576 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Мо+кмвкв 16, 1895, 
said garden, orchard, and court yards, кезект 
her two acres, two roodes, and sixteen 
perches, xiiij 1.” 
Whilst in Paris during 1646-7, Evelyn became 
was married to Mary, 
and finally settled with his wife at Sayes Court 
in 1652. The Brownes held a lease from the 
Crown of the manor, which h 
Parliamentarians. 
tion, to secure it to hi 
ceeded in compounding for £3, 500; he also 
obtained leases from the King after the 
Restoration, 
ae Bayes Ан itself had only : & — 
ely 
thi manor ‘itself would appear to consist of 260 А 
to a letter which Evelyn quotes in his 
of all the онота gardens, walks, grover, enclo- 
tations there.” The late Mr. Nathan 
little History of Deptfor 
t Wotton, is мам ME notice of Evelyn's 
work at Sayes Court ithermost grove I 
planted € —_ the jeter beyond it, 1660; the 
it was before all казы 
pulled all down at first, but 16 was don at — 
times.” In Sylva, 1683, Evelyn further records 
“ I planted all the out-limits of the garden and long 
walks with Holly mot feet in length, 9 feet high, 
апа 5 feet in CAN 
Erelyn'a residence м Sayes Court extended from 
1652 to May, 1694, а period of forty-two years, Ha 
wealth, and confined himself, in fact, to the cultiva- 
tion of his garden, to writing books, and to corres- 
ponling and associating himself with the learned 
men n of the day. 
who visited e at his 
many се celebrated men 
enowned retreat at Deptford. Among others, we 
may specially meation John Dr yai ihe poet ; the 
Marquia of Argyll, who shortly after had the 
misfortune to lose his head o scaffold; Lord 
Lothian, Earl of Southampton ( Treaarr of the 
Navy), the d with the Earl of St. 
Albans, “апі m 
Abraham Gawler: dus hia 
plants during his residence at e, and the 
gardens at Sayes Court are said to have helped him 
greatly in . Mr. Leslie Stephen states that 
: леда was on friendly terms with John Wilkins, 
ee the warden of Wadham College, and afterwards 
. Bishop of Chester ; F ec 
le, to whom 
in 1659, he gas 
а 
— а sort of ^ cron 
| асїепсе were to de themselves Aes the pro- 
pone of experimental knowledge, T he outcome 
1 of the court of the f 
if possible, with the idit of the latter 
1 and time became more and more 5 
to scientific and other subjects apart from politics ; 
and when the Ravolution came, he retired entirely 
into private life. 
The decadence of Sayes Court dates from the time 
when Evelyn left it T — with his brother George 
at Wotton in 1694. omini was in residence at Pagus 
Court, Evelyn was constan 
visitors, as readers of the ee ‘Diary a а well 
aware, On April 30, 1663, Charles II. came “ќо 
honour my poor villa with his presence, viewing the 
gardens, and every room of the house, and was pleased 
to take a small refreshment. There were with him 
the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of St. ae peeks 
Lauderdale, and several persons of qua 
years later, another distinguished diari Barn 
n his 
Diary shows :— 1665, Ма ay 5. After Aas to Mr. 
Evelyn’s; he being abroad, we walked in his garden, 
and a lovely noble ground he hath indeed. And 
among other varieties, а туча of bees, во вв, being 
hived in glass, you may see 3 
combs 8 — 
Diary contains frequent mention of velyn. An 
exceedingly fine series of unpublished letters from 
John Evelyn to Samuel Pepys was in the pos- 
session of Mr. S. J. Davey, of Great Russell Street, 
five years ago. Опе of these contains a very quaint 
request that Mrs, Pepys should call in “ Pianteur de 
choux herbam parietaream Sr. Roger L'Estrange— 
anything but Sc. Politick," Another of these unpub- 
цв ^d letters, da ted 1668, has reference to wins 
the pleasure 
sti ting when he last dined with Mr. Pepye, and 
баена, that, as this gentleman is about to take 
d of some forces in New England, he would 
rey a пк if he would collect p him some of 
the vegetables and natural productions growing in 
that country, He encloses a list of the names of the 
plants he requires, and also those growing in Vir- 
ginia, and of which he is архіопа that Captain 
Nicholson shoul t obtain some se 
The Great Frost of 1683-4 dealt very hardly by Mr, 
аА his 
po 
o 
Evelyn's sylvan retreat. 
of February 4, 1684, he t to Sayes 
Court to see how the frost. had dealt ithe: my garden, 
where I een 
and Mi 
sick, the Rosemary and Lzurells dead to all appear- 
ance, but the Cypress likely to induce it.” 
he things which the Great Frost did not destroy 
were eventually exterminated by Admiral Benbow 
and Peter “the Great.” “I went to Deptford,” 
wiites Erelyn, on Jane 1, 1696, “ to dispose oí our 
goods, in order to letting the house for three years 
to Vice- Admiral Benbow, Mer eat to keep up 
the garden.” How far the last clause in the I ne 
ment was kept up, the UE ei че. will show 
* have let my house to Captain Benbow, and * 
the mortification of seeing, every day, жыйн of my 
err labour and expense there impairing for want 
of a more polite tenant.” In 1698, the final blow 
was given to the beaities of Sayes Court. The 
Czar of Rassia, Peter the Great, “being come to 
England, and having a mind to see the building of 
ships, hird my house at Sayes Court, and made it 
hia Court and Palace, new furnish'd for him by the 
^ui T m the Czars pleasant pastimes, it 
appe ndling of a wheelbarrow through 
Gebers oaia Holly-hedge, to which reference 
has already been made, “Is there,” asks Evelyn, 
under the Ыш, а more glorious and refreshing 
object of the kind than an клр ers hedge of 
eet in length, 9 feet high, and 5 feet in 
diameter, which I can still show i ui — 
at Sayes Court — to the Tzar of Muscovy), at 
any time of-th т, glittering with its armed and 
variegated fection. ‘the taller standards at ordinary 
distance, blushing with their natural coral 
mocks the rudest assaults of the vein o bat 
E ates int t illum nemo impure lacessi t * 
The е inflicted on the place by thi 
pair of pri was appraised by а Gate 
prised of Sir Christopher Wren, 
a 
London reported that the “ several c: ы 
came under two heads, one is what can be repaired 
again, and the other what cannot be na 
London reported that (1) all the grass work і is ont of 
“ broke into holes by their 
plants a wee 
ma pan nor cultivated, "bf reason the Zar 600 
would not suffer any men to work when the 
offered; (4), the wall fruit and “stander” fruit trees 
are unpruined and unnailed; (5), the hedges nor 
wilderness are not cuf as they ought to №; and 
finally (6), the gravel walks are all “broke 
holes and out of order. 
If this succession of calamities were insufficient to 
drive away the gentle Evelyn, he would have been 
more than 
е 
amily. 
and its vicissitudes might almoat employ the pen of 
an elegiac poet. In 1759, the * was let to the 
vestry of St. Nicholas, Deptford, to be used as a 
workhouse. In 1820 the old building was in ес 
part demolished, but the workhouse remained оп 
site till 1848. Ia 1881 all that survived of * 
ourt was converted by its owner, Mr. W. J. Behn, 
into the almshouses, for the accommodation of old 
residents on the Evelyn * In 1886, Mr, Evelyn 
gave part of the old grounds to forma puit garden, 
with an enduwment for keeping it ia in 
August last, the remainder of the groun nde wae 
to this public garden, after being tastefully laid 
from т» ira of M.. H. E. Milner, the well-knowt 
landec 
the inh 3 
selves exceedingly fo. 
desirable breathing-place in 
populated neighbourhood, That i appe. 
Sra is dp; cr шеди by the ad ‘that in ГЫ 
te 2 8200 eople passed sarong pr 
y peop P aig lv at bii 1 on 
cost, б prese 
shrubs is flourishing 
them being deciduous, as the s 
place would scarcely permit of anything in the 
of evergreen shrubs or trees flourishing 
ge ey : 
who has been in Mr, Evelyn’s employ for r some jw ; 
The place presents much of the “ unclothed ker. 
ance of a newly-laid-out park; but in the course 
[24 
B 
Ф 
м 
et 
Fh 
E 
for many years, 
Mr. T hankfuil ет photographs (4. 98 
