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
Promenade concert buildings, and was generally of the popular variety: ballroom dances, quadrilles (medleys), cornet solos etc. Other entertainments would have included fireworks, masquerades and acrobatics. There were 38 gardens which are known to have provided music. Perhaps the most famous of these were Vauxhall Gardens (1661-1859), south of the Thames. Known at first as New Spring Gardens this was the favourite haunt of diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. The music of Handel was very popular here in the eighteenth century, and in 1738 there was even a statue erected of Handel playing the lyre. The Gardens were described as fashionable