October 31.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
67 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
U 
I 
W x OCT. 31—NOV. 6, 1850. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
near London 
Thermo. Wind. 
N 1849. | 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef.Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
31 
Th j Elm leaves fall. 
29.802—29.495 
54—31 
s.w. 
_ ! 
54 a. 6 
34 a. 4 
1 52 
26 
16 
14 
304 
1 
F All Saints. Hazel stript. 
29 . 603 — 29.439 
57-35 
S.E. 
— 
56 
32 
3 10 
27 
16 
16 
305 
2 
S All Souls. Michaelmas Term begins. 
29 . 607 — 29.578 
58—37 
E. 
— 
67 
30 
1 4 26 
28 
16 
17 
306 
3 
a.„ 23 Son. aft. Trinity. Lilac stript. 
29.503—29.345 
55—42 
E. 
— 
59 
29 
5 43 
29 
16 
17 
307 
4 M K. William III. landed. Ash stript. 
1 29.234 — 29.055 
54—36 
E. 
0.02 
VII 
27 
sets. 
© 
16 
16 
308 
1 5 Tu Gunpowder Plot, 1605. 
129 . 308 — 29.106 
53—33 
S.W. 
— 
3 
25 
5a.40 
1 
16 
15 
309 
6.W Leonard. Skylark’s song ceases. 
29 851 — 29.518 
50—31 
s.w. 
— 
4 
23 
! 6 17 
2 
16 
12 
310 
If any of our readers in the course of their wanderings found in a quiet 
country church a monument inscribed as follows, they would say—and 
their conclusion would be the truth—“ Surely a teacher rests here.” 
“ Living in an age of extraordinary 
Events and Revolutions, he learnt 
(as himself asserted) this truth, 
All is-vanity which is not honest, 
and there is no solid wisdom 
but in real Piety.” 
These arc the words of John Evelyn, one of the greatest men of the 
Stuart era—if that man is great whose knowledge, kindness, and piety 
were equal, and each pre-eminent. I must observe, says one who knew 
him well, that his life, which was extended to 86 years, was a course of 
studv, inquiry, curiosity, instruction, and benevolence. The works of 
the Creator and the mimic labours of the creature were all objects of his 
pursuit. He unfolded the perfection of the one, and assisted the imper- 
| fection of the other. He adored from examination ; was a courtier that 
| flattered only by informing his prince, and by pointing out what was 
i worthy for him to countenance. He was really the neighbour of the 
j Gospel, for there was no man that might not have been the better for 
him. He was one of the first promoters of the Royal Society; a patron 
I of the ingenious and indigent; and peculiarly serviceable to the lettered 
| world; for, besides his writings and discoveries, he obtained the Arun- 
| delian Marbles for the University of Oxford, and the Arundclian Library 
for the Royal Society. Nor is it the least part of his praise that he, who 
proposed to Mr. Boyle the erection of a philosophic college for retired 
and speculative persons, had the honesty to write in defence of active life 
against Sir George Mackenzie’s “ Essay on Solitude.” He felt that with 
himself retirement resulted in industry and benefit to mankind, but with 
others it was a withdrawal to laziness and inutility. Evelyn did, indeed, 
lov% retirement: but it was retirement occupied by literature, the fine 
arts, philosophy, and the cultivation of the soil. With an ample fortune, 
clung round by all that renders home a foretaste of that which knows no 
separation, yet whenever the service of his country called for the exertion 
of his abilities he never hesitated to tear himself from these flowers of 
life. He accepted, at different times, a Commissionersliip of the Privy 
Seal, of the Mint, of the Plantations, of Greenwich Hospital, and for the 
care of the Sick and Wounded ; but he retained none longer than was 
required to effect the good designed, and then hastened back, like a bird 
to its nest. 
He was born on the 31st of October, 1620 . and reached manhood just 
as the first Charles was falling before the Parliament. He would have 
ranged himself beneath the royal standard, but the king dispensed with 
his services, and directed him to make the tour of Europe. The diary of 
that tour remains as a testimony, to use his own expression, that “ he 
did not travel merely to count steeples.” It remains also, as do his 
letters, to tell us that he who loves monarchy, and is the personal friend 
of kings, may yet detest and oppose their arbitrary measures. The same 
records also tell us, that he who directed to be inscribed on his tomb that 
“ he fell asleep in full hope of a glorious resurrection through faith in 
Jesus Christ,” and who through good report and bad report remained 
strongly and steadily attached to the doctrines and discipline of the Church 
of England, yet was truly charitable to those who differed from her creed. 
“ God,” he said, “will make all things manifest in his own time, only 
let us possess ourselves in patience and charity. This will cover a multi¬ 
tude of imperfections.” This truly Christian man demands an especial 
notice in our pages, because, as old Switzer remarked, “ like another 
Virgil he was appointed for the retrieving the calamities of England, and 
reanimating the spirit of his countrymen for the planting and sowing of 
woods. To him it is owing that gardening can speak proper English.” 
Not only did he improve the language in which he conveyed his lessons 
for the cultivation of the soil, but those lessons were the results of expe¬ 
rience guided by philosophy. His French Gardener, a translation, first 
appeared in 1658 ; his Kalendurium Hortense , or Gardeners’ Almanack, 
in 1679 ; his Sylva and his Terra and Pomona in the same year; 
Quintinve’s Treatise on Orange-trees in 1699; and Acetaria, or a dis¬ 
course on Sallets, at the same time. These are not all his contributions 
to our horticultural literature, but they are sufficient to establish him in 
the foremost rank of its authors. No work has been more justly cele¬ 
brated than his Sylva, a discourse of Forest Trees , for it not only imparted 
sound information as to their cultivation, but was attended with this 
happy result, that in the dedication of the second edition to the king he 
was enabled to say, “It has been the sole occasion of furnishing your 
almost exhausted dominions with more than two millions of timber trees.” 
To achieve such success seems to have been only a carrying out a mission 
descended to him from his ancestors. From some eminence in the cul¬ 
tivation of one of our native trees the family derived its patronymic, for he 
tells us that the name was originally written Avelan , or Evelin, and sig¬ 
nified the hazel. Even the family residence told of forest craft—Wotton, 
or Woodtown, being so named from the noble plantations in which it 
was embosomed. In 1705 Evelyn saw a fourth and enlarged edition of 
his Sylva issue from the press, and on his birthday in that year is this 
entry in his Diary : “Oct. 31. I am this day arrived to the 85th year of 
my age. Lord ! teach me so to number my days to come that I may 
apply them to wisdom.” This was almost the last entry, for on the 2/th 
of February following, according to the words of his epitaph, “he fell 
asleep.” It must not be omitted that his son, John Evelyn, delighted in 
the same pursuits ; and it is equally deserving of record that he was 
Messed by having for his life’s companion one who loved him, who sympa¬ 
thised in all his pursuits, and, surviving him but three years, wished her 
dust to mingle with his. “ Mary Evelyn,” says her truthful epitaph, 
“the best daughter, wife, and mother—the most accomplished of women— 
beloved, esteemed, admired, and regretted by all who knew her—is depo¬ 
sited in this stone coffin, according to her own desire, as near as could be 
to her dear husband, John Evelyn, with whom she lived almost three¬ 
score years.” There is, says Mr. D’Israeli, what may be termed a family 
genius. In the home of a man of genius he diffuses an electrical atmo¬ 
sphere ; his own pre-eminence strikes out talents in all. Evelyn, in his 
beautiful retreat of Saye’s Court, inspired his family with that variety of 
tastes which he himself was spreading throughout the nation. IIis son 
translated Rap in’s Gardens ; his lady, ever busy in his study, excelled in 
the arts her husband loved, and designed (and etched) the frontispiece to 
his Luo'etins ; she was also the cultivator of his celebrated garden, which 
served as an example of his great work on Forest Trees. 
Meteorology of the Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-three years, it is found that the average highest 
and lowest temperatures of the above days are 53° and 38° respectively. 
The greatest, heat, 63°, occurred on the 6th in 1843 ; and the lowest cold, 
20°, on the 3rd in 1815. On 82 days rain fell, aud 79 were fine. 
We think that it may he accepted as a dictate of the 
soundest reason, that no practices can be more unjust 
or unwise than, that the man who has been robbed 
should he compelled to feed liis robber; and, that the 
poor should be sustained without being called upon to 
do their utmost to support themselves. 
Our Saxon forefathers, whom we are too ready to look 
back upon as barbarians, were much wiser upon one of 
these points of domestic policy. If a man was guilty 
of manslaughter, they did not stupidly imprison him, 
and still further injure the family of the slain, by making 
them contribute to the county-rate out of which the 
slayer was supported whilst in prison; but they made 
that slayer pay to the family he had so injured the 
value, or were, of the life he had taken. There was 
some sense in this; and equally wise would it he of us 
in the nineteenth century if we not only did likewise, 
but if, when a man was robbed, we compelled the felon 
to labour, and to continue under restraint, until he had 
repaid the value of what he had stolen. So, again, 
though it is our bounden duty to support the poor, who 
necessarily and wisely “ shall never cease out of the 
land,” yet equal wisdom and justice has dictated, that 
“ the idle soul shall suffer hunger.” • - *• 
The question then arises—how can we empower the 
felon to give recompense to him he lias robbed, and 
the pauper to support himself? We have no hesitation 
in replying—By making them till the soil. We have 
on more than one occasion shown the profit to he made 
out of small plots of ground, and we would render this 
No. CIX., Vol V 
