Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets

Joannes Evelyn Arm r
BROOKLYN , Published by the Women's Auxiliary , BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 1937
Printed in the United States of America
John Evelyn, famous for his Diary, was a friend and contemporary of Samuel Pepys. Both were conscientious public servants who had held minor offices in the government. But, while Pepys' diary is sparkling and redolent of the free manners of the Restoration, Evelyn's is the record of a sober, scholarly man. His mind turned to gardens, to sculpture and architecture, rather than to the gaieties of contemporary social life. Pepys was an urban figure and Evelyn was county. He represents the combination of public servant and country gentleman which has been the supreme achievement of English culture.
Horace Walpole said of him in his Catalogue of Engravers, I must observe that his life, which was extended to eighty-six years, was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction and benevolence.
In the country he spent his time studying, writing and in developing his own and his brother's estates. He translated several French books, one of them by Nicolas de Bonnefons was entitled The French Gardener; instructions how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-trees. Evelyn undoubtedly knew another book of de Bonnefons called Les Delices de la Campagne . Delights of the country, according to de Bonnefons, consisted largely in delights of the palate, and perhaps it was this book which suggested to Evelyn to write a cookery-garden book such as Acetaria. He also translated Jean de la Quintinie's The Compleat Gardener. His Sylva, or a discourse of Forest Trees was written as a protest against the destruction of trees in England being carried on by the glass factories and iron furnaces, and the book succeeded in inducing landowners to plant millions of trees.
Living in the country and cultivating his fruits and vegetables, Evelyn grew to be an ardent believer in vegetarianism and is probably the first advocate in England of a meatless diet. He was so keen on preparing foods without meat that, like another contemporary, Sir Kenelm Digby, he collected recipes. These, interspersed with delightful philosophic comments and some directions about gardening, were assembled in the little book Acetaria. This was published in 1699 along with the ninth edition of the Kalendarium Hortense, a gardener's almanac.