172 



THE LIME-TREE. 



to any other. This remarkable person was first 

 introduced to public notice by Evelyn, the author 

 of the Sylva," himself a man who, whether as a 

 churchman, a citizen, or a man of taste, may 

 serve as a model to his countrymen. The follow- 

 ing extract from his Diary will be read with 

 interest — 



" 1670-1. 18tli Jan. — This day I first acquainted 

 his Majesty with that incomparable young man 

 Gibbon, whom I had lately met with in an obscure 

 place, by mere accident, as I was walking near a 

 poor solitary thatched house, in a field in our 

 parish, near Say's Court. I found him shut in ; 

 but looking in at the wdndow I perceived him 

 carving that large cartoon or crucifix of Tintoret, 

 a copy of which I had myself brought from 

 Venice, where the original painting remains. I 

 asked if I might enter ; he opened the door civilly 

 to me, and I saw him about such a work as for 

 the curiosity of handling, drawing, and studious 

 exactness, I had never before seen in all my tra- 

 vels. I questioned him why he w^orked in such 

 an obscure and lonesome place ; he told me it 

 was that he might apply himself to his profession 

 without interruption, and wondered not a little 

 how^ I had found him out. I asked if he was 

 unwilling to be made known to some great man, 

 for that I believed it might turn to his profit ; he 

 answered, he was yet but a beginner, but would 

 not be sorry to sell off* that piece ; on demanding 

 the price, he said 100^. In good earnest the very 

 frame was worth the money, there being nothing 

 in nature so tender and delicate as the flowers and 

 festoons about it, and yet the work was very 

 strong 5 in the piece was more than a hundred 



