the history of the Historian. I confess
to you, I had once the vanity to hope, had my patron continued in his
station, for some, at least, honorary title that might have animated my
progress, as seeing then some amongst them whose talents I did not envy:
but it was not my fortune to succeed.' This certainly seems as if Evelyn
had been hoping for knighthood from King Charles. If his desire lay this
way, it is difficult to reconcile such private admission with the
definite statement made in the diary of 19th April, 1661, that 'he might
have receiv'd this honour,' of Knighthood of the Bath 'but declined it.'

Evelyn's other publications, works of considerably less importance,
include _Tyrannus or the Mode, in a Discourse of Sumptuary Laws_ (1661);
_A Parallel of the Ancient Architecture with the Modern_ (1664), and _An
Idea of the Perfection of Painting, Demonstrated from the Principles of
Art_ (1668), both translated from the French of Roland Freart; _Another
Part of the Mystery of Jesuitisim_, also from the French (1665);
_Publick Employment, and an Active Life preferr'd to Solitude_ (1667: a
reply to Sir George Mackenzie's Work on Solitude); _The History of three
late famous Imposters_ (Padre Ottomano, Mahomed Bei, and Sabatei Sevi:
1669); _Mundus Muliebris: or the Ladies Dressing-room Unlock'd and her
Toilette spread_ (1690: a burlesque poem, 'A voyage to Marryland,'
cataloguing female follies of the time, by his daughter Mary, who died
in 1685); _Numismata: a Discourse of Medals, Antient and Modern: &c._
(1697); and _Acetaria: a Discourse of Sallets_ (1699), which was merely
a chapter, written many years previously, of an extensive work he
intended writing under the comprehensive title of _Elysium Britannicum_.
There is no doubt that, but for his immersion in public affairs in
middle life, Evelyn would have been a much larger producer of literary
work than he actually was. But it seems very questionable if this would
in any substantial way have added to the enduring reputation he won for
himself by _Sylva_.

In addition to his published works, however, he left numerous
manuscripts, which he had noted as 'Things I would write out faire and
reform if I had leisure,' comprising poems, mathematical papers,
religious meditations, and biographies. The most ambitious of his poems
is _Thyrsander, a Tragy-Comedy_, which is probably one of those referred
to by Pepys in his Diary for 5th Novr. 1665, when, visiting Evelyn at
Say