The Diary of Samuel Pepys
by
Samuel Pepys
Part 15 out of 18
at Court as they will, he seeing all likely to come to ruin:
that this morning the Duke of York sent to him to come to make up
one of a Committee of the Council for Navy Affairs; upon which,
when he came, he told the Duke of York that he was none of them:
which shows how things are now-a-days ordered, that there should
be a Committee for the Navy, and the Lord Admirall knows not the
persons of it; and that Sir G. Carteret and my Lord Anglesy
should be left out of it, and men wholly improper put into it. I
do hear of in hands that there is great difference at this day
between my Lord Arlington and Sir W. Coventry; which I am sorry
for.
14th. I to my office to perfect my Narrative about prize-goods;
and did carry it to the Commissioners of Accounts, who did
receive it with great kindness, and express great value of and
respect to me: and my heart is at rest that it is lodged there
in so full truth and plainness, though it may hereafter prove
some loss to me. But here I do see they are entered into many
enquiries about prizes, by the great attendance of commanders and
others before them; which is a work I am not sorry for. Thence I
away, with my head busy but my heart at pretty good ease, to
visit Colonell Thomson, one of the Committee of Accounts; who
among the rest is mighty kind to me, and is likely to mind our
business more than any; and I would be glad to have a good
understanding with him. Thence after dinner to White Hall to
attend the Duke of York; where I did let him know too the
troublesome life we lead, and particularly myself, by being
obliged to such attendances every day as I am, on one Committee
or other. And I do find the Duke of York himself troubled, and
willing not to be troubled with occasions of having his name used
among the Parliament though he himself do declare that he did
give directions to Lord Brouncker to discharge the men at Chatham
by ticket, and will own it if the House call for it, but not
else. Thence I attended the King and Council, and some of the
rest of us, in a business to be heard about the value of a ship
of one Dorrington's. And it was pretty to observe how Sir W.
Pen, making use of this argument against the validity of an oath,
against the King, being made by the master's mate of the ship,
who was but a fellow of about 23 years of age; the master of the
ship, against whom we pleaded, did say that he did think himself
at that age capable of being master's mate of any ship; and do
know that he, Sir W. Pen, was so himself; and in no better degree
at that age himself: which word did strike Sir W. Pen mad, and
made him open his mouth no more; and I saw the King and Duke of
York wink at one another at it. This done, we into the Gallery;
and there I walked with several people, and among others my Lord
Brouncker; who I do find under much trouble still about the
business of the tickets, his very case being brought in, as is
said, this day in the Report of the miscarriages. And he seems
to lay much of it on me, which I did clear and satisfy him in;
and would be glad with all my heart to serve him in, and have
done it more than he hath done for himself, he not deserving the
least blame, but commendations, for this. I met with my cosen
Roger Pepys and Creed; and from them understand that the report
was read to-day of the Miscarriages, wherein my Lord Sandwich is
named about the business I mentioned this morning; but I will be
at rest, for it can do him no hurt. Our business of tickets is
soundly up, and many others; so they went over them again, and
spent all the morning on the first, which is the dividing of the
fleet; wherein hot work was, and that among great men, Privy-
counsellors, and, they say, Sir W. Coventry; but I do not much
fear it, but do hope that it will show a little of the Duke of
Albemarle and the Prince to have been advisers in it: but
whereas they ordered that the King's Speech should be considered
to-day, they took no notice of it at all, but are really come to
despise the King in all possible ways of showing it. And it was
the other day a strange saying, as I am told by my cosen Roger
Pepys, in the House, when it was moved that the King's Speech
should be considered, that though the first part of the Speech,
meaning the league that is there talked of, be the only good
publick thing that hath been done since the King come into
England, yet it might bear with being put off to consider till
Friday next, which was this day. Secretary Morrice did this day
in the House, when they talked of intelligence, say that he was
allowed but 700l. a-year for intelligence; whereas in Cromwell's
time he did allow 70,000l. a-year for it; and was confirmed
therein by Colonell. Birch, who said that thereby Cromwell
carried the secrets of all the princes of Europe at his girdle.
The House is in a most broken condition; nobody adhering to any
thing, but reviling and finding fault: and now quite mad at the
Undertakers, as they are commonly called, Littleton, Lord
Vaughan, Sir R. Howard, and others that are brought over to the
Court, and did undertake to get the King money: but they despise
and will not hear them in the House; and the Court do as much,
seeing that they cannot be useful to them, as was expected. In
short, it is plain that the King will never be able to do any
thing with this Parliament; and that the only likely way to do
better (for it cannot do worse) is to break this and call another
Parliament; and some do think that it is intended. I was told
to-night that my Lady Castlemaine is so great a gamester as to
have won 15,000l. in one night, and lost 25,000l. in another
night at play, and hath played 1000l. and 1500l. at a cast.
16th. Mr. Hollier [He was a Surgeon.] dined with my wife and
me. Much discourse about the bad state of the Church, and how
the Clergy are come to be men of no worth in the world; and, as
the world do now generally discourse, they must be reformed: and
I believe the Hierarchy will in a little time be shaken, whether
they will or no; the King being offended with them and set upon
it, as I hear.
17th. Great high words in the House on Saturday last upon the
first part of the Committee's Report about the dividing of the
fleet; wherein some would have the counsels of the King to be
declared, and the reasons of them, and who did give them; where
Sir W. Coventry laid open to them the consequences of doing that,
that the King would never have any honest and wise men ever to be
of his Council. They did here in the House talk boldly of the
King's bad Counsellors, and how they must all be turned out, and
many others, and better brought in: and the proceedings of the
Long-Parliament in the beginning of the war were called to
memory; and the King's bad intelligence was mentioned, wherein
they were bitter against my Lord Arlington, saying, among other
things, that whatever Morrice's was, who declared he had but
750l. a-year allowed him for intelligence, the King paid too dear
for my Lord Arlington's in giving him 10,000l. and a Barony for
it. Sir W. Coventry did here come to his defence in the business
of the letter that was sent to call back Prince Rupert after he
was divided from the fleet, wherein great delay was objected; but
he did show that he sent it at one in the morning, when the Duke
of York did give him the instructions after supper that night,
and did clear himself well of it; only it was laid as a fault,
which I know not how he removes, of not sending it by an express,
but by the ordinary post; it coming not to Sir Philip Honiwood's
hand at Portsmouth till four in the afternoon that day, being
about fifteen or sixteen hours in going. The dividing of the
fleet however is, I hear, voted a miscarriage, and the not
building a fortification at Sheernesse: and I have reason every
hour to expect that they will vote the like of our paying men off
by ticket; and what the consequence of that will be, I know not.
18th. Sir W. Coventry and I did look over the list of
commanders, and found that we could presently recollect thirty-
seven commanders that have been killed in actuall service this
war. He tells me that Sir Fr. Hollis is the main man that hath
prosecuted him hitherto in the business of dividing the fleet,
saying vainly that the want of that letter to the Prince hath
given him that that he shall remember it by to his grave, meaning
the loss of his arme [Vide Note June 10, 1667.] when, God knows,
he is as idle and insignificant a fellow as ever came into the
fleet. I well remember what in mirth he said to me this morning,
when upon this discourse he said if ever there was another Dutch
war they should not find a Secretary; "Nor," said I, "a Clerk of
the Acts, for I see the reward of it; and, thank God, I have
enough of my own to buy me a book and a good fiddle, and I have a
good wife;"--"Why," says he, "I have enough to buy me a good
book, and shall not need a fiddle because I have never a one of
your good wives." This morning the House is upon a Bill, brought
in to-day by Sir Richard Temple, for obliging the King to call
Parliaments every three years; or if he fail, for others to be
obliged to do it, and to keep him from a power of dissolving any
Parliament in less than forty days after their first day of
sitting: which is such a Bill as do speak very high proceedings
to the lessening of the King; and this they will carry, and
whatever else they desire, before they will give any money; and
the King must have money, whatever it cost him. I to see Kate
Joyce; where I find her and her friends in great ease of mind,
the Jury having this day given in their verdict that her husband
died of a fever. Some opposition there was, the foreman pressing
them to declare the cause of the fever, thinking thereby to
obstruct it; but they did adhere to their verdict, and would give
no reason: so all trouble is now over, and she safe in her
estate.
19th. In the evening to White Hall; where I find Sir W. Coventry
a great while with the Duke of York in the King's drawing-room,
they two talking together all alone; which did mightily please
me. I do hear how La Roche, a French captain, who was once
prisoner here, being with his ship at Plymouth, hath played some
freakes there, for which his men being beat out of the town, he
hath put up a flag of defiance, and also somewhere there about
did land with his men and go a mile into the country, and did
some prank; which sounds pretty odd to our disgrace, but we are
in condition now to bear any thing. But, blessed be God! all
the Court is full of good news of my Lord Sandwich having made a
peace between Spain and Portugall; which is mighty great news,
and above all to my Lord's honour more than any thing he ever
did; and yet I do fear it will not prevail to secure him in
Parliament against incivilities there.
20th. The House most of the morning upon the business of not
prosecuting the first victory: which they have voted one of the
greatest miscarriages of the whole war, though they cannot lay
the fault any where yet, because Harman is not come home. Dined,
and by one o'clock to the King's house: a new play, "The Duke of
Lerma," of Sir Robert Howard's: where the King and Court was;
and Knipp and Nell spoke the prologue most excellently,
especially Knipp, who spoke beyond any creature I ever heard.
The play designed to reproach our King with his mistresses, that
I was troubled for it, and expected it should be interrupted; but
it ended all well, which salved all.
21st. The House this day is still as backward for giving any
money as ever, and do declare they will first have an account of
the disposals of the last Poll-bill, and eleven months' tax. And
it is pretty odde that the very first sum mentioned in the
account brought in by Sir Robert Long of the disposal of the
Poll-bill money is 5000l. to my Lord Arlington for intelligence;
which was mighty unseasonable, so soon after they had so much
cried out against his want of intelligence. The King do also own
but 250,000l. or thereabouts yet paid on the Poll-bill, and that
he hath charged 350,000l. upon it. This makes them mad; for that
the former Poll-bill, that was so much less in its extent than
the last, which took in all sexes and qualities, did come to
350,000l. Upon the whole, I perceive they are like to do nothing
in this matter to please the King, or relieve the State, be the
case never so pressing; and therefore it is thought by a great
many that the King cannot be worse if he should dissolve them;
but there is nobody dares advise it, nor do he consider any thing
himself. My cosen Roger Pepys showed me Granger's written
confession, of his being forced by imprisonment, &c. by my Lord
Gerard, most barbarously to confess his forging of a deed in
behalf of Fitton, in the great case between him and my Lord
Gerard; which business is under examination, and is the foulest
against my Lord Gerard that ever any thing in the world was, and
will, all do believe, ruine him; and I shall be glad of it.
22nd. To the Duke's playhouse, and there saw "Alblemanazar,"
[Albumazar, a comedy, by Tomkins of Trin. Coll. Cambridge.] an
old play, this the second time of acting. It is said to have
been the ground of B. Jonson's "Alchymist;" but, saving the
ridiculousnesse of Angell's part, which is called Trinkilo, I do
not see any thing extraordinary in it, but was indeed wary of it
before it was done. The King here; and indeed all of us pretty
merry at the mimique tricks of Trinkilo.
23rd. I met with Sir W. Coventry, and he and I walked awhile
together in the Matted Gallery; and there he told me all the
proceedings yesterday: that the matter is found in general a
miscarriage, but no persons named; and so there is no great
matter to our prejudice yet, till, if ever, they come to
particular persons. He told me Birch was very industrious to do
what he could, and did like a friend; but they were resolved to
find the thing in general a miscarriage: and says, that when we
shall think fit to desire its being heard, as to our own defence,
it will be granted. He tells me how he hath with advantage
cleared himself in what concerns himself therein, by his servant
Robson; which I am glad of. He tells me that there is a letter
sent by conspiracy to some of the House, which he hath seen,
about the manner of selling of places; which he do believe he
shall be called upon to-morrow for: and thinks himself well
prepared to defend himself in it; and then neither he nor his
friends for him are afraid of any thing to his prejudice. Thence
by coach with Brisband to Sir G. Carteret's, in Lincoln's Inn-
fields, and there dined: a good dinner and good company. And
after dinner he and I alone, discoursing of my Lord Sandwich's
matters; who hath, in the first business before the House, been
very kindly used beyond expectation, the matter being laid by
till his coming home: and old Mr. Vaughan did speak for my Lord;
which I am mighty glad of. The business of the prizes is the
worst that can be said, and therein I do fear something may lie
hard upon him; but against this we must prepare the best we can
for his defence. Thence with Sir G. Carteret to White Hall;
where finding a meeting of the Committee of the Council for the
Navy, his Royal Highness there, and Sir W. Pen, and some of the
Brethren of the Trinity House to attend, I did go in with them.
And it was to be informed of the practice heretofore, for all
foreign nations at enmity one with another to forbear any acts of
hostility to one another in the presence of any of the King of
England's ships; of which several instances were given: and it
is referred to their further enquiry, in order to the giving
instructions accordingly to our ships now during the war between
Spain and France. Would to God we were in the same condition as
heretofore, to challenge and maintain this our dominion! Thence
with W. Pen homeward, and quite through to Mile End for a little
ayre; the days being now pretty long, but the ways mighty dirty.
Going back again, Sir R. Brookes overtook us coming to town; who
played the jacke with us all, and is a fellow that I must trust
no more, he quoting me for all he hath said in this business of
tickets; though I have told him nothing that either is not true,
or I afraid to own. But here talking he did discourse in this
stile: "We," and We all along, "will not give any money, be the
pretence never so great, nay, though the enemy was in the River
of Thames again, till we know what is become of the last money
given." And I do believe he do speak the mind of his fellows;
and so let him. This evening my wife did with great pleasure
show me her stock of jewells, encreased by the ring she hath made
lately as my Valentine's gift this year, a Turky stone set with
diamonds: and with this, and what she had, she reckons that she
hath above 150l. worth of jewells of one kind or other; and I am
glad of it, for it is fit the wretch should have something to
content herself with.
24th. Meeting Dr. Gibbons, [Christopher Gibbons, Organist to the
King and of Westminster abbey. He was admitted Doctor of Music
at Oxford 1664, and died 1676.] he and I to see an organ at the
Dean of Westminster's lodgings at the abby, the Bishop of
Rochester's; [John Dolben; afterwards translated to York.] where
he lives like a great prelate, his lodgings being very good;
though at present under great disgrace at Court, being put by his
Clerks of the Closet's place. I saw his lady, of whom the TERROE
FILIUS of Oxford was once so merry; and two children, whereof one
a very pretty little boy, like him, so fat and black. Here I saw
the organ; but it is too big for my house, and the fashion do not
please me enough; and therefore I will not have it. To the
Nursery, where none of us ever were before; where the house is
better and the musique better than we looked for, and the acting
not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be: and I was
not much mistaken, for it was so. I was prettily served this day
at the playhouse-door; where, giving six shillings into the
fellow's hand for three of us, the fellow by legerdemain did
convey one away, and with so much grace faced me down that I did
give him but five, that, though I knew the contrary, yet I was
overpowered by his so grave and serious demanding the other
shilling, that I could not deny him, but was forced by myself to
give it; him.
28th. To Westminster Hall, where, it being now about six
o'clock, I find the House just risen; and met with Sir W.
Coventry and the Lieutenant of the Tower, they having sat all
day; and with great difficulty have got a vote for giving; the
King 300,000l., not to be raised by any land-tax. The sum is
much smaller than I expected, and than the King needs; but is
grounded upon Mr. Wren's reading our estimates the other day of
270,000l. to keep the fleet abroad, wherein we demanded nothing
for setting and fitting of them out, which will cost almost
200,000l. I do verily believe: and do believe that the King hath
no cause to thank Wren for this motion. I home to Sir W.
Coventry's lodgings with him and the Lieutenant of the Tower,
where also was Sir John Coventry, and Sir John Duncomb, and Sir
Job Charleton. [M.P. for Ludlow ; and in 1663 elected Speaker
which office he resigned on account of ill health. He was
successively King's Serjeant, Chief Justice of Chester and a
Justice of the Common Pleas; created a Baronet 1686, and ob.
1697.] And here a great deal of good discourse: and they seem
mighty glad to have this vote pass; which I did wonder at, to see
them so well satisfied with so small a sum, Sir John Duncomb
swearing (as I perceive he will freely do) that it was as much as
the nation could beare.
27th. With my wife to the King's House to see "The Virgin
Martyr," [A Tragedy, by Massinger.] the first time it hath been
acted a great while: and it is mighty pleasant; not that the
play is worth much, but it is finely acted by Beck Marshall. But
that which did please me beyond any thing in the whole world, was
the wind-musique when the angel comes down; which is so sweet
that it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul
so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when
in love with my wife; that neither then, nor all the evening
going home, and at home, I was able to think of any thing, but
remained all night transported, so as I could not believe that
ever any musique hath that real command over the soul of a man as
this did upon me; and makes me resolve to practice wind-musique,
and to make my wife do the like.
28th. After dinner with Sir W. Pen to White Hall, where we and
the rest of us presented a great letter of the state of our want
of money to his Royal Highness. I did also present a demand of
mine for consideration for my travelling-charges of coach and
boat-hire during the war: which, although his Royal Highness and
the company did all like of, yet, contrary to my expectation, I
find him so jealous now of doing any thing extraordinary, that he
desired the gentlemen that they would consider it, and report
their minds in it to him. This did unsettle my mind a great
while, not expecting this stop: but, however, I shall do as
well, I know, though it causes me a little stop. But that that
troubles me most is, that while we were thus together with the
Duke of York, comes in Mr. Wren from the House; where, he tells
us, another storm hath been all this day almost against the
officers of the Navy upon this complaint,--that though they have
made good rules for payment of tickets, yet that they have not
observed them themselves; which was driven so high as to have it
urged that we should presently be put out of our places: and so
they have at last ordered that we shall be heard at the bar of
the House upon this business on Thursday next. This did mightily
trouble me and us all; but me particularly, who am least able to
bear these troubles, though I have the least cause to be
concerned in it. Thence therefore to visit Sir H. Cholmly, who
hath for some time been ill of a cold; and thence walked towards
Westminster, and met Colonell Birch, who took me back to walk
with him, and did give me an account of this day's heat against
the Navy-officers, and an account of his speech on our behalf,
which was very good. And indeed we are much beholden to him, as
I, after I parted with him, did find by my cosen Roger, whom I
went to: and he and I to his lodgings. And there he did tell me
the same over again; and how Birch did stand up in our defence;
and that he do see that there are many desirous to have us out of
the office; and the House is so furious and passionate that he
thinks nobody can be secure, let him deserve never so well. But
now, he tells me, we shall have a fair hearing of the House, and
he hopes justice of them: but upon the whole, he do agree with
me that I should hold my hand as to making any purchase of land,
which I had formerly discoursed with him about, till we see a
little further how matters go. He tells me that what made them
so mad to-day first was, several letters in the House about the
Fanatickes in several places coming in great bodies and turning
people out of the churches, and there preaching themselves, and
pulling the surplice over the parsons' heads: this was confirmed
from several places; which makes them stark mad, especially the
hectors and bravadoes of the House, who show all the zeal on this
occasion.
29th. They tell me how Sir Thomas Allen hath taken the
Englishmen out of La Roche's ship, and taken from him an Ostend
prize which La Roche had fetched out of our harbours. And at
this day La Roche keeps upon our coasts; and had the boldness to
land some men and go a mile up into the country, and there took
some goods belonging to this prize out of a house there: which
our King resents, and, they say, hath wrote to the King of France
about. And every body do think a war will follow; and then in
what a case we shall be for want of money, nobody knows. Wrote
to my father, and sent him Colvill's note for 600l. for my
sister's portion.
MARCH 1, 1667-8. Lord's day. Up very betimes, and by coach to
Sir W. Coventry's; and there largely carrying with me all my
notes and papers, did run over our whole defence in the business
of tickets, in order to the answering the House on Thursday next;
and I do think, unless they be set without reason to ruin us, we
shall make a good defence. I find him in great anxiety, though
he will not discover it, in the business of the proceedings of
Parliament; and would as little as is possible have his name
mentioned in our discourse to them. And particularly the
business of selling places is now upon his hand to defend himself
in; wherein I did help him in his defence about the flag-maker's
place, which is named in the House. We did here do the like
about the complaint of want of victuals in the fleet in the year
1666, which will lie upon me to defend also.
2nd. Mr. Moore was with me, and do tell me, and so W. Hewer
tells me, he hears this morning that all the town is full of the
discourse that the officers of the Navy shall be all turned out,
but honest Sir John Minnes; who, God knows, is fitter to have
been turned out himself than any of us, doing the King more hurt;
by his dotage and folly than all the rest can do by their
knavery, if they had a mind to it. This day I have the news that
my sister was married on Thursday last to Mr. Jackson; so that
work is, I hope, well over.
3rd. Up betimes to work again, and then met at the office, where
to our great business of this answer to the Parliament; where to
my great vexation I find my Lord Brouncker prepared only to
excuse himself, while I, that have least reason to trouble
myself, am preparing with great pains to defend them all: and
more, I perceive he would lodge the beginning of discharging
ships by ticket upon me; but I care not, for I believe I shall
get more honour by it when the Parliament against my will shall
see how the whole business of the office was done by me. Down by
water to Deptford; where the King, Queene, and Court are to see
launched the new ship built by Mr. Shish, called "The Charles."
God send her better luck than the former! Here some of our
brethren, who went in a boat a little before my boat, did by
appointment take opportunity of asking the King's leave that we
might make full use of the want of money in our excuse to the
Parliament for the business of tickets and other things they will
lay to our charge, all which arise from nothing else: and this
the King did readily agree to, and did give us leave to make our
full use of it. The ship being well launched, I back again by
boat.
5th. To Westminster; where I found myself come time enough, and
my brethren all ready. But I full of thoughts and trouble
touching the issue of this day: and to comfort myself did go to
the Dog and drink half-a-pint of mulled sack, and in the hall did
drink a dram of brandy at Mrs. Hewlett's; and with the warmth of
this did find myself in better order as to courage, truly. So we
all up to the lobby; and between eleven and twelve o'clock were
called in, with the mace before us, into the House; where a
mighty full House: and we stood at the bar; namely, Brouncker,
Sir J. Minnes, Sir T. Harvey, and myself, W. Pen being in the
House as a Member. I perceive the whole House was full of
expectation of our defence what it would be, and with great
prejudice. After the Speaker had told us the dissatisfaction of
the House, and read the Report of the Committee, I began our
defence most acceptably and smoothly, and continued at it without
any hesitation or losse, but with full scope, and all my reason
free about me, as if it had been at my own table, from that, time
till past three in the afternoon; and so ended, without any
interruption from the Speaker; but we withdrew. And there all my
fellow officers, and all the world that was within hearing, did
congratulate me, and cry up my speech as the best thing they ever
heard; and my fellow-officers were overjoyed in it. And we were
called in again by and by to answer only one question touching
our paying tickets to ticket-mongers; and so out. And we were in
hopes to have had a vote this day in our favour, and so the
generality of the House was; but, my speech being so long many
had gone out to dinner and come in again half-drunk. And then
there are two or three that are professed enemies to us and every
body else; among others, Sir T. Littleton, Sir Thomas Lee, [Of
Hartwell, Bucks; created a Baronet 1660.] Mr. Wiles (the coxcomb
whom I saw heretofore at the cock-fighting), and a few others: I
say, these did rise up and speak against the coming to a vote
now, the House not being full by reason of several being at
dinner, but most because that the House was to attend the King
this afternoon about the business of religion (wherein they pray
him to in force all the laws against Nonconformists and Papists):
and this prevented it, so that they put it off to to-morrow come
se'nnight. However, it is plain we have got great ground; and
every body says I have got the most honour that any could have
had opportunity of getting: and so our hearts mightily overjoyed
at this success. After dinner to the King's house, and there saw
part of "The Discontented Colonell." [Brennoralt, or The
Discontented Colonel; a tragedy, by Sir John Suckling.]
6th. Up betimes, and with Sir D. Gauden to Sir W. Coventry's
chamber; where the first word he said to me was, "Good-morrow,
Mr. Pepys, that must be Speaker of the Parliament-house:" and did
protest I had got honour for ever in Parliament. He said that
his brother, that sat by him, admires me; and another gentleman
said that I could not get less than 1000l. a-year, if I would put
on a gown and plead at the Chancery-bar. But, what pleases me
most, he tells me that the Solicitor-generall did protest that he
thought I spoke the best of any man in England. After several
talks with him alone touching his own businesses, he carried me
to White Hall; and there parted. And I to the Duke of York's
lodgings, and find him going to the Parke, it being a very fine
morning; and I after him: and as soon as he saw me, he told me
with great satisfaction that I had converted a great many
yesterday, and did with great praise of me go on with the
discourse with me. And by and by overtaking the King, the King
and Duke of York came to me both; and he [The King.] said, "Mr.
Pepys, I am very glad of your success yesterday:" and fell to
talk of my well speaking. And many of the Lords there. My Lord
Barkeley did cry me up for what they had heard of it; and others,
Parliament-men there about the King, did say that they never
heard such a speech in their lives delivered in that manner.
Progers of the Bedchamber swore to me afterwards before
Brouncker, in the afternoon, that he did tell the King that he
thought I might match the Solicitor-generall. Every body that
saw me almost came to me, as Joseph Williamson and others, with
such eulogys as cannot be expressed. From thence I went to
Westminster Hall; where I met Mr. G. Montagu, who came to me and
kissed me, and told me that he had often heretofore kissed my
hands, but now he would kiss my lips; protesting that I was
another Cicero, and said, all the world said the same of me. Mr.
Ashburnham, and every creature I met there of the Parliament, or
that knew any thing of the Parliament's actings, did salute me
with this honour: Mr. Godolphin; Mr. Sands, who swore he would
go twenty miles at any time to hear the like again, and that he
never saw so many sit four hours together to hear any man in his
life as there did to hear me, Mr. Chichly, Sir John Duncomb, and
every body do say that the kingdom will ring of my abilities, and
that I have done myself right for my whole life; and so Captain
Cocke and others of my friends say that no man had ever such an
opportunity of making his abilities known. And that I may cite
all at once, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower did tell me that Mr.
Vaughan did protest to him, and that in his hearing it said so to
the Duke of Albemarle, and afterwards to Sir W. Coventry, that he
had sat twenty-six years in Parliament and never heard such a
speech there before: for which the Lord God make me thankful;
and that I may make use of it, not to pride and vain-glory, but
that, now I have this esteem, I may do nothing that may lessen
it! To White Hall to wait on the Duke of York; where he again
and all the company magnified me, and several in the Gallery:
among others, my Lord Gerard, who never knew me before nor spoke
to me, desires his being better acquainted with me: and that, at
table where he was, he never heard so much said of any man as of
me in his whole life. So waited on the Duke of York, and thence
into the Gallery, where the House of Lords waited the King's
coming out of the Park; which he did by and by. And there in the
Vane-roome my Lord Keeper delivered a Message to the King, the
Lords being about him, wherein the Barons of England, from many
good arguments very well expressed in the part he read out of, do
demand precedence in England of all noblemen of either of the
King's other two kingdoms, be their title what it will; and did
show that they were in England reputed but as Commoners, and sat
in the House of Commons and at conferences with the Lords did
stand bare. It was mighty worth my hearing; but the King did say
only that he would consider of it, and so dismissed them.
8th. With Sir W. Coventry, who I find full of care in his own
business, how to defend himself against those that have a mind to
cheque him; and though I believe not for honour and for the
keeping his employment, but for safety and reputation's sake, is
desirous to preserve himself free from blame.
9th. By coach to White Hall, and there met Lord Brouncker: and
he and I to the Commissioners of the Treasury; where I find them
mighty kind to me, more, I think, than was wont. And here I also
met Colvill the goldsmith; who tells me, with great joy, how the
world upon the 'Change talks of me; and how several Parliament-
men, viz. Boscawen [Edward Boscawen, M.P for Truro.] and Major
Walden of Huntingdon, who it seems do deal with him, do say how
bravely I did speak, and that the House was ready to have given
me thanks for it: but that, I think, is a vanity.
10th. With Sir D. Gauden homewards, calling at Lincolne's Inn-
fields. But my Lady Jemimah was not within: and so to Newgate,
where he stopped to give directions to the jaylor about a Knight,
one Sir Thomas Halford, [Of Welham, Leicestershire, Baronet.]
brought in yesterday for killing one Colonell Temple, falling out
at a taverne. Home; and there comes Mr. Moore to me; who tells
me that he fears my Lord Sandwich will meet with very great
difficulties to go through about the prizes, it being found that
he did give orders for more than the King's letter do justify;
and then for the Act of Resumption, which he fears will go on,
and is designed only to do him hurt; which troubles me much. He
tells me he believes the Parliament will not be brought to do any
thing in matters of religion, but will adhere to the Bishops.
11th. Meeting Mr. Colvill I walked with him to his building,
where he is building a fine house, where he formerly lived, in
Lumbard-street: and it will be a very fine street. So to
Westminster; and there walked, till by and by comes Sir W.
Coventry, and with him Mr. Chichly and Mr. Andrew Newport. I to
dinner with them to Mr. Chichly's in Queens-street, in Covent
Garden. A very fine house, and a man that lives in mighty great
fashion, with all things in a most extraordinary manner noble and
rich about him, and eats in the French fashion all; and mighty
nobly served with his servants, and very civilly; that I was
mighty pleased with it: and good discourse. He is a great
defender of the Church of England, and against the Act for
Comprehension; which is the work of this day, about which the
House is like to sit till night. After dinner with them back to
Westminster. Captain Cocke told me that the Speaker says he
never heard such a defence made in all his life in the House, and
that the Solicitor-generall do commend me even to envy.
12th. To Gresham College, there to show myself; and was there
greeted by Dr. Wilkins, Whistler, and others, as the patron of
the Navy-office, and one that got great fame by my late speech to
the Parliament.
13th. At noon, all of us to Chatelin, the French house in Covent
Garden, to dinner; Brouncker, J. Minnes, W. Pen, T. Harvey, and
myself; and there had a dinner cost us 8s. 6d. a-piece, a base
dinner, which did not please us at all. My head being full of
to-morrow's dinner, I to my: Lord Crewe's, there to invite Sir
Thomas Crewe; and there met with my Lord Hinchingbroke and his
lady, the first time I spoke to her. I saluted her; and she
mighty civil: and, with my Lady Jemimah, do all resolve to be
very merry to-morrow at my house. My Lady Hinchingbroke I cannot
say is a beauty, nor ugly; but is altogether a comely lady
enough, and seems very good-humoured. Thence home; and there I
find one laying of my napkins against to-morrow in figures of all
sorts; which is mighty pretty, and it seems it is his trade, and
he gets much money by it.
14th. Up very betimes, and with Jane to Lovett's, there to
conclude upon our dinner; and thence to the pewterer's, to buy a
pewter sesterne, which I have ever hitherto been without. Anon
comes my company, viz, my Lord Hinchingbroke and his lady, Sir
Philip Carteret and his lady, Godolphin and my cosen Roger, and
Creed: and mighty merry; and by and by to dinner, which was very
good and plentifull: (and I should have said, and Mr. George
Montagu, who came at a very little warning, which was exceeding
kind of him.) And there, among other things, my Lord had Sir
Samuel Morland's late invention for casting up of sums of L. S.
D.; which is very pretty, but not very useful. Most of our
discourse was of my Lord Sandwich and his family, as being all of
us of the family. And with extraordinary pleasure all the
afternoon, thus together eating and looking over my closet; and
my Lady Hinchingbroke I find a very sweet-natured and well-
disposed lady, a lover of books and pictures, and, of good
understanding. About five o'clock they went; and then my wife
and I abroad by coach into Moore-fields, only for a little ayre.
15th. Walked with Sir W. Coventry into the Park, and there met
the King and the Duke of York, and walked a good while with them:
and here met Sir Jer. Smith, who tells me he is like to get the
better of Holmes, and that when he is come to an end of that he
will do Hollis's business for him in the House for his
blasphemies; which I shall be glad of. So to White Hall, and
there walked with this man and that man till chapel done and the
King dined: and then Sir Thomas Clifford the Comptroller took me
with him to dinner to his lodgings, where my Lord Arlington and a
great deal of good and great company; where I very civilly used
by them, and had a most excellent dinner. And good discourse of
Spain, Mr. Godolphin being there; particularly of the removal of
the bodies of all the dead kings of Spain that could be got
together, and brought to the Pantheon at the Escuriall (when it
was finished) and there placed before the altar, there to lie for
ever: and there was a sermon made to them upon this text, "Arida
ossa, audite verbum Dei;" and a most eloquent sermon, as they
say.
17th. To the Excise-office, where I met Mr. Ball, and did
receive my paper I went for; and there fell in talk with him, who
being an old cavalier do swear and curse at the present state of
things, that we should be brought to this, that we must be undone
and cannot be saved; that the Parliament is sitting now, and will
till midnight, to find how to raise this 300,000l. and doubts
they will not do it so as to be seasonable for the King: but do
cry out against all our great men at Court; how it is a fine
thing for a Secretary of State to dance a jigg, and that it was
not so heretofore; and, above all, do curse my Lord of Bristoll,
saying the worst news that ever he heard in his life, or that the
Devil could ever bring us, was this Lord's coming to prayers the
other day in the House of Lords, by which he is coming about
again from being a Papist, which will undo this nation; and he
says he ever did say at the King's first coming in, that this
nation could not be safe while that man was alive. The house, I
hear, have this day concluded upon raising 100,000l. of the
300,0001. by wine, and the rest by poll, and have resolved to
excuse the Church, in expectation that they will do the more of
themselves at this juncture; and I do hear that Sir W. Coventry
did make a speech in behalf of the clergy.
18th. To White Hall, where we and my Lord Brouncker attended the
Council, to discourse about the fitness of entering of men
presently for the manning of the fleet, before one ship is in
condition to receive them. Sir W. Coventry did argue against it:
I was wholly silent, because I saw the King upon the earnestness
of the Prince was willing to it, crying very civilly, "If ever
you intend to man the fleet without being cheated by the captains
and pursers, you may go to bed and resolve never to have it
manned." And so it was, like other things, over-ruled that all
volunteers should be presently entered. Then there was another
great business about our signing of certificates to the Exchequer
for goods upon the 1,250,000l. Act; which the Commissioners of
the Treasury did all oppose, and to the laying fault upon us.
But I did then speak to the justifying what we had done even to
the angering of Duncomb and Clifford; which I was vexed at: but
for all that, I did set the office and myself right, and went
away with the victory, my Lord Keeper saying that he would not
advise the Council to order us to sign more certificates. But
before I began to say any thing in this matter, the King and the
Duke of York talking at the Council-table before all the Lords of
the Committee of Miscarriages, how this entering of men before
the ships could be ready would be reckoned a miscarriage; "Why,"
says the King, "it is then but Mr. Pepys making of another speech
to them;" which made all the Lords (and there were by also the
Atturny and Solicitor-generall) look upon me. Thence Sir W.
Coventry, W. Pen, and I by hackney-coach to take a little ayre in
Hyde Parke, the first time that I have been there this year; and
we did meet many coaches going and coming, it being mighty
pleasant weather. And so coming back again I light in the Pell
Mell; and there went to see Sir H. Cholmly, who continues very
ill of his cold. And there came in Sir H. Yelverton, and Sir H.
Cholmly commended to me his acquaintance; which the other
received, but without remembering to me, or I him, of our being
school-fellows together; and I said nothing of it. But he took
notice of my speech the other day at the bar of the House; and
indeed I perceive he is a wise men. Here he do say that the town
is full of it; that now the Parliament hath resolved upon
300,000l.; the King instead of fifty will set out but twenty-five
ships, and the Dutch as many; and that Smith is to command them,
who is allowed to have the better of Holmes in the late dispute,
and is in good esteem in the Parliament above the other, Thence
home, and there in favour to my eyes staid at home reading the
ridiculous History of my Lord Newcastle, wrote by his wife; which
shows her to be a mad, conceited, ridiculous woman, and he an
asse to suffer her to write what she writes to him and of him.
So to bed, my eyes being very bad; and I know not how in the
world to abstain from reading.
19th. Walked all along Thames-street, which I have not done
since it was burned, as far as Billingsgate; and there do see a
brave street likely to be, many brave houses being built, and of
them a great many by Mr. Jaggard; but the raising of the street
will make it mighty fine.
20th. All the evening pricking down some things and trying some
conclusions upon my viall, in order to the inventing a better
theory of musique than hath yet been abroad; and I think verily I
shall do it. This day at Court I do hear that Sir W. Pen do
command this summer's fleet; and Mr. Progers of the Bedchamber as
a secret told me that the Prince Rupert is troubled at it, and
several friends of his have been with him to know the reason of
it; so that he do pity Sir W. Pen, whom he hath a great kindness
for, that he should not at any desire of his be put to this
service, and thereby make the Prince his enemy and contract more
envy from other people.
24th. From the Duke's chamber Sir W. Coventry and I to walk in
the Mattted Gallery; and there, among other things, he tells me
of the wicked design that now is at last contriving against him,
to get a petition presented from people, that the money they have
paid to Sir W. Coventry for their places may be repaid them back:
and that this is set on by Temple and Hollis of the Parliament,
and, among other mean people in it, by Captain Tatnell: and he
prays me that I will use some effectual way to sift Tatnell what
he do and who puts him on in this business: which I do
undertake, and will do with all my skill for his service, being
troubled that he is still under this difficulty. Thence back to
White Hall: where great talk of the tumult at the other end of
the town, about Moore-fields, among the prentices taking the
liberty of these holydays to pull down brothels. And Lord! to
see the apprehensions which this did give to all people at Court,
that presently order was given for all the soldiers, horse and
foot, to be in armes; and forthwith alarmes were beat by drum and
trumpet through Westminster and all to their colours and to
horse, as if the French were coming into the town. So Creed,
whom I met here, and I to Lincolne's Inn-fields, thinking to have
come into the fields to have seen the prentices; but here we
found these fields full of soldiers all in a body, and my Lord
Craven commanding of them, and riding up and down to give orders
like a madman. And some young men we saw brought by soldiers to
the guard at White Hall, and overheard others that stood by say
that it was only for pulling down the brothels; and none of the
bystanders finding fault with them, but rather of the soldiers
for hindering them. And we heard a Justice of Peace this morning
say to the King, that he had been endeavouring to suppress this
tumult, but could not; and that imprisoning some of them in the
new prison at Clerkenwell, the rest did come and break open the
prison and release them; and that they do give out that they are
for pulling down the brothels, which is one of the great
grievances of the nation. To which the King made a very poor,
cold, insipid answer: "Why! why do they go to them, then?"--and
that was all, and had no mind to go on with the discourse. This
evening I came home from White Hall with Sir W. Pen, who fell in
talk about his going to sea this year, and the difficulties that
arise to him by it, by giving offence to the Prince and
occasioning envy to him, and many other things that make it a bad
matter at this time of want of money and necessaries, and bad and
uneven counsels at home, for him to go abroad: and did tell me
how much with the King and Duke of York he had endeavoured to be
excused, desiring the Prince might be satisfied in it who hath a
mind to go; but he tells me they will not excuse him, and I
believe it, and truly do judge it a piece of bad fortune to W.
Pen.
25th. Up, and walked to White Hall, there to wait on the Duke of
York; which I did: and in his chamber there, first by hearing
the Duke of York call me by my name, my Lord Burlington did come
to me and with great respect take notice of me and my relation to
my Lord Sandwich, and express great kindness to me; and so to
talk of my Lord Sandwich's concernments. By and by the Duke of
York is ready; and I did wait for an opportunity of speaking my
mind to him about Sir J. Minnes, his being unable to do the King
any service. The Duke of York and all with him this morning were
full of the talk of the prentices, who are not yet, put down,
though the guards and militia of the town have been in armes all
this night and the night before; and the prentices have made
fools of them, sometimes by running from them and flinging stones
at them. Some blood hath been spilt, but a great many houses
pulled down; and, among others, the Duke of York was mighty merry
at that of Daman Page's, the great bawd of the seamen; and the
Duke of York complained merrily that he hath lost two tenants by
their houses being pulled down, who paid him for their wine-
licences 15l. a-year. But these idle fellows have had the
confidence to say that they did ill in contenting themselves in
pulling down the little brothels, and did not go and pull down
the great one at White Hall. And some of them have the last
night had a word among them, and it was "Reformation and
Reducement." This do make the courtiers ill at ease to see this
spirit among people, though they think this matter will not
come to much: but it speakes people's minds; and then they do
say that there are men of understanding among them, that have
been of Cromwell's army: but how true that is, I know not.
26th. To the Duke of York's house to see the new play, called
"The Man is the Master:" [A comedy, by Sir Wm. Davenant, taken
from Moliere's "Joddelet."] where the house was, it being not
one o'clock, very full. By and by the King came; and we sat just
under him, so that I durst not turn my back all the play. The
most of the mirth was sorry, poor stuffe, of eating of sack
posset and slabbering themselves, and mirth fit for clownes; the
prologue but poor, and the epilogue little in it but the
extraordinariness of it, it being sung by Harris and another in
the form of a ballet. My wife extraordinary fine to-day in her
flower tabby suit, bought a year and more ago, before my mother's
death put her into mourning, and so not worn till this day: and
every body in love with it; and indeed she is very fine and
handsome in it. Home in a coach round by the wall; where we met
so many stops by the watches, that it cost us much time and some
trouble, and more money, to every watch to them to drink; this
being encreased by the trouble the prentices did lately give the
City, so that the militia and watches are very strict at this
time; and we had like to have met with a stop for all night at
the constable's watch at Mooregate by a pragmatical constable;
but we came well home at about two in the morning. This noon
from Mrs. Williams's my Lord Brouncker sent to Somerset House to
hear how the Duchesse of Richmond do; and word was brought him
that she is pretty well, but mighty full of the small pox, by
which all do conclude she will he wholly spoiled; which is the
greatest instance of the uncertainty of beauty that could be in
this age; but, then she hath had the benefit of it to be first
married, and to have kept it so long under the greatest
temptations in the world from a King, and yet without the least
imputation. This afternoon, at the play, Sir Fr. Hollis spoke to
me as a secret and matter of confidence in me, and friendship to
Sir W. Pen, who is now out of town, that it were well he were
made acquainted that he finds in the House of Commons, which met
this day, several motions made for the calling strictly again
upon the miscarriages, and particularly in the business of the
prizes and the not prosecuting of the first victory, only to give
an affront to Sir W. Pen, whose going to sea this year does give
them matter of great dislike.
27th. This day at noon comes Mr. Pelling to me, and shows me the
stone cut lately out of Sir Thomas Adams's (the old comely
Alderman) body; [Knight and Bart. alderman of London; ob. 1667.
He founded an Arabic Professorship at Cambridge.] which is very
large indeed, bigger I think than my fist, and weighs above
twenty-five ounces: and which is very miraculous, he never in
all his life had any fit of it, but lived to a great age without
pain, and died at last of something else, without any sense of
this in all his life. This day Creed at White Hall in discourse
told me what information he hath had from very good hands, of the
cowardize and ill-government of Sir Jer. Smith and Sir Thomas
Allen, and the repute they have both of them abroad in the
Streights, from their deportment when they did at several times
command there; and that, above all Englishmen that ever were
there, there never was any man that behaved himself like poor
Charles Wager, whom the very Moores do mention with tears
sometimes.
29th. To church; and there did first find a strange reader, who
could not find in the Service-book the place for churching women,
but was fain to change books with the clerke: and then a
stranger preached, a seeming able man; but said in his pulpit
that God did a greater work in raising of an oake-tree from an
acorn, than a man's body raising it at the last day from his dust
(showing the Possibility of the Resurrection): which was,
methought, a strange saying. Harris do so commend my wife's
picture of Mr. Hales's, that I shall have him draw Harris's head;
and he hath also persuaded me to have Cooper draw my wife's,
which though it cost 30l. yet I will have done. I do hear by
several that Sir W. Pen's going to sea do dislike the Parliament
mightily, and that they have revived the Committee of
Miscarriages to find something to prevent it; and that he being
the other day with the Duke of Albemarle to ask his opinion
touching his going to sea, the Duchesse overheard and came in to
him, and asked W. Pen how he durst have the confidence to offer
to go to sea again to the endangering the nation, when he knew
himself such a coward as he was; which, if true, is very severe.
30th. By coach to Common-garden Coffee-house, where by
appointment I was to meet Harris; which I did, and also Mr.
Cooper the great painter, and Mr. Hales. And thence presently to
Mr. Cooper's house to see some of his work; which is all in
little, but so excellent as, though I must confess I do think the
colouring of the flesh to be a little forced, yet the painting is
so extraordinary as I do never expect to see the like again.
Here I did see Mrs. Stewart's picture as when a young maid, and
now just done before her having the small-pox: and it would make
a man weep to see what she was then, and what she is like to be
by people's discourse now. Here I saw my Lord Generall's
picture, and my Lord Arlington and Ashly's, and several others:
but among the rest one Swinfen that was Secretary to my Lord
Manchester, Lord Chamberlain (with Cooling), done so admirably as
I never saw any thing: but the misery was, this fellow died in
debt and never paid Cooper for his picture; but it being seized
on by his creditors among his other goods after his death, Cooper
himself says that he did buy it and give 25l. out of his purse
for it, for what he was to have had but 30l. To White Hall and
Westminster, where I find the Parliament still bogling about the
raising of this money. And every body's mouth full now; and Mr.
Wren himself tells me that the Duke of York declares to go to sea
himself this year; and I perceive it is only on this occasion of
distaste of the Parliament against W. Pen's going, and to prevent
the Prince's: but I think it is mighty hot counsel for the Duke
of York at this time to go out of the way; but, Lord! what pass
are all our matters come to! At noon by appointment to
Cursitor's-alley in Chancery-lane, to meet Captain Cocke and some
other creditors the Navy, and their Counsel (Pemberton, North,
Offly, and Charles Porter); and there dined and talked of the
business of the assignments on the Exchequer of the 1,250,000l.
on behalf of our creditors; and there I do perceive that the
Counsel had heard of my performance in the Parliament-house
lately, and did value me and what I said accordingly. At dinner
we had a great deal of good discourse about Parliament; their
number being uncertain, and always at the will of the King to
encrease as he saw reason to erect a new borough. But all
concluded that the bane of the Parliament hath been the leaving
off the old custom of the places allowing wages to those that
served them in Parliament, by which they chose men that
understood their business and would attend it, and they could
expect an account from; which now they cannot: and so the
Parliament is become a company of men unable to give account for
the interest of the place they serve for. Thence, the meeting of
the Counsel with the King's Counsel this afternoon being put off
by reason of the death of Serjeant Maynard's lady, [John Maynard,
an eminent lawyer; made Serjeant to Cromwell in 1653, and
afterwards King's Serjeant by Charles II., who knighted him, In
1663 he was chosen Member for Berealston, and sat in every
Parliament till the Revolution. Ob. 1690, aged 88.] I to White
Hall, where the Parliament was to wait on the King; and they did:
and he did think fit to tell them that they might expect to be
adjourned at Whitsuntide, and that they might make haste to raise
their money; but this, I fear, will displease them, who did
expect to sit as long as they pleased.
APRIL 2, 1668. With Lord Brouncker to the Royall Society, where
they had just done; but there I was forced to subscribe to the
building of a college, and did give 40l.; and several others did
subscribe, some greater and some less sums; but several I saw
hang off: and I doubt it will spoil the Society, for it breeds
faction and ill-will, and becomes burdensome to some that cannot
or would not do it.
3rd. As soon as we had done with the Duke of York we did attend
the Council; and were there called in, and did hear Mr.
Sollicitor make his report to the Council in the business of a
complaint against us, for having prepared certificates on the
Exchequer for the further sum of 50,000l.; which he did in a most
excellent manner of words, but most cruelly severe against us,
and so were some of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, as
men guilty of a practice with the tradesmen, to the King's
prejudice. I was unwilling to enter into a contest with them;
but took advantage of two or three words last spoke, and brought
it to a short issue in good words, that if we had the King's
order to hold our hands, we would; which did end the matter: and
they all resolved we should have it, and so it ended. And so we
away; I vexed that I did not speak more in a cause so fit to be
spoke in, and wherein we had so much advantage; but perhaps I
might have provoked the Sollicitor and the Commissioners of the
Treasury, and therefore since I am not sorry that I forebore.
This day I hear that Prince Rupert and Holmes do go to sea: and
by this there is a seeming friendship and peace among our great
seamen; but the devil a bit there is any love among them, or can
be.
4th, I did attend the Duke of York, and he did carry us to the
King's lodgings: but he was asleep in his closet; so we stayed
in the green-roome; where the Duke of York did tell us what rules
he had of knowing the weather, and did now tell us we should have
rain before to-morrow (it having been a dry season for some
time), and so it did rain all night almost; and pretty rules he
hath, and told Brouncker and me some of them, which were such as
no reason can readily be given for them. By and by the King
comes out: and then to talk of other things; about the Quakers
not swearing, and how they do swear in the business of a late
election of a Knight of the Shire of Hartfordshire in behalf of
one they have a mind to have; and how my Lord of Pembroke says he
hath heard the Quaker at the tennis-court swear to himself when
he loses; and told us what pretty notions my Lord Pembroke hath
of the first chapter of Genesis, and a great deal of such
fooleries; which the King made mighty mockery at.
5th. I hear that eight of the ringleaders in the late tumults of
the prentices at Easter are condemned to die.
6th. The King and Duke of York themselves in my absence did call
for some of the Commissioners of the Treasury and give them
directions about the business of the certificates; which I,
despairing to do any thing on a Sunday, and not thinking that
they would think of it themselves, did rest satisfied with, and
stayed at home all yesterday, leaving it to do something in this
day: but I find that the King and Duke of York had been so
pressing in it, that my Lord Ashly was more forward with the
doing of it this day than I could have been. And so I to White
Hall with Alderman Backewell in his coach, with Mr. Blany, my
Lord's Secretary; and there did draw up a rough draught of what
order I would have, and did carry it in, and had it read twice
and approved of before my Lord Ashly and three more of the
Commissioners of the Treasury; and then went up to the Council-
chamber, where the Duke of York and Prince Rupert, and the rest
of the Committee of the Navy, were sitting: and I did get some
of them to read it there; and they would have had it passed
presently, but Sir John Nichollas desired they would first have
it approved by a full council; and therefore a Council
Extraordinary was readily summoned against the afternoon, and,
the Duke of York run presently to the King, as if now they were
really set to mind their business; which God grant! Mr. Montagu
did tell me how Mr. Vaughan in that very room did say that I was
a great man, and had great understanding, and I know not what;
which, I confess, I was a little proud of, if I may believe him.
Here I do hear as a great secret that the King, and Duke of York
and Duchesse, and my lady Castlemaine, are now all agreed in a
strict league, and all things like to go very current, and that
it is not impossible to have my Lord Clarendon in time here
again. But I do hear that my Lady Castlemaine is horribly vexed
at the late libell, the petition of the poor prostitutes about
the town whose houses were pulled down the other day. I have got
one of them; and it is not very witty, but devilish severe
against her and the King: and I wonder how it durst be printed
and spread abroad; which shows that the times are loose, and come
to a great disregard of the King, or Court, or Govermment. To
the Park; and then to the House, and there at the door eat and
drank; whither came my Lady Kerneagy [Carnegie.] of whom Creed
tells me more particulars: how her Lord, finding her and the
Duke of York at the King's first coming in, too kind, did get it
out of her that he did dishonour him; and did take the most
pernicious and full piece of revenge that ever I heard of; and he
at this day owns it with great glory, and looks upon the Duke of
York and the world with great content in the ampleness of his
revenge. [VIDE Memoires de Grammont.] This day in the
afternoon, stepping with the Duke of York into St. James's Park,
it rained; and I was forced to lend the Duke of York my cloak,
which he wore through the Park.
7th. To the King's playhouse, and there saw "The English
Monsieur" [A Comedy by James Howard.] (sitting for privacy sake
in an upper box): the play hath much mirth in it as to that
particular humour. After the play done I down to Knipp, and did
stay her undressing herself: and there saw the several players,
men and women, go by; and pretty to see how strange they are all,
one to another, after the play is done. Here I hear Sir W.
Davenant is just now dead; and so who will succeed him in the
mastership of the House is not yet known. The eldest Davenport
is, it seems, gone from this house to be kept by somebody; which
I am glad of, she being a very bad actor. Mrs. Knipp tells me
that my Lady Castlemaine is mightily in love with Hart of their
house; and he is much with her in private, and she goes to him
and do give him many presents; and that the thing is most
certain, and Beck Marshall only privy to it, and the means of
bringing them together: which is a very odd thing; and by this
means she is even with the King's love to Mrs. Davis.
8th. To Drumbleby's, and there did talk a great deal about
pipes; and did buy a recorder, which I do intend to learn to play
on, the sound of it being, of all sounds in the world, most
pleasing to me.
9th. I up and down to the Duke of York's playhouse, there to
see, which I did, Sir W. Davenant's corpse, carried out towards
Westminster, there to be buried. Here were many coaches and six
horses, and many hacknies, that made it look, methought, as if it
were the buriall of a poor poet. He seemed to have many
children, by five or six in the first mourning-coach, all boys.
To my office, where is come a packet from the Downes from my
brother Balty, who with Harman are arrived there, of which this
day comes the first news. And now the Parliament will be
satisfied, I suppose, about the business they have so long
desired between Brouncker [Henry Brouncker.] and Harman, about
not prosecuting the first victory.
16th. To Westminster Hall, where I hear W. Pen is ordered to be
impeached. There spoke with many, and particularly with G.
Montagu; and went with him and Creed to his house, where he told
how Sir W. Pen hath been severe to Lord Sandwich; but the
Coventrys both labouring to save him by laying it on Lord
Sandwich; which our friends cry out upon, and I am silent, but do
believe they did it as the only way to save him. It could not be
carried to commit him. It is thought the House do cool: Sir W.
Coventry's being for him provoked Sir R. Howard, and his party:
Court all for W. Pen.
17th. I hear that the House is upon the business of Harman, who,
they say, takes all on himself.
18th. Do hear this morning that Harman is committed by the
Parliament last night, the day he came up; which is hard: but he
took all upon himself first, and then, when a witness came in to
say otherwise, he would have retracted; and the House took it so
ill, they would commit him.
19th. Roger Pepys did tell me the whole story of Harman, how he
prevaricated, and hath undoubtedly been imposed on and wheedled;
and he is like the miller's man that in Richard the Third's time
was hanged for his master.
20th. To White Hall, and there hear how Brouncker is tied, which
I think will undo him; but what good it will do Harman I know
not, he hath so befouled himself; but it will be good sport to my
Lord Chancellor to hear how his great enemy is fain to take the
same course that he is. There met Robinson, who tells me that he
fears his master, Sir W. Coventry, will this week have his
business brought upon the stage again about selling of places;
which I shall be sorry for, though the less since I hear his
standing up for Pen the other day, to the prejudice, though not
to the ruin, of my Lord Sandwich; and yet I do think what he did,
he did out of a principle of honesty. Meeting Sir William Hooker
the Alderman, he did cry out mighty high against Sir W. Pen for
his getting such an estate and giving 15,000l. with his daughter;
which is more by half than ever he did give; but this the world
believes, and so let them.
21st. I hear how Sir W. Pen's impeachment was read and agreed to
in the House this day, and ordered to be engrossed; and he
suspended the House: Harman set at liberty; and Brouncker put
out of the House, and a writ [At Romney, which Brouncker
represented.] for a new election, and an impeachment ordered to
be brought in against him, he being fled.
22nd. To White Hall; and there we attended the Duke of York as
usual; and I did present Mrs. Pett the widow and her petition to
the Duke of York, for some relief from the King. Here was to-day
a proposition made to the Duke of York by Captain Von Hemskirke
for 20,000l. to discover an art how to make a ship go two feet
for one what any ship do now: which the King inclines to try, it
costing him nothing to try and it is referred to us to contract
with the man. Then by water from the Privy-stairs to Westminster
Hall: and taking water the King and the Duke of York were in the
new buildings; and the Duke of York called to me whither I was
going? And I answered aloud, "To wait on our masters at
Westminster;" at which he and all the company laughed: but I was
sorry and troubled for it afterwards, for fear any Parliament-man
should have been there; and it will be a caution to me for the
time to come.
24th. I did hear the Duke of York tell how Sir W. Pen's
impeachment was brought into the House of Lords to-day; and he
spoke with great kindness of him: and that the Lords would not
commit, him till they could find precedent for it, and did
incline to favour him.
25th. To Westminster Hall, and there met with Roger Pepys; and
he tells me that nothing hath lately passed about my Lord
Sandwich but only Sir Robert Carr did speak hardly of him. But
it is hoped that nothing will be done more this meeting of
Parliament, which the King did by a message yesterday declare
again should rise the 4th of May, and then only adjourne for
three months; and this message being only about an adjournment
did please them mightily, for they are desirous of their power
mightily.
27th. To Westminster Hall, and up to the Lords' House; and there
saw Sir W. Pen go into the House of Lords, where his impeachment
was read to him and he used mighty civilly, the Duke of York
being there; and two days hence, at his desire, he is to bring in
his answer, and a day then to be appointed for his being heard
with Counsel. Thence down into the Hall, and with Creed and
Godolphin walked; and do hear that to-morrow is appointed, upon a
motion on Friday last, to discourse the business of my Lord
Sandwich, moved by Sir R. Howard, that he should be sent for
home; and I fear it will be ordered. Certain news come, I hear,
this day, that the Spanish Plenipotentiary in Flanders will not
agree to the peace and terms we and the Dutch have made for him
and the King of France; and by this means the face of things may
be altered, and we forced to join with the French against Spain;
which will be an odd thing.
28th. By coach to Westminster Hall, and there do understand that
the business of religion and the Act against Conventicles have so
taken them up all this morning, and do still, that my Lord
Sandwich's business is not like to come on to-day; which I am
heartily glad of. This law against Conventicles is very severe;
but Creed, whom I meet here, do tell me that it being moved that
Papists' meetings might be included, the House was divided upon
it, and it was carried in the negative; which will give great
disgust to the people, I doubt. To the King's house, and there
did see "Love in a Maze;" wherein very good mirth of Lacy the
clown, and Wintershell the country-knight, his master.
29th. To White Hall, and there do hear how Sir W. Pen hath
delivered in his answer; and the Lords have sent it down to the
Commons, but they have not yet read it nor taken notice of it, so
as I believe they will by design defer it till they rise, that so
he by lying under an impeachment may be prevented in his going to
sea; which will vex him, and trouble the Duke of York. To
Westminster Hall, and there met Mr. G. Montagu, and walked and
talked; who tells me that the best fence against the Parliament's
present fury is delay, and recommended it to me in my friends'
business and my own, if I have any; and is that that Sir W.
Coventry do take, and will secure himself: that the King will
deliver up all to the Parliament; and being petitioned the other
day by Mr. Brouncker to protect him, with teares in his eyes the
King did say he could not, and bid him shift for himself, at
least till the House is up.
30th. To the Dolphin Tavern, there to meet on neighbours all of
the parish, this being Procession-day, to dine. And did: and
much very good discourse; they being most of them very able
merchants, as any in the City; Sir Andrew Rickard, Mr. Vandeputt,
Sir John Fredericke, Harrington, and others. They talked with
Mr. Mills about the meaning of this day, and the good uses of it;
and how heretofore, and yet in several places, they do whip a boy
at each place they stop at in their procession stopped to talk
with Mr. Brisband, who gives me an account of the rough usage Sir
G. Carteret and his Counsel, had the other day before the
Commissioners of Accounts, and what I do believe we shall all of
us have in a greater degree than any he hath had yet with them,
before their three years are out; which are not yet begun, nor
God knows when they will, this being like to be no session of
Parliament when they now rise. Thus ends this month; my wife in
the country, myself full of pleasure and expence; in some trouble
for my friends, and my Lord Sandwich by the Parliament, and more
for my eyes, which are daily worse and worse, that I dare not
write or read almost any thing. The Parliament going in a few
days to rise: myself so long without accounting now (for seven
or eight months, I think, or more,) that I know not what
condition almost I am in as to getting or spending for all that
time; which troubles me, but I will soon do it. The kingdom in
an ill state through poverty: a fleet going out, and no money to
maintain it or set it out; seamen yet unpaid, and mutinous when
pressed to go out again; our office able to do little, nobody
trusting us, nor we desiring any to trust us, and yet have not
money for any thing, but only what particularly belongs to this
fleet going out, and that but lamely too. The Parliament several
months upon an Act for 300,000l. but cannot or will not agree
upon it, but do keep it back, in spite of the King's desires to
hasten it, till they can obtain what they have a mind in revenge
upon some men for the late ill managements; and he is forced to
submit to what they please, knowing that without it he shall have
no money, and they as well that if they give the money the King
will suffer them to do little more: and then the business of
religion do disquiet every body, the Parliament being vehement
against the Nonconformists, while the King seems to be willing to
countenance them. So we are all poor and in pieces, God help us!
while the peace is like to go on between Spain and France; and
then the French may be apprehended able to attack us. So God
help us!
MAY 1, 1668. Met my cosen Thomas Pepys of Deptford, and took
some turns with him; and he is mightily troubled for this Act now
passed against Conventicles, and in few words and sober do lament
the condition we are in by a negligent prince and a mad
Parliament. To the King's playhouse, and there saw "The
Surprizall;" and a disorder in the pit by its raining in from the
cupola, at top. I understand how the Houses of Commons and Lords
are like to disagree very much about the business of the East
India Company, and one Skinner; to the latter of which the Lords
have awarded 5000l. from the former, for some wrong done him
heretofore; and the former appealing to the Commons, the Lords
vote their petition a libell; and so there is like to follow very
hot work.
3rd. To church, where I saw Sir A. Rickard, though he be under
the Black Rod, by order of the Lords' House, upon the quarrel
between the East India Company and Skinner; which is like to come
to a very great heat between the two Houses. To Old-street, to
see Sir Thomas Teddiman, who is very ill in bed of a fever, got,
I believe, by the fright the Parliament have put him into of
late.
3th. Creed and I to the Duke of York's playhouse; and there
coming late, up to the balcony-box, where we find my Lady
Castlemaine and several great ladies; and there we sat with them,
and I saw "The Impertinents" once more, now three times, and the
three only days it hath been acted. And to see the folly how the
house do this day cry up the play more than yesterday! and I for
that reason like it, I find, the better too. By Sir Positive At-
all, I understand is meant Sir Robert Howard. My Lady pretty
well pleased with it: but here I eat; close to her fine woman,
Willson, who indeed is very handsome, but, they say, with child
by the King. I asked, and she told me this was the first time
her Lady had seen it, I having a mind to say something to her.
One thing of familiarity I observed in my Lady Castlemaine: she
called to one of her women, another that sat by this, for a
little patch off of her face, and put it into her mouth and
wetted it, and so clapped it upon her own by the side of her
mouth, I suppose she feeling a pimple rising there. Thence with
Creed to Westminster Hall, and there met with cosen Roger, who
tells me of the great conference this day between the Lords and
Commons about the business of the East India Company, as being
one of the weightiest conferences that hath been, and maintained
as weightily. I am heartily sorry I was not there, it being upon
a mighty point of the privileges of the subjects of England in
regard to the authority of the House of Lords, and their being
condemned by them as the Supreme Court, which we say ought not to
be but by appeal from other Courts. And he tells me that the
Commons had much the better of them in reason and history there
quoted, and believes the Lords will let it fall.
6th. I understand that my Lord St. John is meant by Mr.
Woodrocke in "The Impertinents." Home to put up things against
to-morrow's carrier for my wife; and, among others, a very fine
salmon pie sent me by Mr. Steventon, W. Hewer's uncle.
7th. To the King's House; where going in for Knipp, the play
being done, I did see Beck Marshall come dressed off the stage,
and look mighty fine and pretty, and noble: and also Nell in her
boy's clothes, mighty pretty. Put Lord! their confidence, and
how many men do hover about them as soon as they come off the
stage, and how confident they are in their talk! Here was also
Haynes, the incomparable dancer of the King's house. Then we
abroad to Marrowbone, and there walked in the garden, the first
time I ever was there; and a pretty place it is.
8th. The Lords' House did sit till eleven o'clock last night
about the business of difference between them and the Commons in
the matter of the East India Company. To my Lord Crewe's, and
there dined; where Mr. Case the minister, a dull fellow in his
talk, and all in the Presbyterian manner; a great deal of noise
and a kind of religious tone, but very dull. After dinner my
Lord and I together. He tells me he hears that there are great
disputes like to be at Court between the factions of the two
women, my Lady Castlemaine and Mrs. Stewart, who is now well
again, (the King having made several public visits to her,) and
like to come to Court: the other is to go to Barkeshire-house,
which is taken for her, and they say a Privy-seal is passed for
5000l. for it. He believes all will come to ruin. Thence I to
White Hall; where the Duke of York gone to the Lords' House,
where there is to be a conference on thee Lords' side with the
Commons this afternoon, giving in their Reasons, which I would
have been at, but could not; for going by direction to the
Prince's chamber, there Brouncker, W. Pen, and Mr. Wren and I
met, and did our business with the Duke of York. But, Lord! to
see how this play of Sir Positive At-all in abuse of Sir Robert
Howard do take, all the Duke's and every body's talk being of
that, and telling more stories of him of the like nature, that it
is now the town and country talk, and, they say, is most exactly
true. The Duke of York himself said that of his playing at trap-
ball is true, and told several other stories of him. Then to
Brouncker's house, and there sat and talked, I asking many
questions in mathematics to my Lord, which he do me the pleasure
to satisfy me in.
9th. I hear that the Queene hath miscarryed of a perfect child,
being gone about ten weeks; which do show that she can conceive,
though it be unfortunate that she cannot bring forth. We are
told also that last night the Duchesse of Monmouth dancing at her
lodgings, hath sprained her thigh. We are told also that the
House of Commons sat till five o'clock this morning upon the
business of the difference between the Lords and them, resolving
to do something therein before they rise to assert their
privileges. So I at noon by water to Westminster, and there find
the King hath waited in the Prince's chamber these two hours, and
the Houses are not ready for him. The Commons having sent this
morning, after their long debate therein the last night, to the
Lords, that they do think the only expedient left to preserve
unity between the two Houses is, that they do put a stop to any
proceedings upon their late judgement against the East India
Company, till their next meeting; to which the Lords returned
answer, that they would return answer to them by a messenger of
their own; which they not presently doing, they were all
inflamed, and thought it was only a trick to keep them in
suspense till the King come to adjourne them; and so rather than
lose the opportunity of doing themselves right, they presently
with great fury come to this vote: "That whoever should assist
in the execution of the Judgement of the Lords against the
Company should be held betrayers of the liberties of the people
of England, and of the privileges of that House." This the Lords
had notice of, and were mad at it; and so continued debating
without any design to yield to the Commons, till the King came in
and sent for the Commons: where the Speaker made a short but
silly speech about their giving him 300,000l.; and then the
several Bills their titles were read, and the King's assent
signified in the proper terms, according to the nature of the
Bills; of which about three or four were public Bills, and seven
or eight private ones, (the additional Bills for the building of
the City and the Bill against Conventicles being none of them.)
The King did make a short silly speech, which he read, giving
them thanks for the money, which now, he said, he did believe
would be sufficient, because there was peace between his
neighbours; which was a kind of a slur, methought, to the
Commons: and that he was sorry for what he heard of difference
between the two Houses, but that he hoped their recesse would put
them into a way of accommodation; and so adjourned them to the
9th of August, and then recollected himself and told them the
11th; so imperfect a speaker he is. So the Commons went to their
House, and forthwith adjourned; and the Lords resumed their
House, the King being gone, and sat an hour or two after: but
what they did, I cannot tell; but every body expected they would
commit Sir Andrew Rickard, Sir Samuel Barnardiston, [Wood
mentions Sir S. Barnadiston as a leading Fanatic, CIRC. 1683.]
Mr. Boone, and Mr. Wynne, who were all there, and called in upon
their knees to the bar of the House: and Sir John Robinson I
left there, endeavouring to prevent their being committed to the
Tower, lest he should thereby be forced to deny their order,
because of this vote of the Commons, whereof he is one; which is
an odde case.
12th. Lord Anglesy, in talk about the late difference between
the two Houses, do tell us that he thinks the House of Lords may
be in an error, at least it is possible they may, in this matter
of Skinner; and did declare his judgement in the House of Lords
against their proceedings therein, he having hindered 100
originall causes being brought into their House, notwithstanding
that he was put upon defending their proceedings: but that he is
confident that the House of Commons are in the wrong, in the
method they take to remedy an error of the Lords, for no vote of
theirs can do it; but in all like cases the Commons have done it
by petition to the King, sent up to the Lords, and by them agreed
to and so redressed, as they did in the petition of Right. He
says that he did tell them indeed, which is talked of, and which
did vex the Commons, that the Lords were "JUDICES NATI ET
CONCILIARII NATI;" but all other Judges among us are under
salary, and the Commons themselves served for wages; and
therefore the Lords, in reason, the freer Judges.
13th. To attend the Council about the business of Hemskirke's
project of building a ship that sails two feet for one of any
other ship; which the Council did agree to be put in practice,
the King to give him, if it proves good, 5000l. in hand, and
15,000l. more in seven years: which for my part I think a piece
of folly for them to meddle with, because the secret cannot be
long kept. This morning I hear that last night Sir Thomas
Teddiman, poor man! did die by a thrush in his mouth: a good
man, and stout and able, and much lamented; though people do make
a little mirth, and say, as I believe it did in good part, that
the business of the Parliament did break his heart, or at least
put him into this fever and disorder that; caused his death.
15th. To a Committee for Tangier; where God knows how my Lord
Bellasses' accounts passed: understood by nobody but my Lord
Ashly, who, I believe, was allowed to let them go as he pleased.
But here Sir H. Cholmly had his propositions read about a greater
price for his work of the Molle, or to do it upon account; which
being read, he was bid to withdraw. But, Lord! to see how
unlucky a man may be by chance! for, making an unfortunate
motion when they were almost tired with the other business, the
Duke of York did find fault with it, and that made all the rest,
that I believe he had better have given a great deal and had
nothing said to it to-day; whereas I have seen other things more
extravagant passed at first hearing, without any difficulty. To
Loriner's-hall, by Mooregate, (a hall I never heard of before,)
to Sir Thomas Teddiman's burial, where most people belonging to
the sea, were. And here we had rings: and here I do hear that
some of the last words that he said were, that he had a, very
good King, God bless him! but that the Parliament had very ill
rewarded him for all the service he had endeavoured to do them
and his country: so that for certain this did go far towards his
death. But, Lord! to see among the company the young
commanders, and Thomas Killigrew and others that came, how unlike
a burial this was, O'Brian taking out some ballads out of his
pocket, which I read, and the rest come about me to hear! And
there very merry we were all, they being new ballads. By and by
the corpse went; and I, with my Lord Brouncker, and Dr. Clerke,
and Mr. Pierce, as far as the foot of London-bridge; and there we
struck off into Thames-street, the rest going to Redriffe, where
he is to be buried. The Duchesse of Monmouth's hip is, I hear,
now set again, after much pain. I am told also that the
Countesse of Shrewsbery is brought home by the Duke of Buckingham
to his house; where his Duchesse saying that it was not for her
and the other to live together in a house, he answered, "Why,
Madam, I did think so, and therefore have ordered your coach to
be ready to carry you to your father's;" which was a devilish
speech, but, they say, true; and my Lady Shrewsbery is there,
it seems.
18th. To the King's playhouse, and there saw the best part of
"The Sea Voyage," [A comedy, by Beaumont and Fletcher.] where
Knipp did her part of sorrow very well.
17th (Lord's day). Up, and put on my new stuff-suit, with a
shoulder-belt according to the new fashion, and the hands of my
vest and tunique laced with silk-lace of the colour of my suit:
and so very handsome to church.
18th. To my Lord Bellasses, at his new house by my late Lord
Treasurer's; which indeed is mighty noble, and good pictures,
indeed not one bad one in it. It being almost twelve o'clock, or
little more, to the King's playhouse, where the doors were not
then open; but presently they did open; and we in, and find many
people already come in by private ways into the pit, it being the
first day of Sir Charles Sedley's new play so long expected, "The
Mulbery Garden;" of whom, being so reputed a wit, all the world
do expect great matters. I having sat here awhile and eat
nothing to-day, did slip out, getting a boy to keep my place; and
to the Rose Tavern, and there got half a breast of mutton off of
the spit, and dined all alone. And so to the play again; where
the King and Queene by and by come, and all the Court; and the
house infinitely full. But the play, when it come, though there
was here and there a pretty saying, and that not very many
neither, yet the whole of the play had nothing extraordinary in
it all, neither of language nor design; insomuch that the King I
did not see laugh nor pleased from the beginning to the end, nor
the company; insomuch that I have not been less pleased at a new
play in my life, I think.
19th. Pierce tells me that for certain Mr. Vaughan is made Lord
Chief Justice; which I am glad of. He tells me too, that since
my Lord of Ormond's coming over, the King begins to be mightily
reclaimed, and sups every night with great pleasure with the
Queene: and yet, it seems, he is mighty hot upon the Duchesse of
Richmond; insomuch that, upon Sunday was se'nnight at night,
after he had ordered his Guards and coach to be ready to carry
him to the Park, he did on a sudden take a pair of oars or
sculler, and all alone, or but one with him, go to Somerset
House, and there, the garden-door not being open, himself clamber
over the wall to make a visit to her; which is a horrid shame.
20th. To the Council-chamber, where the Committee of the Navy
sat; and here we discoursed several things, but, Lord! like
fools, so as it was a shame to see things of this importance
managed by a Council that understand nothing of them. And, among
other things, one was about this building of a ship with
Hemskirke's secret, to sail a third faster than any other ship;
but he hath got Prince Rupert on his side, and by that means, I
believe, will get his conditions made better than he would
otherwise, or ought indeed. To the Mulbery-garden, [On the site
of which Buckingham-House was erected.] where I never was
before; and find it a very silly place, worse than Spring-garden,
and but little company, only a wilderness here that is somewhat
pretty.
21st. To the office, where meets me Sir Richard Ford; who among
other things congratulates me, as one or two did yesterday, on my
great purchase; and he advises me rather to forbear if it be not
done, as a thing that the world will envy me in: and what is it
but my cosen Tom Pepys's buying of Martin Abbey, [In 1668 the
site of Murton, ALIAS Martin Priory, was conveyed by Ellis Crispe
to Thomas Pepys, Esq., of Hatcham Barns, Master of the Jewel-
office to Charles II. and James II.--MANNING'S SURREY.] in
Surry? All the town is full of the talk of a meteor, or some
fire, that did on Saturday last fly over the City at night; which
do put me in mind that, being then walking in the dark an hour or
more myself in the garden after I had done writing, I did see a
light before me come from behind me, which made me turn back my
head; and I did see a sudden fire or light running in the sky, as
it were towards Cheapside-ward, And vanished very quick; which
did make me bethink myself what holyday it was, and took it for
some rocket, though it was much brighter: and the world do make
much discourse of it, their apprehensione being mighty full of
the rest of the City to be burned, and the Papists to cut our
throats.
22nd. I fitted myself for my journey to Brampton to-morrow,
which I fear will not be pleasant because of the wet weather, it
rained very hard all this day; but the less it troubles me,
because the King and Duke of York and Court are at this day at
Newmarket at a great horse-race, and proposed great pleasure for
two or three days, but are in the same wet.
23rd. To the Bull in Bishopsgate-street; and, there about six
took coach, and so away to Bishop's Stafford, [Bishop Stortford,
in Herts.] The ways are mighty full of water, so as hardly to be
passed. After dinner to Cambridge, about nine at night: and
there I met my father's horses.
24th. We set out by three o'clock to Brampton. Here I saw my
brother and sister Jackson. After dinner my Lady Sandwich
sending to see whether I was come, I presently took horse, and
find her and her family at chapel: and, thither I went in to
them, and sat out the sermon; where I heard Jervas Fulwood, now
their chaplain, preach a very good and civantick kind of sermon,
too good for an ordinary congregation. After sermon I with my
Lady, and my Lady Hinchingbroke, and Paulina, and Lord
Hinchingbroke.
25th. To Cambridge, the waters not being now so high as before.
Here lighting, I took my boy and two brothers, and walked to
Magdalene College; and there into the butterys as a stranger, and
there drank of their beer, which pleased me, as the best I ever
drank; and hear by the Butler's man, who was son to Goody
Mulliner over-against the College, that we used to buy stewed
prunes of, concerning the College and persons in it; and find
very few, only Mr. Hollins [John Hollins of Medley, in Yorkshire;
admitted a Pensioner of Magdalene College, March 1651.] and
Pechell, I think, that were of my time.
26th. To the coach; where about six o'clock we set out, and got
to Bishopsgate-street before eight o'clock, the waters being now
most of them down, and we avoiding the bad way in the forest by a
privy way, which brought us to Hodsden; and so to Tibald's that
road; which was mighty pleasant.
27th. Met Mr. Sawyer, my old chamber-fellow; and he and I by
water together to the Temple, he giving me an account of the
base, rude usage which he and Sir G. Carteret had lately before
the Commissioners of Accounts, where he was as Counsel to Sir G.
Carteret; which I was sorry to hear, they behaving themselves
like most insolent and ill-mannered men. To see Sir W. Pen; whom
I find still very ill of the gout, sitting in his great chair,
made on purpose for persons sick of that disease for their ease;
and this very chair, he tells me, was made for my Lady Lambert.
29th. Received some directions from the Duke of York and the
Committee of the Navy about casting up the charge of the present
summer's fleet, that so they may come within the bounds of the
sum given by the Parliament. But it is pretty to see how Prince
Rupert and other mad silly people are for setting out but a
little fleet, there being no occasion for it; and say it will be
best to save the money for better uses. But Sir G. Carteret did
declare that in wisdom it was better to do so; but that, in
obedience to the Parliament, he was for setting out the fifty
sail talked on, though it spent all the money, and to little
purpose; and that this was better than to leave it to the
Parliament to make bad constructions of their thrift, if any
trouble should happen. Thus wary the world is grown! Thence
back again presently home, and did business till noon. And then
to Sir G. Carteret's to dinner with much good company, it being
the King's birthday, and many healths drunk. And here I did
receive another letter from my Lord Sandwich; which troubles me
to see how I have neglected him in not writing, or but once, all
this time of his being abroad and I see he takes notice, but yet
gently, of it.
30th. Up, and put on a new summer black bombazin suit; and being
come now to an agreement with my barber to keep my perriwig in
good order at 20s. a-year, I am like to go very spruce, more than
I used to do. To the King's playhouse, and there saw
"Philaster;" [A tragedy, by Beaumont and Fletcher.] where it is
pretty to see how I could remember almost all along, ever since I
was a boy, Arethusa, the part which I was to have acted at Sir
Robert Cooke's; and it was very pleasant to me, but more to think
what a ridiculous thing it would have been for me to have acted a
beautiful woman. To Fox Hall, and there fell into the company of
Harry Killigrew, a rogue newly come out of France, but still in
disgrace at our Court, and young Newport and others, as very
rogues as any in the town, who were ready to take hold of every
woman that come by them. And so to supper in an arbour: but
Lord! their mad talk did make my heart ake. And here I first
understood by their talk the meaning of the company that lately
were called Ballers; Harris telling how it was by a meeting of
some young blades, where he was among them, and my Lady Bennet
and her ladies; and there dancing naked, and all the roguish
things in the world. But, Lord! what loose company was this
that I was in to-night, though full of wit; and worth a man's
being in for once to know the nature of it, and their manner of
talk and lives.
31st. I hear that Mrs. Davis is quite gone from the Duke of
York's house, and Gosnell comes in her room; which I am glad of.
At the play at Court the other night Mrs. Davis was there; and
when she was to come to dance her jigg, the Queene would not stay
to see it; which people do think was out of displeasure at her
being the King's mistress, that she could not bear it. My Lady
Castlemaine is, it seems, now mightily out of request, the King
coming little to her, and then she mighty melancholy and
discontented.
JUNE 1, 1668. Alone to Fox Hall, and walked and saw young
Newport and two more rogues of the town seize on two ladies, who
walked with them an hour with their masks on; (perhaps civil
ladies;) and there I left them.
3rd. To White Hall to the Council-chamber, where I did present
the Duke of York with an account of the charge of the present
fleet to his satisfaction; and this being done, did ask his leave
for my going out of town five or six days, which he did give me,
saying that my diligence in the King's business was such that I
ought not to be denied when my own business called me any
whither. To my Lord Crewe's to visit him; from whom I learn
nothing but that there hath been some controversy at the Council-
table about my Lord Sandwich's signing, where some would not have
had him, in the treaty with Portugall; but all, I think, is over
in it.
4th. Mr. Clerke the solicitor dined with me and my clerks.
After dinner I carried and set him down at; the Temple, he
observing to me how St. Sepulchre's church steeple is repaired
already a good deal, and the Fleet-bridge is contracted for by
the City to begin to be built this summer; which do please me
mightily. I to White Hall, and walked through the Park for a
little ayre; and so back to the Council-chamber to the Committee
of the Navy, about the business of fitting the present fleet
suitable to the money given; which, as the King orders it and by
what appears, will be very little, and so as I perceive the Duke
of York will have nothing to command, nor can intend to go
abroad. But it is pretty to see how careful these great men are
to do every thing so as they may answer it to the Parliament,
thinking themselves safe in nothing but where the Judges (with
whom they often advise) do say the matter is doubtful; and so
they take upon themselves then to be the chief persons to
interpret what is doubtful. Thence home, and all the evening to
set matters in order against my going to Brampton to-morrow,
being resolved upon my journey, and having the Duke of York's
leave again to-day; though I do plainly see that I can very ill
be spared now, there being much business, especially about this
which I have attended the Council about, and I the man that am
alone consulted with; and besides, my Lord Brouncker is at this
time ill, and Sir W. Pen. So things being put in order at the
office, I home to do the like there; and so to bed.
5th. [The Journal from this time to the 17th of June is
contained on five leaves, inserted in the Book and after them
follow several blank pages.] Friday. At Barnet for milk, 6d.
On the highway, to menders of the highway, 6d. Dinner at
Stevenage, 5s. 6d.
6th. Saturday. Spent at Huntingdon with Bowles and Appleyard,
and Shepley, 2s.
7th. Sunday. My father, for money lent, and horse-hire, 1l.
11s.
8th. Monday. Father's servants (father having in the garden
told me bad stories of my wife's ill words), 14s.; one that
helped at the horses, 1s.; menders of the highway, 2s. Pleasant
country to Bedford; where, while they stay, I rode through the
town; and a good country town; and there drinking, 1s. We on to
Newport; and there I and W. Hewer to the church, and there give
the boy 1s. So to Buckingham, a good old town. Here I to see
the church; which very good, and the leads, and a school in it:
did give the sexton's boy 1s. A fair bridge here, with many
arches: vexed at my people's making me lose so much time:
reckoning, 13s. 4d. Mightily pleased with the pleasure of the
ground all the day. At night to Newport Pagnell; and there a
good pleasant country-town, but few people in it. A very fair
and like a cathedral-church; and I saw the leads, and a vault
that goes far under ground: the town, and so most of this
country, well watered. Lay here well and rose next day by four
o'clock: few people in the town: and so away. Reckoning for
supper, 19s. 6d.; poor, 6d. Mischance to the coach, but no time
lost.
9th. Tuesday. We came to Oxford, a very sweet place: paid our
guide 1l. 2s. 6d.; barber, 2s. 6d.; book (Stonhenge,) 4s.; boy
that showed me the colleges before dinner, 1s. To dinner; and
then out with my wife and people, and landlord; and to him that
showed us the schools and library, 10s.; to him that showed us
All Souls' College and Chichly's picture, 5s. So to see Christ
Church with my wife, I seeing several others very fine alone
before dinner, and did give the boy that went with me, 1s.
Strawberries, 1s. 2d. Dinner and servants, 1l. 0s. 6d. After
coming home from the schools, I out with the landlord to Brazen-
nose College to the butteries, and in the cellar find the hand of
the child of Hales, long butler, 2s. [Does this mean "slipped
2s. into the child's hand?"] Thence with coach and people to
Physic-garden, 1s. So to Friar Bacon's study: I up and saw it,
and gave the man 1s.--Bottle of sack for landlord, 2s. Oxford
mighty fine place; and well seated, and cheap entertainment. At
night came to Abingdon, where had been a fair of custard; and met
many people and scholars going home; and there did get some
pretty good musick, and sang and danced till supper: 5s.
10th. Wednesday. Up, and walked to the hospitall: very large
and fine, and pictures of founders and the History of the
hospitall; and is said to be worth 700l. per annum, and that Mr.
Foly was here lately to see how their lands were settled. And
here, in old English, the story of the occasion of it, and a
rebus at the bottom. So did give the poor, which they would not
take but in their box, 2s. 8d. So to the inn, and paid the
reckoning and what not, 13s. So forth towards Hungerford. Led
this good way by our landlord, one Heart, an old but very civil
and well-spoken man, more than I ever heard, of his quality. He
gone, we forward; and I vexed at my people's not minding the way.
So come to Hungerford, where very good trouts, eels, and cray-
fish. Dinner: a mean town. At dinner there, 12s. Thence set
out with a guide, who saw us to Newmarket-heath, and then left
us, 3s. 6d. So all over the plain by the sight of the steeple
(the plain high and low) to Salisbury by night; but before I came
to the town, I saw a great fortification, and there light, and to
it and in it; and find it prodigious, so as to fright me to be in
it all alone at that time of night, it being dark. I understand
since it to be that that is called Old Sarum. Come to the George
Inne, where lay in a silk bed; and very good diet. To supper;
then to bed.
11th. Thursday. Up, and W. Hewer and I up and down the town,
and find it a very brave place. The river goes through every
street; and a most capacious market-place. The city great, I
think greater than Hereford. But the minster most admirable; as
big, I think, and handsomer than Westminster: and a most large
close about it, and horses for the officers thereof, and a fine
palace for the Bishop. So to my lodging back, and took out my
wife and people to show them the town and church; but they being
at prayers, we could not be shown the quire. A very good organ;
and I looked in and saw the Bishop, my friend Dr. Ward. Thence
to the inns; and there not being able to hire coach-horses, and
not willing to use our own, we got saddle-horses, very dear. Boy
that went to look for them 6d. So the three women behind W.
Hewer, Murford, and our guide, and I single to Stonehenge, over
the plain and some great hills, even to fright us. Come thither,
and find them as prodigious as any tales I ever heard of them,
and worth going this journey to see. God knows what their use
was: they are hard to tell, but yet may be told. Gave the
shepherd-woman, for leading our horses, 4d. So back by Wilton,
my Lord Pembroke's house, which we could not see, he being just
coming to town; but the situation I do not like, nor the house at
present much, it being in a low but rich valley. So back home;
and there being light we to the church, and there find them at
prayers again, so could not see the quire; but I sent the women
home, and I did go in and saw very many fine tombs, and among the
rest some very ancient of the Montagus. So home to dinner; and
that being done, paid the reckoning, which was so exorbitant, and
particular in rate of my horses, and 7s. 6d. for bread and beer,
that I was mad, and resolve to trouble the mistress about it, and
get something for the poor; and come away in that humour: 2l.
5s. 6d. Servants, 1s. 6d.; poor, 1s.; guide to the Stones, 2s.;
poor woman in the street, 1s.; ribbands, 9d.; wash-woman, 1s.;
sempstress for W. Hewer, 3s.; lent W. Hewer, 2s. Thence about
six o'clock, and with a guide went over the smooth plain indeed
till night; and then by a happy mistake, and that looked like an
adventure, we were carried out of our way to a town where we
would lie, since we could not go as far as we would. By and by
to bed, glad of this mistake, because it seems, had we gone on as
me pretended, we could not have passed with our coach, and must
have lain on the plain all night. This day from Salisbury I
wrote by the post my excuse for not coming home, which I hope
will do, for I am resolved to see the Bath, and, it may be,
Bristol.
12th. Friday. Up, finding our beds good, but lousy; which made
us merry. We set out, the reckoning and servants coming to 9s.
6d.; my guide thither, 2s.; coachman advanced, 10s. So rode a
very good way, led to my great content by our landlord to
Philips-Norton, with great pleasure, being now come into
Somersetshire; where my wife and Deb. mightily joyed thereat,
[They were natives of that county.] I commending the country, as
indeed it deserves. And the first town we came to was
Brekington; where we stopping for something for the horses, we
called two or three little boys to us, and pleased ourselves with
their manner of speech. At Philips-Norton I walked to the
church, and there saw a very ancient tomb of some Knight Templar,
I think; and here saw the tombstone whereon there were only two
heads cut, which the story goes, and creditably, were two
sisters, called the Fair Maids of Foscott, that had two bodies
upward and one belly, and there lie buried. Here is also a very
fine ring of six bells, and they mighty tuneable. Having dined
very well, 10s., me come before night to the Bath; where I
presently stepped out with my landlord, and saw the baths with
people in them. They are not so large as I expected, but yet
pleasant; and the town most of stone, and clean, though the
streets generally narrow. I home, and being weary, went to bed
without supper; the rest supping.
13th. Saturday. Up at four o'clock, being by appointment called
up to the Cross Bath; where we were carried after one another,
myself and wife and Betty Turner, Willet, and W. Hewer. And by
and by, though we designed to have done before company come, much
company come; very fine ladies; and the manner pretty enough,
only methinks it cannot be clean to go so many bodies together in
the same water. Good conversation among them that are acquainted
here, and stay together. Strange to see how hot the water is;
and in some places though this is the most temperate bath, the
springs so hot as the feet not able to endure. But strange to
see, when women and men here, that live all the season in these
waters, cannot but be parboiled and look like the creatures of
the bath! Carried away wrapped in a sheet, and in a chair home;
and there one after another thus carried (I staying above two
hours in the water) home to bed, sweating for an hour. And by
and by comes musick to play to me, extraordinary good as ever I
heard at London almost any where: 5s. Up to go to Bristoll
about eleven o'clock, and paying my landlord that was our guide
from Chiltren 10s., and the serjeant of the bath 10s., and the
man that carried us in chairs 3s. 6d., set out toward Bristoll,
and come thither, the way bad, (in coach hired to spare our own
horses,) but country good, about two o'clock; where set down at
the Horse-shoe, and there being trimmed by a very handsome
fellow, 2s., walked with my wife and people through the city,
which is in every respect another London, that one can hardly
know it to stand in the country no more than that. No carts, it
standing generally on vaults, only dog-carts. So to the Three
Crowns Tavern I was directed; but when I came in, the master told
me that he had newly given over the selling of wine; it seems
grown rich: and so went to the Sun; and there Deb. going with W.
Hewer and Betty Turner to see her uncle, and leaving my wife with
the mistress of the house, I to see the quay, which is a most
large and noble place; and to see the new ship building by Bally,
neither he nor Furzer [Daniel Furzer, Surveyor to the Navy.]
being in town. It will be a fine ship. Spoke with the foreman,
and did give the boys that kept the cabin 2s. Walked back to the
Sun, where I find Deb. come back, and with her, her uncle, a
sober merchant, very good company, and so like one of our sober
wealthy London merchants as pleased me mightily. Here we dined,
and much good talk with him, 7s. 6d.; a messenger to Sir John
Knight, [Mayor of Bristol 1663, and M.P. for that city.] who was
not at home, 6d. Then walked with him and my wife and company
round the quay, and to the ship; and he showed me the Custom-
house, and made me understand many things of the place, and led
us through Marsh-street, where our girl was born. But, Lord!
the joy that was among the old poor people of the place, to see
Mrs. Willet's daughter, it seems her mother being a brave woman
and mightily beloved! And so brought us a back way by surprize
to his house; where a substantial good house, and well furnished;
and did give us good entertainment of strawberries, a whole
venison-pasty cold, and plenty of brave wine, and above all
Bristol milk: where comes in another poor woman, who hearing
that Deb. was here did come running hither, and with her eyes so
full of tears and heart so full of joy that she could not speak
when she come in, that it made me weep too: I protest that I was
not able to speak to her, which I would have done, to have
diverted her tears. His wife a good woman, and so sober and
substantiall as I was never more pleased any where, Servant-maid,
2s. So thence took leave and he with us through the city; where
in walking I find the city pay him great respect, and he the like
to the meanest, which pleased me mightily. He showed us the
place where the merchants meet here, and a fine cross yet
standing, like Cheapside. And so to the Horse-shoe, where paid
the reckoning, 2s. 6d. We back, and by moonshine to the Bath
again about ten o'clock: bad way; and giving the coachman 1s.
went all of us to bed.
14th. (Sunday). Up, and walked up and down the town, and saw a
pretty good market-place, and many good streets, and very fair
stone-houses. And so to the great church, and there saw Bishop
Montagu's tomb; and, when placed, did there see many brave people
come, and among others two men brought in litters, and set down
in the chancel to hear: but I did not know one face. Here a
good organ; but a vain pragmatical fellow preached a ridiculous,
affected sermon, that made me angry, and some gentlemen that sat
next me, and sang well. So home, walking round the walls of the
City, which are good, and the battlements all whole. To this
church again, to see it and look over the monuments; where, among
others, Dr. Venner and Pelling, and a lady of Sir W. Waller's;
[Jane, sole daughter of Sir Richard Reynell.] he lying with his
face broken. My landlord did give me a good account of the
antiquity of this town and Wells; and of two heads, on two
pillars, in Wells church.
15th. Monday. looked into the baths, and find the King and
Queene's full of a mixed sort of good and bad, and the Cross only
almost for the gentry. So home with my wife, and did pay my
guides, two women, 5s.; one man, 2s. 6d.; poor, 6d.; woman to lay
my foot-cloth, 1s. So to our inne, and there eat and paid
reckoning, 1l. 8s. 6d.; servants, 3s.; poor, 1s.; lent the
coachman, 10s. Before I took coach, I went to make a boy dive in
the King's bath, 1s. I paid also for my coach and a horse to
Bristoll, 1l. 1s. 6d. Took coach, and away without any of the
company of the other stage-coaches that go out of this town to-
day; and rode all day with some trouble, for fear of our being
out of our way, over the Downes, (where the life of the shepherds
is, in fair weather only, pretty). In the afternoon come to
Abury; where seeing great stones like those of Stonehenge
standing up, I stopped and took a countryman of that town, and he
carried me and showed me a place trenched in, like Old Sarum
almost, with great stones pitched in it some bigger than those at
Stonehenge in figure, to my great admiration: and he told me
that most people of learning coming by do come and view them, and
that the King did so; and the mount cast hard by is called
Selbury, from one King Seall buried there, as tradition says. I
did give this man 1s. So took coach again, seeing one place with
great high stones pitched round, which I believe was once some
particular building, in some measure like that of Stonehenge.
But, about a mile off, it was prodigious to see how full the
Downes are of great stones; and all along the vallies stones of
considerable bigness, most of them growing certainly out of the
ground, so thick as to cover the ground; which makes me think the
less of the wonder of Stonehenge, for hence they might
undoubtedly supply themselves with stones, as well as those at
Abury. In my way did give to the poor and menders of the highway
3s. Before night come to Marlborough, and lay at the Hart; a
good house, and a pretty fair town for a street or two; and what
is most singular is, their houses on one side having their pent-
houses supported with pillars, which makes it a good walk. All
the five coaches that come this day from Bath, as well as we,
were gone out of the town before six.
16th. Tuesday. After paying the reckoning, 14s. 4d. and
servants 2s., poor 1s., set out; and passing through a good part
of this country of Wiltshire, saw a good house [Littlecote.] of
Alexander Popham's, [M.P. for Bath.] and another of my Lord
Craven's, [Hampstead Marshal, since destroyed by fire.] I think,
in Barkeshire. Come to Newbery, and there dined; and musick: a
song of the old courtier of Queene Elizabeth's, and how he was
changed upon the coming in of the King, did please me mightily,
and I did cause W. Hewer to write it out. Then comes the
reckoning, (forced to change gold,) 8s. 7d.; servants and poor,
1s. 6d. So out, and lost our way, but come into it again; and in
the evening betimes come to Reding; and I to walk about the town,
which is a very great one; I think bigger than Salisbury: a
river runs through it in seven branches, (which unite in one, in
one part of the town,) and runs into the Thames half-a-mile off:
one odd sign of the Broad Face. Then to my inn, and so to bed.
17th (Wednesday). Rose, and paying the reckoning, 12s. 8d.;
servants and poor, 2s. 6d.; musick, the worst we have had, coming
to our chamber-door, but calling us by wrong names; so set out
with one coach in company, and through Maydenhead, which I never
saw before, to Colebrooke by noon; the way mighty good; and there
dined, and fitted ourselves a little to go through London anon.
Thence pleasant way to London before night, and and all very well
to great content; and saw Sir W. Pen, who is well again. I hear
of the ill news by the great fire at Barbadoes.
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