Book: Diary of Samuel Pepys, January 1659/1660
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Samuel Pepys >> Diary of Samuel Pepys, January 1659/1660
Thence to Mr. Sheply's and took him to my house and drank with him in
order to his going to-morrow. So parted and I sat up late making up my
accounts before he go. This day three citizens of London went to meet
Monk from the Common Council!
"Jan. 20th. Then there went out of the City, by desire of the Lord
Mayor and Court of Aldermen, Alderman Fowke and Alderman Vincett,
alias Vincent, and Mr. Broomfield, to compliment General Monk, who
lay at Harborough Town, in Leicestershire."
"Jan. 21st. Because the Speaker was sick, and Lord General Monk so
near London, and everybody thought that the City would suffer for
their affronts to the soldiery, and because they had sent the sword-
bearer to, the General without the Parliament's consent, and the
three Aldermen were gone to give him the welcome to town, these four
lines were in almost everybody's mouth:
"Monk under a hood, not well understood,
The City pull in their horns;
The Speaker is out, and sick of the gout,
And the Parliament sit upon thorns."
--Rugge's 'Diurnal.'--B."
21st. Up early in finishing my accounts and writing to my Lord and from
thence to my Lord's and took leave of Mr. Sheply and possession of all the
keys and the house. Thence to my office for some money to pay Mr. Sheply
and sent it him by the old man. I then went to Mr. Downing who chid me
because I did not give him notice of some of his guests failed him but I
told him that I sent our porter to tell him and he was not within, but he
told me that he was within till past twelve o'clock. So the porter or he
lied. Thence to my office where nothing to do. Then with Mr. Hawly, he
and I went to Mr. Crew's and dined there. Thence into London, to Mr.
Vernon's and I received my L25 due by bill for my troopers' pay. Then
back again to Steadman's. At the Mitre, in Fleet street, in our way
calling on Mr. Fage, who told me how the City have some hopes of Monk.
Thence to the Mitre, where I drank a pint of wine, the house being in
fitting for Banister to come hither from Paget's. Thence to Mrs. Jem and
gave her L5. So home and left my money and to Whitehall where Luellin and
I drank and talked together an hour at Marsh's and so up to the clerks'
room, where poor Mr. Cook, a black man, that is like to be put out of his
clerk's place, came and railed at me for endeavouring to put him out and
get myself in, when I was already in a good condition. But I satisfied
him and after I had wrote a letter there to my Lord, wherein I gave him an
account how this day Lenthall took his chair again, and [the House]
resolved a declaration to be brought in on Monday next to satisfy the
world what they intend to do. So home and to bed.
22nd. I went in the morning to Mr. Messum's, where I met with W. Thurburn
and sat with him in his pew. A very eloquent sermon about the duty of all
to give good example in our lives and conversation, which I fear he
himself was most guilty of not doing. After sermon, at the door by
appointment my wife met me, and so to my father's to dinner, where we had
not been to my shame in a fortnight before. After dinner my father shewed
me a letter from Mr. Widdrington, of Christ's College, in Cambridge,
wherein he do express very great kindness for my brother, and my father
intends that my brother shall go to him. To church in the afternoon to
Mr. Herring, where a lazy poor sermon. And so home with Mrs. Turner and
sitting with her a while we went to my father's where we supt very merry,
and so home. This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes, which I have
bought yesterday of Mr. Wotton.
23rd. In the morning called out to carry L20 to Mr. Downing, which I did
and came back, and finding Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, I took him to the Axe
and gave him his morning draft. Thence to my office and there did nothing
but make up my balance. Came home and found my wife dressing of the
girl's head, by which she was made to look very pretty. I went out and
paid Wilkinson what I did owe him, and brought a piece of beef home for
dinner. Thence I went out and paid Waters, the vintner, and went to see
Mrs. Jem, where I found my Lady Wright, but Scott was so drunk that he
could not be seen. Here I staid and made up Mrs. Ann's bills, and played
a game or two at cards, and thence to Westminster Hall, it being very
dark. I paid Mrs. Michell, my bookseller, and back to Whitehall, and in
the garden, going through to the Stone Gallery--[The Stone Gallery was a
long passage between the Privy Garden and the river. It led from the
Bowling Green to the Court of the Palace]--I fell into a ditch, it being
very dark. At the Clerk's chamber I met with Simons and Luellin, and went
with them to Mr. Mount's chamber at the Cock Pit, where we had some rare
pot venison, and ale to abundance till almost twelve at night, and after a
song round we went home. This day the Parliament sat late, and resolved
of the declaration to be printed for the people's satisfaction, promising
them a great many good things.
24th. In the morning to my office, where, after I had drank my morning
draft at Will's with Ethell and Mr. Stevens, I went and told part of the
excise money till twelve o'clock, and then called on my wife and took her
to Mr. Pierces, she in the way being exceedingly troubled with a pair of
new pattens, and I vexed to go so slow, it being late. There when we came
we found Mrs. Carrick very fine, and one Mr. Lucy, who called one another
husband and wife, and after dinner a great deal of mad stir. There was
pulling off Mrs. bride's and Mr. bridegroom's ribbons;
[The scramble for ribbons, here mentioned by Pepys in connection
with weddings (see also January 26th, 1660-61, and February 8th,
1662-3), doubtless formed part of the ceremony of undressing the
bridegroom, which, as the age became more refined, fell into disuse.
All the old plays are silent on the custom; the earliest notice of
which occurs in the old ballad of the wedding of Arthur O'Bradley,
printed in the Appendix to "Robin Hood," 1795, where we read--
"Then got they his points and his garters,
And cut them in pieces like martyrs;
And then they all did play
For the honour of Arthur O'Bradley."
Sir Winston Churchill also observes ("Divi Britannici," p. 340) that
James I. was no more troubled at his querulous countrymen robbing
him than a bridegroom at the losing of his points and garters. Lady
Fanshawe, in her "Memoirs," says, that at the nuptials of Charles
II. and the Infanta, "the Bishop of London declared them married in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and then they
caused the ribbons her Majesty wore to be cut in little pieces; and
as far as they would go, every one had some." The practice still
survives in the form of wedding favours.
A similar custom is still of every day's occurrence at Dieppe. Upon
the morrow after their marriage, the bride and bridegroom
perambulate the streets, followed by a numerous cortege, the guests
at the wedding festival, two and two; each individual wearing two
bits of narrow ribbon, about two inches in length, of different
colours, which are pinned crossways upon the breast. These morsels
of ribbons originally formed the garters of the bride and
bridegroom, which had been divided amidst boisterous mirth among the
assembled company, the moment the happy pair had been formally
installed in the bridal bed.--Ex. inf. Mr. William .Hughes,
Belvedere, Jersey.--B.]
with a great deal of fooling among them that I and my wife did not like.
Mr. Lucy and several other gentlemen coming in after dinner, swearing and
singing as if they were mad, only he singing very handsomely. There came
in afterwards Mr. Southerne, clerk to Mr. Blackburne, and with him
Lambert, lieutenant of my Lord's ship, and brought with them the
declaration that came out to-day from the Parliament, wherein they declare
for law and gospel, and for tythes; but I do not find people apt to
believe them. After this taking leave I went to my father's, and my wife
staying there, he and I went to speak with Mr. Crumlum (in the meantime,
while it was five o'clock, he being in the school, we went to my cozen Tom
Pepys' shop, the turner in Paul's Churchyard, and drank with him a pot of
ale); he gave my father directions what to do about getting my brother an
exhibition, and spoke very well of my brother. Thence back with my father
home, where he and I spoke privately in the little room to my sister Pall
about stealing of things as my wife's scissars and my maid's book, at
which my father was much troubled. Hence home with my wife and so to
Whitehall, where I met with Mr. Hunt and Luellin, and drank with them at
Marsh's, and afterwards went up and wrote to my Lord by the post. This
day the Parliament gave order that the late Committee of Safety should
come before them this day se'nnight, and all their papers, and their model
of Government that they had made, to be brought in with them. So home and
talked with my wife about our dinner on Thursday.
25th. Called up early to Mr. Downing; he gave me a Character, such a one
as my Lord's, to make perfect, and likewise gave me his order for L500 to
carry to Mr. Frost, which I did and so to my office, where I did do
something about the character till twelve o'clock. Then home find found
my wife and the maid at my Lord's getting things ready against to-morrow.
I went by water to my Uncle White's' to dinner, where I met my father,
where we alone had a fine jole of Ling to dinner. After dinner I took
leave, and coming home heard that in Cheapside there had been but a little
before a gibbet set up, and the picture of Huson
[John Hewson, who, from a low origin, became a colonel in the
Parliament army, and sat in judgment on the King: he escaped hanging
by flight, and died in 1662, at Amsterdam. A curious notice of
Hewson occurs in Rugge's "Diurnal," December 5th, 1659, which states
that "he was a cobbler by trade, but a very stout man, and a very
good commander; but in regard of his former employment, they [the
city apprentices] threw at him old shoes, and slippers, and
turniptops, and brick-bats, stones, and tiles." . . . "At this
time [January, 1659-60] there came forth, almost every day, jeering
books: one was called 'Colonel Hewson's Confession; or, a Parley
with Pluto,' about his going into London, and taking down the gates
of Temple-Bar." He had but one eye, which did not escape the notice
of his enemies.--B.]
hung upon it in the middle of the street. I called at Paul's Churchyard,
where I bought Buxtorf's Hebrew Grammar; and read a declaration of the
gentlemen of Northampton which came out this afternoon. Thence to my
father's, where I staid with my mother a while and then to Mr. Crew's
about a picture to be sent into the country, of Mr. Thomas Crew, to my
Lord. So [to] my Lady Wright to speak with her, but she was abroad, so
Mr. Evans, her butler, had me into his buttery, and gave me sack and a
lesson on his lute, which he played very well. Thence I went to my Lord's
and got most things ready against tomorrow, as fires and laying the cloth,
and my wife was making of her tarts and larding of her pullets till eleven
o'clock. This evening Mr. Downing sent for me, and gave me order to go to
Mr. Jessop for his papers concerning his dispatch to Holland which were
not ready, only his order for a ship to transport him he gave me. To my
Lord's again and so home with my wife, tired with this day's work.
26th. To my office for L20 to carry to Mr. Downing, which I did and back
again. Then came Mr. Frost to pay Mr. Downing his L500, and I went to him
for the warrant and brought it Mr. Frost. Called for some papers at
Whitehall for Mr. Downing, one of which was an Order of the Council for
L1800 per annum, to be paid monthly; and the other two, Orders to the
Commissioners of Customs, to let his goods pass free. Home from my office
to my Lord's lodgings where my wife had got ready a very fine dinner--viz.
a dish of marrow bones; a leg of mutton; a loin of veal; a dish of fowl,
three pullets, and two dozen of larks all in a dish; a great tart, a
neat's tongue, a dish of anchovies; a dish of prawns and cheese. My
company was my father, my uncle Fenner, his two sons, Mr. Pierce, and all
their wives, and my brother Tom. We were as merry as I could frame myself
to be in the company, W. Joyce talking after the old rate and drinking
hard, vexed his father and mother and wife. And I did perceive that Mrs.
Pierce her coming so gallant, that it put the two young women quite out of
courage. When it became dark they all went away but Mr. Pierce, and W.
Joyce, and their wives and Tom, and drank a bottle of wine afterwards, so
that Will did heartily vex his father and mother by staying. At which I
and my wife were much pleased. Then they all went and I fell to writing
of two characters for Mr. Downing, and carried them to him at nine o'clock
at night, and he did not like them but corrected them, so that to-morrow I
am to do them anew. To my Lord's lodging again and sat by the great log,
it being now a very good fire, with my wife, and ate a bit and so home.
The news this day is a letter that speaks absolutely Monk's concurrence
with this Parliament, and nothing else, which yet I hardly believe. After
dinner to-day my father showed me a letter from my Uncle Robert, in
answer to my last, concerning my money which I would have out of my Coz.
Beck's' hand, wherein Beck desires it four months longer, which I know not
how to spare.
27th. Going to my office I met with Tom Newton, my old comrade, and took
him to the Crown in the Palace, and gave him his morning draft. And as he
always did, did talk very high what he would do with the Parliament, that
he would have what place he would, and that he might be one of the Clerks
to the Council if he would. Here I staid talking with him till the
offices were all shut, and then I looked in the Hall, and was told by my
bookseller, Mrs. Michell, that Mr. G. Montagu had inquired there for me.
So I went to his house, and was forced by him to dine with him, and had a
plenteous brave dinner and the greatest civility that ever I had from any
man. Thence home and so to Mrs. Jem, and played with her at cards, and
coming home again my wife told me that Mr. Hawly had been there to speak
with me, and seemed angry that I had not been at the office that day, and
she told me she was afraid that Mr. Downing may have a mind to pick some
hole in my coat. So I made haste to him, but found no such thing from
him, but he sent me to Mr. Sherwin's about getting Mr. Squib to come to
him tomorrow, and I carried him an answer. So home and fell a writing the
characters for Mr. Downing, and about nine at night Mr. Hawly came, and
after he was gone I sat up till almost twelve writing, and--wrote two of
them. In the morning up early and wrote another, my wife lying in bed and
reading to me.
28th. I went to Mr. Downing and carried him three characters, and then to
my office and wrote another, while Mr. Frost staid telling money. And
after I had done it Mr. Hawly came into the office and I left him and
carried it to Mr. Downing, who then told me that he was resolved to be
gone for Holland this morning. So I to my office again, and dispatch my
business there, and came with Mr. Hawly to Mr. Downing's lodging, and took
Mr. Squib from White Hall in a coach thither with me, and there we waited
in his chamber a great while, till he came in; and in the mean time, sent
all his things to the barge that lay at Charing-Cross Stairs. Then came he
in, and took a very civil leave of me, beyond my expectation, for I was
afraid that he would have told me something of removing me from my office;
but he did not, but that he would do me any service that lay in his power.
So I went down and sent a porter to my house for my best fur cap, but he
coming too late with it I did not present it to him. Thence I went to
Westminster Hall, and bound up my cap at Mrs. Michell's, who was much
taken with my cap, and endeavoured to overtake the coach at the Exchange
and to give it him there, but I met with one that told me that he was
gone, and so I returned and went to Heaven,
[A place of entertainment within or adjoining Westminster Hall. It
is called in "Hudibras," "False Heaven, at the end of the Hall."
There were two other alehouses near Westminster Hall, called Hell
and Purgatory.
"Nor break his fast
In Heaven and Hell."
Ben Jonson's Alchemist, act v. SC. 2.]
where Luellin and I dined on a breast of mutton all alone, discoursing of
the changes that we have seen and the happiness of them that have estates
of their own, and so parted, and I went by appointment to my office and
paid young Mr. Walton L500; it being very dark he took L300 by content. He
gave me half a piece and carried me in his coach to St. Clement's, from
whence I went to Mr. Crew's and made even with Mr. Andrews, and took in
all my notes and gave him one for all. Then to my Lady Wright and gave
her my Lord's letter which he bade me give her privately. So home and
then to Will's for a little news, then came home again and wrote to my
Lord, and so to Whitehall and gave them to the post-boy. Back again home
and to bed.
29th. In the morning I went to Mr. Gunning's, where he made an excellent
sermon upon the 2d of the Galatians, about the difference that fell
between St. Paul and St. Peter (the feast day of St. Paul being a day or
two ago), whereby he did prove, that, contrary to the doctrine of the
Roman Church, St. Paul did never own any dependance, or that he was
inferior to St. Peter, but that they were equal, only one a particular
charge of preaching to the Jews, and the other to the Gentiles. Here I
met with Mr. Moore, and went home with him to dinner to Mr. Crew's, where
Mr. Spurrier being in town did dine with us. From thence I went home and
spent the afternoon in casting up my accounts, and do find myself to be
worth L40 and more, which I did not think, but am afraid that I have
forgot something. To my father's to supper, where I heard by my brother
Tom how W. Joyce would the other day have Mr. Pierce and his wife to the
tavern after they were gone from my house, and that he had so little
manners as to make Tom pay his share notwithstanding that he went upon his
account, and by my father I understand that my uncle Fenner and my aunt
were much pleased with our entertaining them. After supper home without
going to see Mrs. Turner.
30th. This morning, before I was up, I fell a-singing of my song, "Great,
good, and just," &c.
[This is the beginning of the Marquis of Montrose's verses on the
execution of Charles I., which Pepys had set to music:
"Great, good, and just, could I but rate
My grief and thy too rigid fate,
I'd weep the world to such a strain
That it should deluge once again.
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies
More from Briareus' hands, than Argus eyes,
I'll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds."]
and put myself thereby in mind that this was the fatal day, now ten years
since, his Majesty died. Scull the waterman came and brought me a note
from the Hope from Mr. Hawly with direction, about his money, he tarrying
there till his master be gone. To my office, where I received money of
the excise of Mr. Ruddyer, and after we had done went to Will's and staid
there till 3 o'clock and then I taking my L12 10s. 0d. due to me for my
last quarter's salary, I went with them by water to London to the house
where Signr. Torriano used to be and staid there a while with Mr.
Ashwell, Spicer and Ruddier. Then I went and paid L12 17s. 6d. due from
me to Captn. Dick Matthews according to his direction the last week in a
letter. After that I came back by water playing on my flageolette and not
finding my wife come home again from her father's I went and sat awhile
and played at cards with Mrs. Jam, whose maid had newly got an ague and
was ill thereupon. So homewards again, having great need to do my
business, and so pretending to meet Mr. Shott the wood monger of Whitehall
I went and eased myself at the Harp and Ball, and thence home where I sat
writing till bed-time and so to bed. There seems now to be a general
cease of talk, it being taken for granted that Monk do resolve to stand to
the Parliament, and nothing else. Spent a little time this night in
knocking up nails for my hat and cloaks in my chamber.
31st. In the morning I fell to my lute till 9 o'clock. Then to my Lord's
lodgings and set out a barrel of soap to be carried to Mrs. Ann. Here I
met with Nick Bartlet, one that had been a servant of my Lord's at sea and
at Harper's gave him his morning draft. So to my office where I paid;
L1200 to Mr. Frost and at noon went to Will's to give one of the Excise
office a pot of ale that came to-day to tell over a bag of his that
wanted; L7 in it, which he found over in another bag. Then home and dined
with my wife when in came Mr. Hawly newly come from shipboard from his
master, and brought me a letter of direction what to do in his lawsuit
with Squib about his house and office. After dinner to Westminster Hall,
where all we clerks had orders to wait upon the Committee, at the Star
Chamber that is to try Colonel Jones,
[Colonel John Jones, impeached, with General Ludlow and Miles
Corbet, for treasonable practices in Ireland.]
and were to give an account what money we had paid him; but the Committee
did not sit to-day. Hence to Will's, where I sat an hour or two with Mr.
Godfrey Austin, a scrivener in King Street. Here I met and afterwards
bought the answer to General Monk's letter, which is a very good one, and
I keep it by me. Thence to Mrs. Jem, where I found her maid in bed in a
fit of the ague, and Mrs. Jem among the people below at work and by and by
she came up hot and merry, as if they had given her wine, at which I was
troubled, but said nothing; after a game at cards, I went home and wrote
by the post and coming back called in at Harper's and drank with Mr.
Pulford, servant to Mr. Waterhouse, who tells me, that whereas my Lord
Fleetwood should have answered to the Parliament to-day, he wrote a letter
and desired a little more time, he being a great way out of town. And how
that he is quite ashamed of himself, and confesses how he had deserved
this, for his baseness to his brother. And that he is like to pay part of
the money, paid out of the Exchequer during the Committee of Safety, out
of his own purse again, which I am glad of. Home and to bed, leaving my
wife reading in Polixandre.
["Polexandre," by Louis Le Roy de Gomberville, was first published
in 1632. "The History of Polexander" was "done into English by W.
Browne," and published in folio, London, 1647. It was the earliest
of the French heroic romances, and it appears to have been the model
for the works of Calprenede and Mdlle. de Scuderi; see Dunlop's
"History of Fiction" for the plot of the romance.]
I could find nothing in Mr. Downing's letter, which Hawly brought me,
concerning my office; but I could discern that Hawly had a mind that I
would get to be Clerk of the Council, I suppose that he might have the
greater salary; but I think it not safe yet to change this for a public
employment.
ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
A very fine dinner
Gave him his morning draft
Much troubled with thoughts how to get money
My wife was making of her tarts and larding of her pullets
My wife was very unwilling to let me go forth
Put to a great loss how I should get money to make up my cash
This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes