into the room even where he was eating, to which they gained access
through the king's servants. Disgusted at their impertinent curiosity
he would sometimes rise from table, and leave the room in a rage. To
prevent this intrusion, he strictly charged his domestics not to admit
any persons whatever let their rank be what it might. A kind of forced
interview, however, was obtained by two Quakers, the account of which,
as given by one of them, is singular and interesting.

One month's residence having satisfied Peter as to what was to be seen
in London, and having expressed a strong desire to be near some of the
King's dockyards, it was arranged that a suitable residence should be
found near one of the river establishments; and the house of the
celebrated Mr. Evelyn, close to Deptford Dock-yard, being about to
become vacant, by the removal of Admiral Benbow, who was then its
tenant, it was immediately taken for the residence of the Tzar and
his suite; and a doorway was broken through the boundary wall of
the dock-yard, to afford a direct communication between it and the
dwelling-house. This place had then the name of Saye's Court. It was the
delight of Evelyn, and 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