Stipph‘mfnt  to 
March  12,  1903. 
JOURiYAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
219 
Ovklmt,  l^ljilosopljcr  antr  |!atrioK 
HE  subject  of  this  sketch  has  a  claim  to  our  notice  because 
that,  in  an  age  of  strife,  in  a  time  of  much  ignorance, 
in  a  period  of  careless  living,  he  pursued  the  path  of  up¬ 
rightness  and  affirmed  Minerva’s  irresistless  sway.  With  a 
band  of  famous  compatriots  he  shed  gleams  of  light  abroad, 
he  sustained  science  in  the  land,  and  advanced  its  beneficent 
truthfulness.  A  staunch  supporter  of  the  Royal  Society  from  its 
foundation  in  1662,  and  an  ardent  lover  of  gardens  and  rural 
delights,  he  was  still  an  unfaltering  patriot  before  all  things, 
and  freely  gave  his  energies  and  abilities  at  his  Sovereign’s  com¬ 
mand.  A  political  or  adventurous  life  was  much  against  his 
nature  :  he  was  a  natural  philosopher — a  student  of  trees,  and 
plants,  and  living  things,  cherishing  besides  these  the  -history  of 
the  ancients,  was  possessed  of  a  keen  understanding  of  the  arts, 
and  critically  appreciative  of  music  and  its  masters.  He  was  a 
scholar,  a  worker,  a  gentleman.  His  famous  Diary  and  his 
collected  correspondence  impart  to  us  this  knowledge  of  the  man. 
Born  in  1620  at  Wooton, 
in  Surrey,  his  days  all  but 
bridge  the  period  between 
Elizabeth  and  Queen 
Anne.  King  James  I.  of 
England  and  VI.  of  Scot¬ 
land  died  in  1625,  leaving 
his  son,  Charles  I.,  en¬ 
cumbered  with  debt — a 
debt  which  only  increased 
— and  face  to  face  with  a 
House  of  Commons  keenly 
appreciative  of  its  im¬ 
portance  and  its  growing 
strength.  The  period  of 
the  painful  struggle 
between  the  Sovereign 
and  the  Parliament  which 
had  begun  in  his  father’s 
reign,  terminating  in  the 
execution  of  Charles  I. 
on  the  scaffold,  and  the 
usurpation  of  power  by 
Oliver  Cromwell,  is  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  most  ex¬ 
citing  in  English  history. 
On  the  Continent  there 
raged  during  the  same 
period  the  fierce  and 
bitter  Thirty  Years’  War 
between  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  which  only 
ended  after  Germany  had 
been  deluged  with  the 
blood  of  Spaniards,  Hol¬ 
landers,  Frenchmen,  and 
Swedes,  besides  that  of 
her  own  sons,  with  the 
great  Peace  of  West¬ 
phalia  in  1848,  when  the 
religious  liberties  of  the 
Ltitherans  and  Calvinists 
were  guaranteed 
Short  lybeforeEvclyn’s 
day  there  had  existed  a 
great  taste  for  gardening 
among  the  genti'y,  and  it 
was  the  practice  to  strew 
the  floors  with  sweet 
smelling  herbs,  and  to 
have  fragrant  flowers  in 
the  bedchambers.  New 
flowers  and  fruit  trees  were  imported  from  the  Continent;  gar¬ 
dens  were  carefully  laid  out  “  with  quaint  conceits  of  mazes  and 
strangely  cut  Yew  hedges.”  Deer  parks  abounded,  and  hunting 
and  hawking  were  the  favourite  amusements  of  country  life. 
Gerarde,  we  know,  had  despatched  plant  collectors  to  the  Levant 
in  1590,  and  others  followed  his  example.  But  the  period  of  the 
Civil  Wa,r  greatly  desti’oj'ed  the  propensities  of  the  Elizabethan 
reign,  nor  were  they  revived  till  the  Restoration  of  King 
Charles  II.  to  his  throne.  John  Evelyn,  the  boy,  was  sent  to  his 
grandfather’s  homo  at  Lewes  at  the  age  of  five,  when  he  started 
his  schooling.  At  seventeen  he  went  to  the  University  of  Oxford, 
and  from  there  he  entered  the  Middle  Temple,  and  for  a  time 
devoted  himself  to  law.  The  riots  in  London,  incidental  to  the 
period,  drove  the  young  man  to  Holland,  though  that  country 
was  also  in  arms,  and  he  even  served  as  a  volunteer,  but  in  a 
month  or  two  was  again  back  at  the  Middle  Temple.  In  order 
to  escape  being  pressed  to  take  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant, 
however,  he  was  obliged  to  make  a  four  years’  tour,  from  1643, 
through  France,  Italy,  and  Switzerland.  During  his  residence 
m  Pans  he  became  acquainted  with  Sir  Richard  Browne,  at  that 
tune  British  Ambassador  at  the  Court  of  France,  and  in  the 
summer  of  1647  Evelyn  married  Sir  Richard’s  daughter ;  settling 
.some  time  afterwards  at  Sayes  Court,  in  Kent,  which  he  rendered 
iamous.  It  was  at  Sayes  (for  a  time  occupied  by  Peter  the 
Great  of  Russia  after  Evelyn  left  it)  that  he  made  those  experi¬ 
ments  and  observations  which  he  gave  to  the  world  in  his  Gar¬ 
deners  Almanac  and  French  Gardener,  his  ever-famous  “Sylva: 
a  Discourse  on  Forest  Trees,”  a  monumental  work,  indeed,  and 
a  grand  record  by  itself  to  his  wisdom  and  perspicacity.  But 
with  these  he  published  also  a  work  entitled  “  Pomona,”  dealing 
with  the  orchard,  nor  did  he  forget  a  pamphlet  on  “Salads.” 
His  “  Terra  :  a  philosophical  discourse  on  Earth  and  Vegetation,” 
published  in  1668,  is  read  with  the  very  greatest  interest  at  the 
present  day.  His  “  Fiimifiigiuni,”  of  1661,  dealing  with  the 
smoke  nuisance  of  London,  again  asserts  the  far-seeing  mind, 
pregnant  with  reforms.  But  while  Evelyn  was  so  much  a  gar¬ 
dener  and  natural  philosopher,  “  his  foible  was  omniscience,”  and 
at  the  king’s  request  he  produced  a  work  on  “  The  Origin  and 
Progress  of  Navigation,  and  Commerce.’]  The  statements  con¬ 
tained  in  the  work  being 
such  as  greatly  incensed 
the  Dutch,  with  whom 
England  was  then  much 
at  war.  Besides  the  fore- 
named  books  and  pam¬ 
phlets,  Mr.  Evelyn  pub¬ 
lished  others,  respectively 
entitled  “  Sculptura  ” 
(1662),  a  treatise  on  the 
art  of  engraving; 
“  Niimismata,  a  Discourse 
on  Medals  ”  (1668) ;  and 
his  “  Parallel  of  the 
Ancient  Architecture 
with  the  Modern  (1664), 
as  well  as  others  on  sub¬ 
jects  of  lesser  importance, 
including  translations. 
His  diary  shows  him  to 
have  been  a  regular  at¬ 
tendant  at  the  court  of 
both  King  Charles  and 
James  II.,  and  though  he 
was  so  .studious  and  in¬ 
clined  to  seclusion,  yet  ho 
constantly  mixed  with  the 
society  and  fashion  and 
intellect  of  the  period,  all 
of  which  then  concen¬ 
trated  in  London.  His 
diary  is  not  so  complete  as 
that  of  Pepys,  who  was 
his  close  companion,  but 
it  is  the  product  of  a  finer 
mind,  and  certain  pas¬ 
sages,  like  his  description 
of  the  great  fire  of  Lon¬ 
don,  could  not  be  im¬ 
proved  on,  as  examples  of 
descriptive  English. 
Though  not  a  Roman 
Catholic — indeed,  rather 
inclined  to  Puritanism, 
he  was  warmly  attached 
to  the  monarchy,  and  gave 
his  services  on  some  im¬ 
portant  and  vei'y  oner¬ 
ous  commissions,  as  caring 
and  providing  for  the  sick 
and  the  wounded  soldiers 
and  sailors  during  the 
wars  with  the  Dutch  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  ;  or,  again,  the 
commission  to  investigate  the  circumstances  of  the  English 
colonists  who  had  gone  to  America,  and  who  were  both  assertive 
and  complaining.  After  the  destruction  of  so  inuch  of 
London  by  the  fire,  he  lent  his  counsel  and  assisted  Sir 
Christopher  AVren  and  those  who  attended  to  the  remodelling 
and  rebuilding  of  the  city.  The  social  hi.story  of  Evelyn’s  time 
shows  that  between  London  and  the  country  the  distinction  was 
sharply  marked.  The  country  gentlemen  seldom  came  to  London, 
but  biisied  themselves  in  cultivating  their  estates  and  in  ad¬ 
ministering  justice  in  their  neighbourhood.  The  provincial  towns 
were  the  social  centres  for  the  di.strict.  They  were  a  rude,  un¬ 
educated  race,  “  who  drank  hard  and  swore  freely,  but  in  their 
rough  way  the.v  did  their  duty,  and  were  revolted  by  the  sight  of 
the  vices  of  the  court  and  capital.  The  country  clergy  were 
hardly  more  lettered  than  their  squires  ;  the  learned  and  eloquent 
clergy  nearly  all  came  to  London.  John  Evelyn  died  one  year 
before  the  Accession  of  Queen  Anne,  at  the  age  of  86  yeais. 
