298 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book XII. 



immense concourse of the nobility and gentry likewise 

 attended the reunion, which seems to have been 

 associated with many curious events, as may be 

 gathered from the annexed references to it by con- 

 temporary writers. 



John Evelyn,* the Diarist, who visited Newmarket 

 in company with several persons of quality, in July, 

 1670, gives the following description of the new Palace 

 of Pleasure then in course of being erected there by 

 the king : 



" We rode out to see the great mere, or level, of recovered 

 fen land, not far off. In the way we met Lord Arlington ^^^ 

 going to his house in Suffolk, accompanied with Count 

 Ogniati, the Spanish Minister, and Sir Robert Gascoigne ; he 

 was very importunate with me to go with him to Euston, 

 being but fifteen miles distant ; but, in regard of my company, 

 I could not. So, passing through Newmarket, we alighted to 

 see his Majesty's house there, now new-building ; the arches 

 of the cellars beneath are well turned by Mr. Samuel, the 

 architect, and the rest mean enough, and hardly fit for a 

 hunting-house. Many of the rooms above had the chimneys 

 in the angles and corners, a mode now introduced by his 

 Majesty, which I do at no hand approve of I predict it will 

 spoil many noble houses and rooms, if followed. It does only 

 well in very small and trifling rooms, but takes from the state 

 of greater. Besides," he adds, " this house is placed in a dirty 

 street, without any court, or avenue, like a common one, 

 whereas it might, and ought to have been built at either end 

 of the town, upon the very carpet where the sports are cele- 

 brated ; but, it being the purchase of an old wretched house 

 of the Lord Thomond's, his Majesty was persuaded to set it 

 on that foundation, the most improper imaginable for a house 

 of sport and pleasure." f 



* As Secretary of the Latin Tongue he was frequently in attendance 

 on the Court. 



t It was sold by the Crown in 18 16. 



