e pressing, by which
innocent diversions I might sometime relieve my selfe without complyance
to recreations I took no felicity in, because they did not contribute to
any improvement of the mind. This set me upon planting of trees, and
brought forth my "Sylva," which booke, infinitely beyond my expectation,
is now also calling for a fourth impression, and has been the occasion
of propagating many millions of usefull timber trees thro'out this
nation, as I may justifie (without im'odesty) from ye many letters of
acknowledgement receiv'd from gentlemen of the first quality, and others
altogether strangers to me. His late Majesty Charles the 2nd. was
sometimes graciously pleas'd to take notice of it to me, and that I had
by that booke alone incited a world of planters to repaire their broken
estates and woodes, which the greedy rebells had wasted and made much
havock of. Upon this encouragement I was once speaking to a mighty man,
then in despotic power, to mention the greate inclination I had to serve
his Majesty in a little office then newly vacant (the salary I think
hardly L300) whose province was to inspect the timber trees in his
Majesties Forests, etc., and take care of their culture and improvement;
but this was conferr'd upon another who, I believe, had seldom been out
of the smoake of London, where though there was a greate deale of
timber, there were not many trees. I confesse I had an inclination to
the imployment upon a publique account as well as its being suitable to
my rural genius, borne as I was at Wotton, among the woods.'

A still greater success was achieved by the _Kalendarium Hortense_,
which reached its tenth edition (1706) during Evelyn's lifetime, and of
which two reprints have subsequently been made. This small work was the
forerunner of the more modern books on English gardening, the names of
which are now almost legion.

Previous to this, _Sculptura: or the History and Art of Chalcography and
Engraving in Copper and Mezzo-tinto_, had been published in 1662, being
the first work on this subject that had appeared in England. But it was
a poor production, and ran into no second edition while the author
lived. His chief subsequent literary successes were _Terra: a
Philosophical Discourse of Earth relating to the Culture and Improvement
of it for Vegetation, and for the Propagation of Plants_, (1676), which
was first read before the Royal Society on 29th April 1675, and of which
the third edition w