Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1668 N.S. Complete

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5th (Friday).

[The rough notes for the journal from this time to the 17th of June
are contained on five leaves, inserted in the book; and after them
follow several pages left blank for the fair copy which was never
made.]

At Barnet, for milk, 6d. On the highway, to menders of the highway, 6d.
Dinner at Stevenage, 5s. 6d.

6th (Saturday). Spent at Huntingdon with Bowles, and Appleyard, and
Shepley, 2s.

7th (Sunday). My father, for money lent, and horse-hire L1 11s.

8th (Monday). Father's servants (father having in the garden told me bad
stories of my wife's ill words), 14s.; one that helped at the horses, 2s.;
menders of the highway, 2s. Pleasant country to Bedford, where, while
they stay, I rode through the town; and a good country-town; and there,
drinking, 1s. We on to Newport; and there 'light, and I and W. Hewer to
the Church, and there give the boy 1s. So to Buckingham, a good old town.
Here I to see the Church, which very good, and the leads, and a school in
it: did give the sexton's boy 1s. A fair bridge here, with many arches:
vexed at my people's making me lose so much time; reckoning, 13s. 4d.
Mighty pleased with the pleasure of the ground all the day. At night to
Newport Pagnell; and there a good pleasant country-town, but few people in
it. A very fair--and like a Cathedral--Church; and I saw the leads, and a
vault that goes far under ground, and here lay with Betty Turner's
sparrow: the town, and so most of this country, well watered. Lay here
well, and rose next day by four o'clock: few people in the town: and so
away. Reckoning for supper, 19s. 6d.; poor, 6d. Mischance to the coach,
but no time lost.

9th (Tuesday). When come to Oxford, a very sweet place: paid our guide,
L1 2s. 6d.; barber, 2s. 6d.; book, Stonage, 4s.

[This must have been either Inigo Jones's "The most notable
Antiquity of Great Britain vulgarly called Stonehenge," printed in
1655, or "Chorea Gigantum, or the most famous Antiquity of Great
Britain, vulgarly called Stones Heng, standing on Salisbury Plain,
restor'd to the Danes," by Walter Charleton, M.D., and published in
1663.]

To dinner; and then out with my wife and people, and landlord: and to him
that showed us the schools and library, 10s.; to him that showed us All
Souls' College, and Chichly's picture, 5s. So to see Christ Church with
my wife, I seeing several others very fine alone, with W. Hewer, before
dinner, and did give the boy that went with me 1s. Strawberries, 1s. 2d.
Dinner and servants, L1 0s. 6d. After come home from the schools, I out
with the landlord to Brazen-nose College;--to the butteries, and in the
cellar find the hand of the Child of Hales, . . . long. Butler, 2s.
Thence with coach and people to Physic-garden, 1s. So to Friar Bacon's
study: I up and saw it, and give the man 1s. Bottle of sack for landlord,
2s. Oxford mighty fine place; and well seated, and cheap entertainment.
At night come to Abingdon, where had been a fair of custard; and met many
people and scholars going home; and there did get some pretty good musick,
and sang and danced till supper: 5s.

10th (Wednesday). Up, and walked to the Hospitall:--[Christ's
Hospital]--very large and fine; and pictures of founders, and the History'
of the Hospitall; and is said to be worth; L700 per annum; and that Mr.
Foly was here lately to see how their lands were settled; and here, in old
English, the story of the occasion of it, and a rebus at the bottom. So
did give the poor, which they would not take but in their box, 2s. 6d. So
to the inn, and paid the reckoning and what not, 13s. So forth towards
Hungerford, led this good way by our landlord, one Heart, an old but very
civil and well-spoken man, more than I ever heard, of his quality. He
gone, we forward; and I vexed at my people's not minding the way. So come
to Hungerford, where very good trouts, eels, and crayfish. Dinner: a mean
town. At dinner there, 12s. Thence set out with a guide, who saw us to
Newmarket-heath, and then left us, 3s. 6d. So all over the Plain by the
sight of the steeple, the Plain high and low, to Salisbury, by night; but
before I come to the town, I saw a great fortification, and there 'light,
and to it and in it; and find it prodigious, so as to frighten me to be in
it all alone at that time of night, it being dark. I understand, since,
it to be that, that is called Old Sarum. Come to the George Inne, where
lay in a silk bed; and very good diet. To supper; then to bed.

11th (Thursday). Up, and W. Hewer and I up and down the town, and find it
a very brave place. The river goes through every street; and a most
capacious market-place. The city great, I think greater than Hereford.
But the Minster most admirable; as big, I think, and handsomer than
Westminster: and a most large Close about it, and houses for the Officers
thereof, and a fine palace for the Bishop. So to my lodging back, and
took out my wife and people to shew them the town and Church; but they
being at prayers, we could not be shown the Quire. A very good organ; and
I looked in, and saw the Bishop, my friend Dr. Ward. Thence to the inne;
and there not being able to hire coach-horses, and not willing to use our
own, we got saddle-horses, very dear. Boy that went to look for them, 6d.
So the three women behind W. Hewer, Murford, and our guide, and I single
to Stonage; over the Plain and some great hills, even to fright us. Come
thither, and find them as prodigious as any tales I ever heard of them,
and worth going this journey to see. God knows what their use was! they
are hard to tell, but yet maybe told. Give the shepherd-woman, for
leading our horses, 4d. So back by Wilton, my Lord Pembroke's house,
which we could not see, he being just coming to town; but the situation I
do not like, nor the house promise much, it being in a low but rich
valley. So back home; and there being 'light, we to the Church, and there
find them at prayers again, so could not see the Quire; but I sent the
women home, and I did go in, and saw very many fine tombs, and among the
rest some very ancient, of the Montagus.

[The Montacutes, from whom Lord Sandwich's family claimed descent:
--B.]

So home to dinner; and, that being done, paid the reckoning, which was so
exorbitant; and particular in rate of my horses, and 7s. 6d. for bread and
beer, that I was mad, and resolve to trouble the master about it, and get
something for the poor; and come away in that humour: L2 5s. 6d. Servants,
1s. 6d.; poor, 1s.; guide to the Stones, 2s.; poor woman in the street,
1s.; ribbands, 9d.; washwoman, 1s.; sempstress for W. Hewer, 3s.; lent W.
Hewer, 3s. Thence about six o'clock, and with a guide went over the
smooth Plain indeed till night; and then by a happy mistake, and that
looked like an adventure, we were carried out of our way to a town where
we would lye, since we could not go so far as we would. And there with
great difficulty come about ten at night to a little inn, where we were
fain to go into a room where a pedlar was in bed, and made him rise; and
there wife and I lay, and in a truckle-bed Betty Turner and Willett. But
good beds, and the master of the house a sober, understanding man, and I
had good discourse with him about this country's matters, as wool, and
corne, and other things. And he also merry, and made us mighty merry at
supper, about manning the new ship, at Bristol, with none but men whose
wives do master them; and it seems it is become in reproach to some men of
estate that are such hereabouts, that this is become common talk. By and
by to bed, glad of this mistake, because, it seems, had we gone on as we
intended, we could not have passed with our coach, and must have lain on
the Plain all night. This day from Salisbury I wrote by the post my
excuse for not coming home, which I hope will do, for I am resolved to see
the Bath, and, it may be, Bristol.

12th (Friday). Up, finding our beds good, but lousy; which made us merry.
We set out, the reckoning and servants coming to 9s. 6d.; my guide
thither, 2s.; coachman, advanced, 10s. So rode a very good way, led to my
great content by our landlord to Philips-Norton, with great pleasure,
being now come into Somersetshire; where my wife and Deb. mightily joyed
thereat,--[They were natives of that county.-B.]--I commending the
country, as indeed it deserves. And the first town we came to was
Brekington, where, we stopping for something for the horses, we called two
or three little boys to us, and pleased ourselves with their manner of
speech, and did make one of them kiss Deb., and another say the Lord's
Prayer (hallowed be thy kingdom come). At Philips-Norton I walked to the
Church, and there saw a very ancient tomb of some Knight Templar, I think;
and here saw the tombstone whereon there were only two heads cut, which,
the story goes, and credibly, were two sisters, called the Fair Maids of
Foscott, that had two bodies upward and one belly, and there lie buried.
Here is also a very fine ring of six bells, and they mighty tuneable.
Having dined very well, 10s., we come before night to the Bath; where I
presently stepped out with my landlord, and saw the baths, with people in
them. They are not so large as I expected, but yet pleasant; and the town
most of stone, and clean, though the streets generally narrow. I home,
and being weary, went to bed without supper; the rest supping.

13th (Saturday). Up at four o'clock, being by appointment called up to
the Cross Bath, where we were carried one after one another, myself, and
wife, and Betty Turner, Willet, and W. Hewer. And by and by, though we
designed to have done before company come, much company come; very fine
ladies; and the manner pretty enough, only methinks it cannot be clean to
go so many bodies together in the same water. Good conversation among
them that are acquainted here, and stay together. Strange to see how hot
the water is; and in some places, though this is the most temperate bath,
the springs so hot as the feet not able to endure. But strange to see,
when women and men herein, that live all the season in these waters, that
cannot but be parboiled, and look like the creatures of the bath! Carried
away, wrapped in a sheet, and in a chair, home; and there one after
another thus carried, I staying above two hours in the water, home to bed,
sweating for an hour; and by and by, comes musick to play to me,
extraordinary good as ever I heard at London almost, or anywhere: 5s. Up,
to go to Bristol, about eleven o'clock, and paying my landlord that was
our guide from Chiltern, 10s., and the serjeant of the bath, 10s., and the
man that carried us in chairs, 3s. 6d. Set out towards Bristoll, and come
thither (in a coach hired to spare our own horses); the way bad, but
country good, about two o'clock, where set down at the Horse'shoe, and
there, being trimmed by a very handsome fellow, 2s., walked with my wife
and people through the city, which is in every respect another London,
that one can hardly know it, to stand in the country, no more than that.
No carts, it standing generally on vaults, only dog-carts.

["They draw all their heavy goods here on sleds, or sledges, which
they call 'gee hoes,' without wheels, which kills a multitude of
horses." Another writer says, "They suffer no carts to be used in
the city, lest, as some say, the shake occasioned by them on the
pavement should affect the Bristol milk (the sherry) in the vaults,
which is certainly had here in the greatest perfection." An order
of Common Council occurs in 1651 to prohibit the use of carts and
waggons-only suffering drays. "Camden in giving our city credit for
its cleanliness in forming 'goutes,' says they use sledges here
instead of carts, lest they destroy the arches beneath which are the
goutes."--Chilcott's New Guide to Bristol, &c.,]

So to the Three ..Crowns Tavern I was directed; but, when I come in, the
master told me that he had newly given over the selling of wine; it seems,
grown rich; and so went to the Sun; and there Deb. going with W. Hewer and
Betty Turner to see her uncle [Butts], and leaving my wife with the
mistress of the house, I to see the quay, which is a most large and noble
Vlace; and to see the new ship building by Bally, neither he nor Furzer
being in town. It will be a fine ship. Spoke with the foreman, and did
give the boys that kept the cabin 2s. Walked back to the Sun, where I
find Deb. come back, and with her, her uncle, a sober merchant, very good
company, and so like one of our sober, wealthy, London merchants, as
pleased me mightily. Here we dined, and much good talk with him, 7s. 6d.:
a messenger to Sir John Knight, who was not at home, 6d. Then walked with
him [Butts] and my wife and company round the quay, and to the ship; and
he shewed me the Custom-house, and made me understand many things of the
place, and led us through Marsh Street, where our girl was born. But,
Lord! the joy that was among the old poor people of the place, to see
Mrs. Willet's daughter, it seems her mother being a brave woman and
mightily beloved! And so brought us a back way by surprize to his house,
where a substantial good house, and well furnished; and did give us good
entertainment of strawberries, a whole venison-pasty, cold, and plenty of
brave wine, and above all Bristoll milk,

[A sort of rum punch (milk punch), which, and turtle, were products
of the trade of Bristol with the West Indies. So Byron says in the
first edition of his "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers"

"Too much in turtle Bristol's sons delight,
Too much oer bowls of rack prolong the night."

These lines will not be found in the modern editions; but the
following are substituted:

"Four turtle feeder's verse must needs he flat,
Though Bristol bloat him with the verdant fat."

Lord Macaulay says of the collations with which the sugar-refiners
of Bristol regaled their visitors: "The repast was dressed in the
furnace, And was accompanied by a rich brewage made of the best
Spanish wine, and celebrated over the whole kingdom as Bristol milk"
("Hist. of England," vol. i., p. 335)--B.]

where comes in another poor woman, who, hearing that Deb. was here, did
come running hither, and with her eyes so lull of tears, and heart so full
of joy, that she could not speak when she come in, that it made me weep
too: I protest that I was not able to speak to her, which I would have
done, to have diverted her tears. His wife a good woman, and so sober and
substantiall as I was never more pleased anywhere. Servant-maid, 2s. So
thence took leave, and he with us through the city, where in walking I
find the city pay him great respect, and he the like to the meanest, which
pleased me mightily. He shewed us the place where the merchants meet
here, and a fine Cross yet standing, like Cheapside. And so to the
Horseshoe, where paid the reckoning, 2s. 6d. We back, and by moonshine to
the Bath again, about ten-o'clock: bad way; and giving the coachman 1s.,
went all of us to bed.

14th (Sunday). Up, and walked up and down the town, and saw a pretty good
market-place, and many good streets, and very fair stone-houses. And so to
the great Church, and there saw Bishop Montagu's tomb;

[James Montagu, Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1608, and of Winchester
in 1616--died 1618. He was uncle to the Earl of Sandwich, whose
mother was Pepys's aunt. Hence Pepys's curiosity respecting the
tomb.--B.]

and, when placed, did there see many brave people come, and, among others,
two men brought in, in litters, and set down in the chancel to hear: but I
did not know one face. Here a good organ; but a vain, pragmatical fellow
preached a ridiculous, affected sermon, that made me angry, and some
gentlemen that sat next me, and sang well. So home, walking round the
walls of the City, which are good, and the battlements all whole. The
sexton of the church is. So home to dinner, and after dinner comes Mr.
Butts again to see me, and he and I to church, where the same idle fellow
preached; and I slept most of the sermon. Thence home, and took my wife
out and the girls, and come to this church again, to see it, and look over
the monuments, where, among others, Dr. Venner and Pelting, and a lady of
Sir W. Walter's; he lying with his face broken. So to the fields a little
and walked, and then home and had my head looked [at], and so to supper,
and then comes my landlord to me, a sober understanding man, and did give
me a good account of the antiquity of this town and Wells; and of two
Heads, on two pillars, in Wells church. But he a Catholick. So he gone, I
to bed.

15th (Monday). Up, and with Mr. Butts to look into the baths, and find
the King and Queen's full of a mixed sort, of good and bad, and the Cross
only almost for the gentry. So home and did the like with my wife, and
did pay my guides, two women, 5s.; one man, 2s. 6d.; poor, 6d.; woman to
lay my foot-cloth, 1s. So to our inne, and there eat and paid reckoning,
L1 8s. 6d.; servants, 3s.; poor, 1s.; lent the coach man, 10s. Before I
took coach, I went to make a boy dive in the King's bath, 1s. I paid also
for my coach and a horse to Bristol, L1 1s. 6d. Took coach, and away,
without any of the company of the other stage-coaches, that go out of this
town to-day; and rode all day with some trouble, for fear of being out of
our way, over the Downes, where the life of the shepherds is, in fair
weather only, pretty. In the afternoon come to Abebury, where, seeing
great stones like those of Stonage standing up, I stopped, and took a
countryman of that town, and he carried me and shewed me a place trenched
in, like Old Sarum almost, with great stones pitched in it, some bigger
than those at Stonage in figure, to my great admiration: and he told me
that most people of learning, coming by, do come and view them, and that
the King did so: and that the Mount cast hard by is called Selbury, from
one King Seall buried there, as tradition says. I did give this man 1s.
So took coach again, seeing one place with great high stones pitched
round, which, I believe, was once some particular building, in some
measure like that of Stonage. But, about a mile off, it was prodigious to
see how full the Downes are of great stones; and all along the vallies,
stones of considerable bigness, most of them growing certainly out of the
ground so thick as to cover the ground, which makes me think the less of
the wonder of Stonage, for hence they might undoubtedly supply themselves
with stones, as well as those at Abebury. In my way did give to the poor
and menders of the highway 3s. Before night, come to Marlborough, and
lay at the Hart; a good house, and a pretty fair town for a street or two;
and what is most singular is, their houses on one side having their
pent-houses supported with pillars, which makes it a good walk. My wife
pleased with all, this evening reading of "Mustapha" to me till supper,
and then to supper, and had musique whose innocence pleased me, and I did
give them 3s. So to bed, and lay well all night, and long, so as all the
five coaches that come this day from Bath, as well as we, were gone out of
the town before six.

16th (Tuesday). So paying the reckoning, 14s. 4d., and servants, 2s.,
poor 1s., set out; and overtook one coach and kept a while company with
it, till one of our horses losing a shoe, we stopped and drank and spent
1s. So on, and passing through a good part of this county of Wiltshire,
saw a good house of Alexander Popham's, and another of my Lord Craven's, I
think in Barkeshire. Come to Newbery, and there dined, which cost me, and
musick, which a song of the old courtier of Queen Elizabeth's, and how he
was changed upon the coming in of the King, did please me mightily, and I
did cause W. Hewer to write it out, 3s. 6d. Then comes the reckoning,
forced to change gold, 8s. 7d.; servants and poor, 1s. 6d. So out, and
lost our way, which made me vexed, but come into it again; and in the
evening betimes come to Reading, and there heard my wife read more of
"Mustapha," and then to supper, and then I to walk about the town, which
is a very great one, I think bigger than Salsbury: a river runs through
it, in seven branches, and unite in one, in one part of the town, and runs
into the Thames half-a-mile off one odd sign of the Broad Face. W. Hewer
troubled with the headake we had none of his company last night, nor all
this day nor night to talk. Then to my inn, and so to bed.

17th (Wednesday). Rose, and paying the reckoning, 12s. 6d.; servants and
poor, 2s. 6d.; musick, the worst we have had, coming to our chamber-door,
but calling us by wrong names, we lay; so set out with one coach in
company, and through Maydenhead, which I never saw before, to Colebrooke
by noon; the way mighty good; and there dined, and fitted ourselves a
little to go through London, anon. Somewhat out of humour all day,
reflecting on my wife's neglect of things, and impertinent humour got by
this liberty of being from me, which she is never to be trusted with; for
she is a fool. Thence pleasant way to London, before night, and find all
very well, to great content; and there to talk with my wife, and saw Sir
W. Pen, who is well again. I hear of the ill news by the great fire at
Barbados. By and by home, and there with my people to supper, all in
pretty good humour, though I find my wife hath something in her gizzard,
that only waits an opportunity of being provoked to bring up; but I will
not, for my content-sake, give it. So I to bed, glad to find all so well
here, and slept well.

[The rough notes end here.]

18th. Up betimes and to the office, there to set my papers in order and
books, my office having been new whited and windows made clean, and so to
sit, where all the morning, and did receive a hint or two from my Lord
Anglesey, as if he thought much of my taking the ayre as I have done; but
I care not a turd; but whatever the matter is, I think he hath some
ill-will to me, or at least an opinion that I am more the servant of the
Board than I am. At noon home to dinner, where my wife still in a
melancholy, fusty humour, and crying, and do not tell me plainly what it
is; but I by little words find that she hath heard of my going to plays,
and carrying people abroad every day, in her absence; and that I cannot
help but the storm will break out, I think, in a little time. After
dinner carried her by coach to St. James's, where she sat in the coach
till I to my Lady Peterborough's, who tells me, among other things, her
Lord's good words to the Duke of York lately, about my Lord Sandwich, and
that the Duke of York is kind to my Lord Sandwich, which I am glad to
hear: my business here was about her Lord's pension from Tangier. Here
met with Povy, who tells me how hard Creed is upon him, though he did give
him, about six months since, I think he said, fifty pieces in gold; and
one thing there is in his accounts that I fear may touch me, but I shall
help it, I hope. So my wife not speaking a word, going nor coming, nor
willing to go to a play, though a new one, I to the Office, and did much
business. At night home, where supped Mr. Turner and his wife, and Betty
and Mercer and Pelling, as merry as the ill, melancholy humour that my
wife was in, would let us, which vexed me; but I took no notice of it,
thinking that will be the best way, and let it wear away itself. After
supper, parted, and to bed; and my wife troubled all night, and about one
o'clock goes out of the bed to the girl's bed, which did trouble me, she
crying and sobbing, without telling the cause. By and by she comes back
to me, and still crying; I then rose, and would have sat up all night, but
she would have me come to bed again; and being pretty well pacified, we to
sleep.

19th. When between two and three in the morning we were waked with my
maids crying out, "Fire, fire, in Markelane!" So I rose and looked out,
and it was dreadful; and strange apprehensions in me, and us all, of being
presently burnt. So we all rose; and my care presently was to secure my
gold, and plate, and papers, and could quickly have done it, but I went
forth to see where it was; and the whole town was presently in the
streets; and I found it in a new-built house that stood alone in
Minchin-lane, over against the Cloth-workers'-hall, which burned
furiously: the house not yet quite finished; and the benefit of brick was
well seen, for it burnt all inward, and fell down within itself; so no
fear of doing more hurt. So homeward, and stopped at Mr. Mills's, where
he and she at the door, and Mrs. Turner, and Betty, and Mrs. Hollworthy,
and there I stayed and talked, and up to the church leads, and saw the
fire, which spent itself, till all fear over. I home, and there we to bed
again, and slept pretty well, and about nine rose, and then my wife fell
into her blubbering again, and at length had a request to make to me,
which was, that she might go into France, and live there, out of trouble;
and then all come out, that I loved pleasure and denied her any, and a
deal of do; and I find that there have been great fallings out between my
father and her, whom, for ever hereafter, I must keep asunder, for they
cannot possibly agree. And I said nothing, but, with very mild words and
few, suffered her humour to spend, till we begun to be very quiet, and I
think all will be over, and friends, and so I to the office, where all the
morning doing business. Yesterday I heard how my Lord Ashly is like to
die, having some imposthume in his breast, that he hath been fain to be
cut into the body.

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