Sylva, Vol. 1 | Page 5

down his office and
would serve no more..... He was universally belov'd, hospitable,
generous, learned in many things, skilled in music, a very great
cherisher of learned men of whom he had the conversation..... Mr.
Pepys had been for near 40 yeares so much my particular friend, that
Mr. Jackson sent me compleat mourning, desiring me to be one to hold
up the pall at his magnificient obsequies, but my indisposition hinder'd
me from doing him this last office.'
II
Evelyn's Childhood, Early Education, and Youth.

The essential facts of Evelyn's life, as he himself would have us know
them, are set forth at full length in autobiographical form,
chronologically arranged in what is always spoken of as his Diary,
although evidently this was (much of it, at any rate) merely a
subsequent personal compilation from an actual diary, kept in imitation
of his father, from the age of 11 years onwards and down even to
within one month of his death in 1706.
The second son and the fourth child of Richard Evelyn of Wotton in
Surrey, and of his wife Eleanor, daughter of John Stansfield 'of an
ancient honorable family (though now extinct) in Shropshire,' he was
born at Wotton on 31st. October, 1620. His father, 'was of a sanguine
complexion, mixed with a dash of choler; his haire inclining to light,
which tho' exceeding thick became hoary by the time he was 30 years
of age; it was somewhat curled towards the extremity; his beard, which
he wore a little picked, as the mode was, of a brownish colour, and so
continued to the last, save that it was somewhat mingled with grey
haires about his cheekes: which, with his countenance, was cleare, and
fresh colour'd, his eyes quick and piercing, an ample forehead, manly
aspect; low of stature, but very strong. He was for his life so exact and
temperate, that I have heard he had never been surprised by excesse,
being ascetic and sparing. His wisdom was greate, and judgment most
acute; of solid discourse, affable, humble and in nothing affected; of a
thriving, neat, silent and methodical genius; discretely severe, yet
liberal on all just occasions to his children, strangers, and servants; a
lover of hospitality; of a singular and Christian moderation in all his
actions; a Justice of the Peace and of the Quorum; he served his country
as High Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex together. He was a studious
decliner of honours and titles, being already in that esteem with his
country that they could have added little to him besides their burden.
He was a person of that rare conversation, that upon frequent
recollection, and calling to mind passages of his life and discourse, I
could never charge him with the least passion or inadvertence. His
estate was esteem'd about £4,000 per ann. well wooded and full of
timber.' As for his mother, 'She was of proper personage; of a brown
complexion; her eyes and haire of a lovely black; of constitution
inclyned to a religious melancholy, or pious sadnesse; of a rare memory

and most exemplary life; for oeconomie and prudence esteemed one of
the most conspicuous in her Country.'
Apparently John Evelyn thought he had made a very judicious choice
of his father and mother when he wrote 'Thus much in brief touching
my parents; nor was it reasonable I should speake lesse to them to
whom I owe so much.'
These passages, occurring in the first two pages of his Diary serve at
once to illustrate a very characteristic feature of Evelyn's mind, and one
that is everywhere discernible in his writings. He was a man with a
highly cultured and a very well balanced mind, but he was somewhat
inclined to exaggerate; and he certainly had the rather enviable gift of
considering everything pertaining to him, or approved or advocated by
him, as very superior indeed. All his eggs had two yolks, and all his
geese were swans. What he liked, he loved; and what he did not like, he
hated. There was no golden mean with him; he was either very
optimistic or else intensely pessimistic. Hence, naturally, he gave hard
knocks to those who differed from him in opinion, and particularly
after the Restoration; for he was one of the most expressive among
King Charles II's courtiers. Direct evidence of this special temperament
was characteristic of Evelyn throughout all his life, and was of course
particularly noticeable in his writings, as we shall subsequently see. It
is therefore only to be expected that he prized his father's little estate of
Wotton in Surrey as one of the finest in the kingdom. 'Wotton, the
mansion house of my Father, left him by my Grandfather, (now my
eldest Brother's), is situated in the most Southern part of the Shire,