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10 unusual facts about John Evelyn


A200 road

Named after diarist John Evelyn, the street runs from the Plough Way junction south to the junction with Deptford Church Street.

British Camp

The diarist John Evelyn (1620–1706) remarked that the view from the hill was "one of the godliest vistas in England".

Critical approaches to Hamlet

John Evelyn saw the play in 1661, and in his Diary he deplored the play's violation of the unities of time and place.

Cyril Wyche

He married Mary, daughter of George Evelyn of Wootton and niece of John Evelyn, the diarist.

Elizabeth Boyle, Countess of Guilford

John Evelyn, author of the book The Life of Mrs Godolphin, depicts Lady Guilford as a harsh, overly religious governess.

Evelyn College for Women

He named the college after Sir John Evelyn and was able to recruit most of Princeton's most noted faculty members, including Woodrow Wilson and Henry Fine, to teach at the college.

John Evelyn's cabinet

The cabinet was made for the diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) and is an early example of a piece of furniture commissioned by a British visitor making the 'Grand Tour' of Europe.

Raised-relief map

In his 1665 paper for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, John Evelyn (1620–1706) believed that wax models imitating nature and bas relief maps were something entirely new from France.

Stuart London

Within a few days of the fire, three plans were presented to the king for the rebuilding of the city, by Christopher Wren, John Evelyn and Robert Hooke.

Yard of ale

John Evelyn records in his Diary the formal yet festive drinking of a yard of ale toast to James II at Bromley in Kent, 1685.


Foxwhelp

This is one of the oldest surviving varieties of cider apple; it is first mentioned in John Evelyn's Advertisements Concerning Cider in his work Pomona of 1664, in which it is commented that "cider for strength ... is best made of the Fox-whelp of the Forest of Dean, but which comes not to be drunk until two or three years old".

Frances Ward

She is also the great-(8 generations) granddaughter of the diarist, John Evelyn, the diarist of London; owner of Sayes Court, which the Russian Tsar Peter the Great was known to be a regular visitor.

Robert Moray

Moray had a range of notable friends: James Gregory, Samuel Pepys, Thomas Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, John Evelyn and Gilbert Burnet.

Sarah Simblet

Her latest project, in collaboration with Gabriel Hemery, is to be called "The New Sylva - a discourse of forest and orchard trees in the 21st century" and is to be published in 2014 to mark the 350th anniversary of John Evelyn's work "Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber".

Venus de' Medici

Though visitors to Rome like John Evelyn found it "a miracle of art", it was sent to Florence in August 1677, its export permitted by Innocent XI because, it was thought, it stimulated lewd behavior.

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

Among its most valuable collections are the scientific works of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Edmond Halley, John Evelyn, and Digby.