Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets Part 1

Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets.

by John Evelyn.

_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 ent.i.tled "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 gla.s.s 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 a.s.sembled 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 a.s.sembled 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_

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Facsimile of t.i.tle Page of First Edition_]

_To the Right Honourable_

_JOHN_

Lord Somers

_of Evesham_

Lord _High-Chancellor_ of England,

and _President_ of the _Royal-Society_.

_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 _a.s.sembly_, 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 [1]_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. .h.i.therto 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. .h.i.therto been wanting, to justifie the Glorious _t.i.tle_ it bears of a ROYAL SOCIETY. The _Emanc.i.p.ating_ it from some Remaining and Discouraging Circ.u.mstances, 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 Circ.u.mstances more easie) capable to subsist with Honor, and to reach indeed the Glorious Ends of its _Inst.i.tution_, 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 _n.o.ble Model_ impossible, or beyond the _Power_ of _Nature_ and Learned Industry.

Thus, whilst King _Solomon's_ Temple was _Consecrated_ to the _G.o.d_ of _Nature_, and his true Worship; _This_ may be _Dedicated_, and set apart for the _Works_ of _Nature_; deliver'd from those Illusions and Impostors, that are still endeavouring to cloud and depress the True, and _Substantial Philosophy_: A _shallow_ and _Superficial Insight_, wherein (as that Incomparable Person rightly observes) having made so many _Atheists_: whilst a _profound_ and thorow _Penetration_ into her _Recesses_ (which is the _Business_ of the _Royal Society_) would lead Men to the _Knowledge_, and _Admiration_ of the _Glorious Author_.

And now, _My Lord_, I expect some will wonder what my Meaning is, to usher in a _Trifle_, with so much Magnificence, and end at last in a fine _Receipt_ for the _Dressing_ of a _Sallet_ with an Handful of _Pot-Herbs_! But yet, _My Lord_, this _Subject_, as low and despicable as it appears, challenges a Part of _Natural History_, and the Greatest Princes have thought it no Disgrace, not only to make it their _Diversion_, but their _Care_, and to promote and encourage it in the midst of their weightiest Affairs: He who wrote of the _Cedar_ of _Liba.n.u.s_, wrote also of the _Hysop which grows upon the Wall_.

To verifie this, how much might I say of _Gardens_ and _Rural Employments_, preferrable to the Pomp and Grandeur of other Secular Business, and that in the Estimate of as Great Men as any Age has produc'd! And it is of such _Great Souls_ we have it recorded; That after they had perform'd the n.o.blest Exploits for the Publick, they sometimes chang'd their _Scepters_ for the _Spade_, and their _Purple_ for the Gardiner's _Ap.r.o.n_. And of these, some, My _Lord_, were _Emperors, Kings, Consuls, Dictators_, and Wise _Statesmen_; who amidst the most important Affairs, both in Peace and War, have quitted all their Pomp and Dignity in Exchange of this Learned Pleasure: Nor that of the most _refin'd_ Part of _Agriculture_ (the _Philosophy_ of the _Garden_ and _Parterre_ only) but of _Herbs_, and wholesom _Sallets_, and other plain and useful Parts of _Geoponicks_, and Wrote _Books_ of _Tillage_ and _Husbandry_; and took the _Plough-Tackle_ for their _Banner_, and their _Names_ from the _Grain_ and _Pulse_ they sow'd, as the Marks and Characters of the highest Honor.

But I proceed no farther on a _Topic_ so well known to Your Lordship: Nor urge I Examples of such Ill.u.s.trious Persons laying aside their Grandeur, and even of deserting their Stations; (which would infinitely prejudice the Publick, when worthy Men are in Place, and at the Helm) But to shew how consisent the Diversions of the _Garden_ and _Villa_ were, with the highest and busiest Employment of the _Commonwealth_, and never thought a Reproch, or the least Diminution to the Gravity and Veneration due to their Persons, and the n.o.ble Rank they held.

Will Your Lordship give me Leave to repeat what is said of the Younger _Pliny_, (Nephew to the _Naturalist_) and whom I think we may parallel with the Greatest of his time (and perhaps of any since) under the Worthiest _Emperor_ the _Roman_ world ever had? A Person of vast Abilities, Rich, and High in his Master's Favour; that so Husbanded his time, as in the Midst of the weightiest Affairs, to have Answer'd, and by his [2]_Example_, made good what I have said on this Occasion. The Ancient and best Magistrates of _Rome_ allow'd but the _Ninth_ Day for the _City_ and _Publick Business_; the rest for the _Country_ and the _Sallet Garden_: There were then fewer _Causes_ indeed at the _Bar_; but never greater _Justice_, nor _better Judges_ and _Advocates_. And 'tis hence observed, that we hardly find a Great and Wise Man among the Ancients, _qui nullos habuit hortos_, excepting only _Pomponius Atticus_; wilst his Dear _Cicero_ professes, that he never laid out his Money more readily, than in the purchasing of _Gardens_, and those sweet Retirements, for which he so often left the _Rostra_ (and Court of the Greatest and most flourishing State of the World) to visit, prune, and water them with his own Hands.

But, _My Lord_, I forget with whom I am talking thus; and a _Gardiner_ ought not to be so bold. The present I humbly make your Lordship, is indeed but a _Sallet_ of _Crude Herbs_: But there is among them that which was a _Prize_ at the _Isthmian Games_; and Your Lordship knows who it was both accepted, and rewarded as despicable an Oblation of this kind. The Favor I humbly beg, is Your Lordship's Pardon for this Presumption. The Subject is _mean_, and requires it, and my _Reputation_ in danger; should Your Lordship hence suspect that one could never write so much of _dressing Sallets_, who minded anything serious, besides the gratifying a Sensual Appet.i.te with a Voluptuary _Apician_ Art.

Truly, _My Lord_, I am so far from designing to promote those _Supplicia Luxuriae_, (as _Seneca_ calls them) by what I have here written; that were it in my Power, I would recall the World, if not altogether to their Pristine _Diet_, yet to a much more _wholsome_ and _temperate_ than is now in Fashion: And what if they find me like to some who are eager after _Hunting_ and other Field-Sports, which are _Laborious_ Exercises? and _Fishing_, which is indeed a _Lazy_ one? who, after all their Pains and Fatigue, never eat what they take and catch in either: For some such I have known: And tho' I cannot affirm so of my self, (when a well drest and excellent _Sallet_ is before me) I am yet a very moderate Eater of them. So as to this _Book-Luxury_, I can affirm, and that truly what the _Poet_ says of himself (on a less innocent Occasion) _Lasciva pagina, vita proba._ G.o.d forbid, that after all I have advanc'd in Praise of _Sallets_, I should be thought to plead for the Vice I censure, and chuse that of _Epicurus_ for my _Lemma_; _In hac arte consenui_; or to have spent my time in nothing else. The _Plan_ annext to these Papers, and the _Apparatus_ made to superstruct upon it, would acquit me of having bent all my Contemplations on _Sallets_ only. What I humbly offer Your Lordship, is (as I said) Part of _Natural History_, the Product of _Horticulture_, and the _Field_, dignified by the most ill.u.s.trious, and sometimes tilled _Laureato Vomere_; which, as it concerns a Part of _Philosophy_, I may (without Vanity) be allow'd to have taken some Pains in Cultivating, as an inferior Member of the _Royal Society_.

But, _My Lord_, wilst You read on (if at least You vouchsafe me that Honor to read at all) I am conscious I rob the Publick of its most Precious Moments.

I therefore Humbly again Implore Your Lordship's Pardon: Nor indeed needed I to have said half this, to kindle in Your Breast, that which is already shining there (Your Lordship's Esteem of the _Royal Society_) after what You were pleas'd to Express in such an Obliging manner, when it was lately to wait upon Your Lordship; among whom I had the Honor to be a Witness of Your Generous, and Favourable Acceptance of their Addresses, who am,

_My Lord, Your Lordship's Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant,

JOHN EVELYN_.

THE PREFACE