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Second Reading

About Pope's Head Alley

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This may be the doggerel of Taylor that Glyn was referring to:

The Popes head neere Smithfield Pens
Popes head in Moorefields
Popes head in Cornhill
Popes head in Chancery lane

Epigram.

These Popes heads are no Authors of Debate,
Nor Schismaticks, or Troublers of the State:
Yet theres good Clarret, and Sack Catholike
Will make a Mad man Tame, a Tame man strike.

About Tuesday 2 July 1661

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"and so to bed." Is this the first time yet?

Not at all. I count three times in January 1659/60, the first on 4 January, and five times in February 1659/60.

About Joseph Jordan

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JORDAN, Sir Joseph.
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His conduct at the battle of Solebay has laid him open to censure of a very particular kind: but as his gallantry, at the very instant when he appears to have incurred this reproach, has never been disputed, even by the person who appears to have had the best ground for condemning him, it is a piece of justice due to the memory of so brave a man, to examine, with some care, the propriety of the charge. This charge is, in few words, that he suffered the ever-to-be-lamented earl of Sandwich to fall a sacrifice to the Dutch, in consequence of his over-solicitude for the safety, and protection of the duke of York. Sir R. Haddock, who was the earl's captain, thus expresses himself in his letter to the duke after the action. "Some short time after sir Joseph Jordan past by us very unkindly to windward, and with how many followers of his division I remember not, and took no notice of us at all, which made me call to mind his saying to your royal highness, when he received his commission, that he would stand between you and danger, which I gave my lord account of." It is, however, the decided opinion of all historians, that sir Joseph, by keeping his wind, was the principal cause of the victory that followed; and however we may feel ourselves naturally impelled to lament a conduct which, in any, the most distant, degree contributed to deprive the world of so great, and good a man, yet posterity would have been much more apt to have condemned the man who had purchased the safety of his admiral at the expence of victory. There is, moreover, this farther excuse to be pleaded in defence of sir Joseph's supposed unkindness. He appears in great measure to have acted as he did, in consequence of his admiral's special command; that the misfortune which befel the earl was owing as much to other unavoidable circumstances, as to any neglect on the part of sir Joseph, for in the former part of sir R. Haddock's letter he says, "I had sent our barge, by my lord's command, a-head, to sir Joseph Jordan, to tack, and with his division to weather the Dutch that were upon us, and beat them down to the leeward of us, and come to our assistance: our pinnace I sent likewise a-stern to command our ships to come to our assistance, which never returned, but were on board several who endeavoured it, but could not effect it." So that the charge may, perhaps with some propriety, be changed from unkind neglect, into irremediable misfortune, which prevented sir Joseph from fulfilling his orders till assistance was too late. On the return of the fleet into port he was appointed vice-admiral of the red.
---Biographia navalis. J. Charnock, 1794.

About Sir George Ayscue

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AYSCOUGH, Sir George,—was descended from an ancient and honourable family in Lincolnshire; his father, William Ayscough, being gentleman of the privy chamber to king Charles the First, sir George was knighted by that monarch.
...
One of Cromwell's last projects was, that of prevailing on sir George to go over to Sweden to command the fleet of Charles Gustavus, who had ever been in the strictest alliance with him, and was now threatened by the Danes and Dutch. But, owing to the delays at home, the fleet sent under the command of vice-admiral Goodson, was prevented by the ice from entering the Baltic. Sir George proceeded to Sweden by land; and, as he was received, so he continued to live in the highest estimation, and favour with the king, to the time of his death, which happened early in the year 1660. Returning to England soon after the restoration, he was appointed commissioner of the navy, and, on the commencement of the Dutch war in 1664, rear-admiral ef the blue. In that station he served at the memorable battle of the 3d of June, having hoisted his flag on board the Henry; and on the duke of York's quitting the fleet, was promoted to be vice-admiral of the red under the earl of Sandwich, who carried the standard as admiral of the fleet. He was afterwards promoted to be admiral of the blue, and served in that capacity in the battle with the Dutch, which began on the 1st of June, 1666. During the two first days of the action sir George, as he had been ever accustomed, behaved with the utmost gallantry; but, unfortunately, on the third, while endeavouring to form a junction with prince Rupert and his squadron, who was hastening to the assistance of the English fleet, then hard pressed by the Dutch, he struck on a sand, called the Galloper, when after having, for a considerable time, defended his ship with the utmost bravery, against an host of enemies, he was at length compelled, his men absolutely refusing to defend the ship any longer, to surrender; and the Dutch being unable to get their conquest off, after having removed the men, set her on fire. The Dutch, according to their wonted Custom, insulting those whom they had conquered, paraded their captive through their whole country, and afterwards shut him up in the castle of Louvestein. When he returned to England he was received in the most gracious manner by the king, and most affectionately by the people. But after the misfortune he had met with, declining going to sea any more, he continued to live privately, and in so great a degree, that it is not, with any certainty, known at what time he died.
---Biographia navalis. J. Charnock, 1794.

About Sir John Chicheley

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CHICHELEY, Sir JOHN (d. 1691), rear-admiral; captain in the navy, 1663; knighted, 1666; served in Dutch war, 1665-6, in Mediterranean, 1668-71, and in Dutch war, 1672-3; rear-admiral, 1673; commissioner of the navy, 1675-80 ; commissioner of the admiralty, 1681-4 and 1689-90.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Christopher Myngs

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MYNGS Sir Christopher, - The first information we have been able to acquire of this truly gallant gentleman is, that he was made commander of the Centurion in the year 1662. In 1664 he was, in rapid succession, captain of the Gloucester, the Portland, and the Royal Oak, and appointed vice admiral of a fleet destined for the channel service, under the chief command of prince Rupert. In the following year, 1665, he hoisted his flag on board the Triumph, as vice admiral of the white squadron. He served in this capacity during the engagement between the duke of York and the Dutch admiral Opdam; and, on the subsequent retirement of the duke of York, he was appointed to serve as vice admiral of the blue. When the fleet returned into port he shifted his flag into the Fairfax; and a strong squadron, of twenty-five sail, formed of the ships in best condition for service, was put under his command, during the winter, for the protection of our commerce, to which end his activity did not a little contribute. The latter end of January he sailed for the Downs, and by that means entirely broke the measures concerted by the Dutch for the protection of their own trade, and the injury of ours. In the middle of February he went to the Elbe for the purpose of convoying home the Hamburgh fleet, a service he completely effected. When the fleet was assembled under the command of the joint admirals, prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle, he removed into the Victory, being appointed, as it is said by some, to serve as vice-admiral of the red. But we have a good deal of reason to doubt this information, and to suppose that, acting as vice-admiral of the white, he led the van of prince Rupert's division, which Was detached, in consequence of false information, to meet the French fleet. He consequently was not present during the three first days of the long battle; but on the fourth, as though he thought it incumbent upon him to make amends for the time he had lost, he fell, exerting himself almost beyond what strict duty and gallantry demanded. We cannot do a greater justice to his memory than by giving an account of the manner of his death, extracted from La Vie de Michael de Ruyter, and inserted by Lediard, "Admiral Myngs having received a musket ball in his throat, would not be persuaded to be bound, or to leave the quarter deck, but held his fingers in the wound to stop the flowing blood, for about half an hour, till another musket ball taking him in the neck, he died after having given the most signal proofs of his courage to the very last gasp."
---Biographia navalis. J. Charnock, 1794.

About Capt. Edward Spragge

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SPRAGGE, Sir EDWARD (d.1673), admiral: born in Ireland; knighted, 1665; took part in the great battle of June 1666 under Prince Rupert, and commanded at Sheerness in 1667, when the Dutch forced the Medway; destroyed the Algerine fleet in Bugia Bay, 1671, and took a brilliant part in battle of Solebay, 1672; admiral of the blue, 1672; served in three actions during 1673, in the third of which, against Cornelis Tromp, on 11 Aug., he was drowned.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Phineas Pett (a, Capt. Pett)

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The publication "Biographia navalis" (J. Charnock, 1794) tells of another Phineas Pett. He "was the son of sir Phineas Pett originally master builder and afterwards commissioner-resident at Chatham." This Phineas, captain of the "Tyger frigate," "fell in with a Zealand privateer" and was killed in May, 1666.

About John Parker

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PARKER, John,—was appointed to the Nonsuch in 1661; the Amity in 1664; and the Yarmouth, a fourth rate of fifty-two guns, in 1666. He did not long enjoy his last command. He fell, however, in the hour of victory, being killed in that ever-memorable fight, on the 25th of July, 1666, between the English fleet, under the command of prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle, and the Dutch, under De Ruyter.
---Biographia navalis. J. Charnock, 1794.

About Sir John Mennes (Comptroller of the Navy)

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MENNIS, or MINNS, Sir John, - was appointed commander of the Henry in 1661, and at the same time received a commission to act as vice-admiral and commander-in-chief of his majesty's fleet in the Narrow Seas, with permission to wear his flag at the main-top, in the absence of his royal highness the duke of York and the earl of Sandwich. It may be thought not a little singular, that no mention is ever made of this gentleman as employed in active service, when we have positive evidence of his having held so distinguished a rank in it. The fact is, he quitted that line of employment soon after the restoration for the comptrollership of the navy, in which office he died early in the year 1671.
--- Biographia Navalis, J. Charnock, 1794.

About James Ley (3rd Earl of Marlborough)

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MARLBOROUGH, James Ley, earl of,—was the grand-son of James Ley, earl of Marlborough, so created by Charles the first, in the year 1626. Having entered into the sea-service he was, in 1661, appointed to command the Dunkirk, and made commodore (or, as it was at that day called, admiral) of a squadron sent to the East Indies, to take possession of Bombay for Charles the Second, as being part of the portion given by Portugal, with the Infanta his intended queen. After his return from thence, he was, in 1665, appointed commander of the Old James, a second rate of seventy guns. He served in this ship as a private captain, in the fleet fitted out the same year, under the duke of York, and unfortunately fell in the action, which took place on the 3d of June, with Opdam. ... Both Basnage, and the author of Tromp's life, bear the most honourable testimony to the gallantry of this noble earl; and give us, as an anecdote relative to his death, "that he was killed in the act of retaking the Montague, a third rate of fifty-eight guns, commanded by captain Carlstake, of which the enemy had taken possession."
--- Biographia Navalis, J. Charnock, 1794.

About Richard Country

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COUNTRY, Richard,—commanded the Hind ketch in the year 1661. In 1662 he was captain of the Emsworth sloop; in 1664 of the Nonsuch ketch; in 1667 of the Forrester; and, in 1668, of the Drake. He next served as lieutenant of the Portland; and, in 1673, was appointed, by Charles the Second, who, after the passing of the Test Act, and consequent retirement of the duke of York, had assumed the management of his navy, captain of the Roebuck. This appears to have been his last command.
--- Biographia Navalis, J. Charnock, 1794.

About Richard Beach

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BEACH, Sir Richard, - was made captain of the Crown [in 1661]. In 1663 he was promoted to the Leopard of fifty-fix guns, and sent as convoy to the Turkey fleet; his commission for this purpose, bearing date December the 14th, 1663, being inserted in the Memoirs of Naval Affairs, from the year 1660 to the year 1672, commonly called "The Duke of York's Memoirs." He continued to command this ship till 1666, when the joint admirals, prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle, removed him into the Fairfax. In the following year the duke of York appointed him to the Greenwich; and, in 1669, to the Hampshire. In 1672, having hoisted his flag on board the Monmouth, he served as rear-admiral of the blue with sir Edward Spragge, on his expedition against the Algerines, and had the good fortune to meet with one of their best ships, mounting forty guns, and carrying three hundred and fifty men. After a short but very smart action he captured her. The peace with Holland taking place soon after his return from the Streights, he quitted the active line of service for some time.
--- Biographia Navalis, J. Charnock, 1794.

About Tuesday 4 June 1661

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"But the houses did not like us"

To LIKEN to please.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

To LIKE
3. To please; to be agreeable to
---A Dictionary of the English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Moorgate

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Moorgate, a postern in the old Wall of London, made in the year 1415 by Thomas Falconer, mercer, mayor; restored in 1472, and rebuilt in 1672, described in 1761 as "one of the most magnificent gates of the City;" it was condemned the same year and the materials sold, April 22, for £166. In 1762 it was demolished, but when the stones were being carted away they were hastily repurchased by the Corporation, on the recommendation of John Smeaton, the eminent engineer, and, with the remaining stones of the other City Gates, at once sunk against the starlings of the newly-widened centre arch of London Bridge, which had shown dangerous symptoms of being washed away by the tides. The remedy proved effectual in arresting the threatened mischief.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Capt. Henry Cooke

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Henry Cooke, chorister of the Chapel Royal, adhered to the royal cause at the breaking out of the Civil Wars, and for his bravery obtained a captain's commission. At the Restoration he received the appointment of Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal; he was an excellent musician, and three of his pupils turned out very distinguished musicians, viz., Pelham Humphrey, John Blow, and Michael Wise. He was one of the original performers in the "Siege of Rhodes." He died July 13th, 1672, and was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Pepys says,- " a vain coxcomb he is, though he sings so well."
---Wheatley, 1896.

About Tuesday 18 June 1661

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"we took great pleasure in their turret-garden"

The munificence of a man of taste raises at an immoderate expense a column or turret in his garden, for no other purpose than the generous one of 'giving delight and wonder to travellers' and the ungrateful public calls it his Folly.
---The London Magazine. 1754.