Book: Diary of Samuel Pepys, July/August 1662
S >>
Samuel Pepys >> Diary of Samuel Pepys, July/August 1662
21st. Up early, and though I found myself out of order and cold, and the
weather cold and likely to rain, yet upon my promise and desire to do what
I intended, I did take boat and down to Greenwich, to Captain Cocke's, who
hath a most pleasant seat, and neat. Here I drank wine, and eat some
fruit off the trees; and he showed a great rarity, which was two or three
of a great number of silver dishes and plates, which he bought of an
embassador that did lack money, in the edge or rim of which was placed
silver and gold medalls, very ancient, and I believe wrought, by which, if
they be, they are the greatest rarity that ever I saw in my life, and I
will show Mr. Crumlum them. Thence to Woolwich to the Rope-yard; and
there looked over several sorts of hemp, and did fall upon my great survey
of seeing the working and experiments of the strength and the charge in
the dressing of every sort; and I do think have brought it to so great a
certainty, as I have done the King great service in it: and do purpose to
get it ready against the Duke's coming to town to present to him. I
breakfasted at Mr. Falconer's well, and much pleased with my inquiries.
Thence to the dock, where we walked in Mr. Shelden's garden, eating more
fruit, and drinking, and eating figs, which were very good, and talking
while the Royal James was bringing towards the dock, and then we went out
and saw the manner and trouble of docking such a ship, which yet they
could not do, but only brought her head into the Dock, and so shored her
up till next tide. But, good God! what a deal of company was there from
both yards to help to do it, when half the company would have done it as
well. But I see it is impossible for the King to have things done as
cheap as other men. Thence by water, and by and by landing at the
riverside somewhere among the reeds, we walked to Greenwich, where to
Cocke's house again and walked in the garden, and then in to his lady, who
I find is still pretty, but was now vexed and did speak very discontented
and angry to the Captain for disappointing a gentleman that he had invited
to dinner, which he took like a wise man and said little, but she was very
angry, which put me clear out of countenance that I was sorry I went in.
So after I had eat still some more fruit I took leave of her in the garden
plucking apricots for preserving, and went away and so by water home, and
there Mr. Moore coming and telling me that my Lady goes into the country
to-morrow, I carried my wife by coach to take her leave of her father, I
staying in Westminster Hall, she going away also this week, and thence to
my Lady's, where we staid and supped with her, but found that my Lady was
truly angry and discontented with us for our neglecting to see her as we
used to do, but after a little she was pleased as she was used to be, at
which we were glad. So after supper home to bed.
22d. Among my workmen early: then to the office, and there I had letters
from the Downs from Mr. Coventry; who tells me of the foul weather they
had last Sunday, that drove them back from near Boulogne, whither they
were going for the Queen, back again to the Downs, with the loss of their
cables, sayles, and masts; but are all safe, only my Lord Sandwich, who
went before with the yachts; they know not what is become of him, which do
trouble me much; but I hope he got ashore before the storm begun; which
God grant! All day at the office, only at home at dinner, where I was
highly angry with my wife for her keys being out of the way, but they were
found at last, and so friends again. All the afternoon answering letters
and writing letters, and at night to Mr. Coventry an ample letter in
answer to all his and the Duke's business. Late at night at the office,
where my business is great, being now all alone in town, but I shall go
through it with pleasure. So home and to bed.
23rd. This morning angry a little in the morning, and my house being so
much out of order makes me a little pettish. I went to the office, and
there dispatched business by myself, and so again in the afternoon; being
a little vexed that my brother Tom, by his neglect, do fail to get a coach
for my wife and maid this week, by which she will not be at Brampton
Feast, to meet my Lady at my father's. At night home, and late packing up
things in order to their going to Brampton to-morrow, and so to bed, quite
out of sorts in my mind by reason that the weather is so bad, and my house
all full of wet, and the trouble of going from one house to another to Sir
W. Pen's upon every occasion. Besides much disturbed by reason of the
talk up and down the town, that my Lord Sandwich is lost; but I trust in
God the contrary.
24th. Up early this morning sending the things to the carrier's, and my
boy, who goes to-day, though his mistress do not till next Monday. All
the morning at the office, Sir W. Batten being come to town last night. I
hear, to my great content, that my Lord Sandwich is safe landed in France.
Dined at our chamber, where W. Bowyer with us, and after much simple talk
with him, I left him, and to my office, where all the afternoon busy till
9 at night, among other things improving my late experiment at Woolwich
about hemp. So home and to bed.
25th. At the office all the morning, reading Mr. Holland's' discourse of
the Navy, lent me by Mr. Turner, and am much pleased with them, they
hitting the very diseases of the Navy, which we are troubled with
now-a-days. I shall bestow writing of them over and much reading thereof.
This morning Sir W. Batten came in to the office and desired to speak with
me; he began by telling me that he observed a strangeness between him and
me of late, and would know the reason of it, telling me he heard that I
was offended with merchants coming to his house and making contracts
there. I did tell him that as a friend I had spoke of it to Sir W. Pen
and desired him to take a time to tell him of it, and not as a backbiter,
with which he was satisfied, but I find that Sir W. Pen has played the
knave with me, and not told it from me as a friend, but in a bad sense.
He also told me that he heard that exceptions were taken at his carrying
his wife down to Portsmouth, saying that the King should not pay for it,
but I denied that I had spoke of it, nor did I. At last he desired the
difference between our wives might not make a difference between us, which
I was exceedingly glad to hear, and do see every day the fruit of looking
after my business, which I pray God continue me in, for I do begin to be
very happy. Dined at home, and so to the office all the afternoon again,
and at night home and to bed.
26th. Sir W. Batten, Mr. Pett, and I at the office sitting all the
morning. So dined at home, and then to my office again, causing the model
hanging in my chamber to be taken down and hung up in my office, for fear
of being spoilt by the workmen, and for my own convenience of studying it.
This afternoon I had a letter from Mr. Creed, who hath escaped narrowly in
the King's yacht, and got safe to the Downs after the late storm; and that
there the King do tell him, that he is sure that my Lord is landed at
Callis safe, of which being glad, I sent news thereof to my Lord Crew, and
by the post to my Lady into the country. This afternoon I went to
Westminster; and there hear that the King and Queen intend to come to
White Hall from Hampton Court next week, for all winter. Thence to Mrs.
Sarah, and there looked over my Lord's lodgings, which are very pretty;
and White Hall garden and the Bowling-ally (where lords and ladies are now
at bowles), in brave condition. Mrs. Sarah told me how the falling out
between my Lady Castlemaine and her Lord was about christening of the
child lately,
[The boy was born in June at Lady Castlemaine's house in King
Street. By the direction of Lord Castlemaine, who had become a
Roman Catholic, the child was baptized by a priest, and this led to
a final separation between husband and wife. Some days afterwards
the child was again baptized by the rector of St. Margaret's,
Westminster, in presence of the godparents, the King, Aubrey De
Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Barbara, Countess of Suffolk, first Lady
of the Bedchamber to the Queen and Lady Castlemaine's aunt. The
entry in the register of St. Margaret's is as follows: "1662 June
18 Charles Palmer Ld Limbricke, s. to ye right honorble Roger Earl
of Castlemaine by Barbara" (Steinman's "Memoir of Barbara, Duchess
of Cleveland," 1871, p. 33). The child was afterwards called
Charles Fitzroy, and was created Duke of Southampton in 1674. He
succeeded his mother in the dukedom of Cleveland in 1709, and died
1730.]
which he would have, and had done by a priest: and, some days after, she
had it again christened by a minister; the King, and Lord of Oxford, and
Duchesse of Suffolk, being witnesses: and christened with a proviso, that
it had not already been christened. Since that she left her Lord,
carrying away every thing in the house; so much as every dish, and cloth,
and servant but the porter. He is gone discontented into France, they
say, to enter a monastery; and now she is coming back again to her house
in Kingstreet. But I hear that the Queen did prick her out of the list
presented her by the King;
["By the King's command Lord Clarendon, much against his
inclination, had twice visited his royal mistress with a view of
inducing her, by persuasions which he could not justify, to give way
to the King's determination to have Lady Castlemaine of her
household . . . . Lord Clarendon has given a full account of all
that transpired between himself, the King and the Queen, on this
very unpleasant business ('Continuation of Life of Clarendon,' 1759,
ff. 168-178)."--Steinman's Memoir of Duchess of Cleveland, p. 35.
"The day at length arrived when Lady Castlemaine was to be formally
admitted a Lady of the Bedchamber. The royal warrant, addressed to
the Lord Chamberlain, bears date June 1, 1663, and includes with
that of her ladyship, the names of the Duchess of Buckingham, the
Countesses of Chesterfield and Bath, and the Countess Mareshall. A
separate warrant of the same day directs his lordship to admit the
Countess of Suffolk as Groom of the Stole and first Lady of the
Bedchamber, to which undividable offices she had, with the
additional ones of Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy
Purse, been nominated by a warrant dated April 2, 1662, wherein the
reception of her oath is expressly deferred until the Queen's
household shall be established. We here are furnished with the
evidence that Charles would not sign the warrants for the five until
Catherine had withdrawn her objection to his favourite one."--
Addenda to Steinman's Memoir of Duchess of Cleveland (privately
printed), 1874, p. i.]
desiring that she might have that favour done her, or that he would send
her from whence she come: and that the King was angry and the Queen
discontented a whole day and night upon it; but that the King hath
promised to have nothing to do with her hereafter. But I cannot believe
that the King can fling her off so, he loving her too well: and so I writ
this night to my Lady to be my opinion; she calling her my lady, and the
lady I admire. Here I find that my Lord hath lost the garden to his
lodgings, and that it is turning into a tennis-court. Hence by water to
the Wardrobe to see how all do there, and so home to supper and to bed.
27th (Lord's day). At church alone in the pew in the morning. In the
afternoon by water I carried my wife to Westminster, where she went to
take leave of her father,
[Mrs. Pepys's father was Alexander Marchant, Sieur de St. Michel, a
scion of a good family in Anjou. Having turned Huguenot at the age
of twenty-one, his father disinherited him, and he was left
penniless. He came over in the retinue of Henrietta Maria, on her
marriage with Charles I., as one of her Majesty's gentlemen carvers,
but the Queen dismissed him on finding out he was a Protestant and
did not go to mass. He described himself as being captain and major
of English troops in Italy and Flanders.--Wheatley's Pepys and the
World he lived in, pp. 6, 250. He was full of schemes; see
September 22nd, 1663, for account of his patent for curing smoky
chimneys.]
and I to walk in the Park, which is now every day more and more pleasant,
by the new works upon it. Here meeting with Laud Crispe, I took him to
the farther end, and sat under a tree in a corner, and there sung some
songs, he singing well, but no skill, and so would sing false sometimes.
Then took leave of him, and found my wife at my Lord's lodging, and so
took her home by water, and to supper in Sir W. Pen's balcony, and Mrs.
Keene with us, and then came my wife's brother, and then broke up, and to
bed.
28th. Up early, and by six o'clock, after my wife was ready, I walked
with her to the George, at Holborn Conduit, where the coach stood ready to
carry her and her maid to Bugden, but that not being ready, my brother Tom
staid with them to see them gone, and so I took a troubled though willing
goodbye, because of the bad condition of my house to have a family in it.
So I took leave of her and walked to the waterside, and there took boat
for the Tower; hearing that the Queen-Mother is come this morning already
as high as Woolwich: and that my Lord Sandwich was with her; at which my
heart was glad, and I sent the waterman, though yet not very certain of
it, to my wife to carry news thereof to my Lady. So to my office all the
morning abstracting the Duke's instructions in the margin thereof. So
home all alone to dinner, and then to the office again, and in the evening
Cooper comes, and he being gone, to my chamber a little troubled and
melancholy, to my lute late, and so to bed, Will lying there at my feet,
and the wench in my house in Will's bed.
29th. Early up, and brought all my money, which is near L300, out of my
house into this chamber; and so to the office, and there we sat all the
morning, Sir George Carteret and Mr. Coventry being come from sea. This
morning among other things I broached the business of our being abused
about flags, which I know doth trouble Sir W. Batten, but I care not. At
noon being invited I went with Sir George and Mr. Coventry to Sir W.
Batten's to dinner, and there merry, and very friendly to Sir Wm. and he
to me, and complies much with me, but I know he envies me, and I do not
value him. To the office again, and in the evening walked to Deptford
(Cooper with me talking of mathematiques), to send a fellow to prison for
cutting of buoy ropes, and to see the difference between the flags sent in
now-a-days, and I find the old ones, which were much cheaper, to be wholly
as good. So I took one of a sort with me, and Mr. Wayth accompanying of
me a good way, talking of the faults of the Navy, I walked to Redriffe
back, and so home by water, and after having done, late, at the office, I
went to my chamber and to bed.
30th. Up early, and to my office, where Cooper came to me and begun his
lecture upon the body of a ship, which my having of a modell in the office
is of great use to me, and very pleasant and useful it is. Then by water
to White Hall, and there waited upon my Lord Sandwich; and joyed him, at
his lodgings, of his safe coming home after all his danger, which he
confesses to be very great. And his people do tell me how bravely my Lord
did carry himself, while my Lord Crofts did cry; and I perceive it is all
the town talk how poorly he carried himself. But the best was of one Mr.
Rawlins, a courtier, that was with my Lord; and in the greatest danger
cried, "God damn me, my Lord, I won't give you three-pence for your place
now." But all ends in the honour of the pleasure-boats; which, had they
not been very good boats, they could never have endured the sea as they
did. Thence with Captain Fletcher, of the Gage, in his ship's boat with 8
oars (but every ordinary oars outrowed us) to Woolwich, expecting to find
Sir W. Batten there upon his survey, but he is not come, and so we got a
dish of steaks at the White Hart, while his clarkes and others were
feasting of it in the best room of the house, and after dinner playing at
shuffleboard,
[The game of shovelboard was played by two players (each provided
with five coins) on a smooth heavy table. On the table were marked
with chalk a series of lines, and the play was to strike the coin on
the edge of the table with the hand so that it rested between these
lines. Shakespeare uses the expression "shove-groat shilling," as
does Ben Jonson. These shillings were usually smooth and worn for
the convenience of playing. Strutt says ("Sports and Pastimes"), "I
have seen a shovel-board table at a low public house in Benjamin
Street, near Clerkenwell Green, which is about three feet in breadth
and thirty-nine feet two inches in length, and said to be the
longest at this time in London."]
and when at last they heard I was there, they went about their survey. But
God help the King! what surveys, shall be taken after this manner! I
after dinner about my business to the Rope-yard, and there staid till
night, repeating several trialls of the strength, wayte, waste, and other
things of hemp, by which I have furnished myself enough to finish my
intended business of stating the goodness of all sorts of hemp. At night
home by boat with Sir W. Warren, who I landed by the way, and so being
come home to bed.
31st. Up early and among my workmen, I ordering my rooms above, which
will please me very well. So to my office, and there we sat all the
morning, where I begin more and more to grow considerable there. At noon
Mr. Coventry and I by his coach to the Exchange together; and in
Lumbard-street met Captain Browne of the Rosebush: at which he was cruel
angry: and did threaten to go to-day to the Duke at Hampton Court, and get
him turned out because he was not sailed. But at the Exchange we resolved
of eating a bit together, which we did at the Ship behind the Exchange,
and so took boat to Billingsgate, and went down on board the Rosebush at
Woolwich, and found all things out of order, but after frightening the
officers there, we left them to make more haste, and so on shore to the
yard, and did the same to the officers of the yard, that the ship was not
dispatched. Here we found Sir W. Batten going about his survey, but so
poorly and unlike a survey of the Navy, that I am ashamed of it, and so is
Mr. Coventry. We found fault with many things, and among others the
measure of some timber now serving in which Mr. Day the assistant told us
of, and so by water home again, all the way talking of the office business
and other very pleasant discourse, and much proud I am of getting thus far
into his books, which I think I am very much in. So home late, and it
being the last day of the month, I did make up my accounts before I went
to bed, and found myself worth about L650, for which the Lord God be
praised, and so to bed. I drank but two glasses of wine this day, and yet
it makes my head ake all night, and indisposed me all the next day, of
which I am glad. I am now in town only with my man Will and Jane, and
because my house is in building, I do lie at Sir W. Pen's house, he being
gone to Ireland. My wife, her maid and boy gone to Brampton. I am very
well entered into the business and esteem of the office, and do ply it
close, and find benefit by it.
DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.
AUGUST
1662
August 1st. Up, my head aching, and to my office, where Cooper read me
another lecture upon my modell very pleasant. So to my business all the
morning, which increases by people coming now to me to the office. At
noon to the Exchange, where meeting Mr. Creed and Moore we three to a
house hard by (which I was not pleased with) to dinner, and after dinner
and some discourse ordinary by coach home, it raining hard, and so at the
office all the afternoon till evening to my chamber, where, God forgive
me, I was sorry to hear that Sir W. Pen's maid Betty was gone away
yesterday, for I was in hopes to have had a bout with her before she had
gone, she being very pretty. I had also a mind to my own wench, but I
dare not for fear she should prove honest and refuse and then tell my
wife. I staid up late, putting things in order for my going to Chatham
to-morrow, and so to bed, being in pain . . . with the little riding in
a coach to-day from the Exchange, which do trouble me.
2nd. Up early, and got me ready in my riding clothes, and so to the
office, and there wrote letters to my father and wife against night, and
then to the business of my office, which being done, I took boat with
Will, and down to Greenwich, where Captain Cocke not being at home I was
vexed, and went to walk in the Park till he come thither to me: and Will's
forgetting to bring my boots in the boat did also vex me, for I was forced
to send the boat back again for them. I to Captain Cocke's along with him
to dinner, where I find his lady still pretty, but not so good a humour as
I thought she was. We had a plain, good dinner, and I see they do live
very frugally. I eat among other fruit much mulberrys, a thing I have not
eat of these many years, since I used to be at Ashted, at my cozen
Pepys's. After dinner we to boat, and had a pleasant passage down to
Gravesend, but it was nine o'clock before we got thither, so that we were
in great doubt what to do, whether to stay there or no; and the rather
because I was afeard to ride, because of my pain . . . ; but at the
Swan, finding Mr. Hemson and Lieutenant Carteret of the Foresight come to
meet me, I borrowed Mr. Hemson's horse, and he took another, and so we
rode to Rochester in the dark, and there at the Crown Mr. Gregory, Barrow,
and others staid to meet me. So after a glass of wine, we to our barge,
that was ready for me, to the Hill-house, where we soon went to bed,
before we slept I telling upon discourse Captain Cocke the manner of my
being cut of the stone, which pleased him much. So to sleep.
3rd (Lord's day). Up early, and with Captain Cocke to the dock-yard, a
fine walk, and fine weather. Where we walked till Commissioner Pett come
to us, and took us to his house, and showed us his garden and fine things,
and did give us a fine breakfast of bread and butter, and sweetmeats and
other things with great choice, and strong drinks, with which I could not
avoyde making my head ake, though I drank but little. Thither came Captain
Allen of the Foresight, and the officers of the yard to see me. Thence by
and by to church, by coach, with the Commissioner, and had a dull sermon.
A full church, and some pretty women in it; among others, Beck Allen, who
was a bride-maid to a new married couple that came to church to-day, and,
which was pretty strange, sat in a pew hung with mourning for a mother of
the bride's, which methinks should have been taken down. After dinner
going out of the church saluted Mrs. Pett, who came after us in the coach
to church, and other officers' wives. The Commissioner staid at dinner
with me, and we had a good dinner, better than I would have had, but I saw
there was no helping of it. After dinner the Commissioner and I left the
company and walked in the garden at the Hill-house, which is very
pleasant, and there talked of our businesses and matters of the navy. So
to church again, where quite weary, and so after sermon walked with him to
the yard up and down and the fields, and saw the place designed for the
wet dock. And so to his house, and had a syllabub, and saw his closet,
which come short of what I expected, but there was fine modells of ships
in it indeed, whose worth I could not judge of. At night walked home to
the Hill-house, Mr. Barrow with me, talking of the faults of the yard,
walking in the fields an hour or two, and so home to supper, and so
Captain Cocke and I to bed. This day among other stories he told me how
despicable a thing it is to be a hangman in Poland, although it be a place
of credit. And that, in his time, there was some repairs to be made of
the gallows there, which was very fine of stone; but nobody could be got
to mend it till the Burgomaster, or Mayor of the town, with all the
companies of those trades which were necessary to be used about those
repairs, did go in their habits with flags, in solemn procession to the
place, and there the Burgomaster did give the first blow with the hammer
upon the wooden work; and the rest of the Masters of the Companys upon the
works belonging to their trades; that so workmen might not be ashamed to
be employed upon doing of the gallows' works.