Acetaria: a Discourse of Sallets

Part 1

Produced by David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

ACETARIA

A DISCOURSE OF SALLETS

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By JOHN EVELYN, Esq.

Author of the Kalendarium

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BROOKLYN,

Published by the Women's Auxiliary,

BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN

1937

Printed in the United States of America

Publisher's Note

This edition of Acetaria is a faithful reprint of the First Edition of 1699, with the correction of a few obvious typographical errors, and those noted in the Errata of the original edition. Whereas no attempt has been made to reproduce the typography of the original, the spirit has been retained, and the vagaries of spelling and punctuation have been carefully followed; also the old-style S has been retained. Much of the flavour of Acetaria is lost if it is scanned too hurriedly; and one should remember also that Latin and Greek were the gauge of a man of letters, and if the titles and quotations seem a bit ponderous, they are as amusing a conceit as the French and German complacencies of a more recent generation.

Foreword to Acetaria

John Evelyn, famous for his "Diary," was a friend and contemporary of Samuel Pepys. Both were conscientious public servants who had held minor offices in the government. But, while Pepys' diary is sparkling and redolent of the free manners of the Restoration, Evelyn's is the record of a sober, scholarly man. His mind turned to gardens, to sculpture and architecture, rather than to the gaieties of contemporary social life. Pepys was an urban figure and Evelyn was "county." He represents the combination of public servant and country gentleman which has been the supreme achievement of English culture.

Horace Walpole said of him in his Catalogue of Engravers, "I must observe that his life, which was extended to eighty-six years, was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction and benevolence."

Courtiers, artists, and scientists were his friends. Grinling Gibbons was brought to the King's notice by Evelyn, and Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk, was persuaded by him to present the Arundel Marbles to the University of Oxford. In London he engaged in divers charitable and civic affairs and was commissioner for improving the streets and buildings in London. He had charge of the sick and wounded of the Dutch War and also, with the fineness of character typical of his kind, he remained at his post through the Great Plague. Evelyn was also active in organizing the Royal Society and became its first secretary.

In the country he spent his time studying, writing and in developing his own and his brother's estates. He translated several French books, one of them by Nicolas de Bonnefons was entitled "The French Gardener; instructions how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-trees." Evelyn undoubtedly knew another book of de Bonnefons called "Les Delices de la Campagne." Delights of the country, according to de Bonnefons, consisted largely in delights of the palate, and perhaps it was this book which suggested to Evelyn to write a cookery-garden book such as Acetaria. He also translated Jean de la Quintinie's "The Compleat Gardener." His "Sylva, or a discourse of Forest Trees" was written as a protest against the destruction of trees in England being carried on by the glass factories and iron furnaces, and the book succeeded in inducing landowners to plant millions of trees.

The list of Evelyn's writings shows a remarkable diversity in subject matter. There was a book on numismatics and translations from the Greek, political and historical pamphlets, and a book called "Fumifugium or the inconvenience of the Aer and Smoke of London dissipated," in which he suggests that sweet-smelling trees should be planted to purify the air of London. He also wrote a book called "Sculpture, or the History of Chalcography and Engraving in Copper."

Living in the country and cultivating his fruits and vegetables, Evelyn grew to be an ardent believer in vegetarianism and is probably the first advocate in England of a meatless diet. He was so keen on preparing foods without meat that, like another contemporary, Sir Kenelm Digby, he collected recipes. These, interspersed with delightful philosophic comments and some directions about gardening, were assembled in the little book Acetaria. This was published in 1699 along with the ninth edition of the "Kalendarium Hortense," a gardener's almanac.

The material for Acetaria was gathered as early as 1679 with the idea of making it one chapter of an encyclopedic work on horticulture. The Plan of a Royal Garden, was Evelyn's outline for that ambitious work.

The recipes are unusual and delicious and some of them are practical for today, especially for the owner of a garden where pot herbs are cultivated. Evelyn uses the pot herbs for flavoring soups, egg dishes, "salletts" and puddings. The eggs with sweet herbs prepared in ramikins and the pudding flavored with the petals of calendulas are particularly good.

The book reveals his zest for living and the culture of his mind. It also shows the thought and life of a country gentleman during the reign of Charles the Second. Evidently, in Evelyn's home, the spirit of scientific investigation prevailed and there was a delight in new ideas. Evelyn supervised the garden and knew how to instruct the cook to prepare new dishes.

Although Acetaria is a book of directions for gardening and cooking, it is not the least didactic but is written in a discoursive style and with a leisureliness and in a rhythm suited to the slow pace of a horse trotting through the winding lanes of the English countryside. As we read, we can almost see the butler bringing a fragrant pudding to the family assembled around the dining table in the wood-panelled room. Or again we can almost smell the thyme, mint, and savory growing in tidy rows in the well-tilled and neatly ordered garden of John Evelyn.

Helen M. Fox

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Part 2

To the Right Honourable

JOHN

Lord Somers

of Evesham

Lord High-Chancellor of England,

and President of the Royal-Society.

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My Lord,

The Idea and Plan of the Royal-Society having been first conceiv'd and delineated by a Great and Learned Chancellor, which High Office your Lordship deservedly bears; not as an Acquisition of Fortune, but your Intellectual Endowments; Conspicuous (among other Excellencies) by the Inclination Your Lordship discovers to promote Natural Knowledge: As it justifies the Discernment of that Assembly, to pitch upon Your Lordship for their President, so does it no less discover the Candor, yea, I presume to say, the Sublimity of your Mind, in so generously honoring them with your Acceptance of the Choice they have made.

A Chancellor, and a very Learned Lord, was the First who honoured the Chair; and a no less Honorable and Learned Chancellor, resigns it to Your Lordship: So as after all the Difficulties and Hardships the Society has hitherto gone through; it has thro' the Favour and Protection of its Presidents, not only preserv'd its Reputation from the Malevolence of Enemies and Detracters, but gone on Culminating, and now Triumphantly in Your Lordship: Under whose propitious Influence, I am perswaded, it may promise it self That, which indeed has hitherto been wanting, to justifie the Glorious Title it bears of a ROYAL SOCIETY. The Emancipating it from some Remaining and Discouraging Circumstances, which it as yet labours under; among which, that of a Precarious and unsteady Abode, is not the least.

This Honor was reserv'd for Your Lordship; and an Honor, permit me to call it, not at all unworthy the Owning of the Greatest Person living: Namely, the Establishing and Promoting Real Knowledge; and (next to what is Divine) truly so called; as far, at least, as Humane Nature extends towards the Knowledge of Nature, by enlarging her Empire beyond the Land of Spectres, Forms, Intentional Species, Vacuum, Occult Qualities, and other Inadequate Notions; which, by their Obstreperous and Noisy Disputes, affrighting, and (till of late) deterring Men from adventuring on further Discoveries, confin'd them in a lazy Acquiescence, and to be fed with Fantasms and fruitless Speculations, which signifie nothing to the specifick Nature of Things, solid and useful knowledge; by the Investigation of Causes, Principles, Energies, Powers, and Effects of Bodies, and Things Visible; and to improve them for the Good and Benefit of Mankind.

My Lord, That which the Royal Society needs to accomplish an entire Freedom, and (by rendring their Circumstances more easie) capable to subsist with Honor, and to reach indeed the Glorious Ends of its Institution, is an Establishment in a more Settl'd, Appropriate, and Commodious Place; having hitherto (like the Tabernacle in the Wilderness) been only Ambulatory for almost Forty Years: But Solomon built the First Temple; and what forbids us to hope, that as Great a Prince may build Solomon's House, as that Great Chancellor (one of Your Lordship's Learned Predecessors) had design'd the Plan; there being nothing in that August and Noble Model impossible, or beyond the Power of Nature and Learned Industry.

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