bought lately of my kinsman, Sir John Evelyn, of Godstone, in Surrey,
which from a despicable farmhouse Sir Robert had erected into a seat
with extraordinary expense. It is in such a solitude among hills, as,
being not above sixteen miles from London, seems almost incredible, the
ways up to it are so winding and intricate. The gardens are large, and
well-walled, and the husbandry part made very convenient and perfectly
understood. The barns, the stacks of corn, the stalls for cattle, pigeon
house, etc., of most laudable example. Innumerable are the plantations
of trees, especially walnuts. The orangery and gardens are very curious.
In the house are large and noble rooms. He and his lady (who is very
curious in distillery) entertained me three or four days very freely. I
earnestly suggested to him the repairing of an old desolate dilapidated
church, standing on the hill above the house, which I left him in good
disposition to do, and endow it better; there not being above four or
five houses in the parish, besides that of this prodigious rich
Scrivener. This place is exceedingly sharp in the winter, by reason of
the serpentining of the hills: and it wants running water; but the
solitude much pleased me. All the ground is so full of wild thyme,
marjoram, and other sweet plants, that it cannot be overstocked with
bees; I think he had near forty hives of that industrious insect.
14th October, 1677. I went to church at Godstone, and to see old Sir
John Evelyn's DORMITORY, joining to the church, paved with marble, where
he and his Lady lie on a very stately monument at length; he in armor of
white marble. The inscription is only an account of his particular
branch of the family, on black marble.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
15th October, 1677. Returned to London; in the evening, I saw the Prince
of Orange, and supped with Lord Ossory.
23d October, 1677. Saw again the Prince of Orange; his marriage with the
Lady Mary, eldest daughter to the Duke of York, by Mrs. Hyde, the late
Duchess, was now declared.
11th November, 1677. I was all this week composing matters between old
Mrs. Howard and Sir Gabriel Sylvius, upon his long and earnest addresses
to Mrs. Anne, her second daughter, maid of honor to the Queen. My
friend, Mrs. Godolphin (who exceedingly loved the young lady) was most
industrious in it, out of pity to the languishing knight; so as though
there were great differences in their years, it was at last effected,
and they were married the 13th, in Henry VII.'s Chapel, by the Bishop of
Rochester, there being besides my wife and Mrs. Graham, her sister, Mrs.
Godolphin, and very few more. We dined at the old lady's, and supped at
Mr. Graham's at St. James's.
15th November, 1677. The Queen's birthday, a great ball at Court, where
the Prince of Orange and his new Princess danced.
19th November, 1677. They went away, and I saw embarked my Lady Sylvius,
who went into Holland with her husband, made Hoffmaester to the Prince,
a considerable employment. We parted with great sorrow, for the great
respect and honor I bore her, a most pious and virtuous lady.
27th November, 1677. Dined at the Lord Treasurer's with Prince Rupert,
Viscount Falkenburg, Earl of Bath, Lord O'Brien, Sir John Lowther, Sir
Christopher Wren, Dr. Grew, and other learned men.
30th November, 1677. Sir Joseph Williamson, Principal Secretary of
State, was chosen President of the Royal Society, after my Lord Viscount
Brouncker had possessed the chair now sixteen years successively, and
therefore now thought fit to CHANGE, that prescription might not
prejudice.
4th December, 1677. Being the first day of his taking the chair, he gave
us a magnificent supper.
20th December, 1677. Carried to my Lord Treasurer an account of the Earl
of Bristol's Library, at Wimbledon, which my Lord thought of purchasing,
till I acquainted him that it was a very broken collection, consisting
much in books of judicial astrology, romances, and trifles.
25th December, 1677. I gave my son an office, with instructions how to
govern his youth; I pray God give him the grace to make a right use of
it!
23d January, 1677-78. Dined with the Duke of Norfolk, being the first
time I had seen him since the death of his elder brother, who died at
Padua in Italy, where he had resided above thirty years. The Duke had
now newly declared his marriage to his concubine, whom he promised me he
never would marry. I went with him to see the Duke of Buckingham, thence
to my Lord Sunderland, now Secretary of State, to show him that rare
piece of Vosterman's (son of old Vosterman), which was a view, or
landscape of my Lord's palace, etc., at Althorpe in Northamptonshire.
8th February, 1678. Supping at my Lord Chamberlain's I had a long
discourse with the Count de Castel Mellor, lately Prime Minister in
Portugal, who, taking part with his master, King Alphonso, was banished
by his brother, Don Pedro, now Regent; but had behaved himself so
uncorruptly in all his ministry that, though he was acquitted, and his
estate restored, yet would they not suffer him to return. He is a very
intelligent and worthy gentleman.
18th February, 1678. My Lord Treasurer sent for me to accompany him to
Wimbledon, which he had lately purchased of the Earl of Bristol; so
breaking fast with him privately in his chamber, I accompanied him with
two of his daughters, my Lord Conway, and Sir Bernard Gascoyne; and,
having surveyed his gardens and alterations, returned late at night.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
22d February, 1678. Dr. Pierce preached at Whitehall, on 2 Thessalonians
iii. 6, against our late schismatics, in a rational discourse, but a
little over-sharp, and not at all proper for the auditory there.
22d March, 1678. Dr. South preached _coram Rege_, an incomparable
discourse on this text, "A wounded spirit who can bear!" Note: Now was
our Communion table placed altarwise; the church steeple, clock, and
other reparations finished.
16th April, 1678. I showed Don Emmanuel de Lyra (Portugal Ambassador)
and the Count de Castel Mellor, the Repository of the Royal Society, and
the College of Physicians.
18th April, 1678. I went to see new Bedlam Hospital, magnificently
built, and most sweetly placed in Moorfields, since the dreadful fire in
London.
28th June, 1678. I went to Windsor with my Lord Chamberlain (the castle
now repairing with exceeding cost) to see the rare work of Verrio, an
incomparable carving of Gibbons.
29th June, 1678. Returned with my Lord by Hounslow Heath, where we saw
the newly raised army encamped, designed against France, in pretense, at
least; but which gave umbrage to the Parliament. His Majesty and a world
of company were in the field, and the whole army in battalia; a very
glorious sight. Now were brought into service a new sort of soldiers,
called GRENADIERS, who were dexterous in flinging hand grenades,
everyone having a pouch full; they had furred caps with coped crowns
like Janizaries, which made them look very fierce, and some had long
hoods hanging down behind, as we picture fools. Their clothing being
likewise piebald, yellow and red.
8th July, 1678. Came to dine with me my Lord Longford, Treasurer of
Ireland, nephew to that learned gentleman, my Lord Aungier, with whom I
was long since acquainted; also the Lady Stidolph, and other company.
19th July, 1678. The Earl of Ossory came to take his leave of me, going
into Holland to command the English forces.
20th July, 1678. I went to the Tower to try a metal at the
Assay-master's, which only proved sulphur; then saw Monsieur Rotière,
that excellent graver belonging to the Mint, who emulates even the
ancients, in both metal and stone;[38] he was now molding a horse for
the King's statue, to be cast in silver, of a yard high. I dined with
Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint.
[Footnote 38: Doubtless Philip Rotière, who introduced the figure of
Britannia into the coinage, taking for his model the King's
favorite, Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond.]
23d July, 1678. Went to see Mr. Elias Ashmole's library and curiosities,
at Lambeth. He had divers MSS., but most of them astrological, to which
study he is addicted, though I believe not learned, but very
industrious, as his History of the order of the Garter proves. He showed
me a toad included in amber. The prospect from a turret is very fine, it
being so near London, and yet not discovering any house about the
country. The famous John Tradescant bequeathed his Repository to this
gentleman, who has given them to the University of Oxford, and erected a
lecture on them, over the laboratory, in imitation of the Royal Society.
Mr. Godolphin was made master of the robes to the King.
25th July, 1678. There was sent me £70; from whom I knew not, to be by
me distributed among poor people; I afterward found it was from that
dear friend (Mrs. Godolphin), who had frequently given me large sums to
bestow on charities.
16th August, 1678. I went to Lady Mordaunt, who put £100 into my hand to
dispose of for pious uses, relief of prisoners, poor, etc. Many a sum
had she sent me on similar occasions; a blessed creature she was, and
one that loved and feared God exemplarily.
[Sidenote: WEYBRIDGE]
23d August, 1678. Upon Sir Robert Reading's importunity, I went to visit
the Duke of Norfolk, at his new palace at Weybridge, where he has laid
out in building near £10,000, on a copyhold, and in a miserable, barren,
sandy place by the street side; never in my life had I seen such expense
to so small purpose. The rooms are wainscotted, and some of them richly
pargeted with cedar, yew, cypress, etc. There are some good pictures,
especially that incomparable painting of Holbein's, where the Duke of
Norfolk, Charles Brandon and Henry VIII., are dancing with the three
ladies, with most amorous countenances, and sprightly motion exquisitely
expressed. It is a thousand pities (as I told my Lord of Arundel, his
son), that that jewel should be given away.
24th August, 1678. I went to see my Lord of St. Alban's house, at
Byfleet, an old, large building. Thence, to the papermills, where I
found them making a coarse white paper. They cull the rags which are
linen for white paper, woolen for brown; then they stamp them in troughs
to a pap, with pestles, or hammers, like the powder mills, then put it
into a vessel of water, in which they dip a frame closely wired with
wire as small as a hair and as close as a weaver's reed; on this they
take up the pap, the superfluous water draining through the wire; this
they dexterously turning, shake out like a pancake on a smooth board
between two pieces of flannel, then press it between a great press, the
flannel sucking out the moisture; then, taking it out, they ply and dry
it on strings, as they dry linen in the laundry; then dip it in alum
water, lastly, polish and make it up in quires. They put some gum in the
water in which they macerate the rags. The mark we find on the sheets is
formed in the wire.
25th August, 1678. After evening prayer, visited Mr. Sheldon (nephew to
the late Archbishop of Canterbury), and his pretty melancholy garden; I
took notice of the largest _arbor thuyris_ I had ever seen. The place is
finely watered, and there are many curiosities of India, shown in the
house.
There was at Weybridge the Duchess of Norfolk, Lord Thomas Howard (a
worthy and virtuous gentleman, with whom my son was sometime bred in
Arundel House), who was newly come from Rome, where he had been some
time; also one of the Duke's daughters, by his first lady. My Lord
leading me about the house made no scruple of showing me all the hiding
places for the Popish priests, and where they said mass, for he was no
bigoted Papist. He told me he never trusted them with any secret, and
used Protestants only in all businesses of importance.
I went this evening with my Lord Duke to Windsor, where was a
magnificent Court, it being the first time of his Majesty's removing
thither since it was repaired.
27th August, 1678. I took leave of the Duke, and dined at Mr. Henry
Bruncker's, at the Abbey of Sheene, formerly a monastery of Carthusians,
there yet remaining one of their solitary cells with a cross. Within
this ample inclosure are several pretty villas and fine gardens of the
most excellent fruits, especially Sir William Temple's (lately
Ambassador into Holland), and the Lord Lisle's, son to the Earl of
Leicester, who has divers rare pictures, above all, that of Sir Brian
Tuke's, by Holbein.
After dinner I walked to Ham, to see the house and garden of the Duke of
Lauderdale, which is indeed inferior to few of the best villas in Italy
itself; the house furnished like a great Prince's; the parterres,
flower-gardens, orangeries, groves, avenues, courts, statues,
perspectives, fountains, aviaries, and all this at the banks of the
sweetest river in the world, must needs be admirable.
Hence, I went to my worthy friend, Sir Henry Capel [at Kew], brother to
the Earl of Essex; it is an old timber-house; but his garden has the
choicest fruit of any plantation in England, as he is the most
industrious and understanding in it.
29th August, 1678. I was called to London to wait upon the Duke of
Norfolk, who having at my sole request bestowed the Arundelian Library
on the Royal Society; sent to me to take charge of the books, and remove
them, only stipulating that I would suffer the Herald's chief officer,
Sir William Dugdale, to have such of them as concerned heraldry and the
marshal's office, books of armory and genealogies, the Duke being Earl
Marshal of England. I procured for our Society, besides printed books,
near one hundred MSS. some in Greek of great concernment. The printed
books being of the oldest impressions, are not the less valuable; I
esteem them almost equal to MSS. Among them, are most of the Fathers,
printed at Basil, before the Jesuits abused them with their expurgatory
Indexes; there is a noble MS. of Vitruvius. Many of these books had been
presented by Popes, Cardinals, and great persons, to the Earls of
Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk; and the late magnificent Earl of Arundel
bought a noble library in Germany, which is in this collection. I should
not, for the honor I bear the family, have persuaded the Duke to part
with these, had I not seen how negligent he was of them, suffering the
priests and everybody to carry away and dispose of what they pleased; so
that abundance of rare things are irrecoverably gone.
Having taken order here, I went to the Royal Society to give them an
account of what I had procured, that they might call a Council and
appoint a day to wait on the Duke to thank him for this munificent gift.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
3d September, 1678. I went to London, to dine with Mrs. Godolphin, and
found her in labor; she was brought to bed of a son, who was baptized in
the chamber, by the name of Francis, the susceptors being Sir William
Godolphin (head of the family), Mr. John Hervey, Treasurer to the Queen,
and Mrs. Boscawen, sister to Sir William and the father.
8th September, 1678. While I was at church came a letter from Mr.
Godolphin, that my dear friend his lady was exceedingly ill, and
desiring my prayers and assistance. My wife and I took boat immediately,
and went to Whitehall, where, to my inexpressible sorrow, I found she
had been attacked with a new fever, then reigning this excessive hot
autumn, and which was so violent, that it was not thought she could last
many hours.
9th September, 1678. She died in the 26th year of her age, to the
inexpressible affliction of her dear husband, and all her relations, but
of none in the world more than of myself, who lost the most excellent
and inestimable friend that ever lived. Never was a more virtuous and
inviolable friendship; never a more religious, discreet, and admirable
creature, beloved of all, admired of all, for all possible perfections
of her sex. She is gone to receive the reward of her signal charity, and
all other her Christian graces, too blessed a creature to converse with
mortals, fitted as she was, by a most holy life, to be received into the
mansions above. She was for wit, beauty, good nature, fidelity,
discretion, and all accomplishments, the most incomparable person. How
shall I ever repay the obligations to her for the infinite good offices
she did my soul by so often engaging me to make religion the terms and
tie of the friendship there was between us! She was the best wife, the
best mistress, the best friend, that ever husband had. But it is not
here that I pretend to give her character, HAVING DESIGNED TO CONSECRATE
HER WORTHY LIFE TO POSTERITY.
Her husband, struck with unspeakable affliction, fell down as dead. The
King himself, and all the Court, expressed their sorrow. To the poor and
miserable, her loss was irreparable; for there was no degree but had
some obligation to her memory. So careful and provident was she to be
prepared for all possible accidents, that (as if she foresaw her end)
she received the heavenly viaticum but the Sunday before, after a most
solemn recollection. She put all her domestic concerns into the exactest
order, and left a letter directed to her husband, to be opened in case
she died in childbed, in which with the most pathetic and endearing
expressions of the most loyal and virtuous wife, she begs his kindness
to her memory might be continued by his care and esteem of those she
left behind, even to her domestic servants, to the meanest of which she
left considerable legacies, as well as to the poor. It was now seven
years since she was maid of honor to the Queen, that she regarded me as
a father, a brother, and what is more, a friend. We often prayed,
visited the sick and miserable, received, read, discoursed, and
communicated in all holy offices together. She was most dear to my wife,
and affectionate to my children. But she is gone! This only is my
comfort, that she is happy in Christ, and I shall shortly behold her
again. She desired to be buried in the dormitory of his family, near
three hundred miles from all her other friends. So afflicted was her
husband at this severe loss, that the entire care of her funeral was
committed to me. Having closed the eyes, and dropped a tear upon the
cheek of my dear departed friend, lovely even in death, I caused her
corpse to be embalmed and wrapped in lead, a plate of brass soldered
thereon, with an inscription, and other circumstances due to her worth,
with as much diligence and care as my grieved heart would permit me; I
then retired home for two days, which were spent in solitude and sad
reflection.
17th September, 1678. She was, accordingly, carried to Godolphin, in
Cornwall, in a hearse with six horses, attended by two coaches of as
many, with about thirty of her relations and servants. There accompanied
the hearse her husband's brother, Sir William, two more of his brothers,
and three sisters; her husband was so overcome with grief, that he was
wholly unfit to travel so long a journey, till he was more composed. I
went as far as Hounslow with a sad heart; but was obliged to return upon
some indispensable affairs. The corpse was ordered to be taken out of
the hearse every night, and decently placed in the house, with tapers
about it, and her servants attending, to Cornwall; and then was
honorably interred in the parish church of Godolphin. This funeral cost
not much less than £1,000.
With Mr. Godolphin, I looked over and sorted his lady's papers, most of
which consisted of Prayers, Meditations, Sermon-notes, Discourses, and
Collections on several religious subjects, and many of her own happy
composing, and so pertinently digested, as if she had been all her life
a student in divinity. We found a diary of her solemn resolutions,
tending to practical virtue, with letters from select friends, all put
into exact method. It astonished us to see what she had read and
written, her youth considered.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
1st October, 1678. The Parliament and the whole Nation were alarmed
about a conspiracy of some eminent Papists for the destruction of the
King and introduction of Popery, discovered by one Oates and Dr.
Tongue,[39] WHICH LAST I KNEW, BEING THE TRANSLATOR OF THE "Jesuits'
Morals"; I went to see and converse with him at Whitehall, with Mr.
Oates, one that was lately an apostate to the church of Rome, and now
returned again with this discovery. He seemed to be a bold man, and, in
my thoughts, furiously indiscreet; but everybody believed what he said;
and it quite changed the genius and motions of the Parliament, growing
now corrupt and interested with long sitting and court practices; but,
with all this, Popery would not go down. This discovery turned them all
as one man against it, and nothing was done but to find out the depth of
this. Oates was encouraged, and everything he affirmed taken for gospel;
the truth is, the Roman Catholics were exceedingly bold and busy
everywhere, since the Duke forbore to go any longer to the chapel.
[Footnote 39: Ezrael Tonge was bred in University College, Oxford,
and being puritanically inclined, quitted the University; but in
1648 returned, and was made a Fellow. He had the living of Pluckley,
in Kent, which he resigned in consequence of quarrels with his
parishioners and Quakers. In 1657, he was made fellow of the
newly-erected College at Durham, and that being dissolved in 1660,
he taught school at Islington. He then went with Colonel Edward
Harley to Dunkirk, and subsequently took a small living in
Herefordshire (Lentwardine); but quitted it for St. Mary Stayning,
in London, which, after the fire in 1666, was united to St. Michael,
Wood Street. These he held till his death, in 1680. He was a great
opponent of the Roman Catholics. Wood mentions several publications
of his, among which are, "The Jesuits Unmasked," 1678; "Jesuitical
Aphorisms," 1678; and "The Jesuits' Morals," 1680 (1670); the two
latter translated from the French. (Wood's "_Athenæ, Oxon._" vol.
ii. p. 502.) Evelyn speaks of the last of these translations as
having been executed by his desire: and it figures in a notable
passage of Oates's testimony. Oates said, for example, "that Thomas
Whitbread, a priest, on 13th of June, 16 . . did tell the rector of
St. Omer's that a Minister of the Church of England had scandalously
put out the 'Jesuits' Morals' in English, and had endeavored to
render them odious, and had asked the Rector whether he thought
Oates might know him? and the Rector called, the deponent, who heard
these words as he stood at the chamber door, and when he went into
the chamber of the Provincial, he asked him 'If he knew the author
of the "Jesuits' Morals?"' deponent answered, 'His person, but not
his name.' Whitbread then demanded, whether he would undertake to
poison, or assassinate the author; which deponent undertook, having
£50 reward promised him, and appointed to return to England."]
16th October, 1678. Mr. Godolphin requested me to continue the trust his
wife had reposed in me, in behalf of his little son, conjuring me to
transfer the friendship I had for his dear wife, on him and his.
21st October, 1678. The murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, found
strangled about this time, as was manifest, by the Papists, he being the
Justice of the Peace, and one who knew much of their practices, as
conversant with Coleman (a servant of the ... now accused), put the
whole nation into a new ferment against them.
31st October, 1678. Being the 58th of my age, required my humble
addresses to Almighty God, and that he would take off his heavy hand,
still on my family; and restore comforts to us after the death of my
excellent friend.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
5th November, 1678. Dr. Tillotson preached before the Commons at St.
Margaret's. He said the Papists were now arrived at that impudence, as
to deny that there ever was any such as the gunpowder-conspiracy; but he
affirmed that he himself had several letters written by Sir Everard
Digby (one of the traitors), in which he gloried that he was to suffer
for it; and that it was so contrived, that of the Papists not above two
or three should have been blown up, and they, such as were not worth
saving.