1 INTRODUCTION 



The Gardiner had the Souldier's place, 

 And his more gentle forts did trace ; 

 The Nursery of all things green 

 Was then the only magazeen. 



We may not linger longer with the Laureate of the 

 lowly Glow-worm, but follow loftier Lights, who 



Aa/X7raSia t^ovres SiaStoo-ouo-iv dAA.17A.01s. 



In Temple we saw a retired Statesman and 

 Diplomatist devoting his leisure to Gardening. The 

 practice of Politics was one of the few forms of action 

 that John Evelyn took no lively share in though he 

 was too much a Civis Mundi not to be intellectually 

 interested in that, as in most other things. Unlike 

 Edmund Burke, who also, as we learn from his cor- 

 respondence with Arthur Young, busied himself with 

 practical farming, and in politics, according to Gold- 

 smith, 



Narrowed his mind, 

 And to party gave up, what was meant for mankind. 



Evelyn made mankind his constant study, and no one 

 better fulfilled Terence's maxim, as was abundantly 

 testified by his anxiety about the condition and relief 

 of the poor discharged seamen, when he was appointed 

 Commissioner for the Care of the Sick, Wounded, and 

 Prisoners in the Dutch War. 



