13th July. I went to Marden, which was originally a barren warren bought by Sir Robert Clayton,' who built there a pretty house, and made such alteration by planting not only an infinite store of the best fruit; but so changed the natural situation of the hill, valleys, and solitary mountains about it, that it rather represented some foreign country, which would produce spontaneously pines, firs, cypress, yew, holly, and juniper; they were come to their perfect growth, with walks, mazes, &c., amongst them, and were preserved with the ut most care, so that I who had seen it some years before in its naked and barren condition, was in admiration of it. The land was bought of Sir John Evelyn, of Godstone, and was thus improved for pleasure and retirement by the vast charge and industry of this opulent citizen. He and his lady received us with great civility.-The tombs in the church at Croydon of Archbishops Grindal, Whitgift, and other Archbishops, are fine and venerable; but none comparable to that of the late Archbishop Sheldon, which, being all of white marble, and of a stately ordinance and carvings, far surpassed the rest, and I judge could not cost less than 7001. or 8001.2 20th September. I went to Beddington, the ancient seat of the Carews, in my remembrance a noble old structure, capacious, and in form of the buildings of the age of Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth, and proper for the old English hospitality, but now decaying with the house itself, heretofore adorned with ample gardens, and the first orange-trees' that had been seen in England, planted in the open ground, and secured in winter only by a tabernacle of boards and stoves removable in summer, that, standing 120 years, large and goodly trees, and laden with fruit, were now in decay, as well as the grotto, fountains, cabinets, and other curiosities in the house and abroad, it being now fallen to a child under age, and only kept by a servant or two from utter dilapidation. The estate and park about it also in decay. i Ante, p. 122. There is a print of this very beautiful monument in Lysons' Environs of London, article Croydon, vol. i. p. 193. In the same volume, p. 52, &c., will be found also an ample account of the family of Carew, named in the succeeding entry, of the house as it now is, with a portrait of Sir Richard Carew, views of the church, monuments, &c. Oranges were eaten in this kingdom much earlier than the time of King James I. 1700. JOHN EVELYN. 375 23rd September. I went to visit Mr. Pepys at Clapham, where he has a very noble and wonderfully well - furnished house, especially with Indian and Chinese curiosities. The offices and gardens well accommodated for pleasure and retirement. 31st October. My birthday, now completed the 80th year of my age. I with my soul render thanks to God, who, of His infinite mercy, not only brought me out of many troubles, but this year restored me to health, after an ague and other infirmities of so great an age, my sight, hearing, and other senses and faculties tolerable, which I implore Him to continue, with the pardon of my sins past, and grace to acknowledge by my improvement of His goodness the ensuing year, if it be His pleasure to protract my life, that I may be the better prepared for my last day, through the infinite merits of my blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus, Amen! 5th November. Came the news of my dear grandson (the only male of my family now remaining) being fallen ill of the small-pox at Oxford, which after the dire effects of it in my family exceedingly afflicted me; but so it pleased my most merciful God that being let blood at his first complaint, and by the extraordinary care of Dr. Mander, (Head of the college and now Vice-Chancellor) who caused him to be brought and lodged in his own bed and bed-chamber, with the advice of his physician and care of his tutor, there were all fair hopes of his recovery, to our infinite comfort. We had a letter every day either from the Vice-Chancellor himself, or his tutor. 17th. Assurance of his recovery by a letter from himself. There was a change of great officers at Court. Lord Godolphin returned to his former station of first Commissioner of the Treasury; Sir Charles Hedges Secretary of State. 30th November. At the Royal Society, Lord Somers, the late Chancellor, was continued President. 8th December. Great alterations of officers at Court, and elsewhere-Lord Chief Justice Treby died; he was a learned man in his profession, of which we have now few, never fewer; the Chancery requiring so little skill in deep lawlearning, if the practiser can talk eloquently in that Court; so that probably few care to study the law to any purpose. -Lord Marlborough Master of the Ordnance, in place of Lord Romney made Groom of the Stole. The Earl of Rochester goes Lord Lieutenant to Ireland. 1700-1. January. I finished the sale of North Stoake in Sussex to Robert Michell, Esq., appointed by my brother to be sold for payment of portions to my nieces, and other incumbrances on the estate. 4th. An exceeding deep snow, and melted away as suddenly. 19th. Severe frost, and such a tempest as threw down many chimneys, and did great spoil at sea, and blew down above twenty trees of mine at Wotton. 9th February. The old Speaker laid aside,' and Mr. Harley, an able gentleman, chosen. Our countryman, Sir Richard Onslow, had a party for him. 27th. By an order of the House of Commons, I laid before the Speaker the state of what had been received and paid towards the building of Greenwich Hospital.' man. Mr. Wye, Rector of Wotton, died, a very worthy good I gave it to Dr. Bohun, a learned person and excellent preacher, who had been my son's tutor, and lived long in my family. 18th March. I let Sayes Court to Lord Carmarthen, son to the Duke of Leeds.-28th. I went to the funeral of my 'Sir Thomas Lyttelton, Bart. 2 Robert Harley, Speaker in three Parliaments in the reign of Queen Anne, Secretary of State, Lord High Treasurer; attempted to be stabbed by Guiscard, a Frenchman, under examination before the Lords of the Privy Council. Afterwards created Earl of Oxford and Mortimer; impeached upon the succession of the House of Hanover; died 1724. JOHN EVELYN, Esq. Dr. to GREENWICH HOSPITAL Received in the year 1696 1701. JOHN EVELYN. 377 sister Draper,' who was buried at Edmonton in great state. Dr. Davenant displeased the clergy now met in Convocation by a passage in his book, p. 40.2 April. A Dutch boy of about eight or nine years old was carried about by his parents to show, who had about the iris of one eye, the letters of Deus meus, and of the other Elohim, in the Hebrew character. How this was done by artifice none could imagine; his parents affirming that he was so born. It did not prejudice his sight, and he seemed to be a lively playing boy. Everybody went to see him; physicians and philosophers examined it with great accuracy, some considered it as artificial, others as almost superna Besides His Majesty 6,000, and Subscriptions. 1 Mother of Evelyn's son-in-law, 2 Charles Davenant, LL.D. (son of Sir William). The book was, Essays upon the Balance of Power, and the objectionable passage was that in which he says that many of those lately in power have used their utmost endeavours to discountenance all revealed religion. "Are not many of us able to point to several persons, whom nothing has recom. mended to places of the highest trust, and often to rich benefices and dignities, but the open enmity which they have, almost from their cra. dles, professed to the Divinity of Christ ?" The Convocation on reading the book, ordered papers to be fixed on several doors in Westninster Abbey, inviting the author, whoever he be, or any one of the many, to point out such persons, that they may be proceeded against. 4th April. The Duke of Norfold died of an apoplexy, and Mr. Thomas Howard of complicated disease since his being cut for the stone; he was one of the Tellers of the Exchequer. Mr. How made a Baron. May. Some Kentish men delivering a petition to the House of Commons, were imprisoned." A great dearth, no considerable rain having fallen for some months. 17th. Very plentiful showers, the wind coming west and south.-The Bishops and Convocation at difference concerning the right of calling the assembly and dissolving. Atterbury' and Dr Wake' writing one against the other. 20th June. The Commons demanded a conference with the Lords on the trial of Lord Somers, which the Lords refused, and proceeding on the trial, the Commons would not attend, and he was acquitted.* 22nd. I went to congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent person my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland, where he had behaved himself so honestly, and to the exceeding satisfaction of the people; but he was removed thence for being a Frenchman, though they had not a more worthy, valiant, discreet, and trusty person in the two kingdoms, on whom they could have relied for his conduct and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered, as well as the Marquis his father, for being Protestants." July. My Lord Treasurer made my grandson one of the Commissioners of the prizes, salary £500 per annum. 8th. My grandson went to Sir Simon Harcourt, the Soli 'Justinian Champneys, Thomas Culpepper, William Culpepper, William Hamilton, and David Polhill, gentlemen of considerable property and family in the county. There is a very good print of them in five ovals on one plate, engraved by R. White, in 1701. They desired the Parliament to mind the public more, and their private heats less. They were confined till the prorogation, and were much visited. net gives an account of them. Ante, p. 372. Bur Afterwards Bishop of Rochester. Afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry Rouvigné, Earl of Galway, in Ireland, son of the Marquis, who was Ambassador from France to Charles II. He was created a Peer by King William for his gallantry at the battle of the Boyne, where his brother also fought and was killed. He commanded afterwards both in Italy and Spain, where the fatal battle of Almanza put an end to his military glory. There is a mezzotinto portrait of hím by Simon. • Ante, p. 276. |