Monday 27 October 1662
Up, and after giving order to the plasterer now to set upon the finishing of my house, then by water to wait upon the Duke, and walking in the matted Gallery, by and by comes Mr. Coventry and Sir John Minnes, and then to the Duke, and after he was ready, to his closet, where I did give him my usual account of matters, and afterwards, upon Sir J. Minnes’ desire to have one to assist him in his employment, Sir W. Pen is appointed to be his, and Mr. Pett to be the Surveyor’s assistant. Mr. Coventry did desire to be excused, and so I hope (at least it is my present opinion) to have none joined with me, but only Mr. Coventry do desire that I would find work for one of his clerks, which I did not deny, but however I will think of it, whether without prejudice to mine I can do it.
Thence to my Lord Sandwich, who now-a-days calls me into his chamber, and alone did discourse with me about the jealousy that the Court have of people’s rising; wherein he do much dislike my Lord Monk’s being so eager against a company of poor wretches, dragging them up and down the street; but would have him rather to take some of the greatest ringleaders of them, and punish them; whereas this do but tell the world the King’s fears and doubts. For Dunkirk; he wonders any wise people should be so troubled thereat, and scorns all their talk against it, for that he says it was not Dunkirk, but the other places, that did and would annoy us, though we had that, as much as if we had it not. He also took notice of the new Ministers of State, Sir H. Bennet and Sir Charles Barkeley, their bringing in, and the high game that my Lady Castlemaine plays at Court (which I took occasion to mention as that that the people do take great notice of), all which he confessed. Afterwards he told me of poor Mr. Spong, that being with other people examined before the King and Council (they being laid up as suspected persons; and it seems Spong is so far thought guilty as that they intend to pitch upon him to put to the wracke or some other torture), he do take knowledge of my Lord Sandwich, and said that he was well known to Mr. Pepys. But my Lord knows, and I told him, that it was only in matter of musique and pipes, but that I thought him to be a very innocent fellow; and indeed I am very sorry for him. After my Lord and I had done in private, we went out, and with Captain Cuttance and Bunn did look over their draught of a bridge for Tangier, which will be brought by my desire to our office by them to-morrow.
Thence to Westminster Hall, and there walked long with Mr. Creed, and then to the great half-a-crown ordinary, at the King’s Head, near Charing Cross, where we had a most excellent neat dinner and very high company, and in a noble manner.
After dinner he and I into another room over a pot of ale and talked. He showed me our commission, wherein the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, Duke of Albemarle, Lord Peterborough, Lord Sandwich, Sir G. Carteret, Sir William Compton, Mr. Coventry, Sir R. Ford, Sir William Rider, Mr. Cholmley, Mr. Povy, myself, and Captain Cuttance, in this order are joyned for the carrying on the service of Tangier, which I take for a great honour to me.
He told me what great faction there is at Court; and above all, what is whispered, that young Crofts is lawful son to the King, the King being married to his mother. How true this is, God knows; but I believe the Duke of York will not be fooled in this of three crowns.
Thence to White Hall, and walked long in the galleries till (as they are commanded to all strange persons), one come to tell us, we not being known, and being observed to walk there four or five hours (which was not true, unless they count my walking there in the morning), he was commanded to ask who we were; which being told, he excused his question, and was satisfied. These things speak great fear and jealousys. Here we staid some time, thinking to stay out the play before the King to-night, but it being “The Villaine,” and my wife not being there, I had no mind.
So walk to the Exchange, and there took many turns with him; among other things, observing one very pretty Exchange lass, with her face full of black patches, which was a strange sight. So bid him good-night and away by coach to Mr. Moore, with whom I staid an hour, and found him pretty well and intends to go abroad tomorrow, and so it raining hard by coach home, and having visited both Sir Williams, who are both sick, but like to be well again, I to my office, and there did some business, and so home and to bed.
At Sir W. Batten’s I met with Mr. Mills, who tells me that he could get nothing out of the maid hard by (that did poyson herself) before she died, but that she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked, and this was all she could be got to say, which is very strange.
37 Annotations
First Reading
Terry F • Link
"it was not Dunkirk, but the other places"
L&M note: "I.e. the other ports on that coast...Sandwich had been one of those mainly responsible for the sale of Dunkirk...."
"it seems Spong is so far thought guilty...but that I thought him to be a very innocent fellow"
L&M note: "John Spong, Chancery clerk, at his examination, deposed that he had been informed that the Fifth-Monarchy men had bribed some of the Tower guard, and had planned to rise on St. Bartholomew's Day....Pepys wrote in November to Spong's fiend, William Lilly, the astrologer, saying he had spoken to several privy counsellors on Spong's behalf and could, regretfully, do no more....Spong was released on 24 January 1663...."
One would think a good astrologer would have known what was coming and what was not.
"a bridge for Tangier"
L&M note: "A jetty 100 feet long, equipped with a capstan crane...[constucted under the guidance of] Deptford shipwrights...."
"He showed me our commission"
L&M note: "Pepys was a member of the Commission until Mat 1679 and served as its Treasurer from March 1665."
"what is whispered, that young Crofts is lawful son to the King, the King being married to his mother"
L&M note: "This is an early appearance of this rumor - in July 1663 Clarendon was accused of spreading it in order to alienate the King and the Duke of York.... The story became widespread in the 1670s with the growth of the movement to make Crofts (Monmouth) Charles's successor. It was solemnly denied in three proclamations issued in 1679-80. His mother was Lucy Walter (d. 1658)."
"The Villaine"
L&M note: "See 20 October http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… . Now at the Cockpit theatre, Whitehall Palace."
language hat • Link
A busy day and a sad ending:
"...she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while."
Anybody know anything about the "matted Gallery" (presumably 'laid, spread, or hung with matting or mats')?
A. De Araujo • Link
"about the jealousy that the court have of people's rising"
Cortegiani vil razza dannata
Verdi's Rigolleto based on Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse
A. Hamilton • Link
A networking day.
Sam meets with or hears about just about everybody in his Rolodex.With time out to observe "one very pretty Exchange lass, with her face full of black patches, which was a strange sight." Were beauty marks yet in fashion, or was this lass a trend setter?
Jeannine • Link
" that young Crofts is lawful son to the King, the King being married to his mother."
Not really a “spoiler” in any way regarding Sam, but perhaps to note and be aware to look for as it plays out over time. Today’s entry references James Crofts, Charles illegitimate son by Lucy Walters (see below). Over his lifetime, Charles will continue to treat James in a manner that will feed into the belief that James was actually his legitimate son and has a true claim to the throne.
Charles loved and indulged his bastard children by all of his mistresses. He especially loved James and treated him in a manner that set the public to have cause to think of him as a legitimate heir, but more important had James Crofts thinking of himself as a legitimate heir. All of this will have disastrous effects in the future of Charles II and those around him (his brother James and Catherine) as the politics start to kick in and people will demand a Protestant monarchy. .
Lucy Walters from http://www.britannia.com/history/…
The first pretty girl to catch his eye and the first of at least fifteen mistresses, was a Welshwoman, Lucy Walter whom he met in The Hague in the summer of 1648. Lucy took up with Charles shortly after his arrival , and in 1649 gave birth to his first child, James, later Duke of Monmouth. Lucy was her lover's constant companion, but he made the mistake of leaving her behind when he left The Hague in 1650. He returned to find she had been intriguing with a certain Colonel Henry Bennet. Charles ended the affaire there and then, leaving Lucy to a life of prostitution. She died, probably of venereal disease, in 1658.
Jeannine • Link
"Sir Charles Barkeley, their bringing in, and the high game that my Lady Castlemaine plays at Court "
Sir Charles Berkeley (Sam spells it Barkerly)
You have to forgive me for posting this but in case you haven’t had your daily dose of “tabloid trash” this little “resume” of Sir Charles Berkeley (1660 incident) is brought to you from “The Royal Whore” [biography of Lady Castlemaine] by Allen Andrews (page 41-42). You may notice a similarity of character among the “Lady” and her friend Berkeley, and it may help to explain Sam’s disappointment expressed over the last week or so regarding Berkeley’s recent “promotion”……..
After the Duke of York married a very pregnant Anne Hyde, he got cold feet and tried to squirm his way out of the marriage and in order to move things along a “gang of courtiers intrigued to convince the gullible James that Anne Hyde was worthless as a wife because they had all had the ultimate favors from her already. The Earl of Arran declared, with defamatory wit, that once at Hounslaerdyke, where James and Anne had become engaged, she had left a game of ninepins on the pretext of feeling faint and he had followed her to a private room, cut her laces, and ‘exerted himself to the best of his ability both in succour and consolidation’. Harry Jermyn and Richard Talbot offered additional spurious reminiscences. Tom Killigrew, a licensed wit who had decided that the matter was not yet, clinched, contributed a masculinly diverting but completely imaginary account of how ‘he had found the moment of his happiness in a certain closet which was constructed above the water to quite another end than relieving the pangs of love”. Three or four ‘swans’, he added ’had been the witnesses of his good fortune, and he had no doubt that they had witnessed the good fortune of many others in the same closet, since Miss Hyde resorted there often, and seemed indeed inordinately fond of the place’. In conclusion Sir Charles Berkeley, with touching clarity, assured the Duke of York, that he too, had had Anne Hyde, and was not too impressed with her now, but was willing to marry her in order to do the Duke a favor.’” After putting poor Anne through hell and back and having her deliver her son while abandoned by her morally depraved husband, it was “Sir Charles Berkeley who later confessed that his and his cronies’ stories of infidelity with Anne Hyde were impure invention.” This is exactly the type of background one will need to advance in the court of Charles II so perhaps Berkeley will do quite well, if not as a minister then in his well known role of “pimp” to both Charles and Lady Castlemaine (and not necessarily setting them up with each other).. …….Probably the only redeeming part of the story is knowing that the children who were later born by Anne Hyde and James (Mary and Anne) will get revenge on him at a later date and add truth to the saying “what goes around, comes around!”
Jeannine • Link
A. Hamilton
Beauty Marks were on the rise of the more wealthy upper class, and these "patches" were well used by people like Lady Castlemaine. They came in handy to hide marks of smallpox, venereal disease, etc. which could mar a woman's face.
Terry F • Link
L&M note that as many as 15 patches was not altogether uncommon.
Jeannine • Link
Terry --ugh! What were they hiding!
Terry F • Link
"I must here take notice, that Rosalinda, a famous Whig Partizan, has most unfortunately a very beautiful Mole on the Tory Part of her Forehead; which being very conspicuous, has occasioned many Mistakes, and given an Handle to her Enemies to misrepresent her Face, as tho' it had Revolted from the Whig Interest. But, whatever this natural Patch may seem to intimate, it is well known that her Notions of Government are still the same. This unlucky Mole, however, has mis-led several Coxcombs; and like the hanging out of false Colours, made some of them converse with Rosalinda in what they thought the Spirit of her Party, when on a sudden she has given them an unexpected Fire, that has sunk them all at once. If Rosalinda is unfortunate in her Mole, Nigranilla is as unhappy in a Pimple, which forces her, against her Inclinations, to Patch on the Whig Side.
"I am told that many virtuous Matrons, who formerly have been taught to believe that this artificial Spotting of the Face was unlawful, are now reconciled by a Zeal for their Cause, to what they could not be prompted by a Concern for their Beauty. This way of declaring War upon one another, puts me in mind of what is reported of the Tigress, that several Spots rise in her Skin when she is angry, or as Mr. Cowley has imitated the Verses that stand as the Motto on this Paper,
------She swells with angry Pride,
And calls forth all her Spots on ev'ry Side. [Cowley, Davideies, Bk. III]
"When I was in the Theatre the Time above-mentioned, I had the Curiosity to count the Patches on both Sides, and found the Tory Patches to be about Twenty stronger than the Whig; but to make amends for this small Inequality, I the next Morning found the whole Puppet-Show filled with Faces spotted after the Whiggish Manner. Whether or no the Ladies had retreated hither in order to rally their Forces I cannot tell; but the next Night they came in so great a Body to the Opera, that they out-number'd the Enemy.
"This Account of Party Patches, will, I am afraid, appear improbable to those who live at a Distance from the fashionable World: but as it is a Distinction of a very singular Nature, and what perhaps may never meet with a Parallel, I think I should not have discharged the Office of a faithful SPECTATOR, had I not recorded it."
http://tabula.rutgers.edu/spectat…
Terry F • Link
"------She swells with angry Pride,
And calls forth all her Spots on ev'ry Side
(Davideis, Bk III. But Cowley's Tiger is a Male.)"
http://tabula.rutgers.edu/spectat…
Miss Ann • Link
I picture "Charles Barkeley" as a rather tall, good looking basketball player from America - seems like there are no really new names, they simply keep being recycled. When delivering my last child my obstetrician had no less than four (4) women with the same name, or variations thereof. Thankfully I was the only Ann without an "e".
adam w • Link
'she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked'
This is as good a description of the self-loathing of suicidal depression as I've ever read. She may have seemed 'well-favoured' to others who could see no reason for her misery, but it meant nothing to her.
Is 'crooked' here the same usage as the Australian 'crook', i.e. sick? Or is it a more poetic sense of crooked inside, i.e. a description of the distortion of her mind?
Benvenuto • Link
Crookedness
I think it generally meant literally crooked, ie. hunched, swaybacked, or withered on one side perhaps from childhood polio... that sort of thing.
Poor her! -- and poor old Spong, who I guess is up for the rack or similar torture.
A. De Araujo • Link
Miss Ann,don't know about good looking but his nickname is "Sir Charles".
Jeannine • Link
"she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked’
Adam and Benenuto--I agree--it appears that the poor maid was somehow disabled or disfigured and probably suffered in her self-image becasue of it. Today would probably be seen as a "teen suicide". I would imagine back then more shocking because so many religions had such strong feelings about it being a "sin" to take one's life.
Glyn • Link
A. Hamilton The Diary has a link to patches at: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
We know that Elizabeth wore patches - I think it was on 20 November 1660 - and from what Sam wrote it seems that she also wore them before they were married.
Although they could be used to cover up unsightly marks, they were also used just as an adornment and didn't have to be just circles. They could be almost any shape, silhouette and colour. I suppose an equivalent modern fashion would be girls with tattoos, although those can't be taken off at the end of the day.
Glyn • Link
Poor girl took a long time to die if there was time to call the doctor and then the cleric. I have a picture in my mind of her mother and father standing by her bedside asking her why on earth she did it, and she having no real answer. As the others say, it does sound like teenage depression.
Robert Gertz • Link
Sir Will P is now Minnes' assistant?
***
Poor Spong indeed...I wonder what exactly got him into trouble. Sounds from Terry F's note that he has unfortunate connections with the Fifth Monarchy group and might have been indiscreet in mentioning them at the wrong time. Interesting that it came out under examination that he knew Sandwich and Pepys...I assume Sandwich was sitting in Council during the interrogation and had the unhappy experience of hearing Spong being berated and condemned by each member eager to score points, then recognizing him in the group. Points to Sandwich that he took pity on the rank and file among the FMs and called for punishment solely for the ringleaders. He must have been uncomfortably aware that some of them had likely once been valiant soldiers in Cromwell's forces against Charles I.
Tred lightly boys...And watch your backs...
Terry F • Link
"Anybody know anything about the “matted Gallery” (presumably ‘laid, spread, or hung with matting or mats’)?"
Looking ahead a bit -- but this is not exactly a "spoiler":
1662/63, May "23rd To White Hall, where, in the Matted Gallery, Mr Coventry was, who told us how the Parliament have required of Sir G Carteret and him an account what money shall be necessary to be settled upon the Navy for the ordinary charge, which they intend to report £200,000 per annum And how to allott this we met this afternoon, and took their papers for our perusal, and so parted."
http://www.bootlegbooks.com/NonFi…
Other great halls, e.g., Guildhall, also had such galleries as you suppose, language hat.
Andrew Hamilton • Link
patches
This site has riches beyond my imagination. Should have searched it first. The fashion reminds me of a saying,
on growing older, " After [name any age} its just patch, patch, patch."
Terry F • Link
"Sir Will P is now Minnes’ assistant?"
Helas, Robert Gertz, he is, perhaps as befits a junior in years and rank: Sir John Mennes, Comptroller of the Navy, was born in 1599; Sir William Penn, Commissioner of the Navy, was born in 1621.
A L&M note sez "The Comptroller's duties were miscellaneous, and recognised to be particularly difficult [perhaps beyond a life-long sea-dog, but hardly fit for another like]. Both Mennes and Batten [Penn's Superior officer in the Civil War, and now Surveyor of the Navy] resisted [the] appointments" Pepys records here.
Surprise! Bureaucratic inefficiencies abounding; Pepys's hand isn't yet firmly on the Navy's tiller.
Rex Gordon • Link
"black patches"
I recall sometime in the diary's first year (possibly the second, but my copy is not with me today and I can't look it up) that Sam records the first occasion on which he observed his wife Elizabeth sporting black patches, a la mode. As I recall, he wasn't displeased with how she looked, either.
Jeannine • Link
"Black patches"
Rex--you were right--links are below. In the second link he compares Elizabeth to Princess Henrietta and says
"The Princess Henrietta is very pretty, but much below my expectation; and her dressing of herself with her hair frized short up to her ears, did make her seem so much the less to me. But my wife standing near her with two or three black patches on, and well dressed, did seem to me much handsomer than she."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Bradford • Link
Re the Matted Gallery, L. Hat:
A big thick square book from Yale (1999), "Whitehall Palace : An Architectural History of the Royal Apartments, 1240-1698," by Simon Thurley, might tell more; but even its Amazon page offers no glimpses within, and few specifics.
However, if you can bear to peer ahead to 28 August 1668, Pepys gives us this glimpse, from which we can infer backwards:
"So parted, and with much difficulty, by candle-light, walked over the Matted Gallery, as it is now with the mats and boards all taken up, so that we walked over the rafters. But strange to see what hard matter the plaister of Paris
is, that is there taken up, as hard as stone! And pity to see Holben's
work in the ceiling blotted on, and only whited over!"
Over the rafters?
Pauline • Link
Matted Gallery
from L&M Companion entry for Whitehall
On the first floor, roughly parallel to the river, immediately above the Stone Gallery, running from the e. end of the Privy Galley to the staircase leading down to the Bowling Green. For those with business at the palace, it was a convenient semi-private walk. The Duke of York's closet and chief apartments were reached from it in the '60s, with subsidiary rooms belonging to him on the floor below.
Pauline • Link
Over the rafters?
floor joists?
The palace also has:
Boarded Gallery
Henry VIII's Gallery
Long Gallery
Matted Gallery
New Gallery
Privy Gallery
Shield Gallery
Stone Gallery
Descriptive names. From the conjectural plan of the first floor of the palace in L&M Companion, it is clear that the galleries are hallways; the halls, rooms (I'm working in American English here where we say hallways and a gallery holds art). The galleries appear to be broad enough to walk and meet to talk in. Also appear to be the semi-public parts of the palace.
dirk • Link
Pauline's comment from the L&M Companion Volume can be found also online, at Google Print:
http://print.google.com/print?q=%…
...as well as the following...
"Inside the river side of the palace, access to the most important section, that between the Great Court to the north and the Bowling Green to the south, was given by three galleries: the Stone Gallery, with the Matted Gallery above it, and, at right angles to them, the Privy gallery." [p.477-478]
"[the] King's apartments [were] mainly on the first floor and communicating with the rest of the palace via the Matted and Privy Galleries." [p.482]
Pauline • Link
Dirk, our posts about Whitehall should probably be put in Background/Places/Other London Buildings/Whitehall
Phil, could we link "matted gallery" in today's entry to the Whitehall page? Other ideas?
Cumgranissalis • Link
Galleries also called by some ambulacrum[s], long rooms [40 +ft] a place to walk,to amble, to stroll to discuss topic, hold meetings, to be out of the luverly London mucky weather, and to suffer chesty smoke as reported by J.Evelyn [that virginy baccy].
Australian Susan • Link
Galleries
Nowadays, galleries are somewhere to look at art. In the 16th century houses began to be built with a long, narrow room inside in which one could walk up and down to get exercise in inclement weather - a Long Gallery (Burton Constable House has a lovely example. See http://home.btconnect.com/burtonc… this has a picture of the Long Gallery on the right). At this time (late 17th cent), they have become, as Pauline posted, semi-public places to walk up and down in and have informal meetings. I am not sure when the artworks hanging in these galleries became the main reason for their existence and came to have the definitions we associate solely with the word today. Anyone know?
Comparing black patches with tattoos is not really the same: patches were worn by respectable middle class ladies such as our Mrs Elizabeth, whereas I am not sure that the wife of a high-ranking Civil Servant today would have a prominent tattoo.
Crook as a word for ill: an Australianism developed much past our Diary period. I think the poor girl had scoliosis or kyphosis. In those days, there was still the old folk idea that physical deformity was either the work of the devil or the fairies and such persons could be shunned, which would certainly be a catalyst for depression.
Australian Susan • Link
More on Burton Constable
The Long Gallery here is described as having been covered with matts in the 17th century and sparsely furnished.
language hat • Link
Thanks, Pauline!
I should have thought to look in the Companion. Great map there (pp. 480-481) if you can access it via Google Print.
Bradford • Link
Perhaps a link of the two meanings of "gallery" is seen in Pepys's lament for Holbein's lost "work" on the ceiling.
Second Reading
Louise Hudson • Link
"she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked’
Nothing changes.
Chris Squire UK • Link
At this date galleries served as external corridors connecting rooms. Inside corridors has not yet been invented. They were also used, as here, as exercise space, where one could walk up and down and converse.
OED has:
‘corridor, n. < French corridor < Italian corridore (also corridoio) a long passage in a building or between two buildings, < correre to run . .
. . 3. An outside gallery or passage round the quadrangle or court of a building, connecting one part with another.
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 129 The Court below is formd into a Squar by a Corridor, having over the chiefe Entrance a stately Cupola cover'd with stone.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Corridor, a gallery or long isle round about a building, leading to several chambers at a distance from each other . . ‘
whence:
‘4. a. A main passage in a large building, upon which in its course many apartments open. Also fig. Cf. coulisse n. 4.
1814 Byron Corsair iii. xix. 90 Glimmering through the dusky corridore, Another [lamp] chequers o'er the shadowed floor . . ‘
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
In case you didn't follow the link to PATCHES, Pepys' dislike of them had recently been reinforced by a 1662 tract called "A Wonder of Wonders, of a Metamorphosis of Fair Faces voluntarily transformed into foul Visages, or an Invective against black-spotted Faces".
This assured readers that:
“Hell gate is open day and night
For such as in black-spots delight;
If pride their faces spotted make,
For pride then hell their souls will take.
Black spots and patches in the face
to sober women bring disgrace;
Lewd harlots by such spots are known.”
Why?
(1) Patches were imported from France;
and (2) they could cover the scars of the French Pox, so unsuspecting men could be seduced by infected women with syphilis -- or so the misogynists said, never considering that the reverse was true also.
Nevertheless, patches came in handy for men and women, and were used in layers of society into the 18th century
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…