sent, and will remain some time till they can fit themselves for housekeeping; I am generally well pleased with such favours from my friends, and I am extremely satisfied with the conversation of this fair lady. I am apt, I confess, to enlarge the characters of them I esteem, but to be just to the merit of this person I ought to say much more. I will suppose your college affairs take up much of your time, and that your diversions in Oxford are very charming; yet neither should make you so absolutely forget Deptford and those in it, as not to impart some of your pleasant thoughts, at spare moments especially, knowing how well we receive your letters, and how naturally our sex loves novelty, that I cannot but accuse you of unkindness; however, I am, Your friend and servant, To my brother Glanville' in France. M. E. SIR, I have received your kind letter, and am not astonished Mr. Fuller finds so great a difference between a French pension and Woodcott table. Let him know eating is the least design of travellers; that particular waived, Ï still persevere in the defence of France; and will believe, when you have overcome the difficulties of the language, and gained some acquaintance amongst the better sort, visited the Court, seen the noble buildings and pleasant seats in and about Paris, you will render to what has been related to you, that it is an excellent country, wherein indeed riches are partially distributed, yet employed to great use and ornament. The people are little various in their tempers, for which blame the several nations from which they are descended; but all agreeing in the desire to enlarge their bounds, and augment the glory of the prince under whom the most of them do but breathe. I am sorry it was not my good fortune to stay till you came, or your lot to come when I was there, that I might have been assisting to your conversation. An ambassador is daily 'See Diary, vol. ii. p. 380, for a character of Mr. Glanville, who had married Evelyn's sister. The letter is undated, but the mention of Lord Arlington's influence seems to fix the year as that immediately following Clarendon's disgrace, and the triumph of the Cabal; namely, 1668-9. threatened to be sent from hence, but it is not yet decided which of the two able statesmen shall carry it-the Lord Buchan, or Mr. R. Montagu; since it does not depend on their abilities for the employment, but their being disposed to marry my Lord Arlington's wife's sister, as the necessary article to arrive to that dignity. When either is declared, you shall not fail of the address you desire. In the meantime any English gentleman must be well received by my Lord of St. Alban's. Though your eye be continually over my cousin your son, and your care as great as a tender and knowing parent's can be, yet I am persuaded you will find the breeding in an academy the likeliest way to answer all ends except that of expense, which must be greater there than elsewhere; but not to be valued, considering the advantages of good conversation, the emulation which young persons of good birth raise in one another, the learning all manly exercises in community, and the gaining a good air and assurance best acquired by example, which works most with such ingenious and observing tempers as my cousin seems to be. The orders are generally good, the discipline strict, and, I am informed, the chief master in our time has left a nephew, that not only equals but excels him; and is also of the religion.' If you are inclined to take this course with my nephew this winter, you will find him out in the Faubourg St. Germain, so pleasant a part of the town I admire you can live out of it. When you walk to the Charity, if you inquire for the Rue Farrene you may see how pleasantly our house was situated. I fear you will judge I mention Paris with that affection persons in age remember the satisfaction of their youth, to which happiness was the nearest, at least in their opinion, and so past that there is no hopes of a return. Such, I confess, in part are my thoughts of that place, but must not flatter myself, you will confirm me in them, who arrive there in a more discerning age, and carry with you a little prejudice against the people; yet something is to be expected from the justice of your nature in their behalf, and from the goodness of your nature in mine. Excuse the liberty of, Your affectionate sister, A Protestant, Mrs. Evelyn means. M. E. To Mr. Terryll in Ireland. Feb. 10, 1668-9. SIB, I have received yours with the enclosed to Mr. Bohun, which shall be conveyed to him with care. I am not to doubt of your good reception where your merit is well understood; I am rather to wish you may not meet with engagements to keep you long out of this country, which, if so unhappy as to impart vices to its neighbours, cannot boast of many virtues to spare. This may truly be esteemed an admiring age, if distance from what is worthy define it well; and what leads me to this opinion is the strange veneration paid to the ruins of ancient structures, greater than the entire edifices ever could pretend to; a sort of justice virtue challenges in our time, and leaves the practice to the choice of the succeeding age. To inform you of what passes here cannot be acceptable, since I suppose you are, not without the curiosity of travellers, desirous to collect foreign novelties; which, should you be exempt from, little is worth communicating to you from hence. The censure of our plays comes to me at the second hand. There has not been any new lately revived and reformed, as Catiline, well set out with clothes and scenes; Horace, with a farce and dances between every act, composed by Lacy and played by him and Nell, which takes; one of my Lord of Newcastle's, for which printed apologies are scattered in the assembly by Briden's order, either for himself who had some hand in it, or for the author most; I think both had right to them. State affairs I am not likely to give you an account of, if Mr. B.'s character be 1 Mr. Terryll was the son of Sir Timothy (variously called by Evelyn, Tirrill, Tyrell, and Tyrill), as to whom see vol. i. pp. 287 and 403; vol. ii. p. 105; and vol. iii. p. 308. See Pepys' Diary, Bohn's edition, vol. iv. p. 84. "Horace" was a poor translation of Corneille's tragedy by Mrs. Philips. See Evelyn's Diary, vol. ii. p. 35, where Evelyn contrasts the virtue of the authoress with that of the ladies (Castlemaine and others) before who:n he saw it performed. An entry in the Diary of Pepys (vol iv. pp. 93, 94), will probably explain this allusion. taken of me, who fancies I know nothing of the Dutch war till the guns went off at Chatham; and in my own concerns the most important good-fortune which has befallen me of late is the honour I have had to kiss my lady your mother's hands, with two of your sisters, whose stay in town being short as well as mine deprived me of the satisfaction I rejoiced much in. My father and Mr. Evelyn are infinitely your servants, and I am, Sir, your humble, &c. To Mr. Terryll in Ireland. SIR, Had 1 not been assured by some of your friends that you were upon your return into England about Easter, I should not have omitted my acknowledgments for your obliging letter; but since finding, upon better information, that good fortune is not so near, give me leave to beg your excuse for an undesigned fault, and inquire farther what can be the charms of a place which has not only invited but detained persons of so much wit and merit in it? Can it be the natives' fame for learning of late years which is the powerful attraction ? or the Irish beauties above those of other countries, which engages through such dangerous seas? It cannot be judged by Mr. Terryll that interest only should be the motive; there must be something more reasonable than rich fields and herds to souls so much raised above the vulgar. But I will give a stop to my curiosity, and satisfy myself that the same prudence which was our guide bere accompanies you everywhere, and will maintain your choice of every thing but friends, which admits of no objection except the permission you give me to be of the number; yet I am certainly as much as any, SIB, To my Sir, your most, &c. Brother Glanville in France. I have received yours of the 25th May, and will hope mine in answer to your first came safe to you, since it passed under your niece's cover. Of any person I know, you had the least reason to visit France, either to improve mien, wit, or style, since all necessary accomplishments were ever granted you; but I acknowledge a nicer way of raillery is practised where you live than is used amongst us, or you would never address yourself to me for lessons in an art too well understood by you already. All I pretend to is, to keep myself on the defensive; plainness and sincerity are my best guards; I confess beauty and youth sometimes stand in need of subtlety and stratagems to evade and rescue them from the surprises of men, but persons wanting those charms are sufficiently secured from any attacks that may exercise the invention. Your return hither will be very pleasing to your friends. I imagine you so furnished with such critical and pleasant remarks of the countries, people, and customs, that, should you oppose former characters of France, your relation would be rendered to, as being latest and made with most judgment. Yet let not curiosity pass in your opinion for the only inducement which makes me desire your return, since your merit challenges my best wishes, which shall accompany you till I can assure you in a better manner how much I am, Sir, &c. To my Brother Glanville at Wotton. Sept. 21, 1670. SIR, I will not study much or long to excuse those weak tears you so slight and condemn in women, as believing they are always at our command, but I can assure you neither the flesh-pots nor the onions caused them in me. I have often been as nobly and as civilly entertained at Wotton,' and yet have I parted with dry eyes. It is reality and kindness which gains upon my spirit. I will not deny but a confusion of thoughts proceeding from gratitude, a sense of my own want of merit, an apprehension I should The reader may be reminded that Evelyn did not succeed to the paternal estate of Wotton till after his elder brother George's death; nearly thirty years after the date of this letter. |
