Tangier, where a great instance of what a man may lose by the neglect
of a friend: Povy never had such an opportunity of passing his accounts,
the Duke of York being there, and everybody well disposed, and in
expectation of them; but my Lord Ashly, on whom he relied, and for whose
sake this day was pitched on, that he might be sure to be there, among
the rest of his friends, staid too long, till the Duke of York and the
company thought unfit to stay longer and so the day lost, and God knows
when he will ever have so good a one again, as long as he lives;
and this was the man of the whole company that he hath made the most
interest to gain, and now most depended upon him. So up and down the
house a while, and then to the plaisterer's, and there saw the figure of
my face taken from the mould: and it is most admirably like, and I will
have another made, before I take it away, and therefore I away and to
the Temple, and thence to my cozen Turner's, where, having the last
night been told by her that she had drawn me for her Valentine, I did
this day call at the New Exchange, and bought her a pair of green silk
stockings and garters and shoe-strings, and two pair of jessimy gloves,
all coming to about 28s., and did give them her this noon. At the
'Change, I did at my bookseller's shop accidentally fall into talk with
Sir Samuel Tuke about trees, and Mr. Evelyn's garden; and I do find him,
I think, a little conceited, but a man of very fine discourse as any
I ever heard almost, which I was mighty glad of. I dined at my cozen
Turner's, and my wife also and her husband there, and after dinner, my
wife and I endeavoured to make a visit to Ned Pickering; but he not
at home, nor his lady; and therefore back again, and took up my cozen
Turner, and to my cozen Roger's lodgings, and there find him pretty well
again, and his wife mighty kind and merry, and did make mighty much of
us, and I believe he is married to a very good woman. Here was also Bab.
and Betty, who have not their clothes yet, and therefore cannot go out,
otherwise I would have had them abroad to-morrow; but the poor girls
mighty kind to us, and we must skew them kindness also. Here in Suffolk
Street lives Moll Davis; and we did see her coach come for her to her
door, a mighty pretty fine coach. Here we staid an hour or two, and then
carried Turner home, and there staid and talked a while, and then my
wife and I to White Hall; and there, by means of Mr. Cooling, did get
into the play, the only one we have seen this winter: it was "The Five
Hours' Adventure:" but I sat so far I could not hear well, nor was there
any pretty woman that I did see, but my wife, who sat in my Lady Fox's
pew
[We may suppose that pews were by no means common at this time
within consecrated walls, from the word being applied indifferently
by Pepys to a box in a place of amusement, and two days afterwards
to a seat at church. It would appear, from other authorities, that
between 1646 and 1660 scarcely any pews had been erected; and Sir C.
Wren is known to have objected to their introduction into his London
churches.--B.]
with her. The house very full; and late before done, so that it was past
eleven before we got home. But we were well pleased with seeing it, and
so to supper, where it happened that there was no bread in the house,
which was an unusual case, and so to bed.
16th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, my head full of
business of the office now at once on my hands, and so at noon home to
dinner, where I find some things of W. Batelier's come out of France,
among which some clothes for my wife, wherein she is likely to lead me
to the expence of so much money as vexed me; but I seemed so, more than
I at this time was, only to prevent her taking too much, and she was
mighty calm under it. But I was mightily pleased with another picture of
the King of France's head, of Nanteuil's, bigger than the other which
he brought over, that pleases me infinitely: and so to the Office, where
busy all the afternoon, though my eyes mighty bad with the light of the
candles last night, which was so great as to make my eyes sore all this
day, and do teach me, by a manifest experiment, that it is only too much
light that do make my eyes sore. Nevertheless, with the help of my tube,
and being desirous of easing my mind of five or six days journall, I did
venture to write it down from ever since this day se'nnight, and I think
without hurting my eyes any more than they were before, which was very
much, and so home to supper and to bed.
17th. Up, and with W. Hewer with me to Lincoln's Inn, by appointment,
to have spoke with Mr. Pedley about Mr. Goldsborough's business and Mr.
Weaver's, but he was gone out, and so I with Mr. Castle, the son-in-law
of Weaver, to White Hall to look for him, but did not find him, but
here I did meet with several and talked, and do hear only that the King
dining yesterday at the Dutch Embassador's, after dinner they drank, and
were pretty merry; and, among the rest of the King's company, there was
that worthy fellow my lord of Rochester, and Tom Killigrew, whose mirth
and raillery offended the former so much, that he did give Tom Killigrew
a box on the ear in the King's presence, which do much give offence to
the people here at Court, to see how cheap the King makes himself,
and the more, for that the King hath not only passed by the thing, and
pardoned it to Rochester already, but this very morning the King did
publickly walk up and down, and Rochester I saw with him as free as
ever, to the King's everlasting shame, to have so idle a rogue his
companion. How Tom Killigrew takes it, I do not hear. I do also this day
hear that my Lord Privy Seale do accept to go Lieutenant into
Ireland; but whether it be true or no, I cannot tell. So calling at my
shoemaker's, and paying him to this day, I home to dinner, and in the
afternoon to Colonel Middleton's house, to the burial of his wife, where
we are all invited, and much more company, and had each of us a ring:
and so towards evening to our church, where there was a sermon preached
by Mills, and so home. At church there was my Lord Brouncker and Mrs.
Williams in our pew, the first time they were ever there or that I knew
that either of them would go to church. At home comes Castle to me, to
desire me to go to Mr. Pedly, this night, he being to go out of town
to-morrow morning, which I, therefore, did, by hackney-coach, first
going to White Hall to meet with Sir W. Coventry, but missed him. But
here I had a pleasant rencontre of a lady in mourning, that, by the
little light I had, seemed handsome. I passing by her, I did observe she
looked back again and again upon me, I suffering her to go before, and
it being now duske. I observed she went into the little passage towards
the Privy Water-Gate, and I followed, but missed her; but coming back
again, I observed she returned, and went to go out of the Court. I
followed her, and took occasion, in the new passage now built, where the
walke is to be, to take her by the hand, to lead her through, which she
willingly accepted, and I led her to the Great Gate, and there left her,
she telling me, of her own accord, that she was going as far as, Charing
Cross; but my boy was at the gate, and so je durst not go out con her,
which vexed me, and my mind (God forgive me) did run apres her toute
that night, though I have reason to thank God, and so I do now, that I
was not tempted to go further. So to Lincoln's Inn, where to Mr. Pedly,
with whom I spoke, and did my business presently: and I find him a man
of very good language, and mighty civil, and I believe very upright:
and so home, where W. Batelier was, and supped with us, and I did reckon
this night what I owed him; and I do find that the things my wife, of
her own head, hath taken (together with my own, which comes not to above
L5), comes to above L22. But it is the last, and so I am the better
contented; and they are things that are not trifles, but clothes,
gloves, shoes, hoods, &c. So after supper, to bed.
18th. Up, and to the Office, and at noon home, expecting to have this
day seen Bab. and Betty Pepys here, but they come not; and so after
dinner my wife and I to the Duke of York's house, to a play, and there
saw "The Mad Lover," which do not please me so well as it used to do,
only Betterton's part still pleases me. But here who should we have come
to us but Bab. and Betty and Talbot, the first play they were yet at;
and going to see us, and hearing by my boy, whom I sent to them, that we
were here, they come to us hither, and happened all of us to sit by my
cozen Turner and The., and we carried them home first, and then took
Bab. and Betty to our house, where they lay and supped, and pretty
merry, and very fine with their new clothes, and good comely girls they
are enough, and very glad I am of their being with us, though I would
very well have been contented to have been without the charge. So they
to bed and we to bed.
19th. Up, and after seeing the girls, who lodged in our bed, with their
maid Martha, who hath been their father's maid these twenty years and
more, I with Lord Brouncker to White Hall, where all of us waited on the
Duke of York; and after our usual business done, W. Hewer and I to look
my wife at the Black Lion, Mercer's, but she is gone home, and so I home
and there dined, and W. Batelierand W. Hewer with us. All the afternoon
I at the Office, while the young people went to see Bedlam, and at night
home to them and to supper, and pretty merry, only troubled with a great
cold at this time, and my eyes very bad ever since Monday night last
that the light of the candles spoiled me. So to bed. This morning, among
other things, talking with Sir W. Coventry, I did propose to him my
putting in to serve in Parliament, if there should, as the world begins
to expect, be a new one chose: he likes it mightily, both for the King's
and Service's sake, and the Duke of York's, and will propound it to the
Duke of York: and I confess, if there be one, I would be glad to be in.
20th. Up, and all the morning at the office, and then home to dinner,
and after dinner out with my wife and my two girls to the Duke of York's
house, and there saw "The Gratefull Servant," a pretty good play, and
which I have forgot that ever I did see. And thence with them to Mrs.
Gotier's, the Queen's tire-woman, for a pair of locks for my wife; she
is an oldish French woman, but with a pretty hand as most I have seen;
and so home, and to supper, W. Batelier and W. Hewer with us, and so my
cold being great, and greater by my having left my coat at my tailor's
to-night and come home in a thinner that I borrowed there, I went to bed
before them and slept pretty well.
21st (Lord's day). Up, and with my wife and two girls to church, they
very fine; and so home, where comes my cozen Roger and his wife, I
having sent for them, to dine with us, and there comes in by chance
also Mr. Shepley, who is come to town with my Lady Paulina, who is
desperately sick, and is gone to Chelsey, to the old house where my Lord
himself was once sick, where I doubt my Lord means to visit hers
more for young Mrs. Beck's sake than for hers. Here we dined with W.
Batelier, and W. Hewer with us, these two, girls making it necessary
that they be always with us, for I am not company light enough to be
always merry with them and so sat talking all the afternoon, and then
Shepley went: away first, and then my cozen Roger and his wife. And so
I, to my Office, to write down my Journall, and so home to my chamber
and to do a little business there, my papers being in mighty disorder,
and likely so to continue while these girls are with us. In the evening
comes W. Batelier and his sisters and supped and talked with us, and
so spent the evening, myself being somewhat out of order because of my
eyes, which have never been well since last Sunday's reading at Sir W.
Coventry's chamber, and so after supper to bed.
22nd. Up, and betimes to White Hall; but there the Duke of York is gone
abroad a-hunting, and therefore after a little stay there I into London,
with Sir H. Cholmly, talking all the way of Tangier matters, wherein
I find him troubled from some reports lately from Norwood (who is his
great enemy and I doubt an ill man), of some decay of the Mole, and a
breach made therein by the sea to a great value. He set me down at the
end of Leadenhall Street, and so I home, and after dinner, with my wife,
in her morning-gown, and the two girls dressed, to Unthanke's, where
my wife dresses herself, having her gown this day laced, and a new
petticoat; and so is indeed very fine. And in the evening I do carry
them to White Hall, and there did without much trouble get into the
playhouse, there in a good place among the Ladies of Honour, and myself
also sat in the pit; and there by and by come the King and Queen, and
they begun "Bartholomew Fayre." But I like no play here so well as at
the common playhouse; besides that, my eyes being very ill since last
Sunday and this day se'nnight, with the light of the candles, I was in
mighty pain to defend myself now from the light of the candles. After
the play done, we met with W. Batelier and W. Hewer and Talbot Pepys,
and they follow us in a hackney-coach: and we all stopped at Hercules'
Pillars; and there I did give them the best supper I could, and pretty
merry; and so home between eleven and twelve at night, and so to bed,
mightily well pleased with this day's work.
23rd. Up: and to the Office, where all the morning, and then home, and
put a mouthfull of victuals in my mouth; and by a hackney-coach followed
my wife and the girls, who are gone by eleven o'clock, thinking to have
seen a new play at the Duke of York's house. But I do find them staying
at my tailor's, the play not being to-day, and therefore I now took them
to Westminster Abbey, and there did show them all the tombs very finely,
having one with us alone, there being other company this day to see
the tombs, it being Shrove Tuesday; and here we did see, by particular
favour, the body of Queen Katherine of Valois; and I had the upper part
of her body in my hands, and I did kiss her mouth, reflecting upon it
that I did kiss a Queen,
[Pepys's attachment to the fair sex extended even to a dead queen.
The record of this royal salute on his natal day is very
characteristic. The story told him in Westminster Abbey appears to
have been correct; for Neale informs us ("History of Westminster
Abbey," vol. ii., p. 88) that near the south side of Henry V.'s tomb
there was formerly a wooden chest, or coffin, wherein part of the
skeleton and parched body of Katherine de Valois, his queen (from
the waist upwards), was to be seen. She was interred in January,
1457, in the Chapel of Our Lady, at the east end of this church; but
when that building was pulled down by her grandson, Henry VII., her
coffin was found to be decayed, and her body was taken up, and
placed in a chest, near her first husband's tomb. "There," says
Dart, "it hath ever since continued to be seen, the bones being
firmly united, and thinly clothed with flesh, like scrapings of
tanned leather." This awful spectacle of frail mortality was at
length removed from the public gaze into St. Nicholas's Chapel, and
finally deposited under the monument of Sir George Villiers, when
the vault was made for the remains of Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of
Northumberland, in December, 1776.--B.]
and that this was my birth-day, thirty-six years old, that I did first
kiss a Queen. But here this man, who seems to understand well, tells me
that the saying is not true that says she was never buried, for she was
buried; only, when Henry the Seventh built his chapel, it was taken up
and laid in this wooden coffin; but I did there see that, in it, the
body was buried in a leaden one, which remains under the body to this
day. Thence to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there, finding the play
begun, we homeward to the Glass-House,
[Glass House Alley, Whitefriars and Blackfriars, marked the site for
some years: The Whitefriars Glass Works of Messrs. Powell and Sons
are on the old site, now Temple Street.]
and there shewed my cozens the making of glass, and had several
things made with great content; and, among others, I had one or two
singing-glasses made, which make an echo to the voice, the first that
ever I saw; but so thin, that the very breath broke one or two of them.
So home, and thence to Mr. Batelier's, where we supped, and had a good
supper, and here was Mr. Gumbleton; and after supper some fiddles,
and so to dance; but my eyes were so out of order, that I had little
pleasure this night at all, though I was glad to see the rest merry, and
so about midnight home and to bed.
24th. Lay long in bed, both being sleepy and my eyes bad, and myself
having a great cold so as I was hardly able to speak, but, however, by
and by up and to the office, and at noon home with my people to dinner,
and then I to the office again, and there till the evening doing of much
business, and at night my wife sends for me to W. Hewer's lodging, where
I find two best chambers of his so finely furnished, and all so rich
and neat, that I was mightily pleased with him and them and here only my
wife, and I, and the two girls, and had a mighty neat dish of custards
and tarts, and good drink and talk. And so away home to bed, with
infinite content at this his treat; for it was mighty pretty, and
everything mighty rich.
25th. All the morning at the office. At noon home and eat a bit myself,
and then followed my wife and girls to the Duke of York's house, and
there before one, but the house infinite full, where, by and by, the
King and Court come, it being a new play, or an old one new vamped, by
Shadwell, called "The Royall Shepherdesse;" but the silliest for words
and design, and everything, that ever I saw in my whole life, there
being nothing in the world pleasing in it, but a good martial dance of
pikemen, where Harris and another do handle their pikes in a dance to
admiration; but never less satisfied with a play in my life. Thence to
the office I, and did a little business, and so home to supper with my
girls, and pretty merry, only my eyes, which continue very bad, and my
cold, that I cannot speak at all, do trouble me.
26th. Was forced to send my excuse to the Duke of York for my not
attending him with my fellows this day because of my cold, and was the
less troubled because I was thereby out of the way to offer my proposals
about Pursers till the Surveyor hath delivered his notions, which he
is to do to-day about something he has to offer relating to the Navy in
general, which I would be glad to see and peruse before I offer what I
have to say. So lay long in bed, and then up and to my office, and so to
dinner, and then, though I could not speak, yet I went with my wife and
girls to the King's playhouse, to shew them that, and there saw "The
Faithfull Shepherdesse." But, Lord! what an empty house, there not
being, as I could tell the people, so many as to make up above L10 in
the whole house! The being of a new play at the other house, I suppose,
being the cause, though it be so silly a play that I wonder how there
should be enough people to go thither two days together, and not leave
more to fill this house. The emptiness of the house took away our
pleasure a great deal, though I liked it the better; for that I plainly
discern the musick is the better, by how much the house the emptier.
Thence home, and again to W. Hewer's, and had a pretty little treat, and
spent an hour or two, my voice being wholly taken away with my cold, and
so home and to bed.
27th. Up, and at the office all the morning, where I could speak but a
little. At noon home to dinner, and all the afternoon till night busy at
the office again, where forced to speak low and dictate. But that that
troubles me most is my eyes, which are still mighty bad night and day,
and so home at night to talk and sup with my cozens, and so all of us in
mighty good humour to bed.
28th (Lord's day). Up, and got my wife to read to me a copy of what the
Surveyor offered to the Duke of York on Friday, he himself putting it
into my hands to read; but, Lord! it is a poor, silly thing ever to
think to bring it in practice, in the King's Navy. It is to have the
Captains to account for all stores and victuals; but upon so silly
grounds, to my thinking; and ignorance of the present instructions of
Officers, that I am ashamed to hear it. However, I do take a copy of it,
for my future use and answering; and so to church, where, God forgive
me! I did most of the time gaze on the fine milliner's wife, in
Fenchurch Street, who was at our church to-day; and so home to dinner.
And after dinner to write down my Journall; and then abroad by coach
with my cozens, to their father's, where we are kindly received, but he
is an great pain for his man Arthur, who, he fears, is now dead, having
been desperately sick, and speaks so much of him that my cozen, his
wife, and I did make mirth of it, and call him Arthur O'Bradly.
After staying here a little, and eat and drank, and she gave me some
ginger-bread made in cakes, like chocolate, very good, made by a friend,
I carried him and her to my cozen Turner's, where we staid, expecting
her coming from church; but she coming not, I went to her husband's
chamber in the Temple, and thence fetched her, she having been there
alone ever since sermon staying till the evening to walk home on foot,
her horses being ill. This I did, and brought her home. And after
talking there awhile, and agreeing to be all merry at my house on
Tuesday next, I away home; and there spent the evening talking and
reading, with my wife and Mr. Pelling, and yet much troubled with my
cold, it hardly suffering me to speak, we to bed.
MARCH 1668-1669
March 1st. Up, and to White Hall to the Committee of Tangier, but it did
not meet. But here I do hear first that my Lady Paulina Montagu did die
yesterday; at which I went to my Lord's lodgings, but he is shut up with
sorrow, and so not to be spoken with: and therefore I returned, and to
Westminster Hall, where I have not been, I think, in some months. And
here the Hall was very full, the King having, by Commission to some
Lords this day, prorogued the Parliament till the 19th of October next:
at which I am glad, hoping to have time to go over to France this year.
But I was most of all surprised this morning by my Lord Bellassis, who,
by appointment, met me at Auditor Wood's, at the Temple, and tells me of
a duell designed between the Duke of Buckingham and my Lord Halifax,
or Sir W. Coventry; the challenge being carried by Harry Saville, but
prevented by my Lord Arlington, and the King told of it; and this was
all the discourse at Court this day. But I, meeting Sir W. Coventry in
the Duke of York's chamber, he would not own it to me, but told me
that he was a man of too much peace to meddle with fighting, and so it
rested: but the talk is full in the town of the business. Thence,
having walked some turns with my cozen Pepys, and most people, by their
discourse, believing that this Parliament will never sit more, I away
to several places to look after things against to-morrow's feast, and
so home to dinner; and thence, after noon, my wife and I out by
hackneycoach, and spent the afternoon in several places, doing several
things at the 'Change and elsewhere against to-morrow; and, among
others, I did also bring home a piece of my face cast in plaister, for
to make a wizard upon, for my eyes. And so home, where W. Batelier come,
and sat with us; and there, after many doubts, did resolve to go on with
our feast and dancing to-morrow; and so, after supper, left the maids
to make clean the house, and to lay the cloth, and other things against
to-morrow, and we to bed.
2nd. Up, and at the office till noon, when home, and there I find my
company come, namely, Madam Turner, Dyke, The., and Betty Turner,
and Mr. Bellwood, formerly their father's clerk, but now set up for
himself--a conceited, silly fellow, but one they make mightily of--my
cozen Roger Pepys, and his wife, and two daughters. I had a noble dinner
for them, as I almost ever had, and mighty merry, and particularly
myself pleased with looking on Betty Turner, who is mighty pretty. After
dinner, we fell one to one talk, and another to another, and looking
over my house, and closet, and things; and The. Turner to write a letter
to a lady in the country, in which I did, now and then, put in half a
dozen words, and sometimes five or six lines, and then she as much, and
made up a long and good letter, she being mighty witty really, though
troublesome-humoured with it. And thus till night, that our musick come,
and the Office ready and candles, and also W. Batelier and his sister
Susan come, and also Will. Howe and two gentlemen more, strangers,
which, at my request yesterday, he did bring to dance, called Mr.
Ireton and Mr. Starkey. We fell to dancing, and continued, only with
intermission for a good supper, till two in the morning, the musick
being Greeting, and another most excellent violin, and theorbo, the best
in town. And so with mighty mirth, and pleased with their dancing of
jigs afterwards several of them, and, among others, Betty Turner,
who did it mighty prettily; and, lastly, W. Batelier's "Blackmore and
Blackmore Mad;" and then to a country-dance again, and so broke up with
extraordinary pleasure, as being one of the days and nights of my life
spent with the greatest content; and that which I can but hope to repeat
again a few times in my whole life. This done, we parted, the strangers
home, and I did lodge my cozen Pepys and his wife in our blue chamber.
My cozen Turner, her sister, and The., in our best chamber; Bab., Betty,
and Betty Turner, in our own chamber; and myself and my wife in the
maid's bed, which is very good. Our maids in the coachman's bed; the
coachman with the boy in his settlebed, and Tom where he uses to lie.
And so I did, to my great content, lodge at once in my house, with the
greatest ease, fifteen, and eight of them strangers of quality. My wife
this day put on first her French gown, called a Sac, which becomes her
very well, brought her over by W. Batelier.