INTRODUCTION xliii 



Royal Society. It was a big scheme, including the embank- 

 ment of the river from the Tower to the Temple, and if 

 successful it would have brought much gain to the partners. 



Evelyn says nothing about the ultimate results of his 

 undertaking, but Pepys furnishes the necessary clue in his 

 diary for September, 1668 C 23d. At noon comes Mr 

 Evelyn to me, about some business with the office, and there 

 in discourse tell me of his loss, to the value of ^500, which 

 he hath met with in a late attempt of making of bricks upon 

 an adventure with others, by which he presumed to have 

 got a great deal of money; so that I see the most ingenious 

 man may sometimes be mistaken '. Kiviet a year or two 

 later on had a fresh scheme for draining marshy lands c with 

 the hopes of a rich harvest of hemp and cole seed', but 

 Evelyn took no share in this new adventure. 



In July 1669 his University, Oxford, bestowed upon him 

 the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law, but he had 

 still no permanent official appointment, his Commissioner- 

 ships now being completed. Early in May 1670 he went 

 * to London concerning the office of Latine Secretary to his 

 Majesty, a place of more honor than dignitie and profit, the 

 revertion of which he had promised me ', though the pro- 

 mise was not fulfilled. 



Early in 1669, it had been proposed to Evelyn by Lord 

 Arlington that he should write a history of the Dutch War, 

 but he declined. Towards the middle of the following year, 

 however, pressure was brought on him to undertake the 

 work. * After dinner Lord (Arlington) communicated to 

 me his Majesty's desire that I would engage to write the 

 History of our late War with the Hollanders, which I had 

 hitherto declin'd ; this I found was ill-taken, and that I 

 should disoblige his Majesty, who had made choice of me 

 to do him this service, and if I would undertake it, I should 

 have all the assistance the Secretary's office and others could 

 give me, with other encouragements, which I could not 

 decently refuse '. This work was never completed, so much 

 as was written by way of introduction being subsequently 

 published in 1674 as Navigation and Commerce^ their Ori- 

 ginal and Progress. 



Evelyn was, however, not to have much longer to wait 



