[The year did not legally begin in
England before the 25th March until the act for
altering the style fixed the 1st of January as the
first day of the year, and previous to 1752 the
year extended from March 25th to the following
March 24th. Thus since 1752 we have been
in the habit of putting the two dates for the months
of January and February and March 1 to 24 in
all years previous to 1752. Practically,
however, many persons considered the year to commence
with January 1st, as it will be seen Pepys did.
The 1st of January was considered as New Year’s
day long before Pepys’s time. The fiscal
year has not been altered; and the national accounts
are still reckoned from old Lady Day, which falls
on the 6th of April.]
Blessed be God, at the end of the
last year I was in very good health, without any sense
of my old pain, but upon taking of cold.
[Pepys was successfully cut for the
stone on March 26th, 1658. See March 26th
below. Although not suffering from this cause
again until the end of his life, there are frequent
references in the Diary to pain whenever he caught
cold. In a letter from Pepys to his nephew
Jackson, April 8th, 1700, there is a reference to the
breaking out three years before his death of the
wound caused by the cutting for the stone:
“It has been my calamity for much the greatest
part of this time to have been kept bedrid, under an
evil so rarely known as to have had it matter
of universal surprise and with little less general
opinion of its dangerousness; namely, that the
cicatrice of a wound occasioned upon my cutting
for the stone, without hearing anything of it
in all this time, should after more than 40 years’
perfect cure, break out again.” At the
post-mortem examination a nest of seven stones,
weighing four and a half ounces, was found in
the left kidney, which was entirely ulcerated.]
I lived in Axe Yard,
[Pepys’s house was on the south
side of King Street, Westminster; it is singular
that when he removed to a residence in the city, he
should have settled close to another Axe Yard.
Fludyer Street stands on the site of Axe Yard,
which derived its name from a great messuage
or brewhouse on the west side of King Street, called
“The Axe,” and referred to in a document
of the 23rd of Henry viii B.]
having my wife, and servant Jane,
and no more in family than us three. My wife....
gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last
day of the year....[the hope was belied.]
[Ed. note:.... are used to denote censored passages]
The condition of the State was thus;
viz. the Rump, after being disturbed by my Lord
Lambert,
[John Lambert, major-general in the
Parliamentary army. The title Lord was
not his by right, but it was frequently given to the
republican officers. He was born in 1619,
at Calton Hall, in the parish of Kirkby-in-Malham-Dale,
in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In 1642
he was appointed captain of horse under Fairfax, and
acted as major-general to Cromwell in 1650 during
the war in Scotland. After this Parliament
conferred on him a grant of lands in Scotland worth
L1000 per annum. He refused to take the oath
of allegiance to Cromwell, for which the Protector
deprived him of his commission. After Cromwell’s
death he tried to set up a military government.
The Commons cashiered Lambert, Desborough, and
other officers, October 12th, 1659, but Lambert
retaliated by thrusting out the Commons, and
set out to meet Monk. His men fell away from
him, and he was sent to the Tower, March 3rd,
1660, but escaped. In 1662 he was tried
on a charge of high treason and condemned, but his
life was spared. It is generally stated
that he passed the remainder of his life in the
island of Guernsey, but this is proved to be incorrect
by a Ms. in the Plymouth Athenaeum, entitled “Plimmouth
Memoirs collected by James Yonge, 1684”
This will be seen from the following extracts
quoted by Mr. R. J. King, in “Notes and Queries,”
“1667 Lambert the arch-rebel brought to
this island [St. Nicholas, at the entrance of
Plymouth harbour].” “1683 Easter day Lambert
that olde rebell dyed this winter on Plimmouth
Island where he had been prisoner 15 years and
more.”]
was lately returned to sit again.
The officers of the Army all forced to yield.
Lawson
[Sir John Lawson, the son of a poor
man at Hull, entered the navy as a common sailor,
rose to the rank of admiral, and distinguished himself
during the Protectorate. Though a republican,
he readily closed with the design of restoring
the King. He was vice-admiral under the
Earl of Sandwich, and commanded the “London”
in the squadron which conveyed Charles ii.
to England. He was mortally wounded in
the action with the Dutch off Harwich, June, 1665.
He must not be confounded with another John
Lawson, the Royalist, of Brough Hall, in Yorkshire,
who was created a Baronet by Charles ii, July
6th, 1665.]
lies still in the river, and Monk [George
Monk, born 1608, created Duke of Albemarle, 1660,
married Ann Clarges, March, 1654, died January 3rd,
1676.] is with his army in Scotland.
Only my Lord Lambert is not yet come into the Parliament,
nor is it expected that he will without being forced
to it. The new Common Council of the City do speak
very high; and had sent to Monk their sword-bearer,
to acquaint him with their desires for a free and
full Parliament, which is at present the desires, and
the hopes, and expectation of all. Twenty-two
of the old secluded members
["The City sent and invited him [Monk]
to dine the next day at Guildhall, and there
he declared for the members whom the army had forced
away in year forty-seven and forty-eight, who were
known by the names of secluded members.” Burnet’s
Hist. of his Own Time, book i.]
having been at the House-door the
last week to demand entrance, but it was denied them;
and it is believed that [neither] they nor the people
will be satisfied till the House be filled. My
own private condition very handsome, and esteemed
rich, but indeed very poor; besides my goods of my
house, and my office, which at present is somewhat
uncertain. Mr. Downing master of my office.
[George Downing was one of the Four
Tellers of the Receipt of the Exchequer, and
in his office Pepys was a clerk. He was the son
of Emmanuel Downing of the Inner Temple, afterwards
of Salem, Massachusetts, and of Lucy, sister
of Governor John Winthrop. He is supposed
to have been born in August, 1623. He and his
parents went to New England in 1638, and he was
the second graduate of Harvard College.
He returned to England about 1645, and acted as Colonel
Okey’s chaplain before he entered into political
life. Anthony a Wood (who incorrectly describes
him as the son of Dr. Calybute Downing, vicar
of Hackney) calls Downing a sider with all times and
changes: skilled in the common cant, and
a preacher occasionally. He was sent by
Cromwell to Holland in 1657, as resident there.
At the Restoration, he espoused the King’s
cause, and was knighted and elected M.P. for
Morpeth, in 1661. Afterwards, becoming Secretary
to the Treasury and Commissioner of the Customs, he
was in 1663 created a Baronet of East Hatley,
in Cambridgeshire, and was again sent Ambassador
to Holland. His grandson of the same name, who
died in 1749, was the founder of Downing College, Cambridge.
The title became extinct in 1764, upon the decease
of Sir John Gerrard Downing, the last heir-male
of the family. Sir George Downing’s
character will be found in Lord Clarendon’s “Life,”
vol. iii. . Pepys’s opinion
seems to be somewhat of a mixed kind. He
died in July, 1684.]
Jast (Lord’s day).
This morning (we living lately in the garret,) I rose,
put on my suit with great skirts, having not lately
worn any other, clothes but them. Went to Mr.
Gunning’s
[Peter Gunning, afterwards Master of
St. John’s College, Cambridge, and successively
Bishop of Chichester and Ely. He had continued
to read the Liturgy at the chapel at Exeter House
when the Parliament was most predominant, for
which Cromwell often rebuked him. Evelyn relates
that on Christmas Day, 1657, the chapel was surrounded
with soldiers, and the congregation taken prisoners,
he and his wife being among them. There
are several notices of Dr. Gunning in Evelyn’s
Diary. When he obtained the mastership of St.
John’s College upon the ejection of Dr.
Tuckney, he allowed that Nonconformist divine
a handsome annuity during his life. He was a
great controversialist, and a man of great reading.
Burnet says he “was a very honest sincere
man, but of no sound judgment, and of no prudence
in affairs” ("Hist. of his Own. Time").
He died July 6th, 1684, aged seventy-one.]
chapel at Exeter House, where he made
a very good sermon upon these words: “That
in the fulness of time God sent his Son, made of a
woman,” &c.; showing, that, by “made under
the law,” is meant his circumcision, which is
solemnized this day. Dined at home in the garret,
where my wife dressed the remains of a turkey, and
in the doing of it she burned her hand. I staid
at home all the afternoon, looking over my accounts;
then went with my wife to my father’s, and in
going observed the great posts which the City have
set up at the Conduit in Fleet-street. Supt at
my father’s, where in came Mrs. The. Turner [Theophila
Turner, daughter of Sergeant John and Jane Turner,
who married Sir Arthur Harris, Bart. She died
1686.] and Madam Morrice, and supt with
us. After that my wife and I went home with them,
and so to our own home.
2nd. In the morning before I
went forth old East brought me a dozen of bottles
of sack, and I gave him a shilling for his pains.
Then I went to Mr. Sheply, [Shepley was
a servant of Admiral Sir Edward Montagu] who
was drawing of sack in the wine cellar to send to other
places as a gift from my Lord, and told me that my
Lord had given him order to give me the dozen of bottles.
Thence I went to the Temple to speak with Mr. Calthropp
about the L60 due to my Lord,
[Sir Edward Montagu, born 1625, son
of Sir Sidney Montagu, by Paulina, daughter of
John Pepys of Cottenham, married Jemima, daughter
of John Crew of Stene. He died in action against
the Dutch in Southwold Bay, May 28th, 1672.
The title of “My Lord” here applied
to Montagu before he was created Earl of Sandwich is
of the same character as that given to General
Lambert.]
but missed of him, he being abroad.
Then I went to Mr. Crew’s
[John Crew, born 1598, eldest son of
Sir Thomas Crew, Sergeant-at- Law and Speaker
of the House of Commons. He sat for Brackley
in the Long Parliament. Created Baron Crew
of Stene, in the county of Northampton, at the
coronation of Charles ii. He married Jemima,
daughter and co-heir of Edward Walgrave (or Waldegrave)
of Lawford, Essex. His house was in Lincoln’s
Inn Fields. He died December 12th, 1679.]
and borrowed L10 of Mr. Andrewes for
my own use, and so went to my office, where there
was nothing to do. Then I walked a great while
in Westminster Hall, where I heard that Lambert was
coming up to London; that my Lord Fairfax
[Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Generalissimo
of the Parliament forces. After the Restoration,
he retired to his country seat, where he lived
in private till his death, 1671. In a volume
(autograph) of Lord Fairfax’s Poems, preserved
in the British Museum, 11744, , the following
lines occur upon the 30th of January, on which day
the King was beheaded. It is believed that
they have never been printed.
“O
let that day from time be bloted quitt,
And
beleef of ’t in next age be waved,
In
depest silence that act concealed might,
That
so the creadet of our nation might be saved;
But
if the powre devine hath ordered this,
His
will’s the law, and our must aquiess.”
These wretched verses have obviously
no merit; but they are curious as showing that
Fairfax, who had refused to act as one of Charles
I’s judges; continued long afterwards to
entertain a proper horror for that unfortunate
monarch’s fate. It has recently been pointed
out to me, that the lines were not originally
composed by Fairfax, being only a poor translation
of the spirited lines of Statius (Sylvarum lib.
v. cap. ii.
“Excidat
illa dies aevo, ne postera credant
Sécula,
nos certe taceamus; et obruta multa
Nocte
tegi propria patiamur crimina gentis.”
These verses were first applied by
the President de Thou to the massacre of St.
Bartholomew, 1572; and in our day, by Mr. Pitt, in
his memorable speech in the House of Commons,
January, 1793, after the murder of Louis xvi. B.]
was in the head of the Irish brigade,
but it was not certain what he would declare for.
The House was to-day upon finishing the act for the
Council of State, which they did; and for the indemnity
to the soldiers; and were to sit again thereupon in
the afternoon. Great talk that many places have
declared for a free Parliament; and it is believed
that they will be forced to fill up the House with
the old members. From the Hall I called at home,
and so went to Mr. Crew’s (my wife she was to
go to her father’s), thinking to have dined,
but I came too late, so Mr. Moore and I and another
gentleman went out and drank a cup of ale together
in the new market, and there I eat some bread and cheese
for my dinner. After that Mr. Moore and I went
as far as Fleet-street together and parted, he going
into the City, I to find Mr. Calthrop, but failed again
of finding him, so returned to Mr. Crew’s again,
and from thence went along with Mrs. Jemimah
[Mrs. Jemimah, or Mrs. Jem, was Jemima,
eldest daughter of Sir Edward Montagu.
At this time she and her sister, Mrs. Ann, seem to
have been living alone with their maids in London,
and Pepys’s duty was to look after them.]
home, and there she taught me how
to play at cribbage. Then I went home, and finding
my wife gone to see Mrs. Hunt, I went to Will’s,
[Pepys constantly visited “Will’s”
about this time; but this could not be the famous
coffee-house in Covent Garden, because he mentions
visiting there for the first time, February 3rd,
1663-64. It was most probably the house
of William Joyce, who kept a place of entertainment
at Westminster (see Jath).]
and there sat with Mr. Ashwell talking
and singing till nine o’clock, and so home,
there, having not eaten anything but bread and cheese,
my wife cut me a slice of brawn which. I received
from my Lady; [Jemima, wife of Sir Edward
Montagu, daughter of John Crew of Stene, afterwards
Lord Crew.] which proves as good as ever
I had any. So to bed, and my wife had a very
bad night of it through wind and cold.
3rd. I went out in the morning,
it being a great frost, and walked to Mrs. Turner’s
[Jane, daughter of John Pepys of South
Creake, Norfolk, married to John Turner, Sergeant-at-law,
Recorder of York; their only child, Theophila,
frequently mentioned as The. or Theoph., became the
wife of Sir Arthur Harris, Bart., of Stowford,
Devon, and died 1686, s.p.]
to stop her from coming to see me
to-day, because of Mrs. Jem’s corning, thence
I went to the Temple to speak with Mr. Calthrop, and
walked in his chamber an hour, but could not see him,
so went to Westminster, where I found soldiers in
my office to receive money, and paid it them.
At noon went home, where Mrs. Jem, her maid, Mr. Sheply,
Hawly, and Moore dined with me on a piece of beef
and cabbage, and a collar of brawn. We then fell
to cards till dark, and then I went home with Mrs.
Jem, and meeting Mr. Hawly got him to bear me company
to Chancery Lane, where I spoke with Mr. Calthrop,
he told me that Sir James Calthrop was lately dead,
but that he would write to his Lady, that the money
may be speedily paid. Thence back to White Hall,
where I understood that the Parliament had passed
the act for indemnity to the soldiers and officers
that would come in, in so many days, and that my Lord
Lambert should have benefit of the said act.
They had also voted that all vacancies in the House,
by the death of any of the old members, shall be filled
up; but those that are living shall not be called
in. Thence I went home, and there found Mr. Hunt
and his wife, and Mr. Hawly, who sat with me till
ten at night at cards, and so broke up and to bed.
4th. Early came Mr. Vanly [Mr
Vanley appears to have been Pepys’s landlord;
he is mentioned again in the Diary on September 20th,
1660.] to me for his half-year’s rent,
which I had not in the house, but took his man to
the office and there paid him. Then I went down
into the Hall and to Will’s, where Hawly brought
a piece of his Cheshire cheese, and we were merry
with it. Then into the Hall again, where I met
with the Clerk and Quarter Master of my Lord’s
troop, and took them to the Swan’ and gave them
their morning’s draft,
[It was not usual at
this time to sit down to breakfast, but instead
a morning draught was
taken at a tavern.]
they being just come to town.
Mr. Jenkins shewed me two bills of exchange for money
to receive upon my Lord’s and my pay. It
snowed hard all this morning, and was very cold, and
my nose was much swelled with cold. Strange the
difference of men’s talk! Some say that
Lambert must of necessity yield up; others, that he
is very strong, and that the Fifth-monarchy-men [will]
stick to him, if he declares for a free Parliament.
Chillington was sent yesterday to him with the vote
of pardon and indemnity from the Parliament.
From the Hall I came home, where I found letters from
Hinchinbroke
[Hinchinbroke was Sir Edward Montagu’s
seat, from which he afterwards took his second
title. Hinchinbroke House, so often mentioned
in the Diary, stood about half a mile to the westward
of the town of Huntingdon. It was erected
late in the reign of Elizabeth, by Sir Henry
Cromwell, on the site of a Benedictine nunnery,
granted at the Dissolution, with all its appurtenances,
to his father, Richard Williams, who had assumed
the name of Cromwell, and whose grandson, Sir
Oliver, was the uncle and godfather of the Protector.
The knight, who was renowned for, his hospitality,
had the honour of entertaining King James at
Hinchinbroke, but, getting into pecuniary difficulties,
was obliged to sell his estates, which were conveyed,
July 28th, 1627, to Sir Sidney Montagu of Barnwell,
father of the first Earl of Sandwich, in whose
descendant they are still vested. On the
morning of the 22nd January, 1830, during the minority
of the seventh Earl, Hinchinbroke was almost entirely
destroyed by fire, but the pictures and furniture
were mostly saved, and the house has been rebuilt
in the Elizabethan style, and the interior greatly
improved, under the direction of Edward Blore, Esq.,
R.A. B.]
and news of Mr. Sheply’s going
thither the next week. I dined at home, and from
thence went to Will’s to Shaw, who promised me
to go along with me to Atkinson’s about some
money, but I found him at cards with Spicer and D.
Vines, and could not get him along with me. I
was vext at this, and went and walked in the Hall,
where I heard that the Parliament spent this day in
fasting and prayer; and in the afternoon came letters
from the North, that brought certain news that my
Lord Lambent his forces were all forsaking him, and
that he was left with only fifty horse, and that he
did now declare for the Parliament himself; and that
my Lord Fairfax did also rest satisfied, and had laid
down his arms, and that what he had done was only
to secure the country against my Lord Lambert his
raising of money, and free quarter. I went to
Will’s again, where I found them still at cards,
and Spicer had won 14s. of Shaw and Vines. Then
I spent a little time with G. Vines and Maylard at
Vines’s at our viols.
[It was usual to have a “chest
of viols,” which consisted of six, viz.,
two trebles, two tenors, and two basses (see note in
North’s “Memoirs of Musick,”
ed. Rimbault, . The bass viol was
also called the ‘viola da gamba’,
because it was held between the legs.]
So home, and from thence to Mr. Hunt’s,
and sat with them and Mr. Hawly at cards till ten
at night, and was much made of by them. Home and
so to bed, but much troubled with my nose, which was
much swelled.
5th. I went to my office, where
the money was again expected from the Excise office,
but none brought, but was promised to be sent this
afternoon. I dined with Mr. Sheply, at my Lord’s
lodgings, upon his turkey-pie. And so to my office
again; where the Excise money was brought, and some
of it told to soldiers till it was dark. Then
I went home, and after writing a letter to my Lord
and told him the news that the Parliament hath this
night voted that the members that were discharged
from sitting in the years 1648 and 49, were duly discharged;
and that there should be writs issued presently for
the calling of others in their places, and that Monk
and Fairfax were commanded up to town, and that the
Prince’s lodgings were to be provided for Monk
at Whitehall. Then my wife and I, it being a
great frost, went to Mrs. Jem’s, in expectation
to eat a sack-posset, but Mr. Edward [Edward
Montage, son of Sir Edward, and afterwards Lord Hinchinbroke.] not
coming it was put off; and so I left my wife playing
at cards with her, and went myself with my lanthorn
to Mr. Fage, to consult concerning my nose, who told
me it was nothing but cold, and after that we did
discourse concerning public business; and he told me
it is true the City had not time enough to do much,
but they are resolved to shake off the soldiers; and
that unless there be a free Parliament chosen, he did
believe there are half the Common Council will not
levy any money by order of this Parliament. From
thence I went to my father’s, where I found
Mrs. Ramsey and her grandchild, a pretty girl, and
staid a while and talked with them and my mother,
and then took my leave, only heard of an invitation
to go to dinner to-morrow to my cosen Thomas Pepys. [Thomas
Pepys, probably the son of Thomas Pepys of London (born,
1595), brother of Samuel’s father, John Pepys.] I
went back to Mrs. Jem, and took my wife and Mrs. Sheply,
and went home.
6th. This morning Mr. Sheply
and I did eat our breakfast at Mrs. Harper’s,
(my brother John’ being with me,)
[John Pepys was born
in 1641, and his brother Samuel took great
interest in his welfare,
but he did not do any great credit to his
elder.]
upon a cold turkey-pie and a goose.
From thence I went to my office, where we paid money
to the soldiers till one o’clock, at which time
we made an end, and I went home and took my wife and
went to my cosen, Thomas Pepys, and found them just
sat down to dinner, which was very good; only the
venison pasty was palpable beef, which was not handsome.
After dinner I took my leave, leaving my wife with
my cozen Stradwick, [Elizabeth, daughter
of Richard Pepys, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and
wife of Thomas Stradwick.] and went to Westminster
to Mr. Vines, where George and I fiddled a good while,
Dick and his wife (who was lately brought to bed)
and her sister being there, but Mr. Hudson not coming
according to his promise, I went away, and calling
at my house on the wench, I took her and the lanthorn
with me to my cosen Stradwick, where, after a good
supper, there being there my father, mother, brothers,
and sister, my cosen Scott and his wife, Mr. Drawwater
and his wife, and her brother, Mr. Stradwick, we had
a brave cake brought us, and in the choosing, Pall
was Queen and Mr. Stradwick was King. After that
my wife and I bid adieu and came home, it being still
a great frost.
7th. At my office as I was receiving
money of the probate of wills, in came Mrs. Turner,
Theoph., Madame Morrice, and Joyce, and after I had
done I took them home to my house and Mr. Hawly came
after, and I got a dish of steaks and a rabbit for
them, while they were playing a game or two at cards.
In the middle of our dinner a messenger from Mr. Downing
came to fetch me to him, so leaving Mr. Hawly there,
I went and was forced to stay till night in expectation
of the French Embassador, who at last came, and I
had a great deal of good discourse with one of his
gentlemen concerning the reason of the difference between
the zeal of the French and the Spaniard. After
he was gone I went home, and found my friends still
at cards, and after that I went along with them to
Dr. Whores (sending my wife to Mrs. Jem’s to
a sack-posset), where I heard some symphony and songs
of his own making, performed by Mr. May, Harding,
and Mallard. Afterwards I put my friends into
a coach, and went to Mrs. Jem’s, where I wrote
a letter to my Lord by the post, and had my part of
the posset which was saved for me, and so we went home,
and put in at my Lord’s lodgings, where we staid
late, eating of part of his turkey-pie, and reading
of Quarles’ Emblems. So home and to bed.
8th (Sunday). In the morning
I went to Mr. Gunning’s, where a good sermon,
wherein he showed the life of Christ, and told us good
authority for us to believe that Christ did follow
his father’s trade, and was a carpenter till
thirty years of age. From thence to my father’s
to dinner, where I found my wife, who was forced to
dine there, we not having one coal of fire in the
house, and it being very hard frosty weather.
In the afternoon my father, he going to a man’s
to demand some money due to my Aunt Bells my wife
and I went to Mr. Mossum’s, where a strange
doctor made a very good sermon. From thence sending
my wife to my father’s, I went to Mrs. Turner’s,
and staid a little while, and then to my father’s,
where I found Mr. Sheply, and after supper went home
together. Here I heard of the death of Mr. Palmer,
and that he was to be buried at Westminster tomorrow.
9th. For these two or three days
I have been much troubled with thoughts how to get
money to pay them that I have borrowed money of, by
reason of my money being in my uncle’s hands.
I rose early this morning, and looked over and corrected
my brother John’s speech, which he is to make
the next apposition, [Declamations at St.
Paul’s School, in which there were opponents
and respondents.] and after that I went
towards my office, and in my way met with W. Simons,
Muddiman, and Jack Price, and went with them to Harper’s
and in many sorts of talk I staid till two of the
clock in the afternoon. I found Muddiman a good
scholar, an arch rogue; and owns that though he writes
new books for the Parliament, yet he did declare that
he did it only to get money; and did talk very basely
of many of them. Among other things, W. Simons
told me how his uncle Scobel was on Saturday last
called to the bar, for entering in the journal of
the House, for the year 1653, these words: “This
day his Excellence the Lord General Cromwell dissolved
this House;” which words the Parliament voted
a forgery, and demanded of him how they came to be
entered. He answered that they were his own handwriting,
and that he did it by virtue of his office, and the
practice of his predecessor; and that the intent of
the practice was to let posterity know how
such and such a Parliament was dissolved, whether
by the command of the King, or by their own neglect,
as the last House of Lords was; and that to this end,
he had said and writ that it was dissolved by his Excellence
the Lord G[eneral]; and that for the word dissolved,
he never at the time did hear of any other term; and
desired pardon if he would not dare to make a word
himself when it was six years after, before they came
themselves to call it an interruption; but they were
so little satisfied with this answer, that they did
chuse a committee to report to the House, whether
this crime of Mr. Scobell’s did come within the
act of indemnity or no. Thence I went with Muddiman
to the Coffee-House, and gave 18d. to be entered of
the Club. Thence into the Hall, where I heard
for certain that Monk was coming to London, and that
Bradshaw’s 2 lodgings were preparing for him.
Thence to Mrs. Jem’s, and found her in bed,
and she was afraid that it would prove the small-pox.
Thence back to Westminster Hall, where I heard how
Sir H. Vane [Sir Harry Vane the younger,
an inflexible republican. He was executed in 1662,
on a charge of conspiring the death of Charles I.] was
this day voted out of the House, and to sit no more
there; and that he would retire himself to his house
at Raby, as also all the rest of the nine officers
that had their commissions formerly taken away from
them, were commanded to their farthest houses from
London during the pleasure of the Parliament.
Here I met with the Quarter Master of my Lord’s
troop, and his clerk Mr. Jenings, and took them home,
and gave them a bottle of wine, and the remainder
of my collar of brawn; and so good night. After
that came in Mr. Hawly, who told me that I was mist
this day at my office, and that to-morrow I must pay
all the money that I have, at which I was put to a
great loss how I should get money to make up my cash,
and so went to bed in great trouble.
10th. Went out early, and in
my way met with Greatorex, [Ralph Greatorex,
the well-known mathematical instrument maker of his
day. He is frequently mentioned by Pepys.] and
at an alehouse he showed me the first sphere of wire
that ever he made, and indeed it was very pleasant;
thence to Mr. Crew’s, and borrowed L10, and so
to my office, and was able to pay my money. Thence
into the Hall, and meeting the Quarter Master, Jenings,
and Captain Rider, we four went to a cook’s to
dinner. Thence Jenings and I into London (it
being through heat of the sun a great thaw and dirty)
to show our bills of return, and coming back drank
a pint of wine at the Star in Cheapside. So to
Westminster, overtaking Captain Okeshott in his silk
cloak, whose sword got hold of many people in walking.
Thence to the Coffee-house, where were a great confluence
of gentlemen; viz. Mr. Harrington, Poultny,
chairman, Gold, Dr. Petty; &c., where admirable discourse
till at night. Thence with Doling to Mother Lams,
who told me how this day Scott
[Thomas Scott, M.P., was made Secretary
of State to the Commonwealth on the 17th of this
same January. He signed the death warrant of
Charles I., for which he was executed at Charing
Cross, October 16th, 1660. He gloried in
his offence, and desired to have written on his
tombstone, “Thomas Scott who adjudged to death
the late king.”]
was made Intelligencer, and that the
rest of the members that were objected against last
night, their business was to be heard this day se’nnight.
Thence I went home and wrote a letter, and went to
Harper’s, and staid there till Tom carried it
to the postboy at Whitehall. So home to bed.
11th. Being at Will’s with
Captain Barker, who hath paid me L300 this morning
at my office, in comes my father, and with him I walked,
and leave him at W. Joyce’s, and went myself
to Mr. Crew’s, but came too late to dine, and
therefore after a game at shittle-cocks [The
game of battledore and shuttlecock was formerly much
played even in tennis courts, and was a very violent
game.] with Mr. Walgrave and Mr. Edward,
I returned to my father, and taking him from W. Joyce’s,
who was not abroad himself, we inquired of a porter,
and by his direction went to an alehouse, where after
a cup or two we parted. I went towards London,
and in my way went in to see Crowly, who was now grown
a very great loon and very tame. Thence to Mr.
Steven’s with a pair of silver snuffers, and
bought a pair of shears to cut silver, and so homeward
again. From home I went to see Mrs. Jem, who
was in bed, and now granted to have the small-pox.
Back again, and went to the Coffee-house, but tarried
not, and so home.
12th. I drink my morning at Harper’s
with Mr. Sheply and a seaman, and so to my office,
where Captain Holland came to see me, and appointed
a meeting in the afternoon. Then wrote letters
to Hinchinbroke and sealed them at Will’s, and
after that went home, and thence to the Half Moon,
where I found the Captain and Mr. Billingsly and Newman,
a barber, where we were very merry, and had the young
man that plays so well on the Welsh harp. Billingsly
paid for all. Thence home, and finding my letters
this day not gone by the carrier I new sealed them,
but my brother Tom coming we fell into discourse about
my intention to feast the Joyces. I sent for
a bit of meat for him from the cook’s, and forgot
to send my letters this night. So I went to bed,
and in discourse broke to my wife what my thoughts
were concerning my design of getting money by, &c.
13th. Coming in the morning to
my office, I met with Mr. Fage and took him to the
Swan? He told me how high Haselrigge, and Morly,
the last night began at my Lord Mayor’s to exclaim
against the City of London, saying that they had forfeited
their charter. And how the Chamberlain of the
City did take them down, letting them know how much
they were formerly beholding to the City, &c.
He also told me that Monk’s letter that came
to them by the sword-bearer was a cunning piece, and
that which they did not much trust to; but they were
resolved to make no more applications to the Parliament,
nor to pay any money, unless the secluded members
be brought in, or a free Parliament chosen. Thence
to my office, where nothing to do. So to Will’s
with Mr. Pinkney, who invited me to their feast at
his Hall the next Monday. Thence I went home
and took my wife and dined at Mr. Wades, and after
that we went and visited Catan. From thence home
again, and my wife was very unwilling to let me go
forth, but with some discontent would go out if I did,
and I going forth towards Whitehall, I saw she followed
me, and so I staid and took her round through Whitehall,
and so carried her home angry. Thence I went
to Mrs. Jem, and found her up and merry, and that it
did not prove the small-pox, but only the swine-pox;
so I played a game or two at cards with her.
And so to Mr. Vines, where he and I and Mr. Hudson
played half-a-dozen things, there being there Dick’s
wife and her sister. After that I went home and
found my wife gone abroad to Mr. Hunt’s, and
came in a little after me. So to bed.
14th. Nothing to do at our office.
Thence into the Hall, and just as I was going to dinner
from Westminster Hall with Mr. Moore (with whom I
had been in the lobby to hear news, and had spoke with
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper about my Lord’s lodgings)
to his house, I met with Captain Holland, who told
me that he hath brought his wife to my house, so I
posted home and got a dish of meat for them. They
staid with me all the afternoon, and went hence in
the evening. Then I went with my wife, and left
her at market, and went myself to the Coffee-house,
and heard exceeding good argument against Mr. Harrington’s
assertion, that overbalance of propriety [i.e., property]
was the foundation of government. Home, and wrote
to Hinchinbroke, and sent that and my other letter
that missed of going on Thursday last. So to bed.
15th. Having been exceedingly
disturbed in the night with the barking of a dog of
one of our neighbours that I could not sleep for an
hour or two, I slept late, and then in the morning
took physic, and so staid within all day. At
noon my brother John came to me, and I corrected as
well as I could his Greek speech to say the Apposition,
though I believe he himself was as well able to do
it as myself. After that we went to read in the
great Officiale about the blessing of bells in
the Church of Rome. After that my wife and I
in pleasant discourse till night, then I went to supper,
and after that to make an end of this week’s
notes in this book, and so to bed. It being a
cold day and a great snow my physic did not work so
well as it should have done.
16th. In the morning I went up
to Mr. Crew’s, and at his bedside he gave me
direction to go to-morrow with Mr. Edward to Twickenham,
and likewise did talk to me concerning things of state;
and expressed his mind how just it was that the secluded
members should come to sit again. I went from
thence, and in my way went into an alehouse and drank
my morning draft with Matthew Andrews and two or three
more of his friends, coachmen. And of one of
them I did hire a coach to carry us to-morrow to Twickenham.
From thence to my office, where nothing to do; but
Mr. Downing he came and found me all alone; and did
mention to me his going back into Holland, and did
ask me whether I would go or no, but gave me little
encouragement, but bid me consider of it; and asked
me whether I did not think that Mr. Hawly could perform
the work of my office alone or no. I confess
I was at a great loss, all the day after, to bethink
myself how to carry this business. At noon, Harry
Ethall came to me and went along with Mr. Maylard
by coach as far as Salsbury Court, and there we set
him down, and we went to the Clerks, where we came
a little too late, but in a closet we had a very good
dinner by Mr. Pinkny’s courtesy, and after dinner
we had pretty good singing, and one, Hazard, sung
alone after the old fashion, which was very much cried
up, but I did not like it. Thence we went to
the Green Dragon, on Lambeth Hill, both the Mr. Pinkney’s,
Smith, Harrison, Morrice, that sang the bass, Sheply
and I, and there we sang of all sorts of things, and
I ventured with good success upon things at first
sight, and after that I played on my flageolet, and
staid there till nine o’clock, very merry and
drawn on with one song after another till it came
to be so late. After that Sheply, Harrison and
myself, we went towards Westminster on foot, and at
the Golden Lion, near Charing Cross, we went in and
drank a pint of wine, and so parted, and thence home,
where I found my wife and maid a-washing. I staid
up till the bell-man came by with his bell just under
my window as I was writing of this very line, and cried,
“Past one of the clock, and a cold, frosty,
windy morning.” I then went to bed, and
left my wife and the maid a-washing still.
17th. Early I went to Mr. Crew’s,
and having given Mr. Edward money to give the servants,
I took him into the coach that waited for us and carried
him to my house, where the coach waited for me while
I and the child went to Westminster Hall, and bought
him some pictures. In the Hall I met Mr. Woodfine,
and took him to Will’s and drank with him.
Thence the child and I to the coach, where my wife
was ready, and so we went towards Twickenham.
In our way, at Kensington we understood how that my
Lord Chesterfield had killed another gentleman about
half an hour before, and was fled.
[Philip Stanhope, second Earl of Chesterfield,
ob. 1713, act. suae 80. We learn,
from the memoir prefixed to his “Printed Correspondence,”
that he fought three duels, disarming and wounding
his first and second antagonists, and killing
the third. The name of the unfortunate
gentleman who fell on this occasion was Woolly.
Lord Chesterfield, absconding, went to Breda,
where he obtained the royal pardon from Charles
ii. He acted a busy part in the eventful
times in which he lived, and was remarkable for
his steady adherence to the Stuarts. Lord
Chesterfield’s letter to Charles ii., and
the King’s answer granting the royal pardon,
occur in the Correspondence published by General
Sir John Murray, in 1829.
“Jath, 1659. The Earl
of Chesterfield and Dr. Woolly’s son of Hammersmith,
had a quarrel about a mare of eighteen pounds price;
the quarrel would not be reconciled, insomuch
that a challenge passed between them. They
fought a duel on the backside of Mr. Colby’s
house at Kensington, where the Earl and he had several
passes. The Earl wounded him in two places,
and would fain have then ended, but the stubbornness
and pride of heart of Mr. Woolly would not give
over, and the next pass [he] was killed on the spot.
The Earl fled to Chelsea, and there took water
and escaped. The jury found it chance-medley.” Rugge’s
“Diurnal,” Addit mss., British
Museum. B.]
We went forward and came about one
of the clock to Mr. Fuller’s, but he was out
of town, so we had a dinner there, and I gave the child
40s. to give to the two ushers. After that we
parted and went homewards, it being market day at
Brainford [Brentford]. I set my wife down and
went with the coach to Mr. Crew’s, thinking
to have spoke with Mr. Moore and Mrs. Jem, he having
told me the reason of his melancholy was some unkindness
from her after so great expressions of love, and how
he had spoke to her friends and had their consent,
and that he would desire me to take an occasion of
speaking with her, but by no means not to heighten
her discontent or distaste whatever it be, but to make
it up if I can. But he being out of doors, I
went away and went to see Mrs. Jem, who was now very
well again, and after a game or two at cards, I left
her. So I went to the Coffee Club, and heard very
good discourse; it was in answer to Mr. Harrington’s
answer, who said that the state of the Roman government
was not a settled government, and so it was no wonder
that the balance of propriety [i.e., property] was
in one hand, and the command in another, it being
therefore always in a posture of war; but it was carried
by ballot, that it was a steady government, though
it is true by the voices it had been carried before
that it was an unsteady government; so to-morrow it
is to be proved by the opponents that the balance
lay in one hand, and the government in another.
Thence I went to Westminster, and met Shaw and Washington,
who told me how this day Sydenham
[Colonel William Sydenham had been
an active officer during the Civil Wars, on the
Parliament side; M.P. for Dorsetshire, Governor of
Melcombe, and one of the Committee of Safety.
He was the elder brother of the celebrated physician
of that name. B.]
was voted out of the House for sitting
any more this Parliament, and that Salloway was voted
out likewise and sent to the Tower, during the pleasure
of the House. Home and wrote by the Post, and
carried to Whitehall, and coming back turned in at
Harper-’s, where Jack Price was, and I drank
with him and he told me, among other, things, how much
the Protector
[Richard Cromwell, third son of Oliver
Cromwell, born October 4th, 1626, admitted a
member of Lincoln’s Inn, May 27th, 1647, fell
into debt and devoted himself to hunting and
field sports. His succession to his father
as Protector was universally accepted at first,
but the army soon began to murmur because he was not
a general. Between the dissensions of various
parties he fell, and the country was left in
a state of anarchy: He went abroad early in the
summer of 1660, and lived abroad for some years, returning
to England in 1680. After his fall he bore
the name of John Clarke. Died at Cheshunt,
July 12th, 1712.]
is altered, though he would seem to
bear out his trouble very well, yet he is scarce able
to talk sense with a man; and how he will say that
“Who should a man trust, if he may not trust
to a brother and an uncle;” and “how much
those men have to answer before God Almighty, for their
playing the knave with him as they did.”
He told me also, that there was; L100,000 offered,
and would have been taken for his restitution, had
not the Parliament come in as they did again; and that
he do believe that the Protector will live to give
a testimony of his valour and revenge yet before he
dies, and that the Protector will say so himself sometimes.
Thence I went home, it being late and my wife in bed.
18th. To my office and from thence
to Will’s, and there Mr. Sheply brought me letters
from the carrier and so I went home. After that
to Wilkinson’s, where we had a dinner for Mr.
Talbot, Adams, Pinkny and his son, but his son did
not come. Here we were very merry, and while I
was here Mr. Fuller came thither and staid a little,
while.
After that we all went to my Lord’s,
whither came afterwards Mr. Harrison, and by chance
seeing Mr. Butler [Mr. Butler is usually
styled by Pepys Mons. l’Impertinent.] coming
by I called him in and so we sat drinking a bottle
of wine till night. At which time Mistress Ann [Probably
Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Anne Montagu, daughter of Sir
Edward Montagu, and sister to Mrs. Jem.] came
with the key of my Lord’s study for some things,
and so we all broke up and after I had gone to my
house and interpreted my Lord’s letter by his
character [The making of ciphers was a
popular amusement about this time. Pepys made
several for Montagu, Downing, and others.] I
came to her again and went with her to her lodging
and from thence to Mr. Crew’s, where I advised
with him what to do about my Lord’s lodgings
and what answer to give to Sir Ant. Cooper and
so I came home and to bed. All the world is at
a loss to think what Monk will do: the City saying
that he will be for them, and the Parliament saying
he will be for them.
19th. This morning I was sent
for to Mr. Downing, and at his bed side he told me,
that he had a kindness for me, and that he thought
that he had done me one; and that was, that he had
got me to be one of the Clerks of the Council; at
which I was a little stumbled, and could not tell what
to do, whether to thank him or no; but by and by I
did; but not very heartily, for I feared that his
doing of it was but only to ease himself of the salary
which he gives me. After that Mr. Sheply staying
below all this time for me we went thence and met
Mr. Pierce,
[Pepys had two friends named Pierce,
one the surgeon and the other the purser; he
usually (but not always) distinguishes them.
The one here alluded to was probably the surgeon,
and husband of pretty Mrs. Pierce. After
the Restoration James Pearse or Pierce became Surgeon
to the Duke of York, and he was also Surgeon-General
of the Fleet.]
so at the Harp and Ball drank our
morning draft and so to Whitehall where I met with
Sir Ant. Cooper and did give him some answer from
my Lord and he did give us leave to keep the lodgings
still. And so we did determine thereupon that
Mr. Sheply might now go into the country and would
do so to-morrow. Back I went by Mr. Downing’s
order and staid there till twelve o’clock in
expectation of one to come to read some writings,
but he came not, so I staid all alone reading the answer
of the Dutch Ambassador to our State, in answer to
the reasons of my Lord’s coming home, which
he gave for his coming, and did labour herein to contradict
my Lord’s arguments for his coming home.
Thence to my office and so with Mr. Sheply and Moore,
to dine upon a turkey with Mrs. Jem, and after that
Mr. Moore and I went to the French Ordinary, where
Mr. Downing this day feasted Sir Arth. Haselrigge,
and a great many more of the Parliament, and did stay
to put him in mind of me. Here he gave me a note
to go and invite some other members to dinner tomorrow.
So I went to White Hall, and did stay at Marsh’s,
with Simons, Luellin, and all the rest of the Clerks
of the Council, who I hear are all turned out, only
the two Leighs, and they do all tell me that my name
was mentioned the last night, but that nothing was
done in it. Hence I went and did leave some of
my notes at the lodgings of the members and so home.
To bed.
20th. In the morning I went to
Mr. Downing’s bedside and gave him an account
what I had done as to his guests, land I went thence
to my Lord Widdrington who I met in the street, going
to seal the patents for the judges to-day, and so
could not come to dinner. I called upon Mr. Calthrop
about the money due to my Lord. Here I met with
Mr. Woodfine and drank with him at the Sun in Chancery
Lane and so to Westminster Hall, where at the lobby
I spoke with the rest of my guests and so to my office.
At noon went by water with Mr. Maylard and Hales to
the Swan in Fish Street at our Goal Feast, where we
were very merry at our Jole of Ling, and from thence
after a great and good dinner Mr. Falconberge would
go drink a cup of ale at a place where I had like to
have shot at a scholar that lay over the house of
office. Thence calling on Mr. Stephens and Wootton
(with whom I drank) about business of my Lord’s
I went to the Coffee Club where there was nothing
done but choosing of a Committee for orders.
Thence to Westminster Hall where Mrs. Lane and the
rest of the maids had their white scarfs, all having
been at the burial of a young bookseller in the Hall.
[These stationers and booksellers,
whose shops disfigured Westminster Hall down
to a late period, were a privileged class. In
the statutes for appointing licensers and regulating
the press, there is a clause exempting them from
the pains and penalties of these obnoxious laws.]
Thence to Mr. Sheply’s and took
him to my house and drank with him in order to his
going to-morrow. So parted and I sat up late making
up my accounts before he go. This day three citizens
of London went to meet Monk from the Common Council!
“Jath. Then there
went out of the City, by desire of the Lord Mayor
and Court of Aldermen, Alderman Fowke and Alderman
Vincett, alias Vincent, and Mr. Broomfield, to
compliment General Monk, who lay at Harborough
Town, in Leicestershire.”
“Jast. Because the
Speaker was sick, and Lord General Monk so near
London, and everybody thought that the City would suffer
for their affronts to the soldiery, and because
they had sent the sword- bearer to, the General
without the Parliament’s consent, and the three
Aldermen were gone to give him the welcome to town,
these four lines were in almost everybody’s
mouth:
“Monk
under a hood, not well understood,
The
City pull in their horns;
The
Speaker is out, and sick of the gout,
And
the Parliament sit upon thorns.”
Rugge’s
’Diurnal.’ B.”
21st. Up early in finishing my
accounts and writing to my Lord and from thence to
my Lord’s and took leave of Mr. Sheply and possession
of all the keys and the house. Thence to my office
for some money to pay Mr. Sheply and sent it him by
the old man. I then went to Mr. Downing who chid
me because I did not give him notice of some of his
guests failed him but I told him that I sent our porter
to tell him and he was not within, but he told me
that he was within till past twelve o’clock.
So the porter or he lied. Thence to my office
where nothing to do. Then with Mr. Hawly, he
and I went to Mr. Crew’s and dined there.
Thence into London, to Mr. Vernon’s and I received
my L25 due by bill for my troopers’ pay.
Then back again to Steadman’s. At the Mitre,
in Fleet street, in our way calling on Mr. Fage, who
told me how the City have some hopes of Monk.
Thence to the Mitre, where I drank a pint of wine,
the house being in fitting for Banister to come hither
from Paget’s. Thence to Mrs. Jem and gave
her L5. So home and left my money and to Whitehall
where Luellin and I drank and talked together an hour
at Marsh’s and so up to the clerks’ room,
where poor Mr. Cook, a black man, that is like to
be put out of his clerk’s place, came and railed
at me for endeavouring to put him out and get myself
in, when I was already in a good condition. But
I satisfied him and after I had wrote a letter there
to my Lord, wherein I gave him an account how this
day Lenthall took his chair again, and [the House]
resolved a declaration to be brought in on Monday
next to satisfy the world what they intend to do.
So home and to bed.
22nd. I went in the morning to
Mr. Messum’s, where I met with W. Thurburn and
sat with him in his pew. A very eloquent sermon
about the duty of all to give good example in our
lives and conversation, which I fear he himself was
most guilty of not doing. After sermon, at the
door by appointment my wife met me, and so to my father’s
to dinner, where we had not been to my shame in a
fortnight before. After dinner my father shewed
me a letter from Mr. Widdrington, of Christ’s
College, in Cambridge, wherein he do express very
great kindness for my brother, and my father intends
that my brother shall go to him. To church in
the afternoon to Mr. Herring, where a lazy poor sermon.
And so home with Mrs. Turner and sitting with her
a while we went to my father’s where we supt
very merry, and so home. This day I began to put
on buckles to my shoes, which I have bought yesterday
of Mr. Wotton.
23rd. In the morning called out
to carry L20 to Mr. Downing, which I did and came
back, and finding Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, I took him
to the Axe and gave him his morning draft. Thence
to my office and there did nothing but make up my
balance. Came home and found my wife dressing
of the girl’s head, by which she was made to
look very pretty. I went out and paid Wilkinson
what I did owe him, and brought a piece of beef home
for dinner. Thence I went out and paid Waters,
the vintner, and went to see Mrs. Jem, where I found
my Lady Wright, but Scott was so drunk that he could
not be seen. Here I staid and made up Mrs. Ann’s
bills, and played a game or two at cards, and thence
to Westminster Hall, it being very dark. I paid
Mrs. Michell, my bookseller, and back to Whitehall,
and in the garden, going through to the Stone Gallery [The
Stone Gallery was a long passage between the Privy
Garden and the river. It led from the Bowling
Green to the Court of the Palace] I fell
into a ditch, it being very dark. At the Clerk’s
chamber I met with Simons and Luellin, and went with
them to Mr. Mount’s chamber at the Cock Pit,
where we had some rare pot venison, and ale to abundance
till almost twelve at night, and after a song round
we went home. This day the Parliament sat late,
and resolved of the declaration to be printed for
the people’s satisfaction, promising them a great
many good things.
24th. In the morning to my office,
where, after I had drank my morning draft at Will’s
with Ethell and Mr. Stevens, I went and told part of
the excise money till twelve o’clock, and then
called on my wife and took her to Mr. Pierces, she
in the way being exceedingly troubled with a pair
of new pattens, and I vexed to go so slow, it being
late. There when we came we found Mrs. Carrick
very fine, and one Mr. Lucy, who called one another
husband and wife, and after dinner a great deal of
mad stir. There was pulling off Mrs. bride’s
and Mr. bridegroom’s ribbons;
[The scramble for ribbons, here mentioned
by Pepys in connection with weddings (see also
January 26th, 1660-61, and February 8th, 1662-3),
doubtless formed part of the ceremony of undressing
the bridegroom, which, as the age became more
refined, fell into disuse. All the old plays
are silent on the custom; the earliest notice of which
occurs in the old ballad of the wedding of Arthur O’Bradley,
printed in the Appendix to “Robin Hood,”
1795, where we read
“Then
got they his points and his garters,
And
cut them in pieces like martyrs;
And
then they all did play
For
the honour of Arthur O’Bradley.”
Sir Winston Churchill also observes
("Divi Britannici,” that James
I. was no more troubled at his querulous countrymen
robbing him than a bridegroom at the losing of
his points and garters. Lady Fanshawe,
in her “Memoirs,” says, that at the nuptials
of Charles ii. and the Infanta, “the
Bishop of London declared them married in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and
then they caused the ribbons her Majesty wore
to be cut in little pieces; and as far as they
would go, every one had some.” The practice
still survives in the form of wedding favours.
A similar custom is still of every
day’s occurrence at Dieppe. Upon the
morrow after their marriage, the bride and bridegroom
perambulate the streets, followed by a numerous
cortege, the guests at the wedding festival,
two and two; each individual wearing two bits
of narrow ribbon, about two inches in length, of different
colours, which are pinned crossways upon the breast.
These morsels of ribbons originally formed the
garters of the bride and bridegroom, which had
been divided amidst boisterous mirth among the assembled
company, the moment the happy pair had been formally
installed in the bridal bed. Ex. inf.
Mr. William.Hughes, Belvedere, Jersey. B.]
with a great deal of fooling among
them that I and my wife did not like. Mr. Lucy
and several other gentlemen coming in after dinner,
swearing and singing as if they were mad, only he
singing very handsomely. There came in afterwards
Mr. Southerne, clerk to Mr. Blackburne, and with him
Lambert, lieutenant of my Lord’s ship, and brought
with them the declaration that came out to-day from
the Parliament, wherein they declare for law and gospel,
and for tythes; but I do not find people apt to believe
them. After this taking leave I went to my father’s,
and my wife staying there, he and I went to speak
with Mr. Crumlum (in the meantime, while it was five
o’clock, he being in the school, we went to
my cozen Tom Pepys’ shop, the turner in Paul’s
Churchyard, and drank with him a pot of ale); he gave
my father directions what to do about getting my brother
an exhibition, and spoke very well of my brother.
Thence back with my father home, where he and I spoke
privately in the little room to my sister Pall about
stealing of things as my wife’s scissars and
my maid’s book, at which my father was much troubled.
Hence home with my wife and so to Whitehall, where
I met with Mr. Hunt and Luellin, and drank with them
at Marsh’s, and afterwards went up and wrote
to my Lord by the post. This day the Parliament
gave order that the late Committee of Safety should
come before them this day se’nnight, and all
their papers, and their model of Government that they
had made, to be brought in with them. So home
and talked with my wife about our dinner on Thursday.
25th. Called up early to Mr.
Downing; he gave me a Character, such a one as my
Lord’s, to make perfect, and likewise gave me
his order for L500 to carry to Mr. Frost, which I
did and so to my office, where I did do something
about the character till twelve o’clock.
Then home find found my wife and the maid at my Lord’s
getting things ready against to-morrow. I went
by water to my Uncle White’s’ to dinner,
where I met my father, where we alone had a fine jole
of Ling to dinner. After dinner I took leave,
and coming home heard that in Cheapside there had
been but a little before a gibbet set up, and the picture
of Huson
[John Hewson, who, from a low origin,
became a colonel in the Parliament army, and
sat in judgment on the King: he escaped hanging
by flight, and died in 1662, at Amsterdam.
A curious notice of Hewson occurs in Rugge’s
“Diurnal,” December 5th, 1659, which states
that “he was a cobbler by trade, but a very
stout man, and a very good commander; but in
regard of his former employment, they [the city
apprentices] threw at him old shoes, and slippers,
and turniptops, and brick-bats, stones, and tiles."...
“At this time [January, 1659-60] there
came forth, almost every day, jeering books:
one was called ’Colonel Hewson’s Confession;
or, a Parley with Pluto,’ about his going
into London, and taking down the gates of Temple-Bar.”
He had but one eye, which did not escape the notice
of his enemies. B.]
hung upon it in the middle of the
street. I called at Paul’s Churchyard,
where I bought Buxtorf’s Hebrew Grammar; and
read a declaration of the gentlemen of Northampton
which came out this afternoon. Thence to my father’s,
where I staid with my mother a while and then to Mr.
Crew’s about a picture to be sent into the country,
of Mr. Thomas Crew, to my Lord. So [to] my Lady
Wright to speak with her, but she was abroad, so Mr.
Evans, her butler, had me into his buttery, and gave
me sack and a lesson on his lute, which he played
very well. Thence I went to my Lord’s and
got most things ready against tomorrow, as fires and
laying the cloth, and my wife was making of her tarts
and larding of her pullets till eleven o’clock.
This evening Mr. Downing sent for me, and gave me
order to go to Mr. Jessop for his papers concerning
his dispatch to Holland which were not ready, only
his order for a ship to transport him he gave me.
To my Lord’s again and so home with my wife,
tired with this day’s work.
26th. To my office for L20 to
carry to Mr. Downing, which I did and back again.
Then came Mr. Frost to pay Mr. Downing his L500, and
I went to him for the warrant and brought it Mr. Frost.
Called for some papers at Whitehall for Mr. Downing,
one of which was an Order of the Council for L1800
per annum, to be paid monthly; and the other two, Orders
to the Commissioners of Customs, to let his goods
pass free. Home from my office to my Lord’s
lodgings where my wife had got ready a very fine dinner viz.
a dish of marrow bones; a leg of mutton; a loin of
veal; a dish of fowl, three pullets, and two dozen
of larks all in a dish; a great tart, a neat’s
tongue, a dish of anchovies; a dish of prawns and
cheese. My company was my father, my uncle Fenner,
his two sons, Mr. Pierce, and all their wives, and
my brother Tom. We were as merry as I could frame
myself to be in the company, W. Joyce talking after
the old rate and drinking hard, vexed his father and
mother and wife. And I did perceive that Mrs.
Pierce her coming so gallant, that it put the two
young women quite out of courage. When it became
dark they all went away but Mr. Pierce, and W. Joyce,
and their wives and Tom, and drank a bottle of wine
afterwards, so that Will did heartily vex his father
and mother by staying. At which I and my wife
were much pleased. Then they all went and I fell
to writing of two characters for Mr. Downing, and
carried them to him at nine o’clock at night,
and he did not like them but corrected them, so that
to-morrow I am to do them anew. To my Lord’s
lodging again and sat by the great log, it being now
a very good fire, with my wife, and ate a bit and
so home. The news this day is a letter that speaks
absolutely Monk’s concurrence with this Parliament,
and nothing else, which yet I hardly believe.
After dinner to-day my father showed me a letter from
my Uncle Robert, in answer to my last, concerning
my money which I would have out of my Coz. Beck’s’
hand, wherein Beck desires it four months longer,
which I know not how to spare.
27th. Going to my office I met
with Tom Newton, my old comrade, and took him to the
Crown in the Palace, and gave him his morning draft.
And as he always did, did talk very high what he would
do with the Parliament, that he would have what place
he would, and that he might be one of the Clerks to
the Council if he would. Here I staid talking
with him till the offices were all shut, and then
I looked in the Hall, and was told by my bookseller,
Mrs. Michell, that Mr. G. Montagu had inquired there
for me. So I went to his house, and was forced
by him to dine with him, and had a plenteous brave
dinner and the greatest civility that ever I had from
any man. Thence home and so to Mrs. Jem, and played
with her at cards, and coming home again my wife told
me that Mr. Hawly had been there to speak with me,
and seemed angry that I had not been at the office
that day, and she told me she was afraid that Mr. Downing
may have a mind to pick some hole in my coat.
So I made haste to him, but found no such thing from
him, but he sent me to Mr. Sherwin’s about getting
Mr. Squib to come to him tomorrow, and I carried him
an answer. So home and fell a writing the characters
for Mr. Downing, and about nine at night Mr. Hawly
came, and after he was gone I sat up till almost twelve
writing, and wrote two of them. In
the morning up early and wrote another, my wife lying
in bed and reading to me.
28th. I went to Mr. Downing and
carried him three characters, and then to my office
and wrote another, while Mr. Frost staid telling money.
And after I had done it Mr. Hawly came into the office
and I left him and carried it to Mr. Downing, who
then told me that he was resolved to be gone for Holland
this morning. So I to my office again, and dispatch
my business there, and came with Mr. Hawly to Mr.
Downing’s lodging, and took Mr. Squib from White
Hall in a coach thither with me, and there we waited
in his chamber a great while, till he came in; and
in the mean time, sent all his things to the barge
that lay at Charing-Cross Stairs. Then came he
in, and took a very civil leave of me, beyond my expectation,
for I was afraid that he would have told me something
of removing me from my office; but he did not, but
that he would do me any service that lay in his power.
So I went down and sent a porter to my house for my
best fur cap, but he coming too late with it I did
not present it to him. Thence I went to Westminster
Hall, and bound up my cap at Mrs. Michell’s,
who was much taken with my cap, and endeavoured to
overtake the coach at the Exchange and to give it him
there, but I met with one that told me that he was
gone, and so I returned and went to Heaven,
[A place of entertainment within or
adjoining Westminster Hall. It is called
in “Hudibras,” “False Heaven, at
the end of the Hall.” There were two
other alehouses near Westminster Hall, called Hell
and Purgatory.
“Nor
break his fast
In
Heaven and Hell.”
Ben Jonson’s
Alchemist, act v. SC. 2.]
where Luellin and I dined on a breast
of mutton all alone, discoursing of the changes that
we have seen and the happiness of them that have estates
of their own, and so parted, and I went by appointment
to my office and paid young Mr. Walton L500; it being
very dark he took L300 by content. He gave me
half a piece and carried me in his coach to St. Clement’s,
from whence I went to Mr. Crew’s and made even
with Mr. Andrews, and took in all my notes and gave
him one for all. Then to my Lady Wright and gave
her my Lord’s letter which he bade me give her
privately. So home and then to Will’s for
a little news, then came home again and wrote to my
Lord, and so to Whitehall and gave them to the post-boy.
Back again home and to bed.
29th. In the morning I went to
Mr. Gunning’s, where he made an excellent sermon
upon the 2d of the Galatians, about the difference
that fell between St. Paul and St. Peter (the feast
day of St. Paul being a day or two ago), whereby he
did prove, that, contrary to the doctrine of the Roman
Church, St. Paul did never own any dépendance,
or that he was inferior to St. Peter, but that they
were equal, only one a particular charge of preaching
to the Jews, and the other to the Gentiles. Here
I met with Mr. Moore, and went home with him to dinner
to Mr. Crew’s, where Mr. Spurrier being in town
did dine with us. From thence I went home and
spent the afternoon in casting up my accounts, and
do find myself to be worth L40 and more, which I did
not think, but am afraid that I have forgot something.
To my father’s to supper, where I heard by my
brother Tom how W. Joyce would the other day have Mr.
Pierce and his wife to the tavern after they were
gone from my house, and that he had so little manners
as to make Tom pay his share notwithstanding that
he went upon his account, and by my father I understand
that my uncle Fenner and my aunt were much pleased
with our entertaining them. After supper home
without going to see Mrs. Turner.
30th. This morning, before I
was up, I fell a-singing of my song, “Great,
good, and just,” &c.
[This is the beginning of the
Marquis of Montrose’s verses on the
execution of Charles I., which Pepys had set
to music:
“Great,
good, and just, could I but rate
My
grief and thy too rigid fate,
I’d
weep the world to such a strain
That
it should deluge once again.
But
since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies
More
from Briareus’ hands, than Argus eyes,
I’ll
sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And
write thy epitaph with blood and wounds.”]
and put myself thereby in mind that
this was the fatal day, now ten years since, his Majesty
died. Scull the waterman came and brought me
a note from the Hope from Mr. Hawly with direction,
about his money, he tarrying there till his master
be gone. To my office, where I received money
of the excise of Mr. Ruddyer, and after we had done
went to Will’s and staid there till 3 o’clock
and then I taking my L12 10d. due to me for my
last quarter’s salary, I went with them by water
to London to the house where Signr. Torriano
used to be and staid there a while with Mr. Ashwell,
Spicer and Ruddier. Then I went and paid L12 17d. due from me to Captn. Dick Matthews according
to his direction the last week in a letter. After
that I came back by water playing on my flageolette
and not finding my wife come home again from her father’s
I went and sat awhile and played at cards with Mrs.
Jam, whose maid had newly got an ague and was ill
thereupon. So homewards again, having great need
to do my business, and so pretending to meet Mr. Shott
the wood monger of Whitehall I went and eased myself
at the Harp and Ball, and thence home where I sat
writing till bed-time and so to bed. There seems
now to be a general cease of talk, it being taken
for granted that Monk do resolve to stand to the Parliament,
and nothing else. Spent a little time this night
in knocking up nails for my hat and cloaks in my chamber.
31st. In the morning I fell to
my lute till 9 o’clock. Then to my Lord’s
lodgings and set out a barrel of soap to be carried
to Mrs. Ann. Here I met with Nick Bartlet, one
that had been a servant of my Lord’s at sea
and at Harper’s gave him his morning draft.
So to my office where I paid; L1200 to Mr. Frost and
at noon went to Will’s to give one of the Excise
office a pot of ale that came to-day to tell over a
bag of his that wanted; L7 in it, which he found over
in another bag. Then home and dined with my wife
when in came Mr. Hawly newly come from shipboard from
his master, and brought me a letter of direction what
to do in his lawsuit with Squib about his house and
office. After dinner to Westminster Hall, where
all we clerks had orders to wait upon the Committee,
at the Star Chamber that is to try Colonel Jones,
[Colonel John Jones,
impeached, with General Ludlow and Miles
Corbet, for treasonable
practices in Ireland.]
and were to give an account what money
we had paid him; but the Committee did not sit to-day.
Hence to Will’s, where I sat an hour or two
with Mr. Godfrey Austin, a scrivener in King Street.
Here I met and afterwards bought the answer to General
Monk’s letter, which is a very good one, and
I keep it by me. Thence to Mrs. Jem, where I found
her maid in bed in a fit of the ague, and Mrs. Jem
among the people below at work and by and by she came
up hot and merry, as if they had given her wine, at
which I was troubled, but said nothing; after a game
at cards, I went home and wrote by the post and coming
back called in at Harper’s and drank with Mr.
Pulford, servant to Mr. Waterhouse, who tells me,
that whereas my Lord Fleetwood should have answered
to the Parliament to-day, he wrote a letter and desired
a little more time, he being a great way out of town.
And how that he is quite ashamed of himself, and confesses
how he had deserved this, for his baseness to his brother.
And that he is like to pay part of the money, paid
out of the Exchequer during the Committee of Safety,
out of his own purse again, which I am glad of.
Home and to bed, leaving my wife reading in Polixandre.
["Polexandre,” by Louis Le Roy
de Gomberville, was first published in 1632.
“The History of Polexander” was “done
into English by W. Browne,” and published
in folio, London, 1647. It was the earliest
of the French heroic romances, and it appears
to have been the model for the works of Calprenede
and Mdlle. de Scuderi; see Dunlop’s “History
of Fiction” for the plot of the romance.]
I could find nothing in Mr. Downing’s
letter, which Hawly brought me, concerning my office;
but I could discern that Hawly had a mind that I would
get to be Clerk of the Council, I suppose that he might
have the greater salary; but I think it not safe yet
to change this for a public employment.