at noon, where I find Mr. Sheres; and there made a short dinner, and
carried him with us to the King's playhouse, where "The Heyresse,"
not-withstanding Kinaston's being beaten, is acted; and they say the
King is very angry with Sir Charles Sedley for his being beaten, but he
do deny it. But his part is done by Beeston, who is fain to read it out
of a book all the while, and thereby spoils the part, and almost the
play, it being one of the best parts in it; and though the design is,
in the first conception of it, pretty good, yet it is but an indifferent
play, wrote, they say, by my Lord Newcastle. But it was pleasant to
see Beeston come in with others, supposing it to be dark, and yet he
is forced to read his part by the light of the candles: and this
I observing to a gentleman that sat by me, he was mightily pleased
therewith, and spread it up and down. But that, that pleased me most in
the play is, the first song that Knepp sings, she singing three or four;
and, indeed, it was very finely sung, so as to make the whole house clap
her. Thence carried Sheres to White Hall, and there I stepped in, and
looked out Mr. May, who tells me that he and his company cannot come to
dine with me to-morrow, whom I expected only to come to see the manner
of our Office and books, at which I was not very much displeased, having
much business at the Office, and so away home, and there to the office
about my letters, and then home to supper and to bed, my wife being in
mighty ill humour all night, and in the morning I found it to be from
her observing Knepp to wink and smile on me; and she says I smiled on
her; and, poor wretch! I did perceive that she did, and do on all such
occasions, mind my eyes. I did, with much difficulty, pacify her, and
were friends, she desiring that hereafter, at that house, we might
always sit either above in a box, or, if there be [no] room, close up to
the lower boxes.
3rd. So up, and to the Office till noon, and then home to a little
dinner, and thither again till night, mighty busy, to my great content,
doing a great deal of business, and so home to supper, and to bed; I
finding this day that I may be able to do a great deal of business by
dictating, if I do not read myself, or write, without spoiling my eyes,
I being very well in my eyes after a great day's work.
4th. Up, and at the office all the morning. At noon home with my people
to dinner, and then after dinner comes Mr. Spong to see me, and brings
me my Parallelogram, in better order than before, and two or three
draughts of the port of Brest, to my great content, and I did call Mr.
Gibson to take notice of it, who is very much pleased therewith; and
it seems this Parallelogram is not, as Mr. Sheres would, the other day,
have persuaded me, the same as a Protractor, which do so much the more
make me value it, but of itself it is a most usefull instrument. Thence
out with my wife and him, and carried him to an instrument-maker's shop
in Chancery Lane, that was once a 'Prentice of Greatorex's, but the
master was not within, and there he [Gibson] shewed me a Parallelogram
in brass, which I like so well that I will buy, and therefore bid it be
made clean and fit for me. And so to my cozen Turner's, and there
just spoke with The., the mother not being at home; and so to the New
Exchange, and thence home to my letters; and so home to supper and to
bed. This morning I made a slip from the Office to White Hall, expecting
Povy's business at a Committee of Tangier, at which I would be, but it
did not meet, and so I presently back.
5th. Up betimes, by coach to Sir W. Coventry's, and with him by coach
to White Hall, and there walked in the garden talking of several things,
and by my visit to keep fresh my interest in him; and there he tells me
how it hath been talked that he was to go one of the Commissioners to
Ireland, which he was resolved never to do, unless directly commanded;
for he told me that for to go thither, while the Chief Secretary of
State was his professed enemy, was to undo himself; and, therefore, it
were better for him to venture being unhappy here, than to go further
off, to be undone by some obscure instructions, or whatever other way of
mischief his enemies should cut out for him. He mighty kind to me,
and so parted, and thence home, calling in two or three places--among
others, Dancre's, where I find him beginning of a piece for me, of
Greenwich, which will please me well, and so home to dinner, and very
busy all the afternoon, and so at night home to supper, and to bed.
6th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and thence after
dinner to the King's playhouse, and there,--in an upper box, where
come in Colonel Poynton and Doll Stacey, who is very fine, and, by her
wedding-ring, I suppose he hath married her at last,--did see "The
Moor of Venice:" but ill acted in most parts; Mohun, which did a little
surprise me, not acting Iago's part by much so well as Clun used to
do; nor another Hart's, which was Cassio's; nor, indeed, Burt doing
the Moor's so well as I once thought he did. Thence home, and just at
Holborn Conduit the bolt broke, that holds the fore-wheels to the perch,
and so the horses went away with them, and left the coachman and us;
but being near our coachmaker's, and we staying in a little ironmonger's
shop, we were presently supplied with another, and so home, and there to
my letters at the office, and so to supper and to bed.
7th (Lord's day). My wife mighty peevish in the morning about my lying
unquietly a-nights, and she will have it that it is a late practice,
from my evil thoughts in my dreams,....and mightily she is troubled
about it; but all blew over, and I up, and to church, and so home to
dinner, where she in a worse fit, which lasted all the afternoon, and
shut herself up, in her closet, and I mightily grieved and vexed, and
could not get her to tell me what ayled her, or to let me into her
closet, but at last she did, where I found her crying on the ground,
and I could not please her; but I did at last find that she did plainly
expound it to me. It was, that she did believe me false to her with
Jane, and did rip up three or four silly circumstances of her not
rising till I come out of my chamber, and her letting me thereby see
her dressing herself; and that I must needs go into her chamber and was
naught with her; which was so silly, and so far from truth, that I could
not be troubled at it, though I could not wonder at her being troubled,
if she had these thoughts, and therefore she would lie from me, and
caused sheets to be put on in the blue room, and would have Jane to
lie with her lest I should come to her. At last, I did give her such
satisfaction, that we were mighty good friends, and went to bed betimes
.....
8th. Up, and dressed myself; and by coach, with W. Hewer and my wife, to
White Hall, where she set us two down; and in the way, our little boy,
at Martin, my bookseller's shop, going to 'light, did fall down; and,
had he not been a most nimble boy (I saw how he did it, and was mightily
pleased with him for it), he had been run over by the coach. I to visit
my Lord Sandwich; and there, while my Lord was dressing himself, did see
a young Spaniard, that he hath brought over with him, dance, which he is
admired for, as the best dancer in Spain, and indeed he do with mighty
mastery; but I do not like his dancing as the English, though my Lord
commends it mightily: but I will have him to my house, and show it my
wife. Here I met with Mr. Moore, who tells me the state of my Lord's
accounts of his embassy, which I find not so good as I thought: for,
though it be passed the King and his Cabal (the Committee for Foreign
Affairs as they are called), yet they have cut off from L9000 full
L8000, and have now sent it to the Lords of the Treasury, who, though
the Committee have allowed the rest, yet they are not obliged to
abide by it. So that I do fear this account may yet be long ere it be
passed--much more, ere that sum be paid: I am sorry for the family,
and not a little for what it owes me. So to my wife, took her up at
Unthank's, and in our way home did shew her the tall woman in Holborne,
which I have seen before; and I measured her, and she is, without shoes,
just six feet five inches high, and they say not above twenty-one years
old. Thence home, and there to dinner, and my wife in a wonderful ill
humour; and, after dinner, I staid with her alone, being not able to
endure this life, and fell to some angry words together; but by and by
were mighty good friends, she telling me plain it was still about Jane,
whom she cannot believe but I am base with, which I made a matter of
mirth at; but at last did call up Jane, and confirm her mistress's
directions for her being gone at Easter, which I find the wench willing
to be, but directly prayed that Tom might go with her, which I promised,
and was but what I designed; and she being thus spoke with, and gone, my
wife and I good friends, and mighty kind, I having promised, and I
will perform it, never to give her for the time to come ground of new
trouble; and so I to the Office, with a very light heart, and there
close at my business all the afternoon. This day I was told by Mr. Wren,
that Captain Cox, Master-Attendant at Deptford, is to be one of us
very soon, he and Tippets being to take their turns for Chatham and
Portsmouth, which choice I like well enough; and Captain Annesley is to
come in his room at Deptford. This morning also, going to visit Roger
Pepys, at the potticary's in King's Street, he tells me that Roger is
gone to his wife's, so that they have been married, as he tells me, ever
since the middle of last week: it was his design, upon good reasons,
to make no noise of it; but I am well enough contented that it is over.
Dispatched a great deal of business at the office, and there pretty
late, till finding myself very full of wind, by my eating no dinner
to-day, being vexed, I was forced to go home, and there supped W.
Batelier with us, and so with great content to bed.
9th. Up, and all the morning busy at the office, and after dinner
abroad with my wife to the King's playhouse, and there saw "The Island
Princesse," which I like mighty well, as an excellent play: and here
we find Kinaston to be well enough to act again, which he do very well,
after his beating by Sir Charles Sedley's appointment; and so thence
home, and there to my business at the Office, and after my letters
done, then home to supper and to bed, my mind being mightily eased by my
having this morning delivered to the Office a letter of advice about our
answers to the Commissioners of Accounts, whom we have neglected, and I
have done this as a record in my justification hereafter, when it shall
come to be examined.
10th. Up, and with my wife and W. Hewer, she set us down at White Hall,
where the Duke of York was gone a-hunting: and so, after I had done a
little business there, I to my wife, and with her to the plaisterer's at
Charing Cross, that casts heads and bodies in plaister: and there I had
my whole face done; but I was vexed first to be forced to daub all my
face over with pomatum: but it was pretty to feel how soft and easily
it is done on the face, and by and by, by degrees, how hard it becomes,
that you cannot break it, and sits so close, that you cannot pull
it off, and yet so easy, that it is as soft as a pillow, so safe is
everything where many parts of the body do bear alike. Thus was the
mould made; but when it came off there was little pleasure in it, as it
looks in the mould, nor any resemblance whatever there will be in the
figure, when I come to see it cast off, which I am to call for a day or
two hence, which I shall long to see. Thence to Hercules Pillars, and
there my wife and W. Hewer and I dined, and back to White Hall, where I
staid till the Duke of York come from hunting, which he did by and by,
and, when dressed, did come out to dinner; and there I waited: and he
did tell me that to-morrow was to be the great day that the business
of the Navy would be dis coursed of before the King and his Caball,
and that he must stand on his guard, and did design to have had me in
readiness by, but that upon second thoughts did think it better to let
it alone, but they are now upon entering into the economical part of the
Navy. Here he dined, and did mightily magnify his sauce, which he did
then eat with every thing, and said it was the best universal sauce in
the world, it being taught him by the Spanish Embassador; made of some
parsley and a dry toast, beat in a mortar, together with vinegar, salt,
and a little pepper: he eats it with flesh, or fowl, or fish: and then
he did now mightily commend some new sort of wine lately found out,
called Navarre wine, which I tasted, and is, I think, good wine: but I
did like better the notion of the sauce, and by and by did taste it, and
liked it mightily. After dinner, I did what I went for, which was to get
his consent that Balty might hold his Muster-Master's place by deputy,
in his new employment which I design for him, about the Storekeeper's
accounts; which the Duke of York did grant me, and I was mighty glad of
it. Thence home, and there I find Povy and W. Batelier, by appointment,
met to talk of some merchandize of wine and linnen; but I do not like of
their troubling my house to meet in, having no mind to their pretences
of having their rendezvous here, but, however, I was not much troubled,
but went to the office, and there very busy, and did much business till
late at night, and so home to supper, and with great pleasure to bed.
This day, at dinner, I sent to Mr. Spong to come to me to Hercules
Pillars, who come to us, and there did bring with him my new
Parallelogram of brass, which I was mightily pleased with, and paid for
it 25s., and am mightily pleased with his ingenious and modest company.
11th. Up, and to the office, where sat all the morning, and at noon home
and heard that the last night Colonel Middleton's wife died, a woman I
never saw since she come hither, having never been within their house
since. Home at noon to dinner, and thence to work all the afternoon with
great pleasure, and did bring my business to a very little compass in my
day book, which is a mighty pleasure, and so home to supper and get my
wife to read to me, and then to bed.
12th. Up, and my wife with me to White Hall, and Tom, and there she sets
us down, and there to wait on the Duke of York, with the rest of us, at
the Robes, where the Duke of York did tell us that the King would have
us prepare a draught of the present administration of the Navy, and
what it was in the late times, in order to his being able to distinguish
between the good and the bad, which I shall do, but to do it well will
give me a great deal of trouble. Here we shewed him Sir J. Minnes's
propositions about balancing Storekeeper's accounts; and I did shew him
Hosier's, which did please him mightily, and he will have it shewed the
Council and King anon, to be put in practice. Thence to the Treasurer's;
and I and Sir J. Minnes and Mr. Tippets down to the Lords Commissioners
of the Treasury, and there had a hot debate from Sir Thomas Clifford and
my Lord Ashly (the latter of which, I hear, is turning about as fast as
he can to the Duke of Buckingham's side, being in danger, it seems, of
being otherwise out of play, which would not be convenient for him),
against Sir W. Coventry and Sir J. Duncomb, who did uphold our Office
against an accusation of our Treasurers, who told the Lords that they
found that we had run the King in debt L50,000 or more, more than the
money appointed for the year would defray, which they declared like
fools, and with design to hurt us, though the thing is in itself
ridiculous. But my Lord Ashly and Clifford did most horribly cry out
against the want of method in the Office. At last it come that it should
be put in writing what they had to object; but I was devilish mad at it,
to see us thus wounded by our own members, and so away vexed, and called
my wife, and to Hercules Pillars, Tom and I, there dined; and here there
coming a Frenchman by with his Shew, we did make him shew it us, which
he did just as Lacy acts it, which made it mighty pleasant to me. So
after dinner we away and to Dancre's, and there saw our picture of
Greenwich in doing, which is mighty pretty, and so to White Hall, my
wife to Unthank's, and I attended with Lord Brouncker the King and
Council, about the proposition of balancing Storekeeper's accounts
and there presented Hosier's book, and it was mighty well resented and
approved of. So the Council being up, we to the Queen's side with the
King and Duke of York: and the Duke of York did take me out to talk
of our Treasurers, whom he is mighty angry with: and I perceive he
is mighty desirous to bring in as many good motions of profit and
reformation in the Navy as he can, before the Treasurers do light upon
them, they being desirous, it seems, to be thought the great reformers:
and the Duke of York do well. But to my great joy he is mighty open to
me in every thing; and by this means I know his whole mind, and shall be
able to secure myself, if he stands. Here to-night I understand, by
my Lord Brouncker, that at last it is concluded on by the King and
Buckingham that my Lord of Ormond shall not hold his government of
Ireland, which is a great stroke, to shew the power of Buckingham and
the poor spirit of the King, and little hold that any man can have of
him. Thence I homeward, and calling my wife called at my cozen Turner's,
and there met our new cozen Pepys (Mrs. Dickenson), and Bab. and Betty'
come yesterday to town, poor girls, whom we have reason to love, and
mighty glad we are to see them; and there staid and talked a little,
being also mightily pleased to see Betty Turner, who is now in town,
and her brothers Charles and Will, being come from school to see their
father, and there talked a while, and so home, and there Pelling hath
got me W. Pen's book against the Trinity.
[Entitled, "The Sandy Foundation Shaken; or those... doctrines
of one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons; the
impossibility of God's pardoning sinners without a plenary
satisfaction, the justification of impure persons by an imputative
righteousness, refuted from the authority of Scripture testimonies
and right reason, etc. London, 1668." It caused him to be
imprisoned in the Tower. "Aug. 4, 1669. Young Penn who wrote the
blasphemous book is delivered to his father to be transported"
("Letter to Sir John Birkenhead, quoted by Bishop Kennett in his MS.
Collections, vol. lxxxix., p. 477).]
I got my wife to read it to me; and I find it so well writ as, I think,
it is too good for him ever to have writ it; and it is a serious sort of
book, and not fit for every body to read. So to supper and to bed.
13th. Up, and all the morning at the office, and at noon home to dinner,
and thence to the office again mighty busy, to my great content, till
night, and then home to supper and, my eyes being weary, to bed.
14th (Lord's day). Up, and by coach to Sir W. Coventry, and there, he
taking physic, I with him all the morning, full of very good discourse
of the Navy and publick matters, to my great content, wherein I find him
doubtful that all will be bad, and, for his part, he tells me he takes
no more care for any thing more than in the Treasury; and that, that
being done, he goes to cards and other delights, as plays, and in
summertime to bowles. But here he did shew me two or three old books of
the Navy, of my Lord Northumberland's' times, which he hath taken many
good notes out of, for justifying the Duke of York and us, in many
things, wherein, perhaps, precedents will be necessary to produce, which
did give me great content. At noon home, and pleased mightily with my
morning's work, and coming home, I do find a letter from Mr. Wren, to
call me to the Duke of York after dinner. So dined in all haste, and
then W. Hewer and my wife and I out, we set her at my cozen Turner's
while we to White Hall, where the Duke of York expected me; and in his
closet Wren and I. He did tell me how the King hath been acquainted with
the Treasurers' discourse at the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury,
the other day, and is dissatisfied with our running him in debt, which
I removed; and he did, carry me to the King, and I did satisfy him also;
but his satisfaction is nothing worth, it being easily got, and easily
removed; but I do purpose to put in writing that which shall make the
Treasurers ashamed. But the Duke of York is horrid angry against them;
and he hath cause, for they do all they can to bring dishonour upon his
management, as do vainly appear in all they do. Having done with the
Duke of York, who do repose all in me, I with Mr. Wren to his, chamber,
to talk; where he observed, that these people are all of them a broken
sort of people, that have not much to lose, and therefore will venture
all to make their fortunes better: that Sir Thomas Osborne is a
beggar, having 11 of L1200 a-year, but owes above L10,000. The Duke
of Buckingham's condition is shortly this: that he hath about L19,600
a-year, of which he pays away about L7,000 a-year in interest, about
L2000 in fee-farm rents to the King, about L6000 wages and pensions, and
the rest to live upon, and pay taxes for the whole. Wren says, that for
the Duke of York to stir in this matter, as his quality might justify,
would but make all things worse, and that therefore he must bend, and
suffer all, till time works it out: that he fears they will sacrifice
the Church, and that the King will take anything, and so he will hold up
his head a little longer, and then break in pieces. But Sir W. Coventry
did today mightily magnify my late Lord Treasurer, for a wise and solid,
though infirm man: and, among other things, that when he hath said it
was impossible in nature to find this or that sum of money, and my Lord
Chancellor hath made sport of it, and tell the King that when my Lord
hath said it [was] impossible, yet he hath made shift to find it, and
that was by Sir G. Carteret's getting credit, my Lord did once in his
hearing say thus, which he magnifies as a great saying--that impossible
would be found impossible at last; meaning that the King would run
himself out, beyond all his credit and funds, and then we should too
late find it impossible; which is, he says, now come to pass. For that
Sir W. Coventry says they could borrow what money they would, if they
had assignments, and funds to secure it with, which before they had
enough of, and then must spend it as if it would never have an end. From
White Hall to my cozen Turner's, and there took up my wife; and so to
my uncle Wight's, and there sat and supped, and talked pretty merry, and
then walked home, and to bed.