hoped at different times to make him a proselyte. Burnet,
commissioned by his brethren, and impelled, no doubt, by his own
restless curiosity and love of meddling, repaired to Deptford and
was honoured with several audiences. The Czar could not be
persuaded to exhibit himself at Saint Paul's; but he was induced
to visit Lambeth palace. There he saw the ceremony of ordination
performed, and expressed warm approbation of the Anglican ritual.
Nothing in England astonished him so much as the Archiepiscopal
library. It was the first good collection of books that he had
seen; and he declared that he had never imagined that there were
so many printed volumes in the world.

The impression which he made on Burnet was not favourable. The
good bishop could not understand that a mind which seemed to be
chiefly occupied with questions about the best place for a
capstan and the best way of rigging a jury mast might be capable,
not merely of ruling an empire, but of creating a nation. He
complained that he had gone to see a great prince, and had found
only an industrious shipwright. Nor does Evelyn seem to have
formed a much more favourable opinion of his august tenant. It
was, indeed, not in the character of tenant that the Czar was
likely to gain the good word of civilised men. With all the high
qualities which were peculiar to himself, he had all the filthy
habits which were then common among his countrymen. To the end of
his life, while disciplining armies, founding schools, framing
codes, organising tribunals, building cities in deserts, joining
distant seas by artificial rivers, he lived in his palace like a
hog in a sty; and, when he was entertained by other sovereigns,
never failed to leave on their tapestried walls and velvet state
beds unequivocal proof that a savage had been there. Evelyn's