INTRODUCTION liii 



Diary, as an eye-witness, a commentary on the Life 

 and History of his generation, second only, in relation 

 to its age, to the Annals of Tacitus or the Memoirs of 

 Saint-Simon. 



As Treasurer to Greenwich Hospital and in other 

 administrative offices, he was often in close touch 

 with Charles II., who highly valued his opinion, and 

 was actually persuaded by Evelyn's advice to introduce 

 a permanent standard and style for men's dress but 

 the inconstant King altered the fashion again within 

 the year. Of most of the great intellects of his day 

 British and Foreign Boyle, Bentley, Wotton, Sir 

 Thomas Browne, Gassendi, Peiresc, Wren, Pepys, 

 Meric Casaubon, Clarendon, Cowley, Wilkins, Jeremy 

 Taylor, Dugdale, Hollar, Gibbons Evelyn was the 

 friend, the correspondent, or the patron. 



Oxford owes to him the Arundel marbles, and other 

 benefactions to Museum and Library; he was one of the 

 Founders, for a year the Secretary, and twice refused the 

 Presidency, of the Royal Society besides contributing 

 many papers to its Philosophical Transactions ; and in 

 its archives may still lurk Lord Sandwich's descriptions 

 of the Gardens and Villas of Spain, which he, when 

 Ambassador, sent Evelyn, from Madrid "many sheets 

 of paper written in his own hand " although the Sem- 



