14th (Lord's day). Up, and by coach to Sir W. Coventry, and_Diary of Samuel Pepys

Produced by David Widger

THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.

CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY

TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY

MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW

AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE

(Unabridged)

WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES

EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY

HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.

DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.

FEBRUARY & MARCH

1668-1669

February 1st. Up, and by water from the Tower to White Hall, the first

time that I have gone to that end of the town by water, for two or three

months, I think, since I kept a coach, which God send propitious to me;

but it is a very great convenience. I went to a Committee of Tangier, but

it did not meet, and so I meeting Mr. Povy, he and I away to Dancre's, to

speak something touching the pictures I am getting him to make for me.

And thence he carried me to Mr. Streeter's, the famous history-painter

over the way, whom I have often heard of, but did never see him before;

and there I found him, and Dr. Wren, and several Virtuosos, looking upon

the paintings which he is making for the new Theatre at Oxford: and,

indeed, they look as if they would be very fine, and the rest think better

than those of Rubens in the Banqueting-house at White Hall, but I do not

so fully think so. But they will certainly be very noble; and I am

mightily pleased to have the fortune to see this man and his work, which

is very famous; and he a very civil little man, and lame, but lives very

handsomely. So thence to my Lord Bellassis, and met him within: my

business only to see a chimney-piece of Dancre's doing, in distemper, with

egg to keep off the glaring of the light, which I must have done for my

room: and indeed it is pretty, but, I must confess, I do think it is not

altogether so beautiful as the oyle pictures; but I will have some of one,

and some of another. Thence set him down at Little Turnstile, and so I

home, and there eat a little dinner, and away with my wife by coach to the

King's playhouse, thinking to have seen "The Heyresse," first acted on

Saturday last; but when we come thither, we find no play there; Kinaston,

that did act a part therein, in abuse to Sir Charles Sedley, being last

night exceedingly beaten with sticks, by two or three that assaulted him,

so as he is mightily bruised, and forced to keep his bed. So we to the

Duke of York's playhouse, and there saw "She Would if She Could," and so

home and to my office to business, and then to supper and to bed. This

day, going to the play, The. Turner met us, and carried us to her mother,

at my Lady Mordaunt's; and I did carry both mother and daughter with us to

the Duke of York's playhouse, at next door.

2nd. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, and home to dinner 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.

15th. Up, and with Tom to White Hall; and there at a Committee of

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.