LONDON
22d March, 1675. Supped at Sir William Petty's, with the Bishop of Salisbury, and divers honorable persons.We had a noble entertainment in a house gloriously furnished; the master and mistress of it were extraordinary persons. Sir William was the son of a mean man somewhere in Sussex, and sent from school to Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, but was most eminent in Mathematics and Mechanics; proceeded Doctor of Physic, and was grown famous, as for his learning so for his recovering a poor wench that had been hanged for felony; and her body having been begged (as the custom is) for the anatomy lecture, he bled her, put her to bed to a warm woman, and, with spirits and other means, restored her to life. The young scholars joined and made a little portion, and married her to a man who had several children by her, she living fifteen years after, as I have been assured. Sir William came from Oxford to be tutor to a neighbor of mine; thence, when the rebels were dividing their conquests in Ireland, he was employed by them to measure and set out the land, which he did on an easy contract, so much per acre. This he effected so exactly, that it not only furnished him with a great sum of money; but enabled him to purchase an estate worth £4,000 a year. He afterward married the daughter of Sir Hardress Waller; she was an extraordinary wit as well as beauty, and a prudent woman.
Sir William, among other inventions, was author of the double-bottomed ship, which perished, and he was censured for rashness, being lost in the Bay of Biscay in a storm, when, I think, fifteen other vessels miscarried. This vessel was flat-bottomed, of exceeding use to put into shallow ports, and ride over small depths of water. It consisted of two distinct keels cramped together with huge timbers, etc., so as that a violent stream ran between; it bore a monstrous broad sail, and he still persists that it is practicable, and of exceeding use; and he has often told me he would adventure himself in such another, could he procure sailors, and his Majesty's permission to make a second Experiment; which name the King gave the vessel at the launching.
The Map of Ireland made by Sir William Petty is believed to be the most exact that ever yet was made of any country. He did promise to publish it; and I am told it has cost him near £1,000 to have it engraved atAmsterdam. There is not a better Latin poet living, when he gives himself that diversion; nor is his excellence less in Council and prudent matters of state; but he is so exceedingly nice in sifting and examining all possible contingencies, that he adventures at nothing which is not demonstration. There was not in the whole world his equal for a superintendent of manufacture and improvement of trade, or to govern a plantation. If I were a Prince, I should make him my second Counsellor, at least. There is nothing difficult to him. He is, besides, courageous; on which account, I cannot but note a true story of him, that when Sir Aleyn Brodrick sent him a challenge upon a difference between them in Ireland, Sir William, though exceedingly purblind, accepted the challenge, and it being his part to propound the weapon, desired his antagonist to meet him with a hatchet, or axe, in a dark cellar; which the other, of course, refused.
Sir William was, with all this, facetious and of easy conversation, friendly and courteous, and had such a faculty of imitating others, that he would take a text and preach, now like a grave orthodox divine, then falling into the Presbyterian way, then to the fanatical, the Quaker, the monk and friar, the Popish priest, with such admirable action, and alteration of voice and tone, as it was not possible to abstain from wonder, and one would swear to hear several persons, or forbear to think he was not in good earnest an enthusiast and almost beside himself; then, he would fall out of it into a serious discourse; but it was very rarely he would be prevailed on to oblige the company with this faculty, and that only among most intimate friends. My Lord Duke of Ormond once obtained it of him, and was almost ravished with admiration; but by and by, he fell upon a serious reprimand of the faults and miscarriages of some Princes and Governors, which, though he named none, did so sensibly touch the Duke, who was then Lieutenant of Ireland, that he began to be very uneasy, and wished the spirit laid which he had raised, for he was neither able to endure such truths, nor could he but be delighted. At last, he melted his discourse to a ridiculous subject, and came down from the joint stool on which he had stood; but my lord would not have him preach any more. He nevercould get favor at Court, because he outwitted all the projectors that came near him. Having never known such another genius, I cannot but mention these particulars, among a multitude of others which I could produce. When I, who knew him in mean circumstances, have been in his splendid palace, he would himself be in admiration how he arrived at it; nor was it his value or inclination for splendid furniture and the curiosities of the age, but his elegant lady could endure nothing mean, or that was not magnificent. He was very negligent himself, and rather so of his person, and of a philosophic temper. "What a to-do is here!" would he say, "I can lie in straw with as much satisfaction."
He is author of the ingenious deductions from the bills of mortality, which go under the name of Mr. Graunt; also of that useful discourse of the manufacture of wool, and several others in the register of the Royal Society. He was also author of that paraphrase on the 104th Psalm in Latin verse, which goes about in MS., and is inimitable. In a word, there is nothing impenetrable to him.
26th March, 1675. Dr. Brideoak was elected Bishop of Chichester, on the translation of Dr. Gunning to Ely.
30th March, 1675. Dr. Allestree preached on Romans, vi. 3, the necessity of those who are baptized to die to sin; a very excellent discourse from an excellent preacher.
25th April, 1675. Dr. Barrow, that excellent, pious, and most learned man, divine, mathematician, poet, traveler, and most humble person, preached at Whitehall to the household, onLuke xx. 27, of love and charity to our neighbors.
29th April, 1675. I read my first discourse, "Of Earth and Vegetation," before the Royal Society as a lecture in course, after Sir Robert Southwell had read his, the week before, "On Water." I was commanded by our President and the suffrage of the Society, to print it.
LONDON
16th May, 1675. This day was my dear friend, Mrs. Blagg, married at the Temple Church to my friend, Mr. Sidney Godolphin, Groom of the Bedchamber to his Majesty.
18th May, 1675. I went to visit one Mr. Bathurst, a Spanish merchant, my neighbor.
31st May, 1675. I went with Lord Ossory to Deptford, where we chose him Master of the Trinity Company.
2d June, 1675. I was at a conference of the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber, on a difference about imprisoning some of their members; and on the 3d, at another conference, when the Lords accused the Commons for their transcendent misbehavior, breach of privilege, Magna Charta, subversion of government, and other high, provoking, and diminishing expressions, showing what duties and subjection they owed to the Lords in Parliament, by record of Henry IV. This was likely to create a notable disturbance.
15th June, 1675. This afternoon came Monsieur Querouaille and his lady, parents to the famous beauty and ... favorite at Court, to see Sir R. Browne, with whom they were intimately acquainted in Bretagne, at the time Sir Richard was sent to Brest to supervise his Majesty's sea affairs, during the latter part of the King's banishment. This gentleman's house was not a mile from Brest; Sir Richard made an acquaintance there, and, being used very civilly, was obliged to return it here, which we did. He seemed a soldierly person and a good fellow, as the Bretons generally are; his lady had been very handsome, and seemed a shrewd understanding woman. Conversing with him in our garden, I found several words of the Breton language the same with our Welsh. His daughter was now made Duchess of Portsmouth, and in the height of favor; but he never made any use of it.
27th June, 1675. At Ely House, I went to the consecration of my worthy friend, the learned Dr. Barlow, Warden of Queen's College, Oxford, now made Bishop of Lincoln. After it succeeded a magnificent feast, where were the Duke of Ormond, Earl of Lauderdale, the Lord Treasurer, Lord Keeper, etc.
8th July, 1675. I went with Mrs. Howard and her two daughters toward Northampton Assizes, about a trial at law, in which I was concerned for them as a trustee. We lay this night at Henley-on-the Thames, at our attorney, Mr. Stephens's, who entertained us very handsomely. Next day, dining at Shotover, at Sir Timothy Tyrill's, a sweet place, we lay at Oxford, where it was the time of the Act. Mr. Robert Spencer, uncle to theEarl of Sunderland, and my old acquaintance in France, entertained us at his apartment in Christ Church with exceeding generosity.
LONDON
10th July, 1675. The Vice ChancellorDr. Bathurst (who had formerly taken particular care of my son), President of Trinity College invited me to dinner, and did me great honor all the time of my stay. The next day, he invited me and all my company, though strangers tohim, to a very noble feast. I was at all the academic exercises.—Sunday, at St. Mary's, preached a Fellow of Brasen-nose, not a little magnifying the dignity of Churchmen.
11th July, 1675. We heard the speeches, and saw the ceremony of creating doctors in Divinity, Law and Physic. I had, early in the morning, heard Dr. Morison, Botanic Professor, read on divers plants in the Physic Garden; and saw that rare collection of natural curiosities of Dr. Plot's, of Magdalen Hall, author of "The Natural History of Oxfordshire," all of them collected in that shire, and indeed extraordinary, that in one county there should be found such variety of plants, shells, stones, minerals, marcasites, fowls, insects, models of works, crystals, agates, and marbles. He was now intending to visit Staffordshire, and, as he had of Oxfordshire, to give us the natural, topical, political, and mechanical history. Pity it is that more of this industrious man's genius were not employed so to describe every county of England; it would be one of the most useful and illustrious works that was ever produced in any age or nation.
I visited also the Bodleian Library and my old friend, the learned Obadiah Walker, head of University College, which he had now almost rebuilt, or repaired. We then proceeded to Northampton, where we arrived the next day.
In this journey, went part of the way Mr. James Graham (since Privy Purse to the Duke), a young gentleman exceedingly in love with Mrs. Dorothy Howard, one of the maids of honor in our company. I could not but pity them both, the mother not much favoring it. This lady was not only a great beauty, but a most virtuous and excellent creature, and worthy to have been wife to the best of men. My advice was required, and I spoke to the advantage of the young gentleman, more out of pitythan that she deserved no better match; for, though he was a gentleman of good family, yet there was great inequality.
14th July,1675. I went to see my Lord Sunderland's Seat at Althorpe, four miles from the ragged town of Northampton (since burned, and well rebuilt). It is placed in a pretty open bottom, very finely watered and flanked with stately woods and groves in a park, with a canal, but the water is not running, which is a defect. The house, a kind of modern building, of freestone, within most nobly furnished; the apartments very commodious, a gallery and noble hall; but the kitchen being in the body of the house, and chapel too small, were defects. There is an old yet honorable gatehouse standing awry, and out-housing mean, but designed to be taken away. It was moated round, after the old manner, but it is now dry, and turfed with a beautiful carpet. Above all, are admirable and magnificent the several ample gardens furnished with the choicest fruit, and exquisitely kept. Great plenty of oranges, and other curiosities. The park full of fowl, especially herons, and from it a prospect to Holmby House, which being demolished in the late civil wars, shows like a Roman ruin shaded by the trees about it, a stately, solemn, and pleasing view.
15th July, 1675. Our cause was pleaded in behalf of the mother, Mrs. Howard and her daughters, before Baron Thurland, who had formerly been steward of Courts for me; we carried our cause, as there was reason, for here was an impudent as well as disobedient son against his mother, by instigation, doubtless, of his wife, one Mrs. Ogle (an ancient maid), whom he had clandestinely married, and who brought him no fortune, he being heir-apparent to the Earl of Berkshire. We lay at Brickhill, in Bedfordshire, and came late the next day to our journey's end.
This was a journey of adventures and knight-errantry. One of the lady's servants being as desperately in love with Mrs. Howard's woman, as Mr. Graham was with her daughter, and she riding on horseback behind his rival, the amorous and jealous youth having a little drink in his pate, had here killed himself had he not been prevented; for, alighting from his horse, and drawing his sword, he endeavored twice or thrice to fall on it, butwas interrupted by our coachman, and a stranger passing by. After this, running to his rival, and snatching his sword from his side (for we had beaten his own out of his hand), and on the sudden pulling down his mistress, would have run both of them through; we parted them, not without some blood. This miserable creature poisoned himself for her not many days after they came toLondon.
LONDON
19th July, 1675. The Lord Treasurer's Chaplain preached at Wallingford House.
9th August, 1675. Dr. Sprat, prebend of Westminster, and Chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham, preached on the 3d Epistle of Jude, showing what the primitive faith was, how near it and how excellent that of the Church of England, also the danger of departing from it.
27th August, 1675. I visited the Bishop of Rochester, at Bromley, and dined at Sir Philip Warwick's, at Frogpoole [Frognall].
2d September, 1675. I went to see Dulwich College, being the pious foundation of one Alleyn, a famous comedian, in King James's time. The chapel is pretty, the rest of the hospital very ill contrived; it yet maintains divers poor of both sexes. It is in a melancholy part of Camberwell parish. I came back by certain medicinal Spa waters, at a place called Sydenham Wells, in Lewisham parish, much frequented in summer.
10th September, 1675. I was casually shown the Duchess of Portsmouth's splendid apartment at Whitehall, luxuriously furnished, and with ten times the richness and glory beyond the Queen's; such massy pieces of plate, whole tables, and stands of incredible value.
29th September, 1675. I saw the Italian Scaramuccio act before the King at Whitehall, people giving money to come in, which was very scandalous, and never so before at Court diversions. Having seen him act before in Italy, many years past, I was not averse from seeing the most excellent of that kind of folly.
14th October, 1675. Dined at Kensington with my old acquaintance, Mr. Henshaw, newly returned from Denmark, where he had been left resident after the death of the Duke of Richmond, who died there Ambassador.
15th October, 1675. I got an extreme cold, such as was afterward so epidemical, as not only to afflict us in thisisland, but was rife over all Europe, like a plague. It was after an exceedingly dry summer and autumn.
I settled affairs, my son being to go into France with my Lord Berkeley, designed Ambassador-extraordinary for France and Plenipotentiary for the general treaty of peace at Nimeguen.
24th October, 1675. Dined at Lord Chamberlain's with the Holland Ambassador L. Duras, a valiantgentleman whom his Majesty made an English Baron, of a cadet, and gave him his seat of Holmby, in Northamptonshire.
27th October, 1675. Lord Berkeley coming into Council, fell down in the gallery at Whitehall, in a fit of apoplexy, and being carried into my Lord Chamberlain's lodgings, several famous doctors were employed all that night, and with much ado he was at last recovered to some sense, by applying hot fire pans and spirit of amber to his head; but nothing was found so effectual as cupping him on the shoulders. It was almost a miraculous restoration. The next day he was carried to Berkeley House. This stopped his journey for the present, and caused my stay in town. He had put all his affairs and his whole estate in England into my hands during his intended absence, which though I was very unfit to undertake, in regard of many businesses which then took me up, yet, upon the great importunity of my lady and Mr. Godolphin (to whom I could refuse nothing) I did take it on me. It seems when he was Deputy in Ireland, not long before, he had been much wronged by one he left in trust with his affairs, and therefore wished for some unmercenary friend who would take that trouble on him; this was to receive his rents, look after his houses and tenants, solicit supplies from the Lord Treasurer, and correspond weekly with him, more than enough to employ any drudge in England; but what will not friendship and love make one do?
31st October, 1675. Dined at my Lord Chamberlain's, with my son. There were the learned Isaac Vossius, and Spanhemius, son of the famous man of Heidelberg; nor was this gentleman less learned, being a general scholar. Among other pieces, he was author of an excellent treatise on Medals.
10th November, 1675. Being the day appointed for my Lord Ambassador to set out, I met them with mycoach at New Cross. There were with him my Lady his wife, and my dear friend, Mrs. Godolphin, who, out of an extraordinary friendship, would needs accompany my lady to Paris, and stay with her some time, which was the chief inducement for permitting my son to travel, but I knew him safe under her inspection, and in regard my Lord himself had promised to take him into his special favor, he having intrusted all he had to my care.
Thus we set out three coaches (besides mine), three wagons, and about forty horses. It being late, and my Lord as yet but valetudinary, we got but to Dartford, the first day, the next to Sittingbourne.
At Rochester, the major, Mr. Cony, then an officer of mine for the sick and wounded of that place, gave the ladies a handsome refreshment as we came by his house.
DOVER
12th November, 1675. We came to Canterbury: and, next morning, to Dover.
There was in my Lady Ambassadress's company my Lady Hamilton, a sprightly young lady, much in the good graces of the family, wife of that valiant and worthy gentleman, George Hamilton, not long after slain in the wars. She had been a maid of honor to the Duchess, and now turned Papist.
14thNovember, 1675. Being Sunday, my Lord having before delivered to me his letter of attorney, keys, seal, and his Will, we took a solemn leave of one another upon the beach, the coaches carrying them into the sea to the boats, which delivered them to Captain Gunman's yacht, the "Mary." Being under sail, the castle gave them seventeen guns, which Captain Gunman answered with eleven. Hence, I went to church, to beg a blessing on their voyage.
2d December, 1675. Being returned home, I visited Lady Mordaunt at Parson's Green, my Lord, her son, being sick. This pious woman delivered to me £100 to bestow as I thought fit for the release of poor prisoners, and other charitable uses.
21stDecember, 1675. Visited her Ladyship again, where I found the Bishop of Winchester, whom I had long known in France; he invited me to his house at Chelsea.
23d December, 1675. Lady Sunderland gave me ten guineas, to bestow in charities.
20th February, 1675-76. Dr. Gunning, Bishop of Ely, preached before the King from St. Johnxx. 21, 22, 23, chiefly against an anonymous book, called "Naked Truth," a famous and popular treatise against the corruption in the Clergy, but not sound as to its quotations, supposed to have been the Bishop of Hereford's and was answered by Dr. Turner, it endeavoring to prove an equality of order of Bishop and Presbyter.
27th February, 1676. Dr. Pritchard, Bishop of Gloucester, preached at Whitehall, onIsaiah v. 5, very allegorically, according to his manner, yet very gravely and wittily.
29th February, 1676. I dined with Mr. Povey, one of the Masters of Requests, a nice contriver of all elegancies, and exceedingly formal. Supped with Sir J. Williamson, where were of our Society Mr. Robert Boyle, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Petty, Dr. Holden, subdean of his Majesty's Chapel, Sir James Shaen, Dr. Whistler, and our Secretary, Mr. Oldenburg.
4th March, 1676. Sir Thomas Linch was returned from his government of Jamaica.
16th March, 1676. The Countess of Sunderland and I went by water to Parson's Green, to visit my Lady Mordaunt, and to consult with her about my Lord's monument. We returned by coach.
19th March, 1676. Dr. Lloyd, late Curate of Deptford, but now Bishop of Llandaff, preached before the King, on 1 Cor. xv. 57, that though sin subjects us to death, yet through Christ we become his conquerors.
23d March, 1676. To Twickenham Park, Lord Berkeley's country seat, to examine how the bailiffs and servants ordered matters.
24th March, 1676. Dr. Brideoake, Bishop of Chichester, preached a mean discourse for a Bishop. I also heard Dr. Fleetwood, Bishop of Worcester, on Matt. xxvi. 38, of the sorrows of Christ, a deadly sorrow caused by our sins; he was no great preacher.
30th March, 1676. Dining with my Lady Sunderland, I saw a fellow swallow a knife, and divers great pebble stones, which would make a plain rattling one against another. The knife was in a sheath of horn.
Dr. North, son of my Lord North, preached before the King, on Isaiah liii. 57, a very young but learnedand excellent person. Note. This was the first time the Duke appeared no more in chapel, to the infinite grief and threatened ruin of this poor nation.
2d April, 1676. I had now notice that my dear friend Mrs. Godolphin, was returning from Paris. On the 6th, she arrived to my great joy, whom I most heartily welcomed.
28th April, 1676. My wife entertained her Majesty at Deptford, for which the Queen gave me thanks in the withdrawing room at Whitehall.
The University of Oxford presented me with the "Marmora Oxoniensia Arundeliana"; the Bishop of Oxford writing to desire that I would introduce Mr. Prideaux, the editor (a young man most learned in antiquities) to the Duke of Norfolk, to present another dedicated to his Grace, which I did, and we dined with the Duke at Arundel House, and supped at the Bishop of Rochester's with Isaac Vossius.
7th May, 1676. I spoke to the Duke of York about my Lord Berkeley's going to Nimeguen. Thence, to the Queen's Council at Somerset House, about Mrs. Godolphin's lease of Spalding, in Lincolnshire.
11th May, 1676. I dined with Mr. Charleton, and went to seeMr. Montague's new palace, near Bloomsbury, built by Mr. Hooke, of our Society, after the Frenchmanner.36
13th May, 1676. Returned home, and found my son returned from France; praised be God!
22d May, 1676. Trinity Monday. A chaplain of my Lord Ossory's preached, after which we took barge to Trinity House in London. Mr. Pepys (Secretary of the Admiralty) succeeded my Lord as Master.
ENFIELD
2d June, 1676. I went with my Lord Chamberlain to see a garden, at Enfield town; thence, to Mr. Secretary Coventry's lodge in the Chase. It is a very pretty place, the house commodious, the gardens handsome, and our entertainment very free, there being none but my Lord and myself. That which I most wondered at was, that, in the compass of twenty-five miles, yet within fourteen of London, there is not a house, barn, church, or building, besides three lodges. To this Lodge are three great ponds, and some few inclosures, the rest asolitary desert, yet stored with no less than 3,000 deer. These are pretty retreats for gentlemen, especially for those who are studious and lovers of privacy.
We returned in the evening by Hampstead, to see Lord Wotton's house and garden (Bellsize House), built with vast expense by Mr. O'Neale, an Irish gentleman who married Lord Wotton's mother, Lady Stanhope. The furniture is very particular for Indian cabinets, porcelain, and other solid and noble movables. The gallery very fine, the gardens very large, but ill kept, yet woody andchargeable. The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expense.
12th June, 1676. I went to see Sir Thomas Bond's new and fine house by Peckham; it is on a flat, but has a fine garden and prospect through the meadows to London.
2d July, 1676. Dr. Castillion, Prebend of Canterbury, preached before the King, on John xv. 22, at Whitehall.
19th July, 1676. Went to the funeral of Sir William Sanderson, husband to the Mother of the Maids, and author of two large but mean histories of King James and King Charles I. He was buried at Westminster.
1st August, 1676. In the afternoon, after prayers at St. James's Chapel, was christened a daughter of Dr. Leake's, theDuke's Chaplain: godmothers were Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, and the Duchess of Monmouth: godfather, the Earl of Bath.
15th August, 1676. Came to dine with me my Lord Halifax, Sir Thomas Meeres, one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, Sir John Clayton, Mr. Slingsby, Mr. Henshaw, andMr. Bridgeman.
25th August, 1676. Dined with Sir John Banks at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on recommending Mr. Upman to be tutor to his son going into France. This Sir John Banks was a merchant of small beginning, but had amassed £100,000.
26th August, 1676. I dined at the Admiralty with Secretary Pepys, and supped at the Lord Chamberlain's. Here was Captain Baker, who had been lately on the attempt of the Northwest passage. He reported prodigious depth of ice, blue as a sapphire, and as transparent. The thick mists were their chief impediment, and cause of their return.
2d September, 1676. I paid £1,700 to the Marquis de Sissac, which he had lent to my Lord Berkeley, and which I heard the Marquis lost at play in a night or two.
The Dean of Chichester preached before the King, on Acts xxiv. 16; and Dr. Crichton preached the second sermon before him on Psalm xc. 12, of wisely numbering our days, and well employing our time.
3d September, 1676. Dined at Captain Graham's, where I became acquainted with Dr. Compton (brother to the Earl of Northampton), now Bishop of London, and Mr. North, son to the Lord North, brother to the Lord Chief-Justice and Clerk of the Closet, a most hopeful young man. The Bishop had once been a soldier, had also traveled in Italy, and became a most sober, grave, and excellent prelate.
6th September, 1676. Supped at the Lord Chamberlain's, where also supped the famous beauty and errant lady, the Duchess of Mazarine (all the world knows her story), the Duke of Monmouth, Countess of Sussex (both natural children of the King by the Duchess of Cleveland37), and the Countess of Derby, a virtuous lady, daughter to my best friend, the Earl of Ossory.
10th September, 1676. Dined with me Mr. Flamsted, the learned astrologer and mathematician, whom his Majesty had established in the new Observatory in Greenwich Park, furnished with the choicest instruments. An honest, sincere man.
12th September, 1676. To London, to take order about the building of a house, or rather an apartment, which had all the conveniences of a house, for my dear friend, Mr. Godolphin and lady, which I undertook to contrive and survey, and employ workmen until it should be quite finished; it being just over against his Majesty's wood-yard by the Thames side, leading to Scotland Yard.
19th September, 1676. To Lambeth, to that rare magazine of marble, to take order for chimney-pieces, etc., for Mr. Godolphin's house. The owner of the works had built for himself a pretty dwelling house; this Dutchman had contracted with the Genoese for all their marble. We also saw the Duke of Buckingham's glasswork, where they made huge vases of metal as clear, ponderous, and thick as crystal; also looking-glasses far larger and better than any that come from Venice.
9th October, 1676. I went with Mrs. Godolphin and my wife to Blackwall, to see some Indian curiosities; the streets being slippery, I fell against a piece of timber with such violence that I could not speak nor fetch my breath for some space; being carried into a house and let blood, I was removed to the water-side and so home, where, after a day's rest, I recovered. This being one of my greatest deliverances, the Lord Jesus make me ever mindful and thankful!
31st October, 1676. Being my birthday, and fifty-six years old, I spent the morning in devotion and imploring God's protection, with solemn thanksgiving for all his signal mercies to me, especially for that escape which concerned me this month at Blackwall. Dined with Mrs. Godolphin, and returned home through a prodigious and dangerous mist.
9th November, 1676. Finished the lease of Spalding, for Mr. Godolphin.
16th November, 1676. My son and I dining at my Lord Chamberlain's, he showed us among others that incomparable piece of Raphael's, being a Minister of State dictating to Guicciardini, the earnestness of whose face looking up in expectation of what he was next to write, is so to the life, and so natural, as I esteem it one of the choicest pieces of that admirable artist. There was a woman's head of Leonardo da Vinci; a Madonna of old Palma, and two of Vandyke's, of which one was his own picture at length, when young, in a leaning posture; the other, an eunuch, singing. Rare pieces indeed!
4th December, 1676. I saw the great ball danced by all the gallants and ladies at the Duchess of York's.
10th December, 1676. There fell so deep a snow as hindered us from church.
LONDON
12th December, 1676. To London, in so great a snow, as I remember not to have seen the like.
17th December, 1676. More snow falling, I was not able to get to church.
8th February, 1676-77. I went to Roehampton, with my Lady Duchess of Ormond. The garden and perspective is pretty, the prospect most agreeable.
15th May, 1677. Came the Earl of Peterborough, to desire me to be a trustee for Lord Viscount Mordaunt and the Countess, for the sale of certain lands set out by Act of Parliament, to pay debts.
12th June, 1677. I went to London, to give the Lord Ambassador Berkeley (now returned from the treaty at Nimeguen) an account of the great trust reposed in me during his absence, I having received and remitted to him no less than £20,000 to my no small trouble and loss of time, that during his absence, and when the Lord Treasurer was no great friend [of his] I yet procured him great sums, very often soliciting his Majesty in his behalf; looking after the rest of his estates and concerns entirely, without once accepting any kind of acknowledgment, purely upon the request of my dear friend, Mr. Godolphin. I returned with abundance of thanks and professions from my Lord Berkeley and my Lady.
29th June, 1677. This business being now at an end, and myself delivered from that intolerable servitude and correspondence, I had leisure to be somewhat more at home and to myself.
3d July, 1677. I sealed the deeds of sale of the manor of Blechingley to Sir Robert Clayton, for payment of Lord Peterborough's debts, according to the trust of the Act of Parliament.
WOTTON
16th July, 1677. I went to Wotton.—22d. Mr. Evans, curate of Abinger, preached an excellent sermon on Matt. v. 12. In the afternoon, Mr. Higham at Wotton catechised.
26th July, 1677. I dined at Mr. Duncomb's, at Sheere, whose house stands environed with very sweet and quick streams.
29th July, 1677. Mr. Bohun, my Son's late tutor, preached at Abinger, on Phil., iv. 8, very elegantly and practically.
5th August, 1677. I went to visit my Lord Brounker, now taking the waters at Dulwich.
9th August, 1677. Dined at the Earl of Peterborough's the day after the marriage of my Lord of Arundel to Lady Mary Mordaunt, daughter of the Earl of Peterborough.
28th August, 1677. To visit my Lord Chamberlain, in Suffolk; he sent his coach and six to meet and bring me from St. Edmund's Bury to Euston.
29th August, 1677. We hunted in the Park and killed a very fat buck.
31st August, 1677. I went a hawking.
4th September, 1677. I went to visit my Lord Crofts, now dying at St. Edmunds Bury, and took the opportunity to see this ancient town, and the remains of that famous monastery and abbey. There is little standing entire, save the gatehouse; it has been a vast and magnificent Gothic structure, and of great extent. The gates are wood, but quite plated over with iron. There are also two stately churches, one especially.
5th September, 1677. I went to Thetford, to the borough-town, where stand the ruins of a religious house: there is a round mountain artificially raised, either for some castle, or monument, which makes a pretty landscape. As we went and returned, a tumbler showed his extraordinary address in the Warren. I also saw the Decoy; much pleased with the stratagem.
7th September, 1677. There dined this day at my Lord's one Sir John Gaudy, a very handsome person, but quite dumb, yet very intelligent by signs, and a very fine painter; he was so civil and well bred, as it was not possible to discern any imperfection in him. His lady and children were also there, and he was at church in the morning with us.
9th September, 1677. A stranger preached at Euston Church, and fell into a handsome panegyric on my Lord's new building the church, which indeed for its elegance and cheerfulness, is one of the prettiest country churches in England. My Lord told me his heart smote him that, after he had bestowed so much on his magnificent palace there, he should see God's House in the ruin it lay in. He has also rebuilt the parsonage-house, all of stone, very neat and ample.
10th September, 1677. To divert me, my Lord would needs carry me to see Ipswich, when we dined with oneMr. Mann by the way, who was Recorder of the town. There were in our company my Lord Huntingtower, son to the Duchess of Lauderdale, Sir Edward Bacon, a learned gentleman of the family of the great Chancellor Verulam, and Sir John Felton, with some other knights and gentlemen. After dinner came the bailiff and magistrates in their formalities with their maces to compliment my Lord, and invite him to the town-house, where they presented us a collation of dried sweetmeats and wine, the bells ringing, etc. Then, we went to see the town, and first, the Lord Viscount Hereford's house, which stands in a park near the town, like that at Brussels, in Flanders; the house not great, yet pretty, especially the hall. The stews for fish succeeded one another, and feed one the other, all paved at bottom. There is a good picture of the blessed virgin in one of the parlors, seeming to be of Holbein, or some good master. Then we saw the Haven, seven miles from Harwich. The tide runs out every day, but the bedding being soft mud, it is safe for shipping and a station. The trade of Ipswich is for the most part Newcastle coals, with which they supply London; but it was formerly a clothing town. There is not any beggar asks alms in the whole place, a thing very extraordinary, so ordered by the prudence of the magistrates. It has in it fourteen or fifteen beautiful churches: in a word, it is for building, cleanness, and good order, one of the best towns in England. Cardinal Wolsey was a butcher's son of Ipswich, but there is little of that magnificent Prelate's foundation here, besides a school and I think a library, which I did not see. His intentions were to build some great thing.EUSTONWe returned late to Euston, having traveled about fifty miles this day.
Since first I was at this place, I found things exceedingly improved. It is seated in a bottom between two graceful swellings, the main building being now in the figure of a Greek II with four pavilions, two at each corner, and a break in the front, railed and balustered at the top, where I caused huge jars to be placed full of earth to keep them steady upon their pedestals between the statues, which make as good a show as if they were of stone, and, though the building be of brick, and but two stories besides cellars and garrets covered withblue slate, yet there is room enough for a full court, the offices and outhouses being so ample and well disposed. The King's apartment is paintedà fresco, and magnificently furnished. There are many excellent pictures of the great masters. The gallery is a pleasant, noble room; in the break, or middle, is a billiard table, but the wainscot, being of fir, and painted, does not please me so well as Spanish oak without paint. The chapel is pretty, the porch descending to the gardens. The orange garden is very fine, and leads into the greenhouse, at the end of which is a hall to eat in, and the conservatory some hundred feet long, adorned with maps, as the other side is with the heads of the Cæsars, ill cut in alabaster; above are several apartments for my Lord, Lady, and Duchess, with kitchens and other offices below, in a lesser form; lodgings for servants, all distinct for them to retire to when they please and would be in private, and have no communication with the palace, which he tells me he will wholly resign to his son-in-law and daughter, that charming young creature.
The canal running under my Lady's dressing room chamber window, is full of carps and fowl, which come and are fed there. The cascade at the end of the canal turns a cornmill that provides the family, and raises water for the fountains and offices. To pass this canal into the opposite meadows, Sir Samuel Morland has invented a screw bridge, which, being turned with a key, lands you fifty feet distant at the entrance of an ascending walk of trees, a mile in length,—as it is also on the front into the park,—of four rows of ash trees, and reaches to the park pale, which is nine miles in compass, and the best for riding and meeting the game that I ever saw. There were now of red and fallow deer almost a thousand, with good covert, but the soil barren and flying sand, in which nothing will grow kindly. The tufts of fir, and much of the other wood, were planted by my direction some years before. This seat is admirably placed for field sports, hawking, hunting, or racing. The mutton is small, but sweet. The stables hold thirty horses and four coaches. The out-offices make two large quadrangles, so as servants never lived with more ease and convenience; never master more civil. Strangers are attended and accommodated as at their home, inpretty apartments furnished with all manner of conveniences and privacy.
There is a library full of excellent books; bathing rooms, elaboratory, dispensary, a decoy, and places to keep and fat fowl in. He had now in his new church (near the garden) built a dormitory, or vault, with several repositories, in which to bury his family.
In the expense of this pious structure, the church is most laudable, most of the houses of God in this country resembling rather stables and thatched cottages than temples in which to serve the Most High. He has built a lodge in the park for the keeper, which is a neat dwelling, and might become any gentleman. The same has he done for the parson, little deserving it for murmuring that my Lord put him some time out of his wretched hovel, while it was building. He has also erected a fair inn at some distance from his palace, with a bridge of stone over a river near it, and repaired all the tenants' houses, so as there is nothing but neatness and accommodations about his estate, which I yet think is not above £1,500 a year. I believe he had now in his family one hundred domestic servants.
His lady (being one of the Brederode's daughters, grandchild to a natural son of Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange) is a good-natured and obliging woman. They love fine things, and to live easily, pompously, and hospitably; but, with so vast expense, as plunges my Lord into debts exceedingly. My Lord himself is given into no expensive vice but building, and to have all things rich, polite, and princely. He never plays, but reads much, having the Latin, French, and Spanish tongues in perfection. He has traveled much, and is the best bred and courtly person his Majesty has about him, so as the public Ministers more frequent him than any of the rest of the nobility. While he was Secretary of State and Prime Minister, he had gotten vastly, but spent it as hastily, even before he had established a fund to maintain his greatness; and now beginning to decline in favor (the Duke being no great friend of his), he knows not how to retrench. He was son of a Doctor of Laws, whom I have seen, and, being sent from Westminster School to Oxford, with intention to be a divine, and parson of Arlington, a village near Brentford, when Master of Artsthe Rebellion falling out, he followed the King's Army, and receiving anHONORABLE WOUND IN THE FACE, grew into favor, and was advanced from a mean fortune, at his Majesty's Restoration, to be an Earl and Knight of the Garter, Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and first favorite for a long time, during which the King married his natural son, the Duke of Grafton, to his only daughter and heiress, as before mentioned, worthy for her beauty and virtue of the greatest prince in Christendom. My Lord is, besides this, a prudent and understanding person in business, and speaks well; unfortunate yet in those he has advanced, most of them proving ungrateful. The many obligations and civilities I have received from this noble gentleman, extracts from me this character, and I am sorry he is in no better circumstances.
Having now passed near three weeks at Euston, to my great satisfaction, with much difficulty he suffered me to look homeward, being very earnest with me to stay longer; and, to engage me, would himself have carried me to Lynn-Regis, a town of important traffic, about twenty miles beyond, which I had never seen; as also the Traveling Sands, about ten miles wide of Euston, that have so damaged the country, rolling from place to place, and, like the Sands in the Deserts of Lybia, quite overwhelmed some gentlemen's whole estates, as the relation extant in print, and brought to our Society, describes atlarge.
13th September, 1677. My Lord's coach conveyed me to Bury, and thence baiting at Newmarket, stepping in at Audley-End to see that house again, I slept at Bishop-Stortford, and, the next day, home. I was accompanied in my journey by Major Fairfax, of a younger house of the Lord Fairfax, a soldier, a traveler, an excellent musician, a good-natured, well-bred gentleman.
18th September, 1677. I preferred Mr. Phillips (nephew of Milton) to the service of my Lord Chamberlain, who wanted a scholar to read to and entertain him sometimes.
12th October, 1677. With Sir Robert Clayton to Marden, an estate he had bought lately of my kinsman, Sir John Evelyn, of Godstone, in Surrey, which from a despicable farmhouse Sir Robert had erected into a seat with extraordinary expense. It is in such a solitudeamong hills, as, being not above sixteen miles from London, seems almost incredible, the ways up to it are so winding and intricate. The gardens are large, and well-walled, and the husbandry part made very convenient and perfectly understood. The barns, the stacks of corn, the stalls for cattle, pigeon house, etc., of most laudable example. Innumerable are the plantations of trees, especially walnuts. The orangery and gardens are very curious. In the house are large and noble rooms. He and his lady (who is very curious in distillery) entertained me three or four days very freely. I earnestly suggested to him the repairing of an old desolate dilapidated church, standing on the hill above the house, which I left him in good disposition to do, and endow it better; there not being above four or five houses in the parish, besides that of this prodigious rich Scrivener. This place is exceedingly sharp in the winter, by reason of the serpentining of the hills: and it wants running water; but the solitude much pleased me. All the ground is so full of wild thyme, marjoram, and other sweet plants, that it cannot be overstocked with bees; I think he had near forty hives of that industrious insect.
14th October, 1677. I went to church at Godstone, and to see old Sir John Evelyn'sDORMITORY, joining to the church, paved with marble, where he and his Lady lie on a very stately monument at length; he in armor of white marble. The inscription is only an account of his particular branch of the family, on black marble.