Chapter XVII: Part 17

22d April, 1661. Was the splendid cavalcade of his Majesty from the Tower of London to Whitehall, when I saw him in the Banqueting House create six Earls, and as many Barons, viz:

Edward Lord Hyde, Lord Chancellor, Earl of Clarendon; supported by the Earls of Northumberland and Sussex; the Earl of Bedford carried the cap and coronet, the Earl of Warwick, the sword, the Earl of Newport, the mantle.

Next, was Capel, created Earl of Essex.
Brudenell, Cardigan;
Valentia, Anglesea;
Greenvill, Bath; and
Howard, Earl of Carlisle.

The Barons were: Denzille Holles; Cornwallis; Booth; Townsend; Cooper; Crew; who were led up by several Peers, with Garter and officers of arms before them; when, after obedience on their several approaches to the throne, their patents were presented by Garter King-at-Arms, which being received by the Lord Chamberlain, and delivered to his Majesty, and by him to the Secretary of State, were read, and then again delivered to his Majesty, and by him to the several Lords created; they were then robed, their coronets and collars put on by his Majesty, and they were placed in rank on both sides of the state and throne; but the Barons put off their caps and circles, and held them in their hands, the Earls keeping on their coronets, as cousins to the King.

I spent the rest of the evening in seeing the several archtriumphals built in the streets at several eminent places through which his Majesty was next day to pass, some of which, though temporary, and to stand but one year, were of good invention and architecture, with inscriptions.

23d April, 1661. Was the coronation of his Majesty Charles II. in the Abbey-Church of Westminster; at all which ceremony I was present. The King and his Nobility went to the Tower, I accompanying my Lord Viscount Mordaunt part of the way; this was on Sunday, the 22d; but indeed his Majesty went not till early this morning, and proceeded from thence to Westminster in this order:

First went the Duke of York's Horse Guards. Messengers of the Chamber. 136 Esquires to the Knights of the Bath, each of whom had two, most richly habited. The Knight Harbinger. Sergeant Porter. Sewers of the Chamber. Quarter Waiters. Six Clerks of Chancery. Clerk of the Signet. Clerk of the Privy Seal. Clerks of the Council, of the Parliament, and of the Crown. Chaplains in ordinary having dignities, 10. King's Advocates and Remembrancer. Council at Law. Masters of the Chancery. Puisne Sergeants. King's Attorney and Solicitor. King's eldest Sergeant. Secretaries of the French and Latin tongue. Gentlemen Ushers. Daily Waiters, Sewers, Carvers, and Cupbearers in ordinary. Esquires of the body, 4. Masters of standing offices, being no Counsellors, viz, of the Tents, Revels, Ceremonies, Armory, Wardrobe, Ordnance, Requests. Chamberlain of the Exchequer. Barons of the Exchequer. Judges. Lord Chief-Baron. Lord Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas. Master of the Rolls. Lord Chief-Justice of England. Trumpets. Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber. Knights of the Bath, 68, in crimson robes, exceeding rich, and the noblest show of the whole cavalcade, his Majesty excepted. Knight Marshal. Treasurer of the Chamber. Master of the Jewels. Lords of the Privy Council. Comptroller of the Household. Treasurer of the Household. Trumpets. Sergeant Trumpet. Two Pursuivants at Arms. Barons. Two Pursuivants at Arms. Viscounts. Two Heralds. Earls. Lord Chamberlain of the Household. Two Heralds. Marquises. Dukes. Heralds Clarencieux and Norroy. Lord Chancellor. Lord High Steward of England. Two persons representing the Dukes of Normandy and Acquitaine, viz, Sir Richard Fanshawe and Sir Herbert Price, in fantastic habits of the time. Gentlemen Ushers. Garter. Lord Mayor of London. The Duke of York alone (the rest by twos). Lord High Constable of England. Lord Great Chamberlain of England. The sword borne by the Earl Marshal of England. The KING, in royal robes and equipage. Afterward, followed equerries, footmen, gentlemen pensioners. Master of the Horse, leading a horse richly caparisoned. Vice-Chamberlain. Captain of the Pensioners. Captain of the Guard. The Guard. The Horse Guard. The troop of Volunteers, with many other officers and gentlemen.

This magnificent train on horseback, as rich as embroidery, velvet, cloth of gold and silver, and jewels, could make them and their prancing horses, proceeded through the streets strewed with flowers, houses hung with rich tapestry, windows and balconies full of ladies; the London militia lining the ways, and the several companies, with their banners and loud music, ranked in their orders; the fountains running wine, bells ringing, with speeches made at the several triumphal arches; at that of the Temple Bar (near which I stood) the Lord Mayor was received by the Bailiff of Westminster, who, in a scarlet robe, made a speech. Thence, with joyful acclamations, his Majesty passed to Whitehall. Bonfires at night.

The next day, being St. George's, he went by water to Westminster Abbey. When his Majesty was entered, the Dean and Prebendaries brought all the regalia, and delivered them to several noblemen to bear before the King, who met them at the west door of the church, singing an anthem, to the choir. Then, came the Peers, in their robes, and coronets in their hands, till his Majesty was placed on a throne elevated before the altar. Afterward, the Bishop of London (the Archbishop of Canterbury being sick) went to every side of the throne to present the King to the people, asking if they would have him for their King, and do him homage; at this, they shouted four times "God save King Charles II!" Then, an anthem was sung. His Majesty, attended by three Bishops, went up to the altar, and he offered a pall and a pound of gold. Afterward, he sat down in another chair during the sermon, which was preached by Dr. Morley, Bishop of Worcester.

After sermon, the King took his oath before the altar to maintain the religion, Magna Charta, and laws of the land. The hymn _Véni S. Sp._ followed, and then the Litany by two Bishops. Then the Archbishop of Canterbury, present, but much indisposed and weak, said "Lift up your hearts"; at which, the King rose up, and put off his robes and upper garments, and was in a waistcoat so opened in divers places, that the Archbishop might commodiously anoint him, first in the palms of his hands, when an anthem was sung, and a prayer read; then, his breast and between the shoulders, bending of both arms; and, lastly, on the crown of the head, with apposite hymns and prayers at each anointing; this done, the Dean closed and buttoned up the waistcoat. After which, was a coif put on, and the cobbium, sindon or dalmatic, and over this a super-tunic of cloth of gold, with buskins and sandals of the same, spurs, and the sword; a prayer being first said over it by the Archbishop on the altar, before it was girt on by the Lord Chamberlain. Then, the armill, mantle, etc. Then, the Archbishop placed the crown imperial on the altar, prayed over it, and set it on his Majesty's head, at which all the Peers put on their coronets. Anthems, and rare music, with lutes, viols, trumpets, organs, and voices, were then heard, and the Archbishop put a ring on his Majesty's finger. The King next offered his sword on the altar, which being redeemed, was drawn, and borne before him. Then, the Archbishop delivered him the sceptre, with the dove in one hand, and, in the other, the sceptre with the globe. The King kneeling, the Archbishop pronounced the blessing. His Majesty then ascending again his royal throne, while _Te Deum_ was singing, all the Peers did their homage, by every one touching his crown. The Archbishop, and the rest of the Bishops, first kissing the King; who received the Holy Sacrament, and so disrobed, yet with the crown imperial on his head, and accompanied with all the nobility in the former order, he went on foot upon blue cloth, which was spread and reached from the west door of the Abbey to Westminster stairs, when he took water in a triumphal barge to Whitehall where was extraordinary feasting.

24th April, 1661. I presented his Majesty with his "Panegyric"[66] in the Privy Chamber, which he was pleased to accept most graciously; I gave copies to the Lord Chancellor, and most of the noblemen who came to me for it. I dined at the Marquis of Ormond's where was a magnificent feast, and many great persons.

[Footnote 66: A poem which Evelyn had composed on his Majesty's
Coronation; the 23d of April, 1661, being St. George's day.]

1st May, 1661. I went to Hyde Park to take the air, where was his Majesty and an innumerable appearance of gallants and rich coaches, being now a time of universal festivity and joy.

2d May, 1661. I had audience of my Lord Chancellor about my title to Sayes Court.

3d May, 1661. I went to see the wonderful engine for weaving silk stockings, said to have been the invention of an Oxford scholar forty years since; and I returned by Fromantil's, the famous clockmaker, to see some pendules, Monsieur Zulichem being with us.

This evening, I was with my Lord Brouncker, Sir Robert Murray, Sir Patrick Neill, Monsieur Zulichem, and Bull (all of them of our Society, and excellent mathematicians), to show his Majesty, who was present, Saturn's annulus, as some thought, but as Zulichem affirmed with his _balteus_ (as that learned gentleman had published), very near eclipsed by the moon, near the Mons Porphyritis; also, Jupiter and satellites, through his Majesty's great telescope, drawing thirty-five feet; on which were divers discourses.

8th May, 1661. His Majesty rode in state, with his imperial crown on, and all the peers in their robes, in great pomp to the Parliament now newly chosen (the old one being dissolved); and, that evening, declared in council his intention to marry the Infanta of Portugal.

9th May, 1661. At Sir Robert Murray's, where I met Dr. Wallis, Professor of Geometry in Oxford, where was discourse of several mathematical subjects.

11th May, 1661. My wife presented to his Majesty the Madonna she had copied in miniature from P. Oliver's painting, after Raphael, which she wrought with extraordinary pains and judgment. The King was infinitely pleased with it, and caused it to be placed in his cabinet among his best paintings.

13th May, 1661. I heard and saw such exercises at the election of scholars at Westminster School to be sent to the University in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, in themes and extemporary verses, as wonderfully astonished me in such youths, with such readiness and wit, some of them not above twelve or thirteen years of age. Pity it is, that what they attain here so ripely, they either do not retain, or do not improve more considerably when they come to be men, though many of them do; and no less is to be blamed their odd pronouncing of Latin, so that out of England none were able to understand, or endure it. The examinants, or posers, were, Dr. Duport, Greek Professor at Cambridge; Dr. Fell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford; Dr. Pierson; Dr. Allestree, Dean of Westminster, and any that would.

14th May, 1661. His Majesty was pleased to discourse with me concerning several particulars relating to our Society, and the planet Saturn, etc., as he sat at supper in the withdrawing-room to his bedchamber.

16th May, 1661. I dined with Mr. Garmus, the Resident from Hamburg, who continued his feast near nine whole hours, according to the custom of his country, though there was no great excess of drinking, no man being obliged to take more than he liked.

22d May, 1661. The Scotch Covenant was burnt by the common hangman in divers places in London. Oh, prodigious change!

29th May, 1661. This was the first anniversary appointed by act of Parliament to be observed as a day of general thanksgiving for the miraculous restoration of his Majesty: our vicar preaching on Psalm cxviii. 24, requiring us to be thankful and rejoice, as indeed we had cause.

4th June, 1661. Came Sir Charles Harbord, his Majesty's surveyor, to take an account of what grounds I challenged at Sayes Court.

27th June, 1661. I saw the Portugal ambassador at dinner with his Majesty in state, where was excellent music.

2d July, 1661. I went to see the New Spring-Garden, at Lambeth, a prettily contrived plantation.

[Sidenote: DEPTFORD]

19th July, 1661. We tried our Diving-Bell, or engine, in the water dock at Deptford, in which our curator continued half an hour under water; it was made of cast lead, let down with a strong cable.

3d August, 1661. Came my Lord Hatton, Comptroller of his Majesty's household to visit me.

9th August, 1661. I tried several experiments on the sensitive plant and _humilis_, which contracted with the least touch of the sun through a burning glass, though it rises and opens only when it shines on it.

I first saw the famous Queen Pine brought from Barbadoes, and presented to his Majesty; but the first that were ever seen in England were those sent to Cromwell four years since.

I dined at Mr. Palmer's in Gray's Inn, whose curiosity excelled in clocks and pendules, especially one that had innumerable motions, and played nine or ten tunes on the bells very finely, some of them set in parts: which was very harmonious. It was wound up but once in a quarter. He had also good telescopes and mathematical instruments, choice pictures, and other curiosities. Thence, we went to that famous mountebank, Jo. Punteus.

Sir Kenelm Digby presented every one of us his "Discourse of the Vegetation of Plants"; and Mr. Henshaw, his "History of Saltpeter and Gunpowder." I assisted him to procure his place of French Secretary to the King, which he purchased of Sir Henry De Vic.

I went to that famous physician, Sir Fr. Prujean, who showed me his laboratory, his workhouse for turning, and other mechanics; also many excellent pictures, especially the Magdalen of Caracci; and some incomparable _paysages_ done in distemper; he played to me likewise on the _polythore_, an instrument having something of the harp, lute, and theorbo; by none known in England, nor described by any author, nor used, but by this skillful and learned Doctor.

15th August, 1661. I went to Tunbridge-Wells, my wife being there for the benefit of her health. Walking about the solitudes, I greatly admired the extravagant turnings, insinuations, and growth of certain birch trees among the rocks.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

13th September, 1661. I presented my "_Fumifugium_"[67] dedicated to his Majesty, who was pleased that I should publish it by his special commands, being much gratified with it.

[Footnote 67: This pamphlet having become scarce, was in 1772
reprinted in 4to, and is now incorporated in Evelyn's "Miscellaneous
Writings."]

18th September, 1661. This day was read our petition to his Majesty for his royal grant, authorizing our Society to meet as a corporation, with several privileges.

An exceedingly sickly, wet autumn.

1st October, 1661. I sailed this morning with his Majesty in one of his yachts (or pleasure boats), vessels not known among us till the Dutch East India Company presented that curious piece to the King; being very excellent sailing vessels. It was on a wager between his other new pleasure boat, built frigate-like, and one of the Duke of York's; the wager £100; the race from Greenwich to Gravesend and back. The King lost it going, the wind being contrary, but saved stakes in returning. There were divers noble persons and lords on board, his Majesty sometimes steering himself. His barge and kitchen boat attended. I brake fast this morning with the King at return in his smaller vessel, he being pleased to take me and only four more, who were noblemen, with him; but dined in his yacht, where we all ate together with his Majesty. In this passage he was pleased to discourse to me about my book inveighing against the nuisance of the smoke of London, and proposing expedients how, by removing those particulars I mentioned, it might be reformed; commanding me to prepare a Bill against the next session of Parliament, being, as he said, resolved to have something done in it. Then he discoursed to me of the improvement of gardens and buildings, now very rare in England comparatively to other countries. He then commanded me to draw up the matter of fact happening at the bloody encounter which then had newly happened between the French and Spanish Ambassadors near the Tower, contending for precedency, at the reception of the Swedish Ambassador; giving me orders to consult Sir William Compton, Master of the Ordnance, to inform me of what he knew of it, and with his favorite, Sir Charles Berkeley, captain of the Duke's life guard, then present with his troop and three foot companies; with some other reflections and instructions, to be prepared with a declaration to take off the reports which went about of his Majesty's partiality in the affairs, and of his officers' and spectators' rudeness while the conflict lasted. So I came home that night, and went next morning to London, where from the officers of the Tower, Sir William Compton, Sir Charles Berkeley, and others who were attending at this meeting of the Ambassadors three days before, having collected what I could, I drew up a Narrative in vindication of his Majesty, and the carriage of his officers and standers-by.

On Thursday his Majesty sent one of the pages of the back stairs for me to wait on him with my papers, in his cabinet where was present only Sir Henry Bennett (Privy-Purse), when beginning to read to his Majesty what I had drawn up, by the time I had read half a page, came in Mr. Secretary Morice with a large paper, desiring to speak with his Majesty, who told him he was now very busy, and therefore ordered him to come again some other time; the Secretary replied that what he had in his hand was of extraordinary importance. So the King rose up, and, commanding me to stay, went aside to a corner of the room with the Secretary; after a while, the Secretary being dispatched, his Majesty returning to me at the table, a letter was brought him from Madame out of France;[68] this he read and then bid me proceed from where I left off. This I did till I had ended all the narrative, to his Majesty's great satisfaction; and, after I had inserted one or two more clauses, in which his Majesty instructed me, commanded that it should that night be sent to the posthouse, directed to the Lord Ambassador at Paris (the Earl of St. Alban's), and then at leisure to prepare him a copy, which he would publish. This I did, and immediately sent my papers to the Secretary of State, with his Majesty's express command of dispatching them that night for France. Before I went out of the King's closet, he called me back to show me some ivory statues, and other curiosities that I had not seen before.

[Footnote 68: Henrietta Maria.]

3d October, 1661. Next evening, being in the withdrawing-room adjoining the bedchamber, his Majesty espying me came to me from a great crowd of noblemen standing near the fire, and asked me if I had done; and told me he feared it might be a little too sharp, on second thoughts, for he had that morning spoken with the French Ambassador, who it seems had palliated the matter, and was very tame; and therefore directed me where I should soften a period or two, before it was published (as afterward it was). This night also he spoke to me to give him a sight of what was sent, and to bring it to him in his bedchamber; which I did, and received it again from him at dinner, next day. By Saturday, having finished it with all his Majesty's notes, the King being gone abroad, I sent the papers to Sir Henry Bennett (Privy-Purse and a great favorite), and slipped home, being myself much indisposed and harassed with going about, and sitting up to write.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

19th October, 1661. I went to London to visit my Lord of Bristol, having been with Sir John Denham (his Majesty's surveyor) to consult with him about the placing of his palace at Greenwich, which I would have had built between the river and the Queen's house, so as a large square cut should have let in the Thames like a bay; but Sir John was for setting it on piles at the very brink of the water, which I did not assent to; and so came away, knowing Sir John to be a better poet than architect, though he had Mr. Webb (Inigo Jones's man) to assist him.

29th October, 1661. I saw the Lord Mayor pass in his water triumph to Westminster, being the first solemnity of this nature after twenty years.

2d November, 1661. Came Sir Henry Bennett, since Lord Arlington, to visit me, and to acquaint me that his Majesty would do me the honor to come and see my garden; but, it being then late, it was deferred.

3d November, 1661. One Mr. Breton preached his probation sermon at our parish church, and indeed made a most excellent discourse on John i. 29, of God's free grace to penitents, so that I could not but recommend him to the patron.

10th November, 1661. In the afternoon, preached at the Abbey Dr. Basire, that great traveler, or rather French Apostle, who had been planting the Church of England in divers parts of the Levant and Asia. He showed that the Church of England was, for purity of doctrine, substance, decency, and beauty, the most perfect under Heaven; that England was the very land of Goshen.

11th November, 1661. I was so idle as to go to see a play called "Love and Honor." Dined at Arundel House; and that evening discoursed with his Majesty about shipping, in which he was exceedingly skillful.

15th November, 1661. I dined with the Duke of Ormond, who told me there were no moles in Ireland, nor any rats till of late, and that in but one county; but it was a mistake that spiders would not live there, only they were not poisonous. Also, that they frequently took salmon with dogs.

16th November, 1661. I presented my translation of "Naudæus concerning Libraries" to my Lord Chancellor; but it was miserably false printed.

17th November, 1661. Dr. Creighton, a Scot, author of the "Florentine Council," and a most eloquent man and admirable Grecian, preached on Cant. vi. 13, celebrating the return and restoration of the Church and King.

20th November, 1661. At the Royal Society, Sir William Petty proposed divers things for the improvement of shipping; a versatile keel that should be on hinges and concerning sheathing ships with thin lead.

24th November, 1661. This night his Majesty fell into discourse with me concerning bees, etc.

26th November, 1661. I saw "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" played; but now the old plays began to disgust this refined age, since his Majesty's being so long abroad.

28th November, 1661. I dined at Chiffinch's house-warming, in St. James's Park; he was his Majesty's closet-keeper, and had his new house full of good pictures, etc. There dined with us Russell, Popish Bishop of Cape Verd, who was sent out to negotiate his Majesty's match with the Infanta of Portugal, after the Ambassador was returned.

29th November, 1661. I dined at the Countess of Peterborough's and went that evening to Parson's Green with my Lord Mordaunt, with whom I stayed that night.

1st December, 1661. I took leave of my Lord Peterborough, going now to Tangier, which was to be delivered to the English on the match with Portugal.

3d December, 1661. By universal suffrage of our philosophic assembly, an order was made and registered that I should receive their public thanks for the honorable mention I made of them by the name of Royal Society, in my Epistle dedicatory to the Lord Chancellor, before my Traduction of Naudæus. Too great an honor for a trifle.

4th December, 1661. I had much discourse with the Duke of York, concerning strange cures he affirmed of a woman who swallowed a whole ear of barley, which worked out at her side. I told him of the KNIFE SWALLOWED[69] and the pins.

[Footnote 69: This refers to the Dutchman, _ante_, 28th August,
1641; and to an extraordinary case contained in a "Miraculous Cure
of the Prussian Swallow Knife, etc., by Dan Lakin, P. C." quarto,
London, 1642, with a woodcut representing the object of the cure and
the size of the knife.]

I took leave of the Bishop of Cape Verd, now going in the fleet to bring over our new Queen.

7th December, 1661. I dined at Arundel House, the day when the great contest in Parliament was concerning the restoring the Duke of Norfolk; however, it was carried for him. I also presented my little trifle of Sumptuary Laws, entitled "Tyrannus" [or "The Mode"].

14th December, 1661. I saw otter hunting with the King, and killed one.

16th December, 1661. I saw a French comedy acted at Whitehall.

20th December, 1661. The Bishop of Gloucester preached at the Abbey at the funeral of the Bishop of Hereford, brother to the Duke of Albemarle. It was a decent solemnity. There was a silver miter, with episcopal robes, borne by the herald before the hearse, which was followed by the Duke his brother, and all the bishops, with divers noblemen.

23d December, 1661. I heard an Italian play and sing to the guitar with extraordinary skill before the Duke.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

1st January, 1661-62. I went to London, invited to the solemn foolery of the Prince de la Grange, at Lincoln's-Inn, where came the King, Duke, etc. It began with a grand masque, and a formal pleading before the mock Princes, Grandees, Nobles, and Knights of the Sun. He had his Lord Chancellor, Chamberlain, Treasurer, and other Royal Officers, gloriously clad and attended. It ended in a magnificent banquet. One Mr. Lort was the young spark who maintained the pageantry.

6th January, 1662. This evening, according to custom, his Majesty opened the revels of that night by throwing the dice himself in the privy chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his £100. (The year before he won £1,500.) The ladies also played very deep. I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won about £1,000, and left them still at passage, cards, etc. At other tables, both there and at the groom-porter's, observing the wicked folly and monstrous excess of passion among some losers; sorry am I that such a wretched custom as play to that excess should be countenanced in a Court, which ought to be an example of virtue to the rest of the kingdom.

9th January, 1662. I saw acted "The Third Part of the Siege of Rhodes." In this acted the fair and famous comedian called Roxalana from the part she performed; and I think it was the last, she being taken to be the Earl of Oxford's MISS (as at this time they began to call lewd women). It was in recitative music.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

10th January, 1662. Being called into his Majesty's closet when Mr. Cooper, the rare limner, was crayoning of the King's face and head, to make the stamps for the new milled money now contriving, I had the honor to hold the candle while it was doing, he choosing the night and candlelight for the better finding out the shadows. During this, his Majesty discoursed with me on several things relating to painting and graving.

11th January, 1662. I dined at Arundel House, where I heard excellent music performed by the ablest masters, both French and English, on theorbos, viols, organs, and voices, as an exercise against the coming of the Queen, purposely composed for her chapel. Afterward, my Lord Aubigny (her Majesty's Almoner to be) showed us his elegant lodging, and his wheel-chair for ease and motion, with divers other curiosities; especially a kind of artificial glass, or porcelain, adorned with relievos of paste, hard and beautiful. Lord Aubigny (brother to the Duke of Lennox) was a person of good sense, but wholly abandoned to ease and effeminacy.

I received of Sir Peter Ball, the Queen's attorney, a draft of an Act against the nuisance of the smoke of London, to be reformed by removing several trades which are the cause of it, and endanger the health of the King and his people. It was to have been offered to the Parliament, as his Majesty commanded.

12th January, 1662. At St. James's chapel preached, or rather harangued, the famous orator, Monsieur Morus, in French. There were present the King, Duke, French Ambassador, Lord Aubigny, Earl of Bristol, and a world of Roman Catholics, drawn thither to hear this eloquent Protestant.

15th January, 1662. There was a general fast through the whole nation, and now celebrated in London, to avert God's heavy judgments on this land. Great rain had fallen without any frost, or seasonable cold, not only in England, but in Sweden, and the most northern parts, being here near as warm as at midsummer in some years.

This solemn fast was held for the House of Commons at St. Margaret's. Dr. Reeves, Dean of Windsor, preached on Joshua vii. 12, showing how the neglect of exacting justice on offenders (by which he insinuated such of the old King's murderers as were yet reprieved and in the Tower) was a main cause of God's punishing a land. He brought in that of the Gibeonites, as well as Achan and others, concluding with an eulogy of the Parliament for their loyalty in restoring the Bishops and Clergy, and vindicating the Church from sacrilege.

16th January, 1662. Having notice of the Duke of York's intention to visit my poor habitation and garden this day, I returned, when he was pleased to do me that honor of his own accord, and to stay some time viewing such things as I had to entertain his curiosity. Afterward he caused me to dine with him at the Treasurer of the Navy's house, and to sit with him covered at the same table. There were his Highness, the Duke of Ormond, and several Lords. Then they viewed some of my grounds about a project for a receptacle for ships to be moored in, which was laid aside as a fancy of Sir Nicholas Crisp. After this, I accompanied the Duke to an East India vessel that lay at Blackwall, where we had entertainment of several curiosities. Among other spirituous drinks, as punch, etc., they gave us Canary that had been carried to and brought from the Indies, which was indeed incomparably good. I returned to London with his Highness. This night was acted before his Majesty "The Widow," a lewd play.

18th January, 1662. I came home to be private a little, not at all affecting the life and hurry of Court.

24th January, 1662. His Majesty entertained me with his intentions of building his Palace of Greenwich, and quite demolishing the old one; on which I declared my thoughts.

25th January, 1662. I dined with the Trinity Company at their house, that corporation being by charter fixed at Deptford.

3d February, 1662. I went to Chelsea, to see Sir Arthur Gorges' house.

11th February, 1662. I saw a comedy acted before the Duchess of York at the Cockpit. The King was not at it.

17th February, 1662. I went with my Lord of Bristol to see his house at Wimbledon, newly bought of the Queen-Mother, to help contrive the garden after the modern. It is a delicious place for prospect and the thickets, but the soil cold and weeping clay. Returned that evening with Sir Henry Bennett.

This night was buried in Westminster Abbey the Queen of Bohemia, after all her sorrows and afflictions being come to die in the arms of her nephew, the King; also this night and the next day fell such a storm of hail, thunder, and lightning, as never was seen the like in any man's memory, especially the tempest of wind, being southwest, which subverted, besides huge trees, many houses, innumerable chimneys (among others that of my parlor at Sayes Court), and made such havoc at land and sea, that several perished on both. Divers lamentable fires were also kindled at this time; so exceedingly was God's hand against this ungrateful and vicious nation and Court.

20th February, 1662. I returned home to repair my house, miserably shattered by the late tempest.

24th March, 1662. I returned home with my whole family, which had been most part of the winter, since October, at London, in lodgings near the Abbey of Westminster.

6th April, 1662. Being of the Vestry, in the afternoon we ordered that the communion-table should be set (as usual) altar-wise, with a decent rail in front, as before the Rebellion.

17th April, 1662. The young Marquis of Argyle, whose turbulent father was executed in Scotland, came to see my garden. He seemed a man of parts.

7th May, 1662. I waited on Prince Rupert to our Assembly where were tried several experiments in Mr. Boyle's VACUUM. A man thrusting in his arm, upon exhaustion of the air, had his flesh immediately swelled so as the blood was near bursting the veins: he drawing it out, we found it all speckled.

14th May, 1662. To London, being chosen one of the Commissioners for reforming the buildings, ways, streets, and incumbrances, and regulating the hackney coaches in the city of London, taking my oath before my Lord Chancellor, and then went to his Majesty's Surveyor's office, in Scotland Yard, about naming and establishing officers, adjourning till the 16th, when I went to view how St. Martin's Lane might be made more passable into the Strand. There were divers gentlemen of quality in this commission.

25th May, 1662. I went this evening to London, in order to our journey to Hampton Court, to see the Queen; who, having landed at Portsmouth, had been married to the King a week before by the Bishop of London.

30th May, 1662. The Queen arrived with a train of Portuguese ladies in their monstrous fardingales, or guard-infantes, their complexions olivader[70] and sufficiently unagreeable. Her Majesty in the same habit, her foretop long and turned aside very strangely. She was yet of the handsomest countenance of all the rest, and, though low of stature, prettily shaped, languishing and excellent eyes, her teeth wronging her mouth by sticking a little too far out; for the rest, lovely enough.

[Footnote 70: Of a dark olive complexion. It has been noticed in
other accounts that Katharine of Braganza's Portuguese Ladies of
Honor, who came over with her, were uncommonly ill-favored, and
disagreeable in their appearance. See Faithorne's curious print of
the Queen in the costume here described.]

31st May, 1662. I saw the Queen at dinner; the Judges came to compliment her arrival, and, after them, the Duke of Ormond brought me to kiss her hand.

2d June, 1662. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen made their addresses to the Queen, presenting her £1,000 in gold. Now saw I her Portuguese ladies, and the Guardadamas, or mother of her maids,[71] and the old knight, a lock of whose hair quite covered the rest of his bald pate, bound on by a thread, very oddly. I saw the rich gondola sent to his Majesty from the State of Venice; but it was not comparable for swiftness to our common wherries, though managed by Venetians.

[Footnote 71: The Maids of Honor had a mother at least as early as
the reign of Elizabeth. The office is supposed to have been
abolished about the period of the Revolution of 1688.]

4th June, 1662. Went to visit the Earl of Bristol, at Wimbledon.

8th June, 1662. I saw her Majesty at supper privately in her bedchamber.

9th June, 1662. I heard the Queen's Portugal music, consisting of pipes, harps, and very ill voices.

[Sidenote: HAMPTON COURT]

Hampton Court is as noble and uniform a pile, and as capacious as any Gothic architecture can have made it. There is an incomparable furniture in it, especially hangings designed by Raphael, very rich with gold; also many rare pictures, especially the Cæsarean Triumphs of Andrea Mantegna, formerly the Duke of Mantua's; of the tapestries, I believe the world can show nothing nobler of the kind than the stories of Abraham and Tobit. The gallery of horns is very particular for the vast beams of stags, elks, antelopes, etc. The Queen's bed was an embroidery of silver on crimson velvet, and cost £8,000, being a present made by the States of Holland when his Majesty returned, and had formerly been given by them to our King's sister, the Princess of Orange, and, being bought of her again, was now presented to the King. The great looking-glass and toilet, of beaten and massive gold, was given by the Queen-Mother. The Queen brought over with her from Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here. The great hall is a most magnificent room. The chapel roof excellently fretted and gilt. I was also curious to visit the wardrobe and tents, and other furniture of state. The park, formerly a flat and naked piece of ground, now planted with sweet rows of lime trees; and the canal for water now near perfected; also the air-park. In the garden is a rich and noble fountain, with Sirens, statues, etc., cast in copper, by Fanelli; but no plenty of water. The cradle-work of horn beam in the garden is, for the perplexed twining of the trees, very observable. There is a parterre which they call Paradise, in which is a pretty banqueting-house set over a cave, or cellar. All these gardens might be exceedingly improved, as being too narrow for such a palace.

10th June, 1662. I returned to London, and presented my "History of Chalcography" (dedicated to Mr. Boyle) to our Society.[72]

[Footnote 72: See Evelyn's "Miscellaneous Writings."]

19 June, 1662. I went to Albury, to visit Mr. Henry Howard, soon after he had procured the Dukedom to be restored. This gentleman had now compounded a debt of £200,000, contracted by his grandfather. I was much obliged to that great virtuoso, and to this young gentleman, with whom I stayed a fortnight.

2d July, 1662. We hunted and killed a buck in the park, Mr. Howard inviting most of the gentlemen of the country near him.

3d July, 1662. My wife met me at Woodcot, whither Mr. Howard accompanied me to see my son John, who had been much brought up among Mr. Howard's children at Arundel House, till, for fear of their perverting him in the Catholic religion, I was forced to take him home.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

8th July, 1662. To London, to take leave of the Duke and Duchess of Ormond, going then into Ireland with an extraordinary retinue.

13th July, 1662. Spent some time with the Lord Chancellor, where I had discourse with my Lord Willoughby, Governor of Barbadoes, concerning divers particulars of that colony.

28th July, 1662. His Majesty going to sea to meet the Queen-Mother, now coming again for England, met with such ill weather as greatly endangered him. I went to Greenwich, to wait on the Queen, now landed.

30th July, 1662. To London, where was a meeting about Charitable Uses, and particularly to inquire how the city had disposed of the revenues of Gresham College, and why the salaries of the professors there were no better improved. I was on this commission, with divers Bishops and Lords of the Council; but little was the progress we could make.

31st July, 1662. I sat with the Commissioners about reforming buildings and streets of London, and we ordered the paving of the way from St. James's North, which was a quagmire, and also of the Haymarket about Piqudillo [Piccadilly], and agreed upon instructions to be printed and published for the better keeping the streets clean.

1st August, 1662. Mr. H. Howard, his brothers Charles, Edward, Bernard, Philip,[73] now the Queen's Almoner (all brothers of the Duke of Norfolk, still in Italy), came with a great train, and dined with me; Mr. H. Howard leaving with me his eldest and youngest sons, Henry and Thomas, for three or four days, my son, John, having been sometime bred up in their father's house.

[Footnote 73: Since Cardinal at Rome. "Evelyn's Note."]

4th August, 1662. Came to see me the old Countess of Devonshire, with that excellent and worthy person, my Lord her son, from Roehampton.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

5th August, 1662. To London, and next day to Hampton Court, about my purchase, and took leave of Sir R. Fanshawe, now going Ambassador to Portugal.

13th August, 1662. Our Charter being now passed under the broad Seal, constituting us a corporation under the name of the Royal Society for the improvement of natural knowledge by experiment, was this day read and was all that was done this afternoon, being very large.

14th August, 1662. I sat on the commission for Charitable Uses, the Lord Mayor and others of the Mercers' Company being summoned, to answer some complaints of the Professors, grounded on a clause in the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder.

This afternoon, the Queen-Mother, with the Earl of St. Alban's and many great ladies and persons, was pleased to honor my poor villa with her presence, and to accept of a collation. She was exceedingly pleased, and staid till very late in the evening.

15th August, 1662. Came my Lord Chancellor (the Earl of Clarendon) and his lady, his purse and mace borne before him, to visit me. They were likewise collationed with us, and were very merry. They had all been our old acquaintance in exile, and indeed this great person had ever been my friend. His son, Lord Cornbury, was here, too.

17th August, 1662. Being the Sunday when the Common Prayer Book, reformed and ordered to be used for the future, was appointed to be read, and the solemn League and Covenant to be abjured by all the incumbents of England under penalty of losing their livings; our vicar read it this morning.

20th August, 1662. There were strong guards in the city this day, apprehending some tumults, many of the Presbyterian ministers not conforming. I dined with the Vice-Chamberlain, and then went to see the Queen-Mother, who was pleased to give me many thanks for the entertainment she received at my house, when she recounted to me many observable stories of the sagacity of some dogs she formerly had.

21st August, 1662. I was admitted and then sworn one of the Council of the Royal Society, being nominated in his Majesty's original grant to be of this Council for the regulation of the Society, and making laws and statutes conducible to its establishment and progress, for which we now set apart every Wednesday morning till they were all finished. Lord Viscount Brouncker (that excellent mathematician) was also by his Majesty, our founder, nominated our first President. The King gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms, and sent us a mace of silver gilt, of the same fashion and size as those carried before his Majesty, to be borne before our president on meeting days. It was brought by Sir Gilbert Talbot, master of his Majesty's jewel house.

22d August, 1662. I dined with my Lord Brouncker and Sir Robert Murray, and then went to consult about a newly modeled ship at Lambeth, the intention being to reduce that art to as certain a method as any other part of architecture.

23d August, 1662. I was spectator of the most magnificent triumph that ever floated on the Thames, considering the innumerable boats and vessels, dressed and adorned with all imaginable pomp, but, above all, the thrones, arches, pageants, and other representations, stately barges of the Lord Mayor and companies, with various inventions, music, and peals of ordnance both from the vessels and the shore, going to meet and conduct the new Queen from Hampton Court to Whitehall, at the first time of her coming to town. In my opinion, it far exceeded all the Venetian Bucentoras, etc., on the Ascension, when they go to espouse the Adriatic. His Majesty and the Queen came in an antique-shaped open vessel, covered with a state, or canopy, of cloth of gold, made in form of a cupola, supported with high Corinthian pillars, wreathed with flowers, festoons and garlands. I was in our newly built vessel, sailing among them.

29th August, 1662. The Council and Fellows of the Royal Society went in a body to Whitehall, to acknowledge his Majesty's royal grace in granting our Charter, and vouchsafing to be himself our founder; when the President made an eloquent speech, to which his Majesty gave a gracious reply and we all kissed his hand. Next day we went in like manner with our address to my Lord Chancellor, who had much promoted our patent: he received us with extraordinary favor. In the evening I went to the Queen-Mother's Court, and had much discourse with her.

1st September, 1662. Being invited by Lord Berkeley, I went to Durdans, where dined his Majesty, the Queen, Duke, Duchess, Prince Rupert, Prince Edward, and abundance of noblemen. I went, after dinner, to visit my brother of Woodcot, my sister having been delivered of a son a little before, but who had now been two days dead.

4th September, 1662. Commission for Charitable Uses, my Lord Mayor and Aldermen being again summoned, and the improvements of Sir Thomas Gresham's estate examined. There were present the Bishop of London, the Lord Chief Justice, and the King's attorney.

6th September, 1662. Dined with me Sir Edward Walker, Garter King-at-Arms, Mr. Slingsby, master of the Mint, and several others.

17th September, 1662. We now resolved that the Arms of the Society should be a field argent, with a canton of the arms of England; the supporters two talbots argent; crest, an eagle Or holding a shield with the like arms of England, viz, three lions. The words "_Nullius in verbâ_." It was presented to his Majesty for his approbation, and orders given to Garter King-at-Arms to pass the diploma of their office for it.

20th September, 1662. I presented a petition to his Majesty about my own concerns, and afterward accompanied him to Monsieur Febure his chemist (and who had formerly been my master in Paris), to see his accurate preparation for the composing Sir Walter Raleigh's rare cordial: he made a learned discourse before his Majesty in French on each ingredient.

27th September, 1662. Came to visit me Sir George Saville, grandson to the learned Sir Henry Saville, who published St. Chrysostom. Sir George was a witty gentleman, if not a little too prompt and daring.

3d October, 1662. I was invited to the College of Physicians, where Dr. Meret, a learned man and library-keeper, showed me the library, theater for anatomy, and divers natural curiosities; the statue and epigram under it of that renowned physician, Dr. Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood. There I saw Dr. Gilbert, Sir William Paddy's and other pictures of men famous in their faculty.

Visited Mr. Wright, a Scotchman, who had lived long at Rome, and was esteemed a good painter. The pictures of the Judges at Guildhall are of his hand, and so are some pieces in Whitehall, as the roof in his Majesty's old bedchamber, being Astræa, the St. Catherine, and a chimney-piece in the Queen's privy chamber; but his best, in my opinion, is Lacy, the famous Roscius or comedian, whom he has painted in three dresses, as a gallant, a Presbyterian minister, and a Scotch highlander in his plaid. It is in his Majesty's dining room at Windsor. He had at his house an excellent collection, especially that small piece of Correggio, Scotus of de la Marca, a design of Paulo; and, above all, those ruins of Polydore, with some good agates and medals, especially a Scipio, and a Cæsar's head of gold.

15th October, 1662. I this day delivered my "Discourse concerning Forest Trees" to the Society, upon occasion of certain queries sent to us by the Commissioners of his Majesty's Navy, being the first book that was printed by order of the Society, and by their printer, since it was a corporation.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

16th October, 1662. I saw "_Volpone_" acted at Court before their Majesties.

21st October, 1662. To the Queen-Mother's Court, where her Majesty related to us divers passages of her escapes during the Rebellion and wars in England.

28th October, 1662. To Court in the evening where the Queen-Mother, the Queen-Consort, and his Majesty being advertised of some disturbance, forbore to go to the Lord Mayor's show and feast appointed next day, the new Queen not having yet seen that triumph.

29th October, 1662. Was my Lord Mayor's show, with a number of sumptuous pageants, speeches, and verses. I was standing in a house in Cheapside against the place prepared for their Majesties. The Prince and heir of Denmark was there, but not our King. There were also the maids of honor. I went to Court this evening, and had much discourse with Dr. Basiers, one of his Majesty's chaplains, the great traveler, who showed me the syngraphs and original subscriptions of divers eastern patriarchs and Asian churches to our confession.

4th November, 1662. I was invited to the wedding of the daughter of Sir George Carteret (The Treasurer of the Navy and King's Vice-Chamberlain), married to Sir Nicholas Slaning, Knight of the Bath, by the Bishop of London, in the Savoy chapel; after which was an extraordinary feast.

5th November, 1662. The Council of the Royal Society met to amend the Statutes, and dined together; afterward meeting at Gresham College, where was a discourse suggested by me, concerning planting his Majesty's Forest of Dean with oak, now so much exhausted of the choicest ship timber in the world.

20th November, 1662. Dined with the Comptroller, Sir Hugh Pollard; afterward saw "The Young Admiral" acted before the King.

21st November, 1662. Spent the evening at Court, Sir Kenelm Digby giving me great thanks for my "Sylva."

[Sidenote: LONDON]

27th November, 1662. Went to London to see the entrance of the Russian Ambassador, whom his Majesty ordered to be received with much state, the Emperor not only having been kind to his Majesty in his distress, but banishing all commerce with our nation during the Rebellion.

First, the city companies and trained bands were all in their stations: his Majesty's army and guards in great order. His Excellency came in a very rich coach, with some of his chief attendants; many of the rest on horseback, clad in their vests, after the Eastern manner, rich furs, caps, and carrying the presents, some carrying hawks, furs, teeth, bows, etc. It was a very magnificent show.

I dined with the Master of the Mint, where was old Sir Ralph Freeman;[74] passing my evening at the Queen-Mother's Court; at night, saw acted "The Committee," a ridiculous play of Sir R. Howard, where the mimic, Lacy, acted the Irish footman to admiration.

[Footnote 74: Of Betchworth, in Surrey.]

30th November, 1662. St. Andrew's day. Invited by the Dean of Westminster to his consecration dinner and ceremony, on his being made Bishop of Worcester. Dr. Bolton preached in the Abbey Church; then followed the consecration by the Bishops of London, Chichester, Winchester, Salisbury, etc. After this, was one of the most plentiful and magnificent dinners that in my life I ever saw; it cost near £600 as I was informed. Here were the judges, nobility, clergy, and gentlemen innumerable, this Bishop being universally beloved for his sweet and gentle disposition. He was author of those Characters which go under the name of Blount. He translated his late Majesty's "Icon" into Latin, was Clerk of his Closet, Chaplain, Dean of Westminster, and yet a most humble, meek, and cheerful man, an excellent scholar, and rare preacher. I had the honor to be loved by him. He married me at Paris, during his Majesty's and the Church's exile. When I took leave of him, he brought me to the cloisters in his episcopal habit. I then went to prayers at Whitehall, where I passed that evening.

1st December, 1662. Having seen the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St. James's Park, performed before their Majesties by divers gentlemen and others with skates, after the manner of the Hollanders, with what swiftness they pass, how suddenly they stop in full career upon the ice; I went home by water, but not without exceeding difficulty, the Thames being frozen, great flakes of ice encompassing our boat.

17th December, 1662, I saw acted before the King "The Law against Lovers."[75]

[Footnote 75: By Sir William Davenant, a hotch-potch out of "Measure
for Measure" and "Much Ado about Nothing."]

21st December, 1662. One of his Majesty's chaplains preached; after which, instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern, or playhouse, than a church. This was the first time of change, and now we no more heard the cornet which gave life to the organ; that instrument quite left off in which the English were so skillful. I dined at Mr. Povey's, where I talked with Cromer, a great musician.