partment was increased by adding the Council of Trade to
its duties. He at once went to thank the Treasurer and Lord Arlington,
Secretary of State, whose favour he possessed though he 'cultivated
neither of their friendships by any meane submissions'. And he failed
not, of course, to kiss the King's hand on being made one of that newly
established Council. But Royalist though he was, he could not be blind
to the profligacy of the Court and of the King, to whose Majesty his
works were so grandiloquently dedicated.

On one occasion after submitting progress of his History to the King, he
says 'thence walk'd with him thro' St. James's Parke to the garden,
where I both saw and heard a very familiar discourse between... and Mrs.
Nellie as they cal'd an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden
on a terrace at the top of the wall, and... standing on ye greene walke
under it. I was heartily sorry at the scene. Thence the King walked to
the Dutchess of Cleaveland, another lady of pleasure, and curse of our
nation'. Evelyn is usually so strict about any reference to the
proprieties that it is hard to understand why this particular interview
between King Charles and Nell Gwynne should be mentioned so
circumstantially. As for the Court, when it went abroad, say to
Newmarket, one might have 'found ye jolly blades racing, dauncing,
feasting, and revelling, more resembling a luxurious and abandon'd rout,
than a Christian Court.'

Early in 1672 his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, resigned office as
Clerk of the Council, a place which his Majesty had years before
promised to Evelyn; but he was induced to give up this lien on renewal
of the lease of Sayes Court for 99 years, although the King's written
engagement to grant the estate in fee-farme is still extant at Wotton.
In 1673 Browne became Master of the Trinity House, and Evelyn was sworn
in as a younger Brother, having in the previous autumn been chosen
Secretary to the Royal Society: and two months later his son John, now
18 years of age, was also made a younger brother of Trinity House.
Evelyn's life seems now to have glided on very quietly. Much of his time
was taken up with the colonial and commercial work controlled by the
Council of Plantations and Trade, though he still found leisure for
literary work, scientific recreation, and other affairs. His mind
apparently about this time became greatly attracted towards religious
subjects, and it seems more than probable t