guided by my friends: especially your judgment I shall long for, if you will do me the honour to give it me; and then Í am sure to make no mistake. The work, I am sure, will please me; if I fall not short of my subject I shall be glad. I am extremely sorry that the greediness of some people hath driven you to cut any part of those charming groves that made Wotton so delicious a seat. What, are those woods behind the house towards Leith-Hill cut down! If they are, the greatest ornament of the finest county in England is gone. But I hope better; and do not know, if God spares my life, but I may wait upon you this summer at Wotton, and then I shall inform myself. That God Almighty may long preserve you to your family, and continue to make young Mr. Evelyn what he promises, and you desire, is the hearty prayer of, Honoured Sir, Your most obliged and most faithful servant, W. WOTTON. I beg leave to present my humblest service to your lady. I have the same intelligence concerning Mr. Hare that you have. Rev. Richard Richardson (of Lamport, Northamptonshire) to HONOURED SIR, John Evelyn. Brixworth, June 2, 1702. I shall not make a preface of excuse to you, a member of our noble and communicative profession of planters and florists, or rather the head or father as I call you, in my "De Cultu Hort. Carm." "Evelinumque patrem Hortic." in which I pretend Le Sieur Quintinye, Monsieur Barpoæ, follow your steps especially our countryman Mr. Rea. I must confess it was but a pretence; for I was mainly intent upon the digressive part after the example of Columella and our master Virgil, whom I suppose nobody consults in the science, but rather Cato, Varro, Columella in prose, &c. Sir, I am importuned by some friends, florists, in my secon edition intended, to make good the title, and indeed, I have d made some additions, but yet I have run out most upon the digressive. I have no other way to give them satisfaction but by prefixing, with your good leave, your Calend. Hort. which I have put into Latin: that is, the body of the work. I have omitted the preface chiefly because I durst not venture upon Cowley's Pindaric; and the Green-House at the end, because it is but an essay, and little useful to the southern virtuosi; the cuts also would be chargeable. I have also omitted the references to your other books, because they are English. For what concerns Bees, being a matter somewhat heterogeneous, I send the reader to Butler's history, by me long since translated into Latin, Sir, if you desire the whole, or any part, I will send it to you, and beg if you have any, some further improvements. If you please to honour me with an answer, you may direct it to me, Rector of Lamport, Northampton. I am, Sir, Your most humble and obedient servant, William Wotton to John Evelyn. HONOURED SIR, Jan. 23, 1702-3. When I see two letters of yours before me, and both unanswered, it fills me with confusion. I ought not to be so insensible of the honour you do me by your correspondence, an honour which I shall never be able sufficiently to acknowledge; though I confess it is with the extremest pleasure that I think I shall ere long tell the world, that I have had the happiness to be known to so great an ornament of our age and nation as Mr. Evelyn. Your last papers have cleared some doubts which I was in concerning Mr. Boyle's family, and some still remain. I want to know whether Sir Geoffrey Fenton was not Secretary of State; I think he was. Sir William Petty's will I have got a copy of. I have many other things to ask you, of which you will in a short time have a list. You encourage me, Sir, to come to you; I will labour that you sha'n't repent. I received last post two letters out of Surrey, one from Dr. Duncombe, of Shere, the other from Mr. Randyll, of Chilworth, in behalf of one Mr. Bannister, Vicar of Wonersh, a small vicarage just by Albury. It seems one Steer, of Newdegate, has left an exhibition for a poor scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge. Now Mr. Bannister has with great difficulty bred up a son whom he designs for the University, and hopes he shall procure this exhibition. But that will be a slender support. I am solicited therefore to desire Dr. Bentley to look favourably upon him if he shall deserve it. There are very many ways by which a master of such a house may assist a promising lad, whose fortune is narrow. I intend to send a letter to the master by the lad when he goes up, and I take the boldness to say all this to you, because I have reason to think it will be esteemed by Mr. Randyll and Dr. Duncombe (whose family are patrons of that vicarage) as an exceeding great obligation, if you will vouchsafe to interpose with our friend in this lad's behalf. Many a boy who struggles at his first entry into the world, proves afterwards a very considerable man. Dr. Duncombe says the child is qualified to go to Cambridge. My wife desires to have her most humble service presented to Mrs. Evelyn. I am, Honoured Sir, Your most obedient and faithful servant, W. WOTTON.' William Wotton to John Evelyn. HONOURED SIR, Milton, Aug. 13, 1703. It is now so long time since I first mentioned to you my design of giving some account to the world of the life and writings of Mr. Boyle, that I question not but you have long since looked upon it as a vain brag of an impertinent fellow, who, when he had once appeared in public, thought he might be always trespassing upon their patience. The discouragements I met with since I undertook it were so many, that I have often wished that I had let it alone, or 1 This letter is superscribed: "For John Evelyn, Esq., at his house in Dover Street, near St. James's Street, Westminster." never thought of it. And I was ordered to pursue another scent by the Bishop of Salisbury, which it pleased God to make unsuccessful. However, my design has long been resumed, and every day I do something to it. Next spring I hope to wait upon you in Dover Street, and show you what I have done. I am sensible I am a slow and a lazy writer, and since the public can well spare me and what I shall ever do, it is no great harm if I am dilatory. But since you, Sir, were the first egyodiwarns to me in this affair, and were pleased so far to flatter me, as to make me hope the world would (upon Mr. Boyle's account) pardon what I should say, I must take the freedom to be yet farther troublesome to you. By your letter of March 29, 1696, I am encouraged to trouble you, and for that letter I again must thank you, since, notwithstanding the notices which Mr. Boyle's own papers and the Bishop of Sarum's hints have given me, I found your informations so useful, that without them my work would be very lame. I beg therefore of you farther, 1. An account of Mr. Hartlib: what countryman? what his employment? in short, a short eulogy of him, and his writings and designs, with an account of the time of his death. 2. The like of the beginnings of Sir William Petty. Those two were very great with Mr. Boyle before the Restoration. 3. Do you know anything of one Clodius' a chemist? Was he (or who was) Mr. Boyle's first master in that art ? 4. What was the affinity between your lady's family and Mr. Boyle? What son of that family was it that lies buried in Deptford church? and particularly all you can gather of the old Earl of Cork's original. Was Sir Geoffrey Fenton Secretary of State in Ireland; if not, what was his employment? Did not he translate Guicciardini into English ? 5. In what year began your acquaintance with Mr. Boyle? I find letters of yours to him in 1657. Have you any letters of his; and would you spare me the use of them? they should be returned to you with thousands of thanks. I think, Sir, you will look upon these as queries enough 1 Claudius. for one time. It is in your power to make my work perfect and the obligations I shall have thereby, though they can't well add to those you have conferred already, yet they will give me a new title to subscribe myself, Honoured Sir, Your most obedient and most obliged servant, My wife and I desire our services to be most humbly offered to Madame Evelyn. Pray was Sir Maurice Fenton' (whose widow Sir W. Petty married) a descendant of Sir Geoffrey's? or what else do you know of him? In one of your letters to Mr. Boyle you mention a Chymico-Mathematico-Mechanical School designed by Dr. Wilkins what farther do you know about it ? : John Evelyn to William Wotton." WORTHY SIR, Wotton, 12th September, 1703. I had long ere this given you an account of yours of the 13th past (which yet came not to me till the 20th) if a copy of the inscription you mention, and which I had long since among my papers, could have been found, upon diligent search; but lost I believe it (with other loose notes) upon my remove hither, cum pannis. To supply which, it is now above ten days past that I sent to Dr. Stanhope (Vicar of Deptford) to send me a fresh transcript: but hearing nothing from him hitherto, I believe my letter might not have come to his hands; and now a servant of mine (who looks after my little concerns in that place) tells me the Doctor is at Tunbridge, drinking the waters; and perhaps my letter may lie dormant at his house, expecting his return upon this accident and interruption, unwilling you should remain any longer in suspense, or think me negligent or A question partly founded on a mistake of names, Evelyn noting in the margin, "Felton it should be." This letter is endorsed by Evelyn himself: "Copy to Mr. WOTTON, in answer to one of his in order to the History of the Life of Mr. BOYLE, &c., which I first put him upon." |