John Evelyn, English country gentleman, courtier, diarist, and miscellaneous author, was born at Wotton, in Surrey, on October 31, 1620, and was educated at Lewes, and then at Balliol College, Oxford.  He then lived at the Middle Temple, London; but after the death of Strafford, disliking the unsettled state of England, he spent three months in the Low Countries.  Returning for a short time to England, he followed the Royalist army for three days; but his prudence overcame his loyalty, and, crossing the Channel again, he wandered for four years in France and Italy.  His observations abroad are minutely recorded in the “Diary,” which in its earlier part too often resembles a guide-book.  Having married, in Paris, the British ambassador’s daughter, Evelyn made his home, in 1652, at Sayes Court, Deptford, until he moved, in 1694; to Wotton, where he died on February 27, 1706.  He was honourably employed, after the Restoration, on many public commissions, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society.  Like his friend Samuel Pepys, Evelyn was a man of very catholic tastes, and wrote on a multitude of subjects, including history, politics, education, the fine arts, gardening, and especially forestry, his “Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees,” 1664, being, after the “Diary,” his most famous work.  Evelyn’s character is very engaging in its richness, uprightness, and lively interests.  His “Diary,” like that of Pepys, lay long unpublished, and first saw the light in 1818.

I.—­Early Years

I was born at Wotton, in the county of Surrey, October 31, 1620, after my father had been married about seven years, and my mother had borne him two daughters and one son.

My father’s countenance was clear and fresh-coloured, his eyes quick and piercing, an ample forehead and manly aspect.  He was ascetic and sparing; his wisdom was great, his judgement acute; affable, humble, and in nothing affected; of a thriving, silent, and methodical genius.  He was distinctly severe, yet liberal on all just occasions to his children, strangers, and servants, a lover of hospitality; of a singular and Christian moderation in all his actions.  He was justice of the peace, and served his country as high sheriff for Surrey and Sussex together, and was a person of rare conversation.  His estate was esteemed about L4,000 per annum, well wooded, and full of timber.

My mother was of an ancient and honourable family in Shropshire.  She was of proper personage, of a brown complexion, her eyes and hair of a lovely black, of constitution inclined to a religious melancholy or pious sadness, of a rare memory and most exemplary life, for economy and prudence esteemed one of the most conspicuous in her country.

Wotton, the mansion house of my father, is in the southern part of the shire, three miles from Dorking, and is upon part of Leith Hill, one of the most eminent in England for the prodigious prospect to be seen from its summit.