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Second Reading

About Vauxhall ("Fox-hall")

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Foxhall, Faukeshall, or Vauxhall, a manor in Surrey, properly Fulke's Hall, and so called from Fulke de Breaute, the notorious mercenary follower of King John. The manor house was afterwards known as Copped or Copt Hall. Sir Samuel Morland obtained a lease of the place, and King Charles made him Master of Mechanics, and here "he (Morland), anno 1667, built a fine room," says Aubrey, "the inside all of looking-glass and fountains, very pleasant to behold." The gardens were formed about 1661, and originally called the "New Spring Gardens," to distinguish them from the "Old Spring Gardens" at Charing Cross, but according to the present description by Pepys there was both an Old and a New Spring Garden at Vauxhall. Balthazar Monconys, who visited England early in the reign of Charles II., describes the Jardins Printemps at Lambeth as having lawns and gravel walks, dividing squares of twenty or thirty yards enclosed with hedges of gooseberry trees, within which were planted roses.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Vauxhall ("Fox-hall")

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Vauxhall Gardens, on the Surrey side of the Thames, and a short distance east of Vauxhall Bridge, over against Millbank, a place of public resort from the reign of Charles II. almost to the present time, and celebrated for its walks, lit with thousands of lamps; its musical and other performances; its suppers, including ham cut in wafery slices, and its fireworks. The Gardens were formed circ. 1661, and originally called "The New Spring Gardens," to distinguish them from the Old Spring Gardens at Charing Cross.

Not much unlike what His Majesty has already begun by the wall from Old Spring Gardens to St. James's in that Park, and is somewhat resembled in the New Spring Garden at Lambeth.—Evelyn's Fumifugium, 1661.
July 2, 1661.—I went to see the New Spring Garden at Lambeth, a pretty contrived plantation.—Evelyn.
The ladies that have an inclination to be private take delight in the close walks of Spring Gardens,—where both sexes meet, and mutually serve one another as guides to lose their way, and the windings and turnings in the little Wildernesses are so intricate, that the most experienced mothers have often lost themselves in looking for their daughters.—Tom Brown's Amusements,, 1700.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Henry Harris

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There has been some doubt as to the Christian name of this actor, but Mr. R.W. Lowe proves conclusively that it was Henry, and not Joseph ("Thomas Betterton," p. 72). "Henry Harris, of the city of London, painter," was one of the contracting parties in the agreement for Davenant's Company of November 5th, 1660. He left the company, and expected to be eagerly sought after by Killigrew, but the king prevented his attaching himself to the other house, and he had in the end to rejoin Davenant's company. He acted Romeo when Betterton took Mercutio. This, as Mr. Lowe remarks, seems strange, considering that Pepys says Harris was "a more ayery man" than Betterton. One would expect the "airy" man to take the character of Mercutio. Mr. Lowe supposes that Harris died or retired about 1682.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Barbara Howard (b. Villiers, Countess of Suffolk)

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Barbara, second wife of James Howard, Earl of Suffolk, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, sister of William, Viscount Grandison, and widow of the Hon. Charles Wenman. She died December, 1681, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Felton, Bart. There is a portrait of her at Audley Court.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Barbara Howard (b. Villiers, Countess of Suffolk)

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Barbara Villiers – Countess of Suffolk

This Barbara was the eldest daughter of Sir Edward Villiers and Barbara St John, making her aunt to two Royal mistresses and a Royal favourite.
Baptised in Westminister Abbey on June 1, 1622, Barbara was on the celebrity A list from birth, thanks to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, her father’s half brother and favourite of King James I.
A prized pawn in the matrimony market, Barbara was married off at a young age, although there appears to be some confusion over the identity of Barbara’s first husband. The Westminster Abbey archives describe him as Thomas Wenman, son and heir of Philip third Viscount Wenman while other sources have him as Richard Wenman son of Thomas 2nd Viscount Wenman. The marriage was most probably of short duration as Thomas/Richard died in 1646, aged 24 and leaving no issue. By the age of 28 Barbara had seen off husband number two, Sir Richard Wentworth.
On February 13, 1650 Barbara married James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, her third marriage and his second. Then, with the King recently beheaded and the population collectively holding its breath waiting to see how this whole new Commonwealth thing was going to pan out, Barbara repaired to possibly one of the most palatial properties in the country, Audley End. ...
During the ten years of the interregnum James hung on to his estates while keeping his head below the parapets of Audley End. A closet Royalist he knew it would all come good in the end. With the restoration of the monarchy came a royal wedding and the arrival of the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. The new Queen and the uncrowned one, Countess of Castlemaine came head to head in the Lady of the Bedchamber crisis when poor Catherine was forced to accept her husband’s mistress – and the Lady’s aunt as well.
But the Countess of Suffolk appears to have perfected the work/home life balance. When in July 1662 her niece insisted on giving her son by Charles II a Protestant christening at St Margaret’s, Westminster in addition to the Catholic one he had already received, Barbara acted as witness alongside the King himself. However later that year when Catherine was dangerously ill and it was feared she might die, Barbara, Groom of the Stole to the Queen, was one of her closest attendants.
Barbara died on December 13, 1681 of apoplexy – a 17th century term for what is today called a stroke. She was buried at the church of St Mary’s, Saffron Walden close to her old home at Audley End. Her husband joined her there seven years later.
https://goodgentlewoman.wordpress…

About Friday 3 July 1663

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“and meeting Sir J. Minnes there, he and I walked to look upon Backwell’s design of making another alley from his shop through over against the Exchange door, which will be very noble and quite put down the other two.”

Mr. J. Biddulph Martin's valuable work, " The Grasshopper in Lombard Street," 1892, contains much information about Edward Backwell. "Backwell carried on business at the Unicorn in Lombard Street, adjoining the Grasshopper; but there is some obscurity on this point. Backwell seems to have occupied both these premises, and the Grasshopper is stated to have been formerly in the tenure or occupation of Edward Backwell, Esq., afterwards of Charles Duncombe, Esq." (p. 31). Mr. Martin supposes that by "the other two" are meant "Pope's Head Alley to the west, and the alley opposite Abchurch Lane to the east" (p. 185). The "London Gazette" of June 1st, 1682, contains the following notice: "The creditors of Edward Backwell, Esq., are desired to take notice that the said Edward Backwell hath published his proposals, and that they will be delivered to them or any they shall please send for them by Mr. Richard Snagg, or by some other person, at Mr. Valentine Duncombe's shop, where the said Edward Backwell formerly dwelt in Lombard Street"
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Wednesday 1 July 1663

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"my Lord of Sunderland (whom I do not know) was so near to the marriage of his daughter as that the wedding-clothes were made, and portion and every thing agreed on and ready; and the other day he goes away nobody yet knows whither, sending her the next morning a release of his right or claim to her, and advice to his friends not to enquire into the reason of this doing, for he hath enough for it; but that he gives them liberty to say and think what they will of him, so they do not demand the reason of his leaving her, being resolved never to have her, but the reason desires and resolves not to give."

A letter from the Comte de Comminges, French ambassador at Whitehall, to M. de Lionne, dated "Juillet 2-12, 1663," contains another account of this rumour: "Je vous avois mandé que le Comte de Sunderland épousoit la fille du Comte de Bristol. Il se retira le soir qu'on devoit l'épouser, et donna ordre à un de ses amis de rompre le mariage. Le procédé surprit toute la cour, et le Roi méme s'en est moqué, et l'a blamé au dernier point."
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Sir William Russell

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RUSSELL, Sir WILLIAM, first baronet (d. 1654), treasurer of the navy; free brother of East India Company, 1609; director, 1615; director of company of Merchants of London, 1612; bought treasurership of navy, 1618, and held office till c. 1627; reappointed, 1630; created baronet, 1630.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Henry Harris

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[There appears to be one than one applicant for the role of Pepy’s Harris]

Joseph Harris, a celebrated actor, who first appeared at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1662. He probably died, or left the stage about 1676. That the Christian name of the actor at Davenant’s house, and the friend of Pepys, was Joseph, rests on the supposition that he was the Joseph Harris author of several plays produced in the reign of William III., and an actor also. If Pepys’s Harris and the dramatic poet were identical, he lived into Queen Anne's reign. It seems more probable that they were different persons, and that Pepys’s friend was named Henry. There is a mezzotint of Joseph Harris, in the character of Cardinal Wolsey, in the Pepysian Library at Cambridge; only one other impression of this print is known to exist, which belongs to Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

HARRIS, JOSEPH (?)(fl. 1661-1681), actor; played in Sir William D'Avenant's company at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Dorset Garden; Romeo to Betterton's Mercutio, 1662; took original roles in plays by D'Avenant, Dryden, Etherege, and Otway; intimate with Pepys.

HARRIS, JOSEPH (fl. 1661-1702), actor and dramatist; member of king's company at Theatre Royal; engraver to the mint on accession of Anne; four plays ascribed to him.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

Joseph Harris as Cardinal Wolsey [at the Victoria and Albert Museum]
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item…

Joseph [i.e. Henry] Harris [as Wolsey in Shakespeare's King Henry VIII] [graphic] / Dawe, sculpt.
http://luna.folger.edu/luna/servl…

About Wallingford House

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Wallingford House stood on the site of the present Admiralty. It originally belonged to the Knollys family, and during the Protectorate, the office for granting passes to persons going abroad was kept there.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Sir Allen Apsley (jr, MP Thetford)

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APSLEY, SIR ALLEN (1616-1683), royalist leader; son of Sir Allen Apsley; educated at Merchant Taylors' and Trinity College, Oxford; M.A., 1663; commanded company of horse, 1642; royalist governor of Exeter and later of Barnstaple, which he surrendered to the parliamentarians, 1646; engaged with Sir John Berkeley in negotiations between king and army, 1647; appointed to various offices in royal household after 1660; colonel in Duke of York's army, 1667; M.P. for Thetford, 1661-1678; buried in Westminster Abbey; published a long poem,' Order and Disorder,' 1679.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir Robert Foster (Lord Chief Justice 1660-3)

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FOSTER, SIR ROBERT (1589-1663), lord chief-justice, 1660-3; barrister, Inner Temple, 1610; serjeant-at-law, 1636; justice of common pleas, 1640-3; D.C.L. Oxford, 1643; removed after trial of Captain Turpin, 1644: during Commonwealth practised as chamber counsel; restored, 1660, and made chief-justice for zeal in trial of regicides; procured execution of Sir Harry Vane.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir Charles Sedley

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SEDLEY, Sir CHARLES (1639?-1701), wit and dramatic author; of Wadham College, Oxford; entered parliament after the Restoration as one of members (barons) for New Romney; achieved notoriety as a fashionable profligate; wrote two tragedies and three comedies, besides prose pieces and poems (collected in 'A New Miscellany' and in a 'Collection of Poems,' 1701).
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Robert Spencer (2nd Earl of Sunderland)

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SPENCER, ROBERT, second Earl Of Sunderland (1640-1702), only son of Henry Spencer, first earl of Sunderland, by his wife, Dorothy ('Sacharissa'); born at Paris; succeeded to the title, 1643; studied in Southern Europe and at Christ Church, Oxford, showing much precocity; married, in 1665, a rich heiress, Anne Digby; after paying assiduous court to Charles II's mistresses, obtained political employment on embassies to Madrid and to Paris, 1671-2: early in 1679, upon payment of 6,000l., succeeded Williamson as secretary of state for the northern department; during the next eighteen months was in the inner cabinet, and exercised much influence; dismissed for his intrigues with the demagogues and exclusionists (February 1681), on which he recanted, made abject submission to James, duke of York, and regained his place in 1683, striving especially to oust Halifax and Rochester from favour; as a strenuous supporter of the royal prerogative, no less than as a subtle contriver of expedients, commended himself to James II on his accession in 1685, and showed his skill by the way in which he avoided being compromised by Monmouth; his unscrupulous intrigues against his chief rival with James II, Rochester, consummated by his throwing in his lot with the victorious catholic party, and by his gaining the complete confidence of James II’s queen; supported the repeal of the Test Act, the recall of the three British regiments from Holland, and the committal of the seven bishops; renounced protestantism, 1687, but was disturbed by the internal feuds of the catholic party, and was all the time making overtures to the Prince of Orange; was sceptical of the success of an invasion, but flattered himself that he might act as mediator between king and parliament; advised remedial measures when too late; fled in female disguise to Rotterdam early in November 1688; reverted to protestantism, and from Rotterdam sent William of Orange (William III) numerous explanations and suggestions, which convinced William that his skill as a wirepuller was indispensable; advised William III to confide in a united whig ministry in preference to a composite body of whigs and tories, and by his own diplomatic skill made the scheme a success; endeavoured to obtain ostensible position and power, and (1697) was made lord chamberlain and one of the lords justices; his appointment strongly resented, even the whig junto, though they owed him much, shrinking from his defence; hastily resigned office, but retained his great wealth and much of his influence until his death. He has generally been considered, and probably with justice, as the craftiest, most rapacious, and most unscrupulous of all the politicians of his age.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Saturday 2 May 1663

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"I calling her beggar, and she me pricklouse"

PRICKLOUSE, A word of contempt for a taylor.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Wednesday 29 April 1663

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“and arrogated all that ever my Lord hath done to be only by his direction and persuasion”

To ARROGATE, to claim or challenge, to take upon one's self, to assume too much to one's self, to boast.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.