The Diary of John Evelyn Volume I Part 21

28th September, 1648. I went to Albury, to visit the Countess of Arundel, and returned to Wotton.

31st October, 1648. I went to see my manor of Preston Beckhelvyn, and the Cliffhouse.

29th November, 1648. Myself, with Mr. Thomas Offley, and Lady Gerrard, christened my niece Mary, eldest daughter of my brother, George Evelyn, by my Lady Cotton, his second wife. I presented my niece a piece of plate which cost me 18, and caused this inscription to be set on it--

IN MEMORIAM FACTI.

ANNO CIC IX. XLIIX. CAL. DECEM. VIII. VIRGINUM CASTISS: XTIANORUM INNOCENTIS: NEPT: SUAVIS: MARIae. JOHAN. EVELYNUS AVUNCULUS ET SUSCEPTOR VASCULUM HOC c.u.m EPIGRAPHE L. M. Q. D.

AVE MARIA GRATIa SIS PLENA; DOMINUS TEc.u.m.

2d December, 1648. This day I sold my manor of Hurcott for 3,400 to one Mr. Bridges.

13th December, 1648. The Parliament now sat up the whole night, and endeavored to have concluded the Isle of Wight Treaty; but were surprised by the rebel army; the members dispersed, and great confusion every where in expectation of what would be next.

17th December, 1648. I heard an Italian sermon, in Mercers' Chapel, one Dr. Middleton, an acquaintance of mine, preaching.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

18th December, 1648. I got privately into the council of the rebel army, at Whitehall, where I heard horrid villanies.

This was a most exceedingly wet year, neither frost nor snow all the winter for more than six days in all. Cattle died every where of a murrain.

1st January, 1648-49. I had a lodging and some books at my father-in-law's house, Sayes Court.

2d January, 1649. I went to see my old friend and fellow-traveler, Mr.

Henshaw, who had two rare pieces of Stenwyck's perspective.

17th January, 1649. To London. I heard the rebel, Peters, incite the rebel powers met in the Painted Chamber, to destroy his Majesty; and saw that archtraitor, Bradshaw, who not long after condemned him.

19th January, 1649. I returned home, pa.s.sing an extraordinary danger of being drowned by our wherries falling foul in the night on another vessel then at anchor, shooting the bridge at three quarters' ebb, for which His mercy G.o.d Almighty be praised.

21st January, 1649. Was published my translation of Liberty and Servitude, for the preface of which I was severely threatened.

22d January, 1649. I went through a course of chemistry, at Sayes Court.

Now was the Thames frozen over, and horrid tempests of wind.

The villany of the rebels proceeding now so far as to try, condemn, and murder our excellent King on the 30th of this month, struck me with such horror, that I kept the day of his martyrdom a fast, and would not be present at that execrable wickedness; receiving the sad account of it from my brother George, and Mr. Owen, who came to visit me this afternoon, and recounted all the circ.u.mstances.

1st February, 1649. Now were Duke Hamilton, the Earl of Norwich, Lord Capell, etc., at their trial before the rebels' NEW COURT OF INJUSTICE.

15th February, 1649. I went to see the collection of one Trean, a rich merchant, who had some good pictures, especially a rare perspective of Stenwyck; from thence, to other virtuosos.

The painter, La Neve has an Andromeda, but I think it a copy after Vand.y.k.e from t.i.tian, for the original is in France. Webb, at the Exchange, has some rare things in miniature, of Breughel's, also Putti, in twelve squares, that were plundered from Sir James Palmer.

At Du Bois, we saw two tables of Putti, that were gotten, I know not how, out of the Castle of St. Angelo, by old Pet.i.t, thought to be t.i.tian's; he had some good heads of Palma, and one of Stenwyck. Bellcar showed us an excellent copy of his Majesty's Sleeping Venus and the Satyr, with other figures; for now they had plundered, sold, and dispersed a world of rare paintings of the King's, and his loyal subjects. After all, Sir William Ducy showed me some excellent things in miniature, and in oil of Holbein's; Sir Thomas More's head, and a whole-length figure of Edward VI., which were certainly his Majesty's; also a picture of Queen Elizabeth; the Lady Isabella Thynne; a rare painting of Rothenhamer, being a Susanna; and a Magdalen, of Quintin, the blacksmith; also a Henry VIII., of Holbein; and Francis I., rare indeed, but of whose hand I know not.

16th February, 1649. Paris being now strictly besieged by the Prince de Conde, my wife being shut up with her father and mother, I wrote a letter of consolation to her: and, on the 22d, having recommended Obadiah Walker, a learned and most ingenious person, to be tutor to, and travel with, Mr. Hillyard's two sons, returned to Sayes Court.

25th February, 1649. Came to visit me Dr. Joyliffe, discoverer of the lymphatic vessels, and an excellent anatomist.

26th February, 1649. Came to see me Captain George Evelyn, my kinsman, the great traveler, and one who believed himself a better architect than really he was; witness the portico in the Garden at Wotton; yet the great room at Albury is somewhat better understood. He had a large mind, but over-built everything.

27th February, 1649. Came out of France my wife's uncle (Paris still besieged), being robbed at sea by the Dunkirk pirates: I lost, among other goods, my wife's picture, painted by Monsieur Bourdon.

5th March, 1649. Now were the Lords murdered in the Palace Yard.

18th March, 1649. Mr. Owen, a sequestered and learned minister, preached in my parlor, and gave us the blessed Sacrament, now wholly out of use in the parish churches, on which the Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped.

21st March, 1649. I received letters from Paris from my wife, and from Sir Richard [Browne], with whom I kept up a political correspondence, with no small danger of being discovered.

25th March, 1649. I heard the Common Prayer (a rare thing in these days) in St. Peter's, at Paul's Wharf, London; and, in the morning, the Archbishop of Armagh, that pious person and learned man, Usher, in Lincoln's-Inn Chapel.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

2d April, 1649. To London, and inventoried my movables that had hitherto been dispersed for fear of plundering: wrote into France, touching my sudden resolutions of coming over to them. On the 8th, again heard an excellent discourse from Archbishop Usher, on Ephes. 4, v. 26-27.

My Italian collection being now arrived, came Moulins, the great chirurgeon, to see and admire the Tables of Veins and Arteries, which I purchased and caused to be drawn out of several human bodies at Padua.

11th April, 1649. Received news out of France that peace was concluded; dined with Sir Joseph Evelyn, at Westminster; and on the 13th I saw a private dissection at Moulins's house.

17th April, 1649. I fell dangerously ill of my head; was blistered and let bleed behind the ears and forehead: on the 23d, began to have ease by using the fumes of camomile on embers applied to my ears, after all the physicians had done their best.

29th April, 1649. I saw in London a huge ox bred in Kent, 17 feet in length, and much higher than I could reach.

12th May, 1649. I purchased the manor of Warley Magna, in Ess.e.x: in the afternoon went to see Gildron's collections of paintings, where I found Mr. Endymion Porter, of his late Majesty's bedchamber.

17th May, 1649. Went to Putney by water, in the barge with divers ladies, to see the schools, or colleges, of the young gentlewomen.

19th May, 1649. To see a rare cabinet of one Delabarr, who had some good paintings, especially a monk at his beads.

30th May, 1649. Unkings.h.i.+p was proclaimed, and his Majesty's statues thrown down at St. Paul's Portico, and the Exchange.

7th June, 1649. I visited Sir Arthur Hopton[38] (brother to Sir Ralph, Lord Hopton, that n.o.ble hero), who having been Amba.s.sador extraordinary in Spain, sojourned some time with my father-in-law at Paris, a most excellent person. Also Signora Lucretia, a Greek lady, whom I knew in Italy, now come over with her husband, an English gentleman. Also, the Earl and Countess of Arundel, taking leave of them and other friends now ready to depart for France. This night was a scuffle between some rebel soldiers and gentlemen about the Temple.

[Footnote 38: Sir Arthur Hopton was uncle, not brother, to Lord Hopton (so well known for his services to Charles in the course of the Civil War).]

June 10th, 1649. Preached the Archbishop of Armagh in Lincoln's-Inn, from Romans 5, verse 13. I received the blessed Sacrament, preparatory to my journey.

13th June, 1649. I dined with my worthy friend, Sir John Owen, newly freed from sentence of death among the lords that suffered. With him was one Carew, who played incomparably on the Welsh harp; afterward I treated divers ladies of my relations, in Spring Garden.

This night was buried with great pomp, Dorislaus, slain at the Hague, the villain who managed the trial against his sacred Majesty.

17th June, 1649. I got a pa.s.s from the rebel Bradshaw, then in great power.

20th June, 1649. I went to Putney, and other places on the Thames, to take prospects in crayon, to carry into France, where I thought to have them engraved.

2d July, 1649. I went from Wotton to G.o.dstone (the residence of Sir John Evelyn), where was also Sir John Evelyn of Wilts., when I took leave of both Sir Johns and their ladies. Mem. the prodigious memory of Sir John of Wilts' daughter, since married to Mr. W. Pierrepont, and mother of the present Earl of Kingston. I returned to Sayes Court this night.

4th July, 1649. Visited Lady Hatton, her lord sojourning at Paris with my father-in-law.