Thursday 30 October 1662

Could sleep but little to-night for thoughts of my business. So up by candlelight and by water to Whitehall, and so to my Lord Sandwich, who was up in his chamber and all alone, did acquaint me with his business; which was, that our old acquaintance Mr. Wade (in Axe Yard) hath discovered to him 7,000l. hid in the Tower, of which he was to have two for discovery; my Lord himself two, and the King the other three, when it was found; and that the King’s warrant runs for me on my Lord’s part, and one Mr. Lee for Sir Harry Bennet, to demand leave of the Lieutenant of the Tower for to make search. After he had told me the whole business, I took leave and hastened to my office, expecting to be called by a letter from my Lord to set upon the business, and so there I sat with the officers all the morning. At noon when we were up comes Mr. Wade with my Lord’s letter, and tells me the whole business. So we consulted for me to go first to Sir H. Bennet, who is now with many of the Privy Counsellors at the Tower, examining of their late prisoners, to advise with him when to begin.

So I went; and the guard at the Tower Gate, making me leave my sword at the gate, I was forced to stay so long in the ale-house hard by, till my boy run home for my cloak, that my Lord Mayor that now is, Sir John Robinson, Lieutenant of the Tower, with all his company, was gone with their coaches to his house in Minchen Lane. So my cloak being come, I walked thither; and there, by Sir G. Carteret’s means, did presently speak with Sir H. Bennet, who did show and give me the King’s warrant to me and Mr. Leigh, and another to himself, for the paying of 2,000l. to my Lord, and other two to the discoverers. After a little discourse, dinner come in; and I dined with them. There was my Lord Mayor, my Lord Lauderdale, Mr. Secretary Morris, to whom Sir H. Bennet would give the upper hand; Sir Wm. Compton, Sir G. Carteret, and myself, and some other company, and a brave dinner. After dinner, Sir H. Bennet did call aside the Lord Mayor and me, and did break the business to him, who did not, nor durst appear the least averse to it, but did promise all assistance forthwith to set upon it. So Mr. Lee and I to our office, and there walked till Mr. Wade and one Evett his guide did come, and W. Griffin, and a porter with his picke-axes, &c.; and so they walked along with us to the Tower, and Sir H. Bennet and my Lord Mayor did give us full power to fall to work. So our guide demands, a candle, and down into the cellars he goes, inquiring whether they were the same that Baxter1 always had. We went into several little cellars, and then went out a-doors to view, and to the Cole Harbour; but none did answer so well to the marks which was given him to find it by, as one arched vault. Where, after a great deal of council whether to set upon it now, or delay for better and more full advice, we set to it, to digging we went to almost eight o’clock at night, but could find nothing. But, however, our guides did not at all seem discouraged; for that they being confident that the money is there they look for, but having never been in the cellars, they could not be positive to the place, and therefore will inform themselves more fully now they have been there, of the party that do advise them. So locking the door after us, we left work to-night, and up to the Deputy Governor (my Lord Mayor, and Sir H. Bennet, with the rest of the company being gone an hour before); and he do undertake to keep the key of the cellars, that none shall go down without his privity. But, Lord! to see what a young simple fantastique coxcombe is made Deputy Governor, would make one mad; and how he called out for his night-gown of silk, only to make a show to us; and yet for half an hour I did not think he was the Deputy Governor, and so spoke not to him about the business, but waited for another man; at last I broke our business to him; and he promising his care, we parted. And Mr. Leigh and I by coach to White Hall, where I did give my Lord Sandwich an account of our proceedings, and some encouragement to hope for something hereafter, and so bade him good-night, and so by coach home again, where to my trouble I found that the painter had not been here to-day to do any thing, which vexes me mightily. So to my office to put down my journal, and so home and to bed.

This morning, walking with Mr. Coventry in the garden, he did tell me how Sir G. Carteret had carried the business of the Victuallers’ money to be paid by himself, contrary to old practice; at which he is angry I perceive, but I believe means no hurt, but that things maybe done as they ought. He expects Sir George should not bespatter him privately, in revenge, but openly. Against which he prepares to bedaub him, and swears he will do it from the beginning, from Jersey to this day. And as to his own taking of too large fees or rewards for places that he had sold, he will prove that he was directed to it by Sir George himself among others. And yet he did not deny Sir G. Carteret his due, in saying that he is a man that do take the most pains, and gives himself the most to do business of any man about the Court, without any desire of pleasure or divertisements; which is very true. But which pleased me mightily, he said in these words, that he was resolved, whatever it cost him, to make an experiment, and see whether it was possible for a man to keep himself up in Court by dealing plainly and walking uprightly, with any private game a playing: in the doing whereof, if his ground do slip from under him, he will be contented; but he is resolved to try, and never to baulke taking notice of any thing that is to the King’s prejudice, let it fall where it will; which is a most brave resolucion. He was very free with me; and by my troth, I do see more reall worth in him than in most men that I do know.

I would not forget two passages of Sir J. Minnes’s at yesterday’s dinner. The one, that to the question how it comes to pass that there are no boars seen in London, but many sows and pigs; it was answered, that the constable gets them a-nights. The other, Thos. Killigrew’s way of getting to see plays when he was a boy. He would go to the Red Bull, and when the man cried to the boys, “Who will go and be a devil, and he shall see the play for nothing?” then would he go in, and be a devil upon the stage, and so get to see plays.

41 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"the King’s warrant runs for me on my Lord’s part, and one Mr. Lee for Sir Harry Bennet, to demand leave of the Lieutenant of the Tower for to make search."

L&M note: "The treasure (of gold, silver and jewels) was supposed to have been hidden by John Barkstead, a goldsmith of the Strand, who had been Lieutenant of the Tower, 1652-60. Recently he had been arrested in Holland, and in April 1662 had been executed. It was alleged that he had been unable to recover his hoard before he fled abroad at the Restoration. Several attempts have been made since Pepys's time (e.g. in 1958) to find it...."

Robert Gertz was that you?

Terry F  •  Link

"I was forced to stay so long in the ale-house hard by, till my boy run home for my cloak"

L&M note: "When out of doors a gentleman was properly dressed only if he carried a sword or wore an upper garment."

* * *

"Mr. Secretary Morris, to whom Sir H. Bennet would give the upper hand;"

L&M note: "Both were Secretaries of State, but Morice was the senior by appointment."

Glyn  •  Link

According to my computer's word count, this entry is over 1,200 words long (!). Assuming that he's composing this as he goes along and writing at 20 words per minute - he must pause at some point to gather his thoughts - then he took just over an hour to write this. When did he find the time?

On first reading this, I jumped to the conclusion that Mr Wade had "discovered" the buried treasure, but it's clear that he was just passing on information and it's still to be found. On the face of it, it is at least plausible that the previous man in charge of the Tower could have hid his wealth there - it's very burglar proof.

Terry F  •  Link

Mr Coventry "prepares to bedaub [Sir G.C.] and swears he will do it from the beginning, from Jersey to this day."

L&M note: "Carteret was royalist Governor of Jersey, 1643-51. For some of the stories criticising his conduct there, see [Wed. 24 June 1663]."

Judith Boles  •  Link

This reminds me of the Cheapside Hoard discovered in the early 1900's. Any possibility the hiding place was incorrect?

Terry F  •  Link

"Cheapside Hoard" - plausible place; all jewelry; no gold or silver

"The numerous and diverse objects of the Hoard had lain undisturbed in their deeply interred hiding place for some 300 years until they were dug up during excavation work in Cheapside in London [England] in 1912. Thus all the recovered objects date to before the mid-17th century, which was a time when Cheapside had been 'the principle market street in London' and was noted for its goldsmiths' shops." http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/n…

Lovely photographs of the jewelry. Thanks for the lead, Judith Boles!

Terry F  •  Link

"Mr. Coventry...did tell me how Sir G. Carteret had carried the business of the Victuallers’ money to be paid by himself, contrary to old practice"

We were introduced to this Thursday 12 June 1662: "But a great difference happened between Sir G. Carteret and Mr. Coventry, about passing the Victualler’s account, and whether Sir George is to pay the Victualler his money, or the Exchequer; Sir George claiming it to be his place to save his threepences. It ended in anger, and I believe will come to be a question before the King and Council."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Pepys, who chose to stay out of it, may prove to have been right.

Bradford  •  Link

What a cock & bull tale of buried treasure, divvied and spent before it's found. Here's a better idea: let's all go be devils on the stage, for All Hallow's Eve!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"He was very free with me; and by my troth, I do see more reall worth in him than in most men that I do know."

A little sad that Coventry, one of the most able and, I think, sincerely noble men in the government, is working to achieve an efficient technocratic autocracy that would have crushed most of what we hold to be the basic human freedoms...

Of course Charlie and Jamie are not Adolf Hitler and Pepys is not Albert Speer...Yet one does wonder just how blind an eye Sam has and might turn to real oppression of old colleagues and friends. Or how far many of us who consider ourselves decent human beings and supporters, more or less of democracy, etc, might go down the dark path...Sitting in our cushy offices, enjoying our perks, and hoping those who suffer at the orders we pass on will never show on our doorstep.

Terry F  •  Link

The search for the Hoard leads to "the Cole Harbour."

L&M note: "A stone gateway."

In this Richard III Society discussion of investigations into the fate of Edward IV's sons, structures excavated in the Tower are identified (Fig. 1) as "Cole Harbour" and (Fig. 2) "Cole (Cold) Harbour Tower and Gate." http://www.r3.org/bookcase/misc/w…

There is skull-duggery here....

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

"Discretion 'tis the better part of Valour" one has to decide where the LINE be. Belly must be fed before it rumbles?
Better said by Juvenal in Satirae, 143-144
Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arca, tantum habet et fidei.
or in Saxon
the honor of the man is worth as much as the cash he has in his little leather pouch of coin.

JWB  •  Link

Cole Harbours
were wayside shelters for travellors without a fire or innkeeper. Perhaps a Coleharbour attached to the White tower was a hostel for retainers of visitors entertained in the warmer harbour within.

Joe  •  Link

"But which pleased me mightily, he said in these words, that he was resolved, whatever it cost him, to make an experiment, and see whether it was possible for a man to keep himself up in Court by dealing plainly and walking uprightly, with any private game a playing"

Many things to please Pepys: Coventry's bravery, his commitment to open dealing, his scientific bent to "experiment;" perhaps even a touch of "better his experiment than mine," too.

GRC  •  Link

What! No link to Lauderdale? Isn't he the "L" in Cabal?

MikeCamel  •  Link

Glyn - it is a long entry, but why assume only 20 words a minute? Isn't Sam using shorthand of some type?

adam w  •  Link

Cole Harbour

Thanks, JWB - I've been puzzled by the various Coldharbour place names around Britain - chilly refuges!

But would there really be one of these within the Tower of London - most are in (formerly) rural areas where a refuge by the roadside would be welcome. There is no shortage of inns around the Tower, in Pepys day or now.

If L&M say this is a stone gateway, is this not likely to be where coal was delivered (by river?) - i.e. a coal harbour, not a cold harbour?

Leo Starrenburg  •  Link

The fact that some things simply have not changed over the centuries keeps surprising me. I wonder how many readers can picture someone they know who fits this description:

"But, Lord! to see what a young simple fantastique coxcombe is made Deputy Governor, would make one mad; and how he called out for his night-gown of silk, only to make a show to us; and yet for half an hour I did not think he was the Deputy Governor, and so spoke not to him about the business, but waited for another man".

cheers, Leo.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

"cole 'arbour"; not too many can afford the delights of the coaching inns, there be many a merchant of the lesser sort that may have digs, but not the farthings to pay the inn keeper especially if lost their wad on the local doings.
harbour [harbor] ME herberwe,ON herberg [army shelter]
which blends nicely for the non linguists of arbor= tree, ship,mast, oar, gallows. [Latin nat.]
Cole [coal, old king etc.]

Terry F  •  Link

harbor

c.1150, from O.E. herebeorg, from here "army, host" (see harry) + beorg "refuge, shelter" (related to beorgan "save, preserve")[Ger. Herberg "hostel"][cf. burg "fortress", bourge, borough, etc.]; perhaps modeled on O.N. herbergi, from P.Gmc. *kharjaz + *berg-. Sense shifted in M.E. to "refuge, lodgings," then to "place of shelter for ships." http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

Thanks, CGS for directing the analyis back to the Navy!

Australian Susan  •  Link

"I found that the painter had not been here to-day to do any thing, which vexes me mightily."
Things don't change, do they? Bet he had the same excuses as the 21st century painters too.

Glyn  •  Link

MikeCamel - although Pepys uses shorthand, I thought he might still need time to plan what he was going to say - it still must take time to write all this out.

Bradford's right - let's all be devils for All Hallows Eve! Did very many plays require devils in them, or is this something that would be specific to plays put on or around Halloween, which is why they're discussing it?

CGS  •  Link

from the same source for the cockney version----arbor vitae a special new name of fir tree [1664]..

dirk  •  Link

Re - Robert Gertz

"A little sad that Coventry [...] is working to achieve an efficient technocratic autocracy that would have crushed most of what we hold to be the basic human freedoms…"

I understand your point, but let's not forget that these (democratic) human freedoms you mention were something unthinkable in Sam's time. A government with a King who rules as he sees fit, in the name of God - and as such is always right - was the generally accepted standard then. Only the French Revolution (1789) would put an end to this...

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Only the French Revolution (1789) would put an end to this"
Well, a dozen or so years earlier, there were a few guys on the west side of the Pond who also had a different idea.

Pauline  •  Link

'Only the French Revolution (1789) would put an end to this…'
It is hoped. "...who rules as he sees fit, in the name of God - and as such is always right...." Some contemporary instances to see through first....

Xjy  •  Link

Only the French Revolution (1789) would put an end to this…

dirk on Tue 1 Nov 2005, Re - Robert Gertz

" “A little sad that Coventry […] is working to achieve an efficient technocratic autocracy that would have crushed most of what we hold to be the basic human freedoms…”

I understand your point, but let’s not forget that these (democratic) human freedoms you mention were something unthinkable in Sam’s time. A government with a King who rules as he sees fit, in the name of God - and as such is always right - was the generally accepted standard then. Only the French Revolution (1789) would put an end to this… "

Generally accepted my foot!
Unthinkable my arse!
See Macchiavelli's works The Prince (on Monarchy) and Discourses on Livy (on the Republic), for instance. And many many documents by republicans and egalitarians from the first half of the 17th century. Even Hobbes is unthinkable without the pressures of democracy and equality on the monarchist regime. And don't forget the Taborites in the 16th century! Not just thinking radical republicanism, but doing it.
And Cromwell and the yeomen of England put an end to it as far as this country was concerned decades before. Charles and the Restoration were by no means "generally accepted", as the bourgeois-Orange coup in 1688 demonstrated quite conclusively.
What's more, the French Revolution was just another step in the right direction, nothing conclusive about it. The big step was the English Revolution. The French Revolution widened the road the English pioneered.
Since 1848, the bourgeoisie has given up on improving society for all its members and the torch has passed to the proletariat. History is still happening, with all its twists and turns.
What we are witnessing in Sam's diary is the adaptation of a spectral monarchist regime to a bourgeois revolution. The baby can't be stuffed back in the womb, but it can be dressed up and painted to be what it ain't, and driven around in a gilded coach and four instead of a suitable pram...

CGS  •  Link

Democracy---is somewhere between absolute power [divine right of kings {boss}, birth, me rite ye wrong] and anarchy where every one does it their way.
England has had touch of freedom from King be right, CI lost his head for not being able to bend a little, like a predecessor K. John who angered his power base as did Charley one, Charley two is feeling his way trying not to anger the city ['tis where the money be] unfortunately or fortunately those that had a differing opinion did not unite , but were bribed to start there own version of divine rites [13 {lucky} offshoots]. When Geo III upset them, this group were then united in trying to control their own wealth, so we have the Declaration of ..., whereas the the southern [Spanish/Portuguese] rebels of S.America never united but splintered and are still trying to come up with a constitution to allow some to keep their wealth.[Chile be on its 5 th version, France be on its another versions of freedoms of.... and England refuses to write one]
'Tis bad policy to anger the money men, ye get revolutions that way.
Sir F. Bacon did point the way, where be muck piled up, there be a blow up, and money be like muck it to will blow up when piled up in one pocket.
The revolts, though said to be in the name of the hoi polloi, never in the final analyst be that, just a new group of divine riters.

dirk  •  Link

The big step was the English Revolution.

Re - Xiy -

My ... whatever. I don't agree. The English Revolution with Cromwell was shortlived, and afterwards we find another King on the throne, who can do very much as he pleases really. And we can hardly call Cromwell's britain a democracy, can we?

You're of course right that the French Revolution wasn't the only factor that modernized the way nations would be governed. The American Revolution also played a part, but had less radical ideas, and less impact on Britain's and the continent's views on these matters. The French Revolution was a landmark because it explicitly replaced the monarchy by a government by the people (however imperfect at the time), which is why it's generally accepted as the end of the "ancien régime". The American Revolution was in its origin about independence from a King who was felt to be unjust, at first without the explicit intention to change the system too much.

(Just want to point out that I'm not French, and I'm not being chauvinistic here. If you don't believe me, check any textbook on European history.)

Australian Susan  •  Link

Just another note on this - whilst I agree with dirk, I would like to point out that England was the first European country whose parliament arrested, tried and executed its monarch.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

ON THE DISCOVERIES AT THE TOWER OF LONDON IN THE SPRING OF 1899.

A portion of the site of these excavations is the foundation of the Cold Harbour Tower, which formerly stood at the south-west corner of the White Tower, and formed the entrance to an enclosure containing the domestic apartments of the Palace, which occupied the entire south-east angle of' the inner ward.1 At the southeast corner of the White Tower stood the Wardrobe Tower.2

In the twenty-third year of the reign of King Henry VIII (A.D. 1532) a survey was made of the Tower of London, in order to a. general repair of its different buildings, in which the item relating to the Cold Harbour Tower is as follows :

“The tower called Colde-Harber—The same tower the most part of it to be taken down and to be gazettyde tabled ventyde lowped copyde and crestyd wh cane stone and the vics of the same inendyd as also rough cast with lyme.”

“The wall from the tower and lodgyng of the King’s re'co’ds‘ upon the right hand going up to the hyll adioynyng vnto Colde Harbour g! in lengthe cxxx of foote the same wall to be ventyd iowped copy‘1 and crestyd with cane stone and also rough cast with ynie.”

1 Bailey’s Hist. of the Tower.
2 The Cold Harbour Tower is sometimes referred to as the Cold Harbour Gate; and in the Harleian MS. No. 1326 there is a description : “ The Nun’s Bower— the Prisons over the Cole harbour Gate."
http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Louise Hudson  •  Link

✹
Glyn wrote:

According to my computer's word count, this entry is over 1,200 words long (!). Assuming that he's composing this as he goes along and writing at 20 words per minute - he must pause at some point to gather his thoughts - then he took just over an hour to write this. When did he find the time?

On first reading this, I jumped to the conclusion that Mr Wade had "discovered" the buried treasure, but it's clear that he was just passing on information and it's still to be found. On the face of it, it is at least plausible that the previous man in charge of the Tower could have hid his wealth there - it's very burglar proof.

This is what people got up to in the days before television or the Internet.

JayW  •  Link

I doubt that Sam spent too much time planning his entries. He was used to setting down his thoughts and recollections daily. Here he tells the story of the treasure hunt from getting up to going to bed, back-tracks to the morning walk with Mr Coventry and adds on the final stories as an afterthought so he doesn't forget them. Not exactly a minute by minute chronological account!

Clark Kent  •  Link

The discussion about the wonders of democracy brings to mind the old saw to the effect that democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner.

Or the Fatal Sequence: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. That that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuring, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

Or is it too bleak to think that monarchy will Trump democracy?

Bill  •  Link

Clark, a strange entry. Do you know of any "permanent form of government"? As for voting "largess out of the public treasury," I think it has historically been a powerful minority that gets all that largess while they blame it on the majority. And please tell me about all those democracies that have collapsed into monarchies...

Clark Kent  •  Link

Athens, Rome, the Weimar Republic come to mind, although an argument can be made about whether and when a dictator becomes a king. Plutocracies seem to be the most popular sequelae lately.

Ivan  •  Link

Reading of Pepys' encounter with the "young simple fantastic coxcombe" Deputy-Governor of the Tower and his silk dressing gown I was reminded of a similar encounter between Hotspur and a King's messenger [Henry 1V Part 1 1iii ], where Hotspur is enraged by a "popinjay" who demands his prisoners and is refused:

" For he made me mad
To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,
Of guns, and drums, and wounds, God save the mark!"

Hotspur roundly denounces his effeminacy:

"Fresh as a bridegroom: and his chin new reaped
Showed like a stubble land at harvest home.
He was perfumed like a milliner,
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose, and took't away again"

Sam manages to suppress his anger somewhat better than Hotspur.

eileen d.  •  Link

re: Clark Kent's The Fatal Sequence, above, some sourcing info Wikiquote article titled Benjamin Franklin:

[under subsection headed] "Misattributed

'When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.'

"There is no evidence that Franklin ever actually said or wrote this, but it's remarkably similar a quote often attributed, without proper sourcing, to Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexander Fraser Tytler:

'A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.'"

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He would go to the Red Bull, and when the man cried to the boys, “Who will go and be a devil, and he shall see the play for nothing?” then would he go in, and be a devil upon the stage, and so get to see plays."

L&M: Before 1642 the Red Bull playhouse in St John's St, Clerkenwell, had catered for prebian tastes, and one type of production especially favoured there was colloquially known as 'infernal' -- a play containing diabolical apparitions. Killegrew had evidently been recruited in entertainments of this kind.

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.