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Samuel Pepys >> Diary of Samuel Pepys, March/April 1662/63
THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.
CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY
TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW
AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
(Unabridged)
WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES
EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.
DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS.
MARCH & APRIL
1662-1663
March 1st (Lord's day). Up and walked to White Hall, to the Chappell,
where preached one Dr. Lewes, said heretofore to have been a great witt;
but he read his sermon every word, and that so brokenly and so low, that
nobody could hear at any distance, nor I anything worth hearing that sat
near. But, which was strange, he forgot to make any prayer before sermon,
which all wonder at, but they impute it to his forgetfulness. After sermon
a very fine anthem; so I up into the house among the courtiers, seeing the
fine ladies, and, above all, my Lady Castlemaine, who is above all, that
only she I can observe for true beauty. The King and Queen being set to
dinner I went to Mr. Fox's, and there dined with him. Much genteel
company, and, among other things, I hear for certain that peace is
concluded between the King of France and the Pope; and also I heard the
reasons given by our Parliament yesterday to the King why they dissent
from him in matter of Indulgence, which are very good quite through, and
which I was glad to hear. Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who continues with
a great cold, locked up; and, being alone, we fell into discourse of my
uncle the Captain's death and estate, and I took the opportunity of
telling my Lord how matters stand, and read his will, and told him all,
what a poor estate he hath left, at all which he wonders strangely, which
he may well do. Thence after singing some new tunes with W. Howe I walked
home, whither came Will. Joyce, whom I have not seen here a great while,
nor desire it a great while again, he is so impertinent a coxcomb, and yet
good natured, and mightily concerned for my brother's late folly in his
late wooing at the charge to no purpose, nor could in any probability a
it. He gone, we all to bed, without prayers, it being washing day
to-morrow.
2nd. Up early and by water with Commissioner Pett to Deptford, and there
took the Jemmy yacht (that the King and the Lords virtuosos built the
other day) down to Woolwich, where we discoursed of several matters both
there and at the Ropeyard, and so to the yacht again, and went down four
or five miles with extraordinary pleasure, it being a fine day, and a
brave gale of wind, and had some oysters brought us aboard newly taken,
which were excellent, and ate with great pleasure. There also coming into
the river two Dutchmen, we sent a couple of men on board and bought three
Hollands cheeses, cost 4d. a piece, excellent cheeses, whereof I had two
and Commissioner Pett one. So back again to Woolwich, and going aboard
the Hulke to see the manner of the iron bridles, which we are making of
for to save cordage to put to the chain, I did fall from the shipside into
the ship (Kent), and had like to have broke my left hand, but I only
sprained some of my fingers, which, when I came ashore I sent to Mrs.
Ackworth for some balsam, and put to my hand, and was pretty well within a
little while after. We dined at the White Hart with several officers with
us, and after dinner went and saw the Royal James brought down to the
stern of the Docke (the main business we came for), and then to the
Ropeyard, and saw a trial between Riga hemp and a sort of Indian grass,
which is pretty strong, but no comparison between it and the other for
strength, and it is doubtful whether it will take tarre or no. So to the
yacht again, and carried us almost to London, so by our oars home to the
office, and thence Mr. Pett and I to Mr. Grant's coffee-house, whither he
and Sir J. Cutler came to us and had much discourse, mixed discourse, and
so broke up, and so home where I found my poor wife all alone at work, and
the house foul, it being washing day, which troubled me, because that
tomorrow I must be forced to have friends at dinner. So to my office, and
then home to supper and to bed.
3rd (Shrove Tuesday). Up and walked to the Temple, and by promise calling
Commissioner Pett, he and I to White Hall to give Mr. Coventry an account
of what we did yesterday. Thence I to the Privy Seal Office, and there
got a copy of Sir W. Pen's grant to be assistant to Sir J. Minnes,
Comptroller, which, though there be not much in it, yet I intend to stir
up Sir J. Minnes to oppose, only to vex Sir W. Pen. Thence by water home,
and at noon, by promise, Mrs. Turner and her daughter, and Mrs. Morrice,
came along with Roger Pepys to dinner. We were as merry as I could be,
having but a bad dinner for them; but so much the better, because of the
dinner which I must have at the end of this month. And here Mrs. The.
shewed me my name upon her breast as her Valentine, which will cost me
20s. After dinner I took them down into the wine-cellar, and broached my
tierce of claret for them. Towards the evening we parted, and I to the
office awhile, and then home to supper and to bed, the sooner having taken
some cold yesterday upon the water, which brings me my usual pain. This
afternoon Roger Pepys tells me, that for certain the King is for all this
very highly incensed at the Parliament's late opposing the Indulgence;
which I am sorry for, and fear it will breed great discontent.
4th. Lay long talking with my wife about ordering things in our family,
and then rose and to my office, there collecting an alphabet for my Navy
Manuscript, which, after a short dinner, I returned to and by night
perfected to my great content. So to other business till 9 at night, and
so home to supper and to bed.
5th. Rose this morning early, only to try with intention to begin my last
summer's course in rising betimes. So to my office a little, and then to
Westminster by coach with Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten, in our way
talking of Sir W. Pen's business of his patent, which I think I have put a
stop to wholly, for Sir J. Minnes swears he will never consent to it.
Here to the Lobby, and spoke with my cozen Roger, who is going to
Cambridge to-morrow. In the Hall I do hear that the Catholiques are in
great hopes for all this, and do set hard upon the King to get Indulgence.
Matters, I hear, are all naught in Ireland, and that the Parliament has
voted, and the people, that is, the Papists, do cry out against the
Commissioners sent by the King; so that they say the English interest will
be lost there. Thence I went to see my Lord Sandwich, who I found very
ill, and by his cold being several nights hindered from sleep, he is
hardly able to open his eyes, and is very weak and sad upon it, which
troubled me much. So after talking with Mr. Cooke, whom I found there,
about his folly for looking and troubling me and other friends in getting
him a place (that is, storekeeper of the Navy at Tangier) before there is
any such thing, I returned to the Hall, and thence back with the two
knights home again by coach, where I found Mr. Moore got abroad, and dined
with me, which I was glad to see, he having not been able to go abroad a
great while. Then came in Mr. Hawley and dined with us, and after dinner
I left them, and to the office, where we sat late, and I do find that I
shall meet with nothing to oppose my growing great in the office but Sir
W. Pen, who is now well again, and comes into the office very brisk, and,
I think, to get up his time that he has been out of the way by being
mighty diligent at the office, which, I pray God, he may be, but I hope by
mine to weary him out, for I am resolved to fall to business as hard as I
can drive, God giving me health. At my office late, and so home to supper
and to bed.
6th. Up betimes, and about eight o'clock by coach with four horses, with
Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten, to Woolwich, a pleasant day. There at
the yard we consulted and ordered several matters, and thence to the rope
yard and did the like, and so into Mr. Falconer's, where we had some fish,
which we brought with us, dressed; and there dined with us his new wife,
which had been his mayde, but seems to be a genteel woman, well enough
bred and discreet. Thence after dinner back to Deptford, where we did as
before, and so home, good discourse in our way, Sir J. Minnes being good
company, though a simple man enough as to the business of his office, but
we did discourse at large again about Sir W. Pen's patent to be his
assistant, and I perceive he is resolved never to let it pass. To my
office, and thence to Sir W. Batten's, where Major Holmes was lately come
from the Streights, but do tell me strange stories of the faults of Cooper
his master, put in by me, which I do not believe, but am sorry to hear and
must take some course to have him removed, though I believe that the
Captain is proud, and the fellow is not supple enough to him. So to my
office again to set down my Journall, and so home and to bed. This
evening my boy Waynman's brother was with me, and I did tell him again
that I must part with the boy, for I will not keep him. He desires my
keeping him a little longer till he can provide for him, which I am
willing for a while to do. This day it seems the House of Commons have
been very high against the Papists, being incensed by the stir which they
make for their having an Indulgence; which, without doubt, is a great
folly in them to be so hot upon at this time, when they see how averse
already the House have showed themselves from it. This evening Mr. Povy
was with me at my office, and tells me that my Lord Sandwich is this day
so ill that he is much afeard of him, which puts me to great pain, not
more for my own sake than for his poor family's.
7th. Up betimes, and to the office, where some of us sat all the morning.
At noon Sir W. Pen began to talk with me like a counterfeit rogue very
kindly about his house and getting bills signed for all our works, but he
is a cheating fellow, and so I let him talk and answered nothing. So we
parted. I to dinner, and there met The. Turner, who is come on foot in a
frolique to beg me to get a place at sea for John, their man, which is a
rogue; but, however, it may be, the sea may do him good in reclaiming him,
and therefore I will see what I can do. She dined with me; and after
dinner I took coach, and carried her home; in our way, in Cheapside,
lighting and giving her a dozen pair of white gloves as my Valentine.
Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who is gone to Sir W. Wheeler's for his more
quiet being, where he slept well last night, and I took him very merry,
playing at cards, and much company with him. So I left him, and Creed and
I to Westminster Hall, and there walked a good while. He told me how for
some words of my Lady Gerard's
[Jane, wife of Lord Gerard (see ante, January 1st, 1662-63). The
king had previously put a slight upon Lady Gerard, probably at the
instigation of Lady Castlemaine, as the two ladies were not friends.
On the 4th of January of this same year Lady Gerard had given a
supper to the king and queen, when the king withdrew from the party
and proceeded to the house of Lady Castlemaine, and remained there
throughout the evening (see Steinman's "Memoir of Barbara, Duchess
of Cleveland," 1871, p. 47).]
against my Lady Castlemaine to the Queen, the King did the other day
affront her in going out to dance with her at a ball, when she desired it
as the ladies do, and is since forbid attending the Queen by the King;
which is much talked of, my Lord her husband being a great favourite.
Thence by water home and to my office, wrote by the post and so home to
bed.
8th (Lord's day). Being sent to by Sir J. Minnes to know whether I would
go with him to White Hall to-day, I rose but could not get ready before he
was gone, but however I walked thither and heard Dr. King, Bishop of
Chichester, make a good and eloquent sermon upon these words, "They that
sow in tears, shall reap in joy." Thence (the chappell in Lent being hung
with black, and no anthem sung after sermon, as at other times), to my
Lord Sandwich at Sir W. Wheeler's. I found him out of order, thinking
himself to be in a fit of an ague, but in the afternoon he was very
cheery. I dined with Sir William, where a good but short dinner, not
better than one of mine commonly of a Sunday. After dinner up to my Lord,
there being Mr. Kumball. My Lord, among other discourse, did tell us of
his great difficultys passed in the business of the Sound, and of his
receiving letters from the King there, but his sending them by Whetstone
was a great folly; and the story how my Lord being at dinner with Sydney,
one of his fellow plenipotentiarys and his mortal enemy, did see
Whetstone, and put off his hat three times to him, but the fellow would
not be known, which my Lord imputed to his coxcombly humour (of which he
was full), and bid Sydney take notice of him too, when at the very time he
had letters in his pocket from the King, as it proved afterwards. And
Sydney afterwards did find it out at Copenhagen, the Dutch Commissioners
telling him how my Lord Sandwich had hired one of their ships to carry
back Whetstone to Lubeck, he being come from Flanders from the King. But
I cannot but remember my Lord's aequanimity in all these affairs with
admiration. Thence walked home, in my way meeting Mr. Moore, with whom I
took a turn or two in the street among the drapers in Paul's Churchyard,
talking of business, and so home to bed.
9th. Up betimes, to my office, where all the morning. About noon Sir J.
Robinson, Lord Mayor, desiring way through the garden from the Tower,
called in at the office and there invited me (and Sir W. Pen, who happened
to be in the way) to dinner, which we did; and there had a great Lent
dinner of fish, little flesh. And thence he and I in his coach, against
my will (for I am resolved to shun too great fellowship with him) to White
Hall, but came too late, the Duke having been with our fellow officers
before we came, for which I was sorry. Thence he and I to walk one turn
in the Park, and so home by coach, and I to my office, where late, and so
home to supper and bed. There dined with us to-day Mr. Slingsby, of the
Mint, who showed us all the new pieces both gold and silver (examples of
them all), that are made for the King, by Blondeau's' way; and compared
them with those made for Oliver. The pictures of the latter made by
Symons, and of the King by one Rotyr, a German, I think, that dined with
us also. He extolls those of Rotyr's above the others; and, indeed, I
think they are the better, because the sweeter of the two; but, upon my
word, those of the Protector are more like in my mind, than the King's,
but both very well worth seeing. The crowns of Cromwell are now sold, it
seems, for 25s. and 30s. apiece.
10th. Up and to my office all the morning, and great pleasure it is to be
doing my business betimes. About noon Sir J. Minnes came to me and staid
half an hour with me in my office talking about his business with Sir W.
Pen, and (though with me an old doter) yet he told me freely how sensible
he is of Sir W. Pen's treachery in this business, and what poor ways he
has taken all along to ingratiate himself by making Mr. Turner write out
things for him and then he gives them to the Duke, and how he directed him
to give Mr. Coventry L100 for his place, but that Mr. Coventry did give
him L20 back again. All this I am pleased to hear that his knavery is
found out. Dined upon a poor Lenten dinner at home, my wife being vexed
at a fray this morning with my Lady Batten about my boy's going thither to
turn the watercock with their maydes' leave, but my Lady was mighty high
upon it and she would teach his mistress better manners, which my wife
answered aloud that she might hear, that she could learn little manners of
her. After dinner to my office, and there we sat all the afternoon till 8
at night, and so wrote my letters by the post and so before 9 home, which
is rare with me of late, I staying longer, but with multitude of business
my head akes, and so I can stay no longer, but home to supper and to bed.
11th. Up betimes, and to my office, walked a little in the garden with
Sir W. Batten, talking about the difference between his Lady and my wife
yesterday, and I doubt my wife is to blame. About noon had news by Mr.
Wood that Butler, our chief witness against Field, was sent by him to New
England contrary to our desire, which made me mad almost; and so Sir J.
Minnes, Sir W. Pen, and I dined together at Trinity House, and thither
sent for him to us and told him our minds, which he seemed not to value
much, but went away. I wrote and sent an express to Walthamstow to Sir W.
Pen, who is gone thither this morning, to tell him of it. However, in the
afternoon Wood sends us word that he has appointed another to go, who
shall overtake the ship in the Downes. So I was late at the office, among
other things writing to the Downes, to the Commander-in-Chief, and putting
things into the surest course I could to help the business. So home and
to bed.
12th. Up betimes and to my office all the morning with Captain Cocke
ending their account of their Riga contract for hemp. So home to dinner,
my head full of business against the office. After dinner comes my uncle
Thomas with a letter to my father, wherein, as we desire, he and his son
do order their tenants to pay their rents to us, which pleases me well. In
discourse he tells me my uncle Wight thinks much that I do never see them,
and they have reason, but I do apprehend that they have been too far
concerned with my uncle Thomas against us, so that I have had no mind
hitherto, but now I shall go see them. He being gone, I to the office,
where at the choice of maisters and chyrurgeons for the fleet now going
out, I did my business as I could wish, both for the persons I had a mind
to serve, and in getting the warrants signed drawn by my clerks, which I
was afeard of. Sat late, and having done I went home, where I found Mary
Ashwell come to live with us, of whom I hope well, and pray God she may
please us, which, though it cost me something, yet will give me much
content. So to supper and to bed, and find by her discourse and carriage
to-night that she is not proud, but will do what she is bid, but for want
of being abroad knows not how to give the respect to her mistress, as she
will do when she is told it, she having been used only to little children,
and there was a kind of a mistress over them. Troubled all night with my
cold, I being quite hoarse with it that I could not speak to be heard at
all almost.
13th. Up pretty early and to my office all the morning busy. At noon
home to dinner expecting Ashwell's father, who was here in the morning and
promised to come but he did not, but there came in Captain Grove, and I
found him to be a very stout man, at least in his discourse he would be
thought so, and I do think that he is, and one that bears me great respect
and deserves to be encouraged for his care in all business. Abroad by
water with my wife and Ashwell, and left them at Mr. Pierce's, and I to
Whitehall and St. James's Park (there being no Commission for Tangier
sitting to-day as I looked for) where I walked an hour or two with great
pleasure, it being a most pleasant day. So to Mrs. Hunt's, and there
found my wife, and so took them up by coach, and carried them to Hide
Park, where store of coaches and good faces. Here till night, and so home
and to my office to write by the post, and so to supper and to bed.
14th. Up betimes and to my office, where we sat all the morning, and a
great rant I did give to Mr. Davis, of Deptford, and others about their
usage of Michell, in his Bewpers,--[Bewpers is the old name for
bunting.]--which he serves in for flaggs, which did trouble me, but yet it
was in defence of what was truth. So home to dinner, where Creed dined
with me, and walked a good while in the garden with me after dinner,
talking, among other things, of the poor service which Sir J. Lawson did
really do in the Streights, for which all this great fame and honour done
him is risen. So to my office, where all the afternoon giving maisters
their warrants for this voyage, for which I hope hereafter to get
something at their coming home. In the evening my wife and I and Ashwell
walked in the garden, and I find she is a pretty ingenuous
[For ingenious. The distinction of the two words ingenious and
ingenuous by which the former indicates mental, and the second moral
qualities, was not made in Pepys's day.]
girl at all sorts of fine work, which pleases me very well, and I hope
will be very good entertainment for my wife without much cost. So to
write by the post, and so home to supper and to bed.
15th (Lord's day). Up and with my wife and her woman Ashwell the first
time to church, where our pew was so full with Sir J. Minnes's sister and
her daughter, that I perceive, when we come all together, some of us must
be shut out, but I suppose we shall come to some order what to do therein.
Dined at home, and to church again in the afternoon, and so home, and I to
my office till the evening doing one thing or other and reading my vows as
I am bound every Lord's day, and so home to supper and talk, and Ashwell
is such good company that I think we shall be very lucky in her. So to
prayers and to bed. This day the weather, which of late has been very hot
and fair, turns very wet and cold, and all the church time this afternoon
it thundered mightily, which I have not heard a great while.
16th. Up very betimes and to my office, where, with several Masters of
the King's ships, Sir J. Minnes and I advising upon the business of
Slopps, wherein the seaman is so much abused by the Pursers, and that
being done, then I home to dinner, and so carried my wife to her mother's,
set her down and Ashwell to my Lord's lodging, there left her, and I to
the Duke, where we met of course, and talked of our Navy matters. Then to
the Commission of Tangier, and there, among other things, had my Lord
Peterborough's Commission read over; and Mr. Secretary Bennet did make his
querys upon it, in order to the drawing one for my Lord Rutherford more
regularly, that being a very extravagant thing. Here long discoursing
upon my Lord Rutherford's despatch, and so broke up, and so going out of
the Court I met with Mr. Coventry, and so he and I walked half an hour in
the long Stone Gallery, where we discoursed of many things, among others
how the Treasurer doth intend to come to pay in course, which is the thing
of the world that will do the King the greatest service in the Navy, and
which joys my heart to hear of. He tells me of the business of Sir J.
Minnes and Sir W. Pen, which I knew before, but took no notice or little
that I did know it. But he told me it was chiefly to make Mr. Pett's
being joyned with Sir W. Batten to go down the better, and do tell me how
he well sees that neither one nor the other can do their duties without
help. But however will let it fall at present without doing more in it to
see whether they will do their duties themselves, which he will see, and
saith they do not. We discoursed of many other things to my great content
and so parted, and I to my wife at my Lord's lodgings, where I heard
Ashwell play first upon the harpsicon, and I find she do play pretty well,
which pleaseth me very well. Thence home by coach, buying at the Temple
the printed virginal-book for her, and so home and to my office a while,
and so home and to supper and to bed.
17th. Up betimes and to my office a while, and then home and to Sir W.
Batten, with whom by coach to St. Margaret's Hill in Southwark, where the
judge of the Admiralty came, and the rest of the Doctors of the Civill
law, and some other Commissioners, whose Commission of Oyer and Terminer
was read, and then the charge, given by Dr. Exton, which methought was
somewhat dull, though he would seem to intend it to be very rhetoricall,
saying that justice had two wings, one of which spread itself over the
land, and the other over the water, which was this Admiralty Court. That
being done, and the jury called, they broke up, and to dinner to a tavern
hard by, where a great dinner, and I with them; but I perceive that this
Court is yet but in its infancy (as to its rising again), and their design
and consultation was, I could overhear them, how to proceed with the most
solemnity, and spend time, there being only two businesses to do, which of
themselves could not spend much time. In the afternoon to the court
again, where, first, Abraham, the boatswain of the King's pleasure boat,
was tried for drowning a man; and next, Turpin, accused by our wicked
rogue Field, for stealing the King's timber; but after full examination,
they were both acquitted, and as I was glad of the first, for the saving
the man's life, so I did take the other as a very good fortune to us; for
if Turpin had been found guilty, it would have sounded very ill in the
ears of all the world, in the business between Field and us. So home with
my mind at very great ease, over the water to the Tower, and thence, there
being nobody at the office, we being absent, and so no office could be
kept. Sir W. Batten and I to my Lord Mayor's, where we found my Lord with
Colonel Strangways and Sir Richard Floyd, Parliament-men, in the cellar
drinking, where we sat with them, and then up; and by and by comes in Sir
Richard Ford. In our drinking, which was always going, we had many
discourses, but from all of them I do find Sir R. Ford a very able man of
his brains and tongue, and a scholler. But my Lord Mayor I find to be a
talking, bragging Bufflehead, a fellow that would be thought to have led
all the City in the great business of bringing in the King, and that
nobody understood his plots, and the dark lanthorn he walked by; but led
them and plowed with them as oxen and asses (his own words) to do what he
had a mind when in every discourse I observe him to be as very a coxcomb
as I could have thought had been in the City. But he is resolved to do
great matters in pulling down the shops quite through the City, as he hath
done in many places, and will make a thorough passage quite through the
City, through Canning-street, which indeed will be very fine. And then
his precept, which he, in vain-glory, said he had drawn up himself, and
hath printed it, against coachmen and carrmen affronting of the gentry in
the street; it is drawn so like a fool, and some faults were openly found
in it, that I believe he will have so much wit as not to proceed upon it
though it be printed. Here we staid talking till eleven at night, Sir R.
Ford breaking to my Lord our business of our patent to be justices of the
Peace in the City, which he stuck at mightily; but, however, Sir R. Ford
knows him to be a fool, and so in his discourse he made him appear, and
cajoled him into a consent to it: but so as I believe when he comes to his
right mind tomorrow he will be of another opinion; and though Sir R. Ford
moved it very weightily and neatly, yet I had rather it had been spared
now. But to see how he do rant, and pretend to sway all the City in the
Court of Aldermen, and says plainly that they cannot do, nor will he
suffer them to do, any thing but what he pleases; nor is there any officer
of the City but of his putting in; nor any man that could have kept the
City for the King thus well and long but him. And if the country can be
preserved, he will undertake that the City shall not dare to stir again.
When I am confident there is no man almost in the City cares a turd for
him, nor hath he brains to outwit any ordinary tradesman. So home and
wrote a letter to Commissioner Pett to Chatham by all means to compose the
business between Major Holmes and Cooper his master, and so to bed.