Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

never, till last summer at my Lord of Canterbury's (my old and most honoured friend and acquaintance), had the honour and the happiness to be acquainted with you, if yet I enjoy it, or if yet you permit it. However, I shall presume to write myself, Sir,

Your meanest servant,

JAMES QUINE.

From the Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn.

5th April, 1694.

GOOD SIR, I received yours, and with it the MSS. I am glad you go on with your work. I forgot to show you a gold medal coined at the coronation of James I.

This morning the Earl of Pembroke sent a letter to me, which sets forth that a fiery exhalation coming from the sea into Montgomeryshire, hath travelled far by land, and burnt such hay, stubble, and straw as hath stood in its way. It has fired the straw of some houses, and by that the houses themselves, but of itself it is languid and burns not wood or any compact body. It hath spread itself many furlongs in both breadth and length. The hand he had it from, he assured me, was good; perhaps to you this is not an original, to me it is. God bless yourself and family. I am, Sir,

Your assured servant,

THOMAS LINCOLN.

From Sir Dudley Cullum to John Evelyn.

Hampstead, 14th May, 1694.

I OUGHT long since to have given you thanks for the favour of your letter, had I not a desire to see my plants removed from their winter quarters ere I satisfied your request of hearing how it agreed with them. As for my stove, at one time this winter it had fire day and night for a fortnight together, and found the heat managed with a

great deal of ease, and, notwithstanding the closeness of the place, yet, by the admission of that air you advised, gave such a freedom of breathing as one would have thought himself abroad in the open air in April, when in January all things then without doors were freezing very hard. As for my orange-trees, they looked as well as I could wish; and other plants carried a complexion as in summer, such as myrtles, Spanish and Indian jessamines, oleanders, with some of less worth, which endured their winter quarters extremely well. My green-house is about fifty-eight feet in length, fourteen in breadth, and ten high; my orange-trees were full of blossom-buds all the winter, and have had some blown in April, as in the most usual and natural season. Pray, Sir, pardon this tedious relation from

Your humble servant,

D. CULLUM.

From John Evelyn to the Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Tenison).

Wotton, 29th May, 1694.

MY LORD, It is none of the least mortifications, that besides other circumstances obliging me to be at this distance from my old abode, I cannot have the opportunity of waiting on your Lordship and receiving those advantages and improvements which I always returned with whenever I came from my Lord of Lincoln. We are here in no unpleasant solitude. Some good books which I find here, with a cart load which I brought along with me, serve to alleviate the tediousness of sitting still; but we know nothing of new, but what our friends from your side impart to us. Mr. Pepys sent me last week the Journal of Sir John Narbrough and Captain Wood; * together with Mr. Wharton's Preface to his intended History of the Life of Archbishop Laud.† I do not know whether I

* Entitled," An Account of several late Voyages and Discoveries to the South and North, towards the Straits of Magellan, the South Seas," &c. 8vo. 1694.

+ Printed in two folio volumes in 1695-1700.

might do the learned editor (for it seems he only publishes a MS. written by that great prelate of his own life) any service, by acquainting him with a passage relating to that person, namely, the jubilee which the sacrifice of the Bishop caused among some at Rome; it being my hap to be in that city, and in company of divers of the English fathers (as they call them), when the news of his suffering, and the sermon he made upon the scaffold, arrived there; which I well remember they read, and commented on, with no small satisfaction, and (as I thought) contempt, as of one taken off who was an enemy to them, and stood in their way whilst one of the blackest crimes imputed to him was (we may well call to mind) his being Popishly affected. I know not, I say, whether the Memoirs may be of any import to Mr. Wharton, with whom I have no acquaintance: I therefore acquaint your Lordship with it, and in the forms almost that I have mentioned and subjoined to my Discourse of Medals under that of this Archbishop's figure, which, together with my copy, I have now sent Benjamin Tooke to print (as he desires) if it be worth his while. I add nothing more but that of my wife's humble service to you and my Lady, and that there is still a part of our small family at Sayes-Court, where my daughter Draper and husband are the young economists, and all of us concerned to beg your Lordship's blessing and prayer especially.

Your, &c.

I should rejoice to hear how Mr. Bentley proceeds with the library at Whitehall. I hope your Lordship will mind him of the Sermons he owes us and the public; I hear nothing of the Bishop of Chichester, who is likewise in our debt.

From John Evelyn to Edmund Gibson* (afterwards Bishop of London). Wotton, 31st May, 1694.

SIR, To the notes and papers you desired of me, I have since endeavoured to inform myself in those parti* "The learned person who published the Saxon Chronicle, and was now setting forth a new edition of Camden's Britannia, with additions.-J. E.”

culars you mentioned, and which I presume are come to you; and now, by this letter from a friend of mine, well acquainted with the trustees of Dog Smith (as he is called), I send you the particulars of that extraordinary benefactor to this county. You may please to take notice, that besides what I writ to you of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brother Robert, Bishop of Salisbury, he had at the same time Moris, another brother, who was Lord Mayor of London; all sons of the same clothier, and natives of Guildford. Also that Hammond, whom I mentioned, was not only a benefactor to the school there, but founder of a fellowship at Baliol College, Oxon. John de la Haye died about three hundred years since, about whom and other particulars expect in my next, for I would not retard the printer longer than is necessary, who remain,

Your, &c.

From John Evelyn to Mr. Benjamin Tooke (Printer).

MR. TOOKE,

Wotton, 2nd June, 1694.

Tarde, sed tandem. At last I send you the copy you have so long expected; never the worse, I hope, for coming no sooner. I wish it may answer the pains I have taken in compiling: for it would amount to the value of many Medals. I was indeed unwilling it should escape from me without something more than an ordinary treatise. It will therefore require a more than ordinary supervisor. You tell me, such a one you have; if not, pray make use of the poor man I directed to you, who is also acquainted with my hand, and will be ready to assist you. There being abundance of writers on this subject in all other polite European languages, and but one very short and partial one in ours, will I hope render this the more acceptable, and give ferment to the curious. I expect attacks from some peevish quarter, in this angry age; but so it make for your interest, and satisfy equitable judges, I shall not be much concerned.

The Medals which are here sent you, pray take care of,

and deliver but one by one to your graver, nor supply him with any other till he returns you that he is graving with the plate. You will find I have marked the paper, wherein you must keep the plates, and apply to the pages as directed, by which you will avoid mistakes, easily fallen into without some such method. Such as you are to have from the Earl of Clarendon, Dr. Plot, &c. I will take care to procure you by the time these are despatched. As for the graving, so the contours and outlines be well designed, I am not solicitous for the hatching (as they call it), since we have laudable examples of the other in Gruter, Spanheim, and other excellent authors. Mr. White, if he have leisure, will be your best man; and for the volume, I should think a thin moderate folio, with a fair letter, most desirable. As for the title, epistle, and preface, I shall provide you in good time, and as I see cause; only I pray take special care of the insertions and paragraphs which I have marked [. When all this is finished, I purpose a very accurate index. This being all at present, I wish you good success, and am,

Your, &c.

From the Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Tenison) to John Evelyn. Buckden, 19th June, 1694.

GOOD SIR, Your letter dated May 30th, came not to me till June 17th at night. It was the comfortablest letter I received that post; all the rest were filled with ill news from Brest and out of Flanders, the latter of which I have reason to think is false. That passage of yours relating to Bishop Laud is very remarkable, and touches the main point. I am glad your Book of Medals is coming out, and that that passage is inserted: for Mr. Wharton has done all he intends by writing that preface which he sent to me. The book is all Bishop Laud's own, so that he neither adds nor alters, unless in the margin, and I believe the book is by this time all printed off: however, I will write to him into Kent next post. I'm sure my letter will be very agreeable to him upon the account of the

« ПредишнаНапред »