Ixii INTRODUCTION 



pleas'd to take notice of it to me, and that I had by that 

 booke alone incited a world of planters to repaire their broken 

 estates and woodes, which the greedy rebells had wasted and 

 made much havock of. Upon this encouragement I was 

 once speaking to a mighty man, then in despotic power, to 

 mention the greate inclination I had to serve his Majesty in 

 a little office then newly vacant (the salary I think hardly 

 ^300) whose province was to inspect the timber trees in his 

 Majesties Forests, etc., and take care of their culture and 

 improvement ; but this was conferr'd upon another who, I 

 believe, had seldom been out of the smoake of London, 

 where though there was a greate deale of timber, there were 

 not many trees. I confesse I had an inclination to the 

 imployment upon a publique account as well as its being 

 suitable to my rural genius, borne as I was at Wotton, among 

 the woods. ' 



A still greater success was achieved by the Kalendarium 

 Hortense, which reached its tenth edition (1706) during 

 Evelyn's lifetime, and of which two reprints have subsequently 

 been made. This small work was the forerunner of the more 

 modern books on English gardening, the names of which are 

 now almost legion. 



Previous to this, Sculptura : or the History and Art of Chal- 

 cography and Engraving in Copper and Mezzo-tinto, had been 

 published in 1662, being the first work on this subject that 

 had appeared in England. But it was a poor production, 

 and ran into no second edition while the author lived. His 

 chief subsequent literary successes were Terra : a Philosophical 

 Discourse of Earth relating to the Culture aud Improvement of it 

 for Vegetation, and for the Propagation of Plants, (1676), which 

 was first read before the Royal Society on 29th April 1675, 

 and of which the third edition was printed in 1706, and The 

 Compleat Gardiner, or Directions for cultivating and right order- 

 ing of Fruit Gardens and Kitchen Gardens ; with divers Reflections 

 on several parts of Husbandry, (1693), which went into five 

 editions by 1710. His History of the Dutch War, already 

 referred to (page xliii) would have been by far his most 

 important work in point of length had its completion been 

 allowed, but only the introductory portion saw the light as 

 Navigation and Commerce ; their Original and Progress, Contain- 



