Books: The Diary of Samuel Pepys

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27th. A very furious blowing night all the night; and my mind
still mightily perplexed with dreams, and burning the rest of the
town; and waking in much pain for the fleet. I to look out
Penny, my tailor, to speak for a cloak and cassock for my
brother, who is coming to town; and I will have him in a
canonical dress, that he may be the fitter to go abroad with me.
No news of the fleet yet, but that they went by Dover on the 25th
towards the Gun-fleet; but whether the Dutch be yet abroad, or
no, we hear not. De Ruyter is not dead, but like to do well.
Most think that the gross of the French fleet are gone home
again.

28th. Comes the bookbinder to gild the backs of my books. Sir
W. Pen broke to me a proposition of his and my joining in a
design of fetching timber and deals from Scotland, by the help of
Mr. Pett upon the place; which, while London is building, will
yield good money. I approve it.

29th. Sir W. Coventry and I find to our great joy, that the
wages, victuals, wear and tear, cast by the medium of the men,
will come to above 3,000,000l.; and that the extraordinaries,
which all the world will allow us, will arise to more than will
justify the expence we have declared to have been at since the
war; viz. 320,000l.

30th (Lord's day). Up, and to church, where I have not been a
good while; and there the church infinitely thronged with
strangers since the fire come into our parish; but not one
handsome face in all of them, as if, indeed, there was a curse,
as Bishop Fuller heretofore said, upon our parish. This month
ends with my mind full of business and concernment how this
office will speed with the Parliament, which begins to be mighty
severe in the examining our accounts, and the expence of the Navy
this war.

OCTOBER 1, 1666. All the morning at the office, getting the list
of all the ships and vessels employed since the war, for the
Committee of Parliament.

2nd. Sir G. Carteret tells me how our lists are referred to a
Sub-committee to consider and examine, and that I am ordered to
be there. By and by the Committee met, and appointed me to
attend them to-morrow at the office to examine our lists.

3rd. The Committee met, and I did make shift to answer them
better than I expected. Sir W. Batten, Lord Brouncker, W. Pen,
come in, but presently went out; and J. Minnes come in, and said
two or three words from the purpose but to do hurt; so away he
went also, and left me all the morning with them alone to stand
or fall. And it ended with good peace, and much seeming
satisfaction; but I find them wise and reserved, and instructed
to hit all our blots.

4th. To Sir G. Carteret, and there discoursed much of the want
of money, and our being designed for destruction. How the King
hath lost his power, by submitting himself to this way of
examining his accounts, and is become but as a private man. He
says the King is troubled at it. But they talk an entry [In the
Journals of the House of Commons.] shall be made; that it is not
to be brought; into example; that the King must, if they do not
agree presently, make them a courageous speech, which he says he
may do (the City of London being now burned, and himself master
of an army) better than any prince before him.

5th. The Sub-committee have made their report to the Grand
Committee, and in pretty kind terms. Captain Cocke told me of a
wild motion made in the House of Lords by the Duke of Buckingham,
for all men that have cheated the King to be declared traitors
and felons; and that my Lord Sandwich was named. Mr. Kirton's
kinsman, my bookseller, come in my may; and so I am told by him
that Mr. Kirton is utterly undone, and made 2 or 3000l. worse
than nothing, from being worth 7 or 8000l. That the goods laid
in the Churchyard fired through the windows those in St. Fayth's
church; and those coming to the warehouses' doors fired them, and
burned all the books and the pillars of the church, so as the
roof falling down, broke quite down; which it did not do in the
other places of the church, which is alike pillared, (which I
knew not before;) but being not burned, they stood still. He do
believe there is above 150,000l. of books burned; all the great
book-sellers almost undone: not only these, but their warehouses
at their Hall and under Christ-church, and elsewhere, being all
burned. A great want thereof there will be of books, specially
Latin books and foreign books; and, among others, the Polyglottes
and new Bible, which he believes will be presently worth 40l. a-
piece.

6th. Sir W. Coventry and I discoursed of, among others, our sad
condition by want of a Controller; and it was his words, that he
believes, besides all the shame and trouble he [Sir John Minnes,
who performed the duties inefficiently.] hath brought on the
office, the King had better have given 100,000l. than ever have
had him there. He did discourse about some of these discontented
Parliament-men, and says that Birch is a false rogue, but that
Garraway is a man that hath not been well used by the Court,
though very stout to death, and hath suffered all that is
possible for the King from the beginning. But discontented as he
is, yet he never knew a Session of Parliament but that he hath
done some good deed for the King before it rose. I told him the
passage Cocke told me of--his having begged a brace of bucks of
the Lord Arlington for him, and when it come to him, he sent it
back again. Sir W. Coventry told me, it is much to be pitied
that the King should lose the service of a man so able and
faithful; and that he ought to be brought over, but that it is
always observed, that by bringing over one discontented man, you
raise up three in his room; which is a state lesson I never knew
before. But when others discover your fear, and that discontent
procures fear, they will be discontented too, and impose on you.

7th. To White Hall, where met by Sir W. Batten and Lord
Brouncker, to attend the King and Duke of York at the Cabinet;
but nobody had determined what to speak of, but only in general
to ask for money. So I was forced immediately to prepare in my
mind a method of discoursing. And anon we were called in to the
Green Room, where the King, Duke of York, Prince Rupert, Lord
Chancellor, Lord Treasurer, Duke of Albemarle, Sirs G. Carteret,
W. Coventry, Morrice. Nobody beginning, I did, and made a
current, and I thought a good speech, laying open the ill state
of the Navy: by the greatness of the debt; greatness of the work
to do against next year; the time and materials it would take;
and our incapacity, through a total want of money. I had no
sooner done, but Prince Rupert rose up and told the King in a
heat, that whatever the gentleman had said, he had brought home
his fleet in as good a condition as ever any fleet was brought
home; that twenty boats would be as many as the fleet would want:
and all the anchors and cables left in the storm, might be taken
up again. This arose from my saying, among other things we had
to do, that the fleet was come in,--the greatest fleet that ever
his Majesty had yet together, and that in as bad condition as the
enemy or weather could put it. And to use Sir W. Pen's words,
who is upon the place taking a survey, he dreads the reports he
is to receive from the Surveyors of its defects. I therefore did
only answer, that I was sorry for his Highness's offence, but
that what I said was but the report we received from those
entrusted in the fleet to inform us. He muttered and repeated
what he had said; and so, after a long silence on all hands,
nobody, not so much as the Duke of Albemarle, seconding the
Prince, nor taking notice of what he said, we withdrew. I was
not a little troubled at this passage, and the more when speaking
with Jacke Fenn about it, he told me that the Prince will be
asking who this Pepys is, and find him to be a creature of my
Lord Sandwich's, and therefore this was done only to disparage
him. After all this pains, the King hath found out how to supply
us with 5 or 6000l., when 100,000l. were at this time but
absolutely necessary, and we mentioned 50,000l. I made my
brother in his cassocke to say grace this day, but I like his
voice so ill, that I begin to be sorry he hath taken orders.

8th. Towards noon by water to Westminster Hall, and there by
several hear that the Parliament do resolve to do something to
retrench Sir G. Carteret's great salary; but cannot hear of any
thing bad they can lay to his charge. The House did this day
order to be engrossed the Bill against importing Irish cattle: a
thing, it seems carried on by the Western Parliament-men, wholly
against the sense of most of the rest of the House; who think if
you do this, you give the Irish again cause to rebel. Mr. Pierce
says, the Duke of York and Duke of Albemarle do not agree. The
Duke of York is wholly given up to this Lady Denham. The Duke of
Albemarle and Prince Rupert do less agree. The King hath
yesterday in Council declared his resolution of setting a fashion
for clothes, which he will never alter. It will be a vest, I
know not well how; but it is to teach the nobility thrift, and
will do good. By and by comes down from the Committee Sir W.
Coventry, and I find him troubled at several things happened this
afternoon. Which vexes me also; our business looking worse and
worse, and our work growing on our hands. Time spending, and no
money to set any thing in hand with; the end thereof must be
speedy ruin. The Dutch insult and have taken off Bruant's head,
which they had not dared to do (though found guilty of the fault
he did die for, of something of the Prince of Orange's faction)
till just now, which speaks more confidence in our being worse
than before. Alderman Maynell, I hear, is dead. Thence returned
in the dark by coach all alone, full of thoughts of the
consequences of this ill complexion of affairs, and how to save
the little I have, which if I can do, I have cause to bless God
that I am so well, and shall be well contented to retreat to
Brampton, and spend the rest of my days there. So to my office,
and finished my Journal with resolutions, if God bless me, to
apply myself soberly to settle all matters for myself and expect
the event of all with comfort.

9th. To the office, where we sat the first day since the fire.

10th. Fast-day for the fire. With Sir W. Batten by water to
White Hall, and anon had a meeting before the Duke of York, where
pretty to see how Sir W. Batten, that carried the surveys of all
the fleet with him to show their ill condition to the Duke of
York, when he found the Prince there, did not speak one word,
though the meeting was of his asking; for nothing else. And when
I asked him, he told me he knew the Prince too well to anger him,
so that he was afraid to do it. Thence with him to Westminster,
to the parish church, where the Parliament-men; and
Stillingfleete in the pulpit. So full, no standing there; so he
and I to eat herrings at the Dog Tavern. And then to church
again, and there was Mr. Frampton in the pulpit, whom they cry up
so much, a young man, and of a mighty ready tongue. I heard a
little of his sermon. Captain Cooke, who is mighty conversant
with Garraway and those people, tells me what they object as to
the mal-administration of things as to money. But that they mean
well, and will do well; but their reckonings are very good, and
show great faults, as I will insert here. They say the King hath
had towards this war expressly thus much:--

Royal Ayde . . . . . . L2,450,000
More . . . . . . 1,250,000

Three months tax given the King by a power of )
raising a month's tax of 70,000l. every year for) 0,210,000
three years. )

Customes, out of which the King did promise to ) 0,480,000
pay 240,000l. which for two years come to )

Prizes, which they moderately reckon at 0,300,000
A debt declared by the Navy, by us 0,900,000
---------
5,590,000

The whole charge of the Navy, as we state it ) 3,200,000
for two years and a month, hath been but )

So what is become of all this sum? L2,390,000
[The remainder of the receipts.]

He and I did bemoan our public condition. He tells me the Duke
of Albemarle is under a cloud, and they have a mind at Court to
lay him aside. This I know not; but all things are not right
with him: and I am glad of it, but sorry for the time.

11th. MEMORANDUM. I had taken my Journal during the fire and
the disorders following in loose papers until this very day, and
could not get time to enter them in my book till January 18, in
the morning, having made my eyes sore by frequent attempts this
winter to do it. But now it is done; for which I thank God, and
pray never the like occasion may happen.

12th. The House have cut us off 150,000l. of our wear and tear,
for that which was saved by the King while the fleet lay in
harbour in winter. However, he seems pleased, and so am I, that
they have abated no more: and do intend to allow of 28,000 men
for the next year; and this day have appointed to declare the sum
they will give the King, and to propose the way of raising it; so
that this is likely to be the great day.

13th. To White Hall, and there the Duke of York (who is gone
over to all his pleasures again, and leaves off care of business,
what with his woman, my Lady Denham, and his hunting three times
a week was just come in from hunting. So I stood and saw him
dress himself, and try on his vest, which is the King's new
fashion, and he will be in it for good and all on Monday next,
and the whole Court: it is a fashion, the King says, he will
never change. He being ready, he and my lord Chancellor, and
Duke of Albemarle, and Prince Rupert, Lord Bellasses, Sir H.
Cholmly, Povy, and myself, met at a Committee for Tangier. My
Lord Bellasses's propositions were read and discoursed of, about
reducing the garrison to less charge; and indeed I am mad in love
with my Lord Chancellor, for he do comprehend and speak out well,
and with the greatest easiness and authority that ever I saw man
in my life. I did never observe how much easier a man do speak
when he knows all the company to be below him, than in him; for
though he spoke indeed excellent well, yet his manner and freedom
of doing it, as if he played with it, and was informing only all
the rest of the company, was mighty pretty. He did call again
and again upon Mr. Povy for his accounts. I did think fit to
make the solemn tender of my accounts that I intended. I said
something that was liked, touching the want of money, and the bad
credit of our tallies. My Lord Chancellor moved that without any
trouble to any of the rest of the Lords, I might alone attend the
King, when he was with his private Council, and open the state of
the garrisons; want of credit: and all that could be done,
should. Most things moved were referred to Committees, and so we
broke up. And at the end Sir W. Coventry come; so I away with
him, and he discoursed with me something of the Parliament's
business. They have voted giving the King for the next year
1,800,000l.; which, were it not for his debts, were a great sum.

14th. I met with Sir Stephen Fox, who told me much right I have
done myself, and how well it is represented by the Committee to
the House my readiness to give them satisfaction in every thing
when they were at the office. I was glad of this. He did
further discourse of Sir W. Coventry's great abilities, and how
necessary it were that I were of the House to assist him. I did
not own it, but do myself think it were not unnecessary, if
either he should die, or be removed to the Lords, or anything
happen to hinder his doing the like service the next trial; which
makes me think that it were not a thing very unfit; but I will
not move in it.

15th. Colvill tells me of the viciousness of the Court; the
contempt the King brings himself into thereby; his minding
nothing, but doing all things just as his people about him will
have it! The Duke of York becoming a slave to this Lady Denham,
and wholly minds her. That there really were amours between the
Duchesse and Sidny; that there is reason to fear that, as soon as
the Parliament have raised this money, the King will see that he
hath got all that he can get, and then make up a peace; that Sir
W. Coventry is of the caball with the Duke of York, and Brouncker
with this Lady Denham: which is a shame, and I am sorry for it,
and that Sir W. Coventry do make her visits: but yet I hope it
is not so. Pierce tells me, that Lady Castlemaine is concluded
to be with child again; and that all the people about the King do
make no scruple of saying that the King do intrigue with Mrs.
Stewart, who, he says, is a most excellent-natured lady. This
day the King begins to put on his vest, and I did see several
persons of the House of Lords and Commons too, great courtiers,
who are in it; being a long cassocke close to the body, of black
cloth, and pinked with white silk under it, and a coat over it,
and the legs ruffled with black riband like a pigeon's leg: and
upon the whole I wish the King may keep it, for it is a very fine
and handsome garment. Lady Carteret tells me ladies are to go
into a new fashion shortly and that is, to wear short coats,
above their ancles; which she and I not like; but conclude this
long trayne to be mighty graceful. But she cries out of the
vices of the Court, and how they are going to set up plays
already; and how, the next day after the late great fast, the
Duchesse of York did give the King and Queene a play. Nay, she
told me that they have heretofore had plays at Court, the very
nights before the fast for the death of the late King. She do
much cry out upon these things, and that which she believes will
undo the whole nation: and I fear so too. This day the great
debate was in Parliament, the manner of raising the 1,800,000l.
they voted the King on Friday: and at last, after many
proposals, one moved that the Chimney-money might be taken from
the King, and an equal revenue of something else might be found
for the King; and people be enjoyned to buy off this tax of
Chimney-money for ever at eight years' purchase, which will raise
present money, as they think, 1,600,000l., and the State be eased
of an ill burthen, and the King be supplied of something as good
or better for his use. The House seems to like this, and put off
the debate to to-morrow.

17th. The Court is all full of vests, only my Lord St. Albans
not pinked, but plain black; and they say the King says the
pinking upon whites makes them look too much like magpyes, and
therefore hath bespoke one of plain velvet.

18th. To Lovett's house, where I stood godfather. But it was
pretty that, being a Protestant, a man stood by and was my proxy
to answer for me. A priest christened it, and the boy's name is
Samuel. The ceremonies many, and some foolish. The priest in a
gentleman's dress, more than my own: but is a Capuchin, one of
the Queen-mother's priests. He did give my proxy and the woman
proxy, (my Lady Bills, [Probably the widow of Sir Thomas Pelham,
who re-married John Bills, Esq, of Caen Wood, and retained the
title derived from her first husband with the name of her
second.] absent, had a proxy also,) good advice to bring up the
child, and at the end that he ought never to marry the child nor
the godmother, nor the godmother the child or the godfather:
but, which is strange, they say the mother of the child and the
godfather may marry. By and by the Lady Bills come in, a well-
bred but crooked woman. The poor people of the house had good
wine, and a good cake; and she a pretty woman in her lying-in
dress. It cost me near 40s. the whole christening: to midwife
20s., nurse 10s., maid 2s. 6d., and the coach 5s. The business of
buying off the Chimney-money is passed in the House; and so the
King to be satisfied some other way, and the King supplied with
the money raised by this purchasing off of the chimnies.

19th. Nothing but distraction and confusion in the affairs of
the Navy; which makes me wish with all my heart, that I were well
and quietly settled with what little I have got at Brampton,
where I might live peaceably, and study, and pray for the good of
the King and my country.

20th. Commissioner Middleton [Thomas Middleton, made a
Commissioner of the Navy, 1664.] says, that the fleet was in
such a condition, as to discipline, as if the Devil had commanded
it; so much wickedness of all sorts. Enquiring how it came to
pass that so many ships had miscarried this year, he tells me
that he enquired; and the pilots do say, that they dare not do
nor go but as the Captains will have them; and if they offer to
do otherwise, the Captains swear they will run them through.
He says that he heard Captain Digby (my Lord of Bristoll's son, a
young fellow that never was but one year, if that, in the fleet,)
say that he did hope he should not see a tarpawlin [Tarpawlin, a
sailor.] have the command of a ship within this twelve months.
He observed while he was on board the Admirall, when the fleet
was at Portsmouth, that there was a faction there. Holmes
commanded all on the Prince's side, and Sir Jeremy Smith on the
Duke's, and every body that come did apply themselves to one side
or other; and when the Duke of Albemarle was gone away to come
hither, then Sir Jeremy Smith did hang his head, and walked in
the General's ship but like a private commander. He says he was
on board the Prince, when the news come of the burning of London;
and all the Prince said was, that now Shipton's prophecy was out;
and he heard a young commander presently swear, that a citizen's
wife that would not take under half a piece before, would be
contented with half-a-crowne: and made mighty sport of it. My
Lord Chancellor the other day did ask Sir G. Carteret how it come
to pass that his friend Pepys do so much magnify the bad
condition of the fleet. Sir G. Carteret tells me that he
answered him, that I was but the mouth of the rest, and spoke
what they have dictated to me; which did, as he says, presently
take off his displeasure. They talk that the Queene hath a great
mind to alter her fashion, and to have the feet seen; which she
loves mightily.

21st. Sir H. Cholmly tells me how Mr. Williamson stood in a
little place to have come into the House of Commons, and they
would not choose him; they said, "No courtier." And which is
worse, Bab May went down in great state to Winchelsea with the
Duke of York's letters, not doubting to be chosen; and there the
people chose a private gentleman in spite of him, and cried out
they would have no Court pimp to be their burgesse; which are
things that bode very ill.

24th. Holmes did last Sunday deliver in his articles to the King
and Cabinet against Smith, and Smith hath given in his answer,
and lays his not accompanying the fleet to his pilot, who would
not undertake to carry the ship further; which the pilot
acknowledges. The thing is not accommodated, but only taken up,
and both sides commanded to be quiet, but no peace like to be.
The Duke of Albemarle is Smith's friend, and hath publickly sworn
that he would never go to sea again, unless Holmes's commission
were taken from him. I find by Hayes [Prince Rupert's
secretary.] that they did expect great glory in coming home in
so good condition as they did with the fleet; and therefore I the
less wonder that the Prince was distasted with my discourse the
other day about the sad state of the fleet. But it pleases me to
hear that he did expect great thanks, and lays the fault of the
want; of it upon the fire, which deadened every thing, and the
glory of his services.

25th. To Mrs. Pierce's, where she was making herself mighty fine
to go to a great ball to-night at Court, being the Queene's
birth-day; so the ladies for this one day wear laces, but are to
put them off again to-morrow, To Mrs. Williams's, where we met
Knipp. I was glad to see the jade. Made her sing; and she told
us they begin at both houses to act on Monday next. But I fear
after all this sorrow, their gains will be but little. Mrs.
Williams says, the Duke's house will now be much the better of
the two, because of their women; which I was glad to hear.

27th. The two Houses begin to be troublesome: the Lords to have
quarrels one with another. My Lord Duke of Buckingham having
said to the Lord Chancellor (who is against the passing of the
Bill for prohibiting the bringing over of Irish cattle,) that
whoever was against the Bill, was there led to it by an Irish
interest, or an Irish understanding, which is as much as to say
be is a fool; this bred heat from my Lord Chancellor, and
something he said did offend my Lord of Ossory (my Lord Duke of
Ormond's son,) and they two had hard words, upon which the latter
sends a challenge to the former; of which the former complains to
the House, and so the business is to be heard on Monday next.
Then as to the Commons; some ugly knives, like poignards, to stab
people with, about two or three hundred of them were brought in
yesterday to the House, found in one of the houses rubbish that
was burned, and said to be the house of a Catholique. This and
several letters out of the country, saying how high the
Catholiques are every where and bold in the owning their
religion, hath made the Commons mad, and they presently voted
that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of
employment, and other high things; while the business of money
hangs in the hedge.