and enjoining me to make it a little keen, for that the Hollanders had very unhandsomely abused him in their pictures, books, and libels.

Windsor was now going to be repaired, being exceedingly ragged and ruinous. Prince Rupert, the Constable, had begun to trim up the keep or high round Tower, and handsomely adorned his hall with furniture of arms, which was very singular, by so disposing the pikes, muskets, pistols, bandoleers, holsters, drums, back, breast, and headpieces, as was very extraordinary. Thus, those huge steep stairs ascending to it had the walls invested with this martial furniture, all new and bright, so disposing the bandoleers, holsters, and drums, as to represent festoons, and that without any confusion, trophy-like. From the hall we went into his bed-chamber, and ample rooms hung with tapestry, curious and effeminate pictures, so extremely different from the other, which presented nothing but war and horror.

The King passed most of his time in hunting the stag, and walking in the park, which he was now planting with rows of trees.

13th September. To visit Sir Richard Lashford, my kinsman, and Mr. Charles Howard, at his extraordinary garden, at Deepden.

15th. I went to visit Mr. Arthur Onslow, at West Clandon, a pretty dry seat on the Downs, where we dined in his great room.

17th. To visit Mr. Hussey,' who, being near Wotton, lives in a sweet valley, deliciously watered.

23rd. To Albury, to see how that garden proceeded, which I found exactly done to the design and plot I had made, with the crypta through the mountain in the park, thirty perches in length. Such a Pausilippe' is nowhere in England. The canal was now digging, and the vineyard planted.

14th October. I spent the whole afternoon in private with the Treasurer, who put into my hands those secret pieces and transactions concerning the Dutch war, and particularly the expedition of Bergen, in which he had himself the chief part, and gave me instructions, till the King arriving from Newmarket, we both went up into his bed-chamber.

1 At Sutton in Shere.

2 A word adopted by Evelyn for a subterranean passage, from the famous grot of Pausilippo, at Naples.

21st October. Dined with the Treasurer; and, after dinner, we were shut up together. I received other [further] advices, and ten paper-books of despatches and treaties; to return which again I gave a note under my hand to Mr. Joseph Williamson, Master of the Paper-office.

31st. I was this morning fifty years of age; the Lord teach me to number my days so as to apply them to his glory! Amen.

4th November. Saw the Prince of Orange, newly come to see the King, his uncle; he has a manly, courageous, wise countenance, resembling his mother and the Duke of Glocester, both deceased.

I now also saw that famous beauty, but in my opinion of a childish, simple, and baby face, Mademoiselle Querouaille,' lately Maid of Honour to Madame, and now to be so to the Queen.

23rd. Dined with the Earl of Arlington, where was the Venetian Ambassador, of whom I now took solemn leave, now on his return. There were also Lords Howard, Wharton, Windsor, and divers other great persons.

24th. I dined with the Treasurer, where was the Earl of Rochester, a very profane wit.

15th December. It was the thickest and darkest fog on the Thames that was ever known in the memory of man, and I happened to be in the very midst of it. I supped with Monsieur Zulestein, late Governor to the late Prince of Orange.

1670-1. 10th January. Mr. Bohun, my son's tutor, had been five years in my house, and now Bachelor of Laws, and Fellow of New College, went from me to Oxford to reside there, having well and faithfully performed his charge.

18th. This day, I first acquainted his Majesty with that incomparable young man, Gibbon,' whom I had lately met

1 Henrietta, the King's sister, married to Philip, Duke of Orleans, was then on a visit here. Madame Querouaille came over in her train, on purpose to entice Charles into an union with Louis XIV. ; a design which unhappily succeeded but too well. She became the King's mistress, was made Duchess of Portsmouth, and was his favourite till his death. See page 68.

2 Better known by the name of Grinling Gibbons; celebrated for his exquisite carving. Some of his most astonishing work is at Chatsworth and at Petworth. Walpole in his Catalogue of Painters, thus speaks of him (and see Cunningham's Lives of Sculptors, iii. 1—16)

with in an obscure place by mere accident, as I was walking near a poor solitary thatched house, in a field in our parish,

"Grinling Gibbon.-An original genius, a citizen of nature. There is no instance before him of a man who gave to wood the loose and airy lightness of flowers, and chained together the various productions of the elements with the free disorder natural to each species. It is uncertain whether he was born in Holland, or in England; it is said that he lived in Bell-Savage Court, Ludgate Hill, and was employed by Betterton, in decorating the Theatre, in Dorset Gardens. He lived afterwards at Deptford, in the same house with a musician, where the beneficent and curious Mr. Evelyn found and patronized both. This gentleman, Sir P. Lely, and Bap. May, who was something of an architect himself, recommended Gibbon to Charles II., who was too indolent to search for genius, and too indiscriminate in his bounty to confine it to merit; but was always pleased when it was brought home to him. He gave the artist a place in the Board of Works, and employed his hand on ornaments of most taste in his palaces, particularly at Windsor. Gibbon, in gratitude, made a present of his own bust in wood to Mr. Evelyn, who kept it at his house in Dover-street. The piece that had struck so good a judge was a large carving, in wood, of St. Stephen stoned, long preserved in the sculptor's own house, and afterwards purchased and placed by the Duke of Chandos at Cannons."

Walpole is not quite correct, however, in such portions of this account as relate to Evelyn. Gibbon, when young, was found by Evelyn in a small house at Deptford, working on that famous piece from Tintoret here said to represent the stoning of St. Stephen, and which seems, from Evelyn's account, to have been his first performance of consequence. But it must have been afterwards that he lived in BelleSauvage Yard, and that he worked on the Theatre in Dorset Gardens. Evelyn does not mention a musician, and says there was only an old woman with him in the house at Deptford. It was Evelyn who recommended him to the King, to May the architect, and to Sir Christopher Wren. Of the bust nothing is known at Wotton.

Subjoined is an original Letter, addressed by Grinling Gibbon to Evelyn :

Honred

Sr I wold beg the faver wen you see St Joseff Williams [Williamson] again you wold be pleased to speack to him that hee wold get mee to Carve his Ladis sons hous my Lord Kildare for I onderstand it will [be] verry considerabell ar If you haen Acquantans wich my Lord to speack to him his sealf and I shall for Ev're be obliaged to You I wold speack to Sir Josef my sealf but I knouw it would do better from you

Lond. 23 Mar. 1682.

Sr youre Most umbell
Sarvant

G. GIBBON.

Upon receipt of this, Evelyn wrote to Lord Kildare, recommending Gibbon; and to Gibbon, enclosing the letter.

near Sayes Court. I found him shut in; but looking in at the window, I perceived him carving that large cartoon, or crucifix, of Tintoretto, a copy of which I had myself brought from Venice, where the original painting remains. I asked if I might enter; he opened the door civilly to me, and I saw him about such a work as for the curiosity of handling, drawing, and studious exactness, I never had before seen in all my travels. I questioned him why he worked in such an obscure and lonesome place; he told me it was that he might apply himself to his profession without interruption, and wondered not a little how I found him out. I asked if he was unwilling to be made known to some great man, for that I believed it might turn to his profit; he answered, he was yet but a beginner, but would not be sorry to sell off that piece; on demanding the price, he said £100. In good earnest, the very frame was worth the money, there being nothing in nature so tender and delicate as the flowers and festoons about it, and yet the work was very strong; in the piece was more than one hundred figures of men, &c. I found he was likewise musical, and very civil, sober, and discreet in his discourse. There was only an old woman in the house. So, desiring leave to visit him sometimes, I went

away.

Of this young artist, together with my manner of finding him out, I acquainted the King, and begged that he would give me leave to bring him and his work to Whitehall, for that I would adventure my reputation with his Majesty that he had never seen anything approach it, and that he would be exceedingly pleased, and employ him. The King said he would himself go see him. This was the first notice his Majesty ever had of Mr. Gibbon.

20th January. The King came to me in the Queen's withdrawing-room from the circle of ladies, to talk with me as to what advance I had made in the Dutch History. I dined with the Treasurer, and afterwards we went to the Secretary's Office, where we conferred about divers particulars.

21st. I was directed to go to Sir George Downing, who having been a public minister in Holland, at the beginning of the war, was to give me light in some material passages.

This year the weather was so wet, stormy, and unseasonable, as had not been known in many years.

9th February. I saw the great ball danced by the Queen and distinguished ladies at Whitehall Theatre. Next day, was acted there the famous play, called The Siege of Granada, two days acted successively; there were indeed very glorious scenes and perspectives, the work of Mr. Streeter, who well understands it.

19th. This day dined with me Mr. Surveyor, Dr. Christopher Wren, and Mr. Pepys, Clerk of the Acts, two extraordinary, ingenious, and knowing persons, and other friends. I carried them to see the piece of carving which I had recommended to the King.

25th. Came to visit me one of the Lords Commissioners of Scotland for the Union.

28th. The Treasurer acquainted me that his Majesty was graciously pleased to nominate me one of the Council of Foreign Plantations, and give me a salary of £500 per annum, to encourage me.

29th. I went to thank the Treasurer, who was my great friend, and loved me; I dined with him and much company, and went thence to my Lord Arlington, Secretary of State, in whose favour I likewise was upon many occasions, though I cultivated neither of their friendships by any mean submissions. I kissed his Majesty's hand, on his making me one of that new-established Council.

1st March. I caused Mr. Gibbon to bring to Whitehall his excellent piece of carving, where being come, I advertised his Majesty, who asked me where it was; I told him in Sir Richard Browne's (my father-in-law) chamber, and that if it pleased his Majesty to appoint whither it should be brought, being large and though of wood heavy, I would take care for it. No," says the King, "show me the way, I'll go to Sir Richard's chamber," which he immediately did, walking along the entries after me; as far as the ewry, ill he came up into the room, where I also lay. No sooner

Robert

1 Evelyn here refers to Dryden's Conquest of Granada. Streeter, an artist held in much esteem at this period, and enjoying the post of Serjeant Painter to the King, who was very fond of him, died in 1680. He is often mentioned by Evelyn. See post, pp. 85, 101, 142, and 178.