re thinly under the initials 'J.E.' That on _A Character of
England_ (1659), a tract purporting to have been written by a foreigner,
appeared anonymously.

Of all these seven publications appearing before the Restoration, the
only one of any importance was _The French Gardener_, the translation of
a work by N. de Bonnefons, which appeared at the end of 1658 and was
thus referred to in the diary,--'Dec. 6th. Now was publish'd my "French
Gardener," the first and best of the kind that introduc'd ye use of the
Olitorie garden to any purpose.' Subsequent editions of it appeared in
1669, 1672, 1691, bearing Evelyn's name on the titlepage in place of the
_Philocepos_ on its first publication.

With the Restoration, bringing to him greater personal freedom of
thought and speech, came the most active period of Evelyn's literary
production. His loyalty at once found opportunity to answer a libel on
King Charles (entitled _News from Brussels_) in _The late News from
Brussels unmasked_, a long vindication of his Majesty from the calumnies
and scandal therein fixed on him. From a literary and antiquarian point
of view, however, far greater interest attaches to a much shorter
treatise entitled _Fumifugium: or the Inconvenience of the Aer and Smoak
of London Dissipated, together with some Remedies humbly proposed_. As
this is the earliest reference to the great London Smoke Nuisance,
which, like the poor, we have always with us, it is of more than passing
interest to know how large this difficult problem of curing it loomed
about two and a half centuries ago. Moreover, this short work affords a
very typical example of Evelyn's literary style, while at the same time
well exemplyfying his profusely enthusiastic outbursts of devoted and
loyal attachment to the King's person and interests.

In the dull days of autumn and winter, when the heavy, damp air wafted
inwards from the sea shrouds London with a dirty pall of fog thickened
and discoloured with the smoke belched forth skywards from the long
throats of thousands of tall factory chimneys and emitted from hundreds
of thousands of household and workshop fires, the dweller in this vast
overgrown city is tempted to range himself for the moment among the
belauders of better times in the past. Almost groping his way along the
streets in semi-darkness, and half choked with the sulphurous surcharge
in the atmosphere, this latter-day growler may perhaps be astonished to
learn that his compla