Friday 14 December 1666
Up, and very well again of my pain in my back, it having been nothing but cold. By coach to White Hall, seeing many smokes of the fire by the way yet, and took up into the coach with me a country gentleman, who asked me room to go with me, it being dirty — one come out of the North to see his son, after the burning his house: a merchant. Here endeavoured to wait on the Duke of York, but he would not stay from the Parliament. So I to Westminster Hall, and there met my good friend Mr. Evelyn, and walked with him a good while, lamenting our condition for want of good council, and the King’s minding of his business and servants. I out to the Bell Taverne, and thither comes Doll to me … [and yo did tocar la cosa of her as I pleased; – L&M] and after an hour’s stay, away and staid in Westminster Hall till the rising of the house, having told Mr. Evelyn, and he several others, of my Gazette which I had about me that mentioned in April last a plot for which several were condemned of treason at the Old Bayly for many things, and among others for a design of burning the city on the 3rd of September. The house sat till three o’clock, and then up: and I home with Sir Stephen Fox to his house to dinner, and the Cofferer with us. There I find Sir S. Fox’s lady, a fine woman, and seven the prettiest children of theirs that ever I knew almost. A very genteel dinner, and in great state and fashion, and excellent discourse; and nothing like an old experienced man and a courtier, and such is the Cofferer Ashburnham. The House have been mighty hot to-day against the Paper Bill, showing all manner of averseness to give the King money; which these courtiers do take mighty notice of, and look upon the others as bad rebells as ever the last were. But the courtiers did carry it against those men upon a division of the House, a great many, that it should be committed; and so it was: which they reckon good news. After dinner we three to the Excise Office, and there had long discourse about our monies, but nothing to satisfaction, that is, to shew any way of shortening the time which our tallies take up before they become payable, which is now full two years, which is 20 per, cent. for all the King’s money for interest, and the great disservice of his Majesty otherwise.
Thence in the evening round by coach home, where I find Foundes his present, of a fair pair of candlesticks, and half a dozen of plates come, which cost him full 50l., and is a very good present.
And here I met with, sealed up, from Sir H. Cholmly, the lampoone, or the Mocke-Advice to a Paynter,1 abusing the Duke of York and my Lord Sandwich, Pen, and every body, and the King himself, in all the matters of the navy and warr. I am sorry for my Lord Sandwich’s having so great a part in it.
Then to supper and musique, and to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
“…. I out to the Bell Taverne, and thither comes Doll to me and yo did tocar la cosa [ I did touch the thing ] of her as I pleased; and after an hour’s stay away, and stayed in Westminster-hall till the rising of the House, having told Mr. Eveling, and he several others, of my Gazette which I had about me, that mentioned in April last a plot for which several were condemned of treason at the Old bayly for many things; and among others, for a design of burning the City on the 3rd of September. ….” http://www.pepys.info/bits3.html#…
Terry Foreman • Link
"here I met with, sealed up, from Sir H. Cholmly, the lampoone, or the Mocke-Advice to a Paynter, abusing the Duke of York and my Lord Sandwich, Pen, and every body, and the King himself, in all the matters of the nay and warr. I am sorry for my Lord Sandwich’s having so great a part in it."
For 'The Second advice to a painter, being the last work of Sir John Denham' attributed to Andrew Marvell, see *Poems on affairs of state: Augustan satirical verse, 1660-1714* By George de Forest Lord http://bit.ly/5AOS0G
Concerning Lord Sandwich, which Pepys most laments, the poet writes:
"Now treating Sandwich seems the fittest choice
For Spain, there to condole and to rejoice;
He meets the French, but, to avoid all harms,
Slips to the Groin (embassies bear not arms!) /
There let him languish a long quarantine,
And ne'er to England come till he be clean."
http://bit.ly/6wBpBd pp.50-51.
CGS • Link
the new set up at house of X has an interesting xref points.
Robert Gertz • Link
Oh for the days when one's subordinates gave decent presents (or else).
But interesting that Sam never feels obligated to provide a large gift to Coventry. Naturally he couldn't give the Duke or King anything worthy beyond his devoted service so...Phew...No problem there unless Castlemaine one day decides not to pass up tapping such a potentially lucrative cash flow.
"A 'voluntary' gift?...To my Lady Castlemaine's favorite charity?...To be named at some date later by her?" Sam stares.
"It was suggested to me that 50Ls from each of us would be about right." Batten sighs.
(Actually this comes from a great old US political story about a well-connected pol's mistress who used to do just this with his staff and those contributors who relied on his 'efforts' on their behalf...Though it's a pretty common tale...And as typical, Madame Greed finally met her fate trying to tap the wrong state judge.)
CGS • Link
giftes are always nice, tis a nice way to get on the fast track or be derailed if enept.
CGS • Link
coffs up:
"... where I find Foundes his present, of a fair pair of candlesticks, and half a dozen of plates come, which cost him full 50l., and is a very good present; ..."
Terry Foreman • Link
"met my good friend Mr. Evelyn, and walked with him a good while, lamenting our condition for want of good council, and the King’s minding of his business and servants"
Evelyn does not mention this or any other meeting of Pepys, with whom he had earlier corresponded ( http://bit.ly/5IUqlQ ), and surely saw from tine to time at the Royal Society where both were (infrequently-attending) Fellows -- until 10 June 1669, just after Samuel Pepys ceased to enter his Journall.
Evelyn's Diary entry of 10 June 1669 reads:
"Came my Lord Cornbury, Sir William Pulteney, and others to visit me. I went this evening to London, to carry Mr. Pepys to my brother Richard, now exceedingly afflicted with the stone, who had been successfully cut, and carried the stone as big as a tennis ball to show him, and encourage his resolution to go through the operation." http://ia341331.us.archive.org/2/…
language hat • Link
"Evelyn does not mention this or any other meeting of Pepys"
"Evelyn’s Diary entry of 10 June 1669 reads: ... I went this evening to London, to carry Mr. Pepys to my brother Richard"
I'm confused.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I’m confused."
LH, I should have said my point in posting the entry 2 1/2 year on from the Diary of Evelyn is to illustrate the difference in their Diaries and the men.
I.a., Evelyn tracked his brothers' health in his Diary and will usher Pepys onto the scene at last as at expert in what his brother Richard suffers from.
They are, indeed, by December 1666, quite acquainted with each other, but it means different things to the gunpowder heir, who comes up from his estate on occasion to advise the King and the pricklouse's son and working man who lives in government housing.
Terry Foreman • Link
120. Marc Antonio Giustinian, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
....A combination of accidents, or, to speak more correctly, an accumulation of misfortunes, is bringing England to reason. Some of their privateers have damaged and subsequently occupied certain islands belonging to the Spaniards in the Indies, including that of Santa Cattarina. [A]t the very time when Spain is being asked to make fresh connections with England, that country is proceeding to usurp her dominions....
The quarrel mentioned in previous letters between the duke of Albemarle and the chancellor [Clarendon] was genuine and serves to keep the two Houses out of harmony and at cross purposes, with notable loss to the interests of the country....
The Dutch on the other hand leave nothing untried to bring about quiet.....
Paris, the 14th December, 1666.
[Italian.] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"But the courtiers did carry it against those men upon a division of the House, a great many, that it should be committed; and so it was: which they reckon good news. "
L&M: The vote to pass the stamp-duty bill passed by 89 to 52. CJ, viii. 662. Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Terry Foreman • Link
"to shew any way of shortening the time which our tallies take up before they become payable, which is now full two years, which is 20 per, cent. for all the King’s money for interest"
L&M: I.e. the King had to borrow from the bankers for two years at 10%.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Foundes his present, of a fair pair of candlesticks, and half a dozen of plates come, which cost him full 50l., and is a very good present"
L&M: William Fownes, clerk to the Storekeeper at Deptford yard, had been appointed Clerk of the Cheque there at Michaelmas. On 1 February 1667 Pepys found him to be 'a very child' in his nusiness and had to give him a lesson in it.
Terry Foreman • Link
"here I met with, sealed up, from Sir H. Cholmly, the lampoone, or the Mocke-Advice to a Paynter,1 abusing the Duke of York and my Lord Sandwich, Pen, and every body, and the King himself, in all the matters of the navy and warr"
L&M: In parody of Waller's Instruction to a painter (1665, celebrating the Battle of Lowestoft), there had just published The second advice ti a painter, being the last work of Sir John Denham (dated 1667), a satirical description of the same battle. Neither rhis nor any of its sequels (10 January, 1 July, 16 September) is in the PL. This and the Third advice have been attributed (uncertainly) to Marvell. The copy Pepys here refers to appears to have been in MS. Pepys had himself once thought of writing something similar: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…