MARCH 1667-1668

March 1st (Lord’s day). Up very betimes, and by coach to Sir W.

Coventry’s; and there, largely carrying with me all my notes and papers,

did run over our whole defence in the business of tickets, in order to

the answering the House on Thursday next; and I do think, unless they be

set without reason to ruin us, we shall make a good defence. I find him

in great anxiety, though he will not discover it, in the business of the

proceedings of Parliament; and would as little as is possible have his

name mentioned in our discourse to them; and particularly the business

of selling places is now upon his hand to defend himself in; wherein I

did help him in his defence about the flag-maker’s place, which is named

in the House. We did here do the like about the complaint of want of

victuals in the fleete in the year 1666, which will lie upon me to

defend also. So that my head is full of care and weariness in my

employment. Thence home, and there my mind being a little lightened by

my morning’s work in the arguments I have now laid together in better

method for our defence to the Parliament, I to talk with my wife; and in

lieu of a coach this year, I have got my wife to be contented with her

closet being made up this summer, and going into the country this summer

for a month or two, to my father’s, and there Mercer and Deb. and Jane

shall go with her, which I the rather do for the entertaining my wife,

and preventing of fallings out between her and my father or Deb., which

uses to be the fate of her going into the country. After dinner by coach

to Westminster, and there to St. Margaret’s church, thinking to have

seen Betty Michell, but she was not there, but met her father and mother

and with them to her father’s house, where I never was before, but was

mighty much made of, with some good strong waters, which they have

from their son Michell, and mighty good people they are. Thence to

Mrs. Martin’s, where I have not been also a good while, and with great

difficulty, company being there, did get an opportunity to hazer what I

would con her, and here I was mightily taken with a starling which

she hath, that was the King’s, which he kept in his bedchamber; and

do whistle and talk the most and best that ever I heard anything in my

life. Thence to visit Sir H. Cholmly, who continues still sick of his

cold, and thence calling, but in vain, to speak with Sir G. Carteret at

his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where I spoke with nobody, but home,

where spent the evening talking with W. Hewer about business of the

House, and declaring my expectation of all our being turned out. Hither

comes Carcasse to me about business, and there did confess to me of his

own accord his having heretofore discovered as a complaint against Sir

W. Batten, Sir W. Pen and me that we did prefer the paying of some men

to man “The Flying Greyhound” to others, by order under our hands. The

thing upon recollection I believe is true, and do hope no great matter

can be made of it, but yet I would be glad to have my name out of it,

which I shall labour to do; in the mean time it weighs as a new trouble

on my mind, and did trouble me all night. So without supper to bed, my

eyes being also a little overwrought of late that I could not stay up to

read.

2nd. Up and betimes to the office, where I did much business, and

several come to me, and among others I did prepare Mr. Warren, and by

and by Sir D. Gawden, about what presents I have had from them, that

they may not publish them, or if they do, that in truth I received none

on the account of the Navy but Tangier, and this is true to the former,

and in both that I never asked any thing of them. I must do the like

with the rest. Mr. Moore was with me, and he do tell me, and so W.

Hewer tells me, he hears this morning that all the town is full of the

discourse that the Officers of the Navy shall be all turned out, but

honest Sir John Minnes, who, God knows, is fitter to have been turned

out himself than any of us, doing the King more hurt by his dotage and

folly than all the rest can do by their knavery, if they had a mind to

it. At noon home to dinner, where was Mercer, and very merry as I could

be with my mind so full of business, and so with my wife, her and the

girl, to the King’s house to see the “Virgin Martyr” again, which do

mightily please me, but above all the musique at the coming down of the

angel, which at this hearing the second time, do still commend me as

nothing ever did, and the other musique is nothing to it. Thence with

my wife to the ‘Change, and so, calling at the Cocke ale house, we home,

and there I settle to business, and with my people preparing my great

answer to the Parliament for the office about tickets till past 1 a

o’clock at night, and then home to supper and to bed, keeping Mr. Gibson

all night with me. This day I have the news that my sister was married

on Thursday last to Mr. Jackson; so that work is, I hope, well over.

3rd. Up betimes to work again, and then met at the Office, where to

our great business of this answer to the Parliament; where to my great

vexation I find my Lord Brouncker prepared only to excuse himself, while

I, that have least reason to trouble myself, am preparing with great

pains to defend them all: and more, I perceive, he would lodge the

beginning of discharging ships by ticket upon me; but I care not, for

I believe I shall get more honour by it when the Parliament, against my

will, shall see how the whole business of the Office was done by me. At

noon rose and to dinner. My wife abroad with Mercer and Deb. buying of

things, but I with my clerks home to dinner, and thence presently down

with Lord Brouncker, W. Pen, T. Harvy, T. Middleton, and Mr. Tippets,

who first took his place this day at the table, as a Commissioner, in

the room of Commissioner Pett. Down by water to Deptford, where the

King, Queene, and Court are to see launched the new ship built by Mr.

Shish, called “The Charles.” 2 God send her better luck than the former!

Here some of our brethren, who went in a boat a little before my boat,

did by appointment take opportunity of asking the King’s leave that

we might make full use of the want of money, in our excuse to the

Parliament for the business of tickets, and other things they will lay

to our charge, all which arose from nothing else: and this the King did

readily agree to, and did give us leave to make our full use of it.

The ship being well launched, I back again by boat, setting [Sir] T.

Middleton and Mr. Tippets on shore at Ratcliffe, I home and there to my

chamber with Mr. Gibson, and late up till midnight preparing more things

against our defence on Thursday next to my content, though vexed that

all this trouble should be on me. So to supper and to bed.

4th. Up betimes and with Sir W. Pen in his coach to White Hall, there to

wait upon the Duke of York and the Commissioners of the Treasury, [Sir]

W. Coventry and Sir John Duncombe, who do declare that they cannot find

the money we demand, and we that less than what we demand will not set

out the fleet intended, and so broke up, with no other conclusion than

that they would let us have what they could get and we would improve

that as well as we could. So God bless us, and prepare us against the

consequences of these matters. Thence, it being a cold wet day, I

home with Sir J. Minnes in his coach, and called by the way at my

bookseller’s and took home with me Kercher’s Musurgia--very well bound,

but I had no comfort to look upon them, but as soon as I come home fell

to my work at the office, shutting the doors, that we, I and my clerks,

might not be interrupted, and so, only with room for a little dinner,

we very busy all the day till night that the officers met for me to

give them the heads of what I intended to say, which I did with great

discontent to see them all rely on me that have no reason at all to

trouble myself about it, nor have any thanks from them for my labour,

but contrarily Brouncker looked mighty dogged, as thinking that I did

not intend to do it so as to save him. This troubled me so much as,

together with the shortness of the time and muchness of the business,

did let me be at it till but about ten at night, and then quite weary,

and dull, and vexed, I could go no further, but resolved to leave the

rest to to-morrow morning, and so in full discontent and weariness did

give over and went home, with[out] supper vexed and sickish to bed,

and there slept about three hours, but then waked, and never in so much

trouble in all my life of mind, thinking of the task I have upon me, and

upon what dissatisfactory grounds, and what the issue of it may be to

me.

5th. With these thoughts I lay troubling myself till six o’clock,

restless, and at last getting my wife to talk to me to comfort me, which

she at last did, and made me resolve to quit my hands of this Office,

and endure the trouble of it no longer than till I can clear myself of

it. So with great trouble, but yet with some ease, from this discourse

with my wife, I up, and to my Office, whither come my clerks, and so I

did huddle the best I could some more notes for my discourse to-day, and

by nine o’clock was ready, and did go down to the Old Swan, and there

by boat, with T. H[ater] and W. H[ewer] with me, to Westminster, where I

found myself come time enough, and my brethren all ready. But I full

of thoughts and trouble touching the issue of this day; and, to comfort

myself, did go to the Dog and drink half-a-pint of mulled sack, and in

the Hall [Westminster] did drink a dram of brandy at Mrs. Hewlett’s; and

with the warmth of this did find myself in better order as to courage,

truly. So we all up to the lobby; and between eleven and twelve o’clock,

were called in, with the mace before us, into the House, where a mighty

full House; and we stood at the bar, namely, Brouncker, Sir J. Minnes,

Sir T. Harvey, and myself, W. Pen being in the House, as a Member.

I perceive the whole House was full, and full of expectation of our

defence what it would be, and with great prejudice. After the Speaker

had told us the dissatisfaction of the House, and read the Report of

the Committee, I began our defence most acceptably and smoothly, and

continued at it without any hesitation or losse, but with full scope,

and all my reason free about me, as if it had been at my own table, from

that time till past three in the afternoon; and so ended, without

any interruption from the Speaker; but we withdrew. And there all

my Fellow-Officers, and all the world that was within hearing, did

congratulate me, and cry up my speech as the best thing they ever heard;

and my Fellow-Officers overjoyed in it; we were called in again by

and by to answer only one question, touching our paying tickets to

ticket-mongers; and so out; and we were in hopes to have had a vote

this day in our favour, and so the generality of the House was; but my

speech, being so long, many had gone out to dinner and come in again

half drunk; and then there are two or three that are professed enemies

to us and every body else; among others, Sir T. Littleton, Sir Thomas

Lee, Mr. Wiles, the coxcomb whom I saw heretofore at the cock-fighting,

and a few others; I say, these did rise up and speak against the coming

to a vote now, the House not being full, by reason of several being

at dinner, but most because that the House was to attend the King this

afternoon, about the business of religion, wherein they pray him to

put in force all the laws against Nonconformists and Papists; and this

prevented it, so that they put it off to to-morrow come se’nnight.

However, it is plain we have got great ground; and everybody says I have

got the most honour that any could have had opportunity of getting; and

so with our hearts mightily overjoyed at this success, we all to dinner

to Lord Brouncker’s--that is to say, myself, T. Harvey, and W. Pen, and

there dined; and thence with Sir Anthony Morgan, who is an acquaintance

of Brouncker’s, a very wise man, we after dinner to the King’s house,

and there saw part of “The Discontented Colonel,” but could take no

great pleasure in it, because of our coming in in the middle of it.

After the play, home with W. Pen, and there to my wife, whom W.

Hewer had told of my success, and she overjoyed, and I also as to my

particular; and, after talking awhile, I betimes to bed, having had no

quiet rest a good while.

6th. Up betimes, and with Sir D. Gawden to Sir W, Coventry’s chamber:

where the first word he said to me was, “Good-morrow, Mr. Pepys, that

must be Speaker of the Parliament-house:” and did protest I had got

honour for ever in Parliament. He said that his brother, that sat by

him, admires me; and another gentleman said that I could not get

less than L1000 a-year if I would put on a gown and plead at the

Chancery-bar; but, what pleases me most, he tells me that the

Sollicitor-Generall did protest that he thought I spoke the best of any

man in England. After several talks with him alone, touching his own

businesses, he carried me to White Hall, and there parted; and I to the

Duke of York’s lodgings, and find him going to the Park, it being a very

fine morning, and I after him; and, as soon as he saw me, he told me,

with great satisfaction, that I had converted a great many yesterday,

and did, with great praise of me, go on with the discourse with me. And,

by and by, overtaking the King, the King and Duke of York come to me

both; and he--[The King]--said, “Mr. Pepys, I am very glad of your

success yesterday;” and fell to talk of my well speaking; and many of

the Lords there. My Lord Barkeley did cry the up for what they had heard

of it; and others, Parliament-men there, about the King, did say that

they never heard such a speech in their lives delivered in that manner.

Progers, of the Bedchamber, swore to me afterwards before Brouncker, in

the afternoon, that he did tell the King that he thought I might teach

the Sollicitor-Generall. Every body that saw me almost come to me, as

Joseph Williamson and others, with such eulogys as cannot be expressed.

From thence I went to Westminster Hall, where I met Mr. G. Montagu,

who come to me and kissed me, and told me that he had often heretofore

kissed my hands, but now he would kiss my lips: protesting that I

was another Cicero, and said, all the world said the same of me. Mr.

Ashburnham, and every creature I met there of the Parliament, or that

knew anything of the Parliament’s actings, did salute me with this

honour:--Mr. Godolphin;--Mr. Sands, who swore he would go twenty mile,

at any time, to hear the like again, and that he never saw so many sit

four hours together to hear any man in his life, as there did to hear

me; Mr. Chichly,--Sir John Duncomb,--and everybody do say that the

kingdom will ring of my abilities, and that I have done myself right for

my whole life: and so Captain Cocke, and others of my friends, say that

no man had ever such an opportunity of making his abilities known; and,

that I may cite all at once, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower did tell me

that Mr. Vaughan did protest to him, and that, in his hearing it, said

so to the Duke of Albemarle, and afterwards to W. Coventry, that he had

sat twenty-six years in Parliament and never heard such a speech there

before: for which the Lord God make me thankful! and that I may make use

of it not to pride and vain-glory, but that, now I have this esteem, I

may do nothing that may lessen it! I spent the morning thus walking in

the Hall, being complimented by everybody with admiration: and at noon

stepped into the Legg with Sir William Warren, who was in the Hall, and

there talked about a little of his business, and thence into the Hall a

little more, and so with him by coach as far as the Temple almost, and

there ‘light, to follow my Lord Brouncker’s coach, which I spied, and so

to Madam Williams’s, where I overtook him, and agreed upon meeting this

afternoon, and so home to dinner, and after dinner with W. Pen, who

come to my house to call me, to White Hall, to wait on the Duke of York,

where he again and all the company magnified me, and several in the

Gallery: among others, my Lord Gerard, who never knew me before nor

spoke to me, desires his being better acquainted with me; and [said]

that, at table where he was, he never heard so much said of any man as

of me, in his whole life. We waited on the Duke of York, and thence into

the Gallery, where the House of Lords waited the King’s coming out of

the Park, which he did by and by; and there, in the Vane-room, my Lord

Keeper delivered a message to the King, the Lords being about him,

wherein the Barons of England, from many good arguments, very well

expressed in the part he read out of, do demand precedence in England of

all noblemen of either of the King’s other two kingdoms, be their title

what it will; and did shew that they were in England reputed but as

Commoners, and sat in the House of Commons, and at conferences with the

Lords did stand bare. It was mighty worth my hearing: but the King did

only say that he would consider of it, and so dismissed them. Thence

Brouncker and I to the Committee of Miscarriages sitting in the Court

of Wards, expecting with Sir D. Gawden to have been heard against Prince

Rupert’s complaints for want of victuals. But the business of Holmes’s

charge against Sir Jer. Smith, which is a most shameful scandalous thing

for Flag officers to accuse one another of, and that this should be

heard here before men that understand it not at all, and after it hath

been examined and judged in before the King and Lord High Admirall and

other able seamen to judge, it is very hard. But this business did keep

them all the afternoon, so we not heard but put off to another day.

Thence, with the Lieutenant of the Tower, in his coach home; and there,

with great pleasure, with my wife, talking and playing at cards a

little--she, and I, and W. Hewer, and Deb., and so, after a little

supper, I to bed.

7th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, at noon home to

dinner, where Mercer with us, and after dinner she, my wife, Deb., and

I, to the King’s playhouse, and there saw “The Spanish Gipsys,” the

second time of acting, and the first that I saw it. A very silly

play, only great variety of dances, and those most excellently done,

especially one part by one Hanes, only lately come thither from the

Nursery, an understanding fellow, but yet, they say, hath spent L1000

a-year before he come thither. This day my wife and I full of thoughts

about Mrs. Pierces sending me word that she, and my old company, Harris

and Knipp, would come and dine with us next Wednesday, how we should

do-to receive or put them off, my head being, at this time, so full of

business, and my wife in no mind to have them neither, and yet I desire

it. Come to no resolution tonight. Home from the playhouse to the

office, where I wrote what I had to write, and among others to my father

to congratulate my sister’s marriage, and so home to supper a little and

then to bed.

8th (Lord’s day). At my sending to desire it, Sir J. Robinson,

Lieutenant of the Tower, did call me with his coach, and carried me to

White Hall, where met with very many people still that did congratulate

my speech the other day in the House of Commons, and I find all the

world almost rings of it. Here spent the morning walking and talking

with one or other, and among the rest with Sir W. Coventry, who I find

full of care in his own business, how to defend himself against those

that have a mind to choke him; and though, I believe, not for honour

and for the keeping his employment, but for his safety and reputation’s

sake, is desirous to preserve himself free from blame, and among other

mean ways which himself did take notice to me to be but a mean thing

he desires me to get information against Captain Tatnell, thereby to

diminish his testimony, who, it seems, hath a mind to do W. Coventry

hurt: and I will do it with all my heart; for Tatnell is a very rogue.

He would be glad, too, that I could find anything proper for his taking

notice against Sir F. Hollis. At noon, after sermon, I to dinner with

Sir G. Carteret to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where I find mighty deal of

company--a solemn day for some of his and her friends, and dine in the

great dining-room above stairs, where Sir G. Carteret himself, and

I, and his son, at a little table by, the great table being full of

strangers. Here my Lady Jem. do promise to come, and bring my Lord

Hinchingbroke and his lady some day this week, to dinner to me, which I

am glad of. After dinner, I up with her husband, Sir Philip Carteret,

to his closet, where, beyond expectation, I do find many pretty things,

wherein he appears to be ingenious, such as in painting, and drawing,

and making of watches, and such kind of things, above my expectation;

though, when all is done, he is a shirke, who owns his owing me L10 for

his lady two or three years ago, and yet cannot provide to pay me. The

company by and by parted, and G. Carteret and I to White Hall, where I

set him down and took his coach as far as the Temple, it raining, and

there took a hackney and home, and so had my head combed, and then to

bed.

9th. Up betimes, and anon with Sir W. Warren, who come to speak with me,

by coach to White Hall, and there met Lord Brouncker: and he and I to

the Commissioners of the Treasury, where I find them mighty kind to

me, more, I think, than was wont. And here I also met Colvill, the

goldsmith; who tells me, with great joy, how the world upon the ‘Change

talks of me; and how several Parliamentmen, viz., Boscawen and Major

[Lionel] Walden, of Huntingdon, who, it seems, do deal with him, do say

how bravely I did speak, and that the House was ready to have given

me thanks for it; but that, I think, is a vanity. Thence I with Lord

Brouncker, and did take up his mistress, Williams, and so to the

‘Change, only to shew myself, and did a little business there, and so

home to dinner, and then to the office busy till the evening, and then

to the Excize Office, where I find Mr. Ball in a mighty trouble that he

is to be put out of his place at Midsummer, the whole Commission being

to cease, and the truth is I think they are very fair dealing men, all

of them. Here I did do a little business, and then to rights home, and

there dispatched many papers, and so home late to supper and to bed,

being eased of a great many thoughts, and yet have a great many more to

remove as fast as I can, my mind being burdened with them, having been

so much employed upon the public business of the office in their defence

before the Parliament of late, and the further cases that do attend it.

10th. Up, and to the office betimes, where all the morning. At noon home

to dinner with my clerks, and after dinner comes Kate Joyce, who tells

me she is putting off her house, which I am glad of, but it was pleasant

that she come on purpose to me about getting a ticket paid, and in

her way hither lost her ticket, so that she is at a great loss what to

do.--There comes in then Mrs. Mercer, the mother, the first time she has

been here since her daughter lived with us, to see my wife, and after a

little talk I left them and to the office, and thence with Sir D. Gawden

to Westminster Hall, thinking to have attended the Committee about the

Victualling business, but they did not meet, but here we met Sir R.

Brookes, who do mightily cry up my speech the other day, saying my

fellow-officers are obliged to me, as indeed they are. Thence with

Sir D. Gawden homewards, calling at Lincolne’s Inn Fields: but my Lady

Jemimah was not within: and so to Newgate, where he stopped to give

directions to the jaylor about a Knight, one Sir Thomas Halford brought

in yesterday for killing one Colonel Temple, falling out at a taverne.

So thence as far as Leadenhall, and there I ‘light, and back by coach

to Lincoln’s Inn Fields; but my Lady was not come in, and so I am at

a great loss whether she and her brother Hinchingbroke and sister will

dine with me to-morrow or no, which vexes me. So home; and there comes

Mr. Moore to me, who tells me that he fears my Lord Sandwich will meet

with very great difficulties to go through about the prizes, it being

found that he did give orders for more than the King’s letter do

justify; and then for the Act of Resumption, which he fears will go on,

and is designed only to do him hurt, which troubles me much. He tells me

he believes the Parliament will not be brought to do anything in matters

of religion, but will adhere to the Bishops. So he gone, I up to supper,

where I find W. Joyce and Harman come to see us, and there was also Mrs.

Mercer and her two daughters, and here we were as merry as that fellow

Joyce could make us with his mad talking, after the old wont, which

tired me. But I was mightily pleased with his singing; for the rogue

hath a very good eare, and a good voice. Here he stayed till he was

almost drunk, and then away at about ten at night, and then all broke

up, and I to bed.

11th. Up, and betimes to the office, where busy till 8 o’clock, and then

went forth, and meeting Mr. Colvill, I walked with, him to his building,

where he is building a fine house, where he formerly lived, in Lumbard

Street: and it will be a very fine street. Thence walked down to the

Three Cranes and there took boat to White Hall, where by direction I

waited on the Duke of York about office business, and so by water to

Westminster, where walking in the Hall most of the morning, and up to my

Lady Jem. in Lincoln’s Inn Fields to get her to appoint the day certain

when she will come and dine with me, and she hath appointed Saturday

next. So back to Westminster; and there still walked, till by and by

comes Sir W. Coventry, and with him Mr. Chichly and Mr. Andrew Newport,

I to dinner with them to Mr. Chichly’s, in Queene Street, in Covent

Garden. A very fine house, and a man that lives in mighty great fashion,

with all things in a most extraordinary manner noble and rich about him,

and eats in the French fashion all; and mighty nobly served with his

servants, and very civilly; that I was mighty pleased with it: and good

discourse. He is a great defender of the Church of England, and against

the Act for Comprehension, which is the work of this day, about which

the House is like to sit till night. After dinner, away with them back

to Westminster, where, about four o’clock, the House rises, and hath

done nothing more in the business than to put off the debate to this

day month. In the mean time the King hath put out his proclamations this

day, as the House desired, for the putting in execution the Act against

Nonconformists and Papists, but yet it is conceived that for all this

some liberty must be given, and people will have it. Here I met with

my cozen Roger Pepys, who is come to town, and hath been told of my

performance before the House the other day, and is mighty proud of it,

and Captain Cocke met me here to-day, and told me that the Speaker says

he never heard such a defence made; in all his life, in the House; and

that the Sollicitor-Generall do commend me even to envy. I carried

cozen Roger as far as the Strand, where, spying out of the coach

Colonel Charles George Cocke, formerly a very great man, and my father’s

customer, whom I have carried clothes to, but now walks like a poor

sorry sneake, he stopped, and I ‘light to him. This man knew me, which

I would have willingly avoided, so much pride I had, he being a man

of mighty height and authority in his time, but now signifies nothing.

Thence home, where to the office a while and then home, where W.

Batelier was and played at cards and supped with us, my eyes being out

of order for working, and so to bed.

12th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, at noon home, and

after dinner with wife and Deb., carried them to Unthanke’s, and I to

Westminster Hall expecting our being with the Committee this afternoon

about Victualling business, but once more waited in vain. So after a

turn or two with Lord Brouncker, I took my wife up and left her at the

‘Change while I to Gresham College, there to shew myself; and was there

greeted by Dr. Wilkins, Whistler, and others, as the patron of the Navy

Office, and one that got great fame by my late speech to the Parliament.

Here I saw a great trial of the goodness of a burning glass, made of a

new figure, not spherical (by one Smithys, I think, they call him), that

did burn a glove of my Lord Brouncker’s from the heat of a very little

fire, which a burning glass of the old form, or much bigger, could not

do, which was mighty pretty. Here I heard Sir Robert Southwell give an

account of some things committed to him by the Society at his going to

Portugall, which he did deliver in a mighty handsome manner.

[At the meeting of the Royal Society on March 12th, 1668, “Mr.

Smethwick’s glasses were tried again; and his telescope being

compared with another longer telescope, and the object-glasses

exchanged, was still found to exceed the other in goodness; and his

burning concave being compared with a spherical burning-glass of

almost twice the diameter, and held to the fire, it burnt gloves,

whereas the other spherical ones would not burn at all.”--“Sir

Robert Southwell being lately returned from Portugal, where he had

been ambassador from the king, and being desired to acquaint the

society with what he had done with respect to the instructions,

which he had received from them before his departure from England,

related, that he had lodged the astronomical quadrant, which the

society had sent to Portugal to make observations with there, with a

body of men at Lisbon, who had applied themselves among other kinds

of literature to mathematics” (Birch’s “History of the Royal

Society,” vol. ii., p. 256).]

Thence went away home, and there at my office as long as my eyes would

endure, and then home to supper, and to talk with Mr. Pelling, who tells

me what a fame I have in the City for my late performance; and upon the

whole I bless God for it. I think I have, if I can keep it, done myself

a great deal of repute. So by and by to bed.

13th. Up betimes to my office, where to fit myself for attending the

Parliament again, not to make any more speech, which, while my fame is

good, I will avoid, for fear of losing it; but only to answer to what

objections will be made against us. Thence walked to the Old Swan and

drank at Michell’s, whose house is going up apace. Here I saw Betty, but

could not baiser la, and so to Westminster, there to the Hall, where

up to my cozen Roger Pepys at the Parliament door, and there he took me

aside, and told me how he was taken up by one of the House yesterday,

for moving for going on with the King’s supply of money, without regard

to the keeping pace therewith, with the looking into miscarriages, and

was told by this man privately that it did arise because that he had a

kinsman concerned therein; and therefore he would prefer the safety of

his kinsman to the good of the nation, and that there was great things

against us and against me, for all my fine discourse the other day. But

I did bid him be at no pain for me; for I knew of nothing but what I was

very well prepared to answer; and so I think I am, and therefore was not

at all disquieted by this. Thence he to the House, and I to the Hall,

where my Lord Brouncker and the rest waiting till noon and not called

for by the House, they being upon the business of money again, and at

noon all of us to Chatelin’s, the French house in Covent Garden, to

dinner--Brouncker, J. Minnes, W. Pen, T. Harvey, and myself--and there

had a dinner cost us 8s. 6d. a-piece, a damned base dinner, which did

not please us at all, so that I am not fond of this house at all, but do

rather choose the Beare. After dinner to White Hall to the Duke of York,

and there did our usual business, complaining of our standing still in

every-respect for want of money, but no remedy propounded, but so I must

still be. Thence with our company to the King’s playhouse, where I left

them, and I, my head being full of to-morrow’s dinner, I to my Lord

Crew’s, there to invite Sir Thomas Crew; and there met with my Lord

Hinchingbroke and his lady, the first time I spoke to her. I saluted

her; and she mighty civil and; with my Lady Jemimah, do all resolve to

be very merry to-morrow at my house. My Lady Hinchingbroke I cannot say

is a beauty, nor ugly; but is altogether a comely lady enough, and seems

very good-humoured, and I mighty glad of the occasion of seeing her

before to-morrow. Thence home; and there find one laying of my napkins

against tomorrow in figures of all sorts, which is mighty pretty; and,

it seems, it is his trade, and he gets much money by it; and do now and

then furnish tables with plate and linnen for a feast at so much, which

is mighty pretty, and a trade I could not have thought of. I find my

wife upon the bed not over well, her breast being broke out with heat,

which troubles her, but I hope it will be for her good. Thence I to Mrs.

Turner, and did get her to go along with me to the French pewterer’s,

and there did buy some new pewter against to-morrow; and thence to White

Hall, to have got a cook of her acquaintance, the best in England, as

she says. But after we had with much ado found him, he could not come,

nor was Mr. Gentleman in town, whom next I would have had, nor would

Mrs. Stone let her man Lewis come, whom this man recommended to me; so

that I was at a mighty loss what in the world to do for a cooke, Philips

being out of town. Therefore, after staying here at Westminster a great

while, we back to London, and there to Philips’s, and his man directed

us to Mr. Levett’s, who could not come, and he sent to two more, and

they could not; so that, at last, Levett as a great kindness did resolve

he would leave his business and come himself, which set me in great ease

in my mind, and so home, and there with my wife setting all things in

order against to-morrow, having seen Mrs. Turner at home, and so late to

bed.

14th. Up very betimes, and with Jane to Levett’s, there to conclude upon

our dinner; and thence to the pewterer’s, to buy a pewter sesterne,

[A pewter cistern was formerly part of the furniture of a well-

appointed dining-room; the plates were rinsed in it, when necessary,

during the meal. A magnificent silver cistern is still preserved in

the dining-room at Burghley House, the seat of the Marquis of

Exeter. It is said to be the largest piece of plate in England, and

was once the subject of a curious wager.--B.]

which I have ever hitherto been without, and so up and down upon several

occasions to set matters in order, and that being done I out of doors to

Westminster Hall, and there met my Lord Brouncker, who tells me that

our business is put off till Monday, and so I was mighty glad that I was

eased of my attendance here, and of any occasion that might put me out

of humour, as it is likely if we had been called before the Parliament.

Therefore, after having spoke with Mr. Godolphin and cozen Roger, I away

home, and there do find everything in mighty good order, only my wife

not dressed, which troubles me. Anon comes my company, viz., my Lord

Hinchingbroke and his lady, Sir Philip Carteret and his, lady, Godolphin

and my cozen Roger, and Creed: and mighty merry; and by and by to

dinner, which was very good and plentifull: (I should have said, and Mr.

George Montagu), who come at a very little warning, which was exceeding

kind of him. And there, among other things, my Lord had Sir Samuel

Morland’s late invention for casting up of sums of L. s. d.;

[The same as Morland’s so-called calculating machine. Sir Samuel

published in 1673 “The Description and Use of two Arithmetick

Instruments, together with a short Treatise of Arithmetic, as

likewise a Perpetual Almanack and severall useful tables.”]

which is very pretty, but not very useful. Most of our discourse was of

my Lord Sandwich and his family, as being all of us of the family; and

with extraordinary pleasure all the afternoon, thus together eating

and looking over my closet: and my Lady Hinchingbroke I find a very

sweet-natured and well-disposed lady, a lover of books and pictures, and

of good understanding. About five o’clock they went; and then my wife

and I abroad by coach into Moorefields, only for a little ayre, and so

home again, staying no where, and then up to her chamber, there to talk

with pleasure of this day’s passages, and so to bed. This day I had the

welcome news of our prize being come safe from Holland, so as I shall

have hopes, I hope, of getting my money of my Lady Batten, or good part

of it.

15th (Lord’s day). Up and walked, it being fine dry weather, to Sir W.

Coventry’s, overtaking my boy Ely (that was), and he walked with me,

being grown a man, and I think a sober fellow. He parted at Charing

Cross, and I to Sir W. Coventry’s, and there talked with him about the

Commissioners of Accounts, who did give in their report yesterday to the

House, and do lay little upon us as aggravate any thing at present, but

only do give an account of the dissatisfactory account they receive from

Sir G. Carteret, which I am sorry for, they saying that he tells them

not any time when he paid any sum, which is fit for them to know for

the computing of interest, but I fear he is hardly able to tell it. They

promise to give them an account of the embezzlement of prizes, wherein

I shall be something concerned, but nothing that I am afeard of, I thank

God. Thence walked with W. Coventry into the Park, and there met the

King and the Duke of York, and walked a good while with them: and here

met Sir Jer. Smith, who tells me he is like to get the better of Holmes,

and that when he is come to an end of that, he will do Hollis’s business

for him, in the House, for his blasphemies, which I shall be glad of. So

to White Hall, and there walked with this man and that man till chapel

done, and, the King dined and then Sir Thomas Clifford, the Comptroller,

took me with him to dinner to his lodgings, where my Lord Arlington and

a great deal of good and great company; where I very civilly used by

them, and had a most excellent dinner: and good discourse of Spain, Mr.

Godolphin being there; particularly of the removal of the bodies of all

the dead Kings of Spain that could be got together, and brought to the

Pantheon at the Escuriall, when it was finished, and there placed before

the altar, there to lie for ever; and there was a sermon made to them

upon this text, “Arida ossa, audite verbum Dei;” and a most eloquent

sermon, as they say, who say they have read it. After dinner, away

hence, and I to Mrs. Martin’s, and there spent the afternoon, and did

hazer con elle, and here was her sister and Mrs. Burrows, and so in the

evening got a coach and home, and there find Mr. Pelting and W. Hewer,

and there talked and supped, Pelting being gone, and mightily pleased

with a picture that W. Hewer brought hither of several things painted

upon a deale board, which board is so well painted that in my whole

life I never was so well pleased or surprized with any picture, and so

troubled that so good pictures should be painted upon a piece of bad

deale. Even after I knew that it was not board, but only the picture of

a board, I could not remove my fancy. After supper to bed, being very

sleepy, and, I bless God, my mind being at very good present rest.

16th. Up, to set my papers and books in order, and put up my plate since

my late feast, and then to Westminster, by water, with Mr. Hater, and

there, in the Hall, did walk all the morning, talking with one or other,

expecting to have our business in the House; but did now a third time

wait to no purpose, they being all this morning upon the business

of Barker’s petition about the making void the Act of Settlement in

Ireland, which makes a great deal of hot work: and, at last, finding

that by all men’s opinion they could not come to our matter today, I

with Sir W. Pen home, and there to dinner, where I find, by Willet’s

crying, that her mistress had been angry with her: but I would take no

notice of it. Busy all the afternoon at the office, and then by coach to

the Excize Office, but lost my labour, there being nobody there, and

so back again home, and after a little at the office I home, and there

spent the evening with my wife talking and singing, and so to bed with

my mind pretty well at ease. This evening W. Pen and Sir R. Ford and I

met at the first’s house to talk of our prize that is now at last come

safe over from Holland, by which I hope to receive some if not all the

benefit of my bargain with W. Batten for my share in it, which if she

had miscarried I should have doubted of my Lady Batten being left little

able to have paid me.

17th. Up betimes and to the office, where all the morning busy, and

then at noon home to dinner, and so again to the office awhile, and then

abroad to the Excize-Office, where I met Mr. Ball, and did receive the

paper I went for; and there fell in talk with him, who, being an old

cavalier, do swear and curse at the present state of things, that we

should be brought to this, that we must be undone and cannot be saved;

that the Parliament is sitting now, and will till midnight, to find how

to raise this L300,000, and he doubts they will not do it so as to be

seasonable for the King: but do cry out against our great men at Court;

how it is a fine thing for a Secretary of State to dance a jigg, and

that it was not so heretofore; and, above all, do curse my Lord of

Bristoll, saying the worst news that ever he heard in his life, or that

the Devil could ever bring us, was this Lord’s coming to prayers the

other day in the House of Lords, by which he is coming about again from

being a Papist, which will undo this nation; and he says he ever did

say, at the King’s first coming in, that this nation could not be safe

while that man was alive. Having done there, I away towards Westminster,

but seeing by the coaches the House to be up, I stopped at the ‘Change

(where, I met Mrs. Turner, and did give her a pair of gloves), and there

bought several things for my wife, and so to my bookseller’s, and there

looked for Montaigne’s Essays,

[This must have been Florio’s translation, as Cotton’s was not

published until 1685.]

which I heard by my Lord Arlington and Lord Blaney so much commended,

and intend to buy it, but did not now, but home, where at the office

did some business, as much as my eyes would give leave, and so home to

supper, Mercer with us talking and singing, and so to bed. The House, I

hear, have this day concluded upon raising L100,000 of the L300,000

by wine, and the rest by a poll-[tax], and have resolved to excuse the

Church, in expectation that they will do the more of themselves at this

juncture; and I do hear that Sir W. Coventry did make a speech in behalf

of the Clergy.

18th. Up betimes to Westminster, where met with cozen Roger and Creed

and walked with them, and Roger do still continue of the mind that there

is no other way of saving this nation but by dissolving this Parliament

and calling another; but there are so many about the King that will not

be able to stand, if a new Parliament come, that they will not persuade

the King to it. I spent most of the morning walking with one or other,

and anon met Doll Lane at the Dog tavern, and there je did hater what I

did desire with her... and I did give her as being my valentine 20s.

to buy what elle would. Thence away by coach to my bookseller’s, and

to several places to pay my debts, and to Ducke Lane, and there bought

Montaigne’s Essays, in English, and so away home to dinner, and after

dinner with W. Pen to White Hall, where we and my Lord Brouncker

attended the Council, to discourse about the fitness of entering of men

presently for the manning of the fleete, before one ship is in condition

to receive them. W. Coventry did argue against it: I was wholly silent,

because I saw the King, upon the earnestness of the Prince, was willing

to it, crying very sillily, “If ever you intend to man the fleete,

without being cheated by the captains and pursers, you may go to bed,

and resolve never to have it manned;” and so it was, like other things,

over-ruled that all volunteers should be presently entered. Then there

was another great business about our signing of certificates to

the Exchequer for [prize] goods, upon the L1,20,000 Act, which the

Commissioners of the Treasury did all oppose, and to the laying fault

upon us. But I did then speak to the justifying what we had done, even

to the angering of Duncomb and Clifford, which I was vexed at: but, for

all that, I did set the Office and myself right, and went away with the

victory, my Lord Keeper saying that he would not advise the Council

to order us to sign no more certificates. But, before I began to say

anything in this matter, the King and the Duke of York talking at the

Council-table, before all the Lords, of the Committee of Miscarriages,

how this entering of men before the ships could be ready would be

reckoned a miscarriage; “Why,” says the King, “it is then but Mr. Pepys

making of another speech to them;” which made all the Lords, and there

were by also the Atturny and Sollicitor-Generall, look upon me. Thence

Sir W. Coventry, W. Pen and I, by hackney-coach to take a little ayre in

Hyde Parke, the first time I have been there this year; and we did meet

many coaches going and coming, it being mighty pleasant weather; and so,

coming back again, I ‘light in the Pell Mell; and there went to see Sir

H. Cholmly, who continues very ill of his cold. And there come in Sir H.

Yelverton, whom Sir H. Cholmly commended me to his acquaintance, which

the other received, but without remembering to me, or I him, of our

being school-fellows together; and I said nothing of it. But he took

notice of my speech the other day at the bar of the House; and indeed I

perceive he is a wise man by his manner of discourse, and here he do say

that the town is full of it, that now the Parliament hath resolved

upon L300,000, the King, instead of fifty, will set out but twenty-five

ships, and the Dutch as many; and that Smith is to command them, who is

allowed to have the better of Holmes in the late dispute, and is in good

esteem in the Parliament, above the other. Thence home, and there, in

favour to my eyes, stayed at home, reading the ridiculous History of

my Lord Newcastle, wrote by his wife, which shews her to be a mad,

conceited, ridiculous woman, and he an asse to suffer her to write what

she writes to him, and of him.

[“The Life of the thrice noble, high, and puissant Prince, William

Cavendish, Duke... of Newcastle,” by his duchess, of which the

first edition, in folio, was published in 1667.]

Betty Turner sent my wife the book to read, and it being a fair print,

to ease my eyes, which would be reading, I read that. Anon comes Mrs.

Turner and sat and talked with us, and most about the business of

Ackworth,

[William Acworth, storekeeper at Woolwich, was accused of converting

stores to his own use (see “Calendar of State Papers,” 1667-68, p.

279).]

which comes before us to-morrow, that I would favour it, but I do not

think, notwithstanding all the friendship I can shew him, that he can

escape, and therefore it had been better that he had followed the advice

I sent him the other day by Mrs. Turner, to make up the business. So

parted, and I to bed, my eyes being very bad; and I know not how in the

world to abstain from reading.

19th. Up, and betimes to the Old Swan, and by water to White Hall, and

thence to W. Coventry’s, where stayed but a little to talk with him,

and thence by water back again, it being a mighty fine, clear spring

morning. Back to the Old Swan, and drank at Michell’s, whose house goes

up apace, but I could not see Betty, and thence walked all along

Thames Street, which I have not done since it was burned, as far as

Billingsgate; and there do see a brave street likely to be, many brave

houses being built, and of them a great many by Mr. Jaggard; but the

raising of the street will make it mighty fine. So to the office, where

busy all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and thence to the office,

very busy till five o’clock, and then to ease my eyes I took my wife out

and Deb. to the ‘Change, and there bought them some things, and so home

again and to the office, ended my letters, and so home to read a little

more in last night’s book, with much sport, it being a foolish book, and

so to supper and to bed. This afternoon I was surprized with a letter

without a name to it, very well writ, in a good stile, giving me notice

of my cozen Kate Joyce’s being likely to ruin herself by marriage, and

by ill reports already abroad of her, and I do fear that this keeping

of an inne may spoil her, being a young and pretty comely woman, and

thought to be left well. I did answer the letter with thanks and good

liking, and am resolved to take the advice he gives me, and go see her,

and find out what I can: but if she will ruin herself, I cannot help it,

though I should be troubled for it.

20th. Up betimes, and to my Office, where we had a meeting extraordinary

to consider of several things, among others the sum of money fit to be

demanded ready money, to enable us to set out 27 ships, every body

being now in pain for a fleete, and everybody endeavouring to excuse

themselves for the not setting out of one, and our true excuse is lack

of money. At it all the morning, and so at noon home to dinner with my

clerks, my wife and Deb. being busy at work above in her chamber getting

things ready and fine for her going into the country a week or two

hence. I away by coach to White Hall, where we met to wait on the Duke

of York, and, soon as prayers were done, it being Good Friday, he come

to us, and we did a little business and presented him with our demand

of money, and so broke up, and I thence by coach to Kate Joyce’s,

being desirous and in pain to speak with her about the business that I

received a letter yesterday, but had no opportunity of speaking with her

about it, company being with her, so I only invited her to come and dine

with me on Sunday next, and so away home, and for saving my eyes at

my chamber all the evening pricking down some things, and trying some

conclusions upon my viall, in order to the inventing a better theory of

musique than hath yet been abroad; and I think verily I shall do it. So

to supper with my wife, who is in very good humour with her working, and

so am I, and so to bed. This day at Court I do hear that Sir W. Pen do

command this summer’s fleete; and Mr. Progers of the Bedchamber, as a

secret, told me that the Prince Rupert is troubled at it, and several

friends of his have been with him to know the reason of it; so that he

do pity Sir W. Pen, whom he hath great kindness for, that he should not

at any desire of his be put to this service, and thereby make the Prince

his enemy, and contract more envy from other people. But I am not a whit

sorry if it should be so, first for the King’s sake, that his work will

be better done by Sir W. Pen than the Prince, and next that Pen, who is

a false rogue, may be bit a little by it.

21st. Up betimes to the office, and there we sat all the morning, at

noon home with my clerks, a good dinner, and then to the Office, and

wrote my letters, and then abroad to do several things, and pay what

little scores I had, and among others to Mrs. Martin’s, and there did

give 20s. to Mrs. Cragg, her landlady, who was my Valentine in the

house, as well as Doll Lane.... So home and to the office, there to end

my letters, and so home, where Betty Turner was to see my wife, and she

being gone I to my chamber to read a little again, and then after supper

to bed.

22nd (Easter day). I up, and walked to the Temple, and there got a

coach, and to White Hall, where spoke with several people, and find by

all that Pen is to go to sea this year with this fleete; and they excuse

the Prince’s going, by saying it is not a command great enough for him.

Here I met with Brisband, and, after hearing the service at the King’s

chapel, where I heard the Bishop of Norwich, Dr. Reynolds, the old

presbyterian, begin a very plain sermon, he and I to the Queen’s chapel,

and there did hear the Italians sing; and indeed their musick did appear

most admirable to me, beyond anything of ours: I was never so well

satisfied in my life with it. So back to White Hall, and there met Mr.

Pierce, and adjusted together how we should spend to-morrow together,

and so by coach I home to dinner, where Kate Joyce was, as I invited

her, and had a good dinner, only she and us; and after dinner she and

I alone to talk about her business, as I designed; and I find her very

discreet, and she assures me she neither do nor will incline to the

doing anything towards marriage, without my advice, and did tell me that

she had many offers, and that Harman and his friends would fain have

her; but he is poor, and hath poor friends, and so it will not be

advisable: but that there is another, a tobacconist, one Holinshed, whom

she speaks well of, to be a plain, sober man, and in good condition,

that offers her very well, and submits to me my examining and inquiring

after it, if I see good, which I do like of it, for it will be best for

her to marry, I think, as soon as she can--at least, to be rid of this

house; for the trade will not agree with a young widow, that is a little

handsome, at least ordinary people think her so. Being well satisfied

with her answer, she anon went away, and I to my closet to make a few

more experiments of my notions in musique, and so then my wife and I to

walk in the garden, and then home to supper and to bed.

23rd. Up, and after discoursing with my wife about many things touching

this day’s dinner, I abroad, and first to the taverne to pay what I owe

there, but missed of seeing the mistress of the house, and there

bespoke wine for dinner, and so away thence, and to Bishopsgate Streete,

thinking to have found a Harpsicon-maker that used to live there before

the fire, but he is gone, and I have a mind forthwith to have a little

Harpsicon made me to confirm and help me in my musique notions, which my

head is now-a-days full of, and I do believe will come to something that

is very good. Thence to White Hall, expecting to have heard the

Bishop of Lincolne, my friend, preach, for so I understood he would do

yesterday, but was mistaken, and therefore away presently back again,

and there find everything in good order against dinner, and at noon come

Mr. Pierce and she, and Mrs. Manuel, the Jew’s wife, and Mrs. Corbet,

and Mrs. Pierces boy and girl. But we are defeated of Knepp, by her

being forced to act to-day, and also of Harris, which did trouble me,

they being my chief guests. However, I had an extraordinary good dinner,

and the better because dressed by my own servants, and were mighty

merry; and here was Mr. Pelling by chance come and dined with me; and

after sitting long at dinner, I had a barge ready at Tower-wharfe, to

take us in, and so we went, all of us, up as high as Barne-Elms, a very

fine day, and all the way sang; and Mrs. Manuel sings very finely, and

is a mighty discreet, sober-carriaged woman, that both my wife and I are

mightily taken with her, and sings well, and without importunity or the

contrary. At Barne-Elms we walked round, and then to the barge again,

and had much merry talk, and good singing; and come before it was dark

to the New Exchange stairs, and there landed, and walked up to Mrs.

Pierces, where we sat awhile, and then up to their dining-room. And so,

having a violin and theorbo, did fall to dance, here being also Mrs.

Floyd come hither, and by and by Mr. Harris. But there being so few of

us that could dance, and my wife not being very well, we had not much

pleasure in the dancing: there was Knepp also, by which with much

pleasure we did sing a little, and so, about ten o’clock, I took coach

with my wife and Deb., and so home, and there to bed.

24th. Up pretty betimes, and so there comes to me Mr. Shish, to desire

my appearing for him to succeed Mr. Christopher Pett, lately dead, in

his place of Master-Shipwright of Deptford and Woolwich, which I do

resolve to promote what I can. So by and by to White Hall, and there to

the Duke of York’s chamber, where I understand it is already resolved

by the King and Duke of York that Shish shall have the place. From the

Duke’s chamber Sir W. Coventry and I to walk in the Matted Gallery; and

there, among other things, he tells me of the wicked design that now is

at last contriving against him, to get a petition presented from people

that the money they have paid to W. Coventry for their places may be

repaid them back; and that this is set on by Temple and Hollis of the

Parliament, and, among other mean people in it, by Captain Tatnell: and

he prays me that I will use some effectual way to sift Tatnell what he

do, and who puts him on in this business, which I do undertake, and will

do with all my skill for his service, being troubled that he is still

under this difficulty. Thence up and down Westminster by Mrs. Burroughes

her mother’s shop, thinking to have seen her, but could not, and

therefore back to White Hall, where great talk of the tumult at the

other end of the town, about Moore-fields, among the ‘prentices, taking

the liberty of these holydays to pull down bawdy-houses.

[It was customary for the apprentices of the metropolis to avail

themselves of their holidays, especially on Shrove Tuesday, to

search after women of ill fame, and to confine them during the

season of Lent. See a “Satyre against Separatists,” 1642.

“Stand forth, Shrove Tuesday, one a’ the silenc’st bricklayers;

‘Tis in your charge to pull down bawdy-houses.”

Middleton’s Inner Temple Masque, 1619,

Works, ed. Bullen, vii., 209.]

And, Lord! to see the apprehensions which this did give to all people

at Court, that presently order was given for all the soldiers, horse

and foot, to be in armes! and forthwith alarmes were beat by drum and

trumpet through Westminster, and all to their colours, and to horse, as

if the French were coming into the town! So Creed, whom I met here, and

I to Lincolne’s Inn-fields, thinking to have gone into the fields

to have seen the ‘prentices; but here we found these fields full of

soldiers all in a body, and my Lord Craven commanding of them, and

riding up and down to give orders, like a madman. And some young men we

saw brought by soldiers to the Guard at White Hall, and overheard others

that stood by say, that it was only for pulling down the bawdy-houses;

and none of the bystanders finding fault with them, but rather of the

soldiers for hindering them. And we heard a justice of the Peace this

morning say to the King, that he had been endeavouring to suppress this

tumult, but could not; and that, imprisoning some [of them] in the new

prison at Clerkenwell, the rest did come and break open the prison and

release them; and that they do give out that they are for pulling down

the bawdy-houses, which is one of the greatest grievances of the nation.

To which the King made a very poor, cold, insipid answer: “Why, why do

they go to them, then?” and that was all, and had no mind to go on with

the discourse. Mr. Creed and I to dinner to my Lord Crew, where little

discourse, there being none but us at the table, and my Lord and my Lady

Jemimah, and so after dinner away, Creed and I to White Hall, expecting

a Committee of Tangier, but come too late. So I to attend the Council,

and by and by were called in with Lord Brouncker and Sir W. Pen to

advise how to pay away a little money to most advantage to the men of

the yards, to make them dispatch the ships going out, and there did make

a little speech, which was well liked, and after all it was found most

satisfactory to the men, and best for the king’s dispatch, that what

money we had should be paid weekly to the men for their week’s work

until a greater sum could be got to pay them their arrears and then

discharge them. But, Lord! to see what shifts and what cares and

thoughts there was employed in this matter how to do the King’s work and

please the men and stop clamours would make a man think the King should

not eat a bit of good meat till he has got money to pay the men, but I

do not see the least print of care or thoughts in him about it at all.

Having done here, I out and there met Sir Fr. Hollis, who do still tell

me that, above all things in the world, he wishes he had my tongue in

his mouth, meaning since my speech in Parliament. He took Lord Brouncker

and me down to the guards, he and his company being upon the guards

to-day; and there he did, in a handsome room to that purpose, make us

drink, and did call for his bagpipes, which, with pipes of ebony, tipt

with silver, he did play beyond anything of that kind that ever I heard

in my life; and with great pains he must have obtained it, but with

pains that the instrument do not deserve at all; for, at the best, it is

mighty barbarous musick. So home and there to my chamber, to prick out

my song, “It is Decreed,” intending to have it ready to give Mr. Harris

on Thursday, when we meet, for him to sing, believing that he will do it

more right than a woman that sings better, unless it were Knepp, which

I cannot have opportunity to teach it to. This evening I come home from

White Hall with Sir W. Pen, who fell in talk about his going to sea this

year, and the difficulties that arise to him by it, by giving offence to

the Prince, and occasioning envy to him, and many other things that make

it a bad matter, at this time of want of money and necessaries, and bad

and uneven counsels at home,--for him to go abroad: and did tell me how

much with the King and Duke of York he had endeavoured to be excused,

desiring the Prince might be satisfied in it, who hath a mind to go;

but he tells me they will not excuse him, and I believe it, and truly do

judge it a piece of bad fortune to W. Pen.

25th. Up, and walked to White Hall, there to wait on the Duke of York,

which I did: and in his chamber there, first by hearing the Duke of York

call me by my name, my Lord Burlington did come to me, and with great

respect take notice of me and my relation to my Lord Sandwich, and

express great kindness to me; and so to talk of my Lord Sandwich’s

concernments. By and by the Duke of York is ready; and I did wait for

an opportunity of speaking my mind to him about Sir J. Minnes, his being

unable to do the King any service, which I think do become me to do in

all respects, and have Sir W. Coventry’s concurrence therein, which I

therefore will seek a speedy opportunity to do, come what will come of

it. The Duke of York and all with him this morning were full of the talk

of the ‘prentices, who are not yet [put] down, though the guards and

militia of the town have been in armes all this night, and the night

before; and the ‘prentices have made fools of them, sometimes by running

from them and flinging stones at them. Some blood hath been spilt, but

a great many houses pulled down; and, among others, the Duke of York was

mighty merry at that of Damaris Page’s, the great bawd of the seamen;

and the Duke of York complained merrily that he hath lost two tenants,

by their houses being pulled down, who paid him for their wine licenses

L15 a year. But here it was said how these idle fellows have had the

confidence to say that they did ill in contenting themselves in pulling

down the little bawdyhouses, and did not go and pull down the great

bawdy-house at White Hall. And some of them have the last night had a

word among them, and it was “Reformation and Reducement.” This do make

the courtiers ill at ease to see this spirit among people, though they

think this matter will not come to much: but it speaks people’s minds;

and then they do say that there are men of understanding among them,

that have been of Cromwell’s army: but how true that is, I know not.

Thence walked a little to Westminster, but met with nobody to spend any

time with, and so by coach homeward, and in Seething Lane met young

Mrs. Daniel, and I stopt, and she had been at my house, but found nobody

within, and tells me that she drew me for her Valentine this year, so

I took her into the coach, and was going to the other end of the town,

thinking to have taken her abroad, but remembering that I was to go out

with my wife this afternoon,... and so to a milliner at the corner shop

going into Bishopsgate and Leadenhall Street, and there did give her

eight pair of gloves, and so dismissed her, and so I home and to dinner,

and then with my wife to the King’s playhouse to see “The Storme,” which

we did, but without much pleasure, it being but a mean play compared

with “The Tempest,” at the Duke of York’s house, though Knepp did act

her part of grief very well. Thence with my wife and Deb. by coach to

Islington, to the old house, and there eat and drank till it was almost

night, and then home, being in fear of meeting the ‘prentices, who are

many of them yet, they say, abroad in the fields, but we got well home,

and so I to my chamber a while, and then to supper and to bed.

26th. Up betimes to the office, where by and by my Lord Brouncker and I

met and made an end of our business betimes. So I away with him to Mrs.

Williams’s, and there dined, and thence I alone to the Duke of York’s

house, to see the new play, called “The Man is the Master,” where the

house was, it being not above one o’clock, very full. But my wife and

Deb. being there before, with Mrs. Pierce and Corbet and Betty Turner,

whom my wife carried with her, they made me room; and there I sat, it

costing me 8s. upon them in oranges, at 6d. a-piece. By and by the King

come; and we sat just under him, so that I durst not turn my back all

the play. The play is a translation out of French, and the plot Spanish,

but not anything extraordinary at all in it, though translated by Sir

W. Davenant, and so I found the King and his company did think meanly

of it, though there was here and there something pretty: but the most

of the mirth was sorry, poor stuffe, of eating of sack posset and

slabbering themselves, and mirth fit for clownes; the prologue but poor,

and the epilogue little in it but the extraordinariness of it, it

being sung by Harris and another in the form of a ballet. Thence, by

agreement, we all of us to the Blue Balls, hard by, whither Mr. Pierce

also goes with us, who met us at the play, and anon comes Manuel, and

his wife, and Knepp, and Harris, who brings with him Mr. Banister,

the great master of musique; and after much difficulty in getting of

musique, we to dancing, and then to a supper of some French dishes,

which yet did not please me, and then to dance and sing; and mighty

merry we were till about eleven or twelve at night, with mighty great

content in all my company, and I did, as I love to do, enjoy myself in

my pleasure as being the height of what we take pains for and can hope

for in this world, and therefore to be enjoyed while we are young and

capable of these joys. My wife extraordinary fine to-day, in her flower

tabby suit, bought a year and more ago, before my mother’s death put

her into mourning, and so not worn till this day: and every body in love

with it; and indeed she is very fine and handsome in it. I having paid

the reckoning, which come to almost L4., we parted: my company and

William Batelier, who was also with us, home in a coach, round by the

Wall, where we met so many stops by the Watches, that it cost us much

time and some trouble, and more money, to every Watch, to them to drink;

this being encreased by the trouble the ‘prentices did lately give the

City, so that the Militia and Watches are very strict at this time; and

we had like to have met with a stop for all night at the Constable’s

watch, at Mooregate, by a pragmatical Constable; but we come well

home at about two in the morning, and so to bed. This noon, from Mrs.

Williams’s, my Lord Brouncker sent to Somersett House to hear how the

Duchess of Richmond do; and word was brought him that she is pretty

well, but mighty full of the smallpox, by which all do conclude she will

be wholly spoiled, which is the greatest instance of the uncertainty of

beauty that could be in this age; but then she hath had the benefit of

it to be first married, and to have kept it so long, under the greatest

temptations in the world from a King, and yet without the least

imputation. This afternoon, at the play, Sir Fr. Hollis spoke to me as

a secret, and matter of confidence in me, and friendship to Sir W. Pen,

who is now out of town, that it were well he were made acquainted that

he finds in the House of Commons, which met this day, several motions

made for the calling strictly again upon the Miscarriages, and

particularly in the business of the Prises, and the not prosecuting of

the first victory, only to give an affront to Sir W. Pen, whose going to

sea this year do give them matter of great dislike. So though I do not

much trouble myself for him, yet I am sorry that he should have this

fall so unhappily without any fault, but rather merit of his own that

made him fitter for this command than any body else, and the more for

that this business of his may haply occasion their more eager pursuit

against the whole body of the office.

27th. Up, and walked to the waterside, and thence to White Hall to the

Duke of York’s chamber, where he being ready he went to a Committee

of Tangier, where I first understand that my Lord Sandwich is, in his

coming back from Spayne, to step over thither, to see in what condition

the place is, which I am glad of, hoping that he will be able to do some

good there, for the good of the place, which is so much out of order.

Thence to walk a little in Westminster Hall, where the Parliament I find

sitting, but spoke with nobody to let me know what they are doing, nor

did I enquire. Thence to the Swan and drank, and did baiser Frank, and

so down by water back again, and to the Exchange a turn or two, only to

show myself, and then home to dinner, where my wife and I had a small

squabble, but I first this day tried the effect of my silence and not

provoking her when she is in an ill humour, and do find it very good,

for it prevents its coming to that height on both sides which used to

exceed what was fit between us. So she become calm by and by and fond,

and so took coach, and she to the mercer’s to buy some lace, while I

to White Hall, but did nothing, but then to Westminster Hall and took a

turn, and so to Mrs. Martin’s, and there did sit a little and talk and

drink, and did hazer con her, and so took coach and called my wife at

Unthanke’s, and so up and down to the Nursery, where they did not act,

then to the New Cockpit, and there missed, and then to Hide Parke, where

many coaches, but the dust so great, that it was troublesome, and so by

night home, where to my chamber and finished my pricking out of my song

for Mr. Harris (“It is decreed”), and so a little supper, being very

sleepy and weary since last night, and so by to o’clock to bed and slept

well all night. This day, at noon, comes Mr. Pelling to me, and shews

me the stone cut lately out of Sir Thomas Adams’ (the old comely

Alderman’s) body, which is very large indeed, bigger I think than my

fist, and weighs above twenty-five ounces and, which is very miraculous,

he never in all his life had any fit of it, but lived to a great age

without pain, and died at last of something else, without any sense of

this in all his life. This day Creed at White Hall in discourse told me

what information he hath had, from very good hands, of the cowardice and

ill-government of Sir Jer. Smith and Sir Thomas Allen, and the repute

they have both of them abroad in the Streights, from their deportment

when they did at several times command there; and that, above all

Englishmen that ever were there, there never was any man that behaved

himself like poor Charles Wager, whom the very Moores do mention, with

teares sometimes.

28th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning busy, and at noon

home to dinner with my clerks; and though my head full of business, yet

I had a desire to end this holyday week with a play; and so, with my

wife and Deb., to the King’s house, and there saw “The Indian Emperour,”

a very good play indeed, and thence directly home, and to my writing of

my letters, and so home to supper and to bed for fearing my eyes. Our

greatest business at the office to-day is our want of money for the

setting forth of these ships that are to go out, and my people at dinner

tell me that they do verily doubt that the want of men will be so great,

as we must press; and if we press, there will be mutinies in the town;

for the seamen are said already to have threatened the pulling down of

the Treasury Office; and if they do once come to that, it will not be

long before they come to ours.

29th (Lord’s day). Up, and I to Church, where I have not been these many

weeks before, and there did first find a strange Reader, who could not

find in the Service-book the place for churching women, but was fain to

change books with the clerke: and then a stranger preached, a seeming

able man; but said in his pulpit that God did a greater work in raising

of an oake-tree from an akehorne, than a man’s body raising it, at the

last day, from his dust (shewing the possibility of the Resurrection):

which was, methought, a strange saying. At home to dinner, whither

comes and dines with me W. Howe, and by invitation Mr. Harris and Mr.

Banister, most extraordinary company both, the latter for musique of all

sorts, the former for everything: here we sang, and Banister played on

the theorbo, and afterwards Banister played on his flageolet, and I had

very good discourse with him about musique, so confirming some of my

new notions about musique that it puts me upon a resolution to go on

and make a scheme and theory of musique not yet ever made in the world.

Harris do so commend my wife’s picture of Mr. Hales’s, that I shall have

him draw Harris’s head; and he hath also persuaded me to have Cooper

draw my wife’s, which, though it cost L30, yet I will have done. Thus

spent the afternoon most deliciously, and then broke up and walked

with them as far as the Temple, and there parted, and I took coach to

Westminster, but there did nothing, meeting nobody that I had a mind to

speak with, and so home, and there find Mr. Pelling, and then also comes

Mrs. Turner, and supped and talked with us, and so to bed. I do hear

by several that Sir W. Pen’s going to sea do dislike the Parliament

mightily, and that they have revived the Committee of Miscarriages to

find something to prevent it; and that he being the other day with the

Duke of Albemarle to ask his opinion touching his going to sea, the

Duchess overheard and come in to him, and asks W. Pen how he durst

have the confidence to offer to go to sea again, to the endangering the

nation, when he knew himself such a coward as he was, which, if true, is

very severe.

30th. Up betimes, and so to the office, there to do business till about

to o’clock, and then out with my wife and Deb. and W. Hewer by coach to

Common-garden Coffee-house, where by appointment I was to meet Harris;

which I did, and also Mr. Cooper, the great painter, and Mr. Hales: and

thence presently to Mr. Cooper’s house, to see some of his work, which

is all in little, but so excellent as, though I must confess I do think

the colouring of the flesh to be a little forced, yet the painting is

so extraordinary, as I do never expect to see the like again. Here I

did see Mrs. Stewart’s picture as when a young maid, and now just done

before her having the smallpox: and it would make a man weep to see what

she was then, and what she is like to be, by people’s discourse,

now. Here I saw my Lord Generall’s picture, and my Lord Arlington and

Ashly’s, and several others; but among the rest one Swinfen, that was

Secretary to my Lord Manchester, Lord Chamberlain, with Cooling, done so

admirably as I never saw any thing: but the misery was, this fellow died

in debt, and never paid Cooper for his picture; but, it being seized on

by his creditors, among his other goods, after his death, Cooper himself

says that he did buy it, and give L25 out of his purse for it, for what

he was to have had but L30. Being infinitely satisfied with this sight,

and resolving that my wife shall be drawn by him when she comes out of

the country, I away with Harris and Hales to the Coffee-house, sending

my people away, and there resolve for Hales to begin Harris’s head for

me, which I will be at the cost of. After a little talk, I away to White

Hall and Westminster, where I find the Parliament still bogling about

the raising of this money: and every body’s mouth full now; and Mr. Wren

himself tells me that the Duke of York declares to go to sea himself

this year; and I perceive it is only on this occasion of distaste of the

Parliament against W. Pen’s going, and to prevent the Prince’s: but I

think it is mighty hot counsel for the Duke of York at this time to go

out of the way; but, Lord! what a pass are all our matters come to!

At noon by appointment to Cursitor’s Alley, in Chancery Lane, to meet

Captain Cocke and some other creditors of the Navy, and their Counsel,

Pemberton, North, Offly, and Charles Porter; and there dined, and talked

of the business of the assignments on the Exchequer of the L1,250,000

on behalf of our creditors; and there I do perceive that the Counsel had

heard of my performance in the Parliamenthouse lately, and did value

me and what I said accordingly. At dinner we had a great deal of good

discourse about Parliament: their number being uncertain, and always

at the will of the King to encrease, as he saw reason to erect a new

borough. But all concluded that the bane of the Parliament hath been the

leaving off the old custom of the places allowing wages to those that

served them in Parliament, by which they chose men that understood their

business and would attend it, and they could expect an account from,

which now they cannot; and so the Parliament is become a company of men

unable to give account for the interest of the place they serve

for. Thence, the meeting of the Counsel with the King’s Counsel this

afternoon being put off by reason of the death of Serjeant Maynard’s

lady, I to White Hall, where the Parliament was to wait on the King; and

they did: and it was to be told that he did think fit to tell them that

they might expect to be adjourned at Whitsuntide, and that they might

make haste to raise their money; but this, I fear, will displease them,

who did expect to sit as long as they pleased, and whether this be

done by the King upon some new counsel I know not, for the King must be

beholding to them till they do settle this business of money. Great talk

to-day as if Beaufort was come into the Channel with about 20 ships, and

it makes people apprehensive, but yet the Parliament do not stir a bit

faster in the business of money. Here I met with Creed, expecting a

Committee of Tangier, but the Committee met not, so he and I up and

down, having nothing to do, and particularly to the New Cockpit by the

King’s Gate in Holborne, but seeing a great deal of rabble we did refuse

to go in, but took coach and to Hide Park, and there till all the tour

was empty, and so he and I to the Lodge in the Park, and there eat and

drank till it was night, and then carried him to White Hall, having

had abundance of excellent talk with him in reproach of the times and

managements we live under, and so I home, and there to talk and to

supper with my wife, and so to bed.

31st. Up pretty betimes and to the office, where we sat all the morning,

and at noon I home to dinner, where uncle Thomas dined with me, as he do

every quarter, and I paid him his pension; and also comes Mr. Hollier

a little fuddled, and so did talk nothing but Latin, and laugh, that it

was very good sport to see a sober man in such a humour, though he was

not drunk to scandal. At dinner comes a summons for this office and the

Victualler to attend a Committee of Parliament this afternoon, with

Sir D. Gawden, which I accordingly did, with my papers relating to

the sending of victuals to Sir John Harman’s fleete; and there, Sir R.

Brookes in the chair, we did give them a full account, but, Lord! to see

how full they are and immoveable in their jealousy that some means are

used to keep Harman from coming home, for they have an implacable desire

to know the bottom of the not improving the first victory, and would lay

it upon Brouncker. Having given them good satisfaction I away thence,

up and down, wanting a little to see whether I could get Mrs. Burroughes

out, but elle being in the shop ego did speak con her much, she could

not then go far, and so I took coach and away to Unthanke’s, and there

took up my wife and Deb., and to the Park, where, being in a hackney,

and they undressed, was ashamed to go into the tour, but went round

the park, and so with pleasure home, where Mr. Pelting come and sat and

talked late with us, and he being gone, I called Deb. to take pen, ink,

and paper and write down what things come into my head for my wife to

do in order to her going into the country, and the girl, writing not

so well as she would do, cried, and her mistress construed it to

be sullenness, and so away angry with her too, but going to bed she

undressed me, and there I did give her good advice and baiser la, elle

weeping still.