minister durst not have officiated according to the form and usage of the Church of England, to which I always adhered.

25th October. Mr. Owen preached in my library at Sayes Court on Luke xviii. 7, 8, an excellent discourse on the unjust judge, the unjust judge, showing why Almighty God would sometimes be compared by such similitudes. He afterwards administered to us all the Holy Sacrament.

28th. Went to London, to visit my Lady Gerrard, where I saw that cursed woman called the Lady Norton, of whom it was reported that she spit in our King's face as he went to the scaffold. Indeed, her talk and discourse was like an impudent woman.

21st November. I went to London, to speak with Sir John Evelyn,' my kinsman, about the purchase of an estate of Mr. Lambard's at Westerham, which afterwards Sir John himself bought for his son-in-law, Leech.2

4th December. Going this day to our church, I was surprised to see a tradesman, a mechanic, step up; I was resolved yet to stay and see what he would make of it. His text was from 2 Sam. xxiii. 20: "And Benaiah went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow" the purport was, that no danger was to be thought difficult when God called for shedding of blood, inferring that now the saints were called to destroy temporal governments; with such feculent stuff; so dangerous a crisis were things grown to.

:

25th. Christmas-day. No churches, or public assembly. I was fain to pass the devotions of that blessed day with my family at home.

1653-4: 20th January. Came to see [me] my old acquaintance and the most incomparable player 1 [Of Godstone.]

2 [Squerryes. See post, under 5th August, 1658.]

on the Irish harp, Mr. Clark,' after his travels. He was an excellent musician, a discreet gentleman, born in Devonshire (as I remember). Such music before or since did I never hear, that instrument being neglected for its extraordinary difficulty; but, in my judgment, far superior to the lute itself, or whatever speaks with strings.

25th January. Died my son, J. Stansfield, of convulsion-fits; buried at Deptford on the east corner of the church, near his mother's greatgrandfather, and other relatives.

In contra

8th February. Ash-Wednesday. diction to all custom and decency, the usurper, Cromwell, feasted at the Lord Mayor's, riding in triumph through the city.

14th. I saw a tame lion play familiarly with a lamb; he was a huge beast, and I thrust my hand into his mouth and found his tongue rough like a cat's; a sheep also with six legs, which made use of five of them to walk; a goose that had four legs, two crops, and as many vents.

29th March. That excellent man, Mr. Owen,3 preached in my library on Matt. xxviii. 6, a resurrection-sermon, and after it we all received the Holy Communion.

6th April. Came my Lord Herbert, Sir Kenelm Digby, Mr. Denham, and other friends, to see me.

15th. I went to London, to hear the famous Dr. Jeremy Taylor (since Bishop of Down and

1 [See post, under 14th November, 1668.] 2 See ante, p. 68.]

4 See ante, vol. i. p. 46.]

8 [See ante, p. 8.]

5 John Denham, the poet, afterwards Sir John, 1615-69. At this date, he had been attendant to Henrietta Maria at Paris, where Evelyn had no doubt become acquainted with him. His well-known Cooper's Hill was published in 1642.]

6 [Dr. Jeremy Taylor, 1613-67, often referred to hereafter. His Holy Living was published in 1650; his Holy Dying in 1651. He became Bishop of Down and Connor in 1661.]

Connor) at St. Gregory's (near St. Paul's) on Matt. vi. 48, concerning evangelical perfection.

5th May. I bound my lackey, Thomas Headly, apprentice to a carpenter, giving with him five pounds and new clothing; he thrived very well, and became rich.

8th. I went to Hackney, to see Lady Brooke's garden, which was one of the neatest and most celebrated in England, the house well furnished, but a despicable building. Returning, visited one Mr. Tomb's garden; it has large and noble walks, some modern statues, a vineyard, planted in strawberry borders, staked at ten feet distances; the banqueting-house of cedar, where the couch and seats were carved à l'antique; some good pictures in the house, especially one of Vandyck's, being a man in his shirt; also some of Steenwyck. I also called at Mr. Ducie's, who has indeed a rare collection of the best masters, and one of the largest stories of H. Holbein. I also saw Sir Thomas Fowler's aviary, which is a poor business.

10th. My Lady Gerrard treated us at Mulberry Garden,' now the only place of refreshment about the town for persons of the best quality to be exceedingly cheated at; Cromwell and his partisans having shut up and seized on Spring Garden,2

1 The Mulberry Garden stood on the site of what is now Buckingham Palace and Gardens, a garden of mulberry trees having been planted there by James the First. The houses which preceded Buckingham Palace on the site, were Goring House, Arlington House, and Buckingham House or the Queen's House, the last having been pulled down to erect Nash's present building. Sir Charles Sedley made the Mulberry Garden the subject of a comedy, and it was not closed, as a place of entertainment, until the date of Charles the Second's grant of it to Bennet, Earl of Arlington, in 1673.

2 [See ante, p. 12. The Spring Garden, once a pleasureground attached to Whitehall Palace, and lying between Charing Cross and St. James's Park, is now built upon. In the Character of

which, till now, had been the usual rendezvous for the ladies and gallants at this season.

11th May. I now observed how the women began to paint themselves, formerly a most ignominious thing, and used only by prostitutes.

14th. There being no such thing as churchanniversaries in the parochial assemblies, I was forced to provide at home for Whit Sunday.

15th. Came Sir Robert Stapylton, the translator of Juvenal, to visit me.1

8th June. My wife and I set out in a coach and four horses, in our way to visit relations of hers in Wiltshire, and other parts, where we resolved to spend some months. We dined at Windsor, saw the Castle and Chapel of St. George, where they have laid our Blessed Martyr, King Charles, in the vault just before the altar. The church and workmanship in stone is admirable. The Castle itself is large in circumference; but the rooms melancholy, and of ancient magnificence. The keep, or mount, hath, besides its incomparable

England, 1659, Evelyn thus describes it. The enclosure-he says -is"not disagreeable, for the solemnness of the grove, the warbling of the birds, and as it opens into the spacious walks at St. James's; but the company walk in it at such a rate, as you would think all the ladies were so many Atalantases, contending with their wooers; . . . but as fast as they run, they stay there so long, as if they wanted not time to finish the race: for it is usuall here to find some of the young company till midnight." Evelyn dwells further on the exorbitant prices of refreshments, which have enabled the proprietor, within a few years, to purchase £500 of annual rent (Miscellaneous Writings, 1825, pp. 165-66).]

1 A member of a Yorkshire Catholic family, who obtained the post of Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince Charles (Charles II.), occasionally varying his duties by fighting against the Parliamentarians and writing books. For his services at Edgehill, he was knighted in 1642 by Charles I. He was also made a D.C.L., and died in 1669. [His version of Juvenal's Sixteen Satyrs, with Arguments, Notes and Annotations, appeared in 1647. He also translated Strada's Belgic War, 1650 (see ante, vol. i. p. 198).]