Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)Evelyn, John
History
Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Evelyn, John
Forests and forestry -- Early works to 1800; Gardening -- Early works to 1800; Trees -- Early works to 1800
A staunch Protestant, Evelyn no longer possessed the King’s favour, and
henceforth he received no further appointment or token of royal approval
although he still frequented the Court at Whitehall. In August 1688 he
was secretly informed by the Rev. Dr. Tenison, afterwards Bishop of
Lincoln, of the impending invasion of the Prince of Orange, and, while
regularly paying his duty as a courtier, he informed the lately
imprisoned Archbishop and Bishops of the intrigues on which the Jesuits
were hard at work. And subsequently ‘My Lord of Canterbury gave me great
thanks for the advertisement I sent him in October, and assured me they
took my counsell in that particular, and that it came very seasonably.’
On 18th December, he ‘saw the King take barge to Gravesend at 12
o’clock--a sad sight,’ on the very day that the Prince of Orange came to
St. James and filled Whitehall with Dutch guards. All the world at once
went to pay court to the Prince whose star was now in the ascendant:
and, of course, Evelyn went too. A couple of months later he ‘saw _the
new Queene_ and _King_ proclaim’d the very next day after her coming to
Whitehall, Wednesday 13 Feb., with greate acclamations and generall good
reception.... It was believ’d that both, especially the Princesse, would
have shew’d some (seeming) reluctance at least, of assuming her father’s
Crown, and some apology, testifying her regret that he should by his
mismanagement necessitate the Nation to so extraordinary a proceeding,
which would have shew’d very handsomely to the world, and according to
the character given by her piety; consonant also to her husband’s first
decleration, that there was no intention of deposing the King, but of
succouring the Nation; but nothing of all this appear’d; she came into
White-hall laughing and jolly, as to a wedding, so as to seem quite
transported..... This carriage was censured by many.’
After the Restoration Evelyn’s life as a courtier was practically at an
end, as he never quite approved the enforced abdication of King James.
So henceforth he spent his time, without further attendance at Court or
seeking after office or appointment, in study, literary work, and
retirement. He did not like the new régime, with its ‘Court offices
distributed amongst Parliament men.... Things far from settled as was
expected, by reason of the slothfull, sickly temper of the new King, and
the Parliament’s unmindfullness of Ireland, which is likely to prove a
sad omission.’ He even seems to have regretted that his son was in March
1692 made ‘one of the Commissioners of the Revenue and Treasury of
Ireland, to which employment he had a mind far from my wishes.’ This son
contracted serious illness in Ireland, and died ‘after a tedious
languishing sickness’ early in 1699, aged 44 years, leaving one son,
then a student at Oxford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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