DIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN EVELYN. F. R. S. TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED The Private Correspondence BETWEEN KING CHARLES I. AND SIR EDWARD' NICHOLAS. AND BETWEEN SIR EDWARD HYDE, AFTERWARDS EARL OF CLARENDON, 'EDITED FROM THE ORIHINAL MSE. AT WOTTON BY WILLIAM BRAY, ESQ. F.A.S. A NEW EDITION, IN FOUR VOLUMES. CORRECTED, REVISED, AND ENLARGED. VOL. I. LONDON: BELL AND DALDY, YOIK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1872. XII. DOROTHY SIDNEY, COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND XIII. ALGERNON PERCY, EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION OF EVELYN'S DIARY. On being asked, seven years ago, to edit Evelyn's Diary with a view to a publication of it more popular in its character than any until then attempted,-I gladly consented to do so. There is not a book of its class in our language for which it is more desirable that the widest possible circulation should be obtained. Evelyn's long and blameless life extended over the reigns of the last three Stuart kings; within it were comprised the great Civil War, the Commonwealth, Cromwell's Protectorate, and the Revolution of 1688; and no other man who passed through those days of change and vicissitude knew familiarly so many grades and classes of his countrymen, or could speak with authority on so many subjects possessing still an unabated interest for English readers. All that might have been excluded from the range of his opinions, his feelings and his sympathies embraced; and the Diary in which the leading incidents and im pressions of so remarkable a career were set down, and which faithfully reflected such a true gentleman's nature,—such high independence of spirit and dignified courtesy of manners, such a scorn of whatever was unworthy or base, with so eager a love for the arts, literature, science, and all the nobler enjoyments of life, could hardly fail to be what the best-informed readers have found it, one of the healthiest and most instructive of books. The leading features of the Edition of seven years ago are indicated in the subjoined quotations from the Advertisement which I then prefixed to it. But the volumes containing the Diary have since undergone still more careful revision, and the text, as now presented, is throughout in a more perfect state. This work has been out of print for many years ; ' and little more is necessary, in presenting to the public an Edition which has been long required, than to ' indicate such differences as will be found to exist between the present and former publications. 'The Dedication, Preface, and Introduction are ' reprinted from those which appeared in the Quarto 'Editions of 1818, and in the Octavo Edition of • 1827. 'In compliance with a wish very generally expressed, 'the spelling of the Diary has been modernized. No 'other change will be found in the text, except such |