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."

Courtiers, artists, and scientists were his friends. Grinling Gibbons
was brought to the King's notice by Evelyn, and Henry Howard, Duke of
Norfolk, was persuaded by him to present the Arundel Marbles to the
University of Oxford. In London he engaged in divers charitable and
civic affairs and was commissioner for improving the streets and
buildings in London. He had charge of the sick and wounded of the Dutch
War and also, with the fineness of character typical of his kind, he
remained at his post through the Great Plague. Evelyn was also active in
organizing the Royal Society and became its first secretary.

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