The Diary of John Evelyn, Esquire. Edited by William Bray.
(George New-nes. 3s. 6d. net.)—This reprint of the edition of 1818 makes a very neat little volume, more than eight hundred pages being compressed into a very small compass without any loss of legibility. The Diary itself, though not so racy as the contem- porary record of Samuel Pepys, is full of interest. It is not quite clear where it actually begins, because Evelyn gives a brief narrative of his earlier years; but it would seem to be in 1641. From that time it is carried on for sixty-five years. The last personal entry bears date January 27th, 1706; he died exactly one month later. That the Diary is an absolutely honest transcript of impressions cannot be doubted. The writer makes no effort to be consistent ; he says what he thinks at the time; and he is certainly plain-spoken. Here is a somewhat gruesome piece of candour, a propos of the execution of four regicides :—" I saw not their execution, but met their quarters mangled and cutt and reeking as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle. Oh the miraculous providence of God ! " Of the many striking things nothing is more notable than the perpetually recurring mention of smallpox. In one place the diarist mentions that there had been five hundred snore deaths by this disease than in the week preceding.
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