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April
1st. Up betimes and abroad to my brother's, but he being gone out
I went to the Temple to my Cozen Roger Pepys, to see and talk with him
a little; who tells me that, with much ado, the Parliament do agree to
throw down Popery; but he says it is with so much spite and passion, and
an endeavour of bringing all Non-conformists into the same condition,
that he is afeard matters will not yet go so well as he could wish.
Thence back to my brother's, in my way
meeting Mr. Moore and talking with him about getting me some money, and
calling at my brother's they tell me that my brother is still abroad,
and that my father is not yet up. At which I wondered, not thinking that
he was come, though I expected him, because I looked for him at my house.
So I up to his bedside and staid an hour or two talking with him. Among
other things he tells me how unquiett my mother is grown, that he is not
able to live almost with her, if it were not for Pall. All other matters
are as well as upon so hard conditions with my uncle Thomas we can expect
them.
I left him in bed, being very weary, to
come to my house to-night or tomorrow, when he pleases, and so I home,
calling on the virginall maker, buying a rest for myself to tune my tryangle,
and taking one of his people along with me to put it in tune once more,
by which I learned how to go about it myself for the time to come. So
to dinner, my wife being lazily in bed all this morning. Ashwell and I
dined below together, and a pretty girl she is, and I hope will give my
wife and myself good content, being very humble and active, my cook maid
do also dress my meat very well and neatly. So to my office all the afternoon
till night, and then home, calling at Sir W. Batten's, where was Sir J.
Minnes and Sir W. Pen, I telling them how by my letter this day from Commissioner
Pett I hear that his Stempeese [Stemples, cross pieces
which are put into a frame of woodwork to cure and strengthen a shaft.]
he undertook for the new ship at Woolwich, which we have been so long,
to our shame, in looking for, do prove knotty and not fit for service.
Lord! how Sir J. Minnes, like a mad coxcomb, did swear and stamp, swearing
that Commissioner Pett hath still the old heart against the King that
ever he had, and that this was his envy against his brother that was to
build the ship, and all the damnable reproaches in the world, at which
I was ashamed, but said little; but, upon the whole, I find him still
a fool, led by the nose with stories told by Sir W. Batten, whether with
or without reason. So, vexed in my mind to see things ordered so unlike
gentlemen, or men of reason, I went home and to bed.
2nd. Up by very betimes
and to my office, where all the morning till towards noon, and then by
coach to Westminster Hall with Sir W. Pen, and while he went up to the
House I walked in the Hall with Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, that I met there,
talking about my business the other day with Holmes, whom I told my mind,
and did freely tell how I do depend upon my care and diligence in my employment
to bear me out against the pride of Holmes or any man else in things that
are honest, and much to that purpose which I know he will make good use
of. But he did advise me to take as few occasions as I can of disobliging
Commanders, though this is one that every body is glad to hear that he
do receive a check. By and by the House rises and I home again with Sir
W. Pen, and all the way talking of the same business, to whom I did on
purpose tell him my mind freely, and let him see that it must be a wiser
man than Holmes (in these very words) that shall do me any hurt while
I do my duty. I to remember him of Holmes's words against Sir J. Minnes,
that he was a knave, rogue, coward, and that he will kick him and pull
him by the ears, which he remembered all of them and may have occasion
to do it hereafter to his owne shame to suffer them to be spoke in his
presence without any reply but what I did give him, which, has caused
all this feud. But I am glad of it, for I would now and then take occasion
to let the world know that I will not be made a novice. Sir W. Pen took
occasion to speak about my wife's strangeness to him and his daughter,
and that believing at last that it was from his taking of Sarah to be
his maid, he hath now put her away, at which I am glad. He told me, that
this day the King hath sent to the House his concurrence wholly with them
against the Popish priests, Jesuits, &c., which gives great content,
and I am glad of it. So home, whither my father comes and dines with us,
and being willing to be merry with him I made myself so as much as I could,
and so to the office, where we sat all the afternoon, and at night having
done all my business I went home to my wife and father, and supped, and
so to bed, my father lying with me in Ashwell's bed in the red chamber.
3rd. Waked betimes and
talked half an hour with my father, and so I rose and to my office, and
about 9 o'clock by water from the Old Swan to White Hall and to chappell,
which being most monstrous full, I could not go into my pew, but sat among
the quire. Dr. Creeton, the Scotchman, preached a most admirable, good,
learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall, upon the words of
the woman concerning the Virgin, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee
(meaning Christ) and the paps that gave thee suck; and he answered, Nay;
rather is he blessed that heareth the word of God, and keepeth it."
He railed bitterly ever and anon against John Calvin, and his brood, the
Presbyterians, and against the present term, now in use, of "tender
consciences." He ripped up Hugh Peters (calling him the execrable
skellum--[A villain or scoundrel; the cant term for
a thief.]--), his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city
to bring in their bodkins and thimbles. Thence going out of White Hall,
I met Captain Grove, who did give me a letter directed to myself from
himself. I discerned money to be in it, and took it, knowing, as I found
it to be, the proceed of the place I have got him to be, the taking up
of vessels for Tangier. But I did not open it till I came home to my office,
and there I broke it open, not looking into it till all the money was
out, that I might say I saw no money in the paper, if ever I should be
questioned about it. There was a piece in gold and L4 in silver. So home
to dinner with my father and wife, and after dinner up to my tryangle,
where I found that above my expectation Ashwell has very good principles
of musique and can take out a lesson herself with very little pains, at
which I am very glad. Thence away back again by water to Whitehall, and
there to the Tangier Committee, where we find ourselves at a great stand;
the establishment being but L70,000 per annum, and the forces to be kept
in the town at the least estimate that my Lord Rutherford can be got to
bring it is L53,000. The charge of this year's work of the Mole will be
L13,000; besides L1000 a-year to my Lord Peterborough as a pension, and
the fortifications and contingencys, which puts us to a great stand, and
so unsettled what to do therein we rose, and I to see my Lord Sandwich,
whom I found merry at cards, and so by coach home, and after supper a
little to my office and so home and to bed. I find at Court that there
is some bad news from Ireland of an insurrection of the Catholiques there,
which puts them into an alarm. I hear also in the City that for certain
there is an embargo upon all our ships in Spayne, upon this action of
my Lord Windsor's at Cuba, which signifies little or nothing, but only
he hath a mind to say that he hath done something before he comes back
again. Late tonight I sent to invite my uncle Wight and aunt with Mrs.
Turner to-morrow.
4th. Up betimes and to
my office. By and by to Lombard street by appointment to meet Mr. Moore,
but the business not being ready I returned to the office, where we sat
a while, and, being sent for, I returned to him and there signed to some
papers in the conveying of some lands mortgaged by Sir Rob. Parkhurst
in my name to my Lord Sandwich, which I having done I returned home to
dinner, whither by and by comes Roger Pepys, Mrs. Turner her daughter,
Joyce Norton, and a young lady, a daughter of Coll. Cockes, my uncle Wight,
his wife and Mrs. Anne Wight. This being my feast, in lieu of what I should
have had a few days ago for my cutting of the stone, for which the Lord
make me truly thankful. Very merry at, before, and after dinner, and the
more for that my dinner was great, and most neatly dressed by our own
only maid. We had a fricasee of rabbits and chickens, a leg of mutton
boiled, three carps in a dish, a great dish of a side of lamb, a dish
of roasted pigeons, a dish of four lobsters, three tarts, a lamprey pie
(a most rare pie), a dish of anchovies, good wine of several sorts, and
all things mighty noble and to my great content. After dinner to Hide
Park; my aunt, Mrs. Wight and I in one coach, and all the rest of the
women in Mrs. Turner's; Roger being gone in haste to the Parliament about
the carrying this business of the Papists, in which it seems there is
great contest on both sides, and my uncle and father staying together
behind. At the Park was the King, and in another coach my Lady Castlemaine,
they greeting one another at every tour.
[The company drove round and round the Ring in Hyde
Park. The Grand Tour or Ring is kept for the Ladies to take the air in
their coaches, and in fine weather I have seen above three hundred at
a time."]
Here about an hour, and so leaving all by the way we home and found the
house as clean as if nothing had been done there to-day from top to bottom,
which made us give the cook 12d. a piece, each of us. So to my office
about writing letters by the post, one to my brother John at Brampton
telling him (hoping to work a good effect by it upon my mother) how melancholy
my father is, and bidding him use all means to get my mother to live peaceably
and quietly, which I am sure she neither do nor I fear can ever do, but
frightening her with his coming down no more, and the danger of her condition
if he should die I trust may do good. So home and to bed.
5th (Lord's day). Up and
spent the morning, till the Barber came, in reading in my chamber part
of Osborne's Advice to his Son (which I shall not never enough admire
for sense and language), and being by and by trimmed, to Church, myself,
wife, Ashwell, &c. Home to dinner, it raining, while that was prepared
to my office to read over my vows with great affection and to very good
purpose. So to dinner, and very well pleased with it. Then to church again,
where a simple bawling young Scot preached. So home to my office alone
till dark, reading some papers of my old navy precedents, and so home
to supper, and, after some pleasant talk, my wife, Ashwell, and I to bed.
6th. Up very betimes and
to my office, and there made an end of reading my book that I have of
Mr. Barlow's of the Journal of the Commissioners of the Navy, who begun
to act in the year 1628 and continued six years, wherein is fine observations
and precedents out of which I do purpose to make a good collection. By
and by, much against my will, being twice sent for, to Sir G. Carteret's
to pass his accounts there, upon which Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, Sir
W. Pen, and myself all the morning, and again after dinner to it, being
vexed at my heart to see a thing of that importance done so slightly and
with that neglect for which God pardon us, and I would I could mend it.
Thence leaving them I made an excuse and away home, and took my wife by
coach and left her at Madam Clerk's, to make a visit there, and I to the
Committee of Tangier, where I found, to my great joy, my Lord Sandwich,
the first time I have seen him abroad these some months, and by and by
he rose and took leave, being, it seems, this night to go to Kensington
or Chelsey, where he hath taken a lodging for a while to take the ayre.
We staid, and after business done I got Mr. Coventry into the Matted Gallery
and told him my whole mind concerning matters of our office, all my discontent
to see things of so great trust carried so neglectfully, and what pitiful
service the Controller and Surveyor make of their duties, and I disburdened
my mind wholly to him and he to me his own, many things, telling me that
he is much discouraged by seeing things not to grow better and better
as he did well hope they would have done. Upon the whole, after a full
hour's private discourse, telling one another our minds, we with great
content parted, and with very great satisfaction for my [having] thus
cleared my conscience, went to Dr. Clerk's and thence fetched my wife,
and by coach home. To my office a little to set things in order, and so
home to supper and to bed.
7th. Up very betimes, and
angry with Will that he made no more haste to rise after I called him.
So to my office, and all the morning there. At noon to the Exchange, and
so home to dinner, where I found my wife had been with Ashwell to La Roche's
to have her tooth drawn, which it seems aches much, but my wife could
not get her to be contented to have it drawn after the first twich, but
would let it alone, and so they came home with it undone, which made my
wife and me good sport. After dinner to the office, where Sir J. Minnes
did make a great complaint to me alone, how my clerk Mr. Hater had entered
in one of the Sea books a ticket to have been signed by him before it
had been examined, which makes the old fool mad almost, though there was
upon enquiry the greatest reason in the world for it. Which though it
vexes me, yet it is most to see from day to day what a coxcomb he is,
and that so great a trust should lie in the hands of such a fool. We sat
all the afternoon, and I late at my office, it being post night, and so
home to supper, my father being come again to my house, and after supper
to bed, and after some talk to sleep.
8th. Up betimes and to
my office, and by and by, about 8 o'clock, to the Temple to Commissioner
Pett lately come to town and discoursed about the affairs of our office,
how ill they go through the corruption and folly of Sir W. Batten and
Sir J. Minnes. Thence by water to White Hall, to chappell; where preached
Dr. Pierce, the famous man that preached the sermon so much cried up,
before the King against the Papists. His matter was the Devil tempting
our Saviour, being carried into the Wilderness by the spirit. And he hath
as much of natural eloquence as most men that ever I heard in my life,
mixed with so much learning. After sermon I went up and saw the ceremony
of the Bishop of Peterborough's paying homage upon the knee to the King,
while Sir H. Bennet, Secretary, read the King's grant of the Bishopric
of Lincoln, to which he is translated. His name is Dr. Lany. Here I also
saw the Duke of Monmouth, with his Order of the Garter, the first time
I ever saw it. I am told that the University of Cambridge did treat him
a little while since with all the honour possible, with a comedy at Trinity
College, and banquet; and made him Master of Arts there. All which, they
say, the King took very well. Dr. Raynbow, Master of Magdalen, being now
Vice-Chancellor. Home by water to dinner, and with my father, wife, and
Ashwell, after dinner, by water towards Woolwich, and in our way I bethought
myself that we had left our poor little dog that followed us out of doors
at the waterside, and God knows whether he be not lost, which did not
only strike my wife into a great passion but I must confess myself also;
more than was becoming me. We immediately returned, I taking another boat
and with my father went to Woolwich, while they went back to find the
dog. I took my father on board the King's pleasure boat and down to Woolwich,
and walked to Greenwich thence and turning into the park to show my father
the steps up the hill, we found my wife, her woman, and dog attending
us, which made us all merry again, and so took boats, they to Deptford
and so by land to Half-way house, I into the King's yard and overlook
them there, and eat and drank with them, and saw a company of seamen play
drolly at our pence, and so home by water. I a little at the office, and
so home to supper and to bed, after having Ashwell play my father and
me a lesson upon her Tryangle.
9th. Up betimes and to
my office, and anon we met upon finishing the Treasurer's accounts. At
noon dined at home and am vexed to hear my wife tell me how our maid Mary
do endeavour to corrupt our cook maid, which did please me very well,
but I am resolved to rid the house of her as soon as I can. To the office
and sat all the afternoon till 9 at night, and an hour after home to supper
and bed. My father lying at Tom's to-night, he dining with my uncle Fenner
and his sons and a great many more of the gang at his own cost to-day.
To bed vexed also to think of Sir J. Minnes finding fault with Mr. Hater
for what he had done the other day, though there be no hurt in the thing
at all but only the old fool's jealousy, made worse by Sir W. Batten.
10th. Up very betimes and
to my office, where most hard at business alone all the morning. At noon
to the Exchange, where I hear that after great expectation from Ireland,
and long stop of letters, there is good news come, that all is quiett
after our great noise of troubles there, though some stir hath been as
was reported. Off the Exchange with Sir J. Cutler and Mr. Grant to the
Royall Oak Tavern, in Lumbard Street, where Alexander Broome the poet
was, a merry and witty man, I believe, if he be not a little conceited,
and here drank a sort of French wine, called Ho Bryan, [Haut
Brion, a claret; one of the first growths of the red wines of Medoc.]
that hath a good and most particular taste that I never met with. Home
to dinner, and then by water abroad to Whitehall, my wife to see Mrs.
Ferrers, I to Whitehall and the Park, doing no business. Then to my Lord's
lodgings, met my wife, and walked to the New Exchange. There laid out
10s. upon pendents and painted leather gloves, very pretty and all the
mode. So by coach home and to my office till late, and so to supper and
to bed.
11th. Up betimes and to
my office, where we sat also all the morning till noon, and then home
to dinner, my father being there but not very well. After dinner in comes
Captain Lambert of the Norwich, this day come from Tangier, whom I am
glad to see. There came also with him Captain Wager, and afterwards in
came Captain Allen to see me, of the Resolution. All staid a pretty while,
and so away, and I a while to my office, then abroad into the street with
my father, and left him to go to see my aunt Wight and uncle, intending
to lie at Tom's to-night, or my cozen Scott's, where it seems he has hitherto
lain and is most kindly used there. So I home and to my office very late
making up my Lord's navy accounts, wherein I find him to stand debtor
L1200. So home to supper and to bed.
12th (Lord's day). Lay
till 8 o'clock, which I have not done a great while, then up and to church,
where I found our pew altered by taking some of the hind pew to make ours
bigger, because of the number of women, more by Sir J. Minnes company
than we used to have. Home to dinner, and after dinner, intending to go
to Chelsey to my Lord Sandwich, my wife would needs go with me, though
she walked on foot to Whitehall. Which she did and staid at my Lord's
lodgings while Creed and I took a turn at Whitehall, but no coach to be
had, and so I returned to them and sat talking till evening, and then
got a coach and to Gray's Inn walks, where some handsome faces, and so
home and there to supper, and a little after 8 o'clock to bed, a thing
I have not done God knows when. Coming home to-night, a drunken boy was
carrying by our constable to our new pair of stocks to handsel them, being
a new pair and very handsome.
13th. Up by five o'clock
and to my office, where hard at work till towards noon, and home and eat
a bit, and so going out met with Mr. Mount my old acquaintance, and took
him in and drank a glass or two of wine to him and so parted, having not
time to talk together, and I with Sir W. Batten to the Stillyard, and
there eat a lobster together, and Wyse the King's fishmonger coming in
we were very merry half an hour, and so by water to Whitehall, and by
and by being all met we went in to the Duke and there did our business
and so away, and anon to the Tangier Committee, where we had very fine
discourse from Dr. Walker and Wiseman, civilians, against our erecting
a court-merchant at Tangier, and well answered in many things by my Lord
Sandwich (whose speaking I never till now observed so much to be very
good) and Sir R. Ford. By and by the discourse being ended, we fell to
my Lord Rutherford's dispatch, which do not please him, he being a Scott,
and one resolved to scrape every penny that he can get by any way, which
the Committee will not agree to. He took offence at something and rose
away, without taking leave of the board, which all took ill, though nothing
said but only by the Duke of Albemarle, who said that we ought to settle
things as they ought to be, and if he will not go upon these terms another
man will, no doubt. Here late, quite finishing things against his going,
and so rose, and I walked home, being accompanied by Creed to Temple Bar,
talking of this afternoon's passage, and so I called at the Wardrobe in
my way home, and there spoke at the Horn tavern with Mr. Moore a word
or two, but my business was with Mr. Townsend, who is gone this day to
his country house, about sparing Charles Pepys some money of his bills
due to him when he can, but missing him lost my labour. So walked home,
finding my wife abroad, at my aunt, Wight's, who coming home by and by,
I home to supper and to bed.
14th. Up betimes to my
office, where busy till 8 o'clock that Sir W. Batten, Sir J. Minnes, Sir
W. Pen and I down by barge to Woolwich, to see "The Royal James"
launched, where she has been under repair a great while. We staid in the
yard till almost noon, and then to Mr. Falconer's to a dinner of fish
of our own sending, and when it was just ready to come upon the table,
word is brought that the King and Duke are come, so they all went away
to shew themselves, while I staid and had a little dish or two by myself,
resolving to go home, and by the time I had dined they came again, having
gone to little purpose, the King, I believe, taking little notice of them.
So they to dinner, and I staid a little with them, and so good bye. I
walked to Greenwich, studying the slide rule for measuring of timber,
which is very fine. Thence to Deptford by water, and walked through the
yard, and so walked to Redriffe, and so home pretty weary, to my office,
where anon they all came home, the ship well launched, and so sat at the
office till 9 at night, and I longer doing business at my office, and
so home to supper, my father being come, and to bed. Sir G. Carteret tells
me to-night that he perceives the Parliament is likely to make a great
bustle before they will give the King any money; will call all things
into question; and, above all, the expences of the Navy; and do enquire
into the King's expences everywhere, and into the truth of the report
of people being forced to sell their bills at 15 per cent. loss in the
Navy; and, lastly, that they are in a very angry pettish mood at present,
and not likely to be better.
15th. Up betimes, and after
talking with my father awhile, I to my office, and there hard at it till
almost noon, and then went down the river with Maynes, the purveyor, to
show a ship's lading of Norway goods, and called at Sir W. Warren's yard,
and so home to dinner. After dinner up with my wife and Ashwell a little
to the Tryangle, and so I down to Deptford by land about looking out a
couple of catches fitted to be speedily set forth in answer to a letter
of Mr. Coventry's to me. Which done, I walked back again, all the way
reading of my book of Timber measure, comparing it with my new Sliding
Rule brought home this morning with great pleasure. Taking boat again
I went to Shishe's yard, but he being newly gone out towards Deptford
I followed him thither again, and there seeing him I went with him and
pitched upon a couple, and so by water home, it being late, past 8 at
night, the wind cold, and I a little weary. So home to my office, then
to supper and bed.
16th. Up betimes and to
my office, met to pass Mr. Pitt's (anon Sir J. Lawson's Secretary and
Deputy Treasurer) accounts for the voyage last to the Streights, wherein
the demands are strangely irregular, and I dare not oppose it alone for
making an enemy and do no good, but only bring a review upon my Lord Sandwich,
but God knows it troubles my heart to see it, and to see the Comptroller,
whose duty it is, to make no more matter of it. At noon home for an hour
to dinner, and so to the office public and private till late at night,
so home to supper and bed with my father.
17th. Up by five o'clock
as I have long done and to my office all the morning, at noon home to
dinner with my father with us. Our dinner, it being Good Friday, was only
sugarsopps and fish; the only time that we have had a Lenten dinner all
this Lent. This morning Mr. Hunt, the instrument maker, brought me home
a Basse Viall to see whether I like it, which I do not very well, besides
I am under a doubt whether I had best buy one yet or no, because of spoiling
my present mind and love to business. After dinner my father and I walked
into the city a little, and parted and to Paul's Church Yard, to cause
the title of my English "Mare Clausum" to be changed, and the
new title, dedicated to the King, to be put to it, because I am ashamed
to have the other seen dedicated to the Commonwealth. So home and to my
office till night, and so home to talk with my father, and supper and
to bed, I have not had yet one quarter of an hour's leisure to sit down
and talk with him since he came to town, nor do I know till the holidays
when I shall.
18th. Up betimes and to
my office, where all the morning. At noon to dinner. With us Mr. Creed,
who has been deeply engaged at the office this day about the ending of
his accounts, wherein he is most unhappy to have to do with a company
of fools who after they have signed his accounts and made bills upon them
yet dare not boldly assert to the Treasurer that they are satisfied with
his accounts. Hereupon all dinner, and walking in the garden the afternoon,
he and I talking of the ill management of our office, which God knows
is very ill for the King's advantage. I would I could make it better.
In the evening to my office, and at night home to supper and bed.
19th (Easter day). Up and
this day put on my close-kneed coloured suit, which, with new stockings
of the colour, with belt, and new gilt-handled sword, is very handsome.
To church alone, and so to dinner, where my father and brother Tom dined
with us, and after dinner to church again, my father sitting below in
the chancel. After church done, where the young Scotchman preaching I
slept all the while, my father and I to see my uncle and aunt Wight, and
after a stay of an hour there my father to my brother's and I home to
supper, and after supper fell in discourse of dancing, and I find that
Ashwell hath a very fine carriage, which makes my wife almost ashamed
of herself to see herself so outdone, but to-morrow she begins to learn
to dance for a month or two. So to prayers and to bed. Will being gone,
with my leave, to his father's this day for a day or two, to take physique
these holydays.
20th. Up betimes as I use
to do, and in my chamber begun to look over my father's accounts, which
he brought out of the country with him by my desire, whereby I may see
what he has received and spent, and I find that he is not anything extravagant,
and yet it do so far outdo his estate that he must either think of lessening
his charge, or I must be forced to spare money out of my purse to help
him through, which I would willing do as far as L20 goes. So to my office
the remaining part of the morning till towards noon, and then to Mr. Grant's.
There saw his prints, which he shewed me, and indeed are the best collection
of any things almost that ever I saw, there being the prints of most of
the greatest houses, churches, and antiquitys in Italy and France and
brave cutts. I had not time to look them over as I ought, and which I
will take time hereafter to do, and therefore left them and home to dinner.
After dinner, it raining very hard, by coach to Whitehall, where, after
Sir G. Carteret, Sir J. Minnes, Mr. Coventry and I had been with the Duke,
we to the Committee of Tangier and did matters there dispatching wholly
my Lord Teviott, and so broke up. With Sir G. Carteret and Sir John Minnes
by coach to my Lord Treasurer's, thinking to have spoken about getting
money for paying the Yards; but we found him with some ladies at cards:
and so, it being a bad time to speak, we parted, and Sir J. Minnes and
I home, and after walking with my wife in the garden late, to supper and
to bed, being somewhat troubled at Ashwell's desiring and insisting over
eagerly upon her going to a ball to meet some of her old companions at
a dancing school here in town next Friday, but I am resolved she shall
not go. So to bed. This day the little Duke of Monmouth was marryed at
White Hall, in the King's chamber; and tonight is a great supper and dancing
at his lodgings, near Charing-Cross. I observed his coat at the tail of
his coach he gives the arms of England, Scotland, and France, quartered
upon some other fields, but what it is that speaks his being a bastard
I know not.
21st. Up betimes and to
my office, where first I ruled with red ink my English "Mare Clausum,"
which, with the new orthodox title, makes it now very handsome. So to
business, and then home to dinner, and after dinner to sit at the office
in the afternoon, and thence to my study late, and so home to supper to
play a game at cards with my wife, and so to bed. Ashwell plays well at
cards, and will teach us to play; I wish it do not lose too much of my
time, and put my wife too much upon it.
22nd. Up betimes and to
my office very busy all the morning there, entering things into my Book
Manuscript, which pleases me very much. So to the Change, and so to my
uncle Wight's, by invitation, whither my father, wife, and Ashwell came,
where we had but a poor dinner, and not well dressed; besides, the very
sight of my aunt's hands and greasy manner of carving, did almost turn
my stomach. After dinner by coach to the King's Playhouse, where we saw
but part of "Witt without mony," which I do not like much, but
coming late put me out of tune, and it costing me four half-crowns for
myself and company. So, the play done, home, and I to my office a while
and so home, where my father (who is so very melancholy) and we played
at cards, and so to supper and to bed.
23rd. St. George's day
and Coronacion, the King and Court being at Windsor, at the installing
of the King of Denmark by proxy and the Duke of Monmouth. I up betimes,
and with my father, having a fire made in my wife's new closet above,
it being a wet and cold day, we sat there all the morning looking over
his country accounts ever since his going into the country. I find his
spending hitherto has been (without extraordinary charges) at full L100
per annum, which troubles me, and I did let him apprehend it, so as that
the poor man wept, though he did make it well appear to me that he could
not have saved a farthing of it. I did tell him how things stand with
us, and did shew my distrust of Pall, both for her good nature and housewifery,
which he was sorry for, telling me that indeed she carries herself very
well and carefully, which I am glad to hear, though I doubt it was but
his doting and not being able to find her miscarriages so well nowadays
as he could heretofore have done. We resolve upon sending for Will Stankes
up to town to give us a right understanding in all that we have in Brampton,
and before my father goes to settle every thing so as to resolve how to
find a living for my father and to pay debts and legacies, and also to
understand truly how Tom's condition is in the world, that we may know
what we are like to expect of his doing ill or well. So to dinner, and
after dinner to the office, where some of us met and did a little business,
and so to Sir W. Batten's to see a little picture drawing of his by a
Dutchman which is very well done. So to my office and put a few things
in order, and so home to spend the evening with my father. At cards till
late, and being at supper, my boy being sent for some mustard to a neat's
tongue, the rogue staid half an hour in the streets, it seems at a bonfire,
at which I was very angry, and resolve to beat him to-morrow.
24th. Up betimes, and with
my salt eel [A salt eel is a rope's end cut from the
piece to be used on the back of a culprit.] went down in the parler
and there got my boy and did beat him till I was fain to take breath two
or three times, yet for all I am afeard it will make the boy never the
better, he is grown so hardened in his tricks, which I am sorry for, he
being capable of making a brave man, and is a boy that I and my wife love
very well. So made me ready, and to my office, where all the morning,
and at noon home, whither came Captain Holland, who is lately come home
from sea, and has been much harassed in law about the ship which he has
bought, so that it seems in a despair he endeavoured to cut his own throat,
but is recovered it; and it seems whether by that or any other persuasion
(his wife's mother being a great zealot) he is turned almost a Quaker,
his discourse being nothing but holy, and that impertinent, that I was
weary of him. At last pretending to go to the Change we walked thither
together, and there I left him and home to dinner, sending my boy by the
way to enquire after two dancing masters at our end of the town for my
wife to learn, of whose names the boy brought word. After dinner all the
afternoon fiddling upon my viallin (which I have not done many a day)
while Ashwell danced above in my upper best chamber, which is a rare room
for musique, expecting this afternoon my wife to bring my cozen Scott
and Stradwick, but they came not, and so in the evening we by ourselves
to Half-way house to walk, but did not go in there, but only a walk and
so home again and to supper, my father with us, and had a good lobster
intended for part of our entertainment to these people to-day, and so
to cards, and then to bed, being the first day that I have spent so much
to my pleasure a great while.
25th. Up betimes and to
my vyall and song book a pretty while, and so to my office, and there
we sat all the morning. Among other things Sir W. Batten had a mind to
cause Butler (our chief witness in the business of Field, whom we did
force back from an employment going to sea to come back to attend our
law sute) to be borne as a mate on the Rainbow in the Downes in compensation
for his loss for our sakes. This he orders an order to be drawn by Mr.
Turner for, and after Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and Sir W. Pen had
signed it, it came to me and I was going to put it up into my book, thinking
to consider of it and give them my opinion upon it before I parted with
it, but Sir W. Pen told me I must sign it or give it him again, for it
should not go without my hand. I told him what I meant to do, whereupon
Sir W. Batten was very angry, and in a great heat (which will bring out
any thing which he has in his mind, and I am glad of it, though it is
base in him to have a thing so long in his mind without speaking of it,
though I am glad this is the worst, for if he had worse it would out as
well as this some time or other) told me that I should not think as I
have heretofore done, make them sign orders and not sign them myself.
Which what ignorance or worse it implies is easy to judge, when he shall
sign to things (and the rest of the board too as appears in this business)
for company and not out of their judgment for. After some discourse I
did convince them that it was not fit to have it go, and Sir W. Batten
first, and then the rest, did willingly cancel all their hands and tear
the order, for I told them, Butler being such a rogue as I know him, and
we have all signed him to be to the Duke, it will be in his power to publish
this to our great reproach, that we should take such a course as this
to serve ourselves in wronging the King by putting him into a place he
is no wise capable of, and that in an Admiral ship. At noon we rose, Sir
W. Batten ashamed and vexed, and so home to dinner, and after dinner walked
to the old Exchange and so all along to Westminster Hall, White Hall,
my Lord Sandwich's lodgings, and going by water back to the Temple did
pay my debts in several places in order to my examining my accounts tomorrow
to my great content. So in the evening home, and after supper (my father
at my brother's) and merrily practising to dance, which my wife hath begun
to learn this day of Mr. Pembleton, [Pembleton, the
dancing-master, made Pepys very jealous, and there are many allusions
to him in the following pages. His lessons ceased on May 27th.]
but I fear will hardly do any great good at it, because she is conceited
that she do well already, though I think no such thing. So to bed. At
Westminster Hall, this day, I buy a book lately printed and licensed by
Dr. Stradling, the Bishop of London's chaplin, being a book discovering
the practices and designs of the papists, and the fears of some of our
own fathers of the Protestant church heretofore of the return to Popery
as it were prefacing it.
The book is a very good book; but forasmuch as it touches one of the Queenmother's
fathers confessors, the Bishop, which troubles many good men and members
of Parliament, hath called it in, which I am sorry for. Another book I
bought, being a collection of many expressions of the great Presbyterian
Preachers upon publique occasions, in the late times, against the King
and his party, as some of Mr. Marshall, Case, Calamy, Baxter, &c.,
which is good reading now, to see what they then did teach, and the people
believe, and what they would seem to believe now. Lastly, I did hear that
the Queen is much grieved of late at the King's neglecting her, he having
not supped once with her this quarter of a year, and almost every night
with my Lady Castlemaine; who hath been with him this St. George's feast
at Windsor, and came home with him last night; and, which is more, they
say is removed as to her bed from her own home to a chamber in White Hall,
next to the King's own; which I am sorry to hear, though I love her much.
26th (Lord's-day). Lay
pretty long in bed talking with my wife, and then up and set to the making
up of my monthly accounts, but Tom coming, with whom I was angry for botching
my camlott coat, to tell me that my father and he would dine with me,
and that my father was at our church, I got me ready and had a very good
sermon of a country minister upon "How blessed a thing it is for
brethren to live together in unity!" So home and all to dinner, and
then would have gone by coach to have seen my Lord Sandwich at Chelsey
if the man would have taken us, but he denying it we staid at home, and
I all the afternoon upon my accounts, and find myself worth full L700,
for which I bless God, it being the most I was ever yet worth in money.
In the evening (my father being gone to my brother's to lie to-night)
my wife, Ashwell, and the boy and I, and the dogg, over the water and
walked to Half-way house, and beyond into the fields, gathering of cowslipps,
and so to Half-way house, with some cold lamb we carried with us, and
there supped, and had a most pleasant walk back again, Ashwell all along
telling us some parts of their mask at Chelsey School, which was very
pretty, and I find she hath a most prodigious memory, remembering so much
of things acted six or seven years ago. So home, and after reading my
vows, being sleepy, without prayers to bed, for which God forgive me!
27th. Up betimes and to
my office, where doing business alone a good while till people came about
business to me. Will Griffin tells me this morning that Captain Browne,
Sir W. Batten's brother-in-law, is dead of a blow given him two days ago
by a seaman, a servant of his, being drunk, with a stone striking him
on the forehead, for which I am sorry, he having a good woman and several
small children. At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home with
my wife, merry, and after dinner by water to White Hall; but found the
Duke of York gone to St. James's for this summer; and thence with Mr.
Coventry, to whose chamber I went, and Sir W. Pen up to the Duke's closett.
And a good while with him about our Navy business; and so I to White Hall,
and there alone a while with my Lord Sandwich discoursing about his debt
to the Navy, wherein he hath given me some things to resolve him in. Thence
to my Lord's lodging, and thither came Creed to me, and he and I walked
a great while in the garden, and thence to an alehouse in the market place
to drink fine Lambeth ale, and so to Westminster Hall, and after walking
there a great while, home by coach, where I found Mary gone from my wife,
she being too high for her, though a very good servant, and my boy too
will be going in a few days, for he is not for my family, he is grown
so out of order and not to be ruled, and do himself, against his brother's
counsel, desire to be gone, which I am sorry for, because I love the boy
and would be glad to bring him to good. At home with my wife and Ashwell
talking of her going into the country this year, wherein we had like to
have fallen out, she thinking that I have a design to have her go, which
I have not, and to let her stay here I perceive will not be convenient,
for she expects more pleasure than I can give her here, and I fear I have
done very ill in letting her begin to learn to dance. The Queen (which
I did not know) it seems was at Windsor, at the late St. George's feast
there; and the Duke of Monmouth dancing with her with his hat in his hand,
the King came in and kissed him, and made him put on his hat, which every
body took notice of. After being a while at my office home to supper and
to bed, my Will being come home again after being at his father's all
the last week taking physique.
28th. Up betimes and to
my office, and there all the morning, only stepped up to see my wife and
her dancing master at it, and I think after all she will do pretty well
at it. So to dinner, Mr. Hunt dining with us, and so to the office, where
we sat late, and then I to my office casting up my Lord's sea accounts
over again, and putting them in order for payment, and so home to supper
and to bed.
29th. Up betimes, and after
having at my office settled some accounts for my Lord Sandwich, I went
forth, and taking up my father at my brother's, took coach and towards
Chelsey, 'lighting at an alehouse near the Gatehouse at Westminster to
drink our morning draught, and so up again and to Chelsey, where we found
my Lord all alone at a little table with one joynt of meat at dinner;
we sat down and very merry talking, and mightily extolling the manner
of his retirement, and the goodness of his diet, which indeed is so finely
dressed: the mistress of the house, Mrs. Becke, having been a woman of
good condition heretofore, a merchant's wife, and hath all things most
excellently dressed; among others, her cakes admirable, and so good that
my Lord's words were, they were fit to present to my Lady Castlemaine.
From ordinary discourse my Lord fell to talk of other matters to me, of
which chiefly the second part of the fray, which he told me a little while
since of, between Mr. Edward Montagu and himself, which is that after
that he had since been with him three times and no notice taken at all
of any difference between them, and yet since that he hath forborn coming
to him almost two months, and do speak not only slightly of my Lord every
where, but hath complained to my Lord Chancellor of him, and arrogated
all that ever my Lord hath done to be only by his direction and persuasion.
Whether he hath done the like to the King or no, my Lord knows not; but
my Lord hath been with the King since, and finds all things fair; and
my Lord Chancellor hath told him of it, but with so much contempt of Mr.
Montagu, as my Lord knows himself very secure against any thing the fool
can do; and notwithstanding all this, so noble is his nature, that he
professes himself ready to show kindness and pity to Mr. Montagu on any
occasion. My Lord told me of his presenting Sir H. Bennet with a gold
cupp of L100, which he refuses, with a compliment; but my Lord would have
been glad he had taken it, that he might have had some obligations upon
him which he thinks possible the other may refuse to prevent it; not that
he hath any reason to doubt his kindness. But I perceive great differences
there are at Court; and Sir H. Bennet and my Lord Bristol, and their faction,
are likely to carry all things before them (which my Lord's judgment is,
will not be for the best), and particularly against the Chancellor, who,
he tells me, is irrecoverably lost: but, however, that he will not actually
joyne in anything against the Chancellor, whom he do own to be his most
sure friend, and to have been his greatest; and therefore will not openly
act in either, but passively carry himself even. The Queen, my Lord tells
me, he thinks he hath incurred some displeasure with, for his kindness
to his neighbour, my Lady Castlemaine. My Lord tells me he hath no reason
to fall for her sake, whose wit, management, nor interest, is not likely
to hold up any man, and therefore he thinks it not his obligation to stand
for her against his own interest. The Duke and Mr. Coventry my Lord says
he is very well with, and fears not but they will show themselves his
very good friends, specially at this time, he being able to serve them,
and they needing him, which he did not tell me wherein.
Talking of the business of Tangier, he tells me that
my Lord Tiviott is gone away without the least respect paid to him, nor
indeed to any man, but without his commission; and (if it be true what
he says) having laid out seven or eight thousand pounds in commodities
for the place; and besides having not only disobliged all the Commissioners
for Tangier, but also Sir Charles Barkeley the other day, who, speaking
in behalf of Colonel Fitz-Gerald, that having been deputy-governor there
already, he ought to have expected and had the governorship upon the death
or removal of the former governor. And whereas it is said that he and
his men are Irish, which is indeed the main thing that hath moved the
King and Council to put in Tiviott to prevent the Irish having too great
and the whole command there under Fitz-Gerald; he further said that there
was never an Englishman fit to command Tangier; my Lord Tiviott answered
yes, that there were many more fit than himself or Fitz-Gerald either.
So that Fitz-Gerald being so great with the Duke of York, and being already
made deputy-governor, independent of my Lord Tiviott, and he being also
left here behind him for a while, my Lord Sandwich do think that, putting
all these things together, the few friends he hath left, and the ill posture
of his affairs, my Lord Tiviott is not a man of the conduct and management
that either people take him to be, or is fit for the command of the place.
And here, speaking of the Duke of York and Sir Charles
Barkeley, my Lord tells me that he do very much admire the good management,
and discretion, and nobleness of the Duke, that whatever he may be led
by him or Mr. Coventry singly in private, yet he did not observe that
in publique matters, but he did give as ready hearing and as good acceptance
to any reasons offered by any other man against the opinions of them,
as he did to them, and would concur in the prosecution of it. Then we
came to discourse upon his own sea accompts, and came to a resolution
what and how to proceed in them; wherein he resolved, though I offered
him a way of evading the greatest part of his debt honestly, by making
himself debtor to the Parliament, before the King's time, which he might
justly do, yet he resolved to go openly and nakedly in it, and put himself
to the kindness of the King and Duke, which humour, I must confess, and
so did tell him (with which he was not a little pleased) had thriven very
well with him, being known to be a man of candid and open dealing, without
any private tricks or hidden designs as other men commonly have in what
they do. From that we had discourse of Sir G. Carteret, who he finds kind
to him, but it may be a little envious, and most other men are, and of
many others; and upon the whole do find that it is a troublesome thing
for a man of any condition at Court to carry himself even, and without
contracting enemys or envyers; and that much discretion and dissimulation
is necessary to do it.
My father staid a good while at the window and then
sat down by himself while my Lord and I were thus an hour together or
two after dinner discoursing, and by and by he took his leave, and told
me he would stay below for me. Anon I took leave, and coming down found
my father unexpectedly in great pain and desiring for God's sake to get
him a bed to lie upon, which I did, and W. Howe and I staid by him, in
so great pain as I never saw, poor wretch, and with that patience, crying
only: Terrible, terrible pain, God help me, God help me, with the mournful
voice, that made my heart ake. He desired to rest a little alone to see
whether it would abate, and W. Howe and I went down and walked in the
gardens, which are very fine, and a pretty fountayne, with which I was
finely wetted, and up to a banquetting house, with a very fine prospect,
and so back to my father, who I found in such pain that I could not bear
the sight of it without weeping, never thinking that I should be able
to get him from thence, but at last, finding it like to continue, I got
him to go to the coach, with great pain, and driving hard, he all the
while in a most unsufferable torment (meeting in the way with Captain
Ferrers going to my Lord, to tell him that my Lady Jemimah is come to
town, and that Will Stankes is come with my father's horses), not staying
the coach to speak with any body, but once, in St. Paul's Churchyard,
we were forced to stay, the jogging and pain making my father vomit, which
it never had done before.
At last we got home, and all helping him we got him
to bed presently, and after half an hour's lying in his naked bed (it
being a rupture [with] which he is troubled, and has been this 20 years,
but never in half the pain and with so great swelling as now, and how
this came but by drinking of cold small beer and sitting long upon a low
stool and then standing long after it he cannot tell) . . .--[We
are not going to be told the treatment. D.W.]-- After which he
was at good ease, and so continued, and so fell to sleep, and we went
down whither W. Stankes was come with his horses. But it is very pleasant
to hear how he rails at the rumbling and ado that is in London over it
is in the country, that he cannot endure it. He supped with us, and very
merry, and then he to his lodgings at the Inne with the horses, and so
we to bed, I to my father who is very well again, and both slept very
well.
30th. Up, and after drinking
my morning draft with my father and W. Stankes, I went forth to Sir W.
Batten, who is going (to no purpose as he uses to do) to Chatham upon
a survey. So to my office, where till towards noon, and then to the Exchange,
and back home to dinner, where Mrs. Hunt, my father, and W. Stankes; but,
Lord! what a stir Stankes makes with his being crowded in the streets
and wearied in walking in London, and would not be wooed by my wife and
Ashwell to go to a play, nor to White Hall, or to see the lyons,
[The Tower menagerie, with its famous lions, which was one of the chief
sights of London, and gave rise to a new English word, was not abolished
until the early part of the present century.] though he was carried
in a coach. I never could have thought there had been upon earth a man
so little curious in the world as he is. At the office all the afternoon
till 9 at night, so home to cards with my father, wife, and Ashwell, and
so to bed.
May
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