John Evelyn

John Evelyn (1620–1706) was an English writer, gardener and diarist. The son of a wealthy Surrey family, he traveled on the Continent during the Civil War and returned to live quietly under the Commonwealth as a royalist. After the Restoration he was a founding member of the Royal Society and served on public commissions, including one for the care of sick and wounded seamen. His many books include Sylva, a treatise on forest trees, Fumifugium, on the smoke of London, and works on architecture, engraving and gardening. His diary, kept for most of his life, was first published in 1818.