In 1618 Maximilian Colt (age 43) had a house in Farringdon Within when his name appears in a list of foreigners then resident in London, together with that of John Colt, probably his son, who was also a sculptor and a native of Arras.

Evelyn's Diary. 22 Sep 1641. I went again to Rotterdam to receive a pass which I expected from Brussels [Map], securing me through Brabant and Flanders, designing to go into England through those countries. The Cardinal Infante (age 32), brother to the king of Spain (age 36), was then governor. By this pass, having obtained another from the Prince of Orange, upon the 24th of September I departed through Dort; but met with very bad tempestuous weather, being several times driven back, and obliged to lie at anchor off Keele, other vessels lying there waiting better weather. The 25th and 26th we made other essays; but were again repulsed to the harbour, where lay sixty vessels waiting to sail. But, on the 27th we, impatient of the time and inhospitableness of the place, sailed again with a contrary and impetuous wind and a terrible sea, in great jeopardy; for we had much ado to keep ourselves above water, the billows breaking desperately on our vessel: we were driven into Willemstad, North Brabant, a place garrisoned by the English, where the Governor of had a fair house. The works, and especially the counterscarp, are curiously hedged with quick, and planted with a stately row of limes on the rampart. The church is of a round structure, with a cupola, and the town belongs entirely to the Prince of Orange, as does that of Breda [Map], and some other places.

Pepy's Diary. 06 May 1660. Lord's Day. This morning while we were at sermon comes in Dr. Clarges (age 42) and a dozen gentlemen to see my Lord, who, after sermon, dined with him; I remember that last night upon discourse concerning Clarges (age 42) my Lord told me that he was a man of small entendimiento. [Entendimiento, Spanish: the understanding.] This afternoon there was a gentleman with me, an officer of Dunkirk going over, who came to me for an order and told me he was lately with my uncle and Aunt Fenner and that Kate's fits of the convulsions did hold her still. It fell very well to-day, a stranger preached here for Mr. Ibbot, one Mr. Stanley, who prayed for King Charles, by the Grace of God, &c., which gave great contentment to the gentlemen that were on board here, and they said they would talk of it, when they come to Breda [Map], as not having it done yet in London so publickly. After they were gone from on board, my Lord writ a letter to the King and give it to me to carry privately to Sir William Compton (age 35) on board the Assistance, which I did, and after a health to his Majesty on board there, I left them under sail for Breda [Map]. Back again and found them at sermon. I went up to my cabin and looked over my accounts, and find that, all my debts paid and my preparations to sea paid for, I have £640 clear in my purse. After supper to bed.

On 08 May 1660 King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 29) received a letter inviting him to return to England and become King at Breda [Map].

Evelyn's Diary. 09 May 1660. I was desired and designed to accompany my Lord Berkeley (age 32) with the public address of the Parliament, General, etc., to the King (age 29), and invite him to come over and assume his Kingly Government, he being now at Breda [Map]; but I was yet so weak, I could not make that journey by sea, which was not a little to my detriment, so I went to London to excuse myself, returning the 10th, having yet received a gracious message from his Majesty (age 29) by Major Scot and Colonel Tuke (age 45).

Pepy's Diary. 15 May 1660. After that the judge, I and my boy by coach to Scheveling again, where we went into a house of entertainment and drank there, the wind being very high, and we saw two boats overset and the gallants forced to be pulled on shore by the heels, while their trunks, portmanteaus, hats, and feathers, were swimming in the sea. Among others I saw the ministers that come along with the Commissioners (Mr. Case¹ among the rest) sadly dipped.

Note 1. Thomas Case, born 1598, was a famous preacher and a zealous advocate for the Solemn League and Covenant, a member of the assembly of divines, and rector of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields [Map]. He was one of the deputation to Charles II at Breda [Map], and appointed a royal chaplain. He was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, but remained in London after his ejection. Died May 30th, 1682.

Froissart. 1339. The king of England (age 26) departed from Mechlin [Map] and went to Brussels, and all his people passed on by the town. Then came to the king a twenty thousand Almains, and the king sent and demanded of the duke of Brabant what was his intention, to go to Cambray [Map] or else to leave it. The duke answered and said that as soon as he knew that he had besieged Cambray [Map], he would come thither with twelve hundred spears, of good men of war. Then the king went to Nivelle and there lay one night, and the next day to Mons in Hainault; and there he found the young earl of Hainault, who received him joyously. And ever sir Robert of Artois was about the king, as one of his privy council, and a sixteen or twenty other great lords and knights of England, the which were ever about the king for his honour and estate, and to counsel him in all his deeds. Also with him was the bishop of Lincoln (age 47), who was greatly renowned in this journey both in wisdom and in prowess. Thus the Englishmen passed forth and lodged abroad in the country, and found provision enough before them for their money; howbeit some paid truly and some not.

Evelyn's Diary. 13 Aug 1641. We arrived late at Rotterdam, where was their annual mart or fair, so furnished with pictures, (especially landscapes and drolleries, as they call those clownish representations,) that I was amazed. Some of these I bought, and sent into England. The reason of this store of pictures, and their cheapness, proceeds from their want of land to employ their stock, so that it is an ordinary thing to find a common farmer lay out two or three thousand pounds in this commodity. Their houses are full of them, and they vend them at their fairs to very great gains. Here I first saw an elephant, who was extremely well disciplined and obedient. It was a beast of a monstrous size, yet as flexible and nimble in the joints, contrary to the vulgar tradition, as could be imagined from so prodigious a bulk and strange fabric; but I most of all admired the dexterity and strength of its proboscis, on which it was able to support two or three men, and by which it took and reached whatever was offered to it; its teeth were but short, being a female, and not old. I was also shown a pelican, or onocratulas of Pliny,with its large gullets, in which he kept his reserve of fish: the plumage was white, legs red, flat, and film-footed: likewise a cock with four legs, two rumps and vents; also a hen which had two large spurs growing out of her sides, penetrating the feathers of her wings.

Evelyn's Diary. 20 Aug 1641. Next day (the 20th) I returned to Delft, thence to Rotterdam, the Hague, and Leyden, where immediately I mounted a waggon, which that night, late as it was, brought us to Haerlem. About seven in the morning, after I came to Amsterdam, where being provided with a lodging, the first thing I went to see was a Synagogue of the Jews (being Saturday), whose ceremonies, ornaments, lamps, law, and schools, afforded matter for my contemplation. The women were secluded from, the men, being seated in galleries above, shut with lattices, having their heads muffled with linen, after a fantastical and somewhat extraordinary fashion; the men, wearing a large calico mantle, yellow coloured, over their hats, all the while waving their bodies, whilst at their devotions. From thence, I went to a place without the town, called Overkirk, where they have a spacious field assigned them to bury their dead, full of sepulchres with Hebraic inscriptions, some of them stately and costly. Looking through one of these monuments, where the stones were disjointed, I perceived divers books and papers lie about a corpse; for it seems, when any learned Rabbi dies, they bury some of his books with him. With the help of a stick, I raked out several, written in Hebrew characters, but much impaired. As we returned, we stepped in to see the Spinhouse, a kind of bridewell, where incorrigible and lewd women are kept in discipine and labour, but all neat. We were showed an hospital for poor travellers and pilgrims, built by Queen Elizabeth of England; and another maintained by the city.

Evelyn's Diary. 01 Sep 1641. I went to Delft and Rotterdam, and two days after back to the Hague, to bespeak a suit of horseman's armour, which I caused to be made to fit me. I now rode out of town to see the monument of the woman, pretended to have been a Countess of Holland, reported to have had as many children at one birth, as there are days in the year. The basins were hung up in which they were baptized, together with a large description of the matter-of-fact in a frame of carved work, in the church of Lysdun, a desolate place. As I returned, I diverted to see one of the prince's Palaces, called the Hoff Van Hounslers Dyck, a very fair cloistered and quadrangular building. The gallery is prettily painted with several huntings and at one end a Gordian knot, with rustical instruments so artificially represented, as to deceive an accurate eye to distinguish it from actual rehevo. The ceiling of the staircase is painted with the Rape of Ganymede, and other pendent figures, the work of F. Covenberg, of whose hand I bought an excellent drollery, which I afterwards parted with to my brother George of Wotton, where it now hangs. To this palace join a fair garden and park, curiously planted with limes.

Evelyn's Diary. 08 Sep 1641. Returned to Rotterdam, through Delftshaven and Sedan, where were at that time Colonel Goring's (age 33) winter quarters. This town has heretofore been very much talked of for witches.

Evelyn's Diary. 22 Sep 1641. I went again to Rotterdam to receive a pass which I expected from Brussels [Map], securing me through Brabant and Flanders, designing to go into England through those countries. The Cardinal Infante (age 32), brother to the king of Spain (age 36), was then governor. By this pass, having obtained another from the Prince of Orange, upon the 24th of September I departed through Dort; but met with very bad tempestuous weather, being several times driven back, and obliged to lie at anchor off Keele, other vessels lying there waiting better weather. The 25th and 26th we made other essays; but were again repulsed to the harbour, where lay sixty vessels waiting to sail. But, on the 27th we, impatient of the time and inhospitableness of the place, sailed again with a contrary and impetuous wind and a terrible sea, in great jeopardy; for we had much ado to keep ourselves above water, the billows breaking desperately on our vessel: we were driven into Willemstad, North Brabant, a place garrisoned by the English, where the Governor of had a fair house. The works, and especially the counterscarp, are curiously hedged with quick, and planted with a stately row of limes on the rampart. The church is of a round structure, with a cupola, and the town belongs entirely to the Prince of Orange, as does that of Breda [Map], and some other places.

Before 25 May 1660 King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 29) left at Scheveningen.

Chronicle of Gregory 1403-1419. 1405. Ande that yere Syr Thomas (age 16) the kyngys sone was Amerelle of the See, and he wente unto Flaundrys and brent bothe in Cachante and in Flaundrys, ande londyd at Scluse [Map] and gaffe there to a stronge sawte. Alle so he toke carrekys of Jene and brought them unto Wynchylse [Map], and they were brent thorowe mysse governaunce and moche of the goode ther ynne.

Chronicle of Gregory 1462. 1462. And thenn my Lorde of Warwycke (age 33) and hys brother the Lorde Montegewe (age 31) put them in devyr to rescewe [t]e sayde castelle of Norham, and soo they dyd, and put bothe Kynge Harry and the Kyng of Schotys (age 10) to flyghte. And Quene Margarete whythe alle hir consayle, and Syr Perys de Brasey (age 52) whythe the Fraynysche men, fledde a-wey by water with iiij balynggarys; and they londyd at the Scluse [Map] in Flaundyrs, and lefte Kyng Harry that was be hynde hem, and alle hyr hors and hyr harneys, they were so hastyd by my Lorde of Warwycke, and hys brother the Lorde Mountegewe, and by hyr feleschippe with them accompanyde. And at the departynge of Syr Perys de Brasyl and hys feleschippe was on manly man that purposyd to mete with my Lorde of Warwycke, that was a taberette, for he stode a-pon an hylle with hys tabyr and hys pype, taberyng and pyping as merely as any man myght, stondyng by hym selfe, tylle my lorde come unto hym he wold not lesse hys grownd; and there he be-come my lordys man; ande yet he ys with hym fulle good and to hys lorde.