studies, understanding many languages, especially the modern, not inferior to any I know, and that I take to be his talent. Thus, sir, what I have said concerning Mr. Phillips in the matter you require, I hope shall not abate of your value for him, or the honour I promise myself in receiving your future commands, who remain, Sir, Your very humble Servant, John Evelyn to Henry Howard. J. EVELYN. Sayes-Court, 4 Aug. 1667. SIR, It is not without much regret and more concernment as it regards your honourable and illustrious family, that I have now so long a time beheld some of the noblest antiquities in the world, and which your grandfather purchased with so much cost and difficulty, lie abandoned, broken, and defaced in divers corners about Arundel House and the gardens belonging to it. I know your honour cannot but have thoughts and resolutions of repairing and collecting them together one day; but there are in the mean time certain broken inscriptions, now almost obliterated with age and the ill effects of weather, which will in a short time utterly be lost and perish, unless they be speedily removed to a more benign and less corrosive air. For these it is, I should be an humble suitor that you would think fit to make a present of them to the University of Oxford, where they might be of great use and ornament, and remain a more lasting record to posterity of your munificence, than by any other application of them whatsoever; and the University would think themselves obliged to inscribe your name, and that of your illustrious family, to all significations of gratitude. 1 Heir apparent to the Dukedom of Norfolk, frequently mentioned in the Diary. "This letter," Evelyn writes upon the MS. original, "procured all the Marmora Arundeliana, Greek and Latin Inscriptions, Urns, Altar Tables, &c. now at Oxon. J.E." See also his Dedication to Mr. Howard, prefixed to Roland Freart's "Idea of the Perfection of Painting," and reprinted in his "Miscellaneous Writings," 1825, 4to. P. 555. I have also long since suggested to your honour, that you would cause the best of your statues, basso-relievos, and other antiquities standing in your gallery at Arundel House, to be exquisitely designed by some skilful hand, and engraven in copper, as Mons. Liancourt did those of Rome by Perrier, and long before him Raphael himself, Sadeler, and other incomparable sculptors; because by this means they would be communicated to the world, and divers great and learned persons, studious of antiquity, might be benefited by them; and if such a thing were added to the impression of the Marmora Arundeliana (which I hear the University of Oxon are now preparing for a second impression), how greatly would it adorn that admirable work, and do new honours to your illustrious name and family, as it has formerly, and yet does to divers noble Italians and others, who have not been able to produce such a collection as you are furnished with, but which perish in obscurity, and yield not that to the public, who would be obliged to celebrate you, for want of a small expense! Methinks, whilst they remain thus obscured and neglected, the very marbles are become vocal, and cry to you for pity, and that you would even breathe life into them. Sir, you will easily see I have no other design in this, than to express the honour I have for your person and for your illustrious family; and because I find this would be one of the most glorious instances to augment and perpetuate it, I cannot but wish that it might take effect. I have no more to add but that I am, &c. SIR, John Evelyn to Dr. Bathurst. London, 9th September, 1667. I heartily wish I had the good fortune to be as serviceable to you in particular for the many favours I have received, as I doubt not but I shall be to a place, which, for your sake as well as my own, I have so much reason to 1 Little more than six years before the date of this letter the Vestig dell' Antichita di Roma, engraved by Giles Sadeler, had appeared. 2 At this time President of Trinity College, Oxford. honour-I mean the University; if, at least, it may be esteemed a service to have obtained of Mr. Henry Howard, of Norfolk, the freely-bestowing upon you all those learned monuments which pass under the famous names of Marmora Arundeliana. This, sir, the interest which that illustrious person has allowed me in his friendship has wrought for you; and I dare pronounce it highly worthy your acceptance. For you shall not only be masters of some few, but of all; and there is nothing more to be done, than, after you have taken notice of his munificence (which I desire, and wish may be speedily done, in a public address, as from the body of the University), to take order for their transportation to you; for which effect, I conceive it would be worth your while to delegate Mr. Obadiah Walker, or Dr. Wren (Sir Christopher), persons that I much honour, who may take care and consult about the best expedients for their removal; for they being marble, and some of them basse-relievos rarely cut, will deserve to be guarded from injuries and when they are at Oxford, I conceive they can nowhere be more fitly placed than in some part about the new theatre, except you should think fit to protect some of the more curious and small ones, as urns, &c., in the galleries next the library, where they may remain secure. I have assured Mr. Howard that the University will not fail in their sense of this noble gift and munificence, by decreeing him a public and conspicuous inscription which shall consecrate his memory: and if I have hinted it more particularly to Mr. Walker, it is what I think will become your justice and such grateful beneficiaries. I shall entreat you to acquaint Mr. Vice-Chancellor with what I have done, as also Dr. Barlow and Dr. Pierce, the Warden and Presidents of Queen's and Magdalen Colleges, my worthy friends, and beg that through your address this service of mine may be ac ceptable to the University from, Sir, your, &c. John Evelyn to the Earl of Sandwich. MY LORD, Sayes-Court, 13 Decemb. 1667. 1 could hardly obtain of myself to give your Excellency this trouble, or dare to mingle my impertinencies amongst your public and weighty concerns, till, reflecting on the greatness of your genius, I concluded it. would neither be disturbed, nor disdain my humble address, that confident of your communicative nature, I adventured to supplicate your Excellency's favour in behalf of a work of mine upon the Hortulan subject; and in particular, that your Excellency would vouchsafe by the meanest of your servants to give me some short descriptions of the most famous gardens and villas of Spain,' and what other singularities of that kind might occur to the adorning of a labour wherein I chiefly pretend to gratify great and illustrious persons, and such as, like your Lordship, are the most worthy to cultivate and enjoy these amenities. The catalogue which I here presume to send your Excellency, and the pains I have already taken to render it no trifling or unuseful speculation, will in some degree commute for this bold address; especially since I could never hope to receive so much light from any but your Excellency, to whom I am confident there can be nothing curious in this argument concealed, how close and reserved soever the Spaniards are. I have heard that there is lately a German at Madrid, who pretends to a successful invention for the setting of corn by a peculiar sort of plough. This, I am sure, cannot have escaped your Excellency; and it will be due to the Royal Society, the history whereof, now at last published here with infinite applause, I doubt not is come to your hands, and that you will judge it worthy the most accurate translation. But, my Lord, I shall leave that to the joint request of the Evelyn subjoins this note. "Which he sent me from Madrid, in many sheets of paper written in his own hand, together with the Sembrador or plough itself, which I gave to the Royal Society, and is described in their 'Transactions,' J. E." Lord Sandwich, it is needless to add, was at this time our Ambassador to Spain. Society, and accumulate no more to these extravagances of mine, after I have supplicated your Excellency's pardon, who am, May it please your Excellency, your, &c. Sir George Mackenzie to John Evelyn. Edinburgh, 1668. I did, Sir, in my greener years believe that our lofty and more wingy thoughts could not be forced into rhymes or submit to the rules of poetry. But I attribute this partly to the rudeness of my ear, which the storminess of the place where I live fashioned from my infancy to take notice of no sound less loud than winds or thunder, and thus I undervalue poetry as soldiers accustomed to the noise of drum and cannon contemn the softer airs of the viol or lute. But being at last released from this error, I resolved to choose for my essay a theme which (like her for whom the poem was intended) would not look ill in any dress, and in which my duty might excuse my want of wit. This poem being the first fruits of my muse, I have sent to you as to whom it was due, being Apollo's high priest. Your eyes can ripen everything they see, and if there be any lameness in its feet, your touch can miraculously cure it. Your approbation is a sanctuary unto which if these lines can once get they will be secure, nor dare the avenger follow them; and your bays are branches enough to secure them against the heats of envy, though they need, I fear, more the pity than the rage of more exalted heads. I desire rather your assistance than your censure, and I fear as much the one, as they need the other. Pardon the rudeness of this address from Your humble servant, GEO. MACKENZIE. P.S.-If you favour me with a return, direct it to Sir Geo. Mackenzie, Advocate, in Edinburgh. |