Evelyn, John
, celebrated as a philosopher, patriot, and learned writer of the seventeenth century, was descended from an ancient and honourable family, a branch of which, at the time of his birth, was settled in the county | of Surrey, though it flourished originally in the county of Salop, at a place which is still called Evelyn. George Evelyn, esq. purchased the family estate at Wotton in Surrey, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, and had, by two wives, sixteen sons and eight daughters. He died May 30, 1603, in the seventy-third year of his age, leaving his estate at Wotton to Richard Evelyn, esq. his youngest and only surviving son by his second wife. This Richard Evelyn, esq. married Eleanor, or Ellen, daughter and heiress of John Stansficld, of die Cliff" near Lewes, esq. and had by her three sons, George, John, and Richard.
Of John Evelyn, the second of these sons, and the subject of this article, it is to be regretted that no good account has yet been given. That in the first edition of the “Biographia Britannica,” written by Dr. Campbell, is valuable chiefly for an accurate catalogue and analysis of his works, which we shall in part adopt, but it is deficient in facts, and totally erroneous in Mr. Evelyn’s early history. In,the second edition of the Biographia, the narrative, with all its mistakes, was literally copied, and the principal additions are some captious remarks on Dr. Campbell’s notes. The family are in possession of a life of Mr. Evelyn, written by himself, which we hope will soon be presented to the public. In the mean time we have been favoured with some extracts from it and other original papers, with the assistance of which we hope at least to correct the errors of our predecessors.
Mr. Evelyn was born at his father’s seat at Wotton, a few miles from Dorking, on Oct. 31, 1620, and was educated at the school of Lewes, under the care of his grandmother Stansfield, where he acknowledges in his own memoirs, that he was too much indulged, and did not make so good use of his time as he ought to have done but for this he made ample amends by his future diligence, and perhaps his neglect here appeared in a more unfavourable light to him in his advanced years than it deserved, for he was only ten when sent to this school. In April 1673 he was entered of the Middle Temple, though then at school; but in the following month, May 9, was admitted fellow commoner of Baliol college, Oxford, where his tutor was a Mr. Bradshaw (which he calls nomen invisum, alluding to serjeant Bradshaw, who presided on the trial of Charles I.) This Bradshaw was a relation of the regicide, and sou of the rector of Ockham. While at | college, Mr. Evelyn informs us, that Nathaniel Canopius came thither out of Greece, being sent by the celebrated patriarch Cyrill, and had a pension from archbishop Laud. On the rebellion breaking out, Canopius returned to Constantinople, was made bishop of Smyrna, and, as Mr. Evelyn thinks, patriarch of Alexandria. Having already a turn, for objects of that kind, Mr. Evelyn records in this part of his diary, that Canopius was the first he ever saw or heard of, that drank coffee. Mr. Evelyn’s brother Richard was also -of Baliol college, but his brother George was of Trinity, where he is mentioned by Wood among the benefactors to that house.
In December 1640, he entered the Middle Temple, and at this time his father died of the dropsyin his fiftythird year. The ominous appearance of public affairs in 1641 inclined him to pass some time abroad, and accordingly he set out for Holland, after having witnessed the trial of the earl of Stratford. Having viewed what was most remarkable in the principal towns of Holland, with Brussels, Bruges, &c. and paid a visit to the prince of Orange’s camp before Genap, he returned to Dover by the way of Dunkirk in October. In 1642 he went to Brentford to offer his services to his majesty Charles I. and was assigned to ride volunteer in prince Rupert’s troop; but the king marching to Gloucester, and by that step leaving Surrey and Sussex, where Mr. Evelyn’s estate lay, exposed to the rebels, he was advised to travel, and having obtained his majesty’s leave, went in July 1643 to France, and thence to Italy, in which he spe^t above a year. A thirst of knowledge of every kind was his ruling passion; his mind too at this early period of life, was not unfurnished with science, and he could now contemplate, with consequent improvement, the antiquities, arts, religion, laws, and learning and customs of the countries through which he passed. He has, accordingly, left a large and minute account of what he thought worthy of observation, and nothing seems to have escaped him. At Padua he purchased the rare tables of veins and nerves of Dr. John Athelsteinus Leonaenas; and caused him to prepare a third of the lungs, liver, and nervi sextipar with the gastric veins, which he sent into England, being the first that had been seen here, and which he afterwards presented to the royal society. Another instance of his diligence and curiosity Mr. Boyle has recorded in his works (vol. II. p. 206), who | received from Mr. Evelyn, whom he consulted on the occasion, a valuable and minute account of the method by which magazines of snow are preserved in Italy, for the use of the tables of the luxurious. During his stay at Rome, Mr. Evelyn informs us of his having an opportunity of learning the true sentiments of the popish party, on the execution of archbishop Laud, so frequently accused in this country of an inclination towards popery. “I was at Rome,” says he, “in the company of divers of the English fathers, when the news of archbishop Laud’s sufferings, and a copy of his sermon, came thither. They read the sermon, and commented upon it, with no small satisfaction and contempt; and looked on him, as one that was a great enemy to them, and stood in their way, whilst one of the blackest crimes imputed to him was, his being popishly affected.”
Mr. Evelyn’s early affection to, and skill in, the fine arts, appeared during these travels; for we find that he delineated upon the spot, the prospects of several remarkable places that lie between Rome and Naples, particularly “The three Taverns or the forum of Appius,” mentioned in the twenty-eighth chapter of the Acts “The promontory of Auxur” “A prospect of Naples from mount Vesuvius;” “A prospect of Vesuvius, as it appears towards Naples,” and “The mouth of mount Vesuvius.” All these were engraved from our author’s sketches, by Hoare, an artist of character at that time, though some have attributed these engravings to himself. Architecture, painting, and sculpture, Mr. Evelyn particularly studied, and seems to have contracted an acquaintance with those persons who were most eminent in each branch of these arts. Nanteuil, the celebrated French engraver, appears to have been his particular favourite, who, besides drawing a portrait of him in black and white, with Indian ink, engraved a print of him in 1650, which is mentioned by Florent Le Comte in these words, “Yvelin, dit le petit milord Anglois, ou Je portrait Grec; parcequ’il y a du Grec au bas; ou est ecrit aussi, meliora retinete.” The Greek is a sentence from Isocrates, to this purpose, “Let your pictures rather preserve the memory of your virtues, than of your person.”
Mr. Evelyn’s tour is thus chronicled by himself: “July 26, 1643, he went to France, and having passed the remainder of the year, with the winter and next spring, at | Paris, ia which time he made an excursion into Normandy, and saw Rouen, April 25, 1644, he set out for Orleans, and after visiting Blois, Tours, Anjou, and all the fine places on the Loire, together with the town and palace built by the great cardinal Richelieu, and called by his name, he arrived Sept. 2 at Lyons, and went from thence by Avignon to Marseilles, and so along the coast to a little town called Canes, where (in Oct.) he embarked and arrived at Genoa, the curiosities of which having viewed, he proceeded to Pisa, Leghorn, Florence, Sienna, and so came (Nov. 4) to Rome, where he spent the winter in seeing all the antiquities and curiosities of that famous city, making an excursion (Jan. 27, 1644-5) to Naples, and returning Feb. 7. May 18 he left Rome, and passing through Bologna and Ferrara, came (in June) to Venice, where he spent the remaining part of the year, and sometimes going to Padua, where the earl of Arundel was, the great collector of pictures, statues, &c. whom he was acquainted with, and who, at his taking leave of him, gave him directions written with his own hand, what curiosities to inquire after in his travels. March 20, 1646, he left Venice in company with Mr. Waller the poet, and went to Milan, taking Vincenza and Verona in his way; from hence he passed the Alps, and came to Geneva. In July he departed from Geneva, and in October got to Paris again by the way of Orleans.”
Being now recommended to sir Richard Brown, bart. the king’s minister there, he made his addresses to his only daughter Mary, whom he married June 27, 1647, and in her right became possessed of Sayes-court near Deptford, in Kent, where he resided after his return to England, which was in October of that year. Soon after his arrival he went to Hampton court, where he had the honour to kiss his majesty’s hand, and gave him an account of several things he had in charge. On Jan. 21, 1648-9, he published his tract on liberty and servitude, for which he wasseverely threatened, and probably on this account he went again to France in July 1649, and in November of that year he attended his father-in-law sir Richard Brown, when he had his first audience at the French court, after the death of Charles I. and delivered his credentials from Charles II. In July 1650 he went again to England, but returned to Paris in the following month. In Jan. 1651-2 he left France, and returning to England, settled at Sayescourt near Deptford, and in May was joined by his wife | from France. In all he appears to have spent about seven years in his travels, and with a mind highly improved by what he had seen and read, he silently pursued his studies at this retirement (for such it then was), and wrote and published some of those works which afterwards gave him a distinguished name in the learned world. It was here also that he first shewed his skill in planting and gardening, both then very little understood in England, and rendered this place the wonder and admiration of the most judicious men of his time. The situation, indeed, of public affairs induced him to consider privacy as a very great blessing; and so fond was he of his rural retreat, that he very rarely quitted it, though but a young man, with a considerable fortune,*
Of his fortune we find the following particulars among some ms memoraudums. June 1648, purchased the manor of Horcoit in Worcestershire, of his brother George for 3300l. Dec. 2, sold it for 3400l. 1649, March 12, bought Warley Magna Minor in Essex for 2500l. 1653, Feb. 22, purchased Sayes-court of the Commonwealth, being crown lands, for 3500l. 1655, Sept. 17. Received 2600l. for Warley Magna. There is also a memorandum dated 1653, Jan. 17, “began his garden at Sayes-court.”
This scheme, which is characteristic of the state of Mr. Evelyn’s mind, at a time when good men sickened at the contemplation of successful rebellion, would, in all likelihood, have gradually departed from its principles, and is perhaps too romantic to have stood the collision of human passions and human events. But, when a prospect appeared of better times, it occasioned some change in his sentiments; and, upon an attempt being made to damp the desires of the people for the king’s return, he drew his pen in that critical season in defence of his majesty’s character, which, at such a juncture, was both an acceptable and a very important service. The conduct of Mr. Evelyn in this critical year, 1659, which was in truth the most active in his whole life, is hardly taken notice of by any of those who have undertaken to preserve his memoirs. After the death of Oliver and the deposition of Richard Cromwell, there were many of the commanders in the army that shewed an inclination to reconcile themselves to the king; which disposition of theirs was very much encouraged by such as had his majesty’s interest truly at heart. Amongst these, Mr. Evelyn had a particular eye upon colonel Herbert Morley, an old experienced officer in the parliament army, who had two stout regiments entirely at his devotion, was very much esteemed by his party, and had the general reputation of being a person of probity and honour. It was a very dangerous step, as things then stood, to make any advances to one in his situation; yet Mr. Evelyn, considering how much it might be in that gentleman’s power to facilitate the king’s return, fairly ventured his life, by advising the colonel freely to make his peace with, and enter into the service of, the king. The colonel, as might well be expected, acted coldly and cautiously at first, but at last accepted Mr. Evelyn’s offer, and desired him to make use of his interest to procure a pardon for himself, and some of his relations and friends whom he named, promising in return to give all the assistance in his power to the royal cause. At the same time that Mr. Evelyn carried on this dangerous intercourse with colonel Morley, he formed a resolution of publishing something that might take off the edge of that inveteracy, expressed by those who had been deepest in the parliament’s interest, against such as had always adhered to the king and with this view | he wrote a small treatise, which had the desired effect, and was so generally well received, that it ran through three impressions that year. The title of this piece was, “An Apology for the Royal Party, written in a letter to a person of the late council of state; with a touch at the pretended plea of the army,” Lond. 1659, in two sheets in 4to. But while Mr. Evelyn and other gentlemen of his sentiments were thus employed, those of the contrary party were not idle; and, amongst these, Marchamont Needham, who first wrote with great bitterness for the king against the parliament, and afterwards with equal acrimony for the parliament against the king, was induced to write a pamphlet, which was deservedly reckoned one of the most artful and dangerous contrivances for impeding that healing spirit that began now to spread itself through the nation, and with that view was handed to the press by Praisegod Barebones, one of the fiercest zealots in those times, the title of which, at large, runs thus: “News from Brussels, in a letter from a near attendant on his majesty’s person, to a person of honour here, dated March 10th, 1659.” The design of this pretended letter was to represent the character of king Charles II. in as bad a light as possible, in order to destroy the favourable impressions that many had received of his natural inclination to mildness and clemency. All the king’s friends were extremely alarmed at this attempt, and saw plainly that it would be attended with most pernicious consequences; but Mr. Evelyn, who had as quick a foresight as any of them, resolved to lose no time in furnishing an antidote against this poison, and with great diligence and dexterity sent abroad in a week’s time a complete answer, which bore the following title: “The late news or message from Brussels unmasked,” London, I 659, 4to. This very seasonable and very important service, for his own safety, our author managed with such secrecy, that hardly any body knew from whom this pamphlet came. But how much soever he had reason to be pleased with the success of his pen upon this occasion, he could not help being extremely mortified at the change he perceived in his friend colonel Morley’s behaviour, who on a sudden grew very silent and reserved, and at length plainly avoided any private conversation with Mr. Evelyn. In this situation our author had the courage to write him an expostulatory letter, which was in effect putting his life into his hands, and yet even this failed of procuring him the | satisfaction he expected. However, he felt no inconvenience from it; for this alteration in colonel Motley’s countenance towards him was not the effect of any change in his disposition, but arose from his having entered into new engagements for the king’s service with sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and general Monk, who had tied him down to such absolute secrecy that he was not able at that juncture to give Mr. Evelyn any hint that might make him easy; but the latter soon saw plainly enough, from the colonel’s public behaviour, that he had no reason to apprehend any mischief from the confidence he had reposed in him.
Immediately after the king’s return, Mr. Evelyn was introduced, on June 5, 1660, to the king by the duke of York, and very graciously received; nor was it long before be experienced the king’s esteem and confidence, in a remarkable instance. There had been many disputes between the ambassadors of the crowns of France and Spain, for precedence in the courts of foreign princes, and amongst these there was none more remarkable than that upon Tower-hill, on the landing of an ambassador from Sweden, September 30, 1660, which was so premeditated a business on both sides, that the king, foreseeing it would come to a quarrel, and being willing to carry himself with indifference towards both, which could not be otherwise done than leaving them at liberty to adjust their respective pretences, yet for the sake of public tranquillity, orders were given that a strict guard should be kept upon the place, and all his majesty’s subjects were enjoined not to intermeddle, or take part with either side; and the king was farther pleased to command, that Mr. Evelyn should, after diligent inquiry made, draw up and present him a distinct narrative of the whole affair, which he accordingly did, and it is a very curious and remarkable piece. It is inserted in Baker’s Chronicle, Our author began now to enter into the active scenes of life, but yet without bidding adieu entirely to his studies. On the contrary, he published, in the space of a few months, several learned treatises upon different subjects, which met with great applause; the rather because the author expressed in some of. them his intention to prosecute more largely several philosophical subjects, in a manner that might render them conducive to the benefit of society; and of his capacity for performing these promises, some of these pieces were instances sufficient to satisfy every intelligent reader, as well | as to justify the character he had already acquired, of being at once an able and agreeable writer. It is certain that very few authors of his time deserve this character so well as Mr. Evelyn, who, though he was acquainted wkh most sciences, and wrote upon many different subjects, yet was tar from being a superficial writer. He had genius, taste, and learning, and he knew how to give all these a proper place in his works, so as never to pass for a pedant, even with such as were least in love with literature, and to be justly esteemed a polite author by those who knew it best.
About the close of 1662, when his majesty was pleased, by his letters patent, to erect and establish the royal society for the improvement of natural knowledge, John Evelyn, esq. was appointed one of the first fellows and council, on June 20. He had given a proof the same year how well he deserved that distinction, by his “Sculptura.” Upon the first appearance of the nation’s being obliged to engage in a war with the Dutch, the king thought proper to appoint commissioners, in November 1664, to take care of the sick and wounded, and Mr. Evelyn was one of the number, having all the ports between Dover and Portsmouth in his district; and sir Thomas Clifford, who was afterwards a peer, and lord high treasurer of England, was another. We find these particulars in a letter from our author to Mr. Boyle, in which he expresses how great a satisfaction it would have been to have had that worthy and charitable person for his colleague. Notwithstanding the plague which raged in London in 1665, he frequently went thither on the business of this office, having at one time no less than 3000 Dutch prisoners under his care. In January 1665-6, he waited on his majesty at Hamptoncourt, who was newly returned from Oxford, where he had resided during the plague, and his majesty took this opportunity to thank him for his zeal and fidelity in his service at A time of such danger, when every one was desirous of quitting London, and kindly told him he had often been alarmed for his safety.
Mr. Evelyn’s literary labours now began to accumulate, from his ardent wish to support the credit of the royal society, and to convince the world that philosophy was not barely an amusement, to take up the time of melancholy and contemplative persons, but a high and useful science, worthy the attention of men of the greatest parts, and | capable of contributing in a supreme degree to the welfare of the nation. He eserted his talents also in the defence, and for the improvement, of the public taste in architecture and painting, with equal vigour and with equal applause.
As there is nothing more natural than for men of liberal
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and cultivated minds to cherish an affectionate remembrance of the academies where they first pursued their studies, Mr. Evelyn gave a noble testimony of his high respect for his alma mater, Oxford, by using his utmost interest with the lord Henry Howard, in order to prevail upon him to bestow the Arundeliao marbles, then in the garden of Arundel-house in the Strand, upon the university, in which he happily succeeded, and obtained the thanks of that learned body, delivered by Dr. Barlow, and other delegates specially appointed for the purpose. Nor was this the last favour conferred by lord Arundel, at the request of Mr. Evelyn, whom he honoured with his closest friendship, after he arrived at the title of Duke of Norfolk. Of this interest Mr. Evtlyn made no other advantage than giving a right direction to the natural generosity of that excellent person, whence flowed some particular marks of kindness to the royal society, which were very gratefully accepted; and something farther would have been procured, if the duke’s sudden and unexpected death had not frustrated the schemes formed by our author for the service of that learned society, to which, from its very foundation, he was attached with unabated zeal. Mr. Evelyn spent his time, at this juncture, in a manner as pleasing as he could wish. He had great credit at court, and great reputation in the world; was one of the commissioners for rebuilding St. Paul’s, attended the meetings of the royal society with great regularity, undertook readily whatever tasks were assigned him to support that reputation, which, from their first institution, they had acquired, and which, by degrees, triumphed over that envy which it raised. He was punctual in the discharge of his office as a commissioner of the sick and wounded; and when he had leisure retired to his seat at Sayes-court, where the improvement of his garden was his favourite ambition.*
A few more memorandums may here be added from the ms, already quoted: Sept. 7, 1660, he went to Chelsea to visit Mr. Boyle, and saw his pneumatic engine. Dec. 22, his wife presented the princess Hemietia with her character in writing, afterwards printed. 1660-1, March 13,
|prince Rupert shewed him the new manner of engraving, called Mezzo tinto. Jan. 16, 1662, the duke of York made him a visit at Saves-court, April 30, 1663, the king came to see him at Sayes-court. This spring he planted the home field and the West field with elms. May 20, 1664, king Charles drew upon a scrap of paper a sketch of a design for Whitehall, and gave it him. 1664-5, he planted the lower grove next the pond. July 1, 1666, he was made a commissioner for regulating the farming and making saltpetre. Aug. 27, he went with several others to view the repairs wanting at St. Paul’s cathedral—his last sight of that ancient and noble pile, for this notice is followed by another memorandum. Sept 3 he went from Sayescourt to the Bank-side in Southwark, from whence he had a full sight of the fire of London. Dec. 9, 1667, he was with the chancellor Clarendon at his new house, the night before be went away.
In 1696, we find that he lett his seat at Sayes-court to admiral Benbow for three years. In June of that year he was present at laying the first stone of the hospital at Greenwich. In 1698 when Peter the Great came over to England to learn ship- building, he took a fancy, as Mr. Evelyn tells us, to his house at Sayes-court, because it was near the king’s yard at Deptford, and insisted on turning out admiral Benbow. What stay the czar made does not appear, but he did no little mischief to the house and gardens, and for this damage paid Mr. Evelyn 150l. In Oct. 1699, Mr. Evelyn’s elder brother George died, in his eighty-third year, and having no issue male, the paternal estate at Wotton came to our author. In Jan. 1700 he paid his first visit to it as possessor, and in May removed his family and goods thither from Sayes-court. He was here during the great storm of 1703, when above a thousand trees were blown down in sight of his house. His last visit was paid to Wotton in July 1705, and the last memorandum made in his Journal was of Feb. 3, 1706.
During his latter days there was no relaxation of his | endeavours to be useful. As his collections were very great, so he was ever ready to communicate them for the benefit of others. He furnished Dr. Gibson, bishop of London, with those additional remarks on the county of Surrey, which are published in his English edition of the "Britannia. 11 He contributed largely to Mr. Houghton’s valuable work on husbandry and trade, and to Burnet’s History of the Reformation; and Mr. Aubrey has testified how often he was indebted to him for his friendly assistance in many of his undertakings. In respect to the royal society, he was equally assiduous in his attendance, and careful in his intelligence. Whatever fell within the compass of his own extensive inquiries, he never failed to transmit to that body, nor was he less active in procuring them proper correspondents both at home and abroad, of which copious testimonies are to be met with in their registers, and in their printed Transactions. He might, therefore, justly style himself, as he did, a pioneer in their service; an expression which marked at once how humble and how indefatigatible he was in whatever might contribute to the advancement of that noble design, which was the basis of their institution. He was a true lover of freedom of thought in philosophical inquiries, which he practised upon all occasions himself, and very readily indulged to others; and though nobody was freer from prejudices, or spoke more discreetly than he did, of books that it was impossible for him to commend, yet he never resented any attack made upon his own, but bore the contradiction of his opinion with all imaginable temper, being persuaded that truth and reason would always triumph in the end, and that it was better to leave things to the decision of the public than to embark in endless controversies, though in the defence of sentiments ever so well founded. When we consider the number of the books he published, and the variety of the subjects upon which he employed his time, our admiration of his industry and application is greatly heightened when we reflect how careful he was in reviewing, correcting, and augmenting, all his original works. Whatever subject appeared weighty enough to attract his attention, never lost its place in his thoughts, but was often revolved, and reaped the continual benefit of the new lights he received.
This learned person’s life and labours terminated together; for, in a short time after he had prepared the | fourth edition of his “Sylva” for the press, he departed this life in the eighty-sixth year of his age, Feb. 27, 1705-6, and was interred at Wotton. His tomb is about three feet high, of free-stone, shaped like a coffin, with an inscription upon a white marble stone, expressing, according to his own intention, “That living in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, he had learned from thence this truth, which he desired might be thus communicated to posterity, That all is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety.” By his wife, Mary, daughter of sir Richard Brown, who was the companion of his fortunes, and in some measure also of his studies, for almost threescore years, he had five sons and three daughters. Of the former, all died young except one, of whom we shall speak in the next article; of the latter, only one survived him, Susannah, married to William Draper, of Adscomb, in the county of Surrey, esq. His excellent widow did not outlive him quite three years, but, dying Feb. 9, 1709, was, according to her own desire, deposited in a stone coffin, near the corpse of her husband. Upon the stone coffin, in which the leaden one lies that holds her body, a white marble stone is placed of the same shape, with a very short inscription, which informs us, that, at the time of her demise she was in the seventy- fourth year of her age, and that she was esteemed, admired, beloved, and regretted, by all who knew her.
Mr. Evelyn’s personal character was truly amiable. In the relative duties of father, husband, and friend, few could exceed him in affection and constancy; and his correspondence, of which a large portion still exists in ms. affords many proofs of a kind heart, and a placid, humble temper. He was greatly beloved by all who knew him, and his acquaintance was most extensive. Titles he never appears to have courted; but it is rather singular, that a monarch like Charles II. by no means a niggard in what cost him nothing, should not have tendered the rank of baronet to a man who was one of the ornaments of his reign. With James, we apprehend, he was not very cordial, and after the revolution, it is probable that he thought the addition of title very insignificant at his time of life.
As considerable light is thrown on the history and merits of Mr. Evelyn from the account given of his works, little apology need be made for the length of the article, taken | principally from the Biographia Britannica. These were, 1. His treatise “Of Liberty and Servitude,” 1649, 12mo. This was a translation, and in all probability the first essay of our author’s pen. 2. “A Character of England, as it was lately presented in a letter to a nobleman of France, with reflections upon Callus Castratus,” 1651, 16to. The third edition of this book appeared in 1659; at present it is very scarce. 3. “The State of France,” London, 1652, 8vo. 4. “An Essay on the First Book of Titus Lucretius Carus, de renim natura, interpreted, and made into English verse, by J. Evelyn, esq.” London, 1656, 8vo. The frontispiece to this book was designed by his lady, Mary Evelyn. There is a copy of verses by F.dmun.l Waller, esq. of Beaconsfield, prefixed and directed to his worthy friend Mr. Evelyn, perhaps too extravagant. As there are many faults, however, in this work which do not belong to the author, we shall subjoin the transcript of a ms note in his own hand-writing in the copy at Wotton: “Never was book so abominably misused by printer; never copy so negligently surveied by one who undertooke to looke over the proofe-sheetes with all exactnesse and care, naqely Dr. Triplet, well knowne for his abiilitie, and who pretended, to oblige me in Hiv absence, and so readily offer’d himselfe. This good yet I received by it, that publishing it vaiiu-ly, its ill succese at the printer’s discouraged me with troubling the world with the rest.” 5. “The French Gardener, instructing how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-trees and herbs for the garden, together with directions to dry and conserve them in their natural,” &c. Lond. 1658, in 12mo, and several times after. In most of the editions is added, “The English Vineyard vindicated, by John Rose, gardener to his majesty king Charles II. with a’ tract of the making and ordering of wines in France.” The third edition of this French Gardener, which came out in 1676, was illustrated with sculptures. 6. “The golden book of St. Oh ry sos torn, concerning the Education of Children.” Lond. 1659, 12mo, in the preface to which is a very interesting account of his son Richard, an amiable and promising child, who died in infancy, Jan. 27, 1657. This little narrative, as Mr. Evelyn’s work is scarce, may be seen in decade first of Barksdale’s Memorials, which, however, is almost as scarce. 7. “An Apology for the Royal Party, c.” 1659, 4to, mentioned above. 8. “The late News or Message from Brussels unmasked,” 1659, 4 to, also mentioned above. 9. A | Panegyric at his, majesty king Charles II. his Coronation,‘ 1 Loncl. 1661, fol. 10. “Instructions concerning the erecting of a Library, written by Gabriel Naude”, published in English, with some improvements,“Lond. 1661, 8vo. ll.” Fumifugium or the inconveniences of the air and the smoke of London dissipated together with some remedies humbly proposed,“London, 1661, 4to, in five sheets, addressed to the king and parliament, and published by hisma jesty’s express command. Of this there was a late edition in 1772. 12.” Tyrannies or the Mode in a discourse of sumptuary laws“Lond. 1661, 8vo. 13.” Sculptnra; or the history a-id art of Chalcography and Engraving in Copper, with an ample enumeration of the most renowned masters and their works; to which is annexed, a new manner of engraving, or mezzo-tinto,. communicated by his highness prince Rupert to the author of this treatise,“Lond. 1662, 8vo. In the dedication to Mr. Robert Boyle, dated: at Sayes-court, April 5th, 1662, he observes, that he wrote this treatise at the reiterated instance of that gentleman. The first chapter treats of sculpture, howderived and distinguished, with the styles and instruments belonging to it. The second, of the original of sculpture in general. la this chapter our author observes, that letters, and consequently sculpture, were lon.g before the flood, Suidas ascribing both letters and all the rest of the sciences to Adam. After the flood, as he supposes, there were but few who make any considerable question, that it might not be propagated by Noah to his posterity, though some admit of none before Moses. The third chapter treats of the reputation and progress of sculpture among the Greeks and Romans down to the middle ages, with a discussion of some pretensions to the invention of copper cuts and their impressions. The fourth, of the invention and progress of chalcography in particular, together with an ample enumeration of the most renowned masters and their works. The fifth, of drawing and design previous to the art of chalcography, and of the use of pictures in order to theeducation of children. In this chapter, our author, in honour of the art upon which he writes, discourses thus:” It was in the former chapter that we made rehearsal of the most renowned gravers and their works, not that we had no more to add to that number, but because we would not mingle these illustrious names and qualities there, which we purposely reserved for | the crown of this discourse. We did, therefore, forbear to mention what his highness prince Rupert’s own hands have contributed to the dignity of that art, performing things in graving, of which some enrich our collection, comparable to the greatest masters; such a spirit and address there appears in all that he touches, and especially in that of the mezzotinto, of which we shall speak hereafter more at large, having first enumerated those incomparable gravings of that his new and inimitable style, in both the great and little decollations of St. John the Baptist, the soldier holding a spear and leaning his hand on a shield, the two Mary Magdalens, the old man’s head, that of Titian, &c. after the same Titian, Georgion, and others. We have also seen a plate etched by the present French king, and other great persons; the right honourable the earl of Sandwich, sometimes, as we are told, diverting himself with the burine, and herein imitating those ancient and renowned heroes, whose names are loud in the trumpet of fame for their skill and particular affection to these arts. For such of old were Lucius Manilius, and Fabius, noble Romans, Pacuvius, the tragic poet, nephew to Ennius. Socrates, the wisest of men, and Plato himself, Metrodorus and Pyrrhus the philosopher, did both desigii and paint and so did Valentinian, Adrian, and Severus, emperors so as the great Paulus ^milius esteemed it of such high importance, that he would needs have his son to be instructed in it, as in one of the most worthy and excellent accomplishments belonging to a prince. For the art of graving, Quintilian likewise celebrates Euphranor, a polite and rarely endowed person; and Pliny, in that chapter where he treats of the same art, observes that there was never any one famous in it, but who was by birth or education a gentleman. Therefore he and Galen in their recension of the liberal arts, mention that of graving in particular, amongst the most permanent; and in the same catalogue, number it with rhetoric, geometry, logic, astronomy, yea, r grammar itself, because there is in these arts, say they, more of fancy and invention, than strength of hand, more of the spirit than of the body. Hence Aristotle informs us, that the Grecians did universally institute their children in the art of painting and drawing, for an oeconomique reason there signified, as well as to produce proportions in the mind. Varro makes it part of the ladies 1 education, that they might have the better skill in the works of | embroidery, &c. and for this cause is his daughter Martia celebrated among those of her fair sex. We have already mentioned the learned Anna Schurman; but the princess Louisa has done wonders of this kind, and is famous throughout Europe for the many pieces which enrich our cabinets, examples sufficient to vindicate its dignity, and the value that has been set upon it, since both emperors, kings, and philosophers, the great and the wise, have not disdained to cultivate and cherish this honourable quality of old, so nobly reputed, that amongst the Greeks a slave might not be taught it. How passionately does Pereskius, that admirable and universal genius, deplore his want of dexterity in this art Baptista Alberti, Aldus Pomponius, Guaricus Durer, and Rubens, were politely learned and knowing men, and it is hardly to be imagined of how great use and conducible a competent address in this art of drawing and designing is to the several advantages which occur, and especially to the more noble mathematical sciences, as we have already instanced in the lunary works of Hevelius, and are no less obliged to celebrate some of ur own countrymen famous for their dexterity in this incomparable art. Such was that Blagrave, who himself cut those diagrams in his Mathematical Jewel; and such at present is that rare and early prodigy of universal science, Dr. Chr. Wren, our worthy and accomplished friend. For, if the study of eloquence and rhetoric were cultivated by the greatest geniuses and heroic persons which the world has produced, and that, by the suffrage of the most knowing, to be a perfect orator a man ought to be universally instructed, a quality so becoming and useful should never be neglected.“In the sixth chapter he discourses of the new way of engraving or mezzotinto, invented and communicated by prince Rupert and he therein observes,” that his highness did indulge him the liberty of publishing the whole manner and address of this new way of engraving; but when I had well considered it, says he (so much having been already expressed, which may suffice to give the hint to all ingenious persons how it is to be performed), I did not think it necessary that an art so curious, and as yet so little vulgar, and which indeed does not succeed where the workman is not an accomplished designer, and has a competent talent in painting likewise, was to be prostituted at so cheap a rate as the more naked describing of it here would too soon have exposed it to. | Upon these considerations then, it is, that vvg leave it thus enigmatical; and yet that this may appear no disingenuous rhodomontade in me, or invidious excuse, I profess myself to be always most ready sub sigillo, and by his highness’s permission, to gratify any curious and worthy person with as full and perfect a demonstration of the entire art as my talent and address will reach to, if what I am now preparing to be reserved in the archives of the royal society concerning it be not sufficiently instructive.“There came, however, into the hands of the communicative and learned Richard Micldleton Massey, M. D. and F. 11. S. the original manuscript, written by Mr. Evelyn, and designed for the royal society, entitled” Prince Rupert’s new way of engraving, communicated by his highness to Mr. Evelyn;“in the margin of which is this note:” This I prepared to be registered in the royal society, but I have not yet given it in, so as it still continues a secret.“In this manuscript he first describes the two instruments employed in this new manner of engraving, viz. the hatcher and the style, and then proceeds to explain the method of using them. He concludes with the following words:” This invention, or new manner of chalcography, was the result of chance, and improved by a German soldier, who, espying some scrape on the barrel of his musket, and being of an ingenious spirit, refined upon it, till it produced the effects you have seen, and which indeed is, for the delicacy thereof, much superior to anyinvention extant of this art, for the imitation of those masterly drawings, and, as the Italians call it, that morhidezza expressed in the best of their designs. I have had the honour to be the first of the English to whom it has been yet communicated, and by a special indulgence of his highness, who with his own hands was pleased to direct me with permission to publish it to the world; but I have esteemed it a thing so curious, that I thought it would be to profane it, before I had first offered it to this illustrious society. There is another way of engraving, by rowelling a plate with an instrument made like that which our scriveners and clerks use to direct their rulers by on parchment, only the points are thicker set into the rowel. And when the plate is sufficiently freckled with the frequent reciprocation of it, upon the polished surface, so as to render the ground dark enough, it is to be abated with the style, and treated as we have already described. Of this sort I have seen a head of the | queen Christina, graved, if I mistake not, as big as the life, but not comparable to the mezzotinto of prince Rupert, so deservedly celebrated by J. Evelyn."
A second edition of the Sculptura was published in 1755, containing some corrections and additions taken from the margin of the author’s printed copy; an etching of his head by Mr. Worlidge; an exact copy of the mezzotinto done by prince Rupert, by Mr. Houston a translation of all the Greek and Latin passages and memoirs of Mr. Evelyn’s life, from which we have borrowed a few particulars. The work had become very scarce; being chiefly confined to the libraries of the most curious among the learned. Mr. Walpole has spoken of it in terms of high respect, as well as of its author.*
Mr. Walpole says, “If Mr. Evelyn had not been an artist himself, as I think I can prove, I should yet have found it difficult to deny myself the pleasure of allotting him a place among the arts he loved, promoted, patronized; and it would be but justice to inscribe his name with due panegyric in these records, as I have once or twice taken the liberty to criticise him: but they are trifling blemishes compared with his Amiable virtues and beneficence; and it may be remarked, that the worst I have said of him is, that he knew more than he always communicated. It is no unwelcome satire to say that a man’s intelligence and philosophy is inexhaustible. I mean not to write his life, which may be found detailed in the new edition of his Sculptura, in Collins’s Baronetage, in the General Dictionary, and in the New Biographical Dictionary; but I must observe, that his life, which was extended to eighty-six years, was a course of enquiry, study, 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 imperfection of the other. He adored from examination; was a courtier that flattered only by informing his prince, and by pointing out what was worthy for him to countenance; and was really the Neighbour of the Gospel, for there was no man that might not have been the better for him. Whoever peruses a list of his works will subscribe to my assertion. He was one of the first promoters of the royal society, a patron of the ingenious and indigent, and peculiarly serviceable to the lettered world; for, besides his writings and discoveries, he obtained the Arundelian marbles for the university of Oxford, and the Arundelian library for the royal society. Nor is it the least part of his praise, that he who proposed t 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 knew that retirement in his own hands was industry and benefit to mankind but in those of others, laziness and inatilit y” Ca talogue of Engravers, p. 85, 86.
Mr. Evelyn’s next publication was the most important of all his works: 15. “Sylva; or, a dicourse of Foresttrees, and the propagation of timber in his majesty’s dominions 5 as it was delivered in the royal society the 15th of October, 1662, Upon occasion of certain queries propounded to that illustrious assembly by the honourable the principal officers and commissioners of the navy.” To which is annexed, “Pomona, or, an appendix concerning | fruit-trees, in relation to cider, the making and several ways of ordering it: published by express order of the royal society,” Lond. 1664, fol. This was the first work written by the command, and published in virtue of an order, of the royal society, signed by the lord viscount Brouncker, their president, and dedicated to the king. The second edition of it was published in 1669, with a new dedication to king Charles II. dated from Sayes-court, Aug. 24; the first paragraph of which deserves the reader’s notice. “Sir, This second edition of Sylva, after more than a thousand copies had been bought up and dispersed of the first impression, in much less than two years space (which booksellers assure us is a very extraordinary thing in volumes of this bulk), conies now again to pay its homage to your serene majesty, to whose auspices alone it owes the favourable acceptance which it has received in the world. But it is not that alone which it presumes to tell your majesty, but to acquaint you that it has been the sole occasion for furnishing your almost exhausted dominions with more, I dare say, than two millions of timber-trees, besides infinite others, which have been propagated within the three nations at the instigation and by the direction of this work; and that the author of it is able, if need require, to make it out by a competent volume of letters and acknowledgments, which are come to his hands, from several persons of the most eminent quality, many of them illustrious, and divers of them unknoun to him, in justification of what he asserts; which he the rather preserves with the more care, because they are testimonials from so many honourable persons ‘of the benefit they have received from the endeavours of the royal society, which now-a-days passes through so many censures; but she has yet your majesty for her founder and patron, and is therefore the’ less concerned, since no man of worth can lightly speak ill of an assembly v.hich your majesty has thought fit to dignify by so signal a relation to it.” The third edition, with great additions and improvements, was published in 1G79; the fourth in 1705, and the fifth in 1729, both very incorrect. In 1776 a new edition of the “Sylva” was published in 4to, by Dr. Andrew Hunter, of York, a gentleman eminently qualified for the undertaking. Under the care of this gentleman the work appeared with every possible advantage; and was enriched by the judicious editor with ample and copious notes, and adorned with a set of fine | engravings. A head of Mr. Evelyn is prefixed, drawn and engraved by Battolozzi. Dr. Hunter’s edition of the Sylva has been four times reprinted. The edition of 1812 contains the deceased editor’s last corrections .*
See an excellent critique on this edition in the Quarterly Review, No. XVII.
On his advancement to the board of trade, he published, 22. “A short and plain discourse, the chief heads of the history of trade and navigation,” which he dedicated to the king, and which was very graciously rereirecl, and thought then to contain as much matter in as | small a compass as any that was ever written upon a topic so copious as well as so important. 23. “Terra: a philosophical discourse of earth, relating to the culture and improvement of it for vegetation, and the propagation of plants, &c. as it was presented to the royal society, April 29th, 1675,” London, 1675, folio and 8vo. Of this, also, Dr. Hunter published an improved edition in 1778. 24. “Mundus Muliebris; or, the ladies dressing-room unlocked, and her toilette spread. In burlesque. Together with the Fop- Dictionary, compiled for the use of the fairsex,” Lond. 1690, 4to. 25. “Monsieur de la Quintinye’s treatise of Orange-Trees, with the raising of Melons, omitted in the French editions; made English by John Evelyn, esq.” Lond. 1693. 26. “Numismata; a discourse of medals, ancient and modern; together with some account of heads and effigies of illustrious and famous persons, in sculps and taille douce, of whom we have no medals extant, and of the uses to be derived from them. To which is added, a digression concerning physiognomy,” Lond. 1697, folio.
Before concluding our article, it may be necessary to advert to some particulars of Mr. Evelyn’s history, which are interspersed in his “Sylva,” and could not well be incorporated in our sketch. From that work we learn, that the true signification of his surname, Evelyn, written anciently Avelan or Evelin, was filberd, or rather hazel, which gives him occasion to remark, that these trees are commonly produced where quarries of free-stone lie underneath, as at Hazelbury in Wiltshire, Haslingfield in Cambridgeshire, and Haslemere in Surrey. He more than once remarks, that his grandfather was a great planter and preserver of timber, as it seems were the ancient possessors of the place where he lived, whence it acquired its name of Wotton (i. e.) Woodtown, from the groves and plantations that were about it. He farther remarks, that there was an oak felled by his grandfather’s order, out of which there was a table made, measured by himself more than once, of five feet in breadth, nine and a half in length, and six inches thick, all entire and clear. It was set up in brick-work for a pastry-board; and, to fit it for that use, it was shortened by a foot, being originally ten feet and a half, as appeared from an inscription cut in one of its sides, whence it appeared to have lain there above one hundred years, when pur author wrote this description. When his grandfather’s | woods were cut down, which consisted entirely of cak, they sprang up again, not oaks but beeches; and when these too in their turn felt the axe, there arose spontaneously a third plantation, not of oak or beech, but of birch, which he does not set down as a thing singular in itself, but because it happened under his own eye. He is a declared enemy to iron works, on account of their destroying woods; yet he observes, from the prudential maxims prevailing in his own family, they had quite a contrary effect, as being one principal cause of their making such large plantations, and taking so much pains about them. It was a relation of his that sold Richmond new park to kiug Charles I. after planting many fine trees there. Our author carried this disposition with him to Sayes-court, where he must have shewn it very early, since be assures us that the marquis of Argyle presented him with the cones of a peculiar kind of fir, which he takes to be the Spanish pinaster, or wild pine, and gives a very particular account of the manner in which they grew in the marquis’s county in Scotland. He informs us, that it was the lord chancellor Bacon who introduced the true plane tree, which he planted originally about Verulam, whence he had his title. Mr. Evelyn takes to himself the honour of having propagated the alaternus from Cheshire to Cumberland, which was before reputed an inhabitant only of the green-house, but is found very capable not only of living without doors, but of standing unhurt by the rigour of our severest winters. He mentions a most glorious and impenetrable holly-hedge which he had at Sayes-court^ four hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, which occasions his dropping a hint, that the fine gardens he had raised there were wholly ruined by the tzar of Muscovy, who it seems lived there for the sake of being near the yard. He recommended Mr. Gibbons, the carver, to king Charles II. by whom some exquisite works were performed in St. Paul’s cathedral. He was likewise consulted by the Bedford family about preserving their fine trees, so long as the gardens were kept up about Bedford-house, which, before the last edition of his book, were demolished, to make way for the new buildings about Bloomsbury. He takes notice of an admirable remedy for a dysentery, which had been otherwise, in all probability, buried in oblivion; and this is the fungous substance separated from the lobes of walnut kernels, powdered and | given in a glass of wine, which, he affirms, relieved the English soldiers in the famous Dundalk campaign in Ireland, soon after the revolution, when all other remedies failed. He was acquainted with the conde Mellor, a Portuguese nobleman, who resided some time at the court of king Charles II. when an exile from his own, by whom he was informed, that his father, when prime-minister, as himself had likewise been, received in a case a collection of plants of china oranges, of which only one escaped, and was with difficulty recovered; and yet from this plant came all the china oranges that ever were seen in Europe, which, our author observes, is a most noble and wonderful instance of what industry may do from the slightest and least promising beginnings. One instance of the vast advantages derived from woods we shall borrow, because the facts are notorious and indisputable. “Upon the estate of George Pitt, esq. of Stratfield-Say, in the county of Southampton, a survey of timber being taken in 1659, it came to ten thousand three hundred pounds, besides near ten thousand samplers not valued, and growing up naturally. Since this there hath been made by several sales, five thousand six hundred pounds, and there has been felled for repairs, building, and necessary uses, to the value, at the least, of twelve hundred pounds; so as the whole falls of timber amount to six thousand eight hundred pounds. The timber upon the same ground being again surveyed anno 1677, appears to be worth above twenty-one thousand pounds, besides eight or nine thousand samplers and young trees to be left standing, and not reckoned in the survey. But, what is yet to be observed, most of this timber abovementioned being oak, grows in hedge-rows, and so as that the standing of it does very little prejudice to the plough or pasture.” To conclude: this worthy person, who was born in a town famous for wood, who derived from his ancestors an affection for plantations, who wrote the most correct treatise of forest-trees extant in our own, or perhaps in any language, and who was himself a most eminent planter, had a strong desire, after the example of sir William Temple, who directed his heart to be deposited in his garden, to have his corpse also interred in the like manner; but very probably he was prevailed upon to alter his mind afterwards, notwithstanding what he had expressed upon that subject in his book; which shews how warm and lasting that passion for improvement was in | his own breast, which, with so much learning, eloquence, and success, he laboured to excite in the bosoms of his countrymen.
A discussion having occurred at the royal society on the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, he procured the following extract of a letter from Mr. Henry Robinson, to whom it was written by captain William Baddily, and at the same time produced some of the ashes which are mentioned therein which letter, and which ashes, had been preserved for upwards of thirty years
“The sixth of December, 1631, being in the gulph of Volo riding at anchor about ten of the clock that night, it began to rain sand or ashes, and continued till two of the clock the next morning. It was about two inches thick on the deck, so that we cast it overboard with shovels, as we did snow the day before: the quantity of a bushel we brought home, and presented to several friends, especially to the masters of Trinity-house. There were in our company capt. John Wilds, commander of the Dragon, and capt. Anthony Watts, commander of the Elizabeth and Dorcas. There was no wind stirring when these ashes fell: it did not fall only in the places where we were, but likewise in other parts, as ships were coming from St. John d’Acre to our port, they being at that time an hundred leagues from us. We compared the ashes together, and found them both one. If you desire to see the ashes, let me know.” In the spring of 1670, our author communicated in a letter to the lord viscount Brouncker, a large and circumstantial account of a very singular and extraordinary invention by a person of rank, called the Spanish Sembrador, or new engine for ploughing and equal sowing all sorts of grain, and harrowing at once: by which a great quantity of seed-corn is saved, and a rich increase yearly gained; together with a description of the contrivance and uses of this engine. The description of this machine, translated from the Spanish into English, is of a considerable length, and therefore we refer the reader to it in the Transactions, No. 21. The chief reason for mentioning it here was, to shew how vigilant our author was in his inquiries, and how diligent in the prosecution of them; and yet not with any view of concealing the discoveries he made, but quite the contrary, that the royal society might have the honour, and the British nation the benefit, of them. In this respect, no doubt, be reaped abundant | since it was declared, over and over again in the Transactions, that his Sylva had raised whole forests, and his Pomona produced numberless orchards: yet that he affected not praise out of any degree of vanity, but was really pleased with being the instrument of good to others, appears very plainly from that warmth, as well as readiness, tvith which he recommended other men’s works to the favour of the public, even upon subjects on which he had employed his own pen, particularly in the case of Mr. Smith, which is printed in the Transactions.
He was also very assiduous in procuring, as early as possible, from abroad, all new books upon curious and useful subjects; as also such as, from their universal high character, were become scarce and dear; some of which he communicated to the secretary of the society, and of others he made large and curious extracts himself; and, as is very justly observed, his translations were doubly valuable, on account of that clearness and fidelity with which he expressed the author’s sense, and the improvements that he added from his own observations, as he rendered no treatises into English, without being perfectly versed in the subject upon which, as well as the language in which, they were written. He likewise, in testimony of his respect and duty to the society, bestowed upon them those curious tables of veins and arteries, which he brought with him from Padua, and consequently deserved to be honourably mentioned in their registers, and to have his picture, as it is, hung up in their apartments. He might, therefore, justly style himself, as we have already noticed, a pioneer in the service of the society. Amongst other advantages that attended the institution of the royal society, one was its giving birth to, and the highest encouragement for, free and open inquiries; nor was it any wonder that, amongst these, some turned upon those learned persons who first exerted themselves in favour of this method of improving knowledge. Amongst, these, Mr. John Houghton, though with great decency and good manners, censured our author’s great performance, on account of its crossing a notion he had advanced, “that it would be highly advantageous for the nation, if all the timber within twelve miles of a navigable river were destroyed.” It is but fair that he should speak for himself: his words then are these: Collections on husbandry and trade, vol. IV. p. 273. “I question not but you eagerly expect to hear what may be | said, in answer to Mr. Evelyn’s Sylva. There he seems to be quite of another opinion, and to give many instances of profits from woods, so great that few other parts of husbandry can equal them. 1 must confess Mr. Evelyn is a great man, one that I have the honour to be acquainted with, and happy is he that is so he is a gentleman of great piety, modesty, and. complacency and also endowed with such an universality of useful learning, that he may very well be esteemed a darling of mankind. But he is particularly well versed in the affairs of the woodman; and his Sylva is so good a book, that I have not heard of any thing written on the subject like it. To answer it, I will not pretend; to gainsay what he affirms I cannot, for I believe he loves veracity more than life. I will only make some observations, and, if my sentiments differ from his, I know he will pardon me, he being well inclined to allow freedom of thought, and also well versed in a motto, AwIhis in verba, which is that of the royal society. Now, I first observe the reason why this Sylva, or discourse of forest-trees, was delivered to the royal society. It was, as I am told in the title-page, upon occasion of certain queries propounded to that illustrious assembly, by the honourable the principal officers and commissioners of the navy. What these queries were, does not altogether appear; but, by the discourse, one of them seems to be hour timber might be propagated in his majesty’s dominions. An answer to this our ingenious author hath bravely given. But my considerations are not how, or how not, to propagate timber; but a query, `Whether it is best, within certain limits, to propagate it or no?’ a thing quite beside his design. Indeed, in his introduction, he, like a very good Englishman, laments the notorious decay of our wooden walls, which he thought likely to follow, when our then present navy should be worn out or impaired; and I must confess, when he considered the great destruction of our wood that had been made in the foregoing twenty years, by some through necessity, and others through ill ends and purposes; together with our not being used to fetch much timber from abroad, and a general cry that none could furnish us with any for shipping, especially so good as our own; with the addition of what amounted to a complaint from the honourable commissioners of his majesty’s navy: when he considered all this, I say, every good man will rather commend than blame his zeal. But | now since that destruction of our timber hath forced us to look out for a more convenient supply to London, and some other places, and our having greater experiences of sea-fights than ever we had before, other things are known; and it is believed, to my certain knowledge, by some of the commissioners of the navy, and others that have been, greatly concerned in building of ships, that there is some other timber in the world that will build ships as well as ours: for instance, the French Ruby that we took from France, when he joined with Denmark and Holland against tis, had such good timber in it, that, as I have been told, England never had better. The bullets that entered this French ship made only round holes without splinters, the thing our timber is valued for and it was so hard, that the carpenters with their tools could hardly cut it it was like a piece of iron. I fancy it some of that oak Mr. Evelyn speaks of in his fore-cited Sylva, chap. iii. p. 25. ‘ There is,’ saith he, `a kind of it so tough, and so extremely compact, that our sharpest tools will hardly enter it, and scarcely the very fire itself, in which it consumes but slowly, as seeming to partake of a ferruginous and metal0 line shining nature, proper for sundry robust uses.' These last thirty ships that were built have a great deal of foreign timber in them; and, although there is some decay in them already, yet I am told that the fault is not attributed to the foreign timber, but rather to the hasty building; the king having not a stock before-hand, the timber had not time enough for a seasoning. For these reasons, and what I said before about the increase of seamen, persuades me to believe, that such means will never lessen our strength; and I question not but that, for our money, we may be furnished sufficiently from abroad.”
This paper was published November the 6th, 1683; and October the 31st, 1701, the same gentleman published another paper, in which he maintained his former opinion, and undertakes to refute Mr. Evelyn’s observations, as to; the profit made by planting, complaining that what he had before written was never answered; intimating at the same time, that the reason was, because it was unanswerable. His words are these: “Mr. Evelyn tells us of one Mr. Edward Salter, who planted an ash, and before his death sold it for forty shillings. I will not reckon the ground this ash grew on to be worth any thing; but suppose the ash when planted was worth but one shilling, and | had the man lived but eighty-four years after, the shilling would have amounted to six pounds eight shillings, which is far better than forty shillings. Again: three acres of barren land sown with acorns, in sixty years became a yery thriving wood, and was worth three hundred pounds. Being it was barren land, I will suppose it worth but three shillings the acre, nine shillings the three acres; which for sixty years was worth, in present money, fifteen pounds, nine shillings, and seven pence; which, doubled every twelve years, makes four hundred ninety-five pounds, six shillings, and eight-pence. Suppose that the tillage, acorns, and setting, came but to the third part of fifteen pounds; which together makes above six hundred pounds, for the three hundred pounds.”
This warm censure might be safely trusted by our author, without any answer, in those days, when none pretended to decide without hearing both parties with attention. It is, however, but doing common justice to his memory, to set these points in a clear light, which may be done in a very narrow compass. In the first place, Mr. Evelyn lays down facts that are indisputable; for he mentions no improvement in his book without clear authority. On the contrary, Mr. Houghton’s is a supposition, and a supposition that is entirely groundless. He values the young ashplant at a shilling; he might have read in Mr. Evelyn, that an hundred saplings, of three years growth, are worth but eighteen pence. Instead of fourscore and four years, he ought to have set down a third, or at most half, of that time; and then, at his own rate of compound interest, the value of the plant would not have exceeded a single penny. His objections to the second instance are not less frivolous. Barren ground, in the common acceptation of the word, is ground worth nothing, and for that reason unlet and unemployed: our critic will have it worth three shillings an acre, and, having thus created a rent of nine shillings a year, he converts it next imo a rent-charge, and supposes a sixty years lease of this barren land to be worth two-and-thirty years purchase; and this money, put out at compound interest, is run up to twice as much as the wood is worth. We will not push things to extremity, but suppose with him the land worth nine shillings a year, and to be sold for twenty years purchase, which would produce nine pounds. That nine pounds placed out at compound interest, at the rate of six per cent would amount, in | sixty years, to two hundred eighty-eight pounds; so that there is twelve pounds, and all the intermediate profits by lopping, to pay for the original plantation and cultivation of the trees. Upon the whole it is manifest, even from this author’s manner of arguing, that planting wood is not only more honest and virtuous, but at the same time a safer and speedier way of raising a great fortune than the most exorbitant usury.
We may, says the editor of the Biog. Britannica, from the large works which Mr. Evelyn has published, from the complete plan which he has given us of a large work he intended to publish, and from various circumstances that occur in his letters, form a pretty sure judgment of the method pursued by him, in composing the many and valuable treatises that fell from his pen. His way was, when he had made choice of a subject, to resolve it into its proper parts, and to entitle these, according to the bulk of the volume he proposed, either books or chapters, that he might digest his materials under their proper titles. He then set down his own thoughts in a free succinct manner under every head, to which he added what occurred to him, useful or memorable, in his reading; and when he had finished this, he digested his own thoughts regularly, supporting them by proper testimonies from ancient and modern authors, or, if that were the case, shewing the reasons for which he dissented from them. This made his collections very large, in comparison of the books he published, into which there entered nothing but the quintessence of the authors he had perused. The first great work which occupied his thoughts was one of which he formed the plan in his travels, and which he intended to have entitled “A general history of all Trades.” We have an account of this in one of his own letters to Mr. Boyle, dated from Sayes-court, August the 9th, 1659, which begins thus:
“I am perfectly ashamed at the remissness of this recognition for your late favours from Oxon, where, though had you resided, it should have interrupted you before this time. It was by our common and good friend Mr. Hartlib, that I came now to know you are retired from thence, but not from the muses, and the pursuit of your worthy designs, the result whereof we thirst after with all impatience, and how fortunate should I esteem myself, if it were in my power to contribute in the least to that which I augur of so great and universal a benefit! But so | it is, that nty late inactivity has made so small a progress, that, in the” History of Trades,“I am not advanced a step, finding, to my infinite grief, my great imperfections for the attempt, and the many subjections which I cannot support, of conversing with mechanical capricious persons, and several other discouragements; so that, giving over a design of that magnitude, I am ready to acknowledge my fault, if, from any expression of mine, there was any room to hope for such a production further than by a short collection of some heads and materials, atrd a continual propensity of endeavouring, in some particular, to encourage so noble a work as far as I am able; a specimen whereof I have transmitted to Mr. Hartlib, concerning the ornaments of gardens, which I have requested him to communicate to you, as one from wlrom I hope to receive my best and most considerable furniture, which favour I doagain and again humbly supplicate, and especially touching the first chapter of the third book, the eleventh and twelfth of the first, and indeed on every particular of the whole.” Whoever would be better acquainted with the whole extent of our author’s project, may consult his extract of the life of signor Giacomo Favi, who had the like, and intended to have travelled over the whole world, in order to collect proper materials; in which design having made some progress, he died of a fever at Paris Of this gentleman Mr. Evelyn speaks in raptures, from the similitude between their tempers; but it seems he had not altogether the patience of that Italian virtuoso, who could accommodate himself to the humours of the lowest of the people, as well as make himself acceptable even to the greatest monarclis of Europe. But, though our author desisted from the original plan, yet it was not till he had finished several parts of it, particularly his Chalcography, which Mr. Boyle prevailed upon him to publish, and the following pieces which he never published: “Fire Treatises, containing a full view of the several arts of painting in oil, painting in miniature, annealing in glass, enamelling, and making marble- paper.” We may form a judgment, fronv the piece he published, of the great loss the world had from his not altering his resolution with respect to these, which no doubt were as thoroughly finished and as perfect in their kind as that. We may collect from the letter before mentioned, that a system of gardening made a part of his great design, which, however, there are some grounds | to believe, he detached thence, and considered as a whole or distinct system of itself, to the completing of which he applied himself with great spirit and labour, and intended to have given it the following title, under which he shewed part of his collection to his friends: “Elysium Brhannicum.” We cannot positively affirm, but there are very probable grounds to believe, that this was the very same work, of which he has given a plan before his “Acetaria,” about which he intimates, in his preface to that treatise, he had spent upwards of forty years, and his collections for which had in that time filled several thousand pages. The title of this vast work, as it is there expressed, is this “The Plan of a royal Garden describing and shewing the amplitude of that part of Georgicks which belongs to Horticulture.” He proposed to divide this into three books, the first of which was to consist of six chapters, wherein he meant to discourse of the principles of things, the four reputed elements, the celestial influences, the seasons, the natural soil of a garden, and all the artificial improvements that could be made therein. The second book was to contain twenty-four chapters, and of these it is sufficient to say, that the twentieth chapter seems to have been executed in his discourse of sallads, and that the last chapter of this book was no other than his Gardener’s Kalendar. The third book was to be divided into twelve chapters, and to comprehend all the accessaries, so as to leave nothing which had so much as any relation to this favourite subject unexhausted. The cause of his leaving this work also unfinished, he very freely and plainly tells us, was his perceiving that it exceeded his whole power of execution, that is, to come up to the scheme formed in his own mind, notwithstanding his glorious spirit, his easy fortune, and indefatigable diligence. This we may very easily credit, when we consider that his treatise of sallads could not be above a fortieth, perhaps not above a fiftieth part of his intended performance. To these his unpublished works we must add another, mentioned only by Mr. Wood, who gives us nothing concerning it but the following title: “A treatise of the Dignity of Man.” 1
Biog. Brit. ms papers relating to the family, obligingly communicated by Mr. Upcott, sub-librarian of the London Institution.
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