KNOLE 269 



14 1 know not how it is, but my Lord Dorset can do 

 anything, and yet is never to blame," said Lord 

 Rochester, in those early days, when they indulged 

 in all the mad, riotous pleasures that a man of rank 

 and fashion thought necessary at the time of the 

 Restoration. 



Sackville was a special friend of Charles II., and 

 he was the first to introduce the King to the saucy 

 orange-girl, Nell Gwyn, when she was his own 

 mistress. 



Evelyn, in his Diary, alludes disapprovingly to 

 the King's intimacy with "pretty, witty Nell." He 

 writes : "His Majesty's Surveyor, Mr. Wren, faith- 

 fully promised me to employ him (Gibbon), I 

 having also bespoke his Majesty for his worke at 

 Windsor, which my friend Mr. Man the architect 

 there was going to alter and repaire universally; 

 for on the next day I had a fair opportunity of 

 talking to his Majesty about it, in the lobby next 

 the Queenes side, where I presented him with some 

 sheets of my Historic. I thence walk'd with him 

 thro' St. James's Parke to the Garden, where I 

 both saw and heard a very familiar discourse 

 between . . . (the King) and Mrs. Nellie as they 

 cal'd an impudent comedian, she looking out of her 

 Garden on a Terrace at the top of the wall, and 

 . . . (the King) standing on the Greene Walke 

 under it. 1 was heartily sorry at this scene." 



When the Dutch war broke out, Sackville 



