INTRODUCTION Iv 



enthusiastic outbursts of devoted and loyal attachment to 

 the King's person and interests. 



In the dull days of autumn and winter, when the heavy, 

 damp air wafted inwards from the sea shrouds London with 

 a dirty pall of fog thickened and discoloured with the smoke 

 belched forth skywards from the long throats of thousands 

 of tall factory chimneys and emitted from hundreds of 

 thousands of household and workshop fires, the dweller in 

 this vast overgrown city is tempted to range himself for the 

 moment among the belauders of better times in the past. 

 Almost groping his way along the streets in semi-dark- 

 ness, and half choked with the sulphurous surcharge in the 

 atmosphere, this latter-day growler may perhaps be astonished 

 to learn that his complaint is of very old standing, and that 

 long before the days of his great-great-grandfather, in fact 

 more than seven generations ago, this poisoning of the 

 atmosphere with the impurities given off from ' sea-coal ' 

 and other combustibles had already come to be looked on 

 by some as a public nuisance. It will, therefore, interest 

 Londoners in general, and will delight the hearts of Sir 

 William Richmond R.A. and the County Council in par- 

 ticular, to know that their great precursor in this matter of 

 reform nearly 250 years ago considered the question even 

 then one of urgency, admitting of no delay. How graphic, 

 and how refreshing, is the pithy point thus neatly scored 



* I propose therefore, that by an Act of this present Par- 

 liament, this infernal Nuisance be removed.' 



There is no beating about the bush here, and no min- 

 cing of phrases. The matter is at once probed with the 

 needle. 



Evelyn was not merely a rather notable person in the 

 London society of that period. As a man of science he was 

 one of the most prominent pillars of the then recently found- 

 ed Royal Society. As an official he was His Majesty's 

 Commissioner for improving the streets and buildings of 

 London, in addition to various other particular duties. But 

 finally, and, at the same time, first of all, if it be permis- 

 sible to emphasise the fact in so paradoxical a manner he 

 was a courtier ; and that at a time when expressions of loyalty 



