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) . . . . 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.
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