xlvi INTRODUCTION 



and uncertaine, yet how necessary a work ! The Lord be 

 mercifull to me and accept me ! Who can tell how oft 

 he offendeth ? . . . I began and spent the whole weeke in 

 examining my life, begging pardon for my faults, assistance 

 and blessing for the future, that I might in some sort be 

 prepar'd for the time that now drew neere, and not have the 

 greater work to begin when one can worke no longer. The 

 Lord Jesus help and assist me ! I therefore stirr'd little 



abroad till the 5 November I participated of ye 



blessed communion, finishing and confirming my resolutions 

 of giving myselfe up more intirely to God, to whom I had 

 now most solemnly devoted the rest of the poore remainder 

 of life in this world ; the Lord enabling me, who am an 

 unprofitable servant, a miserable sinner, yet depending on 

 his infinite goodnesse and mercy accepting my endeavours.' 



It were well if all men, even before attaining 60 years of 

 age, could bring themselves to such periods of reflection on 

 past and present acts, and even though all the good resolves 

 may not have been quite rigidly acted up to. And even in 

 Evelyn's case, at any rate so far as his diary shews, he 

 appears afterwards to have continued just as much a man of 

 the world as he was before these solemn resolutions, although 

 the glamour of being a courtier seems perhaps to have 

 henceforth become less rose-coloured. A trivial incident 

 happening while he was supping one night at Lady Arling- 

 ton's, in June 1683, gave rise to the reflection that c By this 

 one may take an estimate of the extream slavery and 

 subjection that courtiers live in, who have not time to eate 

 and drink at their pleasure. It put me in mind of Horace's 

 Mouse, and to blesse God for my owne private condition. ' 

 Twenty years previously he would not have thought or said 

 this. 



Evelyn took a leading part in the negociations for the 

 repurchase of Chelsea College for ^1,300 from the Royal 

 Society to whom it had been recently presented by the King, 

 and for the establishment of a hospital for old soldiers there 

 at a cost of ,20,000 with an endowment of 5,000 a year. 



Several violent fits of ague having afflicted him during the 

 winter of 1681-82, to cure which c recourse was had to 

 bathing my legs in milk up to ye knees, made as hot as I 



