Part 30

22nd. I hear for certain that my Lady Castlemaine is turned Papist, which the Queene for all do not much like, thinking that she do it not for conscience sake. ["Le marriage du Chevalier de Grammont," (says the Count d'Estrades in a letter written to his Royal Master, Louis XIV. about this time.) "et la conversion de Madame de Castlemaine se sont publiez le meme jour: et le Roy d'Angleterre estant tant prie par les parents de la Dame d'aporter quelque obstacle a cette action, repondit galamment que pour l'ame des Dames, il ne s'en meloit point."] I heard to-day of a great fray lately between Sir H. Finch's coachman, who struck with his whip a coachman of the King's, to the loss of one of his eyes; at which the people of the Exchange seeming to laugh and make sport with some words of contempt to him, my Lord Chamberlin did come from the King to shut up the 'Change, and by the help of a justice, did it; but upon petition to the King it was opened again. At noon I to Sir R. Ford's, where Sir Richard Browne and I met upon the freight of a barge sent to France to the Duchesse of Orleans; and here by discourse I find they greatly cry out against the choice of Sir John Cutler to be treasurer of Paul's, upon condition that he gives 1500l. towards it; and it seems he did give it upon condition that he might be Treasurer for the work, which, they say will be worth three times as much money: and talk as if his being chosen to the office will make people backward to give, but I think him as likely a man as either of them, and better.

28th. Walking through White Hall I heard the King was gone to play at Tennis, so I down to the New Tennis Court, and saw him and Sir Arthur Slingsby play against my Lord of Suffolke and my Lord Chesterfield. The King beat three, and lost two sets, they all, and he particularly playing well, I thought. Thence went and spoke with the Duke of Albemarle about his wound at Newhall, but I find him a heavy dull man, methinks, by his answers to me.

3lst. The Queene after a long and sore sickness is become well again; and the King minds his mistress a little too much, if it pleased God! but I hope all things will go well, and in the Navy particularly, wherein I shall do my duty whatever comes of it. The great talk is the design of the King of France, whether against the Pope or King of Spain nobody knows; but a great and a most promising Prince he is, and all the Princes of Europe have their eye upon him. The Turke very far entered into Germany, and all that part of the world at a loss what to expect from his proceedings. Myself, blessed be God! in a good way, and design and resolution of sticking to my business to get a little money with, doing the best service I can to the King also; which God continue! So ends the old year.

JANUARY 1, 1663-4. At the Coffee-house, where much talking about a very rich widow, young and handsome, of one Sir Nicholas Gold's, a merchant, lately fallen, and of great courtiers that; already look after her: her husband not dead a week yet. She is reckoned worth 80,000l. Went to the Duke's house, the first play I have been at these six months, according to my last vowe, and here saw the so much cried-up play of "Henry the Eighth;" which, though I went with resolution to like it, is so simple a thing made up of a great many patches, that, besides the shows and processions in it, there is nothing in the world good or well done.

4th. I to my Lord Sandwich's lodgings, but he not being up, I to the Duke's chamber, and there by and by to his closet, where since his lady was ill, a little red bed of velvet is brought for him to lie alone, which is a very pretty one. After doing business here, I to my Lord's again, and there spoke with him, and he seems now almost friends again as he used to be. Here meeting Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, he told me among other Court news, how the Queene is very well again; and that she speaks now very pretty English, and makes her sense out now and then with pretty phrazes: as among others this is mightily cried up; that, meaning to say that she did not like such a horse so well as the rest, he being too prancing and full of tricks, she said he did make too much vanity. To the Tennis Court, and there saw the King play at Tennis and others: but to see how the King's play was extolled without any cause at all, was a loathsome sight, though sometimes, indeed, he did play very well and deserved to be commended; but such open flattery is beastly. Afterwards to St. James's Park, seeing people play at Pell Mell; where it pleased me mightily to hear a gallant, lately come from France, swear at one of his companions for suffering his man (a spruce blade) to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing on the Mall.

6th. This morning I began a practice which I find by the ease I do it with that I shall continue, it saving me money and time; that is, to trimme myself with a razer; which pleases me mightily.

8th. We had great pleasure this afternoon; among other things, to talk of our old passages together in Cromwell's time; and how W. Symons did make me laugh and wonder to-day when he told me how he had made shift to keep in, in good esteem and employment, through eight governments in one year, (the year 1659, which were indeed, and he did name them all) and then failed unhappy in the ninth, viz. that, of the King's coming in. He made good to me the story which Luellin did tell me the other day, of his wife upon her death-bed; how she dreamt of her uncle Scobell, and did foretell, from some discourse she had with him, that she should die four days thence, and not sooner, and did all along say so, and did so. Upon the 'Change a great talk there was of one Mr. Tryan, an old man, a merchant in Lyme-Streete, robbed lest night, (his man and maid being gone out after he was a-bed) and gagged and robbed of 1050l. in money and about 4000l. in jewells, which he had in his house as security for money. It is believed that his man is guilty of confederacy, by their ready going to his secret till in the desk, wherein the key of his cash-chest lay.

9th. By discourse with my wife thought upon inviting my Lord Sandwich to a dinner shortly. It will cost me at least ten or twelve pounds; but, however, some arguments of prudence I have, which I shall think again upon before I proceed to that expence.

10th. All our discourse to-night was about Mr. Tryan's late being robbed and that Colonel Turner, (a mad, swearing, confident fellow, well known by all, and by me,) one much indebted to this man for his very livelihood, was the man that either did or plotted it; and, the money and things are found in his hand, and he and his wife now in Newgate for it: of which we are all glad, so very a known rogue he was.

11th. By invitation to St. James's; where, at Mr. Coventry's chamber, I dined with my Lord Barkeley, Sir G. Carteret, Sir Edward Turner, [Speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards Solicitor-general, and Lord Chief Baron. Ob. 1675.] Sir Ellis Layton, [D. C. L., brother to R. Leighton, Bishop of Dumblane, and had been Secretary to the Duke of York.] and one Mr. Seymour, a fine gentleman: where admirable good discourse of all sorts, pleasant and serious. This morning I stood by the King arguing with a pretty Quaker woman, that delivered to him a desire of hers in writing. The King showed her Sir J. Minnes, as a man the fittest for her quaking religion; she modestly saying nothing till he begun seriously to discourse with her, arguing the truth of his spirit against hers; she replying still with these words, "O King!" and thou'd all along. The general talk of the towne still is of Colonel Turner, about the robbery; who it is thought, will be hanged. I heard the Duke of York tell to-night, how letters are come that fifteen are condemned for the late plot by the Judges at York; and, among others, Captain Oates, against whom it was proved that he drew his sword at his going out, and flinging away the scabbard, said that he would either return victor or be hanged.

18th. By coach to the 'Change, after having been at the Coffee house, where I hear Turner [Vide State Trials.] is found guilty of felony and burglary: and strange stories of his confidence at the barr, but yet great indignation in his arguing. All desirous of his being hanged.

20th. My Lord Sandwich did seal a lease for the house he is now taking in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which stands him in 250l. per annum rent. Sir Richard Ford told me that Turner is to be hanged to-morrow, and with what impudence he hath carried, out his trial; but that last night, when he brought him news of his death, he began to be sober and shed some tears, and he hopes will die a penitent; he having already confessed all the thing, but says it was partly done for a joke, and partly to get an occasion of obliging the old man by his care in getting him his things again, he having some hopes of being the better by him in his estate at his death. Mr. Pierce tells me that, my Lady Castlemaine is not at all set by by the King, but that he do doat upon Mrs. Stewart only; and that to the leaving out all business in the world, and to the open slighting of the Queene: that he values not who sees him or stands by him while he dailies with her openly; and then privately in her chamber below, where the very sentrys observe his going in and out; and that so commonly, that the Duke or any of the nobles, when they would ask where the King is, they will ordinarily say, "Is the King above, or below?" meaning with Mrs Stewart: that the King do not openly disown my Lady Castlemaine but that she comes to Court; but that my Lord FitzHarding and the Hambletons, [Geoge Hamilton, and the Count Antoine Hamilton, author of the Memoires de Grammont.] and sometimes my Lord Sandwich, they say, intrigue with her. But he says my Lord Sandwich will lead her from her lodgings in the darkest and obscurest manner, and leave her at the entrance into the Queene's lodgings, that he might be the least observed: that the Duke of Monmouth the King do still doat on beyond measure, insomuch that the King only, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert, and the Duke of Monmouth, do now wear deep mourning, that is, long cloaks, for the Duchesse of Savoy: so that he mourns as a Prince of the Blood, while the Duke of York do no more, and all the nobles of the land not so much; which gives great offence, and he sees the Duke of York do consider. But that the Duke of York do give himself up to business, and is like to prove a noble prince; and so indeed I do from my heart think he will. He says that it is believed, as well as hoped, that care is taken to lay up a hidden treasure of money by the King against a bad day. I pray God it be so!

21st. Up, and after sending my wife to my aunt Wright's to get a place to see Turner hanged, I to the 'Change; and seeing people flock in the City, I enquired, and found that Turner was not yet hanged. And so I went among them to Leadenhall Street, at the end of Lyme Street, near where the robbery was done; and to St. Mary Axe, where he lived. And there I got for a shilling to stand upon the wheel of a cart, in great pain, above an hour before the execution was done; he delaying the time by long discourses and prayers one after another, in hopes of a reprieve; but none come, and at last was flung off the ladder in his cloak. A comely-looked man he was, and kept his countenance to the end: I was sorry to see him. It was believed there were at least 12 or 14,000 people in the street.

22nd. To Deptford, and there viewed Sir W. Petty's vessel; which hath an odd appearance, but not such as people do make of it.

26th. Tom Killigrew told us of a fire last night in my Lady Castlemaine's lodging, where she bid 40l. for one to adventure the fetching of a cabinet out, which at last was got to be done; and the fire at last quenched without doing much wrong.

27th. At the Coffee-house, where I sat with Sir G. Ascue [A distinguished naval officer before and after the Restoration; but he never went to sea subsequently to the action in 1666, when he was taken prisoner.] and Sir William Petty, who in discourse is, methinks, one of the most rational men that ever I heard speak with a tongue, having all his notions the most distinct and clear. To Covent Garden, to buy a maske at the French House, Madam Charett's, for my wife; in the way observing the street full of coaches at the new play, at "The Indian Queene;" ["The Indian Queen," a tragedy in heroic verse, by Sir Robert Howard and Mr Dryden.] which for show, they say, exceeds Henry the Eighth. Called to see my brother Tom, who was not at home, though they say he is in a deep consumption, and will not live two months.

30th. This evening I tore some old papers; among others, a romance which (under the title of "Love a Cheate") I begun ten years ago at Cambridge: and reading it over to-night, I liked it very well, and wondered a little at myself at my vein at that time when I wrote it, doubting that I cannot do so well now if I would try.

FEBRUARY 1, 1663-64. I hear how two men last night, justling for the wall about the new Exchange, did kill one another, each thrusting the other through; one of them of the King's Chapel, one Cave, and the other a retayner of my Lord Generall Middleton's. Thence to White Hall; where, in the Duke's chamber, the King come and stayed an hour or two laughing at Sir W. Petty, who was there about his boat; and at Gresham College in general: at which poor Petty was, I perceive, at some loss; but did argue discreetly, and bear the unreasonable follies of the King's objections and other bystanders with great discretion; and offered to take oddes against the King's best boates: but the King would not lay, but cried him down with words only. Gresham College he mightily laughed at, for spending time only in weighing of ayre, and doing nothing else since they sat. Mr. Pierce tells me how the King, coming the other day to his Theatre to see "The Indian Queene," (which he commends for a very fine thing,) my Lady Castlemaine was in the next box before he come; and leaning over other ladies awhile to whisper with the King, she rose out of the box and went into the King's, and set herself on the King's right hand, between the King and the Duke of York: which, he swears, put the King himself, as well as every body else, out of countenance; and believes that she did it only to show the world that she is not out of favour yet, as was believed. To the King's Theatre, and there saw "The Indian Queen" acted; which indeed is a most pleasant show, and beyond my expectation; the play good, but spoiled with the ryme, which breaks the sense. But above my expectation most, the eldest Marshall [Anne Marshall, a celebrated actress, and her youngest sister Becke, so frequently mentioned in the Diary, were, I believe, the daughters of a Presbyterian Minister; but very little seems to be known about their history. One of them is erroneously stated, in the notes to the Memoires de Grammont, and Davies' Dramatic Miscellanies, to have become Lord Oxford's mistress; for Mr. Pepys uniformly calls the Marshalls by their proper name, and only speaks of the other lady as "the first or old Roxalana, who had quitted the stage."--VIDE Feb. 18, 1661-2, and Dec. 27, in the same year.] did do her part most excellently well as I ever heard woman in my life; but her voice is not so sweet as Ianthe's: [Malone says, in his HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STAGE, that Mrs. Mary Saunderson performed Ianthe in Davenant's play of the Siege of Rhodes, at the first opening of his theatre, April 1662. She married Betterton the following year, and lived till 1712, having filled almost all the female characters in Shakespeare with great success. It is probable, therefore, that she was the person alluded to here, and frequently mentioned afterwards, without any more particular designation.] but, however, we come home mightily contented. Here we met Mr. Pickering; and he tells me that the business runs high between the Chancellor and my Lord Bristoll against the Parliament; and that my Lord Lauderdale and Cooper open high against the Chancellor; which I am sorry for.

3rd. In Covent Garden to-night, going to fetch my wife, I stopped at the great Coffee-house there, where I never was before: where Dryden the poet (I knew at Cambridge), and all the wits of the town, and Harris the player, and Mr. Hoole of our College. And had I had time then, or could at other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and as it was late, they were all ready to go away.

4th. To St. Paul's School, and up to hear the upper form examined; and there was kept by very many of the Mercers, Clutterbucke, [Probably Alderman Clutterbuck, one of the proposed Knights of the Royal Oak for Middlesex. There was a Sir Thomas Clutterbuck of London, CIRCITER 1670.] Barker, Harrington, and others; and with great respect used by them all, and had a noble dinner. Here they tell me, that in Dr. Colett's [Dean of St. Paul's, and founder of the School.] will he says that he would have a Master found for the School that hath good skill in Latin, and (if it could be) one that had some knowledge of the Greeke; so little was Greeke known here at that time. Dr. Wilkins [John Wilkins, warden of Wadham College, and afterwards Dean of Rippon, consecrated Bishop of Chester 1668; Ob. 1672. He was a learned theologian, and well versed in Mathematics and Natural, Philosophy.] and one Mr. Smallwood, Posers.

8th. Mr. Pierce told me how the King still do doat upon his women, even beyond all shame: and that the good Queene will of herself stop before she goes sometimes into her dressing-room, till she knows whether the King be there, for fear he should be, as she hath sometimes taken him, with Mrs. Stewart; and that some of the best parts of the Queene's joynture are, contrary to faith, and against the opinion of my Lord Treasurer and his Council, bestowed or rented, I know not how, to my Lord Fitzhardinge and Mrs. Stewart, and others of that crew; that the King do doat infinitely upon the Duke of Monmouth, apparently as one that he intends to have succeed him. God knows what will be the end of it!

9th. Great talk of the Dutch proclaiming themselves in India, Lords of the Southern Seas, and denying traffick to all ships but their own, upon pain of confiscation: which makes our merchants mad. Great doubt of two ships of ours, the Greyhound and another, very rich, coming from the Streights, for fear of the Turkes. Matters are made up between the Pope and the King of France; so that now all the doubt is, what the French will do with their armies.

10th. I did give my wife's brother 10s. and a coat that I had by me, a close-bodied, light-coloured cloth coat, with a gold edgeing in each seam, that was the lace of my wife's best pettycoat that she had when I married her. He is going into Holland to seek his fortune.

15th. To White Hall, to the Duke: where he first put on a periwigg to-day: but methought his hair cut short in order thereto did look very prettily of itself, before he put on his periwigg. Great news of the arrivall of two rich ships, the Greyhound and another, which they were mightily afraid of, and great insurance given. This afternoon Sir Thomas Chamberlin [Son of William Chamberlayne, an English Judge, and created a Baronet 1642.] come to the office to me, and showed me several letters from the East Indys, showing the height that the Dutch are come to there, showing scorn to all the English, even in our only Factory there at Surat, beating several men, and hanging the English standard St. George under the Dutch flag in scorn: saying, that whatever their masters do or say at home, they will do what they list, and be masters of all the world there; and have so proclaimed themselves Soveraine of all the South Seas; which certainly our King cannot endure, if the Parliament will give him money. But I doubt and yet do hope they will not yet, till we are more ready for it.

17th. Mr. Pierce tells me of the King's giving of my Lord FitzHarding two leases which belong indeed to the Queene, worth 20,000l. to him; and how people do talk of it.

19th. Mr. Cutler come, and walked and talked with me a great while; and then to the 'Change together; and it being early, did tell me several excellent examples of men raised upon the 'Change by their great diligence and saving; as also his own fortune, and how credit grew upon him; that when he was not really worth 1,100l., he had credit for 100,000l.; of Sir W. Rider how he rose; and others. By and by joyned with us Sir John Bankes; [An opulent merchant, residing in Lincoln's Inn Fields.] who told us several passages of the East India Company; and how in every case, when there was due to him and Alderman Mico 64,000l. from the Dutch for injury done to them in the East Indys, Oliver presently after the peace, they delaying to pay them the money, sent them word, that if they did not pay them by such a day, he would grant letters of mark to those merchants against them; by which they were so fearful of him, they did presently pay the money every farthing. Took my wife; and taking a coach, went to visit; my Ladys Jemimah and Paulina Montagu, and Mrs. Elizabeth Pickering, [Lord Sandwich's niece.] whom we found at their father's new house in Lincolne's Fields; but the house all in dirt. They received us well enough; but I did not endeavour to carry myself over familiarly with them: and so after a little stay, there coming in presently after us my Lady Aberguenny [Probably Mary, daughter of Thomas Clifford, Esq., of Dunton Walet, Essex, wife to George, ninth Lord Abergavenny.] and other ladies, we back again by coach.

22nd. This evening come Mr. Alsopp the King's brewer, with whom I spent an hour talking and bewailing the posture of things at present; the King led away by half-a-dozen men, that none of his serious servants and friends can come at him. These are Lauderdale, Buckingham, Hamilton, FitzHarding, (to whom he hath, it seems, given 12,000l. per annum in the best part of the King's estate); and that the old Duke of Buckingham could never get of the King. Projers is another, [Edward Progers, Esq., the King's Valet-de-Chambre, and the confidant of his amours. Ob. 1713, aged ninety-six.] and Sir H. Bennett. He loves not the Queene at all, but is rather sullen to her; and she, by all reports, incapable of children. He is so fond of the Duke of Monmouth, that every body admires it; and he says that the Duke hath said, that he would be the death of any man that says the King was not married to his mother: though Alsopp says, it is well known that she was a common strumpet before the King was acquainted with her. But it seems, he says, that the King is mighty kind to these his bastard children; and at this day will go at midnight to my Lady Castlemaine's nurses, and take the child and dance it in his arms: that he is not likely to have his tables up again in his house, for the crew that are about him will not have him come to common view again, but keep him obscurely among themselves. He hath this night, it seems, ordered that the Hall (which there is a ball to be in to-night before the King) be guarded, as the Queene-Mother's is, by his Horse Guards; whereas heretofore they were by the Lord Chamberlain or Steward, and their people. But it is feared they will reduce all to the soldiery, and all other places be taken away; and what is worst of all, will alter the present militia, and bring all to a flying army. That my Lord Lauderdale, being Middleton's enemy, [John Earl of Middleton, General of the Forces in Scotland.] and one that scorns the Chancellor even to open affronts before the King, hath got the whole power of Scotland into his hand; whereas the other day he was in a fair way to have had his whole estate, and honour, and life, voted away from him. That the King hath done himself all imaginable wrong in the business of my Lord Antrim, [Randall, second Earl, and first Marquis of Antrim. Ob. 1673.] in Ireland; who, though he was the head of rebels, yet he by his letter owns to have acted by his father's and mother's and his commissions: but it seems the truth is, he hath obliged himself upon the clearing of his estate, to settle it upon a daughter of the Queene-Mother's (by my Lord Germin, [Earl of St. Albans.] I suppose,) in marriage be it to whom the Queene pleases: which is a sad story. It seems a daughter of the Duke of Lenox's was, by force, going to be married the other day at Somerset House, to Harry Germin; but she got away and run to the King, and he says he will protect her. She is, it seems, very near akin to the King. Such mad doings there are every day among them! There was a French book in verse, the other day, translated and presented to the Duke of Monmouth in such a high stile, that the Duke of York, he tells me, was mightily offended at it. The Duke of Monmouth's mother's brother hath a place at Court; and being a Welchman, (I think he told me,) will talk very broad of the King's being married to his sister. The King did the other day, at the Council, commit my Lord Digby's [George, Lord Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, who had been Secretary of State in 1643; but by changing his religion while abroad, at the instigation of Don John of Austria, incapacitated himself from being restored to that office; and in consequence of the disappointment, which he imputed to the interference of the Lord Chancellor, conspired and effected his ruin. He was installed K.G. in 1661, and died 1676.] chaplin, and steward, and another servant, who went upon the process begun there against their lord, to swear that they saw him at church, and receive the Sacrament as a Protestant, (which, the Judges said, was sufficient to prove him such in the eye of the law); the King, I say, did commit them all to the Gate-house, notwithstanding their pleading their dependance upon him, and the faith they owed him as their lord, whose bread they eat. And that the King should say, that he would soon see whether he was King, or Digby. That the Queene-mother had outrun herself in her expences, and is now come to pay very ill, or run in debt the money being spent that she received for leases. He believes there is not any money laid up in bank, as I told him some did hope; but he says, from the best informers he can assure me there is no such thing, nor any body that should look after such a thing; and that there is not now above 80,000l. of the Dunkirke money left in stock. That Oliver the year when he spent 1,400,000l. in the Navy did spend in the whole expence of the kingdom 2,600,000l. That all the Court are mad for a Dutch war; but both he and I did concur, that it was a thing rather to be dreaded than hoped for; unless by the French King's falling upon Flanders, they and the Dutch should be divided. That our Embassador had, it is true, an audience; but in the most dishonourable way that could be; for the Princes of the Blood (though invited by our Embassador, which was the greatest absurdity that ever Embassador committed these 400 years) were not there; and so were not said to give place to our King's Embassador. And that our King did openly say, the other day in the Privy Chamber, that he would not be hectored out of his right and pre-eminences by the King of France, as great as he was. That the Pope is glad to yield to a peace with the French (as the news-book says,) upon the basest terms that ever was. That the talk which these people about our King, that I named before, have, is to tell him how neither priviledge of Parliament nor City is any thing; but that his will is all, and ought to be so: and their discourse, it seems, when they are alone, is so base and sordid, that it makes the eares of the very gentlemen of the back stairs (I think he called them) to tingle to hear it spoke in the King's hearing; and that must be very bad indeed. That my Lord Digby did send to Lisbon a couple of priests, to search out what they could against the Chancellor concerning the match, as to the point of his knowing before-hand that the Queene was not capable of bearing children; and that something was given her to make her so. But as private as they were, when they come thither they were clapped up prisoners. That my Lord Digby endeavours what he can to bring the business into the House of Commons, hoping there to master the Chancellor, there being many enemies of his there: but I hope the contrary. That whereas the late King did mortgage Clarendon [Clarendon Park near Salisbury.] to somebody for 20,000l., and this to have given it to the Duke of Albemarle, and he sold it to my Lord Chancellor, whose title of Earldome is fetched from thence; the King hath this day sent his order to the Privy Seale for the payment of this 20,000l. to my Lord Chancellor, to clear the mortgage. Ireland in a very distracted condition about the hard usage which the Protestants meet with, and the too good which the Catholiques. And from all together, God knows my heart, I expect nothing but ruin can follow, unless things are better ordered in a little time.

23rd. This day, by the blessing of God, I have lived thirty-one years in the world: and, by the grace of God, I find myself not only in good health in every thing, and particularly as to the stone, but only pain upon taking cold, and also in a fair way of coming to a better esteem and estate in the world, than ever I expected. But I pray God give me a heart to fear a fall, and to prepare for it.