brave, nor the nation in more apprehension and consternation. Coleman
and one Staly had now been tried, condemned, and executed. On this,
Oates grew so presumptuous as to accuse the Queen of intending to poison
the King; which certainly that pious and virtuous lady abhorred the
thoughts of, and Oates's circumstances made it utterly unlikely in my
opinion. He probably thought to gratify some who would have been glad
his Majesty should have married a fruitful lady; but the King was too
kind a husband to let any of these make impression on him. However,
divers of the Popish peers were sent to the Tower, accused by Oates; and
all the Roman Catholic lords were by a new Act forever excluded the
Parliament; which was a mighty blow. The King's, Queen's, and Duke's
servants, were banished, and a test to be taken by everybody who
pretended to enjoy any office of public trust, and who would not be
suspected of Popery. I went with Sir William Godolphin, a member of the
Commons' House, to the Bishop of Ely (Dr. Peter Gunning), to be resolved
whether masses were idolatry, as the text expressed it, which was so
worded, that several good Protestants scrupled, and Sir William, though
a learned man and excellent divine himself, had some doubts about it.
The Bishop's opinion was that he might take it, though he wished it had
been otherwise worded in the text.
15th January, 1678-79. I went with my Lady Sunderland to Chelsa, and
dined with the Countess of Bristol [her mother] in the great house,
formerly the Duke of Buckingham's, a spacious and excellent place for
the extent of ground and situation in a good air. The house is large but
ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol, who purchased it after he sold
Wimbledon to my Lord Treasurer, expended much money on it. There were
divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of Bassano, very
excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a butcher
in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss; and of Vandyke, my Lord of
Bristol's picture, with the Earl of Bedford's at length, in the same
table. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange trees, of
which she was pleased to bestow some upon me.
16th January, 1679. I supped this night with Mr. Secretary at one Mr.
Houblon's, a French merchant, who had his house furnished _en Prince_,
and gave us a splendid entertainment.
25th January, 1679. The Long Parliament, which had sat ever since the
Restoration, was dissolved by persuasion of the Lord Treasurer, though
divers of them were believed to be his pensioner. At this, all the
politicians were at a stand, they being very eager in pursuit of the
late plot of the Papists.
30th January, 1679. Dr. Cudworth preached before the King at Whitehall,
on 2 Timothy iii. 5, reckoning up the perils of the last times, in
which, among other wickedness, treasons should be one of the greatest,
applying it to the occasion, as committed under a form of reformation
and godliness; concluding that the prophecy did intend more particularly
the present age, as one of the last times; the sins there enumerated,
more abundantly reigning than ever.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
2d February, 1679. Dr. Durell, Dean of Windsor, preached to the
household at Whitehall, on 1 Cor. xvi. 22; he read the whole sermon out
of his notes, which I had never before seen a Frenchman do, he being of
Jersey, and bred at Paris.
4th February, 1679. Dr. Pierce, Dean of Salisbury, preached on 1 John,
iv. 1, "Try the Spirits, there being so many delusory ones gone forth of
late into the world"; he inveighed against the pernicious doctrines of
Mr. Hobbes.
My brother Evelyn, was now chosen Knight for the County of Surrey,
carrying it against my Lord Longford and Sir Adam Brown, of Bechworth
Castle. The country coming in to give him their suffrages were so many,
that I believe they ate and drank him out near £2,000, by a most
abominable custom.
1st April, 1679. My friend, Mr. Godolphin, was now made one of the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury, and of the Privy Council.
4th April, 1679. The Bishop of Gloucester preached in a manner very like
Bishop Andrews, full of divisions, and scholastical, and that with much
quickness. The Holy Communion followed.
20th April, 1679. EASTER DAY. Our vicar preached exceedingly well on 1
Cor. v. 7. The Holy Communion followed, at which I and my daughter, Mary
(now about fourteen years old), received for the first time. The Lord
Jesus continue his grace unto her, and improve this blessed beginning!
24th April, 1679. The Duke of York, voted against by the Commons for his
recusancy, went over to Flanders; which made much discourse.
4th June, 1679. I dined with Mr. Pepys in the Tower, he having been
committed by the House of Commons for misdemeanors in the Admiralty when
he was secretary; I believe he was unjustly charged. Here I saluted my
Lords Stafford and Petre, who were committed for the Popish plot.
7th June, 1679. I saw the magnificent cavalcade and entry of the
Portugal Ambassador.
17th June, 1679. I was godfather to a son of Sir Christopher Wren,
surveyor of his Majesty's buildings, that most excellent and learned
person, with Sir William Fermor, and my Lady Viscountess Newport, wife
of the Treasurer of the Household.
Thence to Chelsea, to Sir Stephen Fox, and my lady, in order to the
purchase of the Countess of Bristol's house there, which she desired me
to procure a chapman for.
19th June, 1679. I dined at Sir Robert Clayton's with Sir Robert Viner,
the great banker.
22d June, 1679. There were now divers Jesuits executed about the plot,
and a rebellion in Scotland of the fanatics, so that there was a sad
prospect of public affairs.
25th June, 1679. The new Commissioners of the Admiralty came to visit
me, viz, Sir Henry Capell, brother to the Earl of Essex, Mr. Finch,
eldest son to the Lord Chancellor, Sir Humphry Winch, Sir Thomas Meeres,
Mr. Hales, with some of the Commissioners of the Navy. I went with them
to London.
1st July, 1679. I dined at Sir William Godolphin's, and with that
learned gentleman went to take the air in Hyde Park, where was a
glorious _cortège_.
3d July, 1679. Sending a piece of venison to Mr. Pepys, still a
prisoner, I went and dined with him.
6th July, 1679. Now were there papers, speeches, and libels, publicly
cried in the streets against the Dukes of York and Lauderdale, etc.,
obnoxious to the Parliament, with too much and indeed too shameful a
liberty; but the people and Parliament had gotten head by reason of the
vices of the great ones.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
There was now brought up to London a child, son of one Mr. Wotton,
formerly amanuensis to Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winton, who both read and
perfectly understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, and most of
the modern languages; disputed in divinity, law, and all the sciences;
was skillful in history, both ecclesiastical and profane; in politics;
in a word, so universally and solidly learned at eleven years of age,
that he was looked on as a miracle. Dr. Lloyd, one of the most deeply
learned divines of this nation in all sorts of literature, with Dr.
Burnet, who had severely examined him, came away astonished, and they
told me they did not believe there had the like appeared in the world.
He had only been instructed by his father, who being himself a learned
person, confessed that his son knew all that he himself knew. But, what
was more admirable than his vast memory, was his judgment and invention,
he being tried with divers hard questions, which required maturity of
thought and experience. He was also dexterous in chronology,
antiquities, mathematics. In sum, an _intellectus universalis_, beyond
all that we read of Picus Mirandula, and other precocious wits, and yet
withal a very humble child.
14th July, 1679. I went to see how things stood at Parson's Green, my
Lady Viscountess Mordaunt (now sick in Paris, whither she went for
health) having made me a trustee for her children, an office I could not
refuse to this most excellent, pious, and virtuous lady, my long
acquaintance.
15th July, 1679. I dined with Mr. Sidney Godolphin, now one of the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury.
18th July, 1679. I went early to the Old Bailey Sessions House, to the
famous trial of Sir George Wakeman, one of the Queen's physicians, and
three Benedictine monks; the first (whom I was well acquainted with, and
take to be a worthy gentleman abhorring such a fact), for intending to
poison the King; the others as accomplices to carry on the plot, to
subvert the government, and introduce Popery. The bench was crowded with
the judges, Lord Mayor justices, and innumerable spectators. The chief
accusers, Dr. Oates (as he called himself), and one Bedlow, a man of
inferior note. Their testimonies were not so pregnant, and I fear much
of it from hearsay, but swearing positively to some particulars, which
drew suspicion upon their truth; nor did circumstances so agree, as to
give either the bench or jury so entire satisfaction as was expected.
After, therefore, a long and tedious trial of nine hours, the jury
brought them in not guilty, to the extraordinary triumph of the Papists,
and without sufficient disadvantage and reflections on witnesses,
especially Oates and Bedlow.
This was a happy day for the lords in the Tower, who, expecting their
trial, had this gone against the prisoners at the bar, would all have
been in the utmost hazard. For my part, I look on Oates as a vain,
insolent man, puffed up with the favor of the Commons for having
discovered something really true, more especially as detecting the
dangerous intrigue of Coleman, proved out of his own letters, and of a
general design which the Jesuited party of the Papists ever had and
still have, to ruin the Church of England; but that he was trusted with
those great secrets he pretended, or had any solid ground for what he
accused divers noblemen of, I have many reasons to induce my contrary
belief. That among so many commissions as he affirmed to have delivered
to them from P. Oliva[40] and the Pope,--he who made no scruple of
opening all other papers, letters, and secrets, should not only not open
any of those pretended commissions, but not so much as take any copy or
witness of any one of them, is almost miraculous. But the Commons (some
leading persons I mean of them) had so exalted him that they took all he
said for Gospel, and without more ado ruined all whom he named to be
conspirators; nor did he spare whoever came in his way. But, indeed, the
murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, suspected to have been compassed by
the Jesuits' party for his intimacy with Coleman (a busy person whom I
also knew), and the fear they had that he was able to have discovered
things to their prejudice, did so exasperate not only the Commons, but
all the nation, that much of these sharpnesses against the more honest
Roman Catholics who lived peaceably, is to be imputed to that horrid
fact.
[Footnote 40: Padrè Oliva, General of the Order of Jesuits.]
The sessions ended, I dined or rather supped (so late it was) with the
judges in the large room annexed to the place, and so returned home.
Though it was not my custom or delight to be often present at any
capital trials, we having them commonly so exactly published by those
who take them in short-hand, yet I was inclined to be at this signal
one, that by the ocular view of the carriages and other circumstances of
the managers and parties concerned, I might inform myself, and regulate
my opinion of a cause that had so alarmed the whole nation.
22d July, 1679. Dined at Clapham, at Sir D. Gauden's; went thence with
him to Windsor, to assist him in a business with his Majesty. I lay that
night at Eton College, the Provost's lodgings (Dr. Craddock), where I
was courteously entertained.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
23d July, 1679. To Court: after dinner, I visited that excellent
painter, Verrio, whose works in _fresco_ in the King's palace, at
Windsor, will celebrate his name as long as those walls last. He showed
us his pretty garden, choice flowers, and curiosities, he himself being
a skillful gardener.
I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of
the Duke of Buckingham's, and buildings of extraordinary expense. The
grots in the chalky rocks are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the
place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made
of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing
so very like their imaginations. The stand, somewhat like Frascati as to
its front, and on the platform is a circular view to the utmost verge of
the horizon, which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The
staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents,
gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land
all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern. Indeed, as
I told his Majesty that evening (asking me how I liked Clifden) without
flattery, that it did not please me so well as Windsor for the prospect
and park, which is without compare; there being but one only opening,
and that narrow, which led one to any variety; whereas that of Windsor
is everywhere great and unconfined.
Returning, I called at my cousin Evelyn's, who has a very pretty seat in
the forest, two miles by hither Clifden, on a flat, with gardens
exquisitely kept, though large, and the house a staunch good old
building, and what was singular, some of the rooms floored dove
tail-wise without a nail, exactly close. One of the closets is pargeted
with plain deal, set in diamond, exceeding staunch and pretty.
7th August, 1679. Dined at the Sheriff's, when, the Company of Drapers
and their wives being invited, there was a sumptuous entertainment,
according to the forms of the city, with music, etc., comparable to any
prince's service in Europe.
8th August, 1679. I went this morning to show my Lord Chamberlain, his
Lady, and the Duchess of Grafton, the incomparable work of Mr. Gibbon,
the carver, whom I first recommended to his Majesty, his house being
furnished like a cabinet, not only with his own work, but divers
excellent paintings of the best hands. Thence, to Sir Stephen Fox's,
where we spent the day.
31st August, 1679. After evening service, to see a neighbor, one Mr.
Bohun, related to my son's late tutor of that name, a rich Spanish
merchant, living in a neat place, which he has adorned with many
curiosities, especially several carvings of Mr. Gibbons, and some
pictures by Streeter.
13th September, 1679. To Windsor, to congratulate his Majesty on his
recovery; I kissed the Duke's hand, now lately returned from
Flanders[41] to visit his brother the King, on which there were various
bold and foolish discourses, the Duke of Monmouth being sent away.
[Footnote 41: He returned the day before, the 12th of September.
This is another of the indications that the entries of this Diary
were not always made on the precise days they refer to.]
19th September, 1679. My Lord Sunderland, one of the principal
Secretaries of State, invited me to dinner, where was the King's natural
son, the Earl of Plymouth, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Essex, Earl
of Mulgrave, Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Godolphin. After dinner I went to prayers
at Eton, and visited Mr. Henry Godolphin, fellow there, and Dr.
Craddock.
25th September, 1679. Mr. Slingsby and Signor Verrio came to dine with
me, to whom I gave China oranges off my own trees, as good, I think, as
were ever eaten.
6th October, 1679. A very wet and sickly season.
23d October, 1679. Dined at my Lord Chamberlain's, the King being now
newly returned from his Newmarket recreations.
4th November, 1679. Dined at the Lord Mayor's; and, in the evening, went
to the funeral of my pious, dear, and ancient learned friend, Dr. Jasper
Needham, who was buried at St. Bride's Church. He was a true and holy
Christian, and one who loved me with great affection. Dr. Dove preached
with an eulogy due to his memory. I lost in this person one of my
dearest remaining sincere friends.
5th November, 1679. I was invited to dine at my Lord Teviotdale's, a
Scotch Earl, a learned and knowing nobleman. We afterward went to see
Mr. Montague's new palace near Bloomsbury, built by our curator, Mr.
Hooke, somewhat after the French; it was most nobly furnished, and a
fine, but too much exposed garden.[42]
[Footnote 42: Now the British Museum.]
[Sidenote: LONDON]
6th November, 1679. Dined at the Countess of Sunderland's, and was this
evening at the remarriage of the Duchess of Grafton to the Duke (his
Majesty's natural son), she being now twelve years old. The ceremony was
performed in my Lord Chamberlain's (her father's) lodgings at Whitehall
by the Bishop of Rochester, his Majesty being present. A sudden and
unexpected thing, when everybody believed the first marriage would have
come to nothing; but, the measure being determined, I was privately
invited by my Lady, her mother, to be present. I confess I could give
her little joy, and so I plainly told her, but she said the King would
have it so, and there was no going back. This sweetest, most hopeful,
most beautiful, child, and most virtuous, too, was sacrificed to a boy
that had been rudely bred, without anything to encourage them but his
Majesty's pleasure. I pray God the sweet child find it to her advantage,
who, if my augury deceive me not, will in a few years be such a paragon
as were fit to make the wife of the greatest Prince in Europe! I staid
supper, where his Majesty sat between the Duchess of Cleveland (the
mother of the Duke of Grafton) and the sweet Duchess the bride; there
were several great persons and ladies, without pomp. My love to my Lord
Arlington's family, and the sweet child made me behold all this with
regret, though as the Duke of Grafton affects the sea, to which I find
his father intends to use him, he may emerge a plain, useful and robust
officer: and were he polished, a tolerable person; for he is exceedingly
handsome, by far surpassing any of the King's other natural issue.
8th November, 1679. At Sir Stephen Fox's, and was agreeing for the
Countess of Bristol's house at Chelsea, within £500.
18th November, 1679. I dined at my Lord Mayor's, being desired by the
Countess of Sunderland to carry her thither on a solemn day, that she
might see the pomp and ceremony of this Prince of Citizens, there never
having been any, who for the stateliness of his palace, prodigious
feasting, and magnificence, exceeded him. This Lord Mayor's acquaintance
had been from the time of his being apprentice to one Mr. Abbot, his
uncle, who being a scrivener, and an honest worthy man, one who was
condemned to die at the beginning of the troubles forty years past, as
concerned in the commission of array for King Charles I. had escaped
with his life; I often used his assistance in money matters. Robert
Clayton, then a boy, his nephew, became, after his uncle Abbot's death,
so prodigiously rich and opulent, that he was reckoned one of the
wealthiest citizens. He married a free-hearted woman, who became his
hospitable disposition; and having no children, with the accession of
his partner and fellow apprentice, who also left him his estate, he grew
excessively rich. He was a discreet magistrate, and though envied, I
think without much cause. Some believed him guilty of hard dealing,
especially with the Duke of Buckingham, much of whose estate he had
swallowed, but I never saw any ill by him, considering the trade he was
of. The reputation and known integrity of his uncle, Abbot, brought all
the royal party to him, by which he got not only great credit, but vast
wealth, so as he passed this office with infinite magnificence and
honor.
20th November, 1679. I dined with Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint, with
my wife, invited to hear music, which was exquisitely performed by four
of the most renowned masters: Du Prue, a Frenchman, on the lute; Signor
Bartholomeo, an Italian, on the harpsichord; Nicholao on the violin;
but, above all, for its sweetness and novelty, the _viol d'amore_ of
five wire strings played on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin,
played on lyre-way, by a German. There was also a _flute douce_, now in
much request for accompanying the voice. Mr. Slingsby, whose son and
daughter played skillfully, had these meetings frequently in his house.
21st November, 1679. I dined at my Lord Mayor's, to accompany my
worthiest and generous friend, the Earl of Ossory; it was on a Friday, a
private day, but the feast and entertainment might have become a King.
Such an hospitable costume and splendid magistrature does no city in the
world show, as I believe.
23d November, 1679. Dr. Allestree preached before the household on St.
Luke xi. 2; Dr. Lloyd on Matt. xxiii. 20, before the King, showing with
how little reason the Papists applied those words of our blessed Savior
to maintain the pretended infallibility they boast of. I never heard a
more Christian and excellent discourse; yet were some offended that he
seemed to say the Church of Rome was a true church; but it was a
captious mistake; for he never affirmed anything that could be more to
their reproach, and that such was the present Church of Rome, showing
how much it had erred. There was not in this sermon so much as a shadow
for censure, no person of all the clergy having testified greater zeal
against the errors of the Papists than this pious and most learned
person. I dined at the Bishop of Rochester's, and then went to St.
Paul's to hear that great wit, Dr. Sprat, now newly succeeding Dr.
Outram, in the cure of St. Margaret's. His talent was a great memory,
never making use of notes, a readiness of expression in a most pure and
plain style of words, full of matter, easily delivered.
26th November, 1679. I met the Earl of Clarendon with the rest of my
fellow executors of the Will of my late Lady Viscountess Mordaunt,
namely, Mr. Laurence Hyde, one of the Commissioners of the Treasury, and
lately Plenipotentiary-Ambassador at Nimeguen; Andrew Newport; and Sir
Charles Wheeler; to examine and audit and dispose of this year's account
of the estate of this excellent Lady, according to the direction of her
Will.
27th November, 1679. I went to see Sir John Stonehouse, with whom I was
treating a marriage between my son and his daughter-in-law.
28th November, 1679. Came over the Duke of Monmouth from Holland
unexpectedly to his Majesty; while the Duke of York was on his journey
to Scotland, whither the King sent him to reside and govern. The bells
and bonfires of the city at this arrival of the Duke of Monmouth
publishing their joy, to the no small regret of some at Court. This
Duke, whom for distinction they called the Protestant Duke (though the
son of an abandoned woman), the people made their idol.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
4th December, 1679. I dined, together with Lord Ossory and the Earl of
Chesterfield, at the Portugal Ambassador's, now newly come, at Cleveland
House, a noble palace, too good for that infamous.... The staircase is
sumptuous, and the gallery and garden; but, above all, the costly
furniture belonging to the Ambassador, especially the rich Japan
cabinets, of which I think there were a dozen. There was a billiard
table, with as many more hazards as ours commonly have; the game being
only to prosecute the ball till hazarded, without passing the port, or
touching the pin; if one miss hitting the ball every time, the game is
lost, or if hazarded. It is more difficult to hazard a ball, though so
many, than in our table, by reason the bound is made so exactly even,
and the edges not stuffed; the balls are also bigger, and they for the
most part use the sharp and small end of the billiard stick, which is
shod with brass, or silver. The entertainment was exceedingly civil;
but, besides a good olio, the dishes were trifling, hashed and condited
after their way, not at all fit for an English stomach, which is for
solid meat. There was yet good fowls, but roasted to coal, nor were the
sweetmeats good.
30th December, 1679. I went to meet Sir John Stonehouse, and give him a
particular of the settlement on my son, who now made his addresses to
the young lady his daughter-in-law, daughter of Lady Stonehouse.
25th January, 1679-80. Dr. Cave, author of "Primitive Christianity,"
etc., a pious and learned man, preached at Whitehall to the household,
on James iii. 17, concerning the duty of grace and charity.
30th January, 1680. I supped with Sir Stephen Fox, now made one of the
Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.