when he wrote to Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) on 12 August 1689.
12
Pepys had asked
Evelyn’s advice on setting up a library and, failing to find him at home, Evelyn wrote
him a long letter, setting out his ideas in detail. He recorded seeing no fewer than
seventy-one portraits in Clarendon House plus those of other classes of people
including judges, archbishops, bishops and other notables. As well as Brownrig,
Evelyn mentions having seen there the portraits of Brian Duppa and William Laud,
so there are three portraits mentioned by Evelyn as being in Clarendon House which
are in the Plume Library. All three portraits are illustrated in the Public Catalogue
Foundation catalogue for Essex.
13
Evelyn was very close to Edward Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon (1609-1674); he visited the building site of
Clarendon House with him and the Countess in 1664, and
he visited again the next year when he praised the empty
shell. Clarendon had been the king’s first minister but he
was dismissed in 1667 after the disgrace inflicted on the
Navy by the Dutch in that year. Popular anger at this
humiliation led to civil disturbances, and the mob
attacked Clarendon House, smashing all the windows and
destroying the garden.
14
The house was demolished in
1683;
it is not known when Evelyn saw the pictures.
15
John Evelyn’s home, Sayes Court in Deptford, was in the next parish to Greenwich
and he recorded hearing Plume preach on more than one occasion. For example, on
16
September 1666, just after the Great Fire of London, he wrote, ‘I went to
Greenewich church where Mr Plume preached very well from this text: “seeing
therefore all these things must be dissolved, etc.,” taking occasion from ye late
unparalleled conflagration to mind us how we ought to walke more holyly in all
manner of conversation.’
16
The book by Brownrig and the four books by the Earl of
Clarendon have been examined for personal notes by
Plume, but, as is so often the case with him, he made
none in these books. Duppa’s and Brownrig’s portraits
have been examined for any evidence of provenance but
none has been found. At the time of writing, Laud’s
portrait has not been fully scrutinized, but as nothing was
noted when this picture was inspected at the National
Portrait Gallery, it is not expected that anything will be
found when the back can be examined.
Thomas Plume was noted for buying second-hand books;
perhaps he was not, therefore, averse to acquiring second-hand pictures? (It is known
that pictures were sold at auction in this period; John Evelyn, the son of the diarist,
was buying pictures in this way at this time.
17
)
It is therefore just possible that with
his connection to John Evelyn senior, Plume might have purchased these three
pictures of Brownrig, Duppa and Laud when Clarendon House was cleared prior to
its demolition in 1683.
Apology from the author: