Volume 1

Memoirs illustrative of the life and writings of John Evelyn ... comprising his diary, from the year 1641 to 1705-6, and a selection of his familiar letters. To which is subjoined, the private correspondence between King Charles I and his Secretary of State ... [et al.] Sir Edward Nicholas ... 1641, and at other times during the Civil War; also between Sir Edward Hyde ... and Sir Richard Browne Ambassador to the Court of France ... The whole now first published from the original MSS. ... / Edited by William Bray.

  • Evelyn, John, 1620-1706.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs illustrative of the life and writings of John Evelyn ... comprising his diary, from the year 1641 to 1705-6, and a selection of his familiar letters. To which is subjoined, the private correspondence between King Charles I and his Secretary of State ... [et al.] Sir Edward Nicholas ... 1641, and at other times during the Civil War; also between Sir Edward Hyde ... and Sir Richard Browne Ambassador to the Court of France ... The whole now first published from the original MSS. ... / Edited by William Bray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    languages. That he had read a great deal is manifest, but at what time he found opportunities for study, it does not seem easy to say; he acknowledges himself to have been idle while at Oxford; and when on his travels he had little time for reading, except when he stayed about nineteen weeks in France, and at Padua, where he was likewise stationary for some time. At Rome he remained a considerable time; but whilst there he was so continually engaged in viewing the great abundance of interesting objects to be seen in that City, that he could have found little leisure for reading. When resident in England, he was so much occupied in the business of his numerous offices, in paying visits, in receiving company at home, and in examining what- ever was deemed worthy of curiosity or of scientific observation, that it is astonishing to think how he found the opportunity to compose the numerous books which he published, and the much greater number of papers, on almost every subject, which still remain in manuscript *; to say nothing of the very extensive and voluminous Correspondence which he appears to have carried on during the period of his long life, with men of the greatest eminence in Church and State, and the most distin- guished for learning, both Englishmen and Foreigners. In this cor- respondence he does not seem to have made use of an amanuensis, and he has left transcripts in his own hand of great numbers of Letters both received and sent. He observes, indeed, in one of these, that he seldom went to bed before 12, or closed his eyes before 1 o’clock. He was happy in a wife of congenial dispositions with his own, of an enlightened mind, who had read much, was skilled in etching and painting, yet attentive to the domestic concerns of her household, and a most affectionate mother. Of her personal beauty an idea may be formed from the print accompanying this Work, engraved from a most exquisite drawing in pencil by that celebrated French artist Nanteull, in 1650. In the Appetjdlx is given a character of her by tbe Rev. Dr. Bobun, who had the best opportunity of being acquainted with it, from having resided in Mr. Evelyn’s house for a considerable time as tutor to their sorj. A few of her letters are also given, to prove the truth of what the Doctor says of them. * Amongst these is a Bible bound in 3 volumes, the pages filled with notes.