xlii INTRODUCTION 



midst of all this ruine was like Lot, in my little Zoar, safe 

 and sound.' 



The plague and the fire were held to be the visitation of 

 God's anger, and Evelyn evidently thought the heavy punish- 

 ment richly merited. * Oct. loth. This day was order'd a 

 generall fast thro ' the Nation, to humble us on ye late 

 dreadfull conflagration, added to the plague and warr, the 

 most dismall judgments that could be inflicted, but whiche 

 indeed we highly deserv'd for our prodigious ingratitude, 

 burning lusts, dissolute Court, profane and abominable lives, 

 under such dispensations of God's continu'd favour in 

 restoring Church, Prince, and People from our late intestine 

 calamities, of which we were altogether unmindf ull, even to 

 astonishment.' 



Like Wren and Hooke, Evelyn submitted a scheme 

 for the rebuilding of London upon an improved plan, but 

 the new city was formed mainly upon the old lines. 



Meanwhile the Dutch fleet was lying off the mouth of the 

 Thames. Though England then happily produced all the 

 food she required, yet the city became * exceedingly distress'd 

 for want of fuell ' because of the traffic up and down the 

 estuary being interrupted. Hence Evelyn was appointed 

 one of a Committee to search the environs of London and 

 find if any peat or turf were fit for use. Experiments were 

 made with houllies or briquettes of charcoal dust and loam in 

 the Dutch manner, and Evelyn shewed to many proof of 

 his f new fuell, which was very glowing and without smoke or 

 ill smell '. But the process never caught on, and was aban- 

 doned as giving no promise of commercial success. 



Evelyn's account against the Treasury now amounted to 

 above ^34,000, and he continued to urge for payment of it, 

 or for the settlement of unpaid portions of it, as late as 

 1702, about three years before his death. Whether this 

 straitened his means or not, he was at any rate eager to make 

 money by speculation. So in 1667 he joined Sir John 

 Kiviet, a Dutch Orangeman who had come over to England 

 for protection and had been knighted by King Charles, in 

 a scheme for making bricks on a large scale. Perhaps as a 

 sort of advertisement of this commercial enterprise he sub- 

 scribed 50,000 bricks towards building a college for the 



