Sylva, Vol. 1 | Page 8

and on the 10th. returned to Wotton, nobody
knowing of my having been in his Majestie's Army.'
During the first half of 1643 Evelyn employed himself entirely in rural
occupations, visiting the garden and vineyard of Hatfield and similar
places. From time to time, however, he made many journeys to and
from London. What he sometimes saw there gave him much food for
ample reflection. 'May 2nd. I went from Wotton to London, where I
saw the furious and zelous people demolish that stately Crosse in
Cheapside. On the 4th. I returned with no little regrett for the confusion
that threatened us. Resolving to possess myself in some quiet if it might
be, in a time of so great jealosy, I built by my Brother's permission a
study, made a fishpond, an island, and some other solitudes and

retirements, at Wotton, which gave the first occasion of improving
them to those water-works and gardens which afterwards succeeded
them, and became at that tyme the most famous of England.' But, willy
nilly, he was bound to become dragged into action on the King's behalf.
'July 12th. I sent my black manege horse and furniture with a friend to
his Majestie then at Oxford. 23rd. The Covenant being pressed, I
absented myselfe; but finding it impossible to evade the doing very
unhandsome things, and which had been a greate cause of my perpetual
motions hitherto between Wotton and London, Oct. 2nd. I obtayned a
lycence of his Majestie, dated at Oxford and sign'd by the King, to
travell againe.' Accordingly, on 7th. November, he took boat at the
Tower wharf for Sittingbourne, 'being only a payre of oares, expos'd to
a hideous storm, thence posting to Dover accompanied by an Oxford
friend, Mr. Thicknesse, and crossing the Channel to Calais.'
Proceeding by Boulogne, Monstreuil, Abbeville, Beauvais, Beaumont,
and St. Denys to Paris, of which he gives a very interesting account, he
threw himself into the social life of that gay capital. His first step was
to make his duty to Sir Richard Browne, afterwards his father-in-law,
then in charge of British affairs pending the arrival of the Earl of
Norwich, who came immediately after that as Ambassador
Extraordinary. That Evelyn's purse was fairly well lined the Parisian
passages in his Diary distinctly show. He appears to have taken part in
many gay excursions and junkettings, though he sometimes reckoned
the cost. 'At an inn in this village (St. Germains en Lay) is an host who
treats all the greate persons in princely lodgings for furniture and plate,
but they pay well for it, as I have don. Indeede the entertainment is very
splendid, and not unreasonable, considering the excellent manner of
dressing their meate, and of the service. Here are many debauches and
excessive revellings, as being out of all noise and observance.'
Wherever he visited the royal gardens and villas, or those of the great
nobles and other magnates, he writes rapturously of what he saw.
Sometimes, though, his joyous optimism rather leads one to doubt the
quality of his taste, as when, writing of Richelieu's villa at Ruell, he
says 'This leads to the Citroniere, which is a noble conserve of all those
rarities; and at the end of it is the Arch of Constantine, painted on a
wall in oyle, as large as the real one at Rome, so well don that even a

man skilled in painting may mistake it for stone and sculpture. The skie
and hills which seem to be between the arches are so naturall that
swallows and other birds, thinking to fly through, have dashed
themselves against the wall. I was infinitely taken with this agreeable
cheate.' But he was certainly gradually acquiring the materials which
were afterwards to be so well used by him in his great works on
gardening. After a tour made in Normandy with Sir John Cotton, a
Cambridgeshire knight, he quitted Paris in April, 1644. Marching
across by Chartres and Estamps to Orleans, the party of which he
formed one had an encounter with brigands, 'for no sooner were we
entred two or three leagues into ye Forest of Orleans (which extends
itself many miles), but the company behind us were set on by rogues,
who, shooting from ye hedges and frequent covert, slew fowre upon the
spot... I had greate cause to give God thankes for this escape.' Taking
boat, he went down the Loire to St. Dieu, and thence rode to Blois and
on to Tours, where he stayed till the autumn. 'Here I took a master of
the language and studied the tongue very diligently, recreating myself
sometimes at the maill, and sometymes about the towne.' Here, too, he
paid his duty to the Queen of England, 'having newly arrived, and
going for Paris.' In the latter part