Chapter XV: Part 15

17th August, 1654. Passed through Pontefract; the castle famous for many sieges both of late and ancient times, and the death of that unhappy King murdered in it (Richard II.), was now demolishing by the Rebels; it stands on a mount, and makes a goodly show at a distance. The Queen has a house here, and there are many fair seats near it, especially Mr. Pierrepont's, built at the foot of a hill out of the castle ruins. We all alighted in the highway to drink at a crystal spring, which they call Robin Hood's Well; near it, is a stone chair, and an iron ladle to drink out of, chained to the seat. We rode to Tadcaster, at the side of which we have prospect of the Archbishop's Palace (which is a noble seat), and in sight of divers other gentlemen's fair houses. This tract is a goodly, fertile, well-watered, and wooded country, abounding with pasture and plenty of provisions.

[Sidenote: YORK]

To York, the second city of England, fairly walled, of a circular form, watered by the brave river Ouse, bearing vessels of considerable burden on it; over it is a stone bridge emulating that of London, and built on; the middle arch is larger than any I have seen in England, with a wharf of hewn stone, which makes the river appear very neat. But most remarkable and worth seeing is St. Peter's Cathedral, which of all the great churches in England had been best preserved from the fury of the sacrilegious, by composition with the Rebels when they took the city, during the many incursions of Scotch and others. It is a most entire magnificent piece of Gothic architecture. The screen before the choir is of stone carved with flowers, running work and statues of the old kings. Many of the monuments are very ancient. Here, as a great rarity in these days and at this time, they showed me a Bible and Common Prayer Book covered with crimson velvet, and richly embossed with silver gilt; also a service for the altar of gilt wrought plate, flagons, basin, ewer, plates, chalices, patins, etc., with a gorgeous covering for the altar and pulpit, carefully preserved in the vestry, in the hollow wall whereof rises a plentiful spring of excellent water. I got up to the tower, whence we had a prospect toward Durham, and could see Ripon, part of Lancashire, the famous and fatal Marston Moor, the Spas of Knaresborough, and all the environs of that admirable country. Sir ---- Ingoldsby has here a large house, gardens, and tennis court; also the King's house and church near the castle, which was modernly fortified with a palisade and bastions. The streets are narrow and ill-paved, the shops like London.

18th August, 1654. We went to Beverley, a large town with two stately churches, St. John's and St. Mary's, not much inferior to the best of our cathedrals. Here a very old woman showed us the monuments, and, being above 100 years of age, spoke the language of Queen Mary's days, in whose time she was born; she was widow of a sexton who had belonged to the church a hundred years.

Hence, we passed through a fenny but rich country to Hull, situated like Calais, modernly and strongly fortified with three block-houses of brick and earth. It has a good market place and harbor for ships. Famous also (or rather infamous) is this town for Hotham's refusing entrance to his Majesty. The water-house is worth seeing. And here ends the south of Yorkshire.

[Sidenote: LINCOLN]

19th August, 1654. We pass the Humber, an arm of the sea of about two leagues breadth. The weather was bad, but we crossed it in a good barge to Barton, the first town in that part of Lincolnshire. All marsh ground till we came to Brigg, famous for the plantations of licorice, and then had brave pleasant riding to Lincoln, much resembling Salisbury Plain. Lincoln is an old confused town, very long, uneven, steep, and ragged; formerly full of good houses, especially churches and abbeys. The Minster almost comparable to that of York itself, abounding with marble pillars, and having a fair front (herein was interred Queen Eleanora, the loyal and loving wife who sucked the poison out of her husband's wound); the abbot founder, with rare carving in the stone; the great bell, or Tom, as they call it. I went up the steeple, from whence is a goodly prospect all over the country. The soldiers had lately knocked off most of the brasses from the gravestones, so as few inscriptions were left; they told us that these men went in with axes and hammers, and shut themselves in, till they had rent and torn off some barge loads of metal, not sparing even the monuments of the dead; so hellish an avarice possessed them: beside which, they exceedingly ruined the city.

Here, I saw a tall woman six feet two inches high, comely, middle-aged, and well-proportioned, who kept a very neat and clean alehouse, and got most by people's coming to see her on account of her height.

20th August, 1654. From hence we had a most pleasant ride over a large heath open like Salisbury Plain, to Grantham, a pretty town, so well situated on the side of a bottom which is large and at a distance environed with ascending grounds, that for pleasure I consider it comparable to most inland places of England; famous is the steeple for the exceeding height of the shaft, which is of stone.

About eighteen miles south, we pass by a noble seat, and see Boston at a distance. Here, we came to a parish of which the parson had tithe ale.

Thence through Rutland, we brought night to Horninghold, from whence I set out on this excursion.

22d August, 1654. I went a setting and hawking, where we had tolerable sport.

25th August, 1654. To see Kirby, a very noble house of my Lord Hatton's, in Northamptonshire, built _à la moderne_; the garden and stables agreeable, but the avenue ungraceful, and the seat naked: returned that evening.

27th August, 1654. Mr. Allington preached an excellent discourse from Romans vi. 19. This was he who published those bold sermons of the members warring against the mind, or the Jews crucifying Christ, applied to the wicked regicides; for which he was ruined. We had no sermon in the afternoon.

30th August, 1654. Taking leave of my friends, who had now feasted me more than a month, I, with my wife, etc., set our faces toward home, and got this evening to Peterborough, passing by a stately palace (Thorpe) of St. John's (one deep in the blood of our good king), built out of the ruins of the Bishop's palace and cloister. The church is exceeding fair, full of monuments of great antiquity. Here lies Queen Catherine, the unhappy wife of Henry VIII., and the no less unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. On the steeple, we viewed the fens of Lincolnshire, now much inclosed and drained with infinite expense, and by many sluices, cuts, mounds, and ingenious mills, and the like inventions; at which the city and country about it consisting of a poor and very lazy sort of people, were much displeased.

Peterborough is a handsome town, and hath another well-built church.

31st August, 1654. Through part of Huntingdonshire, we passed that town, fair and ancient, a river running by it. The country about it so abounds in wheat that, when any King of England passes through it, they have a custom to meet him with a hundred plows.

[Sidenote: CAMBRIDGE]

This evening, to Cambridge; and went first to St. John's College, well built of brick, and library, which I think is the fairest of that University. One Mr. Benlowes has given it all the ornaments of _pietra commessa_,[51] whereof a table and one piece of perspective is very fine; other trifles there also be of no great value, besides a vast old song-book, or Service, and some fair manuscripts. There hangs in the library the picture of John Williams, Archbishop of York, sometime Lord Keeper, my kinsman, and their great benefactor.

[Footnote 51: Marble, inlaid of various colors, representing
flowers, birds, etc.]

Trinity College is said by some to be the fairest quadrangle of any university in Europe; but in truth is far inferior to that of Christ Church, in Oxford; the hall is ample and of stone, the fountain in the quadrangle is graceful, the chapel and library fair. There they showed us the prophetic manuscript of the famous Grebner, but the passage and emblem which they would apply to our late King, is manifestly relating to the Swedish; in truth, it seems to be a mere fantastic rhapsody, however the title may bespeak strange revelations. There is an office in manuscript with fine miniatures, and some other antiquities, given by the Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VIII., and the before-mentioned Archbishop Williams, when Bishop of Lincoln. The library is pretty well stored. The Greek Professor had me into another large quadrangle cloistered and well built, and gave us a handsome collation in his own chamber.

Thence to Caius, and afterward to King's College, where I found the chapel altogether answered expectation, especially the roof, all of stone, which for the flatness of its laying and carving may, I conceive, vie with any in Christendom. The contignation of the roof (which I went upon), weight, and artificial joining of the stones is admirable. The lights are also very fair. In one aisle lies the famous Dr. Collins, so celebrated for his fluency in the Latin tongue. From this roof we could descry Ely, and the encampment of Sturbridge fair now beginning to set up their tents and booths; also Royston, Newmarket, etc., houses belonging to the King. The library is too narrow.

Clare-Hall is of a new and noble design, but not finished.

Peter-House, formerly under the government of my worthy friend, Dr. Joseph Cosin, Dean of Peterborough; a pretty neat college, having a delicate chapel. Next to Sidney, a fine college.

Catherine-Hall, though a mean structure, is yet famous for the learned Bishop Andrews, once Master. Emanuel College, that zealous house, where to the hall they have a parlor for the Fellows. The chapel is reformed, _ab origine_, built north and south, and meanly erected, as is the library.

Jesus-College, one of the best built, but in a melancholy situation. Next to Christ-College, a very noble erection, especially the modern part, built without the quadrangle toward the gardens, of exact architecture.

The Schools are very despicable, and Public Library but mean, though somewhat improved by the wainscoting and books lately added by the Bishop Bancroft's library and MSS. They showed us little of antiquity, only King James's Works, being his own gift, and kept very reverently.

The market place is very ample, and remarkable for old Hobson, the pleasant carrier's beneficence of a fountain.[52] But the whole town is situate in a low, dirty, unpleasant place, the streets ill-paved, the air thick and infected by the fens, nor are its churches, (of which St. Mary's is the best) anything considerable in compare to Oxford.[53]

[Footnote 52: A conduit it should rather be called.]

[Footnote 53: The reader must remember that an Oxford man is
speaking.]

From Cambridge, we went to Audley-End, and spent some time in seeing that goodly place built by Howard, Earl of Suffolk, once Lord Treasurer. It is a mixed fabric, between antique and modern, but observable for its being completely finished, and without comparison is one of the stateliest palaces in the kingdom. It consists of two courts, the first very large, winged with cloisters. The front had a double entrance; the hall is fair, but somewhat too small for so august a pile. The kitchen is very large, as are the cellars, arched with stone, very neat and well disposed; these offices are joined by a wing out of the way very handsomely. The gallery is the most cheerful and I think one of the best in England; a fair dining-room, and the rest of the lodgings answerable, with a pretty chapel. The gardens are not in order, though well inclosed. It has also a bowling-alley, a noble well-walled, wooded and watered park, full of fine _collines_ and ponds: the river glides before the palace, to which is an avenue of lime trees, but all this is much diminished by its being placed in an obscure bottom. For the rest, is a perfectly uniform structure, and shows without like a diadem, by the decorations of the cupolas and other ornaments on the pavilions; instead of rails and balusters, there is a border of capital letters, as was lately also on Suffolk-House, near Charing-Cross, built by the same Lord Treasurer.

This house stands in the parish of Saffron Walden, famous for the abundance of saffron there cultivated, and esteemed the best of any foreign country.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

3d October, 1654. Having dined here, we passed through Bishop Stortford, a pretty watered town, and so by London, late home to Sayes Court, after a journey of 700 miles, but for the variety an agreeable refreshment after my turmoil and building.

10th October, 1654. To my brother at Wotton, who had been sick.

14th October, 1654. I went to visit my noble friend Mr. Hyldiard, where I met that learned gentleman, my Lord Aungier, and Dr. Stokes, one of his Majesty's chaplains.

15th October, 1654. To Betchworth Castle, to Sir Ambrose Browne, and other gentlemen of my sweet and native country.

24th October, 1654. The good old parson, Higham, preached at Wotton Church: a plain preacher, but innocent and honest man.

23d November, 1654. I went to London, to visit my cousin Fanshawe, and this day I saw one of the rarest collections of agates, onyxes, and intaglios, that I had ever seen either at home or abroad, collected by a conceited old hatmaker in Blackfriars, especially one agate vase, heretofore the great Earl of Leicester's.

28th November, 1654. Came Lady Langham, a kinswoman of mine, to visit us; also one Captain Cooke, esteemed the best singer, after the Italian manner, of any in England; he entertained us with his voice and theorbo.

30th November, 1654. My birthday, being the 34th year of my age: blessing God for his providence, I went to London to visit my brother.

3d December, 1654. Advent Sunday. There being no Office at the church but extemporary prayers after the Presbyterian way, for now all forms were prohibited, and most of the preachers were usurpers, I seldom went to church upon solemn feasts; but, either went to London, where some of the orthodox sequestered divines did privately use the Common Prayer, administer sacraments, etc., or else I procured one to officiate in my house; wherefore, on the 10th, Dr. Richard Owen, the sequestered minister of Eltham, preached to my family in my library, and gave us the Holy Communion.

25th December, 1654. Christmas day. No public offices in churches, but penalties on observers, so as I was constrained to celebrate it at home.

1st January, 1654-55. Having with my family performed the public offices of the day, and begged a blessing on the year I was now entering, I went to keep the rest of Christmas at my brother's, R. Evelyn, at Woodcot.

19th January, 1655. My wife was brought to bed of another son, being my third, but second living. Christened on the 26th by the name of John.

28th January, 1655. A stranger preached from Colossians iii. 2, inciting our affections to the obtaining heavenly things. I understood afterward that this man had been both chaplain and lieutenant to Admiral Penn, using both swords; whether ordained or not I cannot say; into such times were we fallen!

24th February, 1655. I was showed a table clock whose balance was only a crystal ball, sliding on parallel wires, without being at all fixed, but rolling from stage to stage till falling on a spring concealed from sight, it was thrown up to the utmost channel again, made with an imperceptible declivity, in this continual vicissitude of motion prettily entertaining the eye every half minute, and the next half giving progress to the hand that showed the hour, and giving notice by a small bell, so as in 120 half minutes, or periods of the bullet's falling on the ejaculatory spring, the clock part struck. This very extraordinary piece (richly adorned) had been presented by some German prince to our late king, and was now in the possession of the usurper; valued at £200.

2d March, 1655. Mr. Simpson, the King's jeweler, showed me a most rich agate cup, of an escalop-shape, and having a figure of Cleopatra at the scroll, her body, hair, mantle, and veil, of the several natural colors. It was supported by a half Mark Antony, the colors rarely natural, and the work truly antique, but I conceived they were of several pieces; had they been all of one stone, it were invaluable.

18th March, 1655. Went to London, on purpose to hear that excellent preacher, Dr. Jeremy Taylor, on Matt. xiv. 17, showing what were the conditions of obtaining eternal life; also, concerning abatements for unavoidable infirmities, how cast on the accounts of the cross. On the 31st, I made a visit to Dr. Jeremy Taylor, to confer with him about some spiritual matters, using him thenceforward as my ghostly father. I beseech God Almighty to make me ever mindful of, and thankful for, his heavenly assistances!

2d April, 1655. This was the first week, that, my uncle Pretyman being parted with his family from me, I began housekeeping, till now sojourning with him in my own house.

9th April, 1655. I went to see the great ship newly built by the usurper, Oliver, carrying ninety-six brass guns, and 1,000 tons burden. In the prow was Oliver on horseback, trampling six nations under foot, a Scot, Irishman, Dutchman, Frenchman, Spaniard, and English, as was easily made out by their several habits. A Fame held a laurel over his insulting head; the word, GOD WITH US.

15th April, 1655. I went to London with my family, to celebrate the feast of Easter. Dr. Wild preached at St. Gregory's; the ruling Powers conniving at the use of the Liturgy, etc., in the church alone. In the afternoon, Mr. Pierson (since Bishop of Chester) preached at Eastcheap, but was disturbed by an alarm of fire, which about this time was very frequent in the city.

29th May, 1655. I sold Preston to Colonel Morley.

17th June, 1655. There was a collection for the persecuted churches and Christians in Savoy, remnants of the ancient Albigenses.

3d July, 1655. I was shown a pretty Terella, described with all the circles, and showing all the magnetic deviations.

14th July, 1655. Came Mr. Pratt, my old acquaintance at Rome, also Sir Edward Hales, Sir Joseph Tufton, with Mr. Seymour.

1st August, 1655. I went to Dorking, to see Mr. Charles Howard's amphitheater, garden, or solitary recess, being fifteen acres environed by a hill. He showed us divers rare plants, caves, and an elaboratory.

[Sidenote: ALBURY]

10th August, 1655. To Albury, to visit Mr. Howard, who had begun to build, and alter the gardens much. He showed me many rare pictures, particularly the Moor on horseback; Erasmus, as big as the life, by Holbein; a Madonna, in miniature, by Oliver; but, above all, the skull, carved in wood, by Albert Durer, for which his father was offered £100; also Albert's head, by himself, with divers rare agates, intaglios, and other curiosities.

21st August, 1655. I went to Ryegate, to visit Mrs. Cary, at my Lady Peterborough's, in an ancient monastery well in repair, but the park much defaced; the house is nobly furnished. The chimney-piece in the great chamber, carved in wood, was of Henry VIII., and was taken from a house of his in Bletchingley. At Ryegate, was now the Archbishop of Armagh, the learned James Usher, whom I went to visit. He received me exceeding kindly. In discourse with him, he told me how great the loss of time was to study much the Eastern languages; that, excepting Hebrew, there was little fruit to be gathered of exceeding labor; that, besides some mathematical books, the Arabic itself had little considerable; that the best text was the Hebrew Bible; that the Septuagint was finished in seventy days, but full of errors, about which he was then writing; that St. Hierome's was to be valued next the Hebrew; also that the seventy translated the Pentateuch only, the rest was finished by others; that the Italians at present understood but little Greek, and Kircher was a mountebank; that Mr. Selden's best book was his "Titles of Honor"; that the church would be destroyed by sectaries, who would in all likelihood bring in Popery. In conclusion he recommended to me the study of philology, above all human studies; and so, with his blessing, I took my leave of this excellent person, and returned to Wotton.

27th August, 1655. I went to Boxhill, to see those rare natural bowers, cabinets, and shady walks in the box copses: hence we walked to Mickleham, and saw Sir F. Stidolph's seat, environed with elm trees and walnuts innumerable, and of which last he told us they received a considerable revenue. Here are such goodly walks and hills shaded with yew and box, as render the place extremely agreeable, it seeming from these evergreens to be summer all the winter.

28th August, 1655. Came that renowned mathematician, Mr. Oughtred, to see me, I sending my coach to bring him to Wotton, being now very aged. Among other discourse, he told me he thought water to be the philosopher's first matter, and that he was well persuaded of the possibility of their elixir; he believed the sun to be a material fire, the moon a continent, as appears by the late selenographers; he had strong apprehensions of some extraordinary event to happen the following year, from the calculation of coincidence with the diluvian period; and added that it might possibly be to convert the Jews by our Savior's visible appearance, or to judge the world; and therefore, his word was, "_Parate in occursum_"; he said original sin was not met with in the Greek Fathers, yet he believed the thing; this was from some discourse on Dr. Taylor's late book, which I had lent him.

16th September, 1655. Preached at St. Gregory's one Darnel, on Psalm iv. 4, concerning the benefit of self-examination; more learning in SO SHORT A TIME AS AN HOUR I have seldom heard.

17th September, 1655. Received £2,600 of Mr. Hurt, for the Manor of Warley Magna, in Essex, purchased by me some time since. The taxes were so intolerable that they ate up the rents, etc., surcharged as that county had been above all others during our unnatural war.

19th September, 1655. Came to see me Sir Edward Hales, Mr. Ashmole, Mr. Harlakenton, and Mr. Thornhill: and, the next day, I visited Sir Henry Newton at Charlton, where I met the Earl of Winchelsea and Lady Beauchamp, daughter to the Lord Capel.

On Sunday afternoon, I frequently staid at home to catechize and instruct my family, those exercises universally ceasing in the parish churches, so as people had no principles, and grew very ignorant of even the common points of Christianity; all devotion being now placed in hearing sermons and discourses of speculative and national things.

26th September, 1655. I went to see Colonel Blount's subterranean warren, and drank of the wine of his vineyard, which was good for little.

30th September, 1655. Sir Nicholas Crisp came to treat with me about his vast design of a mole to be made for ships in part of my grounds at Sayes Court.

3d November, 1655. I had accidentally discourse with a Persian and a Greek concerning the devastation of Poland by the late incursion of the Swedes.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

27th November, 1655. To London about Sir Nicholas Crisp's designs.

I went to see York House and gardens, belonging to the former great Buckingham, but now much ruined through neglect.

Thence, to visit honest and learned Mr. Hartlib, a public spirited and ingenious person, who had propagated many useful things and arts. He told me of the castles which they set for ornament on their stoves in Germany (he himself being a Lithuanian, as I remember), which are furnished with small ordnance of silver on the battlements, out of which they discharge excellent perfumes about the rooms, charging them with a little powder to set them on fire, and disperse the smoke: and in truth no more than need, for their stoves are sufficiently nasty. He told me of an ink that would give a dozen copies, moist sheets of paper being pressed on it; and remain perfect; and a receipt how to take off any print without the least injury to the original. This gentleman was master of innumerable curiosities, and very communicative. I returned home that evening by water; and was afflicted for it with a cold that had almost killed me.

This day, came forth the Protector's Edict, or Proclamation, prohibiting all ministers of the Church of England from preaching or teaching any schools, in which he imitated the apostate, Julian; with the decimation of all the royal party's revenues throughout England.

14th December, 1655. I visited Mr. Hobbes, the famous philosopher of Malmesbury, with whom I had been long acquainted in France.

Now were the Jews admitted.

25th December, 1655. There was no more notice taken of Christmas-day in churches.

I went to London, where Dr. Wild preached the funeral sermon of Preaching, this being the last day; after which Cromwell's proclamation was to take place, that none of the Church of England should dare either to preach, or administer Sacraments, teach schools, etc., on pain of imprisonment, or exile. So this was the most mournful day that in my life I had seen, or the Church of England herself, since the Reformation; to the great rejoicing of both Papist and Presbyter.[54] So pathetic was his discourse, that it drew many tears from the auditory. Myself, wife, and some of our family, received the Communion, God make me thankful, who hath hitherto provided for us the food of our souls as well as bodies! The Lord Jesus pity our distressed Church, and bring back the captivity of Zion!

[Footnote 54: The text was 2 Cor. xiii 9. That, however persecution
dealt with the Ministers of God's Word, they were still to pray for
the flock, and wish their perfection, as it was the flock to pray
for and assist their pastors, by the example of St. Paul.--EVELYN'S
NOTE.]

5th January, 1655-56. Came to visit me my Lord Lisle, son to the Earl of Leicester, with Sir Charles Ouseley, two of the Usurper's council; Mr. John Hervey, and John Denham, the poet.

18th January, 1656. Went to Eltham on foot, being a great frost, but a mist falling as I returned, gave me such a rheum as kept me within doors near a whole month after.

5th February, 1656. Was shown me a pretty perspective and well represented in a triangular box, the great Church of Haarlem in Holland, to be seen through a small hole at one of the corners, and contrived into a handsome cabinet. It was so rarely done, that all the artists and painters in town flocked to see and admire it.

10th February, 1656. I heard Dr. Wilkins preach before the Lord Mayor in St. Paul's, showing how obedience was preferable to sacrifice. He was a most obliging person, who had married the Protector's sister, and took great pains to preserve the Universities from the ignorant, sacrilegious commanders and soldiers, who would fain have demolished all places and persons that pretended to learning.

11th February, 1656. I ventured to go to Whitehall, where of many years I had not been, and found it very glorious and well furnished, as far as I could safely go, and was glad to find they had not much defaced that rare piece of Henry VII., etc., done on the walls of the King's privy chamber.

14th February, 1656. I dined with Mr. Berkeley, son of Lord Berkeley, of Berkeley Castle, where I renewed my acquaintance with my Lord Bruce, my fellow-traveler in Italy.

19th February, 1656. Went with Dr. Wilkins to see Barlow, the famous painter of fowls, beasts, and birds.

4th March, 1656. This night I was invited by Mr. Roger L'Estrange to hear the incomparable Lubicer on the violin. His variety on a few notes and plain ground, with that wonderful dexterity, was admirable. Though a young man, yet so perfect and skillful, that there was nothing, however cross and perplexed, brought to him by our artists, which he did not play off at sight with ravishing sweetness and improvements, to the astonishment of our best masters. In sum, he played on the single instrument a full concert, so as the rest flung down their instruments, acknowledging the victory. As to my own particular, I stand to this hour amazed that God should give so great perfection to so young a person. There were at that time as excellent in their profession as any were thought to be in Europe, Paul Wheeler, Mr. Mell, and others, till this prodigy appeared. I can no longer question the effects we read of in David's harp to charm evil spirits, or what is said some particular notes produced in the passions of Alexander, and that King of Denmark.

12th April, 1656. Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Robert Boyle (that excellent person and great virtuoso), Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Wilkins, dined with me at Sayes Court, when I presented Dr. Wilkins with my rare burning-glass. In the afternoon, we all went to Colonel Blount's, to see his newly-invented plows.

22d April, 1656. Came to see Mr. Henshaw and Sir William Paston's son, since Earl of Yarmouth. Afterward, I went to see his Majesty's house at Eltham, both palace and chapel in miserable ruins, the noble woods and park destroyed by Rich, the rebel.

6th May, 1656. I brought Monsieur le Franc, a young French Sorbonnist, a proselyte, to converse with Dr. Taylor; they fell to dispute on original sin, in Latin, upon a book newly published by the Doctor, who was much satisfied with the young man. Thence, to see Mr. Dugdale, our learned antiquary and herald. Returning, I was shown the three vast volumes of Father Kircher's, "_Obeliscus Pamphilius_" and "_Ægyptiacus_"; in the second volume I found the hieroglyphic I first communicated and sent to him at Rome by the hands of Mr. Henshaw, whom he mentions; I designed it from the stone itself brought me to Venice from Cairo by Captain Powell.

7th May, 1656. I visited Dr. Taylor, and prevailed on him to propose Monsieur le Franc to the Bishop that he might have Orders, I having sometime before brought him to a full consent to the Church of England, her doctrine and discipline, in which he had till of late made some difficulty; so he was this day ordained both deacon and priest by the Bishop of Meath. I paid the fees to his lordship, who was very poor and in great want; to that necessity were our clergy reduced! In the afternoon I met Alderman Robinson, to treat with Mr. Papillion about the marriage of my cousin, George Tuke, with Mrs. Fontaine.

8th May, 1656. I went to visit Dr. Wilkins, at Whitehall, when I first met with Sir P. Neal, famous for his optic glasses. Greatorix, the mathematical instrument maker, showed me his excellent invention to quench fire.

12th May, 1656. Was published my "Essay on Lucretius," with innumerable errata by the negligence of Mr. Triplet, who undertook the correction of the press in my absence. Little of the Epicurean philosophy was then known among us.

28th May, 1656. I dined with Nieuport, the Holland Ambassador, who received me with extraordinary courtesy. I found him a judicious, crafty, and wise man. He gave me excellent cautions as to the danger of the times, and the circumstances our nation was in. I remember the observation he made upon the ill success of our former Parliaments, and their private animosities, and little care of the public.

Came to visit me the old Marquis of Argyle (since executed), Lord Lothian, and some other Scotch noblemen, all strangers to me. Note, the Marquis took the turtle-doves in the aviary for owls.

The Earl of Southampton (since Treasurer) and Mr. Spencer, brother to the Earl of Sunderland, came to see my garden.

7th July, 1656. I began my journey to see some parts of the northeast of England; but the weather was so excessively hot and dusty, I shortened my progress.

8th July, 1656. To Colchester, a fair town, but now wretchedly demolished by the late siege, especially the suburbs, which were all burned, but were then repairing. The town is built on a rising ground, having fair meadows on one side, and a river with a strong ancient castle, said to have been built by King Coilus, father of Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, of whom I find no memory save at the pinnacle of one of their wool-staple houses, where is a statue of Coilus, in wood, wretchedly carved. The walls are exceedingly strong, deeply trenched, and filled with earth. It has six gates, and some watchtowers, and some handsome churches. But what was shown us as a kind of miracle, at the outside of the Castle, the wall where Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, those valiant and noble persons who so bravely behaved themselves in the last siege, were barbarously shot, murdered by Ireton in cold blood, after surrendering on articles; having been disappointed of relief from the Scotch army, which had been defeated with the King at Worcester. The place was bare of grass for a large space, all the rest of it abounding with herbage. For the rest, this is a ragged and factious town, now swarming with sectaries. Their trading is in cloth with the Dutch, and baize and says with Spain; it is the only place in England where these stuffs are made unsophisticated. It is also famous for oysters and eringo root, growing hereabout, and candied for sale.

Went to Dedham, a pretty country town, having a very fair church, finely situated, the valley well watered. Here, I met with Dr. Stokes, a young gentleman, but an excellent mathematician. This is a clothing town, as most are in Essex, but lies in the unwholesome hundreds.

Hence to Ipswich, doubtless one of the sweetest, most pleasant, well-built towns in England. It has twelve fair churches, many noble houses, especially the Lord Devereux's; a brave quay, and commodious harbor, being about seven miles from the main; an ample market place. Here was born the great Cardinal Wolsey, who began a palace here, which was not finished.

I had the curiosity to visit some Quakers here in prison; a new fanatic sect, of dangerous principles, who show no respect to any man, magistrate, or other, and seem a melancholy, proud sort of people, and exceedingly ignorant. One of these was said to have fasted twenty days; but another, endeavoring to do the like, perished on the 10th, when he would have eaten, but could not.

10th July, 1656. I returned homeward, passing again through Colchester; and, by the way, near the ancient town of Chelmsford, saw New Hall, built in a park by Henry VII. and VIII., and given by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Sussex, who sold it to the late great Duke of Buckingham, and since seized on by Oliver Cromwell (pretended Protector). It is a fair old house, built with brick, low, being only of two stories, as the manner then was; the gate-house better; the court, large and pretty; the staircase, of extraordinary wideness, with a piece representing Sir Francis Drake's action in the year 1580, an excellent sea-piece; the galleries are trifling; the hall is noble; the garden a fair plot, and the whole seat well accommodated with water; but, above all, I admired the fair avenue planted with stately lime trees, in four rows, for near a mile in length. It has three descents, which is the only fault, and may be reformed. There is another fair walk of the same at the mall and wilderness, with a tennis-court, and pleasant terrace toward the park, which was well stored with deer and ponds.

11th July, 1656. Came home by Greenwich ferry, where I saw Sir J. Winter's project of charring sea-coal, to burn out the sulphur, and render it sweet. He did it by burning the coals in such earthen pots as the glass men melt their metal, so firing them without consuming them, using a bar of iron in each crucible, or pot, which bar has a hook at one end, that so the coals being melted in a furnace with other crude sea-coals under them, may be drawn out of the pots sticking to the iron, whence they are beaten off in great half-exhausted cinders, which being rekindled, make a clear, pleasant chamber-fire, deprived of their sulphur and arsenic malignity. What success it may have, time will discover.[55]

[Footnote 55: Many years ago, Lord Dundonald revived the project,
with the proposed improvement of extracting and saving the tar.
Unfortunately he did not profit by it. The coal thus charred is sold
as COKE, a very useful fuel for many purposes.]

[Sidenote: LONDON]

3d August, 1656. I went to London, to receive the Blessed Sacrament, the first time the Church of England was reduced to a chamber and conventicle; so sharp was the persecution. The parish churches were filled with sectaries of all sorts, blasphemous and ignorant mechanics usurping the pulpits everywhere. Dr. Wild preached in a private house in Fleet Street, where we had a great meeting of zealous Christians, who were generally much more devout and religious than in our greatest prosperity. In the afternoon, I went to the French Church in the Savoy, where I heard Monsieur d'Espagne catechize, and so returned to my house.

20th August, 1656. Was a confused election of Parliament called by the Usurper.

7th September, 1656. I went to take leave of my excellent neighbor and friend, Sir. H. Newton and lady, now going to dwell at Warwick; and Mr. Needham, my dear and learned friend, came to visit me.

14th September, 1656. Now was old Sir Henry Vane[56] sent to Carisbrook Castle, in Wight, for a foolish book he published; the pretended Protector fortifying himself exceedingly, and sending many to prison.

[Footnote 56: Evelyn means the younger Vane. This was "Vane, young
in years, but in sage counsel old," the nobleness and independence
of whose character, as well as his claims to the affection of
posterity, are not ill expressed in the two facts recorded by
Evelyn--his imprisonment by Cromwell, and his judicial murder by
Charles II. The foolish book to which Evelyn refers was an able and
fearless attack on Cromwell's government.]

2d October, 1656. Came to visit me my cousin, Stephens, and Mr. Pierce (since head of Magdalen College, Oxford), a learned minister of Brington, in Northamptonshire, and Captain Cooke, both excellent musicians.

2d November, 1656. There was now nothing practical preached, or that pressed reformation of life, but high and speculative points and strains that few understood, which left people very ignorant, and of no steady principles, the source of all our sects and divisions, for there was much envy and uncharity in the world; God of his mercy amend it! Now, indeed, that I went at all to church, while these usurpers possessed the pulpits, was that I might not be suspected for a Papist, and that, though the minister was Presbyterianly affected, he yet was as I understood duly ordained, and preached sound doctrine after their way, and besides was an humble, harmless, and peaceable man.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

25th December, 1656. I went to London, to receive the Blessed Communion, this holy festival at Dr. Wild's lodgings, where I rejoiced to find so full an assembly of devout and sober Christians.

26th December, 1656. I invited some of my neighbors and tenants, according to custom, and to preserve hospitality and charity.

28th December, 1656. A stranger preached on Luke xviii. 7, 8, on which he made a confused discourse, with a great deal of Greek and ostentation of learning, to but little purpose.

30th December, 1656. Dined with me Sir William Paston's son, Mr. Henshaw, and Mr. Clayton.

31st December, 1656. I begged God's blessing and mercies for his goodness to me the past year, and set my domestic affairs in order.

1st January, 1656-57. Having prayed with my family, and celebrated the anniversary, I spent some time in imploring God's blessing the year I was entered into.

7th January, 1657. Came Mr. Matthew Wren (since secretary to the Duke), slain in the Dutch war, eldest son to the Bishop of Ely, now a prisoner in the Tower; a most worthy and honored gentleman.

10th January, 1657. Came Dr. Joyliffe, that famous physician and anatomist, first detector of the lymphatic veins; also the old Marquis of Argyle, and another Scotch Earl.

5th February, 1657. Dined at the Holland Ambassador's; he told me the East India Company of Holland had constantly a stock of £400,000 in India, and forty-eight men-of-war there: he spoke of their exact and just keeping their books and correspondence, so as no adventurer's stock could possibly be lost, or defeated; that it was a vulgar error that the Hollanders furnished their enemies with powder and ammunition for their money, though engaged in a cruel war, but that they used to merchandise indifferently, and were permitted to sell to the friends of their enemies. He laughed at our Committee of Trade, as composed of men wholly ignorant of it, and how they were the ruin of commerce, by gratifying some for private ends.

10th February, 1657. I went to visit the governor of Havannah, a brave, sober, valiant Spanish gentleman, taken by Captain Young, of Deptford, when, after twenty years being in the Indies, and amassing great wealth, his lady and whole family, except two sons, were burned, destroyed, and taken within sight of Spain, his eldest son, daughter, and wife, perishing with immense treasure. One son, of about seventeen years old, with his brother of one year old, were the only ones saved. The young gentleman, about seventeen, was a well-complexioned youth, not olive-colored; he spoke Latin handsomely, was extremely well-bred, and born in the Caraccas, 1,000 miles south of the equinoctial, near the mountains of Potosi; he had never been in Europe before. The Governor was an ancient gentleman of great courage, of the order of St. Jago, sorely wounded in his arm, and his ribs broken; he lost for his own share £100,000 sterling, which he seemed to bear with exceeding indifference, and nothing dejected. After some discourse, I went with them to Arundel House, where they dined. They were now going back into Spain, having obtained their liberty from Cromwell. An example of human vicissitude!

[Sidenote: LONDON]

14th February, 1657. To London, where I found Mrs. Cary; next day came Mr. Mordaunt (since Viscount Mordaunt), younger son to the Countess of Peterborough, to see his mistress, bringing with him two of my Lord of Dover's daughters: so, after dinner, they all departed.

5th March, 1657. Dr. Rand, a learned physician, dedicated to me his version of Gassendi's "_Vita Peiriskii_."

25th March, 1657. Dr. Taylor showed me his MS. of "Cases of Conscience," or "_Ductor Dubitantium_," now fitted for the press.

The Protector Oliver, now affecting kingship, is petitioned to take the title on him by all his newly-made sycophant lords, etc.; but dares not, for fear of the fanatics, not thoroughly purged out of his rebel army.

21st April, 1657. Came Sir Thomas Hanmer, of Hanmer, in Wales, to see me. I then waited on my Lord Hatton, with whom I dined: at my return, I stepped into Bedlam, where I saw several poor, miserable creatures in chains; one of them was mad with making verses. I also visited the Charter House, formerly belonging to the Carthusians, now an old, neat, fresh, solitary college for decayed gentlemen. It has a grove, bowling green, garden, chapel, and a hall where they eat in common. I likewise saw Christ Church and Hospital, a very good Gothic building; the hall, school, and lodgings in great order for bringing up many hundreds of poor children of both sexes; it is an exemplary charity. There is a large picture at one end of the hall, representing the governors, founders, and the institution.

25th April, 1657. I had a dangerous fall out of the coach in Covent Garden, going to my brother's, but without harm; the Lord be praised!

1st May, 1657. Divers soldiers were quartered at my house; but I thank God went away the next day toward Flanders.

5th May, 1657. I went with my cousin, George Tuke, to see Baynard, in Surrey, a house of my brother Richard's, which he would have hired. This is a very fair, noble residence, built in a park, and having one of the goodliest avenues of oaks up to it that ever I saw: there is a pond of 60 acres near it; the windows of the chief rooms are of very fine painted glass. The situation is excessively dirty and melancholy.

15th May, 1657. Lawrence, President of Oliver's Council, and some other of his Court-Lords, came in the afternoon to see my garden and plantations.

7th June, 1657. My fourth son was born, christened George (after my grandfather); Dr. Jeremy Taylor officiated in the drawing-room.

18th June, 1657. At Greenwich I saw a sort of cat[57] brought from the East Indies, shaped and snouted much like the Egyptian racoon, in the body like a monkey, and so footed; the ears and tail like a cat, only the tail much longer, and the skin variously ringed with black and white; with the tail it wound up its body like a serpent, and so got up into trees, and with it would wrap its whole body round. Its hair was woolly like a lamb; it was exceedingly nimble, gentle, and purred as does the cat.

[Footnote 57: This was probably the animal called a Mocock
(_maucaco_), since well known.]

16th July, 1657. On Dr. Jeremy Taylor's recommendation, I went to Eltham, to help one Moody, a young man, to that living, by my interest with the patron.

6th August, 1657. I went to see Colonel Blount, who showed me the application of the waywiser[58] to a coach, exactly measuring the miles, and showing them by an index as we went on. It had three circles, one pointing to the number of rods, another to the miles, by 10 to 1,000, with all the subdivisions of quarters; very pretty and useful.

[Footnote 58: Beckmann, in his "History of Inventions," has written
an account of the different instruments applied to carriages to
measure the distance they pass over. He places the first
introduction of the _adometer_ in England at about the end of the
seventeenth century, instead of about the middle, and states it to
have been the invention of an ingenious artist named Butterfield.]

10th August, 1657. Our vicar, from John xviii. 36, declaimed against the folly of a sort of enthusiasts and desperate zealots, called the FIFTH-MONARCHY-MEN, pretending to set up the kingdom of Christ with the sword. To this pass was this age arrived when we had no King in Israel.

21st August, 1657. Fell a most prodigious rain in London, and the year was very sickly in the country.

1st September, 1657. I visited Sir Edmund Bowyer, at his melancholy seat at Camberwell. He has a very pretty grove of oaks, and hedges of yew in his garden, and a handsome row of tall elms before his court.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

15th September, 1657. Going to London with some company, we stepped in to see a famous rope-dancer, called THE TURK. I saw even to astonishment the agility with which he performed. He walked barefooted, taking hold by his toes only of a rope almost perpendicular, and without so much as touching it with his hands; he danced blind-fold on the high rope, and with a boy of twelve years old tied to one of his feet about twenty feet beneath him, dangling as he danced, yet he moved as nimbly as if it had been but a feather. Lastly, he stood on his head, on the top of a very high mast, danced on a small rope that was very slack, and finally flew down the perpendicular, on his breast, his head foremost, his legs and arms extended, with divers other activities.--I saw the hairy woman, twenty years old, whom I had before seen when a child. She was born at Augsburg, in Germany. Her very eyebrows were combed upward, and all her _forehead_ as thick and even as grows on any woman's head, neatly dressed; a very long lock of hair out of each ear; she had also a most prolix beard, and _moustachios_, with long locks growing on the middle of her nose, like an Iceland dog exactly, the color of a bright brown, fine as well-dressed flax. She was now married, and told me she had one child that was not hairy, nor were any of her parents, or relations. She was very well shaped, and played well on the harpsichord.

17th September, 1657. To see Sir Robert Needham, at Lambeth, a relation of mine; and thence to John Tradescant's museum, in which the chiefest rarities were, in my opinion, the ancient Roman, Indian, and other nations' armor, shields, and weapons; some habits of curiously-colored and wrought feathers, one from the phoenix wing, as tradition goes. Other innumerable things there were printed in his catalogue by Mr. Ashmole, to whom after the death of the widow they are bequeathed, and by him designed as a gift to Oxford.

19th October, 1657. I went to see divers gardens about London: returning, I saw at Dr. Joyliffe's two Virginian rattlesnakes alive, exceeding a yard in length, small heads, slender tails, but in the middle nearly the size of my leg; when vexed, swiftly vibrating and shaking their tails, as loud as a child's rattle; this, by the collision of certain gristly skins curiously jointed, yet loose, and transparent as parchment, by which they give warning; a providential caution for other creatures to avoid them. The Doctor tried their biting on rats and mice, which they immediately killed: but their vigor must needs be much exhausted here, in another climate, and kept only in a barrel of bran.

22d October, 1657. To town, to visit the Holland Ambassador, with whom I had now contracted much friendly correspondence, useful to the intelligence I constantly gave his Majesty abroad.

26th November, 1657. I went to London, to a court of the East India Company on its new union, in Merchant-Taylors' Hall, where was much disorder by reason of the Anabaptists, who would have the adventurers obliged only by an engagement, without swearing, that they still might pursue their private trade; but it was carried against them. Wednesday was fixed on for a general court for election of officers, after a sermon and prayers for good success. The Stock resolved on was £800,000.

27th November, 1657. I took the oath at the East India House, subscribing £500.

2d December, 1657. Dr. Raynolds (since Bishop of Norwich) preached before the company at St. Andrew Under-shaft, on Nehemiah xiii. 31, showing, by the example of Nehemiah, all the perfections of a trusty person in public affairs, with many good precepts apposite to the occasion, ending with a prayer for God's blessing on the company and the undertaking.

3d December, 1657. Mr. Gunning preached on John iii. 3, against the Anabaptists, showing the effect and necessity of the sacrament of baptism. This sect was now wonderfully spread.

[Sidenote: LONDON]