ed Majesty: But as it is of universal benefit that I propound
it; so I expect a civil entertainment and reception....' Confessing
himself 'frequently displeased at the small advance and improvement of
Publick Works in this nation,' he further expresses himself as
'extremely amazed, that where there is so great affluence of all things
which may render the People of this vast City the most happy upon Earth;
the sordid and accursed Avarice of some few Particular Persons should be
suffered to prejudice the health and felicity of so many: That any
Profit (besides what is absolute necessity) should render men
regardlesse of what chiefly imports them, when it may be purchased upon
so easie conditions, and with so great advantages: For it is not
happiness to possesse Gold, but to enjoy the Effects of it and to know
how to live cheerfully and in health, _Non est vivere, sed valere vita_.
That men whose very Being is _Aer_, should not breath it freely when
they may; but (as that _Tyrant_ us'd his Vassals) condemn themselves to
this misery and _Fumo praefocari_, is strange stupidity: yet thus we see
them walk and converse in _London_, pursu'd and haunted by that
infernal Smoake, and the funest accidents which accompany it wheresoever
they retire.'

Surely, if John Evelyn could in spirit revisit the metropolis he loved
so well and was so much at home in, he would, while lamenting the
continuation and the now much more acute form of the "infernal
_Nuisance_", to a certainty find ample cause for rejoicing at the
admirable work of late years carried out in the London Royal Parks and
Pleasure Grounds, and in the Parks and Open Spaces under the
administration of the County Council.

It was in 1664, however, that Evelyn achieved his greatest literary
triumph by the publication of his three masterpieces, _Sylva: or a
Discourse of Forest Trees, and the Propagation of Timber in His
Majestie's Dominions_; _Pomona: or an Appendix concerning Fruit Trees in
relation to Cider, the Making and several ways of Ordering it_; and
_Kalendarium Hortense: or the Gard'ners Almanack, directing what he is
to do Monthly throughout the Year_.'

The manner in which the idea of the _Sylva_ originated is clearly shewn
by what is noted in his Diary on 15th October, 1662.--'I this day
deliver'd my "Discourse concerning Forest Trees" to the Society, upon
occasion of certain queries sent to us by the Commissioners of his
Majesties Navy, being the first booke tha