,
uncle John came yesterday to sec me, my nephew William
failing of his promise, which was to have prevented the
visit with my first addresses. He still holds his resolutions
for France ; which I do very much approve ; and, M'hen
this term is done, I shall make bold to air myself at
Deptford, till these broils be over. I desire to hear news
of the Prince, and Hkewise whether the Marquis of Or-
mond have taken his leave of France. It is reported here
that the States retain his Highness, and will not let him
move. You must rectify all, and so I conclude,
Yours, as I ever was, to honour and serve,
Aplanos.
^ London, ith May, 1648.
Yours of the 6th and 9th of May received, chal-
lenges this account from me. And first I perceive you are
fully satisfied in the particular of my L. Mon,,* whom I
shall soon inform touching the diamonds, as likewise per-
form your other commands to the C. of Clare. My uncle
resolves to visit you about fifteen days hence, with whom
Mr. L., who, in the meantime, shall be advised how
th' affair concerns him with Mr. L. G. I do remember
also your advertisement touching the gold. As to the
point of Mr. F., I do much incline to your opinion ;
80 that, if you can procure the money, I am willing to
relinquish all ; yet I presume the favour which I did him
(being wholly unknown to him) was worth a reply to my
last letter. And now for news : first, I acknowledge the
obligation of yours of the 6th and the 9th, and in exchange
assure you that things are in an extraordinary fair over-
ture here. Monday, late, came one Colonel Marshall with
the Scots' demands, which were — for a personal treaty ; a
ftdl vindication touching his disposal f without their
privity; the pressing of the covenant, establishment of
presbyterj', and speedy disbanding of the army of schisma-
tics and sectaries under the command of Thomas Lord
Fairfax (for so are the terms) ; and a positive answer to
be expedited within fifteen days, which is their utter-
* Lotd Montague. f The King's.
1648.] JOiOT EVELYN. 11
most limitation. Upon this, the opinion of the wise is
divers : some apprehending that if our brethren see pres-
bytery and the covenant put into speedy advancement,
they wiU agree both together in desertion of the rest ; for
that the loyal party are beginning to appear so formidable,
both amongst them and in every corner of England, as
puts them in fear that when they are once engaged, it will
not be in their power to make good their propositions,
which are only made use of to drive along their own
interest (for without doubt the Parliament are now in
such a condition that the Scots cannot demand what they
shall be denied) ; so these will be quiet and proceed no
further. Thus some; others are of a quite contrary sense,
because of that bitter mixture in their ink touching the
army, which will, I believe, extremely gravel their reso-
lutions. The surprise of Berwick and Carlisle in my
judgment should signify that their intentions are more
than nominal. But as yet there hath been no faith in the
sons of men. Hope we do, and indeed there is good
reason so to do, since that gallant and unanimous appear-
ance of your Essex men, who (contrary to all expectations
until the very nick) came in a body of about 15,000
men, whereof 2000 horse and foot rode quite through
London; the rest stayed at Stratford-Langton, bearing
their petitions before each hundred of the county ; and
were so well and so advantageously marshalled even unto
the very Parhament doors, that nothing was nor is like to
be of greater consequence than this very day's appearances.
And that you may know what an extraordinary cortege it
was, there were thirty knights, 500 gentlemen, gallantly
attended, and the rest aU freeholders without exception, as
it appeared upon debate of those who strove all that they
could to suppress it. For this they were constrained
(though highly against their stomachs) to give them
thanks ; and for the present, in the name of the Houses,
they promised them that the first thing which they
took in hand, should be the contents of their petition,
containing a personal treaty, disbanding of the army,
and other things of the like concernment, tending alto-
gether to the wished-for settling these distractions. This
petition — to-morrow it will be in print, so that yet parti-
culars are not generally known — was presented by Sir
12 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
William Hicks ; and if you had but heard the bells of
every church ring as they passed the streets, with those
strange and cordial acclamations of the people as they
marched, I am sure it would have more cheered your heart
than this imperfect relation can possibly imagine to do.
But this cold answer which they received, hath, it seems,
appeared to them so unsatisfactory, that they are resolute
not to leave it until matters be in better posture ; and in
pursuance of their steps, our county of Surrey are in a
very great forwardness to do the like. Divers other
counties likewise resolved to follow them, which strange
alterations (after all this security of theirs, and subornation
of mock counterfeit petitions to take them for their votes
of non-address) shows plainly that it is only the finger and
power of God, who can unravel all this bottom of con-
fusion, by beginning their destruction, where they began
our miseries.
This day's work has struck such a damp in them *
that they all concurred in the House this morning, that
either they must accommodate with his Majesty, or resolve
to despatch with monarchy, and run a most desperate
course, which I tremble to consider. In the mean time
Cromwell is not in such grace with his soldiers as to
make that force he believed he should to accompany
him into Wales, where (if Lahornef be not treacher-
ous) he may yet find a difficult employment. It was
whispered that he is not to be found, upon which it is
imagined that he is again tampering with the King, or
else hatching some cockatrice' egg, which will suddenly
break forth. I assure you this day's example is like to
be such a shoeing-horn to the good expectations on foot,
that no conjuncture could be more lucky ; and I augur
much satisfaction in the rest of my expresses to you here-
after. By the next we shall see more clearly, for it cannot
be long now but we shall see what we have to trust to.
God in his mercy put a conclusion to this tragedy, and
so I end.
• The " Grandees " of Parliament
■f* Major-General Langhem is here meant He resisted at Pembroke in
company with Poyer, was sentenced to death, and escaped at the throw of
the dice hy which Poyer suffered.
1648.] JOHN EVELYX. IS
[Postscript.]
Extraordinary haste, occasioned by visitants, just at the
writing hereof, with the lateness, before I was well in-
formed of the truth, makes me write thus confusedly. — If
you approve it, my sister and brother Grandville (who
are truly persons not unworthy of friendship), hearing
that I intend to spend the heats of this summer at Dept-
ford, at my request will bear me company, which will be
an ease to my expenses, (they being but frugal,) and no
little satisfaction ; else they go to a stranger's, and I shall
be alone : but till we have your approbation, nothing is
resolved.
London, May 12<A, L648.
Sir,
I come now (with a great deal of regret, God
knows) to relate you the catastrophe of the Kentish
design and engagement, they having, as it were, uni-
versally abandoned themselves to no better conditions
then the mercies of the men of Westminster. For indem-
nity is no more granted them, than if they had still per-
sisted in their loyalty; so that many of them being
imprisoned (as Sir Pay ton Brockman, &c.), the rest are
become slaves, and the whole county at their devotion.
Behold the fruits of your wise consultations in France ;
from whence it was stedfastly hoped and confidently
believed some person of conduct ana quality would have
been sent unto them, with such a commission as might
have determined all disputes of precedency in a conjunc-
ture of so much advantage and opportunity, the like
whereof we henceforth altogether despair of. When I
reflect upon the strange miscarriage of that poor county
(not for want of hands but heads), I cannot but accuse
you abroad, as well as lay the blame upon our pro-
ceedings at home. When JVTaydeston * might have been
relieved during the fatal conflict there, by one thousand
men, which waited on my Lord Norwich and others,
not a commander would stir for want of orders, or
(to say truly) obedience to some person that had a
more proper delegation than any there pretended. The
people were numerous ; the country was full of arms and
* Maidstone.
14 CORRESPONDENCE OF [londow,
provisions; the sea, the river, and the ships were their
guard; the adjacent shires were their confederates; the
enemy was weak, far off, and full of apprehensions ; in
fine, there was nothing wanting, but temper, discretion,
and valour, in some individual and particular men, to have
(ere this) freed us from the most detestable and sordid
oppression that ever befel a nation. But God was not yet
pleased to think us fit for deliverance, and we must
attend his leisure.
Sir, I have held you too long on a sad theme, but
really my passion is guilty, and I must beg you pardon.
All our talk now is of my Lord of Norwich, his march
and accessions in Essex, which, with some hopeful planets
in the north, and a few faithful ships, is the small
glimpse and little light which now guide us from falling
on the rocks of despair. And now I have spoken of my
Lord of Norwich (I beseech you be nothing discouraged),
he is strong and in a very good posture; there being
come to his assistance my Lord Capell, with numbers of
gallant men out of this town, and Sir Charles Lucas, by
whose counsel and valour we do promise ourselves a great
deal better success, both from the example of their neigh-
bours and the handsome constitution of their followers.
Their number is about 5000 horse and foot well armed,
and stout men. In this engagement none were compelled,
or, indeed, invited, but only such of the country as were
absolutely resolved to dispense with all private interests and
run the uttermost hazards ; so that such as would accept
of indemnity were not restrained, nor such as declared for
them refused ; in the mean time many of the trained bands
accompany them, fearing to return upon submission (so
much are their very mercies obnoxious), and the whole
army march towards Cambridgeshire, where it is reported
they will this night encounter an adjunct of 500 horse
more. Nor are they at all afraid of those who follow
them seeing the General (who is this day come out of
Kent with 1500 foot and 500 horse, having left 2000
men to take the two forts which still refuse him), as the
cream of their whole forces in these parts are conceived to
be fully equivalent to him in number and resolution. If
they can attain the north without great impeachment, it
is nothing doubted but the game may yet be balanced
1648.] JOHN EVELTN. 15
to the purpose ; for which purpose we heartily pray here
to God. We pray to God that he may estabhsh the reso-
lutions of those who command the navy, for the Rich* is
sent empty away from Portsmouth (whatever they brag),
and we are made to believe here six or seven more are
come in to them. Many of our ships are under sail for
Holland, where we hope they may receive a gallant
Admiral: yet it was practised by our grandees here to
have tempted them both with money and promises, for
which end, besides the stratagem of manning a sMp-\ with
women (not Sirens) to entice them (the sailors^ wives).
Sir H. Vane and Mr. Green were despatched with golden
hooks and stranger instruments to have prevailed with
them.
This is the news at sea; and indeed, if it hold fair
weather there, the Storm cannot last long at land, as the
citizens and merchants very well foresee, who are now
forming a more peremptory petition for an effectual com-
pliance with his Majesty ; that trade may live again, which
is now giving the last gasp. For if these wooden walls
hold out, the merchant must keep in, and the retail men
(who are numerous and depend on them) wiU be compelled
to farther some strange and sudden alteration, which God
send us. On Saturday next sevennight there will of course
be a Common-Hall for the election of a new mayor and
sheriffs. What that may produce, none can tell ; if the
threatening army be far enough, perhaps something of
consequence.
In the north, Pomfract Castle is relieved and reinforced
with 400 men : God grant the governor prove honest.
Langdale still augments : but whether advanced, retreated,
or happily engaged with Lambert, nothing can be col-
lected of truth. The Scots are at a stand, and many
affirm they will not come in, the Duke of Hamilton
having laid down his commission (as they report) ; but if
Calender J resume it (who is more for the King, less for
the crown, than the other), it is hoped the change is not
* A pun upon Rich Earl of Warwick.
+ Evelyn elsewhere remarks, " This was a new sea-term."
X The Earl of Calender, who fought for the Parliament in England, had
now taken up the King's cause in Scotland. His disputes with the Duke of
Hamilton at and after the Rout of Preston are matters of history. The
report that the Duke had " laid down his commission " was premature.
16 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
for the worst. In North Wales, the good party received
an unlucky defeat ; in the South, Cromwell is fortunately
repulsed; which particular expect in my next. Ireland
does nothing but remonstrate. So has Essex done this
morning extremely well. Sussex had a general answer to
their petition, and all things are as much out of frame as
ever : Orate pro nobis. If his Highness were on the coast
of any voisin country, it would add great influence in our
proceedings. It is said Prince Rupert is designed for this
place, but believe it altogether unseasonable : happy for us
Norwich had stayed. Yours,
Aplanos.
From the old hand and place, Ibth May, 1648.
Sir,
This succeeds my last of the seventh current,
which I wish heartily there were just cause to retract ; our
Welsh news running still as high as ever (whatsoe'er may
be the report with you), so that you may be assured all
expectations from those parts are absolutely frustrated;
this victory being so unseasonable, so unfortunate, in so
hopeful a conjuncture. But it has fallen out (as I was
ever fearful it would), the Royal party engaging themselves
in all places so preposterously, that it is now conceived it
will be no difficulty for the array to weed them out. And
who can tell but that our brethren (who always appre-
hended that party might overpower them in conclusion,
and turn head against Covenant) do willingly contribute
to their ruin, by their slow advance and manifest cuncta-
tion. However, not to discourage you altogether, we hear
there is yet a remnant of them left in the castles, who will
be able to give them some trouble ; and it is reported that
Langhorne,* and such troops as escaped, are advanced and
gotten to Langdale, who appears numerous and far engaged
in the kingdom. And if the Scots (as all our confident
party do veiily believe) be as good as their outside, there
will be yet another difficulty for the game. It is rumoured
that their Parliament being adjourned till the 31st of July
(as I take it), they will out of hand be marching ; and that
letters now come to the House with us are no way satis-
• Seep. ]2,note.
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 17
factory. Others, again, offer to lay wagers that they come
not in at all.
It hath been moved that the forces of the army might
still abide in London, even by Skippon himself, notwith-
standing that they had a late grant for the return of their
ancient militia, which is not well taken (as I conceive) by
the citizens. Essex does still persist in putting their whole
county into a defensive posture against all taxes, quarter-
ings, sequestrations, and the like oppressions. Surrey
comes up unanimously with their petition; Kent are
vigorously in hand with theirs ; which are the best signs
that I can possibly discern of a timely change. And
without doubt (if the army were but conveniently diver-
tised), both this city and the adjacents to it would be so
associate, as we might have a blessed conclusion of these
distractions, without Scot or devil. And now I spake of
Kent, you are to know that those who were to be tried by
the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer were all acquitted
by the several juries, and an ignoramus brought in ; several
jurors, a strange charge, and all the rigour that malice
could invent, having been tempered together to despatch
them, Avhich so much incensed the country, that when the
verdict Avas finished, all of them cried out aloud, " God,
King Charles, and Judge Tresham ! " who, it seems, did,
in his instructions to those of the county jury, declare his
opinion with less vehemence and rigour than did Wilde.
Which event of theirs hath so much vexed the thirsty ones
of the Parliament, that it was moved this day martial law
might pass upon them ; but it was not assented unto. So
that you may see what the common law is like to come unto,
if our constitution cannot preserve it.
One observable I must not omit, which was, the judges
being to pass by in a coach, there were three halters
delivered, like a present, from a country fellow, with
addresses; one to the judge, another for the under-
sheriff, and a third for Mr. Major. Tresham confessed to
the Speaker but this morning (as an ear-witness assured
me) that the affections of that county were totally lost ;
and that if there had not been a guard of two troops of
horse and a regiment of foot, nothing coidd have rescued
them from the violence of the people.
Just as I am come to this period, my brother surprises
13
COKRESPONDENCK OF [London,
me that he now spake with two or three gentlemen, who
had it from the mouth of the Gloucester carrier (but now
arrived), that Horton, in this action of Wales, has been
since totally routed, and the other still in posture ; which
sudden change of scene does so amaze me, that I know
not what to add, until a farther inquiry, which time
will now prevent me of. God grant it may hold to
the next !
£The end of this letter has been torn off.]
London, IZth May, 1648.
Sir,
The news of this interval is so strange, and the
scene of such a look, there is no ink black enoiigh to
express the horror and impiety of the act ; but because I
have not time to anatomize circumstances, I shall only
present you vrith the naked relation.
Tuesday was the day of our Surrey men's petition, the
contents whereof I make bold to enclose. It was much
opposed in the county by Sir R. Onslow (one of the
Knights of the Shire), and others of that party, as the
complexion and nature thereof, aiming honestly at the true
mark, will readily discover : notwithstanding, being bravely
animated both by men of quality and honour, it was
subscribed unto by many thousands, and brought up
according to the usual manner by near upon 5000 knights,
gentlemen, and freeholders of the best qualifications in
our county, and presented by Sir Edward Boyer to the
Lords, and one Mr. Price to the Commons. But so it
happened that, after the Lords had returned them a civil
answer, the Commons of purpose retarding theirs (as it is
believed), whilst many of our county, naked and disarmed
men, expected in the Palace-yard their reply (more than a
third part of them being dismounted, and scattered by
means of an extreme shower of rain, which then fell
abundantly), there rushed in upon them two troops of
horse and a full regiment of foot, invited privately from
Whitehall, and, falling upon our poor countrymen (after
they had slain some watermen and secured the stairs),
most barbarously not only wounded, but utterly stript and
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 19
murdered a great number of them, * by which means they
not only failed of their expectations in petitioning, but lost
many of their horses and lives too. Upon this the Par-
liament gave thanks to the Lieutenant who guided the
action, after they had substituted false witnesses, who
deposed that some disorderly person of the multitude cried
out twice, "Grod bless King Charles!" which is crime
enough here to put a man to death. Behold now, if this
be not a satisfactory answer to our petition, and if the right
of the subject be not highly asserted ! This was the
tragedy of Tuesday.
Wednesday, a committee was ordered to examine the
particulars more accurately, wherein you may be sure
our poor Surrey men shall have little favour, if you well
observe the premises ; and in order to that nothing is yet
done which gives any honest man satisfaction, seeing that
it hath hitherto extended no further than to the restoring
of their horses taken, and the prohibition that for the
future no petition shall be brought through the town by
above five or six persons at the most, whereby you may
easily conjecture for what reason our poor petitioners were
so inhumanly butchered. Since this fataUty, some talk of
an inclination in Surrey to associate ; but I fear their
enemies are too potent. If Kent be not discouraged, there
are great hopes of a sudden change ; but that Essex does
most magnanimously proceed, a very little time will fully
acquaint you : meantime, thanksgiving has been given for
the mock victory in South Wales ; though it is feared the
forces there are but in a bad condition, Cromwell pressing
very hard upon them, so that, if more speedy succour do
not arrive from Ireland, proceedings there will be in great
disadvantage. That Langdale is strong there, nobody
disputes. And it is affirmed, that the Scots will be sud-
denly upon English ground, though I (for my part) do
much doubt it ; their general being (as we hear) not yet
approved, and their rendezvous of so long a date, that it is
feared the animosities of those injured and oppressed
people will be utterly and irrevocably suppressed.
This day the city of London obtained a complete order
* " About 20 slayne and woimded more than 100," is a note attached to
this letter.
2 c
20 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
for the speedy re-instating them into the Tower and ancient
militia ; but, so long as Skippon is to continue their major,
it is not to be expected that any good should come from
them. And indeed it is more than suspected, that they
will forthwith comply in all respects to their masters the
army. For which end, they have granted them liberty to
collect £30,000, as a small gratification fcM* their several
good services. So that you see what hopes we have
of the happy days, which you believe in France are
breaking upon us; now in more obscurity, thraldom, error,
and confusion than ever we were since these wars began.
They talk of treating with his Majesty, but defer it;
to-morrow, some say, they go about it ; but, if I do not
sleep till they intend it, I shall never lay mine eyes to-
gether, unless proceedings have a strange turn, and an
unexpected catastrophe.
Tins is all our news in brief. I pray God give us
patience and hope, which is the only refuge of miserable
men.
But he that endureth to the end, shall be saved.
London, Whitsunday, 1648.
Sir,
Upon hope you have received my last, which
gave you notice of our Surrey success, I continue this pre-
sent ; wherein you will find no more satisfaction touching
that miscarriage and strange entertainment, than almost
the utter defection of the county. Persons have been
examined by the committee deputed ; but with such par-
tiality on the soldiers' behalf, as that the county are
drawing up a remonstrance to disabuse the world. All
that may be is attempted to reconcile them. My Lord of
Northumberland and sundry others sent down to assuage
them. My brother absolutely refused to go. Sir R.
Onslow has utterly lost himself; and I am confident, that
though the heat for the present be allayed, yet that county
will be always ready for an opportunity to declare them-
selves. Meantime Kent are still resolute to pursue their
petition (which, it is apprehended, will not be brought up
by men that are so unprovided as that of Surrey was) ;
however they* labour all they can to suppress these meet-
* Tlie Parliament men.
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 21
ings and intentions, by having caused a declaration to be
read in every church throughout that county, to deter
men from setting their hands, or acting therein, under
the name of a pretended petition, tending to a seditious
consequence.
It is this day reported that the city of Rochester is all
in an uproar upon a bruit that soldiers were coming
amongst them from the parhament, they resolving to
oppose them ; but there is no such thing, for I suppose
our masters have not such a strength near them, as they
dare adventure amongst them. But that which is most
observable from thence, is the news of Saturday, giving
intelligence from Mr. Mayor of Sandwich, of Prince
Charles his landing, or another Perkin "Warbeck as like
him. Some believe it, your friend laughs at it; and so
soon as he * has a new suit and a clean shirt (of both
which the poor Prince was extremely disfurnished),
Mr. Mayor has promised to send him up, having first, as
Pilate did our Saviour, conjured him to tell him whether
he were that Charles Prince of Wales, eldest son and heir
apparent to Charles, by the Grace of God of England,
Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, with the rest of his
titles, as in good earnest it is affirmed.
Some now begin to scandalize the proceedings in
Essex, as if their hearts began to fail them ; and matters
not altogether so high as it is reported; but this comes
from a person,t who I am confident wishes it so. They
speak of an offer of the Cambridgeshire men to join
with those of Essex; but how true I know not. Hert-
fordshire and Middlesex, some think, wUl petition, with
a great part of Sussex ; which things are but in embryo
as yet. Ireton has played the d — 1 in Hampshire,
plundering and imprisoning all such as he suspects to
be loyal; amongst others having secured Sir W. Legg
and Mr. Ashburnham, J who (as it is reported) were
betrayed unto him. From Wales we have received
nothing, since Cromwell's cruelty at Chepstow; but the
holding out still of the castle there, which, upon the
late storming, slew a world of the assailants. The rest
* The alleged Prince. f Sir Harbottle Grimston (in margin),
t " These were sent to Windsor Castle, where I think they lack many
friends." (Evelyn's note.)
22 CX)RRESPONDENCE OF [London,
of the castles resist as yet, if some internal discord do not
injure them, it being talked here as if the commanders
were all at defend one amongst the other.
Letters this day from the North confess, that Sir M.
Langdale is grown to a very considerable army, well
appointed and disciplined. His head-qnartcrs are at
Kendal; and, if he do advance with any convenient
speed into Yorkshire, they acknowledge him irresistible
because of the defection of that county : and our letters
from Scotland affirm that, notwithstanding all the com-
plaisances here, and their victory in Wales (which the
letter says has nothing disanimated the counties in those
parts), they are unanimously resolved to march forwards
very suddenly. Upon which, his caution was that unless
5000 horse and dragoons were expedited, all would
be lost in those quarters. And assure yourself, their
armies at present are so exercised with apprehensions at
home, that they have not such numbers to spare abroad ;
not daring as yet to remove the garrison from Whitehall ;
and, with very Ul wills, that of the Tower marches out to-
morrow. In the mean time, Skippon doth much complain,
that he does not find the trained bands under his com-
mand in such due obedience, since his late re-instateraent,
as he expected they would have been * * * -^ *
[The rviiuunder of this lettar has been cut off.]
LomUm, Itt Jwte, 1648.
Sib,
I hare these two days continued in town, to
enable myself for the intelligence of this day ; every motion
proving now of such consequence, as if the whole State
depended upon every man's reports. That the scene is in
Kent, I need not re-advise you; but that the entire
machine of our hopes is altogether knit upon the success
there, I can assure you.
On Tuesday last. Sir Thomas drew out upon Blackheath
(having marched through Surrey, where, by the way,
many soldiers deserting him, neither he nor any of his
durst adventure to lie in beds or in towns, but kept the field
all the night, for fear of the incensed countrymen), to the
number of 3000 sober and well-appointed men. He is
1648.] JOHN EVELYK 23
since 5663 men, as the list was given in to the commit-
tee at Derby House ; which advice I got very strangely.
The next day he advanced as far as Dartford, and so that
night quartered even to Gravesend (where at present the
head-quarters are), having swept the places through which
he hath marched of all their horse, which the Kentishmen
spared, that they might not disoblige the countrymen, and,
[seizing] other moveables, plundered the town. As for
acts of hostihty committed, there hath as yet been little,
beside the conjunction of some scouts and forlorn hopes,
wherein it is reported the people have had much the
better ; and one tells me that Colonel Backstirr (the same
that commanded the Surrey assassins) came yesterday into
London, mortally wounded.
Touching the reports of this day, they seem to be very
much in favour of the Army, as that Rochester was entered
by stratagem, or Canterbury (for none of the relators agree
either in the place or modus), the Cavaliers defeated, and
the whole people were in disorder. But it comes through
such hands and from such persons, that I do assure you it
is no part of my creed ; for the whole body, being within
the river of Medway, it is believed were in a better
posture than to be dispersed with a single party, though
never so resolute. Besides, two watermen, which were
employed by some of our correspondents, arriving just
now from Gravesend, assure us that such as were sent
to discover, towards Rochester, came back with a sad
relation of their strength and numerosity. Others say
there was a strong party sent through Sussex to relieve
Dover ; by that means taking a gallant force of gentlemen,
who had esteemed them the King's friends ; whilst another
is ready to depose there is no such matter, but that, on
the contraiy, as some troops were marching through
Sussex, the inhabitants of the county fell foul upon them,
and so frustrated that design. For mine own part, I
believe neither the one nor the other ; but absolutely
gather from the variety of the best, and unconfident rela-
tion of the worst, that they have never yet engaged to any
purpose.
As for the Kentish army, I hear it is divided into three
brigades, their commander-in-chief being Hales. They
have one council, to redress the complaints of the county ;
24 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
and another, to transact all martial affairs. That which is
most considerable with us, will be their remaining in this
posture till matters are arrived to more maturity in Essex
and the City ; the one wanting time for their absolute
declaration, and the other a little more warmth in their
new nests of militia; for I do assure you the snakes do
now begin to hiss, and may speak aloud ere it be many
days longel*.
Major Brown (no later than yesterday morning) said in
full House, that the Army were no less traitors than the
men of Kent themselves, calling them a pack of shufflers
and varlets ; and added that himself would be one of the
thirty who would meet any forty of them in the field, to
determine the truth of his assertion ; telling them, more-
over, that he which, at that present, commanded the Parlia-
ment Guard below, would not refuse to assert his expression,
as secure as they thought themselves; which (being called
up) he readily declared at the bar. For this demeanour,
it was this day expected the Major should have been ques-
tioned by the House; but nothing was done, save the
reception of a petition, which came from the moderate
party in the City, wherein they express their desires of a
personal treaty in London, the releasement of the im-
prisoned Aldermen, and that they would join with them
in an association with the Kentishmen, Essex, Middlesex,
Hertfordshire, Surrey, and Sussex. This demand being a
breakfast more hard than they could digest at that time,
they referred them to a committee, which was presently
selected, that should endeavour to give them competent
satisfaction ; but what this is I cannot yet learn, nor do I
believe it is yet determined. Perhaps they will offer them
to be contented with the settlement of the militia through-
out the whole kingdom, which they pretend to be now in
hand with ; with other such stuff or design to procrastinate
the time, till they see what will become of their main
stock, which is now that of Kent ; who, they hope, will be
forced to an engagement, and so to a confusion, that they
may bid a second good night both to King and people.
But I hope God will in his mercy prevent it.
In the mean while, the City are extremely discontented ;
and I have protracted my this day's writing as long as I
durst, that I might have given you some intelligence what
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 25
has been done in Common Council ; but they are not yet
risen. Besides, we have great talk of a Common Hall,
which it is believed may happen to do strange feats with
Skippon and the Parliament ; all which, together with the
whole fate of these fair blossoms, absolutely depend upon
the Kentishmen^s behaviour and non-engagement, which
you are desired to pray for, without ceasing.
The news of the revolt of almost the whole navy stands
yet good. Warwick is gone down ; but it is thought he
will not be admitted, unless he change his spots, and avow
their protestations. Cromwell, it is feared, may be near
with some horse ; but many do not believe it. The gen-
tlemen in the North increase, but have a great force
against them. The Scots look like Janus with two faces,
and pretend such distractions among themselves that they
are generally taken for knaves amongst us. Yet some
affirm they will come in. From Ireland no succour comes
yet to Wales. It is wished you would send us some sober,
wise, stout man into Kent. Surrey have this reply to their
Commissioners, — that no more soldiers shall be quartered
amongst them; that the authors and executors of those
murders shall be prosecuted according to law (there having
been seven more found strangled and butchered, lying
unburied in a cellar at Whitehall, since the soldiers left
it ; there appearing by the names subscribed more than 100
that have miscarried, or at least not yet returned home) :
all which shaU be put in execution when the Kentishmen
have played out their game. Believe it, not before ; for
they are resolved to adventure the whole State upon this
design, continually expecting when the good tidings will
be brought them of their bloody and desperate designs
upon that poor people, which God divert !
Aplanos.
London, June 5, 1648.
Sir,
Not to lose time (tliough I may haply escape
some more fresh intelhgence, by sealing up my letter
before the Houses are risen) I am destined to relate to
you the sad news of our Kentish misfortunes. On Thurs-
day, the army began to engage with the Kentish at
26 CORRESPONDENCE OF [londow,
Gravesend, where there was little opposition; on Friday,
on attempting Rochester Bridge, they were repulsed with
some loss from the town, so that finding no passage in
those parts, they advanced as far as Maidstone, where by
the treachery of a gunner, who was to fire the ordnance
on the bridge, which he converted against the people in
the town, they rushed into the streets, and after a very
hot dispute (by the help of the disaffected therein) they
mastered the town, killing about one hundred and
taking some prisoners ; but all this was not done without
a considerable loss on their part, which it is believed
sextupled the number of the countrymen. However,
the fame thereof came so seasonably to the City, that
it hath for the present quite dashed all our proceedings
for an accommodation, and, as their own relations will
have it, they endeavour to make us believe that they
have killed 200, taken 1200 men, 5000 arms, and finally
so dispersed the rebels, as they call them, that there
are not two men left in a body through the whole
county. In the mean time, those who calculate the march
of Fairfax can by no means probably consent to the
truth hereof; for he, being suddenly commanded back by
the Houses who apprehended themselves in some danger
from the tumultuary inclined people, could not possibly
have time enough to penetrate unto the more eastern parts
of Kent, where we do yet believe there is a sufficient power
to preserve themselves in a body and take the Castle of
Dover, which some say is beleaguered. Besides, there is
another force at Canterbury, not as yet dissipated, as
appears by Sir Thomas's own letter of this day from
Rochester, where he is, having sent a party of 600 horse
through the city into Essex, to pursue those who, upon the
taking of Maidstone, quitted Rochester as untenable. Of
these, who are about 5000 horse and foot, the Earl of
Norwich is general, a very unfit man, as his character
is with the City; which makes them much suspected.
They ferried over on Saturday night about Greenwich,
and upon their arrival, having made good the bridge
at Bow, beat back with some loss to the enemy such
of the horse as were sent round-about, and foot like-
wise, wlio issued out of the Tower- Hamlets against them :
this is their posture at present. I am told the Essex men
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 27
(who are joined in great numbers with them) have now
sent up Charles Rich with their submission to the Houses,
upon their indemnity and further satisfaction to their
petition, which, whether it be true or false, I leave to a
small time's determination, since others affirm it is only
the act of some of the gentry of that county, not of the
commoners. And this is the best relation I can learn.
Now for the City. No Common Hall could be procured ;
for it being referred to a committee of their own, and all
accesses being shut up from disturbing them, it was there
ordered in the negative ; so that you may hereby plainly
perceive from where all our mischiefs proceed, even from a
self-interested party in the City, commanded both by Par-
liament and Army. From the North, none contradict the
this day's report of the taking of Pomfract Castle by a
party of Langdale's forces ; which news, with the bruit of
Cromwell's defeat in North Wales, does not a little recover
our drooping cavaliers. The ships (it is said) are more
and more firm, though some wise men believe they will be
wrought upon with money and other corrupt practices.
Some report Norfolk and Suffolk to be newly risen.
Sir Charles Lucas, we hear, is gone this morning into
Essex, and that your cousin, S. T., with divers others,
follow him this evening.
From Ireland there comes no news at all; but it is
reported this morning (from a Blue Bonnet), that our
brethren will undoubtedly come in some time this month,
as he assm-es us; all factions being there appeased that
may obstruct them.
It is now a- voting whether the Earl of Norwich shall be
a traitor or not. What they conclude, expect by my next.
As touching applications to his Majesty, be confident
none will be, unless by a very high and an almost miraculous
hand they be compelled at last unto it ; for, in order to a
personal treaty, nothing is resolved on by the Houses,
save the preparing those bills for the re-calling his procla-
mation, the security of their militia and presbytery for
three and ten years ; which is sent down unto the Scots,
with a golden hook, and, if swallowed by them, it is likely
his Majesty (accepting of their benevolence) shall, upon
his divesting himself, obtain leave to approach to Hampt(m
Court, there to be almost a Duke of Venice.
28 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london.
For all this, Sir — " Fides que corouat ad aras" — let us
have good hearts.
Aplanos.
I would foot this letter with what I have since learned ;
but how true, I leave to time. It is now hot come to
towu that the dispute hath been so hot in a long fight
yesterday and to-day with the remaining part in Kent,
that, as some affirm. Sir Thomas is wholly routed ; and
certain it is, the men of Essex have beaten (being new in
fight) those horse, their opposers, even unto Whitechapel.
God improve this !
Lcndony \bth Jivne, 1648.
Sir,
Lest I should endanger the departure of the post
(which hath hitherto made my despatches so confused and
precipitately written), I shall continue my intelligence to
you before the Houses are risen, and from henceforth
prepare my letters in convenient time for their delivery ;
adding what shall intervene as postscripts, till the fixed
moment of sending them away cause me to seal them up.
Since my first of June, I expect you have received mine of
the 5th, 8th, 12th; all which I have punctually and with-
out interruption sent you. And now for the news. The
scene is Essex, more topically Colchester; the persons.
Lord Norwich, Lord Capell, and Sir Charles Lucas, who
(with us) passeth for the actor in chief; and I pray God it
conclude not in a play (a tragedy I mean) ; for the army
of the faction made such haste after them, that (as some
say), diflfident of his horse, he betook himself to the town ;
yet it seems not so opportunely but that he was constrained
to shut the gates upon some of his own men, about 300,
who were most of them taken. Whereupon they set fire
to the suburbs, and (as they say) were storming of the
town, in hopes of success.
This, Sir, is the story of the faction ; but others report
(and methinks, upon the unconfident manner of late and
sickly relations of theirs, with as much face of tnith) that
in this conflict was a sore and bloody fight, till the dark-
ness of the night caused them to withdraw into the town ;
1648.] JOHN EVELYN. 29
the suburbs whereof being thereupon set on fire, with the
conspiration of the wind, which was full in the army^s
teeth, rendered them of the town such a light and oppor-
tunity to fight by, that, upon a second bold issue, they
recovered not only their losses, but gave a great overthrow
to the enemy, causing them to make towards their ord-
nance, which lay three or four miles off; in this chase
killing and taking divers eminent ones of the soldiery,
which are not yet come to light. And this, I must con-
fess, I am somewhat inclined to believe, knowing for
certain that the general sent to Skippon for a re-inforce of
3000 horse (no less) this morning very early. And now I
mentioned Skippon, you must know that the faction here
have presented him with many horse, which are privately
listed, and are ready upon all such occasions. By which
practice of theirs (if the City be no wiser) this town will
insensibly fall under a considerable bondage again; for
all their militia, and the junto at Westminster, make all
possible diligence to put the adjacent counties in their
posture of defence ; impeding all such meetings, by their
proclamations and otherwise, as they apprehend may tend
to petitioning, however freely they have voted in right of
the subject; yet with all this ado, scarce hindering the
sollevation* of Hampshire, some parts of Sussex, Cam-
bridgeshire, and Norfolk ; the two last of them being of
late (if not yet in considerable numbers) ready to join
with the Essexians. And, without doubt, could Sir Charles
be able to make good his march forwards, his forces would
be incredibly augmented by that time he attained Sir
Marmaduke, whom he believes to be the most serious and
likeliest party of Loyalists in this poor kingdom. It is
here confirmed that he is retreated to join with the Scots,
who some afiirm to be more cordial in the design than
myself am inclined to flatter you with at present.
As for South Wales, Cromwell has absolutely received a
notable repulse from Pembroke, with the loss of at the least
300 men, that miscarried in the storm.
From Ireland we hear nothing of consequence as yet ;
but the news of the faithful seamen and navy (consisting
* Kindling of hostility ; from the French, sovZever. So, in a marginal
note to this letter (next page) the French word " redarguer " is used for
our English " blame."
so CORRESPONDENCE OF [losdos,
now of about fifteen stout ships) doth strangely encourage
us, especially hoping that the approach of his Highness
will add both resolution and constancy in them. And that
this is a consideration of moment, I need only repeat you
this passage of Sir H., which he let fall lately in the
House, that the defection of the fleet (however they seemed
to slight it) was of more consequence than the loss of five
armies.* Farewell !
Aplanos.
The business of Colchester looks now very suspicious,
but nothing certain ; only that the Scots are numerously
entered, is uncontradictedly reported this evening; and
this, with the ships, promises very much.
The three castles hold still out in Kent.
Mr. Spencer desires to know how his son doth, from
whom he hath not heard long since. I shall recapitulate
your letters, and the next week inform you how my par-
ticular afiair stands with my brother.
Lomdon, Utk October, 1«48.
Sir,
There is nothing from hence worthy your
observation, besides what I have enclosed, to avoid
the medium of writing. It is (as is imagined) the general
sense and inclination of the forces (now suflSciently at
leisure) to think on mischief, chastise the City, and
cudgel the Parliament, for daring to treat with a King
who standeth so ill in their bonnes graces.
The Speaker pulled forth a letter this morning (which
he shewed to a friend of your servant's), intimating that
for those whom he is desired may be given up (with his
assent) as an holocaust, to be abandoned as ever inca-
pable of making their composition either for lives or
fortunes, he had given his ultimate answer, being resolved
never to sacrifice those who had been his friends, though
with the hazard of this overture. And as touching the
abolition of Bishops (which two things are the only dif-
ficulties), he replied that he had received no satisfaction
* ** Spoken to redargue their coldness in reducing them."
164&] JOHN EVELYN. 81
(as to point of sacrilege and reason) fix)m those arguments
presented him by the divines, and therefore desired the
Commissioners (whom he took to be intelligent and inge-
nuous men) that they would propose something which
were less verbal and more substantial ; the issue whereof
you will soon understand. I pray it may not be with the
dissolution of the treaty.
The last concessions (since those I formerly advertised
you of) are the taking away all honours conferred by
patent under his Great Seal since 1642. For himself, his
Majesty hath as yet proposed nothing, save his coming to
London, and the settlement of a constant revenue to the
Crown.
Judge Bramston is likely fiavgi officio, as heretofore,
having acted nothing since the supersedeas which was sent
him from Oxford ; so that Wilde is not likely to supplant
him. There is shortly a general rendezvous of the army
at Newmarket. Every man speaks his mind of the treaty.
For my part, I leave all to the soldiers ; and, if they do
not deceive us, peace may happily ensue.
I am since told that the army have put off their meet-
ing, and that the treaty is like to be effectual ; but this is
Exchange news.
From, the Villa, 23rd October, 1648.
Sir,
Your last of the 24th of October I received ; and
being now upon my journey into Sussex (where I intend
effectually to settle my business), I conceived it would be
seasonable for me to advertise you thereof, so that you
might not imagine by my silence that there was any
interruption in the Ordinary, by whom I have seldom
failed to render you the best intelligence I can learn.
Since my last, I received an express from a correspon-
dent of mine in the Isle of Wight, which gives me great
hopes that the treaty may yet produce something like a
settlement, which we continually expect in these parts.
But what was more than I expected, an enclose from Mr.
Warcupp (whom Mr. Speaker hath sent thither, to give
him an account of proceedings there, and whose letters to
him he continually reads in the House), containing many
8? CORRESPONDENCE OF [lokdon,
great expressions and tender of service, if in anything there
he could be useful to me ; adding withal, that if I desired
a safe convey thither, he would readily procure it. To
which (after I had returned him many acknowledgments
for being so mindful of me at that distance, and after so
long a discontinuance of acquaintance), I replied, that for
my owu particular, I had nothing to do there, as being
no person that could pretend anything to state affairs
(such as were now transacted) ; but for my relation's sake
(whom he very well knew), I should neither spare charge
nor pains, knew I but how in the least proportion to
promote his designs, which I told him were so just and
honourable, that if I had any friend in the world (as I
knew none more able and real than himself) unto whom I
would recommend the interest of a deserving person, it
should be that of ,* who had been in nothing more
unfortunate than in being (what he was resolved still to
continue) an honest and a candid man, amidst all this
storm of temptations and exigencies. And for him, if it
lay properly in his way to do any right (either in con-
firmation of his present employment or election into some
new), by which one of such excellent parts might not be
lost to the commonwealth ; as the good, which he should
be the instrument of, would be a sufficient satisfaction to
himself, so the favour he shewed thereby done unto us
both could never be forgotten. And something to this
effect, I conceived (as I told him) might be in his power to
do (whether the treaty succeeded or not), for which he
should not find us to be only verbal in our last expressions.
This was all writ, which, if it shall appear to you no
unpardonable presumption in me, I shall be exceeding
glad.
Now I am going into the coach, and cannot stay to
make other conclusion than that of, sir. Yours, &c.
Aplanos.
My service to all.
I am sorry for my uncle's indisposition.
* Sic in MS.
1648.] JOHX EVELYN. 33
London, IStli December, 1648.
SiR;
Behold the third poSt, which brings me nothing
from France ; the last from these parts (bearing date
December 12th) furnishing me -vfith apprehensions, that
you may come to know what distractions signify, in a short
time, as well as we in this place by so long and woeful
experience.*
Since my last, the soldiers have marched into the city,
and seized on the public treasures ; they have been pretty
quiet as to much action, only they extremely insinuate
themselves into the town, where they pretend to be at
free- quarters until their arrears be fully paid. In the
mean time they have garrisoned Blackfriars (which like-
wise they have fortified with artillery) ; Paulas Church,
which, with London House, they have made stables for
their horses, making plentiful fires with the seats ; also
Barnard's Castle, with divers other considerable places in
the body and rivage of the city. By this means they are
ready to govern the election of public officers, which will
of course fall out to be on St. Thomas's day next ensuing.
The members are still in hold ; so that there seldom meet
so many in the House together, as will make up a Parlia-
ment, until they have sent for them to their houses.
Divers others, though not in restraint, yet are not per-
mitted to enter ; so that now none come above fifty : and
sometimes for the commission of the seal they are called
from ofi" the chancery. Thus they are troubled both to
meet and to adjourn. However, they made a shift to un-
vote the vote of redresses to the King, and the proceedings
thereupon, as wholly unjustifiable ; in order to which, that
the receiving likewise of the ten members into the House
(when a charge of so transcendent a nature lay against
them) was unparliamentary and of dangerous consequence.
Major-General Browne was fetched out of London by a
troop of horse, and carried to Whitehall, from whence he
WBs sent prisoner to St. James's, where he is now accom-
panied with Clotworthy, Massey, and Waller, all whom
* The allosioii, it need hardly be remarked, is to the insurrections of the
Fronde.
VOL. III. »
84 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
I hear vrere made close prisoners the last niglit, at which
time it is said divers troops of horse and companies of
foot went towards "Windsor, where it is thought his
Majesty was suddenly to come, and be proceeded upon
in the uttermost extremity.
All the discourse is now upon that new model called
The Affreemeni of the People, unto which every man will
be summoned to subscribe; and this being first to be
debated by a general council of the army, made me this day
have the curiosity to adventure amongst them. Where-
fore, putting myself in a suitable equipage, I got into
the council-chamber, where, Ireton presiding, a large
scroll containing tliis new device was examined, and each
paragraph or title there (after a very short debate) put to
the question, — but with that disorder and irreverence, and
palpable cozenage, as is impossible for you ever to believe,
unless you were an eye-witness of their transactions.
Neither to any one thing did the officers (of whom this
council was composed) agree; scarcely abstaining from
using uncivil terms at what time they differed in judg-
ment ; so young, raw, and ill-spoken men (Ireton himself,
in whom the world is so much mistaken, not excepted,) I
never imagined could have met in council together ; nor
is it possible for me to believe this rope of sand can long
subsist, for the present puffed up (as they are) with suc-
cess, interest, corruption, and an ignorant company of
people whom they have called out of all the counties
in this kingdom, to execute this chimera when it is
formed, if in the mean time the good God do not dis-
turb them.
This Agreement, by which they will cheat us all under
the name of the people's agreement, containeth, to my best
remembrance, these heads in the preamble : That the King
and his party having lost and forfeited their trust in the
people, and been fairly vanquished, the people are now in a
state of absolute freedom. That now, therefore, they have
unanimously agreed to put an end to this present parliament
by April next, and in June to elect new representatives,
who shall be chosen without writ. This shall sit but six
months, and then be dissolved for two years; in which
interim, a council of state shall sit (which council, I per-
ceive, shall have the grand arbitrary power in it), for the
1648.] JOHN EVELYN". 35
government of the Common Wealth (for so they named it
upon all occasions). That none who make their composi-
tions, shall be ever hereafter molested for any thing said
or done during these last engagements; that all public
receivers be brought to an account; that laws may be
abridged, and all of them rendered in the English tongue ;
that all religions may be tolerated which shall not be
apparently prejudicial to the State ; and finally, that delin-
quents be brought to a speedy trial; — such forces to be
still maintained in several parts of the kingdom, as shall
be necessary for the safety thereof, till these things are
efi'ected, and all appearances of contradiction utterly sup-
pressed and subdued. This, sir, is the test we must all
undergo, that will enjoy any thing here ; where, for the
present, all things are at the devotion of an army, and
where there is certainly no more face of religion than
heretofore in Sodom and Gomorrah, which God destroyed
with fire from heaven.
Warwick is come in, contrary to his own interest and
safety, as many think. The King is now made pupil to
Sir Thomas Fairfax, the General, who is to take care of
him. Hamilton is come to Windsor. No drum to be
struck up, nor militia to be exercised in city or country,
but by immediate command from his Excellency : all is
now in their hands, and we are an utterly lost nation,
without the mercy of God. I am right sorry to under-
stand the loss of so many of my letters, as I perceive have
miscarried, because some of them contained matters of
particular consequence to your servant : but haply in this
some of them may be come to your hands. Ireland is
now the only string to our bow. Little hope of any rising
in this kingdom, whatever reports you hear; yet am I
most confident there is nothing which these men do that
can continue. In the mean time, I wish you could advise
me how I may prevent an absolute ruin as to some part
of my fortune, which I would most willingly dispose of in
some more peaceable and sober corner of the earth.
Neither in these resolutions shall I want either encou-
ragement or company, even of my best friends in England ;
who have thoughts of leaving this place in a very short
time, if these proceedings continue. Sir, I am altogether
confused, and sad for the misery that is come upon us.
D 2
86 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Since finishing liereof, I received yours of tlie 19th. I
pray God to give mine uncle a safe return ; that shadow
of my dear self which he brings shall be most agreeable,
which, had you not mentioned, I should now have impor-
tuned you in, — that which I bear about me being not
altogether so like the subject as I have often wished.
I am hanging a chamber in your villa, where I am going
to set up my rest after Christmas, till you otherwise
dispose of me, having now in a manner disposed of mine
aft airs.
London, 22nd March, 1649.
Sir,
I enclose the news henceforwards, that (being
unmixed) it may be the more communicative.
Since my last, here is nothing done by the New States*
of great concernment, besides the Act for abolishing the
Kingly ofl&ce in these dominions, with a dissolution also
of the House of Peers, and disabling any of the last King's
posterity to claim any title to the Crown. Successive
to this (being the production of this day) there is pub-
lished a declaration, showing the causes of the late pro-
ceedings in alteration of the former government ; which,
being now the corollary and e7n<f)opa of what they have to
say, proves to be, in the judgment of most indifferent
people, a piece full of recrimination on their own pro-
ceedings, very slenderly managed, worse penned, and in
nothing seconding to the large expectations. The forces
in Lancashire under Colonel Ashton, formerly ordered to
be disbanded, are reported to be very refractory (the Earl
of Derby's son being chief, and the number near 4000, unto
whom, we are told, the country come in apace, they pro-
fessing for the covenant) ; and that they fortify Clitheroe
Castle, to oppose the coming of Major-General Lambert,
who (perhaps) may rise from Pomfract to force them to
an obedience. If this prove true, it is unwelcome here,
where some bold fellows (of whom one Captain Bray is
chief) have presented to the House a charge against his
• The reader will observe that between the dates of the present and
preceding letter tlie execution of Charles the First had taken place.
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 87
Excellency, for which Bray is sent prisoner to Windsor,
as traitor to the people. For my part I concur with some,
who conceive it merely the design of another eminent
member of the army,* whose ambition, having no limits, is
resolved to neglect no tentative (how many soever fail, and
of which some Royalists are apt to make too plausible
constructions) that may unsaddle the General, and fairly
hold him the stirrup : and then we shall be ridden to the
purpose, sir.
The trials of Powell, Poyer, and Langhern, are not yet
concluded as to final sentence, though some now say they
are condemned. Sir J. Stowell is to be dispatched at the
King's Bench ; Judge Jenkins, the next western circuit
(being a person too eminent to be heard plead in this
place) ; poor Brother Bushel will hardly escape. The
Marquis of Winchester and Bishop Wren are to remain
in everlasting prisons, who, with those banished (already
signified to you), and such as have assisted in the Irish
affairs, have not leave to compound. The rest have, thus :
All within eighty miles of London, filing their petitions at
Goldsmith^s HaU by the 1st of April; all more distant,
within six weeks, and if beyond the seas, by the 1st of
June ; after which time, to forfeit their estates ; and then
we may expect the act of grace, which is now much
discoursed of. And to the end their impartiality may be
notorious, they have confined and examined the Lady
Carlisle, upon whom there is now a strong guard. Some
are not ashamed to say, that they mean to put her to
death; others, that her honourable brother shall secure
them that she shall no more play the stateswoman.
Papists that have been in arms, have permission to sell
half their estates, and depart the kingdom ; the other
moiety is to be left for the public service. Some talk as
if Sir John Winter had day to be gone ; but it is myste-
rious, to such as have understood how he hath been
received here.
The Scots have now owned the late act of their commis-
sioners, in a letter full of artifice, whereby (taking notice
of the breach of public faith, law of nations, and the
common freedom of ambassadors), they endeavour rather
to aggravate the unkindness, than to discover any positive
* Cromwell.
88 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loitoon,
menacing, which yet they forget not to imply; craving
the time of three months warning (according to mutual
engagement), before a war (if no other satisfaction in the
interim) be recommenced.
The Prince Elector (with some ceremony) is gone for
Holland, from whence Mr. Strickland writes Avord that
Monsieur Pau, the Ambassador (returned, not long since,
out of England), hath made a very favourable relation of
his noble usage here : and that the States will not inter-
pose in the difference between the Prince and parliament,
with matter to the same effect.
Lieutenant-Gen. Cromwell, with some other gifted
champions of the army, exercised yesterday at Whitehall,
to inquire of the Lord (according to the language now in
use) whether he were the person destined for the Lrish
employment (whither, I dare assure you, he hath no
mind at all to go, but haply may be caught) ; and for the
good success of this, there is to be a day of public
humiliation.
Our great navy here advanceth not with that speed as
is desired, the seamen being very much unsatisfied to
admit of landsmen to force them. For all this, here are
many vessels in preparation — some gone forth already,
and others upon expectation of a more favourable wind to
bring them into the sea. Some fire-ships, I conjecture,
may accompany them ; by something I have both heard
and seen. Here is talk as if theii* Vice-Admiral (dis-
puting with a States man-of-war for the courtesy of the
seas due to the King) had received much hurt and loss ;
others say. Prince Rupert met with her : but neither of
them are confirmed.
It is likewise reported that David Lesley and his anta-
gonists in Scotland are likely to accord, and that the party
in Holderness for his Majesty proves to be true ; but no
such thing as was given out, that any Danes or Swedes
were landed. Some write, out of Holland, that Montrose
and his old enemies are Ukely to luiite : if that could be
effected, and tliat but one interest were prosecuted, it
would much conduce to the wishes of many ; but we think
here tliat a Scotch enmity is implacable. There are
whisperings as if Jones and Ormond were accorded ;
which, methinks, seemeth hkewise to correspond with your
1649.] JOHN EVELYK 39
expression, viz. " Upon the arrival of the good news here
out of Ireland," &c. If that be so, believe what a great
person among the States let fall to a friend of ours the
other day : " We have e'en cast our selves upon Providence,
and know not which way to turn our selves."
The Countess of Peterborough is secured, and the Lord
of Carlisle since sent to the Tower.
Please to advise to what persons you communicate
the author of this inteUigence, for he desires to be con-
cealed.
London, 26 March, 1649.
Sir,
My last bears date the 22nd current, since which
it is here reported that Pomfret Castle is delivered; all,
except six only, to have mercy ; three of whom, making a
desperate sally, escaped ; the other three are taken. This,
for the present, is all the certainty we have ; and I fear it
is too true. Neither do we hear of any thing more from
the Lancashire men, who (although still very troublesome
to the faction here) yet it seems did not think of relieving
those distressed men.
I was told this morning (of one that pretends good
intelligence) that there were two ships of corn gotten into
Dublin; but Joneses brother (newly come over) reporteth
that the city cannot hold out above a week longer. For
my part, I give faith to neither ; only this, I think it were
time the Lord Lieutenant despatched that work ; for here
are preparations of great strength intended, Cromwell
himself resohdng to go in person.
Prince Rupert hath taken at sea near upon twenty
sail of very considerable ships, richly freight with wines
and other commodities from divers ports in Spain, two
whereof are exceeding rich in plate, and one bearing
thirty pieces of ordnance ; which news, being but few
hours old, hath given a wonderful alarm to this city,
and will doubtless much impede their maritime prepa-
rations.
J. Lilbume hath published a second part of England's
New Chains, in pursuance of the Levelling petition of
40 CORRESPONDENCE OP [lokdon,
September 11th, wherein he doth to the life discover the
late perfidious sopliistications of our grandees, and, in the
name of an host of his party, doth solemnly protest
against their dissimulation in bringing up the army into
the city, the extra-judicial proceeding with the King, the
discomposing the Houses, their election, establishing High
Courts, and Council of State, and present aweing of the par-
liament— almost against all their late transactions. What
this will come to, time will evidence.
We hear of commissioners coming out of Scotland
hither, which we take to be an ill sign, unless matters
be carried on prudently with that kingdom ; in order to
which, and some other particulars, I am much solicited
(by persons of great faith to his Majesty's cause, and of
equal abilities and intelligence of present afi'airs) to
recommend unto your best opportunity with the King's
Council, these few particulars following, viz. :
1st. That his Majesty be desired, if possible, to close
with the Scots as to condescensions of ratifying what
church government they please, in their own kingdom ;
and for this of England, that he will absolutely refer it
to a synod of divines, and a new free parliament, to be
chosen after his restitution.
2nd. That he would suddenly publish a favoui'able
declaration to the city of London, as likewise to the Pres-
byterian party in general, and all others that have not
had any hand in the late destruction of his father ; for, by
this means, he will preserve them both from that feared
coalescence with the army, unto which only their despair
of the King's mercy and protection, it is doubted, may
incline them — the sole endeavour of the Grandees now
being, after this breaking of their spirits, to persuade
them that their iniquities are unpardonable. And in this
piece his Majesty cannot be too indulgent and kind in
his expressions : some great leaders of the Presbyterians
being, to my knowledge, well inclining, since the late
proceedings, could they but have assurance from abroad ;
especially such as were distinguished here by the name of
politic Presbyters, and of which the number fully equals
the conscientious.
3rd. That he would likewise declare to the mariners
upon what terms they shall be received upon their
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 41
coming ia; fully explaining ttie cause of that rigour which
is reported here to have been exercised towards some
taken lately about Jersey, which (though I conceive a
falsehood only raised here) hath of late much discouraged
some of the inferior, yet most useful, condition.
4th. Lastly, that in all these he would close with the
Protestant profession, and do nothing as to the point of
punishing offenders and Government, but what shall be
approved of by the old way of a free parliament, and the
known laws of the land.
These particulars, I was soberly conjured to recommend
unto you ; desiring that they may be seriously communi-
cated to some of his JNIajesty's council, as expedients
most proper for the present temper of the kingdom, and
especially of this city, which in the meanest of her condi-
tion is capable to do hurt or good to the King's affairs.
The Scots play the knaves, it is feared.
You are likewise requested to carry this advice with all
caution as to the party communicating it unto you, who
herein ventures both his life and fortune upon the least
miscarriage or discovery. Burn therefore this paper ; after
you have made your abstract.
My cypher being not here, I was compelled to be thus
plain. Let me know of the receipt hereof.
Superscribed — " Concealment."
Lmdon, 29 March, 1649. '
Sir,
Supposing that Paris is now free of the investi-
ture, a certain accommodation being here in every man's
mouth, I presume to adventure this letter by the ordinary
address.
I should be glad to hear of the resolutions, touching
the last affairs, importing my particular. After which, I
shall more seriously think of obeying your commands, in
order to my coming over. But, before this can be
effected, I must see the fruits of this uncontradicted
accord, by the usual frequency of your letters ; which have
hitherto been so great strangers, that I have cause ex-
tremely to doubt of the reality of our common reports;
every man corresponding at Paris daily receiving their
48 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
intelligence, — a favour which I do not often obtain, though
I extremely desire it.
There is little at present to be added to my former
intelligence but the rendition of Pomfract Castle, which
was as my former advised you. Neither were mine
apprehensions of the Scots frivolous, since they have
taken oflf the head of Huntly for being a cavalier;
banished and proscribed the Marquis of Montrose,
Lanerick, Seaforth, Lauderdale, &c. ; and taken away the
hereditary sliriefships from the nobility, and all donations
for the laity. So that their invitation of the King was
in all probability but a device to have betrayed him into
the hands of sinners. The subjugation of those of the
north of Scotland is not yet well understood. The stub-
born men of Lancashire afford us matter of various
discourse ; but nothing so much as the unexpected sur-
prisal and intowering* of John Lilburne, proclaiming him
traitor ; which suflfering of his, it is supposed, will but
stimulate his faction, if not render them desperate.
That which I mentioned of the late sea-prize is alto-
gether confirmed, and hath wrought very great apprehen-
sions in this town, for remedy whereof I see yet no sudden
appearance. As for Ireland, make use of this, if you can
conveniently.
It is determined, by supreme council here, that Jones
shall sooner set fire on the city than yield it ; which
resolution, doubtless, if the inhabitants understood it,
would much alter the matter.
If you love me let me hear from you, and what from
me you have of late received ; for it is to satisfy your most
humble,
Aplanos.
I would now have written to Veliora, who tells me she
expects me, but being at a tavern with ray brother and
some others, I could not have time.
* Throwing into the Tower.
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 43
London, April 2nd, 1649.
Sir,
By this time mine of the 26th and 29th are come
safe to hand. So much favour I promise myself from that
late, yet welcome accommodation, which it is reported
here hath now been made in France. I hope likewise
(with some of my late ones) you have received your bills
of exchange, together with what I proposed unto you about
your manor at W., as it was the last resolution and debate
at the departure of my uncle, since which I have received
nothing from you, which I extremely wonder at, seeing to
all other corresponding in France letters come weekly
without any stop or interruption.
I am come this day from D. (whither I was gone two
days for fresh air), and now think not to stir from this
city till I have so exactly adjusted mine affairs, disposed
of some valuable goods, and made myself fit for any motion,
or long absence (if so necessity require). All which I
presume may be seasonably finished by the conclusion of
this ensuing term. After which (if my presence at Paris
may import you, without farther engaging myself, in case of
your absence from thence), I shall put myself in a posture
to be suddenly with you: and, certainly, nothing could
satisfy me more than to see you in some hopeful employ-
ment, whilst it any way lay in my power to be useful unto
you, which I conceive I should no way better be, and safer,
than if, having settled your family, you were pleased to
add me to the number of your domestiques. Neither shall
my absence from this distracted kingdom any way preju-
dice your intelligence from home, having already laid
and prepared such friends here, as shall abundantly, yet
not superfluously, supply all mine imperfections of that
kind.
The news take as followeth :
Pomfret, with the circumstances delivered in my last, is
rendered, and is forthwith to be demolished. It is thought
the Lancashire business will disband, and come to nothing;
whereupon also CHtheroe Castle is to be likewise dis^
mantled. The affairs of Scotland, as my last spake them;
though some, not your servant, think it is but in show.
An order is drawing up to attaint my Lord of Ormond a
44 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
traitor nnd rebel. Upon his new declaration, John Lil-
burne is in the tower, proclaimed traitor ; for which his
party are very angry, and some say, threaten great matters.
Prince Rupert's thri\ing at sea, according to my last, is
confirmed ; and some report for certain, that the Constant
Warwick frigate, with three or four more good ships, are
since gone unto him. The design here for Ireland goes
on but slowly, yet something will be suddenly done. The
Lord Mayor, for not obeying the army's command, in
personally proclaiming the act of having no more kingly
government, is sent to the tower for a month, fined £2000,
and disabled from bearing any office.
This is news of concernment and of great consequence.
Maxfield is arrested for a debt of £60,000, formerly lent
to the King, and now owing to merchants ; for which a
petition is given in, that some crown-lands may be sold to
satisfy the debt. The K. going for Ireland is not liked by
such as say they wish him well here, desiring that he
would sit secure in some third place, rather than engage
his person.
Superacribed — "A Monsieur, Monsieur Kibble, Mai'chant Anglois,
demeurant avec Monsieur Laurance Greene, a la Ville de Venize aux
Faubourgs St Germains, a Paris."
London, 5th April, 1649.
Sia,
This parcel of a week (since my last to you) hath
afforded so little news, that there is almost nothing to
^vrite, but that still I receive no letters from Paris. I am
confident that your old address is still good, and therefore
desire you to continue it. Mine, of April the 2nd, in-
formed you of the proceedings and censure of the Lord
Mayor, in whose room there is since one Andrews chosen,
a man not so refractory. Their divisions in Scotland,
whereby D. Lesley is environed with some danger, still
continue. All who declare for the King, and it is here
feared that the Hamiltonians may strike in, if not sup-
pressed are persecuted to the death.
[The remainder of this sentence being unintelligible from the numerous
ciphers, is omitted.]
The ambassadors of France and Spain are preparing to
1649.] JOHN EVELYN". 45
be gone. It was last week bruited that 135 is under some
cloud in Paris. Be assured he hath laboured all he could
to foment matters there, as I could show you by a letter,
printed not long since; and you would do a piece of
service to inform the Council of France, that there are yet
amongst them divers agents who are to endeavour another
irruption, if possible ; for nothing is so formidable here as
a conjunction betwixt Spain and you.
My uncle is not yet returned, anjd it concerns me to
know whether mine of March 26th came to hand.
I have herein enclosed you a cursory proof of the youth^s
writing, which truly he performs with a wonderful facility
and strange sweetness of hand; nor can you be so fitted
in every respect. He is young, humble, congruously
literate, very apprehensive and ingenuous, and may be of
great use to you (when you can spare him) in schooHng
your son. He is my brother-in-law^s jewel, and from
whom, but to you only, I am confident he would not have
parted. His person is not very gracious, the small pox
having quite put out one of his eyes; but he is of good
shape; and I know you do not expect a horse, which
whoever buys for show, may lose his race. Truly, I am of
opinion you will be very proud of him, and may make him
your secretary with a great deal of reason ; however, if
you do not like him, I am now resolved never to part with
him, so long as he is willing to be with me; and above all,
he is admirably temperate.
The Anabaptists^ desire of engrossing the whole kingdom
into their hands, promising to provide for the ar»my, set
the poor on work, and repay public faith — for being of
that prodigious nature, I forbear to speak further of.*
London, I6th April, 1649.
Sir,
The small intelligence come to us, since my last,
would have quitted you this trouble, but to make recapitu-
lation of the enclosed, which you are desii-ed to peruse and
address.
* Some of the " Socialist " schemes propounded at this time by the
Anabaptists (or Fifth Monarchy men) and Levellers were almost identical
with French and German theories of Socialism in our own day.
46 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
It were still highly to be wished that those D.,* which I
have 80 long pressed (from certain knowledge of the good
effects they may produce) were by this time put in a way
of publication; and, if I could convey you from what
sober persons I am solicited, of mucli expedience to
hinder a conjunction, assure a diffident party, and buoy up
the spirits of the people, I make no question some speedy
course would be taken about it.
It is here reported that the regiment now ready to
embark for Chester, refuse to go. In the meantime, here
come many complaints of P. R. and P. M.,t how they
treat the seamen and persons of higher quality in Ireland;
which, if true, will prove exceedingly disadvantageous to
the greatest of our hopes. For if that business of the
fleet be not carefully managed, and some generally beloved
person put into that trust, never look for good, as it now
remains. So much I perceive by all discoveries.
and the others of that strain (though there were no more
in it than the universal disaffection to them), are of infinite
scandal on this side; and I am confident do extremely
wrong the Cause. And one would think (as it is commonly
said) the K.;}: had now no need; for the humour of two or
three endanger the absolute losing of as many hundred
thousands. All which, suggested not from me, you are to
receive as the Vox Populi.
P. El. P.§ hath obtained much favour here amongst the
Grandees, who take orders still to continue his stipend, for
which it is believed he is to pay them some considerable
service: it would be well looked into: you know what
relations of his are at sea.
If the old Earl of Norwich marry my Lady Kingsmill,
and get both his person and estate freed, you will believe
something that I long since intimated. It is not yet
known whether the condemned Welshmen shall be
executed or banished. They find still very great difficul-
ties in the sea-affairs, and I do not hear of any great fleet,
besides those already at sea with Popham and five more,
now ready to put out from Portsmouth. The Common
' • Allusion is evidently made to the demands of the moderate Royalists,
contained in the letter, ante p. 29.
f Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice. f The King.
§ Prince Elector Palatine.
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 47
Council require double security with Deans and Chapter
lands upon loan of this last advancement; and I hear
that the new Lord Mayor begins to make some scruple
of publishing their unkingly proclamation without the
politic assistance of this city in body representative, which
they refuse.
Be assured that the news of this last week hath made
our Grandees look nothing so confidently as heretofore,
whatever be the reason.
It is verily beheved that if there had not been some
falling-out by late discourtesies done to 159 from 183, he
had ere this been master of 152.
And this is all I know at present.
P.S. The levelling party are now so high that I may
shortly write you word of the return of those soldiers marched
out of this city, and destined for Ireland, to do as great a
violence to this stately council as lately they did to the
Parliament, for such is their resolution against Cromwell
and his followers. They are likewise changing all their
commanders. Philipp and Montgomery, the first of that
name, took his place this day in the Commons' House.
We have no ill news from Holland ; if true, the States
talk of building gallies, and making slaves.
Superscribed — « A Monsieur, Monsieitr Robert Kibble, Demenrantavee
Mens. Greene, Merchand Anglois, a I'Hostel de Venize, aux Faubourgs St.
Germain, a Paris."
No date. About the middle of April, 1649.
Sir,
Yours of the 10th received. I much joy to un-
derstand what of mine have come to hand, especially that
so much here expected and desired, in order to a free and
gracious D. both to city, presbyterian, and mariners ; and
that before their fears and want of confidence (being alto-
gether their pretence) necessitate them to a compliance
with the army — now (I say), whilst matters are warm and
exasperated, as hath of late been in this city, since (after
degraduating the Lord Mayor) they have voted five more
of the principal aldermen* out of the city government,
* In margin : — " Goore, Adams, Langhara, Bunce, and Reynardson, men
able to furnish with great sums, some of them having most part of their
estates beyond sea, and moderately inclined."
48 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
thereby to make it absolutely their own, resolved to elect
such men in their places as shall force this ass to receive
all such burthens as their unmercifulnesses please to lay
upon it, and from which these aldermen had hitherto
exceedingly obstructed them.
Contrary to all expectations, a fleet is at last patched
up, consisting of thirty stout, yet mixed, vessels, which
are now under sail, ready to visit the Irish coasts ; besides,
they are preparing as many more to bring up the rear, so
soon as they can be fitted. If these be not broken, good
men here will much despair ; but, if reduced, believe it
the hook is in their nostrils.
There is no more of the last week's confident reports
that Dublin should be surrendered; but this is certain,
that three commissioners are despatched from hence to
treat anew with the Catholics, in hope that by outbidding
the Lord Lieutenant the bargain may be repented, and a
party gained. But, as for land forces to be in a great for-
wardness to be sent into that kingdom, as yet I discover
not ; nor are they much to be feared, if the divisions in Scot-
land grow so high as already to have engaged Lesley and
the Huntleans. But this, though formally related, is but
pamphlet news; and to which I adhibit no more faith than
to assure myself that the distractions there may prove
capable of a great diversion here, where there are the
regiments designed to march northwards (as it is conjec-
tured) to assist Argyle in case it grow to a business, and
he be overpowered.
They are proceeding with the Lord Carlisle and the rest
of the Welsh prisoners ; but what will be the issue is not
known : only it is said that they pretend to have discovered
matters of great proof against Brown for having received
£20,000 towards this last summer's engagement, for which
he is ordered to be speedily sent for from Windsor Castle,
bis prison.
There is nothing here so much abhorred as a peace
'twixt your two crowns of France and Spain, for which
aU applications are used to the Hollanders that they
would interrupt it, upon reason of state, well knowing that
their joint interest can no longer well subsist but in
troubled fountains.
If the king ever think to thrive here he must provide
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 49
bim a good body of borse, of wbicb tbe army bere are
generally so well provided, that a more complete and
numerous is not easily to be seen. If this could be com-
[mssed upon safe stand and repose, all other advantages
vt ould soon fall in of themselves.
If Hide and some others (ejusdem luti*) be of your
council it Avill generally disgust, and be resented here;
their persons being obnoxious to all sides and inclinations.
It was reported here that you were 107, but it is
not since confirmed. We much desire to know how you
shape your course, and what both your private and public
resolutions are.
You are yet to receive and account for mine of the 29th
]March, likewise April 2nd and 5th, besides this.
London, 2ird April, 1649.
Sir,
I shall write very abruptly to you, as also to my
lady, for which I desire you to forbear my reasons, till the
next return. I omitted also the last Thursday upon the
same account. Since my last; little news, but great expec-
tations from Dublin, which some (not your servant) affirm
to be delivered. Here are great preparations on this side :
12,000 drawn out by lot, the greatest part whereof, it is
said, are unanimous. Shipping likewise is endeavoured,
M. G. Cromwell showing a readiness, though some will
not believe all these appearances.
In the mean time, while the new King declares nothing
of his intentionst to this nation but what is printed out of
Holland, &c., we are easily persuaded (even the most
moderate as well as rigid Presbyterian, and divers of other
stuff) that he prepares only for an absolute conquest,
without warning, condition, or moderation. Against
Avhich I find most men inclined to oppose, by a juncture
with the new Commonwealth. Verbum sat .
John Lillburne is much threatened, and returneth as
liigh. This day legions of women went down to clamour the
House for his enlargement, but had not welcome. Poyer
i * Of the same vile stamp,
t Another allusion to the demands, ante p. 40, 41,
60 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londok,
ia by lot appointed to die, as this day, if his petition prevail
not. Prom Scotland we have nothing certain ; but from
sea divers reports of losses, but none from reporters of
credit. They have now set forth a fair fleet at last ; but
no tidings of successes as yet. Those that are to succeed
them are well stored with chains and grappling-hooks,
with which stratagem great things are promised to be
done.
The Queen's goods, hangings, &c., are brought &x)m
Wimbledon, to adorn the Lord-General's lodgings ; and
the rest kept at Somerset House. The news of late
hath not much pleased, and so you must pardon these
rags of intelhgence from,
Sir, yours, so long as I last.
Some say the regiments which lay at Chester mis-
carried ; others, that they are not yet gone ; others, that
they are landed.
Superscribed — " A Monaeur, Monsieur Kibble, Demeurant avec Mons.
Lawrence Greene, Mercliand Anglob, a la Ville de Venice, aux Faubourgs
St. Germains, k Paris."
London, May 10, 1649.
SlE,
T this day received your congratulatory distich,
with other your aflectionate expressions of the 15th current,
for which please to accept this acknowledgment and second
confirmation of my perfect recovery.
Our business of W. is not yet ripe for a conclusion ; the
title proving so unsatisfactory to counsel, in defect of a
former recovery. But, upon what you were pleased lately
to assure me under your hands, I shall make no doubt of
proceeding ; neither should I have pressed so far but to
satisfy my friends here, &c. And now I must beg your
pardon for omitting the last post, having, ever since mine
enlargement, been obliged to return many of my friend's
visits, and so incerti laris till this day, which is the first I
have enjoyed without interruption.
Every day is now big with news ; since this levelling
distemper hath so epidemically spread itself among
the soldiers, that the General himself and Lieutenant-
1W9.] JOHN EVELYN. 51
General are, both of them, with what forces they were
capable to draw forth, marched towards Oxford and Sahs-
bury, with absolute intentions (if they cannot otherwise
accommodate) to put it to the hazard of a day ; which,
Avhatever others affirm, they are hke enough to carry,
surprising them thus in the infancy of their bold declara-
tion, which hath been seconded by the continual petitions
of both sexes for several days past. In the mean time,
to prevent the escape of John Lillbume, the Tower of
London was yesterday seized upon by four troops of horse,
sent in by the Lieutenant-General, who have possessed
themselves thereof, and outed the Governor ; so that John
is now faster in Limbo than ever. What will be the
result of these strange confusions and distempers, you may
imagine; it being not easy for me to determine, further
than that it is probable to impede the preparations for
Ireland, from whence we receive nothing which is certain.
Neither is our intelligence such, out of Scotland, as
speaks anything positively of an agreement with their
King; only Middleton's party, with the Gordons, are
acknowledged to be very strong, and not a little formidable,
insomuch as it is conceived here, that if the King do not
accord with the Kirk, Sir John will be forced to invite a
parliamentary assistance from their brethren here. From
Holland it is credibly reported that Dr. Dorislaus (lately
despatched from here upon affairs of State, or as others
affirm, to prepare something previous to an intended
embassy) was assassinated by some Scotchmen, who sur-
prised him at supper, at the Hague. Believe it, this is a
very unwelcome news to the Grand Council.
I was informed, from a singular hand this day, that Prince
Rupert had taken, in these summer's fortunes at sea, of
money and staple prizes, to the value of two hundred
thousand pounds; with which he is fortifying himself at
Kinsale, without rendering any further account.
There are divers spies pensioned here, from the King^s
Court; which should be looked into. You would little
conceive John Birkenhead should be one. Nor dare I
affirm it ; but, as it is my manner to write all that I hear,
you must pick and leave what is for your turn. I have no
particular passion to any man, and therefore please to
correct me when I transgress. You shall best know how
s 2
52 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
to value mine intelligence, as you shall see it answered by
the success of things; though that be now no perfect rule
to judge by.
Sir, I am too bold, but it is to let you understand how
absolutely I am
Your unfeigned servant.
My uncle J. and his wife being in town, I have been to
visit them this afternoon.
London, \iih May, 1649.
Sir,
Since mine of May 10th, here is arrived so small
intelligence from the army, on whose actions depend all
our expectations, that I know not what to write, where to
fix. The General is still pursuing the reduction of the
levellers, which he is resolved to do either by money, pro-
mises, or blows. And it is certain that Col. Reynolds,
attempting to reduce a party of them near Banbury, had
his lieutenant slain ; so that there is blood drawn, though,
it is said, he afterwards dispersed them. What the rest
(in a great body) have done or will do, is not mine to
determine ; but the most sober men believe it will con-
clude, at least, in a present and superficial accommodation;
others, and they not few, that they will never be appeased
till this Council be abolished, the Parliament determined,
and all their demands absolutely granted.
In the mean time, to stay your stomachs at Paris, it is
now communicated to me as a very great secret, even
from persons of very great moderation and singular
interest, that this defection of theirs hath something more
in it than as yet appeareth, and that they have privately
debated these brief particulars, viz. :
1. If slaves, then to him that hath right; to a king
rather than fellow-subjects.
2. If free, as free as heaven and earth can make us ; for
in a month's revolution great mutations may be made,
and great ones called to account.
3. To incline to monarchy strictly regulated.
4. A speedy rendezvous, and declaration according to
papers dispersed by faithful hands into all parts of the
kingdom.
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 53
5. A dilemma put upon the Parliament either to try or
not to try John Lillburne ; if not, then sure to revenge the
injury ; if, then just ground of discontent.
6. Quaere, — How to supply with Officers ? Ueply, — Any
soldiers created by them were as able as any now in
commission; for did not we make them all at Triploe
Heath?
7. Quaere, — How to prevent future ruin, in respect some
of us are for an universal toleration ; others, for English
freedom only ? Reply, — This to be debated next meeting.
And doth not this carry a serious face with it? How
facile a thing it is to deceive the credulous Cavalier ! In
his hope he hugs himself, sits still, and expects. But I
am not apt to be caught with chaflF, neither would I have
you believe omne hoc micans aurum esse.
If my next do not inform you of an accord, believe it
that there is suspicion that they will have their scope
of reigning, which is all they contest for ; and I verily
think an accommodation can be but temporary. For
any other loyal inclinations in them, I can in no way
deduce it.
The L.-Gen. Cromwell is returned to London, to make
all sure here, where he hath caused treble watches to be
kept for this night past. The corpse of Dorislaus, now
brought hither, is to be interred with pompous solemnity.
Here is yet no more out of Ireland nor the North -, and
now to ourselves.
In the business of W., we have perfectly made a con-
clusion, so soon as the deed is sealed, &c., by you and my
mother, with which the fine shall (if possible) be conveyed
to you next post-day ; for, till that be past, neither estate
nor mortgage is valid in law longer than you live ; nor
were your heirs any way responsible to mine uncle, if you
had failed, in default of a recovery, as now (as not till
now) he very well knows. In the interim, I shall secure
to mine uncle the payment of the remainder, so soon as
either of you shall determine of the sum, which I desire
you should do speedily, that I may provide the monies.
And here again I do freely reiterate my promise of settling
the land upon my dear wife, as the least part of what I
have already given her in my will. This being perfected,
I shall adjust the time of my coming over, being exceed-
54 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
ingly desirous to confer with you about many things. And
so, I beseech God to bless us with a happy meeting.
Sir, your most obedient servant,
Evelyn.
I have made all possible means to procure those orders
you spake of. S. D. C. protests that he left all his papers,
&c., at Oxon ; and others whom I employ can yet give me
no account, most of those things being in the custody of
our Grandees. Notwithstanding, I will still do mine
endeavour till I receive your supersedeas.
To-morrow I intend to visit, where are my uncle Jo.
and his lady, for a day or two.
London, 7th JunCf 1649.
Sir,
I yesterday received yours of the 12th current,
with the duplicates enclosed; all which shall be duly
thought on. My aunt P. is fallen here sick of the
measles ; so that now our western journey is absolutely
put off, and my southern approaches very near. I have
been this day visiting all our noble friends in this town,
to give them notice that they make ready their commands
against next week ; what time I intend to take leave of
them, and the week following to put my foot into the
stirrup. In the meantime (to-morrow) my uncle and I
shall set an hour apart to determine what is fai'ther to be
done in the business of W., in case my brother's money
should not come in, he depending altogether upon a
creditor, who promised to pay him in £2000 ; so that,
however matters fall out, we will so order it, that both you
and your servant be well satisfied, and of which I shall
haste to render you a more full account.
For news, I never knew anything more uncertain than
the reports which come to us of something done lately at
Kinsale. But, because you may desire it, I will let you
know both what we wish, and what we fear. The cavaliers'
news goes current, that a squadron of the States' ships*
having as they thought gained the governor of the
castle by a present, &c., entered the haven, and there,
* Ships of the Parliament.
1649.] JOHN EVELYN. 55
putting themselves in posture to have destroyed the P.
fleet,* and to have reduced the town, their friends in
the castle let fly at them with such courage and success,
that with the help of the ships in port, and store of shot
from the town, they took and sunk divers of their ships,
and half ruined them for this summer. But how consist-
ent this is with the last night's Order, that the present
blocking up of Kinsale, and thereby the probable reduc-
tion of Prince Rupert^s fleet, be added as an ingredient to
this day of thanksgiving in all the pulpits, I leave you to
judge. Their Admiral Popham is for certain come to this
town, which some interpret a confirmation of their being
worsted ; others say, it is to solicit for six months pro-
visions more, resolving to tire them out with over- watch-
ing (so you know did Warwick the last summer), which I
take to be as likely.
But, whilst I am telling you what we hear from sea, I
must not forget to let you know how matters go on shore,
this solemn day of triumph in the city.
First, the Grandees, my Lord-General upon one of the
late king's horses, went modestly through the streets to
Christ Church, where, first entered the president in a black
velvet gown, richly faced with gold, and his train borne
up by two. Next him, the Speaker, and Commissioners
of the Great Seal. After him the General; then the
House of Commons. Cromwell at the tail of three Lords,t
which was all that were there. In this order they
took their places, and were fitted with a double sermon.
Going from church towards Grocers' Hall, where they
dined, the Lord Mayor delivered up his sword and mace
to the Speaker, with this compliment, that as he had been
a faithful servant to the King, so would he now be no less
to the States ; and with that it was re-delivered him accord-
ing to the custom. Being entered the Hall, the bason
and ewer of gold were presented to the General, and a
fair cupboard of silver to the L. Gen. After this they sate
at table, in the same order in which they entered the
church, where they had as luxurious an entertainment as
you can imagine.
Thus, being now warm, and settled in the new govem-
* Prince Rupert's.
+ Salisbury, Pembroke, and Lisle (in margin).
56 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London.
ment, they are upon reforming most of the courts of justice,
and resolve to confirm themselves by all means imaginable.
I hear for certain that the Isle of Scilly is in very ill-
condition for want of corn, and that those Irish lately put
on shore there (since the sickness of the governor) are
exceedingly insolent.
Here are speedy preparations for Ireland ; and no doubt
but Col. Jones will be able to march into the field with a
very little addition.
This is all the news which I have thus confusedly made
up ; the streets being at present so full of noise and tumult,
occasioned by three or four wild gents * in drink, that I
scarce know what I am doing, nor how it will end.
Here are five Straits' merchant-ships, the custom
amounting to above £50,000, just come into the river.
Alexander Rossf to John Evelyn.
London, May 20, 1650,
Noble Mr. Evelyn,
I have received a rich jewel from you which I
more value than Alexander did Darius his cabinet or
Homer's Iliads. You have doubly obliged me to you,
first in remembering me who have merited nothing from
you, then in bestowing on me such a present, whose verses
I esteem as peerless ; in the one you show your goodness,
in the other your judgment. Sir, I have nothing to
return you but verbal thanks, only I shall entreat you
to accept this mite for your rich present, instead of a better
gift. I would have sent you this epitome bound, but
Mr. Bedell told me that you would bind it to your own
mind ; then. Sir, your Virgil shall bear your name in the
frontispiece as benefactor; and it shall always be my
remembrance of your worth and goodness, and withal
of my thankful acknowledgments, who shall, till death,
remain, Sir, Your faithful servant,
Alexander lloss.
Sic in Original t Sec Diary, vol. i., p.
40G.
1661.] JOHN EVELYN. 57
Alexander Ross to John Evelyn.
London, July 21.
Worthy Sir,
I received yesternight your letter and translation,
the beginning whereof I have yesternight and this morning
perused; but sometime will be requisite to peruse it all
with judgment. I have taken the boldness to mark
some of its pages, as I desire to confer with you about it.
I am sorry to be called from it, but this morning I am
bound to Hertfordshire upon urgent business ; on my
return I will solace myself with the melody of your
muse, which I will bring to you myself, and pay the debt
of a visit I owe you. With my humble service, I rest your
very humble servant to command,
Alexander Eoss.
John Evelyn to Lady Garret.
Paris, 9th Octob., 1651.
It had not been now that the grateful resentiments
of your Ladyship's favour remained so long for a fair gale
on this side, if the least opportunity had presented itself
before the return of this noble gentleman ; and however
Fortune (who esteemed it too great a favour for me) has
otherwise disposed of the present which you sent me, I
think myself to have received it as effectually in your
Ladyship's design and purpose, as if it were now glistening
upon my finger. I am only sorry, that because I missed
that, I did not receive your commands ; and that an obli-
gation of so much value seems to have been thrown away,
whilst I remain in another country useless to you. I will
not say, that the way to find what is lost, is to fling
another after it; but if any services of your Ladyship
perished with that jewel, there can be no danger in re-
inforcing your commands, and repairing the greater loss,
seeing there is nothing in the world which with more
passion I pretend to, than to continue. Madam,
Your Ladyship^s, &c.
58 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lonton,
Dean Cosin * to John Evelyn.
Parit, 18 December, 1651.
Dear Mr. Evelyn,
I have been told that, upon the news of my
conversion to the Catholic Faith, and of my retirement
thereupon, it hath been given out amongst divers, that
I have been inveigled by the priests of our nation, allured
by fair promises to desert my former religion, and now
by them detained in such restraint, as not to be permitted
to converse with or to repair unto my friends. Hence some
have proceeded to exclaim, " What a baibarous and uncon-
scionable thing it is to separate a son from his father,
and to encourage him in this act of disobedience against
him/' Weak refuges these, alas, to defend themselves !
much weaker arguments to reduce me from where I am.
I beseech you, therefore, to know (and also to let others
know), that I cannot but esteem this report as a foul
aspersion cast upon myself; and I make bold upon this
occasion to beg this favour of you, confiding to your can-
did and uninterested ingenuity that I have foiuid in you,
that you will afford it me ; seeing it is only to assist me to
manifest the truth without prejudice to any.
Surely I have neither so much debility and weakness
in my capacity ; so little understanding, constancy, and
resolution ; so much of the cliild, nor so little of the man ;
as to be fooled into any other religion by fair words, or
be kept in it by threats. What I have done I assure you
is wholly voluntary — not violently forced, not foolishly
persuaded, not drawn, except I may be said to be sweetly
drawn (which I willingly confess) by the powerful hand
of Almighty God, whose infinite goodness hath been
* Tliis is the letter referred to by Evelyn in the ZH'ary, vol. i. p. 273.
The writer had become a Roman Catholic, " debauched by the priests," says
Evelyn, bat, in truth, prepared for conversion or perversion by the teaching
of his father, the Dean, whose indignation at the result is very much what
Dr. Pusey may be supposed to have felt at Mr. Newman's departure f<Mr
Rome. Dean Cosin, aftenvaiHls Bishop of Durham, was one of the most
popish of Anglican divines, as even Evelyn's occasional notices of him
may prove (see Diary, vol. L pp. 266, 270), and as his published writings
more plainly testify.
1651.] JOHN EVELTK 59
pleased to strengthen my heart (after some years of reluct-
ancy) to embrace His truth; and hath also given me a
firm and solid resolution (as I hope) never to deviate from
His right ways. Believe me, Sir, these desires of mine
were not first conceived nor discovered in France (I mean
very privately to, or by, some friends of mine. Catholics,
in secret discourse, which was sometimes my own desire
to content myself) ; I have had them in some degree a
longer time, though I deferred the execution of them
until now, not so much to satisfy a discontented world
that I did not with temerity resolve, as out of a private
and eager apprehension that I might (if any where) meet
here in Paris with dear satisfaction.
When I had sought here for this quiet to my troubled
mind, with all the diligence I could possibly use (without
discovering myself to any, which, I must confess, I durst
not do on one side, and on the other side as yet I would
not), and neither in this way could I find any repose, —
what had I to do but to extricate myself from the labyrinth
of those ambiguities which had caused me to doubt. Which
I did privately, too ; by hearing the public disputations of
the reverend fathers of many several religious houses and
orders, and other scholars ; by reading some manuscripts
dictated by the learned doctors of the Sorbonne, by fre-
quenting their lectures, in which truth was so clear and
solid, so evident, so perspicuous and evincing, that in my
opinion no man was able to resist it :
potius fugientia ripas
riumina devincat, rapidis aut ignibus obstet.
Where is there yet any barbarism in our priests ? Is
it for keeping constant to their integrity of conscience?
Or that I have turned, not to those priests only, but to
the Father of those priests (whose ministers they are),
my Saviour Christ. Or is it for rejoicing at the conversion
of a sinner, which is the joy of the blessed angels in
Heaven? Though, Sir, their wisdom and piety, their
love of God in Christ (for which they daily bear the
cross of most opprobrious contumelies with great joy,
patience, and long-suffering), doth carry them so tran-
scendently to their pious obligations (whom I have had
the happiness to converse withal), I cannot choose but
60 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
vindicate their goodness and integrity, their innocence
and piety, from those slanderous indignities and heinous
false aspersions (especially in this case), which without
just indignation I cannot see so mahciously cast upon
them.
But I am separated (they say) from my dear father,
and remain in actual disobedience to his commands. If
I be separated, that separation proceeds not from the
instigation of any priest living : they have done no more
than with joy received me into the Church of God, of
which office they are not ashamed, or, if they were, I
should join myself to their present detractions, and make
their quarrel just. If I obey not his commands, it is
because I cannot hear them, and that is caused by my
absence. Sir, it is not so new a thing for children to
absent themselves for some time out of their parents*
sight, when they have done anything, though never so
justly, which may seem to displease them. My design
was to have discovered the business unto him in the
best manner ; and I believe I had done so, had not my
resolutions been unexpectedly discovered, and I too
suddenly surprised.
Believe me. Sir, my absence proceedeth rather from the
duty I confess to owe unto my dear father, than any
disrespect : and if I esteemed it otherwise, I would rather
have suflfered much more than I could have expected, than
to have withdrawn myself from him.
Had I not been assured that Catholic Doctrine did not
enjoin the payment of children's obedience and duty to
their parents, I assure you it would have been a point
that should have given me great distaste : and surely the
Grace of God cannot diminish our pious and natural
affections, since it is the complement and perfection of all
virtues. But herein I hope to give due satisfaction to the
world, when at last Time, which is edax rerum, shall first
digest all fears and discords, and then rectify their under-
standing. In the mean while, I desire to give men this
satisfaction, that I am free ; and to forgive them their own
freedom in talking so dissolutely of my restraint.
Why should people so much concern themselves as to
slander so ignominiously (I will not say barbarously)
innocent men on my behalif, if my desires of privacy be
1652.] JOHN EVELYN. 61
(as tliey are, for aught they know) out of a serious devo-
tion to get into the Church as much as I can, apprehend-
ing the danger I was in, in being so long out of it ?
This freedom, Sir, I have taken with you, as well to
quell these vulgar outcries, as to have a right understand-
ing amongst us. If, after the trouble of reading these
tedious Hues, you will not take the trouble to communicate
this for others^ satisfaction and my vindication, I hope yet
I shall not quite lose my labour ; but you will please to
believe me yourself, in whose good opinion as an inge-
nious and sober friend, I shall rest as content as in that
of the multitude.
I cannot be so confident as to think that any will
receive a salutation from a disobedient ; I shall, therefore,
remit it a while ; and when this dark cloud is more dis-
persed and blown over, that my candid innocence and
integrity in this matter may appear, I shall take the
boldness to present my service where it is due, though
not -with so much freedom and presumption, 3 et with
the same honesty and heartiness in which I now say
I am.
Dear Sir,
Your most faithful and affectionate servant,
John Cosin.
Addressed " To his much honomred friend Mr. Evelyn, at Sir Richard
Browne's, Resident fw His Majesty the King of England in
Paris" and endorsed by Evelyn : — " Brought to me late at
night by an unknown person, and answered by me, dated
1st January, by occasion of the dispersing copies of it in Her
Majesty's Chamber."
Dean Cosin to John Evelyn.
_, PariSj April 3, 1652,
biR,
If it had not been our preparation here the last
week for Easter, I should have prevented your letter
with my thanks for your kind visit that you gave my
daughter, whereof she had given me notice the week
before. Your advice and assistance in disposing of her
6£ CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londoit,
books will, I hope, make her journey more pleasant to
her than otherwise it would have been. If those l\alf
dozen that your brother hath scored, be not such as will
dismember any class, and hinder the sale of the rest
which belong unto it, she shall not do amiss to part
with them : but for them that you have a mind to your-
self (and I would for her sake, and for your own, too,
you had a mind to them all, especially to the Fathers, and
to the History, both ecclesiastical and secular, whereof
upon every occasion you will find great use), I dare
promise that she shall give you your own convenient
times of payment for such monies as you agree upon, and
that her demands for the agreement wiU be very reason-
able. Truly if you would be pleased to furnish yourself
with those classes which were chosen and designed by you
know whom, for Mr. St. (who intends not to make the use
of a good library that you are both desirous and able to
do), rather than they should be distracted elsewhere, it
will be best for her to take your payments proportionably
for several years, as you can best spare the money ; for
I would you might have as much ease in your payments
as I know you will have pleasure in the books.
I am sorry you find such confusion in ReUgion, and
such intemperance in life, where you are; but as neither of
them is pleasing to you (whom I have ever noted to be
virtuous, orderly, and conscientious in all your ways), so
it pleases me highly when you can number so many
names that make more esteem of their knees and their
souls together, than to bow them down to Baal.
I never entertained any suggestions against my daughter,
who, I am confident, hath more of God in her than ever
to be carried away with such Devil's temptations as have
seduced and undone her brother, against whom I can
hardly hold here from expressing a very great indignation.
The excellent letter you addressed to him, I presented
to his ^Majesty's view (and I presented your excuse withal
for not coming to him before you went), for whom the
copy of it was prepared; and every way it was highly
pleasing to him as he read it. But when I told him it
was my intention to publish it, though he wished it done,
yet he thought it were better for a while to spare it {rebtis
sic sianiibus), for fear of displeasing his mother the
1652.] JOHN EVELYN. 63
Queen,* wlio had been pleased to interest herself in the
matter.
I meet often with the good company of those persons
that you left behind you : but in good truth I am very
sorry that I must lose the benefit and pleasure of your
good society, which was always most acceptable to
Your assured and most humble servant,
J. CosiN.
John Evelyn to Edward Thurland.
(Afterwards Sir Edwaord Thurland, and Baron of the Exchequer.)
Zondffn, 2oth April, 1652.
Sir,
Nemo habet tarn certam manum ut non seepefalla-
tur; and yet I hope my memory shall serve me for the
subscribing this epistle, which is more than yours (dear
lawyer) could, it seems, do, when you sent me your
summons for my Court at Warley, with all those sigillary
formalities of a perfect instrument. But this is a trifling
o-^oA/Lia; and I easily supphed it, by taking the bold-
ness to write a new warrant in the most ill-favoured charac-
ter I could, that it might be the more like to your fair
hand ; it was despatched, only the day altered to be the
next before the Term, since otherwise I could not have
appeared ; and for which presumption, if you think fit to
amerce me, I desire it may be by the delegation of Mr. Jo.
Barton pro Vicario ; since, whilst I thus indulge my noble
tenant, I may not neglect to reduce my vassals, cum ita
suggerent chart(B sicut optime noveris, &c. it being the
advice of a great philosopher, and part of my Litany,
Libera te primum metu mortis {ilia enim nobis primum
jugum imponit), deinde paupertatis. The first I endeavour
to secure by physic, the latter by your learned counsel,
the effects whereof I much more desire to resent by the
favour which (I am assured) you may do your servant in
promoting his singular inchnations for Albury,t in case
* The reader will connect this curious delicacy about the Queen and the
popish convert with Evelyn's " dispersing copies " of his answer to the latter
" in her Majesty's chamber."
+ Albury, in Surrey, a seat of Mr. Howard. Thurland was one of the
trustees appointed for the sale of it. The allusion in the letter is to the
^ CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
(as I am confident it will) that seat be exposed to sale. I
know you are potent, and may do much herein ; and I
shall eternally acknowledge to have derived from you all
the favour and success, which I augur to myself from
your friendship and assistance : it being now in your power
to fix a wanderer, oblige all my relations, and, by one
integral cause, render me yours for ever. I suppose the
place will innte many candidates, but my money is good,
and it will be the sole and greatest obligation that it shall
ever be in your power to do for, dear lawyer,
Your, &c.
Thomas Barlow * to John Evelyn.
S Queen's College, Oxford, Mth March, 1654.
IR,
I have received by the hands of my ingenuous
friends, Mr. Pett and Mr. Needham, those choice pieces
which you were pleased so generously and charitably to
give to Bodley's library, and so increase our store, though
with a diminution of your own. Having no possibility
to requite this your kindness and magnificence to the
public [Beneficia tua indigne cestimat, qui de reddendo
cogitat), I have sent this little paper messenger to acknow-
ledge our obligation, and bring our heartiest thanks. I
am glad I have got your name into our register amongst
those noble and public souls, which have been our best
benefactors, and I hope it will be no dishonour to you,
when posterity shall there read your name and charity.
I know you have goodness enough to pardon this rude,
and I fear, impertinent scribble. God Almighty bless you,
and all those more generous and charitable souls, who
dare love learning, and be good in bad times ; this is, and
shall be, the prayer of
Sir, Your most obliged humble servant,
Thomas Baelow.
office of Steward of Courts, which, as appears from the second of the entries
in the Diary above referred to, Thurland at this time held for Evelyn. He
was also the author of a book on Prayer, to which allusion is hereafter made.
* Doctor Barlow is frequently mentioned in the Diary. At tlie date of
this letter he was Librarian of the Bodleian, &c. He was afterwards
Warden of Queen's and ultimately Bishop of Liucolu.
1654-5.] JOHN EVELYN. 65
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor.
Sayes-Court, 9th February, 1654-5.
The calamity which lately arrived you, came to me so
late, and with so much incertitude during my long absence
from these parts, that ^till my return, and earnest inqui-
sition, I could not be cured of my very great impatience
to be satisfied concerning your condition. But so it pleased
God, that when I had prepared that sad news, to deplore
your restraint,* I was assured of your release, and delivered
of much sorrow. It were imprudent, and a character of
much ignorance, to inquire into the cause of any good
man^s suffering in these sad times ; yet if I had learned it
out, ^twas not of my curiosity, but the discourse of some
with whom I have had some habitudes since my coming
home. I had read your Preface long since to your Golden
Grove; remember, and infinitely justify, all that you have
there asserted. ^Tis true valour to dare to be undone, and
the consequent of Truth hath ever been in danger of his
teeth, and it is a blessing if men escape so in these days,
when not the safeties ouh'^, but the souls of men are be-
trayed : whilst such as you, and such excellent assistances
as they aff'ord us, are rendered criminal, and sufter. But
you. Sir, who have furnished the world with so rare
precepts, against the efl'orts of all secular disasters what-
soever, could never be destitute of those consolations,
which you have so charitably and so piously prescribed
unto others. Yea, rather, this has turned to our immense
advantage, nor less to your glory, Avhilst men behold you
living your own institutions, and preaching to us as
* The cause of this imprisonment has been doubted, but it was evidently,
as Evelyn implies in this letter, in consequence of Taylor's attack on the
Puritan preachers in the preface to his collection of prayers called the
Golden Grove. The latter was the name of Lord Carbery's seat ; which at
about this time was invested by a troop of Cromwell's horse, and the Earl
obliged to talie refuge at a farm-house in the hills. A little later, it will be
seen, Taylor again suffered brief imprisonment in Chepstow Castle (during
his well-known controversy with Bishop Warner), having been suspected as an
instigator of the insurrection at Salisbury. Nor was it many months after
this second release that he was thrown into the Tower for some days, for the
alleged violation of an Act of Parliament.
VOL. III. F
68 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
eflfectually in your chains as in the chair, in the prison
as in the pulpit ; for methinks. Sir, I hear you pronounce
it, as indeed you act it —
Aude aliquid breribuB gyaris et carcere dignam
S via esse aliquis
that your example might shame such as betray any truth
for fear of men, whose mission and commission is from
God. You, Sir, know in the general, and I must justify
in particular with infinite cognition, the benefit I have
received from the truths you have delivered. I have
perused that excellent Unum Necessarium of yours to my
very great satisfaction and direction : and do not doubt
but it shall in time gain upon all those exceptions, which
I know you are not ignorant appear against it. 'Tis a
great deal of courage, and a great deal of peril, but to
attempt the assault of an error so inveterate,
AI 6e K€ival KpCads top aireparov obov. False opinion
knows no bottom ; and reason and prescription meet in so
few instances; but certainly you greatly vindicate the
divine goodness, which the ignorance of men and popular
mistakes have so long charged with injustice. But, Sir,
you must expect with patience the event, and the fruits
you contend for : as it shall be my daily devotions for
your success, who remain,
RevJ Sir, &c.
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor.
Lond: 18 Mar : 1656.*
Bev. Sir,
It was another extraordinary charity which you
did me, when you lately relieved my apprehensions of
* That this letter is wrongly dated is manifest, from the fact that the letter
immediately following (with the date of Januarj-) is tlie answer to it. The
allusion to the " general persecution," and EveljTi's lamentation over ** the
last farewell of God's service in this city or anywhere else in public,"
obviously refers to CromweU's measures against Episcopacy, taken dming the
present year. In one entry of the Diary (vol. i. p. 308, the 15th April), we
see that the small church of St. Gregory's by Paul's (afterwards desrtroyed
in the Great Fire), was now the only one where the ruling powers connived at
the reading of the Liturgy. In another (vol. i., p. 811, the 27th Nov.), the
Protector's edict against the epispopal party is spoken of.
]654^.] JOHN EVELYN. 67
yoiar danger, by that whicli I just now received : and
though the general persecution re-inforce, yet it is your
particular which most concerns me, in this sad catalysis
and declension of piety to which we are reduced. But,
Sir, what is now to be done that the stars of our once
bright hemisphere are everywhere falUng from their
orbs ? I remember where you have said it was the har-
binger of the great day: and a very sober and learned
person, my worthy friend, the great Oughtred,* did the
other day seriously persuade me parare in occurswn, and
will needs have the following years productive of won-
derful and universal changes. What to say of that I
know not ; but certain it is, we are brought to a sad con-
dition. I speak concerning secular yet religious persons ;
whose glory it will only be to lie buried in your ruins, a
monument too illustrious for such as I am.
For my part, I have learned from your excellent
assistances, to humble myself, and to adore the inscru-
table paths of the Most High. God and his truth are
still the same though the foundations of the world be
shaken. Julianus Redivivus can shut the schools indeed
and the temples ; but he cannot hinder our private inter-
courses and devotions, where the breast is the chapel, and
our heart is the altar. Obedience founded in the under-
standing will be the only cure and retreat. God will
accept what remains, and supply what is necessaiy. He is
not obliged to externals ; the purest ages passed under the
cruellest persecutions ; it is sometimes necessary ; and this,
and the fulfilling of prophecy, are all instruments of great
advantage (even whilst they press, and are incumbent) to
those who ean make a sanctified use of them. But, as the
thoughts of many hearts will be discovered, and multi-
tudes scandalized; so are there divers well disposed
persons who will not know how to guide themselves,
unless some such good men as you discover the secret,
and instruct them how they may secure their greatest
interest, and steer their course in this dark and uncom-
fortable weather. Some such discourse would be highly
seasonable, now that the daily sacrifice is ceasing, that all
* Wiliiara Oqghtred, Rector of Albury, author of the « Clavis Mathe-
matica," and other works, and the best geometrician of his time.
F 2
68 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
the exercise of your functions is made criminal, and that
the light of Israel is quenched. Where shall we now
receive the viaticum with safety? How shall we be
baptized ? For to this pass it is come, Sir. The comfort
is, the Captivity had no temple, no altar, no king. But did
they not observe the passover, nor circumcise ? Had they
no priests and prophets amongst them ? Many are weak
in the faith, and know not how to answer, nor whither to
fly : and if upon the apotheosis of that excellent person,
under a malicious representation of his martyrdom,
engraven in copper, and sent me by a friend from
Brussels, the Jesuit could so bitterly sarcasm upon the
emblem —
Projicis inventum caput, Anglia (Angia !) Ecclesia ! csesom
Si caput est, salvum corpus an esse potest ! —
how think you will they now insult, ravage, and break
in upon the flock ; for the shepherds are smitten, and
the sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the
great Shepherd of Souls oppose, or some of his delegates
reduce and direct us. Dear Sir, we are now preparing
to take our last farewell (as they threaten) of God's service
in this City, or any where else in public. I must confess
it is a sad consideration ; but it is what God sees best, and
to what we must submit. The comfort is, Deus providebit.
Sir, I have not yet been so happy as to see those papers
which Mr. Royston* tells me are printing, but I greatly
rejoice that you have so happily fortified that battery;
and I doubt not but you will maintain the siege : for
you must not be discouraged for the passions of a few.
Reason is reason to me wherever I find it, much more
where it conduces to a design so salutary and necessary.
At least, I wonder that those who are not convinced by
your arguments, can possibly resist your charity, and your
modesty ; but as you have greatly subdued my education
in that particular, and controversy, so am I confident
time will render you many more proselytes. And if all
* Richard Royston was bookseller to three kings, and lived at the Angel
in Ivy-lane. He held a patent for printing all the works of King Charles I.,
and Ijecame Master of the Stationers' Company in 1673 and 1674. He died
in 1 686, in the 86th year of his age, and was buried in the south aisle of
Christ Church, Newgate-street.
1655.] JOHN EVELYN. 69
do not come so freely in with their suflFrages at first,
you must with your accustomed patience attend the event.
Sir, I heseech God to conduct all your labours, those of
religion to others, and of love and affection to me, who
remain. Sir, your, &c.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
StPavl'a Convers: [25 Jan.^ (165f).
Dear Sir,
I perceive by your symptoms, how the spirits of
pious men are affected in this sad catalysis : it is an evil
time, and we ought not to hold our peace : but now the
question is, who shall speak ? Yet I am highly persuaded,
that, to good men and wise, a persecution is nothing but
changing the circumstances of religion, and the manner of
the forms and appendages of divine worship. Public or
private is all one : the first hath the advantage of society,
the second of love. There is a warmth and Hght in that,
there is heat and zeal in this : and if every person that
can, will but consider concerning the essentials of religion,
and retain them severely, and immure them as well as he
can with the same or equivalent ceremonies, I know no
difference in the thing, but that he shall have the exercise,
and consequently the reward, of other graces, for which, if
he lives and dies in prosperous days, he shall never be
crowned. But the evils are, that some will be tempted
to quit their present religion, and some to take a worse,
and some to take none at all. It is true and a sad story ;
but oportet esse hcereses, for so they that are faithful shall
be known : and I am sure that He who hath promised to
bring good out of evil, and that all things shall co-operate
to the good of them that fear God, will verify it concern-
ing persecution. But concerning a discourse upon the
present state of things in relation to souls and our present
duty, I agree with you, that it is very fit it were done,*
but yet, by somebody who is in London and sees the per-
sonal necessities and circumstances of pious people : yet I
* It is somewhat curious that Taylor should have forgotten the fact of his
having already, five years before the date of this letter, done what he is
here so anxious to see again attempted. See the Preface (or Epistle
Dedicatory to Lord Carbery) in the Holy Living.
70 CORRESPONDENCE OF [londok,
was 80 far persuaded to do it myself, that I had amassed
together divers of mj papers useful to the work : but my
Cases of Conscience call upon me so earnestly, that I found
myself not able to bear the cries of a clamorous con-
ference. Sir, I thank you for imparting to me that vile
distich of the dear departed saint.* I value it as I do the
picture of deformity or a devil : the act may be good, and
the gift fair, though the thing be intolerable : but I
remember, that when the Jesuits, sneering and deriding
our calamity, showed this sarcasm to my Lord Lucas,
Birkenhead t being present, replied as tartly, "It is true,
our Church wants a head now ; but if you have charity as
you pretend, you can lend us one, for your Church has had
two and three at a time.'' Sir, I know not when I shall
be able to come to London : for, our being stripped of the
little relics of our fortune remaining after the shipwreck,
I have not cordage nor sails sufficient to bear me thither.
But I hope to be able to commit to the press my first
books of Conscience by Easter term ; and then, if I be
able to get up, I shall be glad to wait upon you : of
whose good I am not more solicitous than I am joyful
that you so carefully provide for it in your best interest.:|:
I shall only give you the same prayer and blessing that
St. John gave to Gains : " Beloved, I wish that you may
be in health and prosper : and your soul prospers :" for
so by the rules of the best rhetoric the greatest affair is
put into a parenthesis, and the biggest business into a
postscript. Sir, I thank you for the kind expressions at
the latter end of your letter; you have never troubled
me, neither can I pretend to any other return from you
but that of your love and prayers. In all things else I do
but my duty, and I hope God and you will accept it ; and
that by means of His own procurement, He will, some
• * I shed a tear when I am told that n brare king was misunJerstood,
flien alaodered, tlien imprisoned, then put to death, hy t^'H vaea." — Jereinjr
Taylor's Treatise on Friendthip.
f John Birkenhead, royalist writer of the ** Meareuriua Aolicus."
* From whatever quarter he obtained the means of his journey, it is cer-
tain, however, that Dr. Taylor visited London ; for on the 1 2th of April,
1 656, as appears by the Diary, he dined with Evelyn at Sayes Court, in
company with Mr. Berkeley, Mr. Robert Boyle, and Dr. Wiliins, and was
occupied with them in the discussion and examination of philosophical and
meclianical subjects.
1656.] JOHN EVELYN. 71
way or other (but how, I know not yet) make provisions
for me. Sir, I am in all heartiness of affection.
Your most affectionate friend and
Minister in the Lord Jesus,
Jer. Taylor.
Jeremif Taylor to John Evelyn.
April 16, 1656.
Honoured and Dear Sir,
I hope my servant brought my apology with
him, and that I already am pardoned, or excused in your
thoughts, that I did not return an answer yesterday to
your friendly letter. Sir, I did believe myself so very
much bound to you for your so kind, so friendly reception
of me in your Tusculanum, that I had some httle
wcttider upon me when I saw you making excuses that it
was no better. Sir, I came to see you and your lady, and
am highly pleased that I did so, and found all your circum-
stances to be an heap and union of blessings. But I have
not either so great a fancy and opinion of the prettiness
of your abode, or so low an opinion of your prudence and
piety, as to think you can be any ways transported with
them. I know the pleasure of them is gone off from their
height before one month^s possession ; and that strangers
and seldom-seers feel the beauty of them more than you
who dwell with them. I am pleased indeed at the order
and the cleanness of all your outward things ; and look
upon you not only as a person, by way of thankfulness
to God for His mercies and goodness to you, specially
obliged to a greater meas,ure of piety, but also as one who,
being freed in great degrees from secular cares and impe-
diments, can without excuse and allay wholly intend what
you so passionately desire, the service of God. But, now
I am considering yours, and enumerating my own plea-
sures, I cannot but add that, though I could not choose
but be delighted by seeing all about you, yet my delices
were really in seeing you severe and unconcerned in these
things, and now in finding your affections wholly a stranger
to them, and to communicate with them no portion of your
passion but such as is necessary to him that uses them or
receives their ministries. Sir, I long truly to converse
78 CORRESPONDENCE OF [LONDON,
with you; for I do not doubt but in those liberties we
shall both go bettered from each other. For your Lucre-
tius,* I perceive you have suffered the importunity of
your too kind friends to prevail with you. I will not say
to you that your Lucretius is as far distant from the seve-
rity of a Christian, as the fair Ethiopian was from the
duty of Bp. Heliodorus ; for indeed it is nothing but what
may become the labours of a Christian gentleman, those
things only abated which our evil age needs not; for
which also I hope you either have by notes, or will by pre-
face, prepare a sufficient antidote ; but since you are en-
gaged in it, do not neglect to adorn it, and take what care
of it, it can require or need ; for that neglect will be a
reproof of your own act, and look as if you did it with an
unsatisfied mind, and then you may make that to be wholly
a sin, from which only by prudence and charity you could
before be advised to abstain. But, Sir, if you will give
me leave, I vnW impose such a penance upon you for your
publication of Lucretius as shall neither displease God nor
you ; and, since you are busy in that which may minister
directly to learning, and indirectly to error or the confi-
dences of men, who of themselves are apt enough to hide
their vices in irrehgion, I know you will be willing, and will
suffer yourself to be entreated, to employ the same pen
in the glorifications of God, and the ministries of Eucharist
and prayer. Sir, if you have M"^ Silhon " De V Immor-
talite de TAme," I desire you to lend it me for a week,
and believe that I am, in great heartiness and dearness
of affection.
Dear Sir, your obliged and most affectionate
firiend and servant,
J. Taylor.
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor.
Sayes-Court, 21th April, 1656.
Nothing but an affair very great and of conse-
quence could stay me thus long from rendering you a
• Evelyn translated, or at least published, only one (the first) book of
Lucretius, which was printed in octavo, at London, 1 656 ; with an en-
graved frontispiece, designed by his accomplished Wife, and engraved by
Hollar.
1656] JOHN EVELYN. 73
personal acknowledgment for your late kind visit, and I
trouble you with this because I fear I shall not be able
to perform that 'till the latter end of the week; but I
shall, after this business is over (which concerns an
account with a kinsman of mine), importune you with
frequent visits, and, I hope, prevail with you that I may
have the honour to see you again at my poor villa, when
my respects are less diverted, and that I may treat you
without ceremony or constraint. For it were fitting you
did see how I live when I am by myself, who cannot but
pronounce me guilty of many vanities, deprehending me
(as you did) at a time when I was to gratify so many
curious persons, to whom I had been greatly obliged, and
for whom I have much value. I suppose you think me
very happy in these outward things ; really, I take so little
satisfaction in them, that the censure of singularity would
no way affright me from embracing an hermitage, if I
found that they did in the least distract my thoughts from
better things ; or that I did not take more pleasure and
incomparable felicity in that intercourse which it pleases
God to permit me, in vouchsafing so unworthy a person
to prostrate himself before Him, and contemplate His
goodness. These are indeed gay things, and men esteem
me happy. Ego autem, peccatorum sordibus inquinatus,
diebus ac noctibm opperior cum timore reddere novissimum
quadrantem : Whilst that account is in suspense, who can
truly enjoy any thing in this life sine Vermel Omnia
enim tut a timeo. My condition is too well; and I do as
often wonder at it, as suspect and fear it : and yet I think
I am not to do any rash or indiscreet action, to make the
world take notice of my singularity : though I do with all
my heart wish for more solitude, who was ever most averse
from being near a great city, designed against it, and yet
it was my fortune to pitch here, more out of necessity, and
for the benefit of others, than choice, or the least
inclination of my own. But, Sir, I will trouble you no
farther with these trifles, though as to my confessor I
speak them. There are yet more behind. My Essay upon
Lucretius, which I told you was engaged, is now printing,
and (as I understand) near finished : my animadversions
upon it will I hope provide against all the ill consequences,
and totally acquit me either of glory or impiety. The
74 CORRESFONDEBTCE OF [londok,
captive woman waa in the old law to have been head-
akAveik, and her excresceiices pared ofiV before she was
brought as a bride to the bed of her lord. I hope I have
so done with this author, as far as I have penetrated ; and
lir the rest I shall proceed with caution, and take your
counsel. But, Sir, I detain you too long, though with
pronaiaes to render you a better account hereafter, both
o£ my time and my studies, when I shall have begged of
yoa to impose some task upon me, that may be useful
to the great design of virtue and a holy life, who am^
Sir, your, &e.
Jeremy Tmjlor to JoJm Evelyn.
Jidy I9thf 1656.
Dear Sie,
I perceive the greatness of your affections by
your diligence to inquire after and to make use of any
opportunity which is offered whereby you may oblige me.
Truly,^ Sir, I do continue in my desires to settle about
London,* and am only hindered by my Res angusta domi ;
but hope in God's goodness that He will create to me
such advantage as may make it possible : and, when I am
there, I shall expect the daily issues of Divine Providence
to make all things else well; because I am much per-
suaded that, by my abode in your vicinage of London, I
may receive advantages of society and books to enable
me better to serve God and the interest of souls. I have
no other design but it; and I hope God will second it
with his blessing. Sir, I desire you to present my thanks
and service to Mr. Thurland : his society were argument
enough to make me desire a dwelling thereabouts, but
his other kindnesses will also make it possible. I would
not be troublesome : serviceable I would fain be, useful,
and desirable ; and I will endeavour it if I come. Sir, I
shall, besides what I have already said to you, at present
make no other return to Mr. Thurland, tUl a little thing
of mine be public, which is now in Royston's hands, of
Original Sin : f the evils of which doctrine 1 have now laid
* Jeremy TsyTor was now IrriTig st a small village in Wales,
f The « Doctrine and Praotifl* ef Repentance '" was the title gWen to
this admirable Essay when poblialieii.
1866:] JOHIf ETBLTK. 75
especially at the Presbyterian door^ and discoursed it ac-
cordingly^ in a missive to the Countess Dowager of Devon-
shire. When that is abroad, I mean t» present one to
Mr. Thurland; and send a letter with it. I thank you
for your Lucretius. I wished it with me sooner : for, in
my letter to the Countess of Devonshire, I quote some
things out of Lucretius, which for her sake I was forced to
English in very bad verse, because I had not your version
by me to make use of it. Royston hath not yet sent it
me down, but I have sent for it : and though it be no
kindness to you to read it for its own sake, and for the
Avorthiness of the work ; because it deserves more ; yet,
when I tell you that I shall, besides the worth of the
thing, value it for the worthy author's sake, I intend to
represent to you, not only the esteem I have of your
worthiness, but the lore also I do and ever shall bear
to your person. Dear Sir, I am in some little disorder by
reason of the death of a little child of mine, a boy that
lately made us very glad : but now he rejoices in his little
orb, while we think, and sigh, and long to be as safe as
he is. Sir, when your Lucretius comes into my hands, I
shall be able to give you a better account of it. In the
meantime I pray for blessings to you and your dear and
excellent lady : and am, Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate and endeared
jfriend and servant,
Jee. Taylor.
Sir,
Dr. Thomas Triplet to John Evelyn.
London, 7th August, 1656.
I might doubt a little whether my letter came
to your hands, but I had not the least jealousy of your
friendly care in case you received it. I thank you I
have now an account of it, having spoken yesterday
myself with the major, and was civilly received by him.
I am heartily sorry that neither you nor your brother
Richard were at our Rendezvous at Bexhill, that my
Lord might have seen such a pair-royal of brothers as I
believe is not again to be found in the nation for loving
76 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
one another and loving one another's friends, which I am
sure I am concerned in, and most gratefully acknowledge
to all, and to you particularly, as
Sir, Your humble bounden,
T. Triplet.
Dr. John Wilkins* to John Evelyn.
Wadham Cottege, Oxford, 16<A Av^itt, 1656.
Honoured Sir,
I am very sensible that I have reason to be
ashamed that I have no sooner returned my acknowledg-
ment for the favour of your book, in which I have not
observed any such erratas as you complain of, nor can I
think you have any reason to suspect the imputation
of such mistakes to yourself.f I am very sure all that
know you must be zealous to vindicate you. For that
unusual way of the combs in the hive, it may sometimes
80 happen, and hath done so with me, though according
to the usual course they are built edgewise from the place
of their entrance. A window in the side hath this incon-
venience in it, that in hot weather when the bees are apt
to be busy and angry, a man cannot so safely make use
of it. There are several means prescribed by Mr.
Rutler in his book of Bees to force such as lay out to
rise or keep within, to which I shall refer you ; and have
no more at present but the presentation of my most hearty
thanks for all your noble favours, and my most humble
service to your lady. I am. Sir,
Your true Honour and humble servant,
John Wilkins.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
g*-*' 15, 1656.
Honoured and Dear Sir,
In the midst of all the discouragements which I
meet withal in an ignorant and obstinate age, it is a great
• See Diary, vol. i., pp. 410, 411.
t Dr. Triplet, the writer of the preceding letter, had undertaken in
Evelyn's absence to correct the proof-sheets of the translated book of
Lacretiiu, and seems to have performed the task very negligently. — See
Diory, vol. i., p. 314.
1656.] JOHN EVELYN. 77
comfort to me, and I receive new degrees of confidence,
when I find that yourself, and such other ingenious and
learned persons as yourself, are not only patient of
truth, and love it better than prejudice and prepossession,
but are so ingenuous as to dare to own it in despite of
the contradictory voices of error and unjust partiality. I
have lately received from a learned person beyond sea,
certain extracts of the Eastern and Southern Antiquities,
which very much confirm my opinion and doctrine : for
the learned man was pleased to express great pleasure in
the reasonableness of it, and my discourses concerning it.
Sir, I could not but smile at my own weaknesses, and very
much love the great candour and sweetness of your nature,
that you were pleased to endure my English poetry : but
I could not be removed from my certain knowledge of
my own greatest weaknesses in it. But if I could have
had your Lucretius when I had occasion to use those
extractions out of it, I should never have asked any man's
pardon for my weak version of them : for I woiild have
used none but yours ; and then I had been beyond cen-
sure, and could not have needed a pardon. But, Sir, the
last papers of mine have a fate like your Lucretius ; — I
mean so many erratas made by the printers, that, because
I had not any confidence by the matter of my discourse
and the well-handling it, as you had by the happy reddition
of your Lucretius, I have reason to beg your pardon for
the imperfection of the copy : but I hope the printer will
make amends in my Rule of Conscience, which I find
hitherto he does with more care. But, Sir, give me leave
to ask, why you will suffer yourself to be discouraged
in the finishing Lucretius : they who can receive hurt by
the fourth book, understand the Latin of it ; and I hope
they who will be delighted with your English, will also be
secured by your learned and pious annotations, which I
am sure you will give us along with your rich version.
Sir, I humbly desire my services and great regards to be
presented by you to worthy Mr. Thurland : and that you
will not fail to remember me when you are upon your
knees. I am very desirous to receive the Dies irce, Dies
ilia, of your translation ; and if you have not yet found
it, upon notice of it from you I will transmit a copy of it.
Sir, I pray God continue your health and his blessings to
78 CORRESPONDENCE OF [lokdok,
you and your dear lady and pretty babies : for whicli I am
daily obliged to pray, and to use all opportunities by wliicli
I can signify that I ani, Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate and endeared servant
Jer. Taylob.
[Evelyn, with reference to his friend's advice as to the fmishing of
Lucretius, has written on this letter iu pencil : ** I would be none of
y* Jnganoti nolo puhlicoJ"'}
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
A^(ni<jm6;21, 1656.
Honoured and Dear Sir,
Not long after my coming from my prison
(Chepstow) I met with your kind and friendly letters, of
which I was very glad, not only because they were a
testimony of your kindness and affections to me, but that
they gave me most welcome account of your health, and
(which now-a-days is a great matter) of your liberty, and
of that progression in piety in which I do really rejoice.
But there could not be given to me a greater and more
persuasive testimony of the reality of your piety and care
than that you pass to greater degrees of caution and the
love of God. It is the work of your life, and I perceive
you betake yourself heartily to it. The God of heaven
and earth prosper you and accept you !
I am well pleased that you have read over my last
book ; and give God thanks that I have reason to believe
that it is accepted by God, and by some good men. As
for the censure of unconsenting persons, I expected it,
and hope that themselves vn]l be their own reprovers;
and truth will be assisted by God, and shall prevail, when
all noises and prejudices shall be ashamed. My comfort
is, that I have the honour to be the advocate for God's
justice and goodness, and that the consequent of my doctrine
is, that men may speak honour of God and meanly of
themselves. But I have also, this last week, sent up some
papers in which I make it appear that the doctrine which
I now have published was taught by the fathers within
the first 400 years; and have vindicated it both from
novelty and singularity. I have also prepared some other
1656.] JOHN EVELYil. 79
papers concerning this question, which I once had some
thoughts to have published. But what I have already-
said, and now further exphcated and justified, I hope may-
be sufficient to satisfy pious and prudent persons, who do
not love to go qua itur but qua eundwm est. Sir, you see
what a good husband I am of my paper and ink, that I
make so short returns to your most friendly letters. I
pray be confident that if there be any defect here, I -will
make it up in my prayers for you and my great esteem of
you, which shall ever be expressed in my readiness to
serve you with all the earnestness and powers of,
Dear Sir,
Your most aflPectionate friend and servant,
Jer. Taylor.
John Evelyn to his brother G. Evelyn.*
Says-CotiH, 15 Decemb. 1656.
Dear Bro:
I am so deeply sensible of the affliction which
presses you, that I cannot forbear to let you understand
how great a share I have in the loss, and how reciprocal
it is to us. For your part, I consider that your sex and your
knowledge do better fortify you against the common cala-
mities and vicissitudes of these sublunary things : so that
precepts to you were but impertinencies : though I also
find, that the physician himself has sometimes need of
the physician; and that to condole and to counsel those
who want nothing to support them but their o-wn virtue,
is to relieve them of a considerable part of their affliction :
But the fear which I have that the tenderness of so
indulgent a mother's affection (as is that of my dear lady)
may insensibly transgress its bounds, to so huge a pre-
judice as we should all receive by it (if her immoderate
grief should continue) — ,makes me choose rather, being
absent, to contribute what aids I can towards its remedy,
than, being present, to renew her sorrows by such expres-
sions of resentment as of course use to fall from friends,
but can add little to the cure, because but compliment.
Nor do I hereby extenuate her prudence, whose virtue is
• On the death of his soh Richard. George was Evelyn's eldest brother.
80 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
able to oppose the rudest assaults of fortune ; but present
my arguments as an instance of my care, not of my diffi-
dence. I confess tliere is a cause of sadness : but all
who are not Stoics know by experience, that in these
lugubrious encounters our affections do sometimes outrun
our reason. Nature herself has assigned places and in-
struments to the passions ; and it were as well impiety as
stupidity to be totally acrropyos and without natural affec-
tion : but we must remember withal that we grieve not
as persons without hope; lest, while we sacrifice to our
passions, we be found to offend against God, and by in-
dulging an over kind nature redouble the loss, or lose
our recompence. Children are sucli blossoms as every
trifling wind deflowers ; and to be disordered at their fall,
were to be fond of certain troubles, but the most uncer-
tain comforts ; whilst the store of the more mature which
God has yet left you, invite both your resignation and
your gratitude. So extraordinary prosperity as you have
hitherto been encircled with, was indeed to be suspected j
nor may he think to bear all his sails, whose vessel
(hke yours) has been driven by the highest gale of felicity.
We give hostages to Fortune when we bring children into
the world : and how unstable this is we know, and must
therefore hazard the adventure. God has suffered this for
your exercise : seek, then, as well your consolation in his rod,
as in his staff. Are you offended that it has pleased Him
to snatch your pretty babes from the infinite contingencies
of so penerse an age, in which there is so little tempta-
tion to live ? At least consider, that your pledges are but
gone a little before you; and that a part of you has taken
possession of the inheritance which you must one day enter,
if ever you will be happy. Brother, when I reflect on the
loss as it concerns our family in general, I could recal
my own, and mingle my tears with you (for I have also
lost some very dear to me) ; but when I consider the
necessity of submitting to the divine arrests, I am ready to
dry them again and be silent. There is nothing of us
perished ; but deposited. And say not they might have
come later to their destiny : Magna est felicitas, citb esse
felicem: 'tis no small happiness to be happy quickly.
That which may fortune to all, we ought not to accuse for
a few: and it is but reason to support that patiently,
1656.] JOHN EVELYN. • 81
which cannot be prevented possibly. But I have now
done Avith the philosopher, and will dismiss you with the
divine. "Brother, be not ignorant concerning them
which are asleep, that you sorrow not even as others
which have no hope : for, if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will
God bring with him.^' They are the words of St. Paul,
and I can add nothing to them. In the meantime,
auxiliaries against this enemy cannot render it more
formidable ; and though all grief of this nature have a
just rise, yet may it end in a dangerous fall : our dear
Mother is a sad instance of it : and I conjure you to use
all the art, and all the interest you are able, to compose
yourself, and consolate your excellent lady, which (after
I have presented my particular resentiments) is what I
would have hereby assisted you in, who am.
Dear Brother, &c.
Et consolamini alij alios istis sermonibus.
Francis Barlow,^ (" on Dedicating a Plate of Titian's
Venus, Engraven,") to John Evelyn.
From the Black-boy over against St. Dumtan's,
Fleet-street, this 22d of December, 1656.
Worthy Sib,
I have been bold to present you with a small
piece of my endeavours. I hope your goodness will pardon
my confidence in that I have presumed to dedicate it unta
you, conceiving no one to be more worthy, or to whom
♦ He was a native of Lincolnshire, and placed under Sheppard, a portrait-
painter ; but his genius led him to the painting of animals, which he drew-
with great exactness, though his colouring was not equal to his designs^
There are six books of animals engraven from his drawings, and a set of
cuts for iEsop's Fables. He painted some ceilings of birds for noblemen
and gentlemen in the country : and at Clandon, in Surrey, the seat of Lord
Onslow, are five pieces from his pencil. He died in 1702. See Walpole's
Anecdotes. For notices of him in the Biai-y, see Vol. i. p. 312, and Vol. ii.
p. 158. As a specimen of Mr. Bai'low's orthography, the concluding lines
of his letter are here appended from the original MS. : — " As eaching is not
my profeshion, I hope you will not exspect much from me. S", if you
shall be pleased to honner my weake (yet willing) endeavours with your
exseptation.
VOL. in. G
82 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loMBW,
I am more obliged for those civil favours I have received
from you. It may seem strange that I own that, another's
name is to; but my occasions not permitting me so
much spare time to finish it, Mr. G^aywood my friend did,
which [who] desires his name might be to it for his
advantage in his practice, so I consented to it. The
drawing after the original painting I did, and the drawing
and outlines of tliis ])late : I finished the heads of both
the figures, and the Lauds ;tnd feet, and likewise the dog
and the landscape. As etching is not my profession, I
hope you will not expect much from me. Sir, if you shall
be pleased to honour my weak (yet willing) endeavours
with your acceptation, I sliall ever rest obliged for this and
former favours.
Your servant to command,
Francis Barlow.
John Evelyn to Francis Barlow.
Sayes-Court, 23 Decerrib. 1656.
SiRj
I had no opportunity by the hand which con-
veyed it, to return you my acknowledgments for the
present you lately sent me, and the honour which you
have conferred upon me, in no respect meriting either so
great a testimony of your affection, or the glorious inscrip-
tion, which might better have become some great and
eminent Maecenas to patronise, than a person so incom-
petent as you have made choice of. If I had been
acquainted with your design, you should on my advice
have nuncupated this handsome monument of your skill
and dexterity to some great one, whose relation might
have been more considerable, both as to the encouragement
and the honour which you deserve. From me you can
only expect a reinforcement of that value and good
esteem which, before, your merits had justly acquired, and
would have perpetuated : of another you had purchased
a new friend ; nor less obliged the old, because less
exposed him to envy ; since by this you ascribe so much
to me, that those who know me better, will on the one
side be ready to censure your judgment, and, on the other,
you put me out of all capacity of making you Tequital.
1557.] JOHSr EVELYK. 8^
But since your affection has vanquished your reason so
nuoeh to my adiv^antage, though I wish the election were to
make, yet I cannot but be very sensible of the signal
honour^ and the obHgation which you have put upon me.
I should now extol your courage in pursuing so noble an
original, executed with so much judgment and art : but I
forbear to provoke your modesty, and shall in the mean-
time that I can give you personal thanks, receive your
present as an instance of your great civility, and a
Baemorial of my no less obHgation to you, who remain, Sir,
Your, &c.
John Evelyn to Mr. Maddox.
Sayes-Court, 10 Jan. 1W7.
Sir,
I perceive by the success of my letter, and your
most civil reply, that I was not mistaken when I thought
so nobly of you, and spoke those little things neither in
diffidence of your bounty or to instruct it, but to give you
notice when it would arrive most seasonably, and because
I found the modesty of the person might injure his for-
tune, as well as the greatness of your kindness. — You
are pleased to inform me of your course, and I cannot but
infinitely approve of your motions, because I find they are
designed to places, in order to things of greater advantage
than the vanity of the eye only, which to other travellers
has usually been the temptation of malting tours. Eor at
Marseilles and Toulon you will inform yourself of the
strength and furniture of the French on the Mediterranean
Seas. You will see the galleys, the slaves, and in fine, a
very map of the Levant ; for should you travel as far as
Constantinople itself, or to the bottom of the Straits, you
would find but still the same thing; and the maritime
towns of Italy are no other. Nismes does so much abound
with antiquities, that the difference ^twixt it and Rome is,
that I think the latter has very few things more worth the
visiting; and therefore it may as well present you with an
idea of that great city, as if you were an ocular spectator
of it ; for it is a perfect epitome of it. Montpellier is the
next in order, where I suppose you will make some longer
o 2
84 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
stay; because there are scholars and students, and many
rarities about it. There is one Peter Borell, a physician,
who hath lately published " Centuries Historical and
Medico-Physical." Montpellier was wont to be a place of
rare opportunity for the learning the many excellent
receipts to make perfumes, sweet powders, pomanders,
antidotes, and divers such curiosities, which I know you
will not omit ; for though they are indeed but trifles in
comparison of more solid things, yet, if ever you should
affect to live a retired life hereafter, you will take more
pleasure in those recreations than you can now imagine.
And really gentlemen despising those vulgar things, deprive
themselves of many advantages to improve their time, and
do service to the desiderants of philosophy ; which is the
only part of learning best illustrated by experiments, and,
after the study of religion, certainly the most noble and
virtuous. Every body hath book-learning, which verily
is of much ostentation, but of small fruit unless this also
be superadded to it. I therefore conjure you that you
do not let pass whatever ofters itself to you in this nature,
from whomsoever they come. Commonly indeed persons
of mean condition possess them, because their necessity
renders them industrious : but if men of quality made it
their delight also, arts could not but receive infinite
advantages, because they have both means and leisure to
improve and cultivate them ; and, as I said before, there is
nothing by which a good man may more sweetly pass his
time. Such a person I look upon as a breathing treasure,
a blessing to his friends, and an incomparable ornament to
his country. This is to you the true seed-time, and
wherein the foundations of all noble things must be laid.
Make it not the field of repentance : for what can be more
glorious than to be ignorant of nothing but of vice, which
indeed has no solid existence, and therefore is nothing ?
Seek therefore after nature, and contemplate that great
volume of the creatures whilst you have no other distrac-
tions : procure to see experiments, furnish yourself w ith
receipts, models, and things which are rare. In fine,
neglect nothing, that at your return, you may bring home
other things than talk, feather, and ribbon, the ordinary
traffic of vain and fantastic persons. — I must believe that
when you are in those parts of France you will not pass
1657.] JOHN EVELYN. 85
Beaugensie* without a visit ; for, certainly, though the
curiosities may be much dispersed since the time of the
most noble Peireskius, yet the very genius of that place
cannot but infuse admirable thoughts into you. But I
suppose you carry the Life of that illustrious and incom-
parable virtuoso always about you in your motions ; not
only because it is so portable, but for that it is written
in such excellent language by the pen of the great Gas-
sendus, and will be a fit Itinerary with you. When you
return to Paris again, it will be good to refresh your
gymnastic exercises, to frequent the Court, the Bar, and
the Schools sometimes; but above all, procure acquaint-
ances and settle a correspondence with learned men, by
whom there are so many advantages to be made and expe-
riments gotten. And I beseech you forget not to inform
yourself as diligently as may be, in things that belong to
gardening, for that will serve both yourself and your
friends for an infinite diversion : and so will you have
nothing to add to your accomplishment when you come
home, but to look over the municipal laws of your own
country, which your interest and your necessities will
prompt you to : and then you may sweetly pass the rest
of your days in reaping the harvest of all your pains,
either by serving your country in some public employment
(if the integrity of the times invite you), or by securing
your own felicity, and indeed the greatest upon earth, in a
private unenvied condition, with those advantages which
you will bring it of piety and knowledge. Oh the delice
and reward of thus employing our youth ! What a beauty
and satisfaction to have spent one's youth innocently and
virtuously ! What a calm and serenity to the mind !
What a glory to your country, to your friends, and content-
ment to your instructors : in sum, how great a recompence
and advantage to all your concernments ! And all this.
Sir, I foresee and augur of Mr. Maddox, of whom may
this be the least portion of his panegyric ; whilst it sen es
me only to testify how great a part I take in all your
prosperity, and how great an honour I shall ever esteem
it to be accounted. Sir, your, &c.
* Belgenser, or Beaugensier, a town near Toulon, the birthplace of the
celebrated Nicolaus Claudius Fabricius, Lord of Peiresk, Senator of the Par-
liament at Aix.
8t CORRBSPONDEN€B OF [londos.
John Evehfn to the Lieutenant cf the Tower*
Snok Qremwiehf 14 Jan. 1656-7.
Sir,
I should begin with the greater apology for this
address, did not the consideration of the nature of your
great employment and my fears to impwtune them
carry with them an excuse which I have hope to l:)elieve
you wili easily admit. But, as it is an error to be
troublesome to great persons upon trifling affairs, so
were it no less a crime to be silent in an occasion wherein
I may do an act of charity, and reconcile a person to your
good (pinion, who has deserved so well, and I think is so
innocent. Sir, I speak in behalf of Dr. Taylor, of whon»
I understand you have conceived some displeasure for tike
mistake of his printer ; t and the readiest way that I cat
think of to do him honour and bring him into esteem with
you, is, to beg of you, that you will please to give him.
leave to wait upon you, that you may learn from his own.
mouth, as well as the world has done from hia writings.,
how averse he is from any thing that he may be charged
withal to his prejudice, and how great an adversary he has
ever been in particular to the Popish religion, against
which he has employed his pen so signally, and with such
success. And when by this favour you shall have done
justice to all interests, I am not without fair hopes, that
I shall have mutually obliged you both, by doing my
endeavour to serve my worthy and pious friend, and by
bringing so innocent and deserving a person into your
protection j who am. Sir, &e.
* Endorsed : « This was ^^Tittea for another ge&tlcinao, an acquaintaneo
with the villain who was now Lieut, of y« Tower, Baxter by name, for I
nerer bad the least knowledge of him."
+ Jieremy Taylor had at this thne been committed prisoner to the Tower,
ifl emwqaenoe of Royston, his bookseller, having plaeed before his coUectkm
of OAbw the picture of Christ prayings contrary to a new Act concerning
** scandalous pictures ;" Evelyn's object in tliis letter, which seems to have
been addreaaed to the lieutenant of the Tower through some mutual friend,
was to procure alleviation of an imprisonment agparently owing ratbar to
some iodividual caprice, thaa to aay graver i
16fifr7.]. JOHN EVELYN.
S-IR,
John Evelyn to Edward Thurland.
Sayes-Court, 20 Jan. 1656-7.
I have read your learned Diatriba concerning
Prayer, and do exceedingly praise your method, nor less
admire your learning and reason, which by so rare an
artifice has made notions that are very difl&cult and
abstracted in themselves, so apt and perspicuous ; besides,
your arguments are drawn from the most irresistible and
convincing topics, and the design not only full of learning,
but useful also to a good life, which is indeed the right
application of it. Sir, I am so much taken with your piece,
and think it so excellent a homily against that abounding
ingredient now in the world, that I presume you shall not
need my persuasions to induce you to make it pubhc ;
being a thing which may so greatly contribute to the
cure of that epidemical madness, and the vindication of
God's glory : since what Trismegistus so long time said is
most true in our age, *H ix^ydkr] vocros tt/s ^x^^ V adeoTrji,
and Sihua Italicus has interpreted with a complaint :
" Heu ! primse scelerum causae mortalibiis segris,
Natui"am nescire Deum ! "
But because you have not only done me the honour to
communicate so freely your thoughts to me ; but have also
laid your commands that I should return you my opinion
of it ; truly, I should both greatly injure the intrinsic
value of the work, as well as ray great esteem of the
author, if I should say less than I have done : so that, if I
am bold or impertinent in what follows, it will serve only
to make you the more admire your own, when you shall
find how little can be added to it. And you must only
blame the Uberty you have given me, if my silence would
have become more acceptable.
First, then, your distribution is most methodical and
logical; the minor produced to assert the thesis very closely
and skillfully handled ; but, because your conclusion comes
in so long after, whether it may not a little TrkeovaC^Lv, con-
sidering that your argument is prayer ? I would therefore
88 CORRESPONDENCE OF [ixjndon,
at the end of some of those chapters (before you arrive at
the main assumption), upon enumeration of the former
syllogisms, mention something of it (by way of enumera-
tion) that so the thoughts of your reader might not stray
from the subject, wliich is to enforce the necessity of
prayer : or else alter the title, and make it comprehensive
of both the parts, as of God, and of prayer, or something
equivalent. I do greatly approve the reasons you have
given for that long digression, to convince those who
doubted, Democritus, Leucippus, Diogenes, Epicurus, and
the late Pseudo-politics, with those who faintly assented,
as Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Plato, the Stoics, Politicians,
and Legislators : but I suppose that, since Sextus Em-
piricus was but a diligent collector of the placets and
opinions of other philosophers, you shall do more honour
to your book by omitting the so frequent citing of him :
it will suflBciently gratify the reader to see his scruples
satisfied, and their errors convinced, without so particular
an account whether you deduced the opinions from the
fountain or from the stream. And therefore you shall
better cite Diogenes Laertius or Cicero than Campanella,
for that passage concerning the qualities of atoms : and
it is more proper to allege Basil de legendis Ethnicorum
scriptis, Augustin de DoctrinA Christian^., or Socrates
Scholasticus, to prove the lawfulness and benefit of assert-
ing your opinions by examples out of heathen poets, &c.,
than Sir W. Raleigh's History of the World, who was
but of yesterday. Neither would I mention Selden,
where you might cite Lactantius, Clemens, Josephus, or
Eusebius : because they are authors which every man will
judge you might read. And rather Fonseca, or indeed
Molin, than Pinellus, who brought that opinion from
them. — And here, by the way, touching what you aflBrm
concerning the fallen angels* intuitive knowledge, there be
that will reply that Lucifer was never in patrid but in vid
only : for so St. Augustine, in those excellent treatises De
Corruptione et Gratia and De Dono Perseverantiae ; that
the fallen angels never saw God as Authorem gratice, but
as cultorem naturce, enigmatically and not intuitively,
being then in probation only, as was man, and had the
same use of their will : God only at that moment con-
firming Michael and his fellows who refused to come into
1656-7.] JOHN EVELYK 89
the rebellious party, what time as he condemned the
dragon, and the rest of those lapsed spirits.
Touching the eternity of the world, I suppose you mean
de etemitate absolutd : for it were else hard to say which
was first, the sun, or the light which it projects ; since
they are not only inseparable but simul tempore. God
created the world in his mind from eternity say they : or,
as others, Deus fecit aeternitatem, aternitas fecit mundum.
So Mercurius in Pimander.
In that passage where you prove the existence of a Deity
from the wonderful structure of the microcosm, Lactan-
tius his book De opificio Dei would extremely delight
and furnish you : and so, in all that Scala visibilium ad
invisibilia, Dr. Charleton^s " Darkness of Atheism,"
c. iv. 1. 5., p. 130, which I therefore mention to you,
because one would not say much of that which has already
been said in English. Would it not do also well to speak
something of natural conscience ? — I suppose where you
speak of the pismire, and other insects, you mean they
have not an intellectual memory ; for a sensitive doubtless
they have : and here you might appositely have said some-
thing concerning that Animalis Religio, of which Saint
Ambrose speaks, distinguishing it from Aquinas' Religio
rationalis.
Concerning the lenity of God, upon which you have
most rationally dilated, the 10"' chapt. of the I. book of
Proclus would extremely delight you. Touching the
knowledge of God, you must by all means consult that
admirable little treatise of M. Felix his Octavius; and
S' Aug. de Concubitu Angelorum, about our prayers to
them: in Avhich you have so imitated the di^dne S' Hierom,
by your constant assertion of the Paradise deduced from
Scripture, that more cannot be wished ; yet something
which S" Paul has said 2 chapt. Epist. ad Coloss., and in
the 9"i of Ecclesiast. may be applied.
They affirm that the devil may be an aerial body, and
by that means enter into men's bodies without our percep-
tion : but I will not importune you further with these
trifles : only I will mind you of one passage of Jamblicus,
speaking of the natural sense of God in Man. Ante
omnem (saith he) usum rationis inest naturaliter insita
Deorum notio : imo tactus quidem divinitatis melior quam
W CGBKB8POKDESCE OF [loitdon,
ttoHtia : and to tkat purpose Cicero de Nat. Deor., Seneca
de Providenti^ the Golden V»ses of Pythagoras, and
moi'e expressely Lactantius, 1. 3. c. 9, where he proves
Cttihtm Dei to be naturally in man, making it a formal
part of its definition, Animal Rationale Religiosum. To con-
clude, Augustine, Clemens, Lactantius, Cyril, Arnobius,
Jhutin Martyr, of old, — oftheneoterick, [modern] Aquinas,
neaofl Momay, D'" Andre\rs, Grotius, ty Hammond, in a
particular opusculum, I. L. Vivea, Bradwardine de CausS,
Dei, Valesius de Sacr^ Philosophic, Campanella, and our
most ingenious Mr. Moore in his Antidote against Athe
ism, have all treated on this subject, but in so different a
manner, and with so much confusion and prolixity, some
few of them excepted, that it will greatly add to the worth
aad lustre of your piece, who hare comprehended so much
in so little and to so excellent purpose. I wish you had as
perfectly made good your promise in what remains, as in
what you have begun, I mean, touching the form, matter,
posture, place, and other circumstances of praj'^er, in which
you would do wonders upon second thoughts. — Sir, I
have been bold to note places with my black-lead where
yonr amanuensis has committed some sphalmatas, and
peradvcnture some exiH-cssions may be advantageously
altered at your leisure. But there is nothing in all this
by which you will more assert your own judgment, than
in leaving out the eulc^ which you are pleased to honour
me withal, in citing me as an author of any value. By
this, Sir, you see how bold I am, both to trouble you with
my follies, and then to beg pardon for them ; but, as I said
at first, you must blame yourself, partly for enjoining
me, and partly for allowing me no more time. But be
that has the perusal of any of your discourses, cannot but
emerge with the greatest advantages. It was the saying
<rf the great Salmasius, and shall be mine. Nihil moror
libros, et combustos omnes velim, si doctiores tantum, non
etkan meliores, qui dant Hits operam, reddere idonei snnt.
But Kicfa, Sir, is your excellent book, and such is your
CMMcmtion, from which I do always return both more
" better, who am.
Sir, your, &c.
Mimq JOHK BVE&9K H
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn*
^ „ 22 Feb., 1656-7.
I/EAR Sir,
I know you will either excuse, or acquit, or at
least pardon me that I have so long seemingly neglected
to make a return to your so kind and friendly letter : when
I shall tell you that I have passed through a great cloud
which hath wetted me deeper than the skin. It hath
pleased God to send the small pox and fevers among my
children : and I have, since I received your last, buried
two sweet, hopeful boys ; and I have now but one sou
kft, whom I intend (if it please God) to bring up to Lon-
don before Easter; and then I hope to wait upon you, and
by your sweet conversation and other divertisements, if
not to alleviate my sorrows, yet, at least, to entertain
myself and keep me from too intense and actual think-
ings of my troubles. Dear Sir, will you do so much for
mCy as to beg my pardon of Mr. Thurland, that I have
yet made no return to him for his so friendly letter and
expressions. Sir, you see there is too much matter to
make excuse; my sorrow will, at least, render me an
object of every good man's pity and commiseration. But
for myself I bless God I have observed and felt so much
mercy in this angry dispensation of God, that I am almost
transported, I am sure highly pleased, with thinking how
infinitely sweet his mercies are when his judgments are
so gracious. Sir, there are many particulars in your letter
which I would fain have answered; but still my Httle
sadnesses intervene, and will yet suffer me to write
nothing else : but that I beg your prayers, and that you
wiU still own me to be.
Dear and honoured Sir,
YoOT very affectionate friend and
hearty servant,
Jer. Taylor.
♦ Printed from a Letter in the British MusemB.(Noi 4274, add. MSSl 51),
which, although it haa no superscription, was evidently addressed to Eveiyn.
Heber has inserted it in liis Life of Bishop Taylor. From the date of this
letter, it would seem that Taylor's recent detention in the Tower had lasted
but a very short time.
98 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
John Evelyn to the Honourable Robei't Boyle.*
Sayet-Court, 9 May, 1657.
Sir,
I should infinitely blush at the slowness of this
address, if a great indisposition of body, which obliged
me to a course of physic, and since, an unexpected journey
(from both which I am but lately delivered), had not
immediately intervened, since you were pleased to command
these trifles of me. I have omitted those of brass, &c.,
because they properly belong to etching and engraving :
which treatise, together with five others (viz. Painting in
Oil, in Miniature, Anealing in Glass, Enamelling, and
Marble Paper) I was once minded to publish (as a speci-
men of what might be further done in the rest) for the
benefit of the ingenious : but I have since been put oflF
from that design, not knowing whether I should do well
to gratify so barbarous an age (as I fear is approaching)
with curiosities of that nature, delivered with so much
integrity as I intended them ; and lest by it I should
also disoblige some, who made those professions their
living ; or, at least, debase much of their esteem by pros-
tituting them to the vulgar. Rather, I conceived that a
true and ingenious discovery of these and the like arts,
would, to better purpose, be compiled for the use of that
Mathematico-Chymico-Mechanical School designed by our
noble friend Dr. Wilkinson, where they might (not without
an oath of secresy) be taught to those that either affected
or desired any of them : and from thence, as from another
Solomon's house, so much of them only made public,
as should from time to time be judged convenient by the
superintendent of that School, for the reputation of learn-
ing and benefit of the nation. And upon this score, there
would be a most willing contribution of what ingenious
persons know of this kind, and to which I should most freely
dedicate what I have. In the meantime. Sir, I trans-
mit you this varnish, and shall esteem myself extremely
honoured, that you will farther command whatsoever else
of this, or any other kind I possess, who am. Sir, your, &c.
I beseech you. Sir, to make my most humble service
♦ See Diary, Vol. i. pp. 412, 413.
1657.] JOHN EVELYN. 9S
acceptable to Dr. Wilkinson : and that you be pleased to
communicate to me what success you have in the process
of this receipt (myself not having had time to examine
it), that in case of any difficulty, I may have recourse to
the person from whom I received it.
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor.
Sayes-Court, 9 May, 1657.
Sir,
Amongst the rest that are tributaries to your
worth, I make bold to present you with this small token :
and though it bears no proportion either with my obliga-
tion or your merit, yet I hope you will accept it, as the
product of what I have employed for this purpose ; and
which you shall yearly receive so long as God makes me
able, and that it may be useful to you. What I can
handsomely do for you by other friends, as occasions
present themselves, may, I hope, in time supply that
which I would myself do. In order to which, I have
already made one of my Brothers sensible of this oppor-
tunity to do God and his country an acceptable service :
I think I shall prevail as much on the other : the effects
whereof will show themselves, and care shall be taken
that you have an account of all this in due time, and as
you shall yourself desire it. I will not add, that by
bringing you acquainted with persons of so much virtue
(though I speak it of my nearest relatives) I do at all
reinforce the kindness : since by it I oblige you mutually
(for so beneficium dare socialis res est), and because it is
infinitely short of his respects who (with Philemon) owes
you even himself, and which, if I have not sooner
paid, I appeal to philosophy, and the sentences of that
wise man who, as some affirm, held intercourse with the
Apostle himself: Qui festinat utique reddere, nan habet
animum grati honiinis, sed debitoris : et qui nimis cito cupit
solvere, invitus debet : qui invitus debet, ingratus est : and.
Sir, you have too far obliged me to be ever guilty of that
crime who am, Rev^ Sir, &c.
M OOKOEPOmyEXCE of [lomsov.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
15 May, 16S7.
Honoured and Dear Sia,
A stranger came two nights since from you with
a letter, and a token : full of humanity and sweetness, that
was ; and this, of charity. I know it is more blessed to
give than to receive : and yet, as 1 no ways repine at that
Providence that forces me to receive, so neither can I
envy that felicity of yours, not only that you can, but
that you do give ; and as I rejoice in that mercy which
daily makes decrees in heaven for my support aad comfort,
so I do most thankfuUy adore the goodness of God to
yon, whom He cansigas to ^eater glories by \he minis-
teries <rf tbeee graces. But, Sir, what am I, or what cau
I do, or what have I done that you can think I have or
can oblige you ? Sir, you aare too kind to me, and oblige
me not only beyond my merit, but beyond my modesty.
I only caaa love you, aad honour you, and pray for you ;
and in all this I caa not say but that I am behixid hand
with you, for I have found bo great effluxes of all your
worthinesses and charities, that I am a debtor for your
prayers, for the comfort of your letters, ior the charity of
your hand, and the affections of your heart. Sir, though
you are beyond the reach of my returns, and my Sfea'vioes
are verj' short of toucliing you; jti, if it were possible
for me to receive any commands, the obeying of which
Bttight signify my ^teat regards of you, I could with some
more confidence converse with a pcrsoa eo obliging ; but
I am obliged and ashamed, and unable to «ay so much m&
i ritould do to represent myself to be,
Honowed and dear Sir,
Your most affectionate and most obliged
"friend and servant,
Jee. Taylor.*
* It may jmt he oat oF place to zematk on Cbis letter, and its predecessor,
tliat iereaay Taylar was at this time engaged in the composition of his
beautiful Eseay on Friendship. He refers to it as completed in a letter of
three weeks' later date.
Ifl57.] JOES wmLY:s. 9&
Reverend JEdward Snatt* to John Evelyn.
Lewes, 25 May, 1657.
Noble Sir,
Tliis is the third book that I have received
from your Honour, the third book, I say, of your own
making, which makes me stand amazed; I cannot tell
whether more at the excellency of your work in writing,
or at your condescension so low as to stoop to give it me
in sxich a manner. Sir, others I see have praised you and
it, but none have or can sufficiently set out your labour
and pains. But what cannot such an artificer as yourself
effect? Gro on prosperously and finish that which none
yet durst attempt, and none but you can perfect : though it
be the first book, yet it cannot be absolutely the last, if Mr.
Evelyn please. I did all this time forbear to write unto
you, thinking every day to come unto you in person, and
seeing still I was hindered, both by weakness in body
and my serious employments : having this opportunity of
so honoured a friend as Mr. Heath, I could not but break
through all difficulties, and tell you, in spite of all the
world, that in my judgment, or rather opinion, you
are not inferior to the highest laurel. The five younger
brethren will grieve if you clothe not them in as rich
garments as theii* elder brother, and the elder wiR rejoice
to see them as richly clothed as himself. Do you not
think that your poor Mulcaster doth rejoice to think
that he is like to have some in their kind as eminent as
Winchester? You know Wenterton sent forth his first
Book of Aphorisms as a spy, and then the next followed :
yours, if I have any skill, are like to pro^'« as good success
as his. But I must desire you to pardon my errors, and
to remember my best respects to your noble consort,
whom (God willing) I purpose to see this summer, with
yourself, at your house, and to visit, as by duty I am
bound, your elder and noble brother Mr. George Evelyn,
together with Mr. Richard Evelyn. In the meantime I
* Mr. Snatt, of Southover, was Evelyn's schoolmaster, and tiie subject
of the worthy pedagogue's present gratitude and rapture was the First Book
of the translated Lucretius, which his distinguished pupil had sent him. See
Diary, Vol. i., pp. 5, 6.
96 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
humbly desire to hear from you, and from my heart sub-
scribe myself Your most humble servant,
Edward Snatt.
John Evelyn to Jeremy Taylor*
Saycs-Court, 9 Juiie, 1657.
Sir,
I heartily acknowledge the Divine mercies to me,
both in this, and many other instances of • his goodness to
me ; but for no earthly concernment more than for what
He has conveyed me by your charity and ministration
towards my eternal and better interest ; and for which I
wish that any new gradations of duty to God, or acknow-
ledgments to you from me, may in the least proportion
second my great obUgations, and which you continue to
reinforce by new and indelible favours and friendships,
which I know myself to be so much the more unwortliy
of, as I am infinitely short of the least perfection that
you ascribe to me. And because you best know how sad
a truth this is, I have no reason to look on that part of
your letter but as upon your own emanations, which like
the beams of the sun upon dark and opaque bodies
make them shine indeed faintly and by reflection.
Every one knows from whence they are derived, and
where their native fountain is : and since this is all the
tribute which such dim lights repay, to. aa ck tQv aOiv <7ot
'7rpo(r(f)€povfi€v, I must never hope to oblige you, or repay
the least of your kindness. But what I am able, that I
will do, and that is to be ever mindful of them, and for
ever to love you for them. Sir, I had forgotten to tell
you, and indeed it did extremely trouble me, that you
are to expect my coach to wait on you presently after
dinner, that you are not to expose yourself to the
casualty of the tides, in repairing to do so Christian an
office for, Sir, Your, &c.
* Evelyn's iudorsement on this letter, " to come and chisten my son
George^ fdiows tlie occasion on which it was written.
1657.] JOHN EVELYN. 97
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Honoured and Dear oir,
Your messenger prevented mine but an hour.
But I am much pleased at the repetition of the Divine
favour to you in the like instances ; that God hath given
you another testimony of his love to your person, and care
of your family ; it is an engagement to you of new degrees
of duty, which you cannot but superadd to the former,
because the principle is genuine and prolific ; and all the
emanations of grace are unequivocal and alike. Sir, your
kind letter hath so abundantly rewarded and crowned my
innocent endeavours in my descriptions of Friendship, that
I perceive there is a friendship beyond what I have fancied,
and a real, material worthiness beyond the heights of the
most perfect ideas : and I know now where to make my
book perfect, and by an appendix to outdo the first
essay : for when anything shall be observed to be wanting
in my character, I can tell them where to see the sub-
stance, much more beauteous than the picture, and by
sending the readers of my book to be spectators of your
life and worthiness, they shall see what I would fain
have taught them, by what you really are. Sir, I know it
is usual amongst civil persons to say kind things when
they have received kind expressions : but I now go upon
another account : you have forced me to say, what I have
long thought, and spoken to others, even so much as to
your modesty may seem excessive, but that which to the
merit of your person and friendship is very much too
little. Sir, I shall by the grace of God wait upon you
to-morrow, and do the ofi&ce you require ; and shall hope
that your little one may receive blessings according to the
heartiness of the prayers which I shall then and after,
make for him : that then also I shall wait upon your
worthy Brothers, I see it is a design both of your kind-
ness, and of the Divine Providence.
Sir, I am
Your most affectionate and most faithful friend
and servant,
Jer. Taylor.
98 COllRESPONDENCE OF [Lokdok,
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Sir,
Aug. 29, 1657.
I am very glad that your goodnature hath over-
come your modesty, and that you have suffered yourself
to be persuaded to benefit the world rather than humour
you own retiredness. I have many reasons to encourage
you, and the only one objection, which is the leaven of
your author,* de providentid, you have so well answered,
that I am confident, in imitation of your great Master, you
will bring good out of evil : and, like those wise physicians,
who, gtNing ak^^iKaKa, do not only expel the poison, but
strengthen the stomach, I doubt not but you will take all
opportunities, and give all advantages, to the reputation
and great name of Grod ; and will be glad and rejoice to
employ your pen for him who gave you fingers to write,
and will to dictate.
But, Sir, that which you check at is the immortality of
the soul : that is, its being in the interval before the day
of judgment : which you conceive is not agreeable to the
Apostle's creed, or current of Scriptures, assigning (as you
suppose) the felicity of Christians to the resurrection.
Before I speak to the thing I must note this, that the
parts which you oppose to each other may both be true.
For the soul may be immortal, and yet not beatified till
the resurrection. For to be. and to be happy or miser-
able, are not immediate or necessary consequents to each
other. For the soul may be alive, and yet not feel ; as
it may be alive and not understand ; so our soul, when
we are fast asleep, and so Nebuchadnezzar's soul, when
he had his lycanthropy. And the Socinians, that say
the soul sleeps, do not suppose that she is mortal ; but
for want of her instrument cannot do any acts of her life.
The soul returns to God ; and that, in no sense is death.
And I think the death of the soul cannot be defined;
and there is no death to spirits but annihilation. I am
sure there is none that we know of or can understand.
For, if ceasing from its operations be death, then it dies
sooner than the body : for oftentimes it does not work
* Alluding to Evelyn's translation of Lqcretias.
1657.] JOHN EVELYN. 99
any of its nobler operations. In our sleep we neither
feel nor understand. If you answer, and say it animates
the body, and that is a sufficient indication of life : I reply,
that if one act alone is sufficient to show the soul to be
alive, then the soul cannot die; for in philosophy it is
affirmed, that the soul desires to be re-united; and that
which is dead desires not : besides, that the soul can un-
derstand without the body is so certain (if there be any
certainty in mystic theology), and so evident in actions
which are reflected upon themselves — as a desire to desire,
a will to will, a remembering that I did remember — that,
if one act be enough to prove the soul to be alive, the
state of separation cannot be a state of death to the soul ;
because she then can desire to be re-united, and she can
understand : for nothing can hinder from doing those
actions which depend not upon the body, and in which the
operations of the soul are not organical.
But to the thing. The felicity of Christians is not till
the day of judgment, I do believe next to an article of my
creed ; and so far I consent with you : but then I cannot
allow your consequent, that the soul is mortal. That
the soul is a complete substance I am willing enough to
allow in disputation; though, indeed, I believe the con-
trary ; and I am sure no philosophy and no divinity can
prove its being to be wholly relative and incomplete. But,
suppose it : it will not follow that, therefore, it cannot live
in separation. For the flame of a candle, which is your
own similitude, will give light enough to this inquiry.
The flame of a candle can consist or subsist, though the
matter be extinct. I will not instance Licetus's lamps,
whose flame had stood still 1500 years, viz. in Tully
wife's vault. For, if it had spent any matter, the matter
would have been exhausted long before that, and if it spends
none, it is all one as if it had none ; for what need is there
of it, if there be no use for it, and what use, if no feeding
the flame, and how can it feed but by spending itself? But
the reason why the flame goes out when the matter is
exhausted, is because that little particle of fire is soon over-
come by the circumflant air and scattered, when it wants
matter to keep it in unison and closeness : but then, as
the flame continues not in the relation of a candle's flame
when the matter is exhausted, yet fire can abide without
H 2
100 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
matter to feed it ; for itself is matter, it is a substance.
And 80 is the soul : and as the element of fire, and the celes-
tial globes of fire, eat nothing, but live of themselves ; so
can the soul when it is divested of its relative; and so
■would the candle's flame, if it could get to the regions of
fire, as the soul does to the region of spirits.
The places of Scripture you are pleased to urge, I shall
reserve for our meeting or another letter; for they
require particular pointing. But one thing only, because
the answer is short, I shall reply to ; why the Apostle,
preaching Jesus and the resurrection, said notliing of the
immortality of the soul ? I answer, because the resur-
rection of the body included and supposed that. 2. And
if it had not, yet what need he preach that to them, which
in Athens was believed, by almost all their schools of
learning ? For besides that the immortality of the soul
was believed by the Gymnosopliists in India, by Trismegist
in Egypt, by Job in Chaldea, by his friends in the East, it
was also confessed by Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Thales of
Miletus, and by Aristotle, as I am sure I can prove. I say
nothing of Cicero, and all the Latins; and nothing of all the
Christian schools of philosophy that e\eT were. But
when you see it in Scripture, I know you will no way re-
fuse it. To this purpose are those words of St. Paul,
speaking of his rapture into heaven. He purposely and by
design twice says, " whether in the body or out of the body
I know not :" by which he plainly says, that it was no
ways unlikely that his rapture was out of the body ; and,
therefore, it is very agreeable to the nature of the soul to
operate in separation from the body.
Sir, for your other question, how it appears that God
made all things out of nothing ? I answer it is demon-
stratively certain ; or else there is no God. For if there
be a God, he is the one principle : but, if he did not make
the first thing, then there is something besides him that
was never made ; and then there are two eternals. Now
if God made the first thing, he made it of nothing. But,
Sir, if I may have the honour to see your annotations
before you publish them, I will give all the faithful and
most friendly assistances that are in the power of.
Dear Sir,
Your most obliged and afiectionate servant,
Jer. Taylor.
1657.] JOHN EVELYN. 101
Sir,
John 'Evelyn to Sir Richard Browne.
Sayes-Court, 14 Feb: 1657-8.
By the reverse of this medal, you will perceive
how much reason I had to be afraid of my fehcity, and
greatly it did import to me to do all that I could to
prevent what I have apprehended, what I deserved, and
what now I feel. God has taken from us that dear
child, your grandson, your godson, and with him all the
joy and satisfaction that could be derived from the greatest
hopes. A loss, so much the more to be deplored, as our
contentments were extraordinary, and the indications of
his future perfections as fair and legible as, yet, I ever saw,
or read of in one so very young : you have. Sir, heard so
much of this, that I may say it with the less crime and
suspicion. And indeed his whole life was from the
beginning so great a miracle, that it were hard to exceed
in the description of it ; and which I should here yet
attempt, by summing up all the prodigies of it, and what a
child at five years old (for he was little more) is capable
of, had I not given you so many minute and particular
accounts of it, by several expresses, when I then mentioned
those things with the greatest joy, which now I write with
as much sorrow and amazement. But so it is, that has
pleased God to dispose of him, and that blossom (fruit,
rather I may say) is fallen; a six days quotidian having
deprived us of him ; an accident that has made so great a
breach in all my contentments, as I do never hope to see
repaired : because we are not in this life to be fed with
wonders : and that I know you will hardly be able to
support the affliction and the loss, who bear so great a
part in everything that concerns me. But thus we must
be reduced when God sees good, and I submit ; since I
had, therefore, this blessing for a punishment, and that I
might feel the effects of my great unworthiness. But
I have begged of God that I might pay the fine here, and
if to such belonged the kingdom of heaven, I have one
depositum there. Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit :
blessed be his name : since without that consideration it
were impossible to support it : for the stroke is so severe,
108 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loxdos,
that I find nothing in all philosophy capable to allay the
impression of it, beyond that of cutting the channel and
dividing with our friends, who really sigh on our behalf,
and mingle with our greater sorrows in accents of piety
and compassion, which is all that can yet any ways alleviate
the sadness of, Dear Sir, Your, &c.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Feb. 17, 16S7-«.
Dear Sir,
If dividing and sharing griefs were like the cutting
of rivers, I dare say to you, you would find your stream
much abated ; for I account myself to have a great cause
of sorrow not only in the diminution of the numbers of your
joys and hopes, but in the loss of that pretty person, your
strangely hopeful boy. I cannot tell all ray own sorrows
without adding to yours ; and the causes of my real sadness
in your loss are so just and so reasonable, that I can no
otherwise comfort you but by telling you, that you have
very great cause to moui'n : So certain it is, that grief
does propagate as fire does. You have ^nkindled my
funeral torch, and by joining mine to yours, I do but
increase the flame. Hoc me male ttrit, is the best signifi-
cation of my apprehension of your sad story. But, Sir, I
cannot choose but I must hold another and a brighter
flame to you — it is already burning in your breast ; and if I
can but remove the dark side of the lanthom, you have
enough within you to warm yourself, and to shine to
others. Remember, Sir, your two boys are two bright
stars, and their innocence is secured, and you shall never
hear evil of them again. Their state is safe, and heaven
is given to them upon very easy terms ; nothing but to be
bom and die. It will cost you more trouble to get where
they are ; and amongst other things one of the hardnesses
will be, that you must overcome even this just and reason-
able grief; and indeed, though the grief hath but too
reasonable a cause, yet it is much more reasonable that
you master it. For besides that they are no losers, but
you are the person that complains, do but consider what you
would have sufftred for their interest : you [would] have
sufl'ered them to go from you, to be great Princes in a
1657-8.] JOHN EVELYN. 108
strange country ; and if you can be content to suffer your
own inconvenience for their interest, you commend your
worthiest love, and the question of mourning is at an end.
But you have said and done well, when you look upon it
as a rod of God ; and he that so smites here, will spare
hereafter : and if you by patience and submission imprint
the discipline upon your own flesh, you kill the cause, and
make the efiect very tolerable ; because it is in some sense
chosen, and not therefore in no [any] sense unsufferable.
Sir, if you do look to it, time will snatch your honour from
you, and reproach you for not efl'ecting that by Christian
philosophy which time will do alone. And if you
consider that of the bravest men in the world we find the
seldomest stories of their children, and the Apostles had
none, and thousands of the worthiest persons that sound
most in story died childless ; you will find that is a rare
act of Providence so to impose upon worthy men a
necessity of perpetuating their names by worthy actions and
discourses, governments, and reasonings. — If the breach
be never repaired, it is because God does not see it fit to be ;
and if you will be of this mind it will be much the better.
But, Sir, if you will pardon my zeal and passion for your
comfort, I will readily confess that you have no need of
any discom\se from me to comfort you. Sir, now you have
an opportunity of serving God by passive graces; strive
to be an example and a comfort to your lady, and by your
wise counsel or comfort stand in the breaches of your
own family, and make it appear that you are more to
her than ten sons. Sir, by the assistance of Almighty God
I purpose to wait on you some time next week, that I
may be a witness of your Christian courage and bravery ;
and that I may see, that God never displeases you, as long
as the main stake is preserved, I mean your hopes and
confidences of heaven. Sir, I shall pray for all that you
can want, that is, some degrees of comfort and a present
mind : and shall always do you honour, and fain also
would do you service, if it were in the power, as it is in
the affections and desires, of.
Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate and obliged
friend and servant,
Jer. Taylor.
104 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Thomas Barlow* to John Evelyn.
25 March, 1658.
Sir,
Your kindness to the public and me, hath
occasioned you the trouble of this letter. I understand
by my friend Mr. Pett, that you have been pleased chari-
tably to contribute some prints and a little book of
drawings, (towards a design which he hath begun) for
our library ; this paper comes to kiss your hand and give
you hearty thanks for your continued kindness to us;
and withal to assure you that if there be any thing
wherein I may serve you or any friend of yours here, be
pleased to command, and as you may justly expect, so
you shall be sure to find your commands willingly and
cheerfully obeyed by. Sir,
Your affectionate friend and servant,
Thomas Barlow.
P.S. We have no news here save a new Saxon Dic-
tionary in the press, by Mr. Somner of Canterbury ; and
a new collection of many centuries of Arabic Proverbs, by
Mr. Pocock.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
May 12, 1658.
Honoured Sir,
I return you many thanks for your care of my
temporal affairs ; I wish I may be able to give you as good
account of my watchfulness for your service, as you have
for your dihgence to do me benefit. But concerning the
thing itself, I am to give you this account. I like not the
condition of being a lecturer under the dispose of another,
nor to serve in my semicircle, where a Presbyterian and
myself shall be like Castor and Pollux, the one up and the
other down, which methinks is like worshipping the sun,
and making him the deity, that we may be religious half
the year, and every night serve another interest. Sir,
the stipend is so inconsiderable, it will not pay the charge
and trouble of removing myself and family. It is wholly
arbitrary ; for the triers may overthrow it ; or the vicar
* Dr. Barlow was now Warden of Queen's College, Oxford.
1658.] JOHN EVELYN. 105
may forbid it ; or the subscribers may die, or grow weary,
or poor, or be absent. I beseech you, Sir, pay my thanks
to your friend, who had so much kindness for me as to
intend my benefit. I think myself no less obliged to
him and you, than if T had accepted it.*
Sir, I am well pleased with the pious meditations and the
extracts of a religious spirit which I read in your excellent
letter. I can say nothing at present but this, that I hope
in a short progression you will be wholly immerged in the
delices and joys of religion; and as I perceive your relish and
gust of the things of the world goes off continually, so you
will be invested with new capacities, and entertained with
new appetites, for in religion every new degree of love is a
new appetite, as in the schools we say, every single angel
does make a species, and differs more than numerically from
an angel of the same order.
Your question concerning interest hath in it no difficulty
as you have prudently stated it. For in the case, you
have only made yourself a merchant with them ; only you
take less, that you be secured, as you pay a fine to the
Assurance Office. I am only to add this; you are
neither directly nor collaterally to engage the debtor to
pay more than is allowed by law. It is necessary that
you employ your money some way for the advantage of
your family. You may lawfully buy land, or traffic, or
exchange it to your profit. You may do this by yourself
or by another, and you may as well get something as he get
more, and that as well by money as by land or goods, for
one is as valuable in estimation of merchants, and of all
the world as anything can be; and methinks no man
should deny money to be valuable, that remembers, every
man parts with what he hath for money : and as lands are of
a price, then (when) they are sold for ever, and when they
are parted with for a year, so is money : since the employ-
ment of it is apt to minister to gain as lands are to rent.
Money and lands are equally the matter of increase ; to
both of them industry must (be) applied, or else the profit
will cease ; now as a tenant of lands may plough for me,
* This letter refers to an offer made from Lord Conway to Taylor, through
Evelyn, of an alternate lectureship in Lisbum (a small town in the county
of Antrim), which, though here declined, he soon after, as will be seen,
accepted. His next letter is dated from Ireland.
106 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
so a teuant of money may go to sea aud traffic for
me
John Evelyn to Edward Thurland.
Sayet-OonrtyZNov: 1658.
Sir,
I understand that my Lord of Northumberland
has some thoughts of sending his son, my Lord Percy, abroad
to travel, and withal to allow him an appointment so noble
and considerable, as does become his greatness, and the
accomplishment of his education to the best improvement.
My many years conversation abroad and relations there
to persons of merit and quality, having afforded me
several opportimities to consider of eifects of this nature
by the successes, when gentlemen of quality have been
sent beyond the seas, resigned and concredited to the
conduct of such as they call Governors, being for the
greatest ingi-edient a pedantic sort of scholars, infinitely
uninstructed for such an employment : my ambition to
serve you by contributing to the designs of a person so
illustrious, and worthy of the honour which I find you
always bear towards his Lordship, hath created in me the
confidence to request your advice and return upon these
particulars. Whether my Lord persist stiU in his resolu-
tion ? What equipage and honorarium my Lord does allow ?
and whether he Ilis not yet pitched upon any man to
accompany my young Lord ? &c. Because I would,
through your mediation, recommend to his Lordship a per-
son of honour, address in Court, rare erudition, languages
and credit : who, I think, would upon my representing
of the proposition, be ready to serve my Lord in an affair
of this importance. I shall add no more of the person,
quum kabeat in se, qtia quum tibi nota fuerint <rvaTaTiK<aT€pa
TtiffT^s <7rioToAj/s esse judicaberis : and because, in truth,
all that I can say will be infinitely inferior to his merit ;
being a person of integrity, great experience and discretion;
in a word, without reproach, and such as becomes my Lord
to seek out, that he may render his son those honourable
and decent advantages of the most refined conversations,
things not to be encountered in a pension with a pedant
— the education of most of our nobility abroad ; which
makes them return (I pronounce it with a blush) insolent
1658.] JOHN EVELYN. 107
and ignorant, debauched, and without the least tincture of
those advantages to be hoped for through the prudent
conduct of some brave man of parts, sober, active, and of
universal address — in fine, such as the person I would
recommend, and the greatest Prince in Europe might emu-
late upon the like occasion : and therefore such a one, as
I cannot presume would descend to my proposition for
any person of our nation excepting my Lord of Northum-
berland alone, whose education of his son, I hear, has
been of another strain and alloy, than that we have men-
tioned : and such as will give countenance and honour to
a person of his merit, character, and abilities. It is not
enough that persons of my Lord Percy^s quality be taught
to dance, and to ride, to speak languages and wear his
clothes with a good grace (which are the very shells of
travel), but, besides all these, that he know men, customs,
courts, and disciplines, and whatsoever su|)erior excellencies
the places afford, befitting a person of birth and noble
impressions. This is. Sir, the fruit of travel : thus our
incomparable Sidney was bred : and this, tanquam Minerva
Phidice, sets the crown upon his perfections when a gal-
lant man shall return with religion and courage, know-
ledge and modesty, without pedantry, vrithout affectation,
material and serious, to the contentment of his relations,
the glory of his family, the star and ornament of his age.
This is truly to give a citizen to his country. Youth is
the seed-time in which the foundation of all noble things
is to be laid ; but it is made the field of repentance. For
what can become more glorious than to be ignorant of
nothing but of vice, which indeed has no solid existency,
and therefore is nothing? And unless thus we cultivate
our youth, and noblemen make wiser provisions for their
educations abroad, above the vanity of talk, feather, and
ribbon, the ordinary commerce and import of their wUd
per-errations, I despair of ever living to see a man truly
noble indeed : they may be called " My Lord;" titles and
sounds are inferior trifles : but when virtue and blood are
coincidents, they both add lustre and mutual excellencies.
This is what my Lord takes care to secure to his son,
what I foresee and augur of my noble Lord Percy, and
of whom (though to me no otherwise known than by
fame) may this be the least portion of his panegyric.
108 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
whilst it concerns me only to testify, without design, my
zeal for one whom I know you so highly value ; quanto
erdm mi/ii carior est amicitia tua, tanto antiquior tnihi
esse debet cura, illam omnibus officiis testandi; which,
Sir, is the product of this impertinency, and sole ambition
of, Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to his Cousin, Geo. Take, of Cressing
Temple, in Essex.
[Of this letter only a portion has been preserved, in which he speaks of
his cousin's brother, Samuel Tuke,* having been made a proselyte to the
Church of Rome.]
Jan. 1658-9.
For the rest, we must commit to Providence the success
of times and mitigation of proselytical fervours ; having
for my own particular a very great charity for all who
sincerely adore the blessed Jesus, our common and dear
SaAiour, as being full of hope that God (however the present
zeal of some and the scandals taken by others at the instant
afflictions of the Church of England may transport them)
will at last compassionate our infirmities, clarify our judg-
ments, and make abatement for our ignorances, superstruc-
tures, passions and errors of corrupt times and interests,
of which the Romish persuasion can no way acquit herself,
whatever the present prosperity and secular polity may
pretend. But God will make all things manifest in his
own time; only let us possess ourselves in patience and
charity ; and this will cover a multitude of imperfections.
* See Mrs. Evelyn's character of him in a letter to Lady Tuke on his
death, dated Jan. 28, 1672. Sir Samuel Tuke, of Cressing Temple, in Essex,
Bart, was a colonel in the royal service during the civil war, and after-
wards, being one of those that attempted to form a body in Essex for King
Charles, narrowly escaped with his life. In 1664 he married Mary Sheldon,
one of the Queen's dressers, kinswoman to Lord Arundel, and died at
Somerset House, Jan. 26, 1673. His son followed the fortunes of King
James, and was killed at the battle of the Boyne. George Tuke, afterwards
Sir George, is frequently referred to in the Diary. Soon after the Restora-
tion he wrote a comedy (the Adventures of Five Hours, of which the plot
was borrowed from Calderon) for the Duke's Theatre, " which took so uni-
versally tliat it was acted for some weeks every day, and 'twas believed it
would be worth to the comedians 400/. or 500/." " The plot was incom-
parable," says Evelyn, drily, " but the language stiff and formal."
1659.] • JOHN EVELYN. 109
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Lianagarvy, April 9, 1659.
Honoured Sir,
I fear I am so unfortunate as that I forgot to
leave witt you a direction how you might, if you pleased
to honour me with a letter, refresh my solitude Avith
notice of your health and that of your relatives, that I may
rejoice and give God thanks for the blessing and prosperity
of my dearest and most honoured friends. I have kept close
all the winter, that I might, without interruption, attend
to the finishing of the employment I was engaged in :
which now will have no longer delay than what it meets
in the printer's hands.* But, Sir, I hope that by this time
you have finished what you have so prosperously begun, —
your own Lucretius. I desire to receive notice of it from
yourself, and what other designs you are upon in order
to the promoting or adorning learning : for I am confident
you will be as useful and profitable as you can be, that, by
the worthiest testimonies, it may by posterity be remem-
bered that you did live. But, Sir, I pray say to me some-
thing concerning the state of learning ; how is any art or
science hkely to improve? what good books are lately
public ? what learned men, abroad or at home, begin
anew to fill the mouth of fame, in the places of the dead
Salmasius, Vossius, Mocelin, Sirmond Eigaltius, Des
Cartes, Galileo, Peirisk, Petavius, and the excellent per-
sons of yesterday ? I perceive here that there is a new
sect rising in England, the Perfectionists ; for three men
that wrote an Examen of the Confession of Faith of the
Assembly, whereof one was Dr. Drayton, and is now dead,
did start some very odd things; but especially one, in
pursuance of the doctrine of CastelHo, that it is possible to
give unto God perfect unsinning obedience, and to have
perfection of degrees in this life. The doctrine was opposed
by an obscure person, one John Tendring ; but learnedly
enough and wittily maintained by another of the trium-
virate, William Parker, who indeed was the first of the
three ; but he takes his hint from a sermon of Dr. Drayton,
which, since his death, Parker hath pubHshed, and endea-
* His Treatise on Conscience appears to be alluded to.
110 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lokdok,
vours to justify. I am informed by a worthy person, that
there are many of them who pretend to great sanctity and
great revelations and skill in all Scriptures, which they ex-
pound almost wholly to scriptural and mysterious purposes.
I knew nothing, or but extremely little, of them when I
was in England ; but further oflF I hear most news. If you
can inform yourself concerning them, I would fain be
instructed concerning their design, and the circumstances
of their life and doctrine. For they live strictly, and in
many things speak rationally, and in some things very
confidently. They excel the Sociuians in the strictness
of theii' doctrine ; but, in my opinion, fall extremely short
of them in their expositions of the practical Scripture. If
you inquire after the men of Dr. Gell's church, possibly
you may learn much : and if I mistake not, the thing is
worth inquiry. Their books are printed by Thos: New-
comb in London, but where is not set down. The
Examen of the Assembly's Confession is highly wortJi
perusing, both for the strangeness of some things in it,
and the learning of mauy of them.
Sir, You see how I am glad to make an occasion to
talk with you : though I can never want a just oppor-
tunity and title to write to you, as long as I have the
memory of those many actions of loving kindness by
which you have obhged.
Honoured Sir,
Your most affectionate and endeared friend
and humble servant,
Jer. Tayloe.
Jolm Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle.
^ Saya-Court, April 13, 1659.
SiK,
Hanng the last year drawn a good quantity of
the essence of roses, by the common way of fermentation,
and remembering how soon it went away, amongst the
ladies, after they had once scented it; the season of
flowers now approaching, makes me call to mind, to have
known it is sold by some chemists (and in particular by one
Longsire at Chichester) mixed with a substance not unlike
it ; which retained the odour of it wonderful exactly ; but
1669.] JOHN EVELYN. Ill
in such a proportion, that for seven or eight shillings a
sister of mine was used to purchase more than any man
living can extract out of three or four hundred weight of
roses, by the vulgar or Glauber's preparation : by which
means that precious essence may be made to serve for
many ordinary uses, without much detriment. Sir, I am
bold to request of you, that if you know what it is (for if
you know it not, I despair of encountering it) you will
be pleased to instruct me; and, in lieu thereof, to command
me some service by which I may testify my great ambi-
tion to obey you, and how profoundly sensible I remain of
my many obligations to you, which I should not have
been thus long in expressing, had not I apprehended how
importune letters are to studious persons, where the com-
merce is so jejune; and that I can return you nothing in
exchange for civilities I have already received. Sir, I
have reason to be confident that you are upon some very glo-
rious design, and that you need no subsidiaries, and therein
you are happy ; make us so, likewise, with a confirmation
of it ; that such as cannot hope to contribute anything
of value to the adornment of it, may yet be permitted to
augur you all the success which your worthy and noble
attempts do merit ; in the mean time, that some domestic
afflictions of mine have rendered me thus long useless,
both to my friends and to myself; which I wish may be
thought a just apologv for.
Noble Sir,
Your most humble and most obedient servant,
J. Evelyn.
Sir, I know the impostors multiply their essence of
roses with ol. lig. Rhodii, others with that of Ben ; but it
can be neither ; for the oil of rosewood will vanquish it
exceedingly, neither is it so fluid; and the other grows
rancid. Some have told me it was spermaceti, which I
have not essayed.
Your commands will at any time find me, directed to
the Hawk and Pheasant upon Lud gate-hill, at one Mr.
Saunders's, a woollen-draper.
112 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Portmore, June 4, 1659.
Honoured Sir,
I have reason to take a great pleasure that you
are pleased so perfectly to retain me in your memory and
afTections as if I were still near you, a partner of your
converse, or could possibly oblige you. But I shall attri-
bute this so wholly to your goodness, your piety and
candour, that I am sure nothing on my part can incite
or continue the least part of those civilities and endear-
ments by which you have often, and still continue to
oblige me. Sir, I received your two little books, and
am very much pleased with the Golden Book of St.
Chrysostom, on which your epistle hath put a black
enamel, and made a pretty monument for your dearest,
strangest miracle of a boy ; and when I read it, I could
not choose but observe St. Paul's rule, jlebani cum flen-
tibus. I paid a tear at the hearse of that sweet child.
Your other little Enchiridion is an emanation of an
ingenuous spirit; and there are in it observations, the
like of which are seldom made by young travellers j and
though by the publication of these you have been civil
and courteous to the commonwealth of learning, yet I
hope you will proceed to oblige us in some greater instances
of your own. I am much pleased with your way of
translation ; and if you would proceed in the same method,
and give us in English some devout pieces of the Fathers,
and your own annotations upon them, you would do profit
and pleasure to the pubUc. But, Sir, I cannot easily
consent that you should lay aside your Lucretius, and
having been requited yourself by your labour, I cannot
perceive why you should not give us the same recreation,
since it will be greater to us than it could be to you, to
whom it was alloyed by your great labour : especially since
you have given us so large an essay of your ability to do it;
and the world having given you an essay of their accepta-
tion of it.
Sir, that Pallavicini whom you mention is the author of
the late history of the Council of Trent, in two volumes
in folio, in Italian. I have seen it, but had not leisure to
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 113
peruse it so much as to give any judgment of the man by
it. Besides this, he hath published two little manuals in
12mo, Assertionum Theologicarum; but these speak but
very little of the man. His history, indeed, is a great
undertaking, and his family (for he is of the Jesuit order),
used to sell the book by crying up the man : but I think
I saw enough of it to suspect the expectation is much
bigger than the thing. It is no wonder that Baxter
undervalues the gentry of England. You know what
spirit he is of; but I suppose he hath met with his match,
for Mr. Peirs hath attacked him, and they are joined in
the lists. I have not seen Mr. Thorndike^s book. You
make me desirous of it, because you call it elaborate : but
I like not the title nor the subject, and the man is indeed
a very good and a learned man, but I have not seen much
prosperity in his writings : but if he have so well chosen
the questions, there is no peradventure but he hath
tumbled into his heap many choice materials. I am
much pleased that you promise to inquire into the way of
the Perfectionists ; but I think Lord Pembroke and Mrs.
Joy, and the Lady Wildgoose, are none of that number.
I assure you, some very learned and very sober persons
have given up their names to it. Castellio is their great
patriarch; and his dialogue An per Spir. S. homo possit
perfecte obedire legi Dei, is their first essay. Parker hath
written something lately of it, and in Dr. Gell^s last book
in folio, there is much of it. Indeed you say right that
they take in Jacob Behmen, but that is upon another
account, and they understand him as nurses do their
children's imperfect language; something by use, and
much by fancy. I hope. Sir, in your next to me (for I
flatter myself to have the happiness of receiving a letter
from you sometimes), you will account to me of some
hopes concerning some settlement, or some peace to reli-
gion. I fear my peace in Ireland is likely to be short,
for a Presbyterian and a madman have informed against
me as a dangerous man to their religion ; and for using
the sign of the cross in baptism. The worst event of the
information which I fear, is my return into England ;
which, although I am not desirous it should be upon these
terms, yet if it be without much violence, I shall not be
much troubled.
114 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Losdok,
Bir, I do account rorself extremely obliged to your
kindness and charity, in your continued care of me, and
bounty to luc ; it is so much the more, because I have
almost from all men but yourself, suffered some diminu-
tion of their kindness, by reason of my absence ; for, as
the Spaniard says, *' The dead and the absent have but
few friends." But, Sir, I accomit myself infinitely
obliged to you, much for your pension, but exceedingly
much more for your affection, which you have so signally
expressed. I pray, Sir, be pleased to present my humble
service to your two honoured Brothers : I shall be ashamed
to make any address, or pay my thanks in words ta
them, till ray Rule of Conscience be public, and that is
all the Avay I have to pay my debts ; that and my prayers
that God would. Sir, Mr. Martin, bookseller, at the
Bell, in St. Paul's Churchyard, is my correspondent in
London, and whatsoever he receives, he transmits it to me
carefully ; and so Avill Mr. Royston, though I do not
often employ him now. Sir, I fear I have tired you with
an impertinent letter, but I have felt your 'charity to be
so great as to do much more than to pardon the excess
of my affections. Sir, I hope that you and I remember
one another when we are upon our knees. I do not
liiink of coming to London till the latter end of summer,
or the spring, if I can enjoy ray quietness here ; but then
I do if God permit : but beg to be in this interval
refreshed by a letter from you at your leisure, for, indeed,
in it will be a great pleasure and endearment to.
Honoured Sir,
Your very obliged, most affectionate,
and humble servant,
Jer. Taylor.
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle.
Sayes.Omtrt, Aug. 9, 1 659.
HoNorRED Sir,
I am perfectly ashamed at the remissness of this
recognition for your late favours from Oxon: where (thougli
had you resided) it should have interrupted you before
this time. It was by our common and good friend Mr.
Hartlib, that I come now to know you are retired from
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 115
thence, but not from the muses, and the pursuit of your
worthy designs, the result whereof we thirst after with all
impatience ; and how fortunate should I esteem myself, if it
were in my power to contribute in the least to that, which
I augur of so great and universal a benefit ! But, so it is,
that my late inactivity has made so small a progress, that,
in the History of Trades, I am not advanced a step ; find-
ing (to my infinite grief) my great imperfections for the
attempt, and the many subjections, which I cannot support,
of con versin g with mechanical capricious persons, and several
other discouragements; so that, giving over a design of
that magnitude, I am ready to acknowledge my fault, if
from any expression of mine there was any room to hope
for such a production, farther than by a short collection of
some heads and materials, and a continual propensity of
endeavouring in some particular, to encourage so noble a
work, as far as I am able, a specimen whereof I have
transmitted to Mr. Hartlib, concerning the ornaments of
gardens, which I have requested him to communicate to
you, as one from whom I hope to receive my best and most
considerable furniture ; which favour, I do again and again
humbly supplicate ; and especially, touching the first chap-
ter of the tlurd book, the eleventh and twelfth of the first ;
and indeed, on every particular of the whole. Sir, I thank
you for your receipts : there is no danger I should prosti-
tute them, having encountered in books what will suffi-
ciently (I hope) gratify the curiosity of most, when in my
third I speak of the elaboratory. But I remit you what
I have written to Mr. Hartlib, and beggiog pardon for this
presumption, crave leave to remain.
Sir,
Your most humhle and obedient servant,
J. EvfiLYN.
Sir, do you know whether Campanella has said any
thing concerning altering the shape of fruits, &c., and
how I may obtain the perusal ofBenedicti Curtii Hortorum
Ub. ^O.Lugd. 1560. foL?
1 2
116 CORRESPONDENCE OF [LoNDOU,
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle.
Sayfg-Court, Sep. 3, 1659.
Noble Sir,
Together with these testimonies of my cheerful
obedience to your commands, and a faithful promise of
transmitting the rest, if yet there remain any thing worthy
your acceptance amongst my unpolished and scattered
collections, I do here make bold to trouble you with a
more minute discovery of the design, which I casually
mentioned to you, concerning my great inclination
to redeem the remainder of my time, considering,
quam parum mihi supersit ad metas ; so as may best im-
prove it to the glory of God Almighty, and the benefit of
others. And, since it lias proved impossible for me to
attain to it hitherto (though in this my private and mean
station) by reason of that fond morigeration to the
mistaken customs of the age, which not only rob men of
their time, but extremely of their virtue and best advan-
tages ; I have established with myself, that it is not to be
hoped for, without some resolutions of quitting these in-
cumbrances, and instituting such a manner of life, for the
future, as may best conduce to a design so much breathed
after, and, I think, so advantageous. In order to this, I
propound, that since we are not to hope for a mathemati-
cal college, much less, a Solomon's house, hardly a friend
in this sad Catalysis, and inter hos armorum strepitus, a
period so uncharitable and perverse ; why might not some
gentlemen, whose geniuses are greatly suitable, and who
desire nothing more than to give a good example, preserve
science, and cultivate themselves, join together in society,
and resolve upon some orders and oeconomy, to be
mutually observed, such as shall best become the end of
their union, if, I cannot say, without a kind of singularity,
because the thing is new : yet such, at least, as shall be
free from pedantry, and all aifectation ? The possibility.
Sir, of this is so obvious, that I profess, were I not an
aggregate person, and so obliged, as well by my own
nature as the laws of decency, and their merits, to provide
for my dependents, I would cheerfully devote my small
fortune towards a design, by which I might hope to assemble
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 117
some small number together who would resign themselves
to live profitably and sweetly together. But since I am
unworthy so great a happiness, and that it is not now in
my power, I propose that if any one worthy person, and
quis meliore Itito, so qualified as Mr. Boyle, will join in the
design (for not with every one, rich and learned ; there are
very few disposed, and it is the greatest difficulty to find
the man) we would not doubt, in a short time, by God's
assistance, to be possessed of the most blessed life that
virtuous persons could wish or aspire to in this miserable
and uncertain pilgrimage, whether considered as to the
present revolutions, or what may happen for the future in
all human probability. Now, Sir, in what instances, and
how far this is practicable, permit me to give you an
account of, by the calculations which I have deduced for
our little foundation.
I propose the purchasing of thirty or forty acres of land,
in some healthy place, not above twenty-five miles from
London; of which a good part should be tall wood, and
the rest upland pastures or downs, sweetly irrigated. If
there were not already an house which might be converted,
&c., we would erect upon the most convenient site of this,
near the wood, our building, viz. one handsome pavilion,
containing a refectory, library, with drawing-room, and a
closet; this the first story; for we suppose the kitchen,
larders, cellars, and offices to be contrived in the half
story under ground. In the second should be a fair lodg-
ing chamber, a pallet-room, gallery, and a closet; all
which should be well and very nobly furnished, for any
worthy person that might desire to stay any time, and for
the reputation of the college. The half story above for
servants, wardrobes, and like conveniences. To the entry
fore front of this a court, and at the other back front a
plot walled in of a competent square, for the common
seraglio, disposed into a garden ; or it might be only car-
pet, kept curiously, and to serve for bowls, walking, or
other recreations, &c., if the company please. Opposite to
the house, towards the wood, should be erected a pretty
chapel; and at equal distances (even with the flanking
walls of the square) six apartments or cells, for the mem-
bers of the Society, and not contiguous to the pa\'ilion,
each whereof should contain a small bedchamber, an out-
118 COIIRESPONDENCE OF [I.ondon,
vfnrd room, a closet, and a private garden, somewhat after
the manner of the Carthusians. There sliould likewise
])e one laborator}', with a repository for rainties and things
of natui-e ; aviary, dovehouse, physic gai'den, kitchen gar-
den, and a phiutation of orchard fruit, &c. all uniform build-
ings, but of siu«;le stories, or a little elevated. At convenient
distance towards the olitory garden should be a stable for
two or three horses, and a lodging for a servant or two.
Lastly, a garden house, and conservatory for tender plants.
The estimate amounts thus. The pavilion £4-00, chapel
£150^ apartments, walls, and out-housing £600 ; the pur-
disMi of the fee for thirty acres, at £15 per acre, eighteen
years purchase, £400 ; the total £1550, £1600 will be the
utmost. Three of the cells or apartments, that is, one
moiety, with the appurtenances, shall be at the disposal of
one of the founders, and the other half at the othei-'s.
If I and my wife take up two apartments (for we are to
be decently asunder j however I stipulate, and her inclina-
tion will greatly suit with it, that sh.all be no impediment
to the Society, but a considerable advantage to the econo-
mic part), a third shall be for some worthy person; and
to facilitate the rest, I offer to furnish the whole pavilion
completely, to the value of £500 in goods and movables,
if need be, for seven years, till there be a public stock, &c.
There shall be maintained at the public charge, only a
chaplain, well qualified, an ancient woman to dress the
meat, wash, and do all such offices, a man to buy provi-
sions, keep the garden, horses, &c., a boy to assist him, and
serve witlrin.
At one meal a day, of two dishes only (unless some
little extraordinary upon particulai* days or occasions, then
never exceeding three) of plain and wholesome meat; a
small refection at night : wine, beer, sugar, spice, bread,
fidi, fowl, candle, soap, oats, hay, fuel, &c. at £4 per week,
£200 per annum; wages £15; keeping the gardens £20;
the chaplain £20 per annum. Laid up in the treasury
yearly £145, to be employed for books, instruments,
drugs, trials, &c. The total £400 a year, comprehending
the keeping of two horses for the chariot or the saddle,
and two kine : so that £200 per annum will be the utmost
that the founders shall be at, to maintain the whole
Society, consisting of nine persona (the servants included)
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 119
though there should no others join capable to alleviate the
expense; but if any of those who desire to be of the
Society be so qualified as to support their own particulars,
and allow for their own proportion, it "svill yet much
diminish the charge ; and of such there cannot want some
at aU times, as the apartments are empty.
If either of the founders think expedient to alter his
condition, or that anything do humanitus contingere, he
may resign to another, or sell to his colleague, and dis-
pose of it as he pleases, yet so as it still continue the
institution.
ORDERS.
At six in summer prayers in the chapel. To study till
half an hour after eleven. Dinner in the refectory till
one. Retire till four. Then called to conversation (if
the weather invite) abroad, else in the refectory ; this
never omitted but in case of sickness. Prayers at seven.
To bed at nine. In the winter the same, with some
abatements for the hours, because the nights are tedious,
and the evening^s conversation more agreeable ; this in the
refectory. All play interdicted, sans bowls, chess, &c.
Every one to cultivate his own garden. One month in
spring a course in the elaboratory on vegetables, &c. la
the winter a month on other experiments. Every man to
have a key of the elaboratory, pavilion, library, repository,
&c. Weekly fast. Communion once every fortnight, or
month at least. No stranger easily admitted to- visit any
of the Society, but upon certain da}'^ weekly, and that
only after dinner. Any of the Society may have his
commons to his apartment, if he will not meet in the
refectory, so it be not above twice a week. Every Thurs-
day shall be a music meeting at conversation hours.
Every person of the Society shall render some public
account of his studies weekly if thought fit, and especially
shall be recommended the promotion of experimental
knowledge, as the principal end of the institution. There
shall be a decent habit and uniform used in the college.
One month in the year may be spent in London, or any
of the Universities, or in a perambulation for the public
benefit, &c., with what other orders shall be thought
convenient, &c.
120 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Thus, Sir, I have iu haste (but to your loss not in a
laconic style) presumed to communicate to you (and truly,
in my life, never to any but yourself) that project which
for some time has traversed my thoughts : and therefore
far from being the effect either of an impertinent or
trifling spirit, but the result of mature and frequent rea-
sonings. And, Sir, is not this the same that many noble
personages did at the confusion of the empire by the
barbarous Goths, >?hen Saint Hierome, Eustochius, and
others, retired from the impertinences of the world to the
sweet recesses and societies in the East, till it came to be
burthened with the vows and superstitions, which can
give no scandal to our design, that provides against all
such snares?
Now to assure you. Sir, how pure and unmixed the
design is from any other than the public interest pro-
pounded by me, and to redeem the time to the noblest
purposes, I am thankfully to acknowledge that, as to the
common forms of living iu the world I have little reason
to be displeased at my present condition, in which, I bless
God, I want nothing conducing either to health or honest
diversion, extremely beyond my merit; and therefore
would I be somewhat choice and scrupulous in my col-
league, because he is to be the most dear person to me in
the world. But oh ! how I should think it designed from
heaven, et tanquam numen SioTreres, did such a person as
Mr. Boyle, who is alone a society of all that were desirable
to a consummate felicity, esteem it a design worthy his
embracing ! Upon such an occasion how would I pros-
titute all my other concernments ! how would I exult !
and, as I am, continue upon infinite accumulations and
regards.
Sir,
His most humble, and most obedient servant,
J. Evelyn.
If my health permits me the honour to pay my respects
to you before you leave the Town, I will bring you a rude
plot of the building, which will better fix the idea, and
shew what symmetry it holds with this description.
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 121
John Evelyn to the Hon. Robert Boyle.
Sayes-Court, Sept. 29, 1659.
Sir,
I send you this enclosed, the product of your
commands, but the least instance of my ambition to serve
you : and when I shall add, that if an oblation of whatever
else I possess can verify the expression of my greater
esteem of your incomparable book, which is indited with
a pen snatched from the wing of a seraphim, exalting your
divine incentives to that height, that being sometimes
ravished with your description of that transcendant state
of angelical amours, I was almost reconciled to the passion
of Cleombrotus, who threw himself into the water upon the
reading of Plato, and (as despairing to enjoy it) ready to
cry out with St. Paul, cupio dissolvi, and to be in the
embraces of this seraphic love, which you have described
to that perfection as if in the company of some celestial
harbinger you had taken flight, and been ravished into the
third heaven, where you have heard words unutterable, and
from whence you bring us such affections and divine incli-
nations, as are only competent to angels and to yourself:
for so powerful is your eloquence, so metaphysical your
discourse, and sublime your subject. And though by all
this, and your rare example, you civilly declaim against the
mistakes we married persons usually make ; yet I cannot
think it a paralogism or insidious reasoning, which you
manage with so much ingenuity, and pursue with so great
judgment. But certainly it was an extraordinary grace,
that at so early years, and amidst the ardours of youth, you
should be able to discern so maturely, and determine so
happily : avoid the Syren, and escape the tempest : but
thus, when the curiosity of Psyche had lighted the taper,
and was resolved to see what so ardently embraced her, she
discovered an impertinent child, the weakness and folly of
the passion. You, Sir, found its imperfections betimes ;
and that men then ceased to be wise when they began to
be in love, unless, with you, they coidd turn nature into
grace, and at once place their affections on the right object.
But, Sir, though you seem tender of the consequence aU
this while, the conclusion will speak as well as your exam-
122 CORBEBPOKDBNCE OF [Loitdok,
pie ; that thougli you have said nothing of marriage, which
is the result of love, yet you suppose that it were hard to
become a servant without folly ; and that there are ten
thousand inquietudes espoused with a mistress. That the
fruits of children are tears and weakness, whilst the pro-
dnctious of the spirit put their parents neither to charge
nor trouble; that all these heroes, of whom we read,
esteemed most precious of the celibate. Alexander had no
child, and Hercules left no heir ; Pallas was born of the
brain of Jupiter ; and the Venus Urania of the Platonists
made love only to the soul, which she united to the essence
of God (according to their divinit\'), and had no lower
commerce than what you so worthily celebrate in your
book, and cultivate in your life. But though these were
jdl true, and all that you have added since, I find the
passion of Lindaraore rather to be pitied than criminal,
because Hermione's was not reciprocal ; though she were
cruel, the sex is tender, and amiable, pious, and useful ;
and will never want champions to defend their virtues and
assert their dues, that is, our love and our service. For
if it be virtuous, it is the nearest to the seraphical ; and
whatever can be objected against it, proceeds from the vices
of the person^s defect, or extremes of the passion. But
you instance in the jealousies, diseases, follies, and incon-
stancies of love : the sensual truly is obnoxious to all
these ; but who have been the mart}Ts, where the design
was not plainly brutish, indifferent to the education, or
blinded with avarice? And if you have example of their
hatred, and perfidy, I can produce a thousand of their
affection and integrity. What think yon. Sir, of Alcestis,
that ran into the funeral pile of her husband ? The good-
ness of Emilia, the chastity of Lucretia, the faith of Furia,
of Portia, and infinite others who knew nothing that the
Christian institution has superadded ? And the Scriptures
are full of worthy examples, since it was from the effects
of conjugal love that the Saviour of the world, and tliat
great object of seraphic love, derived his incarnation, who
was the son of David. Take away this love, and the whole
earth is but a desert ; and though there were nothing more
worthy eulogies than virginity, it is yet but the result of
love, since those that shall people paradise, and fill heaven
with saints, are such us have been subject to this passion^
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 123
and were the products of it. In sum, it is by that the
church lias consecrated to God both \drgins and martyrs,
and confessora, these five thousand years ; and he that said
it was not good for man to be alone, placed the cehbate
amongst the inferior states of perfection, whatsoever some
affirm ; seeing that of St. Paul is not general, and he con-
fesses he had no command from the Lord. It was the best
advice in a time of persecution, the present distress, and
for an itinerant apostle ; and truly it is what I so recom-
mend to all of that function, that, for many regards I could
wish them all as seraphims, who do neither marry nor are
given in marriage. But I cannot consent that such a per-
son as Mr. Boyle be so indifferent, decline a virtuous love,
or imagine that the best ideas are represented only in
romances, where love begins, proceeds, and expires in the
pretty tale, but leaves us no worthy impressions of its
effects. We have nobler examples; and the wives of
philosophers, pious and studious persons, shall furnish our
instances. For such was Pudentilla, that held the lamp to
her husband^s lucubrations; such a companion had the
learned Budseus ; and the late adventure of Madam Gro-
tius, celebrated by her Hugo, who has not heard of? We
need not go abroad; the committee chambers, and the
parliament lobby, are sad, but evident testimonies of the
patience, and the address, the love, and the constancy of
these gentle creatures. In fine, they bear us out of love,
and they give us such ; they divert us when we are well,
and tend us when we are sick ; they grieve over us when
we die, aud some, I have known, that would not be com-
forted and survive. But, Sir, Ludov. Vives has written a
volume on this subject, and taken all his histories from the
love of Christian women. Jacobus de Voragine gives us
twelve motives to acknowledge the good we receive by them,
and I could add a thousand more, were not that of Pliny
instar omnium, who writing to his mother-in-law Hispulla,
that brought his lady up, gives her this character : " Sum-
mum est acumen, summa frugahtas : amat me, quod cas-
titatis indicium est. Accedit his studium literarum, quod
ex mei charitate concepit. Meos libellos habet, lectitat,
ediscit etiam. Q,ua ilia solicitudine, cum videor acturus ;
quanto, cum egi, gaudio aificitur ; " and a little after,
"^ Versus quidem meos cantat etiam, formatque cithara.
124 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
non artifice aliquo docente, sed amore, qui magister est
optinius : " whence he well foresees, " perpetuam nobis
majoremque indies futurara esse concordiam : " discoursing
in that which follows, of the nobleness and purity of her
affection, with this elegant and civil acknowledgment,
" certatim ergo tibi gratias agimus : ego, quod illam mihi :
ilia, quod me sibi dederis, quasi invicem deligeris." And
what if yi.v .Boyle himself did love such a lady, " grat&
aliqua compede adstrictus," would it hinder him from the
seraphic, or the pursuit of his worthy inquiries ? There
is no danger, that he should be taught philosophy as
Socrates was, who already commands his passions, and has
divinity sufficient to render even Xantippe a saint ; and
whose arguments for the seraphic love would make all
men to envy his condition, and suspect their own, if it
could once be admitted that those who are given to be
atucilia commoda should hinder them in the love of God,
whereof marriage is a figure — for so the apostle makes the
parallel, when he speaks of the spouse, Ephes. v.j and
devotion is so generally conspicuous in the female sex,
that they furnish the greater part of many litanies, and
whom, if we may not pray to, we ought certainly to praise
God for; not so much because they were virgins, as that
they were the mothers and the daughters of the greatest
saints, and lights of the Church, who propagated the
seraphic love with their examples, and sealed it with their
blood. But, dear Sir, mistake me not all this while, for I
make not this recital as finding the least period in your
most excellent discourse prejudicial to the conjugal state ;
or that I have the vanity to imagine my forces capable to
render you a proselyte of Hymen's, who have already made
the worthiest choice ; much less to magnify my own con-
dition, and lay little snares for those obvious replies, which
return in compliments, and odious flatteries. I have never
encountered any thing extraordinary, or dare lay claim to
the least of the virtues I have celebrated : biit if I have the
conversation capable of exalting and improving our affec-
tions, even to the highest of objects, and to contribute very
much to human felicity, I cannot pronounce the love of
the sex to be at all misapplied, or to the prejudice of the
most seraphical. And if to have the fruition and the
knowledge of our friends in heaven, will be so considerable
1659.] JOHN EVELYN. 125
an augmentation of our felicity, how great is that of the
married like to prove, since there is not on earth a friend-
ship comparable to it ? Or if paradise and the ark be the
most adequate resemblances of those happv mansions, you
may remember there were none but couples there, and that
every creature was in love.
But why do I torment your eyes with these imperti-
nencies ? which would never have end, did 1 not consider
I am but writing a letter, and how much better you are
wont to place your precious hours. But, Sir, I have now
but a word to add, and it is to tell you, that, if after all
this, we acknowledge your victory, find all our argu-
ments too weak to contest with your seraphical object,
pronounce you wise, and infinitely happy ; yet, as if en\^ing
that any one else should be so, you have too long concealed
the discourses which should have gained you disciples, and
are yet not afraid to make apologies for employing that
talent, which you cannot justify the wrapping up all this
while in a napkin. We therefore, that are entangled in
our mistakes, and acknowledge our imperfections, must
needs declare against it, as the least efiects of a seraphic
lover, which were to render all men like himself. And
since there is now no other remedy, make the best use of it
we can, as St. Paul advises, " ut qui habent uxores, sint
tanquam non habentes," &c., and for the rest, serve and
love God as well as we may in the condition we are
assigned ; which if it may not approach to the perfection
of seraphim, and that of Mr. Boyle, let it be as near as it
can, and we shall not account ourselves amongst the most
unhappy, for ha^ing made some virtuous addresses to that
fair sex.
Dearest Sir, permit me tell you, that I extremely loved
you before ; but my heart is infinitely knit to you now :
for what are we not to expect from so timely a consecra-
tion of your excellent abilities ? The Primitive sanctified
the whole harvest, and you have at once, by this incom-
parable piece, taken ofi" the reproach which lay upon piety,
and the inquiries into nature ; that the one was too early
for younger persons, and the other the ready way to
atheism, than which, as nothing has been more impiously
spoken, so, nor has any thing been more fully refuted.
But, Sir, I have finished ; pardon this great excess ; it is
126 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
love that constrains me, and the eflfects of your discourses,
from which I have learned so many excellent things that
they are not to be numbered and merited with less than I
have said, and than I profess, which is to continue all my
life long.
Sir,
Your most humble, obliged,
and most aftectionate servant,
J. EVELYW.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Honoured and dear Sir,
Yours, dated July 28d, I received not till All
Saints day : it seems it w as stopped by the intervening
troubles in England : but it was lodged in a good hand,
and came safely and unbroken to me. I must needs beg
the favour of you that I may receive from you an accouaait
of your hd^lth and present conditions, and of your family;
for I fear concerning all my friends, but especially for
those few very choice ones I have, lest the present troubles
may have done them any violence in their affairs otr
content. It is now long since that cloud passed; and
though I suppose the sky is yet full of meteors and evil
prognostics, yet you all have time to consider concerning
your peace and your securities. That was not God's time
to relieve his church, and I cannot understand from what
quarter that wind blew, and whether it was for or against
us. But God disposes all things wisely ; and religion can
receive no detriment or diminution but by our own
fault. I long. Sir, to come to converse with you ; for I
promise to myself that I may receive from you an
excellent account of your progression in religion, and that
you are entered into the experimental and secret way of it,
which is that state of excellency whither good persons use
to arrive after a state of repentance and caution. My
retirement in this solitary place hath been, I iiope, of
some advantage to me as to this state of religion, in which
I am yet but a novice ; but by the goodness of God 1
see fine things before me whither I am contending. It is
a great but a good work and I beg of you to assist me
with your prayers, and to obtain of God for me that I
1659-60.] JOHN EVELYN. 127
may arrive to that height of love and union with God,
which is given to all those souls who are very dear to
God. Sir, if it please God, I purpose to be in London in
April next, whea-e I hope for the comfort of conversing
with you. In the mean time, be pleased to accept my
thanks for your great kindness in taking care of me in
that token you were pleased to leave with Mr. Martin.* I
am sorry the evil circumstances of the times made it any
way afflictive or inconyenient. I had rather you should
not have been burdened than that I should have received
kindness on hard conditions to you. Sir, I shall not
trouble your studies now, for I suppose you are Tory busy
there : but I shall desire the favour that I may know
what you are now doing, for you cannot separate your
affairs £:"om being of concern to
Dear Sir,
Your very affectionate friend,
and humble servant,
Jer. Taylor. .
Portmore, Nov. 3, 1659.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Portmore, Feb. 10, 1669-60.
Honoured and dear Sm,
I received yours of Dec. 2, in very good time ;
but although it came to me before Christmas, yet it
pleased God, about that time, to lay his gentle hand upon
me ; for I had been, in the worst of our winter weather,
sent for to Dublin by our late Anabaptist commissioners,-^
and found the evil of it so great, that in my going I began
to be ill : but in my return, had my ill redoubled and
fixed : but it hath pleased God to restore my health, I
hope ad majorem Dei gloriam ; and now that I can easily
write, I return you my very hearty thanks for your very
obliging letter, and particularly for the inclosed. Sir, the
Apology! you were pleased to send me, I read both
"* Mr. Martin is the bookseller referred to in a previous letter, and the
allusion is' to an instalment of the pension still allowed to Taylor by Evelyn.
+ This is the trouble into which he was brought " for using the sign of
the cross in baptism " mentioned in his first letter from Portmore.
J Apology for the Royal Party. See Evelyn's " Miscellaneous "Writings,"
1825, 4to.,jp. 169.
128 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
privately and heard read publickly with no little pleasure
and satisfaction. The materials are worthy, and the dress
is clean, and orderly, and beauteous ; and I wish that all
men in the nation were obliged to read it twice : it is
impossible but it must do good to those guilty persons to
whom it is not impossible to repent. Your Character*
hath a great part of a worthy reward, that it is translated
into a language in which it is likely to be read by very
many beaux esprits. But that which I promise to myself
as an excellent entertainment, is your " Elysium Britan-
icum." But, Sir, seeing you intend it to the purposes of
piety as well as pleasure, why do you not rather call it
Paradisus than Elysium ; since the word is used by the
Hellenish Jews to signify any place of spiritual and
immaterial pleasure, and excludes not the material and
secular. Sir, I know you are such a curieux, and withal
so diligent and inquisitive, that not many things of the
delicacy of learning, relating to your subject, can escape
you ; and therefore it would be great imprudence in me
to offer my little mite to your already digested heap. I
hope, ere long, to have the honour to wait on you, and
to see some parts and steps of your progression : and then
if I see I can bring any thing to your building, though
but hair and sticks, I shall not be wanting in expressing
my readiness to serve and to honour you, and to promote
such a work, than which I think, in the world, you
could not have chosen a more apt and a more ingenious.
Sir, I do really bear a share in your fears and your
sorrows for your dear boy. I do and shall pray to God
for him ; but I know not what to say in such things. If
(xod intends, by these clouds, to convey him and you to
brighter graces and more illustrious glories respectively, I
dare not, with too much passion, speak against the so
great good of a person that is so dear to me, and a child
that is so dear to you. But I hope that God will do
what is best : and I humbly beg of him to choose what is
that best for you both. As soon as the weather and
season of the spring gives leave, I intend, by God's per-
mission, to return to England : and when I come to
London M'ith the first to wait on you, for whom I have
so great regard, and from whom I have received so many
• Character of England. See " Miscellaneous Writings," p. 141.
1660.] J0H2T EVELYN. 129
testimonies of a worthy friendship, and in whom I know,
so much worthiness is deposited.
I am, most faithfully and cordially.
Your very affectionate and obliged servant,
Jer. Taylor.
John Evelyn to Dr. John Wilkins,* "President of our Society
at Gresham College."
a Sayes-Cmrt, 17 Feb. 1660.
bm.
Though I suppose it might be a mistake that
there was a meeting appointed to-morrow (being a day of
public solemnity and devotion), yet because I am
uncertain, and would not disobey your commands, I here
send you my trifling observations concerning the anatomy
of trees, and their vegetative motion. It is certain, as
Dr. Goddard has shown,t that a section of any tree made
parallel to the horizon, will by the closeness of the circles
point to the North, and so consequently, if a perpendicular
be drawn through them for the meridian, the rest of the
cardinals, &c. found out ; but this is not so universal, but
that where strong reflections are made, as from walls, the
warm fumes of dunghills, and especially if the southern
side be shaded, &c., those elliptical and hyperbolical
circles are sometimes very irregular ; and I doubt not but
by some art might be made to have their circles as orderly
as those which we find in Brasile, Ebene, &c., which, within
a very little, concentre by reason of the uniform course of
the Sun about them; this being doubtless the cause of
their greater dilatation on the south part only with us,
when the pores are more open, and less constipated.
The consideration whereof (though nowhere mentioned
that I know) made the poet, giving advice concerning
transplantations, to caution thus,
Quin etiam Cceli regionem in cortice signant,
Ut quo quseque modo steterit, qua parte calores
Austriuos tulerit, quae terga obverterit axi,
Restituant : adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.
* So described by Evelyn ; and see Diai-y, vol. i. p. 410-11.
+ In his " Observations concerning the nature and similar parts of a Tree,"
which were afterwards published in folio, 16G4. Dr. Jonathan Goddard was
an eminent Physician, Botanist, and promoter of the Royal Society. He
was bom at Greenwich about 1617, and died in 1674.
VOL. III. K
130 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
And though Pliny neglect it as an unnecessary curiosity,
I can by much experience confirm it, that not one tree
in 100 would miscarry were it duly observed; for in some
I have made trial of it even at Midsummer. But what I
would add is touching the grain of many woods, and the
reason of it, which I take to be the descent, as well as the
ascent of moisture ; for what else becomes of that water
which is frequently found in the cavities where many
branches spread themselves at the tops of great trees,
especially pollards, unless (according to its natural
appetite) it sink into the very body of the stem through
the pores ? For example : in the Walnut, you shall find
when 'tis old, that the wood is rarely figured and marbled
as it were, and therefore much more esteemed by joiners,
&c., than the young, which is whiter and without any
grains : for the rain distilling along the branches, where
many of them come out in clusters together from the
stem, sinks in, and is the cause of these marks ; for it is
exceedingly full of pores. Do but plane a thin chip off
from one of these old trees, and interpose it 'twixt your eye
and the light, and you shall perceive it full of innumerable
holes. But above all conspicuous for these works and
damaskings, is the Maple (a finer sort whereof the
Germans call Air, and therefore much sought after by the
instrument makers) : 'tis notorious that this tree is full of
branches from the very root to the summit, by reason it
bears no considerable fruit. These branches being
frequently cut, the head is the more siu^charged with
them, which, spreading like so many rays from a centre,
form that cavity at the top of the stem whence they
shoot as contains a good quantity of water every time it
rains : this sinking into the pores, as we hinted before,
is compelled to divert its course as it passes through the
body of the tree, wherever it finds the knot of any of
these branches which were cut off from the stem of the
tree; because their roots not only deeply penetrate
towards the heart, but are likewise of themselves very
hard and impervious ; and the frequent obliquity of this
course of the subsiding waters, by reason of these obstacles,
is the cause of those curious and rare undulations and
works which we find remarkable in this and other woods,
whose branches grow thick from the stem.
1660.] JOHN EVELYX. 131
Sir, I know not whether I have well explained my con-
ception, but such as it is I offer it, and it was your com-
mands I should do so, together with that Treatise or History
of Chalcography, as part of the task you have imposed;
but with this hope and humble request, that, knowing
upon what other subject I was engaged before I had the
honour to be elected one of this august Society, I may
obtain its indulgence, not to expect many other things
from me ^tillit be accomplished ; rather that you will take
all occasions which may contribute to my design. It is
there. Sir, that I have at large discoursed of the vegetation
of plants, and upon that argument which Sir K. Digby and
the rest so long discoursed at our last encounter, but it
shall not be so in this paper, which is now at an end, &c.
Your, &c.
Samuel Hartlib to John Evelyn.^
1660.
Honoured Sir,
You cannot believe how welcome and obliging
your last of February 4th was yesterday unto me. Mr.
Poleman is a man of great and real worth. He is about
another edition of his Novum Lumen Medicum .• as soon as
it is published I shall not fail to give you due notice of it.
Here I present you with the model of the Christian
Society really begun in Germany : but the cursed Bohe-
mian wars did destroy so noble and Christian a design,
as likewise the Protestant nunnery in Silesia founded by
Schonaich. Campanilla in his Tract De Subjugandis
Belgis is said to assert that by the force of schooling and
education whole nations may be subdued : children's senses
and tempers should certainly be filled with all manner of
natural and artificial objects as the truest precognition for
all their after-studies, Avhich have been hitherto utterly
neglected. By a discourse of the famous German critic
Gilhardus Lubinus, which I have published, you will see
what a lover 1 am of such foundations : it contains also
discourses for the right improving of children's senses.
Dr. Petty,* when he was in his flourishing condition in
* See Diary, vol. i. pp. 310 and 412.
K 2
182 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Ireland, had a main design to erect a Glottical College :
the contrivance would have been more accurate, I am
persuaded, than any that hath been hitherto extant,
but now I fear he hath other fish to fry. I know Mr.
Bealc will also approve your judgment concerning mo-
nastic education : he hath begun some essays of this latter
subject which Mere truly excellent. I should be mighty
glad to be advertised when those select essays of
St. Jerome shall come forth by that reserved hand. Sir,
let me adjure you by the universal felicity of mankind
to persevere in your worthy intentions to give us a true
body (I mean such as you intimate) of Economical Go-
vernment ; and despairing to see it so as it ouglit to be
from others, I most passionately beg it from your own
hands, which done, will make me to profess myself for
ever, honoured Sir, yours very truly to love and serve you.
Samuel Hartlib.
Sir,
John, Lord Mordaunt to John Evelyn.
2Zrd April, UQ\.
I have spoke with his majesty, and he expects
your orationt as soon as he has dined. He asked me
if it were in Latin, which I resolved : he said he hoped
it would not be very long. This I thought fit to intimate
to you. I shall dine at Court, at my Lord Steward's,
where, if you inquire, you will find your most humble
servant,
Mordaunt.
Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn.
006611*3 College, Oxford, June 10, 1661.
Sir,
I received yours, and return my heartiest thanks
for that great and undeserved honour you were pleased to
* See Diai-y, vol. i. p. 417-10 and vol ii. p. 95-7.
+ On the occasion of the coronation of Charles II. It was not an oration
but a poetical panegyric, the possible length of which had not unnaturally
alarmed the king. See Diary, vol. i. p. 351. ^
1661.] JOHN" EVELYN. 133
do me, in the MS. you long since sent me. You may
justly wonder why I did not this before, and why that
ingenious piece which you had made speak English so
well and naturally, came not out in print ; seeing, besides
the advantage to the public, it would in respect of the
matter have been beneficial, and in respect to the hand
whence it came honourable to me in particular, had it
been published. This I understood well enough and put
it into the printer^s hand long ago, who (after finishing
some work then in his hand) was to have undertaken it.
The issue was, when I called upon him to go on with the
MS., it was lost and since cannot by any industry be
retrieved. This fatal and sad accident, though it be not
my crime, yet 'tis my great calamity, so that I shall
deserve your pity, and if you will, your pardon too, if I
have not been innocent in so great a loss. I hope you
may have a copy of it still to present to that honourable
person you mention, and then I shall not account the
former miscarriage a misfortune, but a good providence,
whereby that ingenious Tract was not lost but preserved
for a dedication worthy of the person that presents it.
This is the hope of.
Sir,
Your most obliged faithful servant,
Thomas Barlow.
John Evelyn to the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Sayea-Cowty Sept. 13, 1661.
Sir,
I send you the receipt of the varnish, and believe
it to be very exact, because it is so particular; and that I
received it from the hand of a curious person, who, having
made trial of it himself, afBrms it to have succeeded. I
send you also another trifle, which has a nearer relation to
me, and you will easily pardon my indignation, however
you pity the rest of my errors, to which there is super-
added so great a presumption : not that I believe what I
have written should produce the desired effects, but to
indulge my passion, and in hopes of obtaining a partial
reformation ; if, at least, his Majesty pursue the resent-
ment which he lately expressed against this nuisance,
184 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
since this pamphlet was prepared. Sir, I am your creditor
for Schotti, aud shall faithfully render it whenever your
summons calls : my leisure has not yet permitted me to
transcribe some things out of it, which concerns me on
another subject ; but if the detaining it longer be no
prejudice to you, it is in a safe depositum. Sir, I have
not bought two of your last books, and yet possibly I
could render you some account of them. My thirst and
impatience is too great to show the least indifterency,
■when anything of yours is to be had ; this does not
absolve you from making him a present who, it may be,
takes no greater felicity in the world than to see his small
library enriched with your illustrious works, and they to
come to me eoe dono authoris. Dearest Sir, pardon this
innocent stratagem, and the presumption of.
Sir,
Your most faithful, and most obedient servant,
J. Evelyn.
Sir, I must take this opportunity to give you thanks for
your great civilities to my cousin Baily, and to suppHcate
the continuance of your favour to him, as by which you
will infinitely oblige an industrious and deserving
gentleman.
Jeremy Taylor to John Evelyn.
Dublin, November, 16, 1661.
Dear Sir,
Your own worthiness and the obligations you
have so often passed upon me have imprinted in me so
great a value and kindness to yom* person, that I think
myself not a little concerned in yourself and all your
relations, and all the great accidents of your life. Do
not therefore think me either impertinent or otherwise
without employment, if I do with some care and earnest-
ness inquire into your health, and the present condition
of your affairs. Sir, when shall we expect your " Terres-
trial Paradise " — your excellent observations and discourses
of gardens, of which I had a little posy presented to me
by your own hand, and makes me long for more. Sir,
I and all that understand excellent fancy, language.
1661.] JOHN EVELYN. 135
and deepest loyalty/ are bound to value your excellent
" Panegyric," which I saw and read with pleasure. I am
pleased to read your excellent mind in so excellent an
idea, for, as a father in a son's face, so is a man's soul
imprinted in all the pieces that he labours. Sir, I am so
full of public concerns and the troubles of business
in my diocese, that I cannot yet have leisure to think of
much of my old delightful employment. But I hope I
have brought my affairs almost to a consistence, and
then I may return again. Eoyston, the bookseller, hath
two sermons, and a little collection of rules for my clergy,
which had been presented to you if I had thought them
fit for notice, or to send to my dearest friends.
Dear Sir, I pray let me hear from you as often as you
can, for you will very much oblige me if you will continue
to love me still.* I pray give my love and dear regards
to worthy Mr. Thurland: let me hear of him and his
good lady, and how his son does. God bless you and
yours, him and his. I am.
Dear Sir,
Your most affectionate friend,
Jerem. Dunensis.
John Evelyn to " Tho. Chiffing,-\ Esq., Page of the back stairs
to his Majesty and Keeper of his closet."
In answer to the laudable design of his Majesty for
fit repositories of those precious Treasures and Curiosities
committed to your charge, I conceive you may completely
marshal them in a Catalogue (as there set forth). This
* It is perhaps worthy of note, that this is the last letter preserved of the
long and affectionate correspondence of Taylor and Evelyn. Whether it
really ceased at this time cannot with certainty be said, but it seems probable.
Taylor survived his elevation to his bishopric six yeai's, dying in August,
1667.
f Thomas Chiffinch, of Northfleet, Esq., Keeper of the Jewels to King
Charles II., Keeper of the King's Closet, and Comptroller of the Excise. He
was born at Salisbury in 1600, and was brought to the Court of King
Charles I. by Bishop Duppa. After the King's death, he, with his wife,
went abroad to King Charles II., and continued with him till the Restoration,
He died in 1666, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a
monument erected to his memory. Hasted's Hist, of Kent, vol. i. p. 442.
136 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
were in truth a noble way to preserve his treasure entire ;
so as upon occasion to permit a sight of it to great
princes and curious straugers ; for it is great pity it should
not be made as famous as the Cabinet of the Duke of
Florence and other foreign princes, which are only cele-
brated by being more universally known, and not because
his Majesty's collection is not altogether as worthy, his Ma-
jesty being likewise himself so exquisite a judge, as well as
possessor, of so many rare things as might render not only
Whitehall, but the whole nation, famous for it abroad.
If it be his Majesty's pleasure, I shall, whenever you call
upon me, and that it may least importune his privacy,
make the inventory of particulars.
To this I would have added, in another Register, the
names and portraitures of all the exotic and rare beasts
and fowls which have at any time been presented to his
Majesty, and which are daily sent to his Paradise at
St. James's Park,
John Evelyn to Lady Cotton.^
Sayes-CouH, 9 Sept. 1662.
Madam,
It was by a visit which was made us this after-
noon, that we heard how it had pleased God to dispose of
your little sweet babe ; and, withal, how much the loss of
it does yet afflict you. Whatsoever concerns you in this
kind is. Madam, a common diminution to the family and
touches every particular of it — but so as our resentments
hold proportion to the cause, and that the loss of one does
not take away the comfort and the contentment which we
ought to have in those who are left; since we must
pretend to nothing here, but upon the conditions of
mortaUty and ten thousand other accidents ; and that we
may learn to place our felicities in our obedience to the
will of God, which is always the best, and to sacrifice our
affections upon that altar, which can consecrate our very
losses, and turn them to our greatest advantage.
Madam, I have heard with infinite satisfaction how
graciously God had restored you your health : why should
you now impair it again by an excess of grief which
• Wife to his brother George Ereljn, of Wotton.
1662.] JOHN EVELYN. 137
can recall nothing that God has taken to himself in
exchange without a kind of ingratitude? There be some
may haply soothe your Ladyship in this sensible part (which
was the destruction of my dear Mother) ; but your Lady-
ship's discretion ought to fortify you against it before
it become habitual and dangerous. Remember that
you have an husband who loves you entirely; that
you have other children who will need your conduct;
that you have many friends, and a prosperous family.
Pluck up your spirits,, then, and at once vanquish these
hurtful tendernesses. It is the vote of all that honour and
love you; it is what God requires of you, and what I
conjure you to resolve upon; and I beseech your La'p,
let this express bring us some fairer confidences of it,
than the common report does represent it to the grief of.
Madam, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Mr. Vander Douse,* " Grandson to the
great Janus Doma."
Sayes-Court, 13 Sept. 1662.
Sir,
I have to the best of my skill translated your Rela-
tion of China : if you find the Argument omitted, it is for
that I thought it superfluous, being almost as large as the
text ; but I have yet left a sufficient space where you may
(if you think good) insert it. In the mean time, it would
be considered, whether this whole piece will be to the pur-
pose, there having been of late so many accurate descriptions
of those countries in particular, as what Father Alvarez
Semedo has published in the Itahan ; f Vincent Le Blanc
in French ; J and Mandelslo in high Dutch ; § not omitting
the Adventures and Travels of Pinto in Spanish ; \\ all of
• See Diary, vol. ii. p. 175.
t History of the great and renowned Monarchy of China ; translated from
the Portuguese into English, by a person of Quality ; with cuts. Folio. 1655.
J Voyages fameux du Sieur Vincent le Blanc, Marseillois. 4to. Paris
1658.
§ Peregrinations from Persia into the East Indies, translated by John
Davies. Folio.
II Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, his Travels in the Kingdoms of Ethiopia,
China, Tartaria, Cochin China, and a great part of the East Indies ; translated
out of Portuguese into English by Henry Cogan. FoUo. 1663.
138 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londow,
them now speaking the English language. At least I
conceive that you might not do amiss to peruse their
works, and upon comparing of them with this piece of
yours, to obsene what there is more accurate and instruc-
tive; lest you otherAvise seem actum agere, as the word
is : but this, Sir, I remit to your better judgment, who
am,
Su', your, &c.
From John Evelyn to Mr. [aftenvards Dr.) Croone,
Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College.^
Sayet-Cowi, 11 July, 1663.
SlE,
It has neither proceeded from the unmindfulness
of your desires, or your deserts, that I had not long before
this gratified your inclinations, in finding you out a condi-
tion, which it might become you to embrace, if you still
continue your laudable curiosity, by wishing for some oppor-
tunity to travel, and see the world. There have passed
occcasions (and some which did nearly concern my rela-
tions) when I might happily have engaged you ; but having
long had a great ambition to serve you, since I had this in
prospect, I rather chose to dispense vdth my own advan-
tages, that I might comply with yours. My worthy and
most noble master, Mr. Henry Howard, has by my Cousin.
Tukc signified to me his desires of some fit person to in-
struct and travel with his two incomparable children ; and
I immediately suggested Mr. Croone to them, with such
recommendations and civilities as were due to his merits,
and as became me. This being cheerfully embraced on
their part, it will now be yours to second it. All I shall
say for your present encouragement is but this : England
shall never present you with an equal opportunity ; nor
were it the least diminution that Mr. Croone, or indeed one
of the best gentlemen of the nation, should have the tuition
of an heir to the Duke of Norfolk, after the Royal Family
the greatest Prince in it. But the title is not the thing I
would invite you to, in an age so universally depraved
* He foanded a course of Algebraic Lectures in seven colleges at Cam-
bridge, and also » yearly anatomical Lecture in the Royal Society.
1663.] JOHN EVELYN. 139
amongst our wretched nobility. You will here come into
a most opulent worthy family, and in which I prognosticate
(and I have it assured me) you shall make your fortune,
without any further dependances : For the persons who
govern there have both the means to be very grateful,
and as generous a propensity to it as any family in Eng-
land : Sir, if you think fit to lay hold on this occasion, I
shall take a time to discourse to you of some other parti-
culars which the limits of an hasty letter will not permit
me to insert. I have been told to leave this for you at the
College; because I was uncertain of seeing you, and
that I have promised to give my friends an account of its
reception. If your affairs could so far dispense with you
as to afford me an afternoon^ s visit at my poor villa, I
should with more liberty confer with you about it, and in
hope of that favour I remain.
Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. Pierce, "President of Magdalen CoUege
in Oxford; and one of his Majesty's Chaplains in
Ordinary." *
Sayea-CmiH, 20 Aug. 1663.
Reverend Sir,
Being not long since at Somerset-house, to do
my duty to her Majesty the Queen Mother, I fortuned to
encounter Dr. Goffe.f One of the first things he asked me
was, whether I had seen Mr. Cressy's % Reply to Dr. Pierce's
so much celebrated Sermon? I told him, I had heard
much of it, but not as yet seen it : upon which he made
me an offer to present me with one of the books, but
being in haste, and with a friend, I easily excused his civility,
that I could not well stay 'till he should come back from
his lodging : in the mean time he gave no ordinary enco-
miums of that rare piece, which he exceedingly magnified,
as beyond all answer ; and to reinforce the triumph, he told
me that you had written a letter to some friend of yours (a
copy whereof he beheved he should shortly produce)
* See Diary, toI. i., p. 317 and 376. ' + See vol. i., p. 19-
:J: Roniaa Catholic Doctrines no Novelties ; or an Answer to Dr. Pierce's
Court Sermon, miscalled, The Primitive Rule of Refonnation. 8vo. 1663.
140 COREESPONDENCE OF [Lokdoh,
wherein (after you had expressed your great resentment
that some of the Bishops had made you their property, in
putting you upon that ungrateful argument) you totally
declined to engage any farther in that controversy : inti-
mating that you would leave it at the Bishop's doors, and
trouble yourself no more with it. This (or words to this
eflfect) being spoken to myself, and to some others who
stood by, would have weighed more with me, had I not
been as well acquainted with these kind of artifices to gain
proselytes by, as of your greater discretion never to have
written such a Letter, and abilities to vindicate what you
have published, when you should see your time. Nor had I
likely thought more of it, had not my Lord of Canterbury,
the Bishop of Winchester, together with my Lord Chan-
cellor (to whom upon some occasion of private discourse, I
recounted the passage) expressly enjoined me to give you
notice of it ; because they thought it did highly concern
you ; and that you would take it civilly from me. And,
Sir, I have done it faithfully; but with this humble request,
that (unless there be very great cause for it) you will be
tender of mentioning by what hand your intelligence
comes; because it may do me some injury.
Sir, I am perfectly assured, that you will do both yourself
and the Church of England that right which becomes you
upon this occasion. I will not say that the burthen ought
to be cast upon your shoulders alone ; but I will pronounce
it a greater mark of your charity, and zeal, and such as
entitles you to the universal obligation which all men have
to you ; upon confidence whereof I satisfy myself you will
soon dismantle this doughty battery, and assert what you
have gained so gloriously.
Thus I discharge my duty, in obedience to their com-
mands. But it is upon another account that I was not
displeased with having an opportunity by this occasion to
express my thanks and great acknowledgments to you, for
the present you made me of that your incomparable Sermon,
and which in my opinion is sufficiently impregnable ; but
something must be done by these busy men, to support
their credit, though at the irreparable expense of truth and
ingenuity. The Epistle before Mr. Cressy's papers does
not want confidence : and we are very tame whiles we
suffer our Church to be thus treated by such as being once
1663.] JOHN EVELYN. 141
her sons did so unworthily desert her. But pardon this
indignation. I am.
Rev. Sir,
Your most, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr, Pierce.
Lond. 17** Sept. 1663-
SlR,
I received your favour of the first of this month
with very different passions, whiles in some periods you
give me reasons so convincing why you should rather con-
sult your health, and gratify your charge, and personal
concernments, than reply to impertinent books; and in
others again make such generous and noble offers, that the
Church of England, and the cause which is now dis-
honoured, should not suffer through your silence ; and I had
(according to your commands) made my addresses to those
honourable persons with something of what you had in-
structed me, had either my Lord of Winchester, or my Lord
Chancellor been in town. Since I received your letter my
Lord of Winchester is indeed gone to Farnham some few
days past ; but I was detained by special business in the
country till this very moment, when coming to London on
purpose to wait on him, I missed him unfortunately, and
unexpectedly. In the meantime, I was not a little
rejoiced at something my Lord of Salisbury did assure me,
of some late kind intercourse between you and your Visitor,
to the no small satisfaction of all those that love and
honour you here.
In pursuance of your farther injunction, I was this very
morning with Dr. Goffe : after a short ceremony we touched
upon Cressy's pamphlet: He tells me there are eight
sheets more printing (by a Keverend Father of the Society,
as he named him), who has put Mr. Cressy's rhapsody into
mode and figure, that so it might do the work amongst
scholars, as it was like to do it with his illiterate proselytes.
Upon this I took occasion to remind him of the letter which
he lately pretended you had written, intimating your reso-
lution not to reply. After some pause he told me that was
a mistake, and that he heard it was only a friend of yours
which writ so. Whether he suspected I came a birding,
142 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
or no, I cannot be satisfied, but he now blenched what
before (I do assure you) he affirmed to me concerning your
own writing that letter. This is the infelicity (and I have
observed it in more than one) that when men abandon their
religion to God, they take their leave also of all ingenuity
[ingenuousness] towards men. And what could I make
of this shuffling, and caution, now turned to a mistake, and
an hearsay ? But so it seems was not that of your being
ofiendcd with the Bishops for the ungrateful task they put
upon you, which he often repeated; and the difference
betwixt you and your Visitor : — so after a short velitation,*
we parted. Sir, I have nothing more to add to your
trouble, than that I still persist in my supplication, and
that you would at last break through all these discourage-
ments and objections for the public benefit. It is true,
men deserve it not ; but the Church, which is dearer to you
than all their contradictions can be grievous, requires it.
You can (in the interim) govern a disorderly College which
calls for the assiduous care ; but so does no less the needs
of a despised Church ; nor ought any in it concern them-
selves so much as to this particular, without being uncivil
to you : though (I confess) after you have once chastised
this insolence, no barking of the curs should provoke you
for the future : Sir, I do not use a quarter of those argu-
ments which your friends here suggest, why you ought to
gratify the Church by standing in this gap ; because I am
confident you perfectly discern them; and that though
some particular persons may have unjustly injured you,
yet she has been kind and indulgent ; and in a cause which
concerns either her honour or veracity, it will be glorious
(not to say grateful) you should vindicate her wrongs. You
are not the only subject which that academic Jack-pudding
has reproached more bitterly personally : The drunkards
made a song of holy David, yet still he danced before the
ark of God, and would be more vile. What are we Chris-
tians for? I do assure you, there is nothing I have a
greater scorn and indignation against, than these wretched
scoffers ; and I look upon our neglect of severely punishing
them as an high defect in our politics, and a forerunner
of something very funest.f I would to God \irtue and
sobriety were more in reputation : but we shall turn
♦ Skirmishing. f Fatal.
1664.] JOHN EVELYN. 143
plainly barbarians, if all good men be discouraged.
Sir, yon are of a greater mind than not to despise this.
Fa pur bene e lascia dire. But I run into extravagancies,
and I beseech you to pardon my zeal, and all other the
impertinencies of. Sir, your, &c.
Thomas Barlow to John Evelyn.
QaeeiCa College, 21 Jurve, 1664.
Sib,
I received by the hands of my worthy friend
Dr. Wilkins the last part of the Mystery of Jesuitism ;
now not more a Mystery ; being so well discovered to the
world by the pious pains of the Jansenists and yourself.
I return (all I am at present able) my hearty thanks and
by you well deserved gratitude. I confess I wonder at
your goodness and to me continued kindness, seeing upon
a strict search, I can find no motive or merit in myself
to deserve it, nor any reason to incline you to so much
and so little deserved kindness, unless you make your own
former favours obligations for future, and resolve to con-
tinue kind because you have been so. I am exceedingly
pleased with those discoveries of the prodigious rillainies
and atheism of the Jesuits, who really are the wild
fanatics of the Romish faction; who have been (so
much as in them lay,) the bane of truth and true piety
for this last age, and probably may be the ruin of the
Roman Idol (the Pope) and bring him low, as he deserves,
while they impiously indeavour to set him up too high.
Sure I am that Idol hath and will have fewer worshippers.
I perceive by many letters from Paris and other parts of
France that the sober French Catholics are strangely
alarmed by the extravagant principles and practices of the
Jesuits; that they seek after, and read diligently, reformed
authors to find means against the new heresy, by which
they may happily come to discover more truth than they
looked for, and at last find (which is most true,) that since
the Apostles left the world, no book but the Bible nor
any definitions are infallible. Pray pardon this imperti-
nent rude scribble of. Sir,
Your exceedingly obliged and thankful servant,
Thomas Barlow.
144 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
John Evelyn to Mr. Sprat, " Chaplain to the Duke of
Buckingham, afterwards Bishop of Rochester."*
Saya-Cowrt, 31 Oetob. 1664.
Upon receipt of the Doctor's letter, and the hint
of your design, which I received at Oxford in my return
from Cornbury, I summoned such scattered notices as I
had, and which I thought might possibly serve yon in some
particulars relating to the person and condition of Sorbiere.
His birth was in Orange, where he was the son of a
Protestant, a very indigent and poor man — but however
making a shift to give him some education as to letters.
He designed him for a minister, and procured him to be
pedagogue to a cadet of Mons"^ le Compte de la Suze, in
whose family he lived easily enough, till being at length
discovered to be a rampant Socinian, he was discharged of
employment, but in revenge whereof ('tis reported) he
turned apostate, and renounced his religion, which had
been hitherto Huguenot. I forgot to tell you that before
this he obtained to be made a schoolmaster to one of the
classes in that city; but that promotion was likewise
quickly taken from him upon the former suspicion. He
has passed through a thousand shapes to ingratiate himself
in the world ; and after having been an Aristarchus, phy-
sician (or rather mountebank), philosopher, critic, and
politician (to which last he thought himself worthily
arrived by a version of some heterodox pieces of Mr.
Hobbes), the late Cardinal Mazarin bestowed on him a
pitiful canonicat at A\ignon worth about 200 crowns
per ann., which being of our money almost 50 pounds, is
hardly the salary of an ordinary curate. But for this yet
he underwent the basest drudgery of a sycophant in
flattering the Cardinal upon all occasions the most sordidly
to be imagined, as where I can show you him speaking of
this fourb for one of the most learned persons of the age.
He styles himself Historiograph du Roy, the mighty
meed of the commonest Gazetteer, as that of Conseiller du
Roy is of every trifling pettifoger, which is in Prance a very
despicable qualification. It is certain that by some
• Thia letter allades to Mone. Sorbiere's " Voyage to England," then
just published ; and also to " Observations " on the same Voyage by
Dr. Sprat
1664.] JOHN EVELYN. 145
servdle intelligences he made shift to screw himself into
the acquaintance of many persons of quality, at whose
tables he fed, and where he entertained them with his
impertinencies. A great favourite of our late republic he
was, or rather of the villainy of Cromwell, whose expedition
at sea against Holland he infinitely extols, with a predic-
tion of his future glorious achievements, to be seen in
an epistle of his to Mons. de Courcelles, 1652, and upon
other occasions : not to omit his inciting of our Roman
Catholics to improve their condition under his Majesty by
some effort, which smells of a rebel spirit, even in this
relation which he presumes to dedicate to the French
King.
Thus as to the person of that man and his communica-
tions : for the rest in which this audacious delator suffici-
ently exposes himself to your mercy, I forbear to add;
unless it be to put you in mind of what occurs to me in
relation to your vindicating my Lord Chancellor, whom
all the world knows he has most injuriously vilified; and
you have an ample field to proceed on, by comparing his
birth and education with that of his Cardinal Patron,
whom he so excessively magnifies, and even makes a
demi-god.
My Lord Chancellor * is a branch of that ancient and
honourable family of Norbery in Cheshire as it is cele-
brated by Mr. Camden in his Britannia, and so famous for
the long robe, that an uncle's son of his present Lordship
came to be no less a man than Lord Chief Justice of
England not long since, which dignity runs parallel with
their Premier President de Paris, one of the most con-
siderable charges of that kingdom. Nor has this person
ascended to this deserved eminency without great and
signal merits, having passed through so many superior
offices; as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Privy Council-
lor, Ambassador Extraordinary, &c., not to mention his
early engagement with his Majesty Charles I. in a period
of so great defection ; the divers weighty affaires he has
successfully managed, fidelity to the present King, his
eloquent tongue, dexterous and happy pen, facetious con-
versation and obliging nature, all of them the products of
a free and ingenious education, which was both at the
• Edward Hyde, Eai-l of Clarendon.
146 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
University and Inns of Court, now crowned with an expe-
rience and address so consummate, that it were impossible
this satirist should have hit on a more unreasonable mis-
take, than when he refined upon the qualifications of this
illustrious Minister. You will meet in a certain letter of
the old King's to his consort the Queen Mother, that his
Majesty long since had him in his thoughts for Secretary of
State. But these topics were iufinite; and His no wonder
that he should thus defame a Chancellor, who has been so
bold as to dare to censure a crowned head, and to call in
question the procedure of the King of Denmark about the
affair of Cornhtz Ulefield,* for which Monsieur I'Abbe de
Palmyre has perstringed him to that purpose, and published
it in French, together with some observations of an English
Grentleman upon the relation of Sorbiere, in which those
unworthy and malicious imputations of lachete and base-
ness in your nation is perfectly vindicated, even by citations
only of their own French authors, as namely Andre du
Chesne, Antoine du Verdier, Philip de Commines, and
others of no mean name and estimation amongst their
most impartial historians — sufficient to assert the courage
and gallantry of the English, without mentioning the
brave impressions the nation has made even into the very
bowels of their country, which after the winning of several
signal battles, they kept in subjection some hundreds of
years.
You cannot escape the like choice which he made by
which to judge and pronounce of the worth of English
books, by the learned collection he carried over with him
of the works of that thrice noble Marchioness,t no more
than of his experience of the English diet by the pottage
he ate at my Lord of Devonshire's : but it is much after the
rate of his other observations ; or else he had not passed so
desultorily our Universities and the Navy, with a thousand
other particulars worthy the notice and not to be excused
in one pretending to make relations ; to omit his subtle
• CoTint Cornelius Ulefield Oxensticm, Danish Prime Minister.
■y Margaret Cavendish, Marchioness, afterwards Duchess of Newcastle, a
very voluminous writer, both in verse and prose. There arc fourteen
volumes of her works in thin folios — greater favourites with Cliai-les Lamb
two hundred years after her Grace's death, than they appear to have been
with Evelyn in his lifetime.
1664.] JOHN EVELYN. 147
reflections on matters of state, and meddling with things
he had nothing to do with : such as were those false and
presumptuous suggestions of his that the Presbyterians
were forsooth the sole restorers of the King to his throne ;
and the palpable ignorance of our Historiograph Royal
where he pretends to render an account of divers ancient
passages relating to the English Chronicle, and the juris-
diction and legislative power of Parliaments, which he
mingles and compares with that of Kings, to celebrate
and qualify his politics : upon all which you have infinite
advantages. It is true he was civilly received by the Royal
Society, as a person who had recommended himself to
them by pretending he was secretary to an assembly of
learned men formerly meeting at Mons"". Monmors at
Paris ; so as he had been plainly barbarous not to have
acknowledged it by the mention he makes ; whiles those
who better know whose principles the Mushroom* is
addicted to, must needs suspect his integrity ; since there
lives not on the earth a person who has more disobliged it.
Sir, I am, &c.
P.S. — I know not how you may have design'd to publish
your reflections upon this disingenuous Traveller ; but it
would certainly be most communicative and effectual in
Latin, the other particular of his relation coming only to
those who understand the French, in which language it is
already going to be printed.
John Evelyn to the Honourable Robert Boyle.
Sayes-CouH, Nor. 23, 1664.
Sir,
The honour you design me by making use of
that trifle which you were lately pleased to command an
account of, is so much greater than it pretends to merit,
as indeed it is far short of being worthy your acceptance :
but if by any service of mine in that other business, I may
hope to contribute to an effect the most agreeable to your
excellent and pious nature, it shall not be my reproach that
I did not my best endeavour to oblige it. I do every day,
* Mr.'Hobbes.
L 2
148 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loxdon,
both at London and at home, put Sir Richard in mind of
this suppliant's case ; and, indeed, he needs no monitor,
myself being witness that he takes all occasions to serve
him in it ; nor wants there any dispositions (as far as I
can perceive), but one single opportunity only, the meeting
of my Lord JPrivy Seal (who, for two or three Council days,
has been indisposed, and not appeared), to expedite his
request ; there being a resolution (and which Sir Richard
promises shall not slacken), both to discharge the poor
man's engagements here, and afford him a competent
viaticum.
As for that sacred work you mention, it is said there is
a most authentic copy coming over, the laudable attempt
of this person being not so fully approved. This is, in
short, the account I have, why the impression is retarded.
I should else esteem it one of the most fortunate adven-
tures of my life, that by any industry of mine I might be
accessary in the least to so blessed an undertaking.
If my book of architecture do not fall into your hands
at Oxon, it will come with my apology, when I see you
at London; as well as another part of the Mystery of
Jesuitism, which (with some other papers concerning that
iniquity) I have translated, and am now printing at
Royston's, but without my name. — So little credit there
is in these days in doing anything for the interest of
rehgion.
I know not whether it becomes me to inform you, that
it has pleased his Majesty to nominate me a Commissioner
to take care of the sick and wounded persons during this
war with our neighbours : but so it is, that there being
but four of us designed for this very troublesome and sad
employment, all the ports from Dover to Portsmouth,
Kent, and Sussex, fall to my district alone, and makes me
wish a thousand times I had such a colleague as Mr. Boyle,
who is wholly made up of charity, and all the qualifications
requisite to so pious a care. Eut I cannot wish you so
much trouble ; the prospect of it would even draw pity from
you, as well in my behalf, as for the more miserable, who
foresee the confusion and importunities of it, by every
article of our busy instructions. But the King has laid
his positive commands on me, and I am just now going
towards Dover, &c. to provide for mischief. Farewell : sweet
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 149
repose, books, gardens, and tlie blessed conversation you
are pleased to allow, dear Sir,
Your most affectionate and most obedient servant,
J. Evelyn.
P.S. Mr. Goldman^s Dictionary is that good and useful
book which I mentioned to you.
Here is Mr. Stillingfleet's new piece in vindication of my
Lord of Canterbury's. I have but little dipped into it as
yet : it promises well, and I very much like the epistle ;
nor is the style so perplexed as his usually was.
Dr. Mer. Causabon, I presume, is come to your hands,
being a touch upon the same occasion.
One Rhea* has published a very useful and sincere book,
concerning the culture of flowers, &c. but it does in nothing
reach my long since attempted design of that entire sub-
ject, with all its ornaments and accessories, which I had
shortly hoped to perfect, had God given me opportunity.
Your servant, my Wife, most humbly kisseth your
hands, as I do Dr. Barlow's, &c.
To my Lord Viscount Cornbury.f
My Lord, London, 9 Feb. 1664-65.
Being late come home, imagine me tui*ning
over your close printed memoirs, and shrinking up my
shoulders ; yet with a resolution of surmounting the dif-
ficulty, animated with my Lord Chancellor's and your
Lordship's commands, whom I am perfectly disposed to
serve, even in the greatest of drudgeries, the translation of
books. J But why call I this a drudgery ? who would not
* Q, ? the celebrated Ray.
■f- Henry Hyde, Lord Cornbury, was the eldest son of Sir Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon, whom he succeeded in his titles and estate, Dec. 29, 1674.
He had two wives. The first was Theodosia, daughter of Arthur Capel, Earl
of Essex, beheaded for his loyalty to King Charles I. ; and the second, alluded
to in a subsequent letter by Evelyn, was Flower, widow of Sir William Back-
house of Swallowfield, Berks, Bart., by whom he had no issue. By this
marriage Lord Cornbury became possessed of the manor and house at
Swallowfield. The celebrated Lord Chancellor Clarendon resided at his
son's house after his retirement from public hfe, and there wrote " The
History of the Great Rebellion."
J " Mysterie of Jesuitisme, and its pernicious consequences as it relates to
Kings and States, w'h I published this yeare." — Evelyn's Note.
150 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londow,
be proud of the service ? By the sUght taste of it, I find
God and the King concerned, and I will in due time
endeavour to present your Lordship and the world with
the fruits of my obedience, cheerfully, and with all due
regards : nor is it small in my esteem that God directs you
to make use of me in anything which relates to the
Church, though in ray secular station. I began indeed
(as your Lordship well remembers) with that Essay on
St. Chrysostom some years since upon that consideration,
though prompted by a lugubrious occasion, such a one
(though in no respect so great a one) as what I but too
sensibly perceive afflicts my Lord your father ; for as I
last beheld his countenance, in thought I saw the very
shaft transfixing him ; though the greatness of his mind,
and pious resignation* suft'er him to do nothing weakly,
and with passion.
Besides the divine precepts, and his Lord's great example,
I could never receive anything from philosophy that was
able to add a grain to my courage upon these irremedi-
less assaults like that Enchiridion and little weapon of
Epictetus, Nunquam te quicquam perdidisse didto, sed red-
didisse, says he : Filiiis obijt ? redditm est ; it is in his
15th chap. Repeat it all to my Lord, and to yourselfj
you cannot imagine what that little target will encounter ;
I never go abroad without it in my pocket. What an
incompiu-able guard is that ra or/fx ^4> r}fuv\ cap. 1. where
he discourses of the things which are and are not in our
power : I know, my Lord, you employ your retirements
nobly; wear this defensive for my sake, I had almost
said this Christian office.
But, my Lord, I am told, we shall have no Lent indicted
this year. I acknowledge, for all Dr. Gunning,t that I
much doubt of its apostolical institution : but I should be
heartily sorry a practice so near to it, so agreeable to
antiquity, so useful to devotion, and in sum so confirmed
by our laws, should now fail, and sink, that his Majesty
and his laws are restored. I know not what subtle and
poUtical reasons there may be : It were better, fiesh should
• * Upon y* death of hia sonne Edward, a very brave and hopefull young
num." — Ibid.
t Dr. Peter Guuning^ Bishop of Ely. He died July 6, 1684, oet. 71.
1665.] JOHN EVELYK 151
be given away for a month or two to the poor in some
great proportion, and that particular men should suffer,
than a sanction and a custom so decent should be
weakened, not to say abrogated ; believe, 'twill not be so
easy a thing to resume a liberty of this nature, which
gratifies so many humours of all sorts. Because God gives
us plenty, must we always riot ? If those who sit at the
helm hearken to the murmurs of impertinent and ava-
ricious men, pray God they never have cause to repent of
the facility when 'tis too late. I know religious fasting
does not so much consist in the species and quaUty as the
quantity; nor in the duration, as the devotion: I have
always esteemed abstinence a tanto beyond the fulfilling
of periods and quadragesimas ; nor is this of ours every
where observed alike by Christians ; but since all who are
under that appellation do generally keep it where Christ
is named (I do not mean among the Romanists alone), a
few imperfect reforms excepted, methinks a reverend and
ancient custom should not so easily be cancelled ; for so I
look on it, if once we neglect the in diction. But were
that for one fortnight, with a strict proclamation, and less
indulgence to the faulty (as they call that shop of iniquity)
and some other pretenders to liberty; in my opinion it
would greatly become the solemn, and approaching station
of the Passion-week : and I would to God it were reduced
but to that, that the irksomeness might not deter the
more delicate, nor the prohibition those whose interest
it is to sell flesh. We in this island haA^e so natural a pre-
tence to mingle this concern of devotion into that of
the state, that they might be both preserved without the
least shadow of superstition ; and if once our fishery were
well retrieved (than which nothing could be more popular,
nor endear the person who should establish it) the profit
of that alone would soon create proselytes of the most
zealous of our carnivorous Samaritans. Why should there
be an interruption of our laws for a year, to the infinite
disadvantage of the Church of England in many regards ?
My Lord, You are a pious person, and the Lenten absti-
nence minds me of another incongruity that you Parha-
ment-men will I hope reform, and that is the frequency
of our theatrical pastimes during that indiction. It is not
allowed in any city of Christendom so much as in this one
152 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
town of Loudon, where there are more wretched and
obscene plays permitted than in all the world besides. At
Paris 3 days ; at Rome 2 weekly ; and at the other cities
of Florence, Venice, &c. but at certain jolly periods of
the year, and that not without some considerable emolu-
ment to the public ; whiles our interludes here are every
day alike ; so as the ladies and the gallants come reeking
from the play late on Saturday night, to their Sunday
devotions ; and the ideas of the farce possess their fancies
to the infinite prejudice of devotion, besides the advan-
tages it gives to our reproachful blasphemers. Could not
Friday, and Saturday be spared ; or, if indulged, might
the}' not be employed for the support of the poor, or as
well the maintenance of some workhouse as a few
debauched comedians? What if they had an hundred
pound per ann. less coming in; this were but policy in
them; more than they were born to, and the only
means to consecrate (if I may use the term) their scarce
allowable impertinencies. If my Lord Chancellor would
be but instrumental in reforming this one exorbitancy, it
would gain both the King and his Lordship multitudes of
blessings. You know, my Lord, that I (who have Avritten a
play,'*' and am a scurvy poet too sometimes) am far from
Puritanism ; but I would have no reproach left our adver-
saries in a thing which may so conveniently be reformed.
Plays are now with us become a licentious excess, and a
vice, and need severe censors that should look as well
to their morality, as to their lines and numbers. Pardon
this invective, my Lord ; nothing but my perfect affection
for your person and your virtue could have made me so
intemperate ; and nothing but my hopes that you will do
the best you can to promote the great interest of piety,
and things worthy your excellent opportunities, could have
rendered me thus prodigal of my confidence. Season my
Lord your father with these desiderata to om* consummate
felicity; but still with submission and under protection
for the liberty I assume ; nor let it appear presumption
irremissable, if I add, that as I own my Lord our illus-
* Thynander, a tragi-comedy, mentioned in Evelyn's list of MSS. {Diary,
vol. ii. p. 394.) As among the "things he would write out faire and reformo
if be had leisure."
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 153
trious Chancellor for my patron and benefactor, so I pay
him as tender and awful respect (abstracted from his great-
ness and the circumstances of that) as if he had a natural
as he has a virtual and just dominion over me; so as my
gratitude to him as his beneficiary, is even adopted into
my religion, and till I renounce that, I shall never lessen
of my duty ; for I am ready to profess it, I have found
more tenderness, and greater humanity from the influences
of his Lordship than from all the relations I have now in
the world, wherein yet I have many dear and worthy
friends. My Lord, pardon again this excess, which I
swear to you, proceeds from the honest, and inartificial
gratitude of.
My Lord,
Your, &c.
John Evelyn to Sir Thos. Clifford, afterwards Lord High
Treasurer.
LondoUf 2 Apr. 16G5.
Sir,
Upon receipt of yours of the 17'^ instant, I
repaired to my Lord Arlington, and from him to his
Majesty, who on sight of your letter added his particular
commands, that upon arrival of the prisoner I should
immediately bring young Everse to him, and that then he
would instruct me farther how he would have him treated -,
which I perceive will be with great respect, and some think
with liberty : for the other Captain, that I should pursue
his Royal Highness's directions — and in order to this, I
have commanded my Marshal to be ready. I am sorry
we are like to have so many wounded men in their
company, but I have taken all the care I can for their
accommodation : I pray send me a list of the names and
qualities of our prisoners, they being so apt to contrive
and form stories of themselves, that they may pass for
Embdeners or Danes. I thank God all our affairs here
are in good order. I did yesterday repair to the Com-
missioners of the Navy to remove the obstruction which
hindered our Receiver from touching the effects of our
Privy Seal, they pretending a defect in the order, which
I have been fain to carry back to the Council. Colonel
154 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londok,
Beymes >mtes for £700. Sir, here have been an host of
womeu, making moan for their loss in the unfortunate
London :* I have with much artifice appeased them for
the present, but they are really objects of mucli pity;
and I have counselled them to make choice of some
discreet person to represent to us tlieir respective losses
and expectations, that we may consider their cases without
clamour and disturbance. Sir, I am ravished to hear our
fleet is in so flourishing a condition ; I pray God continue
it and give you all success. I would beg the present-
ment of my most humble duty to his Royal Highness,
and that you will grace with your more particular
commands,
Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. [afterwards Sir) Christopher Wren.
Sayes-Courty 4 Apr. 1665.
Sib,
You may please to remember that some time
since I begged a favour of you in behalf of my little boy :
he is now susceptible of instruction, a pleasant, and
(though I speak it) a most ingenious and pregnant child.
My design is to give him good education; he is past
many initial difficulties, and conquers all things with in-
credible industry' : do me that eternal obligation, as to
inquire out and recommend me some young man for a
preceptor. I will give him £20 per ann. salary, and such
other accommodations as shall be no ways disagreeable to
an ingenuous spirit ; and possibly I may do him other
advantages : in all cases he will find his condition with us
easy, his scholar a delight, and the conversation not to be
despised : this obliges me to wish he may not be a morose,
or severe person, but of an agreeable temper. The quali-
ties I require are, that he may be a perfect Grecian, and if
more than vulgarly mathematical, so much the more
accomplished for my design : mine own defects in the
Greek tongue and knowledge of its usefulness, obliges
me to mention that particular with an extraordinary note :
• The "London " firigate, blown op by accident, with above 200 men. See
Diary, vol. ii.,pp. 391, Z'J'd.
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 155
in sum I would have him as well furnished as might be
for the laying of a permanent and solid foundation ; the
boy is capable beyond his years : and if you encounter
one thus qualified, I shall receive it amongst the great
good fortunes of my life that I obtained it by the benefit
of your friendship, for which I have ever had so perfect an
esteem. There is no more to be said, but that when you
have found the person, you direct him immediately to me,
that I may receive, and value him.
Sir, I am told by Sir John Denman that you look towards
France this summer : be assured I will charge you with
some addresses to friends of mine there, that shall exceed-
ingly cherish you ; and though you will stand in no need
of my recommendations, yet I am confident you will not
refuse the offer of those civilities which I shall bespeak
you.
There has lain at Dr. Needham's a copy of the Parallel*
bound up for you, and long since designed you, which I
shall entreat you to accept ; not as a recompence of your
many favours to me, much less a thing in the least
assistant to you (who are yourself a master), but as a token
of my respect, as the book itself is of the affection I
bear to an art which you so happily cultivate.
Dear Sir, I am
Your, &c.
Sir Thomas Clifford to John Evelyn.
gjj^ Swiftsure, May 11, 1665.
I received yesterday your letters of the 20th
and 27th of April. I am obliged to you for the large
account you give of young Everson ; his actions are agree-
able to the idea I had of him, but I rather think it
dulness and want of breeding than suUenness, and that
he will notwithstanding carry a grateful sense of His
Majesty^s bounty and kindness to him. By what I see of
our Plymouth affair, I think the surgeon much in blame ;
you may please to discharge him, for though it be my
district, I leave that matter wholly to you; and as to
* « A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern," written by
Roland Freart, sieur de Cambray, and translated by Mr. Evelyn.
156 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
the Marshal, if rou think fit, you may write to him and
hear what he says concerning his neghgence, and if he
do not give you a satisfactory account, pray make no
scruple of discarding liim, but let him first have notice
that he may make up his accounts. I hope Sir William
Doyley is not yet returned to you, but that we may find
him at Harwich, or Ipswich, for the whole of the fleet is
now returning thitherward, and I assure you here are a
great many sick that will be set on shore there, and I
believe so many that it will require the constant attend-
ance of one of us upon the place at least. I intend to be
ashore about it, but cannot stay long. If Sir W. Doyley
cannot so well travel, I shall be extremely glad to meet
you there. We were at anchor last night about 18
leagues West North West from the Texell; but now under
sail toward the Gunfleet before Harwich, the seamen full
of courage and cheerfulness, for they are not only satisfied
of the good conduct of the Fleet, but also of our good
fortune in this expedition, for we have broken the Dutch
merchant fleet that was retiu*ning, and of 44 there are not
above 16 got safe home; 14 or 15 of them we have taken,
and the rest run ashore and broken to pieces ; so that we
have had success in this, and honour in braving their
fleet in their ports.
I present my respects to Sir Richard Browne, and am
with truth and afifection, your faithful friend,
Thomas Clifford.
We are now this 14tli of May, Whitsunday, in sight of
land in Norfolk, about Crammer Church : the Duke
would have some one of us at Harwich and Ipswich while
the fleet lies at the Gunfleet.
John Evelyn to the Duke of Albemarle.
Dover, 30 May, 1665.
May it please youe Grace,
Being here at Dover for the examining and audit-
ing my accounts, as one of his Majesty's Commissioners
in this Kentish district ; and finding that our prisoners at
the Castle here, since their late attempt to escape through
the Magazine (over which till then they had a very
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 157
spacious and convenient room to lodge in), are now for
want of accommodation necessitated to be kept in a very-
strait place, by means whereof they grow miserably
sick, and are indeed reduced to a sad condition^ which
cannot be remedied without extraordinary inconvenience
to the Lieutenant : My most humble suit to your Grace is,
that you ^vill be pleased to give order that they be conveyed
to Chelsea College ; and the rather, that there being no
great number of them, it will be hardly worth the while
and charge to maintain officers for them here and par-
ticular guards : the condition of the poor men (who suffer
for the attempt of their more daring fellows) is very
deplorable, nor can it be prevented without enlargement
of their quarters, which the Governor cannot spare them
without danger. I have already informed your Grace how
much we suffer by the scruples of those vessels, who
refuse to transport our recovered men to the fleet, which
makes me again to supplicate your Grace's fresh orders ; it
would infinitely conduce to his Majesty's service. But of
this, as of several other particidars I shall render your
Grace a more ample account at my return to London ;
where I shall not fail to do my duty as becomes.
May it please your Grace,
Your Grace's, &c.
John Evelyn to Sir Thomas Clifford.
Paynters Holly Lond. 16 June, 1665.
Sir,
I was in precinct for my journey when your letter
arrived, which imparted to us that most glorious victoiy, in
which you have had the honour to be a signal achiever.
I pray God we may improve as it becomes us : his Royal
Highness being safe, becomes a double instance of rejoicing
to us ; and I do not know that ever I beheld a greater
and more solemn expression of it, unless it were that on
his Majesty's Restoration, than this whole City testified
the last night, and which I cannot figure to you without
hyperboles. I am heartily sorry for those heroes that are
fallen, though it could not have been on a more transcendant
occasion. Sir, I communicated your letter to ray Lord
Arlington, and to his Majesty, who read it greedily. My
158 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
greatest solicitude is now how to dispose of the prisoners
in case you should be necessitated to put them in at the
Downs, in order to wliicli my Lord Duke of Albemarle has
furnished me with 400 foot and a troop of horse, to be
commanded by me for guards if need require ; and I am
just goiug to put all things in order. His Grace concludes
with me, that Dover Castle would be the most convenient
place for their custody, but would by no means invade his
Royal Highness's particular province there without his
Highness's consent, and therefore advises me to write his
Highness for positive commands to the Lieutenant. It is
therefore my humble request that you will move him
therein, it being of so great importance at this time, and
not only for his Castle of Dover, but for the forts hkewise
near it ; and that (besides my own guards) he would be
pleased that a competent number of land soldiers might be
sent with them from on board, to prevent all accidents, till
they come safe to me ; for it was so likewise suggested by
his Grace, who dismissed me with this expedient : " Mr.
Evelyn," says he, " when we have filled aU the gaols in
the country ^vith our prisoners, if they be not sufl&cient to
contain them, as they sent our men to the East Indies lasft
year, we will send them to the West this year by a just
retaliation." Sir, I think fit to let you understand, that
I have 3 days since obtained of the Council a Privy Seal,
which I moved might be £20,000, in regard of the occasion ;
together with the use and disposal of the Savoy-Hospitsd
(which I am now repairing and fitting up, having given
order for 50 beds to be new made, and other utensils), all
which was granted. I also obtained an Order of Council
for power both to add to our servants, and to reward them
as we should see cause. His Majesty has sent me 3 chests
of linen, which he was pleased to tell me of himself before
I knew they were gone ; so mindful and obliging he is,
that nothing may be wanting. Sir, I have no more to add
but the addresses of my most humble duty to his Royal
Highness, and my services to Mr. Coventry from,
Sir, your, &c.
1667.] JOHN EVELYN. 159
John Evelyn to Sir Peter Wyche, Knt.*
Sir,
This crude paper (whicli begs your pardon) I
should not have presumed to transmit in this manner, but
to obey your commands, and to save the imputation of being
thought unwilling to labour, though it be but in gathering
stra^. jNIy great infelicity is, that the meeting being on
Tuesdays in the afternoon, I am in a kind of despair of
ever gratifying mine inclinations, in a conversation vrhich
I so infinitely honour, and that would be so much to mine
advantage; because the very hour interferes with an
employment, with being of pubhc concernment, I can in
no way dispense with: I mention this to deplore mine
own misfortune only, not as it can signfy to any loss
of yours ; which cannot be sensible of so inconsiderable a
member. I send you notwithstanding these indigested
thoughts, and that attempt upon Cicero, which you
enjoined me.
I conceive the reason both of additions to, and the cor-
ruption of the English language, as of most other tongues,
has proceeded from the same causes ; namely, from victo-
ries, plantations, frontiers, staples of commerce, pedantry
of schools, affectation of travellers, translations, fancy and
style of Court, vemility and mincing of citizens, pulpits,
political remonstrances, theatres, shops, &c.
The parts affected with it we find to be the accent,
analogy, direct interpretation, tropes, phrases, and the
like.
1. I would therefore humbly propose, that there might
first be compiled a Grammar for the precepts ; which (as
did the Romans, when Crates transferred the art to that
city, followed by Diomedes, Priscianus, and others who
undertook it) might only insist on the rules, the sole
means to render it a learned, and leamable tongue :
2. That with this a more certain Orthography were
introduced, as by leaving out superfluous letters, &c : such
as 0 in woomen, people; u in honour; a in reproach,
Uffh in though, &c.
* Chairman of a Committee appointed by the now organised Royal Society
to consider of the improvement of the English tongue.
160 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loxdon,
8. That there might be invented some new periods, and
accents, besides such as our grammarians and critics use, to
assist, inspirit, and modify the pronunciation of sentences,
and to stand as marks beforehand how the voice and
tone is to be governed ; as in reciting of plays, reading of
verses, &c., for the varj-ing the tone of the voice, and
affections, &c.
4. To this might follow a Lexicon or collection of al^ the
pure English words by themselves ; then those which are
derivative from others, with their prime, certain, and
natural signification ; then, the symbolical : so as no inno-
vation might be used or favoured, at least till there should
arise some necessity of providing a new edition, and of
amplifying the old upon mature advice.
5. That in order to this, some were appointed to collect
all the technical words; especially those of the more
generous employments : as the author of the " Essaies des
Merveilles de la Nature, et des plus nobles Artifices,^' has
done for the French ; and Francis Junius and others have
endeavoured for the Latin : but this must be gleaned from
shops, not books; and has been of late attempted by
Mr. Moxon.*
6. That things difficult to be translated or expressed,
and such as are as it were, incommensurable one to another :
as determinations of weights and measures; coins, honours,
national habits, arms, dishes, drinks, municipal constitu-
tions of courts ; old, and abrogated customs, &c., were
better interpreted than as yet we find them in dictionaries,
glossaries, and noted in the lexicon.
7. Tliat a full catalogue of exotic words, such as are
daily minted by our Logodcedali, Mere exhibited, and that
it were resolved on what should be sufficient to render
them current, ut Civitate domentur; since without restrain-
ing that same indomitam novandi verba licentiam, it will in
time quite disguise the language. There are some elegant
words : introduced by physicians chiefly and philosophers,
worthy to be retained; others, it may be, fitter to be
abrogated; since there ought to be a law, as Avell as a
liberty in this particular. And in this choice, there would
be some regard had to the well sounding, and more har-
monious words ; and such as are numerous, and apt to fall
* In the second volume of his ** Mecbanick Exercises."
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 161
gracefully into their cadences and periods, and so recom-
mend themselves at the very first sight as it were ; others,
which (like false stones) will never shine, in whatever light
they be placed, but embase the rest. And here I note,
that such as have lived long in Universities do greatly afi'ect
words and expressions no where in use besides, as may be
observed in Cleaveland's Poems for Cambridge : and there
are also some Oxford words used by others, as I might
instance in several.
8. Previous to, this it would be inquired what particular
dialects, idioms, and proverbs were in use in every several
county of England ; for the words of the present age being
properly the vernacula, or classic rather, special regard is
to be had of them, and this consideration admits of infinite
improvements.
9. And happily it were not amiss, that we had a collec-
tion of the most quaint and courtly expressions, by way of
florilegium, or phrases distinct from the proverbs : for we
are infinitely defective as to civil addresses, excuses, and
forms upon sudden and unpremeditated (though ordi-
nary) encounters : in which the French, Italians and
Spaniards have a kind of natural grace and talent, which
furnishes the conversation, and renders it very agreeable :
here may come in synonyms, homoinyms, &c.
10. And since there is likewise a manifest rotation and
circling of words, which go in and out like the mode and
fashion, books should be consulted for the reduction of
some of the old laid- aside words and expressions had
formerly in delidis ; for our language is in some places
sterile and barren, by reason of this depopulation, as I may
call it ; and therefore such places should be new cultivated,
and enriched either with the former (if significant) or some
other. For example, we have hardly any words that do so
fully express the French clinquant, naivete, ennui, bizarre,
concert, faconier, chicaneries, consomme, emotion, defer,
effort, chocq, entours, debouche ; or the Italian vaghezze,
garbato, svelto, &c. Let us therefore (as the Bomans did
the Greek) make as many of these do homage as are like
to prove good citizens.
11. Something might likewise be well translated out of
the best orators and poets, Greek and Latin, and even out
of the modern languages ; that so some judgment might be
16£ CORRESPONDENCE OF ![Lo^^)OII,
made concerning the elegancy of the style, and a laud-
able and unaffected imitation of the best recommended to
writers.
12. Finally, there must be a stock of reputation gained
by some public writings and compositions of the Members
of this Assembly, and so others may not think it dis-
honour to come under the test, or accept them for judges
and approbators : and if the design were arrived thus far, I
conceive a very small matter would dispatch the art of
rhetoric, which the French proposed as one of the first
tilings they recommended to their late academicians.
I am. Sir,
Your most, &c.
Saya-Chwtf 20 '/um, 1665.
John Evelyn to Lord Viscount Combury.
CorvAury, 21 June, 1665.
My Lord,
Those who defined history to be IHscipHna com-
posita de bono practico obtinendo pointed us to that use of it
which every wise man is to make of it by his reading of
authors. But as it is the narration Rerum gestarum (for
whatever is matter of fact is the subject of history), your
Lordship cannot expect I should, at this distance from my
study and books of that kind, be able to present you with
so complete a series of authors as you require of me ; much
less such a method as your affection for so noble a resolu-
tion, and 80 becoming a great person, does truly merit.
However, that this may not be looked on as an excuse, and
that 1 may in some measure obey your Lordship's com-
mands, I shall, as far as my talent and my faithless memory
serves me at present, give your Lordship the names of
those authors which have deservedly been esteemed the
most worthy and instructive of those great and memorable
actions of the ages past.
A Recension of the Greek Historians from the reign of
Cyrus (before which we have nothing of credible in any
profane history) till after Justinian, and the confusion of
the Koman Empire by the Goths and Vandals.
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 163
JOHN EVELYN.
1. Herodotus.
8. Arrianus.
2. Thucydides.
9. Appianus.
3. Xenophon.
10. Dion-Cassius.
4. Polybius.
11. Herodian.
5. Diodonis Siculus.
12. Zosimus.
6. Dionysius Halicamassus.
13. Procopius.
7. Josephus.
14. Agathias, &c.
The Latin Historians from the foundation of Rome to
the death of the Emperor Valens : Sallust, Caesar, Titus
Livius, Velleius Paterculus, Quintus Curtius, Tacitus,
Florus, Suetonius, Justinus, Ammianus Marcellinus, &c.
To these may be superadded, Plutarch, Diogenes Laer-
tius, Philostratus, and Eunapius, among the Greeks ;
Cornelius Nepos, jEmilius Probus, Spartianus, Lampri-
dius, and the Augustae Scriptores, of the Latin, &c, : but,
for being more mixed, and less methodical, they would
haply be read in another order; and if the Greeks have
haply written more even of the Roman story than the
Romans themselves, it is what is universally known and
acknowledged by the learned ; which has made the enu-
meration of the one, to exceed the mention of the latter.
These are, my Lord, sufficient to afford your Lordship a
fairer and more ample course, than any of your quality
usually pretend to ; being the best, and most worthy con-
sideration both as to the grandeur of examples, and politure
of the language.
As to the later period, from Valens and the
Gothic Emperors to our times, I shall furnish the
curiosity, when you have finished this stage ; for it were
now, my Lord, to discourage you, the very calling over the
names of so many ; how much more, should I add (what
your Lordship's curiosity will desire to dip into, to emerge
a complete historian) the Biography, or writers of parti-
cular lives, relations, negotiations, memoirs, &c. which are
things apart, and that properly come within the series of
the more solid and illustrious historians. Only as to that
of Chronology, I conceive it of absolute necessity that
your Lordship join it with all the readings, together with
some geographical author and guide, whose tables, maps,
and discoveries both for the ancient and modern names,
situations and boundaries of the places, you shall with
incredible advantage consult, to fix and make it your
u 2
164 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loxdox,
own. Scaliger's Emendatio Temporum, Petavii Ration-
arium, Calvisius, Helvicus, or our Isaacson,* may suflfice to
assist you, with Cluverius, our Peter Heylin, and the late
accurate atlasses set forth by Bleau. To these may be
added, as necessary subsidiaries, H. Stephens's Historical
Dictionary set lately forth in London ; and if your Lordsliip
think fit to pursue the cycle with more expedition, which
were likewise to gratify your curiosity by a preparation that
will furnish you with a very useful prospect, before you
engage yourself on the more particulars, there is in English
one Howel (not James) who has published a very profitable
Compendium of Universal History, so far as he has brought
it ; to which you may join what Bishop Usher has set forth
in two volumes, containing the annals of all the memorable
actions and passages which have happened in the Church
from the Creation, mingled with divers secular passages of
rare remark, and which may serve you instead of Baro-
nius, or any of his voluminous epitomisers, Spondanus,
Peruginus, &c. And by that time your Lordship is arrived
thus far, you will have performed more than any man of
your quality can pretend to in Court, by immense degrees,
according to my weak observation, who sometimes pass my
time at the circle where the gallants produce themselves
with all their advantages, and (God knows) small furniture.
Nor will it be difficult for you to go through the rest with
delight and ease, whether you would begin at the present
age, and read upwards, till you meet with the period
where you left off (which is Grotius's advice to Mon"^
Maurelique), or proceed in that order in which you began.
But, my Lord, of this, as of whatever else you shall judge
me worthy to ser^e you in, I shall endeavour to present
your Lordship with something more material, and better
digested, when you please to command, my Lord,
Your Lordship's, &c.
Johii, Evelyn to Lord Viscount Combury.
M Y L O RD Sayet-Court, Vlh Sep. 1665.
I should be exceedingly wanting to my duty,
and to the interest you pleased to allow me in your friend-
• Henry Isaacson, author of the "Chronological Series of the Four
Monarchies." Folio, London, 1G33.
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 165
ship, not to preserve it by such acknowledgments as are
due to you by infinite obligations : and if this have not
been done oftener, distance, and the many circumstances
of a jealous intercourse, will easily obtain your mercy; for
I swear to you, my Lord, there breathes not a man upon
earth who has a greater value for your noble person : because
I have established it upon your virtues, and that which
shines in you above titles, and adjuncts, which I regard but
as the shadows of great men ; nothing constituent of good
and really permanent. But, my Lord, I intend not here
a panegyric, where haply an epithalamium were due, if
what has been lately told me, of your Lordship's being
newly married, or shortly re-entering into those golden-
fetters, be true.* But can your Lordship think of such a
felicity, and not command me to celebrate it? not as a
poet (for I know not what it means), but as one perfectly
devoted to your good fortune ; since that glory must needs
be in my mouth, which already is so profoundly engraven
in my heart. I thought indeed that golden key which I
saw tied to your side by that silken ribbon t was the fore-
runner of some other knot, constant as the colour, and
bright as the metal. Mj^ Lord, I joyed you at Hampton-
Court for the one, and I would joy you from Sayes-Court
for the other. You have in the first a dignity conspicuous
for the ornament it receives from your virtues ; but in the
second only, a reward of them above the pearls, and the
rubies : 'tis a price which Fortune owes your Lordship,
and I can celebrate her justice without flattery. Long
may you live under her happy empire. When I am certain
of the particulars, I Avill string more roses on this chaplet,
and make you a country gardener's present ; if the anxiety
of being at this distance from a person whose influence is
so necessary, do not altogether wither my genius.
But, my Lord, give me now leave to entertain you a
little with mine own particular condition ; since, as con-
traries illustrate one another, it cannot but improve your
happiness.
After 6978 (and possibly half as many more concealed}
which the pestilence has mowed down in London this
week, near 30 houses are visited in this miserable
* See Ante, p. 149.
■f" Lord Combury was at tliis time Lord Chamberlain to the Queen.
1«6 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
"village, whereof one has been the very nearest to my
dwelling : after a servant of mine now sick of a swelling
(whom we have all frequented, before our suspicion was
pregnant), and which we know not where will determine,
behold me a living monument of Grod Almighty^s pro-
tection and mercy ! It was Saturday last 'ere my
courageous wife would be persuaded to take the alarm ;
but she is now fled, with most of my family : whilst my
conscience, or something which I would have taken for my
duty, obliges me to this sad station, till his jMajesty take
pity on me, and send me a considerable refreshment for
the comfort of these poor creatures, the sick and wounded
seamen under mine inspection through all the ports of my
district. For mine own particular, I am resolved to do my
duty as far as I am capable, and trust God with the event ;
but the second causes should cooperate : for in sum, my
Lord, all will, and must, fall into obloquy and desolation,
unless our supplies be speedily settled on some more solid
fonds to carry this important service on. My brother com-
missioner, Sir Wilham D'Oily, after an account of £17,000,
is indebted about £6000, and my reckoning comes after it
apace. The prisoners of war, our infirm atories, and the
languishing in 12 other places; the charge of salaries to
physicians, chimrgeons, officers, medicaments, and quar-
ters ; require speedy and considerable supplies — less than
£2000 a week will hardly support us. And if I have been
the more zealous and descriptive of this sad face of things,
and of the personal danger I am exposed to, it is because
I beg it may be an instance of your goodness and charity
to read this article of my letter to my Lord your father,
who I know has bowels, and may seriously represent it to
his Majesty and my Lord High Treasurer. For, my Lord,
having made mine attempts at Court by late expresses
on this occasion, I am driven to lay this appeal at his
Lordship's feet; because, having had experience of his
favour in mine own concern and private affairs, I
address myself with a confidence I shall succeed now
that it imports the pubhc. I dare not apply what St. Paul
said to Timothy (because it does not become me), but give
me liberty to allude : I know none (amongst all our Cotirt
great-ones) like minded, who docs naturally care for our
state. The consectary is ; for all seek their own.
1665.] JOHN EVELYN". 167
"Tis, my Lord, a sad truth, and this no time to flatter ; we
should succumb under the poise but for some few such
Atlasses as are content to accept of the burthen with the
honour ; which, though it makes it sit heavy, makes it sit
with a good conscience, and the expectation of a blessing.
I am a plain country gentleman ; yet hear, and see, and
observe, as those in the vallies best discern the moun-
tains. This nation is ruined for want of activity on our
parts; religion and gratitude on all. But, my Lord, I
tyrannise y'' patience; pardon the excess; I have not
often the opportunity, and God knows when I may enjoy
another, who daily carry my life in my hands. If the
malignity of this sad contagion spend no faster before
winter, the calamity will be indicible.
But let me now acquaint your Lordship how I pass
those moments which my assiduous prayers to God for your
prosperity, and my service of his Majesty do not take up.
It is now about 2 months since I consigned a large epistle to
Boyston; for that piece your Lordship enjoined me to pub-
lish in consequence of the former, and which I have made
bold to inscribe to my Lord Chancellor, under somewhat an
enigmatical character, because of the invidiousness of the
argument. The book itself was quite finished, and wrought
off; but Royston being fled, and the presses dissolved, we
cannot hope to get our freedom, till it please God in
mercy to abate the contagion. This is that which hinders
us from that most incomparable piece of Mr. Stilling-
fleet's friend against Searjeant,and divers other particulars,
which, though printed, will not as yet be pubUshed ; — both
vendors, and buyers, and readers, being universally scathed.
As to our philosophical concerns, Dr. Wilkins, Sir Wm.
Petty, and Mr. Hooke, with our operator, live all together
at my Lord Geo. Barclay^s at Durdans near my brother,
where they are excogitating new rigging for ships, new
chariots, and new ploughs, &c. so as I know not of such
another happy conversation of Virtuosi in England. And
now I mentioned my brother, I were ungrateful to omit
my acknowledgement of the infinite honour he tells me
my Lord Chancellor was pleased to do me, before so many
persons of quality and gentlemen of our county of Surrey
as came in to wait on him at Farnham, at my Lord
Bishop's of Winchester table; when his Lordship was
168 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
pleased to mention me with an eulogy, and kindness so
particular and oblij;ing, as I can never hope to merit from
his goodness. But I would esteem it the most fortunate
dav in my life that should present me with an occasion,
in which* I might signalise my prone and most ardent
inclinations to his service, as being professedly more
engaged to his Lordship than to any person living in
this world. And if God hear the humble prayers which I
3)our out for the continuance of your prosperity, I shall
have performed but my duty, who am with a most
unfeigned resignation, My Lord
Your, &c.
John Evelyn to Lord Viscount Cornbury.
My Lord Saya-Coun, 12 Sep. 1665.
By this most agreeable opportunity I continue
to present your Lordship with my faithful service, and if
it arrive seasonably to supplicate your Lordship's pardon
for the style, the mistake, and the length of mine of the
ninth instant : it will excite in you different passions, and
one, my Lord, not an unpleasant one. Smile at my intel-
ligence, and pity all the rest ; for it will deserve it, and
find a way to your noble breast. My servant (whom I
there mention to have sent from my house for fear of
the worst) will recover, and proves sick only of a very
ugly surfeit ; which not only frees me from infinite appre-
hensions, but admits me to give my wife a ^asit, who is
at my brother's, and within a fortnight of bringing me
my seventh son : and it is time, my Lord, he were born ;
for they keep us so short of moneys at Court, that his
Majesty's Commissioners had need of one to do wonders,
and heal the sick and wounded by miracle, till we can
maintain our chirurgeons. My Lord, I do not forget
your injunction of waiting on you this month at Cornbury ;
but I am momentarily threatened to be hurried to the
sea-side again, after this conflict of my Lord Sandwich :
and the woman in the straw I would gladly see out of
peril. I will not question your Lordship's being at
Oxford this approaching reconvention of Parliament.
My Father-in-law waits there, and it must go ill with me
if I kiss not your hands. Just now I hear the guns from
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 169
the Tower: this petty triumph revives us much; but
the miserably afflicted City, and even this our poor village,
want other consolations : my very heart turns within me
at the contemplation of our calamity. God give the
repentance of David, to the sins of David ! We have all
added some weights to this burthen; ingratitude, and
luxury, and the too too soon oblivion of miracles.
The Almighty preserve your Lordship, and my best
friend in the world my most honoured Lord Chancellor.
I would say a thousand affectionate things more to
conjure your Lordship^s belief, that I am.
My Lord, your, &c.
Sir Philip Warwick to John Evelyn*
p Stratum, 16 S^t. 166^,8 at Night.
I am to seek how to answer your letter : for
without passing any compliment upon you how much I
am concerned in your safety, which I find endangered by
your employment ; without professing how sensible I am,
that scarce any particular in the Navy ought to have that
care and tenderness wait upon it as the sick and wounded
men, and the prisoners — though a less regard in respect I
hear ours are not so well used, and that the Ambassador's
servant seems to take such little care for exchanges as if
he meant to burthen us with them, and that these fellows
are so stubborn that they, will not work, nay beat any that
will — yet a shame it is if they be not, in the proportion
the King allows them, provided for. The ill effect of both
these I acknowledge if they be neglected. And when I
have said this you will wonder what I can say next, that
my Lord Treasurer makes not the provision. Sir, I must
say, though I offend my good friend Sir George Carteret,
that from the first my Lord Treasurer told him this charge
was a chief part of the expense of the Navj^, and by his
assignments to be provided for. It was the first sin,
transferring faults one from another ; and therefore I am
* See Diary, vol. i. p. 41 5. Sir Philip Warwick was at this time Secretary
to the Lord High Treasurer. The letter is in answer to Evelyn's complaints
of the inadequacy of funds for the proper discharge of his oflRcial duties as
one of the commissioners for the care of the sick and wounded during the
Dutch war.
170 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lokdon,
ashamed to be making such returns, and know that it will
as little feed the hungry and clothe the naked, as a mouth
that 's open with a benediction, and a hand closed with
the money. And yet how to make you judge of this I
cannot, without showing you how the whole royal aid is
distributed. (And this I assure you, the distribution of
the whole £2,500,000 is not of particular concern unto me,
fine paid.)
Of the City, for the Navy, before the Parliament
borrowed £200,000
Of the Dunkirk money 50,000*
Thirteen Counties wholly assigned . . . 1,277,604
County of Bucks, for the Naval Regiment . 47,346
The first three months of all the other counties . 96,047
Upon seventeen other counties, 102,000 pounds,
and 40,000 pounds. And now lately the dis-
pute being that he had no proper assignment
for the sick and wounded, my Lord told him
he would assign him 28,000 pounds of those
counties particularly for them . . . 170,000
But I fear that will not do you any service. Sir
George saying, the assignment being upon the
third year, he cannot borrow upon it.
This hath been already the Navy's portion of the
Royal aid 1,840,997
Ordnance hath had assigned unto it . . . 367,686
Guards hath counties set out for ... 170,616
Garrisons 45,121
AVardrobe had on Wales 25,000
Remaining on the 17 counties, SO.OOn^QQQQo 608.423
on Wales . . 59,000 J
And now do you see by whose friendship you have
received that small refreshment, which I say not
to diminish his kindness, but to show you that
properly you were a care of Mr. Vice- Cham-
berlain's.
Total . . . 2,449,420
Eemaining . . 109,000
£2.558,420
* " This to be repaid."
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 171
All I can add is, my Lord Treasurer will endeavour to
dispose the Vice-Chamberlain ; and if it be in his power,
for I think him as much overlaid as others, I doubt not
he will undertake your charge. And because the assign-
ment which remains to be made upon Wales, which is
about £30,000 for the second year and the first quarter of
the third, may better please him, my Lord Treasurer will
ofier him that, or offer it to Sir William D^Oyly and
yourself, if you can procure credit upon it. He wiU make
an essay whether out of the present prizes (which if his
Majesty will not employ to this use, being a better fond
of credit, he may be repaid from this assignment) he can
get you a considerable sum. His lordship is ready to
assign out of Wales, or the seventeen counties, £50,000
for this service singly. And if I could give you a better
and more particular account, I would; for I value both
yours and Sir William^s integrities and informations so
much, you may both assure yourselves I will not be
wanting. And am really sensible of your cares and
dangers, which we want not (being for all comers) even
here ; but being in our station, and depending on Provi-
dence, I hope none of us shall miscarry. We are now
separated and in motion, but I will haste the resolution.
In the meantime you may reserve this to yourself. Only
communicate it to Sir William D'Oyly, to whom I cannot
at present write ; for having received your letters but late
this night, and the post going away in the morning, and
I have to send my letter six miles thither. I beg his
pardon and yours, and remain, with all truth and aflfection.
Your most faithful kinsman and servant,
P. Wakwick.
John Evelyn to Sir Philip Warwick.
Sayes-Court, 30 Sept. 1665.
Sir,
Your favour of the 16th current from Stratton,
has not only enlightened mine eyes, but confirmed my
reason : for sure I am I durst write nothing to you which
would carry in it the least diffidence of your most prudent
economy ; and you are infinitely mistaken in me if you
172 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
think I have not established my opinion of your sincerity
and candour in all that you transact, upon a fovnidation
very remote from what the world does ordinarily build
upon. I am sufficiently satisfied to whose care our
supplies did naturally belong ; for I do not believe the
sums we have received to carry on our burthen thus far,
trifling as they have been compared to the occasion,
proceeded from his (Sir George's) good nature (which I
have been much longer acquainted with than you), but to
shift the clamour which our necessities have compelled us
to do ; whilst our task-masters exacted brick without
allowing us straw. And if I have expressed anything to
you in a style more zealous than ordinary, it has been to
lay before you a calamity which nothing can oppose but
a sudden supply; and for that my Lord Arlington (to
whom I have frequently said as much) directed me to the
proper object. Nor was what I writ a prophecy at
adventure. One fortnight has made me feel the utmost
of miseries that can befal a person in my station and with
my aflFections ; — to have 25,000 prisoners, and 1500 sick
and wounded men to take care of, without one penny of
money, and above £2000 indebted. It is true, I am but
newly acquainted with business, and I now find the happy
difference betwixt speculation and action to the purpose ;
learning that at once, which others get by degrees ; but
I am sufficiently punished for the temerity, and I acknow-
ledge the burthen insupportable. Nor indeed had I been
able to obviate this impetuous torrent, had not his Grace
the Duke of Albemarle and mj-^ Lord Sandwich (in pure
compassion of me) unanimously resolved to strain their
authority, and to sell (though not a full quorum) some of
the prizes, and break bulk in an Indian ship, to redeem
me from this plunge : and all this, for the neglect of his
personal care — whom you worthily perstringe, though for
domestic respects and other relations they were not willing
to express their resentments. Sir, I am in some hopes
of touching the £5000 some day this week ; but what is
that, to the expense of £200 the day? Is there no
exchange or pecuniary redemption to be proposed ? or is
his Majesty resolved to maintain the armies of his enemies
in his own bosom ? whose idleness makes them sick, and
their sickness redoubles the charge ! I am amazed at
1665.] JOHJf EVELYX. 173
this method, but must hold my tongue. Why might not
yet the French, who are numerous in this last action (and
in my conscience have enough of the sea), be sent home
to their master, not to gratify but plague him with their
unprofitable numbers ?
Sir, I most humbly acknowledge your goodness for the
confidence you have in me, and for that Arcanum, the
account of the disposure and assignment of this prodigious
royal aid of £2,500,000 which you have so particularly
imparted to me, and that I should have preserved with all
due caution, though you had enjoined me none. If I
obtain this small sum of £5000 it will be a breathing till
I can meet my brother commissioners at Oxford, whither
I am summoned to join for the efi'ects and settlements of
some of those more solid appointments mentioned in your
audit, and which you have promised to promote ; and
therefore I will trouble you no further at present, than to
let you know, that upon that account of your encourage-
ment (I mean the providence of God and my sole desires
of serving him in anything which I hope he may accept,
for I swear to you no other consideration should tempt
me a second time to this trouble) I am resolved to
maintain my station, and to refuse nothing that may
contribute to his Majesty's service, or concern my duty,
who am,
Sir, Your, &c.
John 'Evelyn to Sir William Coventry.*
Sayes-Court, 2 October, 1665. '
May it please your Honour,
Nothing but a calamity which requires the
application of the speediest redress to preserve the lives
of men, the honour of his Majesty, and (as I conceive) a
concernment of the weightiest importance to the whole
nation, could have extorted this repetition of the sad
posture our affairs are in, for want of those moneys and
efi'ects we were made believe should be assigned us for
the carrying on of the province entrusted to us. I will
* Secretai-y to the Duke of York, and one of the Privy Council.
174. CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
not torment you with the particulars of my own story,
which you know so well by all that has prevented my
complaints; but I perfectly apprehend the funest and
calamitous issue which a few days may produce, unless
some speedy course be taken to stop it. Nor am I so
little acquainted with the respect which I owe to the
persons I now Mrite to, as not to know with what decency
and reserve I ought to make hiy addresses upon any other
occasion : but the particulars I have alleged are very great
truths, and it were to betray his Majesty's gracious
intentions, and even his honour, to extenuate here. Sir
"William D'Oyly and myself have near ten thousand upon
our care, whiles there seems to be no care of us ; who,
having lost all our servants, officers, and most necessary
assistants, have nothing more left us to expose but our
persons, which are every moment at the mercy of a raging
pestilence (by our daily conversation) and an unreason-
able multitude ; if such they may be called, who, having
adventured their lives for the public, perish for their
reward, and die like dogs in the street unregarded. Our
prisoners (who with open arms, as I am credibly informed
by eye-witnesses, embraced our men, instead of lifting up
their hands against them) beg at us, as a mercy, to knock
them on the head ; for we have no bread to relieve the
dying creatures. Nor does this country afford gaols to
secure them in, unless Leeds Castle (for which I am now
contracting with my Lord Culpepper) may be had ; if at
least half of them survive to be brought so far, to starve
when they come there. As for the pittance now lately
ordered us, what will that benefit to our numbers and the
mouths we are to feed ? Neither is that to be had
suddenly, and will be spent before we touch it. I could
assemble other particulars of a sad countenance relating
to the miseries of our own countrymen. I beseech your
Honour, let us not be reputed barbarians ; or if at last wc
must be so, let me not be the executor of so much
inhumanity ; when the price of one good subject's life is
(rightly considered) of more value than the wealth of the
Indies. It is very hard, if in now a twelvemonth's time
that we have cost you little more than £30,000, through
all England where we have supported this burthen there
should not have been a sufficient fund consecrated and
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 175
assigned as a sacred stock for so important a service ; since
it lias been a tiling so frequently and earnestly pressed to
their Lordships, and that this is not an affair which can
be managed without present moneys to feed it ; because
we have to deal with a most miserable indigent sort of
people, who live but from hand to mouth, and whom we
murder if we do not pay daily or weekly. I mean those
who harbour our sick and wounded men, and sell bread to
our prisoners of war. How we have behaved ourselves
for his Majesty^s advantage and honour, we are most
ready to produce the accounts, and to stand to the
comparison of what it cost a former usurper, and a power
which was not lavish of their expenses. Let it please
your Honour to consider of the premises, and if you can
believe I retain so much of servile in me, as to inform you
of tales, or design to magnify my own merits (whatever
ray particular and private sufferings have been), let me be
dismissed with infamy ; but let me beg of your Honour
to receive first the relation of his Majesty^s principal
ofl&cers and commissioners of the Navy which accompanies
the paper of.
Right Honourable,
Your, &c.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.^
Sayes-Court, 3 Jan., 1665-6.
Sir,
I have according to your commands sent you an
hasty draught of the Infirmary, and project for Chatham,
the reasons and advantages of it ; which challenges your
promise of promoting it to the use designed. I am myself
convinced of the exceeding benefit it will every way afford
us. If, upon examination of the particulars, and your
intercession, it shall merit a recommendation from the rest
of the principal ofiicers, I am very confident the effects
will be correspondent to the pretence of the papers which
* Pepys was now Clerk of the Admiralty, or, as it was then called, Clerk
of the Acts of the Navy, and brought into frequent official communication
with Evelyn. For evidence of their long friendship, only closed by death,
see Diary, vol. ii, p. 370, 371.
176
CORRESPONDENCE OF
[LOITDON,
I transmit to accompany it. In all events, I have done
my endeavour ; and if, upon what appears demonstrable to
me (not without some considerable experience, and collation
with our officers, discreet and sober persons), I persist in
my fondness to it, from a prospect of the singular advan-
tages which would be reaped by setting it on foot, I
beseech you to pardon my honest endeavours, with the
errors of,
Sir, your, &c.
¥-
U
1665.] JOHN EVELYN. 177
John Evelyn to Lord Viscount Cornbury.
Sayes-Court, 20 Jan., 1665-6.
My Lord,
Ubi Amor, ibi Oculus, excuses the glances we
cast upon desirable objects. My hand cannot contain
itself from this presumption, when I have any thing to
write which affords me the least pretence ; and though
you should not answer my letter, yet, till you forbid me
writing, I please myself that you vouchsafe to read them.
Great persons pay dear for such addresses, who afford
them that honour; and especially those that (like your
Lordship) know so well to value their time. One period
more, my Lord, and beso los manos.
Upon Wednesday last I went to London, and spent the
whole afternoon in viewing my Lord Chancellor's neiv
house,* if it be not a solecism to give a palace so vulgar a
name. My incessant business had till that moment
prevented my passionate desires of seeing it since it was
one stone advanced : but I was plainly astonished when I
beheld what a progress was made. Let me speak ingenu-
ously; I went with prejudice, and a critical spirit,
incident to those who fancy they know anything in art.
I acknowledge to your Lordship that I have never seen a
nobler pile : my old friend and fellow-traveller (cohabitant
and contemporary at Rome) has perfectly acquitted him-
self. It is, without hyperboles, the best contrived, the
most useful, graceful, and magnificent house in England,
— I except not Audly-end ; which, though larger, and full
of gaudy and barbarous ornaments, does not gratify
judicious spectators. As I said, my Lord : here is state
and use, solidity and beauty most symmetrically combined
together: seriously, there is nothing abroad pleases me
* Evelyn himself contributes this note : — " Clarendon House, built by Mr.
Pratt ; since quite demolished by Sir Thomas Bond, &c., who purchased it
to build a street of tenements to his undoing. — J. E." The street thus
referred to was Old Bond Street. Sir Thomas Bond was Comptroller of
the Household to the Queen Mother, and the attached favourite of James
the Second, with whom he went into exile. Fi'equent and interesting
mention is made by Evelyn of this house. See Diary, vol. i. p. 382 ;
vol. ii.pp. 4,20, 23, 31—32, 36, 17f), 184—185, 197—198.
VOL. in. N
178 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lo^on,
better j nothing at home approaches it. I have no design,
my Lord, to gratify the architect, beyond what I am.
obliged, as a professed honourer of virtue wheresoever 'tis
conspicuous; but when I had seriously contemplated
every room (for I went into them all, from the cellar to
the platform on the roof), seen how well and judiciously
the walls were erected, the arches cut and turned, the
timber braced, their scantlings and contignations disposed,
I was incredibly satisfied, and do acknowledge myself to
have m\ich improved by what I observed. What shall I
add more ? rumpatur invidia ; I pronounce it the first
Palace in England, deserving all I have said of it, and
a better encomiast.
May that great and illustrious person, whose large and
ample heart has honoured his country with so glorious
a structure, and, by an example worthy of himself, showed
our nobility how they ought indeed to build, and value
their qualities, live many long years to enjoy it ; and when
he shall have passed to that upper bvilding not made with
hands, may his posterity (as you, my Lord) inherit his
goodness, this palace, and sdl other circumstances of
his grandeur, to consummate their felicity; with which
happy augure, permit me in all faithfulness and sincerity,
to subscribe myself, my Lord,
Your, &c.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.
Sayeg-Cowrt, 26 March, 1666.
Sib,
I know not with what success I have endeavoured
to perform your commands ; but it has been to the utmost
of my skill, of which you are to be my judge. The favour
I bespeak of you is, your pardon for not sending it before.
I have not enjoyed one minute's repose since myreturn (now
a fortnight past) till this very morning ; ha\ing been ever
since soliciting for a little money to preserve my miserable
flock from perishing. On Saturday, very late, I dispatched
Mr. Barber towards my Kentish circle, where our sick
people are in quarters ; and at his return, I hope to
present you a complete account : but till this instant
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 179
morning I had not written one line of those tedious
papers ; so that, if through haste (the parent of mistakes),
there may haply appear some escapes, give pardon to your
servant ; or let me purchase it with this small present of
fragments (such yet as you have been pleased to accept),
and a little book that I also recommend to excuse my
expense of such leisure as I can redeem from the other
impertinencies of my life. As to the report which I send
you, I would receive it as a favour, however your resolu-
tions of putting it in execution may succeed (the time of
year being so far elapsed, in regard of action and more
immediate use), it might yet be gratefully presented to his
Royal Highness, or rather indeed, to his Majesty himself,
who has so frequently been pleased to take notice of it to
me as an acceptable project ; because it would affict me to
have them think I have either been remiss or trifling in
my proposal. This obligation I can only hope for from
your dexterity, address, and friendship, who am.
Sir,
Your most affectionate and humble servant,
J. Evelyn.
Sir, — There is nothing in the other paper which you
commanded me to return, but what is included in these,
with ample and (I hope) considerable improvements.
I must beg a copy of those papers when the clerks are
at leisure, having never a duplicate by me : and it may
haply need a review.
Sir, — The bearer hereof, Roger Winn, being our
messenger (and without whose services I cannot possibly
be, having so frequent occasions of sending him about
business belonging to my troublesome employment), does
by me supplicate your protection, that he may not be
pressed, of which he is hourly in danger as he travels
about our affairs without your particular indulgence,
which I therefore conjure you to let him have under your
hand and signature.
180 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Sir,
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.
Sayes-Court, 26 March, 1666.
If to render you an account of the progress of
my late proposal be any testimony of my obedience to
your commands, be pleased to believe that I most faith-
fully present it in these papers according to the best of
my tident. And if you find the estimate considerably to
exceed the first calculation, you will remember it was
made to the meridian of London; that the walls were,
both by his Majesty and the directions of the principal
officers, to be made thicker and higher ; that the materials
and workmen were presumed to be found much cheaper in
the country ; and that the place and area to build on was
supposed a level. But it has fallen out so much to our
prejudice, and beyond all expectation in these particulars,
that, to commence with the ground, we could not in four
or five miles walking about Chatham and Rochester find
one convenient spot that woiild bear a level of 200 foot
square, unless it were one field beyond the dock, in the
occupation of Mr. Commissioner Pett, near the bog and
marsh, which has neither solid foundation, nor fresh water
to it. There is a very handsome green close at the end of
the Long- Rope-house, towards Chatham ; but the declivity
is so sudden and great to the west, that less than ten-foot
raising will not bring it to such a rectitude as that we can
lay our plate upon the wall, which will be a considerable
trouble and charge to reform, as may be easily demon-
strated : for either the earth must be so much abated
towards the east, or the wall advanced to the height of
near twenty foot, while one extreme of the roof will touch
the superficies of the earth : beside the field is not above
150 feet wide. But supposing all this might be encountered
(as indeed it might with charge), it borders so near to
the rope-houses, the dock, and that ample way leading to
it from the hill-house and Chatham, as might endanger
his Majesty's people in case of any contagion ; because it
will be impossible to restrain them from sometimes
mingling amongst the workmen and others, who have
employment in the dock, when the convalescent men
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 181
shall be able or permitted to walk abroad. This, and
some other difficulties, made us quit the thoughts of that
otherwise gracefully-situated place. After many other
surveys, we at last pitched on a field called the Warren,
just beneath the Mill, and regarding the north towards
the river. The access is commodious; it has a well of
excellent water, ready dug, and wanting only repairs; and
though this ground be likewise somewhat uneven, yet,
with help, it will carry about 240 feet in length, and 150
in breadth, allowing the filling up of some valleys and
depressures of about four or five foot deep to be taken
from several risings. This, for many reasons, I conceive
to be the fittest for our purpose, it having also a soHd foun-
dation on the chalk, and being at a competent distance
from all dangerous commerce with the town, which will
greatly contribute to the health of the sick, and protection
of the inhabitants ; but, being at present in lease to the
Chest, leave must be obtained, and the tenant, who now
rents it, satisfied; in all which Mr. Commissioner Pett
(whose direction and assistance I took, according to the
injunctions) informs me, there will be no difficulty.
Upon examination of the materials on the place :
£ s. d.
Bricks will not be delivered at the place under . . . . 0 18 0
Lime, per load, containing 32 bushels, per thousand . ..0160
Drift sand, by ton .012
Tiles, per thousand delivered 110
Heart lathes, per load, containing 39 bundles . . . .210
Sawing, per hundred 034
Workmen suflScient (in which was our great mistake) . . .026
Upon those materials we conceived thus of the scantlings :
Walls, at one brick and a half.
Wall-plates 9 in. 5
Parallel rafters 9 6 middle 16^ feet long.
11 7 ends
Single raftere ^\ ^k
Purlins 9 6 . . 17
Binding-beams 12 12
Window-frames 4^ 3^ . . 4 2
Door-cases, in brickwork, single doors ,7 6 . . 6 2 8 in.
The two outward double, with architrave .7 6 . . 9 9 4
Ground-floor g'ist . . , 4 4 . . 18
18a CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
And if stone-floors to the four-comer rooms, as has been
since judged more commodious, the
G'ists 8 3
So' men ]4 11
Besides partitions, posts, interstices, quarterage.
At those scantlings, together with the alteration of the
walls for height and thickness, &c.
Every rod of square brick-work, solid, at 1 J brick thick, con-
taining in bricks of 9-inch, about 12 bars long, to 16J feet in
height ; 15 bricks to every 3-feet high, which to 16^ is about
83 ; so tliat 83 by 21 is 1743 bricks superficial. This, at the
designed thickness, is every square rod 5229 bricks, which I
snppose at 17 (the lowest we can expect) delivered at the
place, is every rod square, 91. 8s. Id. The total of brick-
work then, contains about 118 square rod, without defalcations ;
of doors, windows (being 8 doors at G and 3-feet ; windows
114 at 3 and 2-feet, reduced to measure, contains doors 24 feet
by 48, which is 1152 square foot; windows, 342 feet by
228 feet is 77,97G feet square); both these reduced to square
rods, are almost 30 rods square ; whereof allow 10 square
rods for inequality of the foundation and chimneys (if upon
the Warren-ground), and then tlie bricks of the whole (without
lime and sand) will cost for 98 square rods, at 41. 8«. Id. . £431 12 2
And every rod after the rate of 1 8d. for one foot high, in work-
manship, to 149
Which for 98 rod, is 122 6 0
So as the brick-work for the whole will come to . . . . 650 0 0
Tiling, at 36 per square 450 0 0
Timber, at 46 per square 600 0 0
GUsB, about 6 S4 feet, at 6<Z. per foot 17 0 0
Window-frames, at 4d. each 22 0 0
Single doors and cases, at 20s. each ; double doors and cases (for
the more commodious bringing in of the sick, being frequently
carried), at 36«., with the casement, locks, hinges, &c. . . 30 0 0
Stone-floors 32 0 0
Stairs, per step, Zs., 76 in all 118 0
Levelling the ground, as computed upon view . . . 46 10 0
Total . . . £1859 18 0
Bat this erection, reduced to 400 beds, or rather persons (which
would be a very competent number, and yet exceedingly
retrench his Majesty's charge for their maintenance), and
the whole abated to near a fifth part of tlie expense, which
amounts to a))out 371 0 0
The whole would not exceed 487 18 0
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 183
Whereof the timber and roof 480 0 0
The timber alone to 360 0 0
Which, if furnished from the yard, the whole charge of the
building will be reduced to 127 18 0
So as the number of beds, diminished cradles, and attendance
proportionable, the furniture complete will cost . . 480 0 0
Total . . . £1607 18 0
According to the formerly-made estimate; and which
whole charge will be saved in quarters of 400 men only,
within six months and about fifteen days, at six-pence per
head, being no less than £10 per diem, £70 per week, £280
per month, £3640 per annum ; which is more than double
what his Majesty is at in one year's quarters for them
in private houses ; besides all the incomparable advantages
enumerated in the subsequent paper, which will per-
petually hold upon this, or any the like occasion : the
quartering of so many persons at six-pence per diem
amounting to no less than 7280c?. per annum.
If this shall be esteemed inconvenient, because of
disfurnishing the yard, or otherwise a temptation to
embezzle the timber of the yard :
All the materials bought as above £1487 18 0
Furniture 480 0 0
Total .... £1967 18 0
The whole expense will be reimbursed in eight months
viz. in 400 men's diet alone, by sixpence per diem . 37 8cZ. per month
45'd6d. per annum
Whereas the same number at his Majesty's
ordinary entertainment is ... . 627 0 0 per month
7526 8 0 per annum
So as there would be saved yearly . . £2990 8 0
Note, that the salary of the steward (who buys all
provisions, pays and keeps the account, takes charge of
the sick when set on shore, and discharges them when
recovered, &c.) is not computed in this estimate : because
it is the same which our clerks and deputies do by the
present establishment.
184 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Thus I deduce the particulars :
Chinirgeons MTen : tiz three master-chirurgeons, at- ("280
6«. pep diem each ; mates four, at 4 s. each ; diet ■< 56
for 400, 280i. ; one matron, per week, IDs.; twenty y [42
Durses, at &a. per week ; fire, candles, soap, &c., id.
per week .... . .-' £378 per month
Cradle-beds, 200, at 1 Is. per cradle, at 4^ feet wide, 6 long 110 0 0
Furniture, with beds, rug, blankets, sheets, at 30s. per bed . 300 0 0
Utensils for Hospital, &c 70 0 0
£480 0 0
But I do farther affirm, and can demonstrate, that supposing
the whole erection, and furniture (according to my first and
largest project, and as his Majesty and the ])rincipal officers
did think fit to proportion the height and thickness of the
walls), for the entertainment of 500 men, should amount to 1859 18 0
Furniture to 582 10 0
Total £2442 2 0
Then would be saved to his Majesty 332^. 18«. per month, 3994^. 16a.
per annum.
So that in less than eight months time there will be
saved, in the quarters of 500 men alone, more money than
the whole expense amounts to; 500 men's quarters at 1*.
per diem coming to £25 per diem, £175 per week, £700
per month, £9408 per annum.
Upon which I assume, if £3994, by five hundred men,
or £3640 in four hundred men, or, lastly, if but £2990 be
saved in one year in the quarters of 400 sick persons, &c.,
there would a far greater sum be saved in more than 6000
men ; there having been sent 7000 sick and wounded men
to cure in my district only, and of those 2800 put on shore
at Chatham and Rochester, for which station I proposed
the remedy. Now, 500 sick persons quartered in a town
at the victuallers and scattered ale-houses (as the custom
is), will take up at leastj 160 houses, there being very
few of those miserable places which afford accom-
modation for about two or three in a house; with,
frequently at greater distances, employ of chirurgeons,
nurses, and officers, innumerable; so as when we have
been distressed for chirurgeons, some of them (upon
computation) walked six miles every day, by going but
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 185
from quarter to quarter, and not being able to visit tlieir
patients as they ought : whereas, in our hospitals, they are
continually at hand. We have essayed to hire some capa-
cious empty houses, but could never meet vrith any
tolerably convenient; and to have many, or more than
one, would be chargeable and very troublesome. By our
infirmary, then we have these considerable advantages.
At six-pence per diem each (in the way of commons), the
sick shall have as good, and much more proper and whole-
some diet, than now they have in the ale-houses, where
they are fed with trash, and embezzle their money more
to inflame themselves, and retard and destroy their cures
out of ignorance or intemperance ; whiles a sober matron
governs the nurses, looks to their provisions, rollers, linen,
&c. And the nurses attend the sick, wash, sweep, and serve
the offices, the cook and laundrer comprehended in the
number, and at the same rate, &c. By this method, like-
wise, are the almost indefinite number of chirurgeons and
officers exceedingly reduced ; the sick dieted, kept from
drink and intemperance, and consequently, from most
unavoidably relapsing. They are hindered from wan-
dering, slipping away, and dispersion. They are more
sedulously attended; the physician better inspects the
chirurgeons, who neither can nor will be in all places, as
now they are scattered, in the nasty corners of the towns.
They are sooner and more certainly cured (for I have at
present near thirty beds employed in a barn at Gravesend,
which has taught us much of this experience), they are
received and discharged with infinite more ease. Our
accounts better and more exactly kept. A vast and
very considerable sum is saved (not to say gained) to his
Majesty. The materials of the house will be good, if taken
down ; or, if let stand, it may serve, in time of peace, for
a store or workhouse ; the furniture will (much of it) be
useful upon like occasion; and, what is to be esteemed none
of the least virtues of it, it will totally cure the altogether
intolerable clamour and difiiculties of rude and ungrateful
people, their landlords and nurses, raised by their poverty
upon the least obstruction of constant and weekly pays ; for
want of which, they bring an ill repute on his Majesty ^s
service, and incense the very magistrates and better sort
of inhabitants (neighbours to them), who too frequently
186 CORRESPONDEXCE OF [London,
promote (I am sorry to speak it) their mutinies ; so as
they have been sometimes menacing to expose our men in
the streets, where some have most inhospitably perished.
In fine, this would encounter all objections whatsoever ;
is an honourable, charitable, and frugal provision ; effectual,
full of encouragement, and very practicable ; so as, however
for the present it may be considered, I cannot but persist
in wishing it might be resolved upon towards autumn
at the farthest ; Chatham and Rochester alone, having,
within seventeen or eighteen months, cost his INIajesty
full £18,000, in cures and quarters; half whereof would
have near been saved had this method been established.
Add to this, the almost constant station of his Majesty's
ships at the buoy in the Nore, and river of Chatham ; the
clamour of that place against our quartering these, this
crazy time ; and the altogether impossibility of providing
elsewhere for such numbers as continually press in upon
us there, more than any where else, after actions, or the
return of any of his Majesty'u fleet : which, with what has
been offered, may recommend this project, by your favour-
able representation of the premises, for a permanent
establishment in that place especially, if his Majesty and
Royal Highness so think meet. This account, being what
I have been able to lay before you, as the effects of
my late inspection upon the places, by commands of the
Honourable the Principal Officers, I request through your
hands may be addressed to them from,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
J. Evelyn.
We might this summer burn our own bricks, and procure
timber at the best hand, which would save a considerable
charge.
John Evelyn to Sir Samtiel Tuke.
Sayes-Court, 27 Sept., 1666.
Sib,
It was some four days before the most fatal
conflagration of the (quondam) City of London that I
addressed a few lines to you, little thinking I should so
soon have had two such dissolutions to deplore, — the
1666.3 JOHN EVELYN. 187
burning of the best to'ma in the world, and the decease of
the best friend in the world, your excellent lady. Sir,
you know they are but small afflictions that are loquacious
— great ones are silent ; and if ever great ones there were,
mine eyes have beheld, and mine ears heard them, with
an heart so possessed of sorrow, that it is not easily
expressed; because the instances have been altogether
stupendous and unparalleled. But it were in vain to
entertain you with those formal topics, which are wont to
be applied to persons of less fortitude and Christian
resignation, though I cannot but exhort you to what, I
know, you do — look upon all things in this world as
transitory and perishing; sent us upon condition of
quitting them cheerfully, when God pleases to take them,
from us. This consideration alone (with the rest of those
graces which God has furnished you with) will be able to
alleviate your passion, and to preserve you from succumb-
ing under your pressures, which I confess are weighty,
but not insupportable. Live therefore, I conjure you,
and help to restore our dear country, and to consolate
your friends. There is none alive wishes you more
sincere happiness than my poor family.
I suppose I should have heard ere this from you of all
your concernments, but impute your silence to some
possible miscarriage of your letters ; since the usual place
of address is with the rest reduced to ashes, and made an
heap of ruins. I would give you a more particular relation
of this calamitous accident ; but I should oppress you with
sad stories, and I question not but they are come too soon
amongst you at Paris with all minuteness, and (were it
possible) hyperboles. There is this yet of less deplorable
in it : that, as it has pleased God to order it, little effects
of any great consequence have been lost, besides the
houses; — that our merchants, at the same instant in which
it was permitted that the tidings should fly over seas, had
so settled all their affairs, as the complying with their
foreign correspondence, as punctually as if no disaster at
all had happened; nor do we hear of so much as one
that has failed. The Exchange is now at Gresham
College. The rest of the City (which may consist of near
a seventh part), and suburbs, peopled with new shops; the
same noise, businessj and commerce, not to say vanity.
188 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londojt,
Only the poor booksellers have been indeed ill treated by
A'vdcan ; so many noble impressions consumed by their
trusting them to the churches, as the loss is estimated
near two hundred thousand pounds, which will be an
extraordinary detriment to the whole republic of learning.
In the meantime, the King and Parliament are infinitely
zealous for the rebuilding of our niins ; and I believe it
will universally be the employment of the next spring.
They are now busied with adjusting the claims of each
proprietor, that so they may dispose things for the
building after the noblest model. Everybody brings in
his idea: amongst the rest I presented his Majesty with
my own conceptions, with a discourse annexed. It was
the second that was seen within two days after the con-
flagration : but Dr. Wren had got the start of me.^ Both
of us did coincide so frequently, that his Majesty was not
displeased with it, and it caused divers alterations ; and
truly there was never a more glorious phoenix upon earth,
if it do at last emerge out of these cinders, and as the
design is laid with the present fervour of the undertakers.
But these things are as yet immature ; and I pray God
we may enjoy peace to encourage those fair dispositions.
The miracle is, I have never in ray life observed a more
universal resignation, less repining amongst sufferers ;
which makes me hope that God has yet thoughts of
mercy towards us. Judgments do not always end where
they begin ; and therefore let none exult over our cala-
mities. We know not whose turn it may be next. But,
Sir, I forbear to entertain you longer on these sad
reflections ; but persist to beg of you not to sufi*er any
transportations unbecoming a man of virtue; resolve to
preserve yourself, if it be possible, for better times, the
good and restoration of your country, and the comfort of
your friends and relations, and amongst them of. Sir,
Your, &c.
* These plans were afterwards printed by the Society of Antiquaries,
and have been repeatedly engraved for the various Histories of London.
That by Mr. Evelyn is erroneously inscribed " Sir John Evelyn."
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 189
Sir,
Philip Dumaresque to John Evelyn.
Jersey, 1 2th Nov., 1 QQG.
I should acknowledge but in part the obligations
I have to your lady, if I did not confess myself equally
indebted to you ; for, besides the particular kindness to
ine, I am obliged, with all his Majesty^s subjects, for that
excellent and useful piece of yours of planting and
gardening, which Mr. Messerny did lend me to read;
the subjects therein so accurately handled being so
suitable to my inclination and kind of life, that no fear of
invasion from our ill neighbours can hinder me from
putting daily in practice some of the directions therein
prescribed. I was in good hopes to have had the honour
of giving you the particulars of my proficiency myself
during this winter, wherein there was some likelihood
there would be no occasion for our stay here; but our
governor's commands have been so absolute to all that
desired leave but for two months only, that I am out of
hopes to pay you in person the respects I owe you for
your favours ; but must be content, till a happier oppor-
tunity, to entreat from your goodness to believe that there
is nothing I esteem more than the happiness to be
accounted by you, as I am really. Sir,
Your most humble and obliged servant,
Philip Dumaresque.
John Evelyn to Lord Chancellor Clarendon.
Sayes-Court, 27t7t April, 1666.
My Lord,
I did the other day, in Westminster Hall, give my
Lord Cornbury, your lordship's son, my thoughts briefly
concerning a most needful reformation for the trans-
mitting a clearer stream for the future from the press, by
directing to immaculate copies of such books as, being
vended in great proportions, do, for want of good editions
amongst us, export extraordinary sums of money, to our
190 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
no less detriment than shame ; and I am so well satisfied
of the honour which a redress in this kind will procure
even to posterity (however small the present instance may
appear to some in a superficial view) that I think myself
obliged to wish that your Lordship may not conceive it
unworthy of your patronage. The affair is this.
Since the late deplorable conflagration, in which the
stationers have been exceedingly ruined, there is like to
be an extraordinary penury and scarcity of classic authors,
&c., used in grammar schools ; so, as of necessity, they
must suddenly be reprinted. My Lord may please to
understand that our booksellers follow their own judgment
in printing the ancient authors, according to such text as
they found extant, when first they entered their copy ;
whereas, out of the MSS. collated by the industry of
later critics, those authors are exceedingly improved. For
instance, about thirty years since Justin was corrected
by Isaac Vossius, in many hundreds of places most
material to sense and elegancy ; and has since been
frequently reprinted in Holland after the purer copy, but
with us, still according to the old reading. The like has
Florus, Seneca's tragedies, and near all the rest, which
have in the mean time been castigated abroad by several
learned hands ; which, besides that it makes ours to be
rejected, and dishonours our nation, so does it no little
detriment to learning, and to the treasure of the nation
in proportion. The cause of this is principally the stationer
driving as hard and cruel a bargain with the printer as
he can, and the printer taking up any sraatterer in the
tongues, to be the less loser ; an exactness in this no ways
importing the stipulation ; by which means errors repeat
and multiply in every edition, and that most notoriously
in some most necessary school-books of value, which they
obtrude upon the buyer, unless men will be at unreason-
able rates for foreign editions. Your Lordship does by
this perceive the mischievous effects of this avarice and
negligence in them.
And now towards the removing these causes of the
decay of typography, not only as to this particular, but in
general, it is humbly proposed to consider whether it
might not be expedient : first, that inspection be had what
text of the Greek and Latin authors should be followed in
1666.] JOHN EVELYN. 191
future impressions ; secondly, that a censor be established
to take care and caution of all presses in London, that
they be provided with able correctors, principally for
school-books, which are of large and iterated impressions ;
thirdly, that the charge thereof be advanced by the com-
pany, which is but just, and will be easily reimbursed,
upon an allowance arising from better and more valuable
copies : since it is but reason that whoever builds a house
be at the charges of surveying ; and if it stand in relation
to the public (as this does), that he be obliged to it.
My Lord, these reflections are not crudely represented,
but upon mature advice and conference with learned
persons with whom I now and then converse ; and they are
highly worthy your Lordship's interesting your power and
authority to reform it, and will be inserted into the
glorious things of your story, and adorn your memory.
Great persons heretofore did take care of these matters,
and it has consecrated their names. The season is also
now most proper for it, that this sad calamity has morti-
fied a company which was exceedingly haughty and difficult
to manage to any useful reformation ; and therefore (weU
knowing the benefit which would accrue to the public by
so noble an attempt), I could not but recommend it to
your Lordship out of the pure sense of gratitude I have
to wish your Lordship all the happy occasions of increasing
your honour, for the favours you always show me, and the
obligations I have to your particular friendship and kind-
ness. My Lord, if this paper find acceptance, I would be
bold to add some farther hints for the carrying it on to
some perfection ; for, besides all I have said, there will
need pains in reading, consulting MSS., and conference
with learned men, good indexes, apt divisions, chapters,
and verses, as the " Dutch Variorum," embellishments of
E-oman and Itahc letters to separate inserted speeches
(especially in historians and sententious authors), and
which adds to the use and lustre, together with a choice
of succinct notes after more terse and profitable copies.
For it is a shame that even such as our own countryman
Famaby has published should be sold us from other
countries, because our own editions are so much inferior
to them. If your Lordship would set your heart upon
other particulars concerning the reformation of our
19E CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
English press, I could give instance in some of high repu-
tation and no mean advantage. But I would rejoice to
see but this take effect.
^ly Lord, I kiss your Lordship's hands, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. Wilkins*
Sir,
I have read Mr. Tillotson's " Rule of Faith," and
am obliged to render him thanks for the benefit I
acknowledge to have received by it. Never in my hfe did
I see a thing more illustrated, more convincing, unless
men will be blind because they Avill be so. I am infinitely
pleased with his equal style, dispassionate treatment, and
Christian temper to that important adversary : for my
part, I look upon that business as dispatched, and expect
only the grimaces and agonies of dying and desperate men
for the future ; plainly the wound is mortal.
Sir, that I presume to send you the consequence of
what I formerly pubhshed in English, in the controversy
betwixt the Jesuits and the Jansenists, speaks rather my
obedience to a command from that great person,t than
my abilities to have undertaken, or acquitted myself as I
ought. I annexed an Epistolary Preface, not to instruct
such as you are, in any thing which you do not know ; but
for their sakes, who, reading the book, might possibly
conceive the French kings to have been the only persons
in danger: and because I hope it may receive your
suffrage as to the pertinence of it pro hie et nunc.
I am heartily sorry that some indispensable avocations
frequently deprive me of your meetings at Gresham
College, and particularly that I cannot be there on
"Wednesday ; his Majesty having enjoined me to repair
to-morrow to Chatham, for the taking order about erecting
an infirmary, capable to entertain about 500 sick persons,
and all to be finished against the next occasion. If
Almighty God do not vouchsafe to accept this service, as
well as the King my master, I shall be an intolerable
loser, by being so long diverted from a conversation so
• At this time 'Dean of Ripon. See Diary, vol. i., pp. 410, 41 1, The
allusions in this letter determine its date. f The Lord CluinccUor.
1667.] JOHN EVELYN. 193
profitable and so desirable. But wars will once* have a
period : and I now and then get a bait at philosophy; but
it is so little wad jejune, as I despair of satisfaction till I
am again restored to the Society, where even your very
fragments are enough to enrich any man that has the
honour to approach you. Sir, I think I have at last pro-
cured the mummia which you desired : be pleased in the
name and with authority of the Royal Society, to chal-
lenge it of the injurious detainers, therein using the
address of Mr. Fox; Sir Samuel Tuke having written
most effectually in our behalf, who deserves (together with
the Hon. Mr. Hen. Howard, of Norfolk) a place among
our benefactors.
Sir, I am, &c.
Sir,
Sir George Mackenzie f to John Evelyn.
Edinburgh, February 4, 1667.
I have written two letters Avhich, with ray last
moral discourses, now lie before me because I want your
address. This I have at last ventured upon, which will
assure you of a friendship as zealous, though not so
advantageous as you deserve ; as a testimony of which,
receive this inclosed poem written by me, not out of love
of poetry, or of gallantry, but to essay if I might reveal
my curiosity that way. I could wish to know the censure
of Sir William Davenant or Mr. Waller upon it ; and in
order to this, I beg that you will present this letter and it
to Sir William, and if he pleases it, to give copies of it, or
use it as you please. I wish he sent me an account of
its errors, and as a penance I promise not to vomit any
new one. I had sought my security in no other approba-
tion than your own, if your friendship for me had not
rendered you suspect. Dear sir, pardon this imprudence in
Your most humble servant,
Geo. Mackenzie.
* i. e.. One day.
+ Sir George Mackenzie is frequently mentioned in the Diary (see in
particular, Vol. ii., pp, 305, 306). He was a very famous Scottish lawyer
and antiquarian, whose memory is still preserved and revered in Edinburgh,
notwithstanding his high-flying doctrines of divine right and passive
obedience, as the founder of the celebrated Advocates' Libraiy.
VOL. in. o
194 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
To Abraham Cowley, Esq.*
c, Sayes-Court, 12th March, 1666-7.
Sir,
You had reason to be astonished at the presump-
tion, not to name it affront, that I who have so highly
celebrated recess, and envied it in others, should become
an advocate for the enemy, which of all others it abhors
and flies from. I conjure you to believe that I am still of
the same mind, and that there is no person alive who does
more honour and breathe after the life and repose you so
happily cultivate and adorn by your example: but, as those
who praised dirt, a flea, and the gout,t so have I Public
Employment in that trifling Essay, J and that in so weak a
style compared to my antagonists, as by that alone it will
appear I neither was nor could be serious ; and I hope you
believe I speak my very soul to you. But I have more to
say, which will require your kindness. Suppose our good
friend were publishing some eulogies on the Royal Society,
and, by deducing the original progress and advantages of
their design, would bespeak it some veneration in the
world ? Has Mr. Cowley no inspirations for it ? Would
it not hang the most heroic wreath about his temples ?
Or can he desire a nobler or a fuller argument either for
the softest airs or the loudest echoes, for the smoothest or
briskest notes of his Pindaric lyre ?
There be those who ask. What have the Royal Society
done ? Where their College ? I need not instruct you
how to answer or confound these persons, who are able to
make even these inform § blocks and stones dance into
order, and charm them into better sense. Or if their
insolence press, you are capable to show how they have
laid solid foundations to perfect all noble arts, and reform
all imperfect sciences. It requires an history to recite
* Thia and the following letter will be read with interest by all who have
admired the masterly poem to which chiefly they relate, and which was pub-
lished before the close of this year in Sprat's History of the Royal Society.
+ Domavius's " Amphitheatrum Sapientiaj Socraticxe Jacoserise " contains
a large collection of facetiae of this kind, in ^rose and verse, with which the
scholars of those times reUevcd their serious studies.
* ^ Public Employment, &c,, preferred to SoUtude," 1 C67. Printed in
Evelyn's " Miscellaneous Writings," 1825, 4to, pp. 501, 509.
§ An adjective — from the Latin informit.
1667.] JOHN EVELYX. 195
only the arts, the inventions, and phenomena already
absolved, improved, or opened. In a word, our registers
have outdone Pliny, Porta, and Alexis, and all the experi-
mentists, nay, the great Verulam himself, and have made
a nobler and more faithful collection of real secrets, useful
and instructive, than has hitherto been shown. — Sir, we
have a library, a repository, and an assembly of as worthy
and great persons as the world has any ; and yet we are
sometimes the subject of satire and the songs of the
drunkards ; have a king to our founder, and yet want a
Maecenas ; and above all, a spirit like yours, to raise us up
benefactors, and to compel them to think the design of
the E/oyal Society as worthy of their regards, and as
capable to embalm their names, as the most heroic enter-
prise, or any thing antiquity has celebrated ; and I am
even amazed at the wretchedness of this age that
acknowledges it no more. But the devil, who was ever
an enemy to truth, and to such as discover his prestigious
effects, will never suffer the promotion of a design so
destructive to his dominion (which is to fill the world
with imposture and keep it in ignorance), without the
utmost of his malice and contradiction. But you have
numbers and charms that can bind even these spirits of
darkness, and render their instruments obsequious; and
we know you have a divine hymn for us ; the lustre of the
Royal Society calls for an ode from the best of poets upon
the noblest argument. To conclude : here you have a
field to celebrate the great and the good, who either do,
or should, favour the most august and worthy design that
ever was set on foot in the world : and those who are our
real patrons and friends you can eternise, those who are
not you can conciliate and inspire to do gallant things. —
But I will add no more, when I have told you with great
truth that I am,
Sir, &c.
From Abraham Cowley to John Evelyn.
a Cho-tsey, \Zth May, 166T.
I am ashamed of the rudeness I have committed
in deferring so long my humble thanks for your obliging
letter, which I received from you at the beginning of the
o 2
196 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
last month. My laziness in finishing the copy of verses
upon the Royal Society, for which I was engaged before
by Mr. Sprat's desire, and encouraged since by you, was
the cause of this delay, having designed to send it to you
enclosed in my letter : but I am told now that the History
is almost quite printed, and will be published so soon,
that it were impertinent labour to write out that which
you will so suddenly see in a better manner, and in the
company of better things. I could not comprehend in it
many of those excellent hints which you were pleased to
give me, nor descend to the praises of particiilar persons,
because those things afford too much matter for oue copy
of verses, and enough for a poem, or the History itself;
some part of which I have seen, and think you will be very
well satisfied with it. I took the boldness to show him
your letter, and he says he has not omitted any of those
heads, though he wants the eloquence in expression.
Since I had the honour to receive from you the reply to
a book written in praise of a solitary life,* I have sent all
about the town in vain to get the author, having very
much aflfection for the subject, which is one of the noblest
controversies both modem and ancient; and you have dealt
80 civilly with your adversary, as makes him deserve to be
looked after. But I could not meet with him, the books
being all, it seems, either burnt or bought up. If you
please to do me the favour to lend it to me, and send it to
my brother's house (that was) in the King's Yard, it shall
be returned to you within a few days with the humble
thanks of your most faithful obedient servant,
A. Cowley.
Sir John Langham to John Evelyn.
Crosby House, this ZQth July, 1667.
WoETHY Sir,
I presume upon your goodness, though a stranger,
80 far to trouble you as to make a double inquiry con-
cerning Mr. Phillips, who lately was entertained in your
• Sir George Mackenzie's ".Moral Essay upon Solitude, preferring it to
Public Employment," &.c, 1G65.
1667.] JOHN EVELYN. 197
family. The one how he approved himself to you in
learning and behaviour, whom I had long known to be the
greatest judge of both : the other where he is now disposed
of, and whether in the liberty of receiving an ingenuous
employment, if your character of him and my discourse
with him shall encourage me to give him a call thereto.
One requisite that I am commissioned to be assured of, is
his ability of speaking ready and refined Latin ; for as to
his manners and regular conversation, there lies not a
suspicion for anything in them unworthy of the sanctimony
of your house, which hath long been venerated as the
holiest temple of all virtue and ingenuity. I am sensible
how far already I have trespassed upon your consecrated
leisures, therefore, lest I should continue the fault, I add
not more, than I am.
Sir,
Your very humble Servant,
J. Langham.
John Evelyn to Sir John Langham.
Sir,
It is from the abundance of your civility that
you l6ad me with eulogies, and because you are not
acquainted with my imperfections, which are so much the
greater by having not had the honour to be known to so
deserving a person as yourself. I can say nothing to the
disadvantage of Mr. Phillips, which might not recommend
him to your good intentions, except it be that I did not
observe in him any greater promptness of readily speaking
Latin (which I find is one of the principal faculties you
are in search of) ; but it was not for that, or indeed any
other defect which made us part, but the passion he had
to travel and see the world, which he was made believe he
should have had a sudden opportunity of effecting with a
son of my lord of Pembroke, who has now these two years
been under his tuition without satisfying his curiosity as to
that particular. Mr. Phillips is, I think, yet at Wilton,
where my lord makes use of him to interpret some of the
Teutonic philosophy, to whose mystic theology his lordship,
you know, is much addicted. As to Mr. Phillips's more
express character, he is a sober, silent, and most harmless
108 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
person ; a little versatile in bis studies, understanding many
languages, especially the modern, not inferior to any I
know, and that I take to be bis talent. Thus, sir, what
I have sjiid concerning Mr. Phillips in the matter you
require, I hope shall not abate of your value for him, or
the honour I promise myself in receiving your future
commands, who remain.
Sir,
Your very humble Servant,
J. Evelyn.
John Evelyn to Henry Howard,^
Sayu-Court, i Aug. 1667.
Sir,
It is not without much regret and more concern-
ment as it regards your honourable and illustrious family,
that I have now so long a time beheld some of the noblest
antiquities in the world, and which your grandfather
purchased with so much cost and difficulty, lie abandoned,
broken, and defaced in divers corners about Arundel
House and the gardens belonging to it. 1 know your
honour cannot but have thoughts and resolutions of
repairing and collecting them together one day ; but tliere
are in the mean time certain broken inscnptions, now
almost obliterated with age and the ill eflPects of weather,
which will in a short time utterly be lost and perish, unless
they be speedily removed to a more benign and less corro-
sive air. For these it is, I should be an humble suitor
that you would think fit to make a present of them to the
University of Oxford, where they might be of great use
and ornament, and remain a more hasting record to
posterity of your munificence, than by any other applica-
tion of them whatsoever ; and the University would think
themselves obliged to inscribe your name, and that of your
illustrious family, to all significations of gratitude.
• Heir apparent to the Dukedom of Norfolk, frequently mentioned in the
IKary. " This letter," Evelyn writes upon the MS. original, " procured all the
Marmora Arundeliana, Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Urns, Altar Tables, &c.
now at Oxon. J. E." See also his Dedication to Mr. Howard, prefixed
to Roland Freart's ** Idea of the Perfection of Painting," and reprinted
in hia •* Miscellaneous Writings," 1825, 4to, p. 655.
1667.] JOHN EVELYN. 199
I have also long since suggested to your honour, that
you would cause the best of your statues, basso-relievos,
and other antiquities standing in your gallery at Arundel
House, to be exquisitely designed by some skilful hand,
and engraven in copper, as Mons. Liancourt did those of
Rome by Perrier, and long before him Raphael himself,
Sadeler,* and other incomparable sculptors ; because by
this means they would be communicated to the world, and
divers great and learned persons, studious of antiquity,
might be benefited by them; and if such a thing were
added to the impression of the Marmora Arundeliana
(which I hear the University of Oxon are now preparing
for a second impression), how greatly would it adorn that
admirable work, and do new honours to your illustrious
name and family, as it has formerly, and yet does to divers
noble Italians and others, who have not been able to
produce such a collection as you are furnished with, but
which perish in obscurity, and yield not that to the public,
who would be obliged to celebrate you, for want of a small
expense ! Methinks, whilst they remain thus obscured
and neglected, the very marbles are become vocal, and cry
to you for pity, and that you would even breathe life into
them. Sir, you will easily see I have no other design in
this, than to express the honour I have for your person
and for your illustrious family; and because I find this
would be one of the most glorious instances to augment
and perpetuate it, I cannot but wish that it might take
effect. I have no more to add but that I am, &c.
Sir,
John Evelyn to Dr. Bathurst.-^
London^ 9th September, 1667-
I heartily wish I had the good fortune to be as
serviceable to you in particular for the many favours I
have received, as I doubt not but I shall be to a place,
which, for your sake as well as my own, I have so much
* Little more than six years before the date of this letter the Vestigi ddC
Antichita di Roma, engraved by Giles Sadeler, had appeared.
+ At this time President of Trinity College, Oxford.
200 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
reason to honour — I mean the University; if, at least, it
may be esteemed a service to li.ive obtained of Mr. Henry
Howard, of Norfolk, the freely-bestowing upon you all
those learned monuments which pass under the famous
names of Mm-niora Arundeliana. This, sir, the interest
■which that illustrious person has allowed me in his friend-
ship has wrought for you ; and I dare pronounce it highly
worthy your acceptance. For you shall not only be
masters of some few, but of all ; and there is nothing
more to be done, than, after you have taken notice of his
munificence (which I desire, and Avish may be speedily
done, in a public address, as from the body of the Uni-
versity), to take order for their transportation to you ; for
which effect, I conceive it would be worth your while to
delegate Mr. Obadiah Walker, or Dr. Wren (Sir Chris-
topher), persons that I much honour, who may take care
and consult about the best expedients for their removal ;
for they being marble, and some of them basse-relievos
rarely cut, will deserve to be guarded from injuries : and
when they are at Oxford, I conceive they can nowhere be
more fitly placed than in some part about the new theatre,
except you should think fit to protect some of the more
curious and small ones, as urns, &c., in the galleries next
the librar}', where they may remain secure. I have
assured Mr. Howard that the University will not fail in
their sense of this noble gift and munificence, by decreeing
him a public and conspicuous inscription which shall con-
secrate his memory : and if I have hinted it more particu-
larly to Mr. Walker, it is what I think will become your
justice and such grateful beneficiaries. I shall entreat
you to acquaint Mr. Vice-Chancellor with what I have
done, as also Dr. Barlow and Dr. Pierce, the Warden and
Presidents of Queen's and Magdalen Colleges, ray worthy
friends, and beg that through your address this service of
mine may be acceptable to the University from,
Sir, your, &c.
1667.] JOHN EVELYN. 201
John 'Evelyn to the Earl of Sandwich.
Sayes-Court, 13 Decemb. 1667.
My Lord,
I could hardly obtain of myself to give your
Excellency this trouble^ or dare to mingle my imperti-
nencies amongst your public and weighty concerns^ till,
reflecting on the greatness of your genius, I concluded it
would neither be disturbed, nor disdain my humble address,
that confident of your communicative nature, I adventured
to supplicate your Excellency's favour in behalf of a work
of mine upon the Hortulan subject; and in particular,
that your Excellency would vouchsafe by the meanest of
your servants to give me some short descriptions of the
most famous gardens and villas of Spain,* and what other
singularities of that kind might occur to the adorning of
a labour wherein I chiefly pretend to gratify great and
illustrious persons, and such as, like your Lordship, are
the most worthy to cultivate and enjoy these amenities.
The catalogue which I here presume to send your Excel-
lency, and the pains I have already taken to render it no
trifling or unuseful speculation, will in some degree com-
mute for this bold address ; especially since I could never
hope to receive so much light from any but your Excel-
lency, to whom I am confident there can be nothing
curious in this argument concealed, how close and reserved
soever the Spaniards are. I have heard that there is
lately a German at Madrid, who pretends to a successful
invention for the setting of corn by a peculiar sort of
plough. This, I am sure, cannot have escaped your
Excellency ; and it will be due to the Royal Society, the
history whereof, now at last published here with infinite
applause, I doubt not is come to your hands, and that you
will judge it worthy the most accurate translation. But,
my Lord, I shall leave that to the joint request of the
* Evelyn subjoins this note. " Which he sent me from Madrid, in many
sheets of paper written in his own hand, together with the Senibrador or
plough itself, which I gave to the Royal Society, and is described in
their 'Transactions,' J. E."J Lord Sandwich, it is needless to add, was at
this time our Ambassador to Spain,
202 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Society, and accumulate no more to these extravagances
of mine, after I have supplicated your Excellency's pardon,
who am,
May it please your Excellency, your, &c.
Si)' George Mackenzie to John Evelyn.
EcUnburgh, 1668.
I DID, Sir, in my greener years believe that our
lofty and more wingy thoughts could not be forced into
rhymes or submit to the rules of poetry. But I attribute
this partly to the rudeness of my ear, which the storminess
of the place where I live fashioned from my infancy to
take notice of no sound less loud than winds or thunder,
and thus I undervalue poetry as soldiers accustomed to
the noise of drum and cannon contemn the softer airs of
the viol or lute. But being at last released from this
error, I resolved to choose for my essay a theme which
(like her for whom the poem was intended) would not look
ill in any dress, and in which my duty might excuse my
want of wit. This poem being the first fruits of my muse,
I have sent to you as to whom it was due, being Apollo's
high priest. Your eyes can ripen everything they see, and
if there be any lameness in its feet, your touch can mira-
culously cure it. Your approbation is a sanctuary unto
which if these lines can once get they will be secure, nor
dare the avenger follow them ; and your bays are branches
enough to secure them against the heats of envy, though
they need, I fear, more the pity than the rage of more
exalted heads. I desire rather your assistance than your
censure, and I fear as much the one, as they need the
other. Pardon the rudeness of this address from
Your humble servant,
Geo. Mackenzie.
P.S. — If you favoiu* me with a return, direct it to
Sir Geo. Mackenzie, Advocate, in Edinburgh.
1668.] JOHN EVELYN. 203
Sir Robert Moray to John Evelyn.
Tester, 14 Jwie, 1668.
My very worthy Friend,
By what telescope you read me at this distance,
I do not know ; but by your letter of the 13th December,
I learnt that you are acquainted with my most illegible
parts. I should hardly have suspected it. It seems you
conclude me to be a greater master in another sort of
philosophy than in that which is the business of the Koyal
Society ,- for if you were not confident I can govern the
whole brood of my passions, as well, at least, as Banks
did his horse, you would not have adventured to stir up
80 many of the fiercest of them at once. This I iucline
the rather to believe because I know you value my friend-
ship and would not bend to a flame that might blow it up.
Therefore, instead of flying over, like lightning, upon the
wanton and tempting language by which you assault my
humility and sobriety, my ingenuity and ray unconcerned-
ness, exciting me to pride, vanity, ambition, and afiectation,
I do but smile upon the liberty of your pen, and commend
the pretty texture of your ingenious words, and only con-
struct the design of all to be to express quaintly your
kindness in desiring I may be where you are. And my
return to that is, that were I at my own disposal, I could
be as willing as you would have me to confine myself to
that little world that goes under the name of Sayes Court,
and choose, not covet, the most courted glories of our
terrestrial planet, nay, nor envy those that inhabit the
noble one that illuminates the rest, if any such people
there be : and, then, if the two luminaries that keep up a
perpetual spring in that rich place did but shine perpetu-
ally on such an obscure guest, what sublunary things
would be wanting to complete the happiness of, my very
much honoured friend.
Your faithful humble servant,
B. Moray.
204 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londox,
Sir,
John Evelyn to the Rev. Joseph GlanvilJ*
Sayes-Cmrt, 2Ath June, 1G68.
I received so welcome, and so oblifjing a token
from you by the hands of Mr. Oldenburgh, that after all
I can say in this letter in acknowledgment of that particular
favour, I must continue to subscribe myself your debtor.
For what have you seen in any of my productions, which
should make you augur so favourably of that trifle of
mine, upon so trite and humble a subject ? or mention me
amongst the heroes whom you so meritoriously celebrate !
I cannot find anything to support it, but your most
obliging nature, of which the comely and philosophic
frame is abundantly conspicuous, by this worthy vindica-
tion both of yourself and all useful learning, against the
science (falsely so called) of your snarling adversary .f I
do not conceive why the Royal Society should any more
concern themselves for the empty and malicious cavils of
these delators, after what you have said; but let the
moon-dogs bark on, till their throats are dry : the Society
every day emerges, and her good genius Avill raise up one
or other to judge and defend her ; whilst there is nothing
which does more confirm me in the nobleness of the
design, than this spirit of contradiction which the devil
(who hates all discoveries of those false and prestigious
ways that have hitherto obtained) does incite to stir up
men against it. But, sir, you have discoursed this so fully
in this excellent piece of yours, that I have no more to
add, but the suflfrage and subscription of. Sir,
Yours, &c.
• Mr. Glanvil, a Devonshire Clergyman, was a fellow of the Royal Society,
one of the King's Chaplains in Ordinary, and a wi-iter of some repute in his
day. Evelyn writes upon this letter — "■ He sent me his book, entitled, ' Plus
Ultra ; or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge, since the Days of
Aristotle,' octavo, London, 1668., J. E." — An account of the book may be
seen in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 36.
f Henry Stubbe, an inveterate enemy of the Royal Society, which he
attacked in various pamphlets, now happily forgotten. Among them was an
Answer to Glanvil, entitled, " The Plua Lllra reduced to a Non Plu» ; or a
Specimen of some Animadversions upon the Plut Ultra of Mr. Joseph
Glanvil" Q, 1670.
1668.] JOHN EVELYN. 2U5
John Evelyn to the Earl of Sandwich.
Sayes-Court, 2\st August, 1668.
My Lord,
I am plainly astonished at your bounty to me,
and I am in pain for words to express the sense I have of
this great obligation.*
And as I have been exceedingly affected with the
descriptions, so have I been greatly instructed in the other
particulars your Lordship mentions, and especialh' rejoice
that your Excellency has taken care to have the draughts
of the places, fountains, and engines for the irrigation and
refreshing their plantations, which may be of singular use
to us in England. And I question not but your Excel-
lency brings with you a collection of seeds ; such especially
as we may not have commonly in our country. By your
Lordship's description, the Encina should be the Ilex
major aculeata, a sucker whereof yet remains in his
Majesty's Privy-Gardens at Whitehall, next the door that
is opposite to the Tennis-court. I mention it the rather,
because it certainly might be propagated with us to good
purpose ; for the father of this small tree I remember of a
goodly stature, so as it yearly produced ripe acorns ;
though Clusius, when he was in England, believed it to be
barren : and haply, it had borne none in his time. I have
sown both the acorns of the tree, and the cork with
success, though I have now but few of them remaining,
through the negligence of my gardener ; for they require
care at the first raising, till they are accustomed to the
cold, and then no rigour impeaches them. What your
Excellency means by the Bama de Joseph, I do not com-
prehend; but the Planta Alois, which is a monstrous kind
of Sedum, will, like it, endure no wet in winter, but
will certainly rot if but a drop or tAvo fall on it, whereas in
summer you cannot give it drink enough. I perceive their
culture of choice and tender plants differs little from ours
in England, as it has been published by me in my Calen-
darium Hortense, which is now the third time reprinting.
Stoves absolutely destroy our conservatories ; but if they
* See ante, p. 201.
206 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lokdox,
could be lined with cork, I believe it would better secure
them from the cold and moisture of the walls, than either
mattresses or reeds with which we commonly invest them.
I think that I was the first that ever planted Spanish
Cardons in our country for any culinary use, as your
Excellency has taught the blanching; but I know not
whether they serve themselves in Spain with the purple
beards of the thistle, when it is in flower, for the curdling
of milk, which it performs much better than rennet, and is
far sweeter in the dairy than that liquor, which is apt to
putrify.
Your Excellency has rightly conjectured of the pome-
granate ; I have always kept it exposed, and. the severest
of our winters does it no prejudice. They will flower
plentifully, but bear no fruit with us, either kept in cases
and the repository, or set in the open air ; at least very
trifling, with the greatest industry of stoves and other
artifices.
"We have asparagus growing wild both in Lincolnshire
and in other places ; but [as] your Lordship observes, they
are small and bitter, and not comparable to the cultivated.
The red pepper, I suppose, is what we call guinea-pepper,
of which I have raised many plants, whose pods resemble
in colour the most oriental and polished coral : a very
little will set the throat in such a flame, as has been
sometimes deadly, and therefore to be sparingly used in
sauces.
I hope your Lordship will furnish yourself with melon
seeds, because they will last good almost twenty years ;
and so will all the sorts of garavances, calaburos, and
gourds (whatever Herrera affirm), wliich may be for divers
economical uses.
The Spanish onion-seed is of all other the most excel-
lent : and yet I am not certain, whether that which we
have out of Flanders and St. Omers, be all the Spanish
seed which we know of. My Lady Clarendon (when
living) was wont to furnish me with seed that produced
me prodigous crops.
Is it not possible for your Excellency to bring over
some of those quince and cherry-trees, which your Lord-
ship so celebrates? I suppose they might be secured in
barrels, or packed up, as they transport other rarities from
1668.] JOHN EVELYN. 207
far countries. But, my'^Lord, I detain your Excellency
too long in these repetitions, and forget that I am all this
while doing injury to the public, by suspending you a
moment from matters of a higher orb, the interest of
states and reconciling of kingdoms : and I should think
so of another, did I not know withal, how universal your
comprehensions are, and how qualified to support it.
I remain, my Lord,
Yours, &c.
John Evelyn to Doctor Beale.
Sir,
I happened to be with Mr. Oldenburg some time
since, almost upon the article of his receiving the notice
you sent him of your fortunate and useful invention ; and
I remember I did first of all incite him, both to insert it
into his next transactions, and to provoke your further
prosecution of it ; which I exceedingly rejoice to find has
been so successful, that you give us hopes of your further
thoughts upon that, and those other subjects which you
mention.* You may haply call to remembrance a passage
of the Jesuit Honorati Fabri, who speaking of perspectives,
observes, that an object looked on through a small hole
appears magnified ; from whence he suggests, the casting
of two plates neatly perforated, and fitted to look through,
preferable to glasses, whose refractions injure the sight.
Though I begin to advance in years (being now on the
other side of forty), yet the continuance of the perfect use
of my senses (for which I bless Almighty God) has
rendered me the less sohcitous about those artificial aids ;
which yet I foresee I must shortly apply myself to, and
therefore you can receive but slender hints from me which
will be worthy your acceptance upon that argument j only,
I well remember, that besides Tiberius of old (whom you
seem to instance in), Joseph Scaliger affirms the same
happened both to his father Julius and himself, in their
* The paper alluded to is entitled, " An experiment to examine what
Figure and Celerity of Motion begetteth or increaseth Light and Flame,"
and will be found in die Philosophical Transactions, voL i., p. 226.
208 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
younger years. And sometimes, methinks, 1 myself have
ifancied to have discerned things in a very dark place,
when the cui'tains about my bed have been drawn, as my
hands, fingers, the sheet, and bedclothes ; but since my
too intent poring upon a famous eclipse of the sun,
about twelve years since, at Avliich time I could as familiarly
have stared with open eyes upon the glorious planet in its
full lustre, as now upon a glow-worm (comparatively
speaking), I have not only lost the acuteness of sight, but
much impaired the vigour of it for such purposes as it
then served me. But besides that, I have treated mine
eyes very ill near these twenty years, during all which
time I have rarely put them together, or composed them
to sleep, before one at night, and sometimes much later :
that I may in some sort redeem my losses by day, in
which I am continually importuned with visits from my
neighbours and acquaintance, or taken up by other
im pertinencies of my life in this place. I am plainly
ashamed to tell you this, considering how little I have
improved myself by it ; but I have rarely been in bed
before twelve o'clock as I said, in the space of twenty
years; and yet I read the least print, even in a jolting
coach, without other assistance, save that I now and then
used to rub my shut eye-lids over with a spirit of wine
well rectified, in which I distil a few rosemary flowers,
much after the process of the Queen of Hungary's water,
which does exceedingly fortify, not only ray sight, but the
rest of my senses, especially my hearing and smelling ; a
drop or two being distilled into the nose or ears, when
they are never so dull ; and other KoXkovpLov I never apply.
Indeed, in the summer time, I have found wonderful
benefit in bathing my head with a decoction of some hot
and aromatical herbs, in a lixivium made of the ashes of
vine branches; and when my head is well washed with
this, I immediately cause abundance of cold fountain
water to be poured upon me stillaiim, for a good half-hour
together ; which for the present is not only one of the
most voluptuous and grateful refreshments imaginable,
but an incredible benefit to me tlie whole year after : for
I never need other powdering to my hair, to preserve it
bright and clean, as the gallants do; but which does
certainly greatly prejudice transpiration by filling up, or
1668.] JOHN EVELYN. 209
lying heavy upon the pores. Those, therefore, who (since
the use of perukes) accustom to wash their heads, instead
of powdering, would doubtless find the benefit of it; both
as to the preventing of aches in their head, teeth, and
ears, if the vicissitude and inconstancy of the weather,
and consequently the use of their monstrous perukes,
did not expose them to the danger of catching colds.
When I travelled in Italy, and the Southern parts, I did
sometimes frequent the public baths (as the manner is),
but seldom without peril of my life, till I used this frigid
effusion, or rather profusion of cold water before I put on
my garments, or durst expose myself to the air ; and for
this method I was obliged to the old and noble Rantzow,
in whose book De conservandd valetudine I had read a
passage to this purpose ; though I might have remembered
how the Dutchmen treated their labouring horses when
they are all over in a froth, which they wash off with
several buckets of cold water, as I have frequently observed
it in the Low Countries.
Concerning other aids ; besides what the masters of
the catoptrics, phonocamptics, otacoustics, &c., have done,
something has been attempted by the Koyal Society ; and
you know the industrious Kircher has much laboured.
The rest of those artificial helps are summed up by the
Jesuit And. Schottus. I remember that Monsieur Huygens
(author of the pendulum), who brought up the learned
father of that incomparable youth Monsieur de Zulichem,
who used to prescribe to me the benefit of his little wax
taper (a type whereof is, with the history of it, in some of
our Registers) for night elucubrations, preferable to all
other candle or lamp light whatsoever. And because it
explodes all glaring of the flame, which by no means
ought to dart upon the eyes, it seems very much to
establish your happy invention of tubes instead of spec-
tacles, which have not those necessary defences.
Touching the sight of cats in the night, I am not well
satisfied of the exquisiteness of that sense in them. I
believe their smelling or hearing does much contribute to
their dexterity in catching mice, as to all those animals
who are born with those prolix smelling hairs. Fish will
gather themselves in shoals to any extraordinary light in
the dark night, and many are best caught by that artifice.
VOL. in. V
210 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london.
But whatever may be said of these, and other senses of
fish, you know how much the sagacity of birds and beasts
excel us ; how far eagles and N-ultures, ravens and other
fowls will smell the carcase ; odorumque canum vis, as
Lucretius expresses it, and we daily find by their drawing
after the games. Gesner affirms that an otter will wind
a fish four miles distance in the water, and my Lord
Verulam (cent. 8) speaks of that element's being also a
medium of sounds, as well as air. Eels do manifestly stir
at the cracking of thunder, but that may also be attributed
to some other tremulous motion ; yet carps and other fish
are known to come at the call and the sound of a bell, as
I have been informed. Notorious is the story of Arion,
and of LucuUus's lampreys which came ad nomen ; and
you have formerly minded me of Varro's Greek pipe, of
which Lucian and Cicero (ad Atticum) take occasion to
speak. Pliny's dolphin is famous, and what is related of
the American Manati : but the most stupendous instance,
that of the xiphia or sword-fish, which the Mamertines
can take up by no other stratagem than a song of certain
barbarous words, as the thing is related by Thom.
Fazzello. It is certain that we hear more accurately when
we hold our mouths a little open, than when we keep them
shut ; and I have heard of a dumb gentleman in England
who was taught to speak (and therefore certainly brought
to hear in some degree) by applying the head of a base
viol against his teeth, and striking upon the strings with
the bow. You may remember the late effect of the drum
extending the tympanum of a deaf person to great
improvement of his hearing, so long as that was beaten
npon ; and I could at present name a friend of mine, who,
though he be exceedingly thick of hearing, by applying a
straight stick of what length soever, provided it touch the
instrument and his ear, does perfectly and with great
pleasure hear every tune that is played : all which, with
many more, will flow into your excellent work, whilst the
argument puts me in mind of one Tom Whittal, a student
of Christ Church, who would needs maintain, that if a hole
could dexterously be bored through the skull to the brain,
in the midst of the forehead, a man might both see and
hear and smell without the use of any other organs ; but
you are to know, that this learned problematist was
1668.] JOHN EVELYN. 211
brother to him, who, preaching at St. Mary^s, Oxford, took
his text out of the history of Balaam, Numb, xxii., " Am
I not thine ass ? " Dear Sir, pardon this rhapsody of,
Sir, your, &c.
Henry Howard to John Evelyn.
London, \5th Septemher, 1668.
Sir,
I send Knevett to accompany a gentleman of the
Ambassador's of Venice to Greenwich, where his business
is to find out some private house to give the said Ambas-
sador * shelter till the Earl of Anglesea come with his
Majesty's barges, and the Master of Ceremonies, to make
his entry on Thursday next. 'Tis not unknown to you
how great the obligations of myself and family are to that
republic, wherefore I do not only write as concerned for
their satisfaction, but will even own as a most particular
obhgation to me whatever favour or civility is bestowed
upon them by any of my friends or acquaintance; and
therefore, sir, apply myself to the favour herein to assist
us, leaving the rest to Knevett to discourse more particu-
larly with you, from your most affectionate and humble
servant,
H. HowAED, of Norfolk.
From the same to John Evelyn.
Arlington House, 22nd Septemier, 1668.
I HEREWITH enclosed send you the relation of Signor
Pietro, as unpolished as the usual styles of the Levanters
are, and he has, as you will see, put together the story of
both the impostures, not only of the Padre, but this new
vagabond who I discovered lately at court. You may
please to compose two distinct narratives, or all in one, as
you please, for I see the trouble is not to be a translator
but a composer ; for these are but heads and hints, and I
• Signor Muccinigo, who was lodged at Evelyn's house. See Diary,
vol. ii., p. 35.
p 2
212 CJORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
desire you will compile a story out of them. So as I do
not now expect that under many weeks, I yesterday had
proposed to myself to acquaint the King within a few
days of; but if his ^Majesty call upon me before his
progress for it, I will tell him where it is lodged ; else I
desire yourself will please to present it him after his
return. I have made, as you will see, some marginal
notes on Signor Pietro's memoirs, of which when you
appoint me to bring him to your house to discourse
farther, I obey ; for I desire it should now be a httle more
accurate than first proposed, because I am resolved as soon
as 'tis composed and finished by you, to have it translated
and sent to divers places beyond sea. Signor Pietro
desires after you have done with this paper book of his,
that you will please to return it, and he will by that
have more notes ready for your perusal, which shall be
animadversions upon this counterfeit book, and may
possibly (if but short) not be improper or unworthy to
insert in his said story. I am now in some haste, so
as I have only read the first story of the Padre, I send
you the rest as it is, for I see you will have several dis-
courses and queries to make ere you end the story; to
which my two memorandums are not amiss, first, that all
the Turkish stories and people in those parts know that
the last Grand Signor (father to this) never had but three
sons born ; and that this Grand Signor was ever the
eldest, and the two others still alive in the seraglio, and
never stir but with him; next, that no prince of the
Ottoman blood, more especially not the Grand Sultana,
ever travel but when the Grand Signor also journeys.*
But I can detain you no longer. I am your affectionate
.servant,
H. Howard, of Norfolk.
* There are two or three illegible lines in this letter. <
1668-9.] JOHN EVELYN. 213
John Evelyn to Sir TJiomas Clifford.^
T> TT Sayes-Court, 1st February, 1668-9.
Right Honoukable,
In my conversations sometimes amongst books
to redeem my time from other impertinencies, I think
it my duty to give your Honour notice of some pieces
which have come to my hands, the subjects whereof I
cannot but esteem highly prejudicial to the honour of
his Majesty and the whole nation, especially two books,
the one written in French, the other in Latin (not inele-
gantly), both with the approbation of their superiors, the
States of Holland licensing their publication. The argu-
ment of them is a remonstrance to all the world of the
occasion, action, and success of the late war between
the English and the Dutch ; but with all the topics of
reproach and dishonour as to matter of fact ; every
period being filled with the dissembled instances of our
injustice, ingratitude, cruelty, and imprudence; and the
persons of divers particular gallant men, engaged in that
action, injuriously treated and accused ; and, in sum,
whatever they can else suggest to render his Majesty and
people cheap, vile, the subjects of derision and contempt.
I should think in my poor judgment (under submission
to a better) that there is nothing which ought to be more
precious to a prince, or his people, than their reputation;
sure I am, it is of more value with a man of honour than
his life ; and certainly, a great kingdom, which compre-
hends so many individuals as have been one way or other
concerned in the public interest, ought to be tender of
their fame, and consequently obliged to vindicate it, and
cannot without a crime do less, without being wanting to
themselves in a most necessary defence.
I know it may be said, that this is but a paper quarrel ;
but your Honour does consider what effects such malevo-
lent suggestions do produce, and with what a black and
deep malice contrived, how far they fly, and how univer-
sally understood the Latin and French tongues are, the
one amongst the grave and more intelligent sort (not by
by way of pamphlet, but of a formal and close treatise),
* At this time Treasurer of the Household ; afterwards Lord High Treasurer
214 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
and the other amongst the vulgarj to which is also joined,
for the hetter fixing their injurious ideas, the several
types and figures cut in brass, to represent our misfor-
tunes ; as in particular our want of conduct (as they term
it) in the first encounter, our baseness in surprising a few
poor fishermen, and the firing of Schelling, revenged in
the dire conflagration of London, the metropolis of our
nation ; the descent they made on Sheerness, and their
glorious exploit at Chatham, where they give out we so
ridiculously lost or betrayed the cream of our fleet, and
bulwarks of our kingdom, by an unparalleled supineness:
nor this crudely, nor in a trifling way of writing ; but so
as may best affect the passions and prepossess the judg-
ment and Ijelief of the reader. I say nothing of some
personal reflections on my Lord Arlington, Sir Robert
Holmes, and even the King himself, whom they repre-
sent deliberating in a panic consternation of a flight to
Windsor, &c., nor many other particulars pointed at ;
nor of a thousand other notorious indignities plainly in-
supportable : but I have said enough to inflame a breast
sensible of honour, and generous as I know yours to be,
to approve, or at least to pardon, the proposal which I
shall humbly submit to your consideration and encour-
agement, for the vindication of his Majesty's and the
nation's honour, and especially of an action in which
your honour bore so great and so signal a part. And
that were doubtless by employing an able pen, not to
a formal, or studied reply to any pai'ticular of this
egregious libel (which might now haply be thought
unseasonable), but to compose a solid and useful Histoiy
of the late War, according to the truth of circumstances,
and for the honour of those very many brave men who
were actors in it, whose names deserve as well to be
transmitted to posterity as our meaner antagonists ; but
which must else die in obscurity, and what is worse, with
obloquy and scorn, not of enemies alone, but of all that
shall read what these men are permitted to scatter abroad
in the world, whilst there is no care taken amongst us at
home to vindicate them from it.
When I have mentioned to your Honour the employ-
ment of an able pen upon this occasion, I prevented all
pretences to it as relating to myself; who have neither
1668-9.] JOHN EVELYN. 215
the requisite talents, nor the least presumption for it."*^
But I would humbly suggest how worthy and glorious in
your Honour it would be, to move my Lord Arlington,
and with him, to provoke his Majesty to impose this
province upon some sober and well-instructed person,
who, dignified with the character of his Royal Historio-
grapher, might be obliged to serve and defend his
Majesty's honour, and that of the public, with his pen;
a thing so carefully and so industriously observed by the
French king and other great potentates, who have any
regards or tenderness to their own or their people's glory,
the encouragement of gallant men, and prospect of their
future stories, as there is nothing more notorious. It is
history alone (however the writers of them may be
esteemed) which renders the greatest princes, and the
most deserving persons, what they are to the present age ;
which perfumes their names to posterity, inspires them
to an emulation of their virtues, and preserves them from
being as much forgotten as the common dust in which
they lie mingled. If your Honour think this worthy your
thoughts (and worthy of them I pronounce it to be), all
that I shall humbly supplicate to you is, that through
your favour I may present his Majesty with a person
highly deserving it; as being one, who has not only
been a sufferer in his capacity, but one who is perfectly
able and accomplished to serve his Majesty : a learned,
industrious person, and who will esteem himself gratified
with a very modest subsistence, to be always at hand, and
always laborious ; and not to wear a title (as some triflers
have lately done to the reproach of it) . If there be already
a tolerable honorary appendant to the place of historio-
grapher, we have no more to beg, but the grant of it;
if not, that through your mediation, some encouragement
may be procured. It will be one of your least noble
* Mr. Evelyn was however himself appointed to write this History, and
had made considerable progress {see post, p. 221), when upon the conclusion
of the war he was ordered to lay it aside. What he had written is unfor-
tunately lost, except the Preface, whicli he published in 1674 as a distinct
treatise, under the title of " Navigation and Commerce, their Original and
Progress :" (reprinted in Evelyn's "Miscellaneous Writings," 1825, 4to.,
pp. 625, 687). This highly pleased the King; but, because it gave great
oflfence to the Dutch, it was for a time suppressed. See JXary^ vol. ii.,
p. 24, &c.
216 COIiRESPONDENCE OF [londox,
things^ for which you will merit a just veneration of your
memory. But I shall add no more at present, because I
will beg the grace of a particular permission to discourse
this affair to you, aud with the joint request of my worthy
friend Mr. Williamson * (who will likewise present your
Honour with a specimen of the person's abilities) bespeak
your Honour's favourable encouragement, who remain,
Your Honour's, &c.
Dr. John Fell f to Dr. Bathurat.
Good Sir, "7 ifarcA. 1669.
I presume you are not a stranger to our late
transactions with the Royal Society concerning the MSS.
of the Arundel Library, that they might be transferred
hither, where they would remain more advantageously to
all the interests of learning, and more conspicuously in
reference to the name of my Lord and his family : we
making a compensation to the Society by furnishing
their library with such books as would be useful for the
studies which they happily advance. The last night,
Mr. Walker informs me, that the Royal Society are come
to a resolution of referring the affair entirely to my Lord,
and to that end to give up all the interest they have in
the MSS. by his gift, that if he thinks fit he may bestow
them here; on the other side, if he would have them
retained, they may remain as they are. He tells me
farther, that this will speedily be put into execution, and
therefore it will be adrisable that my Lord may be
possessed by some friend of the University's, of the con-
venience of placing them here and adding to his former
donation. I cannot think of any person whom we should
rather address so in this behalf, than to him whose favour
we have already found so much benefit by: I mean
Mr. Evelyn. I pray undertake this agency with him as
speedily and eflfectusdly as you can, and when you do so be
pleased to present him with my humble and faithful
service. The present straightness of time allows me not
a possibility of addressing him. My wishes for your safe
return to your affectionate friend,
John Fell.
* Afterwards Sir Joseph Williamson, and Principal Secretary of State.
+ Subsequently Bishop of Oxford.
1668-9.] JOHN EVELYN. 217
John Evelgn to Henry Lord Howard.
Sayes-CouH, March 14, 1669.
My Lord,
I am not prompted by the success of my first
address to your Honour, when, as much for your own
glory as that of the University, I prevailed with you for
the marbles, which were inscriptions in stone ; to solicit
you now, on the same account, for the books, which are
inscriptions but in parchment : but because I am very
confident your Honour cannot consult a nobler expedient
to preserve them, and the memory of your name and
illustrious family, than by wishing that the Society (on
whom you have so generously bestowed your library)
might exchange the MSS. (such only, I mean, as con-
cern the civil law, theology, and other scholastic learning)
for mathematical, philosophical, and such other books, as
may prove most useful to the design and institution of it ;
especially since the University do not only humbly desire
it (as I can testify by divers letters which I have seen
from the Vice-Chancellor, and other eminent persons
there), but desire it with a design of owning it yours, and
of perpetuating your munificence, by dignifying that apart-
ment where they would place them with the title of Biblio-
theca Arundeliana ; than which, what can be more glorious
and conspicuous ? The learned Selden, Sir Kenelm
Digby, Archbishop Laud (not to mention Sir Thomas
Bodley, their founder, and several others who are out of
all exception), esteemed this a safer repository than to
have consigned them to their mansions and posterity ; and
we have seen that when their persons, families, and most
precious moveables have sufiered (some of them the utter-
most violences and dispersion), their books alone have
escaped untouched in this sacred asylum, and preserved
the names of the donors through all vicissitudes. Nor, in
saying this, do I augur less of the Royal Society, should
they think fit to keep them in their own library; but
because, by thus parting with such as are foreign to their
studies to the University, your illustrious name and
library will be reserved in both places at once with equal
218 COllRESPONDENCE OF [London,
zeal and no less obligation ; when as many as shall have
recourse to such books at Oxon, as are under the Arun-
delian title, will have occasion to mention it in their works
and labours to your eternal honour. For my part, I speak
it with great sincerity and due veneration of your Lord-
ship's bounty, that if I would to the utmost of my power
consult the advancement of your Lordship's glory in this
gift, it should be by declaring my suffrage in behalf of the
University's request. I said as much in the late council j
where I must testify that even those who were of a con-
trary sense to some others of us, were yet all of them
equally emulous of your Lordship's honour. But, since
it was the unanimous result to submit this particular to
your Lordship's decision, I cannot, upon most serious
reflection on the reasons which I have alleged, and
especially that of preserving your name and library by a
double consignation, but implore your Lordship's favour
and indulgence for the University, where your munificence
is already deeply engraven in their hearts, as well as in
their marbles ; and will then shine in letters of a more
refulgent lustre ; for, methinks I hear their public orator,
after he has celebrated your name amongst the rest of
their glorious benefactors and heroes, end his panegyric
in the resounding theatre, as once the noble poet, in the
person of the young Arcadian,
Ntmc te Marmorotm pro tempoi-e fecimus — Eel. vii, :
We yet, great How.ord, thee but in marble mould,
But if our books increase, thou shalt be gold.
I am your Lordship's, &c.
F)roin Dr. Isaac Basire to John Evelyn.
York, May 22, 1669.
Honoured Sir,
I wish all that are able were of your good
temper, and public spirit, the want whereof generally is the
bane of all good societies ; I was always a pretender to it,
which made it therefore my design and study in fifteen
years painful pilgrimage (only for my religion and alle-
giance) to purchase from both the eastern and western
1669.] JOHN EVELYN. 219
Churches their confessions and other pubHc instruments,
■with no small care and cost, which, I thank God, I
brought home with me, per varios castis. At my post-
liminium, all my hope and ambition was to exchange a
shilling for three groats, that so my studies and thoughts,
dispersed in the circumference of my scattered functions,
being united in one centre, I might publish to the world
my dear-bought collections ; but, being disappointed
thereof, non sum tarn felix otii, so that I fear they must
die (abortives) with me : yet I have not been wanting, pro
virili, to satisfy the honest demands of several in this
kind ; witness the very question you proposed to me in
yours of the 6th instant, received when I was in the heat
of my late visitation in Northumberland, from whence no
sooner returned, but I am, thus far in my way, hastening
to my attendance in June ; till that be over I can hardly
hope to do more than I have done already upon that very
question, which, by a kind of providence, being propounded
to me from France, Scotland, and Oxford, almost all at
once. I did awhile ago return unto Monsieur Arnauld, a
competent answer to his most material questions, but
whereas he further desiring copies of those confessions
which I did not allege in mine, it requires more time than
this present juncture can afford ; of this you may be
assured, that I shall never be wanting to serve the
Catholic, especially at the request of such as you.
For I am, Sir, your very faithful friend.
And most humble Servant,
Isaac Basire.*
Dr. Bathurst to John Evelyn.
Oxfwd, August 12, \QQ5.
Sib,
The University having a design to set up my
Lord Howard's arms, with an inscription of his titles, in
acknowledgment of the noble donation of his marbles, it
is Mr. Vice-Chancellor's desire that, as you have been
* Endorsed by Evelyn, " Concerning the Greek Church : and the testi-
monials Dr. Basire received under the hand and seal of all the oriental
Pati'iarchs in his travels."' — See Diary, vol. i., p. 357.
820 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
eminently instrumental for procuring the gift, so you
would be pleased to help us in the due commemoration
of it, by directing us in these particulars :
1. AVhat are his titles according to the patent lately
given him by the King ?
2. "Whether any distinction be added to his paternal
coat upon the late creation, and what it is ?
3. \Vhether the difference of a second brother be neces-
sary or no ?
If you will do us the favour to send your resolution
of these in a few lines to Mr. Vice-Chancellor, who
presents you with his most humble service. I have no
more to add at present, but my thanks for your kind visit
at Oxford, and my best service to all with you, and rest,
Sir,
Your faithful, and very humble servant,
R. Bathurst.
John Evelyn to Dr. Meric Casaubon* " Is. Fil.
Prebend of Canterbury, ^c."
Saya-Court, nth January^ 1669-70.
Reverend Sir,
Though I am a stranger to your person, yet the
name and the learning which you derive both from inherit-
ance, as well as acquisition, draw a just veneration to
them. Sir, whilst it has been lately my hap to write
something concerning the nature of forest trees, and their
mechanical uses, in turning over many books treating of
that and other subjects, I met with divers passages con-
cerning staves, which have in a manner obliged me to say
something of them in a treatise which I am adorning :
but whilst I was intent on this, I began to doubt whether
* Meric Casaubon, the son of the great Genevese critic and contro-
versialist, was educated and became resident in England, where his father's
name and his own High Church opinions obtained him not only the notice
of James the First, but afterwards the patronage of Laud, to whose memory
he continued resolutely faithful through all the subsequent triumplis of the
Puritans. He obtiuned his reward at the Restoration. He was an honest
man, but not a ver}* wise one. His writings are remarkable only for their
oddity. He was a faithful believer in spirits, and expounded the spiritual
and supernatural experiences of the famous Dr. Dee.
1670.] JOHN EVELYN.
221
1 should not actum agere; remembering this passage of
your father {tov fxaKapLTov), in his Comment on Theo-
phrastusj p. 172, edit. 1638: Sed hcec hactenus ; nam de
Baculis et eorum forma, multiplicique apud veteres usu,
plurima qtue observavimus ad lucem multorum Scriptorum
veierum, alibi, iav 6 0eoj ^deXjj, commodius proferremus.
That which I now would entreat of you, sir, is to know
whether your learned father did ever publish any express
treatise concerning this subject, and if not, that you mil
be pleased to afford me some short hints of what you see
noted in his Adversaria about it : by which means you
will infinitely oblige me, who shall not fail to let the world
know to whose bounty and assistance I am indebted.
Sir, that worthy and communicative nature of yours,
breathing in your excellent writings, prompts me to this
great confidence; but, however my request succeed, be
pleased to pardon the liberty of, reverend Sir, your most
humble, though unknown servant, &c.
John Evelyn to the Lord High Treasurer {Sir Thomas
Clifford).
Sayes-Court, 20th January, 1670.
Right Honourable,
I should much sooner have made good my pro-
mise of transmitting to your Honour the enclosed synopsis
(containing the brief, or heads of the work I am travailing
on), if, besides the number of books and papers that I
have been condemned (as it were) to read over and dili-
gently peruse, there had not lately been put into my hands
a monstrous foho, written in Dutch,* which contains no
less than 1079 pages, elegantly and carefully printed at
the Hague this last year; and what fills me with indig-
nation, derogating from his Majesty and our nation : the
subject of it being principally the war with England, not
yet brought to a period, which prompts me to beUeve
there is another volume preparing on the same argument.
By the extraordinary industry used in this, and the choice
pieces I find they have furnished the author with, his
Majesty and your Lordship Avill see that to write such an
* " Saken ran Stuet en Orlogh door d'Heer Lieuwe Van Aitzema," &c.
222 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
history as may not only deliver truth and matter of fact
to posterity, but vindicate our prince and his people from
the prepossessions and disadvantages they lie under (whilst,
remaining thus long silent, we in a manner justify their
reproaches), will require more time to finish than at the
first setting out could well have been imagined. My
Lord, I dare affirm it without much vanity, that had I
been ambitious to present his Majesty with a specimen
only of my diligence, since first I received his commands,
I could long ere this have prevented these gentlemen, who,
I am told, are already upon the Dutch war. There had
nothing been more easy than after a florid preamble to
have published a laudable description and image of the
several conflicts, and to have gratified abundance of
worthy persons who were actors in them ; but since my
Lord Arlington and your Lordship expect from me a
solemn deduction and true state of all afiuirs and parti-
culars, from his Majesty's first entering into treaty with
the States at his arrival in England, to the year 1G67, nay
to this instant period (which will comprehend so great and
so signal a part of his glorious reign), I easily believe his
Majesty will neither believe the time long nor me altogether
indiligent, if he do not receive this history so soon as
otherwise he might have expected. All I will add in
relation to myself is this ; tliat as I have not for many
months done any thing else (taking leave of all ray
delightful studies), so by God's help I intend to prosecute
what I have begun, with the same fervour and application.
Your Lordship will consider how irksome a task it is to
read over such multitudes of books, remonstrances,
treatises, journals, libels, pamphlets, letters, papers, and
transactions of state, as of necessity must be done before
any one can set pen to paper. It would aflfright your
Lordship to see the heaps that lie here about me, and yet
is this the least part of the drudgery and pains; which
consists in the judgment to elect and cull out, and then to
dispose and place the materials fitly; to answer many
bitter and malicious objections, and dexterously, and yet
candidly, to ward some unlucky points that are not seldom
made at us ; and after all this the labour of the pen will not
be inconsiderable. I speak not this to enhance of the
instrument, but rather that I may obtain pardon for the
1670.] JOHN EVELYN. 223
lapses I may fall into, nothwithstanding all this zeal and
circumspection : and that his Majesty will graciously accept
of my endeavours, and protect me from the unkindness of
such as use to decry all things of this nature for a single
mistake, or because some less worthy men find not them-
selves or relations flattered, and be not satisfied that
(though they deserve not much) they are no way dis-
obliged. As to the method, I have bethought myself of
this (if your Lordship confirm it), namely, to transmit the
papers, as fast as I shall bring them to any competent
period, to my Lord Arhngton and your Lordship ; that
so being communicated (through both your favours) to
his Majesty before they swell into enormous bulk, he may
cast his royal eye over them with less trouble, and animad-
vert upon them till they are refined and fit for his gracious
approbation : since by this means I shall hope to attain
two great things; the performing of his Majesty's plea-
sure, and that part of a true historian which is to deliver
truth ; and he (I think) who attends to this, omne tulit
punctum. — But, my Lord, there are yet divers considerable
papers and pieces which I want ; letters, treaties, articles,
and instructions to ambassadors, &c., which I can only
receive from Mr. Secretary and from your Lordship, that
so I may not be imposed on by such memoirs and trans-
actions of state as I find to my hand (if I durst adven-
ture on the coin) in the books of our antagonists pub-
lished with a confidence so frontless. But since I may not
well hope for these and other personal and living assist-
ances (as I shall also have need of) 'till the more urgent
affairs of parliament are over, I do in the mean time
employ myself in adorning a preface (of which I here
inclose your Lordship a summary), and go on in reading
and collection of materials, that when I shall have received
those other desiderates, I may proceed to the compiling
part, and of knitting together what I have made some
progress in.
I am, my Lord, your Honour's, &c.
224 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Doctor Meric Casaubon to John Evelyn.
_ January 24, 1669-70.
Sir,
You might have had a more speedy answer to
your kind letter, but that soon after the receipt of it, I
fell into my ordinary distemper, which is the stone, but
with more than ordinary extremities, M'hich hath con-
tinued these three or four days already, and what will be
the end Grod knows ; to whom, for either life or death, I
heartily submit.
Presently after the reading of yours I set myself to
search my father^s Adversaria and papers, and after a
little search I found a proper head, or title de Baculis, as
an addition to what he had written upon Theophrastus ;
and under that title, many particular references to all
kind of ancient authors, but so confi-.sedly that I think no
man but I that have been used to his hand and way, can
make anything of it. There are two full sides in quarto.
Sir, if God grant me life, or some respite from this
present extremity, it shall be one of the first things I
shall do to send you what he hath written, copied out in
the same order as I found it.
Whilst I was searching my father^s papers, I lighted
on a note concerning plants and trees, which I thought
fit to impart unto you, because you tell me you have
written of trees ; you have it here enclosed. Besides this
I remember I have, but know not where to find it at this
time, Wormij Literatura Danica, where, if I be not much
mistaken, he hath somewhat de Baculis, there, or in some
other treatise I am pretty confident. Sir, I desire you to
believe that I am very willing to serve any gentleman of
your quality in so reasonable a request. But if you be
that gentleman, as I suppose, who have set out the first
book of Lucretius in English, I must needs confess myself
much indebted to you, though I never had the opportunity
to profess it, for that honourable mention which you were
pleased to make of me in your preface. Whatsoever I
should think of your work or translation, yet civility
would engage me to say so much. But truly, sir, if
you will believe me, who I think was never accounted
1669-70.] JOHN EVELYN. 225
a flatterer by them that have known me, my judgment is,
that you have acquitted yourself of that knotty business
much better than I thought could be done by any man,
though I think those excellent parts might deserve a more
florid and proper subject; but I submit to your better
judgment.
Sir, it hath been some task to me to find so much free
time to dictate so much : if there be anything imperti-
nent, I desire you will be pleased to consider my case.
So I take my leave, and rest.
Your very humble servant,
Meric Casaubon.*
John Evelyn to Dr. Meric Casaubon.
Sayes-Court, Jan. 20, 1669-70.
Eev. Sir,
There was no danger I should forget to return
you notice of the favour I yesterday received, where I find
my obligations to you so much improved by the treasure
they conveyed me ; and that it is to you I am to owe the
greatest and best of my subsidiaries. There are many
things in your paper which formerly I had noted ; but
more which I should never have observed ; and therefore
both for confirming my own, and adding so many more,
and so excellent, I think myself sacredly engaged to
publish my great acknowledgments, as becomes a bene-
ficiary. As to the crude and hasty putting this trifle of
mine abroad into the world, there is no danger ;t since I
should thereby deprive myself of those other assistances
which your generous bounty has in store for me : nor are
those materials which lie by me brought into any tolerable
order yet, as not intended for any work of labour, but
refreshment, when I am tired with other more serious
studies. Thus, Sir, you see me doubly obliged to retiun
• This Letter bears Casaubon's autograph signature, but the body of it
is in another hand.
f Among Evelyn's papers there exists a small fragment of this treatise
in Latin, consisting only of two or three pages ; it was evidently never
finished. From an introductory paragraph, it would seem to have been
intended as a jocular piece ; but the small part which is written is grave
and solemn enough. It begins at the beginning of the subject ; tlie first staff
mentioned being that which Jacob used when he met his brother Esau.
VOL. m. Q
226 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
you my thanks for this great humanity of yours, and to
implore the Divine goodness to restore you your health,
who am. Rev. Sir,
Yours. &c.
Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle,* to John Evelyn.
Welbeck, Fthruary, 1670.
Honourable Sir,
I have by your bounty received a book, named a
Discourse of Forest Trees : you have planted a forest full
of delight and profit, and though it is large through
number and variety, yet you have enclosed it with elegancy
and eloquence, all which proves you more proper to be
the head than a member of the Royal Society. The truth
is, you are a person of singular virtues, for which all
ought, as I do, admire you; and am your humble
servant,
Margaret Newcastle.
My humble service, I pray, to your lady.
The Reverend Nicholas Jameson [of Credwell, Wiltshire)
to John Evelyn.
Credwdl, llth April, 1670.
Honoured Sir,
The delight I take in planting of trees and
flowers, hath often prompted unto me some little thoughts
and designs concerning the raising of mulberries, which
thoughts have been very much heightened and animated
by the reading of some part of your most ingenious and
excellent Discourse of Forest-trees ; but by all the inquiry
I could hitherto make by my friends about London for
some seed of the whiter kind which your book treats of,
I have not hitherto been so happy as to procure any, nor
indeed to meet with those who ever heard of any such
mulberry or seed. Now, loth as I was to give over my
• Seo Diary, Vol ii., p. 22, 23, 24. The reader need not be reminded
that tliis high fantastical Duchess was a great favourite with Charles Lamb,
who has frequently commended her life of her husband as a perfect " jewel of
» book." And see pott, p. 244.
1670.] JOHN EVELYN. 227
design, and as loth to be presumptuous, yet at length
those thoughts, to which you gave life, urged me to apply
unto yourself, as their most proper patron and nourisher;
and in their behalf I humbly beg that you would be
pleased to give me some directions how, or by whom, such
seed as I desire may be attained. Worthy Sir, I hope you
will excuse my boldness ; it ought to be considered that it
is not likely that such persons as yourself should come so
publicly abroad without getting much bold acquaintance ;
but not to add a second trespass by my tediousness, if
this my confidence be thought worthy of a line or two in
answer, be pleased to direct it to be left with Mr. Alestry,
bookseller, at the Rose and Crown, in St. Paul's Church-
yard, for Mr. Thomas Jameson, minister of God's word,
at Hackney, near London, who will take care to send
it to
Your humble servant and real honourer,
N. Jameson.
Philip Dumaresque to John Evelyn.
Jersey, IZth Jvly, 1670.
Worthy Sib,
I have received yours by Mr. Sealemont, to-
gether with your excellent present, than which nothing
could be more acceptable to me ; who though naturally
inclined to the things that make the subject of it, am
much more moved by the manner of your handling of it ;
for certainly, Sir, the want either of sincerity or true
knowledge had hitherto much discouraged the trusting of
books in the like nature, and, the practice and experience
of any single man being hardly able to attain so universal
a knowledge, it was no wonder if planting was not so
much in fashion before you were pleased to recollect that
art in a body and give it to the public, the like of which
I believe was never so sincerely and exactly performed, as
far as my weak capacity will permit me to judge. I
wonder. Sir, to understand of the great disorder your
noble plantation hath received by the rigour of the winter;
and it will encourage me somewhat here ; having planted
about a score of cypress trees I had from France and some
borders of phylyrea Mr. Messeray gave me, whereof most
Q2
228 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
parts were of slips, which thrive indifferently well, although
planted between two very hard frosts and the extreme dry
season, the like of which was never seen here ; for at
Christmas last we could hardly find humour enough in
the ground to plant, and springs which the memory of
man had never known to fail have left their course; which
hath confirmed me in the opinion they are generally pro-
duced from the winter rains, percolated through the hills
and produced by the opposition either of clay or rocks,
which are at the basis of all the earth I have yet seen in
our country here, having been obliged by my little expe-
rience to dig deeper in respect of the sea than ever it was
known here, having never observed any upon the plains,
unless it came from the neighbour hills. Pardon me, Sir,
if the season hath occasioned me to trouble you with our
want of water in the most watered country of the world
for the bigness. I have this year began a little plantation
of vineyard, encouraged by the translation of the French
Gardener; but, as I understand, I am likely to be more
troublesome to my friends, and, that which vexes me the
more, about a thing doth not deserve it. I am obliged
to sacrifice my rustic employment to the ambition of
others; but one thing shall allay the inconvenience of
the troublesome journey, that I shall have the honour to
acknowledge in person the favours I have received during
my last abode, and particularly from Sir Richard Browne
and yourself and worthy lady ; to whom I desire you to
permit me to subscribe myself.
Your most humble and obliged servant,
Philip Dumabesque.
John Evelyn to the Lord TVeamrer {Sir Thomas Clifford).
Sayes-Court, Z\st August, 1^11.
My Lord,
It is not my fault, but misfortune, that you have
not ere this received a full account of the time which (by
your particular favour to me) I acknowledge to be wholly
yours : your Lordship has sometime since justified the
queries which I first drew up, that they were material, and
promised I should not want your assistance in the solution
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 229
of them ; but the recess of the Court, and consequently
your Lordship's absence, and otherways want of oppor-
tunity, and pressure of affairs, has deprived me of receiving
those necessary directions which so important a subject as
that under my hand does require. But though this might
serve somewhat to extenuate what may be thought wanting
to my industry, yet I hope I shall not be found to have
trifled in that which I am preparing to put shortly into
your hands ; namely, the two former parts of the History,
which (if your Lordship likewise approve) I think of dis-
posing into the following periods. The first (giving a
succinct account of their original, for method's sake) com-
prehends the state of the Hollanders in relation to England,
especially their defection from the Crown of Spain, anno
1586, till his present Majesty's happy Restoration, 1660;
and herein, a deduction of all the notorious injuries and
affronts which the English have suffered from the Dutch,
and what rebukes they have received for them from the
powers who first made war against them, and from his
Majesty whom they compelled to make another. The
second sets forth at large the course and progress of the
late differences, from his Majesty's return, anno 1660, to
the year 1666 inclusively, by which time (his Majesty's
ambassadors being recalled from their respective ministries
abroad) the war was fully indicted. This period more
especially relates his Majesty's endeavour to have composed
matters in dispute between his subjects and the Dutch :
answers all their cavils, vindicates his honour; states the
aggression, treaties with Munster ; describes the first battle,
the action at Bergen; transactions with the Dane, with
the French, the rupture with both ; together with all the
intercurrent exploits at Guinea, the Mediterranean, West
Indies, and other signal particulars, in 169 paragraphs
or sections ; and thus far it is already advanced. The
third and last period includes the status or height of the
war (against the three great potentates we named) to the
conclusion of it in the Treaty at Breda, 1667, in which I
shall not omit any of those numerous particulars presented
to his Majesty through my Lord Arlington's hands, in my
first project of the work, nor any thing else which your
Lordship shall command me to insert.
The two former parts being already dispatched want
280 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london.
nothing save the transcribing, which I therefore have not
thought convenient to hasten, till I receive your Lord-
ship's directions in the diflBculties which I herewith trans-
mit; upon return whereof, I shall soon present his
Majesty with the better part of this Avork ; and then, as
his Majesty shall approve of my diligence, proceed with
the remainder, which I hope will not take up so long a
time. If it shall be thought fit hereafter to cast it into
other languages, especially Latin or French, it may be
considerably contracted, so very many particulars in the
English relating only to companies and more domestic
concerns, in a legal style, full of tedious memorials and
altercations of merchants ; which (though now requisite to
deduce somewhat more at large for the justification of his
Majesty's satisfaction of his subjects, and as a testimony
published from authentic records amongst ourselves) will
be of little importance to foreigners, and especially great
persons, curious and learned men, who are to be enter-
tained with refined and succinct narratives, and so far
with the cause of the war as may best imprint the sense of
the wrongs we have sustained, and take off the prejudices
our enemies have prepossessed them with, together with the
most shining matter of fact becoming the style of history.
I now send your Lordship my Preface. It is in obedience
to a particular suggestion of my Lord Arlington's, requiring
of me a complete deduction of the progress of navigation
and commerce, from its first principle to the present age ;
and certainly not without great judgment; since (as his
Lordship well observed) all our contests and differences
with the Hollanders at sea derive only from that source :
and if the Introduction (for a page or two) seem less
severe than becomes the fore-lorn of so rude a subject as
follows it, I have this to say, that as no man willingly
embarks in a storm, so I am persuaded your Lordship will
not condemn me when you have perused it to the end, and
considered how immense an ocean I have passed to bring
it home to the argument in hand, and yet in how contracted
a space I have assembled together that multitude of par-
ticulars the most illustrious. I have taken in all that is
material, and more (permit me to affirm) than is to be found
in many authors of great bulk, much less in any one single
treatise, ancient or modern ; by which your Lordship may
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 231
perhaps a little estimate the diligence that has been used,
and that I can do nothing which your Lordship thinks fit
to command me, superficially. I confess it were yet
capable of politure, and would show much brighter in
another dress among the cmious, to whom singly it might
haply prove no unacceptable entertainment. I could yet
also add considerably to it, but some perhaps may think it
already too large for a vestibule, though that will best
appear when the superstructure is finished, which, if my
calculation abuse me not, (from the model already framed,
and in good part advanced), will amount to, at the leeist,
800 or 1000 pages in folio, notwithstanding all the care I
can apply to avoid impertinences, as far as consists with
integrity, and the numerous particulars which necessarily
crowd into so active and extensive a war. Sure I am
(whatever may be objected) it is apposite and proper to
the subject and the occasion of it, and stands and falls by
your Lordship's suffrage. His Majesty has yet two sheets,
which I beseech your Lordship to retrieve for me; and
after your animadversions on this, I will wait upon your
Lordship, and receive your farther directions to.
My Lord, &c.
John Evelyn to the Rev. Father Patrick.*
Sayes-CouH, 21 ih Sept., 1G71, hoc Sanctum
Benedictum.
Reverend Father,
You require me to give you an account in
writing, what the doctrine of the Church of England is
concerning the Blessed Eucharist ? and in particular,
whether there be anything in it signifying to adoration ?
which, I conceive, an expression of mine one day at
Mr. Treasurer's might occasion. Though I cannot
suppose you to be at all ignorant of what her opinion is
* A Roman Catholic priest whom Evelyn had met attlie Lord Treasurer's
table. Evelyn mentions in his Diary (Vol. ii., p. 71.) the fact of Clifford's
" warping to Rome " at this time. He seems to have had a grateful
affection for this unfortunate Statesman, whose unvarying kindness he
repeatedly acknowledges, and whose melancholy death he describes in his
Diary, VoL ii., pp. 85, 88.
232 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
in these matters ; and that indeed you ought to inquire
concerning them of some of our learned Prelates and
Doctors, whose province it is to unfold these mysteries;
yet since you command it, and that I read in the Apostle*
how every one is obliged to render an answer to those who
demand a reason of the hope which is in them, 1 do with
all alacrity comply with your desires, as far as my talent
reaches, f
1. The doctrine of the Church of England is, or at least
to my best understanding, imports, that after the prayer,
or words of consecration, the symbols become changed
into the body and blood of Christ, after a sacramental,
spiritual, and real manner; and that all initiated, or
baptised persons, of competent age and capacity, who by
unfeigned repentance, and a faithful consideration of the
life, doctrine, and passion of our Blessed Saviour, resolve
to undertake his holy religion, and to persist in it, are
made really participants of the benefits of his body and
blood for the remission of their sins, and the obtaining of
all other spiritual graces; inasmuch as it is a revival of
the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, once ofi'ered for sin,
and for ever effectual ; and a renewing of the covenant of
grace to the penitent.
But she who aflfirms this, holds also, that even after
the words of consecration (or, rather, efiicacy of the bene-
diction), the bodily substance of the elements remain ; yet
so as to become the instruments of the Divine Spirit,
conveying its influence and operation to the prepared
recipient : and therefore she does not behold the elements
altogether such as naturally they are to the corporeal
refection, but (as Theodoret speaks), upon the change of
the names, the change which grace superinduces. Or, if
you like it better, — not merely bread and wine, naked
figures and representations, but such as exhibit Christ
himself, and put the worthy communicant into sure
possession of him. In a word, they are seals to superior
excellencies ; give federal title to God's promises ; and
though they are not changed in natural quahties, yet are
applicable of divine benefits, and a solemn profession of
our faith, &c. And upon this account, the mysterious
presence of Christ she holds to be a great miracle, engaging
• 1 Peter, iii. 15. f See pott, p. 237.
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 233
the infinite power of God, to render the flesh and blood of
Christ so present in the elements by effect and benediction,
as that the worthy receiver as really communicates in
reference to his spirit, as he sacramentally communicates
in reference to his body : the mystical presence being
present with the material, by a supernatural conjunction
really tendered to the faithful.
I could add infinite other forms to express the same
thing, but this I take to be the clear sense of the article ;
and can, when you command me, defend it by the best
and noblest instances of Scriptures, Fathers, and reason ;*
but you have not required it,^ and it were too tedious for a
letter. Let it suffice, that the difference between us and
the Church of Rome consists chiefly in the definition of
the manner of the change ; the quomodo or modus ; about
which (not to recite here what Ockham, Cajetan, Biel, &c.
say) when P. Lombard had (as himself professes) collected
the opinions and sentences of all the ancients, he in-
genuously acknowledges he could no way make out that
there was any substantial conversion: for the doctrine
was then in the cradle ; and when afterwards it grew up,
and became an article of faith, Durandus says, plainly, the
matter of bread remained, Modum nescimtis, prasentiam
credimus, and so says the Church of England : it was then
left free. Why should it not be so still ? We both affirm
a change and the reality of it ; only we retain tlie ancient
and middle belief, and presume not to determine the
manner of it, because we find it nowhere revealed ; and
can produce irrefragable testimonies for 1200 years, to
explode the gross and material sense which the later age
has forced upon it : when, to assert it, they tell us that a
body consisting of all its physical dimensions and parts,
occupies neither place nor space, but is reduced to a point
invisible ; that mere accidents can inhere without subject ;
that colour, taste, smell, and the tactile qualities can
subsist after the destruction of the substance ; that bodies
are penetrable ; that the same individual thing may be at
the same time, in different places, visible and invisible at
the same period ; that the same proposition may be abso-
lutely true and false in the same instance ; that contra-
dictions may consist with God^s veracity; that Christ
• Seei)08<, p. 237.
234 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
devoured himself, and that his body was broken and torn
with teeth, when it was yet whole and entire ; that Christ's
body may be eaten, though only accidents be manducated
and chewed ; that a sacrifice should be made without the
destruction of the oblation, and a thousand other incom-
possibilities, riddles, and illogical deductions extinguishing
the eye of reason, and making an error necessary to
salvation. In brief, this new-minted transubstantiation,
abhorring from the genuine and rational sense of the text,
substitutes a device not only incredible, but impossible ;
so as Christians, who are enjoined to oflFer up a rational
liturgy and service, or reason of the hope which should be
in them, must bid defiance to it ; for they must not believe
their eyes, nor taste, nor touch, nor smell (the criterions
by which St. John confirms the Christian doctrine, quod
vidiinus oculis nostris, quod perspeximus, et manus nostrcs
contrectaverunt, S^c.) * But they must renounce them all,
and not only quit the common principles of sciences, but
even common sense. I will say nothing of those who
have taken in these strange impressions with their milk ;
considering the incredible force of education, and that
the profoundest learned amongst the heathen were not
secured by it from the grossest errors upon this account.
One would yet have thought the wise Athenians f needed
not a lecture from St. Paul upon the topics he preached ;
but that persons enlightened as the Doctors of the Church
of Rome pretend to be, should fall into absurdities so
illogical and destructive to the very definition of that
which discriminates men from brutes, is plainly stupen-
dous ; and seems, methinks, to be pointed at by the great
Apostle, where he tells us in the later days, that God shall
send some of them strong delusions, J and you know what
follows. He would be thought a thick-skinned doctor in
any of their own, as well as our schools, who skilled not
to discern how a thing might be real and yet spiritual, or
as if nothing were real, but what were corporeal and
natural. These do not consider how God himself operates
on the conscience and souls of men, and that the gifts of
his sacred spirit are real graces, and yet not things
intelligible and sensible as bodies are. That the Church
• 1 Jo. i. 1—3 ; Acts, iv. 20. f Acts vii. 22, &c. !
t 2The8S.U. 11.
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 235
of England believes a real presence, she expresses in the
Canon of her Eucharistical office,* verily and indeed, and
than that, what can be more real ?
To object, that the faith in the Holy Trinity obliges us
to as great a difficulty as the Pontifician modality, is very
trifling, since that is only matter of belief indefinite. We
are not required to explain the matter of the mystery ;
nor have we, or the most metaphysical wit living, faculties
and adequate instruments to dissolve that knot : spiritual
things belong to spirits ; we can have no notices proportion-
able to them ; and yet, though they are unfathomable by
our reason, they are not inconsistent with it, nor do they
violate our understanding by enjoining nonsense. They
indeed exceed our explications, but disparage not our
religion ; rather they procure it veneration ; since there
are in nature and common objects things which we know
to be, but know not how they be. But when the dispute
(as in this of the Holy Eucharist) is of bodies and material
things, we can define, and may pronounce concerning
their affections and possibilities; they are obnoxious to
sense, and fall justly under our cognisance and explication.
But your Reverence enjoins me to say what our Church
permits her sons to believe concerning Adoration. I will
tell you, the very same that St. Augustine, Nemo digne
manducat, nisi prius adoraverit : she holds, therefore, that
the Holy Eucharist is an homage, and an act of adoration,
and receives it in that humble gesture; for Christ being
there present in an extraordinary manner, she worships
him at a time when he exhibits himself to her in so extra-
ordinary and mysterious a manner, and with so great
advantages ; but then this act is to her blessed Lord, as
God's right hand : or, if it please you better, she adores
the flesh and blood of her Saviour in the mystery and
venerable usage of the symbols, representing and imparting
it to our souls ; but she gives no divine honours to the
bare symbols, without that signification : since it is certain,
had the primitive Christians done otherwise,t their enemies
would have said they worshipped the work of their own
hands too, and so retorted their reproaches. The Church of
England, and we her sons, worship what we know ; you
* See the Catechism in Book of Common Prayer.
+ See Minutius Felix Octav.
236 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
worship what you know not, and whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. Species and accidents, representations, and
mere creatures, though consecrated to holy uses, are not
proper objects of adoration : God is a jealous God, and it
should be seriously considered how innumerable the con-
tingencies are (though your opinions were tolerable) that
render your manner of worshipping the Host extremely
obnoxious and full of peril; since the possible circum-
stances and defects of the priest's ordination, consecration,
recitation of the words, want of intention, impurity of the
elements, their disproportion and mixture — if the priest be
illegitimate, simoniacal, or irregular — and several other
impediments of the like nature, render the adorers gross
idolators by your own tenets and confession.
I have but a word to add, and that is concerning the
Oblation, in which the Church of England differs from
that of Rome. She affirms, that the notion amongst the
ancients imported only Oblatum celebrare, et niemoria
renovare; and that if Christ were really offered (as you
pretend) he must every time be put to death again. But
St. Paul tells us plainly he was but once * offered, as now
shortly on Good Friday he is said to be crucified, and at
Christmas to be born, &c. But we add, if Christ delivered
his holy body, and sacrificed it in a natural sense, when he
instituted the Holy Sacrament, before his real passion on
the cross (as, according to you, indisputably he did), it
could not be propitiatory ; and if were not propitiatory,
what becomes of your mass ? For if it was propitiatory
when he instituted it, his blessed father was reconciled
before his suffering, which I think we neither dare to
affirm. It was then representative and memorative only
of what was to be, as now it is to us of what it has already
been ; and yet the Church of England does for all this
acknowledge it in another sense to be a sacrifice, both
propitiatory and impetratory; because the oblation of it
to God with and by the prayers and praises of her mem-
bers, does render God propitious, by obtaining the benefits
which the death of our Lord does represent : and there-
fore over it we beseech God for the universal peace of the
Church ; for the state of the world ; for kings, priests, and
magistrates ; for the sick ; for a glorious resurrection of
* Compaare Romans ri., and Hebrews ix.
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 237
the saiDts.* In sum, with St. Cyril, we implore that it
may move God to grant all that is desired by the regular and
assiduous offices of the Catholic Church, especially of those
who at that time offer and communicate.
This, Reverend Father, is the best account I am able for
the present, and in so short limits, to give you : it is what
our Church will own, what I believe, and what I endeavour
to practise, who, in great charity and humility, subscribe
myself.
Your most faithful servant,
J. Evelyn.
Sir, you must pardon my frequent blots, &c.
Note to page 232.
If it be transubstantiated, it is a miracle : now our
blessed Saviour never did miracles (that we read of), but
the visible change was apparent to all the world, as from
blindness to sight, from sickness to health, from death to
life ; so the loaves were augmented, the water converted
to wine, &c. : but here is a miracle wrought without any
visible change, which we never read he did, and is indeed
a contradiction, and destroys the effect of our common
sense and reason, by which alone we have assurance of all
that Christ did and suffered; and if we may not credit
these, we may justly doubt of the whole Christian religion
itself; which God would never tempt his rational creatures
to do.
Note to page 233.
And now we mentioned fathers, there occurs to me one
passage in that excellent treatise of St. Augustine, "De
Doctrina Christi : " Book iii.. Chap, vi., upon that famous
period in St. John on which our antagonists put so much
stress, that as it instructs us how to interpret the literal
sense of divers the hke places in Scripture, so has it per-
fectly convinced me as to the meaning of that pretended
* See the prayer in our Communion Office, for the whole state of Christ's
Church militant, &c.
238 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
difficulty : I say so fully, as I dare oppose it to whatsoever
can be produced out of all the Fathers of the Church (as
they call them) put all together. The words are these —
Si preceptiva, &c. If a preceptive speech or expression
seems to enjoin a thing that is flagitious or wicked, or to
prohibit a beneficial or profitable thing, it is figuratively
to be taken ; e. g.: '' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man, and drink his blood (says our Saviour), ye shall have
no life in you." This seems to command a flagitious and
unlawful thing; it is therefore figurative, enjoining us to
communicate in the passion of our Lord, and sweetly and
profitably to keep in mind that his flesh was crucified and
wounded for us: and this is so plainly the sense and the voice
of the Church of England, that I think men must be out
of their wits to contend against it. I could yet augment
the number of as plain testimonies and sufirages from more
of those good men ; but it is unnecessary.
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasurer.
Sayes-Court, November lith, 1671.
My Lord,
I was yesterday at Whitehall to wait on your
Lordship, and a little to expostulate with you upon the
work enjoined me, for want of that assistance which
Mr. Secretary promised me from time to time; so as
unless your Lordship interpose and procure those papers,
I must desist and go no further. It is, my Lord, a grave
and M' eighty undertaking in this nice and captious age, to
deliver to posterity a three-years war, of three of the
greatest powers and potentates of Europe against one
nation newly restored, and even at that period conflicting
with so many calamities besides. If this deserve no appli-
cation extraordinary, I have taken but ill measures when
I entered on it ; but I rely on your Lordship, whose com-
mands first animated, and by whose influence only I care
to proceed. If the materials I have amassed lie still in
heaps, blame not me, who write not for glory, unless you
approve of what I write, and assist the deferrent, for I am
no more. It is matters of fact his Majesty would have me
deliver to the Avorld ; let me have them authentic, then ;
1671.] JOHN EVELYN. 239
and now especially in this crisis of exinanition (with grief
and indignation I speak it), and that the whole nation is
sinking. As to the action at Bergen, I am ready to
transmit what I have drawn up ; but it shall go no further
till you have cast your eye upon it, since without your
Lordship's approbation (after the measures I have taken of
your comprehensive and consummate judgment, quoi'umq :
pars ipse fuisti) I neither can nor ought to like any thing
I do ; but this, either your modesty or business denies me;
and unless I overcome it, let all I have done wither and
rise no more. Augustus Caesar had weighty affairs on his
hand, but he suffered nothing to pine of lesser concern,
when he sometimes heard poems recited ; and Scipio would
converse with Lselius, and often with Lucullus too ; and
will you let your country suffer, and that, which you with
so much earnestness and vigour pressed might be published
with the greatest expedition, languish now for want of
your assistance ? My Lord, what you were wont to say
was prediction, and we are already blown upon and pro-
faned without recovery. The inscription* I here enclose
will more than a little discover that it were high time to
think of all imaginable ways to recover the dignity of the
nation ; and I yet assure myself your Lordship has been
inflamed with a disdain becoming you at the sound of this
disgrace : I do protest solemnly, I have not in my life
received a more sensible mortification. O that ever his
Majesty and this glorious country should in our time (and
when your Lordship sits at the helm) succumb under the
reproach ; see ourselves buried alive, and our honour (which
is ten thousand times more precious than life) borne thus
away by a perfidious and ungrateful people ! To see our
glory dragged in triumph, and a pillar to our infamy set
up on that foul turf which had not been a name but for
our indulgence. I dare say, my Lord, your heart is as big
as your breast can contain, and that you would be one of
the first should even devote themselves to tear down that
impudent trophy, and take away our reproach ; and if God
Almighty do not shortly stir up amongst us some such
generous indignation, I do not for my part desire to live,
and see the ruins that are coming on us : but this is reserved
for men of great hearts, and for such as your Lordship.
* Set up for De Witt on his exploit at Chatham.
240 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
My part will be to represent it so, when I come to that
cuttuig period. If it incite not all that call themselves
English to rise as one man in rescue of our honour, the
whole world will blush at our stupid lacheU, and the
ingratitude of our foes be styled a virtue. Let me,
therefore, my Lord, receive your further directions
seasonably. Whilst you still incite me to dispatch, your
Lordship's not furnishing me those pieces renders it
impossible to advance.
I am, my Lord, &c.
Desiderata. — The particulars of the Treaty with the
Dutch after the first war with the Parliament, to be found
(I suppose) in the Paper Ofl&ce.
2. What commission was given De Ruyter when he
went to Guinea, of which we charge the States ?
3. Mr. Henry Coventry's instructions for Sweden, so far
as concerns the action at Bergen.
4. Colonel Nicholas instructions, &c., with the articles of
the redition of New Amsterdam.
5. Lord Fitz Harding's instructions, which I suspect are
corrupted in the Dutch relations.
6. The instructions of Sir Walter Vane sent to the
Duke of Brandenburg.
7. His Majesty's treaty with the Bishop of Munster.
8. By whose importunity was the sail slackened in the
first encounter with the Dutch, or whether I am to blanch
this particular?
9. W^hat particular gentleman volunteers, &c., am I
more especially to mention for their behaviour in the first
engagement ?
10. Was Mr. Boyle's head carried into the sea from the
trunk ?
11. Did there no wound or bruise appear upon my Lord
Falmouth's body ?
12. On whom is the breaking bulk of the East India
prizes to be really charged ?
13. Did Bastian Senten board the Earl of Sandwich,
take down the blue flag, set up the orange, and possess
him three hours, as the Dutch relations pretend ?
14. Sir Gilbert Talbot's letter to the Commander in
1672.] JOHN EVELYN. 241
Chief at Bergen, which I find not in your Lordship's
papers.
15. I desire the order your Lordship promised me to
the Clerk of the Parhament, that I may search the
Journals for those important particulars your Lordship
mentioned, &c.
Theodore Haak {"the learned German") to John Evelyn.
London, 27th November, 1671.
Sir,
The original and author of the History of the
Smyrna Imposter, being arrived here from thence, I
believed you might be desirous to be acquainted with him.
He hastens home, and may stay but a few days more
with us ; if I knew whether you would be in town
on Wednesday or Thursday, and where to meet you, I
would endeavour to bring him to you, for to have some
conference with him, and further satisfaction about that
matter. It is but sending me the least notice to my
lodging at Mr. Martin's, in Cushion Yard, Broad Street,
and I shall attend your pleasure, as ever ready and
obliged to approve myself.
Noble Sir,
Your very humble servant,
Theodore Haak.
John Evelyn to the Lord Treasurer.^
SayeS'Court, 21 Arig. 1672.
My Lord,
According to my duty, I send your Lordship the
letters and papers which your Lordship has been pleased
to trust me withal, for the compiling of that part of the
* Clifford was now a peer (his creation dates the 22nd April 1 672) ; an
to the margin of Evelyn's congratulatory letter to him on his new dignity,
is added this note : " Who was ever a most obhging friend to me in parti-
cular; and after Treasurer (whatever his other failings were), a person of as
clean hands and generous a mind, as any who have succeeded in that high
trust."
VOL. III. B
242 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
History of the late War, which (having received both his
Majesty's and your Lordship's approbation) I design to
publish, and the rather because I have no other means to
express my great obligations to your Lordship than to set
that forth in which your Lordship's courage and virtue
has been so conspicuous. And now, my Lord, the great
ability, uprightness, and integrity, which your Lordship
has made to give lustre through the rest of those high
offices and charges which you have rather dignified, than
they your Lordship, makes me perfectly deplore your Lord-
ship's so solemn, so extraordinary, and so voluntary a
recess. I am deeply sensible of my own great loss by it,
because I have found your Lordship has ever been the most
obliging to me; but much more of the public. I pray
God to bless your Lordship, and humbly beg this favour,
that you will still regard me as your most grateful bene-
ficiary, and reckon me amongst the number of those who
not only make the sincerest professions, but who really
are what they profess, which is to be,
My Lord, &c.
John Evelyn to Lord Viscount Combury.
Whitehall, 17 Sept. 1672.
My Lord,
I think it is not unknown to your Lordship that
I have sometime since been commanded by his Majesty to
draw up a narrative of the occasions of the first Dutch
war; in order to which my Lord Clifford acquaints me he
did formerly and does still continue to desire of you, that
you would be pleased to give me the perusal of Sir George
Downing's dispatches to my Lord Chancellor your father,
which (as I remember) you told me were at Combury,
where now you are. My Lord, 'tis an extraordinary morti-
fication to me, that my untoward employments here have
not suffered me to wait upon you all this time of your
sweet recess ; that I might also have seen how that place
is adorned and improved since I was there, and where I
might likewise have seen those papers without giving your
Lordship this trouble ; but your Lordship will consider my
present condition, and may be assured that I shall make
1673.] JOHN EVELYN. ^S
use only of such, particulars as conduce to the province
imposed on me by his Majesty. I would likewise be glad
to know, what light your Lordship can give me out of the
letters and dispatches of my Lord Holies, Mr. Coventry,
and Sir Gilbert Talbot, which have all of them an influence
into that affair, as it concerned France, Denmark, and
Sweden ; upon which I am also directed to touch, but shall
not be able to do it with any satisfaction, unless your
Lordship favour me with the communication of the subsi-
diaries in your Cabinet, who am, My Lord, &c.
From Lord Mordaunt to John Evelyn.
Fiih-Cowrt, II April, 1673.
Whoever can demur in sending Mr. Evelyn what
plants soever he desires, deserves not the advantages he
may have found by excellent rules and encouragements
he has obliged his country with. I am sure I am much
better pleased to send him so just a tribute, than I can be
to receive any additional accessions to my gardens, how-
soever I love them. The tube-roses are now in the hot-bed
and begin to appear; if you think it not too early to
remove them from so warm a quarter, send your gardener
whenever you please and I will send you some, or what
other plants you desire, that are worthy to be seen at
Sayes-Court. When the season of budding comes, you
shall have of what kinds of oranges and lemons you please.
A friend of yours at Clarendon House has laid his com-
mands upon me, to wait on him to-morrow to Kensington
with intent to buy some oranges that are lately come over.
If you could spare two hours you would oblige him, for I
fear 'twill prove too hard a province for me to make the
choice ; the plants are small, and of as small a price, a
crown a plant. If you can with your convenience go with
us, I will call for you about two of the clock, at Whitehall,
or where you shall appoint : pray believe me your most
humble servant, Mordaunt.
R 2
244 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
John Evelyn to the Duchess of Newcastle.*
Saya-Court, imjuly, 1674.
May it please your Grace,
I go not into my study without reproach to my
prodigious ingratitude, whilst I behold such a pile of
favours and monuments of your incomparable spirit, with-
out having yet had the good fortune, or the good manners
indeed, to make my recognitions as becomes a person so
immensely obliged. That I presume to make this small
present to your Grace (who were pleased to accept my
collection of Architects, to whom timber and planting are
subsidiaries) is not for the dignity of the subject, though
princes have not disdained to cultivate trees and gardens
with the same hands they managed sceptres ; but because
it is the best expression of my gratitude that I can return.
Nor, Madam, is it by this that I intend to pay all my
homage for that glorious presence, which merits so many
encomiums, or write a panegyric of your virtues, which all
the world admires, lest the indignity of my style should
profane a thing so sacred ; but to repeat my admiration of
your genius, and sublime wit, so comprehensive of the
most abstracted appearances, and so admirable in your sex,
or rather in your Grace's person alone, which I never call
to mind but to rank it amongst the heroines, and constel-
late with the graces. Such of ancient days were Zenobia,
Queen of Palmyra, that writ the history of her country,
as your Grace has done that of my Lord Duke your
husband, worthy to be transmitted to posterity. What
should I speak of Hilpylas, the mother-in-law of young
• This letter, says Evelyn, in a marginal note to it, was written to her
Grace " at Bolsovcr, when she sent me her works." It might be taken for
a hanter on the poor duchess, notwithstanding the occasion of it, were
it not remembered that the homage paid to high rank in tliat day was
excessive ; and that Evelyn generally was very profuse of compliment in
his dedications and letters of acknowledgment. Similar glorifications of the
Duke and Duchess are collected in a scarce and curious volume, entitled,
•* A collection of Letters and Poems, WTitten by several Persons of Honour
and Learning, upon divers important suVjjccts to the late Duke and Duchess
of Newcastle, London, 1 678," which is quite an astonishing exhibition of the
sort of language commonly proffered on such occasions, not simply by
learned men, but by bodies of learned men.
1674.] JOHN EVELYN. 245
Pliny, and of his admirable wife ; of Pulcheria, daughter
to the emperor Arcadius ; or of Anna, who called Alexius
father, and writ fifteen books of history, &e. ! Your Grace
has title to all their perfections. I pass Cornelia, so near
the great Scipio, and mother of the Gracehi, to come to
the later wits, Isabella, Queen of Castile, wife of Ferdi-
nand, King of Arragon, of which bed came the first
Charles, and the mother of four learned daughters, of
whom was one Katherine, wife to our Henry the 8th ;
Mary of Portugal, wife to John Duke of Braganza (related
to her Majesty the Queen Consort), rarely skilled in the
mathematical sciences; so was her sister, espoused to
Alexander, Duke of Parma; Lucretia d'Este, of the house
of Ferrara; Duchess of Urbin, a profound philosopher;
Vittoria Colonna, wife of Ferdinand d^Avila, Marquis of
Pescaria, whose poetry equalled that of the renowned
Petrarch; Hippolita Strozzi, daughter to Francis, Duke
of Milan; Mary of Aragon; Fabiala, Marcella, St.
Catharine of Sienna, St. Bridget and Therese (for
even the greatest saints have cultivated the sciences),
Fulvia Morata, Isabella Andreini; Marguerite of Valois
(sister to Francis the First, and grandmother to the
great Henry of France), whose novels are equal to
those of the witty Boccaccio; and the memoirs of
another Marguerite, wife of this great prince, that name
having been so fertile for ladies of the sublimest genius ;
Catharine de Roches, of Poictiers, a celebrated wit,
and Claudia de Cleremont, Duchess of Retz, Mary de
Gournay, and the famous Anna M. Schurman; and of our
own country. Queen Elizabeth, Queen Jane, the Lady
Weston, Mrs. Philips, our late Orinda, the daughters of
Sir Thomas More ; also the Queen Christina of Sweden,
and Elizabeth, daughter of a queen, to whom the renowned
Des Cartes dedicated his learned work, and the profound
researches of his extraordinary talent. But all these, I
say, summed together, possess but that divided, which
your Grace retains in one; so as Lucretia Marinella, who
writ a book (in 1601), dell' Excellenzia delle Donne,
con difetti e mancamenti de gli Huomini, had no need
to have assembled so many instances and arguments to
adorn the work, had she lived to be witness of Marguerite,
Duchess of Newcastle, to have read her writings, and to
246 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
have heard her discourse of the science she comprehended.
I do, Madam, acknowledge my astonishment, and can
hardly think too great of those souls, who, resembling
your Grace's, seem to be as it were wholly separate from
matter, and to revolve nothing in their thoughts but
universal ideas. For what of sublime and worthy in the
nature of things, does not your Grace comprehend and
explain ; what of great and noble, that your illustrious
Lord has not adorned ? For I must not forget the munifi-
cent present of his very useful book of Horsemanship,
together with your Grace's works upon all the profound
as well as politer subjects, which I received of Sir Francis
Tapps from both your Graces' hands ; but this accumu-
lation ought to be the argument of a fresh and more ample
acknowledgment, for which this paper is too narrow. My
wife (whom you have been pleased to dignify by the name
of your daughter, and to tell her that you look upon her
as your own, for a mother's sake of hers who had so
great a veneration of your Grace) presents her most
humble duty to you, by Madam,
Your Grace's, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. Meric Casaubon.*
Sayea-Court, 15 Jvly, 1674.
Reverend Sir,
I am infinitely obliged to you for your civil reply
to my letter, but am not a little troubled that it should
importune you in a time when you were indisposed. The
stone is an infirmity, which I am daily taught to com-
miserate in my poor afflicted and dear brother who
languishes under that torture, and therefore am much
concerned when I hear of any that are exercised under
that sad afiliction : I will therefore beg of you, that no
impertinence of mine (for truly that trifle is no other) may
engage you to the least inconvenience, and which may
prejudice your health. You have already greatly obliged
me by the hints you are pleased to send me, and by the
notice you are pleased to take of that poor essay of mine
on Lucretius, so long since escaping me. You may be
* See Caflaabon's Leter to Evelyn, ante, p. 224.
1675.] JOHN EVELYN. 247
sure I was very young, and therefore very rash, or am-
bitious, when I adventured upon that knotty piece. ^Tis
very true, that when I committed it to a friend of mine
(and one whom I am assured you intimately know) to
inspect the printing of it, in my total absence from Lon-
don, I fully resolved never to tamper more with that
author; but when I saw it come forth so miserably
deformed, and (I may say) maliciously printed and mis-
taken, both in the Latin copy (which was a most correct
and accurate one of Stephens's) and my version so inhu-
manly depraved, shame and indignation together incited
me to resolve upon another edition ; and I knew not how
(to charm my anxious thoughts during those sad and
calamitous times) to go through the five remaining books :
but, when I had done, I repented of my folly, and that I had
not taken the caution you since have given us in your
excellent " Enthusiasm,^' and which I might have foreseen.
But, to commute for this, it still lies in the dust of my
study, where 'tis like to be for ever buried.
Sir, I return you a thousand thanks for the favour and
honour you have done me, and which I should have sooner
acknowledged, had I not been from home when your
letter came to my house : I shall now beg of God to
restore your health, not for the satisfaction of my imper«
tinent inquiries, but for the universal republic of learning,
and the benefit which all good men derive from the fruits
of your worthy labour, who am, &c.
Dr. Thomas Good to John Evelyn.
Bcdiol College, I3th Dec, 1675,
Mr. Evelyn.
Many years and troublesome are past and gone
since you lived gentleman commoner amongst us, inso-
much as you seem to have forgotten your old college ; for
you were in Oxford last act, and did not vouchsafe us
a visit. The last year I wrote a letter to you, showing
how unfortunate our college has been by reason of the late
wars, and the dreadful fire in London ; besides, you have
printed several books, and not bestowed one of them upon
our college library ; these things I thought fit to signify
248 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
unto you, to make you sensible that we did expect more
kindness from a gentleman of your parts and ingenuity :
you may resent as you please, they are intended out of a
respect to you, as some time a member of our college, from
him that is
Your friend and servant,
Thomas Good.
John Evelyn to Dr. Good.
Sir,
The letter which was left at my house some time
since, has been so little out of my thoughts, that I have
ever since placed it so in my study as seldom there has
passed a day, when I have been at home (which indeed
has been very seldom, in regard of much business taking
me almost continually from thence for more than these
two years past), wherein I have not looked on the inscrip-
tion as a monitor, obliging me to give you an account of
it ; and that I have not hitherto done it was not out of
any forgetfulness, but because I could not do it so effectually
as I desired, by reason of some inconvenient circumstances
which I have ever since, and do still lie under ; there being
due to me little less than 2000/., most of it for rent, which
you may believe is no small disorder to me and my family,
who have little other dependence. It is not to every one
that I would discover this infirmity, but I assure you it has
been the only cause why I answered not your letter, having
it still in my resolution to gratify your patience so soon as
I was in some handsomer condition. This, as I am a
Christian, has been the cause of my remissness ; which I
cannot yet be so disingenuous as not to acknowledge a
fault, and, indeed, want of good manners in me, compli-
cated, as you justly reproach me, with my passing by you
lately at Oxford without waiting upon you. I have only
to say for that, that unless it were for a gentleman of
Magdalen College, who was sick, I was not at liberty to
make one visit all the time of ray stay, tied as I was to
attend to those ladies with whom I came down, not for my
pleasure, but business at the assizes at Northampton,
which hurried me out of the town when I had resolved to
wait upon you and make this apology. As to the books
1675-6.] JOHN EVELYN. 249
which I have written, I never sent any one that I can tell
of, but what were required of me expressly ; for though I
have had the vanity to publish, and to think some of them
might be useful to persons of my little force, I did not
think them considerable enough to make any public pre-
sent of. The honour they have done me in marking them
in the Bodleian Catalogue was not only beside my expecta-
tion, but beyond my merit or ambition.
Thus, Sir, I have endeavoured to reply to the various
periods of your letter with all truth and sincerity ; the
reproaches you give me are but what indeed I deserve, nor
will I farther extenuate the causes of them. I am only
sorry that the posture of my affairs does not permit me
to make the college a handsome present.
I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble and faithful servant,
J. Evelyn.*
Dr. Thomas Good to John Evelyn.
Baliol College, Oxfwd, 2nd March, 1675-6.
Worthy Sir,
I do not remember that there was one syllable in
my late letter tending to your reproach : it is true I
imputed a piece of unkindness to you in passing by your
old college and your old friend unsaluted, for which you
have made ample satisfaction by your apology, and have
given a sufficient testimony that you have not forgotten
the place of your education by your free and liberal
remembrance of us, for which be pleased to accept of this
return of our hearty thanks; and, notwithstanding your
modest expressions concerning your ingenious books, if you
shall vouchsafe to bestow them upon our library, you will
very much oblige our whole society, and especially.
Your very thankful and humble servant,
Thomas Good.
* Evelyn has endorsed this letter (which is without date) as follows : " I
now sent him by Dr. Crouch 20^., which was much more than Dr. Good
expected, as I since understood from him,"
250 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Dr, John Fell [Bishop of Oxford) to John Evelyn.
April 26, 1676.
Sir,
We must never forget the obligation which my
Lord Marshal has laid upon the university in the donation
of his ^farbles;* and, while we remember that, cannot
choose to bear in mind your great kindness in that aflfair.
Having at last finished the account of his and our other
monuments, they are all dedicated to my Lord, and would
be presented to him by the mediation of the same person
who was so instrumental in the gift of them. The bearer
hereof is the editor, by whose industry and care the work
was done ; and he is ordered by Mr. Vice Chancellor, in
the name of the university, to present you with a copy, as
a testimony of the sense they have of your favour to them.
This is all that I have at present to trouble you with,
adding my wishes of all health to you,
I remain, Sir, &c.,
John Oxon.
Anne, Countess of Sunderland, to John Evelyn.
February 11, 1678.
I AM most confident of your friendly wishes, and
value them extremely. For this honour the King has done
my Lord,t I cannot think it worth the rejoicing much at as
times now are ; I have else reason to be glad for what you
mention ; I could say much to you of my thoughts of this
matter, but it is my waiting day : I pray God to direct my
Lord, and prosper him to the good of his country, and to
God's glory ; pray for him and me, and
I am sincerely your friend,
A. SUNDEELAND.
* See ante, p. 198—200. AH the circumstances of the gift are detailed
in the Diary, vol. ii. pp. 29 — 31. Mr, Howard was now Lord Howard.
He was created baron in 1669, and succeeded as sixth Duke of Norfolk in
1677. For private circumstances connected with his life which gave great
offence to Evelyn, see Diary, vol. ii. pp. 65, and 1 1 8.
t Lord Sunderland was appointed Secretary of State at this time.
1678.] JOHN EVELYN. 251
Anne, Countess of Sunderland, to John Evelyn.
March 3, 1678.
I BELIEVE the news of the Duke and Duchess being
gone will surprise you, as it does other people; the King has
declared that he commanded his brother to retire. I
beseech God it may produce the effects hoped for from it.
I am heartily grieved for poor Lady S., who has gone with
them, it is so bad weather. I thought myself obliged, on
all accounts, to tell you this by letter, which should be
longer, but I am not well.
Your very sincere friend,
A. Sunderland.
Anne, Countess of Sunderland, to John Evelyn.
Whitehall, 2Qth October, 1678.
I CAN never want inclination to give you any satisfac-
tion in my power, but there is yet very little discovery made.
On Saturday the Commons made an address to the King to
banish all the Catholics to twenty miles from London,
which was favourably answered. There were named to go
to-night to visit the prisoners in Newgate, Lord Treasurer,
Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Essex, Lord Clarendon, and the
Bishop of London, in order to examine them, and to
report to the House ; but they could not learn any thing
of them; found Coleman very insolent, and not at all
inclined to enlighten them. They are to go again to-day,
to try for better success. This day the two Houses were
much alarmed with Sir Edward Rich, of Lincolnshire,
coming when they were sitting, and bidding them begone, or
they would all be blown up ; upon which there was search
made, but nothing found, and he looked upon as a mad-
man. The Commons sent up to the Lords to join with
them in making all pa^Jists incapable of sitting in either
House, but as yet they have done nothing in it. There is
a strange consternation amongst all sorts of people. I
beseech God to fit us to bear all the sad things we have in
prospect prepared for us. Madame Mazarin was named
in the House of Commons to-day for one of the Pope's
252 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
emissaries : 'twere to be wished that assembly would stick
to the weightier coucerns of our laws and religion, but God
knows what is best for us. When there is any thing new,
assure youi'self you shall hear from yours very sincerely,
A. Sunderland.
Anne, Countess of Sunderland, to John Evelyn.
2oUi December, 1678.
I SHOULD think I was mighty happy were it in my
power to show you any friendship ; till it is, accept of what
I can do, which is very small, but very willingly performed
by me. I think, when you left, the business of my Lord
Treasurer was afoot, which proceeded to an impeachment,
containing six articles : the two first, which they built most
upon, was what Mr. Montague's letters furnished, which
they divided into two articles, that went under the name
of high treason. The treating with the King of France for
peace, as they must suppose without the knowledge of the
King, because these letters bear date the 25th, and the
King's revealed will, declared in Parliament the 20th, was
the reason to go on with a thorough war with France ;
this they say is treason, and therefore impeached him of
traitorously to have assumed the regal power to himself by
treaties of peace and war by his own counsel : the other
was about the breach of act of Parliament in keeping up
the army. These were the two of treason ; the others are
misdemeanors, of great kind, too long to Avrite : but it was
their intent the putting in treason to have obliged the
Lords to have committed him, and then made no question,
but to have proved all upon him ; but after a long debate
it was not found treason according to the act, and there-
fore the Lords would not allow of sequestering him of his
place, and his Lordship does yet keep the King's ear.
Between you and I, I fear he will find he is ill-advised if
he thinks to carry it with a high hand ; for I believe he
will prove a wounded deer, and be very unserviceable to
the King in the place he is in : this is, at least, the opinion
of wise persons. To-morrow, they say, will be a hot day,
and show us much. I am told they mean to move him an
enemy to the country, and that they will never give money
1678.] JOHN EVELYN". 253
while he has the managing of it : if they do that, God
knows what will follow, and how far he will be able in such
case to carry things. It is out of my province to speak
on these matters, but what ought I not to do to save one
to whom I have such great obligations. As to the plot, it
looks as if God Almighty would bring it all out, whether
we will or not, and show us our wilful blindness. The
day you Avent, Bedloe cast his eye upon a man that
followed his coach, and on a sudden cried out that they
should lay hold of him, for that was the man that he had
described to the two Houses, and that he could never find :
upon which the man was seized, loaded with chains, and
sent to Newgate. Bedloe says, swearing, he was one that
killed Godfrey, and that, if he would confess, he could
make great discoveries ; upon which the Lords obtained his
pardon of the King, and went on Monday with it to the
dungeon, where they were a considerable time, my Lord
Winchester, Lord Essex, Lord Shaftesbury, Lord Grey.
At their coming away the King went to my Lord Win-
chester, and asked him what they had discovered; he
answered, not any thing, that the fellow seemed to be an
idle fellow, and contradicted himself: this very well satis-
fied the King : but they had entered into a solemn oath
not to discover. On Monday they obtained a summons
from Secretary Williamson to search Somerset House,
where they found all the people, save one, that he had told
them, and seized them. This made a great noise yester-
day; and this fellow, who is a silversmith, and used to clean
the plate of the Queen's Chapel, was brought before the
King and Council, and upon search they are now satisfied
the murder was done at Somerset House. The King himself
begins to believe it ; my Lord Bellasis is still named to be
the chief in it by this fellow, too; several other very
weighty circumstances he told, and several other persons
he has named in private to a committee of the House of
Commons last night, who were writing what he said two
hours at the prison. One thing more I must not omit,
which is said, that in the search at Somerset House after
the men this fellow accused, they found between fifty and
sixty Irish and other priests, but not having a warrant to
seize them, they could not. I assure you of my sincere
friendship, and am your attached servant,
A. Sunderland.
254) CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Mr. Henry Green (o Florist) to John Evelyn.
June 2ith, 1679.
Honoured Sir,
You may remember, about August last, there was
a person with you to desire your opinion about Imbibition
of seeds. He adventured to discourse with you about
improvements, and entreated your directions about what
at that present might tend to best account. You have
generously pleased to express yourself on some particulars,
and referred him to the Reverend Doctor Beale as one
fully acquainted with all the parts of husbandry, and of
a most communicative spirit. I addressed that worthy
divine, and have found him fully to answer the excellent
character you gave of him. I have told him, since, you (for
whom he has so high an honour) gave me encouragement
to apply to him for advice, which he has nobly obliged me
with beyond my expression. I lately hinted, if he had
any thing to convey to you, I would be his Avilling mes-
senger, and put it into your hands, and pay you my
humblest duty and acknowledgments for recommending
me to so incomparable a master, to whom I owe more than
to any man living. I write these few lines to be left with
you, together with a letter from the Doctor, in case I should
be so unhappy as to miss of you at home, and for your
above mentioned signal favour I return you my heartiest
thanks. I am, worthiest sir.
Your most humble servant,
Henry Green.
John Evelyn to the Countess of Ossory.
Wdtihall, 5th Jwne, 1680.
Madam,
I cannot account myself to have worthily dis-
charged my duty to the memory of my noble Lord, without
deeply condoling the loss your Ladyship has sustained in
the death of that illustrious person : never did a great man
go off this earthly stage with more regret and universal
sorrow; never had Prince a more loyal subject, never nation
a more public loss; and how great my own were in
1681.] JOHN EVELYN. 255
particular, the uninterrupted obligations of above thirty
years (joined with a most condescending and peculiar friend-
ship) may serve to declare, that nothing could have happened
to me more calamitous. But all this does but accumulate to
your Ladyship's affliction, which were indeed deplorable,
had you not, besides the great and heroic actions of his
life, the glorious name he has left behind, the hopeful
branches that remain to imitate his virtues, the consolation,
above all, of his being safe, where he has received a crown
brighter than any earthly Prince. It was my duty (as well
as honour) to be with him night and day till I closed his
eyes, and to join in those holy offices which were so devoutly
performed by the Bishop of St. Asaph to the last article,
and during all his Lordship's sickness ; which was passed
through with such Christian patience and resignation, as
that alone ought to give your Ladyship exceeding comfort.
I am sure it does to me; and your Ladyship is to bless
Almighty God for it, who after so many honourable hazards
in this wicked world, would have him to a better, and that
he is departed hence as a great man and a true Christian
should do, though for the present to our infinite loss. And
now. Madam, I should beg pardon for entertaining you
so long on this mournful occasion, did I not assure myself
that the testimony I give your Ladyship of the religious
and pious circumstances of his sickness, would afford you
some consolation, as well as to show how sincerely devoted
I was to his Lordship's service, how much obliged for his
constant and generous friendship to me, and how much
I am. Madam, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. Morley [Bishop of Winchester).
1 Jvm, 1681.
* * * * Father Maimbourg has had the impudence to
publish at the end of his late Histoire du Calvinisme, a
pretended letter of the late Duchess of York,* intimating
the motives of her deserting the Church of England;
amongst other things to attribute it to the indifference, to
* This letter may be found in a small collection of " Letters of Eminent
Persons," 2 vols, 12mo.
256 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
call it no worse, of those two bishops, upon whose advice
she wholly depended as to the direction of her conscience,
and points of controversy. 'Tis the universal discourse
that your Lordship is one of those bishops she mentions,
if at least the letter be not suppositious ; knowing you to
have been the most domestic in the family, and one M'hom
her Highness resorted to in all her doubts and spiritual
concerns, not only during her former circumstances, but
all the time of her greatness to the very last. It is there-
fore humbly and earnestly desired (as well as indeed
expected) amongst all that are concerned for our religion,
and the great and worthy character which your Lordship
bears, that your Lordship would do right to it, and publish
to all the world how far you are concerned in this pre-
tended charge, and to vindicate yourself and our Church
from what this bold man would make the world believe to
the prejudice of both. I know your Lordship will be
curious to read the passage yourself, and do what becomes
you upon this signal occasion, God having placed you in a
station where you have no great one's frowns to fear or
flatter, and given you a zeal for the truth and for his
glory. "With this assui*ance I humbly beg your Lordship's
blessing.*
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.f
Sayea-Court, 5 Jime, 1681.
Sir,
I have been both very sorry and very much
concerned for you since your Northern voyage, as knowing
nothing of it 'till you were embarked (though I saw you
so few days before), and that the dismal and astonishing
accident was over, which gave me apprehensions and a
mixture of passions not really to be expressed 'till I was
* On the margin of this letter is the following note by Evelyn : " This
letter was soon followed with tlie Bishop's full vindication pubhshed in print."
The latter was entitled an " Answer to a Letter written by a Ilomish
Priest : together with the Letters themselves." Dr. Morley also published
a " Letter to Ann, Duchess of York, a few months before her death."
+ This letter was written after the shipwreck in which the Duke of York
escaped so narrowly, as he was retuiiiing out of Scotland.
.1681.] JOHN EVELYN. 257
assured of your safety, and I gave God thanks for it with
as much sincerity as any friend you have alive. ^Tis sadly
true there were a great many poor creatures lost, and some
gallant persons with them; but there are others worth
hundreds saved, and Mr. Pepys was to me the second
of those some ; and if I could say more to express my joy
for it, you should have it under the hand, and from the
heart of. Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Mr. William London, at Barbados.
Sayes-C<mrt, 27 Sept., 1681.
Sir,
I find myself so exceedingly obliged for the great
civility of your letter (abating only for the encomiums
you are pleased to bestow upon me, and which are in no
sort my due), that having nothing to return you but my
thanks and acknowledgments, I was not to delay that
small retribution, for so many useful and excellent notices,
as both your letter and the papers enclosed have com-
municated me. I have, indeed, been formerly more
curious in your culture of trees and plants, and blotted a
great deal of paper with my crude observations (and some
of them I have had the vanity to publish), but they do in
no degree amount to the accurateness of your design,
which I cannot but applaud, and wish you all the success
so excellent an undertaking deserves. I do not know that
ever I saw a more pertinent and exact enumeration of
particulars, and if it please God you live to accomplish
what you have drawn the scheme of, I shall not doubt to
pronounce it the most absolute and perfect history that we
have anywhere extant of either our own, or other planta-
tions. So that I cannot but highly encourage, and augur
you all the prosperity imaginable ; and I shall not fail, in
order to it, to impart your papers to the Royal Society,
who I am very confident will be ready to do you any
service; although I do not see that your design is any
where defective. And I persuade myself that you will be
curious to adorn your work with true and handsome
draughts of the animals, plants, and other things that you
258 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londok,
describe in the natural part. This I am bold to mention,
because most of those authors (especially English) who
have given us their relations, fill them with such lame and
imperfect draughts and pictures, as are rather a disgrace
than ornament to their books, they having no talent that
way themselves, and taking no course to procure such as
can design ; and if now and then you sprinkle here and
there a prospect of the countries by the true and natural
landscape, it would be of infinite satisfaction, and imprint
an idea of those places you pass through, which are so
strange to us, and so desirable. Gaspar Barlaeus (in his
elegant History of Brazil) has given an incomparable
instance of this : in which work the landscapes of divers
parts of that country are accurately exhibited and graven
in copper, besides the chorographical maps and other
illustrations : but, sir, I beg your pardon for mentioning
a thing, which I am sure you have well thought of,
and will provide for. In your account of plants, trees,
fruits, &c., there are abundance to which we are here
utter strangers, and therefore cannot but be desirable to
the curious. I am told there is newly planted in Barbados
an orange of a most prodigious size ; and such an improve-
ment of the China as by far exceeds these we have from
Portugal, which are of late years much degenerated. As
for flowers, I think I have heard that the narcissus
tuberosus grows wild, and in plenty with 30U. I have not
the impudence to beg for myself any of those rarities you
mention, but wish with all my heart I had anything of my
own worthy your acceptance. I had at the beginning of
last spring some foreign and exotic seeds, which I imparted
to my friends, and some I sowed and set, but with very
little success; and, as rightly you complain, there is no
trust in our mercenary seedsmen of London for anything.
In the meantime concerning nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves,
and those other aromatics you so reasonably covet, I fear
it will be a very difficult province to obtain such of them
from the East Indies, they being mostly in possession of
the Hollanders, who are (you know) a jealous people, and
as I have been informed, make it capital to transport so
much as a single nutmeg (I mean such a one as being set
would produce a tree) out of their country. The late
Sir John Cox, who had often been at Nova Batavia, told me
1681.] ' JOHN EVELYN. 259
he could not procure one handful but such as ^rere effete
and deprived of their sprouting principle, upon any terms ;
much less could he obtain a plant : and yet I have been
told by a confident broker about the Custom-house (whose
name occurs not), and who has himself been in the Indies
more than once (pretending to curiosities), that he brought
away two or three plants of the true nutmeg tree belonging
to a certain Dutch merchant ; I suppose for the learned
Dr. Hunting of that country, who has brought up both
nutmeg and cinnamon plants in his garden in Holland,
but to what improvement I cannot tell. It were not to
be despaired but that some subtile and industrious person
(who made it his business), might overcome this difficulty
among some of their plantations, and why not ? as well as
that a countryman of ours, who some years since brought
home the first heads of saffron out of Greece (whence it
was death to transport it) in the hollow head or top of his
pilgrim staff, if what our HoUingshed writes be true. Some
such contrivance or accident will doubtless at last enrich
our western and propitious climate with those precious
deficients ; as it has done sugar, ginger, indigo, and other
beneficial spices and drugs ; and I know not whether the
Jamaica pepper be not already comparable to many of
those we have enumerated. I am sure it gratifies the
taste and smell with most agreeable qualities, and httle
inferior to the oriental cinnamon. There is a walnut in
Virginia whose nuts prosper very well with us, but we
want store of them. It is, in the meantime, deplorable
that the Bermudas cedar, of all others the most excellent
and odoriferous, is (as I am told) almost worn out for
want of propagation : if it will thrive in other countries,
'tis pity but it should be universally cultivated. But,
sir, I tire you. The Hortus Malabaricus^ presents us
with the most stupendous and unheard-of plants in that
elaborate work ; the cuts being in copper, are certainly
(of any pubhshed) the most accurately done ; nor are their
shapes and descriptions less surprising. Sir, the Royal
Society have lately put their Repository into an excellent
method, and it every day increases through the favour and
benevolence of sundry benefactors, whose names are grate-
fully recorded. If anything incur to you of curious (as
* Published at Amsterdam in twelve volumes folio.
s 2
260 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
certainly there daily do, innumerable), you will greatly
oblige that assembly of virtuosi in communicating any
productions of the places you travelled through, upon the
occasion of the retiu-n of vessels from those parts. The
particulars they collect are animals and insects of all sorts,
their skins and skeletons, fruits, stones, shells, swords,
guns, minerals, and whatever nature produces in her vast
and comprehensive bosom. Sir, your letter came to me
from Mr. Harwell, the 23d of Sept., and by the same hand
and favour I return you the hearty thanks, and acknow-
ledgments of, Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.*
Sayes-Court, Dec. 6, 1681.
Sir,
In compliance with your commands, I have already
transmitted to you the two large sea-charts, and now I send
you the sheets I have long since blotted with the Dutch
War, for which I should now make another apology (besides
its preface) were it not that you well understand the pre-
judices I lay under at that time, by the inspection of
my Lord Treasurer CliflFord, who could not endure I should
lenify my style, when a war with Holland was the subject ;
nor with much patience suflfer that France should be
suspected, though in justice to truth, as evident as the
day, I neither would, nor honestly could, conceal (what
all the world might see) how subdolously they dealt and
made us their property all along. The interception of De
Lyonne*s letters to his master, p. 266, is sufficient to make
this good : and I am plainly astonished it should not long
since have opened our statesmen's eyes ; unless it be, that
we design to truckle under France, and seek industriously
the ruin of our country. You will, sir, pardon this severe
reflection, since I cannot think of it without perfect indig-
nation. As to the compiler's part, it is not easy to imagine
the infinite fardlcs of papers, treaties, declarations, rela-
tions, journals, original letters, and other volumes of print
• The original of this letter is in the possession of Samuel Pepys Cockerel],
Esq., who kindly contributed it, with several other letters by Evelyn.
1681,] JOHN EVELYN, 261
and writing, &c., which I was obliged to read and peruse
(furnished, and indeed imposed on me, from the secretaries
of state and others) for this small attempt, and that which
was to follow. I am only sorry that I was so hasty to
return some pieces to my Lord Treasurer, which I might
honestly have kept, and with better conscience than his
carrying them away to Devonshire, unde nulli retrorsum.
I had drawn a scheme of the entire work down to the
Treaty of Breda, and provided the materials ; but the late
Lord Treasurer Danby * cutting me short as to some just
pretensions of another nature I had to his more particular
kindness, I cared not to oblige an ungrateful age; and
perhaps the world is delivered by it from a fardle of
impertinences.
Clifford (his predecessor) was, with all his other imper-
fections, a generous man, and, I verily believe, of clean
hands; I am sure I was obliged to him: the other had
been sometimes so to me and mine, but that is all past.
Clifford had great failings, but was grateful and firm to his
friend.
As to your other queries, I have not anything relating
to the Prize Office ; and for that discourse wherein I did
attempt to show how far a gentleman might become
learned by the only assistance of the modern languages
(written at the request of Sir Samuel Tuke for the Duke
of Norfolk), to my grief, I fear I never shall recover it ;
for, sending it to the person I named sometime since, he
tells me he cannot find it ; and so, for aught I see, it is
lost. There is a list in it of authors, and a method of
reading them to advantage, besides something in the dis-
course which would not have displeased you ; nor was it
without some purpose of one day publishing it, because
it was written with a virtuous design of provoking
our court fops, and for encouragement of illustrious
persons who have leisure and inclinations to cultivate
their minds beyond a farce, a horse, a whore, and a dog,
* Thomas Viscount Dumblaine, afterwards Earl of Danby and Duke of
Leeds. He married the Lady Bridget, second daughter of Montague Bertie,
Earl of Lindsey, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and died at Easton
in Northamptonshire, the seat of his grandson, the Lord Lempster, on his
journey to his house in Yorkshire, July ^26, 1712," in the 81st year of
his age.
268 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loiroow,
■which, with very little more, are the confines of the know-
ledge and discourse of most of our fine gentlemen and
beaux. I will desire Sir James to make another search
for it, when next I see.
In the mean time the particulars which here I send you
are.
The battle of Lepanto : a description of the Armada in
[15] 88, I suppose authentic.
A paper written in French touching the severity of their
Marine Laws.
Trajan's Column, with Alphonso Ciaconius's notes, re-
ferring to the bas-relief by the figures. Such as concerns
ships and gallics, &c., you will find by the figures 57, 243,
260, 153, 24, 236, 239, 152, 155, and especially 303, 235,
where he speaks of copper or brass instead of iron-work ;
and the best season for felling of timber ; and there is, as
to other notices, subject for a world of erudition beyond
what Ciaconius has touched, which would deserve an
ampler volume.
A Discourse concerning the Fishery and Duty of the
Flag.
A large volume of Sir B,. Browne's Dispatches from
1641 to 1644, &c., during his public ministry and character
in the French court. Besides which I have two folios more
that continue it longer.
I also send you the Journal of Martin Frobisher and
Captain Fen ton.
That of Drake I cannot find as yet, so many papers and
things there are to be removed and turned over in my con-
fused study.
Item, a Map of an Harbour, whose name I find not
to it.
Also an old Map of a Sea-fight.
Also a packet of original Letters belonging to the former
of my Lord Leicesters, in number fourteen, which are aU
I have remaining.
"With a Declaration of the old Prince of Orange, William
of Nassau, who was assassinated at Delft.
The Earl of Leicester's Will.
Another packet of Letters and other matters, and Trans-
actions of State relating to the late times, in number
eighty-eight, and of which I have thousands more that you
1681.] JOHN EVELYN. 263
may command sight of, but these I think are most
material.
A particular of wages due to the Deputy, army, and
other state officers and affairs relating to Ireland, anno
1587, 1588.
A packet of thirty-eight papers containing Instructions
and matters of State to several public ministers abroad, &c.
Item, another packet of thirty-three original letters to
and from great persons during the late rebellion here.
A Scheme of the action of the Hollanders at Chatham,
1667, when they burnt our ships, and blocked up the
Thames.*
Order of Council of State (then so called) for the appre-
hension of Charles Stewart, his present Majesty, so named
by the regicides.
Lastly, a Relation of his Majesty^s action and escape at
"Worcester, when he came out of Scotland with his army,
being as far as Sir Richard Browne wrote out of the
Queen Mother^s letters at Paris ; that which he took from
his Majesty^s own dictating (when he, after that escape,
came into France at Paris) was sent to Mons. Renodaut,
and was published by him in the Weekly Extraordinary,
Anno 1651, where you'll find it in French among the
volumes of his Gazettes. I am sorry the original was not
retrieved from him.
Thus, Sir, you see how diligent I have been since I came
home, to answer your queries, as I shall in all other your
commands as far as is in the power of.
Sir, your, &c.
These papers,t maps, letters, books, and particulars,
■when you have done with, be pleased to take your own
time in returning.
* This " Scheme" is a pen and ink sketch by Evelyn, preserved with
Pepys' Official Correspondence in the Bodleian Library. An accurate fac-
simile copy was made, and published m Pepys' Diary and Memoirs.
+ Evelyn has here written in the margin — ^ Which I afterwards never
asked of him."
264 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Dr. Edward Tyson to John Evelyn.
London, Ibth March, 1682.
Honoured Sir,
I lately received the enclosed from Dr. Plot at
Oxford, who desired me to transmit it to you, as also to
acquaint you that he intends to come to town on the 22nd,
against which time it is desired, if it may be, that the
answers to the proposed queries of Mr. Anthony Wood
may be ready. I had hopes that I might have seen you at
the Society, but not having an opportunity of delivering it
to you there, I was informed it might safely reach your
hands this way ; which, when it does, it is only farther
to present you with Dr. Plot's service, as also of
Your most humble servant,
Edward Tyson.
John Evelyn to the Bishop of Oxford {Doctor Fell).
Sayea-CouH, 19th March, 1681-82.
My Lord,
It cannot but be evident to your Reverend
Lordship, to how great danger and fatal consequences the
* Histoire Critique,' not long since published in French by
Pere Simon, and now lately translated (though but ill
translated) into English, exposes not only the Protestant
and whole Reformed Churches abroad, but (what ought to
be dearer to us) the Church of England at home, which
with them acknowledges the Holy Scriptures alone to be
the canon and rule of faith ; but which this bold man not
only labours to unsettle, but destroy. From the operation
I find it already begins to have amongst divers whom I
converse with, especially the young men, and some not so
young neither, I even tremble to consider what fatal mis-
chief this piece is like to create, whilst they do not look
upon the book as coming from some daring wit, or young
Lord Rochester revived, but as the work of a learned
author, who has the reputation also of a sober and judicious
person. And it must be acknowledged that it is a master-
piece in its kind; that the man is well studied in the
W81— 82.] JOHN EVELYN. 265
oriental tongues, and has carried on his project with a
spirit and address not ordinary amongst critics ; though,
after all is done, whether he be reaUy a Papist, Socinian,
or merely a Theist, or something of all three, is not easy
to discover; but this is evident — as for the Holy Scriptures,
one may make what one will of them, for him. He tells
the world we can establish no doctrine or principles upon
them ; and then, are not we of the Keformed Religion in a
blessed condition ! For the love of God, let our Univer-
sities, my Lord, no longer remain thus silent : it is the
cause of God, and of our Church ! Let it not be said,
your Chairs take no notice of a more pernicious plot than
any that yet has alarmed us. Whilst everybody lets it
alone, men think there 's nothing to be said against it ;
and it hugely prevails already, and you will be sensible of
its progress when it is too late to take off the reproach.
I most humbly therefore implore your Reverend Lordship
to consider of it seriously ; that the pens and the Chairs
may openly and on all occasions assert and defend the
common cause, and that Oxford may have the honour of
appearing the first in the field. For from whom, my Lord,
should we expect relief, if not from you the Fathers of the
Church, and the Schools of the Prophets ? It is worthy
the public concern to ward the deadly blows which sap the
roots, and should by no means be abandoned to hazard,
or the feeble attempts of any single champion, who, if
worsted, would but add to the triumph of our enemies.
Papists and Atheists. My Lord, he who makes bold to
transmit this to your Lordship, though he be no man of
the Church, is yet a son of the Church, and greatly con-
cerned for her ; and though he be not learned, he con-
verses much with books, and men that are as well at Court
as in town and the country ; and thinks it his duty to
give your Lordship an account of what he hears and sees,
and is expected and called for from you, who are the
superintendents and watchmen that Christ has set over
his Church, and appointed to take care of his flock. Sir
John Marsham's book* should likewise be considered
* " Chronicus Canon ^gyptiacus, Hebraicus, et Grsecus, cum Disquisi-
tionibus Historicis etCriticis," fol. Lond. 1672. Marsham had travelled into
France, Italy, and part of Germany; he was a lawyer, and had held the oflfice
of one of the Six Clerks in Chancery. He suffered, during the Civil Wars, as
266 CORRESPONDENCE OF [iX)NDO»,
farther than as yet it seems to have been, and the
obnoxious passages in it not put off to prefaces and acci-
dental touches only; whilst neither to that, nor yet to
Spinosa (made also vulgar), we have had any thing pub-
lished of express, or equal force in a just volume, fitted
either for domestic or foreign readers. I know that the
late Bishop of Chester,* Dr. Stillingfleet, Huetius, and
some few others, have said abundantly to confute our
modern Atheists ; but as these start new and later notions,
or rally and reinforce the scattered enemy, we should, I
think, march as often out to meet and encounter them.
For the men of this curious and nicer age do not consider
■what has been said or written formerly, but expect some-
thing fresh, that may tempt and invite them to consider,
that for all the bold appearances of the enemy, they are
no stronger than heretofore, and can do us no more hurt,
unless we abandon and betray ourselves and give up the
cause. It is not, my Lord, sufficient to have beaten down
the head of the hydra once, but as often as they rise to use
the club, though the same weapon be used, the same thing
repeated ; it refreshes the faint, and resolves the doubtful,
and stirs up the slothful, and is what our adversaries con-
tinually do to keep up and maintain their own party,
whenever they receive the least rebuke from us :—fas est
et ab hoste doceri. Nor, my Lord, whilst I am writing
this, do I at all doubt of your Lordship's great wisdom,
zeal, and religious care to obviate and prevent this and all
other adversaries of our most holy faith, as built upon the
Sacred Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief comer-stone. But if the
excess of my affection for the University (which I have
sometimes heard perstringed, as not taking the alarm so
concernedly upon these occasions) have a little too far
transported me, I most humbly supplicate your Lordship's
pardon for my presumption, and for my zeal and good
a partisan of King Charles the First, but on the Restoration was restored to
his office, and soon after created a Baronet. He was one of the greatest
antiquaries and most learned ^Titers of his time. Father Simon calls him
the Great Maisbam of England. He wrote the Preface to the second volume
of the Monasticon Anglicanum, besides the Diathba above mentioned. Sir
John was ancestor of the present Earl of Romney. ,
• Dr. WUldns.
1682.] JOHN EVELYN. 267
wishes to the prosperity of our Sion, your Lordship^s
blessing,
Who am, my Ueverend Lord,
Yours, &c.
The Reverend Thomas Creech^ to John Evelyn.
Oxford, Bih, 1682.
Sir,
This brings you my most humble thanks for
your kind and obliging letter, which discovers a noble
temper, and truly generous, that can bestow praise and
commendation when my vainest hopes could scarce expect
pardon. You were pleased to direct to me Fellow of
Wadham College ; a good-natured mistake, and I believe
you wish that my condition: but I can boast no such
thing, being yet a boy scarce able to reckon twenty, and
just crept into a bachelor's degree. I am sensible how
much I want of being correct, nor would the necessary
exercise of the House, or my own severer studies, permit
me to take longer time than two months for the com-
pleting it so that the shortness of the time and the
weakness of my own genius, make me justly fear that it
wants not its imperfections and lies too open to censure.
Your charitable hand may remedy this, and if your more
useful studies would permit you to look it over and observe
the faults, none should more gratefully acknowledge the
benefit than. Sir, your most obliged humble servant,
Thomas Creech.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.
Sayes-Court, 19 Sept. 1682,
Sir,
In answer to your queries, I will most ingenu-
ously declare my thoughts upon second meditation since I
* Creech was at this time nearly three-and-twenty, so that his plea in
abatement for the errors of his ' Lucretius ' (to the second edition of which,
already in preparation, the letter refers) is somewhat overstated on the
score of juvenility. He took his master's degree in the year following
the date of this letter, and obtained a fellowship, not at Wadham, but at
All-souls.
268 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
published my Treatise of Commerce, and what I have been
taught, but was not there to speak in public without
offence. I will therefore reply in the method you seem to
hint, and then say what I have concerning our pretence
to dominion on the seas. To the first :
Boxhomius has written a history of the Hanseatic
Towns, where you will find in what condition and credit
Holland was for traffic and commerce, and in the Danish
Annals. It should be inquired when the English staple
■was removed into Brabant, being 100 years since, and
now fixed at Dort. How far forth Charles the Fifth pursued
or minded his interest at sea ? As to Henry the 4th of
France, 'tis evident he was not negligent of his interest
there, by his many projects for trade, and performances at
Marseilles ; all that Richelieu and his successors in that
ministry produced was projected by their Great Henry, as
is plain out of Claude B. Morisot his preface. And now :
To our title of Dominion and the Fishery (which has
made such a noise in this part of the world), 1 confess I
did lately seek to magnify, and assert it as becomes me
pro hie et nunc (to speak with logicians), and as the
circumstances you know then required. But between
friends (and under the rose as they say), to tell you really
my thoughts, when such like topics were used sometimes
in Parliament, 'tis plain they were passed over there
upon important reasons. To begin with the very first.
Supposing the old Britons did prohibit foreigners to come
into their country, what infers that to any claim of
dominion in the Narrow, but a jealousy rather over their
proper coasts ? Nor read we that they ever practised it
over the Gauls. The Chinese, we find, forbade all to enter
their country : are they, therefore. Lords of the Oriental
seas? As for King Arthur (abating what is fabulous, viz.
his legendary dominion) the Comes Litoris Saxonici, &c.,
stretched to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland,
infers either too much or nothing. Have we, therefore,
any right of claim to those realms at present ? Why then
to the seas ? Again, admit the most, may not dominion
be lost or extinguished ? Was not his rather a momentary
conquest or excursion, rather than an established dominion?
Was it not lost to the Danes? Had they not all the
characters of domination imaginable — Lords of our seasj
1682.] JOHN EVELYN. 269
Lords of our shores too, and the tribute of Danegelt from
England and Ireland Ijoth? If ever there were a real
dominion in the world, the Danes must be yielded to have
had it : and if their title cannot be extinguished by subse-
quent revolutions, I greatly question whether ours will
ever be evinced. In short, the story of King Edgar is
monstrously romantic, and the pretended deed I doubt
will appear but spurious. Truly, if foreign chronicles had
been as much stuffed with the renown of this prince as
with King Arthur, I should give more credit to it. In
the mean time, what they report of Athelred is totally
against us, since 'tis plain he paid the Danegelt as a tribute
to them, and settled it to the end. One may query
whether the Scots seas, and Scotland to boot, be not a fee
to England ; for with as much reason we might challenge
it, if the producing rolls, records, and acts of Parliament,
and of Statutes to that purpose were of any importance;
because we can show more to the purpose than in the
other case : but how would then that nation take it, and
what become of their laws about fishing? 'Tis declared
in our laws that we are the Lords of the Four Seas, and so
adjudged in our courts, as to those born upon those seas ;
and yet the Parliament of Scotland can impose a tax on
our fishermen, which is a shrewd argument against us.
Who ever read that the Kings of England prohibited any
to fish on the coast of Scotland ? Or charged them with
usurpation for taking toll and custom for the herring-
fishery ? The truth is, the licences (which I speak of in
my book, from Scarborough) were only to fish on the
Dogger-bank. Such English as were to fish in the Scottish
seas about Orkney, and Shetland, Iceland, and Fero, &c.,
did take licences to fish from the Kings of Norway, at
Bergen and Northbarum; and this jurisdiction and
sovereignty undoubted of the Norwegian Kings, is recog-
nised by our own Parliament in a statute of 8 Hen. 6.
c. 2., and by innumerable treaties betwixt the two crowns,
even within a century of years ; and if so, consider how
feeble a proof is that famous roll pro hominibus Hollandice,
and how it is to be limited in itself (by the history and
occasion that caused it) to the Narrow or Channel only.
'Tis also to be considered that the Danes protested at
Breda, that the cession of the Scots fishery about Orkney
270 CORRESPONDENCE OP [London,
and Shetland was never made to our King James upon his
marriage of Queen Anne (as our tradition is), nor any time
before to any Scottish king; and supposing that there
were any such authentic deed, it were better to fix the
fishery (we contend about) even in the Dutch, than either
permit it to be regulated by the decrees of a Scotch parlia-
ment, or transfer it to that nation. Now as to the great
trade and multitude of English vessels, by the history of
the Hans Towns, their privileges and power in England,
one shall find, that for the bulk our navies consisted
most of hired ships of the Venetians, Genoese, and
Hanseatics, till Queen Elizabeth, though her father Henry
the Eighth had a flourishing fleet. The right of passes,
and petitions thereupon, were formed upon another part
of the Jiis Gentium, than our pretended dominion of the
seas; which (to speak ingenuously) I could never find
recognised expressly in any treaty with foreigners. And to
return to the fishery, that of the Dutch fishing without
licence, the intercursus magnus (so boasted) was a perpetual
treaty, and made as well with all the people as the princes
of Burgundy ; and so as to be obligatory, though they
rejected their governors, as we see most of them did, and
as perhaps they might according to the leeiiis introitus.
And that the Dutch are still, and by Queen Elizabeth
were so declared to be, a pars contrahens, after their revolt
and abjuration of Spain, does as much invalidate that
proceeding of King James, and Charles the First, who
both signed that intercurms, and were in truth included
thereby though they had not signed it.
But besides all this, the nature of prescription would be
inquired into as well when it makes against us, as for us ;
and, therefore, it should be demanded whether Queen
Elizabeth did not first assert the mare liberum in opposition
to the Danes, and whether his present Majesty has not
done it at Jamaica against the Spaniard ; pray consider
the seal of that Admiralty. To speak plain truth : when
I writ that Treatise, rather as a philological exercise, and
to gratify the present circumstances, I could not clearly
satisfy myself in sundry of those particulars, nor find really
that ever the Dutch did pay toll or took licence to fish in
Scotland after the contest, from any solid proofs. Indeed
(as there I relate), they surprised Brown who came to
1682.] JOHN EVELYN. 271
exact it, and detained him in Holland several months ; but
I think they never paid penny for it, though the papers I
have perused speak of an assize herring : nor did I find
that any rent (whereof in my 108th page I calculate the
arrears) for permission to fish, was ever fixed by both
parties ; and so cannot properly be called a settled rent.
This should, therefore, be exquisitely inquired into ; and
perhaps, both for these and many other particulars, a
thorough search in his Majesty's Paper Office may afford
clearer light, if there have any due care been taken to
collect and digest such important matters. As for the
years 1635 and 1687, you cannot but espy an intrigue in
the equipping those formidable fleets ; and that they were
more to awe the French than terrify Holland (see how the
times and interests change ! but no more of that, 'tis now
a tender point) I fancy were no difficult matter to prove ;
and that any licences were taken in those years, I could
never be assured of, that of 1636 being but a single act
of force on some particular men, the States never owning
them in it ; and you know the Admiral Dorp was cashiered
for not quarrelling it with our Northumberland, and
our conduct and licences flatly rejected in 1637, when
Capt. Field came. Lastly :
When King James fixed his chamber, did he not either
renounce the English sovereignty of the seas, or violate
therein his league with Spain (as that nation urged,
pleading that the British seas were territorium domini
regis) ? but he did not the latter, wherefore I am not single
in this declaration. In a word, the entire argument of
this fishery is too controvertible to be too peremptorily
decided by the pen, and upon many other accounts (of
which the plenty and wantonness of our full-fed unfrugal
people, which deters them from hard labour, is not the
least), a project wholly useless as circumstances be, and
therefore might with much more benefit, ease, and facility,
be supplied by increasing our fishery at Newfoundland.
Finally:
As to the commerce in general of this nation. From all
that I could observe during my short being of that noble
and honourable Council, and informing myself as I was
able by books and discourses of experienced persons;
I say, after all this, I considered it a very vain thing to
272 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lohdon,
make any (the most probable, certain, or necessary) pro-
posal about trade, &c. Not that it might not be infinitely
improved, if princes and people did unanimously, and with
a true public spirit, and as our natural advantages prompt
lis, apply themselves honestly and industriously about it ;
but for that, as things now are and have hitherto been
managed since the renowned Queen Elizabeth (for that
encomium I must give her), the whole advantage this
nation receives thereby is evidently carried on more by
ancient methods and the sedulity of private men, than by
any public encouragement ; and as to the present, it cer-
tainly languishes under insupportable difficulties.
And thus, sir, I choose to convey you my second more
digested thoughts, of a point which in your excellent design
and work cannot escape the ample handling as one of the
most considerable, when you come to speak of the import-
ance of our shipping and trade, or pretence of dominion, &c.
And I do it, you see, with all self-denial imaginable (and
not without some reproach), after what I have published
to the contrary ; by which you may conclude how suspicious
wise men should be of other histories and historians too,
however confident and specious soever, unless it were
almost demonstration, and that the authors had no interest
of their own to serve, and were not influenced by their
superiors, or the public cry. Let this ingenuous confes-
sion commute for my faults in that Treatise, and be put
amongst the retractions of.
Sir, yours, &c.
TTie Rev. Thomas Creech to John Evelyn.
Oxford, 6<A May, 1683.
Honoured Sir,
What you have been pleased to read, to like,
and to commend, I now humbly beg you to accept — a
small return, I must confess, for that kindness you have
shown, and for that reputation for which as long as life I
must stand indebted. It comes more confidently to wait
on you than at first, having something that may commend
it since it presents you with your own, and with the most
hearty thanks that gratitude after so great obligations can
1681] JOHN EVELYN. 273
possibly return. I must beg young Mr. Evelyn to accept
one ; and if utmost endeavours can attain it, I hope more
fully to manifest the just respects of, Sir,
Your much obliged and humble servant,
Thomas Creech.
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
Spetchley, lith April, 1684.
The greatness of your civilities occasions you this
trouble, and I don^t know whether I am to make my
apology for it or to beg your pardon. Your kind enter-
tainment at your renowned villa (where you possess all
that can be wished for here) challenges my thanks, and the
further favour of your letter adds a double obligation. Let
this, dear sir, offer what poor return I can make you ; and
entreat of you to receive to yourself and most excellent
Lady, my humble service. I have not yet tried any
experiments out of your papers, but I hope this summer
to give you some account of them. It would be soon
essayed with Mr. Boyle's pump whether or no it may give
such a vacuum as to preserve fruit and flowers in their
natural ; it would be a thing of good use if it may be
effected in quantity. I fear I shall lose by the late frost
most of my Cypress, Ilex and Alatemus ; the Laurels wiU
lose their leaves only, and the Bay trees, I presume, will
spring at root ; the Holly, Juniper, Arborvitse, Pine, and
Yew have escaped ; but I do not hear of any Rosemary
alive in these parts. I have not lost any of my Greens in
my Conservatory; the Orange and Lemon trees are as
fresh as ever I saw them, being secured by keeping them
underground, which I find the best way to preserve them
in our climate during a severe winter. I shall be glad to
know how your Greens have escaped, especially those in
your wilderness, where they are so agreeable with the
pleasing variety of your forest trees : I could dwell on this
subject were it not to divert your thoughts from a fairer
idea of it. Be pleased to admit me into the number of
those that love and honour you for your virtues. I
remain. Sir, your most affectionate and humble servant,
E. Berkeley.
274, CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loxdon,
Sir Robert Southwell to John Evelyn.
Kings-Weston, near Bristol, Zrd Nov. 1684.
Honoured Sir,
Since my retirement hither I have been so much
in the mortar as to multiply walks and walls, and have
begun to be a planter. Your fine Holly-hedges tempted
me to an essay for the like in a length of above 800 feet,
but the last winter and summer gave me a severe rebuke,
killing, as I fear, half the roots ; the rest are alive, and
many of them with leaves ; I will persist to cultivate with
care and patience till all be restored and in a way of
growth.
My next desire is to abound in hedges of Yew ; I would
plant it against the walls of two large courts, and in other
places, so as now and hereafter to extend it five or six
hundred yards and more. My seat is somewhat bleak,
and therefore I choose this green as that which no cold
will hurt, and I am told it will grow as much in three
years as Holly in five. Now seeing I need so much, it
would have been good husbandry to have begun with
seeds, and to have raised my roots, but this I omitted, and
you note in your book that they peep not till the second
year, wherefore calling on a gardener who has a nursery
of them, he demands at the rate of twelve pence for every
root of a foot high. Pray cannot you put me into better
hands, and where to be supplied on such reasonable terms
as I may find it easy to pursue this desire of having stores
of Yew ? Next I desire to know how far asunder I may
plant these roots, so as in time to touch and close into a
hedge ; and whether I may not plant Philareas between
them, which are cheaper, and grow fast, and may be cut
away as the others grow up, and capable of speading to fill
their room. This I chiefly propose in the two courts,
where I would have the walls lined with this future tapestry
of Yew : but here I meet in opposition the opinion of the
country of its noxious quality to cattle, who will be browsing
the greens they can come at; and if this be experimentally
true, then I must be at the charge of railing in where it is
possible the cattle may come at it. I have a nursery of Firs
from seed of two and three years' growth : I am thinking
1684.] JOHN EVELYN. 275
in April to transplant them, and desire to know if the
distance of ten feet be not sufficient for this naked tree.
In the next place I desire to know if these trees will, by
their dropping, endanger the Holly hedge, which I have
set, and which is to grow up close to them.
Pardon, I pray, the impertinences of a young planter,
who having the honour of your book, and that in gift, is
encouraged to bring his doubts and scruples to you. My
son gives you his most humble duty, and I am ever. Sir,
Your most affectionate servant,
RoBEET Southwell.
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
Spetdley, 21»< March, 1684.
Sir,
So much kindness, and so undeserved, would not
have suffered me thus long to have been silent, had not our
late catastrophe so confined my thoughts, as not imme-
diately to recollect my obligations to ray friends ; but as I
was sending this to kiss your hands, I had an account of
the sad news of your daughter's death, which has given
too great an addition to my trouble not to be much con-
cerned for you, knowing your loss to be irreparable. Sir,
if the entreaties of a friend can enforce the resolves of so
great a philosopher as Mr. Evelyn, suffer me amongst the
number of yours to use what arguments I may to mitigate
the extremity of your sorrows, and I shall only with due
submission offer these : — If any person deservedly may be
allowed to be perfectly happy in himself, whether or no he
is abstracted from such notions as are common to sense ;
in the exterior, likewise, if that party possesses more con-
tinued blessings than possibly any other does enjoy, may
he complain without ingratitude ? If not, then dear
]\Ir. Evelyn is really happy still, and makes many others
so, whilst your health is not denied you : which I pray God
preserve. My wife is likewise extremely troubled for your
good lady : she joins in our most humble services.
I am. Sir,
Your most obedient and devoted servant,
R. Berkeley,
T 2
276 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
From the same to the same.
Spetchley, \2th Septmier, 1685.
Honoured and most dear Sir,
I canuot enough acknowledge my debt to your
last obliging entertainment, and to your former letter,
which was extremely kind : be pleased here to receive my
most hearty wishes for your health, which I should be very
joyful to hear of: we have been passionately concerned for
your misfortunes. So great is my apprehension, as if
Providence would not suflFer such perfect happiness on
earth, to be possessed without alloy proportionate to render
all your enjoyments in the next world, answerable to those
which you have received in this. How great must they
then be, and what are we to expect who come so far short
of your deserts, dear Mr. Evelyn ? None of us are here
exempt from the greatest sorrows and the highest dis-
appointments, which I shall hereafter more stedfastly
look upon as a mark of the Almighty's favour, since so
great examples of virtue as you have been in our age, are
80 excessively afflicted. I pray God give so entire a
resignation to His will, that you may have yet greater
contentment than you have hitherto found. It is my great
unhappiness that I cannot pay my duty to you as I would,
in condoling with you at Sayes-Court; and the more I
think of Mr. Evelyn, the more I am perplexed in a fatal
necessity in depriving me of one of my greatest satis-
factions, which a nearer distance would make me happy
in. I still hold my resolution for travel as soon as I can
get at liberty from my engagements here. I am in all
sincerity, dear Sir,
Your most obedient and most devoted servant.
E. Berkeley.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.
Sayet-Court, 23rd Sept. 1685.
Sir,
I were very unworthy of your late and former
favours should I not render you some assurances, that
I am often meditating on them; and that I shall ever
1685.] JOHN EVELYN. 277
(according to my small force and capacity) obey your com-
mands. Without more ceremony, then — I am in the first
place to give you an account of Colours. But you ^vill
be better pleased to receive it from the learned Gisbertus
Cuperus's Apotheosis, vel consecratio Homeri,^ in his curious
conjectures upon an antique sculpture : where, speaking of
the rhapsodists that were used to sing the ballads of
Ulysses' Errors and Maritime Voyages, they were wont to
be clad in blue ; when his Iliads and fighting Poems, in
red ; and were so superstitious, as always to cover those
books or rolls in parchment of those two colours. He
pretends that one Oenomaus first invented distinctions
of colours in the Ludi Circenses, where green was the
ensign of combatants by land, and blue at sea : so as
when those who were clad in green gained the prize, they
looked on it as presage of a fruitful harvest ; if the blue
coats prevailed, successful expeditions and exploits at sea :
the first, it seems, concerned the husbandman, the other
the mariner. He farther observes, that when there was
any commotion or rebellion in the ports of Italy or Gaul,
the general of Horse carried a blue cornet, for as much
as that generous creature was produced by Neptune's
trident, and first managed by that sea god ; and that
whoever signalised his courage on that element, was
honoured with a flag of the same colour ; which Suetonius
gives a remarkable instance of, in the life of Octavius
Augustus : M. Affrippam in Sicilid, post navalem victoriam,
cceruleo vexillo donavit, after the naval victory obtained
against young Pompey. It were ostentation to cite more
authors, Statius, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch in Vit.
Themist. &c. Enough to give you an impatient desire
of that excellent entertainment Cuperus will afibrd you,
not on this subject only, but in a world of other choice
and curious erudition.
Sir, I do not remember you charged me with any other
particular of this sort : but as I am both disposed and
esteem myself very happy in serving you, though but as
a pioneer to dig materials for a more skilful hand to
square and polish and set in work, so, if in my desultory
course of reading, and among the rubbish, I light on any-
* Printed at Amsterdam in 1683, 4to *
278 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
thing which is worthy your notice, and may contribute to
it, reckon that you have in me a ready and faithful servant,
acquired by many obligations, but, I assure you, by none
more than that singular love of virtue, and things worthy
an excellent person, which I discover and highly honour
in you.
In the notes of Isaac Vossius upon Catullus, sive utrumque
Jupiter simul secundus incidisset in pedem, &c. he has many
learned observations about Navigation, particularly that
of sailing to several parts opposite to one another by the
same wind, ijsdem ventis in contrarium navigatur prolatis
pedibus, as Pliny expresses it; and it was (you may
remember) on this hint that I informed you Vossius had
by him a treatise riept TaxuTrXoia. I inquired of him
(when last I was at Windsor) whether he would publish
it ; to which he gave me but an uncertain answer. In the
meantime you will not be displeased at what he tells us of
a certain harmony produced by the snapping of carters*
whips, used of old at the feasts of Bacchus and Cybele ;
and that the Tartars have to this day no other trumpets,
and are so adroit as at once to make the whip give three
distinct claps, and that so loud as to be heard very far off;
and then speaks of a coachman at Maestricht, who plays
several tunes with his lash. To a lover of music and
harmony I could not omit this scrap, though I know you
will laugh at me for it, and pay me with the tongs and
gridiron. But ere I leave Dr. Vossius, I dare say you
have perused what he writes in his late Opusculum,
touching the reformation of Latitudes and Eclipses ; and
his asserting the Mediterranean and other places to be
much larger than our Geographers report. He has some-
thing also of the North passage to the Indies, of the
construction of gallies, the Pico Teneriffe, &c. ; of all
which you best are able to judge and doubtless have
formed the remarks thereon. Whilst I was running on,^
comes Mr. Dummer to give me a visit ; and I am so
charmed with his ingenuity, that I look upon it as a new
obligation to you ; and if you find I cultivate it for my
own sake a little, you will let him understand (by all that
I am to speak to you of him upon this short taste) how
much I wish him the improvements of your favours, who
am for so many myself. Sir, your, &c.
1685.] JOHN EVELYN. 279
Sib,
Samuel Pepys to John Evelyn.
Thursday night, 2nd Oct 1685.
Very sorry I am that I was not in the way to
enjoy you to-day, being gone ( the only time I have been
able to do it this summer) to make a visit to good Mrs.
Hewer at Clapham. But I have two reasons to desire you
will give me your company to-morrow noon, first because
we will be alone, and next I have something to show you *
that I may not have another time.
Your most obedient servant,
S. Pepys.
* To this letter Evelyn subjoins the following note : *' That which was
showed me were tico papers attested by his present Majesty's hand
to be a true copy of the originals, which some day before he had showed
Mr. Pepys privately: — That his late brother, Charles the Second, was [of
long time since a Roman Catholic. The papers contained several points'oi
religion, labouring to cast heresy, schism, &c. on the Church of England,
but in my judgment without any force or reason, and a thousand ^times
confuted." To which may be appended an extract from Dr. Stanier Clarke's
Memoirs of James the Second :
" Some few days after the late King's death, his Majesty, looking into the papers
he had left behind him, found two relating to Controversy, one in the strong box,
the other in the closet, both writ in his own hand : they were short but solid, and
showed that though his conversion was not perfected till a few hours before his
death, his conviction was of a longer date. The King thought fit to show them
one day to the Archbishop of Canterbury in his closet, nobody being by, who
seemed much surprised at the sight of them, and paused almost half a quarter
of an hour before he said anything ; at last told the King, he did not think his
late Majesty had understood controversy so well, but that he thought they might
be answered : ' If so,' said the King, ' I pray let it be done gentlemanlike and
solidly, and then it may have the effect you so much desire, of bringing me back
to your Church ;' to which the Archbishop rephed, ' It would perhaps be counted
a disrespect in him to contradict the late King;' but his Majesty reassured him
in that point, by telling him the change it might produce in himself (if answered
effectually) was of that consequence as to out-balance any other consideration ;
and therefore desired he might see a reply, either from him or any other of his
persuasion : but though he, my Lord Dartemouth, and others, were several times
reminded of this matter, and earnestly pressed to it, never any formal reply was
produced during his Majesty's reign in England. It is true there was something
of an answer published by an unknown hand, but the drift of it was rather to
280 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Sir,
FVom Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
Spetchley, 4th January, 1685-6.
Amongst the number of your friends there's
none more lieartily congratulates the late honour you
have received in His Majesty's service, whicli must be to
the great satisfaction of all that are so happy as to be
known to Mr. Evelyn, and renew our hopes of the pros-
perity of the court you live in : nothing more conducing
thereunto than the conduct and integrity of good and able
ministers. But I wish that your necessary attendance
may not hinder or divert you from finishing your grand
design, which you were pleased to show me, in which you
will leave future ages indebted to you, as well as oblige
the present and raise up a monument to your perpetual
memory. This may seem like compliment from one that
bears so well a respect towards you ; yet when I consider
how useful (though elaborate) this work will be, and that
it is not in the power of anyone to perfect it, pardon me,
sir, in thus pressing the most ingenious Mr. Evelyn, though
for a public good : you have already highly endeared your
country by several tracts from your own hand, which I
must own are all of great use and advantage. My wife
with me give our most humble service to your most excel-
lent lady, the most accomplished of her sex.
I remain, sir.
Your most obliged and faithful servant,
R. Berkeley.
proTC that the papers were not the late King's (which was a libel in reality upon
the present) than any reply to the arguments of it, and it is probable the Arch-
bishop despaired of answeiing it so effectually, as to bring back his Majesty to
their Communion, whereas the publishing a reply would have owned and
published the papers too : and he had reason to apprehend, that the authority and
arguments of their dying Prince would influence more persons to that religion,
than his answer would persuade to relinquish it." Vol. ii. p. 8. See also the
IHary, vol. ii. pp. 286-238.
1686.] JOHN EVELYN. 281
From Henry Earl of Clarendon * to John Evelyn.
Q Duhlin Castle, 1th Aug. 1686.
The last packet brought me yours of the 20th
past, for which I return you many thanks and hope you
do believe I am always most happy to hear from you. I
thank you for speaking to Mr. London to go to Swallow-
field ;t it would be pity that quiet retreat should any way
sufifer for want of his directions : you know what the place
affords, and if it be convenient to you and any of your
friends to divert yourselves there, you will be very welcome,
and may command the fish-ponds and all else there ; every-
thing will be better for your looking upon it. If you
enquire after this kingdom, I doubt you will wonder what
we are doing. The truth is, here is a great man who
storms, foams, swaggers, swears and rants at any rate and
at all sorts of people, he thinks to overturn governments
and nations by his look and his wind, which he finds not
quite so easy as he expected ; % but, however, he frights
the honest industrious English husbandmen and farmers,
the improvers of this and of all other improvable countries.
Many of these men are gone and many more are packing
up to follow, some for England and some for the planta-
tions, where they think they can thrive most and be most
secure in what they rent or buy. It would really grieve
a man of public spirit, which I hope I do not want, to see
such a noble flourishing country as this, by God and
nature designed to prosper, like to be stopped in its career
of growing rich itself, and of filling the King's coffers to as
great a degree as he pleaseth to permit. Certainly there
is not so great an instance to be given of the improvement
of any country under the sun, in so short a time, as has
been of this in the compass of eighteen years ; for in that
period the whole land of the kingdom is intrinsically risen
to treble the value it was then ; the King's revenue in
* Viceroy of Ireland.
f A seat belonging to Lord Clarendon, about six miles south-east of
Reading, in Berkshire, which he possessed in right of his second wife.
Flower, widow of Sir William Backliouse, Bart
X The allusion ia to Lord Tyrconnel, of whom see Macaulay's History,
voL ii. pp. 48-51.
282 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
that time much more than doubled. To tell you of the
trade to and from all parts of the world, is so wonderful
that I doubt I should scarce be believed ; to give you one
instance, let me tell you that the exports from hence into
England alone, of the native product of Ireland, has
amounted to yearly above the sum of one hundred and
seventy-two thousand pounds upon a very moderate value ;
this and some other particulars of trade I can make out by
undeniable proofs, if you will promise me they shall be
seriously considered. Is it not pity a check shoidd be
given to this growing prosperity of a country? Such
is the temper of the English here (generally speaking) who
carry on and manage five parts of six of this trade, that
they will sacrifice all to show their loyalty to the King ;
indeed I must always say I never came among people who
gave greater demonstrations of duty and obedience to
their Prince than his subjects here ; they desire to serve
him, and to mind nothing but their labour that they may
thrive under his government and increase his revenue. I
coidd fill a volume upon this subject, and I doubt I have
sent some sheets where they are not considered ; but that
is a word only to yourself; I believe you may guess to
whom I mean. I have tired you enough for the present :
I heartily wish all happiness to you and your excellent
lady, and am, with great esteem, Sir,
Your most affectionate and most humble servant,
Clarendon, C.P.S.
From Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
The Hague, 16<A Aug. 1686.
I PRESUME before this. Captain Warburton has given
you some account of our voyages. After we had the honour
of their company in his yacht, we tided down to Graves-
end, where we lay at anchor that night, and stayed there
till the evening after, when we hoisted sail, and the next
day about five of the clock in the afternoon got into
Margate, when the wind turning to N.E., kept us there
for four days ; but after we had a very fine gale, and in
fourteen hours we landed on the island of Walchereu; the
1686.] JOHN EVELYN. 283
next day, by tlie favour of Captain Warburton, we passed
through most part of Zealand to Dort, the first town on
that side of Holland, being seventy two miles ; from thence
we went the next day to Rotterdam, where the curiosity
of the place detained us three days, and afterwards we
passed through Delpht to this place, where we safely
arrived the 2nd inst., and are now settled here for most
part of this next winter; finding the place extremely
pleasant ; provisions cheap, and our lodgings reasonable
enough considering they are good, and near the Court.
I should have given you a further account of our travels,
but I know that you are from several hands better informed.
I have not yet had time to give you so particular account
of their method of gardening as you may expect. I was
the other day at the Princess's Villa, given her lately by
the Princess of Friesland, which is capable of being made
very agreeable both for shade and water, the ground within
the inclosure being about twenty acres, and the garden
already walled of large extent, which the Princess is now
improving with the house, whose middle room is much
taken notice of for its good paintings and proportions.
Since, I have been at Mr. Bentinck's, where there is a
great variety of gardening, and the plantations very large ;
but I find little to be admired after the conservatory,
which is indeed grand, bmlt semi-circular with a fair room
well painted in the middle, where the Court is often enter-
tained in prospect of the most beautiful greens that I have
seen : the garden has three descents to an oval fountain :
in the house where the greens stand in the winter, two
rows on each side, with a fine walk of twelve feet between
them : these two wings are about sixty yards distant from
each other when you enter the garden : in the house are
two large stoves on each side and vents atop, to keep them
in what temperature of heat the season may require ; there
is, moreover, an engine to remove the cases, of what weight
soever, into their places with little trouble. Besides these
I do not remember anything worth communicating to you,
except their double espaliers, which I presume may be of
good use, bearing fruit on each side, the posts being large
for that purpose, and to allow such ample room between
that the fruit ripens exceedingly well. The plantation
abounds with Hornbeam, which, spread on frames of wood.
284 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
makes their arbours : the aviary is about forty yards in
length, answering a pleasant pond where there is a variety
of the lesser water-fowl. The water-works will be pleasant
■when finished, yet I have seen much finer in England.
And now, dearest sir, after all I have said on this subject,
I must tell you in justice to my own reason, and more
from the sincerity of a friend, that your gardens and
wilderness are much more pleasing and agreeable, being
far better designed, having the advantage likewise of good
gravel and finer turf (here only sand and grass walks) with
greater variety of forest trees. If I find anything hereafter
worthy your notice, you are sure of the trouble of an
account of it.
I am ever, Sir,
Your most obedient and devoted seri'ant,
R. Berkeley.
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland {Lady Anne
Spencer).
Sayes-Court, 12th Sept., 1686.
Madam,
I am not unmindful of the late command you
laid upon me, to give you a catalogue of such books as I
beUeved might be fit to entertain your more devout and
serious hours ; and I look upon it as a peculiar grace and
favour of God to your Ladyship, that, amidst so many
temptations, and grandeur of courts, the attendants, visits,
diversions (and other circumstances of the palace, and the
way you are engaged in), you are resolved that nothing of
all this shall interrupt your duty to God, and the religion
you profess, whenever it comes in competition with the
things of this world, how splendid soever they may appear
for a little and (God knows) uncertain time. Madam, 'tis
the best and most grateful return you can make to Heaven
for all the blessings you enjoy, amongst which there is
none you are more happy in, than in the virtue, early and
solid piety of my Lady Anne, and progress of your little
son. Madam, the foundation you have laid in those two
blessings, will not only build, but establish your illustrious
family, beyond all the provisions you can make of gallant
1686.] JOHN EVELYN. 285
and great in estimation of the world; and you will
find the comfort of it, when all this noise and hurry shall
vanish as a dream, and leave nothing to support us in
time of need. I am persuaded you often make these
reflections, from your own great judgment and experiences
of the vicissitudes of things present, and prospect of
future, which is only worth our solicitude.
I am, &c.
John Evelyn to the Viceroy of Ireland [Lord Clarendon).
Sayes-Court, Sept. 1686.
My Lord,
I had ere this given your Excellency my most
humble thanks for yours of the 7th past, but that I was
expecting the event of some* extraordinary things, then
in suspense ; and when I have said this, I need not tell
your Lordship what I am assured you have received from
better hands, nor make any further reflections on it, than
to acquaint your Excellency that I know of no new com-
missions, which your Lordship desires to understand the
meaning of, and that make (it seems) no less noise with
you than they do here. The character your Excellency
gives of the hufiing great manf is just. How the noise
he makes will operate I know little of; what it does with
you (and would everywhere do else) is sufficiently evident ;
but God is above all, and your Lordship's prudence,
courage, and steady loyalty, will, if it not surmount all
malevolence, purchase you the estimation of all good
subjects, and, I doubt not, but of his Majesty also. I am
plainly amazed at what your Excellency tells me of
Ireland, which country we have seen given twice con-
quered into his Majesty's father's and brother's (our late
Sovereign's) hands, at no small expense of blood and
treasure ; and therefore question not but his present
Majesty does both see, and well consider, the infinite
importance of cherishing its improvements and tranquillity.
* " The Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs, which suspended the Bishop
of London, &c., and gave great offence to all the nation.— J. E."
•j- See ante, p. 281.
286 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
My Lord Teviot, I think, has quite abandoned us ; 'tis
near four months siuce we have received any assistance
from him at the Seal ; so as I have not been able to make
any excursion as yet this summer, and when I shall now
make my flight to Swallowfield, I am uncertain. I have
again been to inquire out my Lord Cornbury ; but his
Lordship is still so employed twixt the Court and his
military charge, that I cannot expect the happiness I
promised myself of accompanying him thither, and to
go without him would be a melancholy thing. The ladies
are still at Tunbridge, tempted by the continuance of this
Paridisian season; whilst wc are here mightily in the
dark, and curious (if lawful) to understand, whether a
certain new Countess came lately over hither with his
Majesty's knowledge and permission. I tell the inquisi-
tive, I know nothing of it, but that I am sure your Excel-
lency does nothing save what becomes you, and with good
advice. Now that Buda is taken, all our eyes are on
Hamburgh and Denmark. I pray God give peace to
Christendom, and continue it in little England, with all
prosperity and blessing on your Excellency and illustrious
family : these are the assiduous prayers of, my Lord,
Your Excellency's, &c.
Robert Ball to John Evelyn.
Ltgh(»~a, 30th January, 1688.
Sib,
You may wonder that you have not heard from
me sooner, but I have not been at all unmindful of you,
for I have now sent you a pretty big box of acorns of the
cork-tree, and in it you will find two or three sorts of
seeds of ever-greens that grow about Leghorn, which I
think are them you desired. I could not get the olives
for this occasion, we shall see to send them you by next ;
but olives here are propagated by slips, and grafted. The
box is included in a bill of lading amongst other things.
I am. Sir,
Your humble servant,
EoBERT Ball.
1688.] JOHN EVELYN. 287
From Sir Henry [afterwards Lord) Capell to John Evelyn.
Kew, IQth Oc<., 1688.
Sir,
Besides the favour of the acorns, which I
received in their season, I have lately received other seeds
■with the mention of other roots from your garden, for
all which roots I give you many thanks. I have ordered
my gardener to lay aside such things as my garden could
afford, and they are put up and left at my Lord Claren-
don's, according to your directions. I heartily wish they
may anyways be answerable to your garden, for I assure
you I am your faithful friend,
Henry Capell.
John Evelyn to his Son.
Anno Mirabil. London, IBth Dec, 1688.
Son,
I just now received the narrative of the Prince's
march, and the political remarks you have made upon the
occurrences where you have been. My Lord Clarendon
would gladly have conferred with you on several points
seasonable at that juncture ; but all have now (it seems)
submitted, and the bells and the bonfires proclaim as
much joy and satisfaction as those are capable of, who
have beheld so many changes and revolutions, without
being able to divine how all this will conclude at last, and
remembering that precept of the wisest of kings, (Proverbs
oh. xxiv. V. 21) which I need not repeat to you. It will
be no news (I perceive) to you, to acquaint you with his
Majesty's late recess, nor of his being stopped at Fever-
sham, &c. But of his coming back to Whitehall, and
what has since intervened, you may not yet have heard.
On Friday last there went thither my Lord Middleton,
Earl of Aylesbury, Lord Feversham, Sir Stephen Fox, and
Mr. Grahame, where the rabble had detained the King
(the vessel wherein he was embarked with Sir Edward
Hales, and Ralph Sheldon, which were all his attendants.
288 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londok,
coming in for want of ballast), till the news of it being
brought to the Lords of the Council, those Lords and
gentlemen I named were sent to persuade his ]Majesty to
return, or if not prevailing, to conduct and wait upon him
with two troops of horse, to what other port or place he
should please to go. The King, at last induced to come
back to London, arrived at "Whitehall on Sunday even-
ing, went to mass at his chapel on Monday, tliree priests
officiating ; the usual number of Boman Catholics, and a
world more, filling the bedchamber and all the rooms with
extraordinary acclamation. In this manner his Majesty
went thence to dinner (a Jesuit saying grace), and all
things seemed to pass in such order, as the eclipse the
Court suffered, by his Majesty's four days' absence, was
hardly discernible : all the clouds (as we thought) were
vanishing, and a bright day again appearing. So soon as
he Mas retired, he sent my Lord Feversham Mith a letter
under his own hand to invite the Prince of Orange to St.
James's : the message was accepted, but the messenger
arrrested and made prisoner at Windsor; upon which
politicians make reflections. But 'tis pretended that a
general of an enemy ought not by the law of arms to
come into the quarters of his antagonist without a trumpet
and a passport : others say, that his Highness was much
displeased at the Earl's disbanding his Majesty's forces
imder his command, without disarming them, and unpaid,
as thereby leaving them in danger of seeking some despe-
rate resolution, of disturbing the measures he had taken ;
and there are who believe upon some other account, which
time will discover. Tuesday morning came the Marquis
of Halifax (who with the Lord Godolphin had been sent
commissioner to the Prince) from Windsor, to let his
Majesty know the Prince would be the next day at St.
James's ; but withal (foreseeing it might be dangerous to
have his army quartered about the town, so necessary to
his safety, whilst the King's guards were so near), he
desires his Majesty that he would make choice of Hampton
Court, or some other place about the distance, to repair
to, for the avoiding jealousies and inconveniences which
might happen between the guards of different interests.
You will easily beUeve this was not very kindly taken,
after so generous an invitation : and that it was the more
1688.] JOHN EVELYN. 289
surprising for its coining to Lim at one o'clock in the
morning, when he was weary and fast asleep. The King
upon this rises, and goes immediately to council, where
several things being proposed (but what I undertake not
to say) are altogether rejected : and whilst by this time
White-Hall and all its environs were crowded with Dutch
soldiers, his Majesty put himself into his barge, accom-
panied with my Lord Aylesbury (now in waiting), the
Lords Dumbarton, Arran, and one or two more, followed
with three other barges and small boats, filled with a Dutch
guard, and a troop of horse by land, steering their course
towards Rochester again, from whence he so lately had
returned. Thus have you the second recess, or something
more dismally boding ; which, whilst I myself, with Sir
Charles Cotterell and Sir Stephen Fox, beheld from one
of the windows of the new buildings, vix tempero d
lachrymis. I should have told you that the Prince being
yesterday at Sion, sent Sir Robert Howard and Henry
Powle with a letter to the city, acquainting them with his
approach, with other compliments of course. This was
read before the Lord Mayor and Common Council, and
was answered with all submission and respect, and with an
invitation that his Highness would honour their city by
vouchsafing to lodge in it, rather than at St. James's. On
this there stood up an alderman, and moved that an address
might first be made to congratulate his Majesty's gracious
return to White-Hall. But the proposal was not approved
of, one of them saying, they had given a good pail of milk,
and that this were to kick it over again.
Thus, Son, I have given you as minute an account of
the Proteus here as I am able for the present. The hero
is now at St. James's, where I have seen him, and several
of my old acquaintance. I dined at the Earl of Clarendon's,
whom I did not find altogether so well satisfied as I
expected, considering that his son my Lord Cornbury took
so considerable a stroke in his turn. I wish he do not
Trpo? K€VTpa XaKTL(€Lv. — By what I collect, the ambitious
and the covetous will be canvassed for places of honour,
and rich employment; and that my Lord will withstand
the market, and neglect if not slight his applications,
upon confidence of his near relation, and the merits of my
Lord his son, if not upon other principles. If none of this
290 CORRESPONDENCE OF [lo.ndox,
happen, and that success do not quite alter the principles
of men in power, we are to suspect Astrea upon earth
again. But as I have often told you, I look for no mighty
improvement of mankind in this declining age and catal3'^sis.
A Parliament (legally called) of brave and worthy patriots,
not intlnenced by faction, nor terrified by power, or cor-
rupted by self-interest, would produce a kind of new
creation amongst us. But it will grow old, and dissolve
to chaos again, unless the same stupendous Providence
which has put this opportunity into men's hands to make
us happy, dispose them to do just and righteous things,
and to use their empire with moderation, justice, piety,
and for the public good. Upon the whole matter, those
who seek employment, before the grandees are served,
may suspend their solicitation, the Queen having ('tis
said) carried away the Great Seal : most of the writs being
burnt by his Majesty, it will cost time, and excogitation of
expedients, how legally to supply them, if his Majesty
should design to travel again, or the door (which I fear
most likely) be shut after him. These aud sundry other
difficulties, will render things both uneasy and uncertain.
(3nly I think Popery to be universally declining, and you
know I am one of those who despise not prophesying; nor,
whilst I behold what is daily wrought in the world, believe
miracles to be ceased.
Sir Edward Hales and Obadiah (his old tutor) are both
in gaol at Maidstone. Chief Justice Herbert, Robert
Brent, and Peters above all, are not yet heard of. Poor
Roger (for want of better observation) is carried to New-
gate, and every hour is pregnant of wonders.
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland.
Sayet-Cowrt, 22nd Decemher, 1688.
Madam,
The busy and wondrous age I have lived in, the
not altogether confinement of myself to morose conver-
sations in the world, the tincture I early received from
generous and worthy parents, and the education they gave
me, disposing (at least inciting) me to the love of letters,
1688.] JOHN EVELYN. 291
and a great regard to Religion, as the end and scope of all
accomplishments, wisely and prudently considered (not
that I have pursued this glorious and only happy course,
to my sorrow and reproach be it confessed, but what I
ought to have done), does now and has long since taken
up my thoughts about that sovereign good which all the
thinking part of mankind has in all ages and times been
searching after, to acquiesce and rest in ; and in pursuance
of this great concern, I have preferred the recess of near
thirty years, during which, by mean compliances, and in a
vicious age, one might probably have arrived to something
which they call (though not very properly) a figure (but
I, an empty cipher) in the world, to all other advantages
whatsoever ; and upon the foot and sum of all (for I do
often cast it up), I have found nothing solid, nothing
stable, and worth all this hurry, disquiet, and expense of
time, but the pursuit of moderate things for this life, with
due and modest regard to quality, and the decent circum-
stances of that maintained and procurable by worthy, open,
and honourable wages, in a virtuous, but to be neglected
and despised as base and ignoble, in a false and vicious
age. For, besides acquisitions so obtained are ever pro-
cured by low and servile arts, they are of no durance
longer than the favourite shall prostitute his conscience ;
and sacrifice all sentiments of genuine and real greatness,
which will recur some time or other upon generous minds
seduced, if once they ever come to recollect themselves.
It were a most happy thing if young persons (and next to
a miracle ^tis they should not) did beheve the experience
that almost 7000 years' forefathers, who once were
young, have told their children, and the wisest books
recorded, and the perpetual events of things declared it ;
that piety, sincerity, justice, temperance, and all that
series and chain of moral virtue, recommended to us, as
well by the wiser heathen as by God himself, and the very
dictates of nature, are the only means of obtaining that
tranquil and happy state a prudent man would choose,
even in this life only, a religious and truly wise in that to
come; and he was both great and wise, and well expe-
rienced, who pronounced it : I have seen an end of all
perfection, but thy commandments are exceeding broad;
ample in aU dimensions ; in a word, immortal.
x1
29£ CORRESPONDENCE OF [losdok,
Madam, this topic is as large as the world. This book,
I say, of all the philosophers, the precepts of all the divines,
the histories and records of all ages. The experience of
all mankind, every day's vicissitude proclaims it aloud;
and never was it more articulate and conspicuous than in
this conjuncture, present, and approaching revolution.
And it is an eternal truth, and can never be otherwise,
that true honour and happiness, and the things which we
seek (would consummate our felicity and bound our
farther pursuits), is not to be found in the things which
pass away like a dream when we awake ; but in a brave
and generous soul, that having those advantages by birth
or laudable acquisition, can cultivate them to the pro-
duction of things beneficial to mankind, the government,
and eminent station in which God has placed him. This
is great indeed, and truly noble. The fruit of it is a
present good, the memory and contemplation of it a lasting
pleasure, and a glorious recompense. But what's all this
to your Ladyship, who knows all I can say in this, or any
other subject ? It is then nothing to inform and teach
your Ladyship, but an account of my most retired
thoughts; and an idea of the passion I have, that you
may, from the yet remaining hopes of your illustrious
family (in whom there already appear such fair impres-
sions and noble characters of virtue, find always some-
thing to alleviate your past sufterings and unexpected
traverses in your present circumstances. Do not therefore
with much anxiety afflict yourself at what is past, farther
than to improve your experience and exercise your virtue
by its documents. But look forward at present and
always upwards for the time to come, and to things
possible and permanent, which will bring peace at the
last ; and those will God keep in perfect peace whose minds
are stayed in him. Suffer nothing then to abate of your
courage and Christian fortitude; you know who is a
present help in trouble, and you will do nothing without
consulting him, and you will need no other in this world
to bring you safe out of them all. Remember that One
(who yet suffered much greater) found by experience (as
80 will your Ladyship I am persuaded with joy) how good
it was that he had been afflicted. And verily, this is the
best use we should make of all God's methods and dis-
1C88.] JOHX EVELYN. 29S
pensations of this sort; and it is, by the suffrage and
observation of all holy persons, a greater indication of
God's paternal care and favour, than a continual current
and succession of temporal prosperity. This your Ladyship
will find to be the tenor of those divine oracles you so
assiduously read and meditate on, and which will fill your
heart with more real joy and inward consolation than you
could ever have derived from all other helps and friends,
princes and great men, in this wretched, perishing world.
The tiresome mortifications I have gone through for
above fifteen years past, being entangled in a trust;
besides that of the late Viscountess Mordaunt (of which
I am but newly delivered), my own tedious suit in Chancery;
with the burden of no few years upon me, and domestic
cares (requiring some indulgence), considered ; your Lady-
ship is pleased to accept of my son, who is disposed to
serve you, if you command it, and that my Lord Godolphin
be one in the trust : because, though his Lordship should
not be so active in the industrious part, he will be of great
advantage to the safe and prudential ; which is, I assure
your Ladyship, of great moment in confidences of this
nature.
I am. Madam, yours, &c.
John Evelyn to Lord Spencer.
My Loud,
Having now tempted and sufiiciently provoked
your Lordship in Plautus, Cicero, Pliny, Seneca, Lipsius,
&c. (for your Lordship is master of all styles) I give it
over. On my word, your Lordship has tamed the shrew,
and it is more than time for me to leave off the pedant,
and write henceforth in my mother tongue.
And now I think on it, I cannot a little wonder that
whilst there are extant so many volumes of letters, and
familiar epistles in the politer modern languages, Italian,
Spanish, and French, we should have so few tolerable
ones of our own country now extant, who have adorned
the part of elegancy, so proper and so becoming persons
of the nobility, quality, and men of business, and education
294 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
too, as well as lovers and courters of the fair sex. Sir
Francis Bacon, Dr. Donne, and I hardly remember any
else who have published any thing of considerable, and
they but gleanings ; or cabal men, who have put many
things in a heap, without much choice or fruits, especially
as to the culture of the style or language, the genius of
the nation being almost another thing than it was at that
time. James Howell published his ' Ho-EHanse,* for
which he indeed was laughed at (not for his letters, which
acquainted us with a number of passages worthy to be
known, and had never else been preserved,) but which, were
the language enlightened with that sort of exercise and
conversation, I shoidd not question its being equal to
any of the most celebrated abroad. When, therefore, your
Lordship shall think fit to descend so low as to believe it
not unworthy your reflections (you who are so perfect a
master in the learned tongues), how would you embellish
your native language, set an emulous example to others,
revive the dire and mournful age, and put it out of debt
by the product of a native flock of our own, and, as I said,
the most useful.
I am, &c.
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.
Sayet-Court, 12ili Avffust, 1689.
Sir,
I was on Wednesday last (afternoon) to kiss-
your hands ; but finding you abroad, and myself obliged
to return that evening, that I might receive the Countesa
of Sunderland, who sent me word she would call at my
house the next morning early before her embarkmeut for
Holland, I do now write, what I should have said to
you, if time had permitted ; and that is to let you know,
that upon your late communicating to me your desire of
adorning your choice library with the pictures of men
illustrious for their parts and erudition, I did not in the
least suspect your intention of placing my shallow head
amongst those heroes, who, knowing my unworthiness
of that honour, will, in spite of your good opinion of
1689.] JOHN EVELYX. 295
Mr. Kneller for his skill of drawing to the life, either
condemn his colouring, that he made me not hlush, or
me for impudence that I did not. But this is not all :
for men wiU question your judgment, or suspect you of
flattery, if you take it not down; for in good earnest,
when I seriously consider how unfit I am to appear in the
class of those learned gentlemen, I am perfectly ashamed,
and should say w4th much more reason, than Marullus
(after a recension of the famous poets)
Nos, si quis inter cseteros locat Vates,
Onerat, quara honorat verius.
'Tis pity and a diminution, so elegant a place and pre-
cious collection should have anything in it of vulgar, but
such as Paulus Jovius has celebrated, and such as you
told me you were procuring; the Boyles, the Gales, and
the Newtons of our nation : what, in God^s name, should
a planter of colewort do amongst such worthies ? Setting
him aside, I confess to you I was not displeased with the
fancy of the late Lord Chancellor Hyde, when to adorn
his stately palace (since demolished] he collected the
pictures of as many of our famous countrymen as he could
purchase or procure, instead of the heads and busts of
foreigners, whose names, through the unpardonable mis-
take or (shall I call it) pride of painters, they scorn to put
to their pieces ; imagining it would dishonour their art,
should they transmit anything valuable to posterity
besides faces, which signify nothing to the possessor
(unless their relations were to live for ever, and always in
being), so as one cannot tell Avhether they were drawn
from any of their friends or ancestors, or the picture of
some porter or squalid chimne3'--sweeper, whose prolix
beard and wrinkled forehead might pass him for a phi-
losopher. I am in perfect indignation at this folly, as oft
as I consider what extravagant sums are given for a dry
scalp of some (forsooth) Italian painting, be it of Raphael
or Titian himself; which would be infinitely more estima-
ble, were we assured it was the picture of the learned
Count of Mirandola, Politian, Guicciardini, Machiavel, Pe-
trarch, Ariosto, or Tasso ; or some famous pope, prince, poet,
or other hero of those times. Give me Carolus Magnus,
a Tamerlane, a Scanderbeg, Solyman the Magnificent,
296 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
Matt. Corvinus, Lorenzo, Cosimo Medici, Andrea Doria,
Ferdinando Cortez, Columbus, Araericus Vespucius, Cas-
tracani Castruccio, and a Sforza; the effigies of Cardan,
and both the Scaligers, Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, and
Galileo. I say, give me the portraits of an Isabella of
Aragon or Castile, and her four daughters ; Lucretia
d'Este (to whom our Queen is related), Victoria Colonna,
Hippolita Strozzi, Petrarch's Laura, Anna Maria Schur-
man, and above all Helen Cornaro, daughter of a pro-
curator of St. Marco (one of the most illustrious families
of Venice), who received the degree of Doctoress at Padua
for her universal knowledge and erudition, upon the
importunity of that famous University prevailing on lier
modesty. She had been often sought in honourable
marriage by many great persons, but, prefei'ring the Muses
before all other considerations, she preserved herself a
virgin, and being not long since deceased, had her obse-
quies celebrated at Rome by a solemn procession, and
elogy of all the witness of that renowned city. Nor may
I forget the illustrious of our own nation of both sexes :
the Westons, Moores, Seymours, Sir J. Cheke, Ann
Countess of Oxon (whose monument is in Westminster
Abbey), the late Mrs. Philips, and Princess Elizabeth,
eldest daughter to the unfortunate Queen of Bohemia, to
whom the great Des Cartes dedicates his books, with a
world of more renowned characters, famous for arms and
arts ; rather than the most beautiful courtesan or prosti-
tute of them all, who has nothing to commend her but
her impudence and that she was a painted strumpet. Did
it ever prejudice the glory of the inimitable Holbein for
putting the names of our great Duke of Norfolk, Henry
the Eighth when less corpulent, Edward the Sixth and
Treasurer Cromwell, Jane Seymour, Anne Bulleyn, Charles
Brandon, Althea Talbot Countess of Arundel, Cardinal
Wolsey, Sir Thomas More and his learned daughters. Sir
Brian Tuke, Dr. Noel, Erasmus, Melancthon, and even
honest Frobenius, among innumerable other illustrious
of that age for learning and other virtues ? I ask if this
were the least diminution to the fame of one who really
painted to the life beyond any man this day living?
But, in truth, they seem from the beginning jealous
of their own honour, and afraid of being forgotten :
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 297
hence we find TAATKHN A0HNAIOC EDOIEI insculpt
on the Farnesian Hercules, and Michael Angela fecity
P. P. Reubens pinxit, Marc. Antonio calavit, ^c. There
is not that wretched print but wears the name of
no-artist, whilst our painters take no care to transmit
to posterity the names of the persons whom they re-
present; through which negligence so many excellent
pieces come after a while to be dispersed amongst brokers
and upholsterers, who expose them to the streets in every
dirty and infamous corner. ^Tis amongst their dusky
lumber we frequently meet with Queen Elizabeth, Mary
Queen of Scots, the Countess of Pembroke, Earls of
Leicester and Essex, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney,
Cecil, Buckhurst, Walsiiigham, Sir Francis Bacon, King
James and his favourite Buckingham, and others (who
made the great figure in this nation), of John Huss,
Zisca, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Socinus, William and Maurice
Princes of Orange, Charles the Fifth, Philip the Second,
Francis the First ; the Dukes of Alba, Parma, Don John
of Austria, and Count Egmont ; authors of sects, great
captains and politicians (famous in our history in other
countries), flung many times behind the hangings, covered
with dust and cobwebs. Upon this account it is, men
curious of books and antiquities have ever had medals in
such estimation, and rendered them a most necessary fur-
niture to their libraries ; because by them we are not only
informed whose real image and superscription they bear,
but have discovered to us, in their reverses, what heroical
exploits they performed ; their famous temples, basilicae,
thermae, amphitheatres, aqueducts, circuses, naumachias,
bridges, triumphal arches, columns, historical and other
pompous structures and erections by them : and which
have been greatly assistant to the recovery of the ancient
and magnificent architecture, whose real monuments had
been so barbarously defaced by the Goths and other trucu-
lent invaders, that without this light (and some few ruins
yet extant justify those types) that so useful order and
ornament of columns and their concomitant members were
hardly to be known by the text of Vitruvius, and all his
learned commentators; and till Daniel Barbaro, Leon
Alberto, Raphael, M. Angelo, and others raised it out of
the dust, and restored that noble art, by their own and
298 CORRESPONDEXCE OF [London,
other learned men consulting and comparing the reverses
of medals and niednllions : besides what they farther con-
tribute to the elucidation of many passages in history,
chronology, and geography. So as I do not see how Mr.
Pepys's library can be long without this necessary adjunct.
It is amongst the medals we meet the ancient legislators,
Lycurgus, Solon, Numa, &c. There we find Orpheus,
Linus, and the old bards ; and there is mention of nummus
Homericus by Strabo, and (if I well remember) by Aris-
totle himself too ; as there is still extant those of the brave
Hector and Achilles : so as among them we may see what
kind of persons were Aristides, Themistocles, Epaminon-
das, Miltiades, Alexander, and Cyrus, Darius, &c. The
grave philosophers Socrates, Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle,
Epicurus, Zeno, and Demosthenes, show their faces to this
day revered in our medals. Those of the Hebrew represent
to us the rod of Aaron and pot of manna, and show how
Judah was led captive. We come by medals to understand
the ancient weights and measures, and the value of moneys;
you will see there when it was that princes assumed the
radiant crowns, and what the diadem was. I might pro-
ceed to the Punic Hannibal, Juba, &c., to the consular
and imperial of the Romans from Romulus, the Scipios,
Catos, down to this age of ours, if after Pertinax, and
decline of that empire, sculpture and all good arts had not
fallen with it. You will therefore be curious of having the
first Csesars, the great Julius (after his Pharsalian victory)
being the first honoured with having his effigies, old, lean,
and bald as he was, in medal, or rather in money, which
are rare to procure, in gold or small copper. There are
of these and the other emperors with Greek inscriptions
also. Who is not delighted to behold the true efiigies of
the famous Augustus, cruel Nero, and his master Seneca?
Vespasian, Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Antoninus, Severus, the
great Constantine and his devout mother Helena ? For we
have in medals the beautiful Cleopatra and her paramour ;
Drusilla, Livia, Julia, Agrippina, Antonia, Valeria, Mes-
salina, Octavia, Poppaea Sabina, all of them Augustas; and
sundry more of the fair sex who ruled the woild. I have
seen a series of the popes from St. Peter ; and amongst
the reputed heresiarchs, that medallion of John Huss and
Jerome of Prague's martyrdom, with the memorable in-
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 299
scription Post centum annos vos Cito, whicli fell out at the
appearing of Martin Luther exactly at that period. But,
Sir, I am sensible I have quite tired you by this time M'ith
medals ; and therefore I Avill say nothing concerning those
observations in the filing, sharpness, and due extanic varnish,
and other marks, necessary to be critically skilled in, to
prevent the being cheated and imposed upon by copies and
counterfeits for antique and original (though yet all copies,
if well dissembled, stamped, or cast, are not to be rejected) ;
because you will both for this and all the rest, consult
Pulvius Ursinus, Goltzius, Monsieur St. Amant, Otto, Dr.
Spon, Vaillant, Dr. Patin, and [instar omnium) the most
learned Spanhemius in that treatise De prastantid et usu
Numismatum Antiquorum. You will likewise make use of
your friends Dr. Gale, Mr. Henshaw, Hill, and Mr. Justell,
upon whose skill and judgment you may rely, though even
the most skilful may now and then be mistaken : but you
shall be sure not to be paid with trash, such as I do not
(as I said) call the Antiquo Moderno if well imitated.
These persons, your friends whom I mentioned, will I am
sure be ready to assist you in this laudable curiosity. And
if they can be purchased together, as accidentally they
sometimes may, it will save you a great deal of pains, and
enrich you at once. But otherwise, they are likeliest met
withal amongst the goldsmiths, and casually, as one walks
the streets on foot, and passes by the stalls. Mr. Ashmole,
our common friend, had collected all the ancient and
modern coins of this kingdom, which were veiy rare, to-
gether with several medals of our British, Saxon, and
other kings, upon occasion of births, coronations, mar-
riages, and other solemnities. I know not whether they
escaped the burning of his study at the Middle Temple.
But for the most accurate ordering and disposing of
medals, so as one may more commodiously take them out
of their repositories, Mr. Charlton,* of that society, has
a peculiar method, as he is the most elegant, and rarely
furnished in all his other collections. In the mean time,
the curious of this sort of erudition (I mean of medals)
were formerly, and I believe at present, very few in
England. For besides Sir Robert Cotton, Mr. Selden, Sir
* See Diary, vol. ii. p. 260.
SOO CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
Simon D'Ewes, Sir Thomas Hanmer of Hanmer, Sir
William Paston, and the late Mr. Hervey, I find hardly
any. That great lover of antiquity, Thomas Earl of Arun-
del, had a very rich collection as well of medals, as other
intaglios, belonging to the cabinet he purchased of Daniel
Nice at the cost of ten thousand pounds, which, with innu-
merable other rarities, have been scattered and squandered
away by his Countess when she got that treasure to Am-
sterdam, whilst my Lord was in Italy, where he died.
Abundance of them she bestowed also on the late unhappy
Viscount Staflford, her beloved son; and such as remained,
Lely, Wright, and the rest of the painters, panders, and
misses, have cheated the late Duke of Norfolk of. The
same fate befel a noble collection of medals belonging to
the then curious Sir Simon Fanshaw, of Ware Park ; they
were after his decease thrown about the house (as that
worthy gentleman his son, Sir Richard, Lord Ambassador
in Spain, from whom I had the relation, has told me) for
children to play at counter with ; as were those elegant
types of Sir Henry Savill's, at Eton, which that learned
knight procured with great cost for his edition of St.
Chrysostom ; and as it commonly fares with such curiosities
where the next heir is not a virtuoso. So vain a thing it is
to set one's heart upon anything of this nature with that
passion and mania, that insatiable earl whom I mentioned
did, to the detriment of his estate and family ; — mediocria
firma. The medals in our university libraries are not yet at
all considerable, though Obadiah Walker were an indus-
trious promoter of it, and not unskilful in them. Mr. Ralph
Sheldon, of Weston, in Warwickshire, left a very handsome
collection both of gold, silver, and copper, ancient and
modern, part of which were bequeathed to a sister of my
Lady Tukes, who not long since offered to have sold them.
I brought M. Justell to see them, but they were much over-
valued, and whether she have since disposed of them I never
enquired. At present I know of none who can show a better
chosen set of medals than the Earl of Clarendon, to whose
late father (after all this tedious parenthesis) I return, and
have a mind to entertain you a while longer with what I
had begun, where I spake of his purpose to furnish all the
rooms of state and other apartments with the pictures of
the most illustrious of our nation, especially of his Lord-
1689.] JOHN EVELYN, 301
ship's time and acquaintance, and of divers before it.
There were at full length, and as I doubt not but you well
remember to have seen, the great Duke of Buckingham,
the brave Sir Horace and Francis Vere, Sir Walter Raleigh,
Sir Phihp Sidney, the great Earl of Leicester, Treasurer
Buckhurst, Burleigh, Walsingham, Cecil, Lord Chancellor
Bacon, EUesmere, and I think all the late Chancellors and
grave Judges in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth, and her
successors James and Charles the First. For there was
Treasurer Weston, Cottington, Duke Hamilton, the mag-
nificent Earl of Carlisle, Earls of Carnarvon, Bristol,
Holland, Lindsay, Northumberland, Kingston, and South-
ampton ; Lords Falkland and Digby (I name them pro-
miscuously as they come into my memory) ; and of Charles
the Second, besides the Royal Family, the Dukes of
Albemarle and Newcastle, Earls of Derby, Shrewsbury,
St. Alban's, the brave Montrose, Sandwich, Manchester,
&c. ; and of the coif, Sir Edward Coke, Judge Berkeley,
Bramston, Sir Orlando Bridgman, Geoffrey Palmer,
Selden, Vaughan, Sir Robert Cotton, Dugdale, Mr. Camden,
Mr. Hales of Eton. The Archbishops Abbot and Laud,
Bishops Juxon, Sheldon, Morley, and Duppa : Dr. Sander-
son, Brownrig, Dr. Donne, Chillingworth, and several of
the clergy, and others of the former and present age.
For there were the pictures of Fisher, Fox, Sir Thomas
More, Thomas Lord Cromwell, Dr. Nowel, &c. And what
was most agreeable to his Lordship's general humour, old
Chaucer, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, who were
both in one piece, Spenser, Mr. Waller, Cowley, Hudibras,
which last he placed in the room where he used to eat and
dine in public, most of which, if not all, are at the present
at Cornbury in Oxfordshire; together with the library,
which the present Earl has considerably improved, besides
what books he has at Swallowfield not contemptible; and
the manuscript copies of what concerns the Parliamentary
Records, Journals, and Transactions which I have heard
both himself and the late unfortunate Earl of Essex (who
had also the same curiosity) affirm cost them 500/. tran-
scribing and binding, and indeed furnish a pretty large
room. To complete and encourage this noble and singu-
lar collection, I sent his Lordship a list of the names fol-
lowing : Cardinals Pole and Wolsey ; Gardner Bishop of
302 CORRESPONT>ENCE OF [lomwit,
"Winchester, Ci*anmer, Ridley, old Latimer, Bishop Usher,
Mr. Hooker, Oecham, Ripley, John Duns, Roger Bacon,
Suisset, Tunstal Bishop of Durham (correspondent with
Erasmus), Tompson, Venerable Bede, if at least to be
met with in some ancient office or mass-book, where I
liave seen some of those old famous persons accurately
painted either from the life or from copies: Sir John
Cheke, Sir. Tho. Bodley, Smith, Jo. Berkeley, Mr. Ascham,
Sir Fulke GrcNalle, Buchanan, Dr. Harvey, Gilbert,
Mr. Oughtred, Sir Henry Wotton (I still recite them
promiscuously and not like a herald), Sir Francis Drake,
Sir Richard Hawkins, Mr. Cavendish, Martin Frobisher,
&c. ; some of which his Lordship procured, but was you
know interrupted, and after all this apparatus and grandeur,
died an exile, and in the displeasm*e of his Majesty and
others who envied his rise and fortune — tam breves Populi
Romani amores ! But I shall say no more of his ministry,
and what was the pretence of his fall, than that we have
lived to see great revolutions. The buftbons, parasites,
pimps, and concubines, who supplanted him at Court,
came to nothing not long after, and were as little pitied.
"Tis something yet too early to publish the names of his
delators, for fear of one's teeth. But time will speak
truth, and sure I am the event has made it good. Things
were infinitely worse managed since his disgrace, and
both their late Majesties fell into as pernicious counsels
as ever Princes did : whilst, whatever my Lord Chancellor's
skill, whether in law or politics, the offices of State and
Justice were filled with men of old English honour and
probity ; less open bribery and ostentation ; there was at
least something of more gravity and form kept up (things,
however railed at, necessary in Courts) ; magnificence and
ancient hospitality in his Majesty's houses, more agreeable
to the genius of this nation than the open and avowed
luxury and profaneness which succeeded, a la mode de
France, to which this favourite was a declared enemy upon
my certain knowledge. There were indeed heinous
matters laid to his charge, which I could never see
proved ; and you and I can tell of many that have fallen
and yet suflfer under that calamity.
But what 's all this, you '11 say, to our subject ? Yes,
he was a great lover at least of books, and furnished a
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 303
very ample library, writ himself an elegant style, favoured
and promoted the design of the Royal Society ; and it
was for this, and in particular for his being very kind to
me both abroad and at home, that I sent Naudceus to him
in a dedicatory Address, of which I am not so much
ashamed as of the translation. There be some, who, not
displeased with the style of that epistle, are angry at the
application. But they do not consider that great persons,
and such as are in place to do great and notable things,
whatever their other defects may be, are to be panegyrised
into the culture of those virtues, without which ^tis to be
supposed they had never arrived to a power of being able
to encourage them. Qui monet ut facias — you remember
the sequel. And 'tis a justifiable figure ; nor is it properly
adulation, but a civility due to their characters. As for
the translation, it has been so insufferably abused at the
press, that the shame any uncorrected copy should come
abroad has made me suppress as many as I could light on,
not without purpose of publishing a new edition, and
which now perhaps might be more seasonable, since the
humour of exposing books sub hastd is become so epidemical,
that it may possibly afford some direction to gentlemen
who are making collections out of them. Besides, the
first impression is, I hear, pretty well worn out, and I
should be very unfortunate if it should miscarry twice, or
meet with such another accident as happened, it seems, to
the blotted manuscript at Oxford : the circumstances
whereof I will not now trouble you withal.
And so I have done with my Lord Chancellor. But
not so soon with my worthy friend Mr. Pepys, to whose
learned and laudable curiosity of still improving his choice
collection I should not advise a solicitous expense of
having the pictures of so many great persons painted in
oil, which were a vast and unnecessary charge ; though
not so extraordinary a one to my Lord Chancellor as one
may imagine, because, when his design was once made
known, everybody who either had them of their own or
could purchase them at any price, strove to make their
court by these presents ; by which means he got many
excellent pieces of Vandyke, and other originals of Lely,
and the best of our modern masters' hands. But if,
instead of these, you think fit to add to your title-pages.
804 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdon,
in a distinct volume^ the heads and efiBgies of such as I
have enumerated, and of as many others as either in this
or any other age have been famous for arms or arts, in
taille douce, and with very tolerable expense to be procured
amongst the printsellers, I should not reprove it ; I am
sure you would be infinitely delighted with the assembly,
and some are so very well done to the life, that they may
stand in competition with the best paintings. This were
a cheap and so much a more useful curiosity, as they
seldom are without their names, ages, and elegies of the
persons whose portraits they represent : I say you will be
exceedingly pleased to contemplate the effigies of those
who have made such a noise and bustle in the world,
either by their madness and folly, or a more conspicuous
figure by their wit and learning. Nor would I yet confine
you to stop here, but to be continually gathering as you
happen to meet with other instructive types. For under
this class may come in, battles, sieges, triumphs, jousts
and tournaments, coronations, cavalcades, and entries of
ambassadors, processions, funeral and other pomps, tombs,
trials, and executions; stately edifices, machines, antique
vases, spoils, basso-relievos, intaglios, and cameos taken
from achates, onyxes, cornelians, and other precious
stones ; ruins, landscapes, if from real subjects, not fancies
which are innumerable and not necessary, but such as
relate to history, and for reasons specified more at large
in my Treatise on Chalcography. Your library being by
this accession made suitable to your generous mind and
steady virtue, I know none living master of more happiness,
since besides the possession of so many curiosities, you
understand to use and improve them likewise, and have
declared that you will endeavour to secure* what with so
much cost and industry you have collected, from the sad
dispersions many noble libraries and cabinets have suf-
fered in these late times: one auction, I may call it
diminution, of a day or two, having scattered what has
been gathering many years. Hence it is that we are in
England so defective of good libraries among the gentle-
• This Pepys subsequently did, by bequeathing his books and collection
of prints to Magdalen College, Cambridge, where they now are, under the
name of the Pepysian Library, still in the original book-cases and presses,
placed in a room which they exactly lit.
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 305
men, .ind in our greatest towns : Paris alone, I am per-
suaded, being able to show more than all the three
nations of Great Britain ; those of Mem'ius, Puteanus,
Thuanus, Cordesius, Seguire^ Colbert, Conde, and others
innumerable of bishops, abbots, advocates, antiquaries,
and a world of learned persons of the long robe ; besides
the public libraries at St. Victoire, the Sorbonne, and,
above all, that of Mazarin (now, with Richelieu's and
sundry others, swallowed up in the present King's), far
exceeding anything we can show at home, though we have
as much (if not greater) plenty and variety of the best
books as any country in the learned world. But, as I
said, they are in private cabinets, and seldom well chosen,
unless in the Universities, where, if one may judge by the
few productions of so many learned men as are there at
leisure, they signify very little to the learned world.
This great and august city of London, abounding with so
many wits and lettered persons, has scarce one library
furnished and endowed for the public. Sir John Cotton's,
collected by his noble uncle, is without dispute the most
valuable in MSS., especially of British and Saxon anti-
quities ; but he refuses to impart to us the catalogue of
this treasure, for fear, he tells me, of being disturbed.
That of Westminster is not much considerable : still less
that of Sion College. But there is hope his Majesty's at
St. James's may emerge and be in some measure restored
again, now that it comes under the inspection of the
learned Mons. Justell, who you know was owner of a very
considerable one at Paris. There are in it a great many
noble manuscripts yet remaining, besides the Tecla ; and
more would be, did some royal or generous hand cause
those to be brought back to it, which still are lying in
mercenary hands for want of two or three hundred pounds
to pay for their binding; many of which being of the
Oriental tongues, will soon else find Jews and chapmen
that will purchase and transport them, from whence we
shall never retrieve them again. For thus has a cabinet
of ten thousand medals, not inferior to most abroad, and
far superior to any at home, which were collected by that
hopeful cherisher of great and noble things. Prince Henry,
been embezzled and carried away during our late barbarous
rebellion, by whom and whither none can or is like to
806 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
discover. What that collection was, not only of books
and medals, but of statues and other elegant furniture,
let the learned library-keeper, Patritius Junius, tell you in
bis notes ad Epist. S^ dementis ad Corinthos : " Quern
locum,'' (speaking of St. James's) " si vicinara pinacothe-
cam bibliothecie celebcrrimae conjunctara, si nuraismata
antiqua Graeca ac Romana, si statuas et signa ex aere et
marmorc consideres, non im'erito thesaurum antiquitatis et
To/xKior instructissimum nominare potes," &c.
AVere not this loss enough to break a lover's heart?
The Royal Society at Gresham College has a mixture,
though little apposite to the institution and design of that
worthy assembly, yet of many excellent books and some
few MSS., given them at my instance by the late Duke of
Norfolk, which is but a part of that rare collection of good
authors which, by the industry and direction of Francis
Junius, the learned son of the learned Patrick, Mr. Selden,
and the purchase of what was brought at once out of
Germany, was left neglected at Arundel House before it
was demolished and converted into tenements. I now
mention Mr. Selden. There is a fragment of that great
antiquary's library at the Middle Temple ; but his manu-
scripts and best collections were bequeathed to the Bodleian
at Oxford, to which both himself and especially Archbishop
Laud were the most munificent benefactors ; though with
all these, so poor in manuscripts that they were ashamed
to publish their catalogue with that of the impressorum,
but which might yet have been equally enriched with any
perhaps in Europe, had they purchased what was lately
oflfered them by the executors of Isaac Vossius, though
indeed at a great price, who have since carried them back
into Holland, where they expect a quicker market. I
wished with all my heart some brave and noble Maecenas
would have made a present of them to Trinity College in
Cambridge, where that sumptuous structure (designed for
a library) would have been the fittest repository for such a
treasure. Where are our Suissets, Bodleys, Lauds,
Sheldons, bishops, and opulent chancellors? Will the
Nepotismo never be satisfied. —Sed proestat motus com-
ponere. The next to that of the Bodleian are the libraries
of Magdalen Coll., Christ Church, University, and
Baliol; which last is furnished with divers considerable
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 307
MSS., and lately (through the bounty of Sir Thomas
Wendie) with a number of other curious books. But to
return again nearer this City. That at Lambeth,
replenished at present with excellent books, ebbs and
flows, like the Thames running by it, at every prelate's
succession or translation : there is at present a good
assembly of manuscripts in a room by themselves. The
Bishop of Ely has a very well-stored library ; but the very
best is what Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's, has at
Twickenham, ten miles out of town. Only that good and
learned man (Dr. Tenison) of St. Martin's near you, has
begun a chai'ity, for so I reckon it, as well as that of his
two schools, &c., worthy his public and generous spirit,
and the esteem of all who know him. Our famous lawyer
Sir Edward Coke purchased a very choice library of Greek
and other MSS., which were sold him by Dr. Meric
Casaubon, son of the learned Isaac ; and these, together
with his delicious villa, Durdens, came to the possession of
the present Earl of Berkeley from his uncle Sir Robert
Cook. He has sometimes told me he would build a
convenient repository for them, which should be public,
for the use of the clergy of Surrey; but what he has done
or thinks to do herein, I know not. Why is not such
provision made by a public law and contribution in every
county of England? But this genius does not always
preside in our representatives. I have heard that Sir
Henry Savill was master of many precious MSS., and he
is frequently celebrated for it by the learned Valesius,
almost in every page of that learned man's annotations on
Eusebius and the ecclesiastical historians published by
him. The late Mr. Hales, of Eton, whom I mentioned,
had likewise a very good library; and so had Dr. Cosin
(late Bishop of Durham), a considerable part of which I
had agreed with him for myself during his exile abroad, as
I can show under his own hand ;* but his late daughter,
* The following letter from Dr. Cosin to Eveljn is probably here
alluded to :
Sir, — I have here set the prices (which T paid) to the books which yon
have added. But there be four or five of them (marked with - -}-) which I
desire to keep, because I have written some notes in thera of my own. The
remainder of the whole sum (as yon will see at the foot of the enclosed
X 2
308 CORRESPONDENCE OK [losdox,
since my Lady Garret, thought I had not offered enough,
and made diflSculty in delivering them to me 'till near the
time of his Majesty's restoration, and after that, the Dean,
her father, becoming Bishop of that opulent see, bestowed
them on the library there. But the Lord Primate Usher
was inferior to none I have named among the clergy for
rare MSS., a great part of which being brought out of
Ireland, and left his son-in-law, Sir Timothy Tirrill, was
disposed of to give bread to that incomparable prelate
during the late fanatic war ; such as remained yet at
Dublin were preserved, and by a public purse restored and
placed in the college library of that city. I have already
mentioned what Isaac Vossius brought over, that had been
his learned father's, and many other manuscripts which
Isaac had himself brought from Queen Christina out of
Sweden in recompense of his honorary, whilst he was
imited thither with Salmasius, Des Cartes, Blundel, and
others, by the heroic and royal errant. But those birds,
as I said, have taken their flight, and are gone. I forbear
paper) will be 105^ And truly, sir, I thought I had prevented any further
motion of abatement, by the large offer that I made to you, of putting your
wife's confident [friend] (for it concerns her only) to lose the third part of
wliat her friend paid; specially considering that she is now forced to pay
very near 200/. for tlie librarj', besides what it cost at first. 1 do not
conceive that it will be any great charge to you to have them brought to
London, where they will be subject to less hazard than in other places, and
to no more there than all other worldly things are in all other places besides.
If you consider their number, I desire you would be pleased to consider
likewise, that they are a choice number, and a company of the best selected
books among them all. When these and others of the like sort are gone,
I have good hope, that those who come to buy the remainder and the worst
of them all, will not desire to have above a third part of the price abated
them; and therefore the better sort (such as you have chosen) might in
reason go at a better rate; and indeed I have advised her, not to abate
above a fourth part for most of them, and for some to hold them at the same
or a greater price than they cost; as for example, there is in your note
— Pliny's Natural History, in English, priced at 36«. which is worth 3/.;
Camden's Errors priced at 5s. 6d. for which I have seen 208. given; Paulus
Jovios at 20«., which sells now in Paris at 4 pistoles, and Pol. Vergil at 10«.,
which sells here for 10/.; William Malmesbury at 15»., for which they
demand here 30/.; and Asser. Menev. &c. at 14«., which they will not part
with here nor elsewhere abroad for 20/. In regard whereof I made account,
that you would rather have said the abatement had been too large than too
little, which was made and offered so freely by your humble servant,
This 16th of July, 1 651, T. C.
1689.] JOHN EVELYN, 309
to name the late Earl of Bristol's, and his kinsman, Sir
Kenelm Digby's, libraries ; of more pomp than intrinsic
value, as chiefly consisting of modern poets, romances,
chemical and astrological books ; for I had the Catalogue
in my possession before they were disposed of, put into
my hands by my Lord Danby, then treasurer, who de-
sired me to give my opinion of them, which I faithfully
did. As for those of Sir Kenelm's, the Catalogue was
printed, and most of them sold in Paris, as many better
have lately been in London. The Duke of Lauderdale's is
yet entire, choicely bound, and to be sold by a friend of
mine, to whom they are pawned ; but it comes far short of
his relation's, the Lord Maitland's, which was certainly
the noblest, most substantial, and accomplished library,
th'at ever passed under the spear, and it heartily grieved
me to behold its limbs, like those of the chaste Hippolytus,
separated and torn from that so well chosen and com-
pacted body. The Earl of Anglesey's, and several others
since, by I know not what invidious fate, passed the same
fortune, to whatever influence and constellation now
reigning malevolent to books and libraries, which can
portend no good to the future age.
And now I have in good earnest done with libraries ;
but yet not quite with Mr. Pepys. For I mention none
of all these as if I thought it necessary every private
gentleman's study should be made common, but wish we
had some more communicative and better furnished with
good books, in one of the greatest cities of the universe
(London) ; and for that end that a stately portico were so
contrived at the west end of St. Paul's, as might support
a palatine, capable of such a design ; and that every
company and corporation of the City, every apprentice at
his freedom, (assisted at first by a general collection
throughout the nation, a copy of every book printed
within the City and Universities,) did cast in their symbols
for a present stock and a future ample fund. But this we
are to expect when kings are philosophers, or philosophers
kings, which I think may happen not in this but in Plato's
revolution. All that I shall add concerning gentlemen
being furnished with competent libraries, and for most
part residing in town, is, how obliging a thing it were,
and of infinite eff'ect to the promoting a noble and useful
310 CORRESPOITDENCE OF [LOinQOx,
couversation of learned gentlemen, if, as there is a Society
for the Improvement of Natural Knowledfje, and -which
was fit should be first, since things were before words, so
there was an academy for that of art and improvement of
speaking and writing well ; of which sort there are (you
know) some in Paris, and almost in every considerable
city of Italy, which go under the devices of La Crusca,
HmMfisti, Insensaii, &c. ; as that of the Beaux Espriis in
FnBCe, set up by the late great Cardinal de llichclieu for
the polishing and enriching of the language, publishing
those many accurate pieces which it has from time to
time produced. It is in these assemblies, where a select
number of learned men, persons of the first quality, not
only come to hear, but esteem it an honour to have their
ingenious exercises pass the test and censure of so many
civil and polished wits. And all the apparatus for this is
only the use of one competent room in the gentleman's
house, where there are chairs and a table, where the
person who declaims, being seated with a little more
eminency, like the Roman rostrum, and choosing his
subject in prose or verse, recites or reads his composures
before the company. This, for being but one half day or
afternoon in the week, and retiring in due hour, is of very
httle inconveniency to the master of the house. Here it
is, I say, gentlemen and scholars bring their essays, poems,
translations, and other oratorious productions upon a
thousand curious subjects. Here they give law to words
and phrases, and the Norma lofjuendi. These pass censure
and bring authors to the touch, reject or entertain, and
endenizen exotics, &c. I need not enlarge to Mr. Pepys
the benefit and nobleness of such assemblies, who has
himself seen what illustrious persons used to honour Mr.
Justell ; how many great dukes and blue ribbons, ambas-
sadors, as well as bishops, abbots, presidents, and other
learned men and travellers, this brought together into
conversation the most humane and obliging in the world ;
and how exceedingly to be wished some noble and worthy
gentleman would give a diversion so becoming and usefully
entertaining as it would be. We should not then have
so many crude and fulsome rhapsodies imposed upon
the English world for genuine wit language, and the
stage, aa well as the auditors and spectators, would be
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 311
purged from things intolerable. It would inflame, inspire,
and kindle another genius and tone of writing, with,
nervous, natural strength, and beauty, genuine and of our
own growth, without always borrowing and filching from
our neighbours. And indeed such was once designed
since the restoration of Charles the Second (1665), and in
order to it three or four meetings were begun at Gray's
Inn, by Mr. Cowlej'^, Dr. Sprat, Mr. Waller, the Duke of
Buckingham, Matt. Clifford, Mr. Dryden, and some other
promoters of it. But by the death of the incomparable
Mr. Cowley, distance and inconvenience of the place,
the contagion, and other circumstances intervening, it
crumbled away and came to nothing. What straw I had
gathered towards the bricks for that intended pyramid
(having the honour to be admitted an inferior labourer),
you may command and dispose of, if you can suffer my
impertinences ; and that which I have not showed you,
the plan I drew and was laying before them for that
design; which was, I said, the polishing of the English
tongue, and to be one of the first intentions and chiefest
subjects of the Academicians.
And now for shame have done ! Methinks I hear you
cry out, ^' What a ramble has Mr. Evelyn made ! what a
deal of ground for so little game !" Well, you see what
the setting up an empty noddle has produced, what
a deal of ink is run to waste. And indeed I had been
criminally unanswerable of detriment to the public as well
as to your own repose, should I have dared to debauch you
with so tedious and intemperate a scribble, whilst you
were not {tuo jure) your own man. But if for all that,
this prove an affliction also, as I have cause to apprehend
it may, the only expedient to rid yourself of such
impertiuents will be, to assume your late busy and
honourable charge again ; when no man can be so
impudently uncivil as to expect you should read his long
letters, when he considers how many you will then be
obliged to write.
81& CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
Samuel Pepys to John Evelyn.^
^QthAug., 1689.
Honoured Sir,
I shall never be anxious about pardon for not
doing what I ought, where what I ought, is what I can't.
And such is the giving a due answer to the inestimable
honour and favour of your letter of this day : and so much
the less estimable, by that alone for which you would censure
it, its length : as containing, in less than five pages, what
would cost me five volumes reading, from any other hand
but Mr. Evelyn's. And yet some answer you shall (in
time) have to it, :ind the best I can give you ; namely, by
my endeavouring to leave no one syllable unpractised of
what you have had the goodness to teach me in it, and
lies within the reach of my pate and purse to execute.
Let this, I beg you, suffice to be said upon it at the
first view. For though I could hardly find time to take
breath till I had gone through it, yet I won't promise to
have done reading it this month. One word only I would
now say to you upon your first words, about the place I
have been bold in dooming your picture to, namely, that
besides forty other reasons I had (founded upon gratitude,
afiFection, and esteem), to covet that in effigy which I most
truly value in the original, I had this one more, that I
take it for the only head living I can hope to invite
most by after it, of those few whose memories (when
dead) I find myself wishing I could do aught to perpe-
tuate. Among which fills a principal place, the most
excellent Mr. Boyle, concerning whom I lately bespoke
your favour, and dare now be the bolder in doing it again,
from my having heard that he has newly been prevailed
with by Dr. King, to have his head taken by one of
much less name than Mr. Kneller, and a stranger, one
Causabon.
I am ever.
Your most obedient servant and honourer,
S. Pepys.
* This letter is printc'B from a MS. Copy preserved in tlie Bodleian
Librar>-.
1689.] JOHN EVELYN. 313
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys.*
Deptford, October ith, 1689.
Sir,
I had newly been reading Aristotle's book Trepl
Tjjs fjLavTLKrjs, &c. or Divination by Dreams (wbicli follows
his other Treatises ' De Anima, ^lemoria, and Reminis-
centia^), when the very night after, methought Mr. Pepys
and I were^ among other things, discoursing in his hbrary
about the ceremonious part of conversation, and visits
of form between well-bred persons : and I distinctly
remember, that I told him (what is true and no dream)
that the late Earl of St. Alban's (I mean uncle to H. Jermyn,
the present Earl of Dover) took extraordinary care at
Paris, that his young nephew should learn by heart all
the forms of encounter, and Court-addresses; such as
the Latins would express by verba honestatis ; and the
French if I mistake not, who are masters in these
civilities to excess, Ventregent ; as upon occasion of giving
or taking the wall, sitting down, entering in or going out
of the door, taking leave at parting; I'entretien de la
ruelle, and other encounters; a la cavaliere among the
ladies, &c. In all which never was person more adroit
than my late neighbour the Marquis de Ruvigny. And,
indeed the Italians and Spaniards exceed us infinitely in
this point of good breeding. Nay, I observe generally that
our women of quahty often put us to " O Lord, Madam !"
when we have nothing to fill up and reply ; but quorsum
hcec ? (little patience). — I was never in my life subject to
night visions till of late, that I seldom pass without some
reverie, which verifies that of St. Peter (cited from the
prophet), "That your old men shall dream dreams;" and
so you will shortly give me over for a dotard, should I
continue to interrupt you thus with my impertinencies.
I will only tell you, that my wife, who is of a much
sedater temper, and yet often dreaming, has now and
then diverted me with stories that hung as orderly toge-
ther as if they had been studied narratives, some of which
• This letter is in prosecution of a former one of 26th August, 1689.
314 COltRESPONDENCE OF [Londos,
I had formerly made her write down for the prettiness of
them, very seldom broken, or inconsistent (such as com-
monly are mine), but such as the Peripatetic means,
where he says Quieto sanguine fiunt pura somnia ; com-
paring those other extravagant and confused dreams to the
resemblances which the circles of disturbed and agitated
waters reflect, that blend and confound the species, and
present us with centaurs and terrible spectres, whilst the
calmer fountain gives the entire image (as it did with
Narcissus's in the fable), and entertain us with our
waking thoughts. What could be more explicit of the
cause of this variety of dreams which he, as well as
Hippocrates, and others from them, attribute to the crasis
and constitution of the body and complexions domi-
neering, with other perturbations affecting the fancy.
But leaving these to the Oneirocritics, I shall make use
of it no further, than to let you see how often you are in
my best and serenest thoughts. Amici de amicis certa
scepe somniant, epoariKos iv "F.ponTi. And if the subject of
my wild phantasm (which was a dialogue with you about
forms of speaking upon ceremonious occasions), naturally
leading me to something which I lately mentioned, where
I spoke of academies and the refining of our language,
have not already quite worn out your patience, I would
entertain you here with a copy of what I sent our
Chairman* some years since, as an Appendix to my
former letter, and as you enjoined me.
So much for this, and I fear too much, now I see how
I have blurred : but 'tis not worth the writing fairer.
Sir, I stayed at Lambeth with his Grace till past four,
being to return with the Bishops, and go home, as I was
engaged that evening : I called at your house, but you
were gone forth, they told me, in your coach, which made
me conclude it was not to Lambeth, when I should have
been sorry not to have waited on you.
• Tlie obserrations referred to by Evelyn, will be found already printed
in this volume, pages 159 — 162, having been written twenty-four years
earlier than the present letter. They are inserted in a copy of the com-
munication to which he here alludes, addressed to Sir Peter Wyche,
Cliairman of a Committee appointed by the Royal Society to consider of the
Improvement of the English Tongue.
1690.] JOHX EVELY:<r. 315
I have now gotten me a pair of new horses ; but they
are very young, and hardly broken to the coach as yet :
so soon as I may trust them, and that the weather be a
little settled, I shall not fail of Avaiting on you to Mr.
Charleton's, and those other virtuosos.
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland.
' Sayes-cowrt, 25th J-vly, 1690.
Madam,
I had prepared a letter, to congratulate my
young Lord and the ladies, and all the illustrious family^s
happy arrival and return to Althorp, when just as I was
writing came the sad tidings of the death of that excellent
lady, your daughter, the Countess of Arran, which struck
such a damp in me that I was forced to break off from a
grateful subject, to condole with your Ladyship, and those
whom I thought it my obligation to endeavour the com-
forting : and this was the more afflicting, that after such
assurances of her Ladyship's perfect recovery, upon which
I was meditating to write to you, this fatal news should
dash our hopes again without any reserve. But so is the
will of God, and this the constitution of all things here :
no true satisfaction, no permanent felicity to be found on
this side heaven : whatever other circumstances of happi-
ness, as far as we can reckon any such thing in the power
of this world to give us, may seem to promise of more
lastiugness and stability, 'tis all but a seeming, a mere
show and false appearance ; for either the things which
we hope to enjoy are taken from us and perish in the
fruition, or we are taken from them when we think oixr-
selves most secure. Surely if in this life anything were
desirable, the having and the leaving virtuous and
gracious children behind us (such as might be examples
of virtue, adorn and improve the age), were to be esteemed
the most valuable of blessings. But as such blessings are
rare, so when God bestows them they are soonest taken
from us again. They can no more live in so corrupt an
age, than a healthful body in a \dtiated air. What then
are we to do when we lose them ? Not consider them as
816 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
lost, but happily absent. Madam, you know how easy
'twere to say abundance of fine thingjs on this subject,
no topic more fruitful ; but what's all this ? The wound
is deep and in a sensible part, and though time and reason
mitigate the present smart, I cannot say it has healed
what I oftentimes suflfer when the loss of some dear
children and friends come into my thoughts. One only
consideration remains, that as I said they are so far
from being lost or dead, that they live and are now
immortal, and would not for all the world be with us
again. Why then grieve we for them ? Why, plainly for
ourselves, whom we love more than God, whose will it is
we should part with them and whatever He pleases to
take from us here, and depend on Him alone, who alone
will never fail, never forsake us, but give us that which
shall never be taken from us. Live we then. Madam,
in this religious indifference and resignation. But still
God has not left your Ladyship without those blessings.
He has but in part eclipsed, and rather borrowed for a
while than taken them away. Besides my Lord your
husband, whom you have seen restored, and which to see
80, you esteemed so great a mercy ; you have a daughter
and a son, who are and ought to be all that you can
wish or desire in children. And him will Almighty God
preserve : in both you will see the fruits of the pious care
and reward of your submission to the will of God, and
receive all the discipline you have past through as a greater
mark of His favour and love, than if you had never
suffered the least check or diminution of your former pros-
perity. This I am so well persuaded of you feel already,
however now by this lugubrious accident as by others
sometimes interrupted, that you would not exchange your
inward consolation, for the return of all those external
fugitives you once enjoyed, to be deprived of this.
Madam, this is a secret known only to those who feel it,
which, since I am sure you do, I leave you to that God
who gives it, who is your stay, your refuge, and may He
be all that you can want and desire to supply this loss,
and more than you can wish.
1690.] JOHN EVELYN. 317
John Evelyn to the Countess of Sunderland.
Deptford, 4«A Augvst, 1690.
As for the " Kalendar" your Ladyship mentions,
whatever assistance it may be to some novice gardener,
sure I am his Lordship will find nothing in it worth his
notice but an old inclination to an innocent diversion,
and the acceptance it found with my dear (and while he
lived) worthy friend, Mr. Cowley, upon whose reputation
only it has survived seven impressions, and is now
entering on the eighth with some considerable improve-
ments, more agreeable to the present curiosity. 'Tis
now. Madam, almost forty years since first I writ it,
when horticulture was not much advanced in England,
and near thirty since first it was published, which con-
sideration will, I hope, excuse its many defects. If in
the meantime it deserve the name of no un-useful trifle,
'tis all it is capable of.
When many years ago I came from rambling abroad,
observed a little there, and a great deal more since I
came home than gave me much satisfaction, and (as events
have proved) scarce worth one^s pursuit, I cast about how
I should employ the time which hangs on most young
men's hands, to the best advantage ; and when books and
severer studies grew tedious, and other impertinence
would be pressing, by what innocent diversions I might
sometime relieve myself without compliance to recreations
I took no felicity in, because they did not contribute to
any improvement of the mind. This set me upon planting
of trees, and brought forth my " Sylva,'' which book,
infinitely beyond my expectation, is now also calling for a
fourth impression, and has been the occasion of propa-
gating many millions of useful timber-trees throughout
this nation, as I may justify (without immodesty) from
the many letters of acknowledgment received from
gentlemen of the first quality, and others altogether
strangers to me. His late Majesty Charles the Second,
318 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Losdon,
was sometimes graciously pleased to take notice of it to
me, and that I had by that book alone incited a world of
planters to repair their broken estates and woods, which
the greedy rebels had wasted and made such havoc of.
Upon this encouragement I was once speaking to a
mighty man, then in despotic power, to mention the
great inclination I had to serve his Majesty in a little
office then newly vacant (the salary I think hardly 300/.)
whose province was to inspect the timber-trees in hi»
Majesty's forests, &c., and take care of their culture and
improvement ; but this was conferred upon another, who,
I believe, had seldom been out of the smoke of London,
where, though there was a great deal of timber, there
were not many trees. I confess I had an inclination to
the employment npon a public account, as well as its being
suitable to my rural genius, born as I was at Wotton,
among the woods.
Soon after this, happened the direful conflagration of
this city; when, taking notice of our want of books of
architecture in the English tongue, I published those
most useful directions of Ten of the best authors on that
subject, whose works were very rarely to be had, all of
them written in French, Latin, or Italian, and so not
intelligible to our mechanics. What the fruit of that
labour and cost has been (for the sculptures, which are
elegant, were very chargeable), the great improvement of
our workmen, and several impressions of the copy since,
will best testify.
In this method I thought properly to begin with
planting trees, because they would require time for growth,
and would be advancing to delight and shade at least, and
were therefore by no means to be neglected and deferred,
while building might be raised and finished in a summer
or two if the owner pleased.
Thus, Madam, I endeavoured to do my countrymen
some little service, in as natural an order as I could for
the improving and adorning their estates and dwellings,
and if possible, make them in love with these useful and
innocent pleasures, in exchange of a wasteful and ignoble
sloth which, I had observed, had so universally corrupted
an ingenuous education.
To these I likewise added my little History of Chalco-
1690.] JOHN EVELYK 319
grapliy, a treatise of the perfection of Painting, and of
erecting Libraries, Medals, with
some other intermesses which might divert within doors, as
well as altogether without.
Henry Bemde to John Evelyn.
25th October, 1690. '
Sib,
The last night arrived Colonel Fitzpatrick, with
the ex,press from Kinsale ; the new fort was surrendered
upon honourable terms, marching out three regiments
with bag and baggage, drums beating, colours flying, with
an article for the governor. Sir Edward Scott, to have a
passport to be transported beyond sea within any time
during three months; they left great store, and 109 pieces
of cannon. The Duke of Berwick, with 1500 horse, was
upon the march with a design to relieve it, but Lieut.-
General Ginkel having notice, had like to have been in
the rear of them with 3000 horse and 1000 dragoons, but
of this they had notice, and did return to Limerick,
binning many villages and the Lord Orrery's house,
which cost but lately 40,000/. The building was the
noblest palace in Ireland. The Duke of Berwick sent
twice to Maxwell not to fire it, but could not prevail.
The Duke of Grafton is certainly dead ; has made his will,
by which the Lords Godolphin and Lichfield are executors.
The King continues his pension to the young duke. To-
morrow an ambassador from Portugal has audience of the
King, which is an acknowledgment, and brings him into
the Confederacy, and it is thought all the Italian princes
will follow his example. The Turks now growing so
powerful in Hungary, have taken Belgrade, and it is
feared Tekely has defeated Prince Louis of Baden ; the
not having made a peace when time served is wholly
imputed to the treachery of the Jesuits. The Breda,
a third-rate ship, lying in Kinsale road, having twenty-
five prisoners of war and many other passengers, design-
ing for England the next day, was, by an unhappy
accident, blown up, all perishing but the captain, who
320 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
cannot live, he is so bruised. The King goes next month
for Holland.
I am, sir, your aflfectionate servant,
H. Bemde.
Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
Sptichley, \st JanvMry, 1691.
When I consider the honour Mr. Evelyn has
done me in his hortulan Kalendar, I must blush at my
own unworthiness, and be more than ever sensible of ray
defects in that which he is so great a master of. I confess
I was always a lover of gardening, by reason I find in it
a constant expectation of something new, without the
remorse which most if not all the pleasures of this life are
mixed with. Aud in this diversion I have here, at my
poor villa, for some time entertained myself, buried, as
'twere, in oblivion of my friends, till I found myself living
in your works, which are celebrated not only in your own
country, but in those parts where I have observed the
most curious in their plantations and gardens. The daily
experience of this age testifies the universal benefit you
have done mankind, in discovering to us several secrets
in the mystery of that art, which before we were altogether
ignorant of. Give me leave, my dear sir, to admire you
in your garden, whilst you are raising those cedars which
will eternise your memory ; so that we shall see a most
pleasant verdure in the midst of winter, and the most
curious plants preserved in their natural vigour, and all
the variety of nature, in a perpetual spring. If there is
a paradise here on earth, doubtless you enjoy it with your
Flora, who excels not only in those qualities which render
a rural life most agreeable, but in most other virtues and
ornaments of her sex. You have made me your debtor to
future ages ; and the best return I can pay you in this,
will be to own on all occasions that I am, with the greatest
deference and respect, sir.
Your most obliged and obedient servant,
E. Bebkeley.
1691.] JOHN EVELYN. 321
Sir,
From John Evelyn to Anthony a Wood.
Sayes-Court, 29<A May, 1691.
Having lately received an account from Mr. Aubrey
(as formerly by the Specimen and Proposals you have
published) of the progress of the intended History [Athenos
Oxonienses), and that you desire to be informed who one
Mr. Wells (some time since of Deptford) was : the best
light I can give you will be from the inscription upon his
wife's monument in that parish-church. Of what county,
or family of that name, he originally was, I cannot say ;
but it might haply be conjectured by the arms, had not
the clerk (whom I ordered to send me the inclosed note)
forgotten that circumstance. Thus much only I can add,
that Mr. WeUs the husband married into a very ancient
and worthy family of the Wallengers and Gonstones, of
which the last (namely, Benjamin) had been treasurer of
the Navy Royal during the reigns of Henry VIII., King
Edward VI., Queens Mary and Elizabeth, a place of
greatest trust and honour. And to these two families my
wife has a near relation. — But to return to Mr. Wells.
He was the author of a book of Shadows or Dialing, an
excellent mathematician, well acquainted with Mr. Gunter,
Gelibrand, Doctor Gilbert, Mr. Oughtred, and other
famous mathematicians of his time : I have several horo-
scopes and other schemes of his, among my papers. He
had two sons (whom I well knew), whereof the eldest
succeeded in his father's office of Storekeeper in the Naval
Arsenal, a place of good credit, and requiring extraordinary
application. His second son, Ben. Wells, Physician, for-
merly fellow of All Souls in Oxon, a very good scholar,
lately deceased at Greenwich, leaving only two daughters.
This, sir, being all I can at present learn of Mr. Wells,
I take opportunity to superadd something which more
immediately concerns myself. 'Tis some time since that
Dr. Plot, communicating to me your noble design, required
me (as from yourself) to give him some account of my
own family, &c. : what then I writ I do not now so well
approve of: and divers circumstances since that inter-
S22 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london
vening, both as to my fortune (which may possibly transfer
my hitherto abode here at Sayes Court in Kent to the
seat of my ancestors in Surrey), and an honourable charge
which his late j^Iajesty conferred on me, of one of the
Commissioners of the Privy Seal, seems to require some
other account from me than that which Dr. Plot exacted
of me, which I desired he would entreat you to manage,
not as written by me in my own person (which were a
vanity insupportable), but that you would use the sponge,
as you thought fit, and as becomes the modesty of one who
has no other ambition in this, than that (if needs you will
take notice of an inconsiderable man), though I can con-
tribute little to your worthy labour, I may yet endeavour
that the honour you intend me, and the glorious university
who is pleased to own me, may not suffer through your
too great civility, or reproach me of presumption, or
ingratitude. I am,
Sir, yours, &c.
Sir,
If I may be so bold I should esteem it a great
favour, if at least you have prepared anything concerning
me, that you would transmit me a copy thereof before you
print it.
FVom Sir Richard Bulkeley to John Evelyn.
London, 13<A April, 1692.
Sir,
It is from your great sense of religion, and love to
learning, that I have been moved to give you the trouble
of this ; and it is from that also that I hope for my pardon
for this, which othervrise were a great presumption.
Although you have lived so long in the Avorld as to know
the vanity of learning in itself, and that almost all its
satisfactions are calculated only for the meridian of this
short life, yet you cannot but know that in some particu-
lars it may be instrumental in promoting the glory of
God ; and that you may contribute in some measure to
make it so, is the intent and end of this. The bearer
1692.] JOHN EVELYN. 328
hereof is the son of a poor widow in London, who, by the
charitable care of Dr. Gale, has attained to so great a
degree of learning, that upon the pubHc examination at
Paul's School he was chosen (with a small exhibition
of 10/. a-year which the Mercer's Company do allow) to
go off to Cambridge. But his learning (of which you will
presently be the judge) is much short of his parts and his
industry in his studies, and those are yet abundantly of
his piety. I have known him a considerable time, and
have found in him so deep a sense of religion, and such a
pure, meek, humble, and resigned soul, of which in
discourse I could give you evident testimonies, that I am
fully persuaded he might become a very useful labourer
in the Lord's vineyard ; but here he sticks, and without
the assistance of some Mecsenas he cannot subsist at
Cambridge. I hope you will pardon the great freedom I
have taken in giving him this opportunity of applying
himself to you for a charity of, I think, the best and most
useful sort.
I rest, sir.
Your most humble servant,
Richard Bulkeley.
From the Bishop of Lincoln [Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn.
Buckden, October 3rd, 1692.
Sir,
Though I have had here a great deal of good
company, yet I must own that I still wanted your con-
versation, especially upon the happening of the earthquake.
None in Buckden (that I can hear of) were sensible of it,
but it was discerned in divers neighbouring towns, and
many have complained to me of a giddiness in their
heads which it caused for a while. In the fens, nigh
Ely, some turf-diggers were much surprised by it, whilst
they perceived the ground to tremble in an unusual
manner, and the water to come of a sudden a foot deep
into dry pits, and by and by to sink down again.
Since this earthquake, I mused a little upon the nature
T 2
324 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
of earthquakes in general, wliilst I was upon tlie road to
Cambridge, and I here send you my conjectures, to no
other end than that I may draw from you some better
thoughts upon tlie subject. My conceit is this. I imagine
that the cause of thunder in the clouds is much the same
with that of quaking in the earth, the discharge of a
nitro-sulphurous matter. I know nothing in nature
which goes off with such force, and moving with such speed,
as that does ; and in this earthquake it must have been
something of mighty force to make it so general, and of
wonderful celerity to cause it in so many very distant
places about the same hour.
If I be not much mistaken in the last earthquake
which destroyed Smyrna, a sulphurous flame broke out
of the earth and did dreadful execution above-ground ;
and in this it was here said, that by many persons in
London a sulphurous stench was smelt, and by some in
Northamptonshire whilst they were hunting ; and (if I
well remember) the places most subject to earthquakes,
as those nigh to Constantinople, abound with sulphur
both in the air and in the earth. This nitro-sulphurous
matter may be sometimes kindled in the earth by lightning
striking into some deep cavity impregnated with that
body, and, I think, in the late earthquake in Jamaica,
there happened just before it a mighty tempest in the air.
Whilst I mention Jamaica, give me leave to transcribe a
few words out of Parker's Almanac, in his observations
on September last. " We wish well,*' says he, " to the
island of Jamaica, for if £i be their horoscope, it cannot
be of pleasant consequence to that people." Here, though
he is too late by some months, and speaks not particularly
of an earthquake, yet his singling out of that island this
year has something of oddness in it, though nothing of
prophecy. But to return to the matter from which I
digressed. Sometimes the lightning may kindle the
sulphur in the earth and cause an explosion, and by that
an earthquake; sometimes some other causes in the
bowels of the earth may set it on fire, and then, if it
happens in a place where there is little communication by
subterraneous caverns, the earthquake may be of less
extent and the sulphurous flame may break out as in
Vesuvius. But if it happens where there is great store of
1692.] JOHN EVELYN". 325
nitro- sulphurous matter, and a great communicatiou by
long and various channels, perhaps it may be the first
matter and by it which it immediately kindles, and so in
succession make a very forcible and speedy and general
concussion. I doubt not but that there are quantities of
nitre and sulphur everywhere in the air and earth, but
more especially towards the central parts of the earth, as
also that there are innumerable very deep caverns in the
earth by which the parts of it have communication. That
which made this earthquake, whatsoever it was, moved in
passages under the sea, being felt by us and by those
beyond the seas that encompass us.
This is the sum of the fancies which came into my head
whilst I was passing fromBuckden to Cambridge. It may
be, if I had slept all the way in my coach, I might have
dreamt as philosophically as I now write : however, it will
turn to my benefit if the effect of it be a letter of more
judicious reflections from so knowing and worthy a friend
as yourself to. Sir,
Your very obliged faithful servant,
Thomas Lincoln.
From John Evelyn to the Bishop of Lincoln
[Dr. Tenison).
Sayes-Court, I5lh Oct. 1692.
My Lord,
Whatsoever my opinion had been concerning the
cause of earthquakes, I am sure it had become me to have
submitted to your Lordship's better judgment. But,
indeed, I have long had no other sentiments of it than
what I find confirmed by your Lordship with so great
reason, by so many experiments, and pregnant instances
of the irresistible efl'ects of nitre, which no chains can
bind. An experiment which was long since made at
Gresham College, was enough to convince one. They
prepared a ball of solid iron about the thickness of a pretty
cannon bullet, which was hammered both hot and cold,
to render it as hard and tough as possible. In this they
826 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
drilled a small hole to the centre, and after having dropped
in a few grains of gunpowder, and stopping them up by
forcing in a screw, exceedingly Avell rivetted at the top,
they set it on a pan of charcoal, in a large quadrangle of
the College, which no sooner thereby heated, but with a
terrible explosion it broke the ball into a thousand pieces.
Now though this was common gunpowder, yet ^tis not the
snlphur, but the nitre, which operates with this pemicity,
and breaks all bands whatsoever. The sulphur and coal
which enter into the composition and blacken the corns,
are only {yonr Lordship knows) in order to its speedy
kindling, adding little else to its force. The consideration
whereof frees me from all questionings of the being and
power of spirits (I mean intellectual ones), and of creatures
and beings invisible. The dire effects of compressed and
incarcerated air, when the turnkey fire (sulphur) unlocks
the prison-doors, are not to be expressed but with astonish-
ment ; nor pass I by a windmill without wonder, to see a
stone of that magnitude, and so ponderous, and of so many
tons weight, whirled about with that swiftness by some-
thing which we do not see, and sometimes hardly feel, for
a very little breath will set it going. Indeed it was to this
pent-up vapour, that the ancient meteorologists attributed
those cholics and convulsions of the earth ; but they did
not dream of nitre, which, though no more than air con-
tracted, has so much the more violent operation when
expanded, as inclines me to think it has raised all the
famous fires we meet with, and not only the volcanos at
present burning (such as Hecla, Vesuvius, ^tna, Strom-
boli, &c.) but perhaps most of the mountains of the world,
which I fancy might have been thrust up by the force of
subterranean fires. Powdered alabaster, chalk and sand
being put into a vessel, and set on the fire, will (when hot,)
boil and bubble up to some pretty and odd resemblances
of such protuberances. Nor is it unlikely that where
the hills are highest, the caves are as profound underneath
them ; and that there are vast ones under those Alps and
Sierras from whence our rivers derive their plentiful
streams, and have their supplies from some such capacious
cisterns and hydrophylatia as Kircher mentions. Besides
these, may there not also be many dry and empty cryptas,
sometimes above, and sometimes beneath these water
1692.] JOHN EVELYN. 327
receptacles, where Vulcan and the Cyclops are perpetually
at work ? And that in process of time, the fire arriving
at a bed of nitre and sulphur blowing up all incumbrances,
not only causes these concussions, but frequently spew out
great quantities of water ? ^Tis evident that the very
glebe and soil all about Naples is natural fuel, where I
have in many places taken up sulphur vivum, both under
and above the surface. All the ground both under that
noble city and country about it, sounds hollow like a tub.
The hot baths, natural stoves, and other extraordinary
things of this kind through all that territory, are the
eflfects of subterranean fire, which, feeding on the bitumi-
nous and other unctuous and inflammable matter (which it
copiously finds), when it comes once to meet with a stratum
of nitre it forces up all above and about it, and makes
that prodigious havoc, however thick, deep, and heavy, be
the incumbent weight or matter. Thus did Vesuvius
A.D. 1630, and now since (more terrible) at Catanea,
ejecting stones and huge rocks of monstrous bulk ;
belching out flames and scattering ashes some hundred
leagues distance from the eruption. Now Avhen this nitre
has done its execution, and one thinks it quite at rest
(for so it seemed to be for about a thousand years, nay I
think ever since the elder Pliny perished there *) emitting
only a little smoke, it was all this while, it seems, lurking
till it came to another stratum, and then up went all
again ; and thus ^tis evident have been made those deep
and dreadful calderras both of Vesuvius and Etna.
Whether at first these fires were kindled by lightnings
from without (as your Lordship well conjectures), or from
coruscations within, or by the colHsion of pyrites and
other stones of the arched caverns, the prepared matter
soon conceives a kindling, which breaking into a flame,
rarifies the stagnant air that bursts those rocky bars, which,
till it breaks out, puts oftentimes a country in those
paroxysms and ague fits which we call earthquakes. The
noise, explosion, and inconceivable swiftness of its motion,
affecting so distant places in the same moment almost of
time, shows through what recesses, long extended channels
* " For in this confidence they built cities and palaces, and planted vine-
yards and places of pleasure.— J. E."
328 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
and hollow passages (as in so many mines) ^ this sulphurous
nitre lies in train, ready for the linstock. These furnaces
are doubtless the laboratories where minerals are concocted
into metals, fluors sublimated, salts and juices condensed
into precious stones, the several ferments imparting various
qualities to earths and waters, and promoting vegetation.
Nay, who knows (and I pray God we may never know)
whether local Hell be not the central fire ; or whether
this vast terraqueous globe may not one day break like a
grenado about our ears, and cast itself into another figure
than the deluge did according to the ingenious Doctor's *
theory ?
But, my Lord, from philosophising and conjecture I am
rambling I know not whither, when all that I would
signify is my full assent to your Lordship's reasoning;
verily believing the cause of earthquakes to proceed from
the ingredient mentioned, mutually enkindled, and then,
in searching vent, tears all up, where it finds the obstacle
and shaking all about it. 'Tis observable that Egypt and
the lower regions seldom feel these concussions, whilst the
mountainous countries are most obnoxious, as most
cavernous ; especially in hot climates. Sad instances of
this are the yet ruins of Old Antioch, Smyrna, &c., and in
our days Ragusa, Benevento, Smyrna again, and that
terrible one of Jamaica, which had its operation and was
felt as far as England but a few days since. All the
mountainous countries of Sicily and Greece and along
Dalmatia's side are hollow, perhaps for thousands of miles,
even under the very sea itself; as I believe from Vesuvius
to Etna, and thence to other further remote mountains
and volcanoes, perhaps as far as Iceland, China, and the
Andes of Peru, which are full oipicos, whereof Potosi (that
inexhaustible magazine of silver and other metals) seems
to be no other. Those furious ravages may also probably
have made so many rugged rocks, cliffs, hiatuses and
peloponesuses, and have separated those many islands, and
scattered, nay, as it were, sowed about the ocean, and
divided from the continent ; and what if raised in the very
sea itself, as the Terceras were, and Teneriffe in the Grand
Canaries, not to insist on the new mountain near the
• Dr. Burnet of the Clmrter-House.
1692.] JOHN EVELYN. 329
Baise : So that, my Lord, I am in no distress at all to solve
this phenomenon, at least to my own satisfaction. But
when all is said, though all proceed from natural causes,
yet doubt I not their being inflicted and directed by the
Supreme Cause of causes, as judgments upon a sinful
world ; and for signs of great calamities, if they work no
reformation : if they do, of chastisements. Upon these
accounts I look on them as portentous and of evil presage,
and to show us that there is no stability under heaven,
Avhere we can be safe and happy, but in Him alone who
laid the foundations of the earth, the rock of ages that shall
never be removed, when heaven and earth shall pass away.
As to our late earthquake here, I do not find it has left
any considerable marks ; but at Mons 'tis said it has
made some demolitions. I happened to be at my brother's,
at Wotton, in Surrey, when the shaking was, and at
dinner with much company ; yet none of us at table
sensible of any motion. But the maid who was then
making my bed, and another servant in a garret above
her, felt it plainly, and so did my wife's laundry-maid
here at Deptford : and, generally, wherever they were above
in the upper floors, they felt the trembling most sensibly,
for a reason I need not explain to your Lordship. In
London, and particularly in Dover Street (where my son's
house is), they were greatly affrighted. But the stories
that go about in this neighbourhood, by many who are
lately returned from Jamaica, are many, and very tragical.
I doubt not at the next meeting of Gresham College
(which will now shortly be after their usual recess during
summer), Ave shall have ample and authentic histories
and discourses on this subject from several places of
their correspondents. I cannot, in the meantime, omit
acquainting of your Lordship with one very remarkable,
which we have received here from credible hands : that
during this astonishing and terrible paroxysm, multitudes
of people, running distractedly out of their tottering
houses, and seeing so many swallowed up and perishing,
divers of them espying the minister of the town at some
distance ran and compassed him all about, desiring him
to pray for them, as immediately he did, all falling on
their knees, when, all the ground about them suddenly
sinking, the spot only upon which they were at prayer
330 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Loinx)N,
remained a firm and steady island, all the rest of the
contiguous gjound turning into a lake, other places into
gulphs, which drowned and buried all that stood upon
them, and which were very many. And now, my Lord,
'tis time to implore your pardon for this tedious paper,
together with your blessing.
From John Evelyn to his Brother.
Dover Street, 5th Jan.*
Dear Brother,
The occasion of my writing at present, is from a
visit made me this evening from Sir Richard Onslow.
After the common civilities were passed between us, he
informed me that his coming to me at this time, was to
desire I would acquaint you with the late Chief Baron
Montague's intention of disposing of Baynard's, and
his offering it to him as lying so conveniently to his
estate in that part of Surrey. But that he should be
very tender in dealing for it, if it should in any sort
be to the prejudice of one, for whom he had so great a
respect, and which he would endeavour to preserve to our
fanaily. I told him, that I was sure you would own this
expression as a signal instance of his great civility, as
became you. As for Baynard's, I presumed he could not
but know the injury had been done you by my sisters, in
taking that estate so unhandsomely from you, without
any colour of justice or cause given. Sir Richard, however,
pressed me to write to you about it, and that you please
to let him know your convenience, and whether with
your good liking, he might be encouraged to proceed with
Mr. Montague ; for that he had promised to return him a
positive answer within ten days. I assured him I would
write to you by the very first opportunity, and that I did
not question but you would speedily command me to wait
on him with your answer, and, in all events, acknowledge
this great mark of his friendship and neighbourly respect.
What safe title Mr. Montague could make to what he
* The date of this letter is uncertaiu ; but it seems most likely to belong
to 1692, when Evelyn was residing in Dover Street,
1698.] JOHN EVELYN. 331
came so surreptitiously by, I would not undertake to
determine ; but I believe you would not wish so good and
worthy a friend as Sir Richard Onslow to deal for an
estate which, being detained fraudulently, might possibly
create him any trouble or misunderstanding between so
good and ancient neighbours : and whatever reply you
think fit to make, let it, I pray, be so written, that I may
show Sir Eichard the whole letter; or rather (which I
suppose he will receive as a greater respect) write to him-
self, and I will wait on him with it. I wrote to you the
last week in answer to a former of yours at large. I pray
God give you ease of your infirmity, and beUeve me to be,
my dear brother, &c. &c.
From Sir Dudley Cullum to John Evelyn.
Hampgtead, 5th Jan., 1 693.
Sir,
I cannot but think myself obliged, in gratitude,
to give you an account how well your late invented stoves
for a green-house succeeds (by the experience I have had
of it), which has certainly more perfection than ever yet
art was before master of. I have perused your directions
in laying my pipes (made of crucible earth), not too near
the fire-grate, which is nigh upon or better than sixteen
inches above, and by making a trench the whole length of
my house under the paving (for the air to issue out and
blow the fire), of a convenient breadth and depth (that is
eighteen inches both ways, covered with an arch of brick),
leaving a hole open under the fire-grate almost as wide,
and at the other end of the trench having a square iron
plate answerable to that of my paving, to take off and put
on, with a round hole at each corner of about three inches
diameter, with a lid to slide open and shut upon every
one of them (as you may have seen upon some porridge-
pot covers), so that by opening any one of these holes, or
all of them more or less, or by taking off the whole plates,
I can release such a quantity of air out of the house to
blow the fire, so as to increase or diminish the blast ; and
as you were pleased by letter to inform me concerning
332 CORRESPONDENCE OF [londom,
distributing the air at its admission more equally through
the house, I have inserted my pipes into a channel all
along the wall at the end of the house ; with these several
overtures you mentioned, all which, sir, I assure you prove
most admirably well, and by this free and generous com-
munication of yours, you must have highly obliged all the
lovers of the recreation, as well as.
Sir, your most faithful servant,
D. CULLUM.
From Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn.
Spetckley, 20th April, 1C93.
I HAD before this made my acknowledgments to
Mr. Evelyn for the favour of his acceptable present, but
I was willing to read some part of the book, which you
have done the honour to translate * and let be published
under your name, for which you are so far from needing an
apology, that both Monsieur Quintinye himself, and the rest
of our gardeners of this age, must take their original from
you, and all the ingenious that study universal gardening
will confess it. Monsieur Quintinye is very curious in
his tract of fruit-trees, which le Sieur Le Gendre, cure
d'Hernonville, has been before in his Maniere de cuUiver
les Arbres Fruitiers, and Monsieur Morin, in his Traitc
pour la Taille des Arbres. I find likewise much of his
observation in Monsieur Laurent's Abreye pour les Arbres
nains, dedicated to Monsieur Quintinye; and in the
Jardinier Royal, with the Nouvelle Instruction pour
connoitre les bons Fruits selon le mois de I'annee, by
Monsieur Claude St. Etienne. Monsieur Quintinye is
very curious likewise in his Legumes, and in his dis-
tinction of fruits, and seems to exceed the former in his
particular direction in the ordering of them. But he is
most to be admired in his method of pruning, or rather,
his anatomy of fruit-trees, which is one of the most
difficult parts of gardening, and has not before attained
to tkat perfection. I give you many thanks for the vines,
* Treatise on Orange Trees.
1693.] JOHN EVELYN. 333
which were very well put up, and came safe hither. I am
highly indebted to these and your former favours, parti-
cularly the gi'eat honour you have done me in your
Kalendarium Hortense. Your disposition to oblige all
the world, must occasion a continuance of your favours to
one who is most unworthy of them. I can only beg of
you freely to dispose of me, having a just right of pre-
scription in whatever I may render you any service ; being
with due regard to our patron, and with sincere affection.
Sir, your most humble servant,
R. Berkeley.
P.S. These herein-mentioned, with the Remarques
necessaires pour la Culture des Fleurs, by Monsieur P.
Morin, and the Theatre de Jardinage, with the Jardine
Potager, by Aristote, I have bound together in six tomes,
with the French Gardener, which might be yet of some
use in their version, by reason there are remarks in
gardening not yet in English. Is the Jardinier du
Pays-Bas translated into English ? These, with sub-
mission, I refer to you, who have so much obliged the
public with your former translations, and much more with
your own works, many of them already extant, and the
rest we must hope for from your manuscripts not yet
known but to your retirements.
From John Evelyn to Mrs. M. Thike.
Dear Cousin,
Knowing how much you are in the confidence
of my daughters, and have opportunities of seeing a
gentleman who sometimes made his court at Somerset-
house, for whom I really have great respect, and
would not he should think it has at any time been
lessened by some misunderstanding I hear of: that,
therefore, I may take off all mistakes and prejudices, by a
free eclaircissement of particulars, I will first begin with
Sir Lawrence Staughton. Long after Mr. B. had, as I
believed, given over all intentions of making any further
application here, my brother Glanvill proposed Sir L. S.
to us, and when I came (at the beginning of summer last)
834 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
to Wotton, my brother Evelyn then spoke very earnestly
to me about it. In the meantime, Mr. B. desired to
know, whether if by the end of the Michaelmas Terra (then
ensuing) he had a hearing and determination of his suit
in Chancery to his advantage, he might be admitted to
proceed again, which my wife returned an answer to.
That term expiring, and nothing done by which he could
well settle any present jointure (without much hazard), I
could not imagine that the admitting one visit only (for
it was no more) of a gentleman who made no address until
the end of November, was to be rejected, Mr. B. being
himself uncertain of bringing his concerns to any con-
clusion, as I was informed from his own lawyer. In this
circumstance could I do less than propose Sir L. S. to my
daughter, or more for Mr. B. than (when I found her
uneasy) to desire him not to make any addresses, in as
fair and decent a manner as I could. That I acquainted
my brother Evelyn how unhappy I was, beset so with
difficulties, is but what I thought myself obliged to do to
those who proposed him to us, when Mr. B.^had desisted.
I must in the meantime own, that Sir Lawrence was a
person whom 1 could not but see to be every way suitable to
my circumstances, so near the place where I am likely (with
God's blessing) to continue our family, and to whom we
formerly had a near relation, and which Avould have
renewed a considerable interest in the country, with such
other inducements as might have made a less indulgent
father to have used authority in these encounters,
where there was no exception. But I have been so far
from doing it, that I have, since all this, again utterly
rejected a proposal of another person of great estate, and
every way qualified beyond any reasonable exception, to
gratify inclinations of what I all along, and as far as I
am able, have set apart for my daughter's portion to be
accepted of, as it would have been by those I mentioned,
who yet did offer a very ample jointure and indisputable
settlement. As, therefore, to the addition of 500/. more,
which I understand by you is insisted on, it is what
I could never promise positively, because it may never be
in my power : but as it is not twice that sum which I
could stick to give to make my daughter happy, so I
must not oblige myself by covenant, and make that a debt
1693.] JOHN EVELYN. 335
on ray estate which I do in kindness only, if God shall
me able. The present estate hanging over me, being so
many ways encumbered ; and what I now possess, so settled
as I cannot reasonably charge it; nor is there reason I
should, since by the method of even a Smithfield bargain,
there ought to be a proportionable addition of 50/. per
annum to the jointure of 200Z. a-year, which is worth a
thousand pounds. Many other things I could say upon
this article, but I will not tire a fair lady, whose friendship
and prudence I rely on for my justificatipn, and if need
be, for reconciliation, to make use of this paper as you
think convenient. If the pretended lover outweigh the
five hundred pounds, there will need, I think, few words
to the bargain.
I am. Dearest Cousin, &c.
From John Evelyn to Dr. Plot.
Sayes-Court, 27ih August, 1693.
Worthy Doctor,
Our common and excellent friend, Mr. Pepys,
acquaints me, that you would be glad to know upon what
I am at present engaged relating to Coins, there being (it
seems) a design of pubhshing something about that subject
as they concern the money of this nation. It is true
indeed (and as I remember to have told you) that I had
blotted some sheets upon an argument of that nature,
but without the least reference to current money, ancient
or modern, but on such Medals as relate purely to some-
thing historical, which does not at all interfere with other
coins, unless it be such as our Spur-royal, as they call it,
being a single stamp of gold, and, as you know, suggesting
something of our story here in England, besides its
intrinsic value, upon which account I may have occasion
to mention it. For the rest, I meddle not with them.
But this prompts me to send my request to you for the
assistance you promised, by imparting to me what you
had of this kind, which might contribute to what I am
now preparing, and by which you will very much oblige,
Sir, yours, &c.
336 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
From John Evelyn to Lord Spencer.
Deptford, 4th September, 1693.
My Lord,
Though I have not the opportunity of waiting
on your lordship so often as I ought and should do, was I
perfectly at my own disposure (which by reason of many
impediments in ray circumstances of late I neither have
been, nor as yet am), yet my worthiest thoughts and
inclinations are never absent from you ; and I often
revive myself with the meditation of your virtues, and
some very few noble young persons more, when that of
the sad decadence of the age we live and converse in
interposes its melancholy prospect.
I was with great appetite coming to take a repast in the
noble library which I hear you have lately purchased (and
by the catalogue I have seen, must needs be a very chosen
collection), when at the same time I understand you are
taking a journey with resolution of making a tour about
England, thereby joining to books and paper-descriptions,
experience ; and to speculation, the seeing of the things
themselves. It has certainly been a great mistake and
very preposterous in our education, the usually sending
our young gentlemen to travel abroad, and see foreign
countries, before they have seen or known anything of
their own. Your lordship remembers who says it, Ne sis
peregrinus domi ; and therefore worthily done, and memor-
able in my Lord Treasurer Burleigh, to hinder the
Council, who in those days it seems used to give passes to
travel, from granting them to any who had not first seen
and could give a good account of their own country.
Your lordship, therefore, has taken the best and most
natural method ; and I know not what can now be added
to the rest of your accomplishments, but the continuance
of your health, which I shall pray may attend all your
motions, who am.
My lord, your, &c.
1693.] JOHN EVELYN. 337
From Dr. Plot to John Evelyn.
Threadneedle Street, London, 2nd October, 1693.
Honoured Sir,
According to your desire, I have looked out all
the historical medals I have in my possession, which I
have laid aside for your use, whenever you please to call
for them. In the meantime I must beg a favour of you
in behalf of the University of Oxford, who are now
publishing a tract of Plutarch's coucerning education,
and would gladly add another of St. Chrysostom, pub-
lished in France by Combefis, in Greek, could they meet
with the book. Paul's Churchyard and Little Britain
have been searched for it without success, nor is there
now any hopes left but in you, who it seems have trans-
lated it into English, wherefore they presume you must
have the Greek copy, which they promise themselves
(upon my importunity) you will be pleased to accommodate
them with. Wherein you are also desired to be very
speedy, because they design to have both tracts out before
Christmas. Our common and most excellent friend,
Mr. Pepys, told me this day he hoped to see you this
week, with whom, should I be out of town (as I guess I
may on Wednesday and Thursday, in quest of some Roman
antiquities now under my consideration), I desire you
would leave the book; wherein you will very much
oblige the whole University, and amongst them more
particularly.
Your most humble and obliged servant,
Rob. Plot.
Sir,
From Robert Berkeley to John Evelyn,
Worcester, Oct. 26<^, 1693.
In my last I think I did not justice to Monsieur
Quintinye, having not then been so well acquainted with
his book, which is the best of any of that kind (I presume)
338 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
in the extent of it ; but in the general, doubtless your
works are much more preferable as comprehending the
universal art of gardening; and were they printed, as they
are wished by all who have any knowledge of them, would
be the most celebrated in the world, and remain as a rule
to govern us in future ages ; which I hope you will con-
sider of, both in duty to yourself and your country, that
what you have not time to digest into that requisite order,
whilst you live, you will leave them in such hands as shall
see them published. I should highly recommend Mr.
Bentley to you, if you were a stranger to him or to his
merit. I believe there is nothing in your power you can
deny him, being a lover and patron of all virtue and
learning. I entreat of you and your excellent lady to
accept my most humble services.
I am, with real alBFection,
Your most faithful friend,
E. Berkeley.
Prom James Quine to John Evelyn.
2Sth Mardi, 1694.
Most honoueed Sib,
These are from him who lately made you the late
visit, and was troublesomely curious concerning Milton,
the greatest man that ever rose in civil poetry, nor know I
any greater in prose: let Shakspeare live, and let Mr. Cowley
not die, wherein he is chaste, but not compared. But
still may we not say that poetry has been for the most
part divorced from its proper use and end, and obliged to
contract strange marriages with vanity and vice, and
spend itself in flattery and lying, in confounding the good
and the bad, in emptiness and debauch, in saying all that
it can say, without any regard to truth or virtue or honour,
and that her fall is equal to that of the son of the morning.
It is long, excellent sir, that I have honoured and very
much loved your name, your character, your genius, and
your writings, and the solid and the obstinate friendship
you seem to me to have held with virtue and religion in
the midst of a crooked and a foolish generation ; though
1694.] JOHN EVELYN. 339
never, till last summer at my Lord of Canterbury's (my old
and most honoured friend and acquaintance), had the
honour and the happiness to be acquainted with you, if yet
I enjoy it, or if yet you permit it. However, I shall pre-
sume to write myself. Sir,
Your meanest servant,
James Quine.
From the Bishop of Lincoln [Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn.
5th April, 1694.
Good Sir,
I received yours, and with it the MSS. I am glad
you go on with your work. I forgot to show you a gold
medal coined at the coronation of James I.
This morning the Earl of Pembroke sent a letter to me,
which sets forth that a fiery exhalation coming from the
sea into Montgomeryshire, hath travelled far by land, and
burnt such hay, stubble, and straw as hath stood in its
way. It has fired the straw of some houses, and by that
the houses themselves, but of itself it is languid and burns
not wood or any compact body. It hath spread itself
many furlongs in both breadth and length. The hand he
had it from, he assured me, was good ; perhaps to you this
is not an original, to me it is. God bless yourself and
family. I am, Sir,
Your assured servant,
Thomas Lincoln.
From Sir Dudley Cullum to John Evelyn.
Hampstead, lith May, 1694.
I OUGHT long since to have given you thanks for the
favour of your letter, had I not a desire to see my plants
removed from their winter quarters ere I satisfied your
request of hearing how it agreed with them. As for my
stove, at one time this winter it had fire day and night for
a fortnight together, and found the heat managed with a
z 2
340 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
great deal of ease, and, notwithstanding the closeness of
the place, yet, by the admission of that air you advised,
gave such a freedom of breathing as one would have
thought himself abroad in the open air in April, when in
January all things then without doors were freezing very
hard. As for my orange-trees, they looked as well as
I could wish ; and other plants carried a complexion as in
summer, such as myrtles, Spanish and Indian jessamines,
oleanders, with some of less worth, which endured their
winter quarters extremely well. My green-house is about
fifty-eight feet in length, fourteen in breadth, and ten
high ; my orange-trees were full of blossom-buds all the
winter, and have had some blown in April, as in the most
usual and natural season. Pray, Sir, pardon this tedious
relation from
Your humble servant,
D. CULLUM.
From John Evelyn to the Bishop of Lincoln {Dr. Tenison).
Wottm, 29thMay, 1694.
My Lord,
It is none of the least mortifications, that besides
other circumstances obliging me to be at this distance
from my old abode, I cannot have the opportunity of
waiting on your Lordship and receiving those advantages
and improvements which I always returned with when-
ever I came from my Lord of Lincoln. We are here in
no unpleasant solitude. Some good books which I find
here, with a cart load which I brought along with me,
serve to alleviate the tediousness of sitting still ; but we
know nothing of new, but what our friends from your side
impart to us. Mr. Pepys sent me last week the Journal
of Sir John Narbrough and Captain Wood;* together
with Mr. Wharton's Preface to his intended History of
the Life of Archbishop Laud.f I do not know whether I
* Entitled," An Account of several late Voyages and Discoveries to the
South and North, towards the Straits of Magellan, the South Seas," &c.
8vo. 1694.
t Printed in two folio volumes in 1695^1700.
1694.] JOHN EVELYN. 341
might do the learned editor (for it seems he only publishes
a MS. written by that great prelate of his own life) any
service, by acquainting him with a passage relating to that
person, namely, the jubilee which the sacrifice of the
Bishop caused among some at Rome ; it being my hap to
be in that city, and in company of divers of the English
fathers (as they call them), when the news of his suffering,
and the sermon he made upon the scaffold, arrived there ;
which I well remember they read, and commented on, with
no small satisfaction, and (as I thought) contempt, as of
one taken off who was an enemy to them, and stood in
their way : whilst one of the blackest crimes imputed to
him was (we may well call to mind) his being Popishly
affected. I know not, I say, whether the Memoirs may
be of any import to Mr. Wharton, with whom I have
no acquaintance : I therefore acquaint your Lordship with
it, and in the forms almost that I have mentioned and
subjoined to my Discourse ef Medals under that of this
Archbishop's figm-e, which, together with my copy, I have
now sent Benjamin Tooke to print (as he desires) if it be
worth his while. I add nothing more but that of my
wife's humble service to you and my Lady, and that there
is still a part of our small family at Sayes-Court, where
my daughter Draper and husband are the young econo-
mists, and all of us concerned to beg your Lordship's
blessing and prayer especially.
Your, &c.
I should rejoice to hear how Mr. Bentley proceeds with
the library at Whitehall. I hope your Lordship will mind
him of the Sermons he owes us and the public ; I hear
nothing of the Bishop of Chichester, who is likewise in
our debt.
From John Evelyn to Edmund Gibson* [afterwards Bishop
of London).
Wotton, Zlstifay, 1694.
Sir,
To the notes and papers you desired of me, I
have since endeavoured to inform myself in those parti-
* " The learned persou who puhlished the Saxon Chronicle, and was now
setting forth a n«w edition of Camden's Britannia, with additions. — J. E."
842 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
culars you mentioned, and which I presume are come to
you ; and now, by this letter from a friend of mine, well
acquainted with the trustees of Dog Smith (as he is called),
I send you the particulars of that extraordinary benefactor
to this county. You may please to take notice, that
besides what I writ to you of George Abbot, Archbishop of
Canterbury, and his brother Robert, Bishop of Salisbury,
he had at the same time Moris, another brother, who was
Lord Mayor of London ; all sons of the same clothier, and
natives of GuUdford. Also that Hammond, whom I
mentioned, was not only a benefactor to the school there,
but founder of a fellowship at Baliol College, Oxon. John
de la Haye died about three hundred years since, about
whom and other particulars expect in my next, for I
would not retard the printer longer than is necessary, who
remain.
Your, &c.
Prom John Evelyn to Mr. Benjamin Tooke {Printer).
WoWm, 2nd Jwne, 1694.
Mr. Tooke,
Tarde, sed tandem. At last I send you the copy
you have so long expected ; never the worse, I hope, for
coming no sooner. I wish it may answer the pains I have
taken in compiling : for it would amount to the value of
many Medals. I was indeed unwilling it should escape
from me without something more than an ordinary
treatise. It will therefore require a more than ordinary
supervisor. You tell me, such a one you have ; if not,
pray make use of the poor man I directed to you, who is
also acquainted with my hand, and will be ready to assist
you. There being abundance of writers on this subject in
all other polite European languages, and but one very
short and partial one in ours, will I hope render this the
more acceptable, and give ferment to the curious. I
expect attacks from some peevish quarter, in this angry
age J but 80 it make for your interest, and satisfy equitable
judges, I shall not be much concerned.
The Medals which are here sent you, pray take care of.
1694.] JOHN EVELYN. 343
and deliver but one by one to your graver, nor supply him
with any other till he returns you that he is graving
with the plate. You will find I have marked the paper,
wherein you must keep the plates, and apply to the pages
as directed, by which you will avoid mistakes, easily
fallen into without some such method. Such as you are
to have from the Earl of Clarendon, Dr. Plot, &c. I will
take care to procure you by the time these are despatched.
As for the graving, so the contours and outlines be well
designed, I am not soHcitous for the hatching (as they
call it), since we have laudable examples of the other in
Gruter, Spanheim, and other excellent authors. Mr. White,
if he have leisure, will be your best man ; and for the
volume, I should think a thin moderate folio, with a fair
letter, most desirable. As for the title, epistle, and preface,
I shall provide you in good time, and as I see cause ; only
I pray take special care of the insertions and paragraphs
which I have marked [. When all this is finished, I
purpose a very accurate index. This being all at present,
I wish you good success, and am.
Your, &c.
From the Bishop of Lincoln {Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn.
Buchden, 19th June, 1694.
Good Sir,
Your letter dated May 30th, came not to me till
June 17th at night. It was the comfortablest letter I
received that post ; all the rest were filled with ill news
from Brest and out of Flanders, the latter of which I have
reason to think is false. That passage of yours relating
to Bishop Laud is very remarkable, and touches the main
point. I am glad your Book of Medals is coming out,
and that that passage is inserted : for Mr. Wharton has
done all he intends by writing that preface which he sent
to me. The book is all Bishop Laud's own, so that he
neither adds nor alters, unless in the margin, and I believe
the book is by this time all printed off: however, I will
write to him into Kent next post. I 'm sure my letter
will be very agreeable to him upon the account of the
344 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londox,
insertion. I have had lately sent to me six little pieces of
coin (all of a sort) found in an urn by a ploughman, nigh
Mildnall in Norfolk. At a court held by the Dean and
Chapter of Ely, it was presented as treasure trove, they
being the Lords. One of the Prebends sent them. The
inscription is not very legible, especially by my eyes, but
they seem to be coin stamped by W. Rufus, or about that
time. Please to give ray wife's and my own hearty
services to Mrs. Evelyn.
I am your affectionate friend,
T. Lincoln.
There is a book in 12mo, called Religion and Reason
lately printed for Rogers in Fleet Street, which may
perhaps give you an hour's good diversion.
From James Quine to John Evelyn.
9th Januanj.
Honoured Sir,
Though I have been obliged to you, and that for
the charming manner of the obligation (so natural to
yourself and easy) more than the matter, yet I hope I have
not lost the friend in you, when I most want it. If I
know myself and the value I had for you, I think I would
• cheerfully have served you, had it lain in my power, in a
hundred times the sum, and have been abundantly recom-
pensed in the pleasure of serving you. Farewell, excellent
man, and forgive this trouble from him who has cultivated
^poverty and found it a greater treasure than riches, and
•which, if Suetonius may be credited, was, with a happy
retirement, the biggest ambition of Augustus, and a fortune
he preferred to that of the Roman Empire. But it has its
agonies and its pressures which he never knew, in which
he himself would have had recourse to a friend, when an
honourable industry had failed of its reward ; which is my
case, witness much translation of the best things, and much
original of the nature of the enclosed, where the verse is
purposely written low and incorrect, that the many who
are so, may edify thereby.
I am with great sincerity, worthy Sir,
Your obliged, humble servant,
James Quine.
1695.] JOHN EVELYN. 345
From Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn.
St. Martinis Church Yard, 20<A April, 1695.
Sir,
I had yours, and have spoken to my Lord King
about a meeting in order to the better carrying on the
design of the Hospital at Greenwich. The parliament
will now soon he up, and then I presume we shall meet,
and not before. When I have the happiness of seeing
you, we may discourse the business about the Chapel you
speak of; I will do all I can in the case. I have with
this sent you my sermon at the Queen^s funeral : though
I ordered one long ago, yet I fear it was not sent ; you
will excuse the plainness of it. There is come forth an
answer to it, said to be written by Bishop Kenn ; but I
am not sure he is the author : I think he has more wit
and less malice. I saw this day a medal in which the
Queen's face is better hit than I ever saw in picture or
on medal. I wish you all the blessings convenient for
you, and shall ever be your faithful jfriend,
Thomas Cantuar.
From Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn.
Lambeth, I9th July, 1695.
Good Sir,
I am very sorry I could not meet with you on Friday
last, or see you this day : my business is such that I cannot
help leaving part of it undone. I will consider of the
proposition about a maritime college ; I like it extremely
well : everything of this kind moves so slowly that it dis-
courages, but I will not faint for my part. I shall heartily
pray for the better health of your excellent lady, and for
the happiness of your family.
I am your assured friend,
Thomas Cantuar.
346 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
From John Evelyn to TfiUiam Wotton.*
Sir,
Wotton, 90th March, 1696.
I most heartily beg your pardon for detaining your
books so unreasonably long after I had read them, which
I did with great satisfaction, especially the Life of Descartes.
The truth is, I had some hopes of seeing you here again,
for methought (or at least I flattered myself with it) you
said at parting you would do us that favour before my
going to London, whither I am, God willing, setting out
to-morrow or next day for some time ; not without regret,
unless I receive your commands, if I may be any ways
serviceable to you, in order to that noble undertaking you
lately mentioned to me, I mean your generous offer and
inclination to write the Life of our illustrious pliilosopher
Mr. Boyle, and to honour the memory of a gentleman of
that singular worth and virtue. I am sure if you persist
in that design, England shall never envy France, or need
a Gassendus or Baillet to perpetuate and transmit the
memory of one not only equalling but in many things
transcending either of those excellent and indeed extra-
ordinary persons, whom their pens have rendered immortal.
I wish myself was furnished to afford you any considerable
supplies (as you desired) after ray so long acquaintance
with Mr. Boyle, who had honoured me with his particular
esteem, now very near forty years, as I might have done
by more duly cultivating frequent opportunities he was
pleased to allow me. But so it is, that his life and virtues
have been so conspicuous, as you will need no other light
to direct you, or subject-matter to work on, than what is
so universally known, and by what he has done and pub-
lished in his books. You may perhaps need some particu-
lars as to his birth, family, education, and other less
necessary circumstances for introduction ; and such other
passages of his life as are not so distinctly known but by
his own relations. In this if I can serve you, I shall do
it with great readiness, and I hope success ; having some
pretence by my wife, in whose grandfather's house (which
* This was the Dr. Wotton remarkable for his learning as a boy, and for
no extraordinary wisdom as a man. See IHary vol. ii. p. 130, Tio^e; and
NoU at pp. 346-7.
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 347
is now mine at Deptford) the father of this gentleman was
so conversant^ that, contracting an affinity there, he left
his (then) eldest son with him whilst himself went into
Ireland, who, in his absence dying, lies buried in our
parish church, under a remarkable monument.* I mention
this because, my wife's relation to that family giving me
access to divers of his nearest kindred, the Countess
Dowager of Clancarty (living now in a house of my son's
in Dover-street) and the Countess of Thanet, both his
nieces, will, I question not, be able to inform what they
cannot but know of those and other circumstances of
their uncle, which may not be unworthy of your notice ;
especially my Lady Thanet, who is a great virtuosa, and
uses to speak much of her uncle. You know she lives in
one of my Lord of Nottingham's houses at St. James's,
and therefore will need no introductor there. I will wait
upon my Lord Burlington if there be occasion, provided
in the mean time (and after all this officiousness of mine)
it be not the proffer of a very useless service ; since my
Lord Bishop of Salisbury, who made us expect what he is
now devolving on you, cannot but be fully instructed in
all particulars.
It is now, as I said, almost forty years since first I had
the honour of being acquainted with Mr. Boyle ; both of
us newly returned from abroad, though, I know not how,
never meeting there. Whether he travelled more in
France than Italy, I cannot say, but lie had so universal
an esteem in foreign parts, that not any stranger of note
or quality, learned or curious, coming into England, but
used to visit him with the greatest respect and satisfaction
imaginable.
Now, as he had an early inclination to learning (so
especially to that part of philosophy he so happily succeeded
in), he often honoured Oxford, and those gentlemen there,
with his company, who more peculiarly applied themselves
to the examination of the so long domineering methods
and jargon of the schools. You have the names of this
learned junto, most of them since deservedly dignified in
that elegant history of the Boyal Society, which must ever
own its rise from that assembly, as does the preservation
of that famous University from the fanatic rage and avarice
* A Tent and Map of Ireland in relievo.
348 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
of those melancholy times. These, with some others
(whereof Mr. Boyle, the Lord Viscount Broimcker, Sir
Robert Murray, were the most active), spirited with the
same zeal, and under a more propitious influence, were the
persons to whom the world stands obliged for the promoting
of that generous and real knowledge, which gave the
ferment that has ever since obtained, and surmounted all
those many discouragements which it at first encountered.
But by no man more have the territories of the most
useful philosophy been enlarged, than by our hero, to
whom there are many trophies due. And accordingly his
fame was quickly spread, not only among us here in
England, but through all the learned world besides. It
must be confessed that he had a marvellous sagacity in
finding out many useful and noble experiments. Never
did stubborn matter come under his inquisition but he
extorted a confession of all that lay in her most intimate
recesses; and what he discovered he as faithfully registered,
and frankly communicated ; in this exceeding my Lord
Verulam, who (though never to be mentioned without
honour and admiration) was used to tell all that came to
hand without much examination. His was probability;
Mr. Boyle's suspicion of success. Sir, you will here find
ample field, and infinitely gratify the curious with a
glorious and fresh survey of the progress he has made in
these discoveries. Freed from those incumbrances which
now and then render the way a little tedious, 'tis abund-
antly recompensing the pursuit ; especially those noble
achievements of his, made in the spring and weight of the
two most necessary elements of life, air and water, and
their effects. The origin of forms, qualities, and principles
of matter : histories of cold, light, colours, gems, effiuvias,
and other his works so firmly established on experiments,
polychrests, and of universal use to real philosophy :
besides other beneficial inventions peculiarly his ; such as
the dulcifying sea-water with that ease and plenty,
together with many medicinal remedies, cautions, direc-
tions, curiosities and arcana, which owe their birth or
illustration to his indefatigable researches. He brought
the phosphorus and anteluca to the clearest light that ever
any did, after innumerable attempts. It were needless to
insist on particulars to one who knows them better than
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 349
myself. You "will not, however, omit those many other
treatises relating to religion, which indeed runs through
all his writings upon occasion, and show how unjustly that
aspersion has been cast on philosophy, that it disposes
men to atheism. Neither did his severer studies yet sour
his conversation in the least. He was the furthest from
it in the world, and I question whether ever any man has
produced more experiments to establish his opinions
without dogmatising. He was a Corpuscularian without
Epicurus; a great and happy analyzer, addicted to no
particular sect, but, as became a generous and free philo-
sopher, preferring truth above all ; in a word, a person of
that singular candour and worth, that to draw a just
character of him one must run through all the virtues, as
well as through all the sciences.* And though he took
the greatest care imaginable to conceal the most illustrious
of them, his charities and the many good works he con-
tinually did, could not be hid. It is well known how large
his bounty was upon all occasions. Witness the Irish,
Indian, Lithuanian Bibles, to the translations, printing,
and publishing of which he laid out considerable sums ; and
the Catechism and Principles of the Christian Faith, which
I think he caused to be put into Turkish, and dispersed
amongst those infidels. And here you will take notice of
the lecture he has endowed and so seasonably provided for.
As to his relations (so far as I have heard), his father,
Richard Boyle, was faber fortuiKB ; a person of wonderful
sagacity in affairs, and no less probity, by which he com-
passed a vast estate and great honours to his posterity,
which was very numerous, and so prosperous, as has given
to the public both divines and philosophers, soldiers, poH-
ticians, and statesmen, and spread its branches among the
most illustrious and opulent of our nobihty. Mr. Robert
Boyle, born I think in Ireland, was the youngest, to whom
he left a fair estate ; to which was added an honorary pay
of a troop of horse, if I mistake not. And dow, though
amongst all his experiments he never made that of the
married life, yet I have been told he courted a beautiful
and ingenious daughter of Carew, Earl of Monmouth ; to
which is owing the birth of his * Seraphic Love,' and the
* See tlie second edition of Bishop Sanderson's " De Juramenti promis-
Borii obligatione," dedicated to Boyle.
350 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
first of his productions. Descartes * was not so innocent.
In the meantime he was the most facetious and agreeable
conversation in the world among the ladies, whenever he
happened to be so engaged ; and yet so very serious, com-
posed, and contemplative at all other times ; though far
from moroscness, for indeed he was affable and civil rather
to excess, yet without formality.
As to his opinion in religious matters and discipline, I
could not but discover in him the same free thoughts
which he had of philosophy; not in notion only, but
strictly as to practice, an excellent Christian; and the great
duties of that profession, without noise, dispute, or deter-
mining ; owning no master but the Divine Author of it ;
no religion but primitive, no rule but Scripture, no law
but right reason. For the rest, always conformable to the
present settlement, without any sort of singularity. The
mornings, after his private devotions, he usually spent in
philosophic studies and in his laboratory, sometimes ex-
tending them to night : but he told me he had quite given
over reading by candle-light, as injurious to his eyes.
This was supplied by his amanuensis, who sometimes read
to him, and wrote out such passages as he noted, and that
so often in loose papers, packed up without method, as
made him sometimes to seek upon occasion, as himself
confesses in divers of his works. Glasses, pots, chemical
and mathematical instruments, books and bundles of
papers, did so fill and crowd his bed-chamber, that there
was but just room for a few chairs ; so as his whole
equipage was very philosophical without formality. There
were yet other rooms, and a small library (and so you
know had DESCARTEs),t as learning more from men, real
experiments, and in his laboratory (which was ample and
well furnished), than from books.
I have said nothing of his style, which those who are
better judges think he was not so happy in, as in his
experiments. I do not call it affected, but doubtless
not answerable to the rest of his great and shining parts ;
and yet, to do him right, it was much improved in his
' Theodora ' and later writings.
* " Who confesses he had a baetard daughter. See M. Baillet in Vita
Descartes. — J. E."
f " One at Egmond desiring to see his library, he brought him to a room
where he was dissecting a calf. — J. £."
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 851
In Lis diet (as in habit) lie was extremely temperate and
plain ; nor could I ever discern in him the least passion,
transport, or censoriousness, whatever discourse or the
times suggested. All was tranquil, easy, serious, discreet
and profitable ; so as, besides Mr. Hobbes, whose hand
was against everybody and admired nothing but his
own, Francis Linus excepted (who yet with much civility
wrote* against him), I do not remember he had the
least antagonist.
In the afternoons he was seldom without company,
which was sometimes so incommodious, that he now and
then repaired to a private lodging in another quarter of
the town, and at other times (as the season invited)
diverted himself in the country among his noble re-
lations.
He was rather tall and slender of stature, for most part
valetudinary, pale and much emaciated ; nor unlike his
picture in Gresham College ; which, with an almost impu-
dent importunity, was, at the request of the Society,
hardly extorted, or rather stolen, from this modest gentle-
man by Sir Edmund King, after he had refused it to his
nearest relations.
In his first addresses, being to speak or answer, he did
sometimes a little hesitate, rather than stammer, or repeat
the same word; imputable to an infirmity, which, since
my remembrance, he had exceedingly overcome. This, as
it made him somewhat slow and deliberate, so, after the
first effort, he proceeded without the least interruption, in
his discourse. And I impute this impediment much to
the frequent attacks of palsies, contracted, I fear, not a
little by his often attendance on chemical operations. It
has plainly astonished me to have seen him so often recover,
when he has not been able to move, or bring his hand to
his mouth : and indeed the contexture of his body, during
the best of his health, appeared to me so delicate, that I
have frequently compared him to a chrystal, or Venice
glass ; which, though wrought never so thin and fine, being
carefully set up, would outlast the hardier metals of daily
use : and he was withal as clear and candid ; not a blemish
or spot to tarnish his reputation : and he lasted accord-
* "Viz. Tract, de Corporum Inseparabilitate, &c. 8vo. Lond. 1661. — J. E."
352 CORRESPONDENCE OF [loxdox,
ingly, though not to a great, yet to a competent age ;
threescore years I think ; and to many more he might, I
am persuaded, have arrived, had not his beloved sister, the
Lady Viscountess Ranalagh, with whom he Hved, a person
of extraordinary talent and suitable to his religious and
philosophical temper, died before him. But it was then
that he began evidently to droop apace ; nor did he, I
think, survive her above a fortnight. But of this last
scene I can say little, being unfortunately absent, and not
knowing of the danger till it was past recovery.
His funeral (at which I was present) was decent, and,
though without the least pomp, yet accompanied with a
great appearance of persons of the best and noblest quality,
besides his own relations.
He lies interred (near his sister) in the chancel of St.
Martinis church ; the Lord Bishop of Salisbury preaching
the funeral sermon with that eloquence natural to him on
such, and all other occasions. The sermon, you know, is
printed with the panegyric so justly due to his memory.
Whether there have been, since, any other monument
erected on him, I do not know, nor is it material. His
name (like that of Joseph Scaliger) were alone a glorious
epitaph.
And now, sir, I am again to implore your pardon for
giving you this interruption with things so confusedly
huddled up this afternoon, as they crowded into my
thoughts. The subject you see is fruitful, and almost
inexhaustible. Argument fit for no man's pen but Mr.
Wotton's. Oblige then all the world, and with it.
Sir, your, &c.
From William Wotton to John Evelyn.
7tJi April, U96.
Honoured Sir,
I was unfortunately out of the way when you did
me the honour to send me that admirable and obliging
letter concerning Mr. Boyle, and was so fatigued on my
return, by my coming home upon a lame horse, that I
could not wait upon you a Sunday at Wotton as I
intended to do. 1 cannot sufficiently express my thanks
1696.] JOHN EVELYN". 353
to you for your excellent hints ; if my Lord Archbishop of
Canterbury encourages me, and I can get those materials
out of Mr. Warre's hands, which I was speaking of, I will
set about it. I suppose you will receive by the penny-post,
two Philosophical Transactions, no. 219, in which is my
abridgment of Signor Scilla's book of Shells. I had
brought more down for that purpose ; but not being able
to compass my design of waiting upon you at Wooton, I
have sent to the bookseller to convey them to you that
v/ay. One of them, with my humblest thanks, I would
entreat you to present to Sir Cyril Wyche, when you see
him. I wish I knew how to express the joy I feel in having
my poor projects approved by so great a judge and patron
of learning and its well-wishers.
I am, honoured Sir,
Your most obhged servant,
W. WOTTON.*
The same to John Evelyn.
Albw-y, 2Uh May, 1696.
Honoured Sir,
Your last obliging letter has put me into greater
fears than anything that ever befel me in my whole life.
How I shall possibly answer Mr. Evelyn's expectation I
cannot conceive, and without the highest vanity I can as
little bring myself to think that I shall not fall extremely
short of it. Your naming me at my Lord of Canterbury's
upon such an occasion, was the highest honour could have
been done a young writer. Next to that was the trustees
approving your nomination. I say next to that, for they
were ashamed to seem backward to comply with what
Mr. Evelyn should think fit to propose. I am now, there-
fore, only to wait for the Bishop of SaUsbury's fiat, which
if it is granted, it will be too late for me to recede, though
I know very well I shall be impar operi in every respect.
I Avill study, however, to preserve Mr. Evelyn's reputation
as much as ever I can ; and I do hereby faithfully assure
him, that care and industry shall not be wanting to carry
* This letter is indorsed by Evelyn : " Mr. Wotton, &c., of a present
made me of a book."
S54 CORRESPONDENCE OF [lojtoot,
on a work, in which he has generonsly been pleased to
have so distinguishing a share.
As soon as 1 shall hear of your return to Wottou, where
your friends in this country ardently expect you, I shall
do myself the honour to tell you more at large, how very
much I am, as well as ought to be. Honoured Sir,
Your most obhged and faithful humble servant,
W. WOTTON.
John Evelyn to Lord Godolphin [one of the Lords Justices,
and first Commissioner of the Treasury).
Surrey Street, 16th June, 1696.
My Lord,
There are now almost four years elapsed, since
looking over some papers of mine, I found among other
things divers notes which I had taken relating to ^Medals ;
when, reflecting upon the usefulness of the historical part
of that noble study, and considering that there had been
little, or indeed rather nothing at all, written of it among
us here in England (whilst other countries abounded in
many excellent books and authors of great name on this
subject), I began to divert my solitary thoughts by
reducing and putting my scattered collection into such
method as grew at last to a formal treatise. Among other
particulars (after I had more at large dispatched what
concerned the Greek and Roman, and those of the Lower
Empire), I endeavoured the gathering up all such Medals
as I could anywhere find had been struck before and since
the Conquest (if any such there were), relating to any part
of good history. Now though money and coins during
the several reigns of almost all our kings, from the British
to this present time (as may be seen in what Mr. Walker
has added to the late edition of Camden), be foreign to my
subject, and that I could meet with none which deserved
the name of medal till the two last centuries, yet I could
not well avoid speaking something of the Mint, where
medals were coined as well as money. The copy being
thus prepared for the press, I two years since delivered to
a bookseller; who^ after he had wrought off almost eighty
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 355
pages in folio (emulating what had been done and pub-
lished by Jaques de Bie and Mons. Bizot, in their Histoire
Metallique of France and Holland), would needs be at the
charge of engraving a hundred stamps to adorn a chapter
relating to our English Medals. This requiring time (and
far better artists than any I perceive he is like to find), and
retarding the publication of his book, I thought it might
not be either unseasonable or unagreeable to your Lord-
ship, if on this conjuncture of affairs (and when every body
is discoursing of these matters) I did present your Lord-
ship with a part of that chapter concerning Money, which
(though passing through the same mechanism) I distin-
guish from Medal at the beginning of my first chapter,
proceeding in the seventh to that of the Mint. It is there
that I show (after all the expedients offered and pretended,
for the recovery and security of this nation from the great
danger it is in by the wicked practices of those who of late
have so impudently ruined the public credit and faith of
all mankind among us by clipping, debasing, and all other
unrighteous ways of perverting the species) what is it
which can possibly put a stop to the evil and mischief,
that it go no farther; if, at least, it have not been so long
neglected as to be irremediable.
But, my lord, this is not all. There are several other
things of exceeding great importance, which had need be
taken care of, and to be set on foot effectually, for the
obviating the growing mischiefs, destructive to the
flourishing state of this mercantile nation. Amongst the
rest :
There is certainly wanting a Council of Trade, that
should not be so called only, but really be in truth what
it is called; composed of a wise, public-spirited, active,
and noble president, a select number of assessors, sober,
industrious, and dexterous men, and of consummate
experience in rebus agendis; who should be armed wiih
competent force at sea, to protect the greater commerce
and general trade ; if not independent of the Admiralty,
not without an almost co-ordmate authority, as far as
concerns the protection of trade ; and to be maintained
chiefly by those who, as they adventure most, receive the
greatest benefit.
To these should likewise be committed the care of the
A A 2
356 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Losdon,
mamifactures of the kingdom, with stock for employment
of the poor ; by which might be moderated that unreason-
able statute for their relief (as now in force) occasioning
more idle persons, who charge the public without all
remedy, than otherwise there would be ; insufferably
burdening the parishes, by being made to earn their bread
honestly, who now eat it in idleness and take it out of the
mouths of the truly indigent, much inferior in number,
and worthy objects of charity.
It is by such a council that the swarms of private
traders, who, though not appearing in mighty torrents
and streams, yet like a confluence of silent, almost indis-
cernible, but innumerable rivulets, do evidently drain and
exhaust the greater hydrophylacia and magazines, nay,
the very vital blood of trade, where there is no follower
to supply those many issues, without which the constitution
of the body politic, like the natural, needs must fail for
want of nourishment and recruits — but whom this article
affects I have spoken in my discourse of money.
'Tis likewise to this assembly, that all proposals of new
inventions (pretended for the public benefit) should first
be brought and examined, encouraged, or rejected without
reproach as projectures, or turning the imsuccessful pro-
poser to ridicule, by a barbarity without example, nowhere
countenanced but in this nation.
Another no less exhauster and waster of the public
treasure, is the progress and increase of buildings about
this already monstrous city, wherein one year with another
are erected about eight hundred houses, as I am credibly
informed : which carries away such prodigious sums of
our best and weightiest money, by the Norway trade for
deal-timber only, but exports nothing hence of moment
to balance it, besides sand and gravel to balance their
empty ships j whilst, doubtless, those other more necessary
commodities (were it well encouraged) might in a short
time be brought us in great measure, and much preferable
as to their goodness, from our own plantations, which now
we fetch from others, for our naval stores.
Truly, my lord, I cannot but wonder, and even stand
amazed, that parliaments should have sat from time to
time, so many hundred years, and value their constitution
to that degree as the most sovereign remedy for the
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 357
redress of public grievances, whilst the greatest still
remain unreformed and untaken away- Witness the
confused, debauched, and riotous manner of electing
members qualified to become the representatives of a
nation, with legislative power to dispose of the fate of
kingdoms ; which should and would be composed of
worthy persons, of known integrity and ability in their
respective countries, who still would serve them generously,
and as their ancestors have done, but are not able to fling;
away a son or daughter's portion to bribe the votes of a
multitude, more resembling a pagan bacchanalia, than an
assembly of Christians and sober men met upon the most
solemn occasion that can concern a people, or stand in
competition with some rich scrivener, brewer, banker, or
one in some gainful office, whose face or name, perhaps,
they never saw or knew before. How, my lord, must
this sound abroad ! With what dishonour and shame at
home !
To this, add the disproportion of the boroughs capable
of electing members, by which the major part of the
whole kingdom are frequently out-voted, be the cause
never so unjust, if it concern a party interest.
Will ever those swarms of locusts, lawyers and attornies,
who fill so many seats, vote for a public Register, by which
men may be secured of their titles and possessions, and
an infinity of suits and frauds prevented ?
Immoderate fees, tedious and ruinous delays, and
tossings from court to court, before an easy cause, which
might be determined by honest gentlemen and under-
standing neighbours, can come to any final issue, may be
numbered amongst the most vexatious oppressions that
call aloud for redress.
The want of bodies (slaves) for public and laborious
works, to which many sorts of animals might be usefully
condemned, and some reformed instead of sending them
to the gallows, deserves to be considered.
These and the like are the great desiderata (as well as
the reformation of the coin), which are plainly wanting to
the consummate felicity of this nation; and divers of
them of absolute necessity to its recovery from the atrophy
and consumption it labours under.
The king himself should, my lord, be acquainted with
358 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
these particulars, and of the great importance of them^
by such as from tlieir wisdom and integrity, deserve the
nearest access, and would purchase him the hearts of a
free and emancipated people, and a blessing on the govern-
ment ; were he pleased incessantly to recommend them
to those, who, from time to time, are called together for
these ends, and healing of the nation.
And now your Excellency will doubtless smile at this
politic excursion, and perhaps of the biscoctum of the rest ;
wliilst the years to which I am, by God's great goodness,
arrived, your lordship's commands in a former letter to
me, some conversation with men and the world, as well as
books, in so large a tract and variety of events and
wonders as this period has brought forth, might justify
one, among such crowds of pretenders to ragioni di stato,
some of which I daily meet to come abroad with the
shell still on their heads, who talk as confidently of these
matters as if they were councillors of state and first
ministers, with their sapient and expecting looks, and
whom none must contradict ; and no doubt but (as Job
said) "they are the people, and wisdom is to die with
them." To such I have no more to say; whilst I appeal
to your lordship, whose real and consummate experience,
great prudence and dexterity in rebus agendis without
noise, were enough to silence a thousand such as I am.
I therefore implore your pardon again, for what I may
have written weakly or rashly. In such a tempest and
overgrown a sea, everybody is concerned ; and whose head
is not ready to turn ? I am sure I should myself almost
despair of the vessel, if any save yowc lordship were at the
helm. But whilst your hand is on the staff, and your eye
upon the star, I compose myself and rest secure.
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 359
Dr. John Williams * to John Evelyn.
Camterhvryy 19 Jwne, 1696.
Honoured Sir,
I esteem it as a particular mark of your friendship
that you are pleased to acquaint me with the report, w hich
I perceive by yours, is abroad, concerning my writing
the Life of the Honourable Mr. Boyle, a report that there
is no ground but what there is some occasion for, through
the mistake of what I said concerning the publishing
anew those of his works which had heretofore been printed :
the short story of which is this. About a month since
I received a letter from Dr. Charlet, INIaster of University
College, Oxford, in which he told me that some of the
works of Mr. Boyle having grown scarce, it had been
advised that it would be of good use and be very accept-
able to the learned, if there were a collection of all his
works set forth together in folio, and that it was desired
I would consider of it, and consult with the trustees or
others how it might be best accomplished. Toward the
promoting of this I waited on my Lord of Canterbury,
and in the next place had so on you, but that I thought
you were out of town. In the meantime I lighted on
Sir H. Ashurst in the street, and afterward on waiting on
him at his house I told him of it, and withal, that it
would be convenient that some inquiry should be made of
what might be found among his papers, fit for the press :
he promised me to advise with the Earl of Biu'lington
about it. While I was there, came in Mr. Warr, and he
very readily offered his services about the papers: this
was the week before I came out of town, and farther we
went not. So that all that could be said of a preface
was presumption, and no more thought of it I believe
than what in cause might be done by the Oxford gentle-
men. As for my own part, I was so far from thinking
of writing a Life (which I knew to be in the Bishop's
hands), that I thought not so much as of a preface.
The design is worthy of a better pen : I have always
thought it a way of writing not without great difficulties,
for he that will write a Life, if possible, should have had
• Afterwards Bishop of Chichester.
860 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
an intimate acquaintance with the person, and should
know that of his air, genius, and ways, that can no more
be wrote than he himself can be drawn by description
only, and must be, if not intimate enough, yet led into
all the particulars which you speak of. Now I had not
the honour of anything like this, never ha^dng been in
the company of that great man but once that I know of,
many years since, and which I afterwards blamed myself
for, having been encouraged by him to make an acquaint-
ance then. I am well pleased that at last it is likely to
be done, and to be undertaken by one so well qualified
for it as Mr. Wotton, to whom, it being necessary to
peruse his papers, he may at the same time promote the
Oxford design by a farther collection. When I return
to town, which will be, God willing, about fourteen days
hence, I shall wait on you with my acknowledgments for
your obliging letter to, Sir,
Your faithful and humble servant,
John Williams.*
John Evelyn to Mr. Place, f
Su,rrey Street, 17th Aug. 1796.
Mr. Place,
I have seriously considered your letter concerning
your resolution of sparing no cost whereby you may
benefit the public, as well as recompense your own charge
and industry, which truly is a generous inclination not
80 frequently met with amongst most booksellers, by
inquiring how you might possibly supply what is wanting
to our country (now beginning to be somewhat polished
in their manner of building, and indeed in the accom-
plishment of the English language also) by the publica-
tion of whatever may be thought conducible to either.
In order to this, you have sometime since acquainted
me with your intention of reprinting the " Parallel ;"
desiring that I would revise it, and consider what improve-
ments may decently be added in relation to the general
design. As for the " Parallel," I take it to be so very
* This letter is addressed " For Mr. Evelyn, at William Draper's, Esq.
in Surrey Street, near Norfolk Buildings, in the Strand, London."
t A bookseller.
1696.] JOHN EVELYN. 361
useful and perfect in its kind, and as far as it pretends to
(namely, all that was material in those ten masters upon
the orders), that I cannot think of anything it further
needs to render it more intelligible. As for what I have
annexed to it concerning statues, my good friend Mr.
Gibbons would be consulted ; and for the latter, so much
as I conceive is necessary I will take care to send you
with your interfoliated copy. In the meantime, touching
that universal work, or cycle, which you would have
comprehend and embrace the entire art of building,
together with all its accessories for magnificence and use,
without obliging you to the pains in gleaning when a
whole harvest is before you, or the trouble of calling many
to your assistance (which would be tedious), I cannot
think of a better, more instructive, and judicious an
expedient, than by your procuring a good and faithful
translation of that excellent piece which has lately been
published by Monsieur D'Aviler ; were he made to speak
English in the proper terms of that art, by some person
conversant in the French, and if need be, adding to him
some assistant, such as you would have recommended to
me, if my leisure and present circumstances could have
complied with my inclinations of promoting so beneficial
a design.
I should here enumerate the particulars he runs through,
in my opinion sufficiently copious, and in as polished and
yet as easy and familiar a style as the subject is capable
of: in nothing exceeding the capacity of our ordinary
workmen, or unworthy the study and application of the
noblest persons who employ them, and to whom a more
than ordinary and superficial knowledge in architecture
is no small accomplishment. I say I should add the
contents of his chapters, and the excellent notes he has
subjoined, to a better version of Vignole, Mic. Angelo,
and the rest of our most celebrated modern architects
and their works; together with all that is extant of
antique, and yet in being, applied to use, and worthy
knowing ; if I thought you had not already heard of the
book, since it has now been four or five years extant, and
since reprinted in Holland, as all the best and most
vendible books are, to the great prejudice of the authors, by
their not only printing them without any errata, by which
362 CORRESPOJfDENCE OF [Lohdok,
the reader might reform them, or (as if they had none
at all) correcting the faults themselves : which indeed
that of the Paris edition (fair as it seems, and is in the
elegancy of the character) exceedingly will need, before
it be translated, by whomsoever taken in hand.
But as the latter and its other beauties exceed the Dutch
edition, so do likemse the plates, which are done with that
accurateness and care, as may almost commute for the
oversights of the press. I do not say the Holland sculps
are ill performed ; but, though they seem to be pretty well
copied, they will yet require a strict examination, and then
I think they might be made use of, and a competent
number of plates (provided not overmuch worn) procured
at a far easier rate out of Holland, than by having them
perhaps not so well graven here : for 'tis not the talent of
every artist, though skilPd in heads and figures (of which
we have very few), to trace the architect as he ought. But
if they could be obtained from Paris, as haply with per-
mission they might, it were much to be preferred- I
forget to tell you, that there is a most accurate, learned,
and critical dictionary by the same author, explaining (in
a second part) not only the terms of architecture, but of
all those other arts that wait upon, and are subservient to
her, which is very curious.
And now, if what I have said in recommending this
work for the full accomphshment of your laudable design
(and which, in truth, I tliink were abundantly sufficient)
induce you to proceed in it ; and that you would, >vith it,
present the public with a much more elegant letter tlian I
believe England has ever seen among all our printers j
perhaps it were worth your while to render it one of the
first productions of that noble press which my worthy and
most learned friend Dr. Bentley (his Majesty's Ubrary
keeper at St. James's) is, with great charge and industry,
erecting now at Cambridge.
There is another piece of mechanics, and some oth»
very rare and useful arts agreeable to this of architecture,
and incomparably curious, which, if translated and joined
to the rest, would (without contradiction) render it a most
desirable and perfect work. If, when you pass this way,
you will visit a lame man (who is obliged to stay within at
present), I shall endeavour to satisfy you in anything I
1696.] JOHX EVELYK. 363
may have omitted here, but the teazing you and myself
with a tedious scribble (upon your late importunity before
my leading this town) which you may wish I had omitted,
John Evelyn to William Wotton.
Worthy Sir, '^'"°"' ^^^ ^^^' ^^^-
I should exceedingly mistake the person, and my
own discernment, could I believe Mr. Wotton stood in the
least need of my assistance ; but such an expression of
yours to one who so well knows his own imperfections as
I do mine, ought to be taken for a reproach : since I am
sure it cannot proceed fi'om your judgment. But forgiving
this fault, I most heartily thank you for your animadversion
on Sylva : which, though I frequently find it so written
for ^vXeia and vKrj, wood, timber, wild and forest trees,
yet indeed I think it more properly belongs to a pro-
miscuous casting of several things together, and as I think
my Lord Bacon has used it in his Natural History,
without much regard to method. Deleatur, therefore,
wherever you meet it.
Concerning the gardening and husbandry of the ancients,
which is the inquiry (especially of the first), that it had
certainly nothing approaching the elegancy of the present
age Rapinus (whom I send you) will abundantly satisfy
you. The discourse you will find at the end of Hortorum,
lib. 4°. capp. 6, 7. What they call their gardens were only
spacious plots of ground planted with plants and other
shady trees in walks, and built about with porticos, xysti,*
and noble ranges of pillars, adorned with statues, fountains,
piscariae, aviaries, &c. But for the flowery parterre, beds of
tulips, carnations, auricula, tuberose, jonquills, ranunculas,
and other of our rare coronaries, we hear nothing of; nor
that they had such store and variety of exotics, orangeries,
mjTtle, and other curious greens ; nor do I believe they
had their orchards in such perfection, nor by far our
furniture for the kitchen. Pliny indeed enumerates a
world of vulgar plants and olitories, but they fall infinitely
short of our physic gardens, books, and herbals, every day
* A Roman xystus was an open colonnade or portico, or a walk planted
with trees.
364 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Losdos,
augmented by our sedulous botanists, and brought to us
from all the quarters of the world. And as for their hus-
bandry and more rural skill, of which the same author has
written so many books in his Natural History, especially
lib. 17, 18, &c., you will soon be judge what it was. They
took great care indeed of their vines and olives, stereo-
rations, ingraftings, and were diligent in observing seasons,
the course of the stars, &c., and doubtless were very
industrious; but when you shall have read over Cato,
Varro, Columella, Palladio, with the Greek Geoponics, I
do not think you will have cause to prefer them before the
modern agriculture, so exceedingly of late improved, for
which you may consult and compare our old Tusser,
Markham, the Maison Rustic, Hartlib, Walter Blith, the
Philosophical Tramactions, and other books, which you
know better than myself.
I have turned down the page, where poor Pulissy * begins
• By •* Pulissy " Evelyn no doubt intended the famous old French potter
Bernard Palissy, whose writings are now less known, botli in his own and
other countries, than they ought to be. They do not deserve the neglect
into which they have fallen. Their ardent love of nature, their close and
exact observation of it, the curious information they afford, not alone on
subjects such as interested Evelyn, and others kindred with tliem, but also
on the social and religious history of his own stirring time, and, above
all, the delightful simplicity which invariably characterises them, make me
wish that they were more accessible to all classes of readers. It will perhaps
not be out of place here to introduce some notes which appear to have been
made by Evelyn about this date, in connection with the subjects referred
to in the above letter. They are printed from the MSS. at Wotton.
" Sayes Court.
The hithermost Grove I planted, about . . 1656
The other beyond it 1660
The lower Grove 1662
The holly edge, even with the Mount hedge below ] 670
" I planted every hedge and tree not only in the garden, groves, &c., but
about all the fields and house since 1653, except those large, old, and hollow
elms in the stable court and next the sewer ; for it was, before, all one
pasture field to the very garden of the house, which was but small ; from
which time also I repaired the ruined house, and built the whole of the
kitchen, the chapel, buttery, my study, above and below, cellars and all the
outhouses and walls, still-house, orangerie, and made the gardens, &c. to my
great cost ; and better liad I done to have pulled all down at first, but it was
done at several times."
" Mr. Evelyn was acquainted with the use and value of potatoes, which he
calls Irish, tasting like an old bean or roasted chestnut, not very pleasant
1696-7.] JOHN EVELYN. 3G5
his persisting search. If jou can suffer his prolix style,
you will now and then light on things not to be despised.
With him I send you a short treatise concerning Metals,
of Sir Hugh Platts, Avhich perhaps you have not seen. I
am sorry I have no more of those subjects here, having
left the rest in my library at Deptford, and know not how
to get them hither till I get thither.
Sir, I am in no haste for the return of these, if they may
be serviceable to you ; but in no little pain for the trouble
your civility to mine puts one, who knows so much better
how to employ his time, than to mind the impertinence of.
Sir, your, &c.
John Evelyn to Dr. Richard Bentley.
Wotton, 20th January, 1696-7.
Worthy Doctor,
You have under your hands something of Mr.
Wotton, whilst he has been so kind as to offer me his
till use have accustomed, yet of good nourishment and excellent use for
relief of poor, yea and of one's own household where there are many servants
in a dear year."
« Prince Rupert invented a Turfing-plough, but without any description of
its use.
•* Dredge is barley and oats mixed.
Hops cost £20 an acre before any consider-
able profit. £ s. d.
Digging 2 10 0
5000 roots 2 10 0
1st year, dressing 2 10 0
2d year, ditto 2 10 0
Poles 10 0 0
" Forty loads of dung on an acre, the produce not above £6 an acre.
" An acre of Hemp may be worth £8, and after this the land will be proper
for barley, wheat, and pease successively. Orchards improve land from
10«. an acre, which is commonly the value of the best sort of tillage, and
even of best pasture not above £2 to £4. An acre planted with cherries
has been set at £10, 100 miles from London. About Sandwich and
Deal they hedge and fence their com fields with flax and hemp, but flax
chiefly, which they affirm keep out cattle, being bitter ; they sow it about
20 feet deep into the field— sow whole fields of canary-seed— great grounds
of hyssop and thyme in tufts, for seeds only— the soil light and sandy, but
the hyssop in richer ground."
866 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lom)0»,
help in looking over the typographical and other faults
escaped in the last impression of the Sylva which I am
most earnestly called upon to reprint. The copy which I
frankly gave about 30 years since to Allestry, is now in
the hands of Chiswell and your namesake Mr. Bentley
(booksellers), who have sold off three impressions, and are
now impatient for the fourth : and it having been no
unprofitable copy to them, I had promised some consider-
able improvements to it, upon condition of letting Ben
Tooke (for whom I have a particular kindness) into a
share. This, though with reluctancy, they at last con-
sented to. I will endeavour to render it with advantage ;
and have ambition enough to wish, that since it is a folio,
and of so popular and useful a subject as has procured it
some reputation, it might have the honour to bear the
character of Dr. Bentley's new Imprimerie, which, I
presume, the proprietors will be as proud of as myself.
To the reproach of Place, who made so many difficulties
about my book of architecture as you well know, I have
however made very considerable additions to that treatise,
as far as concerns my part ; and mean to dedicate it to
Sir Christopher "Wren, his Majesty's Surveyor and
Intendant of his Buildings, as I did the other part to Sir
J. Denham his predecessor, but infinitely inferior to his
successor. I confess I am foolishly fond of these and
other rustications, which had been my sweet diversions
during the days of destruction and devastation both of
woods and buildings, whilst the rebellion lasted so long in
this nation; and the kind receptions my books have found
makes me the more willing to give them my last hand :
sorry in the meantime for all my other aberrations, in
pretending to meddle with things beyond my talent et
extra oleo : but enough of this.
Sib,
Abraham Hill, F.R.S., to John Evelyn.
London, 26th January, 1697.
I have heretofore been under many obligation*
to you, and am now to acknowledge the addition you have
made by the present of your excellent book; in a particular
1697.] JOHN EVELYN. 367
manner I must regard that mark of your affection, in
giving my name a place among those who so far transcend
my ment. I can no better way make any pretence to that
honour than by my application to the study of your book ;
and then my knowledge in medals, and my gratitude for
your instructions, will advance together. I am with all
respect, Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant,
Abraham Hill.
Si a,
Abraham Hill, F.R.S., to John Evelyn.
London, 2Qth Februanj, 1697
I received as a particular obhgation on myself,
the favour of yours of the 7 th current, and communicated
the same to the friends therein named, who will not omit
to make you their acknowledgments ; Sir Robert South-
well, doing it by the enclosed which he recommends to
my conveyance, gives me the opportunity of renewing my
thanks to you ; and I find myself more and more obliged
thereto by every step I make in the perusal of your book,
by the help whereof I doubt not but the study of medals
will be as happily cultivated, as other parts of useful and
elegant knowledge have been by your conduct and
instructions. I am with all respect. Sir, your most
obedient humble servant,
Abraham Hill.
Br. J. Woodward to John Evelyn.
London, 25th Septemia', 1697.
Sir,
Upon the application of Mr. Glanvil and myself
to you some time since, in behalf of Mr. Harris for the
Boylean Lecture, you was pleased to tell me that you had
deposited your note in the hands of my Lord of Canterbury,
to be disposed of as he should think fit ; but you com-
manded me to give your duty to his Grace, and tell him
that you were so well satisfied of Mr. Harris's worth and
abilities, that you should be glad, if his Grace thought
868 CORRESPONDENCE OF [london,
good, that your vote should be conferred on liim. I was
discoursing with his Grace this day upon the subject (as
formerly I had done), and I find his Grace very well
disposed to Mr. Hai'ris ; but he says that indeed you did
deposit your vote with him for the last turn, but he does
not remember that you did so for this ; so that if you
please to write to him, either directly, or enclose it to me
at Gresham College, I will take care to deliver it to him,
and shall take it as a great favour from you. Mr. Harris
is a gentleman very extraordinarily qualified for the
performance, has fit materials for the lecture in readiness,
and I have great assurance will well answer the founder's
intention, to his own credit and your satisfaction. I beg
your pardon for the trouble I here give you, and am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
J. Woodward.
Dr. J, Woodward to John Evelyn.
Gresham College, 5th October, 1697.
Worthy Sir,
I return you my very hearty thanks for your
obliging letter, and the enclosed to my Lord Archbishop.
'Tis a great favour both to myself and to Mr. Harris,
whom 1 have made acquainted with it, and who will, I am
sure, very thankfully acknowledge it, so soon as he comes
to town, which will be now very suddenly. We have
little new to entertain you with at Gresham College ; the
society hath been adjourned for some time, and there are
fewer members in town than I ever observed before. The
peace that is so happily going forward, will, I hope, give
a new life and spirit to things, and again revive philosophy,
which has so long lain under neglect and discouragement.
This summer I have received a very handsome addition to
my former collection of fossils, both from several parts of
England, and foreign countries ; particularly I have
received some variety of shells, bones, and teeth of fishes,
that were dug forth of the earth on the continent of
America. I had had several relations from thence before,
and some things too, but never so many or fair as in this
cargo. These things, and the accoimts I have received of
1697.] JOHN EVELYN. 369
them, show America was under water as well as Asia,
Africa, and Europe, at the Deluge. Have you seen
Mr. Lockers late reply to the Bishop of Worcester ? This
gentleman manages controversy very genteely, and my
Lord does so too. They must be allowed to be both
great men, and ^tis not ordinary to see so veiy entertaining
and handsome an engagement. It is said his Lordship is
drawing up an answer to the reply. Mr. Congreve is
I hear engaged in a poem on occasion of the peace, and all
who are acquainted with the performance of this gentleman
expect something very extraordinary.
I am. Sir,
Your most obliged humble servant,
J. Woodward.
John Evelyn to Dr. Bentlerj.
Wotton, 25th Bee. 1697.
Worthy Doctor,
Though I made haste out of town, and had so
little time to spend after we parted, I was yet resolved not
to neglect the province which I undertook, as far as I had
any interest in Sir Edward Seymour, whom I found at his
house, and had full scope of discourse with. I told him I
came not to petition the revival of an old title, or the
unsettlement of an estate, so often of late interrupting our
late parliaments, but to fix and settle a public benefit*
that would be of great and universal good and glory to the
whole nation. This (with your paper) he very kindly and
obligingly received, and that he would contribute all the
assistance that lay in his power, whenever it should come
to the House. To send you notice of this, I thought
might be much more acceptable to you than to acquaint
you that we are full of company, and already entered into
a most dissolute course of eating and indulging, according
to the mode of ancient English hospitality ; by which
means I shall now and then have opportunity of recom-
mending the noble design you are intent upon, and there-
fore wish I had some more of the printed proposals to
* Evelyn subjoins in a note : " The new library to be built in St. James's
Park."
VOL. III. B B
870 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
disperse. Sir Cyril Wyche, who accompanied me hither,
is altogether transported with it, and thinks the project so
discreetly contrived, that it cannot miscarry. Here is
Dr. Fuller with his spouse. The Dr. gave us a sermon
this morning, in an elegant and trim discourse on the
thirt}'-ninth Psalm, which I find had been prepared for
the court, and fitter for that audience than our poor
country churches. After this you will not expect much
intelligence from hence, though I shall every day long to
hear of the progress you make in this glorious enterprise,
to which I augur all success and prosperity, and am.
Worthy Doctor, &c.
William Wotton to John Evelyn.
Milton, near Newport Parjnell,
Bucks, Jan. 2, 1697-8.
Honoured Sir,
When I was in town last month I did myself the
honour to call at your lodgings, but was not so happy as
to find you at home. I intended to acquaint you what
progress I had made in a design which owes its birth
wholly to your encouragement. After a positive promise
from the executors that I should have the use of Mr.
Boyle's papers, my Lord Burlington at last insisted upon
my giving a bond that I demanded no gratification. I
had voluntarily given a note to the same purpose, which
Dr. Bentley sufficiently blamed me for ; but I gave no
bond, and so left the town (though I had come up on
purpose about this business), doubtful what further I
should do. But, since I came home, my Lord Burlington
is come over so far that he has delivered up my note,
and has ordered all the papers to be delivered to my
order, with a promise to me of all manner of assistance
and encouragement. So that now I intend to dedicate
all my spare hours to this business ; and then. Sir, as
you have hitherto prevented my desires, so again I fear
I must be importunate in troubling you vrith new doubts
and queries which, in the progress of the work, will
infallibly arise. I am glad to find that we may so soon
expect your long-desired work about medals, from which
1697.] JOHN EVELYN, 371
I propose no small entertainment to myself, as soon as
it appears.
I am, honoured Sir,
Your most obliged and most humble servant,
W. WOTTON.
Shall I not wish you and your excellent lady many
happy new years ? Nobody, I am sure, does it more
cordially.
Dr. Thomas Gale * to John Evelyn.
January l^th, 1697-8.
Sir,
Your bookseller lately brought me your Numis-
mata ; I give you many thanks for it, and own myself
very much enlightened by it, for I meet in it with a
mighty stock of arcana historia, of which you, by your
acquaintance with great persons, only was master. Be
pleased, dear Sir, to accept of this acknowledgment and
my profession of all affection possible, and service to
yourself and excellent lady.
I am, Sir,
Your very much obliged friend,
Thomas Gale.
The Czar desireth to see some good honest country
English gentleman : I hope you will come to town.f
William TVotton to John Evelyn.
MUtvn, Bucks, Jan. 20, 1697-8.
Honoured Sir,
Duty and gratitude requiring me to give you a
second interruption in a short time, I think I ought to
make no apology. Not long since I did myself the honour
to acquaint you with the success of my affair about
Mr. Boyle's life. I knew you would be pleased to
hear that I had weathered that difficulty, since you had
* Dean of York.
+ See Diary (Introduction) vol. i., p. xxv., and vol. ii., p. 349.
bb2
872 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
been my first .... to that work. I had just got a box
of papers, and was going to digest matters for the forge,
when I was agreeably stopped by your admirable Nujnis-
mata, which the last return of the carrier brought me.
I needed no spur to read it; the author, the subject,
added wings to my diligence. Dr. Bentley had raised
my thirst by the essay he had given me before in conver-
sation. Yet these three incitements, and I know not
three more powerful, all gave place to a fourth, which
was the book itself. I was so truly charmed, so pleasingly
taught through the whole work, that the grief of being
so soon at an end, wrought as violently at last as the joy
I felt as I went along. The printer, indeed, raised ray
indignation -, I was angry with him, and troubled to see
my pen so often disfigure so elegant a book. However,
I took care to have no remotas for the future, when upon
a second and third reading (which yet will scarce suffice)
I hope everything shall be riveted in my head, which a
first reading in so vast a copia could not carry along with
it. My head is so very full of what I have learned and am
to learn by your instructions, that I had almost forgotten
to thank you for your honourable mention of my poor
performances in so standing a Avork. This was more than
I ought to have promised myself. The field I chose was
vast and uncultivated ; nobler and learneder .... will
hereafter arise who will till it to more advantage, and
reap a richer harvest. I proposed but to outdo Glanvill,
and to set Monsieur Perrault and Sir William Temple
right, which now. Sir, I ought for your sake to believe
I have performed. I am pleased likewise with your quoting
of me, even when in all probability you knew nothing of
the matter. My first essay at loading the world with my
scribbles, was in the Philos. Trans, (a place since fatal
to me for a reason you are not ignorant of), and it was
in re metallica. My most honoured friend the late
Sir Philip Skippon, who had a noble cabinet of medals,
which he thoroughly understood, sent me an account of
some Saxon coins found in Suffolk, which I printed with
some remarks of my own in the Transactions, No. 187,
with the initial letters of both our names. The new
editors of Camden took no notice of these coins, though I
gave them warning, and though there are some there which
1697.] JOHN EVELYN. 373
are not in their collection. You have been pleased to
refer to them, for which, Sir, I am bound to express my
thanks. But this is not all. I have been censured
heavily for blaming Sir W. T.^s "Delphos," and sub-
stituting " Delphi,^^ in its place. Your authority will
now (if I am publicly a . . . .) decide the controversy.
I am opposed with an authority of a medal in F.
Hardoiiin's Num'i Urbium, with this inscription, AEA4>0T,
the genitive, say they, of Delphos, the nominative of the
name of the city. I use to reply that it was the genitive
of Delphus, Apollo's son, mentioned by several of the
ancients; which explication you confirm, p. 189, where
you inform these cavillers that EtKwy or Nofitafxa is
understood. 'Tis time to release you ; only pray. Sir,
do me the favour at your leisure to inform me, whether
there is ever another coin published with the Bipennis
Tenedia upon it, besides that which John Graves printed
in his Roman Denarius. I could say abundance more,
but my paper tells me what I have farther to say, that
I am, your most obliged servant,
W. WOTTON.*
John Evelyn to Dr. Godolphin {Provost of Eton).
Wotton, 8th February, 1697-8.
Had you been in town when my copies (on Medals)
were distributed among my friends, the small present
which I presumed to send you, had been brought by your
most humble servant with an apology for my boldness in
obtruding upon the Provost of Eton (who is himself so
great a judge of that and all other learned subjects) my
mean performance. It were quite to tire you out, should
I relate on what occasion I came to be engaged on a topic
on which I could advance so little of my own to extenuate
my presumption : yet give me leave to take hold of this
opportunity to discharge a debt owing to yourself, and
those of your learned relations who condescend to read
my book. 'Tis now near fifty years past since Gabr.
Naudseus published directions concerning libraries and
♦ This letter is superscribed, " For the Honowred John Evelyn, Senr. Esq.,
<U Wotton,near Dorking, in Surrey."
874 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
their furniture, which I had translated, minding to reprint
it, as what I conceived might not be unseasonable whilst
auctions were become so frequent among us, and gentle-
men everywhere storing themselves with books at those
learned marts ; and because it was so very thin a volume,
I thought of annexing a sheet or two of Medals, as an
appendant not improper. But being persuaded to say
something of our modern Medals relating to our country
(as France and Holland had of theirs), I found it swell to so
incompetent a bulk, as would by no means suit with that
treatise. "Whilst I was about this (and indeed often and
long before) I had been importuned to make a second
edition of my Chalcography (now grown very scarce), and
to bring it from 1662, where I left ofif, to this time, there
having since that been so great an improvement of
Sculpture. This being a task I had no inclination for
(having of a long time given over collections of that sort), I
thouglit yet of gratifying them in some manner with an
ex-chapter in my Discourse of Medals, where I speak of
the effigies of famous persons, and the use which may be
derived of such a collection, and that which follows it.
'Tis now a good while ago since first I put it into the
hands of a bookseller, with strict injunction not to work off
a sheet till it had been revised by abler judgments than
my own; and so remained whilst the Medals could be
collected that were to be graven, which though hardly
amounting to a hundred, were with difficulty enough
procured in two years time. This slow proceeding, together
with my long and frequent excursions at this distance from
town, made me absolutely resolved to abandon and think
of it no further, but give it up to the bookseller to dispose
of it for waste paper, when he would needs persuade me
that he had such an accomplished supervisor of the press
he employed, as would do me all the right I could expect
from an able and learned man ; and that now he had been
at such charges for the sculptures, I should extremely
injure him to withdraw my copy, and what I had to annex,
as certainly I should [have done] but for that consideration
only. So as I had now no remedy left me but by embarking
the errata to my greater reproach ; and it was very slender
comfort to me the being told that even the most incom-
parably learned Spanheim, whose glorious work of Medals
1697.] JOHN EVELYN. 375
was not long since reprinted, escaped not the press without
remarkable and cruel scars.
But now I mentioned the noble Spanheim (to whose
judgment all defer) I may haply be censured for what I
have said concerning Etiminus, after what he has objected
against that medal (De Prsest. Numis. Rep. 647) ; but if I
was, and still am, unwilling to degrade our renowned city
of her so metropolitan dignity, whilst I had any to stand
by me, I cannot be so deeply concerned, and indeed
ashamed, should any think me so ignorant as not long
since to know that ohryzum signifies gold of the most
exalted purity and test, or, as the ancients expressed, ad
obrussum exactum, which yet, I know not how, escaped me
when I was gathering out the errata. [As for conob,
though I ever read it Constantinople, the extreme rudeness
of a reverse and metal I had showed me of that coin, so
perfectly resembling that of Cuno, might favour my
conjecture.]*
There is in margin, p. 207, a mistake of Richborow for
Regulbium, which also escaped me.
But, Sir, there are so many more and greater faults as
put me out of countenance, for which, and this tedious
scribble, I heartily beg your pardon, who am, &c.
John Evelyn to Mr. Henshaw.
WoUon, IH March, 1697-8.
The bearer hereof. Dr. Hoy, a very learned, curious,
and ingenious person, and our neighbour in Surrey,
acquainted (as who is not?) with the name and great
worth of Mr, Henshaw, hearing that I had the honour to
be known to you, desires me to introduce him ; I need say
no more how worthy he is to be let into your esteem, than
to acquaint you how deservedly we value him here in this
* In the letter immediately subjoined to Mr. Henshaw, the latter part of
which is almost a transcript of this letter to Dr. Godolphin, the sentence
printed above within brackets is thus expressed : "I found the period
omitted, p. 22, which should have been read, mixed and obrize sort also,
which has on it a horse rudely designed with the letters con-ob. Con-
stantinopoli obrizatum : which some will have to signify Constantinople only ;
others, some Prince of ours."
376 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
country, not only for his profession and success, but for
those other excellent talents which were ever encouraged
by your free and generous communications. And in this
I serve myself also, by taking the occasion to present the
most humble service of a now old acquaintance, begun
long since abroad, and cultivated ever since by the con-
tinuance of your friendship tlirough many revolutions. I
frequently call to mind the many bright and happy
moments we have passed together at Rome and other
places, in viewing and contemplating the entertainments
of travellers who go not abroad to count steeples, but
to improve themselves. I wish I could say of myself
so as you did; but whenever I think of the agreeable
toil we took among the ruins and antiquities, to admire
the superb buildings, visit the cabinets and curiosities of
the virtuosi, the sweet walks by the banks of the Tiber,
the Via Flaminia, the gardens and villas of that glorious
city, I call back the time, and, methinks growing young
again, the opera we saw at Venice comes into my fancy,
and I am ready to sing, Gioconda Gioretri — memoria sola
tu — con ramento mi' I fu — spesso spesso viena rapir mi, e qual
che si sia ancor ringiovenir mi. You remember, Sir, the
rest, and we are both near the conclusion, hai che non torni,
non torni piu — mo — ri~bondo.
Forgive me. Sir, this transport; and, when this gentle-
man takes his leave of you, permit me to beg your pardon
also for the presumption I am guilty of, in obtruding a
Discourse of Medals on one who is so great a master and
so knowing, and from whose example I sometimes diverted
to that study. 'Tis now near fifty years, &c.*
Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn.
November 17, 1698.
Good Sib,
Mr. Fleetwood, after some deliberation, has thought
fit to dechne the preaching at Mr. Boyle's lecture,
thinking that the fatigue of it may not well consist with
his health. One of the next to him in the city, the
• The rest of this letter, which is nearly the sr.me as the preceding letter
to Dr. Godol;>hin, need not be given.
1698.] JOHN EVELYN. 377
esteemed of all, is Mr. Bradford, minister of Bow church.
Him Sir Henry Ashurst knows, and will elect, if you
and I will join with him. I have told him I will upou
my certain knowledge of the person, who is an excellent
scholar and a very upright discreet man : I therefore
desire your concurrence. I am of opinion that we should
oppose Sir J. Rothem's taking anything for the diploma,
it being a thing of no good report : the preacher can be
furnished with a copy without his help : if he gives his
clerk for writing it a crown or so, perhaps that may be
dispensed with. Upon further consideration I am
confirmed in my opinion that we have strained Mr. Boyle's
words by admitting any who are not city ministers, or
such as are within the bills of mortality. I hope I may
enjoy your good company sometime this month, either
at Lambeth or at the Cockpit.
I am your aflfectionate friend,
Thomas Cantuar.
Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn.
November 28, 1698.
Good Sir,
The time for choosing a preacher at Mr. Boyle's
lecture is so nigh, that if we pass over a few days without
determining about the person, the preacher will have no
time to prepare for the first sermon. I did lately recom-
mend to you Mr. Bradford of Bow, a very excellent man
and one well known to Sir H. Ashurst. I have heard
nothing in answer and fear the messenger may have made
some mistake. Pray, Sir, let me this day either hear from
you by letter, or see me at dinner at Lambeth. I am
at the Cockpit and shall be so till one o'clock, and can
carry you over in my barge.
I am. Sir, your assured friend,
Thomas Cantuar.
378 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
JoJm Evelyn to Archdeacon Nicolson {afterwards
Bishop of Carlisle).
lOtk November, 1699.
After thanking him for the tenderness and civility with which he had
mentioned his book on Medals, Evelyn proceeds :
You recommend the study of our own municipal laws
and home antiquities, most becoming an Englishman,
and lover of his country, which you have skilfully derived
from the fountain, and tracked through all those Avindinga
and meanders which rendered the study deserted as dull
and impolite, unless by those who, attracted by more
sordid considerations, submitted to a fatigue which filled
indeed their purses for the noise they made at Westminster
Hall, whilst their heads were empty, even of that to which
they seemed to devote themselves. Did our Inns of Court
students come a little better grounded in ethics, and with
some entrance into the civil law, such an history as you
are meditating would lead them on with delight, and
enable them to discover and penetrate into the grounds
of natural justice and human prudence, and furnish them
with matter to adorn their pleadings, before they wholly
gave themselves up to learn to wrangle, and the arts of
illaqueation, and not make such haste to precedents,
customs, and common-places. By reading good history,
they would come to understand how governments have
been settled by conquest, transplantations, colonies or
garrisons, through all vicissitudes and revolutions, from
east to west, from the first monarchy to the last ; how
laws have been established, and for what reason changed
and altered ; whence our holding by knight's service ; and
whether feudal laws have been derived from Saxon or
Norman. 'Tis pity young gentlemen should meet
with so little of this in the coiirse of their academic
studies, at least if it continue as in my time, when they
were brought up to dispute on dry questions which
nauseate generous spirits, and to discourse of things before
they are furnished with mediums, and so return home
rather with the learning of a Benedictine Monk (full of
school cant) than of such useful knowledge as would enable
them to a dexterity in solving cases, how intricate soever.
1699.] JOHN EVELYN. 379
by analytics, and so mucli of algebra as teaches to draw
consequences and detect parallogisms and fallacies, which
were the true use of logic, and which you give hopes our
universities are now designing. To this I would add the
improvement of the more ornate and graceful manner of
speaking upon occasion. The fruit of such an education
would not only grace and furnish the bar with excellent
lawyers, but the nation with able persons fit for any
honourable employment, to serve and speak in Parliaments
and in councils ; give us good magistrates and justices for
reference at home in the country ; able ambassadors and
orators abroad; in a word, qualified patriots and pillars
of state, in which this age does not, I fear, abound. In
the meantime what preference may be given to our consti-
tutions I dare not determine ; but as I believe ethics and
the civil law were the natural mother of all good laws,
so I have been told that the best lawyers of England were
heretofore wont to mix their studies together with them,
but which are at present so rarely cultivated, that those
who pass forsooth for great sages and oracles therein
are not only shamefully defective, but even in the feudal
and our own.
You are speaking. Sir, of records, but who are they
among this multitude even of the coif, who either study or
vouchsafe to defile their fingers with any dust, save what
is yellow ? or know anything of records save Avhat, upon
occasion, they lap out of Sir Edward Coke's basin, and
some few others ? The thirst of gain takes up their whole
man : like our English painters, who, greedy of getting
present money for their work, seldom arrive at any
farther excellency in the art than face-painting, and have
no skill in perspective, symmetry, the principles of design,
or dare undertake to paint history.
Upon all these considerations, then, I cannot but pre-
sage the great advantage your excellent book, and such an
history, may produce, when our young gentlemen shall
ripen their studies by those excellent methods. At least
there will not likely appear such swarms and regions of
obstreperous lawyers as yearly emerge out of our Loudon
seminaries, omnium doctorum indoctissimum genus (for the
most part) as Erasmus truly styles them.
Concerning the Paper Ofl&ce, I wish those instruments
880 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Londok,
and state arcana had been as faithfully and constantly
transmitted to that useful magazine as they ought ; but
though Sir Joseph Williamson took pains to reduce things
into some order, so miserably had they been neglected and
rifled during the Rebellion, that, at the Restoration of
Charles II., such were the defects, that they were as far
to seek for precedents, authentic and original treaties,
negotiations, and other transactions formerly made with
foreign states and princes, despatches and instructions to
ambassadors, as if there had never before been any corres-
pondence abroad. How that office stands at present I
know not; but this I do know, that the abundance of
those despatches and papers you mention, and which
ought to centre there, have been carried away both by the
secretaries of state themselves (when either dismissed or
dying, and by ambassadors and other ministers when
recalled) into the country, and left to their heirs as
honourable marks of their ancestors' employments. Of
this sort I had formerly divers considerable bundles con-
cerning transactions of state during the ministry of the
great Earl of Leicester, all the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
containing divers original letters from the Queen her-
self, from Mary Queen of Scots, Charles IX. and Henry IV.
of France, Maximilian the second Emperor, Duke of
Norfolk, James Stewart, Regent of Scotland, Marquis of
Montrose, Sir William Throckmorton, Randolfe, Sir
Francis Walsingham (whom you mention), Secretary Cecil,
Mr. Barnaby, Sir J. Hawkins, Drake, Fenton, Matthew
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, Edwin, Bishop of
London, the Bishop of Winchester, Bishop Hooper, &c.
From abroad — Tremelius and other Protestant Divines ;
Parquiou, Spinola, Ubaldino, and other commanders, with
divers Italian princes. And of ladies — the Lady Mary Grey,
Cecilia, Princess of Sweden, Ann, Countess of Oldenburgh,
the Duchess of Somerset, and a world more. But what
most of all, and still afflicts me, those letters and papers of
the Queen of Scots, originals and written with her own
hand to Queen Elizabeth and Earl of Leicester, before and
during her imprisonment, which I furnished to Dr. Burnet
(now Bishop of Salisbury), some of which being printed
in his " History of the Reformation," those, and others
with them, are pretended to have been lost at the press.
1699.] JOHN EVELYN. 381
which has been a quarrel between me and his lordship,
who lays the fault on Chiswell,* but so as between them I
have lost the originals, which had now been safe records as
you will find in that history. The rest I haA'^e named I
lent to his countryman, the late Duke of Lauderdale, who,
honouring me with his presence in the country, and after
dinner discoursing of a Maitland (ancestor of his) of whom
I had several letters impaqueted with many others, desired
I would trust him with them for a few days : it is now more
than a few years past, that, being put ofi" from time to time,
till the death of his Grace, when his library was selling, my
letters and papers could no where be found or recovered; so as
by this treachery my collection being broken, I bestowed the
remainder on a worthy and curious friend f of mine, who
is not likely to trust a S with any thing he values.
But, Sir, I quite tire you with a rhapsody of imperti-
nencies, beg your pardon, and remain, &c.
Among the errata of the Numismata, but of which I
immediately gave an account in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, the following were thus to have been read : p. 22.
1. n. 22 — mixted as well as obrized J sort, in the margin ;
for such a metal is mentioned by Aldus (of Valentinian)
with coNOB : which he reads, — Const antinopoli Obriza-
ium, belonging, he says, to Count Landus : vide Aldus
Manut. Notar : Exp'ta, p. 802. Venet. cio.io.xci. and p. 51.
1. q. r. Etiminitis : Spanheim indeed is suspicious of this
medal, but I was unwilKng to degrade our metropolis of
the honour. P. 202, in margin, r. Regulbium (with in-
numerable more).
Sir,
I know not whether Sir Jo. Hoskins, Sir R,
Southwell, Mr. Waller, and Dr. Harwood (who is con-
cerned in what I have said of Taille Douce), and the rest
(on whom I have obtruded books), would have the patience
of Mr. Hill, to read my letter, when you meet at the
learned Coffee-Club, after they are gone from Gresham.
♦ Bishop Burnet's printer or publisher.
+ Qu. Mr. Pepys I
+ « Obryzum signifies gold of the most exalted purity." J. E.
tJ82 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lohdok,
The Reverend Joshua Walker to John Evelyn.
Ortat Billing, near Northampton, 7th Feb. 1700-1.
Honoured Sir,
I give you many thanks for your kind letter.
Your acceptance of those few papers I sent you has
encouraged me to send more. I desired a neighbour of
mine who has had great experience in setting willows, to
give me an account of his May of setting them, and also
of his way of planting and fencing quickset-hedges. I
have here sent you his papers; here is also a table, a great
part of which I heretofore collected for my own use ; if I
had had more books of planting, I might have added more
to it.
I think it would be a considerable benefit to the
inhabitants of champaign countries in England, where
timber, fuel, fruit, and shelter are much wanting, if a
statute were made, giving leave that any one who has land
worth five pounds, and in common fields, may, if he please,
inclose part of it not exceeding one rood ; and he that has
four cows'-gates upon any common, may likewise inclose
not exceeding one rood, or Avhat quantity the parliament
shall think fit ; and so proportionably for more, provided he
plant those enclosed parts all over M'ith wood, and likewise
giving leave to enclose some proportions for the planting
of fruit-trees, as you suggest in your Pomona, p. 858.
Probably more trees would be planted without any damage
to any one, if commoners had leave by statute to plant
trees upon the waste for their own use as well as Lords of
Manors, a due proportion being allotted to each of them.
I think you would do a very good work if you would be
pleased to use your interest to procure such a statute.
Many Members of Parliament would sooner hearken to
you than to any other person in matters of this nature,
being sensible how much good you have done to this
nation. That it would please Almighty God to bless you
with long life and happiness, and reward you for the great
pains you have taken for the benefit of your country, is
the prayer of, Sir,
Your most obhged humble servant,
Joshua Walker.
1701.] JOHN EVELYN. 383
Archdeacon Nicolson to John Evelyn.
March 25th, 1701.
Honoured Sir,
It lias long been ray custom to clear accounts (as
far as I am able) with all my creditors on the first day of
every new year. Where I am non-solvent I make an
honest acknowledgment, and that is my case with you.
Give me leave therefore to make this return of my humble
thanks for the kind letter I had from you last week ; and
to let you know that (since you are pleased to invite me to
it) I am very ready to run farther on the score with you.
Your MS. life of S. Cuthbert is, I perceive, the legend
written by R. Hegge, who was Fellow of Corpus Christi
where that treatise was deposited. There is indeed a very
faulty copy of it printed, and I have often endeavoured to
procure a transcript from the author's original, but in vain.
You generously offer this, and my brother will wait on you
for it, and convey it to me. If I live to publish my history
of the Saxon Northumberland, I shall pay a grateful
respect to my benefactor.
I am troubled to hear of Mr. Pepys's indisposition. I
heartily wish his recovery and the continuance of his
restored health. When I was a servant to Mr. Secretary
Williamson (above twenty years ago), I often waited upon
him at his house at Westminster ; but I was then, as I
still am, too inconsiderable to be remembered by him.
Besides an account of the author (if known) of his MS.
life of Mary Queen of Scots, I very much desire to know
whether there be any very valuable matters, relating to
the history of Scotland, amongst Sir R. Maitland^s collec-
tions of Scotch Poems. I observe that in the same volume
with Balfour^s Pratiques (or reports as we call them), he
has a manuscript of the old Sea-Law of Scotland. I
would beg to be informed whether this last treatise be not
the same with the Leges Portuum ; which, though quoted
by Sir John Skene under that Latin title, is written in the
Scotch language, and is only a list of the customs of goods
imported and exported. If I may (through your kind
intercession) have the favour of transcribing anything for
884 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lonbon,
my purpose out of his library, I have a young kinsman,
(a clerk to Mr. Musgrave at the tower), who will wait on
him to that purpose.
Suffer me now, Sir, to own another obligation to you
(wherein I am a sharer with the public) for your Acetaria^
which, with submission, I think you have miscalled an
appendix to your Calendaritim. You give it the precedence,
and very justly, in your royal plan ; the several chapters
whereof I shall much long to see published, for though an
ingenious countryman of mine, Mr. Baker, seems dissatis-
fied with Mr. "Wotton's making agriculture and gardening
parts of liberal knowledge, I am as much an admirer of
all the branches of natural as civil history, and the former
has as many of my spare hours in the summer, as the
latter has in the winter. There is one passage (page 65)
wherein I think myself nearly concerned to request your
farther information. The French Acetosella, with the
round leaf, grows (you say) plentifully in the north of
England. You distinguish this from the Roman Oxalis,
wherewith Dr. Morison had made our Acetosa Eboracensis
(as he calls it) to be nearly of a kind. But Mr. Ray has
rightly observed that ours is not Casp. Banhinus's
liotundifolia Hortensis (which is the same with the Roman
Oxalis) but his Scutata repens. Besides this I know of no
kind of sorrel that is so peculiar to the northern parts of
this kingdom as your expression seems to intimate, nor
can this, which is no trefoil, be reckoned among any of
the AcetoselUs. You will pardon this impertinence in. Sir,
Your obliged humble servant,
Will. Nicolson.
Archdeacon Nicolson to John Evelyn.
ScUkeld, 9th May, 1701.
Honoured Sir,
About ten days ago I received your two MSS.,
for which I now return my most humble thanks. The
legend of St. Cuthbert comes very opportunely, and (as I
expected) differs considerably in the account it gives of the
Council at Twyford, wherein he was chosen Bishop, from
what the print had said of it. This being one of the
1701-2.] JOHN EVELYN. 385
matters wherein I am scoimdreled by the late reply of
Dr. WakCj here's a seasonable assistance given me in the
defence I shall be obliged to make of my insipid notes on
Northumberland ; and ^twill likewise afford me an oppor-
tunity of making a just acknowledgment for the benefac-
tion. I hardly expected that the third part of my historical
library would have been treated by any man with so much
contempt, after it had been so fortunate as to be approved
by yourself and some others of the most competent judges
of the kingdom. It is a duty I owe to your kind characters
of it, as well as apiece of justice to my own innocence and
integrity, to wipe off as much of this gentleman's dust as I
can ; and when I have done that, I hope it will sufficiently
appear that he has much more to answer for than I have.
Begging your pardon for this impertinence,
I am, dear Sir,
Your most obliged humble servant,
William Nicolson.
William Wotton to John Evelyn.
Jan. 22, 1701-2.
Honoured Sir,
The kind notice you have been pleased to take
of my poor performances gives me a satisfaction which
few things in the world could have equalled. Few authors,
1 believe, are so entirely disengaged from the world, as to
be proof against applause even from common readers;
but the approbation of great masters is the highest reward
any writer ought to look for. I am sure my time has not
been misspent, since Mr. Evelj^n has passed so favourable
a judgment upon what I have been doing. It encourages
me also to go on with Mr. Boyle's Life, for which I have
been so long indebted to the public. I have now all the
materials I am to expect, and intend with all convenient
speed to digest them into such an order as may make
them at hand when I shall use them.
His works having been epitomated by Mr. Bolton after
a sort, I am at a loss whether I shall interweave a kind of
a system of his philosophy into the Life as I at first
designed, or only relate matters of fact. In that matter
386 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
I shall be guided by my friends : especially your judgment
I shall long for, if you will do me the honour to give it
me ; and then I am sure to make no mistake. The work,
I am sure, will please me ; if I fall not short of my
subject I shall be glad.
I am extremely sorry that the greediness of some people
hath driven you to cut any part of those charming groves
that made Wotton so deUcious a seat. What, are those
woods behind the house towards Leith-Hill cut down 1
If they are, the greatest ornament of the finest county
in England is gone. But I hope better ; and do not know,
if God spares my life, but I may wait upon you this
summer at Wotton, and then I shall inform myself.
That God Almighty may long preserve you to your
family, and continue to make young Mr. Evelyn what he
promises, and you desire, is the hearty prayer of.
Honoured Sir,
Your most obliged and most faithful servant,
W. Wotton.
I beg leave to present my humblest service to your
lady. I have the same intelligence concerning Mr. Hare
that you have.
Rev. Richard Richardson {of Lamport, Northamptonshire)
to John Evelyn.
Brixworth, Jwm 2, 1702.
Honoured Sir,
I shall not make a preface of excuse to you,
a member of our noble and communicative profession of
planters and florists, or rather the head or father as I caU
you, in my " De Cultu Hort. Carm."
" Evelinumque patrem Hortic."
in which I pretend Le Sieur Quintinye, Monsieur
Barpoae, follow your steps, especially our countryman Mr.
Rea. I must confess it was but a pretence ; for I was
mainly intent upon the digressive part after the example
of Columella and our master Virgil, whom I suppose
nobody consults in the science, but rather Cato, Varro,
Columella in prose, &c. Sir, I am importuned by some
friends, florists^ in my second edition intended, to make
1702-3.] JOHN EVELYN. 387
good the title; and, indeed, I have made some additions,
but yet I have run out most upon the digressive. I have
no other way to give them satisfaction but by prefixing,
with your good leave, your Calend. Hort. which I have
put into Latin : that is, the body of the work. I have
omitted the preface chiefly because I durst not venture
upon Cowley^s Pindaric ; and the Green-House at the end,
because it is but an essay, and little useful to the southern
virtuosi ; the cuts also would be chargeable. I have also
omitted the references to your other books, because they
are English. For what concerns Bees, being a matter
somewhat heterogeneous, I send the reader to Butler's
history, by me long since translated into Latin. Sir, if
you desire the whole, or any part, I will send it to you,
and beg, if you have any, some further improvements.
If you please to honour me with an answer, you may
direct it to me. Rector of Lamport, Northampton.
I am. Sir,
Your most humble and obedient servant,
Richard Richardson.
William Wotton to John Evelyn.
Jan. 23, 1702-3.
Honoured Sir,
When I see two letters of yours before me, and
both unanswered, it fills me with confusion. I ought not
to be so insensible of the honour you do me by your
correspondence, an honour which I shall never be able
sufficiently to acknowledge ; though I confess it is with
the extremest pleasure that I think I shall ere long tell
the world, that I have had the happiness to be known
to so great an ornament of our age and nation as
Mr. Evelyn.
Your last papers have cleared some doubts which I was
in concerning Mr. Boyle's family, and some still remain.
I want to know whether Sir Geoffry Fenton was not
Secretary of State ; I think he was. Sir William Potty's
will I have got a copy of. I have many other things to
ask you, of which you will in a short time have a list.
You encourage me. Sir, to come to you ; I will labour
that you sha'nt repent.
c c 2
888 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
I received Inst post two letters out of Surrey, one from
Dr. Duncombc, of Shere, the other from Mr. Randyll, of
Chilworth, iu behalf of one Mr. Bannister, Vicar of
AVouersh, a small vicarage just by Albury. It seems one
Steer, of Newdegatc, has left an exhibition for a poor scholar
of Trinity College, Cambridge. Now Mr. Bannister has
with great difficulty bred up a son whom he designs for
the University, and hopes he shall procure this exhibition.
But that M'ill be a slender support. I am solicited there-
fore to desire Dr. Bentley to look favourably upon him if
he shall deserve it. There are very many ways by which
a master of such a house may assist a promising lad whose
fortune is narrow. I intend to send a letter to the master
by the lad when he goes up, and I take the boldness to
say all this to you, because I have reason to think it will
be esteemed by Mr. Randyll and Dr. Duncombe (whose
family are patrons of that vicarage) as an exceeding great
obligation, if you will vouchsafe to interpose with our
friend iu this lad's behalf. Many a boy who struggles at
his first entry into the world proves afterwards a very
considerable man. Dr. Duncombe says the child is qualified
to go to Cambridge. My wife desires to have her most
humble service presented to Mrs. Evelyn. I am,
Honoured Sir,
Your most obedient and faithful servant,
W. WoTTON.'i=
William Wotton to John Evelyn.
Milton, Aug. 13, 1703.
Honoured Sir,
It is now so long time since I first mentioned to
you my design of giving some account to the world of the
life and writings of Mr. Boyle, that I question not but you
have long since looked upon it as a vain brag of an imper-
tinent fellow, who, when he had once appeared in public,
thought he might be always trespassing upon their patience.
The discouragements I met with since I undertook it were
80 many, that I have often wished that I had let it alone,
• This letter is suiierwrribed : " For John Evelyn, Esq., at his bouse in
Dover Street, near St. James's Street, Wctttminster."
1703.] JOHN EVELYX. 389
or never thought of it. And I was ordered to pursue
another scent by the Bishop of Salisbury, which it pleased
God to make unsuccessful. However, my design has long
been resumed, and every day I do something to it. Next
spring I hope to wait upon you in Dover Street, and show
you what I have done. I am sensible I am a slow and
a lazy writer, and since the public can well spare me and
what I shall ever do, it is no great harm if I am dilatory.
But since you, Sir, were the first epyobtoiKTrjs to me in
this affair, and were pleased so far to flatter me, as to make
me hope the world would (upon Mr. Boyle's account)
pardon Avhat I should say, I must take the freedom to be
yet farther troublesome to you. By your letter of
March 29, 1G96, I am encouraged to trouble you, aud for
that letter I again must thank you, since, notwithstanding
the notices which Mr. Boyle's own papers and the Bishop
of Sarum's hints have given me, I found your informations
so useful, that without them my work would be very lame.
I beg therefore of you farther,
1. An account of Mr. Hartlib : what countryman? what
his employment ? in short, a short eulogy of him, and his
writings and designs, with an account of the time of his
death,
2. The like of the beginnings of Sir William Petty.
Those two were very great with Mr. Boyle before the
Restoration.
8. Do you know anything of one Clodius * a chemist?
Was he (or who was) !Mr. Boyle's first master in that art ?
4. What was the affinity between your lady's family
and Mr. Boyle ? What son of that family was it that lies
buried in Deptford church ? and particularly all you can
gather of the old Earl of Cork's original. Was Sir
Geoffry Fenton Secretary of State in Ireland ; if not, what
was his employment ? Did not he translate Guicciardini
into English?
5. In what year began your acquaintance with Mr.
Boyle? I find letters of yours to him in 1657. Have
you any letters of his ; and would you spare me the use of
them ? they should be returned to you with thousands of
thanks.
I think, Sir, you will look upon these as queries enough
* Claudius.
890 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
for one time. It is in your power to make my work per-
fect, and the obligations I shall have thereby, though tliey
can't well add to those you have conferred already, yet
they will give me a new title to subscribe myself,
Honoured Sir,
Your most obedient and most obliged servant,
W. WOTTON.
My wife and I desire our services to be most humbly
oftered to Madame Evelyn.
Pray was Sir Maurice Fenton* (whose widow Sir
"W. Petty married) a descendant of Sir Geoffrey's? or
what else do you know of him?
In one of your letters to Mr. Boyle you mention a
Chymico-Mathematico-Mechanical School designed by
Dr. Wilkins : what farther do vou know about it ?
John Evelyn to William Woiton.f
Wotton, l2thSeptember,1703.
Worthy Sir,
I had long ere this given you an account of yours
of the 13th past (which yet came not to me till the 20th)
if a copy of the inscription you mention, and which I had
long since among my papers, could have been found, upon
diligent search; but lost I believe it (with other loose
notes) upon my remove hither, cum pannis. To supply
which, it is now above ten days past that I sent to Dr.
Stanhope (Vicar of Deptford) to send me a fresh transcript :
but hearing nothing from him hitherto, I believe my letter
might not have come to his hands ; and now a servant of
mine (who looks after my little concerns in that place)
tells me the Doctor is at Tunbridge, drinking the waters ;
and perhaps my letter may lie dormant at his house,
expecting his return : upon this accident and inteiTuption,
unwilling you should remain any longer in suspense, or
* A question partly founded on a mistake of names, Evelyn noting in the
margin, " Felton it s^hould be."
t Tliis letter is endorsed by Evelyn himself : " Copy to Mr. WorrOM, in
answer to one of his in order to tlie History of tlie Life of Mr. Botle, &c.
which I first put him upon."
1703.] JOHN EVELYN. 391
think me negligent or indiflPerent in promoting so desirable
a work, I send you this in the meantime.
To the first of your queries, Mr. Hartlib was, I think,
a Lithuanian, who coming for refuge hither to avoid the
persecution in his country, with much industry recom-
mended himself to many charitable persons, and among
the rest to Mr. Boyle, by communicating to them many
secrets in chemistry, and improvements of agriculture, and
other useful novelties by his general correspondence abroad;
of which he has published several treatises. Besides this,
he was not unlearned ; zealous and religious ; with so much
latitude as easily recommended him to the godly party
then governing, among whom (as well as Mr. Boyle and
many others, who used to pity and cherish strangers) he
found no small subsistence during his exile. I had very
many letters from him, and often relieved him. Claudius,
whom you next inquire after, was his son-in-law, a pro-
fessed adeptus, who by the same methodus mendicandi and
pretence of extraordinary arcana, insinuated himself into
acquaintance of his father-in-law : but when or where
either of them died (though I think poor Hartlib's was of
the stone), or what became of them, I cannot tell : no more
than I can who initiated Mr. Boyle among the Spagyrists,
before I had the honour to know him; though I conjecture
it was whilst he resided at Oxford after his return from
travel, where there was then a famous assemblage of
virtuosi : Drs. Bathurst of Trinity, Dickinson of Merton,
Wren, now Sir Christopher, Scarburgh,* Seth Ward
(afterwards Bishop of Sarum), and especially Dr. Wilkins
(since Bishop of Chester), the head of Wadham College,
where these and other ingenious persons used to meet to
promote the study of the new philosophy, which has since
obtained. It was in that college where I think there was
an elaboratory, and other instruments, mathematical,
mechanical, &c., which perhaps might be that you speak
of as a school ; and so lasted till the revolution following,
when, everybody seeking preferment, this society was
dispersed. This, Sir, is the best account I can at present
render you, having since lost so many of my worthy friends,
who might possibly have informed me better.
* This is the same " Dr. Scarborough " and "Sir Charles" mentioned
in Diary, vol. i., p. 283, and vol.ii., p. 45.
892 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
As to the (late of my first acquaintance with this
honourable gentleman, it sprung from a courteous visit
he made me at my house in Deptford, which as I con-
stantly repaid, so it grew reciprocal and familiar; divers
letters passing between us at first in civilities and the
style peculiar to him upon the least sense of obligation ;
but these compliments lasted no longer than till we
became perfectly acquainted, and had discovered our
inclinatiou of cultivating the same studies and designs,
especially in the search of natural and useful things :
myself then intent on collections of notes in order to an
History of Trades and other mechanical furniture, which
he earnestly encouraged me to proceed with ; so that our
intercourse of letter was now only upon that account, and
were rather so many receipts and processes, than letters.
What I gathered of this nature (and especially for the
improvement of planting and gardening), my Sylva and
what else I published on that subject being but part of
that work (a plan whereof is mentioned in ray late
Acetaria), would astonish you, did you see the bundles
and packets amongst other things in my chnrtaphylacia
here, promiscuously ranged among multitudes of papers,
letters, and other matters, divinity, political papers, poetry,
&c., some as old as the reign of Henry VIIL (my wife's
ancestors having been treasurers of the Navy to the reign
of Queen Elizabeth), and exceedingly increased by my late
father-in-law Sir Richard Browne's grandfather, who had
the first employment under the great Earl of Leicester,
Governor of the Low Countries in the same Queen's reign ;
and by Sir Richard Browne's despatches during his 19
years' residence in the Court of France, whither he was
sent by Charles the First and continued by his successor.
But to return from this digression. This design and
apparatus on several other subjects and extravagances
growing beyond my forces, was left imperfect upon the
restoration of the banished King, when every body
expected a new world, and had other things in view than
what the melancholy days of his eclipse suggested to pass
away anxious thoughts, by those innocent employments I
have mentioned. So as this Revolution, and my father-
in-law's attendance at Court (being eldest Clerk of the
Council) obliging me to be almost perpetually in London,
1703.] JOHN EVELYN. 393
the intercourse of formal letters (frequent visits, and
constant meetings at Gresham College succeeding) -was
very seldom necessary;* some I have yet by me, but such
as can be of no importance to your noble Avork, one of
which excepted, in answer to my returning him my thanks
for sending me his " Seraphic Love," which is long and
fall of civility, and so may pass for compliment with the
rest, long since mingled among my other packets.
I can never give you so accurate an account of Sir
William Petty (which is another of your inquiries) as you
will find in his own will, that famous and extraordinary
piece (which I am sure cannot have escaped you), wherein
he has omitted nothing concerning his own simple birth,
life, and wonderful progress he made to arrive at so
prodigious a fortune as he has left his relations. Or if
I could say more of it, I would not deprive you of the
pleasure you must needs receive in reading it often.
The only particular I find he has taken no notice of, is
the misadventure of his double-bottomed keel, which yet
perishing in the tempestuous Bay of Biscay (where fifteen
other vessels were lost in the same storm) ought not at all
reproach perhaps the best and most useful mechanist in
the world : for such was this faber forturuB, Sir William
Petty. I need not acquaint you with his recovering a
certain criminal young wench ; who had been hanged at
Oxon, and, being begged for a dissection, he recovered to
life ; and (who) was afterwards married, had children, and
survived it fifteen years. These, among many other things
very extraordinary, made him deservedly famous, and for
several engines and inventions ; not forgetting the expe-
ditious method by which — getting to be the surveyor of
the whole kingdom of Ireland — he taught ignorant soldiers
to assist in the admeasurement, reserving to himself the
acres assigned him for his reward : and the dispatch which
gained him the favour of impatient soldiers, whose pay and
arrears being to be supplied out of the pretended forfeited
estates gave him opportunity to purchase their lots and de-
bentures for a little ready money, which he got confirmed
* In another copy of this letter (Sloane MSS. 4229), Evelyn substitutes
at this passage : " the establishment of the Royal Society, taking in all these
subjects, made our personal meeting — unless at Gresham College, where we
assiduously met and conversed — at one another's houses less necessary."
394 CORRESPONDENCE OF [Lomdok,
after the Restoration.* This was the foundation of the vast
estate he since enjoyed. I need not tell you of his compu-
tations in what was published under the name of Mr. Grant,
concerning the Bills of Mortality ; and that with all this
he was politely learned, a wit and a poet (see his Para-
phrase on Psalm civ. &c.) ; and was the most charming
and instructing conversation in the world. But all these
excellent talents of his, rather hindered than advanced
his applications at Court ; where the wretched favourites
(some of whom for their virtue one " would not have set
with the dogs of the flock," and some who yet sat at the
helm), afraid of his abilities, stopped his progress there :
nor indeed did he affect it, being to my observation and
long acquaintance, a man of sincerity and infinitely indus-
trious. Nothing was too hard for him. I mentioned his
poetry, but said nothing of his preaching, which, though
rarely and when he was in perfect humour to divert his
friends, he would hold forth in tone and action ; passing
from the Court pulpit to the Presbyterian, and then the
Independent, Anabaptist, Quaker, Fanatic, Friar, and
Jesuit, as entertained the company to admiration ; putting
on the person of those sectaries with such variety and
imitation, that, it coming to be told the King, they prevailed
with him to show his faculty one day at Court, where,
declaiming upon the vices of it, and miscarriages of the
great ones, so verily as he needed not to name them,
particularly the misgovernment of Ireland, as (though it
diverted the King, who bare raillery the best in the world)
so touched the Duke of Orraond there present, and made
him so unruly, as Sir William perceiving it, dexterously
altered his style into a calmness and composure exceed-
ingly admirable. One thing more, which possibly you
may not have heard of, was his answering a challenge of
Sir Allen Brodrick (in great favour with my Lord Chan-
cellor) ; and it being the right of the appellant's antagonist
to choose the place and name the weapon, he named the
lists and field of battle to be in a dust cellar, and the
weapon hatchets, himself being purblind, and not so
skilful at the rapier ; and so it concluded in a feast. But
• Evelyn adds, in the duplicate of this letter to which I have referred :
** thoagli probably not without acknowledgments to the great men in power,
who were a« greedy of money as others."
1703.] JOHN EVELYN. 895
after all this, this poor, rich, and wonderful man, and an
excellent physician also, was suddenly taken away by a
gangrene in his leg, it seems too long neglected, a few days
after we had dined together in cheerful company. The
coat armour which he chose and always depicted on his
coach, &c., was a marinei'^s compass, the needle pointing
to the polar star, the crest a beehive, the lemma, if I re-
member well, being ' operosa et sedula' than which nothing
could be more apposite. And now I am extremely sensible
of my detaining you so long, in giving you rather the history
of Sir WilHam Petty instead of satisfying your inquiry
concerning his lady, and who married the widow of Sir
Maurice Felton (not Fenton), a Norfolk family, •= daughter
^f that arch rebel Sir Hardress Waller, a great commander
in Ireland, by whom he had three or four children, to
whom he left vast fortunes. This wife is yet living, a very
stately dame, in one of the stateliest palaces of that city.
But now, asking you pardon again for this (perhaps
impertinent) aberration, I return to Mr. Boyle, who had,
besides all we have enumerated that were his acquaintance
and admirers, the Lord Viscount Brouncker, first President
of the Royal Society; that worthy person and honest
Scot, Colonel W. Murray ; the famous Sir Kenelme Digby ;
Dr. Godard ; and of later date. Dr. Burnet, now Bishop of
Sarum ; and generally all strangers and learned persons,
pretending to chemistry, and other uncommon arts : nor
did any Ambassador from abroad think he had seen
England till he had visited Mr. Boyle.
As to the aflSnity and relation of my wife's family to
Mr. Boyle's, take the following account she received from
that most religious and excellent lady, his niece, the late
Countess of Clancarty ; who, coming down one day to
visit my father-in-law Sir Richard Browne, who lay
incommoded with the gout, and sitting by his bed side,
upon some casual discourse of her family, and how they
always esteemed him as of kindred, related this pretty
passage of a kinsman of Sir Richard's mother's first
husband, whose name was Geoffrey Fenton, who neglecting
his study, being designed for a lawyer, so exceedingly
displeased his uncle, that he sent him into Ireland as an
* In the copy of this letter in the Sloane MSS, Evelyn adds : " of which
was Felton, who assassinated the famous Duke of Buckinghain."
896 CORRESPONDENCE OF [London,
abandoned young man, to seek his fortune tliere. The
young student, considering his condition, soon recovered
his uncle's favour by so diligently applying himself to that
study, as in short time he became one of the most
eminent of that profession. Now the first Earl of Cork
being then but Mr. Boyle (a Kentish man ; and, perhaps
I may have told you, a schoolmaster at Maidstone, but
this particular being nothing of the Countess's narrative
and a secret betwixt you and I only, and perhaps uncertain),
coming to advise with Sir Geofi"rey Fenton, now knighted,
and finding him engaged with another client, and seeing
a pretty child in the nurse's arms, entertained himself
with them, till Sir Geoffrey came to him, making his
excuse for making him wait so long. Mr. Boyle pleasantly
told him, he had been courting a young lady for his Avifc.
And so it fortuned, that sixteen years after it, Mr. Boyle
made his address in good earnest to her, and married the
young lady, from whom has sprung all this numerous
family of earls and lords branching now into the noblest
families of England. How many sons and daughters he
left, I do not remember ; only that Roger Boyle was the
eldest son, whom his father sent young into England, to
be educated under the care of his relation, my grand-
mother, at Deptford, where was then a famous school.
Thus, Sir, have you the original of the relation you
inquire after, and of the kindness which always con-
tinued between them. This Roger Boyle is the young
gentleman, who, dying in Sir Richard Browne's house
at Saye's-Court in Deptford, was interred in that parish
church.
I will now endeavour to commute for your patience with
a pleasant passage, current with the Boyles. When King
Charles the Second newly come to his Crown, and using
frequently to sail down the river in his yachts for diversion,
and accompanied by all the great men and courtiers
waiting upon him, it Avas often observed, that when the
vessel passed by a certain place opposite to the church at
Deptford, my Lord Burlington constantly pulled off his
hat, witii some kind of reverence. This being remarked
by some of the Lords standing by him, they desired he
would tell them what he meant by it: to which he
replied, " Do you see that steeple there ? Have I not
1703.] JOHN EVELYN. 397
reason to pay a respect to the place where my elder
brother lies buried, by which I eujoy the Earldom of
Cork ? " Worthy Sir, I remain
Your most humble and obliged servant,
J. Evelyn.
P. S. Where I speak of this family, perhaps it may not
be amiss to see what Sir William Dugdale says of it in
his Baronage ; though what the Heralds write is often
sorry and mercenary enough. I am able to bring my own
Pedigree from one Evelyn, nephew to Androgius, who
brought Julius Caesar into Britain the second time : will
you not smile at this ? Whilst Onslow, Hatton, and
Evelyn came, I suppose, much at the same time out of
Shropshire into Surrey and adjacent counties (from places
still retaining their names), some time during the Barons'
AVars.
Methinks you speak of your not being at London till
next spring : a long day for Octogenarius to hope for that
happiness, who have of late seen so fcAv moments I can
call so all this past year.* I have been much impaired in
my health, by a defluxion which fell into one of my legs,
caused by a light scraze on my shin-bone, falling on a
stump as I was walking in Brompton Park to take the
fresh air; and might have been healed with a little
Hungary-water in a day or two (for my flesh never
rankles), but, this neglected, a chirurgeon, my godson,
whom almost forty years since I bound apprentice to
that profession, persuading me to apply a miraculous
plaster of his, it drew down a sharp humour, which kept
me within, three months ; and that being at last diverted
and perfectly cured, it has since tormented me with the
hemorrhoides, if I may so call tumours that do not bleed
(or rather blind piles), which make me exceedingly
uneasy. I have yet adventured to pay my duty to my
Lord Guernsey, Avho did me the honour to visit me at
Dover Street whilst I was not able to stir, and has lately
called often since he came out of Kent.
• A passage worth preserving is here interposed, in the duplicate copy
ah'eady referred to : "A great part of the year past, my health has much
decUned, nor do I murmur, considering that I have hardly had occasion to
keep my bed in sixty years."
398 COIUIESPONDENCE OF [London,
My young grandson improves laudably in his study of
both laws, histor}', chronology, and practical mathematics :
'tis pity he has not a correspondent that might provoke
him to write Latin epistles, in which I am told by some
able to judge, and that have seen some of them, he is
master of a handsome style : he does not forget his
Greek, having read Herodotus, Thucydides, and the rest
of that class. I do not much encourage his poetry, in
which he has yet a pretty vein ; my desire being to make
him an honest useful man, of which I have great hopes,
being so grave, steady, and most virtuously inclined. He
is now gone to see Chichester and Portsmouth, having
already travelled most of the inland counties ; and went
the last summer before this, as far as the Land's End in
Cornwall. Thus you see I make you part of my concerns,
hardly abstaining from the boasts of men of my dotage.*
I have paid the visit we lately received from Mr. Hare
and his lady, very glad to find them both in so good state
of health. He longs to see Mr. Wotton, as well as your
humble servant, J. E.
The Master of Trinity was often at St. James's without
being so kind as to visit the Clinic.
William Wotton to John Evelyn.
October 30, 1703.
Honoured Sir,
I am heartily ashamed that I deferred so long to
answer yours wherein you sent me so large and so obliging
an answer to all my queries. I could say my family has
been indisposed (my wife having been lately brought to bed
of a daughter), and that has broke my thoughts. But even
that excuse satisfies me not, and so I shall pass it. I only
beg I may not forfeit your favour, and entreat you to
accept of my sincere promises of future amendment.
Your hand in this last, which I received last night, seems
stronger and healthier than in your former. God grant
your health, which now I hope is perfectly recovered, may
long continue to the joy of your family and your fiiends,
and to the satisfaction of all the learned world, to which
* « Doate-«ge."
1704.] JOHN EVELYN. 399
whilst you live you cannot but be doing good. Another
edition of your Sylva I should be glad to see. It is a
noble work, and the reception it has met with amongst
the competent judges, demonstrates it to have been so
esteemed. Another edition of your Parallel of Archi-
tecture I could rejoice to see done by yourself. I know
you have noble materials for another impression by you,
which the public greedily longs for.
Before I shut up this paper, I must rejoice with you for
the prospect you have in young Mr. Evelyn. May that
good ProAH deuce which has preserved him to you and your
admirable lady thus far, give you every day an increase of
satisfaction in him for the future. This is the unfeigned
prayer of. Honoured Sir,
Your most obedient and faithful servant,
W. WOTTON.
I should be glad to know when you think of seeing
London, and for how long.'''
Archbishop Tenison to John Evelyn.
Cockpit, December 5th, 1704.
Sir,
Mr. Clark, who preached Mr. Boyle's lecture last
year, and whose excellent book I suppose you have
received, is so very deserving a man, that I cannot but
think it reasonable to commend him to you for the
preacher for the next year, and the rather because persons
of such abiHties in theology, philosophy, and mathematics
are not to be commonly found.
I am, with true respect.
Sir,
Your assured friend,
Canterbury.
• This letter is superscribed : " For the Honoured John Evelyn, Esq.,
at Wotton Place, near Dorking, in Surrey."
END OF VOL. III.
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such Uterary celebrities as Voltaire, Condorcet, de la Harpe, de Beaumarchais,
Rousseau, Lavater, Bernouilli, Raynal, de I'Epee, Huber, Gothe, Wieland, Male-
sherbes, Marmontel, de Stael and de Genlis ; with some singular disclosures
respecting those celebrated Englishwomen, Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of
Kingston, and Lady Craven, Margravine of Anspach.
" The Baroness d'Oberkirch, whose remarkable Memoirs are here given to the public, saw
much of courts and courtiers, and her Memoirs are filled with a variety of anecdotes, not
alone of lords and ladies, but of emperors and empresses, kings and queens, and reigning
princos and princesses. As a picture of society anterior to the French Revolution, the book
is the latest and most perfect production of its kind extant ; and as such, besides its minor
value as a book of amusement, it possesses u major value as a work of information, which, in
the interest of historical truth, is, without exaggeration, almost incalculable." — Observer.
"Thoroughly genuine and unaffected, these Memoirs display the whole mind of a woman
who was well worth knowing, and relate a large part of her experience among people with
whose names and characters the world will be at all times busy. A keen obser^-er, and by
position thrown in the high places of the world, the Baroness d'Oberkirch was the very
woman to write Memoirs that would interest future generations. We commend these
volumes most heartily to every reader. They are a perfect magazine of pleasant anecdotes
and interesting characteristic things. We lay down these charming volumes with regret.
They will entertain the most fastidious readers, and instruct the most informed." — Examiner.
"An intensely interesting autobiography." — Morning Chronicle.
" A valuable addition to the personal history of an important period. The volumes deserve
general popularity." — Daily News.
" One of the most interesting pieces of contemporary history, and one of the richest
collections of remarkable anecdotes and valuable reminiscences ever produced." — Johti Bull.
COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE MAEVELS OE SCIENCE,
AND THEIR TESTIMONY TO HOLY WRIT;
A POPULAR MANUAL OF TRK SCIENCES.
BY S. W. FULLOM, ESQ.
DEDICATED BT PERMISSION TO THE KING OF HANOVER.
Second Edition, Revised. 1 vol. Post 8vo.
" This work treats of the whole origin of nature in an intelligent style ; it puts
into the bands of every man the means of information on facts the most sublime,
and converts into interesting and eloquent description problems which once
perplexed the whole genius of mankind. We congratulate the author on his
research, his information, and his graceful and happy language." — Britannia.
" The skill displayed in the treatment of the sciences is not the least marvel in
the volume. The reasonings of the author are forcible, fluently expressed, and
calculated to make a deep impression. Genuine service has been done to the
cause of Revelation by the issue of such a book, which is more than a mere
literary triumph. It is a good action." — Globe.
" Its tone is grave, grand, and argumentative, and rises to the majesty of poetry.
As a commentary upon the stupendous facts which exist in the universe, it is
truly a work which merits our admiration, and we unhesitatingly refer our readers
to its fascinating pages." — Dispatch.
"Without parading the elaborate nature of his personal investigations, the
author has laid hold of the discoveries in every department of natural science in
a manner to be apprehended by the meanest understanding, but which will at the
same time command the attention of the scholar." — Messenger.
" A grand tour of the sciences. Mr. Fullom starts from the Sun, runs round
by the Planets, noticing Comets as he goes, and puts up for a rest at the Central
Sun. He gets into the Milky Way, which brings him to the Fixed Stars and
Nebulse. He munches the crust of the Earth, and looks over Fossil Animals and
Plants. This is followed by a disquisition on the science of the Scriptures. He
then comes back to the origin of the Earth, visits the Magnetic Poles, gets
among Thunder and Lightning, makes the acquaintance of Magnetism and Elec-
tricity, dips into Rivers, draws science from Springs, goes into Volcanoes, through
which he is drawn into a knot of Earthquakes, comes to the surface with Gaseous
Emanations, and sliding down a Landslip, renews his journey on a ray of Light,
goes through a Prism, sees a Mirage, meets with the Flying Dutchman, obser\-e8
an Optical Illusion, steps over the Rainbow, enjoys a dance with the Northern
Aurora, takes a little Polarized Light, boils some Water, sets a Steam-Engine in
motion, witnesses the expansion of Metals, looks at the Thermometer, and
refreshes himself with Ice. Soon he is at Sea, examining the Tides, tumbling
on the Waves, swimming, diving, and ascertaining the pressure of Fluids. We
meet him next in the ^Vir, running through all its properties. Having remarked
on the propagation of Sounds, he pauses for a bit of Music, and goes off into the
Vegetable Kingdom, then travels through the Animal Kingdom, and having
visited the various races of the human family, winds up with a demonstration of
the Anatomy of Man." — Examiner.
COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
THE LITEEATUEE AND EOMANCE
OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
CONSTITUTING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN,
DENMARK, NORWAY, AND ICELAND, WITH COPIOUS SPECIMENS OF THE
MOST CELEBRATED HISTORIES, ROMANCES, POPULAR LEGENDS AND TALES,
OLD CHIVALROUS BALLADS, TRAGIC AND COMIC DRAMAS, NATIONAL SONGS,
NOVELS, AND SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF THE PRESENT DAY.
BY WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT.
2 y. post 8vo. 21s. bound.
" English readers have long been indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Howitt. They
have now increased our obligations by presenting us with this most charming and
valuable work, by means of which the great majority of the reading public will
be, for the first time, made acquainted with the rich stores of intellectual wealth
long garnered in the literature and beautiful romance of Northern Europe.
From the famous Edda, whose origin is lost in antiquity, down to the novels of
Miss Bremer and Baroness Knorring, the prose and poetic writings of Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, and Iceland are here introduced to us in a manner at once
singularly comprehensive and concise. It is no dry enumeration of names, but
the very marrow and spirit of the various works displayed before us. We have
old ballads and fairy tales, always fascinating ; we have scenes from plays, and
selections from the poets, with most attractive biographies of these and other
great men. The songs and ballads are translated with exquisite poetic beauty." —
Sun.
" We have most cordially to thank Mary and William Howitt for their valuable
contribution to our knowledge of the literature of Northern Europe. They have
effected a public good. They have offered to all classes of readers a work abound-
ing in original and entrancing interest, overflowing with varied matter — of criticism,
biography, anecdotes, sketches, and quotations, all tending to exhibit new trea-
sures for the gratification and enlightenment of a vast circle of minds. Our
authors have described to us in copious and entertaining detail the romance and the
poetry, the writings and the imaginations, of the Scandinavian races, interspersed
with abundant and well-selected specimens of the historical, romantic, legendary,
chivalric, ballad, dramatic, song, and critical literature of Northern Europe. They
have brought to light the treasures of the illustrious poets, historians and bards
of Scandinavia, in a work of astonishing interest." — Sunday Times.
" This work teems with information of the rarest and most curious character,
and is replete with interest to the scholar, the philosopher, the antiquarian, and
the general reader. The subject has the charming freshness of novelty. There
is not any other book in the English language, which presents so vivid, so
interesting, and so accurate a picture of the manners, customs, opinions, and
superstitions of our Scandinavian forefathers." — Morning Post.
" A standard work on the whole subject." — Glode.
" A valuable addition to our literature." — Daily News.
" A book full of information — and as such, a welcome addition to our literature.
The translations — especially of some of the ballads and other poems — are exe-
cuted with spirit and taste." — Athenceum.
6 COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
JUDGE HALIBURTON'S NEW HISTORICAL WORK.
In 2 vols, post 8vo. 21s. bound.
RULE AND MISEULE OF
THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA.
By the Author of
"SAM SLICK," "THE OLD JUDGE," &c.
" A most attractive work." — Standard.
"The cleverest volumes Judge llaliburton has ever produced." — Messenger.
" We conceive this work to be by far the most valuable and important Judge
Haliburton has ever written. The exhaustless fund of humour — quiet, yet rich
and racy, and at the same time overflowing with the milk of human kindness
— which his writings display on one hand, and the wonderful knowledge of
man's character, in all its countless varieties, which they exhibit on the other,
have insured for them a high, and honourable, and enduring station in English
Uterature. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to arise from the perusal of
any of Mr. Haliburton's performances without having become both wiser and
better. His ' English in America' is, however, a production of a yet more
exalted order. While teeming with interest, moral and historical, to the general
reader, it may be regarded as equally constituting a philosophicid study for the
politician and the statesman. It will be found to dissipate many popular errors,
and to let in a flood of light upon the actual origin, formation, and progress of
the republic of the United States." — Naval and Military Gazette.
"Those who wish for an accurate history of the rise of republicanism in
America to its grand development in the United States revolution, will here find
a narrative that is invaluable for its accuracy, its impartiality, its admirable order
in arrangement, and that true philosophy of statesmanship which can attach to
each incident a fitting moral, from which every honest politician can derive
instruction. The work is one equally useful in the double aspect in which it
may be regarded — first, an insight into the causes of past transactions ; second,
as a warning to guide mankind amid the many perplexing political questions of
the day. The spirit of impartiality animates every page of this work. It is
deserving of a place in every historical library." — Morning Herald.
" We believed the author of this work to possess a power of humour and
sarcasm second only to that of Rabelais and Sidney Smith, and a genuine pathos
worthy of Henry Fielding or Charles Dickens. In his particular line of literature
we believed him to be unrivalled. In the volumes before us he breaks upon a
new, and — according to his method of breaking the subject — untrodden ground.
We hail this book with pleasure ; we consider it an honour to Judge Haliburton,
as by it he has proved himself to be a Christian, a scholar, a gentleman, and, in
the true sense of a mis-used word, a patriot. Mr. Haliburton places before us,
fairly and impartially, the history of English rule in America. The book is not
only a boon to the historic student, it is also filled with reflections such as may
well engage the attention of the legislating statesman. Mr. Haliburton also
shows us the true position of the Canadas, explains the evils of our colonial
system, points out the remedies by which these evils may be counteracted, that
thus the rule of the ' English in America ' may be something better than a
history of the blunders, the follies, and the ignorant temerity of colonial
secretaries." — Irish Quarterly Review.
COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 7
SAM SLICK'S NEW COMIC WORK.
In 3 vols, post 8vo. 31s. 6d. bound.
TEAITS OF AlEEICAN HUMOUR.
Edited
By the Authpr of " SAM SLICK," &c.
"We have seldom met with a work more rich in fun or more generally
delightful." — Standard.
" Those who have relished the racy humour of the ' Clockmaker,' will find a
dish of equally ludicrous and amusing Transatlantic wit in the volumes before
us." — Herald.
" A new book, by the author of ' Sam Slick ' causes some stir among the
laughter-loving portion of the community ; and its appearance at the present
festive season is appropriate. We hold that it would be quite contrary to the
fitness of things for any other hand than that of our old acquaintance, the
facetious Judge Haliburton, to present to us a Christmas dish, and call it ' Traits
of American Humour.' But even without the recollection of ' Sam Slick ' to
evoke the spirit of fun within us, we should have been forced to yield to the
racy humour of these American ' Traits.' Dip where you will into this lottery
of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize." — Morning Post.
" The untravelled European who has not made the acquaintance of Sam
Slick, can have but little knowledge of the manners, customs, humours, eccen-
tricities and lingos of the countless varieties of inhabitants of North America
who we are accustomed to conglomerate under the general name of Yankees.
Assisted, however, by Sam Slick's graphic descriptions, literal reports, and racy
pen-and-ink sketches, gentlemen who sit at home at ease, are able to realize with
tolerable accuracy the more remarkable species of this lively family, to compre-
hend their amusing jargon, to take an interest in their peculiarities of person
and speech, and to enter into the spirit of their very characteristic humours.
No man has done more than the facetious Judge Haliburton, through the mouth
of the inimitable ' Sam,' to make the old parent country recognise and appreciate
her queer transatlantic progeny ; and in the volumes before us he seeks to render
the acquaintance more minute and complete. His present collection of comic
stories and laughable traits is a budget of fun full of rich specimens of American
humour." — Globe.
" The reader will find this work deeply interesting. Yankeeism pourtrayed, in
its raciest aspect, constitutes the contepts of these superlatively entertaining
volumes, for which we are indebted to our facetious old friend, ' Sam Slick.' The
work embraces the most varied topics, — political parties, religious eccentricities,
the flights of literature, and the absurdities of pretenders to learning, all come
in for their share of satire ; while in other papers we have specimens of genuine
American exaggerations, or graphic pictures of social and domestic life as it is
more especially in the ruder districts and in the back settlements, or again
sallies of broad humour, exhibiting those characteristics which form in the
country itself the subject of mutual persiflage between the citizens of different
States. The work will have a wide circulation." — John Bull.
COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
CAPTAIN SPENCER'S NEW WORK.
In 2 vols. 8yo. with Illustrations, and a valuable Map of European Turkey, from
the most recent Charts in the possession of the Austrian and Turkish
Governments, revised by the Author, 28s. bound.
TRAVELS m EUROPEAN TURKEY
IN 1850:
THROOGH BOSNIA, SBRTIA, BULGARIA, MACEDONIA, ROUMELIA, ALBANIA, AND
BPIRCS; MTITH A VISIT TO GREECE AND THE IONIAN ISLES, AND A HOME-
WARD TOUR THROUGH HUNGARY AND THE SCLAVONIAN PROVINCES
OF AUSTRIA ON THE LOWER DANUBE.
By EDMUND SPENCER, ESQ.
Author of " Travels in Circassia," &c.
" These important volumes appear at an opportune moment, as they describe
some of those countries to which public attention is now more particularly
directed : Turkey, Greece, Hungary, and Austiia. The author has given us a
most interesting picture of the Turkish Empire, its weaknesses, and the em-
barrassments from which it is now suffering, its financial difficulties, the discon-
tent of its Christian, and the turbulence of a great portion of its Mohammedan
subjects. We are also introduced for the first time to the warlike mountaineers
of Bosnia, Albania, Upper Moesia, and the almost inaccessible districts of the
Pindus and the Balkan. The different nationalities of that Babel-like country,
Turkey in Eiuope, inhabited by Sclavonians, Greeks, Albanians, Macedonians,
the Romani and Osmanli — their various characteristics, religions, superstitions,
together with their singular customs and manners, their ancient and contem-
porarv' history are vividly described. The Ionian Islands, Greece, Hungary, and
the Sclavonian Provinces of Austria on the Lower Danube, are all delineated in
the author's happiest manner.
" We cordially recommend Mr. Spencer's valuable and interesting volumes to
the attention of the reader. They are replete with information upon countries of
which we know but little ; they will be interesting to the military man for the
details they give of the strength and defensive positions of the various countries
through which the author travelled ; to the merchant for the insight given into
the state of trade ; and to~the man of the world as they place before his view the
present political and social state of an empire, whose welfare it is the interest of
England to promote. The work must be considered a standard production,
enriched, as it is, by an excellent map derived from the most authentic modern
charts, added to, and improved by the observations of the author during his
travels." — United Service Magazine.
" A work of great merit, and of paramount present interest." — Standard.
" This interesting work contains by far the most complete, the most en-
lightened, and the most reliable amount of what has been hitherto almost the
terra incognita of European Turkey, and supplies the reader with abundance of
entertainment as well as instruction." — John Bull.
" An excellent and admirable work. Mr. Spencer is a very able virriter, a
shrewd, experienced and philosoi)hical observer, an eminently thinking and yet
practical man. His work forms the most valuable addition that our literature has
lately received. He sets forth to inquire and learn ; be returns to inform and
iuggett ; and information most valuable and interesting has he here bestowed
upon us." — Tail's Magazine.
COLBURN AND CO. S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
REVELATIONS OF SIBERIA.
BY A BANISHED LADY.
2 vols. Post 8vo., 2ls. bound.
" The authoress of these volumes was a lady of quality, who, having incurred
the displeasure of the Russian Government for a poUtical offence, was exiled to
Siberia. The place of her exile was Berezov, the most northern part of this
northern penal settlement ; and in it she spent about two years, not unprofitably,
as the reader will find by her interesting work, containing a lively and graphic
picture of the country, the people, their manners and customs, &c. The book
gives a most important and valuable insight into the economy of what has been
hitherto the terra incognita of Russian despotism." — Daily News.
" Since the publication of the famous romance the ' Exiles of Siberia,' of
Madame Cottin, we have had no account of these desolate lands more attractive
than the present work, from the pen of the Lady Eve Felinska, which, in its un-
pretending style and truthful simplicity, will win its way to the readei's heart,
and compel him to sympathise with the fair sufferer. The series of hardships
endured in traversing these frozen solitudes is affectingly told ; and once settled
down at one of the most northern points of the convict territory, Berezov, six
hundred miles beyond Tobolsk, the Author exhibits an observant eye for the
natural phenomena of those latitudes, as well as the habits of the semi-barbarous
aborigines. This portion of the book will be found by the naturalist as well as
ethnologist full of valuable information." — Globe.
" These 'Revelations' give us a novel and interesting sketch of Siberian life — the
habits, morals, manners, religious tenets, rites, and festivals of the inhabitants. The
details of the author's painful journey vnll be perused with feelings of indignation
and deep sympathy. The record of her residence of nearly three years at Berezov,
which constitutes the most valuable part of her ' Revelations,' does credit to her
heart and her understanding. Her extraordinary powers of observation, and the
graceful facility with which she describes everything worthy of remark, render
her ' Revelations' as attractive and fascinating as they are original and instruc-
tive."— Britannia.
AUSTRALIA AS IT IS:
ITS SETTLEMENTS, FARMS, AND GOLD FIELDS.
BY F. LANCELOTT, KSQ.,
MiNERALOGICAL SURVEYOR IN THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.
2 Vols. Post 8vo., 2l8. bound.
ADVENTURES of the CONNAUGHT RANGERS.
SECOND SERIES.
BY WILLIAM GRATTAN, ESQ.,
Late Lieutenant Connaught Rangers. 2 vols. Post 8vo., 21s. bound.
10 COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS.
EIGHT YEARS
IN PALESTINE, SYRIA, AND ASIA MINOR.
BY F. A. NEALE, ESQ.,
LATK ATTACHED TO THE CONSXTLAR SERVICE IN STRIA.
Second Edition, in 2 Vols., with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
" One of the best accounts of the country and people that has been published
of late years." — Spectator.
" A very agreeable book. Mr. Neale is evidently quite familiar with the
East, and writes in a lively, shrewd, and good-humoured manner. A great
deal of information is to be found in his pages." — Atherueum.
" We have derived unmingled pleasure from the perusal of these interesting
volumes. Very rarely have we found a narrative of Eastern travel so truthful
and just. There is no guide-book we would so strongly recommend to the
traveller about to enter on a Turkish or Syrian tour as this before us. The
information it affords is especially valuable, since it is brought up almost to the
last moment. The narrative, too, is full of incident, and abounds in vivid pic-
tures of Turkish and Levantine life interspersed with well-told tales. The
author commences his narrative at Gaza ; visits Askalon, Jaffa and Jerusalem,
Caipha and Mount Carmel, Acre, Sidon and Tyre, Beyrout, Tripoli, Antioch,
Aleppo, Alexandretta, Adana, and Cyprus. Of several of these famous localities
we know no more compact and clearer account than that given in these volumes.
We have to thank Mr. Neale for one of the best books of travels that we have
met with for a very long time." — Literary Gazette.
KHARTOUM AND THE NILES.
By GEORGE MELLY, ESQ.
Second Edition. 2 v. post 8vo., with Map and Illustrations, 21s. bound.
" Independently of the amusement and information which may be derived
from Mr. Melly's interesting work, the references to the relations which exist
at this time between the Sublime Porte and Egypt are worthy of every conside-
ration which statesmen and public men can bestow upon them." — Messenger,
" We cannot feel otherwise than grateful to the author of these valuable and
useful volumes for having kept so faithful a journal, and for giving the public
the benefit of his adventures and experience. The manners and customs of
the natives, as well as the natural curiosities, and the relics of antiquity which
the travellers visited, in turns engage the reader's attention ; and, altogether, the
book is a most entertaining and instructive vade-mecum to the interesting portion
of the East of which it treats." — John Bull.
SCENES FROM SCRIPTURE.
By the rev. G. CROLY, LL.D.
Author of " Salathiel," &c., 1 v., 10s. 6d. bound.
'• Eminent in everj- mode of literature, Dr. Croly stands, in our judgment, first
among the living poets of Great Britain — the only man of our day entitled by his
power to venture within the sacred circle of religious poets." — Standard.
" An admirable addition to the library of religious families." — John Bull,
COLBURN AND CO.'S NEW PUBLICATIONS. 11
NARRATIVE OF
FIVE YEARS' RESIDENCE AT NEPAUL.
By captain THOMAS SMITH,
Late Assistant Political-Resident at Nepaul. 2 v. post 8vo. 21s. bound.
" No man could be better qualified to describe Nepaul than Captain Smith ;
and his concise, but clear and graphic account of its history, its natural produc-
tions, its laws and customs, and the character of its warUke inhabitants, is very
agreeable and instructive reading. A separate chapter, not the least enter'taiuing
in the book, is devoted to anecdotes of the Nepaulese mission, of whom, and of
their visit to Europe, many remarkable stories are told." — Post.
" No one need go elsewhere for information about Nepaul. He will find it all
arranged in this intelligent and interesting work with perspicuity and complete-
ness. It will henceforth be the standard work on Nepaul. Captain Smith's
narrative of his personal adventtires is most exciting." — United Service Gazette.
CANADA AS IT WAS, IS, AND MAY BE.
By the late Liedtenant-Colonel Sir R. Bonnycastle.
With an Account of Recent Transactions,
By sir JAMES E. ALEXANDER, K.L.S., &c.
2 v., post 8to., with Maps, &c. 21s. bound.
" These volumes offer to the British public a clear and trustworthy statement
of the afi'airs of Canada; a narrative of the late troubles, their causes and
consequences ; an account of the policy pursued in the colony, and the effects
of the immense public works in progress and completed ; with sketches of
localities and scenery, amusing anecdotes of personal observation, and generally
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and political reader. The information rendered is to be thoroughly relied on as
veracious, full, and conclusive." — Messenger.
" This is the best work on Canada for every class of readers — the most
complete, the most important, and the most interesting." — Sunday Times.
SPAIN AS IT IS.
By G. a. HOSKINS, ESQ.
2 v., with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
" To the tourist this work vrill prove invaluable. It is the most complete an
interesting portraiture of Spain that has ever come under ournotice." — John Bull.
12 COLBURN AND CO.*S NEW PUBLICATIONS.
COLONEL LANDMANN'S ADVENTURES
AND RECOLLECTIONS.
2 rols. post 8vo. 21s. bound.
" Amoug the anecdotes in this work will be found notices of King George III.,
the Dukes of Kent, Cumberland, Cambridge, Clarence, and Richmond, the Princess
Augusta, General Gartli, Sir Harry MiUlmay, Lord Charles Somerset, Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, Lord Hcathficld, Captain Grose, &c. The volumes abound in inte-
resting matter. The anecdotes are one and all amusing." — Observer.
" Colonel Landmann's work is written in an unaffected spirit, and contains
matter of agreeable and lively interest." — Literary Gazelle.
" These * Adventures and Recollections' are those of a gentleman whose birth
and profession gave him faciUties of access to distinguished society; and the
interest of the volumes will be found to consist in anecdotes and recollections
relating to individual members of that society. Colonel Landmann writes so
agreeably that we have little doubt that his volumes will be acceptable. They
partake, to some extent, both of the good and bad qualities of Horace Walpole
and of WraiaU." — JthetuButn.
THE ROMANCE OF THE FORUM ;
OR, NARRATIVES, SCENES, AND ANECDOTES FROM
COURTS OF JUSTICE.
By PETER BURKE, ESQ., Barrister-at-Law. 2 v. 21s.
" These attractive volumes will be perused with much interest. They contain
a great variety of singular and highly romantic stories." — John Bull.
" Few who once take up these volumes will lay them down unread." — Examiner.
" Nothing can be more deeply interesting or affecting than many of these
narratives." — Observer,
D A R I E N
OR, THE MERCHANT PRINCE.
By ELIOT WARBURTON.
Author of " The Crescent and the Cross," &c., Second Edition. 3 v.
" The scheme for the colonization of Darien by Scotchmen, and the opening
of a communication between the East and West across the Isthmus of Panama,
furnishes the foundation of this story, which is in all respects w6rthy of the
high reputation which the author of the ' Crescent and the Cross' had already
made for himself. The early history of the Merchant Prince introduces the
reader to the condition of Spain under the Inquisition ; the portraitures of
Scottish life which occupy a prominent place in the narrative, are full of spirit ;
the scenes in America exhibit the state of the natives of the new world at that
period ; the daring deeds of the Buccaneers supply a most romantic element in
the story ; and an additional interest is infused into it by the introduction of
various celebrated characters of the period, such as Law, the French financier,
and Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England. All these varied ingredients
are treated with that brilliancy of style and powerful descriptive talent, by which
the pen of Eliot Warbiirton was so eminently distinguished." — John Bull.
COLBURN AND CO.'s NEW PUBLICATIONS. 13
LORD PALMERSTON'S OPINIONS
AND POLICY;
AS MINISTER, DIPLOMATIST, AND STATESMAN,
DURING MORE THAN FORTY YEARS OF PUBLIC LIFE.
1 V. 8vo., with Portrait, 12s. bound.
" This work ought to have a place in every political library. It gives a com-
plete view of the sentiments and opinions by which the policy of Lord
Palmerston has been dictated as a diplomatist and statesman." — Chronicle.
" This is a remarkable and seasonable publication ; but it is something more —
it is a valuable addition to the historical treasures of our country during more
than forty of the most memorable years of our annals. We earnestly recommend
the volume to general perusal." — Standard.
FIYE TEARS IN THE WEST INDIES.
BY CHARLES W. DAY, ESQ.
2 v., with Illustrations, 21s. bound.
" These interesting volumes possess considerable merit as regards information
on that important subject, the state of the West Indies as they are at present." —
Sun.
" It would be unjust to deny the vigour, brilliancy, and varied interest of this
work, the abundant stores of anecdote and interest, and the copious detail of
local habits and pecuUarities in each island visited in succession." — Globe.
HISTORY OF THE
BRITISH CONQUESTS IN INDIA.
BY HORACE ST. JOHN. 2 v. 21s. bound.
" A work of great and permanent historical value and interest." — Post.
" A fair and accurate narrative of the political history of British India, evi-
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" The style is graphic and spirited. The facts are well related and artistically
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