Wooton stands in a hollow, near the summit of one of the long swells that
here undulate over the face of the country. There is a good deal of wood
behind it, as should be the case with the residence of the author of the
Sylva; but I believe few, if any, of these trees are known to have been
planted by John Evelyn, or even to have been coeval with his time. The
house is of brick, partly ancient, and consists of a front and two
projecting wings, with a porch and entrance in the centre. It has a
desolate, meagre aspect, and needs something to give it life and stir and
jollity. The present proprietor is of the old Evelyn family, and is now
one of the two members of Parliament for Surrey; but he is a very shy and
retiring man, unmarried, sees little company, and seems either not to
know how to make himself comfortable or not to care about it. A servant
told us that Mr. ------ had just gone out, but Tupper, who is apparently
on intimate terms with him, thought it best that we should go into the
house, while he went in search of the master. So the servant ushered us
through a hall,--where were many family pictures by Lely, and, for aught
I know, by Vandyke, and by Kneller, and other famous painters,--up a
grand staircase, and into the library, the inner room of which contained
the ponderous volumes which John Evelyn used to read. Nevertheless, it
was a room of most barren aspect, without a carpet on the floor, with
pine bookcases, with a common whitewashed ceiling, with no luxurious
study-chairs, and without a fire. There was an open folio on the table,
and a sheet of manuscript that appeared to have been recently written. I
took down a book from the shelves (a volume of annals, connected with
English history), and Tupper afterwards told us that this one single
volume, for its rarity, was worth either two or three hundred pounds.
Against one of the windows of this library there grows a magnolia-tree,
with a very large stem, and at least fifty years old.
Mrs. Tupper and I waited a good while, and then Bennoch and Tupper came
back, without having found Mr. ------. Tupper wished very much to show
the prayer-book used by King Charles at his execution, and some curious
old manuscript volumes; but the servant said that his master always kept
these treasures locked up, and trusted the key to nobody. We therefore
had to take our leave without seeing them; and I have not often entered a
house that one feels to be more forlorn than Wooton,--although we did
have a glimpse of a dining-room, with a table laid for three or four
guests, and looking quite brilliant with plate and glass and snowy
napery. There was a fire, too, in this one room. Mr. ------ is making
extensive alterations in the house, or has recently done so, and this is
perhaps one reason of its ungenial meagreness and lack of finish.
Before our departure from Wooton, Tupper had asked me to leave my card
for Mr. ------; but I had no mind to overstep any limit of formal
courtesy in dealing with an Englishman, and therefore declined. Tupper,
however, on his own responsibility, wrote his name, Bennoch's, and mine
on a piece of paper, and told the servant to show them to Mr. ------. We
soon had experience of the good effect of this; for we had scarcely got
back before somebody drove up to Tupper's door, and one of the girls,
looking out, exclaimed that there was Mr. ------ himself, and another
gentleman. He had set out, the instant he heard of our call, to bring
the three precious volumes for me to see. This surely was most kind; a
kindness which I should never have dreamed of expecting from a shy,
retiring man like Mr. ------.
So he and his friend were ushered into the dining-room, and introduced.
Mr. ------ is a young-looking man, dark, with a mustache, rather small,
and though he has the manners of a man who has seen the world, it
evidently requires an effort in him to speak to anybody; and I could see
his whole person slightly writhing itself, as it were, while he addressed
me. This is strange in a man of his public position, member for the
county, necessarily mixed up with life in many forms, the possessor of
sixteen thousand pounds a year, and the representative of an ancient
name. Nevertheless, I liked him, and felt as if I could become
intimately acquainted with him, if circumstances were favorable; but, at
a brief interview like this, it was hopeless to break through two great
reserves; so I talked more with his companion--a pleasant young man,
fresh from college, I should imagine--than with Mr. ------ himself.
The three books were really of very great interest. One was an octavo
volume of manuscript in John Evelyn's own hand, the beginning of his
published diary, written as distinctly as print, in a small, clear
character. It can be read just as easily as any printed book. Another
was a Church of England prayer-book, which King Charles used on the
scaffold, and which was stained with his sacred blood, and underneath are
two or three lines in John Evelyn's hand, certifying this to be the very
book. It is an octavo, or small folio, and seems to have been very
little used, scarcely opened, except in one spot; its leaves elsewhere
retaining their original freshness and elasticity. It opens most readily
at the commencement of the common service; and there, on the left-hand
page, is a discoloration, of a yellowish or brownish hue, about two
thirds of an inch large, which, two hundred years ago and a little more,
was doubtless red. For on that page had fallen a drop of King Charles's
blood.
The other volume was large, and contained a great many original letters,
written by the king during his troubles. I had not time to examine them
with any minuteness, and remember only one document, which Mr. ------
pointed out, and which had a strange pathos and pitifulness in it. It
was a sort of due-bill, promising to pay a small sum for beer, which had
been supplied to his Majesty, so soon as God should enable him, or the
distracted circumstances of his kingdom make it possible,--or some
touching and helpless expression of that kind. Prince Hal seemed to
consider it an unworthy matter, that a great prince should think of "that
poor creature, small beer," at all; but that a great prince should not be
able to pay for it is far worse.
Mr. ------ expressed his regret that I was not staying longer in this
part of the country, as he would gladly have seen me at Wooten, and he
succeeded in saying something about my books; and I hope I partly
succeeded in showing him that I was very sensible of his kindness in
letting me see those relics. I cannot say whether or no I expressed it
sufficiently. It is better with such a man, or, indeed, with any man, to
say too little than too much; and, in fact, it would have been indecorous
in me to take too much of his kindness to my own share, Bennoch being
likewise in question.
We had a cup of coffee, and then took our leave; Tupper accompanying us
part way down the village street, and bidding us an affectionate
farewell.