CHAPTER XIII.

JOHN EVELYN. THE OBLIGATIONS WE OWE TO HIM AND PEPYS AS DIARISTS. —EVELYN'S LIGHTER WORKS.—' TYRANNUS, OR THE MODE;' EXTRACTS FROM

THAT WORK. SCARCITY OF BOOKS.
DEFICIENCY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES.
TOM' AND HIS VARIOUS OTHER WORKS.
WOTTON.
LAND.

- EVELYN'S STRICTURES UPON THE

THE GOLDEN BOOK OF ST. CHRYSOS

COWLEY'S PICTURE OF EVELYN AT MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH AND LADY SUNDER

JOHN DRYDEN; HIS PARENTAGE. THE CHARACTER OF HIS RELA-
THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS CAREER.

TIVES. HIS ODE TO CROMWELL.

ADVANTAGE OF EVELYN OVER PEPYS.

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CHAPTER XIII.

To the Diarist who conscientiously fulfils his task, the lovers of social literature are under extraordinary obligations: first, in matters of history; next, in details of biography; then, in the expression of public feeling. Also in the state of all that interests the intelligent mind: art, poetry, manners,—even dress.

Evelyn had the advantage over Pepys of a more complete and enlarged education than the narrow, but shrewd Samuel. Hence Evelyn's mind embraced a larger scope:-his views were more elevated; his tastes more genial. With what different eyes did these two men view the same events! They both stayed at their posts, nor was it until the mortality had amounted to eleven thousand weekly, that Evelyn even removed his family to Wotton. He remained himself, either at Sayes Court, or in London, attending to the infected ports, going at the risk of his life through the whole city, surrounded, whenever he alighted, with multitudes of poor pestiferous creatures begging alms:-yet still he quailed not. He passed through streets where coffins lay exposed—whilst a deep silence universally reigned-yet his thoughts were for his 'sick flock.' 'In truth I did but my duty !'—that is his exclamation when he relates how Charles the Second thanked him for staying when all fled: gave him his hand to kiss and said several times he had been concerned for him.'

288

THE TIME OF THE PLAGUE.

Then the Duke of York,-with all the grace native to the Stuarts, embraced Evelyn with much kindness, and said, had he known the dangers Evelyn had run, he would not have suffered his Majesty to have employed him in that station.' Throughout the whole narrative of this time a solemn, chastened tone pervades every sentence of Evelyn's Diary. He does not run off in the middle of the recital to talk of 'Nell's looks,' or 'Knipp's singing,' or 'my wife's new hood.' If for an instant the mournful tale is varied, it is for the narrator to express his delight when he escapes into the green meadows by the Medway, or tastes a brief repose from perilous care when he goes to old Nonsuch Palace, whither the office of the Exchequer had been removed during the Plague-where he delights in the statues and basso relievos-and the avenue of elm trees spared then by the rebels -(we fear it has not since been spared). To Chatham, to view a place design'd for an Infirmarie,' is one of the entries in Evelyn's Diary, at this time. That was one of the many great works he suggested; and of which, without him no one would have thought. Evelyn was one of that class whose lives of leisure, of means, of opportunity are so often wasted : he was a country gentleman. From the first moment when he reached maturity his time, however, was devoted to obtaining valuable information, and to improving others. His Diary-less graphic, less captivating, less explicit than that of Pepys-is a perfect granary of many and various kinds of knowledge. The historian will resort to it for its truth,-truth never hidden by even the strong party bias of the annalist. The philosopher will find curious hints; the antiquary precious records—each in his own peculiar line. The moralist traces through all, and in all, the lofty, enduring, practical faith of an enlightened soul. We, as women, can also say more. In his contributions to social literature, Evelyn has done justice to the subject of dress.

Before we turn to Evelyn's work on dress, Tyrannus, or

'TYRANNUS, OR THE MODE.'

289

the Mode,' let us, as some palliation of the vices and follies of our ancestors, show to what disadvantages in mental acquirements they were exposed in those times, in comparison with our own. Independent of the tumults and changes in public affairs; of the sicknesses, and other national visitations; of the still greater inequalities of rank and fortune in those days-a middle class such as we now have being very limited; let us point out the existing evil in those days, already referred to—a scarcity of books. The topic is an apt one in a discussion upon literature.

Some interesting details are conveyed to us upon this point in a letter from Evelyn to Pepys, on the subject of libraries. Pepys proposed to adorn his choice and valuable library—for he was a great collector-with pictures of illustrious men; and Kneller painted Evelyn's portrait for that purpose. Evelyn disclaimed his right to be so placed. Kneller, he said, ought to have made him blush in his likeness; he, a mere planter of colewort, what had he to do among the Boyles and the Newtons of the nation?"

He then refers to the deficiency in England, in the houses of the gentry, and in the great towns, of good libraries. Paris, he declared, could show more than all the three kingdoms of Britain put together; those of Thuanus, Cordesius, Seguin, Albert, and Condé; besides the public library at St. Victoire, the Sorbonne, and that of the King, which had swallowed up the collections of Mazarin and Richelieu,—all united in the present Bibliothèque Impériale. He allows, indeed, that there were many valuable books in England. But they were, he says, chiefly shut up in 'private cabinets;' except at the universities, where if we are to judge by the few productions of so many learned men as are there at leisure, they signifie very little to the learned world.' 'This greate and auguste Citie of London,' he proceeds, abounding in so many witts and letter'd persons, has scarce one library furnisht and indowed for the publiq. Sir John Cotton's, collected by his

VOL. I.

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