Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1667 N.S. Complete

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[Money paid to men who enlist into the public service; press money.
So called because those who receive it are to be prest or ready when
called on ("Encyclopaedic Dictionary ").]

for men sent out of the country and the countries about him to the fleete
the last year; but, Lord! to see the natures of men; how this man, hearing
of my name, did ask me of my country, and told me of my cozen Roger, that
he was not so wise a man as his father; for that he do not agree in
Parliament with his fellow burgesses and knights of the shire, whereas I
know very well the reason; for he is not so high a flyer as Mr. Chichley
and others, but loves the King better than any of them, and to better
purpose. But yet, he says that he is a very honest gentleman, and thence
runs into a hundred stories of his own services to the King, and how he at
this day brings in the taxes before anybody here thinks they are
collected: discourse very absurd to entertain a stranger with. He being
gone, and I glad of it, I home then to dinner. After dinner with my wife
by coach abroad, andset Mr. Hunt down at the Temple and her at her
brother's, and I to White Hall to meet [Sir] W. Coventry, but found him
not, but met Mr. Cooling, who tells me of my Lord Duke of Buckingham's
being sent for last night, by a Serjeant at Armes, to the Tower, for
treasonable practices, and that the King is infinitely angry with him, and
declared him no longer one of his Council. I know not the reason of it,
or occasion. To Westminster Hall, and there paid what I owed for books,
and so by coach, took up my wife to the Exchange, and there bought things
for Mrs. Pierces little daughter, my Valentine, and so to their house,
where we find Knipp, who also challengeth me for her Valentine. She looks
well, sang well, and very merry we were for half an hour. Tells me Harris
is well again, having been very ill, and so we home, and I to the office;
then, at night, to Sir W. Pen's, and sat with my Lady, and the young
couple (Sir William out of town) talking merrily; but they make a very
sorry couple, methinks, though rich. So late home and to bed.

28th. Up, and there comes to me Drumbleby with a flageolet, made to suit
with my former and brings me one Greeting, a master, to teach my wife. I
agree by the whole with him to teach her to take out any lesson of herself
for L4. She was not ready to begin to-day, but do to-morrow. So I to the
office, where my Lord Bruncker and I only all the morning, and did
business. At noon to the Exchange and to Sir Rob. Viner's about settling
my accounts there. So back home and to dinner, where Mr. Holliard dined
with us, and pleasant company he is. I love his company, and he secures
me against ever having the stone again. He gives it me, as his opinion,
that the City will never be built again together, as is expected, while
any restraint is laid upon them. He hath been a great loser, and would be
a builder again, but, he says, he knows not what restrictions there will
be, so as it is unsafe for him to begin. He gone, I to the office, and
there busy till night doing much business, then home and to my accounts,
wherein, beyond expectation, I succeeded so well as to settle them very
clear and plain, though by borrowing of monies this month to pay D.
Gawden, and chopping and changing with my Tangier money, they were become
somewhat intricate, and, blessed be God; upon the evening my accounts, I
do appear L6800 creditor: This done, I to supper about 12 at night, and so
to bed. The weather for three or four days being come to be exceeding
cold again as any time this year. I did within these six days see smoke
still remaining of the late fire in the City; and it is strange to think
how, to this very day, I cannot sleep at night without great terrors of
fire, and this very night I could not sleep till almost two in the morning
through thoughts of fire. Thus this month is ended with great content of
mind to me, thriving in my estate, and the affairs in my offices going
pretty well as to myself. This afternoon Mr. Gawden was with me and tells
me more than I knew before--that he hath orders to get all the victuals he
can to Plymouth, and the Western ports, and other outports, and some to
Scotland, so that we do intend to keep but a flying fleete this year;
which, it may be, may preserve us a year longer, but the end of it must be
ruin. Sir J. Minnes this night tells me, that he hears for certain, that
ballads are made of us in Holland for begging of a peace; which I
expected, but am vexed at. So ends this month, with nothing of weight upon
my mind, but for my father and mother, who are both very ill, and have
been so for some weeks: whom God help! but I do fear my poor father will
hardly be ever thoroughly well again.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Being taken with a Psalmbook or Testament
Consider that this is all the pleasure I live for in the world
Dinner, an ill and little mean one, with foul cloth and dishes
If the word Inquisition be but mentioned
King's service is undone, and those that trust him perish
Mean, methinks, and is as if they had married like dog and bitch
Musique in the morning to call up our new-married people
Must yet pay to the Poll Bill for this pension (unreceived)
New medall, where, in little, there is Mrs. Steward's face
Not thinking them safe men to receive such a gratuity
Only because she sees it is the fashion (She likes it)
Prince's being trepanned, which was in doing just as we passed
Proud that she shall come to trill
Receive the applications of people, and hath presents
Seems she hath had long melancholy upon her
Sermon upon Original Sin, neither understood by himself
Sick of it and of him for it
The world do not grow old at all
Then home, and merry with my wife
Though he knows, if he be not a fool, that I love him not
To my joy, I met not with any that have sped better than myself
Used to make coal fires, and wash my foul clothes

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
1666-1667

March 1st. Up, it being very cold weather again after a good deal of warm
summer weather, and to the office, where I settled to do much business
to-day. By and by sent for to Sir G. Carteret to discourse of the
business of the Navy, and our wants, and the best way of bestowing the
little money we have, which is about L30,000, but, God knows, we have need
of ten times as much, which do make my life uncomfortable, I confess, on
the King's behalf, though it is well enough as to my own particular, but
the King's service is undone by it. Having done with him, back again to
the office, and in the streets, in Mark Lane, I do observe, it being St.
David's day, the picture of a man dressed like a Welchman, hanging by the
neck upon one of the poles that stand out at the top of one of the
merchants' houses, in full proportion, and very handsomely done; which is
one of the oddest sights I have seen a good while, for it was so like a
man that one would have thought it was indeed a man.

[From "Poor Robin's Almanack" for 1757 it appears that, in former
times in England, a Welshman was burnt in effigy on this
anniversary. Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in his edition of Brand's "Popular
Antiquities," adds "The practice to which Pepys refers . . . was
very common at one time; and till very lately bakers made
gingerbread Welshmen, called taffies, on St. David's day, which were
made to represent a man skewered" (vol. i., pp. 60,61).]

Being returned home, I find Greeting, the flageolet-master, come, and
teaching my wife; and I do think my wife will take pleasure in it, and it
will be easy for her, and pleasant. So I, as I am well content with the
charge it will occasion me. So to the office till dinner-time, and then
home to dinner, and before dinner making my wife to sing. Poor wretch!
her ear is so bad that it made me angry, till the poor wretch cried to see
me so vexed at her, that I think I shall not discourage her so much again,
but will endeavour to make her understand sounds, and do her good that
way; for she hath a great mind to learn, only to please me; and,
therefore, I am mighty unjust to her in discouraging her so much, but we
were good friends, and to dinner, and had she not been ill with those and
that it were not Friday (on which in Lent there are no plays) I had
carried her to a play, but she not being fit to go abroad, I to the
office, where all the afternoon close examining the collection of my
papers of the accounts of the Navy since this war to my great content, and
so at night home to talk and sing with my-wife, and then to supper and so
to bed with great pleasure. But I cannot but remember that just before
dinner one of my people come up to me, and told me a man come from
Huntingdon would speak with me, how my heart come into my mouth doubting
that my father, who has been long sicke, was dead. It put me into a
trembling, but, blessed be [God]! it was no such thing, but a countryman
come about ordinary business to me, to receive L50 paid to my father in
the country for the Perkins's for their legacy, upon the death of their
mother, by my uncle's will. So though I get nothing at present, at least
by the estate, I am fain to pay this money rather than rob my father, and
much good may it do them that I may have no more further trouble from
them. I hear to-day that Tom Woodall, the known chyrurgeon, is killed at
Somerset House by a Frenchman, but the occasion Sir W. Batten could not
tell me.

2nd. Up, and to the office, where sitting all the morning, and among
other things did agree upon a distribution of L30,000 and odd, which is
the only sum we hear of like to come out of all the Poll Bill for the use
of this office for buying of goods. I did herein some few courtesies for
particular friends I wished well to, and for the King's service also, and
was therefore well pleased with what was done. Sir W. Pen this day did
bring an order from the Duke of York for our receiving from him a small
vessel for a fireship, and taking away a better of the King's for it, it
being expressed for his great service to the King. This I am glad of, not
for his sake, but that it will give me a better ground, I believe, to ask
something for myself of this kind, which I was fearful to begin. This do
make Sir W. Pen the most kind to me that can be. I suppose it is this,
lest it should find any opposition from me, but I will not oppose, but
promote it. After dinner, with my wife, to the King's house to see "The
Mayden Queene," a new play of Dryden's, mightily commended for the
regularity of it, and the strain and wit; and, the truth is, there is a
comical part done by Nell,

["Her skill increasing with her years, other poets sought to obtain
recommendations of her wit and beauty to the success of their
writings. I have said that Dryden was one of the principal
supporters of the King's house, and ere long in one of his new plays
a principal character was set apart for the popular comedian. The
drama was a tragi-comedy called 'Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen,'
and an additional interest was attached to its production from the
king having suggested the plot to its author, and calling it 'his
play.'"--Cunningham's Story of Nell Gwyn, ed: 1892, pp. 38,39.]

which is Florimell, that I never can hope ever to see the like done again,
by man or woman. The King and Duke of York were at the play. But so
great performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world
before as Nell do this, both as a mad girle, then most and best of all
when she comes in like a young gallant; and hath the notions and carriage
of a spark the most that ever I saw any man have. It makes me, I confess,
admire her. Thence home and to the office, where busy a while, and then
home to read the lives of Henry 5th and 6th, very fine, in Speede, and to
bed. This day I did pay a bill of L50 from my father, being so much out
of my own purse gone to pay my uncle Robert's legacy to my aunt Perkins's
child.

3rd (Lord's day). Lay long, merrily talking with my wife, and then up and
to church, where a dull sermon of Mr. Mills touching Original Sin, and
then home, and there find little Michell and his wife, whom I love
mightily. Mightily contented I was in their company, for I love her much;
and so after dinner I left them and by water from the Old Swan to White
Hall, where, walking in the galleries, I in the first place met Mr.
Pierce, who tells me the story of Tom Woodall, the surgeon, killed in a
drunken quarrel, and how the Duke of York hath a mind to get him [Pierce]
one of his places in St. Thomas's Hospitall. Then comes Mr. Hayward, the
Duke of York's servant, and tells us that the Swede's Embassador hath been
here to-day with news that it is believed that the Dutch will yield to
have the treaty at London or Dover, neither of which will get our King any
credit, we having already consented to have it at The Hague; which, it
seems, De Witt opposed, as a thing wherein the King of England must needs
have some profound design, which in my conscience he hath not. They do
also tell me that newes is this day come to the King, that the King of
France is come with his army to the frontiers of Flanders, demanding leave
to pass through their country towards Poland, but is denied, and thereupon
that he is gone into the country. How true this is I dare not believe
till I hear more. From them I walked into the Parke, it being a fine but
very cold day; and there took two or three turns the length of the Pell
Mell: and there I met Serjeant Bearcroft, who was sent for the Duke of
Buckingham, to have brought him prisoner to the Tower. He come to towne
this day, and brings word that, being overtaken and outrid by the Duchesse
of Buckingham within a few miles of the Duke's house of Westhorp, he
believes she got thither about a quarter of an hour before him, and so had
time to consider; so that, when he come, the doors were kept shut against
him. The next day, coming with officers of the neighbour market-town to
force open the doors, they were open for him, but the Duke gone; so he
took horse presently, and heard upon the road that the Duke of Buckingham
was gone before him for London: so that he believes he is this day also
come to towne before him; but no newes is yet heard of him. This is all
he brings. Thence to my Lord Chancellor's, and there, meeting Sir H.
Cholmly, he and I walked in my Lord's garden, and talked; among other
things, of the treaty: and he says there will certainly be a peace, but I
cannot believe it. He tells me that the Duke of Buckingham his crimes, as
far as he knows, are his being of a caball with some discontented persons
of the late House of Commons, and opposing the desires of the King in all
his matters in that House; and endeavouring to become popular, and
advising how the Commons' House should proceed, and how he would order the
House of Lords. And that he hath been endeavouring to have the King's
nativity calculated; which was done, and the fellow now in the Tower about
it; which itself hath heretofore, as he says, been held treason, and
people died for it; but by the Statute of Treasons, in Queen Mary's times
and since, it hath been left out. He tells me that this silly Lord hath
provoked, by his ill-carriage, the Duke of York, my Lord Chancellor, and
all the great persons; and therefore, most likely, will die. He tells me,
too, many practices of treachery against this King; as betraying him in
Scotland, and giving Oliver an account of the King's private councils;
which the King knows very well, and hath yet pardoned him.

[Two of our greatest poets have drawn the character of the Duke of
Buckingham in brilliant verse, and both have condemned him to
infamy. There is enough in Pepys's reports to corroborate the main
features of Dryden's magnificent portrait of Zimri in "Absolom and
Achitophel":

"In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;
A man so various that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was everything by starts, and nothing long,

But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking,
* * * * * * *
He laughed himself from Court, then sought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief."

Pope's facts are not correct, and hence the effect of his picture is
impaired. In spite of the duke's constant visits to the Tower,
Charles II. still continued his friend; but on the death of the
king, expecting little from James, he retired to his estate at
Helmsley, in Yorkshire, to nurse his property and to restore his
constitution. He died on April 16th, 1687, at Kirkby Moorside,
after a few days' illness, caused by sitting on the damp grass when
heated from a fox chase. The scene of his death was the house of a
tenant, not "the worst inn's worst room" ("Moral Essays," epist.
iii.). He was buried in Westminster Abbey.]

Here I passed away a little time more talking with him and Creed, whom I
met there, and so away, Creed walking with me to White Hall, and there I
took water and stayed at Michell's to drink. I home, and there to read
very good things in Fuller's "Church History," and "Worthies," and so to
supper, and after supper had much good discourse with W. Hewer, who supped
with us, about the ticket office and the knaveries and extortions every
day used there, and particularly of the business of Mr. Carcasse, whom I
fear I shall find a very rogue. So parted with him, and then to bed.

4th. Up, and with Sir J. Minnes and [Sir] W. Batten by barge to Deptford
by eight in the morning, where to the King's yard a little to look after
business there, and then to a private storehouse to look upon some cordage
of Sir W. Batten's, and there being a hole formerly made for a drain for
tarr to run into, wherein the barrel stood still, full of stinking water,
Sir W. Batten did fall with one leg into it, which might have been very
bad to him by breaking a leg or other hurt, but, thanks be to God, he only
sprained his foot a little. So after his shifting his stockings at a
strong water shop close by, we took barge again, and so to Woolwich, where
our business was chiefly to look upon the ballast wharfe there, which is
offered us for the King's use to hire, but we do not think it worth the
laying out much money upon, unless we could buy the fee-simple of it,
which cannot be sold us, so we wholly flung it off: So to the Dockyard,
and there staid a while talking about business of the yard, and thence to
the Rope-yard, and so to the White Hart and there dined, and Captain Cocke
with us, whom we found at the Rope-yard, and very merry at dinner, and
many pretty tales of Sir J. Minnes, which I have entered in my tale book.
But by this time Sir W. Batten was come to be in much pain in his foot, so
as he was forced to be carried down in a chair to the barge again, and so
away to Deptford, and there I a little in the yard, and then to Bagwell's,
where I find his wife washing, and also I did 'hazer tout que je voudrais
con' her, and then sent for her husband, and discoursed of his going to
Harwich this week to his charge of the new ship building there, which I
have got him, and so away, walked to Redriffe, and there took boat and
away home, and upon Tower Hill, near the ticket office, meeting with my
old acquaintance Mr. Chaplin, the cheesemonger, and there fell to talk of
news, and he tells me that for certain the King of France is denied
passage with his army through Flanders, and that he hears that the Dutch
do stand upon high terms with us, and will have a promise of not being
obliged to strike the flag to us before they will treat with us, and other
high things, which I am ashamed of and do hope will never be yielded to.
That they do make all imaginable preparations, but that he believes they
will be in mighty want of men; that the King of France do court us
mightily. He tells me too that our Lord-Treasurer is going to lay down,
and that Lord Arlington is to be Lord Treasurer, but I believe nothing of
it, for he is not yet of estate visible enough to have the charge I
suppose upon him. So being parted from him I home to the office, and
after having done business there I home to supper, and there mightily
pleased with my wife's beginning the flagellette, believing that she will
come to very well thereon. This day in the barge I took Berckenshaw's
translation of Alsted his Templum, but the most ridiculous book, as he has
translated it, that ever I saw in my life, I declaring that I understood
not three lines together from one end of the book to the other.

5th. Up, and to the office, where met and sat all the morning, doing
little for want of money, but only bear the countenance of an office. At
noon home to dinner, and then to the office again, and there comes Martin
my purser, and I walked with him awhile in the garden, I giving him good
advice to beware of coming any more with high demands for supernumeraries
or other things, for now Sir W. Pen is come to mind the business, the
passing of his accounts will not be so easy as the last. He tells me he
will never need it again, it being as easy, and to as much purpose to do
the same thing otherwise, and how he do keep his Captain's table, and by
that means hath the command of his Captains, and do not fear in a 5th-rate
ship constantly employed to get a L1000 in five years time, and this year,
besides all his spendings, which are I fear high, he hath got at this day
clear above L150 in a voyage of about five or six months, which is a brave
trade. He gone I to the office, and there all the afternoon late doing
much business, and then to see Sir W. Batten, whose leg is all but better
than it was, and like to do well. I by discourse do perceive he and his
Lady are to their hearts out with my Lord Bruncker and Mrs. Williams, to
which I added something, but, I think, did not venture too far with them.
But, Lord! to see to what a poor content any acquaintance among these
people, or the people of the world, as they now-adays go, is worth; for my
part I and my wife will keep to one another and let the world go hang, for
there is nothing but falseness in it. So home to supper and hear my wife
and girle sing a little, and then to bed with much content of mind.

6th. Up, and with [Sir] W. Pen to White Hall by coach, and by the way
agreed to acquaint [Sir] W. Coventry with the business of Mr. Carcasse,
and he and I spoke to Sir W. Coventry that we might move it to the Duke of
York, which I did in a very indifferent, that is, impartial manner, but
vexed I believe Lord Bruncker. Here the Duke of York did acquaint us, and
the King did the like also, afterwards coming in, with his resolution of
altering the manner of the war this year; that is, we shall keep what
fleete we have abroad in several squadrons: so that now all is come out;
but we are to keep it as close as we can, without hindering the work that
is to be done in preparation to this. Great preparations there are to
fortify Sheernesse and the yard at Portsmouth, and forces are drawing down
to both those places, and elsewhere by the seaside; so that we have some
fear of an invasion; and the Duke of York himself did declare his
expectation of the enemy's blocking us up here in the River, and therefore
directed that we should send away all the ships that we have to fit out
hence. Sir W. Pen told me, going with me this morning to White Hall, that
for certain the Duke of Buckingham is brought into the Tower, and that he
hath had an hour's private conference with the King before he was sent
thither. To Westminster Hall. There bought some news books, and, as
every where else, hear every body complain of the dearness of coals, being
at L4 per chaldron, the weather, too, being become most bitter cold, the
King saying to-day that it was the coldest day he ever knew in England.
Thence by coach to my Lord Crew's, where very welcome. Here I find they
are in doubt where the Duke of Buckingham is; which makes me mightily
reflect on the uncertainty of all history, when, in a business of this
moment, and of this day's growth, we cannot tell the truth. Here dined my
old acquaintance, Mr. Borfett, that was my Lord Sandwich's chaplain, and
my Lady Wright and Dr. Boreman, who is preacher at St. Gyles's in the
Fields, who, after dinner, did give my Lord an account of two papist women
lately converted, whereof one wrote her recantation, which he shewed under
her own hand mighty well drawn, so as my Lord desired a copy of it, after
he had satisfied himself from the Doctor, that to his knowledge she was
not a woman under any necessity. Thence by coach home and staid a very
little, and then by water to Redriffe, and walked to Bagwell's, where 'la
moher' was 'defro, sed' would not have me 'demeurer' there 'parce que'
Mrs. Batters and one of my 'ancillas', I believe Jane (for she was gone
abroad to-day), was in the town, and coming thither; so I away presently,
esteeming it a great escape. So to the yard and spoke a word or two, and
then by water home, wondrous cold, and reading a ridiculous ballad made in
praise of the Duke of Albemarle, to the tune of St. George, the tune being
printed, too; and I observe that people have some great encouragement to
make ballads of him of this kind. There are so many, that hereafter he
will sound like Guy of Warwicke. Then abroad with my wife, leaving her at
the 'Change, while I to Sir H. Cholmly's, a pretty house, and a fine,
worthy, well-disposed gentleman he is. He and I to Sir Ph. Warwicke's,
about money for Tangier, but to little purpose. H. Cholmley tells me,
among other things, that he hears of little hopes of a peace, their
demands being so high as we shall never grant, and could tell me that we
shall keep no fleete abroad this year, but only squadrons. And, among
other things, that my Lord Bellasses, he believes, will lose his command
of Tangier by his corrupt covetous ways of .endeavouring to sell his
command, which I am glad [of], for he is a man of no worth in the world
but compliment. So to the 'Change, and there bought 32s. worth of things
for Mrs. Knipp, my Valentine, which is pretty to see how my wife is come
to convention with me, that, whatever I do give to anybody else, I shall
give her as much, which I am not much displeased with. So home and to the
office and Sir W. Batten, to tell him what I had done to-day about
Carcasse's business, and God forgive me I am not without design to give a
blow to Sir W. Batten by it. So home, where Mr. Batelier supped with us
and talked away the evening pretty late, and so he gone and we to bed.