A selection from the diaries of a man who was a traveller, a writer and a connoisseur of the arts as well as being a pioneer in forestry and gardening He was a friend of Samuel Pepys for forty years, a close adviser to Charles II Eleven days after the Great Fire, John Evelyn produced a plan for a new city He was a member of the Royal Society where he met Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton In all, he lived through six monarchies and one republic and watched England grow from a minor country on the verge of empire to one of the great powers of Europe