and sat with us, only to learn, and do intend to come once or twice a week
and sit with us. In the afternoon walked to the Old Swan, the way mighty
dirty, and there called at Michell's, and there had opportunity para kiss
su moher, but elle did receive it with a great deal of seeming regret,
which did vex me. But however I do not doubt overcoming her as I did the
moher of the monsieur at Deptford. So thence by water to Westminster, to
Burgess, and there did receive my orders for L1500 more for Tangier.
Thence to the Hall, and there talked a little with Mrs. Michell, and so to
Mrs. Martin's to pay for my cuffs and drink with her . . . . And by and
by away by coach and met with Sir H. Cholmly, and with him to the Temple,
and there in Playford's shop did give him some of my Exchequer orders and
took his receipts, and so parted and home, and there to my business hard
at the office, and then home, my wife being at Mrs. Turner's, who and her
husband come home with her, and here staid and talked and staid late, and
then went away and we to bed. But that which vexed me much this evening
is that Captain Cocke and Sir W. Batten did come to me, and sat, and drank
a bottle of wine, and told me how Sir W. Pen hath got an order for the
"Flying Greyhound" for himself, which is so false a thing, and the part of
a knave, as nothing almost can be more. This vexed me; but I resolve to
bring it before the Duke, and try a pull for it.
18th. Up betimes and to Captain Cocke, in his coach which he sent for me,
and he not being ready I walked in the Exchange, which is now made pretty,
by having windows and doors before all their shops, to keep out the cold.
By and by to him, and he being ready, he and I out in his coach to my Lord
Chancellor's; there to Mr. Wren's chamber, who did tell us the whole of
Sir W. Pen's having the order for this ship of ours, and we went with him
to St. James's, and there I did see the copy of it, which is built upon a
suggestion of his having given the King a ship of his, "The Prosperous,"
wherein is such a cheat as I have the best advantage in the world over
him, and will make him do reason, or lay him on his back. This I was very
glad of, and having done as far as I could in it we returned, and I home,
and there at the office all the morning, and at noon with my Lord Bruncker
to the Treasurer's office to look over the clerks who are there making up
the books, but in such a manner as it is a shame to see. Then home to
dinner, and after dinner, my mind mighty full of this business of Sir W.
Pen's, to the office, and there busy all the afternoon. This evening Sir
W. Batten and [Sir] W. Pen and I met at [Sir] W. Batten's house, and there
I took an opportunity to break the business, at which [Sir] W. Pen is much
disturbed, and would excuse it the most he can, but do it so basely, that
though he do offer to let go his pretence to her, and resign up his order
for her, and come in only to ask his share of her (which do very well
please me, and give me present satisfaction), yet I shall remember him for
a knave while I live. But thus my mind is quieted for the present more
than I thought I should be, and am glad that I shall have no need of
bidding him open defiance, which I would otherwise have done, and made a
perpetual war between us. So to the office, and there busy pretty late,
and so home and to supper with my wife, and so to bed.
19th. Up, and all the morning at the office. At noon home to dinner, W.
Hewer and I and my wife, when comes my cozen, Kate Joyce, and an aunt of
ours, Lettice, formerly Haynes, and now Howlett, come to town to see her
friends, and also Sarah Kite, with her little boy in her armes, a very
pretty little boy. The child I like very well, and could wish it my own.
My wife being all unready, did not appear. I made as much of them as I
could such ordinary company; and yet my heart was glad to see them, though
their condition was a little below my present state, to be familiar with.
She tells me how the lifeguard, which we thought a little while since was
sent down into the country about some insurrection, was sent to
Winchcombe, to spoil the tobacco there, which it seems the people there do
plant contrary to law, and have always done, and still been under force
and danger of having it spoiled, as it hath been oftentimes, and yet they
will continue to plant it.
[Winchcombe St. Peter, a market-town in Gloucestershire. Tobacco
was first cultivated in this parish, after its introduction into
England, in 1583, and it proved, a considerable source of profit to
the inhabitants, till the trade was placed under restrictions. The
cultivation was first prohibited during the Commonwealth, and
various acts were passed in the reign of Charles II. for the same
purpose. Among the king's pamphlets in the British Museum is a
tract entitled "Harry Hangman's Honour, or Glostershire Hangman's
Request to the Smokers and Tobacconists of London," dated June 11th,
1655. The author writes: "The very planting of tobacco hath proved
the decay of my trade, for since it hath been planted in
Glostershire, especially at Winchcomb, my trade hath proved nothing
worth." He adds: "Then 'twas a merry world with me, for indeed
before tobacco was there planted, there being no kind of trade to
employ men, and very small tillage, necessity compelled poor men to
stand my friends by stealing of sheep and other cattel, breaking of
hedges, robbing of orchards, and what not."]
The place, she says, is a miserable poor place. They gone, I to the
office, where all the afternoon very busy, and at night, when my eyes were
weary of the light, I and my wife to walk in the garden, and then home to
supper and pipe, and then to bed.
20th. At the office doing business all the morning. At noon expected
Creed to have come to dine with me and brought Mr. Sheres (the gentleman
lately come from my Lord Sandwich) with him; but they come not, so there
was a good dinner lost. After dinner my wife and Jane about some business
of hers abroad, and then I to the office, where, having done my business,
I out to pay some debts: among others to the taverne at the end of
Billiter Lane, where my design was to see the pretty mistress of the
house, which I did, and indeed is, as I always thought, one of the
modestest, prettiest, plain women that ever I saw. Thence was met in the
street by Sir W. Pen, and he and I by coach to the King's playhouse, and
there saw "The Mad Couple," which I do not remember that I have seen; it
is a pretty pleasant play. Thence home, and my wife and I to walk in the
garden, she having been at the same play with Jane, in the 18d. seat, to
shew Jane the play, and so home to supper and to bed.
21st. All the morning at the office, dined at home, and expected Sheres
again, but he did not come, so another dinner lost by the folly of Creed.
After having done some business at the office, I out with my wife to
Sheres's lodging and left an invitation for him to dine with me tomorrow,
and so back and took up my wife at the Exchange, and then kissed Mrs.
Smith's pretty hand, and so with my wife by coach to take some ayre (but
the way very dirty) as far as Bow, and so drinking (as usual) at Mile End
of Byde's ale, we home and there busy at my letters till late, and so to
walk by moonshine with my wife, and so to bed. The King, Duke of York,
and the men of the Court, have been these four or five days a-hunting at
Bagshot.
22nd (Lord's day). At my chamber all the morning making up some accounts,
to my great content. At noon comes Mr. Sheres, whom I find a good,
ingenious man, but do talk a little too much of his travels. He left my
Lord Sandwich well, but in pain to be at home for want of money, which
comes very hardly. Most of the afternoon talking of Spain, and informing
him against his return how things are here, and so spent most of the
afternoon, and then he parted, and then to my chamber busy till my eyes
were almost blind with writing and reading, and I was fain to get the boy
to come and write for me, and then to supper, and Pelling come to me at
supper, and then to sing a Psalm with him, and so parted and to bed, after
my wife had read some thing to me (to save my eyes) in a good book. This
night I did even my accounts of the house, which I have to my great shame
omitted now above two months or more, and therefore am content to take my
wife's and mayd's accounts as they give them, being not able to correct
them, which vexes me; but the fault being my own, contrary to my wife's
frequent desires, I cannot find fault, but am resolved never to let them
come to that pass again. The truth is, I have indulged myself more in
pleasure for these last two months than ever I did in my life before,
since I come to be a person concerned in business; and I doubt, when I
come to make up my accounts, I shall find it so by the expence.
23rd. Up, and walked to the Exchange, there to get a coach but failed,
and so was forced to walk a most dirty walk to the Old Swan, and there
took boat, and so to the Exchange, and there took coach to St. James's and
did our usual business with the Duke of York. Thence I walked over the
Park to White Hall and took water to Westminster, and there, among other
things, bought the examinations of the business about the Fire of London,
which is a book that Mrs. Pierce tells me hath been commanded to be burnt.
The examinations indeed are very plain. Thence to the Excise office, and
so to the Exchange, and did a little business, and so home and took up my
wife, and so carried her to the other end, where I 'light at my Lord
Ashly's, by invitation, to dine there, which I did, and Sir H. Cholmly,
Creed, and Yeabsly, upon occasion of the business of Yeabsly, who, God
knows, do bribe him very well for it; and it is pretty to see how this
great man do condescend to these things, and do all he can in his
examining of his business to favour him, and yet with great cunning not to
be discovered but by me that am privy to it. At table it is worth
remembering that my Lord tells us that the House of Lords is the last
appeal that a man can make, upon a poynt of interpretation of the law, and
that therein they are above the judges; and that he did assert this in the
Lords' House upon the late occasion of the quarrel between my Lord
Bristoll and the Chancellor, when the former did accuse the latter of
treason, and the judges did bring it in not to be treason: my Lord Ashly
did declare that the judgment of the judges was nothing in the presence of
their Lordships, but only as far as they were the properest men to bring
precedents; but not to interpret the law to their Lordships, but only the
inducements of their persuasions: and this the Lords did concur in.
Another pretty thing was my Lady Ashly's speaking of the bad qualities of
glass-coaches; among others, the flying open of the doors upon any great
shake: but another was, that my Lady Peterborough being in her
glass-coach, with the glass up, and seeing a lady pass by in a coach whom
she would salute, the glass was so clear, that she thought it had been
open, and so ran her head through the glass, and cut all her forehead!
After dinner, before we fell to the examination of Yeabsly's business, we
were put into my Lord's room before he could come to us, and there had
opportunity to look over his state of his accounts of the prizes; and
there saw how bountiful the King hath been to several people and hardly
any man almost, Commander of the Navy of any note, but hath had some
reward or other out of it; and many sums to the Privy-purse, but not so
many, I see, as I thought there had been: but we could not look quite
through it. But several Bedchamber-men and people about the Court had
good sums; and, among others, Sir John Minnes and Lord Bruncker have L200
a-piece for looking to the East India prizes, while I did their work for
them. By and by my Lord come, and we did look over Yeabsly's business a
little; and I find how prettily this cunning Lord can be partial and
dissemble it in this case, being privy to the bribe he is to receive.
This done; we away, and with Sir H. Cholmly to Westminster; who by the way
told me how merry the king and Duke of York and Court were the other day,
when they were abroad a-hunting. They come to Sir G. Carteret's house at
Cranbourne, and there were entertained, and all made drunk; and that all
being drunk, Armerer did come to the King, and swore to him, "By God,
Sir," says he, "you are not so kind to the Duke of York of late as you
used to be."--"Not I?" says the King. "Why so?"--"Why," says he, "if you
are, let us drink his health."--"Why, let us," says the King. Then he
fell on his knees, and drank it; and having done, the King began to drink
it. "Nay, Sir," says Armerer, "by God you must do it on your knees!" So
he did, and then all the company: and having done it, all fell a-crying
for joy, being all maudlin and kissing one another, the King the Duke of
York, and the Duke of York the King: and in such a maudlin pickle as never
people were: and so passed the day. But Sir H. Cholmly tells me, that the
King hath this good luck, that the next day he hates to have any body
mention what he had done the day before, nor will suffer any body to gain
upon him that way; which is a good quality. Parted with Sir H. Cholmly at
White Hall, and there I took coach and took up my wife at Unthanke's, and
so out for ayre, it being a mighty pleasant day, as far as Bow, and so
drank by the way, and home, and there to my chamber till by and by comes
Captain Cocke about business; who tells me that Mr. Bruncker is lost for
ever, notwithstanding my Lord Bruncker hath advised with him, Cocke, how
he might make a peace with the Duke of York and Chancellor, upon promise
of serving him in the Parliament but Cocke says that is base to offer, and
will have no success neither. He says that Mr. Wren hath refused a
present of Tom Wilson's for his place of Store-keeper of Chatham, and is
resolved never to take any thing; which is both wise in him, and good to
the King's service. He stayed with me very late, here being Mrs. Turner
and W. Batelier drinking and laughing, and then to bed.
24th. Up, and to the Office, where all the morning very busy. At noon
home, where there dined with me Anthony Joyce and his wife, and Will and
his wife, and my aunt Lucett, that was here the other day, and Sarah Kite,
and I had a good dinner for them, and were as merry as I could be in that
company where W. Joyce is, who is still the same impertinent fellow that
ever he was. After dinner I away to St. James's, where we had an audience
of the Duke of York of many things of weight, as the confirming an
establishment of the numbers of men on ships in peace and other things of
weight, about which we stayed till past candle-light, and so Sir W. Batten
and W. Pen and I fain to go all in a hackney-coach round by London Wall,
for fear of cellars, this being the first time I have been forced to go
that way this year, though now I shall begin to use it. We tired one coach
upon Holborne-Conduit Hill, and got another, and made it a long journey
home. Where to the office and then home, and at my business till twelve
at night, writing in short hand the draught of a report to make to the
King and Council to-morrow, about the reason of not having the book of the
Treasurer made up. This I did finish to-night to the spoiling of my eyes,
I fear. This done, then to bed. This evening my wife tells me that W.
Batelier hath been here to-day, and brought with him the pretty girl he
speaks of, to come to serve my wife as a woman, out of the school at Bow.
My wife says she is extraordinary handsome, and inclines to have her, and
I am glad of it--at least, that if we must have one, she should be
handsome. But I shall leave it wholly to my wife, to do what she will
therein.
25th. Up as soon as I could see and to the office to write over fair with
Mr. Hater my last night's work, which I did by nine o'clock, and got it
signed, and so with Sir H. Cholmly, who come to me about his business, to
White Hall: and thither come also my Lord Bruncker: and we by and by
called in, and our paper read; and much discourse thereon by Sir G.
Carteret, my Lord Anglesey, Sir W. Coventry, and my Lord Ashly, and
myself: but I could easily discern that they none of them understood the
business; and the King at last ended it with saying lazily, "Why," says
he, "after all this discourse, I now come to understand it; and that is,
that there can nothing be done in this more than is possible," which was
so silly as I never heard: "and therefore," says he, "I would have these
gentlemen to do as much as possible to hasten the Treasurer's accounts;
and that is all." And so we broke up: and I confess I went away ashamed,
to see how slightly things are advised upon there. Here I saw the Duke of
Buckingham sit in Council again, where he was re-admitted, it seems, the
last Council-day: and it is wonderful to see how this man is come again to
his places, all of them, after the reproach and disgrace done him: so that
things are done in a most foolish manner quite through. The Duke of
Buckingham did second Sir W. Coventry in the advising the King that he
would not concern himself in the owning or not owning any man's accounts,
or any thing else, wherein he had not the same satisfaction that would
satisfy the Parliament; saying, that nothing would displease the
Parliament more than to find him defending any thing that is not right,
nor justifiable to the utmost degree but methought he spoke it but very
poorly. After this, I walked up and down the Gallery till noon; and here
I met with Bishop Fuller, who, to my great joy, is made, which I did not
hear before, Bishop of Lincoln. At noon I took coach, and to Sir G.
Carteret's, in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, to the house that is my Lord's, which
my Lord lets him have: and this is the first day of dining there. And
there dined with him and his lady my Lord Privy-seale, who is indeed a
very sober man; who, among other talk, did mightily wonder at the reason
of the growth of the credit of banquiers, since it is so ordinary a thing
for citizens to break, out of knavery. Upon this we had much discourse;
and I observed therein, to the honour of this City, that I have not heard
of one citizen of London broke in all this war, this plague, this fire,
and this coming up of the enemy among us; which he owned to be very
considerable.
[This remarkable fact is confirmed by Evelyn, in a letter to Sir
Samuel Tuke, September 27th, 1666. See "Correspondence," vol.
iii., p. 345, edit. 1879.]
After dinner I to the King's playhouse, my eyes being so bad since last
night's straining of them, that I am hardly able to see, besides the pain
which I have in them. The play was a new play; and infinitely full: the
King and all the Court almost there. It is "The Storme," a play of
Fletcher's;' which is but so-so, methinks; only there is a most admirable
dance at the end, of the ladies, in a military manner, which indeed did
please me mightily. So, it being a mighty wet day and night, I with much
ado got a coach, and, with twenty stops which he made, I got him to carry
me quite through, and paid dear for it, and so home, and there comes my
wife home from the Duke of York's playhouse, where she hath been with my
aunt and Kate Joyce, and so to supper, and betimes to bed, to make amends
for my last night's work and want of sleep.
26th. Up, and to my chamber, whither Jonas Moore comes, and, among other
things, after our business done, discoursing of matters of the office, I
shewed him my varnished things, which he says he can outdo much, and tells
me the mighty use of Napier's bones;
[John Napier or Neper (1550-1617), laird of Merchiston (now
swallowed up in the enlarged Edinburgh of to-day, although the old
castle still stands), and the inventor of logarithms. He published
his "Rabdologiae seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo" in 1617,
and the work was reprinted and translated into Italian (1623) and
Dutch (1626). In 1667 William Leybourn published "The Art of
Numbering by Speaking Rods, vulgarly termed Napier's Bones."]
so that I will have a pair presently. To the office, where busy all the
morning sitting, and at noon home to dinner, and then with my wife abroad
to the King's playhouse, to shew her yesterday's new play, which I like as
I did yesterday, the principal thing extraordinary being the dance, which
is very good. So to Charing Cross by coach, about my wife's business, and
then home round by London Wall, it being very dark and dirty, and so to
supper, and, for the ease of my eyes, to bed, having first ended all my
letters at the office.
27th. Up, and to the office, where very busy all the morning. While I
was busy at the Office, my wife sends for me to come home, and what was it
but to see the pretty girl which she is taking to wait upon her: and
though she seems not altogether so great a beauty as she had before told
me, yet indeed she is mighty pretty; and so pretty, that I find I shall be
too much pleased with it, and therefore could be contented as to my
judgement, though not to my passion, that she might not come, lest I may
be found too much minding her, to the discontent of my wife. She is to
come next week. She seems, by her discourse, to be grave beyond her
bigness and age, and exceeding well bred as to her deportment, having been
a scholar in a school at Bow these seven or eight years. To the office
again, my head running on this pretty girl, and there till noon, when
Creed and Sheres come and dined with me; and we had a great deal of pretty
discourse of the ceremoniousness of the Spaniards, whose ceremonies are so
many and so known, that, Sheres tells me, upon all occasions of joy or
sorrow in a Grandee's family, my Lord Embassador is fain to send one with
an 'en hora buena', if it be upon a marriage, or birth of a child, or a
'pesa me', if it be upon the death of a child, or so. And these
ceremonies are so set, and the words of the compliment, that he hath been
sent from my Lord, when he hath done no more than send in word to the
Grandee that one was there from the Embassador; and he knowing what was
his errand, that hath been enough, and he never spoken with him: nay,
several Grandees having been to marry a daughter, have wrote letters to my
Lord to give him notice, and out of the greatness of his wisdom to desire
his advice, though people he never saw; and then my Lord he answers by
commending the greatness of his discretion in making so good an alliance,
&c., and so ends. He says that it is so far from dishonour to a man to
give private revenge for an affront, that the contrary is a disgrace; they
holding that he that receives an affront is not fit to appear in the sight
of the world till he hath revenged himself; and therefore, that a
gentleman there that receives an affront oftentimes never appears again in
the world till he hath, by some private way or other, revenged himself:
and that, on this account, several have followed their enemies privately
to the Indys, thence to Italy, thence to France and back again, watching
for an opportunity to be revenged. He says my Lord was fain to keep a
letter from the Duke of York to the Queen of Spain a great while in his
hands, before he could think fit to deliver it, till he had learnt whether
the Queen would receive it, it being directed to his cozen. He says that
many ladies in Spain, after they are found to be with child, do never stir
out of their beds or chambers till they are brought to bed: so ceremonious
they are in that point also. He tells me of their wooing by serenades at
the window, and that their friends do always make the match; but yet that
they have opportunities to meet at masse at church, and there they make
love: that the Court there hath no dancing, nor visits at night to see the
King or Queen, but is always just like a cloyster, nobody stirring in it:
that my Lord Sandwich wears a beard now, turned up in the Spanish manner.
But that which pleases me most indeed is, that the peace which he hath
made with Spain is now printed here, and is acknowledged by all the
merchants to be the best peace that ever England had with them: and it
appears that the King thinks it so, for this is printed before the
ratification is gone over; whereas that with France and Holland was not in
a good while after, till copys come over of it in English out of Holland
and France, that it was a reproach not to have it printed here. This I am
mighty glad of; and is the first and only piece of good news, or thing fit
to be owned, that this nation hath done several years. After dinner I to
the office, and they gone, anon comes Pelling, and he and I to Gray's Inne
Fields, thinking to have heard Mrs. Knight sing at her lodgings, by a
friend's means of his;