The Diary of John Evelyn (Volume 2 of 2)

8

In illustration of the garb which succeeded the "long coats" out of which lads of twelve or thirteen were thus suffered to emerge, it may be mentioned that there hung, some years ago, and perhaps may hang still, upon the walls of the Swan Inn at Leatherhead in Surrey, a picture of four children, dates of birth between 1640 and 1650, of whom a lad of about the age of young Evelyn is represented in a coat reaching to his ankles.

9

Reprinted in "Miscellaneous Writings," pp. 501-509. In a letter to Cowley, 12th March, 1666, Evelyn apologises for having written against that life which he had joined with Mr. Cowley in so much admiring, assuring him he neither was nor could be serious in avowing such a preference.

10

The Virgin Queen which Evelyn saw was Dryden's Maiden Queen. Pepys saw it on the night of its first production (twelve days before Evelyn's visit); and was charmed by Nell Gwynne's Florimell. "So great a performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before."

11

"The Parliament giving but weak supplies for the war, the King, to save charges, is persuaded by the Chancellor, the Lord Treasurer, Southampton, the Duke of Albemarle, and the other ministers, to lay up the first and second-rate ships, and make only a defensive war in the next campaign. The Duke of York opposed this, but was overruled." Life of King James II., vol. i., p. 425.

12

Since done. Evelyn's note.

13

This entry of the 9th December, 1667, is a mistake. Evelyn could not have visited the "late Lord Chancellor" on that day. Lord Clarendon fled on Saturday, the 29th of November, 1667, and his letter resigning the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford is dated from Calais on the 7th of December. That Evelyn's book is not, in every respect, strictly a diary, is shown by this and several similar passages already adverted to in the remarks prefixed to the present edition. If the entry of the 18th of August, 1683, is correct, the date of Evelyn's last visit to Lord Clarendon was the 28th of November, 1667.

14

Evelyn has been supposed himself to have written this piece.

15

Reprinted in Evelyn's "Miscellaneous Writings."

16

Afterward Mrs. Godolphin, whose life, written by Evelyn, has been published under the auspices of the Bishop of Oxford. The affecting circumstances of her death will be found recorded on pp. 126-27 of the present volume.

17

Evelyn subjoins in a note: "When there was a project, 1669, for getting a divorce for the King, to facilitate it there was brought into the House of Lords a bill for dissolving the marriage of Lord Ross, on account of adultery, and to give him leave to marry again. This Bill, after great debates, passed by the plurality of only two votes, and that by the great industry of the Lord's friends, as well as the Duke's enemies, who carried it on chiefly in hopes it might be a precedent and inducement for the King to enter the more easily into their late proposals; nor were they a little encouraged therein, when they saw the King countenance and drive on the Bill in Lord Ross's favor. Of eighteen bishops that were in the House, only two voted for the bill, of which one voted through age, and one was reputed Socinian." The two bishops favorable to the bill were Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, and Dr. Wilkins, Bishop of Chester.

18

Sir William Howard, created in November, 1640, Viscount Stafford. In 1678, he was accused of complicity with the Popish Plot, and upon trial by his Peers in Westminster Hall, was found guilty, by a majority of twenty-four. He was beheaded, December 29, 1680, on Tower Hill.

19

Balthasar de Monconys, a Frenchman, celebrated for his travels in the East, which he published in three volumes. His object was to discover vestiges of the philosophy of Trismegistus and Zoroaster; in which, it is hardly necessary to add, he was not very successful.

20

A word adopted by Evelyn for a subterranean passage, from the famous grot of Pausilippo, at Naples.

21

Henrietta, the King's sister, married to Philip, Duke of Orleans, was then on a visit here. Madame Querouaille came over in her train, on purpose to entice Charles into an union with Louis XIV.; a design which unhappily succeeded but too well. She became the King's mistress, was made Duchess of Portsmouth, and was his favorite till his death.

22

Better known by the name of Grinling Gibbon; celebrated for his exquisite carving. Some of his most astonishing work is at Chatsworth and at Petworth.

23

Evelyn here refers to Dryden's "Conquest of Granada".

24

The carving in the choir, etc., of St. Paul's Cathedral was executed by Gibbon.

25

Nell Gwynne: there can be no doubt as to the name with which we are to fill up these blanks. This familiar interview of Nelly and the King has afforded a subject for painters.

26

This entry of 10th May, 1671, so far as it relates to Blood, and the stealing of the crown, etc., is a mistake. Blood stole the crown on the 9th of May, 1671 – the very day before; and the "not long before" of Evelyn, and the circumstance of his being "pardoned," which Evelyn also mentions, can hardly be said to relate to only the day before.

27

Sir Matthew Hale, so famous as one of the justices of the bench in Cromwell's time. After the Restoration, he became Chief Baron of the Exchequer; then Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and died in 1676. The author of numerous works, not only on professional subjects, but on mathematics and philosophy.

28

He died in 1687, at the great age of 90 years and 6 months. Constantine and his son, Christian Huygens, were both eminent for scientific knowledge and classical attainments; Christian, particularly so; for he was the inventor of the pendulum, made an improvement in the air-pump, first discovered the ring and one of the satellites of Saturn, and ascertained the laws of collision of elastic bodies. He died in 1695. Constantine, the father, was a person of influence and distinction in Holland, and held the post of secretary to the Prince of Orange.

29

The well-known play of "The Rehearsal" is meant.

30

The King's engagement, under his hand, is now at Wotton.

31

Mrs. Blagg whom Evelyn never tires of instancing and characterizing as a rare example of piety and virtue, in so rare a wit, beauty, and perfection, in a licentious court, and depraved age. She was afterward married to Mr. Godolphin, and her life, written by Evelyn, has been edited and published by the Bishop of Oxford.

32

She was then only fifteen years old.

33

The Duke of York's mistress, afterward created by him Countess of Dorchester.