my first arrival, Dr. Parkhurst was Master; and, after his decease, Dr. Lawrence, a chaplain of his Majesty's and Margaret Professor, succeeded, an acute and learned person; nor do I much reproach his severity, considering that the extraordinary remissness of discipline had (till his coming) much detracted from the reputation of that College.

There came in my time to the College one Nathaniel Conopios, out of Greece, from Cyrill, the patriarch of Constantinople, who, returning many years after, was made (as I understand) Bishop of Smyrna. He was the first I ever saw drink coffee; which custom came not into England till thirty years after.

After I was somewhat settled there in my formalities, (for then was the University exceedingly regular, under the exact discipline of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, then Chancellor,) I added, as benefactor to the library of the College, these books,-"ex dono Johannis Evelyni hujus Coll. Socio-Commensalis, filii Richardi Evelyni, è com. Surrie, armig"."—

Zanchii Opera, vols. 1, 2, 3.

Granado in Thomam Aquinatem, vols. 1, 2, 3.

Novarini Electa Sacra, and Cresolii Anthologia Sacra; authors, it seems, much desired by the students of divinity there.

Upon the 2nd of July, being the first Sunday of the month, I first received the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in the college chapel, one Mr. Cooper, a Fellow of the house, preaching; and at this time was the Church of England in her greatest splendour, all things decent, and becoming the Peace, and the persons that governed. The most of the following week I spent in visiting the Colleges, and several rarities of the University, which do very much affect young comers.

18th July. I accompanied my eldest brother, who then quitted Oxford, into the country; and, on the 9th of August, went to visit my friends at Lewes, whence I returned the 12th to Wotton. On the 17th of September, I received the blessed Sacrament at Wotton church, and 23rd of October went back to Oxford.

5th November. I received again the Holy Communion in our college chapel, one Prouse, a Fellow (but a mad one), preaching.

December 9th. I offered at my first exercise in the Hall, and answered my opponent; and, upon the 11th following, declaimed in the chapel before the Master, Fellows, and Scholars, according to the custom. The 15th after, I first of all opposed in the Hall.

The Christmas ensuing, being at a Comedy which the gentlemen of Exeter College presented to the University, and standing, for the better advantage of seeing, upon a table in the Hall, which was near to another, in the dark, being constrained by the extraordinary press to quit my station, in leaping down to save myself I dashed my right leg with such violence against the sharp edge of the other board, as gave me a hurt which held me in cure till almost Easter, and confined me to my study.

1638. 22nd January. I would needs be admitted into the dancing and vaulting schools; of which late activity one Stokes, the master, did afterwards set forth a pretty book, which was published, with many witty elogies before it.*

February 4th. One Mr. Wariner preached in our chapel; and, on the 25th, Mr. Wentworth, a kinsman of the Earl of Strafford; after which followed the blessed Sacrament.

April 13th. My father ordered that I should begin to manage my own expenses, which till then my tutor had done; at which I was much satisfied.

9th July. I went home to visit my friends, and, on the 26th, with my brother and sister to Lewes, where we abode till the 31st; and thence to one Mr. Michael's, of Houghton, near Arundel, where we were very well treated; and, on the 2nd of August, to Portsmouth, and thence, having surveyed the fortifications (a great rarity in that blessed halcyon time in England), we passed

*It having now become extremely scarce, the title of it is here given : "The Vaulting Master, or the Art of Vaulting; reduced to a method comprized under certain rules. Illustrated by examples, and now primarily set forth, by Will. Stokes. Printed for Richard Davis, in Oxon, 1665." A small oblong quarto, with the author's portrait prefixed, and a number of plates beautifully engraved, (most probably by Glover,) representing feats of activity on horseback, that appear extraordinary ones at this time of day. (From the communication of James Bindley, Esq., a gentleman whose collection of scarce and valuable books is perhaps hardly to be equalled.)

into the Isle of Wight, to the house of my Lady Richards, in a place called Yaverland; but we returned the following day to Chichester, where, having viewed the city and fair cathedral, we returned home.

About the beginning of September, I was so afflicted with a quartan ague, that I could by no means get rid of it till the December following. This was the fatal year wherein the rebellious Scots opposed the King, upon the pretence of the introduction of some new ceremonies and the Book of Common Prayer, and madly began our confusions, and their own destruction, too, as it proved in event.

January 14th, 1639. I came back to Oxford, after my tedious indisposition, and to the infinite loss of my time; and now I began to look upon the rudiments of music, in which I afterwards arrived to some formal knowledge, though to small perfection of hand, because I was so frequently diverted with inclinations to newer trifles.

20th May. Accompanied with one Mr. J. Crafford (who afterwards being my fellow-traveller in Italy, there changed his religion), I took a journey of pleasure to see the Somersetshire baths, Bristol, Cirencester, Malmesbury, Abingdon, and divers other towns of lesser note; and returned the 25th.

8th October. I went back to Oxford.

14th December. According to injunctions from the Heads of Colleges, I went (amongst the rest) to the Confirmation in St. Mary's, where, after sermon, the Bishop of Oxford laid his hands upon us, with the usual form of benediction prescribed: but this, received (I fear) for the more part out of curiosity, rather than with that due preparation and advice which had been requisite, could not be so effectual as otherwise that admirable and useful institution might have been, and as I have since deplored it.

He

1640, January 21st. Came my brother, Richard, from school, to be my chamber-fellow at the University. was admitted the next day, and matriculated the 31st.

11th April. I went to London to see the solemnity of his Majesty's riding through the city in state to the short Parliament, which began the 13th following,-a very glorious and magnificent sight, the King circled with his

royal diadem and the affections of his people; but the day after I returned to Wotton again, where I stayed, my father's indisposition suffering great intervals, till April 27th, when I was sent to London to be first resident at the Middle Temple; so as my being at the University, in regard of these avocations, was of very small benefit to me. Upon May the 5th following, was the Parliament unhappily dissolved; and, on the 20th, I returned with my brother, George, to Wotton, who, on the 28th of the same month, was married at Albury to Mrs. Caldwell (an heiress of an ancient Leicestershire family *), where part of the nuptials was celebrated.

10th June. I repaired with my brother to the Term, to go into our new lodgings (that were formerly in Essexcourt), being a very handsome apartment just over against the Hall-court, but four pair of stairs high, which gave us the advantage of the fairer prospect; but did not much contribute to the love of that impolished study, to which (I suppose) my father had designed me, when he paid 1457. to purchase our present lives, and assignments afterwards.

London, and especially the Court, were at this period in frequent disorders, and great insolences were committed by the abused and too happy City; in particular, the Bishop of Canterbury's Palace at Lambeth was assaulted by a rude rabble from Southwark, my Lord Chamberlain imprisoned, and many scandalous libels and invectives scattered about the streets, to the reproach of Government, and the fermentation of our since distractions: so that, upon the 25th of June, I was sent for to Wotton, and the 27th after, my father's indisposition augmenting, by advice of the physicians, he repaired to Bath.

7th July. My brother George and I, understanding the peril my father was in upon a sudden attack of his infirmity, rode post from Guildford towards him, and found him extraordinary weak; yet so as that, continuing his course, he held out till the 8th of September, when I returned home with him in his litter.

* A daughter of Daniel Caldwell, Esq., by Mary, daughter of George Duncomb, Esq., of Albury. She died 15th May, 1644, and he afterwards married the widow of Sir John Cotton.

15th October. I went to the Temple, it being Michaelmas Term.*

30th. I saw his Majesty (coming from his northern expedition) ride in pomp and a kind of ovation, with all the marks of a happy peace, restored to the affections of his people, being conducted through London with a most splendid cavalcade; and, on the 3rd November following (a day never to be mentioned without a curse), to that long ungrateful, foolish, and fatal Parliament, the beginning of all our sorrows for twenty years after, and the period of the most happy monarch in the world: Quis talia fando ! †

But my father being by this time entered into a dropsy, an indisposition the most unsuspected, being a person so exemplarily temperate, and of admirable regimen, hastened me back to Wotton, December the 12th; where, the 24th following, between twelve and one o'clock at noon, departed this life that excellent man and indulgent parent, retaining his senses and piety to the last, which he most tenderly expressed in blessing us, whom he now left to the world and the worst of times, whilst he was taken from the evil to come.

1641. It was a sad and lugubrious beginning of the year, when, on the 2nd of January, 1640-1, we at night followed the mourning hearse to the church at Wotton; when, after a sermon and funeral oration by the minister, my father was interred near his formerly erected monument, and mingled with the ashes of our mother, his dear wife. Thus we were bereft of both our parents in a period when we most of all stood in need of their counsel and assistance, especially myself, of a raw, vain, uncertain, and very unwary inclination; but so it pleased God to make trial of my conduct in a conjuncture of the greatest and most prodigious hazard that ever the youth of England saw; and, if I did not amidst all this impeach my liberty nor my virtue with the rest who made shipwreck of both, it was more the infinite goodness and mercy of God than the least providence or discretion of mine own, who now

*The Term then began in October.

+Notwithstanding this expression, it will afterwards appear, that Mr. Evelyn by no means approved of arbitrary, or tyrannical measures.