The Diary of John Evelyn Volume I Part 30

Hence to Ipswich, doubtless one of the sweetest, most pleasant, well-built towns in England. It has twelve fair churches, many n.o.ble houses, especially the Lord Devereux's; a brave quay, and commodious harbor, being about seven miles from the main; an ample market place.

Here was born the great Cardinal Wolsey, who began a palace here, which was not finished.

I had the curiosity to visit some Quakers here in prison; a new fanatic sect, of dangerous principles, who show no respect to any man, magistrate, or other, and seem a melancholy, proud sort of people, and exceedingly ignorant. One of these was said to have fasted twenty days; but another, endeavoring to do the like, perished on the 10th, when he would have eaten, but could not.

10th July, 1656. I returned homeward, pa.s.sing again through Colchester; and, by the way, near the ancient town of Chelmsford, saw New Hall, built in a park by Henry VII. and VIII., and given by Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of Suss.e.x, who sold it to the late great Duke of Buckingham, and since seized on by Oliver Cromwell (pretended Protector). It is a fair old house, built with brick, low, being only of two stories, as the manner then was; the gate-house better; the court, large and pretty; the staircase, of extraordinary wideness, with a piece representing Sir Francis Drake's action in the year 1580, an excellent sea-piece; the galleries are trifling; the hall is n.o.ble; the garden a fair plot, and the whole seat well accommodated with water; but, above all, I admired the fair avenue planted with stately lime trees, in four rows, for near a mile in length. It has three descents, which is the only fault, and may be reformed. There is another fair walk of the same at the mall and wilderness, with a tennis-court, and pleasant terrace toward the park, which was well stored with deer and ponds.

11th July, 1656. Came home by Greenwich ferry, where I saw Sir J.

Winter's project of charring sea-coal, to burn out the sulphur, and render it sweet. He did it by burning the coals in such earthen pots as the gla.s.s men melt their metal, so firing them without consuming them, using a bar of iron in each crucible, or pot, which bar has a hook at one end, that so the coals being melted in a furnace with other crude sea-coals under them, may be drawn out of the pots sticking to the iron, whence they are beaten off in great half-exhausted cinders, which being rekindled, make a clear, pleasant chamber-fire, deprived of their sulphur and a.r.s.enic malignity. What success it may have, time will discover.[55]

[Footnote 55: Many years ago, Lord Dundonald revived the project, with the proposed improvement of extracting and saving the tar.

Unfortunately he did not profit by it. The coal thus charred is sold as c.o.kE, a very useful fuel for many purposes.]

[Sidenote: LONDON]

3d August, 1656. I went to London, to receive the Blessed Sacrament, the first time the Church of England was reduced to a chamber and conventicle; so sharp was the persecution. The parish churches were filled with sectaries of all sorts, blasphemous and ignorant mechanics usurping the pulpits everywhere. Dr. Wild preached in a private house in Fleet Street, where we had a great meeting of zealous Christians, who were generally much more devout and religious than in our greatest prosperity. In the afternoon, I went to the French Church in the Savoy, where I heard Monsieur d'Espagne catechize, and so returned to my house.

20th August, 1656. Was a confused election of Parliament called by the Usurper.

7th September, 1656. I went to take leave of my excellent neighbor and friend, Sir. H. Newton and lady, now going to dwell at Warwick; and Mr.

Needham, my dear and learned friend, came to visit me.

14th September, 1656. Now was old Sir Henry Vane[56] sent to Carisbrook Castle, in Wight, for a foolish book he published; the pretended Protector fortifying himself exceedingly, and sending many to prison.

[Footnote 56: Evelyn means the younger Vane. This was "Vane, young in years, but in sage counsel old," the n.o.bleness and independence of whose character, as well as his claims to the affection of posterity, are not ill expressed in the two facts recorded by Evelyn--his imprisonment by Cromwell, and his judicial murder by Charles II. The foolish book to which Evelyn refers was an able and fearless attack on Cromwell's government.]

2d October, 1656. Came to visit me my cousin, Stephens, and Mr. Pierce (since head of Magdalen College, Oxford), a learned minister of Brington, in Northamptons.h.i.+re, and Captain Cooke, both excellent musicians.

2d November, 1656. There was now nothing practical preached, or that pressed reformation of life, but high and speculative points and strains that few understood, which left people very ignorant, and of no steady principles, the source of all our sects and divisions, for there was much envy and uncharity in the world; G.o.d of his mercy amend it! Now, indeed, that I went at all to church, while these usurpers possessed the pulpits, was that I might not be suspected for a Papist, and that, though the minister was Presbyterianly affected, he yet was as I understood duly ordained, and preached sound doctrine after their way, and besides was an humble, harmless, and peaceable man.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

25th December, 1656. I went to London, to receive the Blessed Communion, this holy festival at Dr. Wild's lodgings, where I rejoiced to find so full an a.s.sembly of devout and sober Christians.

26th December, 1656. I invited some of my neighbors and tenants, according to custom, and to preserve hospitality and charity.

28th December, 1656. A stranger preached on Luke xviii. 7, 8, on which he made a confused discourse, with a great deal of Greek and ostentation of learning, to but little purpose.

30th December, 1656. Dined with me Sir William Paston's son, Mr. Henshaw, and Mr. Clayton.

31st December, 1656. I begged G.o.d's blessing and mercies for his goodness to me the past year, and set my domestic affairs in order.

1st January, 1656-57. Having prayed with my family, and celebrated the anniversary, I spent some time in imploring G.o.d's blessing the year I was entered into.

7th January, 1657. Came Mr. Matthew Wren (since secretary to the Duke), slain in the Dutch war, eldest son to the Bishop of Ely, now a prisoner in the Tower; a most worthy and honored gentleman.

10th January, 1657. Came Dr. Joyliffe, that famous physician and anatomist, first detector of the lymphatic veins; also the old Marquis of Argyle, and another Scotch Earl.

5th February, 1657. Dined at the Holland Amba.s.sador's; he told me the East India Company of Holland had constantly a stock of 400,000 in India, and forty-eight men-of-war there: he spoke of their exact and just keeping their books and correspondence, so as no adventurer's stock could possibly be lost, or defeated; that it was a vulgar error that the Hollanders furnished their enemies with powder and ammunition for their money, though engaged in a cruel war, but that they used to merchandise indifferently, and were permitted to sell to the friends of their enemies. He laughed at our Committee of Trade, as composed of men wholly ignorant of it, and how they were the ruin of commerce, by gratifying some for private ends.

10th February, 1657. I went to visit the governor of Havannah, a brave, sober, valiant Spanish gentleman, taken by Captain Young, of Deptford, when, after twenty years being in the Indies, and ama.s.sing great wealth, his lady and whole family, except two sons, were burned, destroyed, and taken within sight of Spain, his eldest son, daughter, and wife, peris.h.i.+ng with immense treasure. One son, of about seventeen years old, with his brother of one year old, were the only ones saved. The young gentleman, about seventeen, was a well-complexioned youth, not olive-colored; he spoke Latin handsomely, was extremely well-bred, and born in the Caraccas, 1,000 miles south of the equinoctial, near the mountains of Potosi; he had never been in Europe before. The Governor was an ancient gentleman of great courage, of the order of St. Jago, sorely wounded in his arm, and his ribs broken; he lost for his own share 100,000 sterling, which he seemed to bear with exceeding indifference, and nothing dejected. After some discourse, I went with them to Arundel House, where they dined. They were now going back into Spain, having obtained their liberty from Cromwell. An example of human vicissitude!

[Sidenote: LONDON]

14th February, 1657. To London, where I found Mrs. Cary; next day came Mr.

Mordaunt (since Viscount Mordaunt), younger son to the Countess of Peterborough, to see his mistress, bringing with him two of my Lord of Dover's daughters: so, after dinner, they all departed.

5th March, 1657. Dr. Rand, a learned physician, dedicated to me his version of Ga.s.sendi's "_Vita Peiriskii_."

25th March, 1657. Dr. Taylor showed me his MS. of "Cases of Conscience,"

or "_Ductor Dubitantium_," now fitted for the press.

The Protector Oliver, now affecting kings.h.i.+p, is pet.i.tioned to take the t.i.tle on him by all his newly-made sycophant lords, etc.; but dares not, for fear of the fanatics, not thoroughly purged out of his rebel army.

21st April, 1657. Came Sir Thomas Hanmer, of Hanmer, in Wales, to see me.

I then waited on my Lord Hatton, with whom I dined: at my return, I stepped into Bedlam, where I saw several poor, miserable creatures in chains; one of them was mad with making verses. I also visited the Charter House, formerly belonging to the Carthusians, now an old, neat, fresh, solitary college for decayed gentlemen. It has a grove, bowling green, garden, chapel, and a hall where they eat in common. I likewise saw Christ Church and Hospital, a very good Gothic building; the hall, school, and lodgings in great order for bringing up many hundreds of poor children of both s.e.xes; it is an exemplary charity. There is a large picture at one end of the hall, representing the governors, founders, and the inst.i.tution.

25th April, 1657. I had a dangerous fall out of the coach in Covent Garden, going to my brother's, but without harm; the Lord be praised!

1st May, 1657. Divers soldiers were quartered at my house; but I thank G.o.d went away the next day toward Flanders.

5th May, 1657. I went with my cousin, George Tuke, to see Baynard, in Surrey, a house of my brother Richard's, which he would have hired. This is a very fair, n.o.ble residence, built in a park, and having one of the goodliest avenues of oaks up to it that ever I saw: there is a pond of 60 acres near it; the windows of the chief rooms are of very fine painted gla.s.s. The situation is excessively dirty and melancholy.

15th May, 1657. Lawrence, President of Oliver's Council, and some other of his Court-Lords, came in the afternoon to see my garden and plantations.

7th June, 1657. My fourth son was born, christened George (after my grandfather); Dr. Jeremy Taylor officiated in the drawing-room.

18th June, 1657. At Greenwich I saw a sort of cat[57] brought from the East Indies, shaped and snouted much like the Egyptian rac.o.o.n, in the body like a monkey, and so footed; the ears and tail like a cat, only the tail much longer, and the skin variously ringed with black and white; with the tail it wound up its body like a serpent, and so got up into trees, and with it would wrap its whole body round. Its hair was woolly like a lamb; it was exceedingly nimble, gentle, and purred as does the cat.

[Footnote 57: This was probably the animal called a Moc.o.c.k (_maucaco_), since well known.]

16th July, 1657. On Dr. Jeremy Taylor's recommendation, I went to Eltham, to help one Moody, a young man, to that living, by my interest with the patron.

6th August, 1657. I went to see Colonel Blount, who showed me the application of the waywiser[58] to a coach, exactly measuring the miles, and showing them by an index as we went on. It had three circles, one pointing to the number of rods, another to the miles, by 10 to 1,000, with all the subdivisions of quarters; very pretty and useful.

[Footnote 58: Beckmann, in his "History of Inventions," has written an account of the different instruments applied to carriages to measure the distance they pa.s.s over. He places the first introduction of the _adometer_ in England at about the end of the seventeenth century, instead of about the middle, and states it to have been the invention of an ingenious artist named b.u.t.terfield.]

10th August, 1657. Our vicar, from John xviii. 36, declaimed against the folly of a sort of enthusiasts and desperate zealots, called the FIFTH-MONARCHY-MEN, pretending to set up the kingdom of Christ with the sword. To this pa.s.s was this age arrived when we had no King in Israel.

21st August, 1657. Fell a most prodigious rain in London, and the year was very sickly in the country.

1st September, 1657. I visited Sir Edmund Bowyer, at his melancholy seat at Camberwell. He has a very pretty grove of oaks, and hedges of yew in his garden, and a handsome row of tall elms before his court.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

15th September, 1657. Going to London with some company, we stepped in to see a famous rope-dancer, called THE TURK. I saw even to astonishment the agility with which he performed. He walked barefooted, taking hold by his toes only of a rope almost perpendicular, and without so much as touching it with his hands; he danced blind-fold on the high rope, and with a boy of twelve years old tied to one of his feet about twenty feet beneath him, dangling as he danced, yet he moved as nimbly as if it had been but a feather. Lastly, he stood on his head, on the top of a very high mast, danced on a small rope that was very slack, and finally flew down the perpendicular, on his breast, his head foremost, his legs and arms extended, with divers other activities.--I saw the hairy woman, twenty years old, whom I had before seen when a child. She was born at Augsburg, in Germany. Her very eyebrows were combed upward, and all her _forehead_ as thick and even as grows on any woman's head, neatly dressed; a very long lock of hair out of each ear; she had also a most prolix beard, and _moustachios_, with long locks growing on the middle of her nose, like an Iceland dog exactly, the color of a bright brown, fine as well-dressed flax. She was now married, and told me she had one child that was not hairy, nor were any of her parents, or relations. She was very well shaped, and played well on the harpsichord.

17th September, 1657. To see Sir Robert Needham, at Lambeth, a relation of mine; and thence to John Tradescant's museum, in which the chiefest rarities were, in my opinion, the ancient Roman, Indian, and other nations' armor, s.h.i.+elds, and weapons; some habits of curiously-colored and wrought feathers, one from the phoenix wing, as tradition goes.

Other innumerable things there were printed in his catalogue by Mr.