down his journal, which, he tells me, he now keeps of the material things;
upon which I told him, and he is the only man I ever told it to, I think,
that I kept it most strictly these eight or ten years; and I am sorry
almost that I told it him, it not being necessary, nor may be convenient
to have it known. Here he showed me the petition he had sent to the King
by my Lord Keeper, which was not to desire any admittance to employment,
but submitting himself therein humbly to his Majesty; but prayed the
removal of his displeasure, and that he might be set free. He tells me
that my Lord Keeper did acquaint the King with the substance of it, not
shewing him the petition; who answered, that he was disposing of his
employments, and when that was done, he might be led to discharge him: and
this is what he expects, and what he seems to desire. But by this
discourse he was pleased to take occasion to shew me and read to me his
account, which he hath kept by him under his own hand, of all his
discourse, and the King's answers to him, upon the great business of my
Lord Clarendon, and how he had first moved the Duke of York with it twice,
at good distance, one after another, but without success; shewing me
thereby the simplicity and reasons of his so doing, and the manner of it;
and the King's accepting it, telling him that he was not satisfied in his
management, and did discover some dissatisfaction against him for his
opposing the laying aside of my Lord Treasurer, at Oxford, which was a
secret the King had not discovered. And really I was mighty proud to be
privy to this great transaction, it giving me great conviction of the
noble nature and ends of Sir W. Coventry in it, and considerations in
general of the consequences of great men's actions, and the uncertainty of
their estates, and other very serious considerations. From this to other
discourse, and so to the Office, where we sat all the morning, and after
dinner by coach to my cozen Turner's, thinking to have taken the young
ladies to a play; but The. was let blood to-day; and so my wife and I
towards the King's playhouse, and by the way found Betty [Turner], and
Bab., and Betty Pepys staying for us; and so took them all to see
"Claricilla," which do not please me almost at all, though there are some
good things in it. And so to my cozen Turner's again, and there find my
Lady Mordaunt, and her sister Johnson; and by and by comes in a gentleman,
Mr. Overbury, a pleasant man, who plays most excellently on the
flagelette, a little one, that sounded as low as one of mine, and mighty
pretty. Hence by and by away, and with my wife, and Bab. and Betty Pepys,
and W. Hewer, whom I carried all this day with me, to my cozen
Stradwick's, where I have not been ever since my brother Tom died, there
being some difference between my father and them, upon the account of my
cozen Scott; and I was glad of this opportunity of seeing them, they being
good and substantial people, and kind, and here met my cozen Roger and his
wife, and my cozen Turner, and here, which I never did before, I drank a
glass, of a pint, I believe, at one draught, of the juice of oranges, of
whose peel they make comfits; and here they drink the juice as wine, with
sugar, and it is very fine drink; but, it being new, I was doubtful
whether it might not do me hurt. Having staid a while, my wife and I
back, with my cozen Turner, etc., to her house, and there we took our
leaves of my cozen Pepys, who goes with his wife and two daughters for
Impington tomorrow. They are very good people, and people I love, and am
obliged to, and shall have great pleasure in their friendship, and
particularly in hers, she being an understanding and good woman. So away
home, and there after signing my letters, my eyes being bad, to supper and
to bed.
10th. Up, and by hackney-coach to Auditor Beale's Office, in Holborne, to
look for records of the Navy, but he was out of the way, and so forced to
go next to White Hall, to the Privy Seal; and, after staying a little
there, then to Westminster, where, at the Exchequer, I met with Mr.
Newport and Major Halsey; and, after doing a little business with Mr.
Burges, we by water to White Hall, where I made a little stop: and so with
them by coach to Temple Bar, where, at the Sugar Loaf we dined, and W.
Hewer with me; and there comes a companion of theirs, Colonel Vernon, I
think they called him; a merry good fellow, and one that was very plain in
cursing the Duke of Buckingham, and discoursing of his designs to ruin us,
and that ruin must follow his counsels, and that we are an undone people.
To which the others concurred, but not so plain, but all vexed at Sir W.
Coventry's being laid aside: but Vernon, he is concerned, I perceive, for
my Lord Ormond's being laid aside; but their company, being all old
cavaliers, were very pleasant to hear how they swear and talk. But
Halsey, to my content, tells me that my Lord Duke of Albemarle says that
W. Coventry being gone, nothing will be well done at the Treasury, and I
believe it; but they do all talk as that Duncombe, upon some pretence or
other, must follow him. Thence to Auditor Beale's, his house and office,
but not to be found, and therefore to the Privy Seale at White Hall,
where, with W. Hewer and Mr. Gibson, who met me at the Temple, I spent the
afternoon till evening looking over the books there, and did find several
things to my purpose, though few of those I designed to find, the books
being kept there in no method at all. Having done there, we by water
home, and there find my cozen Turner and her two daughters come to see us;
and there, after talking a little, I had my coach ready, and my wife and
I, they going home, we out to White Chapel to take a little ayre, though
yet the dirtiness of the road do prevent most of the pleasure, which
should have been from this tour. So home, and my wife to read to me till
supper, and to bed.
11th. Up, and to Sir W. Coventry, to the Tower, where I walked and talked
with him an hour alone, from one good thing to another: who tells me that
he hears that the Commission is gone down to the King, with a blank to
fill, for his place in the Treasury: and he believes it will be filled
with one of our Treasurers of the Navy, but which he knows not, but he
believes it will be Osborne. We walked down to the Stone Walk, which is
called, it seems, my Lord of Northumberland's walk, being paved by some
one of that title, that was prisoner there: and at the end of it, there is
a piece of iron upon the wall, with, his armes upon it, and holes to put
in a peg, for every turn that they make upon that walk. So away to the
Office, where busy all the morning, and so to dinner, and so very busy all
the afternoon, at my Office, late; and then home tired, to supper, with
content with my wife, and so to bed, she pleasing me, though I dare not
own it, that she hath hired a chambermaid; but she, after many
commendations, told me that she had one great fault, and that was, that
she was very handsome, at which I made nothing, but let her go on; but
many times to-night she took occasion to discourse of her handsomeness,
and the danger she was in by taking her, and that she did doubt yet
whether it would be fit for her, to take her. But I did assure her of my
resolutions to have nothing to do with her maids, but in myself I was glad
to have the content to have a handsome one to look on.
12th. Up, and abroad, with my own coach, to Auditor Beale's house, and
thence with W. Hewer to his Office, and there with great content spent all
the morning looking over the Navy accounts of several years, and the
several patents of the Treasurers, which was more than I did hope to have
found there. About noon I ended there, to my great content, and giving
the clerks there 20s. for their trouble, and having sent for W. Howe to me
to discourse with him about the Patent Office records, wherein I
remembered his brother to be concerned, I took him in my coach with W.
Hewer and myself towards Westminster; and there he carried me to Nott's,
the famous bookbinder, that bound for my Lord Chancellor's library; and
here I did take occasion for curiosity to bespeak a book to be bound, only
that I might have one of his binding. Thence back to Graye's Inne: and,
at the next door, at a cook's-shop of Howe's acquaintance, we bespoke
dinner, it being now two o'clock; and in the meantime he carried us into
Graye's Inne, to his chamber, where I never was before; and it is very
pretty, and little, and neat, as he was always. And so, after a little
stay, and looking over a book or two there, we carried a piece of my Lord
Coke with us, and to our dinner, where, after dinner, he read at my desire
a chapter in my Lord Coke about perjury, wherein I did learn a good deal
touching oaths, and so away to the Patent Office; in Chancery Lane, where
his brother Jacke, being newly broke by running in debt, and growing an
idle rogue, he is forced to hide himself; and W. Howe do look after the
Office, and here I did set a clerk to look out some things for me in their
books, while W. Hewer and I to the Crowne Offices where we met with
several good things that I most wanted, and did take short notes of the
dockets, and so back to the Patent Office, and did the like there, and by
candle-light ended. And so home, where, thinking to meet my wife with
content, after my pains all this day, I find her in her closet, alone, in
the dark, in a hot fit of railing against me, upon some news she has this
day heard of Deb.'s living very fine, and with black spots, and speaking
ill words of her mistress, which with good reason might vex her; and the
baggage is to blame, but, God knows, I know nothing of her, nor what she
do, nor what becomes of her, though God knows that my devil that is within
me do wish that I could. Yet God I hope will prevent me therein, for I
dare not trust myself with it if I should know it; but, what with my high
words, and slighting it, and then serious, I did at last bring her to very
good and kind terms, poor heart! and I was heartily glad of it, for I do
see there is no man can be happier than myself, if I will, with her. But
in her fit she did tell me what vexed me all the night, that this had put
her upon putting off her handsome maid and hiring another that was full of
the small pox, which did mightily vex me, though I said nothing, and do
still. So down to supper, and she to read to me, and then with all
possible kindness to bed.
13th. Up, and to the Tower, to see Sir W. Coventry, and with him talking
of business of the Navy, all alone, an hour, he taking physic. And so
away to the Office, where all the morning, and then home to dinner, with
my people, and so to the Office again, and there all the afternoon till
night, when comes, by mistake, my cozen Turner, and her two daughters,
which love such freaks, to eat some anchovies and ham of bacon with me,
instead of noon, at dinner, when I expected them. But, however, I had
done my business before they come, and so was in good humour enough to be
with them, and so home to them to supper, and pretty merry, being pleased
to see Betty Turner, which hath something mighty pretty. But that which
put me in good humour, both at noon and night, is the fancy that I am this
day made a Captain of one of the King's ships, Mr. Wren having this day
sent me, the Duke of York's commission to be Captain of "The Jerzy," in
order to my being of a Court-martiall for examining the loss of "The
Defyance," and other things; which do give me occasion of much mirth, and
may be of some use to me, at least I shall get a little money by it for
the time I have it; it being designed that I must really be a Captain to
be able to sit in this Court. They staid till about eight at night, and
then away, and my wife to read to me, and then to bed in mighty good
humour, but for my eyes.
14th (Lord's day). Up, and to my office with Tom, whom I made to read to
me the books of Propositions in the time of the Grand Commission, which I
did read a good part of before church, and then with my wife to church,
where I did see my milliner's wife come again, which pleased me; but I
durst not be seen to mind her for fear of my wife's seeing me, though the
woman I did never speak twenty words to, and that but only in her
husband's shop. But so fearful I am of discontenting my wife, or giving
her cause of jealousy. But here we heard a most excellent good sermon of
Mr. Gifford's, upon the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees. So home
to dinner and to work again, and so till dinner, where W. Howe come and
dined with me, and staid and read in my Lord Cooke upon his chapter of
perjury again, which pleased me, and so parted, and I to my office, and
there made an end of the books of Propositions, which did please me
mightily to hear read, they being excellently writ and much to the
purpose, and yet so as I think I shall make good use of his defence of our
present constitution. About four o'clock took coach to visit my cozen
Turner, and I out with her to make a visit, but the lady she went to see
was abroad. So back and to talk with her and her daughters, and then
home, and she and I to walk in the garden, the first time this year, the
weather being mighty temperate; and then I to write down my Journall for
the last week, my eyes being very bad, and therefore I forced to find a
way to use by turns with my tube, one after another, and so home to supper
and to bed. Before I went from my office this night I did tell Tom my
resolution not to keep him after Jane was gone, but shall do well by him,
which pleases him; and I think he will presently marry her, and go away
out of my house with her.
15th. Up, and by water with W. Hewer to the Temple; and thence to the
Rolls, where I made inquiry for several rolls, and was soon informed in
the manner of it: and so spent the whole morning with W. Hewer, he taking
little notes in short-hand, while I hired a clerk there to read to me
about twelve or more several rolls which I did call for: and it was great
pleasure to me to see the method wherein their rolls are kept; that when
the Master of the Office, one Mr. Case, do call for them, who is a man
that I have heretofore known by coming to my Lord of Sandwich's, he did
most readily turn to them. At noon they shut up; and W. Hewer and I did
walk to the Cocke, at the end of Suffolke Streete, where I never was, a
great ordinary, mightily cried up, and there bespoke a pullett; which
while dressing, he and I walked into St. James's Park, and thence back,
and dined very handsome, with a good soup, and a pullet, for 4s. 6d. the
whole. Thence back to the Rolls, and did a little more business: and so
by water to White Hall, whither. I went to speak with Mr. Williamson,
that if he hath any papers relating to the Navy I might see them, which he
promises me: and so by water home, with great content for what I have this
day found, having got almost as much as I desire of the history of the
Navy, from 1618 to 1642, when the King and Parliament fell out. So home,
and did get my wife to read, and so to supper and to bed.
16th. Up, and to the office, after having visited Sir W. Coventry at the
Tower, and walked with him upon the Stone Walk, alone, till other company
come to him, and had very good discourse with him. At noon home, where my
wife and Jane gone abroad, and Tom, in order to their buying of things for
their wedding, which, upon my discourse the last night, is now resolved to
be done, upon the 26th of this month, the day of my solemnity for my
cutting of the stone, when my cozen Turner must be with us. My wife,
therefore, not at dinner; and comes to me Mr. Evelyn of Deptford, a worthy
good man, and dined with me, but a bad dinner; who is grieved for, and
speaks openly to me his thoughts of, the times, and our ruin approaching;
and all by the folly of the King. His business to me was about some
ground of his, at Deptford, next to the King's yard: and after dinner we
parted. My sister Michell coming also this day to see us, whom I left
there, and I away down by water with W. Hewer to Woolwich, where I have
not been I think more than a year or two, and here I saw, but did not go
on board, my ship "The Jerzy," she lying at the wharf under repair. But
my business was to speak with Ackworth, about some old things and passages
in the Navy, for my information therein, in order to my great business now
of stating the history of the Navy. This I did; and upon the whole do
find that the late times, in all their management, were not more husbandly
than we; and other things of good content to me. His wife was sick, and so
I could not see her. Thence, after seeing Mr. Sheldon, I to Greenwich by
water, and there landed at the King's house, which goes on slow, but is
very pretty.
[The old palace at Greenwich had just been pulled down, and a new
building commenced by Charles II., only one wing of which was
completed, at the expense of L36,000, under the auspices of Webb,
Inigo Jones's kinsman and executor. In 1694 the unfinished edifice
was granted by William and Mary to trustees for the use and service
of a Naval Hospital; and it has been repeatedly enlarged and
improved till it has arrived at its present splendour.--B.]
I to the Park, there to see the prospect of the hill, to judge of Dancre's
picture, which he hath made thereof for me: and I do like it very well:
and it is a very pretty place. Thence to Deptford, but staid not,
Uthwayte being out of the way: and so home, and then to the Ship Tavern,
Morrice's, and staid till W. Hewer fetched his uncle Blackburne by
appointment to me, to discourse of the business of the Navy in the late
times; and he did do it, by giving me a most exact account in writing, of
the several turns in the Admiralty and Navy, of the persons employed
therein, from the beginning of the King's leaving the Parliament, to his
Son's coming in, to my great content; and now I am fully informed in all I
at present desire. We fell to other talk; and I find by him that the
Bishops must certainly fall, and their hierarchy; these people have got so
much ground upon the King and kingdom as is not to be got again from them:
and the Bishops do well deserve it. But it is all the talk, I find, that
Dr. Wilkins, my friend, the Bishop of Chester, shall be removed to
Winchester, and be Lord Treasurer. Though this be foolish talk, yet I do
gather that he is a mighty rising man, as being a Latitudinarian, and the
Duke of Buckingham his great friend. Here we staid talking till to at
night, where I did never drink before since this man come to the house,
though for his pretty wife's sake I do fetch my wine from this, whom I
could not nevertheless get para see to-night, though her husband did seem
to call for her. So parted here and I home, and to supper and to bed.
17th. Up, and by water to see Mr. Wren, and then Mr. Williamson, who did
shew me the very original bookes of propositions made by the Commissioners
for the Navy, in 1618, to my great content; but no other Navy papers he
could now shew me. Thence to Westminster by water and to the Hall, where
Mrs. Michell do surprize me with the news that Doll Lane is suddenly
brought to bed at her sister's lodging, and gives it out that she is
married, but there is no such thing certainly, she never mentioning it
before, but I have cause to rejoice that I have not seen her a great
while, she having several times desired my company, but I doubt to an evil
end. Thence to the Exchequer, where W. Hewer come to me, and after a
little business did go by water home, and there dined, and took my wife by
a hackney to the King's playhouse, and saw "The Coxcomb," the first time
acted, but an old play, and a silly one, being acted only by the young
people. Here met cozen Turner and The. So parted there from them, and
home by coach and to my letters at the office, where pretty late, and so
to supper and to bed.
18th. Up, and to see Sir W. Coventry, and walked with him a good while in
the Stone Walk: and brave discourse about my Lord Chancellor, and his ill
managements and mistakes, and several things of the Navy, and thence to
the office, where we sat all the morning, and so home to dinner, where my
wife mighty finely dressed, by a maid that she hath taken, and is to come
to her when Jane goes; and the same she the other day told me of, to be so
handsome. I therefore longed to see her, but did not till after dinner,
that my wife and I going by coach, she went with us to Holborne, where we
set her down. She is a mighty proper maid, and pretty comely, but so so;
but hath a most pleasing tone of voice, and speaks handsomely, but hath
most great hands, and I believe ugly; but very well dressed, and good
clothes, and the maid I believe will please me well enough. Thence to
visit Ned Pickering and his lady, and Creed and his wife, but the former
abroad, and the latter out of town, gone to my Lady Pickering's in
Northamptonshire, upon occasion of the late death of their brother, Oliver
Pickering, a youth, that is dead of the smallpox. So my wife and I to
Dancre's to see the pictures; and thence to Hyde Park, the first time we
were there this year, or ever in our own coach, where with mighty pride
rode up and down, and many coaches there; and I thought our horses and
coach as pretty as any there, and observed so to be by others. Here staid
till night, and so home, and to the office, where busy late, and so home
to supper and to bed, with great content, but much business in my head of
the office, which troubles me.
19th. Up, and by water to White Hall, there to the Lords of the Treasury,
and did some business, and here Sir Thomas Clifford did speak to me, as
desirous that I would some time come and confer with him about the Navy,
which I am glad of, but will take the direction of the Duke of York before
I do it, though I would be glad to do something to secure myself, if I
could, in my employment. Thence to the plaisterer's, and took my face,
and my Lord Duke of Albemarle's, home with me by coach, they being done to
my mind; and mighty glad I am of understanding this way of having the
pictures of any friends. At home to dinner, where Mr. Sheres dined with
us, but after dinner I left him and my wife, and with Commissioner
Middleton and Kempthorne to a Court-martiall, to which, by virtue of my
late Captainship, I am called, the first I was ever at; where many
Commanders, and Kempthorne president. Here was tried a difference between
Sir L. Van Hemskirke, the Dutch Captain who commands "The Nonsuch," built
by his direction, and his Lieutenant; a drunken kind of silly business.
We ordered the Lieutenant to ask him pardon, and have resolved to lay
before the Duke of York what concerns the Captain, which was striking of
his Lieutenant and challenging him to fight, which comes not within any
article of the laws martiall. But upon discourse the other day with Sir
W. Coventry, I did advise Middleton, and he and I did forbear to give
judgment, but after the debate did withdraw into another cabin, the Court
being held in one of the yachts, which was on purpose brought up over
against St. Katharine's, it being to be feared that this precedent of our
being made Captains, in order to the trying of the loss of "The Defyance,"
wherein we are the proper persons to enquire into the want of instructions
while ships do lie in harbour, evil use might be hereafter made of the
precedent by putting the Duke of Buckingham, or any of these rude fellows
that now are uppermost, to make packed Courts, by Captains made on purpose
to serve their turns. The other cause was of the loss of "The Providence"
at Tangier, where the Captain's being by chance on shore may prove very
inconvenient to him, for example's sake, though the man be a good man, and
one whom, for Norwood's sake, I would be kind to; but I will not offer any
thing to the excusing such a miscarriage. He is at present confined, till
he can bring better proofs on his behalf of the reasons of his being on
shore. So Middleton and I away to the Office; and there I late busy,
making my people, as I have done lately, to read Mr. Holland's' Discourse
of the Navy, and what other things I can get to inform me fully in all;
and here late, about eight at night, comes Mr. Wren to me, who had been at
the Tower to Coventry. He come only to see how matters go, and tells me,
as a secret, that last night the Duke of York's closet was broken open,
and his cabinets, and shut again, one of them that the rogue that did it
hath left plate and a watch behind him, and therefore they fear that it
was only for papers, which looks like a very malicious business in design,
to hurt the Duke of York; but they cannot know that till the Duke of York
comes to town about the papers, and therefore make no words of it. He
gone, I to work again, and then to supper at home, and to bed.