xxxvi INTRODUCTION 



phy and letters, Evelyn had for years past felt the desirability 

 of having some sort of fixed employment. Previous to this, 

 during 1659, he had communicated to the Hon. Robert 

 Boyle, son of the Earl of Cork, a scheme for founding 

 a philosophic and mathematical college or fraternity, and 

 had even arranged with his wife that they should live 

 asunder, in two separate apartments. The Restoration, 

 however, put a stop to this scheme, which then evolved 

 itself, soon afterwards, into the foundation of the Royal 

 Society, Boyle and Evelyn being two of the most prominent 

 original Fellows. 



Evelyn's Career after the Restoration. (1660-1685). 



Evelyn was about forty years of age when the Restoration 

 changed the whole prospects of his still long life. He had 

 been a devoted Royalist, though it can not be denied that 

 his zeal in this respect was ever tempered with a vast 

 amount of caution and prudence. In addition to what 

 interest he had earned by his own actions, he had the far more 

 powerful influence of his father-in-law who had, like Charles 

 himself, been exiled for nineteen years. Mrs. Evelyn was 

 promised the appointment of lady of the jewels to the future 

 Queen, which she never received ; and Evelyn might have 

 had the honour of knighthood of the Bath, but declined it. 

 He was present at the Coronation in Westminster Abbey on 

 St. George's Day, 1661, and had prepared and printed a 

 Panegyric poem on the occasion, a screed of bombastic dog- 

 gerel in fulsome praise of the King. He was a frequent 

 visitor at the Court, and loved to sun himself in the royal 

 presence. One of the finest examples of this feature of 

 Evelyn's character is his Fumifugium, published in 1661, 

 which will be more particularly referred to later on, a work 

 which marks the real commencement of his literary career. 



In 1 66 1, also, Evelyn wrote a pamphlet entitled Tyrannus 

 or the Mode, an invective against ' our so much affecting the 

 French ' in dress, and he was pleased with the idea that 



