In addition to his published works, however, he left numerous manuscripts, which he had noted as ‘Things I would write out faire and reform if I had leisure,’ comprising poems, mathematical papers, religious meditations, and biographies. The most ambitious of his poems is _Thyrsander, a Tragy-Comedy_, which is probably one of those referred to by Pepys in his Diary for 5th Novr. 1665, when, visiting Evelyn at Sayes Court, he says that ‘He read me part of a play or two of his making, very good, but not as he conceits them, I think, to be.’ Some of these, including _My own Ephemeris or Diarie_, an autobiographical memoir based on the journal or common-place book kept by him ever since being eleven years of age, and his correspondence, were published posthumously as _Memoirs illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn Esqre. F.R.S._ in 1818. This has gone through nine editions and reprints; and it affords, along with Pepys’ diary, one of the best views of the life of those times. Each is the complement of the other, and the only matter of regret is that the original manuscript of Evelyn’s actual diary has not hitherto been forthcoming, as it would be infinitely preferable to the compilation he made therefrom, which often refers to future events. Other of his MSS. appeared as _Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn Esq. F.R.S._ in 1825, _The Life of Mrs. Godolphin_ (see page xlv) in 1847, and subsequently in five or six editions and reprints, and _The History of Religion: A Rational Account of the True Religion_ in 1850. Of these the so-called _Diary_ is by far the most interesting and important, and it is on it and on the _Sylva_ that his literary reputation rests and has a sure and abiding foundation. VIII _Evelyn’s Influence on British Arboriculture._ There can be no doubt that John Evelyn, both during his own lifetime and throughout the two centuries which have elapsed since his death in 1706, has exerted more individual influence, through his charming _Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty’s Dominion_ (first published in 1664) than can be ascribed to any other individual. The attention drawn to the subject of Arboriculture by Dr. Hunter towards the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries was in connection with several new editions of that classic work, while the impulse given to the formation of large plantations between 1800 and 1830 by Sir Walter Scott and the celebrated _Quarterly Review_ articles was connected very closely indeed with the appearance of fresh editions of _Sylva_.