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1706.

JOHN EVELYN.

389

places, he would not accept it, unless £2000 a-year were given him in reversion when he was put out, in consideration of his loss of practice. His predecessors, how little time soever they had the seal, usually got £100,000 and made themselves Barons.-A new Secretary of State.'Lord Abington, Lieutenant of the Tower, displaced, and General Churchill, brother to the Duke of Marlborough, put in. An indication of great unsteadiness somewhere, but thus the crafty Whig party (as called) begin to change the face of the Court, in opposition to the High Churchmen, which was another distinction of a party from the Low Churchmen. The Parliament chose one Mr. Smith, Speaker. There had never been so great an assembly of members on the first day of sitting, being more than 450. The votes both of the old, as well as the new, fell to those called Low Churchmen, contrary to all expectation.

31st October. I am this day arrived to the 85th year of Lord teach me so to number my days to come, that I may apply them to wisdom!

my age.

1705-6. 1st January. Making up my accounts for the past year, paid bills, wages, and new-year's-gifts, according to custom. Though much indisposed and in so advanced a stage, I went to our chapel [in London] to give God public thanks, beseeching Almighty God to assist me and my family the ensuing year, if He should yet continue my pilgrimage here, and bring me at last to a better life with Him in his heavenly kingdom. Divers of our friends and relations dined with us this day.

27th. My indisposition increasing, I was exceeding ill this whole week.

3rd February. Notes of the sermons at the chapel in the morning and afternoon, written with his own hand, conclude this Diary.

Mr. Evelyn died on the 27th of this month.

1 Charles, Earl of Sunderland.

2 John Smith, Esq., Member for Andover.

END OF THE DIARY.

APPENDIX.

ILLUSTRATION S.

I.

(See p. 244.)

FEB. 1687-8, there was printed what was called "A true and perfect narrative of the strange and unexpected finding the Crucifix and Goldchain of that pious Prince, St. Edward the King and Confessor, which was found after six hundred and thirty years' interment, and presented to his most Sacred Majesty, King James the Second. By Charles Taylour, Gent. London, printed by J. B., and are to be sold by Randal Taylor, near Stationers' Hall, 1688."

He says, that "on St. Barnaby's Day (11 June), 1685, between 11 and 12 at noon, he went with two friends to see the coffin of Edward the Confessor, having heard that it was broke; fetched a ladder, looked on the coffin and found a hole as reported, put his hand into the hole, and turning the bones which he felt there, drew from under the shoulderbones a crucifix richly adorned and enamelled, and a golden chain of twenty-four inches long to which it was fixed; showed them to his two friends; was afraid to take them away, till he had acquainted the Dean; put them into the coffin again. But the Dean not being to be spoke with then, and fearing this treasure might be taken by some other, he went two or three hours afterward to one of the choir, acquainted him with what he had found, who accompanied him to the monument, from whence he again drew the crucifix and chain; his friend advised him to keep them, until he could show them to the Dean (the Bishop of Rochester): kept them three weeks before he could speak to the Bishop; went to the Archbishop of York, and showed them; next morning, the Archbishop of York carried him to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth, and showed them. After this, he procured an exact drawing to be made of them; showed them to Sir William Dugdale.-6th July, the Archbishop of Canterbury told the Bishop of Rochester, who, about four that afternoon, sent for him, and took him to Whitehall, that he might present them to the King; which he did accordingly. The King ordered a new strong wooden coffin to be made to inclose the broken

one.

The links of the chain oblong, and curiously wrought; the upper

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part joined by a locket, composed of a large round knob of gold, massy, in circumference as big as a milled shilling, half an inch thick; round this went a wire and half a dozen little beads, hanging loose, running to and again on the same, all of pure gold, finely wrought; on each side of the locket were set two large square stones (supposed to be rubies). From each side of this locket, fixed to two rings of gold, the chain descends, and, meeting below, passes through a square piece of gold, of a convenient bigness, made hollow for the same purpose. This gold, wrought into several angles, was painted with divers colours, resembling gems or precious stones, to which the crucifix was joined, yet to be taken off by help of a screw. The form of the cross nearest that of an humettée flory (among the heralds), or rather the botany [botonée]; yet the pieces not of equal length, the perpendicular beam being near one-fourth part longer than the traverse, as being four inches to the extremity, whilst the other scarce exceeds three; yet all neatly turned at the ends, and the botons enamelled with figures thereon. The cross of the same gold as the chain, but exceeds it by its rich enamel, having on one side the picture of our Saviour Christ in his passion wrought thereon, and an eye from above casting a kind of beam on him; on the reverse, picture of a Benedictine monk in his habit, and on each side of him these capital Roman letters:—

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This cross is hollow, to be opened by two little screws towards the top, wherein it is presumed some relic might have been conserved. William I. commanded the coffin to be enshrined, and the shrine covered with plates of gold and silver, adorned with pearls and precious stones. About one hundred and thirty-six years after, the Abbot resolved to inspect the body, said to be incorruptible, and, on opening, found it to be so, being perfect, the limbs flexible: the face covered; Gundolph, Bishop of Rochester, withdrew the cover, but, with great reverence, covered it again, changing the former vestments, and putting on others of equal price. In 1163, Thomas à Becket procured a canonisation of the King, and in the ceremony the Abbot opened the coffin, found the body lying in rich vestments of cloth of gold, having on his feet buskins of purple, and shoes of great price; the body uncorrupted; removed the whole body from the stone repository to another of wood, some assisting at the head, others at the arms and legs; they lifted it gently, and laid the corpse first on tapestry spread on the floor, and then wrapping the same in silken cloths of great value, they put it into the wooden chest, with all those things that were found in the former, except the gold ring which was on the King's finger, which the Abbot, out of devotion, retained, and ordered it to be kept in the Treasury of the Abbey.

"In 1226, King Henry III. again romoved the coffin to a chapel built for the purpose.”

II.

EVELYN'S PUBLICATIONS.

THE SUBJOINED LIST IS FROM A LETTER OF EVELYN'S TO DR. PLOT, DATED 16 MARCH, 1682-3.

Translations.

1. Of Liberty and Servitude, Lond. 1644, 12mo.

2. The French Gardener and English Vineyard, 1658, 12mo. 3rd edit.

3. An Essay on the first Book of Lucretius, 1656, 8vo.

4. Gaspar Naudæus, Instructions concerning Libraries, 1661, 8vo.

5. A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern, with a treatise on Statues, &c. 1664, folio.

6. An Idea of the perfection of Painting, 1668, 8vo.

7. The Mystery of Jesuitism, 2 parts, 8vo.

8. St. Chrysostom's Golden Book for the Education of Children, out of the Greek, 1659, 12mo.

Original Works.

1. An Apology for the Royal Party, 1659, 4to. Three Editions. 2. Panegyric at his Majesty's Coronation, 1661, folio.

3. Fumifugium, or a prophetic Invective against the Fire and Smoke of London, with its Remedies, 1661, 4to.

4. Sculptura, or the History of the Art of Chalcography, 1662, 8vo. 5. Public Employment, and an active life preferred to Solitude, 1667, 8vo.

6. History of the Three late Impostors, 1669, 8vo.

7. Kalendarium Hortense, 1664, 1679, 8vo.

8. Sylva, 1679, folio. Three Editions.

9. Terra, 1679. Two Editions.

10. Tyrannus, or the Mode, 8vo.

Six Editions.

11. The Dignity of Man, &c., not printed, nearly ready.

12. Elysium Britannicum, not printed, nearly ready

Prepared for the Press.

A Discourse of Medals.-Of Manuscripts.-Of Stones.-Of Reason in Brute Animals.1

In a letter to Dr. BEALE, 11 July, 1679, Evelyn says, "I have sometimes thought of publishing a Treatise of Acetaria, which (though but one of the chapters of Elysium Britannicum) would make a competent

Of the four Treatises here enumerated, the Discourse on Medals only has been printed. There is at Wotton a copy of that on Manuscripts in thirteen leaves, 4to., which seems to contain all he intended ou this subject. There is also a chapter of an essay, entitled, "De Baculis," which from the proem seems to have been intended as jocular, but it begins with great gravity.

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volume, accompanied with other necessaries, according to my manner; but whilst I as often think of performing my so long-since promised (more universal) Hortulan work, I know not how to take that chapter out, and single it for the press, without some blemish to the rest. When again I consider into what an ocean I am plunged, how much I have written and collected for above these twenty years upon this fruitful and inexhaustible subject (I mean Horticulture) not yet fully digested to my mind, and what insuperable pains it will require to insert the (daily increasing) particulars into what I have already in some measure prepared, and which must of necessity be done by my own hand, I am almost out of hope, that I shall ever have strength and leisure to bring it to maturity, having for the last ten years of my life been in perpetual motion, and hardly two months in a year at my own habitation, or conversant with my family.

"You know what my charge and care has been during the late unhappy war with the Hollanders; and what it has cost me as to avocations, and for the procuring money, and attending the Lord Treasurer, &c., to discharge the quarters of many thousands.

"Since that, I have upon me no fewer than three executorships, besides other domestic concerns, either of them enough to distract a more steady and composed genius than is mine.

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Superadd to these the public confusions in church and kingdom (never to be sufficiently deplored), and which cannot but most sensibly touch every sober and honest man.

"In the midst of these disturbances, who but Dr. Beale (that stands upon the tower, looks down unconcernedly on all those tempests) can think of gardens and fish-ponds, and the delices and ornaments of peace and tranquility? With no little conflict and force on my other business, I have yet at last, and as I was able, published a third edition of my 'Sylva,' and with such additions as occurred; and this in truth only to pacify the importunity of very many (besides the printer), who quite tired me with calling on me for it, and above all, threatening to reprint it with all its former defects, if I did not speedily prevent it. I am only vexed that it proving so popular as in so few years to pass so many impressions, and (as I hear) gratify the avaricious printer with some hundreds of pounds, there had not been some course taken in it for the benefit of our Society. It is apparent, that near £500 has been already gotten by it; but we are not yet economists.

3

"You know what pillars we have lost: Palmer,' Moray,' Chester,2 Oldenburg, &c.; and through what other discouragements we still labour; and therefore you will excuse the zeal and fervour of what I have added in my Epistle to the Reader, if at length it be possible to

'Dudley Palmer, Esq., born in 1602, and died in 1666, and Sir Robert Moray, Knt., who died July 4, 1673, two of the first Council of the Royal Society.

2 John Wilkins, D.D., Bishop of Chester. He died Nov. 19, 1672. 3 Secretary to the Royal Society, who died in September, 1677.

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