and Sir Thomas Allen to White Hall, there my wife and I the first time
that ever we went to my Lady Jemimah's chamber at Sir Edward Carteret's
lodgings. I confess I have been much to blame and much ashamed of our not
visiting her sooner, but better now than never. Here we took her before
she was up, which I was sorry for, so only saw her, and away to chapel,
leaving further visit till after sermon. I put my wife into the pew
below, but it was pretty to see, myself being but in a plain band, and
every way else ordinary, how the verger took me for her man, I think, and
I was fain to tell him she was a kinswoman of my Lord Sandwich's, he
saying that none under knights-baronets' ladies are to go into that pew.
So she being there, I to the Duke of York's lodging, where in his
dressing-chamber he talking of his journey to-morrow or next day to
Harwich, to prepare some fortifications there; so that we are wholly upon
the defensive part this year, only we have some expectations that we may
by our squadrons annoy them in their trade by the North of Scotland and to
the Westward. Here Sir W. Pen did show the Duke of York a letter of
Hogg's about a prize he drove in within the Sound at Plymouth, where the
Vice-Admiral claims her. Sir W. Pen would have me speak to the latter,
which I did, and I think without any offence, but afterwards I was sorry
for it, and Sir W. Pen did plainly say that he had no mind to speak to the
Duke of York about it, so that he put me upon it, but it shall be, the
last time that I will do such another thing, though I think no manner of
hurt done by it to me at all. That done I to walk in the Parke, where to
the Queene's Chapel, and there heard a fryer preach with his cord about
his middle, in Portuguese, something I could understand, showing that God
did respect the meek and humble, as well as the high and rich. He was full
of action, but very decent and good, I thought, and his manner of delivery
very good. Then I went back to White Hall, and there up to the closet,
and spoke with several people till sermon was ended, which was preached by
the Bishop of Hereford, an old good man, that they say made an excellent
sermon. He was by birth a Catholique, and a great gallant, having L1500
per annum, patrimony, and is a Knight Barronet; was turned from his
persuasion by the late Archbishop Laud. He and the Bishop of Exeter, Dr.
Ward, are the two Bishops that the King do say he cannot have bad sermons
from. Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me, that undoubtedly my
Lord Bellasses do go no more to Tangier, and that he do believe he do
stand in a likely way to go Governor; though he says, and showed me, a
young silly Lord, one Lord Allington, who hath offered a great sum of
money to go, and will put hard for it, he having a fine lady, and a great
man would be glad to have him out of the way. After Chapel I down and
took out my wife from the pew, where she was talking with a lady whom I
knew not till I was gone. It was Mrs. Ashfield of Brampton, who had with
much civility been, it seems, at our house to see her. I am sorry I did
not show her any more respect. With my wife to Sir G. Carteret's, where
we dined and mightily made of, and most extraordinary people they are to
continue friendship with for goodness, virtue, and nobleness and interest.
After dinner he and I alone awhile and did joy ourselves in my Lord
Sandwich's being out of the way all this time. He concurs that we are in
a way of ruin by thus being forced to keep only small squadrons out, but
do tell me that it was not choice, but only force, that we could not keep
out the whole fleete. He tells me that the King is very kind to my Lord
Sandwich, and did himself observe to him (Sir G. Carteret), how those very
people, meaning the Prince and Duke of Albemarle, are punished in the same
kind as they did seek to abuse my Lord Sandwich. Thence away, and got a
hackney coach and carried my wife home, and there only drank, and myself
back again to my Lord Treasurer's, where the King, Duke of York, and Sir
G. Carteret and Lord Arlington were and none else, so I staid not, but to
White Hall, and there meeting nobody I would speak with, walked into the
Park and took two or three turns all alone, and then took coach and home,
where I find Mercer, who I was glad to see, but durst [not] shew so, my
wife being displeased with her, and indeed I fear she is grown a very
gossip. I to my chamber, and there fitted my arguments which I had
promised Mr. Gawden in his behalf in some pretences to allowance of the
King, and then to supper, and so to my chamber a little again, and then to
bed. Duke of Buckingham not heard of yet.
18th. Up betimes, and to the office to write fair my paper for D. Gawden
against anon, and then to other business, where all the morning. D. Gawden
by and by comes, and I did read over and give him the paper, which I think
I have much obliged him in. A little before noon comes my old good
friend, Mr. Richard Cumberland,--[Richard Cumberland, afterwards Bishop of
Peterborough]--to see me, being newly come to town, whom I have not seen
almost, if not quite, these seven years. In his plain country-parson's
dress. I could not spend much time with him, but prayed him come with his
brother, who was with him, to dine with me to-day; which he did do and I
had a great deal of his good company; and a most excellent person he is as
any I know, and one that I am sorry should be lost and buried in a little
country town, and would be glad to remove him thence; and the truth is, if
he would accept of my sister's fortune, I should give L100 more with him
than to a man able to settle her four times as much as, I fear, he is able
to do; and I will think of it, and a way how to move it, he having in
discourse said he was not against marrying, nor yet engaged. I shewed him
my closet, and did give him some very good musique, Mr. Caesar being here
upon his lute. They gone I to the office, where all the afternoon very
busy, and among other things comes Captain Jenifer to me, a great servant
of my Lord Sandwich's, who tells me that he do hear for certain, though I
do not yet believe it, that Sir W. Coventry is to be Secretary of State,
and my Lord Arlington Lord Treasurer. I only wish that the latter were as
fit for the latter office as the former is for the former, and more fit
than my Lord Arlington. Anon Sir W. Pen come and talked with me in the
garden, and tells me that for certain the Duke of Richmond is to marry
Mrs. Stewart, he having this day brought in an account of his estate and
debts to the King on that account. At night home to supper and so to bed.
My father's letter this day do tell me of his own continued illness, and
that my mother grows so much worse, that he fears she cannot long
continue, which troubles me very much. This day, Mr. Caesar told me a
pretty experiment of his, of angling with a minikin, a gut-string
varnished over, which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond any hair for
strength and smallness. The secret I like mightily.
19th. Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon dined
at home very pleasantly with my wife, and after dinner with a great deal
of pleasure had her sing, which she begins to do with some pleasure to me,
more than I expected. Then to the office again, where all the afternoon
close, and at night home to supper and to bed. It comes in my mind this
night to set down how a house was the other day in Bishopsgate Street
blowed up with powder; a house that was untenanted, and between a flax
shop and a-----------, both bad for fire; but, thanks be to God, it did no
more hurt; and all do conclude it a plot. I would also remember to my
shame how I was pleased yesterday, to find the righteous maid of Magister
Griffin sweeping of 'nostra' office, 'elle con the Roman nariz and bonne'
body which I did heretofore like, and do still refresh me to think 'que
elle' is come to us, that I may 'voir her aliquando'. This afternoon I am
told again that the town do talk of my Lord Arlington's being to be Lord
Treasurer, and Sir W. Coventry to be Secretary of State; and that for
certain the match is concluded between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs.
Stewart, which I am well enough pleased with; and it is pretty to consider
how his quality will allay people's talk; whereas, had a meaner person
married her, he would for certain have been reckoned a cuckold at
first-dash.
20th. Up pretty betimes, and to the Old Swan, and there drank at
Michell's, but his wife is not there, but gone to her mother's, who is
ill, and so hath staid there since Sunday. Thence to Westminster Hall and
drank at the Swan, and 'baiserais the petite misse'; and so to Mrs.
Martin's. . . . I sent for some burnt wine, and drank and then away,
not pleased with my folly, and so to the Hall again, and there staid a
little, and so home by water again, where, after speaking with my wife, I
with Sir W. Batten and [Sir] J. Minnes to our church to the vestry, to be
assessed by the late Poll Bill, where I am rated as an Esquire, and for my
office, all will come to about L50. But not more than I expected, nor so
much by a great deal as I ought to be, for all my offices. So shall be
glad to escape so. Thence by water again to White Hall, and there up into
the house, and do hear that newes is come now that the enemy do incline
again to a peace, but could hear no particulars, so do not believe it. I
had a great mind to have spoke with the King, about a business proper
enough for me, about the French prize man-of-war, how he would have her
altered, only out of a desire to show myself mindful of business, but my
linen was so dirty and my clothes mean, that I neither thought it fit to
do that, nor go to other persons at the Court, with whom I had business,
which did vex me, and I must remedy [it]. Here I hear that the Duke of
Richmond and Mrs. Stewart were betrothed last night. Thence to
Westminster Hall again, and there saw Betty Michell, and bought a pair of
gloves of her, she being fain to keep shop there, her mother being sick,
and her father gathering of the tax. I 'aimais her de toute my corazon'.
Thence, my mind wandering all this day upon 'mauvaises amours' which I be
merry for. So home by water again, where I find my wife gone abroad, so I
to Sir W. Batten to dinner, and had a good dinner of ling and herring pie,
very good meat, best of the kind that ever I had. Having dined, I by
coach to the Temple, and there did buy a little book or two, and it is
strange how "Rycaut's Discourse of Turky," which before the fire I was
asked but 8s. for, there being all but twenty-two or thereabouts burned, I
did now offer 20s., and he demands 50s., and I think I shall give it him,
though it be only as a monument of the fire. So to the New Exchange,
where I find my wife, and so took her to Unthanke's, and left her there,
and I to White Hall, and thence to Westminster, only out of idleness, and
to get some little pleasure to my 'mauvais flammes', but sped not, so back
and took up my wife; and to Polichinelli at Charing Crosse, which is
prettier and prettier, and so full of variety that it is extraordinary
good entertainment. Thence by coach home, that is, my wife home, and I to
the Exchange, and there met with Fenn, who tells me they have yet no
orders out of the Exchequer for money upon the Acts, which is a thing not
to be borne by any Prince of understanding or care, for no money can be
got advanced upon the Acts only from the weight of orders in form out of
the Exchequer so long time after the passing of the Acts. So home to the
office a little, where I met with a sad letter from my brother, who tells
me my mother is declared by the doctors to be past recovery, and that my
father is also very ill every hour: so that I fear we shall see a sudden
change there. God fit them and us for it! So to Sir W. Pen's, where my
wife was, and supped with a little, but yet little mirth, and a bad, nasty
supper, which makes me not love the family, they do all things so meanly,
to make a little bad show upon their backs. Thence home and to bed, very
much troubled about my father's and my mother's illness.
21st. Up, and to the office, where sat all the morning. At noon home to
dinner, and had some melancholy discourse with my wife about my mother's
being so ill and my father, and after dinner to cheer myself, I having the
opportunity of Sir W. Coventry and the Duke of York's being out of town, I
alone out and to the Duke of York's play-house, where unexpectedly I come
to see only the young men and women of the house act; they having liberty
to act for their own profit on Wednesdays and Fridays this Lent: and the
play they did yesterday, being Wednesday, was so well-taken, that they
thought fit to venture it publickly to-day; a play of my Lord Falkland's'
called "The Wedding Night," a kind of a tragedy, and some things very good
in it, but the whole together, I thought, not so. I confess I was well
enough pleased with my seeing it: and the people did do better, without
the great actors, than I did expect, but yet far short of what they do
when they are there, which I was glad to find the difference of. Thence
to rights home, and there to the office to my business hard, being sorry
to have made this scape without my wife, but I have a good salvo to my
oath in doing it. By and by, in the evening, comes Sir W. Batten's Mingo
to me to pray me to come to his master and Sir Richard Ford, who have very
ill news to tell me. I knew what it was, it was about our trial for a
good prize to-day, "The Phoenix,"
[There are references to the "Phoenix," a Dutch ship taken as a
prize, among the State Papers (see "Calendar," 1666-67, p. 404).
Pepys appears to have got into trouble at a later date in respect to
this same ship, for among the Rawlinson MSS. (A. 170) are "Papers
relating to the charge brought against him in the House of Commons
in 1689 with reference to the ship Phoenix and the East India
Company in 1681-86."]
a worth two or L3000. I went to them, where they told me with much
trouble how they had sped, being cast and sentenced to make great
reparation for what we had embezzled, and they did it so well that I was
much troubled at it, when by and by Sir W. Batten asked me whether I was
mortified enough, and told me we had got the day, which was mighty welcome
news to me and us all. But it is pretty to see what money will do.
Yesterday, Walker was mighty cold on our behalf, till Sir W. Batten
promised him, if we sped in this business of the goods, a coach; and if at
the next trial we sped for the ship, we would give him a pair of horses.
And he hath strove for us today like a prince, though the Swedes' Agent
was there with all the vehemence he could to save the goods, but yet we
carried it against him. This put me in mighty good heart, and then we go
to Sir W. Pen, who is come back to-night from Chatham, and did put him
into the same condition, and then comforted him. So back to my office, and
wrote an affectionate and sad letter to my father about his and my
mother's illness, and so home to supper and to bed late.
22nd. Up and by coach to Sir Ph. Warwicke about business for Tangier
about money, and then to Sir Stephen Fox to give him account of a little
service I have done him about money coming to him from our office, and
then to Lovett's and saw a few baubling things of their doing which are
very pretty, but the quality of the people, living only by shifts, do not
please me, that it makes me I do no more care for them, nor shall have
more acquaintance with them after I have got my Lady Castlemayne's picture
home. So to White Hall, where the King at Chapel, and I would not stay,
but to Westminster to Howlett's, and there, he being not well, I sent for
a quart of claret and burnt it and drank, and had a 'basado' or three or
four of Sarah, whom 'je trouve ici', and so by coach to Sir Robt. Viner's
about my accounts with him, and so to the 'Change, where I hear for
certain that we are going on with our treaty of peace, and that we are to
treat at Bredah. But this our condescension people do think will undo us,
and I do much fear it. So home to dinner, where my wife having dressed
herself in a silly dress of a blue petticoat uppermost, and a white satin
waistcoat and whitehood, though I think she did it because her gown is
gone to the tailor's, did, together with my being hungry, which always
makes me peevish, make me angry, but when my belly was full were friends
again, and dined and then by water down to Greenwich and thence walked to
Woolwich, all the way reading Playford's "Introduction to Musique,"
wherein are some things very pretty. At Woolwich I did much business,
taking an account of the state of the ships there under hand, thence to
Blackwall, and did the like for two ships we have repairing there, and
then to Deptford and did the like there, and so home. Captain Perriman
with me from Deptford, telling me many particulars how the King's business
is ill ordered, and indeed so they are, God knows! So home and to the
office, where did business, and so home to my chamber, and then to supper
and to bed. Landing at the Tower to-night I met on Tower Hill with
Captain Cocke and spent half an hour walking in the dusk of the evening
with him, talking of the sorrowful condition we are in, that we must be
ruined if the Parliament do not come and chastize us, that we are resolved
to make a peace whatever it cost, that the King is disobliging the
Parliament in this interval all that may be, yet his money is gone and he
must have more, and they likely not to give it, without a great deal of
do. God knows what the issue of it will be. But the considering that the
Duke of York, instead of being at sea as Admirall, is now going from port
to port, as he is at this day at Harwich, and was the other day with the
King at Sheernesse, and hath ordered at Portsmouth how fortifications
shall be made to oppose the enemy, in case of invasion, [which] is to us a
sad consideration, and as shameful to the nation, especially after so many
proud vaunts as we have made against the Dutch, and all from the folly of
the Duke of Albemarle, who made nothing of beating them, and Sir John
Lawson he always declared that we never did fail to beat them with lesser
numbers than theirs, which did so prevail with the King as to throw us
into this war.
23rd. At the office all the morning, where Sir W. Pen come, being
returned from Chatham, from considering the means of fortifying the river
Medway, by a chain at the stakes, and ships laid there with guns to keep
the enemy from coming up to burn our ships; all our care now being to
fortify ourselves against their invading us. At noon home to dinner, and
then to the office all the afternoon again, where Mr. Moore come, who
tells me that there is now no doubt made of a peace being agreed on, the
King having declared this week in Council that they would treat at
Bredagh. He gone I to my office, where busy late, and so to supper and to
bed. Vexed with our mayde Luce, our cook-mayde, who is a good drudging
servant in everything else, and pleases us, but that she will be drunk,
and hath been so last night and all this day, that she could not make
clean the house. My fear is only fire.
24th (Lord's day). With Sir W. Batten to White Hall, and there I to Sir
G. Carteret, who is mighty cheerful, which makes me think and by some
discourse that there is expectation of a peace, but I did not ask [him].
Here was Sir J. Minnes also: and they did talk of my Lord Bruncker, whose
father, it seems, did give Mr. Ashburnham and the present Lord Digby L1200
to be made an Irish lord, and swore the same day that he had not 12d. left
to pay for his dinner: they make great mirth at this, my Lord Bruncker
having lately given great matter of offence both to them and us all, that
we are at present mightily displeased with him. By and by to the Duke of
York, where we all met, and there was the King also; and all our discourse
was about fortifying of the Medway and Harwich, which is to be entrenched
quite round, and Portsmouth: and here they advised with Sir Godfry Lloyd
and Sir Bernard de Gum, the two great engineers, and had the plates drawn
before them; and indeed all their care they now take is to fortify
themselves, and are not ashamed of it: for when by and by my Lord
Arlington come in with letters, and seeing the King and Duke of York give
us and the officers of the Ordnance directions in this matter, he did move
that we might do it as privately as we could, that it might not come into
the Dutch Gazette presently, as the King's and Duke of York's going down
the other day to Sheerenesse was, the week after, in the Harlem Gazette.
The King and Duke of York both laughed at it, and made no matter, but
said, "Let us be safe, and let them talk, for there is nothing will
trouble them more, nor will prevent their coming more, than to hear that
we are fortifying ourselves." And the Duke of York said further, "What
said Marshal Turenne, when some in vanity said that the enemies were
afraid, for they entrenched themselves? 'Well,' says he, 'I would they
were not afraid, for then they would not entrench themselves, and so we
could deal with them the better.'" Away thence, and met with Sir H.
Cholmly, who tells me that he do believe the government of Tangier is
bought by my Lord Allington for a sum of money to my Lord Arlington, and
something to Lord Bellasses, who (he did tell me particularly how) is as
very a false villain as ever was born, having received money of him here
upon promise and confidence of his return, forcing him to pay it by
advance here, and promising to ask no more there, when at the same time he
was treating with my Lord Allington to sell his command to him, and yet
told Sir H. Cholmly nothing of it, but when Sir H. Cholmly told him what
he had heard, he confessed that my Lord Allington had spoken to him of it,
but that he was a vain man to look after it, for he was nothing fit for
it, and then goes presently to my Lord Allington and drives on the
bargain, yet tells Lord Allington what he himself had said of him, as
[though] Sir H. Cholmly had said them. I am glad I am informed hereof, and
shall know him for a Lord, &c. Sir H. Cholmly tells me further that he is
confident there will be a peace, and that a great man did tell him that my
Lord Albemarle did tell him the other day at White Hall as a secret that
we should have a peace if any thing the King of France can ask and our
King can give will gain it, which he is it seems mad at. Thence back with
Sir W. Batten and [Sir] W. Pen home, and heard a piece of sermon, and so
home to dinner, where Balty come, very fine, and dined with us, and after
dinner with me by water to White Hall, and there he and I did walk round
the Park, I giving him my thoughts about the difficulty of getting
employment for him this year, but advised him how to employ himself, and I
would do what I could. So he and I parted, and I to Martin's, where I
find her within, and 'su hermano' and 'la veuve' Burroughs. Here I did
'demeurer toda' the afternoon . . . . By and by come up the mistress
of the house, Crags, a pleasant jolly woman. I staid all but a little,
and away home by water through bridge, a brave evening, and so home to
read, and anon to supper, W. Hewer with us, and then to read myself to
sleep again, and then to bed, and mightily troubled the most of the night
with fears of fire, which I cannot get out of my head to this day since
the last great fire. I did this night give the waterman who uses to carry
me 10s. at his request, for the painting of his new boat, on which shall
be my arms.