October 1st. Up and betimes to my office, and then to sit, where Sir
G. Carteret, Sir W. Batten, Sir W. Pen, Sir J. Minnes, Mr. Coventry and
myself, a fuller board than by the King’s progresse and the late pays
and my absence has been a great while. Sat late, and then home to
dinner. After dinner I by water to Deptford about a little business,
and so back again, buying a couple of good eeles by the way, and after
writing by the post, home to see the painter at work, late, in my wife’s
closet, and so to supper and to bed, having been very merry with the
painter, late, while he was doing his work. This day the King and Court
returned from their progress.
2nd. Up betimes and by water to St. James’s, and there visited Mr.
Coventry as a compliment after his new coming to town, but had no
great talk with him, he being full of business. So back by foot through
London, doing several errands, and at the ‘Change met with Mr. Cutler,
and he and I to a coffee-house, and there discoursed, and he do assure
me that there is great likelyhood of a war with Holland, but I hope
we shall be in good condition before it comes to break out. I like his
company, and will make much of his acquaintance. So home to dinner with
my wife, who is over head and eares in getting her house up, and so to
the office, and with Mr. Lewes, late, upon some of the old victuallers’
accounts, and so home to supper and to bed, up to our red chamber, where
we purpose always to lie. This day I received a letter from Mr. Barlow,
with a Terella,
[Professor Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., has kindly supplied me with
the following interesting note on the terrella (or terella): The
name given by Dr. William Gilbert, author of the famous treatise,
“De Magnete” (Lond. 1600), to a spherical loadstone, on account of
its acting as a model, magnetically, of the earth; compass-needles
pointing to its poles, as mariners’ compasses do to the poles of
the earth. The term was adopted by other writers who followed
Gilbert, as the following passage from Wm. Barlowe’s “Magneticall
Advertisements” (Lond. 1616) shows: “Wherefore the round Loadstone
is significantly termed by Doct. Gilbert Terrella, that is, a
little, or rather a very little Earth: For it representeth in an
exceeding small model (as it were) the admirable properties
magneticall of the huge Globe of the earth” (op. cit, p. 55).
Gilbert set great store by his invention of the terrella, since it
led him to propound the true theory of the mariners’ compass. In
his portrait of himself which he had painted for the University of
Oxford he was represented as holding in his hand a globe inscribed
terella. In the Galileo Museum in Florence there is a terrella
twenty-seven inches in diameter, of loadstone from Elba, constructed
for Cosmo de’ Medici. A smaller one contrived by Sir Christopher
Wren was long preserved in the museum of the Royal Society (Grew’s
“Rarities belonging to the Royal Society,” p. 364). Evelyn was
shown “a pretty terrella described with all ye circles and skewing
all y magnetic deviations” (Diary, July 3rd, 1655).]
which I had hoped he had sent me, but to my trouble I find it is to
present from him to my Lord Sandwich, but I will make a little use of it
first, and then give it him.
3rd. Up, being well pleased with my new lodging and the convenience of
having our mayds and none else about us, Will lying below. So to the
office, and there we sat full of business all the morning. At noon I
home to dinner, and then abroad to buy a bell to hang by our chamber
door to call the mayds. Then to the office, and met Mr. Blackburne, who
came to know the reason of his kinsman (my Will) his being observed
by his friends of late to droop much. I told him my great displeasure
against him and the reasons of it, to his great trouble yet
satisfaction, for my care over him, and how every thing I said was for
the good of the fellow, and he will take time to examine the fellow
about all, and to desire my pleasure concerning him, which I told him
was either that he should became a better servant or that we would not
have him under my roof to be a trouble. He tells me in a few days he
will come to me again and we shall agree what to do therein. I home and
told my wife all, and am troubled to see that my servants and others
should be the greatest trouble I have in the world, more than for
myself. We then to set up our bell with a smith very well, and then I
late at the office. So home to supper and to bed.
4th (Lord’s day). Up and to church, my house being miserably overflooded
with rayne last night, which makes me almost mad. At home to dinner with
my wife, and so to talk, and to church again, and so home, and all the
evening most pleasantly passed the time in good discourse of our fortune
and family till supper, and so to bed, in some pain below, through cold
got.
5th. Up with pain, and with Sir J. Minnes by coach to the Temple, and
then I to my brother’s, and up and down on business, and so to the New
Exchange, and there met Creed, and he and I walked two or three hours,
talking of many businesses, especially about Tangier, and my Lord
Tiviot’s bringing in of high accounts, and yet if they were higher are
like to pass without exception, and then of my Lord Sandwich sending a
messenger to know whether the King intends to come to Newmarket, as is
talked, that he may be ready to entertain him at Hinchingbroke. Thence
home and dined, and my wife all day putting up her hangings in her
closett, which she do very prettily herself with her own hand, to my
great content. So I to the office till night, about several businesses,
and then went and sat an hour or two with Sir W. Pen, talking very
largely of Sir J. Minnes’s simplicity and unsteadiness, and of Sir W.
Batten’s suspicious dealings, wherein I was open, and he sufficiently,
so that I do not care for his telling of tales, for he said as much,
but whether that were so or no I said nothing but what is my certain
knowledge and belief concerning him. Thence home to bed in great pain.
6th. Slept pretty well, and my wife waked to ring the bell to call up
our mayds to the washing about 4 o’clock, and I was and she angry that
our bell did not wake them sooner, but I will get a bigger bell. So we
to sleep again till 8 o’clock, and then I up in some ease to the office,
where we had a full board, where we examined Cocke’s second account,
when Mr. Turner had drawn a bill directly to be paid the balance
thereof, as Mr. Cocke demanded, and Sir J. Minnes did boldly assert the
truth of it, and that he had examined it, when there is no such thing,
but many vouchers, upon examination, missing, and we saw reason to
strike off several of his demands, and to bring down his 5 per cent.
commission to 3 per cent. So we shall save the King some money, which
both the Comptroller and his clerke had absolutely given away. There
was also two occasions more of difference at the table; the one being
to make out a bill to Captain Smith for his salary abroad as
commander-in-chief in the Streights. Sir J. Minnes did demand an
increase of salary for his being Vice-Admiral in the Downes, he having
received but 40s. without an increase, when Sir J. Lawson, in the same
voyage, had L3, and others have also had increase, only he, because
he was an officer of the board, was worse used than any body else, and
particularly told Sir W. Batten that he was the opposer formerly of his
having an increase, which I did wonder to hear him so boldly lay it to
him. So we hushed up the dispute, and offered, if he would, to examine
precedents, and report them, if there was any thing to his advantage
to be found, to the Duke. The next was, Mr. Chr. Pett and Deane were
summoned to give an account of some knees
[“Naturally grown timber or bars of iron bent to a right angle or to
fit the surfaces and to secure bodies firmly together as hanging
knees secure the deck beams to the sides.”--Smyth’s Sailor’s Word-
Book. There are several kinds of knees.]
which Pett reported bad, that were to be served in by Sir W. Warren,
we having contracted that none should be served but such as were to be
approved of by our officers. So that if they were bad they were to be
blamed for receiving them. Thence we fell to talk of Warren’s other
goods, which Pett had said were generally bad, and falling to this
contract again, I did say it was the most cautious and as good a
contract as had been made here, and the only [one] that had been in such
terms. Sir J. Minnes told me angrily that Winter’s timber, bought for
33s. per load, was as good and in the same terms. I told him that it
was not so, but that he and Sir W. Batten were both abused, and I would
prove it was as dear a bargain as had been made this half year, which
occasioned high words between them and me, but I am able to prove it and
will. That also was so ended, and so to other business. At noon Lewellin
coming to me I took him and Deane, and there met my uncle Thomas, and we
dined together, but was vexed that, it being washing-day, we had no meat
dressed, but sent to the Cook’s, and my people had so little witt to
send in our meat from abroad in that Cook’s dishes, which were marked
with the name of the Cook upon them, by which, if they observed
anything, they might know it was not my own dinner. After dinner we
broke up, and I by coach, setting down Luellin in Cheapside. So to White
Hall, where at the Committee of Tangier, but, Lord! how I was troubled
to see my Lord Tiviott’s accounts of L10,000 paid in that manner, and
wish 1000 times I had not been there. Thence rose with Sir G. Carteret
and to his lodgings, and there discoursed of our frays at the table
to-day, and particularly of that of the contract, and the contract of
masts the other day, declaring my fair dealing, and so needing not any
man’s good report of it, or word for it, and that I would make it so
appear to him, if he desired it, which he did, and I will do it. Thence
home by water in great pain, and at my office a while, and thence a
little to Sir W. Pen, and so home to bed, and finding myself beginning
to be troubled with wind as I used to be, and in pain in making water, I
took a couple of pills that I had by me of Mr. Hollyard’s.
7th. They wrought in the morning, and I did keep my bed, and my pain
continued on me mightily that I kept within all day in great pain, and
could break no wind nor have any stool after my physic had done working.
So in the evening I took coach and to Mr. Holliard’s, but he was not at
home, and so home again, and whether the coach did me good or no I know
not.... So to bed and lay in good ease all night, and.... pretty well to
the morning.....
[Pepys’s prescription for the colic:
“Balsom of Sulphur, 3 or 4 drops in a spoonfull of Syrrup of Colts
foote, not eating or drinking two hours before or after.
“The making of this Balsom:
“2/3ds of fine Oyle, and 1/3d of fine Brimstone, sett 13 or 14
houres upon yt fire, simpring till a thicke Stufte lyes at ye
Bottome, and ye Balsom at ye topp. Take this off &c.
“Sir Rob. Parkhurst for ye Collique.”--M. B.]
8th. So, keeping myself warm, to the office, and at noon home to dinner,
my pain coming again by breaking no wind nor having any stool. So to Mr.
Holliard, and by his direction, he assuring me that it is nothing of the
stone, but only my constitution being costive, and that, and cold from
without, breeding and keeping the wind, I took some powder that he did
give me in white wine, and sat late up, till past eleven at night, with
my wife in my chamber till it had done working, which was so weakly that
I could hardly tell whether it did work or no. My mayds being at this
time in great dirt towards getting of all my house clean, and weary and
having a great deal of work to do therein to-morrow and next day, were
gone to bed before my wife and I, who also do lie in our room more like
beasts than Christians, but that is only in order to having of the house
shortly in a cleaner, or rather very clean condition. Some ease I had so
long as this did keep my body loose, and I slept well.
9th. And did keep my bed most of this morning, my body I find being
still bound and little wind, and so my pain returned again, though not
so bad, but keeping my body with warm clothes very hot I made shift to
endure it, and at noon sent word to Mr. Hollyard of my condition, that
I could neither have a natural stool nor break wind, and by that means
still in pain and frequent offering to make water. So he sent me two
bottles of drink and some syrup, one bottle to take now and the other
to-morrow morning. So in the evening, after Commissioner Pett, who came
to visit me, and was going to Chatham, but methinks do talk to me in
quite another manner, doubtfully and shyly, and like a stranger, to what
he did heretofore. After I saw he was gone I did drink one of them, but
it was a most loathsome draught, and did keep myself warm after it, and
had that afternoon still a stool or two, but in no plenty, nor any wind
almost carried away, and so to bed. In no great pain, but do not think
myself likely to be well till I have a freedom of stool and wind. Most
of this day and afternoon my wife and I did spend together in setting
things now up and in order in her closet, which indeed is, and will be,
when I can get her some more things to put in it, a very pleasant place,
and is at present very pretty, and such as she, I hope, will find great
content in. So to bed.
10th. Up, and not in any good ease yet, but had pain in making water,
and some course. I see I must take besides keeping myself warm to make
myself break wind and go freely to stool before I can be well, neither
of which I can do yet, though I have drank the other bottle of Mr.
Hollyard’s against my stomach this morning. I did, however, make shift
to go to the office, where we sat, and there Sir J. Minnes and Sir W.
Batten did advise me to take some juniper water, and Sir W. Batten sent
to his Lady for some for me, strong water made of juniper. Whether that
or anything else of my draught this morning did it I cannot tell, but
I had a couple of stools forced after it.... but whether I shall grow
better upon it I cannot tell. Dined at home at noon, my wife and house
in the dirtiest pickle that ever she and it was in almost, but in order,
I hope, this night to be very clean. To the office all the afternoon
upon victualling business, and late at it, so after I wrote by the post
to my father, I home. This evening Mr. Hollyard sends me an electuary
to take (a walnut quantity of it) going to bed, which I did. ‘Tis true I
slept well, and rose in a little ease in the morning.
11th (Lord’s day). And was mightily pleased to see my house clean and in
good condition, but something coming into my wife’s head, and mine, to
be done more about bringing the green bed into our chamber, which is
handsomer than the red one, though not of the colour of our hangings, my
wife forebore to make herself clean to-day, but continued in a sluttish
condition till to-morrow. I after the old passe, all the day within
doors,.... the effect of my electuary last night, and the greatest of my
pain I find to come by my straining.... For all this I eat with a very
good stomach, and as much as I use to do, and so I did this noon, and
staid at home discoursing and doing things in my chamber, altering
chairs in my chamber, and set them above in the red room, they being
Turkey work, and so put their green covers upon those that were above,
not so handsome. At night fell to reading in the Church History of
Fuller’s, and particularly Cranmer’s letter to Queen Elizabeth, which
pleases me mightily for his zeal, obedience, and boldness in a cause of
religion. After supper to bed as I use to be, in pain.....
12th. Up (though slept well) and made some water in the morning [as] I
used to do, and a little pain returned to me, and some fears, but being
forced to go to the Duke at St. James’s, I took coach and in my way
called upon Mr. Hollyard and had his advice to take a glyster. At St.
James’s we attended the Duke all of us. And there, after my discourse,
Mr. Coventry of his own accord begun to tell the Duke how he found that
discourse abroad did run to his prejudice about the fees that he took,
and how he sold places and other things; wherein he desired to appeal to
his Highness, whether he did any thing more than what his predecessors
did, and appealed to us all. So Sir G. Carteret did answer that some
fees were heretofore taken, but what he knows not; only that selling
of places never was nor ought to be countenanced. So Mr. Coventry very
hotly answered to Sir G. Carteret, and appealed to himself whether he
was not one of the first that put him upon looking after this taking of
fees, and that he told him that Mr. Smith should say that he made L5000
the first year, and he believed he made L7000. This Sir G. Carteret
denied, and said, that if he did say so he told a lie, for he could not,
nor did know, that ever he did make that profit of his place; but that
he believes he might say L2500 the first year. Mr. Coventry instanced in
another thing, particularly wherein Sir G. Carteret did advise with
him about the selling of the Auditor’s place of the stores, when in the
beginning there was an intention of creating such an office. This he
confessed, but with some lessening of the tale Mr. Coventry told, it
being only for a respect to my Lord Fitz-Harding. In fine, Mr. Coventry
did put into the Duke’s hand a list of above 250 places that he did give
without receiving one farthing, so much as his ordinary fees for them,
upon his life and oath; and that since the Duke’s establishment of fees
he had never received one token more of any man; and that in his whole
life he never conditioned or discoursed of any consideration from any
commanders since he came to the Navy. And afterwards, my Lord Barkeley
merrily discoursing that he wished his profit greater than it was,
and that he did believe that he had got L50,000 since he came in, Mr.
Coventry did openly declare that his Lordship, or any of us, should have
not only all he had got, but all that he had in the world (and yet he
did not come a beggar into the Navy, nor would yet be thought to speak
in any contempt of his Royall Highness’s bounty), and should have a
year to consider of it too, for L25,000. The Duke’s answer was, that he
wished we all had made more profit than he had of our places, and that
we had all of us got as much as one man below stayres in the Court,
which he presently named, and it was Sir George Lane! This being ended,
and the list left in the Duke’s hand, we parted, and I with Sir G.
Carteret, Sir J. Minnes, and Sir W. Batten by coach to the Exchange, and
there a while, and so home, and whether it be the jogging, or by having
my mind more employed (which I believe is a great matter) I know not,
but.... I begin to be suddenly well, at least better than I was. So
home and to dinner, and thence by coach to the Old Exchange, and there
cheapened some laces for my wife, and then to Mr.-----the great laceman
in Cheapside, and bought one cost me L4. more by 20s. than I intended,
but when I came to see them I was resolved to buy one worth wearing with
credit, and so to the New Exchange, and there put it to making, and so
to my Lord’s lodgings and left my wife, and so I to the Committee of
Tangier, and then late home with my wife again by coach, beginning to
be very well, and yet when I came home.... the little straining which I
thought was no strain at all at the present did by and by bring me some
pain for a good while. Anon, about 8 o’clock, my wife did give me a
clyster which Mr. Hollyard directed, viz., a pint of strong ale, 4 oz.
of sugar, and 2 oz. of butter. It lay while I lay upon the bed above an
hour, if not two, and then thinking it quite lost I rose, and by and
by it began with my walking to work, and gave me three or four most
excellent stools and carried away wind, put me in excellent ease, and
taking my usual walnut quantity of electuary at my going into bed I had
about two stools in the night.....
13th. And so rose in the morning in perfect good ease.... continued
all the morning well, and in the afternoon had a natural easily and dry
stoole, the first I have had these five days or six, for which God be
praised, and so am likely to continue well, observing for the time to
come when any of this pain comes again
(1) To begin to keep myself as warm as I can.
(2) Strain as little as ever I can backwards, remembering that my pain
will come by and by, though in the very straining I do not feel it.
(3) Either by physic forward or by clyster backward or both ways to get
an easy and plentiful going to stool and breaking of wind.
(4) To begin to suspect my health immediately when I begin to become
costive and bound, and by all means to keep my body loose, and that to
obtain presently after I find myself going the contrary.
This morning at the office, and at noon with Creed to the Exchange,
where much business, but, Lord! how my heart, though I know not reason
for it, began to doubt myself, after I saw Stint, Field’s one-eyed
solicitor, though I know not any thing that they are doing, or that they
endeavour any thing further against us in the business till the terme.
Home, and Creed with me to dinner, and after dinner John Cole, my
old friend, came to see and speak with me about a friend. I find him
ingenious, but more and more discern his city pedantry; but however, I
will endeavour to have his company now and then, for that he knows much
of the temper of the City, and is able to acquaint therein as much
as most young men, being of large acquaintance, and himself, I think,
somewhat unsatisfied with the present state of things at Court and in
the Church. Then to the office, and there busy till late, and so home to
my wife, with some ease and pleasure that I hope to be able to follow
my business again, which by God’s leave I am resolved to return to
with more and more eagerness. I find at Court, that either the King is
doubtfull of some disturbance, or else would seem so (and I have reason
to hope it is no worse), by his commanding all commanders of castles,
&c., to repair to their charges; and mustering the Guards the other day
himself, where he found reason to dislike their condition to my Lord
Gerard, finding so many absent men, or dead pays.
[This is probably an allusion to the practice of not reporting the
deaths of soldiers, that the officers might continue to draw their
pay.--B.]
My Lady Castlemaine, I hear, is in as great favour as ever, and the King
supped with her the very first night he came from Bath: and last night
and the night before supped with her; when there being a chine of beef
to roast, and the tide rising into their kitchen that it could not be
roasted there, and the cook telling her of it, she answered, “Zounds!
she must set the house on fire but it should be roasted!” So it was
carried to Mrs. Sarah’s husband’s, and there it was roasted. So home to
supper and to bed, being mightily pleased with all my house and my red
chamber, where my wife and I intend constantly to lie, and the having
of our dressing room and mayds close by us without any interfering or
trouble.
14th. Up and to my office, where all the morning, and part of it Sir
J. Minnes spent, as he do every thing else, like a fool, reading
the Anatomy of the body to me, but so sillily as to the making of
me understand any thing that I was weary of him, and so I toward the
‘Change and met with Mr. Grant, and he and I to the Coffee-house, where
I understand by him that Sir W. Petty and his vessel are coming, and
the King intends to go to Portsmouth to meet it. Thence home and
after dinner my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson’s conduct, to the Jewish
Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles, and the women behind
a lattice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is
their Law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting
on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear him do cry
Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing
way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press
are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and
they do relieve one another; and whether it is that every one desires to
have the carrying of it, I cannot tell, thus they carried it round about
the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a
prayer for the King, which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but
the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder,
laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their
service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make
a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much,
or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so
absurdly performed as this. Away thence with my mind strongly disturbed
with them, by coach and set down my wife in Westminster Hall, and I to
White Hall, and there the Tangier Committee met, but the Duke and the
Africa Committee meeting in our room, Sir G. Carteret; Sir W. Compton,
Mr. Coventry, Sir W. Rider, Cuttance and myself met in another room,
with chairs set in form but no table, and there we had very fine
discourses of the business of the fitness to keep Sally, and also of the
terms of our King’s paying the Portugees that deserted their house at
Tangier, which did much please me, and so to fetch my wife, and so
to the New Exchange about her things, and called at Thomas Pepys the
turner’s and bought something there, an so home to supper and to bed,
after I had been a good while with Sir W. Pen, railing and speaking
freely our minds against Sir W. Batten and Sir J. Minnes, but no more
than the folly of one and the knavery of the other do deserve.
15th. Up, I bless God being now in pretty good condition, but cannot
come to make natural stools yet..... So up and to the office, where
we sat all the morning, and at noon dined at home, my head full of
business, and after stepping abroad to buy a thing or two, compasses and
snuffers for my wife, I returned to my office and there mighty busy till
it was late, and so home well contented with the business that I had
done this afternoon, and so to supper and to bed.
16th. Up and to my office, where all the morning doing business, and
at noon home to dinner, and then up to remove my chest and clothes up
stairs to my new wardrobe, that I may have all my things above where I
lie, and so by coach abroad with my wife, leaving her at my Lord’s till
I went to the Tangier Committee, where very good discourse concerning
the Articles of peace to be continued with Guyland, and thence took up
my wife, and with her to her tailor’s, and then to the Exchange and to
several places, and so home and to my office, where doing some business,
and then home to supper and to bed.
17th. Up and to my office, and there we sat a very full board all the
morning upon some accounts of Mr. Gauden’s. Here happened something
concerning my Will which Sir W. Batten would fain charge upon him, and
I heard him mutter something against him of complaint for his often
receiving people’s money to Sir G. Carteret, which displeased me much,
but I will be even with him. Thence to the Dolphin Tavern, and there
Mr. Gauden did give us a great dinner. Here we had some discourse of the
Queen’s being very sick, if not dead, the Duke and Duchess of York being
sent for betimes this morning to come to White Hall to her. So to my
office and there late doing business, and so home to supper, my house
being got mighty clean to my great content from top to toe, and so to
bed, myself beginning to be in good condition of health also, but only
my laying out so much money upon clothes for myself and wife and her
closet troubles me.
18th (Lord’s day). Up, and troubled at a distaste my wife took at a
small thing that Jane did, and to see that she should be so vexed that I
took part with Jane, wherein I had reason; but by and by well again, and
so my wife in her best gown and new poynt that I bought her the other
day, to church with me, where she has not been these many weeks, and
her mayde Jane with her. I was troubled to see Pembleton there, but I
thought it prudence to take notice myself first of it and show my wife
him, and so by little and little considering that it mattered not much
his being there I grew less concerned and so mattered it not much, and
the less when, anon, my wife showed me his wife, a pretty little woman,
and well dressed, with a good jewel at her breast. The parson, Mr.
Mills, I perceive, did not know whether to pray for the Queen or no,
and so said nothing about her; which makes me fear she is dead. But
enquiring of Sir J. Minnes, he told me that he heard she was better last
night. So home to dinner, and Tom came and dined with me, and so, anon,
to church again, and there a simple coxcomb preached worse than the
Scot, and no Pembleton nor his wife there, which pleased me not a
little, and then home and spent most of the evening at Sir W. Pen’s in
complaisance, seeing him though he deserves no respect from me. This
evening came my uncle Wight to speak with me about my uncle Thomas’s
business, and Mr. Moore came, 4 or 5 days out of the country and not
come to see me before, though I desired by two or three messengers that
he would come to me as soon as he came to town. Which do trouble me to
think he should so soon forget my kindness to him, which I am afraid he
do. After walking a good while in the garden with these, I went up again
to Sir W. Pen, and took my wife home, and after supper to prayers, and
read very seriously my vowes, which I am fearful of forgetting by my
late great expenses, but I hope in God I do not, and so to bed.
19th. Waked with a very high wind, and said to my wife, “I pray God
I hear not of the death of any great person, this wind is so high!”
fearing that the Queen might be dead. So up; and going by coach with
Sir W. Batten and Sir J. Minnes to St. James’s, they tell me that Sir
W. Compton, who it is true had been a little sickly for a week or
fortnight, but was very well upon Friday at night last at the Tangier
Committee with us, was dead--died yesterday: at which I was most
exceedingly surprised, he being, and so all the world saying that he
was, one of the worthyest men and best officers of State now in England;
and so in my conscience he was: of the best temper, valour, abilities
of mind, integrity, birth, fine person, and diligence of any one man he
hath left behind him in the three kingdoms; and yet not forty years old,
or if so, that is all.
[Sir William Compton (1625-1663) was knighted at Oxford, December
12th, 1643. He was called by Cromwell “the sober young man and the
godly cavalier.” After the Restoration he was M.P. for Cambridge
(1661), and appointed Master of the Ordnance. He died in Drury
Lane, suddenly, as stated in the text, and was buried at Compton
Wynyates, Warwickshire.]
I find the sober men of the Court troubled for him; and yet not so as to
hinder or lessen their mirth, talking, laughing, and eating, drinking,
and doing every thing else, just as if there was no such thing, which is
as good an instance for me hereafter to judge of death, both as to the
unavoidableness, suddenness, and little effect of it upon the spirits of
others, let a man be never so high, or rich, or good; but that all die
alike, no more matter being made of the death of one than another,
and that even to die well, the praise of it is not considerable in the
world, compared to the many in the world that know not nor make anything
of it, nor perhaps to them (unless to one that like this poor gentleman,
who is one of a thousand, there nobody speaking ill of him) that will
speak ill of a man. Coming to St. James’s, I hear that the Queen did
sleep five hours pretty well to-night, and that she waked and gargled
her mouth, and to sleep again; but that her pulse beats fast, beating
twenty to the King’s or my Lady Suffolk’s eleven; but not so strong as
it was. It seems she was so ill as to be shaved and pidgeons put to her
feet, and to have the extreme unction given her by the priests, who were
so long about it that the doctors were angry. The King, they all say;
is most fondly disconsolate for her, and weeps by her, which makes her
weep;
[“The queen was given over by her physicians,..., and the
good nature of the king was much affected with the situation in
which he saw! a princess whom, though he did not love her, yet he
greatly esteemed. She loved him tenderly, and thinking that it was
the last time she should ever speak to him, she told him ‘That the
concern he showed for her death was enough to make her quit life
with regret; but that not possessing charms sufficient to merit his
tenderness, she had at least the consolation in dying to give place
to a consort who might be more worthy, of it and to whom heaven,
perhaps, might grant a blessing that had been refused to her.’ At
these words she bathed his hands with some tears which he thought
would be her last; he mingled his own with hers, and without
supposing she would take him at his word, he conjured her to live
for his sake.”--Grammont Memoirs, chap. vii.]
which one this day told me he reckons a good sign, for that it carries
away some rheume from the head. This morning Captain Allen tells me how
the famous Ned Mullins, by a slight fall, broke his leg at the ancle,
which festered; and he had his leg cut off on Saturday, but so ill done,
notwithstanding all the great chyrurgeons about the town at the doing
of it, that they fear he will not live with it, which is very strange,
besides the torment he was put to with it. After being a little with
the Duke, and being invited to dinner to my Lord Barkeley’s, and so, not
knowing how to spend our time till noon, Sir W. Batten and I took coach,
and to the Coffee-house in Cornhill;
[This may be the Coffee House in Exchange Alley, which had for a
sign, Morat the Great, or The Great Turk, where coffee was sold in
berry, in powder, and pounded in a mortar. There is a token of the
house, see “Boyne’s Tokens,” ed. Williamson, vol. i., p. 592.]
where much talk about the Turk’s proceedings, and that the plague is got
to Amsterdam, brought by a ship from Argier; and it is also carried to
Hambrough. The Duke says the King purposes to forbid any of their
ships coming into the river. The Duke also told us of several Christian
commanders (French) gone over to the Turks to serve them; and upon
inquiry I find that the King of France do by this aspire to the Empire,
and so to get the Crown of Spayne also upon the death of the King, which
is very probable, it seems. Back to St. James’s, and there dined with
my Lord Barkeley and his lady, where Sir G. Carteret, Sir W. Batten,
and myself, with two gentlemen more; my Lady, and one of the ladies of
honour to the Duchesse (no handsome woman, but a most excellent hand).
A fine French dinner, and so we after dinner broke up and to Creed’s new
lodgings in Axe-yard, which I like very well and so with him to White
Hall and walked up and down in the galleries with good discourse, and
anon Mr. Coventry and Povy, sad for the loss of one of our number we sat
down as a Committee for Tangier and did some business and so broke up,
and I down with Mr. Coventry and in his chamber discoursing of business
of the office and Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten’s carriage, when he
most ingeniously tells me how they have carried themselves to him in
forbearing to speak the other day to the Duke what they know they have
so largely at other times said to him, and I told him what I am put to
about the bargain for masts. I perceive he thinks of it all and will
remember it. Thence took up my wife at Mrs. Harper’s where she and Jane
were, and so called at the New Exchange for some things for her, and
then at Tom’s went up and saw his house now it is finished, and indeed
it is very handsome, but he not within and so home and to my office; and
then to supper and to bed.
20th. Up and to the office, where we sat; and at noon Sir G. Carteret,
Sir J. Minnes, and I to dinner to my Lord Mayor’s, being invited, where
was the Farmers of the Customes, my Lord Chancellor’s three sons, and
other great and much company, and a very great noble dinner, as this
Mayor--[Sir John Robinson.]--is good for nothing else. No extraordinary
discourse of any thing, every man being intent upon his dinner, and
myself willing to have drunk some wine to have warmed my belly, but I
did for my oath’s sake willingly refrain it, but am so well pleased
and satisfied afterwards thereby, for it do keep me always in so good a
frame of mind that I hope I shall not ever leave this practice. Thence
home, and took my wife by coach to White Hall, and she set down at
my Lord’s lodgings, I to a Committee of Tangier, and thence with her
homeward, calling at several places by the way. Among others at Paul’s
Churchyard, and while I was in Kirton’s shop, a fellow came to offer
kindness or force to my wife in the coach, but she refusing, he went
away, after the coachman had struck him, and he the coachman. So I being
called, went thither, and the fellow coming out again of a shop, I did
give him a good cuff or two on the chops, and seeing him not oppose me,
I did give him another; at last found him drunk, of which I was glad,
and so left him, and home, and so to my office awhile, and so home
to supper and to bed. This evening, at my Lord’s lodgings, Mrs. Sarah
talking with my wife and I how the Queen do, and how the King tends
her being so ill. She tells us that the Queen’s sickness is the spotted
fever; that she was as full of the spots as a leopard which is very
strange that it should be no more known; but perhaps it is not so. And
that the King do seem to take it much to heart, for that he hath wept
before her; but, for all that; that he hath not missed one night since
she was sick, of supping with my Lady Castlemaine; which I believe is
true, for she [Sarah] says that her husband hath dressed the suppers
every night; and I confess I saw him myself coming through the street
dressing of a great supper to-night, which Sarah says is also for the
King and her; which is a very strange thing.
21st. Up, and by and by comes my brother Tom to me, though late (which
do vex me to the blood that I could never get him to come time enough
to me, though I have spoke a hundred times; but he is very sluggish, and
too negligent ever to do well at his trade I doubt), and having lately
considered with my wife very much of the inconvenience of my going in
no better plight, we did resolve of putting me into a better garb, and,
among other things, to have a good velvet cloake; that is, of cloth
lined with velvet and other things modish, and a perruque, and so I
sent him and her out to buy me velvet, and I to the Exchange, and so to
Trinity House, and there dined with Sir W. Batten, having some business
to speak with him, and Sir W. Rider. Thence, having my belly full, away
on foot to my brother’s, all along Thames Streete, and my belly being
full of small beer, I did all alone, for health’s sake, drink half
a pint of Rhenish wine at the Still-yard, mixed with beer. From my
brother’s with my wife to the Exchange, to buy things for her and
myself, I being in a humour of laying out money, but not prodigally, but
only in clothes, which I every day see that I suffer for want of, I
so home, and after a little at my office, home to supper and to bed.
Memorandum: This morning one Mr. Commander, a scrivener, came to me from
Mr. Moore with a deed of which. Mr. Moore had told me, that my Lord
had made use of my name, and that I was desired by my Lord to sign
it. Remembering this very well, though understanding little of the
particulars, I read it over, and found it concern Sir Robt. Bernard and
Duckinford, their interest in the manor of Brampton. So I did sign it,
declaring to Mr. Commander that I am only concerned in having my name
at my Lord Sandwich’s desire used therein, and so I sealed it up after I
had signed and sealed the deed, and desired him to give it so sealed to
Mr. Moore. I did also call at the Wardrobe this afternoon to have told
Mr. Moore of it, but he was not within, but knowing Mr. Commander to
have the esteem of a good and honest man with my Lord Crew, I did not
doubt to intrust him with the deed after I had signed it. This evening
after I came home I begun to enter my wife in arithmetique, in order
to her studying of the globes, and she takes it very well, and, I hope,
with great pleasure, I shall bring her to understand many fine things.
22nd. Up to the office, where we sat till noon and then I home to
dinner, and after dinner with my wife to her study and there read some
more arithmetique, which she takes with great ease and pleasure. This
morning, hearing that the Queen grows worse again, I sent to stop the
making of my velvet cloake, till I see whether she lives or dies. So a
little abroad about several businesses, and then home and to my office
till night, and then home to supper, teach my wife, and so to bed.
23rd. Up, and this morning comes Mr. Clerke, and tells me that the
Injunction against Trice is dismissed again, which troubles me much. So
I am to look after it in the afternoon. There comes also by appointment
my uncle Thomas, to receive the first payment of his daughter’s money.
But showing of me the original of the deed by which his daughter gives
her right to her legacy to him, and the copy of it attested by the
Scrivener, for me to keep by me, I did find some difference, and
thereupon did look more into it, and at last did find the whole thing
a forgery; yet he maintained it again and again, upon oath, that it had
been signed and sealed by my cozen Mary ever since before her marriage.
So I told him to his teeth he did like a knave, and so he did, and went
with him to the Scrivener at Bedlam, and there found how it came
to pass, viz., that he had lost, or pretends to have lost, the true
original, and that so he was forced to take this course; but a knave,
at least a man that values not what he swears to, I perceive he is. But
however I am now better able to see myself fully secured before I part
with the money, for I find that his son Charles has right to this legacy
till the first L100 of his daughter’s portion be paid, he being bond for
it. So I put him upon getting both his sons to be bound for my security,
and so left him and so home, and then abroad to my brother’s, but found
him abroad at the young couple that was married yesterday, and he one of
the Br[ide’s] men, a kinswoman (Brumfield) of the Joyces married to an
upholster. Thence walked to the King’s Head at Charing Cross and there
dined, and hear that the Queen slept pretty well last night, but her
fever continues upon her still. It seems she hath never a Portuguese
doctor here. Thence by appointment to the Six Clerks’ office to meet Mr.
Clerke, which I did and there waited all the afternoon for Wilkinson
my attorney, but he came not, and so vexed and weary we parted, and I
endeavoured but in vain to have found Dr. Williams, of whom I shall have
use in Trice’s business, but I could not find him. So weary walked home;
in my way bought a large kitchen knife and half dozen oyster knives.
Thence to Mr. Holliard, who tells me that Mullins is dead of his leg cut
off the other day, but most basely done. He tells me that there is no
doubt but that all my slyme do come away in my water, and therefore no
fear of the stone; but that my water being so slymy is a good sign. He
would have me now and then to take a clyster, the same I did the other
day, though I feel no pain, only to keep me loose, and instead of
butter, which he would have to be salt butter, he would have me
sometimes use two or three ounces of honey, at other times two or three
ounces of Linseed oil. Thence to Mr. Rawlinson’s and saw some of my new
bottles made, with my crest upon them, filled with wine, about five or
six dozen. So home and to my office a little, and thence home to prepare
myself against T. Trice, and also to draw a bond fit for my uncle and
his sons to enter into before I pay them the money. That done to bed.
24th. Up and to my office, where busy all the morning about Mr. Gauden’s
account, and at noon to dinner with him at the Dolphin, where mighty
merry by pleasant stories of Mr. Coventry’s and Sir J. Minnes’s, which
I have put down some of in my book of tales. Just as I was going out my
uncle Thomas came to the with a draught of a bond for him and his sons
to sign to me about the payment of the L20 legacy, which I agreed to,
but he would fain have had from me the copy of the deed, which he had
forged and did bring me yesterday, but I would not give him it. Says
[he] I perceive then you will keep it to defame me with, and desired
me not to speak of it, for he did it innocently. Now I confess I do not
find any great hurt in the thing, but only to keep from me a sight of
the true original deed, wherein perhaps there was something else that
may touch this business of the legacy which he would keep from me, or
it may be, it is really lost as he says it is. But then he need not have
used such a slight, but confess it without danger. Thence by coach with
Mr. Coventry to the Temple, and thence I to the Six Clerks’ office, and
discoursed with my Attorney and Solicitor, and he and I to Mr. Turner,
who puts me in great fear that I shall not get retayned again against
Tom Trice; which troubles me. Thence, it being night, homewards, and
called at Wotton’s and tried some shoes, but he had none to fit me. He
tells me that by the Duke of York’s persuasion Harris is come again to
Sir W. Davenant upon his terms that he demanded, which will make him
very high and proud. Thence to another shop, and there bought me a pair
of shoes, and so walked home and to my office, and dispatch letters by
the post, and so home to supper and to bed, where to my trouble I find
my wife begin to talk of her being alone all day, which is nothing
but her lack of something to do, for while she was busy she never, or
seldom, complained..... The Queen is in a good way of recovery; and Sir
Francis Pridgeon hath got great honour by it, it being all imputed to
his cordiall, which in her dispaire did give her rest and brought her to
some hopes of recovery. It seems that, after the much talk of troubles
and a plot, something is found in the North that a party was to rise,
and some persons that were to command it are found, as I find in a
letter that Mr. Coventry read to-day about it from those parts.
[This refers to a rising in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which took
place on October 12th, and was known as the Farneley Wood Plot. The
rising was easily put down, and several prisoners were taken. A
special commission of oyer and terminer was sent down to York to try
the prisoners in January, 1663-64, when twenty-one were convicted
and executed. (See Whitaker’s “Loidis and Elmete,” 1816.)]
25th (Lord’s day). Up, and my wife and I to church, where it is strange
to see how the use and seeing Pembleton come with his wife thither to
church, I begin now to make too great matter of it, which before was so
terrible to me. Dined at home, my wife and I alone, a good dinner, and
so in the afternoon to church again, where the Scot preached, and I
slept most of the afternoon. So home, and my wife and I together all the
evening discoursing, and then after reading my vowes to myself, and my
wife with her mayds (who are mighty busy to get it dispatched because of
their mistress’s promise, that when it is done they shall have leave all
to go see their friends at Westminster, whither my wife will carry them)
preparing for their washing to-morrow, we hastened to supper and to bed.
26th. Waked about one o’clock in the morning.... My wife being waked
rung her bell, and the mayds rose and went to washing, we to sleep again
till 7 o’clock, and then up, and I abroad to look out Dr. Williams,
but being gone out I went to Westminster, and there seeing my Lord
Sandwich’s footman knew he was come to town, and so I went in and saw
him, and received a kind salute from him, but hear that my father is
very ill still. Thence to Westminster Hall with Creed, and spent
the morning walking there, where, it being Terme time, I met several
persons, and talked with them, among others Dr. Pierce, who tells
me that the Queen is in a way to be pretty well again, but that her
delirium in her head continues still; that she talks idle, not by fits,
but always, which in some lasts a week after so high a fever, in some
more, and in some for ever; that this morning she talked mightily
that she was brought to bed, and that she wondered that she should be
delivered without pain and without spueing or being sicke, and that she
was troubled that her boy was but an ugly boy. But the King being by,
said, “No, it is a very pretty boy.”--“Nay,” says she, “if it be like
you it is a fine boy indeed, and I would be very well pleased with it.”
The other day she talked mightily of Sir H. Wood’s lady’s great belly,
and said if she should miscarry he would never get another, and that she
never saw such a man as this Sir H. Wood in her life, and seeing of Dr.
Pridgeon, she said, “Nay, Doctor, you need not scratch your head, there
is hair little enough already in the place.” But methinks it was not
handsome for the weaknesses of Princes to be talked of thus. Thence
Creed and I to the King’s Head ordinary, where much and very good
company, among others one very talking man, but a scholler, that would
needs put in his discourse and philosophy upon every occasion, and
though he did well enough, yet his readiness to speak spoilt all. Here
they say that the Turkes go on apace, and that my Lord Castlehaven is
going to raise 10,000 men here for to go against him; that the King of
France do offer to assist the Empire upon condition that he may be their
Generalissimo, and the Dolphin chosen King of the Romans: and it is said
that the King of France do occasion this difference among the Christian
Princes of the Empire, which gives the Turke such advantages. They say
also that the King of Spayne is making all imaginable force against
Portugall again. Thence Creed and I to one or two periwigg shops about
the Temple, having been very much displeased with one that we saw, a
head of greasy and old woman’s haire, at Jervas’s in the morning; and
there I think I shall fit myself of one very handsomely made. Thence by
coach, my mind being troubled for not meeting with Dr. Williams, to St.
Catharine’s to look at a Dutch ship or two for some good handsome maps,
but met none, and so back to Cornhill to Moxon’s, but it being dark we
staid not to see any, then to coach again, and presently spying Sir W.
Batten; I ‘light and took him in and to the Globe in Fleete Streete,
by appointment, where by and by he and I with our solicitor to Sir F.
Turner about Field’s business, and back to the Globe, and thither I sent
for Dr. Williams, and he is willing to swear in my behalf against T.
Trice, viz., that at T. Trice’s desire we have met to treat about our
business. Thence (I drinking no wine) after an hour’s stay Sir W. Batten
and another, and he drinking, we home by coach, and so to my office and
set down my Journall, and then home to supper and to bed, my washing
being in a good condition over. I did give Dr. Williams 20s. tonight,
but it was after he had answered me well to what I had to ask him about
this business, and it was only what I had long ago in my petty bag book
allotted for him besides the bill of near L4 which I paid him a good
while since by my brother Tom for physique for my wife, without any
consideration to this business that he is to do for me, as God shall
save me. Among the rest, talking of the Emperor at table to-day one
young gentleman, a pretty man, and it seems a Parliament man, did say
that he was a sot;
[Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor, was born June 9th, 1640. He
became King of Hungary in 1655, and King of Bohemia in 1658, in
which year he received the imperial crown. The Princes of the
German Empire watched for some time the progress of his struggle
with the Turks with indifference, but in 1663 they were induced to
grant aid to Leopold after he had made a personal appeal to them in
the diet at Ratisbon.]
for he minded nothing of the Government, but was led by the Jesuites.
Several at table took him up, some for saying that he was a sot in being
led by the Jesuites, [who] are the best counsel he can take. Another
commander, a Scott[ish] Collonell, who I believe had several under him,
that he was a man that had thus long kept out the Turke till now,
and did many other great things, and lastly Mr. Progers, one of our
courtiers, who told him that it was not a thing to be said of any
Soveraigne Prince, be his weaknesses what they will, to be called a sot,
which methinks was very prettily said.
27th. Up, and my uncle Thomas and his scrivener bringing me a bond and
affidavit to my mind, I paid him his L20 for his daughter’s legacy,
and L5 more for a Quarter’s annuity, in the manner expressed in each
acquittance, to which I must be referred on any future occasion, and to
the bond and affidavit. Thence to the office and there sat till noon,
and then home to dinner, and after dinner (it being a foul house to-day
among my maids, making up their clothes) abroad with my Will with me
by coach to Dr, Williams, and with him to the Six Clerks’s office, and
there, by advice of his acquaintance, I find that my case, through my
neglect and the neglect of my lawyers, is come to be very bad, so as
that it will be very hard to get my bill retayned again. However, I got
him to sign and swear an affidavit that there was treaties between T.
Trice and me with as much advantage as I could for me, but I will say
that for him he was most exact as ever I saw man in my life, word by
word what it was that he swore to, and though, God forgive me, I could
have been almost naturally willing to have let him ignorantly have sworn
to something that was not of itself very certain, either or no, yet out
of his own conscience and care he altered the words himself so as
to make them very safe for him to swear. This I carrying to my clerk
Wilkinson, and telling him how I heard matters to stand, he, like a
conceited fellow, made nothing of it but advised me to offer Trice’s
clerks the cost of the dismission, viz., 46s. 8d., which I did, but they
would not take it without his client. Immediately thereupon we parted,
and met T. Trice coming into the room, and he came to me and served me
with a subpoena for these very costs, so I paid it him, but Lord! to see
his resolution, and indeed discretion, in the wording of his receipt,
he would have it most express to my greatest disadvantage that could be,
yet so as I could not deny to give it him. That being paid, my clerke,
and then his began to ask why we could not think, being friends, of
referring it, or stating it, first ourselves, and then put it to some
good lawyer to judge in it. From one word to more we were resolved to
try, and to that end to step to the Pope’s Head Taverne, and there
he and his Clerke and Attorney and I and my Clerke, and sent for Mr.
Smallwood, and by and by comes Mr. Clerke, my Solicitor, and after I had
privately discoursed with my men and seen how doubtfully they talked,
and what future certain charge and trouble it would be, with a doubtful
victory, I resolved to condescend very low, and after some talke all
together Trice and I retired, and he came to L150 the lowest, and I bid
him L80. So broke off and then went to our company, and they putting us
to a second private discourse, at last I was contented to give him L100,
he to spend 40s. of it among this good company that was with us. So we
went to our company, both seeming well pleased that we were come to an
end, and indeed I am in the respects above said, though it be a great
sum for us to part with. I am to pay him by giving him leave to buy
about L40 worth of Piggott’s land and to strike off so much of Piggott’s
debt, and the other to give him bond to pay him in 12 months after
without interest, only giving him a power to buy more land of Piggott
and paying him that way as he did for the other, which I am well enough
contented with, or at least to take the land at that price and give him
the money. This last I did not tell him, but I shall order it so. Having
agreed upon to-morrow come se’nnight for the spending of the 40s. at Mr.
Rawlinson’s, we parted, and I set T. Trice down in Paul’s Churchyard
and I by coach home and to my office, and there set down this day’s
passages, and so home to supper and to bed. Mr. Coventry tells me to-day
that the Queen had a very good night last night; but yet it is strange
that still she raves and talks of little more than of her having of
children, and fancys now that she hath three children, and that the
girle is very like the King. And this morning about five o’clock waked
(the physician feeling her pulse, thinking to be better able to judge,
she being still and asleep, waked her) and the first word she said was,
“How do the children?”
28th. Up and at my office all the morning, and at noon Mr. Creed came to
me and dined with me, and after dinner Murford came to me and he and I
discoursed wholly upon his breach of contract with us. After that Mr.
Creed and I abroad, I doing several errands, and with him at last to the
great coffee-house, and there after some common discourse we parted and
I home, paying what I owed at the Mitre in my way, and at home Sympson
the joyner coming he set up my press for my cloaks and other small
things, and so to my office a little, and to supper, and to bed. This
morning Mr. Blackburne came to me, and telling me what complaints Will
made of the usage he had from my wife and other discouragements, and,
I seeing him, instead of advising, rather favouring his kinsman, I told
him freely my mind, but friendlily, and so we have concluded to have him
have a lodging elsewhere, and that I will spare him L15 of his salary,
and if I do not need to keep another L20.
29th. Up, it being my Lord Mayor’s day, Sir Anthony Bateman. This
morning was brought home my new velvet cloake, that is, lined with
velvet, a good cloth the outside, the first that ever I had in my life,
and I pray God it may not be too soon now that I begin to wear it. I had
it this day brought, thinking to have worn it to dinner, but I thought
it would be better to go without it because of the crowde, and so I did
not wear it. We met a little at the office, and then home again and got
me ready to go forth, my wife being gone forth by my consent before to
see her father and mother, and taken her cooke mayde and little girle
to Westminster with her for them to see their friends. This morning in
dressing myself and wanting a band,
[The band succeeded the ruff as the ordinary civil costume. The
lawyers, who now retain bands, and the clergy, who have only lately
left them off, formerly wore ruffs.]
I found all my bands that were newly made clean so ill smoothed that
I crumpled them, and flung them all on the ground, and was angry with
Jane, which made the poor girle mighty sad, so that I were troubled for
it afterwards. At noon I went forth, and by coach to Guild Hall (by the
way calling at Mr. Rawlinson’s), and there was admitted, and meeting
with Mr. Proby (Sir R. Ford’s son), and Lieutenant-Colonel Baron, a City
commander, we went up and down to see the tables; where under every salt
there was a bill of fare, and at the end of the table the persons
proper for the table. Many were the tables, but none in the Hall but the
Mayor’s and the Lords of the Privy Council that had napkins
[As the practice of eating with forks gradually was introduced from
Italy into England, napkins were not so generally used, but
considered more as an ornament than a necessary.
“The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To the sparing of napkins.”
Ben Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, act v., sc. 3.
The guests probably brought their own knife and fork with them in a
case.--M.B.]
or knives, which was very strange. We went into the Buttry, and there
stayed and talked, and then into the Hall again: and there wine was
offered and they drunk, I only drinking some hypocras, which do not
break my vowe, it being, to the best of my present judgement, only a
mixed compound drink, and not any wine.
[A drink, composed usually of red wine, but sometimes of white, with
the addition of sugar and spices. Sir Walter Scott (“Quarterly
Review,” vol. xxxiii.) says, after quoting this passage of Pepys,
“Assuredly his pieces of bacchanalian casuistry can only be matched
by that of Fielding’s chaplain of Newgate, who preferred punch to
wine, because the former was a liquor nowhere spoken against in
Scripture.”]
If I am mistaken, God forgive me! but I hope and do think I am not. By
and by met with Creed; and we, with the others, went within the several
Courts, and there saw the tables prepared for the Ladies and Judges and
Bishopps: all great sign of a great dinner to come. By and by about one
o’clock, before the Lord Mayor came, come into the Hall, from the room
where they were first led into, the Lord Chancellor (Archbishopp before
him), with the Lords of the Council, and other Bishopps, and they to
dinner. Anon comes the Lord Mayor, who went up to the lords, and then
to the other tables to bid wellcome; and so all to dinner. I sat near
Proby, Baron, and Creed at the Merchant Strangers’ table; where ten good
dishes to a messe, with plenty of wine of all sorts, of which I drunk
none; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins nor change of
trenchers, and drunk out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes.--[The
City plate was probably melted during the Civil War.-M.B.]--It happened
that after the lords had half dined, came the French Embassador, up to
the lords’ table, where he was to have sat; but finding the table set,
he would not sit down nor dine with the Lord Mayor, who was not
yet come, nor have a table to himself, which was offered; but in a
discontent went away again. After I had dined, I and Creed rose and
went up and down the house, and up to the lady’s room, and there stayed
gazing upon them. But though there were many and fine, both young and
old, yet I could not discern one handsome face there; which was very
strange, nor did I find the lady that young Dawes married so pretty as I
took her for, I having here an opportunity of looking much upon her
very near. I expected musique, but there was none but only trumpets and
drums, which displeased me. The dinner, it seems, is made by the Mayor
and two Sheriffs for the time being, the Lord Mayor paying one half, and
they the other. And the whole, Proby says, is reckoned to come to about
7 or L800 at most. Being wearied with looking upon a company of ugly
women, Creed and I went away, and took coach and through Cheapside, and
there saw the pageants, which were very silly, and thence to the Temple,
where meeting Greatorex, he and we to Hercules Pillars, there to show me
the manner of his going about of draining of fenns, which I desired much
to know, but it did not appear very satisfactory to me, as he discoursed
it, and I doubt he will faile in it. Thence I by coach home, and there
found my wife come home, and by and by came my brother Tom, with whom
I was very angry for not sending me a bill with my things, so as that I
think never to have more work done by him if ever he serves me so again,
and so I told him. The consideration of laying out L32 12s. this very
month in his very work troubles me also, and one thing more, that is to
say, that Will having been at home all the day, I doubt is the occasion
that Jane has spoken to her mistress tonight that she sees she cannot
please us and will look out to provide herself elsewhere, which do
trouble both of us, and we wonder also at her, but yet when the rogue is
gone I do not fear but the wench will do well. To the office a little,
to set down my Journall, and so home late to supper and to bed. The
Queen mends apace, they say; but yet talks idle still.
30th. Lay long in bed with my wife, and then up and a while at my
office, and so to the Change, and so [home] again, and there I found my
wife in a great passion with her mayds. I upstairs to set some things in
order in our chamber and wardrobe, and so to dinner upon a good dish of
stewed beef, then up again about my business. Then by coach with my wife
to the New Exchange, and there bought and paid for several things, and
then back, calling at my periwigg-makers, and there showed my wife
the periwigg made for me, and she likes it very well, and so to my
brother’s, and to buy a pair of boddice for her, and so home, and to
my office late, and then home to my wife, purposing to go on to a new
lesson in arithmetique with her. So to supper and to bed. The Queen
mends apace, but her head still light. My mind very heavy thinking of my
great layings out lately, and what they must still be for clothes, but
I hope it is in order to getting of something the more by it, for I
perceive how I have hitherto suffered for lack of going as becomes my
place. After a little discourse with my wife upon arithmetique, to bed.
31st. Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and at noon
home to dinner, where Creed came and dined with me, and after dinner he
and I upstairs, and I showed him my velvet cloake and other things of
clothes, that I have lately bought, which he likes very well, and I took
his opinion as to some things of clothes, which I purpose to wear, being
resolved to go a little handsomer than I have hitherto. Thence to the
office; where busy till night, and then to prepare my monthly account,
about which I staid till 10 or 11 o’clock at night, and to my great
sorrow find myself L43 worse than I was the last month, which was
then L760, and now it is but L717. But it hath chiefly arisen from my
layings-out in clothes for myself and wife; viz., for her about L12, and
for myself L55, or thereabouts; having made myself a velvet cloake, two
new cloth suits, black, plain both; a new shagg
[Shag was a stuff similar to plush. In 1703 a youth who was missing
is described in an advertisement as wearing “red shag breeches,
striped with black stripes.” (Planche’s “Cyclopxdia of Costume “).]
gowne, trimmed with gold buttons and twist, with a new hat, and, silk
tops for my legs, and many other things, being resolved henceforward to
go like myself. And also two perriwiggs, one whereof costs me L3, and
the other 40s.--I have worn neither yet, but will begin next week, God
willing. So that I hope I shall not need now to lay out more money a
great while, I having laid out in clothes for myself and wife, and for
her closett and other things without, these two months, this and the
last, besides household expenses of victuals, &c., above L110. But
I hope I shall with more comfort labour to get more, and with better
successe than when, for want of clothes, I was forced to sneake like a
beggar. Having done this I went home, and after supper to bed, my mind
being eased in knowing my condition, though troubled to think that I
have been forced to spend so much.
Thus I end this month worth L717, or thereabouts, with a good deal of
good goods more than I had, and a great deal of new and good clothes.
My greatest trouble and my wife’s is our family, mighty out of order by
this fellow Will’s corrupting the mayds by his idle talke and carriage,
which we are going to remove by hastening him out of the house, which
his uncle Blackburne is upon doing, and I am to give him L20 per annum
toward his maintenance. The Queene continues lightheaded, but in hopes
to recover. The plague is much in Amsterdam, and we in fears of it here,
which God defend.
[Defend is used in the sense of forbid. It is a Gallicism from the
French “defendre.”]
The Turke goes on mightily in the Emperor’s dominions, and the Princes
cannot agree among themselves how to go against him. Myself in pretty
good health now, after being ill this month for a week together, but
cannot yet come to.... well, being so costive, but for this month almost
I have not had a good natural stool, but to this hour am forced to take
physic every night, which brings me neither but one stool, and that in
the morning as soon as I am up, all the rest of the day very costive. My
father has been very ill in the country, but I hope better again now. I
am lately come to a conclusion with Tom Trice to pay him L100, which is
a great deale of money, but I hope it will save a great deale more. But
thus everything lessens, which I have and am like to have, and therefore
I must look about me to get something more than just my salary, or else
I may resolve to live well and die a beggar.