John Evelyn

Diarist and author, 1620-1706

Cited as Evelyn. — 128 quotations

Abroad

I went to St. James', where another was preaching in the court abroad.

Addict

The land about is exceedingly addicted to wood, but the coldness of the place hinders the growth.

Alleviate

Should no others join capable to alleviate the expense.

Ambitious

I was not ambitious of seeing this ceremony.

Article

This fatal news coming to Hick's Hall upon the article of my Lord Russell's trial, was said to have had no little influence on the jury and all the bench to his prejudice.

Aspect

This town affords a good aspect toward the hill from whence we descended.

Bait

My lord's coach conveyed me to Bury, and thence baiting at Newmarket.

Balk

By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the inns.

Behither

Two miles behither Clifden.

Beset

The garden is so beset with all manner of sweet shrubs that it perfumes the air.

Blench

He now blenched what before he affirmed.

By-blow

The Aga speedily . . . brought her [his disgraced slave] to court, together with her pretty by-blow, the present Padre Ottomano.

Caliduct

Subterranean caliducts have been introduced.

Cancel

A little obscure place canceled in with iron work is the pillar or stump at which . . . our Savior was scourged.

Canton

The king gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms.

Catalysis

Sad catalysis and declension of piety.

Chargeable

For the sculptures, which are elegant, were very chargeable.

Clog

Move it sometimes with a broom, that the seeds clog not together.

Collation

May 20, 1658, I . . . collationed in Spring Garden.

Colline

And watered park, full of fine collines and ponds.

Composure

Signor Pietro, who had an admirable way both of composure [in music] and teaching.

Conceited

A conceited chair to sleep in.

Congestion

The congestion of dead bodies one upon another.

Court

I went to make my court to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle.

Cycle

We . . . present our gardeners with a complete cycle of what is requisite to be done throughout every month of the year.

Dark

He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.

Decliner

A studious decliner of honors.

Delicate

Haarlem is a very delicate town.

Discourse

I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it.

Dispose

Importuned him that what he designed to bestow on her funeral, he would rather dispose among the poor.

Divert

I diverted to see one of the prince's palaces.

Dormitory

My sister was interred in a very honorable manner in our dormitory, joining to the parish church.

Drollery

I bought an excellent drollery, which I afterward parted with to my brother George of Wotton.

Edulcorate

Succory . . . edulcorated with sugar and vinegar.

Emancipate

From how many troublesome and slavish impertinences . . . he had emancipated and freed himself.

Equipage

Did their exercises on horseback with noble equipage.

Even

It will even all inequalities

Exotic

Nothing was so splendid and exotic as the ambassador.

Explain

The horse-chestnut is . . . ready to explain its leaf.

Facile

Order . . . will render the work facile and delightful.

Fact

What might instigate him to this devilish fact, I am not able to conjecture.

Faculty

It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.

Fang

The protuberant fangs of the yucca.

Flake

Great flakes of ice encompassing our boat.

Flight-shot

Within a flight-shot it inthe valley.

Fret

His lady's cabinet is a adorned on the fret, ceiling, and chimney-piece with . . . carving.

Frutage

The cornices consist of frutages and festoons.

Funest

A forerunner of something very funest.

Gallant

The town is built in a very gallant place.

Ghetto

I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell.

Guidon

The pendants and guidons were carried by the officer of the army.

House

House your choicest carnations, or rather set them under a penthouse.

Husband

He is the neatest husband for curious ordering his domestic and field accommodations.
Land so trim and rarely husbanded.

Huzza

They made a great huzza or shout.

Impress

The second five thousand pounds impressed for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners.

Indict

I am told shall have no Lent indicted this year.

Infirmity

The house has also its infirmities.

Institution

There is another manuscript, of above three hundred years old, . . . being an institution of physic.

Insuccation

The medicating and insuccation of seeds.

Invention

We entered by the drawbridge, which has an invention to let one fall if not premonished.

Letter

Under these buildings . . . was the king's printing house, and that famous letter so much esteemed.

Lie

Whiles I was now trifling at home, I saw London, . . . where I lay one night only.

Litter

Take off the litter from your kernel beds.

Marry

A woman who had been married to her twenty-fifth husband, and being now a widow, was prohibited to marry.

Material

Discourse, which was always material, never trifling.

Memorial

Precious is the memorial of the just.

Milliary

A milliary column, from which they used to compute the distance of all the cities and places of note.

Mortify

The news of the fatal battle of Worcester, which exceedingly mortified our expectations.

Movable

Furnished with the most rich and princely movables.

Negotiation

Who had lost, with these prizes, forty thousand pounds, after twenty years' negotiation in the East Indies.

Nemorous

Paradise itself was but a kind of nemorous temple.

Notional

Discourses of speculative and notional things.

Oblige

The gates before it are brass, and the whole much obliged to Pope Urban VIII.

Observatory

The new observatory in Greenwich Park.

Obtestation

Antonio asserted this with great obtestation.

Office

This morning was read in the church, after the office was done, the declaration setting forth the late conspiracy against the king's person.

Olio

Besides a good olio, the dishes were trifling.

Olitory

At convenient distance towards the olitory garden.

Painable

The manacles of Astyages were not . . . the less weighty and painable for being composed of gold or silver.

Parqueted

One room parqueted with yew, which I liked well.

Pragmatic

The next day . . . I began to be very pragmatical.

Prancer

Then came the captain . . . upon a brave prancer.

Prepossess

It created him enemies, and prepossessed the lord general.

Pretense

I went to Lambeth with Sir R. Brown's pretense to the wardenship of Merton College, Oxford.

Progress

The king being returned from his progresse.

Progression

I hope, in a short progression, you will be wholly immerged in the delices and joys of religion.

Prospect

I went to Putney . . . to take prospects in crayon.

Prosper

Black cherry trees prosper even to considerable timber.

Quick

The works . . . are curiously hedged with quick.

Rarely

The rest of the apartments are rarely gilded.

Receipt

It has become a place of great receipt.

Reduce

The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us.

Regard

That exceedingly beatiful seat, on the assent of a hill, flanked with wood and regarding the river.

Rendition

The rest of these brave men that suffered in cold blood after articles of rendition.

Repercuss

Perceiving all the subjacent country, . . . to repercuss such a light as I could hardly look against.

Report

The corridors worse, having no report to the wings they join to.

Resign

Gentlement of quality have been sent beyong the seas, resigned and concredited to the conduct of such as they call governors.

Retirement

This coast full of princely retirements for the sumptousness of their buildings and nobleness of the plantations.

Rutilant

Parchments . . . colored with this rutilant mixture.

Sconce

Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-colored, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them.

Seminary

But if you draw them [seedling] only for the thinning of your seminary, prick them into some empty beds.

Seraglio

I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell as in a suburb, by themselves. I passed by the piazza Judea, where their seraglio begins.

Shingle

They shingle their houses with it.

Shoe

The sharp and small end of the billiard stick, which is shod with brass or silver.

Shoot

Superfluous branches and shoots of this second spring.

Stanch

One of the closets is parqueted with plain deal, set in diamond, exceeding stanch and pretty.

Stay

This business staid me in London almost a week.

Subalternate

All their subalternate and several kinds.

Substruction

It is a magnificent strong building, with a substruction very remarkable.

Subversion

The subversion [by a storm] of woods and timber . . . through my whole estate.

Sudatory

These sudatories are much in request for many infirmities.

Sullage

The streets were exceedingly large, well paved, having many vaults and conveyances under them for sullage.

Tabernacle

Orange trees planted in the ground, and secured in winter with a wooden tabernacle and stoves.

Tablature

The chimes of bells are so rarely managed that I went up to that of Sir Nicholas, where I found who played all sorts of compositions from the tablature before him as if he had fingered an organ.

Table

The opposite walls are painted by Rubens, which, with that other of the Infanta taking leave of Don Philip, is a most incomparable table.

Tight

Clad very plain, but clean and tight.

Top

Top your rose trees a little with your knife.

Translate

In the chapel of St. Catharine of Sienna, they show her head- the rest of her body being translated to Rome.

Treen

Treen liquors, especially that of the date.

Umbrage

Which gave umbrage to wiser than myself.

Undertaker

To sign deputations for undertakes to furnish their proportions of saltpeter.

Unkingship

Unkingship was proclaimed, and his majesty's statues thrown down.

Usurp

The parish churches on which the Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped.

Utmost

We coasted within two leagues of Antibes, which is the utmost town in France.

Velitation

After a short velitation we parted.

Way

The season and ways were very improper for his majesty's forces to march so great a distance.

Waywiser

The waywiser to a coach, exactly measuring the miles, and showing them by an index.