Part 11

21st. George Vines carried me up to the top of his turret, where there is Cooke's head set up for a traytor, and Harrison's set up on the other side of Westminster Hall. Here I could see them plainly, as also a very fair prospect about London.

22nd. All preparing for my Lord's going to sea to fetch the Queen to-morrow. At night my Lord come home, with whom I staid long, and talked of many things. He told me there hath been a meeting before the King and my Lord Chancellor, of some Episcopalian and Presbyterian Divines; but what had passed he could not tell me.

23rd. About eight o'clock my Lord went; and going through the garden, Mr. William Montagu told him of an estate of land lately come into the King's hands, that he had a mind my Lord should beg. To which end my Lord writ a letter presently to my Lord Chancellor to do it for him, which (after leave taken of my Lord at White Hall bridge) I did carry to Warwick House to him; and had a fair promise of him, that he would do it this day for my Lord. In my way thither I met the Lord Chancellor and all the Judges riding on horseback and going to Westminster Hall, it being the first day of the terme.

24th. Mr. Moore tells me, among other things, that the Duke of York is now sorry for his amour with my Lord Chancellor's daughter, who is now brought to bed of a boy. To Mr. Lilly's, [William Lilly, the astrologer and almanack-maker.] where, not finding Mr. Spong, I went to Mr. Greatorex, where I met him, and where I bought of him a drawing pen; and he did show me the manner of the lamp-glasses, which carry the light a great way, good to read in bed by, and I intend to have one of them. So to Mr. Lilly's with Mr. Spong, where well received, there being a club to-night among his friends. Among the rest Esquire Ashmole, [Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian.] who I found was a very ingenious gentleman. With him we two sang afterwards in Mr. Lilly's study. That done, we all parted; and I home by coach, taking Mr. Rooker with me, who did tell me a great many fooleries, which may be done by nativities, and blaming Mr. Lilly for writing to please his friends and to keep in with the times (as he did formerly to his own dishonour,) and not according to the rules of art, by which he could not well erre, as he had done.

26th. By Westminster to White Hall, where I saw the Duke de Soissons go from his audience with a very great deal of state; his own coach all red velvet covered with gold lace, and drawn by six barbes, and attended by twenty pages very rich in clothes. To Westminster Hall, and bought, among other books, one of the Life of our Queen, which I read at home to my wife; but it was so sillily writ, that we did nothing but laugh at it: among other things it is dedicated to that paragon of virtue and beauty the Duchess of Albemarle. Great talk as if the Duke of York do now own the marriage between him and the Chancellor's daughter. To Westminster Abbey, where with much difficulty, going round to the cloysters, I got in; this day being a great day for the consecrating of five Bishopps, which was done after sermon; but I could not get into Henry the Seventh's chappel. After dinner to White Hall chappel; my Lady and my Lady Jemimah and I up to the King's closet, (who is now gone to meet the Queen). So meeting with one Mr. Hill, that did know my lady, he did take us into the King's closet, and there we did stay all service-time.

29th. I up early, it being my Lord Mayor's day (Sir Richd. Browne,) and neglecting my office, I went to the Wardrobe, where I met my Lady Sandwich, and all the children; and after drinking of some strange and incomparable good clarett of Mr. Remball's, he and Mr. Townsend [Officers of the Wardrobe.] did take us, and set the young Lords at one Mr. Neville's, a draper in Paul's church-yard; and my Lady and my Lady Pickering [Elizabeth Montagu, sister to the Earl of Sandwich, who had married Sir Gilbert Pickering, Bart. of Nova Scotia, and of Tichmersh, co. Northampton.] and I to one Mr. Isaacson's, a linen-draper at the Key in Cheapside; where there was a company of fine ladies, and we were very civilly treated, and had a very good place to see the pageants, which were many, and I believe good, for such kind of things, but in themselves but poor and absurd.

30th. I went to the Cockpit all alone, and there saw a very fine play called "The Tamer tamed:" very well acted. ["The Woman's Prize, or Tamer Tamed," A comedy by John Fletcher.] I hear nothing yet of my Lord, whether he be gone for the Queen from the Downes or no; but I believe he is, and that he is now upon coming back again.

NOVEMBER 1, 1660. This morning Sir W. Pen and I were mounted early, and had very merry discourse all the way, he being very good company. We come to Sir W. Batten's, where he lives like a prince, and we were made very welcome. Among other things he showed me my Lady's closet, wherein was great store of rarities; as also a chair, which he calls King Harry's chaire, where he that sits down is catched with two irons, that come round about him, which makes good sport. Here dined with us two or three more country gentlemen; among the rest Mr. Christmas, my old school-fellow, with whom I had much talk. He did remember that I was a great Roundhead when I was a boy, and I was much afraid that he would have remembered the words that I said the day the King was beheaded (that, were I to preach upon him, my text should be--"The memory of the wicked shall rot"); But I found afterwards that he did go away from school before that time.

2nd. To White Hall, where I saw the boats coming very thick to Lambeth, and all the stairs to be full of people. I was told the Queen was a-coming; so I got a sculler for sixpence to carry me thither and back again, but I could not get to see the Queen; so come back, and to my Lord's, where he was come: and I supt with him, he being very merry, telling me stories of the country mayors, how they entertained the King all the way as he come along; and how the country gentlewomen did hold up their heads to be kissed by the King, not taking his hand to kiss as they should do. I took leave of my Lord and Lady, and so took coach at White Hall and carried Mr. Childe as far as the Strand, and myself got as far as Ludgate by all the bonfires, but with a great deal of trouble; and there the coachman desired that I would release him, for he durst not go further for the fires. In Paul's churchyard I called at Kirton's, and there they had got a masse book for me, which I bought and cost me twelve shillings; and, when I come home, sat up late and read in it with great pleasure to my wife, to hear that she was long ago acquainted with it. I observed this night very few bonfires in the City, not above three in all London, for the Queen's coming; whereby I guess that (as I believed before) her coming do please but very few.

3rd. Saturday. In the afternoon to White Hall, where my Lord and Lady were gone to kiss the Queen's hand.

4th (Lord's day). In the morn to our own church, where Mr. Mills did begin to nibble at the Common Prayer, by saying "Glory be to the Father, &c." after he had read the two psalms: but the people had been so little used to it, that they could not tell what to answer. [Daniel Milles, D.D., thirty-two years rector of St. Olave's, Hart-Street, and buried there October 1689, aged sixty-three. In 1667 Sir Robert Brooks presented him to the rectory of Wanstead, which he also held till his death.] This declaration of the King's do give the Presbyterians some satisfaction, and a pretence to read the Common Prayer, which they would not do before because of their former preaching against it. After dinner to Westminster, where I went to my Lord's, and, having spoken with him, I went to the Abbey, where the first time that ever I heard the organs in a cathedral. My wife seemed very pretty to-day, it being the first time I had given her leave to weare a black patch.

5th. At the office at night, to make up an account of what the debts of nineteen of the twenty-five ships that should have been paid off, is increased since the adjournment of the Parliament, they being to sit again to-morrow. This 5th day of November is observed exceeding well in the City; and at night great bonfires and fireworks.

6th. Mr. Chetwind told me that he did fear that this late business of the Duke of York's would prove fatal to my Lord Chancellor. To our office, where we met all, for the sale of two ships by an inch of candle (the first time that ever I saw any of this kind), where I observed how they do invite one another, and at last how they all do cry, and we have much to do to tell who did cry last. The ships were the Indian, sold for 1300l. and the Half-moone, sold for 830l.

7th. Went by water to my Lord, where I dined with him, and he in a very merry humour (present Mr. Borfett and Childe) at dinner: he, in discourse of the great opinion of the virtue--gratitude, (which he did account the greatest thing in the world to him, and had, therefore, in his mind been often troubled in the late times how to answer his gratitude to the King, who raised his father,) did say it was that did bring him to his obedience to the King; and did also bless himself with his good fortune, in comparison to what it was when I was with him in the Sound, when he durst not own his correspondence with the King; which is a thing that I never did hear of to this day before; and I do from this raise an opinion of him, to be one of the most secret men in the world, which I was not so convinced of before. After dinner he bid all go out of the room, and did tell me how the King had promised him 4000l. per annum for ever, and had already given him a bill under his hand (which he showed me) for 4000l. that Mr. Fox is to pay him. My Lord did advise with me how to get this received, and to put out 3000l. into safe hands at use, and the other he will make use for his present occasion. This he did advise with me about with great secresy. After this he called for the fiddles and books, and we two and W. Howe, and Mr. Childe, did sing and play some psalmes of Will. Lawes's, and some songs; and so I went away. [Brother to Henry Lawes the celebrated composer, and himself a chamber musician to Charles I., in whose service he took up arms, and was killed at the siege of Chester, 1645. The King regretted his loss severely, and used to call him the father of music.] Notwithstanding this was the first day of the King's proclamation against hackney coaches coming into the streets to stand to be hired, yet I got one to carry me home.

10th. The Comtroller [Sir R. Slingsby.] and I to the coffee- house, where he showed me the state of his case; how the King did owe him above 6000l. But I do not see great likelihood for them to be paid, since they begin already in Parliament to dispute the paying off the just sea-debts, which were already promised to be paid, and will be the undoing of thousands if they be not paid.

15th. My Lord did this day show me the King's picture which was done in Flanders, that the King did promise my Lord before he ever saw him, and that we did expect to have had at sea before the King come to us; but it come but to-day, and indeed it is the most pleasant and the most like him that ever I saw picture in my life. To Sir W. Batten's to dinner, he having a couple of servants married to-day; and so there was a great number of merchants, and others of good quality on purpose after dinner to make an offering, which, when dinner was done, we did, and I did give ten shillings and no more, though I believe most of the rest did give more, and did believe that I did so too.

19th. I went with the Treasurer in his coach to White Hall, and in our way, in discourse, do find him a very good-natured man; and, talking of those men who now stand condemned for murdering the King, he says that he believes, that, if the law would give leave, the King is a man of so great compassion that he would wholly acquit them.

20th. Mr. Shepley and I to the new play-house near Lincoln's- Inn-Fields (which was formerly Gibbon's tennis-court), where the play of "Beggar's Bush" [The "Beggar's Bush," a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher.] was newly begun; and so we went in and saw it well acted: and here I saw the first time one Moone, who is said to be the best actor in the world, lately come over with the King, and indeed it is the finest play-house, I believe, that ever was in England. [Mohun, or Moone, the celebrated actor who had borne a Major's commission in the King's Army. The period of his death is uncertain.] This morning I found my Lord in bed late, he having been with the King, Queen, and Princesse, at the Cockpit all night, where General Monk treated them; and after supper a play, where the King did put a great affront upon Singleton's musique, he bidding them stop and made the French musique play, which, my Lord says, do much outdo all ours.

22nd. This morning come the carpenters, to make me a door at the other side of my house, going into the entry. To Mr. Fox's, where we found Mrs. Fox within and an alderman of London paying 1000l. or 1400l. in gold upon the table for the King. [Elizabeth daughter of William Whittle, Esq., of Lancashire, wife of Stephen Fox, Esq., who was knighted in 1665.] Mr. Fox come in presently and did receive us with a great deal of respect; and then did take my wife and I to the Queen's presence-chamber, where he got my wife placed behind the Queen's chaire, and the two Princesses come to dinner. The Queen a very little plain old woman, and nothing more in her presence in any respect nor garbe than any ordinary woman. The Princesse of Orange I had often seen before. The Princesse Henrietta is very pretty, but much below my expectation; and her dressing of herself with her haire frized short up to her eares, did make her seem so much the less to me. But my wife standing near her with two or three black patches on, and well dressed, did seem to me much handsomer than she.

To White Hall at about nine at night, and there, with Laud the page that went with me, we could not get out of Henry the Eighth's gallery into the further part of the boarded gallery, where my Lord was walking with my Lord Ormond; and we had a key of Sir S. Morland's, but all would not do; till at last, by knocking, Mr. Harrison the door-keeper did open us the door, and, after some talk with my Lord about getting a catch to carry my Lord St. Alban's goods to France, I parted and went home on foot. [Henry Jermyn, created Lord Jermyn 1614, advanced to the Earldom of St. Alban's 1660 K.G. Ob. 1683, s.p. He was supposed to be married to the Queen Dowager.]

25th. I had a letter brought me from my Lord to get a ship ready to carry the Queen's things over to France, she being to go within five or six days.

27th. To Westminster Hall, and in King Street there being a great stop of coaches, there was a falling out between a drayman and my Lord Chesterfield's coachman, and one of his footmen killed. Mr. Moore told me how the House had this day voted the King to have all the Excise for ever. This day I do also hear that the Queen's going to France is stopt, which do like me well, because then the King will be in town the next month, which is my month again at the Privy Seale.

30th. Sir G. Carteret did give us an account how Mr. Holland do intend to prevail with the Parliament to try his project of discharging the seamen all at present by ticket, and so promise interest to all men that will lend money upon them at eight per cent., for so long as they are unpaid; whereby he do think to take away the growing debt, which do now lie upon the kingdom for lack of present money to discharge the seamen.

DECEMBER 4, 1660. This day the Parliament voted that the bodies of Oliver, Ireton, Bradshaw, &c., should be taken up out of their graves in the Abbey, and drawn to the gallows, and there hanged and buried under it: which (methinks) do trouble me that a man of so great courage as he was, should have that dishonour, though otherwise he might deserve it enough.

9th. I went to the Duke. And first calling upon Mr. Coventry at his chamber, I went to the Duke's bed-side, who had sat up late last night, and lay long this morning. This being done, I went to chapel, and sat in Mr. Blagrave's pew, and there did sing my part along with another before the King, and with much ease.

10th. It is expected that the Duke will marry the Lord Chancellor's daughter at last; which is likely to be the ruine of Mr. Davis and my Lord Barkley, who have carried themselves so high against the Chancellor; Sir Chas. Barkley swearing that he and others had intrigued with her often, which all believe to be a lie.

16th. In the afternoon I went to White Hall, where I was surprised with the news of a plot against the King's person and my Lord Monk's; and that since last night there were about forty taken up on suspicion; and, amongst others, it was my lot to meet with Simon Beale, the Trumpeter, who took me and Tom Doling into the Guard in Scotland Yard, and showed us Major-General Overton. [One of Oliver Cromwell's Major-Generals: a high Republican.] Here I heard him deny that he is guilty of any such things: but that whereas it is said that he is found to have brought many armes to towne, he says it is only to sell them, as he will prove by oath.

21st. They told me that this is St. Thomas's, and that by an old custome, this day the Exchequer men had formerly, and do intend this night to have a supper; which if I could I promised, to come to, but did not. To my Lady's, and dined with her: she told me how dangerously ill the Princesse Royal is: and that this morning she was said to be dead. But she hears that she hath married herself to young Jermyn, [Henry Jermyn, Master of the Horse to the Duke of York.] which is worse than the Duke of York's marrying the Chancellor's daughter, which is now publicly owned.