The Sheila Variations

Hmm.. I've just been reading a little about John Evelyn.. he was well known to Those [Royal Society] Guys and an early, and long-serving, member of The Fellowship... his father-in-law just happened to be Charles I's diplomatic agent in France - Evelyn spent most of the 1640s in France and Italy.

And, in a completely unrelated point, not that the first point was particularly related *ahem* his grandfather was responsible for introducing the manufacture of gunpowder into England.

Are you suggesting a parallel between London 1666 and New Orleans 2005 -- I thinking and appreciating that, especially given your post --- um, what she said...

or should I just shut up and leave it alone?

Acutally, I'm not suggesting anything. I'm just saying that today in history the London fire began. Sept. 2, 1666. Just a fact.

The fact that Mr. Evelyn would write "London was, but is no more" in his journal that night makes perfect sense. But of course - London did rebuilt, London still exists today. But it took generations. The London that Mr. Evelyn knew did, indeed, vanish off the face of the earth.

How coincidental, and the quote about London was but is no more does remind me of N.O. What's scarier- fire or water?

To me - it's fire. I have a horror of burning alive. I think I might have been burned at the stake in the 15th century or something in my former life as a witch.

But water's no picnic either.

Fear of fire is primal, one of our deepest instincts. To fear water, conversely, seems somehow...less natural, because normally water is something that keeps us alive. Perhaps that lets us our guard down more.

I do have a fear of tidal waves - but that's more a fear of the huge-ness of it, rather than the water aspect.

But to burn alive - and know I'm burning -

shivers ....

This same quote came through to me via email from the Writer's Almanac. Is that the secondary source you are quoting from here? Just wondering, since I didn't see a link....

Sheila

John Evelyn's shock was understandable.. some 12,000 homes destroyed and around 65,000 made homeless during the 4 days the London fire burned.. but he also lived long enough to see the city rebuilt, thanks to the efforts of Wren and Hooke - a monument to the fire was completed by 1677.. John Evelyn lived on to 1706 and was 85 when he died.

Incredible, peteb. Just amazing.

Have you read Pepys' diary? You probably have. An incredible eyewitness account of the fire as well.

Alas, I haven't read Pepys's diary.. although I've popped in occasionally to his blog [there is one republishing it day by day]... but I might read Evelyn's first.. if I can hunt down a copy.. he was Secretary of the Royal Society in the early 1670s and knew all those guys.

Of course, he would have known Pepys well too.. Evelyn wrote the handbook for the Navy on cultivating forests for shipbuilding, based on the findings of a Society Committee.. reprinted repeatedly until 1825.. when ironclad and steel hulls took over.

I love that people are putting Pepys' journal into blog form. He was such a gossip. And some of his theatrical reviews are amazing - eyewitness accounts of the great actors of the day.

They've only got up to September 1662 though.

patty - writer's almanac has a newsletter?? I had no idea!

I got the quote from their website which I visit daily. Sorry for not providing a link. Bad blog behavior. :)

Just thought I'd add.. after some investigation.. that Evelyn's diary was published, by The Boydell Press, as a 1342 page hardback in 1996 [still available, new, at the astronomical sum of £400] and as a 384 page paperback in 2004 [at £14.99], but there's a new 1050 page hardback version coming out, from Everyman's Library, in October this year.

And taking the thread further along the diversion.. apologies.. but I just found another little snippet of information about John Evelyn that might be of interest.

When Peter the Great visited England to study shipbuilding [in 1698] the Admiralty dockyards were in Deptford.. where John Evelyn owned a sizable house. The Czar and his entourage stayed at Evelyn's house [I don't think he was there] from February to April... and basically seem to have trashed the place.. the Exchequer paid John Evelyn a sum of £300 in compensation for all the damage [including three broken wheelbarrows.. don't ask] after the Czar left.