spent in the pleasures and amusements common to the court
of France and to the throng of exiles from Britain who formed the Court
of the uncrowned monarch, Charles II.

Evelyn longed for settlement in England, because he saw that the
Royalist cause was hopelessly lost for the time being. His
father-in-law's estate of Sayes Court had been seized and sold by the
rebels, but 'by the advice and endeavour of my friends I was advis'd to
reside in it, and compound with the soldiers. This I was besides
authoriz'd by his Majesty to do, and encourag'd with promise that what
was in lease from the Crowne, if ever it pleased God to restore him, he
would secure to us in fee-ferme.{xxxi:1} I had also addresses and cyfers
to correspond with his Majesty and Ministers abroad: upon all which
inducements I was persuaded to settle henceforth in England, having now
run about the world, most part out of my owne country, neere ten yeares.
I therefore now likewise meditated sending over for my Wife, whom as yet
I had left at Paris.' She arrived on 11th. June with her Mother; and as
small-pox was then raging in and about London they sojourned for some
time at Tunbridge Wells, drinking the waters. About the end of that
month Evelyn went to Sayes Court to prepare for their reception, but was
waylaid by footpads near Bromley and came near meeting his death from
them. Fortunately, however, 'did God deliver me from these villains, and
not onely so, but restor'd what they tooke, as twice before he had
graciously don, both at sea and land;... for which, and many signal
preservations, I am extreamly oblig'd to give thanks to God my Saviour.'

On 24th July, 1652, Mrs. Evelyn presented her husband with their first
child, their son, John, who predeceased his father in 1698. He now
busied himself in acquiring full possession of his father-in-law's and
the rebels' interests in Sayes Court, which he effected at a cost of
L3,500 early in 1653.

Then he began gardening and planting on a large scale, transforming the
almost bare fields around the house into fine specimens of the art of
horticulture, as then practised. Sayes Court was afterwards the
temporary residence of Peter the Great, who committed great havoc in the
gardens and hedges during his rough orgies. Here Evelyn lived quietly
till the time of the Restoration, spending his days in gardening and in
cultivating the acquaintance of men of cultured tastes like his own,
with occasional journeys to diffe