1653. Came to see me that rare graver in taille-douce, Monsieur Richett, he was sent by Cardinal Mazarine to make a collection of pictures.
1653. I went to take the air in Hyde Park, where every coach was made to pay a shilling, and horse sixpence, by the sordid fellow who had purchased it of the state, as they called it.
17th May, 1653. My servant Hoare, who wrote those exquisite several hands, fell of a fit of an apoplexy, caused, as I suppose, by tampering with mercury about an experiment in gold.
LONDON
29th May, 1653. I went to London, to take my last leave of my honest friend, Mr. Barton, now dying; it was a great loss to me and to my affairs. On the sixth of June, I attended his funeral.
8th June, 1653. Came my brother George, Captain Evelyn, the great traveler, Mr. Muschamp, my cousin, Thomas Keightly, and a virtuoso, fastastical Simons, who had the talent of embossing so to the life.
9th June, 1653. I went to visit my worthy neighbor, Sir Henry Newton [at Charlton], and consider the prospect, which is doubtless for city, river, ships, meadows, hill, woods, and all other amenities, one of the most noble in the world; so as, had the house running water, it were a princely seat. Mr. Henshaw and his brother-in-law came to visit me, and he presented me with a seleniscope.
19th June, 1653. This day, I paid all my debts to a farthing; oh, blessed day!
21st June, 1653. My Lady Gerrard, and one Esquire Knight, a very rich gentleman, living in Northamptonshire, visited me.