INTRODUCTION xxxix 



greate danger, when every body fled their employments. ' 

 Poor Evelyn seems to have been rather easily duped in this 

 sort of way. c Then the Duke (of Albemarle) came towards 

 me and embrac'd me with much kindnesse, telling me if he 

 had thought my danger would have been so greate, he would 

 not have suffer'd his Majesty to employ me in that station. ' 

 And so on, * after which I got home, not being very well in 

 health. ' It certainly was such' ridiculously insincere treat- 

 ment that it might well have caused immediate sickening in 

 one of robust health. 



It was, forsooth, only in very minor matters that Evelyn 

 profited by the royal favour or by his courtiership. In April, 

 1666, Charles informed him that he must now be sworn for 

 a Justice of the Peace, ( c the office in the world I had most 

 industriously avoided, in regard of the perpetual trouble 

 thereoffin these numerous parishes),' and he only escaped 

 this infliction by humbly desiring to be excused from fresh 

 duties inconsistent with the other service he was engaged in. 

 So excused he was, by royal favour, for which he * rendered 

 his Majesty many thanks. ' And on that same day he 

 declined re-election to the Council of the Royal Society for 

 the following year on ' earnest suite ' of other affairs ; for 

 he had to be consistent in such different matters that would 

 have engaged a portion of his time. 



Besides his work in connection with prisoners and the 

 Mint he was shortly afterwards nominated one of the Com- 

 missioners for regulating the farming and making of saltpetre 

 and gunpowder throughout Britain, an appointment which 

 was all the more appropriate from the fact that his grand- 

 father, George Evelyn of Long Ditton and Wotton (1530- 

 1603), had been the first to introduce the manufacture of 

 gunpowder into England, when he established mills on both 

 of his properties. He was also appointed one of the three 

 Surveyors of the repairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, * and to 

 consider of a model for the new building, or, if it might be, 

 repairing of the steeple, which was most decay'd. ' 



With hands and head fully occupied with business affairs 

 he found time for other work of a useful nature, while still 

 having plenty of leisure for social duties and enjoyments. 

 In this respect he forms a good example of the well-known 



