Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1668 N.S. Complete

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20th. This morning up, with mighty kind words between my poor wife and I;
and so to White Hall by water, W. Hewer with me, who is to go with me
every where, until my wife be in condition to go out along with me
herself; for she do plainly declare that she dares not trust me out alone,
and therefore made it a piece of our league that I should alway take
somebody with me, or her herself, which I am mighty willing to, being, by
the grace of God, resolved never to do her wrong more. We landed at the
Temple, and there I bid him call at my cozen Roger Pepys's lodgings, and I
staid in the street for him, and so took water again at the Strand stairs;
and so to White Hall, in my way I telling him plainly and truly my
resolutions, if I can get over this evil, never to give new occasion for
it. He is, I think, so honest and true a servant to us both, and one that
loves us, that I was not much troubled at his being privy to all this, but
rejoiced in my heart that I had him to assist in the making us friends,
which he did truly and heartily, and with good success, for I did get him
to go to Deb. to tell her that I had told my wife all of my being with her
the other night, that so if my wife should send she might not make the
business worse by denying it. While I was at White Hall with the Duke of
York, doing our ordinary business with him, here being also the first time
the new Treasurers. W. Hewer did go to her and come back again, and so I
took him into St. James's Park, and there he did tell me he had been with
her, and found what I said about my manner of being with her true, and had
given her advice as I desired. I did there enter into more talk about my
wife and myself, and he did give me great assurance of several particular
cases to which my wife had from time to time made him privy of her loyalty
and truth to me after many and great temptations, and I believe them
truly. I did also discourse the unfitness of my leaving of my employment
now in many respects to go into the country, as my wife desires, but that
I would labour to fit myself for it, which he thoroughly understands, and
do agree with me in it; and so, hoping to get over this trouble, we about
our business to Westminster Hall to meet Roger Pepys, which I did, and did
there discourse of the business of lending him L500 to answer some
occasions of his, which I believe to be safe enough, and so took leave of
him and away by coach home, calling on my coachmaker by the way, where I
like my little coach mightily. But when I come home, hoping for a further
degree of peace and quiet, I find my wife upon her bed in a horrible rage
afresh, calling me all the bitter names, and, rising, did fall to revile
me in the bitterest manner in the world, and could not refrain to strike
me and pull my hair, which I resolved to bear with, and had good reason to
bear it. So I by silence and weeping did prevail with her a little to be
quiet, and she would not eat her dinner without me; but yet by and by into
a raging fit she fell again, worse than before, that she would slit the
girl's nose, and at last W. Hewer come in and come up, who did allay her
fury, I flinging myself, in a sad desperate condition, upon the bed in the
blue room, and there lay while they spoke together; and at last it come to
this, that if I would call Deb. whore under my hand and write to her that
I hated her, and would never see her more, she would believe me and trust
in me, which I did agree to, only as to the name of whore I would have
excused, and therefore wrote to her sparing that word, which my wife
thereupon tore it, and would not be satisfied till, W. Hewer winking upon
me, I did write so with the name of a whore as that I did fear she might
too probably have been prevailed upon to have been a whore by her carriage
to me, and therefore as such I did resolve never to see her more. This
pleased my wife, and she gives it W. Hewer to carry to her with a sharp
message from her. So from that minute my wife begun to be kind to me, and
we to kiss and be friends, and so continued all the evening, and fell to
talk of other matters, with great comfort, and after supper to bed. This
evening comes Mr. Billup to me, to read over Mr. Wren's alterations of my
draught of a letter for the Duke of York to sign, to the Board; which I
like mighty well, they being not considerable, only in mollifying some
hard terms, which I had thought fit to put in. From this to other
discourse; and do find that the Duke of York and his master, Mr. Wren, do
look upon this service of mine as a very seasonable service to the Duke of
York, as that which he will have to shew to his enemies in his own
justification, of his care of the King's business; and I am sure I am
heartily glad of it, both for the King's sake and the Duke of York's, and
my own also; for, if I continue, my work, by this means, will be the less,
and my share in the blame also. He being gone, I to my wife again, and so
spent the evening with very great joy, and the night also with good sleep
and rest, my wife only troubled in her rest, but less than usual, for
which the God of Heaven be praised. I did this night promise to my wife
never to go to bed without calling upon God upon my knees by prayer, and I
begun this night, and hope I shall never forget to do the like all my
life; for I do find that it is much the best for my soul and body to live
pleasing to God and my poor wife, and will ease me of much care as well as
much expense.

21st. Up, with great joy to my wife and me, and to the office, where W.
Hewer did most honestly bring me back the part of my letter to Deb.
wherein I called her whore, assuring me that he did not shew it her, and
that he did only give her to understand that wherein I did declare my
desire never to see her, and did give her the best Christian counsel he
could, which was mighty well done of him. But by the grace of God, though
I love the poor girl and wish her well, as having gone too far toward the
undoing her, yet I will never enquire after or think of her more, my peace
being certainly to do right to my wife. At the Office all the morning;
and after dinner abroad with W. Hewer to my Lord Ashly's, where my Lord
Barkeley and Sir Thomas Ingram met upon Mr. Povy's account, where I was in
great pain about that part of his account wherein I am concerned, above
L150, I think; and Creed hath declared himself dissatisfied with it, so
far as to desire to cut his "Examinatur" out of the paper, as the only
condition in which he would be silent in it. This Povy had the wit to
yield to; and so when it come to be inquired into, I did avouch the truth
of the account as to that particular, of my own knowledge, and so it went
over as a thing good and just--as, indeed, in the bottom of it, it is;
though in strictness, perhaps, it would not so well be understood. This
Committee rising, I, with my mind much satisfied herein, away by coach
home, setting Creed into Southampton Buildings, and so home; and there
ended my letters, and then home to my wife, where I find my house clean
now, from top to bottom, so as I have not seen it many a day, and to the
full satisfaction of my mind, that I am now at peace, as to my poor wife,
as to the dirtiness of my house, and as to seeing an end, in a great
measure, to my present great disbursements upon my house, and coach and
horses.

22nd (Lord's day). My wife and I lay long, with mighty content; and so
rose, and she spent the whole day making herself clean, after four or five
weeks being in continued dirt; and I knocking up nails, and making little
settlements in my house, till noon, and then eat a bit of meat in the
kitchen, I all alone. And so to the Office, to set down my journall, for
some days leaving it imperfect, the matter being mighty grievous to me,
and my mind, from the nature of it; and so in, to solace myself with my
wife, whom I got to read to me, and so W. Hewer and the boy; and so, after
supper, to bed. This day my boy's livery is come home, the first I ever
had, of greene, lined with red; and it likes me well enough.

23rd. Up, and called upon by W. Howe, who went, with W. Hewer with me, by
water, to the Temple; his business was to have my advice about a place he
is going to buy--the Clerk of the Patent's place, which I understand not,
and so could say little to him, but fell to other talk, and setting him in
at the Temple, we to White Hall, and there I to visit Lord Sandwich, who
is now so reserved, or moped rather, I think, with his own business, that
he bids welcome to no man, I think, to his satisfaction. However, I bear
with it, being willing to give him as little trouble as I can, and to
receive as little from him, wishing only that I had my money in my purse,
that I have lent him; but, however, I shew no discontent at all. So to
White Hall, where a Committee of Tangier expected, but none met. I met
with Mr. Povy, who I discoursed with about publick business, who tells me
that this discourse which I told him of, of the Duke of Monmouth being
made Prince of Wales, hath nothing in it; though he thinks there are all
the endeavours used in the world to overthrow the Duke of York. He would
not have me doubt of my safety in the Navy, which I am doubtful of from
the reports of a general removal; but he will endeavour to inform me, what
he can gather from my Lord Arlington. That he do think that the Duke of
Buckingham hath a mind rather to overthrow all the kingdom, and bring in a
Commonwealth, wherein he may think to be General of their Army, or to make
himself King, which, he believes, he may be led to, by some advice he hath
had with conjurors, which he do affect. Thence with W. Hewer, who goes up
and down with me like a jaylour, but yet with great love and to my great
good liking, it being my desire above all things to please my wife
therein. I took up my wife and boy at Unthank's, and from there to
Hercules Pillars, and there dined, and thence to our upholster's, about
some things more to buy, and so to see our coach, and so to the
looking-glass man's, by the New Exchange, and so to buy a picture for our
blue chamber chimney, and so home; and there I made my boy to read to me
most of the night, to get through the Life of the Archbishop of
Canterbury. At supper comes Mary Batelier, and with us all the evening,
prettily talking, and very innocent company she is; and she gone, we with
much content to bed, and to sleep, with mighty rest all night.

24th. Up, and at the Office all the morning, and at noon home to dinner,
where Mr. Gentleman, the cook, and an old woman, his third or fourth wife,
come and dined with us, to enquire about a ticket of his son's, that is
dead; and after dinner, I with Mr. Hosier to my closet, to discourse of
the business of balancing Storekeeper's accounts, which he hath taken
great pains in reducing to a method, to my great satisfaction; and I shall
be glad both for the King's sake and his, that the thing may be put in
practice, and will do my part to promote it. That done, he gone, I to the
Office, where busy till night; and then with comfort to sit with my wife,
and get her to read to me, and so to supper, and to bed, with my mind at
mighty ease.

25th. Up, and by coach with W. Hewer to see W. Coventry; but he gone out,
I to White Hall, and there waited on Lord Sandwich, which I have little
encouragement to do, because of the difficulty of seeing him, and the
little he hath to say to me when I do see him, or to any body else, but
his own idle people about him, Sir Charles Harbord, &c. Thence walked
with him to White Hall, where to the Duke of York; and there the Duke, and
Wren, and I, by appointment in his closet, to read over our letter to the
Office, which he heard, and signed it, and it is to my mind, Mr. Wren
having made it somewhat sweeter to the Board, and yet with all the advice
fully, that I did draw it up with. He [the Duke] said little more to us
now, his head being full of other business; but I do see that he do
continue to put a value upon my advice; and so Mr. Wren and I to his
chamber, and there talked: and he seems to hope that these people, the
Duke of Buckingham and Arlington, will run themselves off of their legs;
they being forced to be always putting the King upon one idle thing or
other, against the easiness of his nature, which he will never be able to
bear, nor they to keep him to, and so will lose themselves. And, for
instance of their little progress, he tells me that my Lord of Ormond is
like yet to carry it, and to continue in his command in Ireland; at least,
they cannot get the better of him yet. But he tells me that the Keeper is
wrought upon, as they say, to give his opinion for the dissolving of the
Parliament, which, he thinks, will undo him in the eyes of the people. He
do not seem to own the hearing or fearing of any thing to be done in the
Admiralty, to the lessening of the Duke of York, though he hears how the
town talk's full of it. Thence I by coach home, and there find my cozen
Roger come to dine with me, and to seal his mortgage for the L500 I lend
him; but he and I first walked to the 'Change, there to look for my uncle
Wight, and get him to dinner with us. So home, buying a barrel of oysters
at my old oyster-woman's, in Gracious Street, but over the way to where
she kept her shop before. So home, and there merry at dinner; and the
money not being ready, I carried Roger Pepys to Holborn Conduit, and there
left him going to Stradwick's, whom we avoided to see, because of our long
absence, and my wife and I to the Duke of York's house, to see "The
Duchesse of Malfy," a sorry play, and sat with little pleasure, for fear
of my wife's seeing me look about, and so I was uneasy all the while,
though I desire and resolve never to give her trouble of that kind more.
So home, and there busy at the Office a while, and then home, where my
wife to read to me, and so to supper, and to bed. This evening, to my
great content, I got Sir Richard Ford to give me leave to set my coach in
his yard.

26th. Up, and at the Office all the morning, where I was to have
delivered the Duke of York's letter of advice to the Board, in answer to
our several answers to his great letter; but Lord Brouncker not being
there, and doubtful to deliver it before the new Treasurers, I forbore it
to next sitting. So home at noon to dinner, where I find Mr. Pierce and
his wife but I was forced to shew very little pleasure in her being there
because of my vow to my wife; and therefore was glad of a very bad
occasion for my being really troubled, which is, at W. Hewer's losing of a
tally of L1000, which I sent him this day to receive of the Commissioners
of Excise. So that though I hope at the worst I shall be able to get
another, yet I made use of this to get away as soon as I had dined, and
therefore out with him to the Excise Office to make a stop of its payment,
and so away to the coachmaker's and several other places, and so away
home, and there to my business at the office, and thence home, and there
my wife to read to me, and W. Hewer to set some matters of accounts right
at my chamber, to bed.

27th. Up, and with W. Hewer to see W. Coventry again, but missed him
again, by coming too late, the man of [all] the world that I am resolved
to preserve an interest in. Thence to White Hall, and there at our usual
waiting on the Duke of York; and that being done, I away to the Exchequer,
to give a stop, and take some advice about my lost tally, wherein I shall
have some remedy, with trouble, and so home, and there find Mr. Povy, by
appointment, to dine with me; where a pretty good dinner, but for want of
thought in my wife it was but slovenly dressed up; however, much pleasant
discourse with him, and some serious; and he tells me that he would, by
all means, have me get to be a Parliament-man the next Parliament, which
he believes there will be one, which I do resolve of. By and by comes my
cozen Roger, and dines with us; and, after dinner, did seal his mortgage,
wherein I do wholly rely on his honesty, not having so much as read over
what he hath given me for it, nor minded it, but do trust to his integrity
therein. They all gone, I to the office and there a while, and then home
to ease my eyes and make my wife read to me.

28th. Up, and all the morning at the Office, where, while I was sitting,
one comes and tells me that my coach is come. So I was forced to go out,
and to Sir Richard Ford's, where I spoke to him, and he is very willing to
have it brought in, and stand there; and so I ordered it, to my great
content, it being mighty pretty, only the horses do not please me, and,
therefore, resolve to have better. At noon home to dinner, and so to the
office again all the afternoon, and did a great deal of business, and so
home to supper and to bed, with my mind at pretty good ease, having this
day presented to the Board the Duke of York's letter, which, I perceive,
troubled Sir W. Pen, he declaring himself meant in that part, that
concerned excuse by sickness; but I do not care, but am mightily glad that
it is done, and now I shall begin to be at pretty good ease in the Office.
This morning, to my great content, W. Hewer tells me that a porter is
come, who found my tally in Holborne, and brings it him, for which he
gives him 20s.

29th (Lord's day). Lay long in bed with pleasure with my wife, with whom
I have now a great deal of content, and my mind is in other things also
mightily more at ease, and I do mind my business better than ever and am
more at peace, and trust in God I shall ever be so, though I cannot yet
get my mind off from thinking now and then of Deb., but I do ever since my
promise a while since to my wife pray to God by myself in my chamber every
night, and will endeavour to get my wife to do the like with me ere long,
but am in much fear of what she lately frighted me with about her being a
Catholique; and I dare not, therefore, move her to go to church, for fear
she should deny me; but this morning, of her own accord, she spoke of
going to church the next Sunday, which pleases me mightily. This morning
my coachman's clothes come home; and I like the livery mightily, and so I
all the morning at my chamber, and dined with my wife, and got her to read
to me in the afternoon, till Sir W. Warren, by appointment, comes to me,
who spent two hours, or three, with me, about his accounts of Gottenburgh,
which are so confounded, that I doubt they will hardly ever pass without
my doing something, which he desires of me, and which, partly from fear,
and partly from unwillingness to wrong the King, and partly from its being
of no profit to me, I am backward to give way to, though the poor man do
indeed deserve to be rid of this trouble, that he hath lain so long under,
from the negligence of this Board. We afterwards fell to other talk, and
he tells me, as soon as he saw my coach yesterday, he wished that the
owner might not contract envy by it; but I told him it was now manifestly
for my profit to keep a coach, and that, after employments like mine for
eight years, it were hard if I could not be justly thought to be able to
do that.

[Though our journalist prided himself not a little upon becoming
possessed of a carriage, the acquisition was regarded with envy and
jealousy by his enemies, as will appear by the following extract
from the scurrilous pamphlet, "A Hue and Cry after P. and H. and
Plain Truth (or a Private Discourse between P. and H.)," in which
Pepys and Hewer are severely handled: "There is one thing more you
must be mightily sorry for with all speed. Your presumption in your
coach, in which you daily ride, as if you had been son and heir to
the great Emperor Neptune, or as if you had been infallibly to have
succeeded him in his government of the Ocean, all which was
presumption in the highest degree. First, you had upon the fore
part of your chariot, tempestuous waves and wrecks of ships; on your
left hand, forts and great guns, and ships a-fighting; on your right
hand was a fair harbour and galleys riding, with their flags and
pennants spread, kindly saluting each other, just like P[epys] and
H[ewer]. Behind it were high curled waves and ships a-sinking, and
here and there an appearance of some bits of land."]

He gone, my wife and I to supper; and so she to read, and made an end of
the Life of Archbishop Laud, which is worth reading, as informing a man
plainly in the posture of the Church, and how the things of it were
managed with the same self-interest and design that every other thing is,
and have succeeded accordingly. So to bed.

30th. Up betimes, and with W. Hewer, who is my guard, to White Hall, to a
Committee of Tangier, where the business of Mr. Lanyon

[John Lanyon, agent of the Navy Commissioners at Plymouth. The
cause of complaint appears to have been connected with his contract
for Tangier. In 1668 a charge was made against Lanyon and Thomas
Yeabsley that they had defrauded the king in the freighting of the
ship "Tiger" ("Calendar of State Papers," 1668-69, p. 138).]

took up all the morning; and where, poor man! he did manage his business
with so much folly, and ill fortune to boot, that the Board, before his
coming in, inclining, of their own accord, to lay his cause aside, and
leave it to the law, but he pressed that we would hear it, and it ended to
the making him appear a very knave, as well as it did to me a fool also,
which I was sorry for. Thence by water, Mr. Povy, Creed, and I, to
Arundell House, and there I did see them choosing their Council, it being
St. Andrew's-day; and I had his Cross

[The cross of St. Andrew, like that of St. Patrick, is a saltire.
The two, combined with the red cross of St. George, form the Union
flag.]

set on my hat, as the rest had, and cost me 2s., and so leaving them I
away by coach home to dinner, and my wife, after dinner, went the first
time abroad to take the maidenhead of her coach, calling on Roger Pepys,
and visiting Mrs. Creed, and my cozen Turner, while I at home all the
afternoon and evening, very busy and doing much work, to my great content.
Home at night, and there comes Mrs. Turner and Betty to see us, and supped
with us, and I shewed them a cold civility for fear of troubling my wife,
and after supper, they being gone, we to bed. Thus ended this month, with
very good content, that hath been the most sad to my heart and the most
expenseful to my purse on things of pleasure, having furnished my wife's
closet and the best chamber, and a coach and horses, that ever I yet knew
in the world: and do put me into the greatest condition of outward state
that ever I was in, or hoped ever to be, or desired: and this at a time
when we do daily expect great changes in this Office: and by all reports
we must, all of us, turn out. But my eyes are come to that condition that
I am not able to work: and therefore that, and my wife's desire, make me
have no manner of trouble in my thoughts about it. So God do his will in
it!

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Calling me dog and rogue, and that I had a rotten heart
Have me get to be a Parliament-man the next Parliament
I have a good mind to have the maidenhead of this girl
Resolve never to give her trouble of that kind more
Should alway take somebody with me, or her herself
There being no curse in the world so great as this

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.
DECEMBER
1668

December 1st. Up, and to the office, where sat all the morning, and at
noon with my people to dinner, and so to the office, very busy till night,
and then home and made my boy read to me Wilkins's Reall Character, which
do please me mightily, and so after supper to bed with great pleasure and
content with my wife. This day I hear of poor Mr. Clerke, the solicitor,
being dead, of a cold, after being not above two days ill, which troubles
me mightily, poor man!

2nd. Up, and at the office all the morning upon some accounts of Sir D.
Gawden, and at noon abroad with W. Hewer, thinking to have found Mr. Wren
at Captain Cox's, to have spoke something to him about doing a favour for
Will's uncle Steventon, but missed him. And so back home and abroad with
my wife, the first time that ever I rode in my own coach, which do make my
heart rejoice, and praise God, and pray him to bless it to me and continue
it. So she and I to the King's playhouse, and there sat to avoid seeing
Knepp in a box above where Mrs. Williams happened to be, and there saw
"The Usurper;" a pretty good play, in all but what is designed to resemble
Cromwell and Hugh Peters, which is mighty silly. The play done, we to
White Hall; where my wife staid while I up to the Duchesse's and Queen's
side, to speak with the Duke of York: and here saw all the ladies, and
heard the silly discourse of the King, with his people about him, telling
a story of my Lord Rochester's having of his clothes stole, while he was
with a wench; and his gold all gone, but his clothes found afterwards
stuffed into a feather bed by the wench that stole them. I spoke with the
Duke of York, just as he was set down to supper with the King, about our
sending of victuals to Sir Thomas Allen's fleet hence to Cales [Cadiz] to
meet him. And so back to my wife in my coach, and so with great content
and joy home, where I made my boy to make an end of the Reall Character,
which I begun a great while ago, and do please me infinitely, and indeed
is a most worthy labour, and I think mighty easy, though my eyes make me
unable to attempt any thing in it. To-day I hear that Mr. Ackworth's
cause went for him at Guildhall, against his accusers, which I am well
enough pleased with.

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