Thursday 22 August 1667

Up, and to the office; whence Lord Bruncker, J. Minnes, W. Pen, and I, went to examine some men that are put in there, for rescuing of men that were pressed into the service: and we do plainly see that the desperate condition that we put men into for want of their pay, makes them mad, they being as good men as ever were in the world, and would as readily serve the King again, were they but paid. Two men leapt overboard, among others, into the Thames, out of the vessel into which they were pressed, and were shot by the soldiers placed there to keep them, two days since; so much people do avoid the King’s service! And then these men are pressed without money, and so we cannot punish them for any thing, so that we are forced only to make a show of severity by keeping them in prison, but are unable to punish them. Returning to the office, did ask whether we might visit Commissioner Pett, to which, I confess, I have no great mind; and it was answered that he was close prisoner, and we could not; but the Lieutenant of the Tower would send for him to his lodgings, if we would: so we put it off to another time. Returned to the office, where we sat all the morning, and at noon to Captain Cocke’s to dinner; where Lord Bruncker and his Lady, Matt. Wren, and Bulteale, and Sir Allen Apsly; the last of whom did make good sport, he being already fallen under the retrenchments of the new Committee, as he is Master Falconer;1 which makes him mad, and swears that we are doing that the Parliament would have done — that is, that we are now endeavouring to destroy one another. But it was well observed by some at the table, that they do not think this retrenching of the King’s charge will be so acceptable to the Parliament, they having given the King a revenue of so many 100,000l.‘s a-year more than his predecessors had, that he might live in pomp, like a king. After dinner with my Lord Bruncker and his mistress to the King’s playhouse, and there saw “The Indian Emperour;” where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the Emperour’s daughter; which is a great and serious part, which she do most basely. The rest of the play, though pretty good, was not well acted by most of them, methought; so that I took no great content in it. But that, that troubled me most was, that Knipp sent by Moll to desire to speak to me after the play; and she beckoned to me at the end of the play, and I promised to come; but it was so late, and I forced to step to Mrs. Williams’s lodgings with my Lord Bruncker and her, where I did not stay, however, for fear of her shewing me her closet, and thereby forcing me to give her something; and it was so late, that for fear of my wife’s coming home before me, I was forced to go straight home, which troubled me. Home and to the office a little, and then home and to my chamber to read, and anon, late, comes home my wife, with Mr. Turner and Mrs. Turner, with whom she supped, having been with Mrs. Turner to-day at her daughter’s school, to see her daughters dancing, and the rest, which she says is fine. They gone, I to supper and to bed. My wife very fine to-day, in her new suit of laced cuffs and perquisites.

This evening Pelling comes to me, and tells me that this night the Dutch letters are come, and that the peace was proclaimed there the 19th inst., and that all is finished; which, for my life, I know not whether to be glad or sorry for, a peace being so necessary, and yet the peace is so bad in its terms.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Pett and the (op)pressed men...Well, at least some degree of equal opportunity scapegoating underway.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Returning to the office, did ask whether we might visit Commissioner Pett, to which, I confess, I have no great mind; and it was answered that he was close prisoner, and we could not;"

Since his imprisonment at the King's order for failing to save the Royal Charles in favor of his model ships (the templates for any that would need rebuilt), Pett's status was one Pepys well knew.

See 18 June: "So to the office, and by and by word was brought me that Commissioner Pett is brought to the Tower, and there laid up close prisoner;" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

close
adj.
13. strictly guarded: a close prisoner
http://dictionary.reference.com/b…

Glyn  •  Link

And it was known at the time that Pett was unjustly being made a scapegoat, as in Andrew Marvell's sarcastic poem:

"After this loss, to relish discontent,
Someone must be accused by punishment.
All our miscarriages on Pett must fall:
His name alone seems fit to answer all.

Whose counsel first did this mad war beget?
Who all commands sold through the navy? Pett.
Who would not follow when the Dutch were beat?
Who treated out the time at Bergen? Pett.

Who the Dutch fleet with storms disabled met,
And rifling prizes, them neglected? Pett.
Who with false news prevented the Gazette,
The fleet divided, writ for Rupert? Pett.

Who all our seamen cheated of their debt,
And all our prizes who did swallow? Pett.
Who did advise no navy out to set,
And who the forts left unrepairèd? Pett.

Who to supply with powder did forget
Languard, Sheerness, Gravesend and Upnor? Pett.
Who should it be but the Fanatic Pett?

Pett, the sea-architect, in making ships
Was the first cause of all these naval slips:
Had he not built, none of these faults had been;
If no creation, there had been no sin.
But his great crime, one boat away he sent,
That lost our fleet and did our flight prevent."

Ruben  •  Link

"The Indian Emperor" painted by Hogarth
see:
http://www.darvillsrareprints.com…

And a few lines from the play:

"Ah, fading joy, how quickly art thou past!
Yet we thy ruin haste.
As if the cares of human life were few,
We seek out new:
And follow fate, which would too fast pursue.
See how on every bough the birds express
In their sweet notes their happiness.
They all enjoy and nothing spare;
But on their mother nature lay their care.
Why then should man, the lord of all below,
Such troubles choose to know
As none of all his subjects undergo?

Hark, hark, the waters fall, fall, fall,
And with a murmuring sound
Dash, dash upon the ground,
To gentle slumbers call.

CORTES, alone in a night-gown.

All things are hush’d as Nature’s self lay dead;
The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head.
The little Birds in dreams their songs repeat,
And sleeping Flowers beneath the Night-dew sweat:
Even Lust and Envy sleep; yet Love denies
Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"As a song you were born Montezuma"...Still haunting chapter title from "Gonquest" by Hugh Thomas.

Fern  •  Link

"...and I forced to step to Mrs. Williams’s lodgings with my Lord Bruncker and her, where I did not stay, however, for fear of her shewing me her closet, and thereby forcing me to give her something;"
Could someone please tell me what this means?

Mary  •  Link

Mrs. Williams's closet was the small room where she kept (probably in a cabinet) the various treasures, curiosities, objets de vertu etc. that she had collected or been given at various points. These collections were often shown off to visitors.

Sam feared that if he acceded to an invitation to view Mrs. Williams's collections, courtesy would oblige him to offer to add to her inventory by making her a gift of some suitable knick-knack.

Fern  •  Link

Thank you, Mary.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"yet the peace is so bad in its terms."

England was forced to abandon most of West Africa, Polo Run (thus securing a global monopoly on nutmeg) and Surinam, and to give way on certain other controversial points. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tre…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Two men leapt overboard, among others, into the Thames, out of the vessel into which they were pressed, and were shot by the soldiers placed there to keep them, two days since;"

L&M: The incident is not traced elsewhere. Pepys noted in 1666 that pressed men were leaping overboard into the Thames: NWB, p. 113.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Returning to the office, did ask whether we might visit Commissioner Pett, to which, I confess, I have no great mind; and it was answered that he was close prisoner, and we could not; but the Lieutenant of the Tower would send for him to his lodgings, if we would: so we put it off to another time."

L&M: For Pett's imprisonment, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to Captain Cocke’s to dinner; where Lord Bruncker and his Lady, Matt. Wren, and Bulteale, and Sir Allen Apsly; the last of whom did make good sport, he being already fallen under the retrenchments of the new Committee, as he is Master Falconer;"

L&M: Apsley was not himself dismissed, but the establishment of his department, along with others, was reduced by the committee for retrenchment: CTB, ii. 104, 194, 572; CSPD 1667, p. 433.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to the King’s playhouse, and there saw “The Indian Emperour;” where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the Emperour’s daughter; which is a great and serious part, which she do most basely."

L&M: Nell Gwyn had abandoned the stage for a few months to be Lord Buckhurst's mistress: see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
She played Cydaria im this revival (Downes, p. 9) but may not have been in the original cast. It is generally agreed that she was a mediocre tragedienne. The play was a tragedy by Dryden. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"that Knipp sent by Moll to desire to speak to me after the play; and she beckoned to me at the end of the play, and I promised to come; but it was so late, and I forced to step to Mrs. Williams’s lodgings with my Lord Bruncker and her, where I did not stay, however, for fear of her shewing me her closet, and thereby forcing me to give her something;"

L&M: Cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This evening Pelling comes to me, and tells me that this night the Dutch letters are come, and that the peace was proclaimed there the 19th inst., and that all is finished;"

L&M: Pelling (probably John Pelling, apothecary) was presumably reporting the arrival of Dutch newsletters in the city. The peace had been ratified at Breda on the 14th/24th, and proclaimed in the principal cities of the United Provinces shortly thereafter. The news was officially published in England in the London Gazette of the 26th.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The idea of people jumping into the Thames probably horrifies us ... but not so much then.

There's a story about Col. Blood's conversation with Charles II in the 1670's. Blood revealed that he had previously intended to shoot and kill Charles while he was bathing in the Thames but had been swayed otherwise, having found himself in "awe of majesty." (Whatever that means ... I suspect a double entendre.)

The Thames was a tidal river before it became the busiest port in the world; the last time salmon were seen upstream of London Bridge was in 1833 -- still in the time of sailing ships. Roughly 50 years ago environmentalists decided to tackle the problem -- and won! Seals and fish are swimming there again.

https://www.theguardian.com/comme…

Maybe Prince William will give it a go after the new sewage system is in ... wearing swimming trunks, of course.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... that for fear of my wife’s coming home before me, ..."

And finding out you were at the theater AGAIN, Pepys! Wasting money and seeing "that women" Knepp.

I wonder what cover story you told this time. Star gazing with your expensive telescope? Reading up on calculus?

###

I'm noticing a trend: Penn hasn't been a knave recently, and (Sir) isn't appearing before Penn and Mennes' names much any more. Brouncker is still a Lord, but he's the boss. Only Allen Apsley gets the Sir, even if he was considered ridiculous for wanting his job back.

John G  •  Link

Had to smile when Pepys lauds his wife with her cuffs etc. after having complained about their purchase!

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

According to Allen Apsley's Parliamentary biography, in the retrenchment of the Household by the treasury commission, Sir Allen Apsley’s salary of £800 p.a. was unaffected, but his perquisites and the royal mews establishment were drastically reduced, and he was heard to complain that the country had hardly been worse off under the Commonwealth. (A familiar sentiment these days.)

In retaliation next year Sir Allen will mischievously bring in a bill for the sale of crown lands to pay off a debt of £2,300 owed to his father (also Sir Allen Apsley, who had been Keeper of the Tower and a retainer of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham back in the 1620's), which obtained a second reading.

Nevertheless, Sir Allen was able to advance £6,000 to the crown at the standard rate of 6 per cent (Pepys wasn't the only one being strong-armed); and, as a dependent of James, Duke of York, Apsley figured on both lists of the court party at this time. (Remember, he took over from Povy as Treasurer to the Duke of York in 1666, a post he held until he died in 1683.)

During the recent Medway scare, Sir Allen -- now 51 -- was commissioned by Charles II to raise a horse regiment to repel the Dutch in case of invasion.

And Sir Allen continued to be keeper of North Park, Hampton Court from 1662-1670.

And Sir Allen had enough money to be involved in the Royal Adventurers into Africa until 1670.

Not to mention that his wife, Lady Frances Petre Apsley, was employed as a Lady-in-Waiting by Anne Hyde, Duchess of York. And their daughters were educated with Princesses Anne and Mary ... wherein lies many more stories for the end of the 17th century.

The group's mirth was warranted.

http://www.historyofparliamentonl…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All…

john  •  Link

"so that we are forced only to make a show of severity by keeping them in prison, but are unable to punish them."

The good side of Pepys here. I presume that punishment here refers to corporal punishment.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The meat of this sentence, John, is "... these men are pressed without money ..."

Whoever pressed them failed to give/force upon the "sailors" the King's shilling. Therefore, legally I think they were kidnapped, not pressed. Therefore, their escape attempt could not be desertion. Since the Treaty has been ratified, the escape attempt two days ago was not done at a time of war, and therefore their "desertion" cannot be represented as treasonous behavior. Today we would find the continued "show of severity" illegal as well. (This is harvest time. These men are needed at home.)

Has the Dutch fleet gone home yet? Pepys hasn't told us, but since the English ships are still manned, I presume they are still lurking off the coast. On the other hand, lunch with Sir Allen Apsley means he's no longer galloping along the sea shore with his cavalry, and Pepys' theater-going indicates he hasn't expecting any emergencies at the office for at least a week. Brouncker is home from riding his chariot around Chatham.

The whole episode is a disgraceful example of what happened because Charles II failed to adequately protect the nation from the Dutch fleet earlier in the year. Fighting with Lady Castlemaine and having her take revenge by buying dinner plates chargeable to the Privy Purse was a more engaging passtime.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

As to the type of punishment which could have been inflicted ... if it had been war time and they were legally pressed, execution for the ring leaders. Or one way tickets to Barbados.
But it's a peacetime harvest season with farmers illegally held on a navy ship ... they should be sent home. A classic boondoggle, with Pepys and co. kicking the decision(s) upstairs.

john  •  Link

Thank you for the clarification, SDS.

Log in to post an annotation.

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