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#82 in our series by Samuel Pepys
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Title: Diary of Samuel Pepys, Feb/Mar 1668/69
Author: Samuel Pepys
Release Date: June, 2003 [Etext #4197]
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THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.
CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY
TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW
AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
(Unabridged)
WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES
EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.
DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.
FEBRUARY & MARCH
1668-1669
February 1st. Up, and by water from the Tower to White Hall, the first
time that I have gone to that end of the town by water, for two or three
months, I think, since I kept a coach, which God send propitious to me;
but it is a very great convenience. I went to a Committee of Tangier,
but it did not meet, and so I meeting Mr. Povy, he and I away to
Dancre's, to speak something touching the pictures I am getting him to
make for me. And thence he carried me to Mr. Streeter's, the famous
history-painter over the way, whom I have often heard of, but did never
see him before; and there I found him, and Dr. Wren, and several
Virtuosos, looking upon the paintings which he is making for the new
Theatre at Oxford: and, indeed, they look as if they would be very fine,
and the rest think better than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house at
White Hall, but I do not so fully think so. But they will certainly be
very noble; and I am mightily pleased to have the fortune to see this man
and his work, which is very famous; and he a very civil little man, and
lame, but lives very handsomely. So thence to my Lord Bellassis, and met
him within: my business only to see a chimney-piece of Dancre's doing,
in distemper, with egg to keep off the glaring of the light, which I must
have done for my room: and indeed it is pretty, but, I must confess, I do
think it is not altogether so beautiful as the oyle pictures; but I will
have some of one, and some of another. Thence set him down at Little
Turnstile, and so I home, and there eat a little dinner, and away with my
wife by coach to the King's playhouse, thinking to have seen "The
Heyresse," first acted on Saturday last; but when we come thither, we
find no play there; Kinaston, that did act a part therein, in abuse to
Sir Charles Sedley, being last night exceedingly beaten with sticks, by
two or three that assaulted him, so as he is mightily bruised, and forced
to keep his bed. So we to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there saw "
She Would if She Could," arid so home and to my office to business, and
then to supper and to bed. This day, going to the play, The. Turner met
us, and carried us to her mother, at my Lady Mordaunt's; and I did carry
both mother and daughter with us to the Duke of York's playhouse, at next
door.
2nd. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and home to dinner at
noon, where I find Mr. Sheres; and there made a short dinner, and carried
him with us to the King's playhouse, where "The Heyresse," not-
withstanding Kinaston's being beaten, is acted; and they say the King
is very angry with Sir Charles Sedley for his being beaten, but he do
deny it. But his part is done by Beeston, who is fain to read it out of
a book all the while, and thereby spoils the part, and almost the play,
it being one of the best parts in it; and though the design is, in the
first conception of it, pretty good, yet it is but an indifferent play,
wrote, they say, by my Lord Newcastle. But it was pleasant to see
Beeston come in with others, supposing it to be dark, and yet he is
forced to read his part by the light of the candles: and this I observing
to a gentleman that sat by me, he was mightily pleased therewith, and
spread it up and down. But that, that pleased me most in the play is,
the first song that Knepp sings, she singing three or four; and, indeed,
it was very finely sung, so as to make the whole house clap her. Thence
carried Sheres to White Hall, and there I stepped in, and looked out Mr.
May, who tells me that he and his company cannot come to dine with me to-
morrow, whom I expected only to come to see the manner of our Office and
books, at which I was not very much displeased, having much business at
the Office, and so away home, and there to the office about my letters,
and then home to supper and to bed, my wife being in mighty ill humour
all night, and in the morning I found it to be from her observing Knepp
to wink and smile on me; and she says I smiled on her; and, poor wretch!
I did perceive that she did, and do on all such occasions, mind my eyes.
I did, with much difficulty, pacify her, and were friends, she desiring
that hereafter, at that house, we might always sit either above in a box,
or, if there be [no] room, close up to the lower boxes.
3rd. So up, and to the Office till noon, and then home to a little
dinner, and thither again till night, mighty busy, to my great content,
doing a great deal of business, and so home to supper, and to bed;
I finding this day that I may be able to do a great deal of business by
dictating, if I do not read myself, or write, without spoiling my eyes,
I being very well in my eyes after a great day's work.
4th. Up, and at the office all the morning. At noon home with my people
to dinner, and then after dinner comes Mr. Spong to see me, and brings me
my Parallelogram, in better order than before, and two or three draughts
of the port of Brest, to my great content, and I did call Mr. Gibson to
take notice of it, who is very much pleased therewith; and it seems this
Parallelogram is not, as Mr. Sheres would, the other day, have persuaded
me, the same as a Protractor, which do so much the more make me value it,
but of itself it is a most usefull instrument. Thence out with my wife
and him, and carried him to an instrument-maker's shop in Chancery Lane,
that was once a 'Prentice of Greatorex's, but the master was not within,
and there he [Gibson] shewed me a Parallelogram in brass, which I like so
well that I will buy, and therefore bid it be made clean and fit for me.
And so to my cozen Turner's, and there just spoke with The., the mother
not being at home; and so to the New Exchange, and thence home to my
letters; and so home to supper and to bed. This morning I made a slip
from the Office to White Hall, expecting Povy's business at a Committee
of Tangier, at which I would be, but it did not meet, and so I presently
back.
5th. Up betimes, by coach to Sir W. Coventry's, and with him by coach to
White Hall, and there walked in the garden talking of several things, and
by my visit to keep fresh my interest in him; and there he tells me how
it hath been talked that he was to go one of the Commissioners to
Ireland, which he was resolved never to do, unless directly commanded;
for he told me that for to go thither, while the Chief Secretary of State
was his professed enemy, was to undo himself; and, therefore, it were
better for him to venture being unhappy here, than to go further off,
to be undone by some obscure instructions, or whatever other way of
mischief his enemies should cut out for him. He mighty kind to me,
and so parted, and thence home, calling in two or three places--among
others, Dancre's, where I find him beginning of a piece for me,
of Greenwich, which will please me well, and so home to dinner,
and very busy all the afternoon, and so at night home to supper,
and to bed.
6th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and thence after
dinner to the King's playhouse, and there,--in an upper box, where come
in Colonel Poynton and Doll Stacey, who is very fine, and, by her
wedding-ring, I suppose he hath married her at last,--did see "The Moor
of Venice:" but ill acted in most parts; Mohun, which did a little
surprise me, not acting Iago's part by much so well as Clun used to do;
nor another Hart's, which was Cassio's; nor, indeed, Burt doing the
Moor's so well as I once thought he did. Thence home, and just at
Holborn Conduit the bolt broke, that holds the fore-wheels to the perch,
and so the horses went away with them, and left the coachman and us; but
being near our coachmaker's, and we staying in a little ironmonger's
shop, we were presently supplied with another, and so home, and there to
my letters at the office, and so to supper and to bed.
7th (Lord's day). My wife mighty peevish in the morning about my lying
unquietly a-nights, and she will have it that it is a late practice, from
my evil thoughts in my dreams, . . . .and mightily she is troubled
about it; but all blew over, and I up, and to church, and so home to
dinner, where she in a worse fit, which lasted all the afternoon, and
shut herself up, in her closet, and I mightily grieved and vexed, and
could not get her to tell me what ayled her, or to let me into her
closet, but at last she did, where I found her crying on the ground,
and I could not please her; but I did at last find that she did plainly
expound it to me. It was, that she did believe me false to her with
Jane, and did rip up three or four silly circumstances of her not rising
till I come out of my chamber, and her letting me thereby see her
dressing herself; and that I must needs go into her chamber and was
naught with her; which was so silly, and so far from truth, that I could
not be troubled at it, though I could not wonder at her being troubled,
if she had these thoughts, and therefore she would lie from me, and
caused sheets to be put on in the blue room, and would have Jane to lie
with her lest I should come to her. At last, I did give her such
satisfaction, that we were mighty good friends, and went to bed betimes
. . . . .
8th. Up, and dressed myself; and by coach, with W. Hewer and my wife,
to White Hall, where she set us two down; and in the way, our little boy,
at Martin, my bookseller's shop, going to 'light, did fall down; and, had
he not been a most nimble boy (I saw how he did it, and was mightily
pleased with him for it), he had been run over by the coach. I to visit
my Lord Sandwich; and there, while my Lord was dressing himself, did see
a young Spaniard, that he hath brought over with him, dance, which he is
admired for, as the best dancer in Spain, and indeed he do with mighty
mastery; but I do not like his dancing as the English, though my Lord
commends it mightily: but I will have him to my house, and show it my
wife. Here I met with Mr. Moore, who tells me the state of my Lord's
accounts of his embassy, which I find not so good as I thought: for,
though it be passed the King and his Cabal (the Committee for Foreign
Affairs as they are called), yet they have cut off from L9000 full L8000,
and have now sent it to the Lords of the Treasury, who, though the
Committee have allowed the rest, yet they are not obliged to abide by it.
So that I do fear this account may yet be long ere it be passed--much
more, ere that sum be paid: I am sorry for the family, and not a little
for what it owes me. So to my wife, took her up at Unthank's, and in our
way home did shew her the tall woman in Holborne, which I have seen
before; and I measured her, and she is, without shoes, just six feet five
inches high, and they say not above twenty-one years old. Thence home,
and there to dinner, and my wife in a wonderful ill humour; and, after
dinner, I staid with her alone, being not able to endure this life, and
fell to some angry words together; but by and by were mighty good
friends, she telling me plain it was still about Jane, whom she cannot
believe but I am base with, which I made a matter of mirth at; but at
last did call up Jane, and confirm her mistress's directions for her
being gone at Easter, which I find the wench willing to be, but directly
prayed that Tom might go with her, which I promised, and was but what I
designed; and she being thus spoke with, and gone, my wife and I good
friends, and mighty kind, I having promised, and I will perform it, never
to give her for the time to come ground of new trouble; and so I to the
Office, with a very light heart, and there close at my business all the
afternoon. This day I was told by Mr. Wren, that Captain Cox, Master-
Attendant at Deptford, is to be one of us very soon, he and Tippets being
to take their turns for Chatham and Portsmouth, which choice I like well
enough; and Captain Annesley is to come in his room at Deptford. This
morning also, going to visit Roger Pepys, at the potticary's in King's
Street, he tells me that Roger is gone to his wife's, so that they have
been married, as he tells me, ever since the middle of last week: it was
his design, upon good reasons, to make no noise of it; but I am well
enough contented that it is over. Dispatched a great deal of business at
the office, and there pretty late, till finding myself very full of wind,
by my eating no dinner to-day, being vexed, I was forced to go home, and
there supped W. Batelier with us, and so with great content to bed.
9th. Up, and all the morning busy at the office, and after dinner
abroad with my wife to the King's playhouse, and there saw "The Island
Princesse," which I like mighty well, as an excellent play: and here we
find Kinaston to be well enough to act again, which he do very well,
after his beating by Sir Charles Sedley's appointment; and so thence
home, and there to my business at the Office, and after my letters done,
then home to supper and to bed, my mind being mightily eased by my having
this morning delivered to the Office a letter of advice about our answers
to the Commissioners of Accounts, whom we have neglected, and I have done
this as a record in my justification hereafter, when it shall come to be
examined.
10th. Up, and with my wife and W. Hewer, she set us down at White Hall,
where the Duke of York was gone a-hunting: and so, after I had done a
little business there, I to my wife, and with her to the plaisterer's at
Charing Cross, that casts heads and bodies in plaister: and there I had
my whole face done; but I was vexed first to be forced to daub all my
face over with pomatum: but it was pretty to feel how soft and easily it
is done on the face, and by and by, by degrees, how hard it becomes, that
you cannot break it, and sits so close, that you cannot pull it off, and
yet so easy, that it is as soft as a pillow, so safe is everything where
many parts of the body do bear alike. Thus was the mould made; but when
it came off there was little pleasure in it, as it looks in the mould,
nor any resemblance whatever there will be in the figure, when I come to
see it cast off, which I am to call for a day or two hence, which I shall
long to see. Thence to Hercules Pillars, and there my wife and W. Hewer
and I dined, and back to White Hall, where I staid till the Duke of York
come from hunting, which he did by and by, and, when dressed, did come
out to dinner; and there I waited: and he did tell me that to-morrow was
to be the great day that the business of the Navy would be dis coursed of
before the King and his Caball, and that he must stand on his guard, and
did design to have had me in readiness by, but that upon second thoughts
did think it better to let it alone, but they are now upon entering into
the economical part of the Navy. Here he dined, and did mightily magnify
his sauce, which he did then eat with every thing, and said it was the
best universal sauce in the world, it being taught him by the Spanish
Embassador; made of some parsley and a dry toast, beat in a mortar,
together with vinegar, salt, and a little pepper: he eats it with flesh,
or fowl, or fish: and then he did now mightily commend some new sort of
wine lately found out, called Navarre wine, which I tasted, and is, I
think, good wine: but I did like better the notion of the sauce, and by
and by did taste it, and liked it mightily. After dinner, I did what I
went for, which was to get his consent that Balty might hold his Muster-
Master's place by deputy, in his new employment which I design for him,
about the Storekeeper's accounts; which the Duke of York did grant me,
and I was mighty glad of it. Thence home, and there I find Povy and
W. Batelier, by appointment, met to talk of some merchandize of wine and
linnen; but I do not like of their troubling my house to meet in, having
no mind to their pretences of having their rendezvous here, but, however,
I was not much troubled, but went to the office, and there very busy, and
did much business till late at night, and so home to supper, and with
great pleasure to bed. This day, at dinner, I sent to Mr. Spong to come
to me to Hercules Pillars, who come to us, and there did bring with him
my new Parallelogram of brass, which I was mightily pleased with, and
paid for it 25s., and am mightily pleased with his ingenious and modest
company.
11th. Up, and to the office, where sat all the morning, and at noon home
and heard that the last night Colonel Middleton's wife died, a woman I
never saw since she come hither, having never been within their house
since. Home at noon to dinner, and thence to work all the afternoon with
great pleasure, and did bring my business to a very little compass in my
day book, which is a mighty pleasure, and so home to supper and get my
wife to read to me, and then to bed.
12th. Up, and my wife with me to White Hall, and Tom, and there she sets
us down, and there to wait on the Duke of York, with the rest of us, at
the Robes, where the Duke of York did tell us that the King would have us
prepare a draught of the present administration of the Navy, and what it
was in the late times, in order to his being able to distinguish between
the good and the bad, which I shall do, but to do it well will give me a
great deal of trouble. Here we shewed him Sir J. Minnes's propositions
about balancing Storekeeper's accounts; and I did shew him Hosier's,
which did please him mightily, and he will have it shewed the Council and
King anon, to be put in practice. Thence to the Treasurer's; and I and
Sir J. Minnes and Mr. Tippets down to the Lords Commissioners of the
Treasury, and there had a hot debate from Sir Thomas Clifford and my Lord
Ashly (the latter of which, I hear, is turning about as fast as he can to
the Duke of Buckingham's side, being in danger, it seems, of being
otherwise out of play, which would not be convenient for him), against
Sir W. Coventry and Sir J. Duncomb, who did uphold our Office against an
accusation of our Treasurers, who told the Lords that they found that we
had run the King in debt L50,000 or more, more than the money appointed
for the year would defray, which they declared like fools, and with
design to hurt us, though the thing is in itself ridiculous. But my Lord
Ashly and Clifford did most horribly cry out against the want of method
in the Office. At last it come that it should be put in writing what
they had to object; but I was devilish mad at it, to see us thus wounded
by our own members, and so away vexed, and called my wife, and to
Hercules Pillars, Tom and I, there dined; and here there coming a
Frenchman by with his Shew, we did make him shew it us, which he did just
as Lacy acts it, which made it mighty pleasant to me. So after dinner we
away and to Dancre's, and there saw our picture of Greenwich in doing,
which is mighty pretty, and so to White Hall, my wife to Unthank's, and I
attended with Lord Brouncker the King and Council, about the proposition
of balancing Storekeeper's accounts and there presented Hosier's book,
and it was mighty well resented and approved of. So the Council being
up, we to the Queen's side with the King and Duke of York: and the Duke
of York did take me out to talk of our Treasurers, whom he is mighty
angry with: and I perceive he is mighty desirous to bring in as many good
motions of profit and reformation in the Navy as he can, before the
Treasurers do light upon them, they being desirous, it seems, to be
thought the great reformers: and the Duke of York do well. But to my
great joy he is mighty open to me in every thing; and by this means I
know his whole mind, and shall be able to secure myself, if he stands.
Here to-night I understand, by my Lord Brouncker, that at last it is
concluded on by the King and Buckingham that my Lord of Ormond shall not
hold his government of Ireland, which is a great stroke, to shew the
power of Buckingham and the poor spirit of the King, and little hold that
any man can have of him. Thence I homeward, and calling my wife called
at my cozen Turner's, and there met our new cozen Pepys (Mrs. Dickenson),
and Bab. and Betty' come yesterday to town, poor girls, whom we have
reason to love, and mighty glad we are to see them; and there staid and
talked a little, being also mightily pleased to see Betty Turner, who is
now in town, and her brothers Charles and Will, being come from school to
see their father, and there talked a while, and so home, and there
Pelling hath got me W. Pen's book against the Trinity.
[Entitled, "The Sandy Foundation Shaken; or those . . . doctrines
of one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons; the
impossibility of God's pardoning sinners without a plenary
satisfaction, the justification of impure persons by an imputative
righteousness, refuted from the authority of Scripture testimonies
and right reason, etc. London, 1668." It caused him to be
imprisoned in the Tower. "Aug. 4, 1669. Young Penn who wrote the
blasphemous book is delivered to his father to be transported"
("Letter to Sir John Birkenhead, quoted by Bishop Kennett in his MS.
Collections, vol. lxxxix., p. 477).]
I got my wife to read it to me; and I find it so well writ as, I think,
it is too good for him ever to have writ it; and it is a serious sort of
book, and not fit for every body to read. So to supper and to bed.
13th. Up, and all the morning at the office, and at noon home to dinner,
and thence to the office again mighty busy, to my great content, till
night, and then home to supper and, my eyes being weary, to bed.
14th (Lord's day). Up, and by coach to Sir W. Coventry, and there, he
taking physic, I with him all the morning, full of very good discourse of
the Navy and publick matters, to my great content, wherein I find him
doubtful that all will be bad, and, for his part, he tells me he takes no
more care for any thing more than in the Treasury; and that, that being
done, he goes to cards and other delights, as plays, and in summertime to
bowles. But here he did shew me two or three old books of the Navy, of
my Lord Northumberland's' times, which he hath taken many good notes out
of, for justifying the Duke of York and us, in many things, wherein,
perhaps, precedents will be necessary to produce, which did give me great
content. At noon home, and pleased mightily with my morning's work, and
coming home, I do find a letter from Mr. Wren, to call me to the Duke of
York after dinner. So dined in all haste, and then W. Hewer and my wife
and I out, we set her at my cozen Turner's while we to White Hall, where
the Duke of York expected me; and in his closet Wren and I. He did tell
me how the King hath been acquainted with the Treasurers' discourse at
the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the other day, and is
dissatisfied with our running him in debt, which I removed; and he did,
carry me to the King, and I did satisfy him also; but his satisfaction is
nothing worth, it being easily got, and easily removed; but I do purpose
to put in writing that which shall make the Treasurers ashamed. But the
Duke of York is horrid angry against them; and he hath cause, for they do
all they can to bring dishonour upon his management, as do vainly appear
in all they do. Having done with the Duke of York, who do repose all in
me, I with Mr. Wren to his, chamber, to talk; where he observed, that
these people are all of them a broken sort of people, that have not much
to lose, and therefore will venture all to make their fortunes better:
that Sir Thomas Osborne is a beggar, having 11 of L1200 a-year, but owes
above L10,000. The Duke of Buckingham's condition is shortly this: that
he hath about L19,600 a-year, of which he pays away about L7,000 a-year
in interest, about L2000 in fee-farm rents to the King, about L6000 wages
and pensions, and the rest to live upon, and pay taxes for the whole.
Wren says, that for the Duke of York to stir in this matter, as his
quality might justify, would but make all things worse, and that
therefore he must bend, and suffer all, till time works it out: that he
fears they will sacrifice the Church, and that the King will take
anything, and so he will hold up his head a little longer, and then break
in pieces. But Sir W. Coventry did today mightily magnify my late Lord
Treasurer, for a wise and solid, though infirm man: and, among other
things, that when he hath said it was impossible in nature to find this
or that sum of money, and my Lord Chancellor hath made sport of it, and
tell the King that when my Lord hath said it [was] impossible, yet he
hath made shift to find it, and that was by Sir G. Carteret's getting
credit, my Lord did once in his hearing say thus, which he magnifies as a
great saying--that impossible would be found impossible at last; meaning
that the King would run himself out, beyond all his credit and funds, and
then we should too late find it impossible; which is, he says, now come
to pass. For that Sir W. Coventry says they could borrow what money they
would, if they had assignments, and funds to secure it with, which before
they had enough of, and then must spend it as if it would never have an
end. From White Hall to my cozen Turner's, and there took up my wife;
and so to my uncle Wight's, and there sat and supped, and talked pretty
merry, and then walked home, and to bed.
15th. Up, and with Tom to White Hall; and there at a Committee of
Tangier, where a great instance of what a man may lose by the neglect of
a friend: Povy never had such an opportunity of passing his accounts, the
Duke of York being there, and everybody well disposed, and in expectation
of them; but my Lord Ashly, on whom he relied, and for whose sake this
day was pitched on, that he might be sure to be there, among the rest of
his friends, staid too long, till the Duke of York and the company
thought unfit to stay longer and so the day lost, and God knows when he
will ever have so good a one again, as long as he lives; and this was the
man of the whole company that he hath made the most interest to gain, and
now most depended upon him. So up and down the house a while, and then
to the plaisterer's, and there saw the figure of my face taken from the
mould: and it is most admirably like, and I will have another made,
before I take it away, and therefore I away and to the Temple, and thence
to my cozen Turner's, where, having the last night been told by her that
she had drawn me for her Valentine, I did this day call at the New
Exchange, and bought her a pair of green silk stockings and garters and
shoe-strings, and two pair of jessimy gloves, all coming to about 28s.,
and did give them her this noon. At the 'Change, I did at my
bookseller's shop accidentally fall into talk with Sir Samuel Tuke about
trees, and Mr. Evelyn's garden; and I do find him, I think, a little
conceited, but a man of very fine discourse as any I ever heard almost,
which I was mighty glad of. I dined at my cozen Turner's, and my wife
also and her husband there, and after dinner, my wife and I endeavoured
to make a visit to Ned Pickering; but he not at home, nor his lady;
and therefore back again, and took up my cozen Turner, and to my cozen
Roger's lodgings, and there find him pretty well again, and his wife
mighty kind and merry, and did make mighty much of us, and I believe he
is married to a very good woman. Here was also Bab. and Betty, who have
not their clothes yet, and therefore cannot go out, otherwise I would
have had them abroad to-morrow; but the poor girls mighty kind to us,
and we must skew them kindness also. Here in Suffolk Street lives Moll
Davis; and we did see her coach come for her to her door, a mighty pretty
fine coach. Here we staid an hour or two, and then carried Turner home,
and there staid and talked a while, and then my wife and I to White Hall;
and there, by means of Mr. Cooling, did get into the play, the only one
we have seen this winter: it was "The Five Hours' Adventure:" but I sat
so far I could not hear well, nor was there any pretty woman that I did
see, but my wife, who sat in my Lady Fox's pew
[We may suppose that pews were by no means common at this time
within consecrated walls, from the word being applied indifferently
by Pepys to a box in a place of amusement, and two days afterwards
to a seat at church. It would appear, from other authorities, that
between 1646 and 1660 scarcely any pews had been erected; and Sir C.
Wren is known to have objected to their introduction into his London
churches.--B.]
with her. The house very full; and late before done, so that it was past
eleven before we got home. But we were well pleased with seeing it, and
so to supper, where it happened that there was no bread in the house,
which was an unusual case, and so to bed.
16th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, my head full of
business of the office now at once on my hands, and so at noon home to
dinner, where I find some things of W. Batelier's come out of France,
among which some clothes for my wife, wherein she is likely to lead me to
the expence of so much money as vexed me; but I seemed so, more than I at
this time was, only to prevent her taking too much, and she was mighty
calm under it. But I was mightily pleased with another picture of the
King of France's head, of Nanteuil's, bigger than the other which he
brought over, that pleases me infinitely: and so to the Office, where
busy all the afternoon, though my eyes mighty bad with the light of the
candles last night, which was so great as to make my eyes sore all this
day, and do teach me, by a manifest experiment, that it is only too much
light that do make my eyes sore. Nevertheless, with the help of my tube,
and being desirous of easing my mind of five or six days journall, I did
venture to write it down from ever since this day se'nnight, and I think
without hurting my eyes any more than they were before, which was very
much, and so home to supper and to bed.
17th. Up, and with W. Hewer with me to Lincoln's Inn, by appointment, to
have spoke with Mr. Pedley about Mr. Goldsborough's business and Mr.
Weaver's, but he was gone out, and so I with Mr. Castle, the son-in-law
of Weaver, to White Hall to look for him, but did not find him, but here
I did meet with several and talked, and do hear only that the King dining
yesterday at the Dutch Embassador's, after dinner they drank, and were
pretty merry; and, among the rest of the King's company, there was that
worthy fellow my lord of Rochester, and Tom Killigrew, whose mirth and
raillery offended the former so much, that he did give Tom Killigrew a
box on the ear in the King's presence, which do much give offence to the
people here at Court, to see how cheap the King makes himself, and the
more, for that the King hath not only passed by the thing, and pardoned
it to Rochester already, but this very morning the King did publickly
walk up and down, and Rochester I saw with him as free as ever, to the
King's everlasting shame, to have so idle a rogue his companion. How Tom
Killigrew takes it, I do not hear. I do also this day hear that my Lord
Privy Seale do accept to go Lieutenant into Ireland; but whether it be
true or no, I cannot tell. So calling at my shoemaker's, and paying him
to this day, I home to dinner, and in the afternoon to Colonel
Middleton's house, to the burial of his wife, where we are all invited,
and much more company, and had each of us a ring: and so towards evening
to our church, where there was a sermon preached by Mills, and so home.
At church there was my Lord Brouncker and Mrs. Williams in our pew, the
first time they were ever there or that I knew that either of them would
go to church. At home comes Castle to me, to desire me to go to Mr.
Pedly, this night, he being to go out of town to-morrow morning, which I,
therefore, did, by hackney-coach, first going to White Hall to meet with
Sir W. Coventry, but missed him. But here I had a pleasant rencontre of
a lady in mourning, that, by the little light I had, seemed handsome.
I passing by her, I did observe she looked back again and again upon me,
I suffering her to go before, and it being now duske. I observed she
went into the little passage towards the Privy Water-Gate, and I
followed, but missed her; but coming back again, I observed she returned,
and went to go out of the Court. I followed her, and took occasion, in
the new passage now built, where the walke is to be, to take her by the
hand, to lead her through, which she willingly accepted, and I led her to
the Great Gate, and there left her, she telling me, of her own accord,
that she was going as far as, Charing Cross; but my boy was at the gate,
and so je durst not go out con her, which vexed me, and my mind (God
forgive me) did run apres her toute that night, though I have reason to
thank God, and so I do now, that I was not tempted to go further. So to
Lincoln's Inn, where to Mr. Pedly, with whom I spoke, and did my business
presently: and I find him a man of very good language, and mighty civil,
and I believe very upright: and so home, where W. Batelier was, and
supped with us, and I did reckon this night what I owed him; and I do
find that the things my wife, of her own head, hath taken (together with
my own, which comes not to above L5), comes to above L22. But it is the
last, and so I am the better contented; and they are things that are not
trifles, but clothes, gloves, shoes, hoods, &c. So after supper, to bed.
18th. Up, and to the Office, and at noon home, expecting to have this
day seen Bab. and Betty Pepys here, but they come not; and so after
dinner my wife and I to the Duke of York's house, to a play, and there
saw "The Mad Lover," which do not please me so well as it used to do,
only Betterton's part still pleases me. But here who should we have come
to us but Bab. and Betty and Talbot, the first play they were yet at; and
going to see us, and hearing by my boy, whom I sent to them, that we were
here, they come to us hither, and happened all of us to sit by my cozen
Turner and The., and we carried them home first, and then took Bab. and
Betty to our house, where they lay and supped, and pretty merry, and very
fine with their new clothes, and good comely girls they are enough, and
very glad I am of their being with us, though I would very well have been
contented to have been without the charge. So they to bed and we to bed.
19th. Up, and after seeing the girls, who lodged in our bed, with their
maid Martha, who hath been their father's maid these twenty years and
more, I with Lord Brouncker to White Hall, where all of us waited on the
Duke of York; and after our usual business done, W. Hewer and I to look
my wife at the Black Lion, Mercer's, but she is gone home, and so I home
and there dined, and W. Batelierand W. Hewer with us. All the afternoon
I at the Office, while the young people went to see Bedlam, and at night
home to them and to supper, and pretty merry, only troubled with a great
cold at this time, and my eyes very bad ever since Monday night last that
the light of the candles spoiled me. So to bed. This morning, among
other things, talking with Sir W. Coventry, I did propose to him my
putting in to serve in Parliament, if there should, as the world begins
to expect, be a new one chose: he likes it mightily, both for the King's
and Service's sake, and the Duke of York's, and will propound it to the
Duke of York: and I confess, if there be one, I would be glad to be in.
20th. Up, and all the morning at the office, and then home to dinner,
and after dinner out with my wife and my two girls to the Duke of York's
house, and there saw "The Gratefull Servant," a pretty good play, and
which I have forgot that ever I did see. And thence with them to Mrs.
Gotier's, the Queen's tire-woman, for a pair of locks for my wife; she is
an oldish French woman, but with a pretty hand as most I have seen; and
so home, and to supper, W. Batelier and W. Hewer with us, and so my cold
being great, and greater by my having left my coat at my tailor's
to-night and come home in a thinner that I borrowed there, I went to bed
before them and slept pretty well.
21st (Lord's day). Up, and with my wife and two girls to church, they
very fine; and so home, where comes my cozen Roger and his wife, I having
sent for them, to dine with us, and there comes in by chance also Mr.
Shepley, who is come to town with my Lady Paulina, who is desperately
sick, and is gone to Chelsey, to the old house where my Lord himself was
once sick, where I doubt my Lord means to visit hers more for young Mrs.
Beck's sake than for hers. Here we dined with W. Batelier, and W. Hewer
with us, these two, girls making it necessary that they be always with
us, for I am not company light enough to be always merry with them and so
sat talking all the afternoon, and then Shepley went: away first, and
then my cozen Roger and his wife. And so I!, to my Office, to write down
my Journall, and so home to my chamber and to do a little business there,
my papers being in mighty disorder, and likely so to continue while these
girls are with us. In the evening comes W. Batelier and his sisters and
supped and talked with us, and so spent the evening, myself being
somewhat out of order because of my eyes, which have never been well
since last Sunday's reading at Sir W. Coventry's chamber, and so after
supper to bed.
22nd. Up, and betimes to White Hall; but there the Duke of York is gone
abroad a-hunting, and therefore after a little stay there I into London,
with Sir H. Cholmly, talking all the way of Tangier matters, wherein I
find him troubled from some reports lately from Norwood (who is his great
enemy and I doubt an ill man), of some decay of the Mole, and a breach
made therein by the sea to a great value. He set me down at the end of
Leadenhall Street, and so I home, and after dinner, with my wife, in her
morning-gown, and the two girls dressed, to Unthanke's, where my wife
dresses herself, having her gown this day laced, and a new petticoat;
and so is indeed very fine. And in the evening I do carry them to White
Hall, and there did without much trouble get into the playhouse, there in
a good place among the Ladies of Honour, and myself also sat in the pit;
and there by and by come the King and Queen, and they begun "Bartholomew
Fayre." But I like no play here so well as at the common playhouse;
besides that, my eyes being very ill since last Sunday and this day
se'nnight, with the light of the candles, I was in mighty pain to defend
myself now from the light of the candles. After the play done, we met
with W. Batelier and W. Hewer and Talbot Pepys, and they follow us in a
hackney-coach: and we all stopped at Hercules' Pillars; and there I did
give them the best supper I could, and pretty merry; and so home between
eleven and twelve at night, and so to bed, mightily well pleased with
this day's work.
23rd. Up: and to the Office, where all the morning, and then home, and
put a mouthfull of victuals in my mouth; and by a hackney-coach followed
my wife and the girls, who are gone by eleven o'clock, thinking to have
seen a new play at the Duke of York's house. But I do find them staying
at my tailor's, the play not being to-day, and therefore I now took them
to Westminster Abbey, and there did show them all the tombs very finely,
having one with us alone, there being other company this day to see the
tombs, it being Shrove Tuesday; and here we did see, by particular
favour, the body of Queen Katherine of Valois; and I had the upper part
of her body in my hands, and I did kiss her mouth, reflecting upon it
that I did kiss a Queen,
[Pepys's attachment to the fair sex extended even to a dead queen.
The record of this royal salute on his natal day is very
characteristic. The story told him in Westminster Abbey appears to
have been correct; for Neale informs us ("History of Westminster
Abbey," vol. ii., p. 88) that near the south side of Henry V.'s tomb
there was formerly a wooden chest, or coffin, wherein part of the
skeleton and parched body of Katherine de Valois, his queen (from
the waist upwards), was to be seen. She was interred in January,
1457, in the Chapel of Our Lady, at the east end of this church; but
when that building was pulled down by her grandson, Henry VII., her
coffin was found to be decayed, and her body was taken up, and
placed in a chest, near her first husband's tomb. "There," says
Dart, "it hath ever since continued to be seen, the bones being
firmly united, and thinly clothed with flesh, like scrapings of
tanned leather." This awful spectacle of frail mortality was at
length removed from the public gaze into St. Nicholas's Chapel, and
finally deposited under the monument of Sir George Villiers, when
the vault was made for the remains of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of
Northumberland, in December, 1776.--B.]
and that this was my birth-day, thirty-six years old, that I did first
kiss a Queen. But here this man, who seems to understand well, tells me
that the saying is not true that says she was never buried, for she was
buried; only, when Henry the Seventh built his chapel, it was taken up
and laid in this wooden coffin; but I did there see that, in it, the body
was buried in a leaden one, which remains under the body to this day.
Thence to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there, finding the play
begun, we homeward to the Glass-House,
[Glass House Alley, Whitefriars and Blackfriars, marked the site for
some years: The Whitefriars Glass Works of Messrs. Powell and Sons
are on the old site, now Temple Street.]
and there shewed my cozens the making of glass, and had several things
made with great content; and, among others, I had one or two singing-
glasses made, which make an echo to the voice, the first that ever I saw;
but so thin, that the very breath broke one or two of them. So home, and
thence to Mr. Batelier's, where we supped, and had a good supper, and
here was Mr. Gumbleton; and after supper some fiddles, and so to dance;
but my eyes were so out of order, that I had little pleasure this night
at all, though I was glad to see the rest merry, and so about midnight
home and to bed.
24th. Lay long in bed, both being sleepy and my eyes bad, and myself
having a great cold so as I was hardly able to speak, but, however, by
and by up and to the office, and at noon home with my people to dinner,
and then I to the office again, and there till the evening doing of much
business, and at night my wife sends for me to W. Hewer's lodging, where
I find two best chambers of his so finely furnished, and all so rich and
neat, that I was mightily pleased with him and them and here only my
wife, and I, and the two girls, and had a mighty neat dish of custards
and tarts, and good drink and talk. And so away home to bed, with
infinite content at this his treat; for it was mighty pretty, and
everything mighty rich.
25th. All the morning at the office. At noon home and eat a bit myself,
and then followed my wife and girls to the Duke of York's house, and
there before one, but the house infinite full, where, by and by, the King
and Court come, it being a new play, or an old one new vamped, by
Shadwell, called "The Royall Shepherdesse;" but the silliest for words
and design, and everything, that ever I saw in my whole life, there being
nothing in the world pleasing in it, but a good martial dance of pikemen,
where Harris and another do handle their pikes in a dance to admiration;
but never less satisfied with a play in my life. Thence to the office
I, and did a little business, and so home to supper with my girls, and
pretty merry, only my eyes, which continue very bad, and my cold, that I
cannot speak at all, do trouble me.
26th. Was forced to send my excuse to the Duke of York for my not
attending him with my fellows this day because of my cold, and was the
less troubled because I was thereby out of the way to offer my proposals
about Pursers till the Surveyor hath delivered his notions, which he is
to do to-day about something he has to offer relating to the Navy in
general, which I would be glad to see and peruse before I offer what I
have to say. So lay long in bed, and then up and to my office, and so to
dinner, and then, though I could not speak, yet I went with my wife and
girls to the King's playhouse, to shew them that, and there saw
"The Faithfull Shepherdesse." But, Lord! what an empty house, there not
being, as I could tell the people, so many as to make up above L10 in the
whole house! The being of a new play at the other house, I suppose,
being the cause, though it be so silly a play that I wonder how there
should be enough people to go thither two days together, and not leave
more to fill this house. The emptiness of the house took away our
pleasure a great deal, though I liked it the better; for that I plainly
discern the musick is the better, by how much the house the emptier.
Thence home, and again to W. Hewer's, and had a pretty little treat, and
spent an hour or two, my voice being wholly taken away with my cold, and
so home and to bed.
27th. Up, and at the office all the morning, where I could speak but a
little. At noon home to dinner, and all the afternoon till night busy at
the office again, where forced to speak low and dictate. But that that
troubles me most is my eyes, which are still mighty bad night and day,
and so home at night to talk and sup with my cozens, and so all of us in
mighty good humour to bed.
28th (Lord's day). Up, and got my wife to read to me a copy of what the
Surveyor offered to the Duke of York on Friday, he himself putting it
into my hands to read; but, Lord! it is a poor, silly thing ever to think
to bring it in practice, in the King's Navy. It is to have the Captains
to account for all stores and victuals; but upon so silly grounds, to my
thinking; and ignorance of the present instructions of Officers, that I
am ashamed to hear it. However, I do take a copy of it, for my future
use and answering; and so to church, where, God forgive me! I did most
of the time gaze on the fine milliner's wife, in Fenchurch Street, who
was at our church to-day; and so home to dinner. And after dinner to
write down my Journall; and then abroad by coach with my cozens, to their
father's, where we are kindly received, but he is an great pain for his
man Arthur, who, he fears, is now dead, having been desperately sick, and
speaks so much of him that my cozen, his wife, and I did make mirth of
it, and call him Arthur O'Bradly. After staying here a little, and eat
and drank, and she gave me some ginger-bread made in cakes, like
chocolate, very good, made by a friend, I carried him and her to my cozen
Turner's, where we staid, expecting her coming from church; but she
coming not, I went to her husband's chamber in the Temple, and thence
fetched her, she having been there alone ever since sermon staying till
the evening to walk home on foot, her horses being ill. This I did, and
brought her home. And after talking there awhile, and agreeing to be all
merry at my house on Tuesday next, I away home; and there spent the
evening talking and reading, with my wife and Mr. Pelling, and yet much
troubled with my cold, it hardly suffering me to speak, we to bed.
THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.
CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY
TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW
AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
(Unabridged)
WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES
EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.
DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.
MARCH
1668-1669
March 1st. Up, and to White Hall to the Committee of Tangier, but it did
not meet. But here I do hear first that my Lady Paulina Montagu did die
yesterday; at which I went to my Lord's lodgings, but he is shut up with
sorrow, and so not to be spoken with: and therefore I returned, and to
Westminster Hall, where I have not been, I think, in some months. And
here the Hall was very full, the King having, by Commission to some Lords
this day, prorogued the Parliament till the 19th of October next: at
which I am glad, hoping to have time to go over to France this year. But
I was most of all surprised this morning by my Lord Bellassis, who, by
appointment, met me at Auditor Wood's, at the Temple, and tells me of a
duell designed between the Duke of Buckingham and my Lord Halifax, or Sir
W. Coventry; the challenge being carried by Harry Saville, but prevented
by my Lord Arlington, and the King told of it; and this was all the
discourse at Court this day. But I, meeting Sir W. Coventry in the Duke
of York's chamber, he would not own it to me, but told me that he was a
man of too much peace to meddle with fighting, and so it rested: but the
talk is full in the town of the business. Thence, having walked some
turns with my cozen Pepys, and most people, by their discourse, believing
that this Parliament will never sit more, I away to several places to
look after things against to-morrow's feast, and so home to dinner; and
thence, after noon, my wife and I out by hackneycoach, and spent the
afternoon in several places, doing several things at the 'Change and
elsewhere against to-morrow; and, among others, I did also bring home a
piece of my face cast in plaister, for to make a wizard upon, for my
eyes. And so home, where W. Batelier come, and sat with us; and there,
after many doubts, did resolve to go on with our feast and dancing to-
morrow; and so, after supper, left the maids to make clean the house, and
to lay the cloth, and other things against to-morrow, and we to bed.
2nd. Up, and at the office till noon, when home, and there I find my
company come, namely, Madam Turner, Dyke, The., and Betty Turner, and Mr.
Bellwood, formerly their father's clerk, but now set up for himself--a
conceited, silly fellow, but one they make mightily of--my cozen Roger
Pepys, and his wife, and two daughters. I had a noble dinner for them,
as I almost ever had, and mighty merry, and particularly myself pleased
with looking on Betty Turner, who is mighty pretty. After dinner, we
fell one to one talk, and another to another, and looking over my house,
and closet, and things; and The. Turner to write a letter to a lady in
the country, in which I did, now and then, put in half a dozen words, and
sometimes five or six lines, and then she as much, and made up a long and
good letter, she being mighty witty really, though troublesome-humoured
with it. And thus till night, that our musick come, and the Office ready
and candles, and also W. Batelier and his sister Susan come, and also
Will. Howe and two gentlemen more, strangers, which, at my request
yesterday, he did bring to dance, called Mr. Ireton and Mr. Starkey. We
fell to dancing, and continued, only with intermission for a good supper,
till two in the morning, the musick being Greeting, and another most
excellent violin, and theorbo, the best in town. And so with mighty
mirth, and pleased with their dancing of jigs afterwards several of them,
and, among others, Betty Turner, who did it mighty prettily; and, lastly,
W. Batelier's "Blackmore and Blackmore Mad;" and then to a country-dance
again, and so broke up with extraordinary pleasure, as being one of the
days and nights of my life spent with the greatest content; and that
which I can but hope to repeat again a few times in my whole life. This
done, we parted, the strangers home, and I did lodge my cozen Pepys and
his wife in our blue chamber. My cozen Turner, her sister, and The., in
our best chamber; Bab., Betty, and Betty Turner, in our own chamber; and
myself and my wife in the maid's bed, which is very good. Our maids in
the, coachman's bed; the coachman with the boy in his settlebed, and Tom
where he uses to lie. And so I did, to my great content, lodge at once
in my house, with the greatest ease, fifteen, and eight of them strangers
of quality. My wife this day put on first her French gown, called a Sac,
which becomes her very well, brought her over by W. Batelier.
3rd. Up, after a very good night's rest, and was called upon by Sir H.
Cholmly, who was with me an hour, and though acquainted did not stay to
talk with my company I had in the house, but away, and then I to my
guests, and got them to breakfast, and then parted by coaches; and I did,
in mine, carry my she-cozen Pepys and her daughters home, and there left
them, and so to White Hall, where W. Hewer met me; and he and I took a
turn in St. James's Park, and in the Mall did meet Sir W. Coventry and
Sir J. Duncomb, and did speak with them about some business before the
Lords of the Treasury; but I did find them more than usually busy, though
I knew not then the reason of it, though I guess it by what followed
to-morrow. Thence to Dancre's, the painter's, and there saw my picture
of Greenwich, finished to my very good content, though this manner of
distemper do make the figures not so pleasing as in oyle. So to
Unthanke's, and there took up my wife, and carried her to the Duke of
York's playhouse, and there saw an old play, the first time acted these
forty years, called "The Lady's Tryall," acted only by the young people
of the house; but the house very full. But it is but a sorry play, and
the worse by how much my head is out of humour by being a little sleepy
and my legs weary since last night. So after the play we to the New
Exchange, and so called at my cozen Turner's; and there, meeting Mr.
Bellwood, did hear how my Lord Mayor, being invited this day to dinner at
the Reader's at the Temple, and endeavouring to carry his sword up, the
students did pull it down, and forced him to go and stay all the day in a
private Councillor's chamber, until the Reader himself could get the
young gentlemen to dinner; and then my Lord Mayor did retreat out of the
Temple by stealth, with his sword up. This do make great heat among the
students; and my Lord Mayor did send to the King, and also I hear that
Sir Richard Browne did cause the drums to beat for the Train-bands, but
all is over, only I hear that the students do resolve to try the Charter
of the City. So we home, and betimes to bed, and slept well all night.
4th. Up, and a while at the office, but thinking to have Mr. Povy's
business to-day at the Committee for Tangier, I left the Board and away
to White Hall, where in the first court I did meet Sir Jeremy Smith, who
did tell me that Sir W. Coventry was just now sent to the Tower, about
the business of his challenging the Duke of Buckingham, and so was also
Harry Saville to the Gate-house; which, as [he is] a gentleman, and of
the Duke of York's bedchamber, I heard afterwards that the Duke of York
is mightily incensed at, and do appear very high to the King that he
might not be sent thither, but to the Tower, this being done only in
contempt to him. This news of Sir W. Coventry did strike me to the
heart, and with reason, for by this and my Lord of Ormond's business, I
do doubt that the Duke of Buckingham will be so flushed, that he will not
stop at any thing, but be forced to do any thing now, as thinking it not
safe to end here; and, Sir W. Coventry being gone, the King will have
never a good counsellor, nor the Duke of York any sure friend to stick to
him; nor any good man will be left to advise what is good. This,
therefore, do heartily trouble me as any thing that ever I heard.
So up into the House, and met with several people; but the Committee
did not meet; and the whole House I find full of this business of Sir W.
Coventry's, and most men very sensible of the cause and effects of it.
So, meeting with my Lord Bellassis, he told me the particulars of this
matter; that it arises about a quarrel which Sir W. Coventry had with the
Duke of Buckingham about a design between the Duke and Sir Robert Howard,
to bring him into a play at the King's house, which W. Coventry not
enduring, did by H. Saville send a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, that
he had a desire to speak with him. Upon which, the Duke of Buckingham
did bid Holmes, his champion ever since my Lord Shrewsbury's business,
[Charles II. wrote to his sister (Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans), on
March 7th, 1669: "I am not sorry that Sir Will. Coventry has given
me this good occasion by sending my Lord of Buckingham a challenge
to turne him out of the Councill. I do intend to turn him allso out
of the Treasury. The truth of it is, he has been a troublesome man
in both places and I am well rid of him" (Julia Cartwright's
"Madame," 1894, p. 283).]
go to him to know the business; but H. Saville would not tell it to any
but himself, and therefore did go presently to the Duke of Buckingham,
and told him that his uncle Coventry was a person of honour, and was
sensible of his Grace's liberty taken of abusing him, and that he had a
desire of satisfaction, and would fight with him. But that here they
were interrupted by my Lord Chamberlain's coming in, who was commanded to
go to bid the Duke of Buckingham to come to the King, Holmes having
discovered it. He told me that the King did last night, at the Council,
ask the Duke of Buckingham, upon his honour, whether he had received any
challenge from W. Coventry? which he confessed that he had; and then the
King asking W. Coventry, he told him that he did not owne what the Duke
of Buckingham had said, though it was not fit for him to give him a
direct contradiction. But, being by the King put upon declaring, upon
his honour, the matter, he answered that he had understood that many hard
questions had upon this business been moved to some lawyers, and that
therefore he was unwilling to declare any thing that might, from his own
mouth, render him obnoxious to his Majesty's displeasure, and, therefore,
prayed to be excused: which the King did think fit to interpret to be a
confession, and so gave warrant that night for his commitment to the
Tower. Being very much troubled at this, I away by coach homewards, and
directly to the Tower, where I find him in one Mr. Bennet's house, son to
Major Bayly, one of the Officers of the Ordnance, in the Bricke Tower:
[The Brick Tower stands on the northern wall, a little to the west
of Martin tower, with which it communicates by a secret passage.
It was the residence of the Master of the Ordnance, and Raleigh was
lodged here for a time.]
where I find him busy with my Lord Halifax and his brother; so I would
not stay to interrupt them, but only to give him comfort, and offer my
service to him, which he kindly and cheerfully received, only owning his
being troubled for the King his master's displeasure, which, I suppose,
is the ordinary form and will of persons in this condition. And so I
parted, with great content, that I had so earlily seen him there; and so
going out, did meet Sir Jer. Smith going to meet me, who had newly been
with Sir W. Coventry. And so he and I by water to Redriffe, and so
walked to Deptford, where I have not been, I think, these twelve months:
and there to the Treasurer's house, where the Duke of York is, and his
Duchess; and there we find them at dinner in the great room, unhung; and
there was with them my Lady Duchess of Monmouth, the Countess of
Falmouth, Castlemayne, Henrietta Hide' (my Lady Hinchingbroke's sister),
and my Lady Peterborough. And after dinner Sir Jer. Smith and I were
invited down to dinner with some of the Maids of Honour, namely, Mrs.
Ogle, Blake, and Howard, which did me good to have the honour to dine
with, and look on; and the Mother of the Maids, and Mrs. Howard, the
mother of the Maid of Honour of that name, and the Duke's housekeeper
here. Here was also Monsieur Blancfort, Sir Richard Powell, Colonel
Villers, Sir Jonathan Trelawny, and others. And here drank most
excellent, and great variety, and plenty of wines, more than I have
drank, at once, these seven years, but yet did me no great hurt. Having
dined and very merry, and understanding by Blancfort how angry the Duke
of York was, about their offering to send Saville to the Gate-house,
among the rogues; and then, observing how this company, both the ladies
and all, are of a gang, and did drink a health to the union of the two
brothers, and talking of others as their enemies, they parted, and so we
up; and there I did find the Dupe of York and Duchess, with all the great
ladies, sitting upon a carpet, on the ground, there being no chairs,
playing at "I love my love with an A, because he is so and so: and I hate
him with an A, because of this and that:" and some of them, but
particularly the Duchess herself, and my Lady Castlemayne, were very
witty. This done, they took barge, and I with Sir J. Smith to Captain
Cox's; and there to talk, and left them and other company to drink; while
I slunk out to Bagwell's; and there saw her, and her mother, and our late
maid Nell, who cried for joy to see me, but I had no time for pleasure
then nor could stay, but after drinking I back to the yard, having a
month's mind para have had a bout with Nell, which I believe I could have
had, and may another time. So to Cox's, and thence walked with Sir J.
Smith back to Redriffe; and so, by water home, and there my wife mighty
angry for my absence, and fell mightily out, but not being certain of any
thing, but thinks only that Pierce or Knepp was there, and did ask me,
and, I perceive, the boy, many questions. But I did answer her; and so,
after much ado, did go to bed, and lie quiet all night; but [she] had
another bout with me in the morning, but I did make shift to quiet her,
but yet she was not fully satisfied, poor wretch! in her mind, and thinks
much of my taking so much pleasure from her; which, indeed, is a fault,
though I did not design or foresee it when I went.
5th. Up, and by water to White Hall, where did a little business with
the Duke of York at our usual attending him, and thence to my wife, who
was with my coach at Unthanke's, though not very well of those upon her,
and so home to dinner, and after dinner I to the Tower, where I find Sir
W. Coventry with abundance of company with him; and after sitting awhile,
and hearing some merry discourse, and, among others, of Mr. Brouncker's
being this day summoned to Sir William Morton, one of the judges, to give
in security for his good behaviour, upon his words the other day to Sir
John Morton, a Parliament-man, at White Hall, who had heretofore spoke
very highly against Brouncker in the House, I away, and to Aldgate, and
walked forward towards White Chapel, till my wife overtook me with the
coach, it being a mighty fine afternoon; and there we went the first time
out of town with our coach and horses, and went as far as Bow, the spring
beginning a little now to appear, though the way be dirty; and so, with
great pleasure, with the fore-part of our coach up, we spent the
afternoon. And so in the evening home, and there busy at the Office
awhile, and so to bed, mightily pleased with being at peace with my poor
wife, and with the pleasure we may hope to have with our coach this
summer, when the weather comes to be good.
6th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, only before the
Office I stepped to Sir W. Coventry at the Tower, and there had a great
deal of discourse with him; among others, of the King's putting him out
of the Council yesterday, with which he is well contented, as with what
else they can strip him of, he telling me, and so hath long done, that he
is weary and surfeited of business; but he joins with me in his fears
that all will go to naught, as matters are now managed. He told me the
matter of the play that was intended for his abuse, wherein they
foolishly and sillily bring in two tables like that which he hath made,
with a round hole in the middle, in his closet, to turn himself in; and
he is to be in one of them as master, and Sir J. Duncomb in the other, as
his man or imitator: and their discourse in those tables, about the
disposing of their books and papers, very foolish. But that, that he is
offended with, is his being made so contemptible, as that any should dare
to make a gentleman a subject for the mirth of the world: and that
therefore he had told Tom Killigrew that he should tell his actors,
whoever they were, that did offer at any thing like representing him,
that he would not complain to my Lord Chamberlain, which was too weak,
nor get him beaten, as Sir Charles Sidly is said to do, but that he would
cause his nose to be cut. He told me the passage at the Council much
like what my Lord Bellassis told me. He told me how that the Duke of
Buckingham did himself, some time since, desire to join with him, of all
men in England, and did bid him propound to himself to be Chief Minister
of State, saying that he would bring it about, but that he refused to
have anything to do with any faction; and that the Duke of Buckingham
did, within these few days, say that, of all men in England, he would
have chosen W. Coventry to have joined entire with. He tells me that he
fears their prevailing against the Duke of York; and that their violence
will force them to it, as being already beyond his pardon. He repeated
to me many examples of challenging of Privy-Councillors and others; but
never any proceeded against with that severity which he is, it never
amounting to others to more than a little confinement. He tells me of
his being weary of the Treasury, and of the folly, ambition, and desire
of popularity of Sir Thomas Clifford; and yet the rudeness of his tongue
and passions when angry. This and much more discourse being over I with
great pleasure come home and to the office, where all the morning, and at
noon home to dinner, and thence to the office again, where very hard at
work all the afternoon till night, and then home to my wife to read to
me, and to bed, my cold having been now almost for three days quite gone
from me. This day my wife made it appear to me that my late
entertainment this week cost me above L12, an expence which I am almost
ashamed of, though it is but once in a great while, and is the end for
which, in the most part, we live, to have such a merry day once or twice
in a man's life.
7th (Lord's day). Up, and to the office, busy till church time, and then
to church, where a dull sermon, and so home to dinner, all alone with my
wife, and then to even my Journall to this day, and then to the Tower, to
see Sir W. Coventry, who had H. Jermin and a great many more with him,
and more, while I was there, come in; so that I do hear that there was
not less than sixty coaches there yesterday, and the other day; which I
hear also that there is a great exception taken at, by the King and the
Duke of Buckingham, but it cannot be helped. Thence home, and with our
coach out to Suffolk Street, to see my cozen Pepys, but neither the old
nor young at home. So to my cozen Turner's, and there staid talking a
little, and then back to Suffolk Street, where they not being yet come
home I to White Hall, and there hear that there are letters come from Sir
Thomas Allen, that he hath made some kind of peace with Algiers; upon
which the King and Duke of York, being to go out of town to-morrow, are
met at my Lord Arlington's: so I there, and by Mr. Wren was desired to
stay to see if there were occasion for their speaking with me, which I
did, walking without, with Charles Porter,
[Charles Porter "was the son of a prebend[ary] in Norwich, and a
'prentice boy in the city in the rebellious times. When the
committee house was blown up, he was very active in that rising, and
after the soldiers came and dispersed the rout, he, as a rat among
joint stools, shifted to and fro among the shambles, and had forty
pistols shot at him by the troopers that rode after him to kill him
[24th April, 1648]. In that distress he had the presence of mind to
catch up a little child that, during the rout, was frighted, and
stood crying in the streets, and, unobserved by the troopers, ran
away with it. The people opened a way for him, saying, ' Make room
for the poor child.' Thus he got off, and while search was made for
him in the market-place, got into the Yarmouth ferry, and at
Yarmouth took ship and went to Holland . . . . In Holland he
trailed a pike, and was in several actions as a common soldier. At
length he kept a cavalier eating-house; but, his customers being
needy, he soon broke, and came for England, and being a genteel
youth, was taken in among the chancery clerks, and got to be under a
master . . . . His industry was great; and he had an acquired
dexterity and skill in the forms of the court; and although he was a
bon companion, and followed much the bottle, yet he made such
dispatches as satisfied his clients, especially the clerks, who knew
where to find him. His person was florid, and speech prompt and
articulate. But his vices, in the way of women and the bottle, were
so ungoverned, as brought him to a morsel . . . . When the Lord
Keeper North had the Seal, who from an early acquaintance had a
kindness for him which was well known, and also that he was well
heard, as they call it, business flowed in to him very fast, and yet
he could scarce keep himself at liberty to follow his business ....
At the Revolution, when his interest fell from, and his debts began
to fall upon him, he was at his wits' end .... His character for
fidelity, loyalty, and facetious conversation was without
exception"--Roger North's Lives of the Norths (Lord Keeper
Guilford), ed. Jessopp, vol. i., pp. 381-2. He was originally made
Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of James II., during the
viceroyalty of Lord Clarendon, 1686, when he was knighted. "He
was," says Burnet, "a man of ready wit, and being poor was thought a
person fit to be made a tool of. When Clarendon was recalled,
Porter was also displaced, and Fitton was made chancellor, a man who
knew no other law than the king's pleasure" ("Own Time"). Sir
Charles Porter was again made Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1690,
and in this same year he acted as one of the Lords Justices. This
note of Lord Braybrooke's is retained and added to, but the
reference may after all be to another Charles Porter. See vol.
iii., p. 122, and vol. vi., p. 98.]
talking of a great many things: and I perceive all the world is against
the Duke of Buckingham his acting thus high, and do prophesy nothing but
ruin from it: But he do well observe that the church lands cannot
certainly come to much, if the King shall [be] persuaded to take them;
they being leased out for long leases. By and by, after two hours' stay,
they rose, having, as Wren tells me, resolved upon sending six ships to
the Streights forthwith, not being contented with the peace upon the
terms they demand, which are, that all our ships, where any Turks or
Moores shall be found slaves, shall be prizes; which will imply that
they, must be searched. I hear that to-morrow the King and the Duke of
York set out for Newmarket, by three in the morning; to some foot and
horse-races, to be abroad ten or twelve days: So I away, without seeing
the Duke of York; but Mr. Wren showed me the Order of Council about the
balancing the Storekeeper's accounts, passed the Council in the very
terms I drew it, only I did put in my name as he that presented the book
of Hosier's preparing, and that is left out--I mean, my name--which is no
great matter. So to my wife to Suffolk Streete, where she was gone, and
there I found them at supper, and eat a little with them, and so home,
and there to bed, my cold pretty well gone.
8th. Up, and with W. Hewer by hackney coach to White Hall, where the
King and the Duke of York is gone by three in the morning, and had the
misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and
the Prince, at the King's Gate' in Holborne; and the King all dirty, but
no hurt. How it come to pass I know not, but only it was dark, and the
torches did not, they say, light the coach as they should do. I thought
this morning to have seen my Lord Sandwich before he went out of town,
but I come half an hour too late; which troubles me, I having not seen
him since my Lady Palls died. So W. Hewer and I to the Harp-and-Ball, to
drink my morning draught, having come out in haste; and there met with
King, the Parliament-man, with whom I had some impertinent talk. And so
to the Privy Seal Office, to examine what records I could find there, for
my help in the great business I am put upon, of defending the present
constitution of the Navy; but there could not have liberty without order
from him that is in present waiting, Mr. Bickerstaffe, who is out of
town. This I did after I had walked to the New Exchange and there met
Mr. Moore, who went with me thither, and I find him the same discontented
poor man as ever. He tells me that Mr. Shepley is upon being turned away
from my Lord's family, and another sent down, which I am sorry for; but
his age and good fellowship have almost made him fit for nothing.
Thence, at Unthanke's my wife met me, and with our coach to my cozen
Turner's and there dined, and after dinner with my wife alone to the
King's playhouse, and there saw "The Mocke Astrologer," which I have
often seen, and but an ordinary play; and so to my cozen Turner's again,
where we met Roger Pepys, his wife, and two daughters, and there staid
and talked a little, and then home, and there my wife to read to me, my
eyes being sensibly hurt by the too great lights of the playhouse. So to
supper and to bed.
9th. Up, and to the Tower; and there find Sir W. Coventry alone, writing
down his journal, which, he tells me, he now keeps of the material
things; upon which I told him, and he is the only man I ever told it to,
I think, that I kept it most strictly these eight or ten years; and I am
sorry almost that I told it him, it not being necessary, nor may be
convenient to have it known. Here he showed me the petition he had sent
to the King by my Lord Keeper, which was not to desire any admittance to
employment, but submitting himself therein humbly to his Majesty; but
prayed the removal of his displeasure, and that he might be set free.
He tells me that my Lord Keeper did acquaint the King with the substance
of it, not shewing him the petition; who answered, that he was disposing
of his employments, and when that was done, he might be led to discharge
him: and this is what he expects, and what he seems to desire. But by
this discourse he was pleased to take occasion to shew me and read to me
his account, which he hath kept by him under his own hand, of all his
discourse, and the King's answers to him, upon the great business of my
Lord Clarendon, and how he had first moved the Duke of York with it
twice, at good distance, one after another, but without success; shewing
me thereby the simplicity and reasons of his so doing, and the manner of
it; and the King's accepting it, telling him that he was not satisfied in
his management, and did discover some dissatisfaction against him for his
opposing the laying aside of my Lord Treasurer, at Oxford, which was a
secret the King had not discovered. And really I was mighty proud to be
privy to this great transaction, it giving me great conviction of the
noble nature and ends of Sir W. Coventry in it, and considerations in
general of the consequences of great men's actions, and the uncertainty
of their estates, and other very serious considerations. From this to
other discourse, and so to the Office, where we sat all the morning, and
after dinner by coach to my cozen Turner's, thinking to have taken the
young ladies to a play; but The. was let blood to-day; and so my wife and
I towards the King's playhouse, and by the way found Betty [Turner], and
Bab., and Betty Pepys staying for us; and so took them all to see
"Claricilla," which do not please me almost at all, though there are some
good things in it. And so to my cozen Turner's again, and there find my
Lady Mordaunt, and her sister Johnson; and by and by comes in a
gentleman, Mr. Overbury, a pleasant man, who plays most excellently on
the flagelette, a little one, that sounded as low as one of mine, and
mighty pretty. Hence by and by away, and with my wife, and Bab. and
Betty Pepys, and W. Hewer, whom I carried all this day with me, to my
cozen Stradwick's, where I have not been ever since my brother Tom died,
there being some difference between my father and them, upon the account
of my cozen Scott; and I was glad of this opportunity of seeing them,
they being good and substantial people, and kind, and here met my cozen
Roger and his wife, and my cozen Turner, and here, which I never did
before, I drank a glass, of a pint, I believe, at one draught, of the
juice of oranges, of whose peel they make comfits; and here they drink
the juice as wine, with sugar, and it is very fine drink; but, it being
new, I was doubtful whether it might not do me hurt. Having staid a
while, my wife and I back, with my cozen Turner, etc., to her house, and
there we took our leaves of my cozen Pepys, who goes with his wife and
two daughters for Impington tomorrow. They are very good people, and
people I love, and am obliged to, and shall have great pleasure in their
friendship, and particularly in hers, she being an understanding and good
woman. So away home, and there after signing my letters, my eyes being
bad, to supper and to bed.
10th. Up, and by hackney-coach to Auditor Beale's Office, in Holborne,
to look for records of the Navy, but he was out of the way, and so forced
to go next to White Hall, to the Privy Seal; and, after staying a little
there, then to Westminster, where, at the Exchequer, I met with Mr.
Newport and Major Halsey; and, after doing a little business with Mr.
Burges, we by water to White Hall, where I made a little stop: and so
with them by coach to Temple Bar, where, at the Sugar Loaf we dined, and
W. Hewer with me; and there comes a companion of theirs, Colonel Vernon,
I think they called him; a merry good fellow, and one that was very plain
in cursing the Duke of Buckingham, and discoursing of his designs to ruin
us, and that ruin must follow his counsels, and that we are an undone
people. To which the others concurred, but not so plain, but all vexed
at Sir W. Coventry's being laid aside: but Vernon, he is concerned,
I perceive, for my Lord Ormond's being laid aside; but their company,
being all old cavaliers, were very pleasant to hear how they swear and
talk. But Halsey, to my content, tells me that my Lord Duke of Albemarle
says that W. Coventry being gone, nothing will be well done at the
Treasury, and I believe it; but they do all talk as that Duncombe, upon
some pretence or other, must follow him. Thence to Auditor Beale's, his
house and office, but not to be found, and therefore to the Privy Seale
at White Hall, where, with W. Hewer and Mr. Gibson, who met me at the
Temple, I spent the afternoon till evening looking over the books there,
and did find several things to my purpose, though few of those I designed
to find, the books being kept there in no method at all. Having done
there, we by water home, and there find my cozen Turner and her two
daughters come to see us; and there, after talking a little, I had my
coach ready, and my wife and I, they going home, we out to White Chapel
to take a little ayre, though yet the dirtiness of the road do prevent
most of the pleasure, which should have been from this tour. So home,
and my wife to read to me till supper, and to bed.
11th. Up, and to Sir W. Coventry, to the Tower, where I walked and
talked with him an hour alone, from one good thing to another: who tells
me that he hears that the Commission is gone down to the King, with a
blank to fill, for his place in the Treasury: and he believes it will be
filled with one of our Treasurers of the Navy, but which he knows not,
but he believes it will be Osborne. We walked down to the Stone Walk,
which is called, it seems, my Lord of Northumberland's walk, being paved
by some one of that title, that was prisoner there: and at the end of it,
there is a piece of iron upon the wall, with, his armes upon it, and
holes to put in a peg, for every turn that they make upon that walk.
So away to the Office, where busy all the morning, and so to dinner, and
so very busy all the afternoon, at my Office, late; and then home tired,
to supper, with content with my wife, and so to bed, she pleasing me,
though I dare not own it, that she hath hired a chambermaid; but she,
after many commendations, told me that she had one great fault, and that
was, that she was very handsome, at which I made nothing, but let her go
on; but many times to-night she took occasion to discourse of her
handsomeness, and the danger she was in by taking her, and that she did
doubt yet whether it would be fit for her, to take her. But I did assure
her of my resolutions to have nothing to do with her maids, but in myself
I was glad to have the content to have a handsome one to look on.
12th. Up, and abroad, with my own coach, to Auditor Beale's house, and
thence with W. Hewer to his Office, and there with great content spent
all the morning looking over the Navy accounts of several years, and the
several patents of the Treasurers, which was more than I did hope to have
found there. About noon I ended there, to my great content, and giving
the clerks there 20s. for their trouble, and having sent for W. Howe to
me to discourse with him about the Patent Office records, wherein I
remembered his brother to be concerned, I took him in my coach with
W. Hewer and myself towards Westminster; and there he carried me to
Nott's, the famous bookbinder, that bound for my Lord Chancellor's
library; and here I did take occasion for curiosity to bespeak a book to
be bound, only that I might have one of his binding. Thence back to
Graye's Inne: and, at the next door, at a cook's-shop of Howe's
acquaintance, we bespoke dinner, it being now two o'clock; and in the
meantime he carried us into Graye's Inne, to his chamber, where I never
was before; and it is very pretty, and little, and neat, as he was
always. And so, after a little stay, and looking over a book or two
there, we carried a piece of my Lord Coke with us, and to our dinner,
where, after dinner, he read at my desire a chapter in my Lord Coke about
perjury, wherein I did learn a good deal touching oaths, and so away to
the Patent Office; in Chancery Lane, where his brother Jacke, being newly
broke by running in debt, and growing an idle rogue, he is forced to hide
himself; and W. Howe do look after the Office, and here I did set a clerk
to look out some things for me in their books, while W. Hewer and I to
the Crowne Offices where we met with several good things that I most
wanted, and did take short notes of the dockets, and so back to the
Patent Office, and did the like there, and by candle-light ended. And so
home, where, thinking to meet my wife with content, after my pains all
this day, I find her in her closet, alone, in the dark, in a hot fit of
railing against me, upon some news she has this day heard of Deb.'s
living very fine, and with black spots, and speaking ill words of her
mistress, which with good reason might vex her; and the baggage is to
blame, but, God knows, I know nothing of her, nor what she do, nor what
becomes of her, though God knows that my devil that is within me do wish
that I could. Yet God I hope will prevent me therein, for I dare not
trust myself with it if I should know it; but, what with my high words,
and slighting it, and then serious, I did at last bring her to very good
and kind terms, poor heart! and I was heartily glad of it, for I do see
there is no man can be happier than myself, if I will, with her. But in
her fit she did tell me what vexed me all the night, that this had put
her upon putting off her handsome maid and hiring another that was full
of the small pox, which did mightily vex me, though I said nothing, and
do still. So down to supper, and she to read to me, and then with all
possible kindness to bed.
13th. Up, and to the Tower, to see Sir W. Coventry, and with him talking
of business of the Navy, all alone, an hour, he taking physic. And so
away to the Office, where all the morning, and then home to dinner, with
my people, and so to the Office again, and there all the afternoon till
night, when comes, by mistake, my cozen Turner, and her two daughters,
which love such freaks, to eat some anchovies and ham of bacon with me,
instead of noon, at dinner, when I expected them. But, however, I had
done my business before they come, and so was in good humour enough to be
with them, and so home to them to supper, and pretty merry, being pleased
to see Betty Turner, which hath something mighty pretty. But that which
put me in good humour, both at noon and night, is the fancy that I am
this day made a Captain of one of the King's ships, Mr. Wren having this
day sent me, the Duke of York's commission to be Captain of "The Jerzy,"
in order to my being of a Court-martiall for examining the loss of "The
Defyance," and other things; which do give me occasion of much mirth, and
may be of some use to me, at least I shall get a little money by it for
the time I have it; it being designed that I must really be a Captain to
be able to sit in this Court. They staid till about eight at night, and
then away, and my wife to read to me, and then to bed in mighty good
humour, but for my eyes.
14th (Lord's day). Up, and to my office with Tom, whom I made to read to
me the books of Propositions in the time of the Grand Commission, which I
did read a good part of before church, and then with my wife to church,
where I did see my milliner's wife come again, which pleased me; but I
durst not be seen to mind her for fear of my wife's seeing me, though the
woman I did never speak twenty words to, and that but only in her
husband's shop. But so fearful I am of discontenting my wife, or giving
her cause of jealousy. But here we heard a most excellent good sermon of
Mr. Gifford's, upon the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees. So home
to dinner and to work again, and so till dinner, where W. Howe come and
dined with me, and staid and read in my Lord Cooke upon his chapter of
perjury again, which pleased me, and so parted, and I to my office, and
there made an end of the books of Propositions, which did please me
mightily to hear read, they being excellently writ and much to the
purpose, and yet so as I think I shall make good use of his defence of
our present constitution. About four o'clock took coach to visit my
cozen Turner, and I out with her to make a visit, but the lady she went
to see was abroad. So back and to talk with her and her daughters, and
then home, and she and I to walk in the garden, the first time this year,
the weather being mighty temperate; and then I to write down my Journall
for the last week, my eyes being very bad, and therefore I forced to find
a way to use by turns with my tube, one after another, and so home to
supper and to bed. Before I went from my office this night I did tell
Tom my resolution not to keep him after Jane was gone, but shall do well
by him, which pleases him; and I think he will presently marry her, and
go away out of my house with her.
15th. Up, and by water with W. Hewer to the Temple; and thence to the
Rolls, where I made inquiry for several rolls, and was soon informed in
the manner of it: and so spent the whole morning with W. Hewer, he taking
little notes in short-hand, while I hired a clerk there to read to me
about twelve or more several rolls which I did call for: and it was great
pleasure to me to see the method wherein their rolls are kept; that when
the Master of the Office, one Mr. Case, do call for them, who is a man
that I have heretofore known by coming to my Lord of Sandwich's, he did
most readily turn to them. At noon they shut up; and W. Hewer and I did
walk to the Cocke, at the end of Suffolke Streete, where I never was,
a great ordinary, mightily cried up, and there bespoke a pullett; which
while dressing, he and I walked into St. James's Park, and thence back,
and dined very handsome, with a good soup, and a pullet, for 4s. 6d. the
whole. Thence back to the Rolls, and did a little more business: and so
by water to White Hall, whither. I went to speak with Mr. Williamson,
that if he hath any papers relating to the Navy I might see them, which
he promises me: and so by water home, with great content for what I have
this day found, having got almost as much as I desire of the history of
the Navy, from 1618 to 1642, when the King and Parliament fell out. So
home, and did get my wife to read, and so to supper and to bed.
16th. Up, and to the office, after having visited Sir W. Coventry at the
Tower, and walked with him upon the Stone Walk, alone, till other company
come to him, and had very good discourse with him. At noon home, where
my wife and Jane gone abroad, and Tom, in order to their buying of things
for their wedding, which, upon my discourse the last night, is now
resolved to be done, upon the 26th of this month, the day of my solemnity
for my cutting of the stone, when my cozen Turner must be with us. My
wife, therefore, not at dinner; and comes to me Mr. Evelyn of Deptford, a
worthy good man, and dined with me, but a bad dinner; who is grieved for,
and speaks openly to me his thoughts of, the times, and our ruin
approaching; and all by the folly of the King. His business to me was
about some ground of his, at Deptford, next to the King's yard: and after
dinner we parted. My sister Michell coming also this day to see us, whom
I left there, and I away down by water with W. Hewer to Woolwich, where I
have not been I think more than a year or two, and here I saw, but did
not go on board, my ship "The Jerzy," she lying at the wharf under
repair. But my business was to speak with Ackworth, about some old
things and passages in the Navy, for my information therein, in order to
my great business now of stating the history of the Navy. This I did;
and upon the whole do find that the late times, in all their management,
were not more husbandly than we; and other things of good content to me.
His wife was sick, and so I could not see her. Thence, after seeing Mr.
Sheldon, I to Greenwich by water, and there landed at the King's house,
which goes on slow, but is very pretty.
[The old palace at Greenwich had just been pulled down, and a new
building commenced by Charles II., only one wing of which was
completed, at the expense of L36,000, under the auspices of Webb,
Inigo Jones's kinsman and executor. In 1694 the unfinished edifice
was granted by William and Mary to trustees for the use and service
of a Naval Hospital; and it has been repeatedly enlarged and
improved till it has arrived at its present splendour.--B.]
I to the Park, there to see the prospect of the hill, to judge of
Dancre's picture, which he hath made thereof for me: and I do like it
very well: and it is a very pretty place. Thence to Deptford, but staid
not, Uthwayte being out of the way: and so home, and then to the Ship
Tavern, Morrice's, and staid till W. Hewer fetched his uncle Blackburne
by appointment to me, to discourse of the business of the Navy in the
late times; and he did do it, by giving me a most exact account in
writing, of the several turns in the Admiralty and Navy, of the persons
employed therein, from the beginning of the King's leaving the
Parliament, to his Son's coming in, to my great content; and now I am
fully informed in all I at present desire. We fell to other talk; and I
find by him that the Bishops must certainly fall, and their hierarchy;
these people have got so much ground upon the King and kingdom as is not
to be got again from them: and the Bishops do well deserve it. But it is
all the talk, I find, that Dr. Wilkins, my friend, the Bishop of Chester,
shall be removed to Winchester, and be Lord Treasurer. Though this be
foolish talk, yet I do gather that he is a mighty rising man, as being a
Latitudinarian, and the Duke of Buckingham his great friend. Here we
staid talking till to at night, where I did never drink before since this
man come to the house, though for his pretty wife's sake I do fetch my
wine from this, whom I could not nevertheless get para see to-night,
though her husband did seem to call for her. So parted here and I home,
and to supper and to bed.
17th. Up, and by water to see Mr. Wren, and then Mr. Williamson, who did
shew me the very original bookes of propositions made by the
Commissioners for the Navy, in 1618, to my great content; but no other
Navy papers he could now shew me. Thence to Westminster by water and to
the Hall, where Mrs. Michell do surprize me with the news that Doll Lane
is suddenly brought to bed at her sister's lodging, and gives it out that
she is married, but there is no such thing certainly, she never
mentioning it before, but I have cause to rejoice that I have not seen
her a great while, she having several times desired my company, but I
doubt to an evil end. Thence to the Exchequer, where W. Hewer come to
me, and after a little business did go by water home, and there dined,
and took my wife by a hackney to the King's playhouse, and saw "The
Coxcomb," the first time acted, but an old play, and a silly one,
being acted only by the young people. Here met cozen Turner and The.
So parted there from them, and home by coach and to my letters at the
office, where pretty late, and so to supper and to bed.
18th. Up, and to see Sir W. Coventry, and walked with him a good while
in the Stone Walk: and brave discourse about my Lord Chancellor, and his
ill managements and mistakes, and several things of the Navy, and thence
to the office, where we sat all the morning, and so home to dinner, where
my wife mighty finely dressed, by a maid that she hath taken, and is to
come to her when Jane goes; and the same she the other day told me of,
to be so handsome. I therefore longed to see her, but did not till after
dinner, that my wife and I going by coach, she went with us to Holborne,
where we set her down. She is a mighty proper maid, and pretty comely,
but so so; but hath a most pleasing tone of voice, and speaks handsomely,
but hath most great hands, and I believe ugly; but very well dressed, and
good clothes, and the maid I believe will please me well enough. Thence
to visit Ned Pickering and his lady, and Creed and his wife, but the
former abroad, and the latter out of town, gone to my Lady Pickering's
in Northamptonshire, upon occasion of the late death of their brother,
Oliver Pickering, a youth, that is dead of the smallpox. So my wife and
I to Dancre's to see the pictures; and thence to Hyde Park, the first
time we were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty
pride rode up and down, and many coaches there; and I thought our horses
and coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others. Here
staid till night, and so home, and to the office, where busy late, and so
home to supper and to bed, with great content, but much business in my
head of the office, which troubles me.
19th. Up, and by water to White Hall, there to the Lords of the
Treasury, and did some business, and here Sir Thomas Clifford did speak
to me, as desirous that I would some time come and confer with him about
the Navy, which I am glad of, but will take the direction of the Duke of
York before I do it, though I would be glad to do something to secure
myself, if I could, in my employment. Thence to the plaisterer's, and
took my face, and my Lord Duke of Albemarle's, home with me by coach,
they being done to my mind; and mighty glad I am of understanding this
way of having the pictures of any friends. At home to dinner, where Mr.
Sheres dined with us, but after dinner I left him and my wife, and with
Commissioner Middleton and Kempthorne to a Court-martiall, to which,
by virtue of my late Captainship, I am called, the first I was ever at;
where many Commanders, and Kempthorne president. Here was tried a
difference between Sir L. Van Hemskirke, the Dutch Captain who commands
"The Nonsuch," built by his direction, and his Lieutenant; a drunken kind
of silly business. We ordered the Lieutenant to ask him pardon, and have
resolved to lay before the Duke of York what concerns the Captain, which
was striking of his Lieutenant and challenging him to fight, which comes
not within any article of the laws martiall. But upon discourse the
other day with Sir W. Coventry, I did advise Middleton, and he and I did
forbear to give judgment, but after the debate did withdraw into another
cabin, the Court being held in one of the yachts, which was on purpose
brought up over against St. Katharine's, it being to be feared that this
precedent of our being made Captains, in order to the trying of the loss
of "The Defyance," wherein we are the proper persons to enquire into the
want of instructions while ships do lie in harbour, evil use might be
hereafter made of the precedent by putting the Duke of Buckingham, or any
of these rude fellows that now are uppermost, to make packed Courts, by
Captains made on purpose to serve their turns. The other cause was of
the loss of "The Providence" at Tangier, where the Captain's being by
chance on shore may prove very inconvenient to him, for example's sake,
though the man be a good man, and one whom, for Norwood's sake, I would
be kind to; but I will not offer any thing to the excusing such a
miscarriage. He is at present confined, till he can bring better proofs
on his behalf of the reasons of his being on shore. So Middleton and I
away to the Office; and there I late busy, making my people, as I have
done lately, to read Mr. Holland's' Discourse of the Navy, and what other
things I can get to inform me fully in all; and here late, about eight at
night, comes Mr. Wren to me, who had been at the Tower to Coventry. He
come only to see how matters go, and tells me, as a secret, that last
night the Duke of York's closet was broken open, and his cabinets, and
shut again, one of them that the rogue that did it hath left plate and a
watch behind him, and therefore they fear that it was only for papers,
which looks like a very malicious business in design, to hurt the Duke of
York; but they cannot know that till the Duke of York comes to town about
the papers, and therefore make no words of it. He gone, I to work again,
and then to supper at home, and to bed.
20th. Up, and to the Tower, to W. Coventry, and there walked with him
alone, on the Stone Walk, till company come to him; and there about the
business of the Navy discoursed with him, and about my Lord Chancellor
and Treasurer; that they were against the war [with the Dutch] at first,
declaring, as wise men and statesmen, at first to the King, that they
thought it fit to have a war with them at some time or other, but that it
ought not to be till we found the Crowns of Spain and France together by
the Bares, the want of which did ruin our war. But then he told me that,
a great deal before the war, my Lord Chancellor did speak of a war with
some heat, as a thing to be desired, and did it upon a belief that he
could with his speeches make the Parliament give what money he pleased,
and do what he would, or would make the King desire; but he found himself
soon deceived of the Parliament, they having a long time before his
removal been cloyed with his speeches and good words, and were come to
hate him. Sir W. Coventry did tell me it, as the wisest thing that ever
was said to the King by any statesman of his time, and it was by my Lord
Treasurer that is dead, whom, I find, he takes for a very great
statesman--that when the King did shew himself forward for passing the
Act of Indemnity, he did advise the King that he would hold his hand in
doing it, till he had got his power restored, that had been diminished by
the late times, and his revenue settled in such a manner as he might
depend on himself, without resting upon Parliaments,--and then pass it.
But my Lord Chancellor, who thought he could have the command of
Parliaments for ever, because for the King's sake they were awhile
willing to grant all the King desired, did press for its being done;
and so it was, and the King from that time able to do nothing with the
Parliament almost. Thence to the office, where sat all the forenoon,
and then home to dinner, and so to the office, where late busy, and so
home, mightily pleased with the news brought me to-night, that the King
and Duke of York are come back this afternoon, and no sooner come, but a
warrant was sent to the Tower for the releasing Sir W. Coventry; which do
put me in some hopes that there may be, in this absence, some
accommodation made between the Duke of York and the Duke of Buckingham
and; Arlington. So home, to supper, and to bed.
21st (Lord's day). Up, and by water over to Southwarke; and then, not
getting a boat, I forced to walk to Stangate; and so over to White Hall,
in a scull; where up to the Duke of York's dressing-room, and there met
Harry Saville, and understand that Sir W. Coventry is come to his house
last night. I understand by Mr. Wren that his friends having, by
Secretary Trevor and my Lord Keeper, applied to the King upon his first
coming home, and a promise made that he should be discharged this day, my
Lord Arlington did anticipate them, by sending a warrant presently for
his discharge which looks a little like kindness, or a desire of it;
which God send! though I fear the contrary: however, my heart is glad
that he is out. Thence up and down the House. Met with Mr. May, who
tells me the story of his being put by Sir John Denham's place, of
Surveyor of the King's Works, who it seems, is lately dead, by the
unkindness of the Duke Buckingham, who hath brought in Dr. Wren: though,
he tells me, he hath been his servant for twenty years together in all
his wants and dangers, saving him from want of bread by his care and
management, and with a promise of having his help in his advancement, and
an engagement under his hand for L1000 not yet paid, and yet the Duke of
Buckingham so ungrateful as to put him by: which is an ill thing, though
Dr. Wren is a worthy man. But he tells me that the King is kind to him,
and hath promised him a pension of L300 a-year out of the Works; which
will be of more content to him than the place, which, under their present
wants of money, is a place that disobliges most people, being not able to
do what they desire to their lodgings. Here meeting with Sir H. Cholmly
and Povy, that tell me that my Lord Middleton is resolved in the Cabal
that he shall not go to Tangier; and that Sir Edward Harlow [Harley],
whom I know not, is propounded to go, who was Governor of Dunkirke, and,
they say, a most worthy brave man, which I shall be very glad of. So by
water (H. Russell coming for me) home to dinner, where W. Howe comes to
dine with me; and after dinner propounds to me my lending him L500, to
help him to purchase a place--the Master of the Patent Office, of Sir
Richard Piggott. I did give him a civil answer, but shall think twice of
it; and the more, because of the changes we are like to have in the Navy,
which will not make it fit for me to divide the little I have left more
than I have done, God knowing what my condition is, I having not
attended, and now not being able to examine what my state is, of my
accounts, and being in the world, which troubles me mightily. He gone,
I to the office to enter my journall for a week. News is lately come of
the Algerines taking L3000 in money, out of one of our Company's East
India ships, outward bound, which will certainly make the war last; which
I am sorry for, being so poor as we are, and broken in pieces. At night
my wife to read to me, and then to supper, where Pelling comes to see and
sup with us, and I find that he is assisting my wife in getting a licence
to our young people to be married this Lent, which is resolved shall be
done upon Friday next, my great day, or feast, for my being cut of the
stone. So after supper to bed, my eyes being very bad.
22nd. Up, and by water, with W. Newer, to White Hall, there to attend
the Lords of the Treasury; but, before they sat, I did make a step to see
Sir W. Coventry at his house, where, I bless God! he is come again; but
in my way I met him, and so he took me into his coach and carried me to
White Hall, and there set me down where he ought not--at least, he hath
not yet leave to come, nor hath thought fit to ask it, hearing that Henry
Saville is not only denied to kiss the King's hand, but the King, being
asked it by the Duke of York, did deny it, and directed that the Duke
shall not receive him, to wait upon him in his chamber, till further
orders. Sir W. Coventry told me that he was going to visit Sir John
Trevor, who hath been kind to him; and he shewed me a long list of all
his friends that he must this week make visits to, that come to visit him
in the Tower; and seems mighty well satisfied with his being out of
business, but I hope he will not long be so; at least, I do believe that
all must go to rat if the King do not come to see the want of such a
servant. Thence to the Treasury-Chamber, and there all the morning to my
great grief, put to do Sir G. Downing's work of dividing the Customes for
this year, between the Navy, the Ordnance and Tangier: but it did so
trouble my eyes, that I had rather have given L20 than have had it to do;
but I did thereby oblige Sir Thomas Clifford and Sir J. Duncombe, and so
am glad of the opportunity to recommend myself to the former for the
latter I need not, he loving me well already. At it till noon, here
being several of my brethren with me but doing nothing, but I all. But
this day I did also represent to our Treasurers, which was read here, a
state of the charge of the Navy, and what the expence of it this year
would likely be; which is done so as it will appear well done and to my
honour, for so the Lords did take it: and I oblige the Treasurers by
doing it, at their request. Thence with W. Hewer at noon to Unthanke's,
where my wife stays for me and so to the Cocke, where there was no room,
and thence to King Street, to several cook's shops, where nothing to be
had; and at last to the corner shop, going down Ivy Lane, by my Lord of
Salisbury's, and there got a good dinner, my wife, and W. Newer, and I:
and after dinner she, with her coach, home; and he and I to look over my
papers for the East India Company, against the afternoon: which done,
I with them to White Hall, and there to the Treasury-Chamber, where the
East India Company and three Councillors pleaded against me alone, for
three or four hours, till seven at night, before the Lords; and the Lords
did give me the conquest on behalf of the King, but could not come to any
conclusion, the Company being stiff: and so I think we shall go to law
with them. This done, and my eyes mighty bad with this day's work, I to
Mr. Wren's, and then up to the Duke of York, and there with Mr. Wren did
propound to him my going to Chatham to-morrow with Commissioner
Middleton, and so this week to make the pay there, and examine the
business of "The Defyance" being lost, and other businesses, which I did
the rather, that I might be out of the way at the wedding, and be at a
little liberty myself for a day, or two, to find a little pleasure, and
give my eyes a little ease. The Duke of York mightily satisfied with it;
and so away home, where my wife troubled at my being so late abroad, poor
woman! though never more busy, but I satisfied her; and so begun to put
things in order for my journey to-morrow, and so, after supper, to bed.
23rd. Up, and to my office to do a little business there, and so, my
things being all ready, I took coach with Commissioner Middleton, Captain
Tinker, and Mr. Huchinson, a hackney coach, and over the bridge, and so
out towards Chatham, and; dined at Dartford, where we staid an hour or
two, it being a cold day; and so on, and got to Chatham just at night,
with very good discourse by the way, but mostly of matters of religion,
wherein Huchinson his vein lies. After supper, we fell to talk of
spirits and apparitions, whereupon many pretty, particular stories were
told, so as to make me almost afeard to lie alone, but for shame I could
not help it; and so to bed and, being sleepy, fell soon to rest, and so
rested well.
24th. Up, and walked abroad in the garden, and find that Mrs. Tooker has
not any of her daughters here as I expected and so walked to the yard,
leaving Middleton at the pay, and there I only walked up and down the
yard, and then to the Hill-House, and there did give order for the coach
to be made ready; and got Mr. Gibson, whom I carried with me, to go with
me and Mr. Coney, the surgeon, towards Maydston which I had a mighty mind
to see, and took occasion, in my way, at St. Margett's, to pretend to
call to see Captain Allen to see whether Mrs. Jowles, his daughter, was
there; and there his wife come to the door, he being at London, and
through a window, I spied Jowles, but took no notice of he but made
excuse till night, and then promised to come and see Mrs. Allen again,
and so away, it being a mighty cold and windy, but clear day; and had the
pleasure of seeing the Medway running, winding up and down mightily, and
a very fine country; and I went a little out of the way to have visited
Sir John Bankes, but he at London; but here I had a sight of his seat and
house, the outside, which is an old abbey just like Hinchingbroke, and as
good at least, and mighty finely placed by the river; and he keeps the
grounds about it, and walls and the house, very handsome: I was mightily
pleased with the sight of it. Thence to Maydstone, which I had a mighty
mind to see, having never been there; and walked all up and down the
town, and up to the top of the steeple, and had a noble view, and then
down again: and in the town did see an old man beating of flax, and did
step into the barn and give him money, and saw that piece of husbandry
which I never saw, and it is very pretty: in the street also I did buy
and send to our inne, the Bell, a dish of fresh fish. And so, having
walked all round the town, and found it very pretty, as most towns I ever
saw, though not very big, and people of good fashion in it, we to our
inne to dinner, and had a good dinner; and after dinner a barber come to
me, and there trimmed me, that I might be clean against night, to go to
Mrs. Allen. And so, staying till about four o'clock, we set out, I alone
in the coach going and coming; and in our way back, I 'light out of the
way to see a Saxon monument,
[Kits-Cotty House, a cromlech in Aylesford parish, Kent, on a
hillside adjacent to the river Medway, three and a half miles N. by
W. of Maidstone. It consists of three upright stones and an
overlying one, and forms a small chamber open in front. It is
supposed to have been the centre of a group of monuments indicating
the burial-place of the Belgian settlers in this part of Britain.
Other stones of a similar character exist in the neighbourhood.]
as they say, of a King, which is three stones standing upright, and a
great round one lying on them, of great bigness, although not so big as
those on Salisbury Plain; but certainly it is a thing of great antiquity,
and I mightily glad to see it; it is near to Aylesford, where Sir John
Bankes lives. So homeward, and stopped again at Captain Allen's, and
there 'light, and sent the coach and Gibson home, and I and Coney staid;
and there comes to us Mrs. Jowles, who is a very fine, proper lady, as
most I know, and well dressed. Here was also a gentleman, one Major
Manly, and his wife, neighbours; and here we staid, and drank, and
talked, and set Coney and him to play while Mrs. Jowles and I to talk,
and there had all our old stories up, and there I had the liberty to
salute her often, and pull off her glove, where her hand mighty moist,
and she mighty free in kindness to me, and je do not at all doubt that I
might have had that that I would have desired de elle had I had time to
have carried her to Cobham, as she, upon my proposing it, was very
willing to go, for elle is a whore, that is certain, but a very brave and
comely one. Here was a pretty cozen of hers come in to supper also, of a
great fortune, daughter-in-law to this Manly, mighty pretty, but had now
such a cold, she could not speak. Here mightily pleased with Mrs.
Jowles, and did get her to the street door, and there to her su breasts,
and baiser her without any force, and credo that I might have had all
else, but it was not time nor place. Here staid till almost twelve at
night, and then with a lanthorn from thence walked over the fields, as
dark as pitch, and mighty cold, and snow, to Chatham, and Mr. Coney with
great kindness to me: and there all in bed before I come home, and so I
presently to bed.
25th. Up, and by and by, about eight o'clock, come Rear-Admiral
Kempthorne and seven Captains more, by the Duke of York's order, as we
expected, to hold the Court-martiall about the loss of "The Defyance;"
and so presently we by boat to "The Charles," which lies over against
Upnor Castle, and there we fell to the business; and there I did manage
the business, the Duke of York having, by special order, directed them to
take the assistance of Commissioner Middleton and me, forasmuch as there
might be need of advice in what relates to the government of the ships in
harbour. And so I did lay the law open to them, and rattle the Master
Attendants out of their wits almost; and made the trial last till seven
at night, not eating a bit all the day; only when we had done
examination, and I given my thoughts that the neglect of the Gunner of
the ship was as great as I thought any neglect could be, which might by
the law deserve death, but Commissioner Middleton did declare that he was
against giving the sentence of death, we withdrew, as not being of the
Court, and so left them to do what they pleased; and, while they were
debating it, the Boatswain of the ship did bring us out of the kettle a
piece of hot salt beef, and some brown bread and brandy; and there we did
make a little meal, but so good as I never would desire to eat better
meat while I live, only I would have cleaner dishes. By and by they had
done, and called us down from the quarterdeck; and there we find they do
sentence that the Gunner of "The Defyance" should stand upon "The
Charles" three hours with his fault writ upon his breast, and with a
halter about his neck, and so be made incapable of any office. The truth
is, the man do seem, and is, I believe, a good man; but his neglect,
in trusting a girl to carry fire into his cabin, is not to be pardoned.
This being done, we took boat and home; and there a good supper was ready
for us, which should have been our dinner. The Captains, desirous to be
at London, went away presently for Gravesend, to get thither by this
night's tide; and so we to supper, it having been a great snowy and
mighty cold, foul day; and so after supper to bed.
26th. Up, and with Middleton all the morning at the Docke, looking over
the storehouses and Commissioner Pett's house, in order to Captain Cox's
coming to live there in his stead, as Commissioner. But it is a mighty
pretty house; and pretty to see how every thing is said to be out of
repair for this new man, though L10 would put it into as good condition
in every thing as it ever was in, so free every body is of the King's
money. By and by to Mr. Wilson's, and there drank, but did not see his
wife, nor any woman in the yard, and so to dinner at the Hill-House; and
after dinner, till eight at night, close, Middleton and I, examining the
business of Mr. Pett, about selling a boat, and we find him a very knave;
and some other quarrels of his, wherein, to justify himself, he hath made
complaints of others. This being done, we to supper, and so to talk,
Commissioner Middleton being mighty good company upon a journey, and so
to bed, thinking how merry my people are at this time, putting Tom and
Jane to bed, being to have been married this day, it being also my feast.
for my being cut of the stone, but how many years I do not remember, but
I think it to be about ten or eleven.
27th. Up, and did a little business, Middleton and I, then; after
drinking a little buttered ale, he and Huchinson and: I took coach, and,
exceeding merry in talk, to Dartford: Middleton finding stories of his
own life at Barbadoes, and up and down at Venice, and elsewhere, that are
mighty pretty, and worth hearing; and he is a strange good companion,
and; droll upon the road, more than ever I could have thought to have
been in him. Here we dined and met Captain Allen of Rochester, who dined
with us, and so went on his journey homeward, and we by and by took coach
again and got home about six at night, it being all the morning as cold,
snowy, windy, and rainy day, as any in the whole winter past, but pretty
clear in the afternoon. I find all well, but my wife abroad with Jane,
who was married yesterday, and I to the office busy, till by and by my
wife comes home, and so home, and there hear how merry they were
yesterday, and I glad at it, they being married, it seems, very
handsomely, at Islington; and dined at the old house, and lay in our
blue chamber, with much company, and wonderful merry. The Turner and
Mary Batelier bridesmaids, and Talbot Pepys and W. Hewer bridesmen. Anon
to supper and to bed, my head a little troubled with the muchness of the
business I have upon me at present. So to bed.
28th (Lord's day). Lay long talking with pleasure with my wife, and so
up and to the Office with Tom, who looks mighty smug upon his marriage,
as Jane also do, both of whom I did give joy, and so Tom and I at work at
the Office all the morning, till dinner, and then dined, W. Batelier with
us; and so after dinner to work again, and sent for Gibson, and kept him
also till eight at night, doing much business. And so, that being done,
and my journal writ, my eyes being very bad, and every day worse and
worse, I fear: but I find it most certain that stronge drinks do make my
eyes sore, as they have done heretofore always; for, when I was in the
country, when my eyes were at the best, their stronge beere would make my
eyes sore: so home to supper, and by and by to bed.
29th. Up, and by water to White Hall; and there to the Duke of York, to
shew myself, after my journey to Chatham, but did no business to-day with
him: only after gone from him, I to Sir T. Clifford's; and there, after
an hour's waiting, he being alone in his closet, I did speak with him,
and give him the account he gave me to draw up, and he did like it very
well: and then fell to talk of the business of the Navy and giving me
good words, did fall foul of the constitution [of the Board], and did
then discover his thoughts, that Sir J. Minnes was too old, and so was
Colonel Middleton, and that my Lord Brouncker did mind his mathematics
too much. I did not give much encouragement to that of finding fault
with my fellow-officers; but did stand up for the constitution, and did
say that what faults there were in our Office would be found not to arise
from the constitution, but from the failures of the officers in whose
hands it was. This he did seem to give good ear to; but did give me of
myself very good words, which pleased me well, though I shall not build
upon them any thing. Thence home; and after dinner by water with Tom
down to Greenwich, he reading to me all the way, coming and going, my
collections out of the Duke of York's old manuscript of the Navy, which I
have bound up, and do please me mightily. At Greenwich I come to Captain
Cocke's, where the house full of company, at the burial of James Temple,
who, it seems, hath been dead these five days here I had a very good
ring, which I did give my wife as soon as I come home. I spent my time
there walking in the garden, talking with James Pierce, who tells me that
he is certain that the Duke of Buckingham had been with his wenches all
the time that he was absent, which was all the last week, nobody knowing
where he was. The great talk is of the King's being hot of late against
Conventicles, and to see whether the Duke of Buckingham's being returned
will turn the King, which will make him very popular: and some think it
is his plot to make the King thus, to shew his power in the making him
change his mind. But Pierce did tell me that the King did certainly say,
that he that took one stone from the Church, did take two from his Crown.
By and by the corpse come out; and I, with Sir Richard Browne and Mr.
Evelyn, in their coach to the church, where Mr. Plume preached. But I,
in the midst of the sermon, did go out, and walked all alone, round to
Deptford, thinking para have seen the wife of Bagwell, which I did at her
door, but I could not conveniently go into her house, and so lost my
labour: and so to the King's Yard, and there my boat by order met me; and
home, where I made my boy to finish the my manuscript, and so to supper
and to bed my new chamber-maid, that comes in the room of Jane; is come,
Jane and Tom lying at their own lodging this night: the new maid's name
is Matt, a proper and very comely maid . . . . This day also our
cook-maid Bridget went away, which I was sorry for; but, just at her
going she was found to be a thief, and so I was the less trouble for it;
but now our whole house will, in a manner, be new which, since Jane is
gone, I am not at all sorry for, for that my late differences with my
wife about poor Deb. will not be remembered. So to bed after supper, and
to sleep with great content.
30th. Up, and to Sir W. Coventry, to see and discourse with him; and he
tells me that he hath lately been with my Lord Keeper, and had much
discourse about the Navy; and particularly he tells me that he finds they
are divided touching me and my Lord Brouncker; some are for removing; and
some for keeping us. He told my Lord Keeper that it would cost the King
L10,000 before he hath made another as fit to serve him in the Navy as I
am; which, though I believe it is true, yet I am much pleased to have
that character given me by W. Coventry, whatever be the success of it.
But I perceive they do think that I know too much, and shall impose upon
whomever shall come next, and therefore must be removed, though he tells
me that Sir T. Clifford is inclined well enough to me, and Sir T.
Osborne; by what I have lately done, I suppose. This news do a little
trouble me, but yet, when I consider it, it is but what I ought not to be
much troubled for, considering my incapacity, in regard to my eyes, to
continue long at this work, and this when I think of and talk with my
wife do make me the less troubled for it. After some talk of the
business of the navy more with him, I away and to the Office, where all
the morning; and Sir W. Pen, the first time that he hath been here since
his being last sick, which, I think, is two or three months; and I think
will be the last that he will be here as one of the Board, he now
inviting us all to dine with him, as a parting dinner, on Thursday next,
which I am glad of, I am sure; for he is a very villain. At noon home to
dinner, where, and at the office, all the afternoon, troubled at what I
have this morning heard, at least my mind full of thoughts upon it, and
so at night after supper to bed.
31st. Up, and by water to Sir W. Coventry's, there to talk with him
about business of the Navy, and received from him direction what to
advise the Duke of York at this time, which was, to submit and give way
to the King's naming a man or two, that the people about him have a mind
should be brought into the Navy, and perhaps that may stop their fury in
running further against the whole; and this, he believes, will do it.
After much discourse with him, I walked out with him into St. James's
Park, where, being afeard to be seen with him, he having not leave yet to
kiss the King's hand, but notice taken, as I hear, of all that go to him,
I did take the pretence of my attending the Tangier Committee, to take my
leave, though to serve him I should, I think, stick at nothing. At the
Committee, this morning, my Lord Middleton declares at last his being
ready to go, as soon as ever money can be made ready to pay the garrison:
and so I have orders to get money, but how soon I know not. Thence home,
and there find Mr Sheres, for whom I find my moher of late to talk with
mighty kindness; and particularly he hath shewn himself to be a poet, and
that she do mightily value him for. He did not stay to dine with us, but
we to dinner; and then, in the afternoon, my wife being very well dressed
by her new maid, we abroad, to make a visit to Mrs. Pickering; but she
abroad again, and so we never yet saw her. Thence to Dancre's, and
there, saw our pictures which are in doing; and I did choose a view of
Rome instead of Hampton Court; and mightily pleased I shall be in them.
Here were Sir Charles Cotterell and his son bespeaking something; both
ingenious men. Thence my wife and I to the Park; and pretty store of
company; and so home with great content the month, my mind in pretty good
content for all things, but the designs on foot to bring alterations in
the Office, which troubles me.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Broken sort of people, that have not much to lose
But so fearful I am of discontenting my wife
By her wedding-ring, I suppose he hath married her at last
Have not much to lose, and therefore will venture all
His satisfaction is nothing worth, it being easily got
Nor was there any pretty woman that I did see, but my wife
With egg to keep off the glaring of the light
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, v81
by Samuel Pepys, Unabridged, transcribed by Bright, edited by Wheatley