John Evelyn I, Oliver Cromwell's rise and eventual natural death, the last Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. Evelyn's posthumously "rival" diarist, Samuel Pepys, wrote a different kind of diary, covering a much shorter period, 1660–1669, but in much greater depth, within the same era. Over the years, Evelyn's Diary has been overshadowed by Pepys's chronicles of 17th-century life. Born into a family whose wealth was largely founded on gunpowder production, John Evelyn was born in Wotton, Surrey and grew up in Lewes, Sussex. While living in Lewes, in Southover Grange, he was educated at Lewes
John Barham Day as a shrewd and skillful handler of horses and specialised in landing betting coups. Horses trained by Day won seven classics between 1838 and 1854, during which time he was regarded as the leading trainer in the South of England and the main rival of the Yorkshire-based John Scott. He was known as "Honest John", but the sobriquet appears to have been applied ironically. Day was born in 1793 at Houghton Down in Hampshire, the son of a horse trainer named John Day: "Barham" was his mother's maiden name. Four of Day's brothers became jockeys, including Samuel Day (1802–1866) who