The most ambitious of his poems is _Thyrsander, a Tragy-Comedy_, which is probably one of those referred to by Pepys in his Diary for 5th Novr.

1665, when, visiting Evelyn at Sayes Court, he says that 'He read me part of a play or two of his making, very good, but not as he conceits them, I think, to be.' Some of these, including _My own Ephemeris or Diarie_, an autobiographical memoir based on the journal or common-place book kept by him ever since being eleven years of age, and his correspondence, were published posthumously as _Memoirs illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn Esqre.

F.R.S._ in 1818.

This has gone through nine editions and reprints; and it affords, along with Pepys' diary, one of the best views of the life of those times.

Each is the complement of the other, and the only matter of regret is that the original manuscript of Evelyn's actual diary has not hitherto been forthcoming, as it would be infinitely preferable to the compilation he made therefrom, which often refers to future events.