Books: The Diary of Samuel Pepys

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22nd. To the Lord Chancellor's house, the first time I have been
therein; and it is very noble, and brave pictures of the ancient
and present nobility. The King was vexed the other day for
having no paper laid for him at the Council table, as was usual;
and Sir Richard Browne did tell his Majesty he would call the
person whose work it was to provide it: who being come, did tell
his Majesty that he was but a poor man, and was out 4 or 500l.
for it, which was as much as he is worth; and that he cannot
provide it any longer without money, having not received a penny
since the King's coming in. So the King spoke to my Lord
Chamberlain. And many such mementos the King do now-a-days meet
withall, enough to make an ingenuous man mad.

23rd. St. George's-day; the feast being kept at White Hall, out
of design, as it is thought, to make the best coutenance we can
to the Swede's Embassadors before their leaving us to go to the
treaty abroad, to show some jollity.

24th. To Sir John Duncomb's lodging in the Pell Mell, in order
to the money spoken of in the morning; and there awhile sat and
discoursed: and I find that he is a very proper man for
business, being very resolute and proud, and industrious. He
told me what reformation they had made in the office of the
Ordnance, taking away Legg's fees: have got an order that no
Treasurer after him shall ever sit at the Board; and it is a good
one: that no Master of the Ordnance here shall ever sell a
place. He tells me they have not paid any increase of price for
any thing during this war, but in most have paid less; and at
this day have greater stores than they know where to lay if there
should be peace, and than ever was any time this war. Then to
talk of news: that he thinks the want of money hath undone the
King, for the Parliament will never give the King more money
without; calling all people to account, nor, as he believes, will
ever make war again, but they will manage it themselves: unless,
which I proposed, he would visibly become a severer inspector
into his own business and accounts, and that would gain upon the
Parliament yet: which he confesses and confirms as the only lift
to set him upon his legs, but says that it is not, in his nature
ever to do. He thinks that much of our misfortune hath been for
want of an active Lord Treasurer, and that such a man as Sir W.
Coventry would do the business thoroughly.

26th. To White Hall, and there saw the Duke of Albemarle, who is
not well, and do grow crazy. While I was waiting in the Matted
Gallery, a young man was working in Indian inke, the great
picture of the King and Queene sitting by Van Dike; and did it
very finely. Then I took a turn with Mr. Evelyn; with whom I
walked two hours, till almost one of the clock: talking of the
badness of the Government, where nothing but wickedness, and
wicked men and women command the King: that it is not in his
nature to gainsay any thing that relates to his pleasures; that
much of it arises from the sickliness of our Ministers of State,
who cannot be about him as the idle companions are, and therefore
he gives way to the young rogues; and then from the negligence of
the clergy, that a Bishop shall never be seen about him, as the
King of France hath always: that the King would fain have some
of the same gang to be Lord Treasurer, which would be yet worse,
for now some delays are put to the getting gifts of the King; as
Lady Byron, [Eleanor, daughter of Robert Needham, Viscount
Kilmurrey, and widow of Peter Warburton, became in 1644 the
second wife of Richard first Lord Byron. Ob. 1663.] who had
been, as he called it, the King's seventeenth mistress abroad,
did not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for
4000l. worth of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks
be to God! she died before she had it. He confirmed to me the
business of the want of paper at the Council table the other day,
which I have observed; Wooly being to have found it, and did,
being called, tell the King to his face the reason of it. And
Mr. Elvelyn tells me of several of the menial servants of the
Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages
since the King's coming in. He tells me the King of France hath
his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes
his bastards princes, and loses his revenue upon them, and makes
his mistresses his masters. And the King of France did never
grant Lavaliere any thing to bestow on others, and gives a little
subsistence, but no more, to his bastards. We told me the whole
story of Mrs. Stewart's going away from Court, he knowing her
well; and believes her, up to her leaving the Court, to be as
virtuous as any woman in the world: and told me, from a Lord
that she told it to but yesterday with her own mouth, and a sober
man, that when the Duke of Richmond did make love to her, she did
ask the King, and he did the like also; and that the King did not
deny it, and told this Lord that she was come to that pass as to
resolve to have married any gentleman of 1500l. a-year that would
have had her in honour: for it was come to that pass, that she
could not longer continue at Court without prostituting herself
to the King, whom she had so long kept off, though he had liberty
more than any other had, or he ought to have, as to dalliance.
She told this Lord that she had reflected upon the occasion she
had given the world to think her a bad woman, and that she had no
way but to marry and leave the Court, rather in this way of
discontent than otherwise, that the world might see that she
sought not any thing but her honour; and that she will never come
to live at Court; more than when she comes to town to kiss the
Queene her mistress's hand: and hopes, though she hath little
reason to hope, she can please her Lord so as to reclaim him,
that they may yet live comfortably in the country on his estate.
She told this Lord that all the jewells she ever had given her at
Court, or any other presents (more than the King's Allowance of
700l. per annum out of the Privy-purse for her clothes), were at
her first coming, the King did give her a necklace of pearl of
about 1100l.; and afterwards, about seven months since, when the
King had hopes to have obtained some courtesy of her, the King
did give her some jewells, I have forgot what, and I think a pair
of pendants. The Duke of York, being once her Valentine, did
give her a jewell of about 800l.; and my Lord Mandeville, her
Valentine this year, a ring of about 300l.; and the King of
France would have had her mother (who, he says, was one of the
most cunning women in the world,) to have let her stay in France,
saying that he loved her not as a mistress, but as one that he
could marry as well as any lady in France; and that, if she might
stay, for the honour of his court he would take care she should
not repent. But her mother, by command of the Queene-mother,
thought rather to bring her into England; and the King of France
did give her a jewell: so that Evelyn believes she may be worth
in jewells about 6000l. and that is all she hath in the world:
and a worthy woman; and in this hath done as great an act of
honour as ever was done by woman. That now the Countesse
Castlemaine do carry all before her: and among other arguments
to prove Mrs. Stewart to have been honest to the last, he says
that the King's keeping in still with my Lady Castlemaine do show
it; for he never was known to keep two mistresses in his life,
and would never have kept to her had he prevailed any thing with
Mrs. Stewart. She is gone yesterday with her Lord to Cobham. He
did tell me of the ridiculous humour of our King and Knights of
the Garter the other day, who, whereas heretofore their robes
were only to be worn during their ceremonies and service, these,
as proud of their coats, did wear them all day till night, and
then rode into the Park with them on. Nay, and he tells me he
did see my Lord Oxford and Duke of Monmouth in a hackney-coach
with two footmen in the Park, with their robes on; which is a
most scandalous thing, so as all gravity may be said to be lost
among us. By and by we discoursed of Sir Thomas Clifford, whom I
took for a very rich and learned man, and of the great family of
that name. He tells me he is only a man of about seven-score
pounds a-year, of little learning more than the law of a justice
of peace; which he knows well; a parson's son, [Collins states,
that Sir Thomas Clifford's father was a Colonel in the King's
Army during the Scotch Rebellion 1639, and died the same year on
his return from the Northern March.] got to be burgess in a
little borough in the West, and here fell into the acquaintance
of my Lord Arlington, whose creature he is, and never from him; a
man of virtue, and comely, and good parts enough; and hath come
into his place with a great grace, though with a great skip over
the heads of a great many, as Chichly and Denham, and some Lords
that did expect it. By the way, he tells me that of all the
great men of England there is none that endeavours more to raise
those that he takes into favour than my Lord Arlington; and that
on that score he is much more to be made one's patron than my
Lord Chancellor, who never did, nor never will do any thing, but
for money. Certain news of the Dutch being abroad on our coast
with twenty-four great ships. Met my Lady Newcastle going with
her coaches and footmen all in velvet: herself (whom I never saw
before), as I have heard her often described (for all the town-
talk is now-a-days of her extravagancies), with her velvet-cap,
her hair about her ears; many black patches, because of pimples
about her mouth; naked-necked, without any thing about it, and a
black just-au-corps. She seemed to me a very comely woman: but
I hope to see more of her on May-day.

28th. To Deptford, and there I walked down the Yard, Shish and
Cox with me; and discoursed about cleaning of the wet docke, and
heard (which I had before) how, when the docke was made, a ship
of near 500 tons was there found; a ship supposed of Queene
Elizabeth's time, and well wrought, with a great deal of stone
shot in her of eighteen inches diameter, which was shot then in
use: and afterwards meeting with Captain Perriman and Mr. Castle
at Half-way Tree, they tell me of stone-shot of thirty-six inches
diameter, which they shot out of mortar-pieces.

29th. I hear that the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of York's son,
[James, second son to the Duke of York. Born 1663, and created
Duke of Cambridge that year.] is very sick; and my Lord
Treasurer very bad of the stone, and hath been so some days. Sir
G. Carteret tells me my Lord Arlington hath done like a gentleman
by him in all things. He says, if my Lord were here, he were the
fittest man to be Lord Treasurer of any man in England; and he
thinks it might be compassed; for he confesses that the King's
matters do suffer through the inability of this man, who is
likely to die, and he will propound him to the King. It will
remove him from his place at sea, and the King will have a good
place to bestow. He says to me, that he could wish when my Lord
comes that he would think fit to forbear playing as a thing below
him, and which will lessen him, as it do my Lord St. Albans, in
the King's esteem: and as a great secret tells me that he hath
made a match for my Lord Hinchingbroke to a daughter of my Lord
Burlington's, [Richard Boyle second Earl of Cork, created Earl of
Burlington, 1663.] where there is great alliance, 10,000l.
portion; a civil family, and relation to my Lord Chancellor,
whose son hath married one of the daughters: and that my Lord
Chancellor do take it with very great kindness, so that he do
hold himself obliged by it. My Lord Sandwich hath referred it to
my Lord Crewe, Sir G. Carteret, and Mr. Montagu, to end it. My
Lord Hinchingbroke and the ladies know nothing yet of it. It
will, I think, be very happy.

30th, I met with Mr. Pierce, and he tells me the Duke of
Cambridge is very ill and full of spots about his body, that Dr.
Frazier knows not what to think of it.

MAY 1. 1667. To Westminster; in the way meeting many milk-maids
with their garlands upon their pails, dancing with a fiddler
before them; and saw pretty Nelly [Nell Gwynne.] standing at her
lodgings' door in Drury-lane in her smock sleeves and bodice,
looking upon one: she seemed a mighty pretty creature. My Lord
Crewe walked with me, giving me an account of the meeting of the
Commissioners for Accounts, whereof he is one. How some of the
gentlemen, Garraway, Littleton, and others, did scruple at their
first coming there, being called thither to act, as Members of
Parliament, which they could not do by any authority but that of
the Parliament, and therefore desired the King's direction in it,
which was sent for by my Lord Bridgewater, who brought answer,
very short, that the King expected they should obey his
Commission. Then they went on and observed upon a power to be
given them of administering and framing an oath, which they
thought they could not do by any power but Act of Parliament; and
the whole Commission did think fit to have the Judges' opinion in
it, and so drawing up their scruples in writing they all attended
the King, who told them he would send to the Judges to be
answered, and did so; who have, my Lord tells me, met three times
about it, not knowing what answer to give it: and they have met
this week, doing nothing but expecting the solution of the Judges
in this point. My Lord tells me he do believe this Commission
will do more hurt than good: it may undo some accounts, if these
men shall think fit; but it can never clear an account, for he
must come into the Exchequer for all this. Besides, it is a kind
of inquisition that hath seldom ever been granted in England:
and he believes it will never, besides, give any satisfaction to
the People or Parliament, but be looked upon as a forced, packed
business of the King, especially if these Parliament-men that are
of it shall not concur with them; which he doubts they will not,
and therefore wishes much that the King would lay hold of this
fit occasion and let the Commission fall. Then to talk of my
Lord Sandwich, whom my Lord Crewe hath a great desire might get
to be Lord Treasurer if the present Lord should die, as it is
believed he will in a little time; and thinks he can have no
competitor but my Lord Arlington, who, it is given out, desires
it: but my Lord thinks not, for that the being Secretary do keep
him a greater interest with the King than the other would do; at
least do believe that if my Lord would surrender him his Wardrobe
place, it would be a temptation to Arlington to assist my Lord in
getting the Treasurer's. I did object to my Lord that it would
be no place of content, nor safety, nor honour for my Lord, the
State being so indigent as it is, and the King so irregular, and
those about him, that my Lord must be forced to part with any
thing to answer his warrants; and that, therefore, I do believe
the King had rather have a man that may be one of his vicious
caball, than a sober man that will mind the publick, that so they
may sit at cards and dispose of the revenue of the kingdom. This
my Lord was moved at, and said he did not indeed know how to
answer it, and bid me think of it; and so said he himself would
also do. He do mightily cry out of the bad management of our
monies, the King having had so much given him; and yet when the
Parliament do find that the King should have 900,000l. in his
purse by the best account of issues they have yet seen, yet we
should report in the Navy a debt due from the King of 900,000l.:
which I did confess I doubted was true in the first, and knew to
be true in the last, and did believe that there was some great
miscarriages in it: which he owned to believe also, saying, that
at this rate it is not in the power of the kingdom to make a war,
nor answer the King's wants. Thence away to the King's
playhouse, and saw "Love in a Maze:" [Downes mentions this play,
which was never printed, nor is the author known.] but a sorry
play; only Lacy's clowne's part, which he did most admirably
indeed; and I am glad to find the rogue at liberty again. Here
was but little, and that ordinary company. We sat at the upper
bench next the boxes; and I find it do pretty well, and have the
advantage of seeing and hearing the great people, which may be
pleasant when there is good store. Now was only Prince Rupert
and my Lord Lauderdale, and my Lord --, [Probaby Craven.] the
naming of whom puts me in mind of my seeing at Sir Robert Viner's
two or three great silver flagons, made with inscriptions as
gifts of the King to such and such persons of quality as did stay
in town the late great plague, for the keeping things in order in
the town. Thence Sir W. Pen and I in his coach Tiburne way into
the Park, where a horrid dust, and number of coaches, without
pleasure or order. That which we and almost all went for was to
see my Lady Newcastle; which we could not, she being followed and
crowded upon by coaches all the way she went, that nobody could
come near her; only I could see she was in a large black coach
adorned with silver instead of gold, and so white curtains, and
every thing black and white, and herself in her cap. Sir W. Pen
did give me an account this afternoon of his design of buying Sir
Robert Brookes's fine house at Wansted: which I so wondered at,
and did give him reasons against it, which he allowed of: and
told me that he did intend to pull down the house and build a
less, and that he should get 1500l. by the old house, and I know
not what fooleries. But I will never believe he ever intended to
buy it, for my part, though he troubled Mr. Gauden to go and look
upon it, and advise him in it,

3rd. To the Duke of York's chamber, which, as it is now fretted
at the top, and the chimney-piece made handsome, is one of the
noblest and best-proportioned rooms that ever, I think I saw. To
Westminster by coach: the Cofferer [Mr. Ashburnham.] telling us
odd stories how he was dealt with by the men of the Church at
Westminster in taking a lease of them at the King's coming in,
and particularly the devilish covetousness of Dr. Busby.
[Richard Busby, D.D., Master of Westminster School, and in 1660
made a Prebendary of Westminster. Notwithstanding the character
given of him here, he was a liberal benefactor to Christ Church,
Oxford, and Lichfield Cathedral. Ob. 1695,, aged 89.] Took a
turn with my old acquaintance Mr. Pechell, whose red nose makes
me ashamed to be seen with him, though otherwise a good-natured
man. This day the news is come that the fleet of the Dutch, of
about 20 ships, which come upon our coasts upon design to have
intercepted our colliers (but by good luck failed), is gone to
the Frith, and there lies, perhaps to trouble the Scotch
privateers, which have galled them of late very much, it may be
more than all our last year's fleet.

5th. Sir John Robinson tells me he hath now got a street ordered
to be continued, forty feet broad, from Paul's through Cannon-
street to the Tower, which will be very fine. He and others this
day, where I was in the afternoon, do tell me of at least six or
eight fires within these few days; and continually stirs of fire,
and real fires there have been, in one place or other, almost
ever since the late great fire, as if there was a fate sent
people for fire. I walked over the Park to Sir W. Coventry's.
We talked of Tangier, of which he is ashamed; also that it should
put the King to this charge for no good in the world: and now a
man going over that is a good soldier, but a debauched man, which
the place need not to have. And so used these words: "That this
place was to the King as my Lord Carnarvon [Charles Dormer
succeeded his father, who fell at the battle of Newbury; as Earl
of Carnarvon. Ob. s.p. 1709.] says of wood, that it is an
excrescence of the earth provided by God for the payment of
debts. "This day Sir W. Coventry tells me the Dutch fleet shot
some shot, four or five hundred, into Burnt Island in the Frith,
but without any hurt; and so are gone.

7th. To St. James's; but there find Sir W. Coventry gone out
betimes this morning on horseback with the King and Duke of York
to Putny-heath, to run some horses.

8th. In our street, at the Three Tuns Tavern, I find a great
hubbub: and what was it but two brothers had fallen out, and one
killed the other? And who should they be but the two Fieldings?
one whereof, Bazill, was page to my Lady Sandwich; and he hath
killed the other, himself being very drunk, and so is sent to
Newgate.

10th. At noon to Kent's, at the Three Tuns Tavern: and there
the constable of the parish did show us the picklocks and dice
that were found in the dead man's pocket, and but 18d. in money;
and a table-book, wherein were entered the names of several
places where he was to go; and among others his house, where he
was to dine, and did dine yesterday. And after dinner went into
the church, and there saw his corpse with the wound in his left
breast; a sad spectacle, and a broad wound, which makes my hand
now shake to write of it. His brother intending, it seems, to
kill the coachman, who did not please him, this fellow stepped in
and took away his sword; who thereupon took out his knife, which
was of the fashion, with a falchion blade, and a little cross at
the hilt like a dagger; and with that stabbed him. Drove hard
towards Clerkenwell, thinking to have overtaken my Lady
Newcastle, whom I saw before us in her coach, with 100 boys and
girls running looking upon her; but I could, not: and so she got
home before I could come up to her. But I will get a time to see
her.

12th. Walked over the fields to Kingsland, and back again; a
walk, I think, I have not taken these twenty years; but puts me
in mind of my boy's time when I boarded at Kingsland, and used to
shoot with my bow and arrows in these fields.

13th. This morning come Sir H. Cholmly to me for a tally or two;
and tells me that he hears that we are by agreement to give the
King of France Nova Scotia; which he do not like: but I do not
know the importance of it. Sir Philip Warwick do please himself
like a good man to tell some of the good ejaculations of my Lord
Treasurer concerning the little worth of this world, to buy it
with so much pain, and other things fit for a dying man.

14th. To my Lord Chancellor's, where I met Mr. Povy expecting
the coming of the rest of the Commissioners for Tangier. Here I
understand how the two Dukes, both the only sons of the Duke of
York, are sick even to danger; and that on Sunday last they were
both so ill, as that the poor Duchesse was in doubt which would
die: the Duke of Cambridge, of some general disease, the other
little Duke, whose title I know not, of the convulsion fits, of
which he had four this morning. Fear that either of them might
be dead, did make us think that it was the occasion that the
Duke of York and others were not come to the meeting of the
Commission which was designed, and my Lord Chancellor did expect.
And it was pretty to observe how, when my Lord sent down to St.
James's to see why the Duke of York come not, and Mr. Povy, who
went, returned, my Lord did ask (not how the Princes or the Dukes
do, as other people do, but) "How do the Children?" which
methought was mighty great, and like a great man and grandfather.
I find every body mightily concerned for these children, as a
matter wherein the State is much concerned that they should live.

16th. I away with Sir G. Carteret to London, talking all the
way; and he do tell me that the business of my Lord Hinchingbroke
his marriage with my Lord Burlington's daughter, is concluded on
by all friends; and that my Lady is now told of it, and do
mightily please herself with it: which I am mightily glad of.
News still that my Lord Treasurer is so ill as not to be any man
of this world; and it is said that the Treasury shall be managed
by Commission. I would to God Sir G. Carteret, or my Lord
Sandwich, be in it! But the latter is the more fit for it.

16th. This being Holy Thursday, when the boys go our procession
round the parish, we were to go to the Three Tuns Tavern to dine
with the rest of the parish; where all the parish almost was, Sir
Andrew Rickard and others; and of our house, J. Minnes, W.
Batten, W. Pen, and myself: and Mr. Mills did sit uppermost at
the table. Sir John Fredricke [Lord Mayor of London 1662, and
President of Christ's Hospital. His eldest son, John, was
created a Baronet 1723.] and Sir R. Ford did talk of Paul's
School, which, they tell me, must be taken away; and then I fear
it will be long before another place, such as they say is
promised, is found: but they do say that the honour of their
Company [The Mercers' Company, under whose superintendence St.
Paul's school was placed by the Founder.] is concerned in the
doing of it, and that it is a thing that they are obliged to do.
To my Lord Treasurer's, where I find the porter crying, and
suspected it was that my Lord is dead; and, poor Lord! we did
find that he was dead just now. There is a good man gone: and I
pray God that the Treasury may not be worse managed the hand or
hands it shall now be put into; though, for certain, the slowness
(though he was of great integrity) of this man and remissness
have gone as far to undo the nation, as any thing else that hath
happened; and yet, if I knew all the difficulties that he hath
lain under, and his instrument Sir Philip Warwick, I might be
true to another mind. It is remarkable that this afternoon Mr.
Moore come to me, and there among other things did tell me how
Mr. Moyer the merchant, having procured an order from the King
and Duke of York and Council, with the consent of my Lord
Chancellor, and by assistance of Lord Arlington, for the
releasing out of prison his brother Samuel Moyer, who was a great
man in the late times in Haberdashers'-hall, and was engaged
under hand and seal to give the man that obtained it so much in
behalf of my Lord Chancellor; but it seems my Lady Duchesse of
Albemarle had before undertaken it for so much money, but hath
not done it. The Duke of Albemarle did the next day send for
this Moyer, to tell him that notwithstanding this order of the
King and Council's being passed for release of his brother, yet,
if he did not consider the pains of some friends of his, he would
stop that order. This Moyer being an honest, bold man, told him
that he was engaged to the hand that had done the thing to give
him a reward; and more, he could not give, nor could own any
kindness done by his Grace's interest: and so parted. The next
day Sir Edward Savage did take the said Moyer in tax about it,
giving ill words of this Moyer and his brother; which he not
being able to bear, told him he would give to the person that had
engaged him what he promised, and not any thing to any body else;
and that both he and his brother were as honest men as himself or
any man else: and so sent him going, and bid him do his worst.
It is one of the most extraordinary cases that ever I saw or
understood; but it is true.