xliv INTRODUCTION 



for regular official employment, as on 28 February, 1671, 

 ' The Treasurer acquainted me that his Majesty was grac- 

 iously pleas'd to nominate me one of the Council of Forraine 

 Plantations, and give me a salary of 500 per ann. to 

 encourage me '. He was pleased with his appointment in 

 connection with our Colonies, * a considerable honour, the 

 others in the Council being chiefly Noblemen, and Officers 

 of State '. In the following year the scope of this depart- 

 ment was increased by adding the Council of Trade to its 

 duties. He at once went to thank the Treasurer and 

 Lord Arlington, Secretary of State, whose favour he possess- 

 ed though he * cultivated neither of their friendships by 

 any meane submissions '. And he failed not, of course, to 

 kiss the King's hand on being made one of that newly 

 established Council. But Royalist though he was, he could 

 not be blind to the profligacy of the Court and of the King, 

 to whose Majesty his works were so grandiloquently dedi- 

 cated. 



On one occasion after submitting progress of his History 

 to the King, he says * thence walk'd with him thro ' St. 

 James's Parke to the garden, where I both saw and heard 

 a very familiar discourse between... and Mrs. Nellie as they 

 cal'd an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden 

 on a terrace at the top of the wall, and... standing on ye 

 greene walke under it. I was heartily sorry at the scene. 

 Thence the King walked to the Dutchess of Cleaveland, 

 another lady of pleasure, and curse of our nation '. Evelyn 

 is usually so strict about any reference to the proprieties 

 that it is hard to understand why this particular interview 

 between King Charles and Nell Gwynne should be mentioned 

 so circumstantially. As for the Court, when it went abroad, 

 say to Newmarket, one might have * found ye jolly blades 

 racing, dauncing, feasting, and revelling, more resembling a 

 luxurious and abandon'd rout, than a Christian Court.' 



Early in 1672 his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, 

 resigned office as Clerk of the Council, a place which his 

 Majesty had years before promised to Evelyn ; but he was 

 induced to give up this lien on renewal of the lease of Sayes 

 Court for 99 years, although the King's written engagement 

 to grant the estate in fee-farme is still extant at Wotton. 



