A Missing Drawing
Being casualy in the Privy Gallery at White-hall, his Majestie [Charles II] gave me thanks (before divers Lords & noble men) for my Book of Architecture & Sylva againe: That they were the best designed & usefull for the matter & subject, the best printed & designd (meaning the Tallè doucès [engravings] of the Paralelles) that he had seene: then caused me to follow him alone to one of the Windows, he asked me if I had any paper about me un-written, & a Crayon; I presented him with both, & then laying it on the Window stoole, he with his owne hands, designed to me the plot for the future building of White-hall, together with the Roomes of State, & other particulars, which royal draft, though not so accurately don, I reserve as a rarity by me.
– John Evelyn, 28 October 1664
The following text is excerpted from The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. by E.S. de Beer (London: Everyman’s Library, 2006), 422. With thanks to Neil Bingham for sending us the reference.