[In this part of the “Diary” no entry occurs for thirteen days,
though there are several pages left blank. During the interval
Pepys went into the country, as he subsequently mentions his having
been at Saxham, in Suffolk, during the king’s visit to Lord Crofts,
which took place at this time (see October 23rd, host). He might
also probably have gone to Impington to fetch his wife. The pages
left blank were never filled up.--B.]
October 11th (Lord’s day’). Up and to church, where I find Parson Mills
come to town and preached, and the church full, most people being now
come home to town, though the season of year is as good as summer in all
respects. At noon dined at home with my wife, all alone, and busy all
the afternoon in my closet, making up some papers with W. Hewer and at
night comes Mr. Turner and his wife, and there they tell me that Mr.
Harper is dead at Deptford, and so now all his and my care is, how
to secure his being Storekeeper in his stead; and here they and their
daughter, and a kinswoman that come along with them, did sup with me,
and pretty merry, and then, they gone, and my wife to read to me, and to
bed.
12th. Up, and with Mr. Turner by water to White Hall, there to think to
enquire when the Duke of York will be in town, in order to Mr. Turner’s
going down to Audley Ends about his place; and here I met in St. James’s
Park with one that told us that the Duke of York would be in town
to-morrow, and so Turner parted and went home, and I also did stop my
intentions of going to the Court, also this day, about securing
Mr. Turner’s place of Petty-purveyor to Mr. Hater. So I to my Lord
Brouncker’s, thinking to have gone and spoke to him about it, but he
is gone out to town till night, and so, meeting a gentleman of my Lord
Middleton’s looking for me about the payment of the L1000 lately ordered
to his Lord, in advance of his pay, which shall arise upon his going
Governor to Tangier, I did go to his Lord’s lodgings, and there spoke
the first time with him, and find him a shrewd man, but a drinking man,
I think, as the world says; but a man that hath seen much of the world,
and is a Scot. I offered him my service, though I can do him little; but
he sends his man home with me, where I made him stay, till I had gone to
Sir W. Pen, to bespeak him about Mr. Hater, who, contrary to my fears,
did appear very friendly, to my great content; for I was afraid of his
appearing for his man Burroughs. But he did not; but did declare to me
afterwards his intentions to desire an excuse in his own business, to
be eased of the business of the Comptroller, his health not giving him
power to stay always in town, but he must go into the country. I did
say little to him but compliment, having no leisure to think of his
business, or any man’s but my own, and so away and home, where I find
Sir H. Cholmly come to town; and is come hither to see me: and he is a
man that I love mightily, as being, of a gentleman, the most industrious
that ever I saw. He staid with me awhile talking, and telling me his
obligations to my Lord Sandwich, which I was glad of; and that the Duke
of Buckingham is now chief of all men in this kingdom, which I knew
before; and that he do think the Parliament will hardly ever meet again;
which is a great many men’s thoughts, and I shall not be sorry for it.
He being gone, I with my Lord Middleton’s servant to Mr. Colvill’s, but
he was not in town, and so he parted, and I home, and there to dinner,
and Mr. Pelling with us; and thence my wife and Mercer, and W. Hewer and
Deb., to the King’s playhouse, and I afterwards by water with them, and
there we did hear the Eunuch (who, it seems, is a Frenchman, but long
bred in Italy) sing, which I seemed to take as new to me, though I
saw him on Saturday last, but said nothing of it; but such action and
singing I could never have imagined to have heard, and do make good
whatever Tom Hill used to tell me. Here we met with Mr. Batelier and his
sister, and so they home with us in two coaches, and there at my house
staid and supped, and this night my bookseller Shrewsbury comes, and
brings my books of Martyrs, and I did pay him for them, and did this
night make the young women before supper to open all the volumes for me.
So to supper, and after supper to read a ridiculous nonsensical book set
out by Will. Pen, for the Quakers; but so full of nothing but nonsense,
that I was ashamed to read in it. So they gone, we to bed.
[Penn’s first work, entitled, “Truth exalted, in a short but sure
testimony against all those religions, faiths, and worships, that
have been formed and followed, in the darkness of apostacy; and for
that glorious light which is now risen, and shines forth, in the
life and doctrine of the despised Quakers.... by W. Penn,
whom divine love constrains, in holy contempt, to trample on Egypt’s
glory, not fearing the King’s wrath, having beheld the Majesty of
Him who is invisible:” London, 1668.--B.]
13th. Up, and to the office, and before the office did speak with my
Lord Brouncker, and there did get his ready assent to T. Hater’s having
of Mr. Turner’s place, and so Sir J. Minnes’s also: but when we come to
sit down at the Board, comes to us Mr. Wren this day to town, and
tells me that James Southern do petition the Duke of York for the
Storekeeper’s place of Deptford, which did trouble me much, and also the
Board, though, upon discourse, after he was gone, we did resolve to move
hard for our Clerks, and that places of preferment may go according to
seniority and merit. So, the Board up, I home with my people to dinner,
and so to the office again, and there, after doing some business, I with
Mr. Turner to the Duke of Albemarle’s at night; and there did speak to
him about his appearing to Mr. Wren a friend to Mr. Turner, which he did
take kindly from me; and so away thence, well pleased with what we had
now done, and so I with him home, stopping at my Lord Brouncker’s, and
getting his hand to a letter I wrote to the Duke of York for T. Hater,
and also at my Lord Middleton’s, to give him an account of what I had
done this day, with his man, at Alderman Backewell’s, about the getting
of his L1000 paid;
[It was probably for this payment that the tally was obtained, the
loss of which caused Pepys so much anxiety. See November 26th,
1668]
and here he did take occasion to discourse about the business of the
Dutch war, which, he says, he was always an enemy to; and did discourse
very well of it, I saying little, but pleased to hear him talk; and to
see how some men may by age come to know much, and yet by their drinking
and other pleasures render themselves not very considerable. I did this
day find by discourse with somebody, that this nobleman was the great
Major-General Middleton; that was of the Scots army, in the beginning of
the late war against the King. Thence home and to the office to finish
my letters, and so home and did get my wife to read to me, and then Deb
to comb my head. ...
14th. Up, and by water, stopping at Michell’s, and there saw Betty, but
could have no discourse with her, but there drank. To White Hall, and
there walked to St. James’s, where I find the Court mighty full, it
being the Duke or York’s birthday; and he mighty fine, and all the
musick, one after another, to my great content. Here I met with Sir
H. Cholmly; and he and I to walk, and to my Lord Barkeley’s new house;
there to see a new experiment of a cart, which; by having two little
wheeles fastened to the axle-tree, is said to make it go with half the
ease and more, than another cart but we did not see the trial made.
Thence I home, and after dinner to St. James’s, and there met my
brethren; but the Duke of York being gone out, and to-night being a play
there; and a great festival, we would not stay, but went all of us to
the King’s playhouse, and there saw “The Faythful Shepherdess” again,
that we might hear the French Eunuch sing, which we did, to our great
content; though I do admire his action as much as his singing, being
both beyond all I ever saw or heard. Thence with W. Pen home, and there
to get my people to read, and to supper, and so to bed.
15th. Up, and all the morning at the office, and at home at dinner,
where, after dinner, my wife and I and Deb. out by coach to the
upholsters in Long Lane, Alderman Reeve’s, and then to Alderman Crow’s,
to see variety of hangings, and were mightily pleased therewith, and
spent the whole afternoon thereupon; and at last I think we shall pitch
upon the best suit of Apostles, where three pieces for my room will come
to almost L80: so home, and to my office, and then home to supper and to
bed. This day at the Board comes unexpected the warrants from the Duke
of York for Mr. Turner and Hater, for the places they desire, which
contents me mightily.
16th. Up, and busy all the morning at the office, and before noon I took
my wife by coach, and Deb., and shewed her Mr. Wren’s hangings and
bed, at St. James’s, and Sir W. Coventry’s in the Pell Mell, for our
satisfaction in what we are going to buy; and so by Mr. Crow’s,
home, about his hangings, and do pitch upon buying his second suit of
Apostles-the whole suit, which comes to L83; and this we think the best
for us, having now the whole suit, to answer any other rooms or service.
So home to dinner, and with Mr. Hater by water to St. James’s: there Mr.
Hater, to give Mr. Wren thanks for his kindness about his place that he
hath lately granted him, of Petty Purveyor of petty emptions, upon the
removal of Mr. Turner to be Storekeeper at Deptford, on the death of
Harper. And then we all up to the Duke of York, and there did our usual
business, and so I with J. Minnes home, and there finding my wife gone
to my aunt Wight’s, to see her the first time after her coming to town,
and indeed the first time, I think, these two years (we having been
great strangers one to the other for a great while), I to them; and
there mighty kindly used, and had a barrel of oysters, and so to look
up and down their house, they having hung a room since I was there, but
with hangings not fit to be seen with mine, which I find all come home
to-night, and here staying an hour or two we home, and there to supper
and to bed.
17th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning sitting, and at noon
home to dinner, and to the office all the afternoon, and then late home,
and there with much pleasure getting Mr. Gibbs, that writes well, to
write the name upon my new draught of “The Resolution;” and so set it
up, and altered the situation of some of my pictures in my closet, to
my extraordinary content, and at it with much pleasure till almost 12
at night. Mr. Moore and Seymour were with me this afternoon, who tell me
that my Lord Sandwich was received mighty kindly by the King, and is in
exceeding great esteem with him, and the rest about him; but I doubt it
will be hard for him to please both the King and the Duke of York, which
I shall be sorry for. Mr. Moore tells me the sad condition my Lord is
in, in his estate and debts; and the way he now lives in, so high, and
so many vain servants about him, that he must be ruined, if he do not
take up, which, by the grace of God, I will put him upon, when I come to
see him.
18th (Lord’s day). Up, and with my boy Tom all the morning altering the
places of my pictures with great pleasure, and at noon to dinner, and
then comes Mr. Shales to see me, and I with him to recommend him to my
Lord Brouncker’s service, which I did at Madam Williams’s, and my Lord
receives him. Thence with Brouncker to Lincolne’s Inn, and Mr. Ball,
to visit Dr. Wilkins, now newly Bishop of Chester: and he received us
mighty kindly; and had most excellent discourse from him about his Book
of Reall Character: and so I with Lord Brouncker to White Hall, and
there saw the Queen and some ladies, and with Lord Brouncker back, it
again being a rainy evening, and so my Lord forced to lend me his coach
till I got a hackney, which I did, and so home and to supper, and got my
wife to read to me, and so to bed.
19th. Up, and to my office to set down my Journall for some days past,
and so to other business. At the office all the morning upon some
business of Sir W. Warren’s, and at noon home to dinner, and thence
out by coach with my wife and Deb. and Mr. Harman, the upholster, and
carried them to take measure of Mr. Wren’s bed at St. James’s, I being
resolved to have just such another made me, and thence set him down in
the Strand, and my wife and I to the Duke of York’s playhouse; and there
saw, the first time acted, “The Queene of Arragon,” an old Blackfriars
play, but an admirable one, so good that I am astonished at it, and
wonder where it hath lain asleep all this while, that I have never heard
of it before. Here met W. Batelier and Mrs. Hunt, Deb.’s aunt; and
saw her home--a very witty woman, and one that knows this play, and
understands a play mighty well. Left her at home in Jewen Street, and we
home, and to supper, and my wife to read to me, and so to bed.
20th. Up, and to the office all the morning, and then home to dinner,
having this day a new girl come to us in the room of Nell, who is
lately, about four days since, gone away, being grown lazy and proud.
This girl to stay only till we have a boy, which I intend to keep when
I have a coach, which I am now about. At this time my wife and I mighty
busy laying out money in dressing up our best chamber, and thinking of
a coach and coachman and horses, &c.; and the more because of Creed’s
being now married to Mrs. Pickering; a thing I could never have
expected, but it is done about seven or ten days since, as I hear out
of the country. At noon home to dinner, and my wife and Harman and girl
abroad to buy things, and I walked out to several places to pay debts,
and among other things to look out for a coach, and saw many; and did
light on one for which I bid L50, which do please me mightily, and I
believe I shall have it. So to my tailor’s, and the New Exchange, and so
by coach home, and there, having this day bought “The Queene of Arragon”
play, I did get my wife and W. Batelier to read it over this night by 11
o’clock, and so to bed.
21st. Lay pretty long talking with content with my wife about our
coach and things, and so to the office, where Sir D. Gawden was to do
something in his accounts. At noon to dinner to Mr. Batelier’s, his
mother coming this day a-housewarming to him, and several friends of
his, to which he invited us. Here mighty merry, and his mother the same;
I heretofore took her for a gentlewoman, and understanding. I rose from
table before the rest, because under an obligation to go to my Lord
Brouncker’s, where to meet several gentlemen of the Royal Society, to go
and make a visit to the French Embassador Colbert, at Leicester House,
he having endeavoured to make one or two to my Lord Brouncker, as our
President, but he was not within, but I come too late, they being gone
before: but I followed to Leicester House; but they are gore in and up
before me; and so I away to the New Exchange, and there staid for my
wife, and she come, we to Cow Lane, and there I shewed her the coach
which I pitch on, and she is out of herself for joy almost. But the man
not within, so did nothing more towards an agreement, but to Mr. Crow’s
about a bed, to have his advice, and so home, and there had my wife to
read to me, and so to supper and to bed. Memorandum: that from Crow’s,
we went back to Charing Cross, and there left my people at their
tailor’s, while I to my Lord Sandwich’s lodgings, who come to town the
last night, and is come thither to lye: and met with him within: and
among others my new cozen Creed, who looks mighty soberly; and he and I
saluted one another with mighty gravity, till we come to a little more
freedom of talk about it. But here I hear that Sir Gilbert Pickering
is lately dead, about three days since, which makes some sorrow there,
though not much, because of his being long expected to die, having been
in a lethargy long. So waited on my Lord to Court, and there staid and
saw the ladies awhile: and thence to my wife, and took them up; and so
home, and to supper and bed.
22nd. Up, and W. Batelier’s Frenchman, a perriwigg maker, comes and
brings me a new one, which I liked and paid him for: a mighty genteel
fellow. So to the office, where sat all the morning, and at noon home to
dinner, and thence with wife and Deb. to Crow’s, and there did see some
more beds; and we shall, I think, pitch upon a camlott one, when all is
done. Thence sent them home, and I to Arundell House, where the first
time we have met since the vacation, and not much company: but here much
good discourse, and afterwards my Lord and others and I to the Devil
tavern, and there eat and drank, and so late, with Mr. Colwell, home by
coach; and at home took him with me, and there found my uncle Wight and
aunt, and Woolly and his wife, and there supped, and mighty merry. And
anon they gone, and Mrs. Turner staid, who was there also to talk of
her husband’s business; and the truth is, I was the less pleased to talk
with her, for that she hath not yet owned, in any fit manner of thanks,
my late and principal service to her husband about his place, which I
alone ought to have the thanks for, if they know as much as I do; but
let it go: if they do not own it, I shall have it in my hand to teach
them to do it. So to bed. This day word come for all the Principal
Officers to bring them [the Commissioners of Accounts] their patents,
which I did in the afternoon, by leaving it at their office, but am
troubled at what should be their design therein.
23rd. Up, and plasterers at work and painters about my house.
Commissioner Middleton and I to St. James’s, where with the rest of our
company we attended on our usual business the Duke of York. Thence I
to White Hall, to my Lord Sandwich’s, where I find my Lord within, but
busy, private; and so I staid a little talking with the young gentlemen:
and so away with Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, towards Tyburne, to see the
people executed; but come too late, it being done; two men and a woman
hanged, and so back again and to my coachmaker’s, and there did come a
little nearer agreement for the coach, and so to Duck Lane, and there my
bookseller’s, and saw his moher, but elle is so big-bellied that elle is
not worth seeing. So home, and there all alone to dinner, my wife and W.
Hewer being gone to Deptford to see her mother, and so I to the office
all the afternoon. In the afternoon comes my cozen, Sidney Pickering,
to bring my wife and me his sister’s Favour for her wedding, which is
kindly done, and he gone, I to business again, and in the evening home,
made my wife read till supper time, and so to bed. This day Pierce
do tell me, among other news, the late frolick and debauchery of Sir
Charles Sidly and Buckhurst, running up and down all the night with
their arses bare, through the streets; and at last fighting, and being
beat by the watch and clapped up all night; and how the King takes their
parts; and my Lord Chief Justice Keeling hath laid the constable by the
heels to answer it next Sessions: which is a horrid shame. How the
King and these gentlemen did make the fiddlers of Thetford, this last
progress, to sing them all the bawdy songs they could think of. How Sir
W. Coventry was brought the other day to the Duchesse of York by the
Duke, to kiss her hand; who did acknowledge his unhappiness to occasion
her so much sorrow, declaring his intentions in it, and praying her
pardon; which she did give him upon his promise to make good his
pretences of innocence to her family, by his faithfulness to his master,
the Duke of York. That the Duke of Buckingham is now all in all, and
will ruin Coventry, if he can: and that W. Coventry do now rest wholly
upon the Duke of York for his standing, which is a great turn. He tells
me that my Lady Castlemayne, however, is a mortal enemy to the Duke of
Buckingham, which I understand not; but, it seems, she is disgusted
with his greatness, and his ill usage of her. That the King was drunk at
Saxam with Sidly, Buckhurst, &c., the night that my Lord Arlington come
thither, and would not give him audience, or could not which is true,
for it was the night that I was there, and saw the King go up to his
chamber, and was told that the King had been drinking. He tells me,
too, that the Duke of York did the next day chide Bab. May for his
occasioning the King’s giving himself up to these gentlemen, to the
neglecting of my Lord Arlington: to which he answered merrily, that, by
God, there was no man in England that had heads to lose, durst do what
they do, every day, with the King, and asked the Duke of York’s pardon:
which is a sign of a mad world. God bless us out of it!
24th. This morning comes to me the coachmaker, and agreed with me for
L53, and stand to the courtesy of what more I should give him upon the
finishing of the coach: he is likely also to fit me with a coachman.
There comes also to me Mr. Shotgrave, the operator of our Royal Society,
to show me his method of making the Tubes for the eyes, which are
clouterly done, so that mine are better, but I have well informed myself
in several things from him, and so am glad of speaking with him. So to
the office, where all the morning, and then to dinner, and so all the
afternoon late at the office, and so home; and my wife to read to me,
and then with much content to bed. This day Lord Brouncker tells me that
the making Sir J. Minnes a bare Commissioner is now in doing, which I am
glad of; but he speaks of two new Commissioners, which I do not believe.
25th (Lord’s day). Up, and discoursing with my wife about our house and
many new things we are doing of, and so to church I, and there find Jack
Fenn come, and his wife, a pretty black woman: I never saw her before,
nor took notice of her now. So home and to dinner, and after dinner
all the afternoon got my wife and boy to read to me, and at night W.
Batelier comes and sups with us; and, after supper, to have my head
combed by Deb., which occasioned the greatest sorrow to me that ever
I knew in this world, for my wife, coming up suddenly, did find me
embracing the girl.... I was at a wonderful loss upon it, and the girle
also, and I endeavoured to put it off, but my wife was struck mute and
grew angry, and so her voice come to her, grew quite out of order, and
I to say little, but to bed, and my wife said little also, but could not
sleep all night, but about two in the morning waked me and cried, and
fell to tell me as a great secret that she was a Roman Catholique and
had received the Holy Sacrament, which troubled me, but I took no
notice of it, but she went on from one thing to another till at last it
appeared plainly her trouble was at what she saw, but yet I did not know
how much she saw, and therefore said nothing to her. But after her much
crying and reproaching me with inconstancy and preferring a sorry girl
before her, I did give her no provocation, but did promise all fair
usage to her and love, and foreswore any hurt that I did with her, till
at last she seemed to be at ease again, and so toward morning a little
sleep, and so I with some little repose and rest
26th. Rose, and up and by water to White Hall, but with my mind mightily
troubled for the poor girle, whom I fear I have undone by this, my
[wife] telling me that she would turn her out of doors. However, I was
obliged to attend the Duke of York, thinking to have had a meeting of
Tangier to-day, but had not; but he did take me and Mr. Wren into his
closet, and there did press me to prepare what I had to say upon the
answers of my fellow-officers to his great letter, which I promised
to do against his coming to town again, the next week; and so to other
discourse, finding plainly that he is in trouble, and apprehensions of
the Reformers, and would be found to do what he can towards reforming,
himself. And so thence to my Lord Sandwich’s, where, after long stay,
he being in talk with others privately, I to him; and there he, taking
physic and keeping his chamber, I had an hour’s talk with him about the
ill posture of things at this time, while the King gives countenance to
Sir Charles Sidly and Lord Buckhurst, telling him their late story of
running up and down the streets a little while since all night, and
their being beaten and clapped up all night by the constable, who is
since chid and imprisoned for his pains. He tells me that he thinks his
matters do stand well with the King, and hopes to have dispatch to his
mind; but I doubt it, and do see that he do fear it, too. He told me my
Lady Carteret’s trouble about my writing of that letter of the Duke of
York’s lately to the Office, which I did not own, but declared to be
of no injury to G. Carteret, and that I would write a letter to him
to satisfy him therein. But this I am in pain how to do, without doing
myself wrong, and the end I had, of preparing a justification to myself
hereafter, when the faults of the Navy come to be found out however, I
will do it in the best manner I can. Thence by coach home and to dinner,
finding my wife mightily discontented, and the girle sad, and no words
from my wife to her. So after dinner they out with me about two or three
things, and so home again, I all the evening busy, and my wife full of
trouble in her looks, and anon to bed, where about midnight she wakes
me, and there falls foul of me again, affirming that she saw me hug and
kiss the girle; the latter I denied, and truly, the other I confessed
and no more, and upon her pressing me did offer to give her under my
hand that I would never see Mrs. Pierce more nor Knepp, but did promise
her particular demonstrations of my true love to her, owning some
indiscretions in what I did, but that there was no harm in it. She at
last upon these promises was quiet, and very kind we were, and so to
sleep, and
27th. In the morning up, but my mind troubled for the poor girle, with
whom I could not get opportunity to speak, but to the office, my mind
mighty full of sorrow for her, to the office, where all the morning, and
to dinner with my people, and to the office all the afternoon, and so at
night home, and there busy to get some things ready against to-morrow’s
meeting of Tangier, and that being done, and my clerks gone, my wife did
towards bedtime begin to be in a mighty rage from some new matter that
she had got in her head, and did most part of the night in bed rant
at me in most high terms of threats of publishing my shame, and when I
offered to rise would have rose too, and caused a candle to be light to
burn by her all night in the chimney while she ranted, while the knowing
myself to have given some grounds for it, did make it my business to
appease her all I could possibly, and by good words and fair promises
did make her very quiet, and so rested all night, and rose with perfect
good peace, being heartily afflicted for this folly of mine that did
occasion it, but was forced to be silent about the girle, which I have
no mind to part with, but much less that the poor girle should be undone
by my folly. So up with mighty kindness from my wife and a thorough
peace, and being up did by a note advise the girle what I had done and
owned, which note I was in pain for till she told me she had burned it.
This evening Mr. Spong come, and sat late with me, and first told me of
the instrument called parallelogram,
[This useful instrument, used for copying maps, plans, drawings, &c.
either of the same size, or larger or smaller than the originals, is
now named a pantograph.]
which I must have one of, shewing me his practice thereon, by a map of
England.
28th. So by coach with Mr. Gibson to Chancery Lane, and there made oath
before a Master of Chancery to the Tangier account of fees, and so to
White Hall, where, by and by, a Committee met, my Lord Sandwich there,
but his report was not received, it being late; but only a little
business done, about the supplying the place with victuals. But I
did get, to my great content, my account allowed of fees, with great
applause by my Lord Ashly and Sir W. Pen. Thence home, calling at one or
two places; and there about our workmen, who are at work upon my wife’s
closet, and other parts of my house, that we are all in dirt. So after
dinner with Mr. Gibson all the afternoon in my closet, and at night to
supper and to bed, my wife and I at good peace, but yet with some little
grudgings of trouble in her and more in me about the poor girle.
29th. At the office all the morning, where Mr. Wren first tells us
of the order from the King, came last night to the Duke of York, for
signifying his pleasure to the Sollicitor-General for drawing up a
Commission for suspending of my Lord Anglesey, and putting in Sir
Thomas. Littleton and Sir Thomas Osborne, the former a creature of
Arlington’s, and the latter of the Duke of Buckingham’s, during the
suspension. The Duke of York was forced to obey, and did grant it, he
being to go to Newmarket this day with the King, and so the King pressed
for it. But Mr. Wren do own that the Duke of York is the most wounded
in this, in the world, for it is done and concluded without his privity,
after his appearing for Lord Anglesey, and that it is plain that they do
ayme to bring the Admiralty into Commission too, and lessen the Duke of
York. This do put strange apprehensions into all our Board; only I think
I am the least troubled at it, for I care not at all for it: but my Lord
Brouncker and Pen do seem to think much of it. So home to dinner,
full of this news, and after dinner to the office, and so home all the
afternoon to do business towards my drawing up an account for the Duke
of York of the answers of this office to his late great letter, and late
at it, and so to bed, with great peace from my wife and quiet, I bless
God.
30th. Up betimes; and Mr. Povy comes to even accounts with me, which we
did, and then fell to other talk. He tells, in short, how the King is
made a child of, by Buckingham and Arlington, to the lessening of the
Duke of York, whom they cannot suffer to be great, for fear of my
Lord Chancellor’s return, which, therefore, they make the King violent
against. That he believes it is impossible these two great men can
hold together long: or, at least, that the ambition of the former is so
great, that he will endeavour to master all, and bring into play as
many as he can. That Anglesey will not lose his place easily, but will
contend in law with whoever comes to execute it. That the Duke of York,
in all things but in his cod-piece, is led by the nose by his wife. That
W. Coventry is now, by the Duke of York, made friends with the Duchess;
and that he is often there, and waits on her. That he do believe that
these present great men will break in time, and that W. Coventry will be
a great man again; for he do labour to have nothing to do in matters
of the State, and is so usefull to the side that he is on, that he
will stand, though at present he is quite out of play. That my Lady
Castlemayne hates the Duke of Buckingham. That the Duke of York hath
expressed himself very kind to my Lord Sandwich, which I am mighty glad
of. That we are to expect more changes if these men stand. This done,
he and I to talk of my coach, and I got him to go see it, where he finds
most infinite fault with it, both as to being out of fashion and heavy,
with so good reason that I am mightily glad of his having corrected
me in it; and so I do resolve to have one of his build, and with his
advice, both in coach and horses, he being the fittest man in the world
for it, and so he carried me home, and said the same to my wife. So I
to the office and he away, and at noon I home to dinner, and all
the afternoon late with Gibson at my chamber about my present great
business, only a little in the afternoon at the office about Sir D.
Gawden’s accounts, and so to bed and slept heartily, my wife and I at
good peace, but my heart troubled and her mind not at ease, I perceive,
she against and I for the girle, to whom I have not said anything these
three days, but resolve to be mighty strange in appearance to her. This
night W. Batelier come and took his leave of us, he setting out for
France to-morrow.
31st. Up, and at the office all the morning. At noon home to dinner with
my people, and afternoon to the office again, and then to my chamber
with Gibson to do more about my great answer for the Duke of York, and
so at night after supper to bed well pleased with my advance thereon.
This day my Lord Anglesey was at the Office, and do seem to make nothing
of this business of his suspension, resolving to bring it into the
Council, where he seems not to doubt to have right, he standing upon his
defence and patent, and hath put in his caveats to the several Offices:
so, as soon as the King comes back again, which will be on Tuesday next,
he will bring it into the Council. So ends this month with some quiet to
my mind, though not perfect, after the greatest falling out with my poor
wife, and through my folly with the girl, that ever I had, and I have
reason to be sorry and ashamed of it, and more to be troubled for the
poor girl’s sake, whom I fear I shall by this means prove the ruin of,
though I shall think myself concerned both to love and be a friend to
her. This day Roger Pepys and his son Talbot, newly come to town, come
and dined with me, and mighty glad I am to see them.