Many of the posts on Clay Lane are by well known writers such as William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Others are by less well known authors who have something no less important to say.
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Sir John Evelyn (1620-1706) fought for Charles I in the Civil War, but left England in 1646 to tour France and Italy, studying art, anatomy and antiquities; he married Mary Browne, daughter of Sir Richard Browne, the English ambassador in Paris, in 1647. Evelyn returned home in time in 1651. Following the Restoration in 1660, he held a number of minor but socially very useful offices (for example, he established veterans’ hospitals and presented a study of pollution) in the court of King Charles II. Evelyn assisted in the establishment of the Royal Society, which elected him a Fellow in 1661, and his London home, Sayes Court, was made available to the Government, playing host among others to Tsar Peter the Great of Russia; the gardens were a matter of special pride, and Evelyn gained a reputation as an expert on trees. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, and his diary, detailing his life and many contemporary events from 1641 onwards, is an invaluable historical record.
