Diary of Samuel Pepys, July 1666
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Samuel Pepys >> Diary of Samuel Pepys, July 1666
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.
JULY
1666
July 1st (Sunday). Up betimes, and to the office receiving letters, two
or three one after another from Sir W. Coventry, and sent as many to him,
being full of variety of business and hurry, but among the chiefest is the
getting of these pressed men out of the City down the river to the fleete.
While I was hard at it comes Sir W. Pen to towne, which I little expected,
having invited my Lady and her daughter Pegg to dine with me to-day; which
at noon they did, and Sir W. Pen with them: and pretty merry we were. And
though I do not love him, yet I find it necessary to keep in with him; his
good service at Shearnesse in getting out the fleete being much taken
notice of, and reported to the King and Duke [of York], even from the
Prince and Duke of Albemarle themselves, and made the most of to me and
them by Sir W. Coventry: therefore I think it discretion, great and
necessary discretion, to keep in with him. After dinner to the office
again, where busy, and then down to Deptford to the yard, thinking to have
seen Bagwell's wife, whose husband is gone yesterday back to the fleete,
but I did not see her, so missed what I went for, and so back to the Tower
several times, about the business of the pressed men, and late at it till
twelve at night, shipping of them. But, Lord! how some poor women did
cry; and in my life I never did see such natural expression of passion as
I did here in some women's bewailing themselves, and running to every
parcel of men that were brought, one after another, to look for their
husbands, and wept over every vessel that went off, thinking they might be
there, and looking after the ship as far as ever they could by
moone-light, that it grieved me to the heart to hear them. Besides, to
see poor patient labouring men and housekeepers, leaving poor wives and
families, taking up on a sudden by strangers, was very hard, and that
without press-money, but forced against all law to be gone. It is a great
tyranny. Having done this I to the Lieutenant of the Tower and bade him
good night, and so away home and to bed.
2nd. Up betimes, and forced to go to my Lord Mayor's, about the business
of the pressed men; and indeed I find him a mean man of understanding and
dispatch of any publique business. Thence out of curiosity to Bridewell
to see the pressed men, where there are about 300; but so unruly that I
durst not go among them: and they have reason to be so, having been kept
these three days prisoners, with little or no victuals, and pressed out,
and, contrary to all course of law, without press-money, and men that are
not liable to it. Here I met with prating Colonel Cox, one of the City
collonells heretofore a great presbyter: but to hear how the fellow did
commend himself, and the service he do the King; and, like an asse, at
Paul's did take me out of my way on purpose to show me the gate (the
little north gate) where he had two men shot close by him on each hand,
and his own hair burnt by a bullet-shot in the insurrection of Venner, and
himself escaped. Thence home and to the Tower to see the men from
Bridewell shipped. Being rid of him I home to dinner, and thence to the
Excise office by appointment to meet my Lord Bellasses and the
Commissioners, which we did and soon dispatched, and so I home, and there
was called by Pegg Pen to her house, where her father and mother, and Mrs.
Norton, the second Roxalana, a fine woman, indifferent handsome, good body
and hand, and good mine, and pretends to sing, but do it not excellently.
However I took pleasure there, and my wife was sent for, and Creed come in
to us, and so there we spent the most of the afternoon. Thence weary of
losing so much time I to the office, and thence presently down to
Deptford; but to see what a consternation there is upon the water by
reason of this great press, that nothing is able to get a waterman to
appear almost. Here I meant to have spoke with Bagwell's mother, but her
face was sore, and so I did not, but returned and upon the water found one
of the vessels loaden with the Bridewell birds in a great mutiny, and they
would not sail, not they; but with good words, and cajoling the ringleader
into the Tower (where, when he was come, he was clapped up in the hole),
they were got very quietly; but I think it is much if they do not run the
vessel on ground. But away they went, and I to the Lieutenant of the
Tower, and having talked with him a little, then home to supper very late
and to bed weary.
3rd. Being very weary, lay long in bed, then to the office and there sat
all the day. At noon dined at home, Balty's wife with us, and in very
good humour I was and merry at dinner, and after dinner a song or two, and
so I abroad to my Lord Treasurer's (sending my sister home by the coach),
while I staid there by appointment to have met my Lord Bellasses and
Commissioners of Excise, but they did not meet me, he being abroad.
However Mr. Finch, one of the Commissioners, I met there, and he and I
walked two houres together in the garden, talking of many things;
sometimes of Mr. Povy, whose vanity, prodigality, neglect of his business,
and committing it to unfit hands hath undone him and outed him of all his
publique employments, and the thing set on foot by an accidental revivall
of a business, wherein he had three or fours years ago, by surprize, got
the Duke of Yorke to sign to the having a sum of money paid out of the
Excise, before some that was due to him, and now the money is fallen
short, and the Duke never likely to be paid. This being revived hath
undone Povy. Then we fell to discourse of the Parliament, and the great
men there: and among others, Mr. Vaughan, whom he reports as a man of
excellent judgement and learning, but most passionate and 'opiniastre'.
He had done himself the most wrong (though he values it not), that is, the
displeasure of the King in his standing so long against the breaking of
the Act for a trienniall parliament; but yet do believe him to be a most
loyall gentleman. He told me Mr. Prin's character; that he is a man of
mighty labour and reading and memory, but the worst judge of matters, or
layer together of what he hath read, in the world; which I do not,
however, believe him in; that he believes him very true to the King in his
heart, but can never be reconciled to episcopacy; that the House do not
lay much weight upon him, or any thing he says. He told me many fine
things, and so we parted, and I home and hard to work a while at the
office and then home and till midnight about settling my last month's
accounts wherein I have been interrupted by public business, that I did
not state them two or three days ago, but I do now to my great joy find
myself worth above L5600, for which the Lord's name be praised! So with
my heart full of content to bed. Newes come yesterday from Harwich, that
the Dutch had appeared upon our coast with their fleete, and we believe
did go to the Gun-fleete, and they are supposed to be there now; but I
have heard nothing of them to-day. Yesterday Dr. Whistler, at Sir W.
Pen's, told me that Alexander Broome, a the great song-maker, is lately
dead.
4th. Up, and visited very betimes by Mr. Sheply, who is come to town upon
business from Hinchingbrooke, where he left all well. I out and walked
along with him as far as Fleet Streete, it being a fast day, the usual
fast day for the plague, and few coaches to be had. Thanks be to God, the
plague is, as I hear, encreased but two this week; but in the country in
several places it rages mightily, and particularly in Colchester, where it
hath long been, and is believed will quite depopulate the place. To St.
James's, and there did our usual business with the Duke, all of us, among
other things, discoursing about the places where to build ten great ships;
the King and Council have resolved on none to be under third-rates; but it
is impossible to do it, unless we have more money towards the doing it
than yet we have in any view. But, however, the shew must be made to the
world. Thence to my Lord Bellasses to take my leave of him, he being
going down to the North to look after the Militia there, for fear of an
invasion. Thence home and dined, and then to the office, where busy all
day, and in the evening Sir W. Pen come to me, and we walked together, and
talked of the late fight. I find him very plain, that the whole conduct
of the late fight was ill, and that that of truth's all, and he tells me
that it is not he, but two-thirds of the commanders of the whole fleete
have told him so: they all saying, that they durst not oppose it at the
Council of War, for fear of being called cowards, though it was wholly
against their judgement to fight that day with the disproportion of force,
and then we not being able to use one gun of our lower tier, which was a
greater disproportion than the other. Besides, we might very well have
staid in the Downs without fighting, or any where else, till the Prince
could have come up to them; or at least till the weather was fair, that we
might have the benefit of our whole force in the ships that we had. He
says three things must [be] remedied, or else we shall be undone by this
fleete. 1. That we must fight in a line, whereas we fight promiscuously,
to our utter and demonstrable ruine; the Dutch fighting otherwise; and we,
whenever we beat them. 2. We must not desert ships of our own in
distress, as we did, for that makes a captain desperate, and he will fling
away his ship, when there is no hopes left him of succour. 3. That ships,
when they are a little shattered, must not take the liberty to come in of
themselves, but refit themselves the best they can, and stay out--many of
our ships coming in with very small disablenesses. He told me that our
very commanders, nay, our very flag-officers, do stand in need of
exercising among themselves, and discoursing the business of commanding a
fleete; he telling me that even one of our flag-men in the fleete did not
know which tacke lost the wind, or which kept it, in the last engagement.
He says it was pure dismaying and fear that made them all run upon the
Galloper, not having their wits about them; and that it was a miracle they
were not all lost. He much inveighs upon my discoursing of Sir John
Lawson's saying heretofore, that sixty sail would do as much as one
hundred; and says that he was a man of no counsel at all, but had got the
confidence to say as the gallants did, and did propose to himself to make
himself great by them, and saying as they did; but was no man of judgement
in his business, but hath been out in the greatest points that have come
before them. And then in the business of fore-castles, which he did
oppose, all the world sees now the use of them for shelter of men. He did
talk very rationally to me, insomuch that I took more pleasure this night
in hearing him discourse, than I ever did in my life in any thing that he
said. He gone I to the office again, and so after some business home to
supper and to bed.
5th. Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning busy, then at
noon dined and Mr. Sheply with me, who come to towne the other day. I
lent him 630 in silver upon 30 pieces in gold. But to see how apt every
body is to neglect old kindnesses! I must charge myself with the
ingratitude of being unwilling to lend him so much money without some
pawne, if he should have asked it, but he did not aske it, poor man, and
so no harm done. After dinner, he gone, I to my office and Lumbard
Streete about money, and then to my office again, very busy, and so till
late, and then a song with my wife and Mercer in the garden, and so with
great content to bed.
6th. Up, and after doing some business at my office abroad to Lumbard
Street, about the getting of a good sum of money, thence home, in
preparation for my having some good sum in my hands, for fear of a trouble
in the State, that I may not have all I have in the world out of my hands
and so be left a beggar. Having put that in a way, I home to the office,
and so to the Tower; about shipping of some more pressed men, and that
done, away to Broad Streete, to Sir G. Carteret, who is at a pay of
tickets all alone, and I believe not less than one thousand people in the
streets. But it is a pretty thing to observe that both there and every
where else, a man shall see many women now-a-days of mean sort in the
streets, but no men; men being so afeard of the press. I dined with Sir
G. Carteret, and after dinner had much discourse about our publique
business; and he do seem to fear every day more and more what I do; which
is, a general confusion in the State; plainly answering me to the
question, who is it that the weight of the warr depends [upon]? that it is
only Sir W. Coventry. He tells me, too, the Duke of Albemarle is
dissatisfied, and that the Duchesse do curse Coventry as the man that
betrayed her husband to the sea: though I believe that it is not so.
Thence to Lumbard Streete, and received L2000, and carried it home:
whereof L1000 in gold. The greatest quantity not only that I ever had of
gold, but that ever I saw together, and is not much above half a 100 lb.
bag full, but is much weightier. This I do for security sake, and
convenience of carriage; though it costs me above L70 the change of it, at
18 1/2d. per piece. Being at home, I there met with a letter from Bab
Allen,--[Mrs. Knipp]--to invite me to be god-father to her boy, with Mrs.
Williams, which I consented to, but know not the time when it is to be.
Thence down to the Old Swan, calling at Michell's, he not being within,
and there I did steal a kiss or two of her, and staying a little longer,
he come in, and her father, whom I carried to Westminster, my business
being thither, and so back again home, and very busy all the evening. At
night a song in the garden and to bed.
7th. At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home and Creed with
me, and after dinner he and I two or three hours in my chamber discoursing
of the fittest way for a man to do that hath money, and find all he offers
of turning some into gold and leaving some in a friend's hand is nothing
more than what I thought of myself, but is doubtful, as well as I, what is
best to be done of all these or other ways to be thought on. He tells me
he finds all things mighty dull at Court; and that they now begin to lie
long in bed; it being, as we suppose, not seemly for them to be found
playing and gaming as they used to be; nor that their minds are at ease
enough to follow those sports, and yet not knowing how to employ
themselves (though there be work enough for their thoughts and councils
and pains), they keep long in bed. But he thinks with me, that there is
nothing in the world can helpe us but the King's personal looking after
his business and his officers, and that with that we may yet do well; but
otherwise must be undone: nobody at this day taking care of any thing, nor
hath any body to call him to account for it. Thence left him and to my
office all the afternoon busy, and in some pain in my back by some bruise
or other I have given myself in my right testicle this morning, and the
pain lies there and hath done, and in my back thereupon all this day. At
night into the garden to my wife and Lady Pen and Pegg, and Creed, who
staid with them till to at night. My Lady Pen did give us a tarte and
other things, and so broke up late and I to bed. It proved the hottest
night that ever I was in in my life, and thundered and lightened all night
long and rained hard. But, Lord! to see in what fears I lay a good
while, hearing of a little noise of somebody walking in the house: so rung
the bell, and it was my mayds going to bed about one o'clock in the
morning. But the fear of being robbed, having so much money in the house,
was very great, and is still so, and do much disquiet me.
8th (Lord's day). Up, and pretty well of my pain, so that it did not
trouble me at all, and I do clearly find that my pain in my back was
nothing but only accompanied my bruise in my stones. To church, wife and
Mercer and I, in expectation of hearing some mighty preacher to-day, Mrs.
Mary Batelier sending us word so; but it proved our ordinary silly
lecturer, which made me merry, and she laughed upon us to see her mistake.
At noon W. Hewer dined with us, and a good dinner, and I expected to have
had newes sent me of Knipp's christening to-day; but, hearing nothing of
it, I did not go, though I fear it is but their forgetfulness and so I may
disappoint them. To church, after dinner, again, a thing I have not done
a good while before, go twice in one day. After church with my wife and
Mercer and Tom by water through bridge to the Spring Garden at Fox Hall,
and thence down to Deptford and there did a little business, and so back
home and to bed.
9th. Up betimes, and with Sir W. Pen in his coach to Westminster to Sir
G. Downing's, but missed of him, and so we parted, I by water home, where
busy all the morning, at noon dined at home, and after dinner to my
office, where busy till come to by Lovett and his wife, who have brought
me some sheets of paper varnished on one side, which lies very white and
smooth and, I think, will do our business most exactly, and will come up
to the use that I intended them for, and I am apt to believe will be an
invention that will take in the world. I have made up a little book of it
to give Sir W. Coventry to-morrow, and am very well pleased with it. Home
with them, and there find my aunt Wight with my wife come to take her
leave of her, being going for the summer into the country; and there was
also Mrs. Mary Batelier and her sister, newly come out of France, a black,
very black woman, but mighty good-natured people both, as ever I saw.
Here I made the black one sing a French song, which she did mighty
innocently; and then Mrs. Lovett play on the lute, which she do very well;
and then Mercer and I sang; and so, with great pleasure, I left them,
having shewed them my chamber, and L1000 in gold, which they wondered at,
and given them sweetmeats, and shewn my aunt Wight my father's picture,
which she admires. So I left them and to the office, where Mr. Moore come
to me and talking of my Lord's family business tells me that Mr. Sheply is
ignorantly, we all believe, mistaken in his accounts above L700 more than
he can discharge himself of, which is a mighty misfortune, poor man, and
may undo him, and yet every body believes that he do it most honestly. I
am troubled for him very much. He gone, I hard at the office till night,
then home to supper and to bed.
10th. Up, and to the office, where busy all the morning, sitting, and
there presented Sir W. Coventry with my little book made up of Lovett's
varnished paper, which he and the whole board liked very well. At noon
home to dinner and then to the office; the yarde being very full of women
(I believe above three hundred) coming to get money for their husbands and
friends that are prisoners in Holland; and they lay clamouring and
swearing and cursing us, that my wife and I were afeard to send a
venison-pasty that we have for supper to-night to the cook's to be baked,
for fear of their offering violence to it: but it went, and no hurt done.
Then I took an opportunity, when they were all gone into the foreyarde,
and slipt into the office and there busy all the afternoon, but by and by
the women got into the garden, and come all to my closett window, and
there tormented me, and I confess their cries were so sad for money, and
laying down the condition of their families and their husbands, and what
they have done and suffered for the King, and how ill they are used by us,
and how well the Dutch are used here by the allowance of their masters,
and what their husbands are offered to serve the Dutch abroad, that I do
most heartily pity them, and was ready to cry to hear them, but cannot
helpe them. However, when the rest were gone, I did call one to me that I
heard complaine only and pity her husband and did give her some money, and
she blessed me and went away. Anon my business at the office being done I
to the Tower to speak with Sir John Robinson about business, principally
the bad condition of the pressed men for want of clothes, so it is
represented from the fleete, and so to provide them shirts and stockings
and drawers. Having done with him about that, I home and there find my
wife and the two Mrs. Bateliers walking in the garden. I with them till
almost 9 at night, and then they and we and Mrs. Mercer, the mother, and
her daughter Anne, and our Mercer, to supper to a good venison-pasty and
other good things, and had a good supper, and very merry, Mistresses
Bateliers being both very good-humoured. We sang and talked, and then led
them home, and there they made us drink; and, among other things, did show
us, in cages, some birds brought from about Bourdeaux, that are all fat,
and, examining one of them, they are so, almost all fat. Their name is
[Ortolans], which are brought over to the King for him to eat, and indeed
are excellent things. We parted from them and so home to bed, it being
very late, and to bed.
11th. Up, and by water to Sir G. Downing's, there to discourse with him
about the reliefe of the prisoners in Holland; which I did, and we do
resolve of the manner of sending them some. So I away by coach to St.
James's, and there hear that the Duchesse is lately brought to bed of a
boy. By and by called to wait on the Duke, the King being present; and
there agreed, among other things, of the places to build the ten new great
ships ordered to be built, and as to the relief of prisoners in Holland.
And then about several stories of the basenesse of the King of Spayne's
being served with officers: they in Flanders having as good common men as
any Prince in the world, but the veriest cowards for the officers, nay for
the generall officers, as the Generall and Lieutenant-generall, in the
whole world. But, above all things, the King did speake most in contempt
of the ceremoniousnesse of the King of Spayne, that he do nothing but
under some ridiculous form or other, and will not piss but another must
hold the chamber-pot. Thence to Westminster Hall and there staid a while,
and then to the Swan and kissed Sarah, and so home to dinner, and after
dinner out again to Sir Robert Viner, and there did agree with him to
accommodate some business of tallys so as I shall get in near L2000 into
my own hands, which is in the King's, upon tallys; which will be a
pleasure to me, and satisfaction to have a good sum in my own hands,
whatever evil disturbances should be in the State; though it troubles me
to lose so great a profit as the King's interest of ten per cent. for that
money. Thence to Westminster, doing several things by the way, and there
failed of meeting Mrs. Lane, and so by coach took up my wife at her
sister's, and so away to Islington, she and I alone, and so through
Hackney, and home late, our discourse being about laying up of some money
safe in prevention to the troubles I am afeard we may have in the state,
and so sleepy (for want of sleep the last night, going to bed late and
rising betimes in the morning) home, but when I come to the office, I
there met with a command from my Lord Arlington, to go down to a galliott
at Greenwich, by the King's particular command, that is going to carry the
Savoy Envoye over, and we fear there may be many Frenchmen there on board;
and so I have a power and command to search for and seize all that have
not passes from one of the Secretarys of State, and to bring them and
their papers and everything else in custody some whither. So I to the
Tower, and got a couple of musquetiers with me, and Griffen and my boy Tom
and so down; and, being come, found none on board but two or three
servants, looking to horses and doggs, there on board, and, seeing no
more, I staid not long there, but away and on shore at Greenwich, the
night being late and the tide against us; so, having sent before, to Mrs.
Clerke's and there I had a good bed, and well received, the whole people
rising to see me, and among the rest young Mrs. Daniel, whom I kissed
again and again alone, and so by and by to bed and slept pretty well,
12th. But was up again by five o'clock, and was forced to rise, having
much business, and so up and dressed myself (enquiring, was told that Mrs.
Tooker was gone hence to live at London) and away with Poundy to the
Tower, and thence, having shifted myself, but being mighty drowsy for want
of sleep, I by coach to St. James's, to Goring House, there to wait on my
Lord Arlington to give him an account of my night's worke, but he was not
up, being not long since married: so, after walking up and down the house
below,--being the house I was once at Hartlib's sister's wedding, and is a
very fine house and finely furnished,--and then thinking it too much for
me to lose time to wait my Lord's rising, I away to St. James's, and there
to Sir W. Coventry, and wrote a letter to my Lord Arlington giving him an
account of what I have done, and so with Sir W. Coventry into London, to
the office. And all the way I observed him mightily to make mirth of the
Duke of Albemarle and his people about him, saying, that he was the
happiest man in the world for doing of great things by sorry instruments.
And so particularized in Sir W. Clerke, and Riggs, and Halsey, and others.
And then again said that the only quality eminent in him was, that he did
persevere; and indeed he is a very drudge, and stands by the King's
business. And this he said, that one thing he was good at, that he never
would receive an excuse if the thing was not done; listening to no
reasoning for it, be it good or bad. But then I told him, what he
confessed, that he would however give the man, that he employs, orders for
removing of any obstruction that he thinks he shall meet with in the
world, and instanced in several warrants that he issued for breaking open
of houses and other outrages about the business of prizes, which people
bore with either for affection or fear, which he believes would not have
been borne with from the King, nor Duke, nor any man else in England, and
I thinke he is in the right, but it is not from their love of him, but
from something else I cannot presently say. Sir W. Coventry did further
say concerning Warcupp, his kinsman, that had the simplicity to tell Sir
W. Coventry, that the Duke did intend to go to sea and to leave him his
agent on shore for all things that related to the sea. But, says Sir W.
Coventry, I did believe but the Duke of Yorke would expect to be his agent
on shore for all sea matters. And then he begun to say what a great man
Warcupp was, and something else, and what was that but a great lyer; and
told me a story, how at table he did, they speaking about antipathys, say,
that a rose touching his skin any where, would make it rise and pimple;
and, by and by, the dessert coming, with roses upon it, the Duchesse bid
him try, and they did; but they rubbed and rubbed, but nothing would do in
the world, by which his lie was found at then. He spoke contemptibly of
Holmes and his mermidons, that come to take down the ships from hence, and
have carried them without any necessaries, or any thing almost, that they
will certainly be longer getting ready than if they had staid here. In
fine, I do observe, he hath no esteem nor kindnesse for the Duke's
matters, but, contrarily, do slight him and them; and I pray God the
Kingdom do not pay too dear by this jarring; though this blockheaded Duke
I did never expect better from. At the office all the morning, at noon
home and thought to have slept, my head all day being full of business and
yet sleepy and out of order, and so I lay down on my bed in my gowne to
sleep, but I could not, therefore about three o'clock up and to dinner and
thence to the office, where. Mrs. Burroughs, my pretty widow, was and so
I did her business and sent her away by agreement, and presently I by
coach after and took her up in Fenchurch Streete and away through the
City, hiding my face as much as I could, but she being mighty pretty and
well enough clad, I was not afeard, but only lest somebody should see me
and think me idle. I quite through with her, and so into the fields
Uxbridge way, a mile or two beyond Tyburne, and then back and then to
Paddington, and then back to Lyssen green, a place the coachman led me to
(I never knew in my life) and there we eat and drank and so back to
Chasing Crosse, and there I set her down. All the way most excellent
pretty company. I had her lips as much as I would, and a mighty pretty
woman she is and very modest and yet kinde in all fair ways. All this
time I passed with mighty pleasure, it being what I have for a long time
wished for, and did pay this day 5s. forfeite for her company. She being
gone, I to White Hall and there to Lord Arlington's, and met Mr.
Williamson, and find there is no more need of my trouble about the
Galliott, so with content departed, and went straight home, where at the
office did the most at the office in that wearied and sleepy state I
could, and so home to supper, and after supper falling to singing with
Mercer did however sit up with her, she pleasing me with her singing of
"Helpe, helpe," 'till past midnight and I not a whit drowsy, and so to
bed.