Overview of John Evelyn's "Fumifugium" (Stuff You Missed in History Class)
This episode of Stuff You Missed in History Class (hosts Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey) examines John Evelyn’s 1661 pamphlet Fumifugium — one of the earliest sustained treatments of urban air pollution — and places it in biographical, technological, and political context. The show traces Evelyn’s life and interests (gardening, botany, the Royal Society), explains how coal use transformed London’s air, summarizes Evelyn’s diagnosis of the problem and his proposed remedies, and considers the pamphlet’s reception and later reprints. The episode ties Evelyn’s work to later pollution crises (e.g., the Great London Smog) and to modern debates about factoring health into air-quality regulation.
Biography highlights (concise)
- Born Oct 31, 1620, Surrey; wealthy family with gunpowder patent; started diary at ~11.
- Education: Middle Temple (1637) and Balliol College, Oxford (left without degree).
- Grand tour of Europe in 1641–1647; married Mary Browne (1652); lived at Sayes Court, Deptford.
- Interests: gardening, botany, translation (Lucretius), scientific writing; founding-era Royal Society member (1661).
- Major works on conservation/nature: Fumifugium (1661), Silva (1664), Terra/Soil (1676), plus other essays and diaries.
- Public roles: commissions after Restoration (including rebuilding London post-1666 Great Fire); died Feb 3, 1706.
- Diary and many papers published posthumously; archival material in the British Library.
Coal, urban fuel use, and London’s air (context)
- Pre‑industrial fuels in Britain: wood, charcoal, peat, dung. Bituminous (“sea coal”) mining resurged from the 12th century in places like Newcastle.
- Coal smoke: heavier, more sulfurous and more noxious than wood/charcoal. Increased use driven by deforestation, colder climate (Little Ice Age), poor roads raising wood transport costs, and industrial needs.
- Authorities intermittently banned coal in certain contexts (e.g., Elizabeth I, 1578; James I’s era), often for reasons of court comfort and aesthetics rather than broad public health.
- By the 17th century London burned more coal than most European cities, producing persistent smoky air.
What Fumifugium argues (summary)
- Full title: Fumifugium; or, The Inconvenience of the Air, and the Smoke of London Dissipated, with Remedies proposed to His Majesty and Parliament (1661).
- Audience and motive: written to Charles II shortly after the Restoration — both a public-health/urban-improvement tract and a bid to impress/persuade the king to act (and possibly secure Evelyn a role).
- Diagnosis: Evelyn blames industrial coal burning (brewers, dyers, lime‑burners, salt/soap boilers, etc.) for fouling the air, soiling buildings, ruining textiles, killing bees and flowers, spoiling fruit, and harming lungs/voices (physicians attributed "consumption" and other respiratory ailments to smoke).
- Tone: mixes scientific observation, moral/political rhetoric, aesthetic concerns (the court’s beauty and the king’s glory), and horticultural suggestions.
Remedies Evelyn proposes
- Move the worst polluting trades several miles downriver or outside the city so smoke won’t invade the courts and dwellings; use waterways to ship goods back into London (Evelyn argues this would create jobs for watermen).
- Increase domestic wood supply by deliberate tree planting and managed forestry (prefigures his later Silva): plant trees within ~22 miles of London, restrict certain cuts, and create a sustainable cycle of planting/harvesting.
- Replant low-lying grounds around London with large, enclosed fragrant gardens/plantations (sweetbriar, jasmines, bay, juniper, lavender, rosemary, hops; bedding plants like carnations, violets, lilies), so winds bring pleasant scents into the city; burn prunings in winter for fragrance.
- Prohibit burials within the city and relocate other stinking trades (butchers, fishmongers, tallow candle makers) to less central spots.
- Legal/regulatory measures to enforce relocations (Evelyn cites precedent for such laws).
Reception, legacy, and limits
- Charles II discussed Evelyn’s proposals briefly but did not adopt them wholesale. Evelyn’s hopes of a court appointment tied to this tract did not materialize as he’d hoped.
- Fumifugium is considered a pioneering pamphlet on air pollution. It was reprinted several times: notably in the 18th century, in 1772 (Samuel Pegg Jr.), in 1930 (Royal Society reprint amid power-station debates), and in 1961 (National Society for Clean Air).
- The pamphlet influenced later urban hygiene and ornamental planting ideas (Evelyn’s broader conservation writings are sometimes called early environmentalism).
- Criticisms/shortcomings: Evelyn largely ignores the social/economic consequences for workers and residents displaced by relocating trades; his solutions focus on aesthetics and court health as much as public welfare.
Notable quotations and phrases
- Epigraph (from Lucretius, translated in episode): "How easily the heavy smoke of coal seeps into the brain."
- Evelyn describing London’s air and industry: the city "resembles the face, rather, of Mount Etna... the suburbs of hell than an assembly of rational creatures and the imperial feet of our incomparable monarch."
- On smoke’s effects: "It is this horrid smoke which obscures our churches and makes our palaces look old... spots and contaminates whatsoever is exposed to it."
Key takeaways
- Fumifugium (1661) is one of the first concerted policy/technical pamphlets addressing urban air pollution rather than isolated complaints about smell.
- Evelyn combined horticulture, urban planning, and regulation as remedies—showing early connections between environmental management and public policy.
- The pamphlet anticipates modern issues: the health impacts of air pollution, regulatory responses, the politics of pollution control, and tensions around displacement/justice when industries are moved.
- Pollution debates and technical fixes recur over centuries; Evelyn’s tract was reprinted during later pollution crises, illustrating the enduring relevance of his observations.
Related topics and episodes to consider
- The Great London Smog (20th-century acute pollution event)
- John Evelyn’s Silva and other conservation writings
- Samuel Pepys and Restoration‑era London (Evelyn’s contemporary)
- Modern debates about cost‑benefit analysis of air‑quality regulation and how to value public health
If you want a single-line summary: John Evelyn’s Fumifugium (1661) diagnoses London’s coal-driven air pollution and proposes tree planting, relocation of polluting trades, fragrant plantations, and legal measures — an early environmental-policy pamphlet that mixed aesthetics, health concerns, and political calculation, and that kept being reprinted in later pollution debates.