INTRODUCTION xix 



At the early age of four John Evelyn was initiated into 

 the rudiments of education by one Frier, who taught child- 

 ren at the church porch of Wotton ; but soon after that he 

 was sent to Lewes in Sussex, to be with his grandfather 

 Standsfield, while a plague was raging in London. There 

 he remained, after Standsfield's death in 1627, till 1630, 

 when he was sent to the free school at Southover near 

 Lewes and kept there until he went up to Balliol College, 

 Oxford, as a fellow-commoner in 1637, being then 16 years 

 of age. It was his father's intention to have placed him at 

 Eton * but I was so terrefied at the report of the severe 

 discipline there that I was sent back to Lewes, which per- 

 verseness of mine I have since a thousand times deplored. ' 

 In that same year (1637) Evelyn had the misfortune to lose 

 his mother, then only in the 37th year of her age. Having 

 been * extremely remisse ' in his studies at school, he made 

 no great mark during his University career. His applica- 

 tion was not assiduous, while his tutor, Bradshaw, whom he 

 disliked, was negligent ; and he appears to have been 

 subject to frequent attacks of ague, disposing him to casual 

 recreation rather than to close study. He had also apparently 

 the desire to acquire a smattering of many different things 

 rather than to study hard at a few special subjects. ' I began 

 to look on the rudiments of musick, in which I afterwards 

 arriv'd to some formal knowledge though to small perfect- 

 ion of hand, because I was so frequently diverted by inclin- 

 ations to newer trifles. ' 



Completing his Oxford studies early in 1639, without 

 taking any degree, he went into residence at the Middle 

 Temple in April, and soon arrived at the conclusion that 

 his ' being at the University in regard of these avocations, 

 was of very small benefit. ' Here he and his brother lodged 

 in c a very handsome apartment just over against the Halt 

 Court, but four payre of stayres high, which gave us the 

 advantage of fairer prospect, but did not much contribute 

 to the love of that unpolish'd study, to which (I suppose,) 

 my Father had design'd me ! ' While thus a law student, 

 on 3<Dth October, he saw * his Majestic (coming from his 

 Northern Expedition) ride in pomp, and a kind of ovation, 

 with all the markes of a happy peace, restor'd to the affect- 



