Title: Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 69: November 1668
Author: Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703
Language: English
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                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.
                                NOVEMBER
                                  1668

November 1st (Lord's day).  Up, and with W. Hewer at my chamber all this
morning, going further in my great business for the Duke of York, and so
at noon to dinner, and then W. Hewer to write fair what he had writ, and
my wife to read to me all the afternoon, till anon Mr. Gibson come, and he
and I to perfect it to my full mind, and so to supper and to bed, my mind
yet at disquiet that I cannot be informed how poor Deb. stands with her
mistress, but I fear she will put her away, and the truth is, though it be
much against my mind and to my trouble, yet I think that it will be fit
that she should be gone, for my wife's peace and mine, for she cannot but
be offended at the sight of her, my wife having conceived this jealousy of
me with reason, and therefore for that, and other reasons of expense, it
will be best for me to let her go, but I shall love and pity her.  This
noon Mr. Povy sent his coach for my wife and I to see, which we like
mightily, and will endeavour to have him get us just such another.

2nd.  Up, and a cold morning, by water through bridge without a cloak, and
there to Mr. Wren at his chamber at White Hall, the first time of his
coming thither this year, the Duchess coming thither tonight, and there he
and I did read over my paper that I have with so much labour drawn up
about the several answers of the officers of this Office to the Duke of
York's reflections, and did debate a little what advice to give the Duke
of York when he comes to town upon it.  Here come in Lord Anglesy, and I
perceive he makes nothing of this order for his suspension, resolving to
contend and to bring it to the Council on Wednesday when the King is come
to town to-morrow, and Mr. Wren do join with him mightily in it, and do
look upon the Duke of York as concerned more in it than he.  So to visit
Creed at his chamber, but his wife not come thither yet, nor do he tell me
where she is, though she be in town, at Stepney, at Atkins's.  So to Mr.
Povy's to talk about a coach, but there I find my Lord Sandwich, and
Peterborough, and Hinchingbroke, Charles Harbord, and Sidney Montagu; and
there I was stopped, and dined mighty nobly at a good table, with one
little dish at a time upon it, but mighty merry.  I was glad to see it:
but sorry, methought, to see my Lord have so little reason to be merry,
and yet glad, for his sake, to have him cheerful.  After dinner up, and
looked up and down the house, and so to the cellar; and thence I slipt
away, without taking leave, and so to a few places about business, and
among others to my bookseller's in Duck Lane, and so home, where the house
still full of dirt by painters and others, and will not be clean a good
while.  So to read and talk with my wife till by and by called to the
office about Sir W. Warren's business, where we met a little, and then
home to supper and to bed.  This day I went, by Mr. Povy's direction, to a
coachmaker near him, for a coach just like his, but it was sold this very
morning.

3rd.  Up, and all the morning at the Office.  At noon to dinner, and then
to the Office, and there busy till 12 at night, without much pain to my
eyes, but I did not use them to read or write, and so did hold out very
well.  So home, and there to supper, and I observed my wife to eye my eyes
whether I did ever look upon Deb., which I could not but do now and then
(and to my grief did see the poor wretch look on me and see me look on
her, and then let drop a tear or two, which do make my heart relent at
this minute that I am writing this with great trouble of mind, for she is
indeed my sacrifice, poor girle); and my wife did tell me in bed by the by
of my looking on other people, and that the only way is to put things out
of sight, and this I know she means by Deb., for she tells me that her
Aunt was here on Monday, and she did tell her of her desire of parting
with Deb., but in such kind terms on both sides that my wife is mightily
taken with her.  I see it will be, and it is but necessary, and therefore,
though it cannot but grieve me, yet I must bring my mind to give way to
it.  We had a great deal of do this day at the Office about
Clutterbucke,--[See note to February 4th, 1663-64]--I declaring my dissent
against the whole Board's proceedings, and I believe I shall go near to
shew W. Pen a very knave in it, whatever I find my Lord Brouncker.

4th.  Up, and by coach to White Hall; and there I find the King and Duke
of York come the last night, and every body's mouth full of my Lord
Anglesey's suspension being sealed; which it was, it seems, yesterday; so
that he is prevented in his remedy at the Council; and, it seems, the two
new Treasurers did kiss the King's hand this morning, brought in by my
Lord Arlington.  They walked up and down together the Court this day, and
several people joyed them; but I avoided it, that I might not be seen to
look either way.  This day also I hear that my Lord Ormond is to be
declared in Council no more Deputy Governor of Ireland, his commission
being expired: and the King is prevailed with to take it out of his hands;
which people do mightily admire, saying that he is the greatest subject of
any prince in Christendome, and hath more acres of land than any, and hath
done more for his Prince than ever any yet did.  But all will not do; he
must down, it seems, the Duke of Buckingham carrying all before him.  But
that, that troubles me most is, that they begin to talk that the Duke of
York's regiment is ordered to be disbanded; and more, that undoubtedly his
Admiralty will follow: which do shake me mightily, and I fear will have
ill consequences in the nation, for these counsels are very mad.  The Duke
of York do, by all men's report, carry himself wonderfull submissive to
the King, in the most humble manner in the world; but yet, it seems,
nothing must be spared that tends to, the keeping out of the Chancellor;
and that is the reason of all this.  The great discourse now is, that the
Parliament shall be dissolved and another called, which shall give the
King the Deane and Chapter lands; and that will put him out of debt.  And
it is said that Buckingham do knownly meet daily with Wildman and other
Commonwealth-men; and that when he is with them, he makes the King believe
that he is with his wenches; and something looks like the Parliament's
being dissolved, by Harry Brouncker's being now come back, and appears
this day the first day at White Hall; but hath not been yet with the King,
but is secure that he shall be well received, I hear.  God bless us, when
such men as he shall be restored!  But that, that pleases me most is, that
several do tell me that Pen is to be removed; and others, that he hath
resigned his place; and particularly Spragg tells me for certain that he
hath resigned it, and is become a partner with Gawden in the Victualling:
in which I think he hath done a very cunning thing; but I am sure I am
glad of it; and it will be well for the King to have him out of this
Office.  Thence by coach, doing several errands, home and there to dinner,
and then to the Office, where all the afternoon till late at night, and so
home.  Deb. hath been abroad to-day with her friends, poor girle, I
believe toward the getting of a place.  This day a boy is sent me out of
the country from Impington by my cozen Roger Pepys' getting, whom I
visited this morning at his chamber in the Strand and carried him to
Westminster Hall, where I took a turn or two with him and Sir John Talbot,
who talks mighty high for my Lord of Ormond: and I perceive this family of
the Talbots hath been raised by my Lord.  When I come home to-night I find
Deb. not come home, and do doubt whether she be not quite gone or no, but
my wife is silent to me in it, and I to her, but fell to other discourse,
and indeed am well satisfied that my house will never be at peace between
my wife and I unless I let her go, though it grieves me to the heart.  My
wife and I spent much time this evening talking of our being put out of
the Office, and my going to live at Deptford at her brother's, till I can
clear my accounts, and rid my hands of the town, which will take me a year
or more, and I do think it will be best for me to do so, in order to our
living cheap, and out of sight.

5th.  Up, and Willet come home in the morning, and, God forgive me! I
could not conceal my content thereat by smiling, and my wife observed it,
but I said nothing, nor she, but away to the office.  Presently up by
water to White Hall, and there all of us to wait on the Duke of York,
which we did, having little to do, and then I up and down the house, till
by and by the Duke of York, who had bid me stay, did come to his closet
again, and there did call in me and Mr. Wren; and there my paper, that I
have lately taken pains to draw up, was read, and the Duke of York pleased
therewith; and we did all along conclude upon answers to my mind for the
Board, and that that, if put in execution, will do the King's business.
But I do now more and more perceive the Duke of York's trouble, and that
he do lie under great weight of mind from the Duke of Buckingham's
carrying things against him; and particularly when I advised that he would
use his interest that a seaman might come into the room of W. Pen, who is
now declared to be gone from us to that of the Victualling, and did shew
how the Office would now be left without one seaman in it, but the
Surveyour and the Controller, who is so old as to be able to do nothing,
he told me plainly that I knew his mind well enough as to seamen, but that
it must be as others will.  And Wren did tell it me as a secret, that when
the Duke of York did first tell the King about Sir W. Pen's leaving of the
place, and that when the Duke of York did move the King that either
Captain Cox or Sir Jer. Smith might succeed him, the King did tell him
that that was a matter fit to be considered of, and would not agree to
either presently; and so the Duke of York could not prevail for either,
nor knows who it shall be.  The Duke of York did tell me himself, that if
he had not carried it privately when first he mentioned Pen's leaving his
place to the King, it had not been done; for the Duke of Buckingham and
those of his party do cry out upon it, as a strange thing to trust such a
thing into the hands of one that stands accused in Parliament: and that
they have so far prevailed upon the King that he would not have him named
in Council, but only take his name to the Board; but I think he said that
only D. Gawden's name shall go in the patent; at least, at the time when
Sir Richard Browne asked the King the names of D. Gawden's security, the
King told him it was not yet necessary for him to declare them.  And by
and by, when the Duke of York and we had done, and Wren brought into the
closet Captain Cox and James Temple About business of the Guiney Company,
and talking something of the Duke of Buckingham's concernment therein, and
says the Duke of York, "I will give the Devil his due, as they say the
Duke of Buckingham hath paid in his money to the Company," or something of
that kind, wherein he would do right to him.  The Duke of York told me how
these people do begin to cast dirt upon the business that passed the
Council lately, touching Supernumeraries, as passed by virtue of his
authority there, there being not liberty for any man to withstand what the
Duke of York advises there; which, he told me, they bring only as an
argument to insinuate the putting of the Admiralty into Commission, which
by all men's discourse is now designed, and I perceive the same by him.
This being done, and going from him, I up and down the house to hear news:
and there every body's mouth full of changes; and, among others, the Duke
of York's regiment of Guards, that was raised during the late war at sea,
is to be disbanded: and also, that this day the King do intend to declare
that the Duke of Ormond is no more Deputy of Ireland, but that he will put
it into Commission.  This day our new Treasurers did kiss the King's hand,
who complimented them, as they say, very highly, that he had for a long
time been abused in his Treasurer, and that he was now safe in their
hands.  I saw them walk up and down the Court together all this morning;
the first time I ever saw Osborne, who is a comely gentleman.  This day I
was told that my Lord Anglesey did deliver a petition on Wednesday in
Council to the King, laying open, that whereas he had heard that his
Majesty had made such a disposal of his place, which he had formerly
granted him for life upon a valuable consideration, and that, without any
thing laid to his charge, and during a Parliament's sessions, he prayed
that his Majesty would be pleased to let his case be heard before the
Council and the judges of the land, who were his proper counsel in all
matters of right: to which, I am told, the King, after my Lord's being
withdrawn, concluded upon his giving him an answer some few days hence;
and so he was called in, and told so, and so it ended. Having heard all
this I took coach and to Mr. Povy's, where I hear he is gone to the Swedes
Resident in Covent Garden, where he is to dine.  I went thither, but he is
not come yet, so I to White Hall to look for him, and up and down walking
there I met with Sir Robert Holmes, who asking news I told him of Sir W.
Pen's going from us, who ketched at it so as that my heart misgives me
that he will have a mind to it, which made me heartily sorry for my words,
but he invited me and would have me go to dine with him at the
Treasurer's, Sir Thomas Clifford, where I did go and eat some oysters;
which while we were at, in comes my Lord Keeper and much company; and so I
thought it best to withdraw.  And so away, and to the Swedes Agent's, and
there met Mr. Povy; where the Agent would have me stay and dine, there
being only them, and Joseph Williamson, and Sir Thomas Clayton; but what
he is I know not.  Here much extraordinary noble discourse of foreign
princes, and particularly the greatness of the King of France, and of his
being fallen into the right way of making the kingdom great, which [none]
of his ancestors ever did before.  I was mightily pleased with this
company and their discourse, so as to have been seldom so much in all my
life, and so after dinner up into his upper room, and there did see a
piece of perspective, but much inferior to Mr. Povy's.  Thence with Mr.
Povy spent all the afternoon going up and down among the coachmakers in
Cow Lane, and did see several, and at last did pitch upon a little
chariott, whose body was framed, but not covered, at the widow's, that
made Mr. Lowther's fine coach; and we are mightily pleased with it, it
being light, and will be very genteel and sober: to be covered with
leather, and yet will hold four.  Being much satisfied with this, I
carried him to White Hall; and so by coach home, where give my wife a good
account of my day's work, and so to the office, and there late, and so to
bed.

6th.  Up, and presently my wife up with me, which she professedly now do
every day to dress me, that I may not see Willet, and do eye me, whether I
cast my eye upon her, or no; and do keep me from going into the room where
she is among the upholsters at work in our blue chamber.  So abroad to
White Hall by water, and so on for all this day as I have by mistake set
down in the fifth day after this mark.

     [In the margin here is the following: "Look back one leaf
     for my mistake."]

In the room of which I should have said that I was at the office all the
morning, and so to dinner, my wife with me, but so as I durst not look
upon the girle, though, God knows, notwithstanding all my protestations I
could not keep my mind from desiring it.  After dinner to the office
again, and there did some business, and then by coach to see Roger Pepys
at his lodgings, next door to Arundell House, a barber's; and there I did
see a book, which my Lord Sandwich hath promised one to me of, "A
Description of the Escuriall in Spain;" which I have a great desire to
have, though I took it for a finer book when he promised it me.  With him
to see my cozen Turner and The., and there sat and talked, they being
newly come out of the country; and here pretty merry, and with The. to
shew her a coach at Mr. Povy's man's, she being in want of one, and so
back again with her, and then home by coach, with my mind troubled and
finding no content, my wife being still troubled, nor can be at peace
while the girle is there, which I am troubled at on the other side. We
past the evening together, and then to bed and slept ill, she being
troubled and troubling me in the night with talk and complaints upon the
old business.  This is the day's work of the 5th, though it stands under
the 6th, my mind being now so troubled that it is no wonder that I fall
into this mistake more than ever I did in my life before.

7th.  Up, and at the office all the morning, and so to it again after
dinner, and there busy late, choosing to employ myself rather than go home
to trouble with my wife, whom, however, I am forced to comply with, and
indeed I do pity her as having cause enough for her grief.  So to bed, and
there slept ill because of my wife.  This afternoon I did go out towards
Sir D. Gawden's, thinking to have bespoke a place for my coach and horses,
when I have them, at the Victualling Office; but find the way so bad and
long that I returned, and looked up and down for places elsewhere, in an
inne, which I hope to get with more convenience than there.

8th (Lord's day).  Up, and at my chamber all the morning, setting papers
to rights, with my boy; and so to dinner at noon.  The girle with us, but
my wife troubled thereat to see her, and do tell me so, which troubles me,
for I love the girle.  At my chamber again to work all the afternoon till
night, when Pelling comes, who wonders to find my wife so dull and
melancholy, but God knows she hath too much cause.  However, as pleasant
as we can, we supped together, and so made the boy read to me, the poor
girle not appearing at supper, but hid herself in her chamber.  So that I
could wish in that respect that she was out of the house, for our peace is
broke to all of us while she is here, and so to bed, where my wife mighty
unquiet all night, so as my bed is become burdensome to me.

9th.  Up, and I did by a little note which I flung to Deb. advise her that
I did continue to deny that ever I kissed her, and so she might govern
herself.  The truth is that I did adventure upon God's pardoning me this
lie, knowing how heavy a thing it would be for me to the ruin of the poor
girle, and next knowing that if my wife should know all it were impossible
ever for her to be at peace with me again, and so our whole lives would be
uncomfortable.  The girl read, and as I bid her returned me the note,
flinging it to me in passing by.  And so I abroad by [coach] to White
Hall, and there to the Duke of York to wait on him, who told me that Sir
W. Pen had been with him this morning, to ask whether it would be fit for
him to sit at the Office now, because of his resolution to be gone, and to
become concerned in the Victualling.  The Duke of York answered, "Yes,
till his contract was signed:"  Thence I to Lord Sandwich's, and there to
see him; but was made to stay so long, as his best friends are, and when I
come to him so little pleasure, his head being full of his own business, I
think, that I have no pleasure [to] go to him.  Thence to White Hall with
him, to the Committee of Tangier; a day appointed for him to give an
account of Tangier, and what he did, and found there, which, though he had
admirable matter for it, and his doings there were good, and would have
afforded a noble account, yet he did it with a mind so low and mean, and
delivered in so poor a manner, that it appeared nothing at all, nor any
body seemed to value it; whereas, he might have shewn himself to have
merited extraordinary thanks, and been held to have done a very great
service: whereas now, all that cost the King hath been at for his journey
through Spain thither, seems to be almost lost.  After we were up, Creed
and I walked together, and did talk a good while of the weak report my
Lord made, and were troubled for it; I fearing that either his mind and
judgment are depressed, or that he do it out of his great neglect, and so
my fear that he do all the rest of his affairs accordingly.  So I staid
about the Court a little while, and then to look for a dinner, and had it
at Hercules-Pillars, very late, all alone, costing me 10d.  And so to the
Excise Office, thinking to meet Sir Stephen Fox and the Cofferer, but the
former was gone, and the latter I met going out, but nothing done, and so
I to my bookseller's, and also to Crow's, and there saw a piece of my bed,
and I find it will please us mightily.  So home, and there find my wife
troubled, and I sat with her talking, and so to bed, and there very
unquiet all night.

10th.  Up, and my wife still every day as ill as she is all night, will
rise to see me out doors, telling me plainly that she dares not let me see
the girle, and so I out to the office, where all the morning, and so home
to dinner, where I found my wife mightily troubled again, more than ever,
and she tells me that it is from her examining the girle and getting a
confession now from her of all .  .  .  . which do mightily trouble me, as
not being able to foresee the consequences of it, as to our future peace
together.  So my wife would not go down to dinner, but I would dine in her
chamber with her, and there after mollifying her as much as I could we
were pretty quiet and eat, and by and by comes Mr. Hollier, and dines
there by himself after we had dined, and he being gone, we to talk again,
and she to be troubled, reproaching me with my unkindness and perjury, I
having denied my ever kissing her.  As also with all her old kindnesses to
me, and my ill-using of her from the beginning, and the many temptations
she hath refused out of faithfulness to me, whereof several she was
particular in, and especially from my Lord Sandwich, by the sollicitation
of Captain Ferrers, and then afterward the courtship of my Lord
Hinchingbrooke, even to the trouble of his lady. All which I did
acknowledge and was troubled for, and wept, and at last pretty good
friends again, and so I to my office, and there late, and so home to
supper with her, and so to bed, where after half-an-hour's slumber she
wakes me and cries out that she should never sleep more, and so kept
raving till past midnight, that made me cry and weep heartily all the
while for her, and troubled for what she reproached me with as before, and
at last with new vows, and particularly that I would myself bid the girle
be gone, and shew my dislike to her, which I will endeavour to perform,
but with much trouble, and so this appeasing her, we to sleep as well as
we could till morning.

11th.  Up, and my wife with me as before, and so to the Office, where, by
a speciall desire, the new Treasurers come, and there did shew their
Patent, and the Great Seal for the suspension of my Lord Anglesey: and
here did sit and discourse of the business of the Office: and brought Mr.
Hutchinson with them, who, I hear, is to be their Paymaster, in the room
of Mr. Waith.  For it seems they do turn out every servant that belongs to
the present Treasurer: and so for Fenn, do bring in Mr. Littleton, Sir
Thomas's brother, and oust all the rest.  But Mr. Hutchinson do already
see that his work now will be another kind of thing than before, as to the
trouble of it.  They gone, and, indeed, they appear, both of them, very
intelligent men, I home to dinner, and there with my people dined, and so
to my wife, who would not dine with [me] that she might not have the girle
come in sight, and there sat and talked a while with her and pretty quiet,
I giving no occasion of offence, and so to the office [and then by coach
to my cozen Roger Pepys, who did, at my last being with him this day
se'nnight, move me as to the supplying him with L500 this term, and L500
the next, for two years, upon a mortgage, he having that sum to pay, a
debt left him by his father, which I did agree to, trusting to his honesty
and ability, and am resolved to do it for him, that I may not have all I
have lie in the King's hands.  Having promised him this I returned home
again, where to the office], and there having done, I home and to supper
and to bed, where, after lying a little while, my wife starts up, and with
expressions of affright and madness, as one frantick, would rise, and I
would not let her, but burst out in tears myself, and so continued almost
half the night, the moon shining so that it was light, and after much
sorrow and reproaches and little ravings (though I am apt to think they
were counterfeit from her), and my promise again to discharge the girle
myself, all was quiet again, and so to sleep.

12th.  Up, and she with me as heretofore, and so I to the Office, where
all the morning, and at noon to dinner, and Mr. Wayth, who, being at my
office about business, I took him with me to talk and understand his
matters, who is in mighty trouble from the Committee of Accounts about his
contracting with this Office for sayle-cloth, but no hurt can be laid at
his door in it, but upon us for doing it, if any, though we did it by the
Duke of York's approval, and by him I understand that the new Treasurers
do intend to bring in all new Instruments, and so having dined we parted,
and I to my wife and to sit with her a little, and then called her and
Willet to my chamber, and there did, with tears in my eyes, which I could
not help, discharge her and advise her to be gone as soon as she could,
and never to see me, or let me see her more while she was in the house,
which she took with tears too, but I believe understands me to be her
friend, and I am apt to believe by what my wife hath of late told me is a
cunning girle, if not a slut.  Thence, parting kindly with my wife, I away
by coach to my cozen Roger, according as by mistake (which the trouble of
my mind for some days has occasioned, in this and another case a day or
two before) is set down in yesterday's notes, and so back again, and with
Mr. Gibson late at my chamber making an end of my draught of a letter for
the Duke of York, in answer to the answers of this Office, which I have
now done to my mind, so as, if the Duke likes it, will, I think, put an
end to a great deal of the faults of this Office, as well as my trouble
for them.  So to bed, and did lie now a little better than formerly, but
with little, and yet with some trouble.

13th.  Up, and with Sir W. Pen by coach to White Hall, where to the Duke
of York, and there did our usual business; and thence I to the
Commissioners of the Treasury, where I staid, and heard an excellent case
argued between my Lord Gerard and the Town of Newcastle, about a piece of
ground which that Lord hath got a grant of, under the Exchequer Seal,
which they were endeavouring to get of the King under the Great Seal. I
liked mightily the Counsel for the town, Shaftow, their Recorder, and Mr.
Offly.  But I was troubled, and so were the Lords, to hear my Lord fly out
against their great pretence of merit from the King, for their sufferings
and loyalty; telling them that they might thank him for that repute which
they have for their loyalty, for that it was he that forced them to be so,
against their wills, when he was there: and, moreover, did offer a paper
to the Lords to read from the Town, sent in 1648; but the Lords would not
read it; but I believe it was something about bringing the King to trial,
or some such thing, in that year.  Thence I to the Three Tuns Tavern, by
Charing Cross, and there dined with W. Pen, Sir J. Minnes, and
Commissioner Middleton; and as merry as my mind could be, that hath so
much trouble upon it at home.  And thence to White Hall, and there staid
in Mr. Wren's chamber with him, reading over my draught of a letter, which
Mr. Gibson then attended me with; and there he did like all, but doubted
whether it would be necessary for the Duke to write in so sharp a style to
the Office, as I had drawn it in; which I yield to him, to consider the
present posture of the times and the Duke of York and whether it were not
better to err on that hand than the other.  He told me that he did not
think it was necessary for the Duke of York to do so, and that it would
not suit so well with his nature nor greatness; which last, perhaps, is
true, but then do too truly shew the effects of having Princes in places,
where order and discipline should be.  I left it to him to do as the Duke
of York pleases; and so fell to other talk, and with great freedom, of
public things; and he told me, upon my several inquiries to that purpose,
that he did believe it was not yet resolved whether the Parliament should
ever meet more or no, the three great rulers of things now standing
thus:--The Duke of Buckingham is absolutely against their meeting, as
moved thereto by his people that he advises with, the people of the late
times, who do never expect to have any thing done by this Parliament for
their religion, and who do propose that, by the sale of the Church-lands,
they shall be able to put the King out of debt: my Lord Keeper is utterly
against putting away this and choosing another Parliament, lest they prove
worse than this, and will make all the King's friends, and the King
himself, in a desperate condition: my Lord Arlington know not which is
best for him, being to seek whether this or the next will use him worst.
He tells me that he believes that it is intended to call this Parliament,
and try them with a sum of money; and, if they do not like it, then to
send them going, and call another, who will, at the ruin of the Church
perhaps, please the King with what he will for a time.  And he tells me,
therefore, that he do believe that this policy will be endeavoured by the
Church and their friends--to seem to promise the King money, when it shall
be propounded, but make the King and these great men buy it dear, before
they have it. He tells me that he is really persuaded that the design of
the Duke of Buckingham is, by bringing the state into such a condition as,
if the King do die without issue, it shall, upon his death, break into
pieces again; and so put by the Duke of York, who they have disobliged,
they know, to that degree, as to despair of his pardon.  He tells me that
there is no way to rule the King but by brisknesse, which the Duke of
Buckingham hath above all men; and that the Duke of York having it not,
his best way is what he practices, that is to say, a good temper, which
will support him till the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Arlington fall out,
which cannot be long first, the former knowing that the latter did, in the
time of the Chancellor, endeavour with the Chancellor to hang him at that
time, when he was proclaimed against.  And here, by the by, he told me
that the Duke of Buckingham did, by his friends, treat with my Lord
Chancellor, by the mediation of Matt. Wren and Matt. Clifford, to fall in
with my Lord Chancellor; which, he tells me, he did advise my Lord
Chancellor to accept of, as that, that with his own interest and the Duke
of York's, would undoubtedly have assured all to him and his family; but
that my Lord Chancellor was a man not to be advised, thinking himself too
high to be counselled: and so all is come to nothing; for by that means
the Duke of Buckingham became desperate, and was forced to fall in with
Arlington, to his [the Chancellor's] ruin.  Thence I home, and there to
talk, with great pleasure all the evening, with my wife, who tells me that
Deb, has been abroad to-day, and is come home and says she has got a place
to go to, so as she will be gone tomorrow morning.  This troubled me, and
the truth is, I have a good mind to have the maidenhead of this girl,
which I should not doubt to have if je could get time para be con her.
But she will be gone and I not know whither.  Before we went to bed my
wife told me she would not have me to see her or give her her wages, and
so I did give my wife L10 for her year and half a quarter's wages, which
she went into her chamber and paid her, and so to bed, and there, blessed
be God! we did sleep well and with peace, which I had not done in now
almost twenty nights together.  This afternoon I went to my coachmaker and
Crow's, and there saw things go on to my great content. This morning, at
the Treasury-chamber, I did meet Jack Fenn, and there he did shew me my
Lord Anglesey's petition and the King's answer: the former good and stout,
as I before did hear it: but the latter short and weak, saying that he was
not, by what the King had done, hindered from taking the benefit of his
laws, and that the reason he had to suspect his mismanagement of his money
in Ireland, did make him think it unfit to trust him with his Treasury in
England, till he was satisfied in the former.

14th.  Up, and had a mighty mind to have seen or given her a little money,
to which purpose I wrapt up 40s. in paper, thinking to have given her a
little money, but my wife rose presently, and would not let me be out of
her sight, and went down before me into the kitchen, and come up and told
me that she was in the kitchen, and therefore would have me go round the
other way; which she repeating and I vexed at it, answered her a little
angrily, upon which she instantly flew out into a rage, calling me dog and
rogue, and that I had a rotten heart; all which, knowing that I deserved
it, I bore with, and word being brought presently up that she was gone
away by coach with her things, my wife was friends, and so all quiet, and
I to the Office, with my heart sad, and find that I cannot forget the
girl, and vexed I know not where to look for her.  And more troubled to
see how my wife is by this means likely for ever to have her hand over me,
that I shall for ever be a slave to her--that is to say, only in matters
of pleasure, but in other things she will make [it] her business, I know,
to please me and to keep me right to her, which I will labour to be
indeed, for she deserves it of me, though it will be I fear a little time
before I shall be able to wear Deb, out of my mind.  At the Office all the
morning, and merry at noon, at dinner; and after dinner to the Office,
where all the afternoon, doing much business, late.  My mind being free of
all troubles, I thank God, but only for my thoughts of this girl, which
hang after her.  And so at night home to supper, and then did sleep with
great content with my wife.  I must here remember that I have lain with my
moher as a husband more times since this falling out than in I believe
twelve months before.  And with more pleasure to her than I think in all
the time of our marriage before.

15th (Lord's day).  Up, and after long lying with pleasure talking with my
wife, and then up to look up and down our house, which will when our
upholster hath done be mighty fine, and so to my chamber, and there did do
several things among my papers, and so to the office to write down my
journal for 6 or 7 days, my mind having been so troubled as never to get
the time to do it before, as may appear a little by the mistakes I have
made in this book within these few days.  At noon comes Mr. Shepley to
dine with me and W. Howe, and there dined and pretty merry, and so after
dinner W. Howe to tell me what hath happened between him and the
Commissioners of late, who are hot again, more than ever, about my Lord
Sandwich's business of prizes, which I am troubled for, and the more
because of the great security and neglect with which, I think, my Lord do
look upon this matter, that may yet, for aught I know, undo him.  They
gone, and Balty being come from the Downs, not very well, is come this day
to see us, I to talk with him, and with some pleasure, hoping that he will
make a good man.  I in the evening to my Office again, to make an end of
my journall, and so home to my chamber with W. Hewer to settle some
papers, and so to supper and to bed, with my mind pretty quiet, and less
troubled about Deb. than I was, though yet I am troubled, I must confess,
and would be glad to find her out, though I fear it would be my ruin.
This evening there come to sit with us Mr. Pelling, who wondered to see my
wife and I so dumpish, but yet it went off only as my wife's not being
well, and, poor wretch, she hath no cause to be well, God knows.

16th.  Up, and by water to White Hall, and there at the robe chamber at a
Committee for Tangier, where some of us--my Lord Sandwich, Sir W.
Coventry, and myself, with another or two--met to debate the business of
the Mole, and there drew up reasons for the King's taking of it into his
own hands, and managing of it upon accounts with Sir H. Cholmley.  This
being done I away to Holborne, about Whetstone's Park, where I never was
in my life before, where I understand by my wife's discourse that Deb. is
gone, which do trouble me mightily that the poor girle should be in a
desperate condition forced to go thereabouts, and there not hearing of any
such man as Allbon, with whom my wife said she now was, I to the Strand,
and there by sending Drumbleby's boy, my flageolet maker, to Eagle Court,
where my wife also by discourse lately let fall that he did lately live, I
find that this Dr. Allbon is a kind of poor broken fellow that dare not
shew his head nor be known where he is gone, but to Lincoln's Inn Fields I
went to Mr. Povy's, but missed him, and so hearing only that this Allbon
is gone to Fleet Street, I did only call at Martin's, my bookseller's, and
there bought "Cassandra," and some other French books for my wife's
closet, and so home, having eat nothing but two pennyworths of oysters,
opened for me by a woman in the Strand, while the boy went to and again to
inform me about this man, and therefore home and to dinner, and so all the
afternoon at the office, and there late busy, and so home to supper, and
pretty pleasant with my wife to bed, rested pretty well.

17th.  Up, and to the Office all the morning, where the new Treasurers
come, their second time, and before they sat down, did discourse with the
Board, and particularly my Lord Brouncker, about their place, which they
challenge, as having been heretofore due, and given to their predecessor;
which, at last, my Lord did own hath been given him only out of courtesy
to his quality, and that he did not take it as a right at the Board: so
they, for the present, sat down, and did give him the place, but, I think,
with an intent to have the Duke of York's directions about it. My wife and
maids busy now, to make clean the house above stairs, the upholsters
having done there, in her closet and the blue room, and they are mighty
pretty.  At my office all the afternoon and at night busy, and so home to
my wife, and pretty pleasant, and at mighty ease in my mind, being in
hopes to find Deb., and without trouble or the knowledge of my wife.  So
to supper at night and to bed.

18th.  Lay long in bed talking with my wife, she being unwilling to have
me go abroad, saying and declaring herself jealous of my going out for
fear of my going to Deb., which I do deny, for which God forgive me, for I
was no sooner out about noon but I did go by coach directly to Somerset
House, and there enquired among the porters there for Dr. Allbun, and the
first I spoke with told me he knew him, and that he was newly gone into
Lincoln's Inn Fields, but whither he could not tell me, but that one of
his fellows not then in the way did carry a chest of drawers thither with
him, and that when he comes he would ask him.  This put me into some
hopes, and I to White Hall, and thence to Mr. Povy's, but he at dinner,
and therefore I away and walked up and down the Strand between the two
turnstiles, hoping to see her out of a window, and then employed a porter,
one Osberton, to find out this Doctor's lodgings thereabouts, who by
appointment comes to me to Hercules pillars, where I dined alone, but
tells me that he cannot find out any such, but will enquire further.
Thence back to White Hall to the Treasury a while, and thence to the
Strand, and towards night did meet with the porter that carried the chest
of drawers with this Doctor, but he would not tell me where he lived,
being his good master, he told me, but if I would have a message to him he
would deliver it.  At last I told him my business was not with him, but a
little gentlewoman, one Mrs. Willet, that is with him, and sent him to see
how she did from her friend in London, and no other token.  He goes while
I walk in Somerset House, walk there in the Court; at last he comes back
and tells me she is well, and that I may see her if I will, but no more.
So I could not be commanded by my reason, but I must go this very night,
and so by coach, it being now dark, I to her, close by my tailor's, and
she come into the coach to me, and je did baiser her . .  .  .  I did
nevertheless give her the best council I could, to have a care of her
honour, and to fear God, and suffer no man para avoir to do con her as je
have done, which she promised.  Je did give her 20s. and directions para
laisser sealed in paper at any time the name of the place of her being at
Herringman's, my bookseller in the 'Change, by which I might go para her,
and so bid her good night with much content to my mind, and resolution to
look after her no more till I heard from her. And so home, and there told
my wife a fair tale, God knows, how I spent the whole day, with which the
poor wretch was satisfied, or at least seemed so, and so to supper and to
bed, she having been mighty busy all day in getting of her house in order
against to-morrow to hang up our new hangings and furnishing our best
chamber.

19th.  Up, and at the Office all the morning, with my heart full of joy to
think in what a safe condition all my matters now stand between my wife
and Deb, and me, and at noon running up stairs to see the upholsters, who
are at work upon hanging my best room, and setting up my new bed, I find
my wife sitting sad in the dining room; which enquiring into the reason
of, she begun to call me all the false, rotten-hearted rogues in the
world, letting me understand that I was with Deb. yesterday, which,
thinking it impossible for her ever to understand, I did a while deny, but
at last did, for the ease of my mind and hers, and for ever to discharge
my heart of this wicked business, I did confess all, and above stairs in
our bed chamber there I did endure the sorrow of her threats and vows and
curses all the afternoon, and, what was worse, she swore by all that was
good that she would slit the nose of this girle, and be gone herself this
very night from me, and did there demand 3 or L400 of me to buy my peace,
that she might be gone without making any noise, or else protested that
she would make all the world know of it.  So with most perfect confusion
of face and heart, and sorrow and shame, in the greatest agony in the
world I did pass this afternoon, fearing that it will never have an end;
but at last I did call for W. Hewer, who I was forced to make privy now to
all, and the poor fellow did cry like a child, [and] obtained what I could
not, that she would be pacified upon condition that I would give it under
my hand never to see or speak with Deb, while I live, as I did before with
Pierce and Knepp, and which I did also, God knows, promise for Deb. too,
but I have the confidence to deny it to the perjury of myself.  So, before
it was late, there was, beyond my hopes as well as desert, a durable
peace; and so to supper, and pretty kind words, and to bed, and there je
did hazer con eile to her content, and so with some rest spent the night
in bed, being most absolutely resolved, if ever I can master this bout,
never to give her occasion while I live of more trouble of this or any
other kind, there being no curse in the world so great as this of the
differences between myself and her, and therefore I do, by the grace of
God, promise never to offend her more, and did this night begin to pray to
God upon my knees alone in my chamber, which God knows I cannot yet do
heartily; but I hope God will give me the grace more and more every day to
fear Him, and to be true to my poor wife.  This night the upholsters did
finish the hanging of my best chamber, but my sorrow and trouble is so
great about this business, that it puts me out of all joy in looking upon
it or minding how it was.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



     ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

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





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 69: November 1668" ***

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