the wonder and admiration of all men of taste at
that time. The grounds are described, in the life of the Lord Keeper
Guildford, "as most boscaresque, being, as it were, an exemplary of
his (Evelyn's) book of forest trees." Admiral Benbow had given great
dissatisfaction to the proprietor as a tenant, for he observes in his
Diary--"I have the mortification of seeing, every day, much of my labour
and expense there impairing from want of a more polite tenant." It
appears, however, that the princely occupier was not a more "polite
tenant" than the rough sailor had been, for Mr. Evelyn's servant thus
writes to him,--"There is a house full of people _right nasty._ The
Tzar lies next your library, and dines in the parlour next your study.
He dines at ten o'clock and six at night; is very seldom at home a whole
day; very often in the King's yard, or by water, dressed in several
dresses. The King is expected there this day; the best parlour is pretty
clean for him to be entertained in. The King pays for all he has."[8]
But this was not all: Mr. Evelyn had a favourite holly-hedge, through
which, it is said, the Tzar, by way of exercise, used to be in the habit,
every morning, of trundling a wheel-barrow. Mr. Evelyn probably alludes
to this in the following passage, wherein he asks, "Is there, under the
heavens, a more glorious and refreshing object, of the kind, than an
impregnable hedge, of about four hundred feet in length, nine feet high,
and five in diameter, which I can still show in my ruined garden at
Saye's Court (thanks to the Tzar of Muscovy), at any time of the year,
glittering with its armed and variegated leaves; the taller standards,
at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral? It mocks the
rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers,--et ilium
nemo impune lacessit."[9]

Alas! for the glory of the glittering hollies, trimmed hedges, and long
avenues of Saye's Court; Time, that great innovator, has demolished them
all, and Evelyn's favourite haunts and enchanting grounds have been
transformed into cabbage gardens; that portion of the Victualling-yard
where oxen and hogs are slaughtered and salted for the use of the navy,
now occupies the place of the shady walks and the trimmed hedges, which
the good old Evelyn so much delighted in; and on the site of the ancient
mansion now stands the common parish workhouse of Deptford Stroud.

We have little evidence that the Tzar, during his residence he