things more ready against the afternoon for the Committee of Accounts,
which did give me great trouble, to see how I am forced to dance after
them in one place, and to answer Committees of Parliament in another. At
noon thence toward the Committee, but meeting with Sir W. Warren in Fleet
Street he and I to the Ordinary by Temple Bar and there dined together,
and to talk, where he do seem to be very high now in defiance of the
Board, now he says that the worst is come upon him to have his accounts
brought to the Committee of Accounts, and he do reflect upon my late
coldness to him, but upon the whole I do find that he is still a cunning
fellow, and will find it necessary to be fair to me, and what hath passed
between us of coldness to hold his tongue, which do please me very well.
Thence to the Committee, where I did deliver the several things they
expected from me, with great respect and show of satisfaction, and my mind
thereby eased of some care. But thence I to Westminster Hall, and there
spent till late at night walking to and again with many people, and there
in general I hear of the great high words that were in the House on
Saturday last, upon the first part of the Committee's Report about the
dividing of the fleete; 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 be all turned out, and many of them, 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 L750 a-year
allowed him for intelligence, the King paid too dear for my Lord
Arlington's, in giving him L10,000 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 fleete, 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; but I think I have heard he did send it to my Lord
Arlington's; and that there it lay for some hours; 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; and about this, I think, I
have heard of a falling out between my Lord Arlington, heretofore, and W.
Coventry. Some mutterings I did hear of a design of dissolving the
Parliament; but I think there is no ground for it yet, though Oliver would
have dissolved them for half the trouble and contempt these have put upon
the King and his councils. The dividing of the fleete, 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, but I am put thereby into great trouble of mind. I
did spend a little time at the Swan, and there did kiss the maid, Sarah.
At noon home, and there up to my wife, who is still ill, and supped with
her, my mind being mighty full of trouble for the office and my
concernments therein, and so to supper and talking with W. Hewer in her
chamber about business of the office, wherein he do well understand
himself and our case, and it do me advantage to talk with him and the rest
of my people. I to bed below as I did last night.
18th. Up by break of day, and walked down to the old Swan, where I find
little Michell building, his booth being taken down, and a foundation laid
for a new house, so that that street is like to be a very fine place. I
drank, but did not see Betty, and so to Charing Cross stairs, and thence
walked to Sir W. Coventry's,
[Sir William Coventry's love of money is said by Sir John Denham to
have influenced him in promoting naval officers, who paid him for
their commissions.
"Then Painter! draw cerulian Coventry
Keeper, or rather Chancellor o' th' sea
And more exactly to express his hue,
Use nothing but ultra-mariuish blue.
To pay his fees, the silver trumpet spends,
And boatswain's whistle for his place depends.
Pilots in vain repeat their compass o'er,
Until of him they learn that one point more
The constant magnet to the pole doth hold,
Steel to the magnet, Coventry to gold.
Muscovy sells us pitch, and hemp, and tar;
Iron and copper, Sweden; Munster, war;
Ashley, prize; Warwick, custom;
Cart'ret, pay;
But Coventry doth sell the fleet away."--B.]
and talked with him, who tells me how he hath been persecuted, and how he
is yet well come off in the business of the dividing of the fleete, and
the sending of the letter. He expects next to be troubled about the
business of bad officers in the fleete, wherein he will bid them name whom
they call bad, and he will justify himself, having never disposed of any
but by the Admiral's liking. And he is able to give an account of all
them, how they come recommended, and more will be found to have been
placed by the Prince and Duke of Albemarle than by the Duke of York during
the war, and as no bad instance of the badness of officers he 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
persecuted him hitherto, in the business of dividing the fleete, 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;
when, God knows! he is as idle and insignificant a fellow as ever come
into the fleete. He tells me that in discourse on Saturday he did repeat
Sir Rob. Howard's words about rowling out of counsellors, that for his
part he neither cared who they rowled in, nor who they rowled out, by
which the word is become a word of use in the House, the rowling out of
officers. I will 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, thanked God! I have enough of my own to buy
me a good 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." I understand by him that
we are likely to have our business of tickets voted a miscarriage, but
[he] cannot tell me what that will signify more than that he thinks they
will report them to the King and there leave them, but I doubt they will
do more. Thence walked over St. James's Park to White Hall, and thence to
Westminster Hall, and there walked all the morning, and did speak with
several Parliament-men-among others, Birch, who is very kind to me, and
calls me, with great respect and kindness, a man of business, and he
thinks honest, and so long will stand by me, and every such man, to the
death. My business was to instruct them to keep the House from falling
into any mistaken vote about the business of tickets, before they were
better informed. I walked in the Hall all the morning with my Lord
Brouncker, who was in great pain there, and, the truth is, his business
is, without reason, so ill resented by the generality of the House, that I
was almost troubled to be seen to walk with him, and yet am able to
justify him in all, that he is under so much scandal for. Here I did get
a copy of the report itself, about our paying off men by tickets; and am
mightily glad to see it, now knowing the state of our case, and what we
have to answer to, and the more for that the House is like to be kept by
other business to-day and to-morrow, so that, against Thursday, I shall be
able to draw up some defence to put into some Member's hands, to inform
them, and I think we may [make] a very good one, and therefore my mind is
mightily at ease about it. This morning they are 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 stepped to the Dog
Tavern, and thither come to me Doll Lane, and there we did drink together,
and she tells me she is my valentine . . . . Thence, she being gone,
and having spoke with Mr. Spicer here, whom I sent for hither to discourse
about the security of the late Act of 11 months' tax on which I have
secured part of my money lent to Tangier. I to the Hall, and there met
Sir W. Pen, and he and I to the Beare, in Drury Lane, an excellent
ordinary, after the French manner, but of Englishmen; and there had a good
fricassee, our dinner coming to 8s., which was mighty pretty, to my great
content; and thence, he and I to the King's house, and there, in one of
the upper boxes, saw "Flora's Vagarys," which is a very silly play; and
the more, I being out of humour, being at a play without my wife, and she
ill at home, and having no desire also to be seen, and, therefore, could
not look about me. Thence to the Temple, and there we parted, and 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
feaver. Some opposition there was, the foreman pressing them to declare
the cause of the feaver, 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, which I am mighty glad of, and so took
leave, and home, and up to my wife, not owning my being at a play, and
there she shews me her ring of a Turky-stone set with little sparks of
dyamonds,
[The turquoise. This stone was sometimes referred to simply as the
turkey, and Broderip ("Zoological Recreations") conjectured that the
bird (turkey) took its name from the blue or turquoise colour of the
skin about its head.]
which I am to give her, as my Valentine, and I am not much troubled at it.
It will cost me near L5--she costing me but little compared with other
wives, and I have not many occasions to spend on her. So to my office,
where late, and to think upon my observations to-morrow, upon the report
of the Committee to the Parliament about the business of tickets, whereof
my head is full, and so home to supper and to bed.
19th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning drawing up an answer
to the Report of the Committee for miscarriages to the Parliament touching
our paying men by tickets, which I did do in a very good manner I think.
Dined with my clerks at home, where much good discourse of our business of
the Navy, and the trouble now upon us, more than we expected. After dinner
my wife out with Deb., to buy some things against my sister's wedding, and
I to the office to write fair my business I did in the morning, and in the
evening to White Hall, where I find Sir W. Coventry all alone, 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. Then I did get Sir W.
Coventry (the Duke of York being gone) aside, and there read over my
paper, which he liked and corrected, and tells me it will be hard to
escape, though the thing be never so fair, to have it voted a miscarriage;
but did advise me and my Lord Brouncker, who coming by did join with us,
to prepare some members in it, which we shall do. Here 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 his flag of defiance, and also, somewhere
thereabout, did land with his men, and go a mile into the country, and did
some pranks, 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 the good news of my Lord Sandwich's 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.
Thence, took up my wife at Unthanke's, and so home, and there my mind
being full of preparing my paper against to-morrow for the House, with an
address from the office to the House, I to the office, very late, and then
home to supper and to bed.
20th. Up, and to the office a while, and thence to White Hall by coach
with Mr. Batelier with me, whom I took up in the street. I thence by
water to Westminster Hall, and there with Lord Brouncker, Sir T. Harvy,
Sir J. Minnes, did wait all the morning to speak to members about our
business, thinking our business of tickets would come before the House
to-day, but we did alter our minds about the petition to the House,
sending in the paper to them. But the truth is we were in a great hurry,
but it fell out that they were 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
anywhere yet, because Harman is not come home. This kept them all the
morning, which I was glad of. So down to the Hall, where my wife by
agreement stayed for me at Mrs. Michell's, and there was Mercer and the
girl, and I took them to Wilkinson's the cook's in King Street (where I
find the master of the house hath been dead for some time), and there
dined, and thence 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
Knepp and Nell spoke the prologue most excellently, especially Knepp, 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. The play
a well-writ and good play, only its design I did not like of reproaching
the King, but altogether a very good and most serious play. Thence home,
and there a little to the office, and so home to supper, where Mercer with
us, and sang, and then to bed.
21st. At the office all the morning to get a little business done, I
having, and so the whole office, been put out of doing any business there
for this week by our trouble in attending the Parliament. Hither comes to
me young Captain Beckford, the slopseller, and there presents me a little
purse with gold in it, it being, as he told me, for his present to me, at
the end of the last year. I told him I had not done him any service I
knew of. He persisted, and I refused, but did at several denials; and
telling him that it was not an age to take presents in, he told me he had
reason to present me with something, and desired me to accept of it,
which, at his so urging me, I did, and so fell to talk of his business,
and so parted. I do not know of any manner of kindness I have done him
this last year, nor did expect any thing. It was therefore very welcome
to me, but yet I was not fully satisfied in my taking it, because of my
submitting myself to the having it objected against me hereafter, and the
rather because this morning Jacke Fen come and shewed me an order from the
Commissioners of Accounts, wherein they demand of him an account upon oath
of all the sums of money that have been by him defalked or taken from any
man since their time, of enquiry upon any payments, and if this should, as
it is to be feared, come to be done to us, I know not what I shall then
do, but I shall take counsel upon it. At noon by coach towards
Westminster, and met my Lord Brouncker, and W. Pen, and Sir T. Harvey, in
King's Street, coming away from the Parliament House; and so I to them,
and to the French ordinary, at the Blue Bells, in Lincolne's Inn Fields,
and there dined and talked. And, among other things, they tell me how 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 L5000 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
L250,000, or thereabouts, yet paid on the Poll-bill, and that he hath
charged L350,000 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 L350,000. 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. Thence, having dined for 20s., we to the Duke of York at
White Hall, and there had our usual audience, and did little but talk of
the proceedings of the Parliament, wherein he is as much troubled as we;
for he is not without fears that they do ayme at doing him hurt; but yet
he declares that he will never deny to owne what orders he hath given to
any man to justify him, notwithstanding their having sent to him to desire
his being tender to take upon him the doing any thing of that kind.
Thence with Brouncker and T. Harvey to Westminster Hall, and there met
with Colonel Birch and Sir John Lowther, and did there in the lobby read
over what I have drawn up for our defence, wherein they own themselves
mightily satisfied; and Birch, like a particular friend, do take it upon
him to defend us, and do mightily do me right in all his discourse. Here
walked in the Hall with him a great while, and discoursed with several
members, to prepare them in our business against to-morrow, and meeting my
cozen Roger Pepys, he showed me Granger's written confession,
[Pepys here refers to the extraordinary proceedings which occurred
between Charles, Lord Gerard, and Alexander Fitton, of which a
narrative was published at the Hague in 1665. Granger was a witness
in the cause, and was afterwards said to be conscience-stricken from
his perjury. Some notice of this case will be found in North's
"Examen," p. 558; but the copious and interesting note in Ormerod's
"History of Cheshire," Vol. iii., p. 291, will best satisfy the
reader, who will not fail to be struck by the paragraph with which
it is closed-viz., "It is not improbable that Alexander Fitton, who,
in the first instance, gained rightful possession of Gawsworth under
an acknowledged settlement, was driven headlong into unpremeditated
guilt by the production of a revocation by will which Lord Gerard
had so long concealed. Having lost his own fortune in the
prosecution of his claims, he remained in gaol till taken out by
James II. to be made Chancellor of Ireland (under which character
Hume first notices him), was knighted, and subsequently created Lord
Gawsworth after the abdication of James, sat in his parliament in
Dublin in 1689, and then is supposed to have accompanied his fallen
master to France. Whether the conduct of Fitton was met, as he
alleges, by similar guilt on the part of Lord Gerard, God only can
judge; but his hand fell heavily on the representatives of that
noble house. In less than half a century the husbands of its two
co-heiresses, James, Duke of Hamilton, and Charles, Lord Mohun, were
slain by each other's hands in a murderous duel arising out of a
dispute relative to the partition of the Fitton estates, and
Gawsworth itself passed to an unlineal hand, by a series of
alienations complicated beyond example in the annals of this
country."--B.]
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 [Fitton] 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. Thence with Lord Brouncker and T. Harvey as far as the New
Exchange, and there at a draper's shop drawing up a short note of what
they are to desire of the House for our having a hearing before they
determine any thing against us, which paper is for them to show to what
friends they meet against to-morrow, I away home to the office, and there
busy pretty late, and here comes my wife to me, who hath been at Pegg
Pen's christening, which, she says, hath made a flutter and noise; but was
as mean as could be, and but little company, just like all the rest that
that family do. So home to supper and to bed, with my head full of a
defence before the Parliament tomorrow, and therein content myself very
well, and with what I have done in preparing some of the members thereof
in order thereto.
22nd. Up, and by coach through Ducke Lane, and there did buy Kircher's
Musurgia, cost me 35s., a book I am mighty glad of, expecting to find
great satisfaction in it. Thence to Westminster Hall and the lobby, and
up and down there all the morning, and to the Lords' House, and heard the
Solicitor-General plead very finely, as he always do; and this was in
defence of the East India Company against a man that complains of wrong
from them, and thus up and down till noon in expectation of our business
coming on in the House of Commons about tickets, but they being busy about
my Lord Gerard's business I did give over the thoughts of ours coming on,
and so with my wife, and Mercer, and Deb., who come to the Hall to me, I
away to the Beare, in Drury Lane, and there bespoke a dish of meat; and,
in the mean time, sat and sung with Mercer; and, by and by, dined with
mighty pleasure, and excellent meat, one little dish enough for us all,
and good wine, and all for 8s., and thence to the Duke's playhouse, and
there saw "Albumazar," 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
ridicuiousnesse of Angell's part, which is called Trinkilo, I do not see
any thing extraordinary in it, but was indeed weary of it before it was
done. The King here, and, indeed, all of us, pretty merry at the mimique
tricks of Trinkilo. So home, calling in Ducke Lane for the book I bought
this morning, and so home, and wrote my letters at the office, and then
home to supper and to bed.