Footnotes

'THUS I PASSD FROM ONE, TO ANOTHER, HALFE PULL'D TO PIECES FOR JOY' – JOHN EVELYN IS PRAISED BY CHARLES II FOR HIS CONDUCT DURING THE GREAT PLAGUE: THE ORIGINAL OF A FAMOUS PASSAGE IN EVELYN'S DIARY, written from plague-ridden Deptford to Mary Evelyn, who with their family had taken refuge at the family seat in Surrey.

Evelyn's diary was, unlike that of his friend and contemporary Samuel Pepys, written up long after the event, this particular section dating from some time after December 1680 (see E.E. de Beer's Introduction to Diary of John Evelyn, i, 1955; the manuscript is now British Library Add 78323). De Beer observes that, in writing up his diary for this period, Evelyn drew on scattered notes as well as jottings made in almanacs. The entry for 29 January 1665/66 however clearly draws on our letter, in both its narrative and in several turns of phrase (our letter, being to his wife, would of course have been available for him to draw upon): 'I went to waite on his Majestie (now returned from Oxford to Hampton Court) where the Duke of Albemarle presenting me to him, he ran towards me, & in most gracious manner gave me his hand to kisse, with many thanks for my Care, & faithfullnesse in his service, in a time of such greate danger, when every body fled their Employments; he told me he was much oblig'd to me, & said he was several times concern'd for me, & the peril I under-went, & did receive my service most acceptably: Though in truth I did what was my duty, & ô that I had perform'd it as I ought: After this his Majestie was pleas'd to talke with me alone nere an houre, of severall particulars of my Employment, & ordred me to attend him againe on the thursday at White-hall: Then the Duke came towards me & embrac'd me with much kindnesse, & told me if he had thought my danger would have ben so greate, he would not have suffered his Majestie to employ me in that Station: then came to salute me my L. of St. Albans, L. Arlington, Sir William Coventrie & severall greate persons, after which I got home, not being very well in health' (Guy de la Bédoyère, The Diary of John Evelyn, 1995). De Beer himself notes of this diary entry that 'Evelyn gives a similar, and in some ways better, account of this visit to court in a letter to Mrs. Evelyn written this day' (Diary, iii, p.428, fn.6); although does not specify it as being the source.

Not only does Evelyn's retrospect version omit matter of value to the historian, notably his reference to his proposed hospital for seamen at Chatham, a project that he worked on with Pepys and that was to come to fruition with the royal hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich – something that of itself makes this a letter of note – but it also omits mention of the fact that he escaped being knighted (a salient feature of the letter, according to the docket: "To Mr[s] Evelyn/ his reception by the K. & Duke of York at Hampton Court./ Escaped being Knighted"). Furthermore, the diary version is far flatter: gone is his breathless exclamation that, so bowled over is he by having hobnobbed with royalty and the great of the land, he "passd from one, to another, halfe pull'd to pieces for joy". (It is as if Evelyn could write for his wife in these terms, but not posterity.)

Another passage that does not make its way into the diary is of particular interest today, namely his reference to the recently-established Royal Society: "We are meeting afresh at Gressham College & have had purchasd for us, since these days of separation, the fullest, & certainly noblest collection of naturall raritys of all kinds that is this day in Europ to be scene: Tell Mr Bohun [his son's tutor], The Royall Society is not at an end yet, florit, floreat" (a subject which crops again in the diary for 1 April). Another reference is of note, namely his request that she should "provide my number of Tress, that the Cart may bring them": his famous treatise Sylva having been published by the Society in February 1664.

Mary Evelyn has recently received scholarly attention as a letter-writer (see the entry for her by Joan K. Perkins in the ODNB). According to Arthur Ponsonby, ours is the only surviving letter by Evelyn to his wife: 'The diary entry under January 29th, 1665/6... is an abbreviation of a fuller account which he gave in a letter to his wife who was at Wotton. This letter of the same date is interesting as being the only one so far produced of Evelyn to Mary (it is unlikely there were many, as they were never for long separated, although at this period it is probable there was more than one)' (John Evelyn: Fellow of the Royal Society, 1933, p.87). Ponsonby however did not have access to the Evelyn Papers, then at Wotton but now at the British Library, where an unspecified number from him to her are held (BL, Add MS 784312: 'Letters to Mary Evelyn from her husband, John Evelyn; 1648-1696. The first letter is in French. Including 20th cent. copies of many of the letters, probably made in connection with their conservation, and a photocopy of a letter [by Evelyn to Mary] of 19 June 1661, now in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 991'). (In this context it might be worth noting – on the second best bed principal – that this sheet has been recycled, bearing at its head the smudged-out salutation "Sir".)

The letter was inherited by the present owner from his grandmother, Frances Evelyn Rowley Heygate, great-granddaughter of John Evelyn of Wotton (1743-1827), a descendant of the diarist's cousin George Evelyn. She records that she found it with a group of Evelyn letters to various correspondents 'in an old box'. These she published for private circulation as Seven Letters of John Evelyn, written between the years 1665 & 1703. Now printed from the original copies together with a facsimile, 1914; our letter being the one reproduced in facsimile (Keynes, 169). It was republished the following year by Helen Evelyn in The History of the Evelyn Family; where it is recorded as remaining in Mrs Heygate's possession, the others having been given by her to the Bodleian Library.