Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1669 N.S. Complete

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4th. Up, and a while at the office, but thinking to have Mr. Povy's
business to-day at the Committee for Tangier, I left the Board and away to
White Hall, where in the first court I did meet Sir Jeremy Smith, who did
tell me that Sir W. Coventry was just now sent to the Tower, about the
business of his challenging the Duke of Buckingham, and so was also Harry
Saville to the Gate-house; which, as [he is] a gentleman, and of the Duke
of York's bedchamber, I heard afterwards that the Duke of York is mightily
incensed at, and do appear very high to the King that he might not be sent
thither, but to the Tower, this being done only in contempt to him. This
news of Sir W. Coventry did strike me to the heart, and with reason, for
by this and my Lord of Ormond's business, I do doubt that the Duke of
Buckingham will be so flushed, that he will not stop at any thing, but be
forced to do any thing now, as thinking it not safe to end here; and, Sir
W. Coventry being gone, the King will have never a good counsellor, nor
the Duke of York any sure friend to stick to him; nor any good man will be
left to advise what is good. This, therefore, do heartily trouble me as
any thing that ever I heard. So up into the House, and met with several
people; but the Committee did not meet; and the whole House I find full of
this business of Sir W. Coventry's, and most men very sensible of the
cause and effects of it. So, meeting with my Lord Bellassis, he told me
the particulars of this matter; that it arises about a quarrel which Sir
W. Coventry had with the Duke of Buckingham about a design between the
Duke and Sir Robert Howard, to bring him into a play at the King's house,
which W. Coventry not enduring, did by H. Saville send a letter to the
Duke of Buckingham, that he had a desire to speak with him. Upon which,
the Duke of Buckingham did bid Holmes, his champion ever since my Lord
Shrewsbury's business,

[Charles II. wrote to his sister (Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans), on
March 7th, 1669: "I am not sorry that Sir Will. Coventry has given
me this good occasion by sending my Lord of Buckingham a challenge
to turne him out of the Councill. I do intend to turn him allso out
of the Treasury. The truth of it is, he has been a troublesome man
in both places and I am well rid of him" (Julia Cartwright's
"Madame," 1894, p. 283).]

go to him to know the business; but H. Saville would not tell it to any
but himself, and therefore did go presently to the Duke of Buckingham, and
told him that his uncle Coventry was a person of honour, and was sensible
of his Grace's liberty taken of abusing him, and that he had a desire of
satisfaction, and would fight with him. But that here they were
interrupted by my Lord Chamberlain's coming in, who was commanded to go to
bid the Duke of Buckingham to come to the King, Holmes having discovered
it. He told me that the King did last night, at the Council, ask the Duke
of Buckingham, upon his honour, whether he had received any challenge from
W. Coventry? which he confessed that he had; and then the King asking W.
Coventry, he told him that he did not owne what the Duke of Buckingham had
said, though it was not fit for him to give him a direct contradiction.
But, being by the King put upon declaring, upon his honour, the matter, he
answered that he had understood that many hard questions had upon this
business been moved to some lawyers, and that therefore he was unwilling
to declare any thing that might, from his own mouth, render him obnoxious
to his Majesty's displeasure, and, therefore, prayed to be excused: which
the King did think fit to interpret to be a confession, and so gave
warrant that night for his commitment to the Tower. Being very much
troubled at this, I away by coach homewards, and directly to the Tower,
where I find him in one Mr. Bennet's house, son to Major Bayly, one of the
Officers of the Ordnance, in the Bricke Tower:

[The Brick Tower stands on the northern wall, a little to the west
of Martin tower, with which it communicates by a secret passage.
It was the residence of the Master of the Ordnance, and Raleigh was
lodged here for a time.]

where I find him busy with my Lord Halifax and his brother; so I would not
stay to interrupt them, but only to give him comfort, and offer my service
to him, which he kindly and cheerfully received, only owning his being
troubled for the King his master's displeasure, which, I suppose, is the
ordinary form and will of persons in this condition. And so I parted,
with great content, that I had so earlily seen him there; and so going
out, did meet Sir Jer. Smith going to meet me, who had newly been with Sir
W. Coventry. And so he and I by water to Redriffe, and so walked to
Deptford, where I have not been, I think, these twelve months: and there
to the Treasurer's house, where the Duke of York is, and his Duchess; and
there we find them at dinner in the great room, unhung; and there was with
them my Lady Duchess of Monmouth, the Countess of Falmouth, Castlemayne,
Henrietta Hide' (my Lady Hinchingbroke's sister), and my Lady
Peterborough. And after dinner Sir Jer. Smith and I were invited down to
dinner with some of the Maids of Honour, namely, Mrs. Ogle, Blake, and
Howard, which did me good to have the honour to dine with, and look on;
and the Mother of the Maids, and Mrs. Howard, the mother of the Maid of
Honour of that name, and the Duke's housekeeper here. Here was also
Monsieur Blancfort, Sir Richard Powell, Colonel Villers, Sir Jonathan
Trelawny, and others. And here drank most excellent, and great variety,
and plenty of wines, more than I have drank, at once, these seven years,
but yet did me no great hurt. Having dined and very merry, and
understanding by Blancfort how angry the Duke of York was, about their
offering to send Saville to the Gate-house, among the rogues; and then,
observing how this company, both the ladies and all, are of a gang, and
did drink a health to the union of the two brothers, and talking of others
as their enemies, they parted, and so we up; and there I did find the Dupe
of York and Duchess, with all the great ladies, sitting upon a carpet, on
the ground, there being no chairs, playing at "I love my love with an A,
because he is so and so: and I hate him with an A, because of this and
that:" and some of them, but particularly the Duchess herself, and my
Lady Castlemayne, were very witty. This done, they took barge, and I with
Sir J. Smith to Captain Cox's; and there to talk, and left them and other
company to drink; while I slunk out to Bagwell's; and there saw her, and
her mother, and our late maid Nell, who cried for joy to see me, but I had
no time for pleasure then nor could stay, but after drinking I back to the
yard, having a month's mind para have had a bout with Nell, which I
believe I could have had, and may another time. So to Cox's, and thence
walked with Sir J. Smith back to Redriffe; and so, by water home, and
there my wife mighty angry for my absence, and fell mightily out, but not
being certain of any thing, but thinks only that Pierce or Knepp was
there, and did ask me, and, I perceive, the boy, many questions. But I
did answer her; and so, after much ado, did go to bed, and lie quiet all
night; but [she] had another bout with me in the morning, but I did make
shift to quiet her, but yet she was not fully satisfied, poor wretch! in
her mind, and thinks much of my taking so much pleasure from her; which,
indeed, is a fault, though I did not design or foresee it when I went.

5th. Up, and by water to White Hall, where did a little business with the
Duke of York at our usual attending him, and thence to my wife, who was
with my coach at Unthanke's, though not very well of those upon her, and
so home to dinner, and after dinner I to the Tower, where I find Sir W.
Coventry with abundance of company with him; and after sitting awhile, and
hearing some merry discourse, and, among others, of Mr. Brouncker's being
this day summoned to Sir William Morton, one of the judges, to give in
security for his good behaviour, upon his words the other day to Sir John
Morton, a Parliament-man, at White Hall, who had heretofore spoke very
highly against Brouncker in the House, I away, and to Aldgate, and walked
forward towards White Chapel, till my wife overtook me with the coach, it
being a mighty fine afternoon; and there we went the first time out of
town with our coach and horses, and went as far as Bow, the spring
beginning a little now to appear, though the way be dirty; and so, with
great pleasure, with the fore-part of our coach up, we spent the
afternoon. And so in the evening home, and there busy at the Office
awhile, and so to bed, mightily pleased with being at peace with my poor
wife, and with the pleasure we may hope to have with our coach this
summer, when the weather comes to be good.

6th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning, only before the Office
I stepped to Sir W. Coventry at the Tower, and there had a great deal of
discourse with him; among others, of the King's putting him out of the
Council yesterday, with which he is well contented, as with what else they
can strip him of, he telling me, and so hath long done, that he is weary
and surfeited of business; but he joins with me in his fears that all will
go to naught, as matters are now managed. He told me the matter of the
play that was intended for his abuse, wherein they foolishly and sillily
bring in two tables like that which he hath made, with a round hole in the
middle, in his closet, to turn himself in; and he is to be in one of them
as master, and Sir J. Duncomb in the other, as his man or imitator: and
their discourse in those tables, about the disposing of their books and
papers, very foolish. But that, that he is offended with, is his being
made so contemptible, as that any should dare to make a gentleman a
subject for the mirth of the world: and that therefore he had told Tom
Killigrew that he should tell his actors, whoever they were, that did
offer at any thing like representing him, that he would not complain to my
Lord Chamberlain, which was too weak, nor get him beaten, as Sir Charles
Sidly is said to do, but that he would cause his nose to be cut. He told
me the passage at the Council much like what my Lord Bellassis told me.
He told me how that the Duke of Buckingham did himself, some time since,
desire to join with him, of all men in England, and did bid him propound
to himself to be Chief Minister of State, saying that he would bring it
about, but that he refused to have anything to do with any faction; and
that the Duke of Buckingham did, within these few days, say that, of all
men in England, he would have chosen W. Coventry to have joined entire
with. He tells me that he fears their prevailing against the Duke of
York; and that their violence will force them to it, as being already
beyond his pardon. He repeated to me many examples of challenging of
Privy-Councillors and others; but never any proceeded against with that
severity which he is, it never amounting to others to more than a little
confinement. He tells me of his being weary of the Treasury, and of the
folly, ambition, and desire of popularity of Sir Thomas Clifford; and yet
the rudeness of his tongue and passions when angry. This and much more
discourse being over I with great pleasure come home and to the office,
where all the morning, and at noon home to dinner, and thence to the
office again, where very hard at work all the afternoon till night, and
then home to my wife to read to me, and to bed, my cold having been now
almost for three days quite gone from me. This day my wife made it appear
to me that my late entertainment this week cost me above L12, an expence
which I am almost ashamed of, though it is but once in a great while, and
is the end for which, in the most part, we live, to have such a merry day
once or twice in a man's life.

7th (Lord's day). Up, and to the office, busy till church time, and then
to church, where a dull sermon, and so home to dinner, all alone with my
wife, and then to even my Journall to this day, and then to the Tower, to
see Sir W. Coventry, who had H. Jermin and a great many more with him, and
more, while I was there, come in; so that I do hear that there was not
less than sixty coaches there yesterday, and the other day; which I hear
also that there is a great exception taken at, by the King and the Duke of
Buckingham, but it cannot be helped. Thence home, and with our coach out
to Suffolk Street, to see my cozen Pepys, but neither the old nor young at
home. So to my cozen Turner's, and there staid talking a little, and then
back to Suffolk Street, where they not being yet come home I to White
Hall, and there hear that there are letters come from Sir Thomas Allen,
that he hath made some kind of peace with Algiers; upon which the King and
Duke of York, being to go out of town to-morrow, are met at my Lord
Arlington's: so I there, and by Mr. Wren was desired to stay to see if
there were occasion for their speaking with me, which I did, walking
without, with Charles Porter,

[Charles Porter "was the son of a prebend[ary] in Norwich, and a
'prentice boy in the city in the rebellious times. When the
committee house was blown up, he was very active in that rising, and
after the soldiers came and dispersed the rout, he, as a rat among
joint stools, shifted to and fro among the shambles, and had forty
pistols shot at him by the troopers that rode after him to kill him
[24th April, 1648]. In that distress he had the presence of mind to
catch up a little child that, during the rout, was frighted, and
stood crying in the streets, and, unobserved by the troopers, ran
away with it. The people opened a way for him, saying, 'Make room
for the poor child.' Thus he got off, and while search was made for
him in the market-place, got into the Yarmouth ferry, and at
Yarmouth took ship and went to Holland . . . . In Holland he
trailed a pike, and was in several actions as a common soldier. At
length he kept a cavalier eating-house; but, his customers being
needy, he soon broke, and came for England, and being a genteel
youth, was taken in among the chancery clerks, and got to be under a
master . . . . His industry was great; and he had an acquired
dexterity and skill in the forms of the court; and although he was a
bon companion, and followed much the bottle, yet he made such
dispatches as satisfied his clients, especially the clerks, who knew
where to find him. His person was florid, and speech prompt and
articulate. But his vices, in the way of women and the bottle, were
so ungoverned, as brought him to a morsel . . . . When the Lord
Keeper North had the Seal, who from an early acquaintance had a
kindness for him which was well known, and also that he was well
heard, as they call it, business flowed in to him very fast, and yet
he could scarce keep himself at liberty to follow his business ....
At the Revolution, when his interest fell from, and his debts began
to fall upon him, he was at his wits' end .... His character for
fidelity, loyalty, and facetious conversation was without
exception"--Roger North's Lives of the Norths (Lord Keeper
Guilford), ed. Jessopp, vol. i., pp. 381-2. He was originally made
Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of James II., during the
viceroyalty of Lord Clarendon, 1686, when he was knighted. "He
was," says Burnet, "a man of ready wit, and being poor was thought a
person fit to be made a tool of. When Clarendon was recalled,
Porter was also displaced, and Fitton was made chancellor, a man who
knew no other law than the king's pleasure" ("Own Time"). Sir
Charles Porter was again made Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1690,
and in this same year he acted as one of the Lords Justices. This
note of Lord Braybrooke's is retained and added to, but the
reference may after all be to another Charles Porter. See vol.
iii., p. 122, and vol. vi., p. 98.]

talking of a great many things: and I perceive all the world is against
the Duke of Buckingham his acting thus high, and do prophesy nothing but
ruin from it: But he do well observe that the church lands cannot
certainly come to much, if the King shall [be] persuaded to take them;
they being leased out for long leases. By and by, after two hours' stay,
they rose, having, as Wren tells me, resolved upon sending six ships to
the Streights forthwith, not being contented with the peace upon the terms
they demand, which are, that all our ships, where any Turks or Moores
shall be found slaves, shall be prizes; which will imply that they, must
be searched. I hear that to-morrow the King and the Duke of York set out
for Newmarket, by three in the morning; to some foot and horse-races, to
be abroad ten or twelve days: So I away, without seeing the Duke of York;
but Mr. Wren showed me the Order of Council about the balancing the
Storekeeper's accounts, passed the Council in the very terms I drew it,
only I did put in my name as he that presented the book of Hosier's
preparing, and that is left out--I mean, my name--which is no great
matter. So to my wife to Suffolk Streete, where she was gone, and there I
found them at supper, and eat a little with them, and so home, and there
to bed, my cold pretty well gone.

8th. Up, and with W. Hewer by hackney coach to White Hall, where the King
and the Duke of York is gone by three in the morning, and had the
misfortune to be overset with the Duke of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and
the Prince, at the King's Gate' in Holborne; and the King all dirty, but
no hurt. How it come to pass I know not, but only it was dark, and the
torches did not, they say, light the coach as they should do. I thought
this morning to have seen my Lord Sandwich before he went out of town, but
I come half an hour too late; which troubles me, I having not seen him
since my Lady Palls died. So W. Hewer and I to the Harp-and-Ball, to
drink my morning draught, having come out in haste; and there met with
King, the Parliament-man, with whom I had some impertinent talk. And so
to the Privy Seal Office, to examine what records I could find there, for
my help in the great business I am put upon, of defending the present
constitution of the Navy; but there could not have liberty without order
from him that is in present waiting, Mr. Bickerstaffe, who is out of town.
This I did after I had walked to the New Exchange and there met Mr. Moore,
who went with me thither, and I find him the same discontented poor man as
ever. He tells me that Mr. Shepley is upon being turned away from my
Lord's family, and another sent down, which I am sorry for; but his age
and good fellowship have almost made him fit for nothing. Thence, at
Unthanke's my wife met me, and with our coach to my cozen Turner's and
there dined, and after dinner with my wife alone to the King's playhouse,
and there saw "The Mocke Astrologer," which I have often seen, and but an
ordinary play; and so to my cozen Turner's again, where we met Roger
Pepys, his wife, and two daughters, and there staid and talked a little,
and then home, and there my wife to read to me, my eyes being sensibly
hurt by the too great lights of the playhouse. So to supper and to bed.

9th. Up, and to the Tower; and there find Sir W. Coventry alone, writing
down his journal, which, he tells me, he now keeps of the material things;
upon which I told him, and he is the only man I ever told it to, I think,
that I kept it most strictly these eight or ten years; and I am sorry
almost that I told it him, it not being necessary, nor may be convenient
to have it known. Here he showed me the petition he had sent to the King
by my Lord Keeper, which was not to desire any admittance to employment,
but submitting himself therein humbly to his Majesty; but prayed the
removal of his displeasure, and that he might be set free. He tells me
that my Lord Keeper did acquaint the King with the substance of it, not
shewing him the petition; who answered, that he was disposing of his
employments, and when that was done, he might be led to discharge him: and
this is what he expects, and what he seems to desire. But by this
discourse he was pleased to take occasion to shew me and read to me his
account, which he hath kept by him under his own hand, of all his
discourse, and the King's answers to him, upon the great business of my
Lord Clarendon, and how he had first moved the Duke of York with it twice,
at good distance, one after another, but without success; shewing me
thereby the simplicity and reasons of his so doing, and the manner of it;
and the King's accepting it, telling him that he was not satisfied in his
management, and did discover some dissatisfaction against him for his
opposing the laying aside of my Lord Treasurer, at Oxford, which was a
secret the King had not discovered. And really I was mighty proud to be
privy to this great transaction, it giving me great conviction of the
noble nature and ends of Sir W. Coventry in it, and considerations in
general of the consequences of great men's actions, and the uncertainty of
their estates, and other very serious considerations. From this to other
discourse, and so to the Office, where we sat all the morning, and after
dinner by coach to my cozen Turner's, thinking to have taken the young
ladies to a play; but The. was let blood to-day; and so my wife and I
towards the King's playhouse, and by the way found Betty [Turner], and
Bab., and Betty Pepys staying for us; and so took them all to see
"Claricilla," which do not please me almost at all, though there are some
good things in it. And so to my cozen Turner's again, and there find my
Lady Mordaunt, and her sister Johnson; and by and by comes in a gentleman,
Mr. Overbury, a pleasant man, who plays most excellently on the
flagelette, a little one, that sounded as low as one of mine, and mighty
pretty. Hence by and by away, and with my wife, and Bab. and Betty Pepys,
and W. Hewer, whom I carried all this day with me, to my cozen
Stradwick's, where I have not been ever since my brother Tom died, there
being some difference between my father and them, upon the account of my
cozen Scott; and I was glad of this opportunity of seeing them, they being
good and substantial people, and kind, and here met my cozen Roger and his
wife, and my cozen Turner, and here, which I never did before, I drank a
glass, of a pint, I believe, at one draught, of the juice of oranges, of
whose peel they make comfits; and here they drink the juice as wine, with
sugar, and it is very fine drink; but, it being new, I was doubtful
whether it might not do me hurt. Having staid a while, my wife and I
back, with my cozen Turner, etc., to her house, and there we took our
leaves of my cozen Pepys, who goes with his wife and two daughters for
Impington tomorrow. They are very good people, and people I love, and am
obliged to, and shall have great pleasure in their friendship, and
particularly in hers, she being an understanding and good woman. So away
home, and there after signing my letters, my eyes being bad, to supper and
to bed.

10th. Up, and by hackney-coach to Auditor Beale's Office, in Holborne, to
look for records of the Navy, but he was out of the way, and so forced to
go next to White Hall, to the Privy Seal; and, after staying a little
there, then to Westminster, where, at the Exchequer, I met with Mr.
Newport and Major Halsey; and, after doing a little business with Mr.
Burges, we by water to White Hall, where I made a little stop: and so with
them by coach to Temple Bar, where, at the Sugar Loaf we dined, and W.
Hewer with me; and there comes a companion of theirs, Colonel Vernon, I
think they called him; a merry good fellow, and one that was very plain in
cursing the Duke of Buckingham, and discoursing of his designs to ruin us,
and that ruin must follow his counsels, and that we are an undone people.
To which the others concurred, but not so plain, but all vexed at Sir W.
Coventry's being laid aside: but Vernon, he is concerned, I perceive, for
my Lord Ormond's being laid aside; but their company, being all old
cavaliers, were very pleasant to hear how they swear and talk. But
Halsey, to my content, tells me that my Lord Duke of Albemarle says that
W. Coventry being gone, nothing will be well done at the Treasury, and I
believe it; but they do all talk as that Duncombe, upon some pretence or
other, must follow him. Thence to Auditor Beale's, his house and office,
but not to be found, and therefore to the Privy Seale at White Hall,
where, with W. Hewer and Mr. Gibson, who met me at the Temple, I spent the
afternoon till evening looking over the books there, and did find several
things to my purpose, though few of those I designed to find, the books
being kept there in no method at all. Having done there, we by water
home, and there find my cozen Turner and her two daughters come to see us;
and there, after talking a little, I had my coach ready, and my wife and
I, they going home, we out to White Chapel to take a little ayre, though
yet the dirtiness of the road do prevent most of the pleasure, which
should have been from this tour. So home, and my wife to read to me till
supper, and to bed.

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