time to time he
advanced monies of his own to supply provisions for the needy committed
to his care: and subsequent petitions for reinbursement were only
partially successful. But he was rewarded by the sunny warmth of that
royal favour which cost nothing, because when the King returned from
Oxford to Hampton Court and Evelyn went to wait upon his Majesty there
at the end of January, 1666, he duly records how 'he ran towards me, and
in a most gracious manner gave me his hand to kisse, with many thanks
for my care and faithfulnesse in his service in a time of such greate
danger, when every body fled their employments.' Poor Evelyn seems to
have been rather easily duped in this sort of way. 'Then the Duke (of
Albemarle) came towards me and embrac'd me with much kindnesse, telling
me if he had thought my danger would have been so greate, he would not
have suffer'd his Majesty to employ me in that station.' And so on,
'after which I got home, not being very well in health.' It certainly
was such ridiculously insincere treatment that it might well have caused
immediate sickening in one of robust health.

It was, forsooth, only in very minor matters that Evelyn profited by the
royal favour or by his courtiership. In April, 1666, Charles informed
him that he must now be sworn for a Justice of the Peace, ('the office
in the world I had most industriously avoided, in regard of the
perpetual trouble thereoff in these numerous parishes'), and he only
escaped this infliction by humbly desiring to be excused from fresh
duties inconsistent with the other service he was engaged in. So excused
he was, by royal favour, for which he 'rendered his Majesty many
thanks.' And on that same day he declined re-election to the Council of
the Royal Society for the following year on 'earnest suite' of other
affairs; for he had to be consistent in such different matters that
would have engaged a portion of his time.

Besides his work in connection with prisoners and the Mint he was
shortly afterwards nominated one of the Commissioners for regulating the
farming and making of saltpetre and gunpowder throughout Britain, an
appointment which was all the more appropriate from the fact that his
grandfather, George Evelyn of Long Ditton and Wotton (1530-1603), had
been the first to introduce the manufacture of gunpowder into England,
when he established mills on both of his properties. He was also
appointed one of the three Surveyors of the repairs of S