remain incognito, and so intends to do all the time he stays here, for avoiding trouble to the King and himself, and expense also to both. Thence I to Whitehall Gate, thinking to have found Sir J. Minnes's coach staying for me; but, not being there, and this being the first day of rain we have had many a day, the streets being as dusty as in summer, I forced to walk to my cousin Turner's, and there, having kissed and taken leave of Betty, who goes to Putney to school to-morrow, I walked through the rain to the Temple, and there, with much ado, got a coach, and so home. 19th. Up, and with Tom (whom, with his wife, I, and my wife had this morning taken occasion to tell that I did intend to give him £40 for himself, and £20 to his wife, towards their setting out in the world, and that my wife would give her £20 more, that she might have as much to begin with as he) by coach to Whitehall. After dinner out again, and, calling about my coach, which was at the coachmaker's, and hath been for these two or three days, to be new painted, and the window-frames gilt against next May-day, went on with my hackney to Whitehall." 20th. Up; and to the office, and my wife abroad with Mary Batelier, with our own coach, but borrowed Sir J. Minnes's coachman, that so our own might stay at home, to attend at dinner; our family being mightily disordered by our little boy's falling sick the last night; and we fear it will prove the smallpox. At noon comes my guest, Mr. Hugh May, and with him Sir Henry Capell, my old Lord Capell's son, and Mr. Parker; and I had a pretty dinner for them; and both before and and after dinner had excellent discourse; and showed them my closet and my office, and the method of it, to their great content; and more extraordinary manly discourse and opportunity of showing myself, and learning from others, I have not, in ordinary discourse, had in my life, they being all persons of worth, but especially Sir H. Capell, whose being a Parliamentman, and hearing my discourse in the Parliament-house, hath, as May tells me, given him a long desire to know and discourse with me. In the afternoon we walked to the Old Artillery Ground near 1 Teasel (or Teazle) Close, in Bishopsgate Street, the Spitalfields, where I never was before, but now, by Captain Deane's invitation, did go to see his new gun tried, this being the place where the Officers of the Ordnance do try all their great guns; and, when we came, did find that the trial had been made; and they going away with extraordinary report of the proof of his gun, which, from the shortness and bigness, they do call Punchinello. But I desired Colonel Legg to stay and give us a sight of her performance, which he did, and there, in short, against a gun more than as long and as heavy again, and charged with as much powder again, she carried the same bullet as strong to the mark, and nearer and above the mark at a point blank than their's, and it more easily managed, and recoils no more than that, which is a thing so extraordinary as to be admired for the happiness of his invention, and to the great regret of the old Gunners and Officers of the Ordnance that were there only Colonel Legg did do her much right in his report of her. And so, having seen this great and first experiment, we all parted, I seeing my guests into a hackney-coach, and myself, with Captain Deane, taking a hackney-coach, did go out towards Bow, and went as far as Stratford, and all the way talking of this invention, and he offering me a third of the profit of it; which, for aught I know, or do at present think, may prove matter considerable to us ; for either the King will give him a reward for it, if he keeps it to himself, or he will give us a patent to make our profit of it; and no doubt but it will be of profit to merchantmen and others, to have guns of the same force at half the charge. This was our talk; and then to talk of other things, of the Navy in general; and among other things, he did tell me that he do hear how the Duke of Buckingham hath a spite at me, which I knew before, but value it not; and he tells me that Sir T. Allen is not my friend; but for all this I am not much troubled, for I know myself so useful that, as I believe, they will not part with where some land had been granted to the Gunners of the Tower for the practice of great and small ordnance, by William, last Prior of St. Mary Spital. It was long called the Artillery Garden. [B.] The site is occupied by Artillery Lane, etc., to the east of Liverpool Street Station. me; so I thank God my condition is such that I can retire, and be able to live with comfort, though not with abundance. this he doubts, and so do I, that it will be the ruin of the nation if we fall out with Holland. My boy comes to tell me that his mistress was at the Gate with the coach, whither I went, and there find my wife and the whole company. So she, and Mrs. Turner, and The., and Talbot, in mine; and Joyce, W. Batelier, and I, in a hackney, to Hyde Park, where I was ashamed to be seen; but mightily pleased, though troubled, with a drunken coachman that did not remember when we came to 'light, where it was that he took us up, but said at Hammersmith, and thither he was carrying of us when we came first out of the Park. So I carried them all to Hercules Pillars, and there did treat them; and so about ten at night parted, and my wife, and I, and W. Batelier home; and he gone, we to bed. 22nd. Up, and to the office, where all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and Captain Deane with us; and very good discourse, and particularly about my getting a book for him to draw up his whole theory of shipping, which, at my desire, he hath gone far in, and hath shown me what he hath done therein, to admiration. I did give him a parallelogram,' which he is mightily taken with; and so after dinner to the office, where all the afternoon till night late, and then home. Vexed at my wife's not being come home, she being gone again abroad with M. Batelier, and came not home till ten at night, which vexed me, so that I to bed, and lay in pain awake till past one, and then to sleep. 21st. Up; and with my own coach as far as the Temple, and thence sent it to my cousin Turner, who, to ease her own horses, that are going with her out of town, do borrow mine. To Auditor Wood's, and met my Lord Bellasis upon some business of his accounts. Attended the Duke of York a little, being the first time of my waiting on him at St. James's this summer, whither he is now newly gone; and thence walked to Whitehall; and so, by and by, to the Council-Chamber, and heard a remarkable cause pleaded between the Farmers of the Excise of Wiltshire, in complaint against the Justices of Peace of Salisbury; and Sir II. Finch was for the former. But, Lord! to see how he did with his admirable eloquence order the matter, is not to be conceived almost; so pleasant a thing it is to hear him plead. By and by comes my cousin Turner, and The., and Joyce, in their riding clothes, they being come from their lodgings to her husband's chamber, at the Temple, and there do lie, and propose to go out of town on Friday next; and here I had a good dinner for them. After dinner by water to Whitehall, where the Duke of York did meet our Office, and went with us to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; and there we did go over all the business of the state I had drawn up, of this year's action and expense, which I did do to their satisfaction, and convincing them of the necessity of providing more money, if possible, for us. Thence 23rd. Going to rise, without saying the Duke of York being gone, I did there anything, my wife stopped me; and, after stay walking with Sir H. Cholmely in the a little angry talk, did tell me how she Court, talking of news; where he told spent all yesterday with M. Batelier and me, that now the great design of the Duke her sweetheart, and seeing a play at the of Buckingham is to prevent the meeting, New Nursery, which is set up at the since he cannot bring about with the King house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which was the dissolving, of this Parliament, that the formerly the King's house. To the CouncilKing may not need it; and therefore my Chamber, and heard two or three causes; Lord St. Albans is hourly expected with among others, that of the complaint of Sir great offers of a million of money,1 to buy Philip Howard and Watson, the inventors, our breach with the Dutch; and this, they as they pretend, of the business of varnishdo think, may tempt the King to take the ing and lacquerwork, against the Company money, and thereby be out of a necessity of Painters, who take upon them to do the of calling the Parliament again, which these same thing; where I saw a great instance people dare not suffer to meet again; but of the weakness of a young counsel not 1 From France: see p. 746. 2 1 See p. 714. 2 See p. 602. used to such an audience, against the have Lead, the vizard-maker, bring me home my vizard, with a tube 1 fastened in it, which, I think, will do my business, at least in a great measure, for the easing of my eyes. 25th. (Lord's day.) Up, and to my office awhile, and thither comes Lead with my vizard, with a tube fastened within both eyes; which, with the help which he prompts me to, of a glass in the tube, do content me mightily. To church, where a stranger made a dull sermon, but I mightily pleased to look upon Mr. Buckworth's little pretty daughters. W. Howe came and dined with us; and then I to my office, he being gone, to write down my Journal for the last twelve days; and did it with the help of my vizard and tube fixed to it, and do find it mighty manageable, but how helpful to my eyes this trial will show me. So abroad with my wife, in the afternoon, to the Park, where very much company, and the weather very pleasant. I carried my wife to the Lodge, the first time this year, and there in our coach ate a cheese-cake and drank a tankard of milk. I showed her this day also first the Prince of Tuscany, who was in the Park, and many very fine ladies. 26th. To Lilly's, the varnisher, who is lately dead, and his wife and brother keep up the trade, and there I left my French prints to be put on boards; and, while I was there, a fire burst out in a chimney of a house over against his house, but 24th. Mr. Sheres dining with us; and it was with a gun quickly put out. So my wife, which troubled me, mighty careful home, calling at the laceman's for some to have a handsome dinner for him; but lace for my new suit, and at my tailor's, yet I see no reason to be troubled at it, and Mr. Sheres dined with us, who came he being a very civil and worthy man; I hither to-day to teach my wife the rules think; but only it do seem to imply some of perspective; but I think, upon trial, little neglect of me. After dinner to the he thinks it too hard to teach her, being King's house, and there saw The General ignorant of the principle of lines. revived a good play that pleases me well; dinner comes Colonel Macnachan, one and thence, our coach coming for us, we that I see often at Court, a Scotchman, parted and home. Well pleased to-night to but know him not; only he brings me a 1 Thomas Papillon, of Lubbenham, in Leicester-letter from my Lord Middleton, who, he shire, who purchased the manor of Acrise, in Kent, in 1666. He was Master of the Mercers' Company in 1698. The case of Mr. Papillon related to a Petition of the Company of Wine Merchants, con cerning brandy, against the Farmers of Excise, of which some account is given in Anchitel Grey's Debates, vol. i. p. 237. [B.] 2 Correctly, The Generous Portugal, the second title of the revived version of Beaumont and Fletcher's Island Princess, u.s. See p. 705. 3 See p. 282. After says, is in great distress for £500 to relieve my Lord Morton with, but upon what account I know not; and he would have me advance it without order upon his pay for Tangier, which I was astonished at, 1 See p. 740. 2 William Douglas, ninth Earl of Morton, who had married Lord Middleton's daughter Grizel. [B.] but had the grace to deny him with an excuse. And so he went away, leaving me a little troubled that I was thus driven, on a sudden, to do anything herein; but Creed, coming just now to see me, he approves of what I have done. And then to talk of general matters, and, by and by, Sheres being gone, my wife, and he, and I out, and I set him down at Temple Bar, and myself and wife went down the Temple upon seeming business, only to put him off; and to the 'Change, about things for her; and here, at Mrs. Burnett's shop, I am told by Betty, who was all undressed, of a great fire happened in Durham Yard last night, burning the house of one Lady Hungerford, who was to come to town to it this night; and so the house is burned, new furnished, by carelessness of the girl sent to take off a candle from a bunch of candles, which she did by burning it off, and left the rest, as is supposed, on fire. The King and Court were here, it seems, and stopped the fire by blowing up of the next house. The King and Court went out of town to Newmarket this morning betimes, for a week. This night I did call at the coachmaker's, and do resolve upon having the standards of my coach gilt with this new sort of varnish, which will come but to 40s.; and, contrary to my expectation, the doing of the biggest coach all over comes not to above £6, which is [not] very much. 27th. Up and to the office, where all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and then to the office again, where all the afternoon busy till late, and then home, and got my wife to read to me in the Nepotisme, which is very pleasant, and so to supper and to bed. 28th. Up, and was called upon by Sir H. Cholmely to discourse about some accounts of his, of Tangier; and then to other talk; and I find by him that it is brought almost to effect (through the late endeavours of the Duke of York and Duchess, the Queen-Mother, and my Lord St. Albans, together with some of the contrary faction, as my Lord Arlington) 1 Gregorio Leti's (d. 1701) Il Nipotismo di Roma, o vero relatione delle ragioni che muovono i Pontefici all aggrandimento de Nipoti (1667). It was Englished by W. A.' in 1669. that for a sum of money we shall enter into a league with the King of France, wherein, he says, my Lord Chancellor1 is also concerned; and that he believes that, in the doing hereof, it is meant that he' shall come in again, and that this sum of money will so help the King as that he will not need the Parliament; and that, in that regard, it will be forwarded by the Duke of Buckingham and his faction, who dread the Parliament. But hereby we must leave the Dutch, and that I doubt will undo us; and Sir H. Cholmely says he finds W. Coventry do think the like. My Lady Castlemaine is instrumental in this matter, and, he says, never more great with the King than she is now. But this is a thing that will make the Parliament and kingdom mad, and will turn to our ruin; for with this money the King shall wanton away his time in pleasures, and think nothing of the main till it be too late. This morning Mr. Sheres sent me, in two volumes, Mariana his History of Spain, in Spanish, an excellent book; and I am much obliged to him for it. 29th. Up; and to the office, where all the morning, and at noon dined at home, and then to the office again, there to dispatch as much business as I could, that I might be at liberty to-morrow to look after many things that I have to do, against May-day. maker's; and there I do find a great many 30th. Up, and by coach to the coachladies sitting in the body of a coach that must be ended by to-morrow: they were my Lady Marquess of Winchester, Bellasis, and other great ladies, eating of bread and butter, and drinking ale. I to my coach, which is silvered over, but no varnish yet laid on, so I put it in a way of doing; and myself, about other business, and particularly to see Sir W. Coventry, with whom I talked a good while to my great content; and so to other placesamong others to my tailor's ; and then to the belt-maker's, where my belt cost me 555, of the colour of my new suit; and here, understanding that the mistress of the 1 The fugitive Clarendon. 2 The Historia de España of Juan de Mariana (1537-1674). The first twenty books were written in Latin (1592), but they were translated and recast by him in Spanish (1601). 1 also to Dancre's, where he was about my picture of Windsor, which is mighty pretty, and so will the prospect of Rome be. May 1669 Called by my house, an oldish woman in a hat, hath some water good for the eyes, she did dress me, making my eyes smart most horribly, and did give me a little glass of it, which I will use, and hope it will do me good. So to the cutler's, and there did give Tom, who was with me all day, a sword cost me 125. and a belt of my own; and sent my own silver-hilt sword a-gilding against to- May 1st. Up betimes. morrow. This morning I did visit Mr. tailor, and there first put on a summer suit Oldenburgh, and did see the instrument this year; but it was not my fine one of for perspective made by Dr. Wren, of which flowered tabby vest, and coloured camlet I have one making by Browne; and the tunic, because it was too fine with the gold sight of this do please me mightily. At lace at the bands, that I was afraid to be noon my wife came to me at my tailor's, seen in it; but put on the stuff suit I made and I sent her home, and myself and Tom the last year, which is now repaired; and dined at Hercules Pillars; and so about so did go to the office in it, and sat all the our business again, and particularly to morning, the day looking as if it would be Lilly's, the varnisher, about my prints, foul. At noon home to dinner, and there whereof some of them are pasted upon the find my wife extraordinary fine, with her boards, and to my full content. Thence flowered tabby gown that she made two to the frame-maker's, one Norris, in Long years ago, now laced exceeding pretty; Acre, who showed me several forms of and, indeed, was fine all over; and mighty frames, which were pretty, in little bits of earnest to go, though the day was very mouldings, to choose patterns by. This lowering; and she would have me put on done, I to my coachmaker's, and there my fine suit, which I did. And so anon vexed to see nothing yet done to my coach, we went alone through the town with our at three in the afternoon; but I set it in new liveries of serge, and the horses' manes doing, and stood by till eight at night, and and tails tied with red ribbons, and the saw the painter varnish it, which is pretty standards gilt with varnish, and all clean, to see how every doing it over do make it and green reins, that people did mightily more and more yellow; and it dries as fast look upon us; and, the truth is, I did not in the sun as it can be laid on almost; and see any coach more pretty, though more most coaches are, nowadays, done so, gay, than ours, all the day. But we set and it is very pretty when laid on well, out, out of humour-I because Betty, whom and not too pale, as some are, even to show I expected, was not come to go with us; the silver. Here I did make the workmen and my wife that I would sit on the same drink, and saw my coach cleaned and seat with her, which she likes not, being so oiled; and, staying among poor people fine; and she then expected to meet Sheres, there in the alley, did hear them call their which we did in the Pell Mell, and, against fat child Punch, which pleased me mightily, my will, I was forced to take him into the that word being become a word of common coach, but was sullen all day almost, and use for all that is thick and short. At night little complaisant; the day being unpleas home, and there find my wife hath been ing, though the Park full of coaches, but making herself clean against to-morrow; dusty and windy, and cold, and now and and, late as it was, I did send my coach- then a little dribbling of rain; and, what man and horses to fetch home the coach made it worse, there were so many hackneyto-night, and so we to supper, myself most coaches as spoiled the sight of the gentleweary with walking and standing so much, men's; and so we had little pleasure. But to see all things fine against to-morrow, here was W. Batelier and his sister in a and so to bed. Meeting with Mr. Sheres, borrowed coach by themselves, and I took to several places, and, among others to them and we to the lodge; and at the door buy a periwig, but I bought none; and did give them a sillabub, and other things, 1 Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal cost me 125., and pretty merry. Society. See pp. 283, 516. back to the coaches, and there till the And so |