The Diary of John Evelyn Volume II Part 9

17th May, 1671. Dined at Mr. Treasurer's [Sir Thomas Clifford] with the Earl of Arlington, Carlingford, Lord Arundel of Wardour, Lord Almoner to the Queen, a French Count and two abbots, with several more of French n.o.bility; and now by something I had lately observed of Mr.

Treasurer's conversation on occasion, I suspected him a little warping to Rome.

25th May, 1671. I dined at a feast made for me and my wife by the Trinity Company, for our pa.s.sing a fine of the land which Sir R. Browne, my wife's father, freely gave to found and build their college, or almshouses on, at Deptford, it being my wife's after her father's decease. It was a good and charitable work and gift, but would have been better bestowed on the poor of that parish, than on the seamen's widows, the Trinity Company being very rich, and the rest of the poor of the parish exceedingly indigent.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

26th May, 1671. The Earl of Bristol's house in Queen's Street [Lincoln's Inn Fields] was taken for the Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and furnished with rich hangings of the King's. It consisted of seven rooms on a floor, with a long gallery, gardens, etc.

This day we met the Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Culpeper, Sir George Carteret, Vice-Chamberlain, and myself, had the oaths given us by the Earl of Sandwich, our President. It was to advise and counsel his Majesty, to the best of our abilities, for the well-governing of his Foreign Plantations, etc., the form very little differing from that given to the Privy Council. We then took our places at the Board in the Council-Chamber, a very large room furnished with atlases, maps, charts, globes, etc. Then came the Lord Keeper, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Earl of Arlington, Secretary of State, Lord Ashley, Mr. Treasurer, Sir John Trevor, the other Secretary, Sir John Duncomb, Lord Allington, Mr. Grey, son to the Lord Grey, Mr. Henry Broncher, Sir Humphrey Winch, Sir John Finch, Mr. Waller, and Colonel t.i.tus, of the bedchamber, with Mr. Slingsby, Secretary to the Council, and two Clerks of the Council, who had all been sworn some days before. Being all set, our Patent was read, and then the additional Patent, in which was recited this new establishment; then, was delivered to each a copy of the Patent, and of instructions: after which, we proceeded to business.

The first thing we did was, to settle the form of a circular letter to the Governors of all his Majesty's Plantations and Territories in the West Indies and Islands thereof, to give them notice to whom they should apply themselves on all occasions, and to render us an account of their present state and government; but, what we most insisted on was, to know the condition of New England, which appearing to be very independent as to their regard to Old England, or his Majesty, rich and strong as they now were, there were great debates in what style to write to them; for the condition of that Colony was such, that they were able to contest with all other Plantations about them, and there was fear of their breaking from all dependence on this nation; his Majesty, therefore, commended this affair more expressly. We, therefore, thought fit, in the first place, to acquaint ourselves as well as we could of the state of that place, by some whom we heard of that were newly come from thence, and to be informed of their present posture and condition; some of our Council were for sending them a menacing letter, which those who better understood the peevish and touchy humor of that Colony, were utterly against.

A letter was then read from Sir Thomas Modiford, Governor of Jamaica; and then the Council broke up.

Having brought an action against one c.o.c.ke, for money which he had received for me, it had been referred to an arbitration by the recommendation of that excellent good man, the Chief-Justice Hale,[27]

but, this not succeeding, I went to advise with that famous lawyer, Mr.

Jones, of Gray's Inn, and, 27th of May, had a trial before Lord Chief Justice Hale; and, after the lawyers had wrangled sufficiently, it was referred to a new arbitration. This was the very first suit at law that ever I had with any creature, and oh, that it might be the last!

[Footnote 27: Sir Matthew Hale, so famous as one of the justices of the bench in Cromwell's time. After the Restoration, he became Chief Baron of the Exchequer; then Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and died in 1676. The author of numerous works, not only on professional subjects, but on mathematics and philosophy.]

1st June, 1671. An installation at Windsor.

6th June, 1671. I went to Council, where was produced a most exact and ample information of the state of Jamaica, and of the best expedients as to New England, on which there was a long debate; but at length it was concluded that, if any, it should be only a conciliating paper at first, or civil letter, till we had better information of the present face of things, since we understood they were a people almost upon the very brink of renouncing any dependence on the Crown.

19th June, 1671. To a splendid dinner at the great room in Deptford Trinity House, Sir Thomas Allen chosen Master, and succeeding the Earl of Craven.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

20th June, 1671. To carry Colonel Middleton to Whitehall, to my Lord Sandwich, our President, for some information which he was able to give of the state of the Colony in New England.

21st June, 1671. To Council again, when one Colonel Cartwright, a Nottinghamshire man, (formerly in commission with Colonel Nicholls) gave us a considerable relation of that country; on which the Council concluded that in the first place a letter of amnesty should be dispatched.

24th June, 1671. Constantine Huygens, Signor of Zuylichem, that excellent learned man, poet, and musician, now near eighty years of age, a vigorous, brisk man,[28] came to take leave of me before his return into Holland with the Prince, whose Secretary he was.

[Footnote 28: He died in 1687, at the great age of 90 years and 6 months. Constantine and his son, Christian Huygens, were both eminent for scientific knowledge and cla.s.sical attainments; Christian, particularly so; for he was the inventor of the pendulum, made an improvement in the air-pump, first discovered the ring and one of the satellites of Saturn, and ascertained the laws of collision of elastic bodies. He died in 1695. Constantine, the father, was a person of influence and distinction in Holland, and held the post of secretary to the Prince of Orange.]

26th June, 1671. To Council, where Lord Arlington acquainted us that it was his Majesty's proposal we should, every one of us, contribute 20 toward building a Council chamber and conveniences somewhere in Whitehall, that his Majesty might come and sit among us, and hear our debates; the money we laid out to be reimbursed out of the contingent moneys already set apart for us, viz, 1,000 yearly. To this we unanimously consented. There came an uncertain bruit from Barbadoes of some disorder there. On my return home I stepped in at the theater to see the new machines for the intended scenes, which were indeed very costly and magnificent.

29th June, 1671. To Council, where were letters from Sir Thomas Modiford, of the expedition and exploit of Colonel Morgan, and others of Jamaica, on the Spanish Continent at Panama.

4th July, 1671. To Council, where we drew up and agreed to a letter to be sent to New England, and made some proposal to Mr. Gorges, for his interest in a plantation there.

24th July, 1671. To Council. Mr. Surveyor brought us a plot for the building of our Council chamber, to be erected at the end of the Privy garden, in Whitehall.

3d August, 1671. A full appearance at the Council. The matter in debate was, whether we should send a deputy to New England, requiring them of the Ma.s.sachusetts to restore such to their limits and respective possessions, as had pet.i.tioned the Council; this to be the open commission only; but, in truth, with secret instructions to inform us of the condition of those Colonies, and whether they were of such power, as to be able to resist his Majesty and declare for themselves as independent of the Crown, which we were told, and which of late years made them refractory. Colonel Middleton, being called in, a.s.sured us they might be curbed by a few of his Majesty's first-rate frigates, to spoil their trade with the islands; but, though my Lord President was not satisfied, the rest were, and we did resolve to advise his Majesty to send Commissioners with a formal commission for adjusting boundaries, etc., with some other instructions.

19th August, 1671. To Council. The letters of Sir Thomas Modiford were read, giving relation of the exploit at Panama, which was very brave; they took, burned, and pillaged the town of vast treasures, but the best of the booty had been shipped off, and lay at anchor in the South Sea, so that, after our men had ranged the country sixty miles about, they went back to Nombre de Dios, and embarked for Jamaica. Such an action had not been done since the famous Drake.

I dined at the Hamburg Resident's, and, after dinner, went to the christening of Sir Samuel Tuke's son, Charles, at Somerset House, by a Popish priest, and many odd ceremonies. The G.o.dfathers were the King, and Lord Arundel of Wardour, and G.o.dmother, the Countess of Huntingdon.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

29th August, 1671. To London, with some more papers of my progress in the Dutch War, delivered to the Treasurer.

1st September, 1671. Dined with the Treasurer, in company with my Lord Arlington, Halifax, and Sir Thomas Strickland; and next day, went home, being the anniversary of the late dreadful fire of London.

13th September, 1671. This night fell a dreadful tempest.

15th September, 1671. In the afternoon at Council, where letters were read from Sir Charles Wheeler, concerning his resigning his government of St. Christopher's.

21st September, 1671. I dined in the city, at the fraternity feast in Ironmongers' Hall, where the four stewards chose their successors for the next year, with a solemn procession, garlands about their heads, and music playing before them; so, coming up to the upper tables where the gentlemen sat, they drank to the new stewards; and so we parted.

22d September, 1671. I dined at the Treasurer's, where I had discourse with Sir Henry Jones (now come over to raise a regiment of horse), concerning the French conquests in Lorraine; he told me the King sold all things to the soldiers, even to a handful of hay.

Lord Sunderland was now nominated Amba.s.sador to Spain.

After dinner, the Treasurer carried me to Lincoln's Inn, to one of the Parliament Clerks, to obtain of him, that I might carry home and peruse, some of the Journals, which were, accordingly, delivered to me to examine about the late Dutch War. Returning home, I went on sh.o.r.e to see the Custom House, now newly rebuilt since the dreadful conflagration.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

9th and 10th October, 1671. I went, after evening service, to London, in order to a journey of refreshment with Mr. Treasurer, to Newmarket, where the King then was, in his coach with six brave horses, which we changed thrice, first, at Bishop-Stortford, and last, at Chesterford; so, by night, we got to Newmarket, where Mr. Henry Jermain (nephew to the Earl of St. Alban) lodged me very civilly. We proceeded immediately to Court, the King and all the English gallants being there at their autumnal sports. Supped at the Lord Chamberlain's; and, the next day, after dinner, I was on the heath, where I saw the great match run between Woodc.o.c.k and Flatfoot, belonging to the King, and to Mr. Eliot, of the bedchamber, many thousands being spectators; a more signal race had not been run for many years.

This over, I went that night with Mr. Treasurer to Euston, a palace of Lord Arlington's, where we found Monsieur Colbert (the French Amba.s.sador), and the famous new French Maid of Honor, Mademoiselle Querouaille, now coming to be in great favor with the King. Here was also the Countess of Sunderland, and several lords and ladies, who lodged in the house.

During my stay here with Lord Arlington, near a fortnight, his Majesty came almost every second day with the Duke, who commonly returned to Newmarket, but the King often lay here, during which time I had twice the honor to sit at dinner with him, with all freedom. It was universally reported that the fair lady ----, was bedded one of these nights, and the stocking flung, after the manner of a married bride; I acknowledge she was for the most part in her undress all day, and that there was fondness and toying with that young wanton; nay, it was said, I was at the former ceremony; but it is utterly false; I neither saw nor heard of any such thing while I was there, though I had been in her chamber, and all over that apartment late enough, and was myself observing all pa.s.sages with much curiosity. However, it was with confidence believed she was first made _a Miss_, as they called these unhappy creatures, with solemnity at this time.

On Sunday, a young Cambridge divine preached an excellent sermon in the chapel, the King and the Duke of York being present.

16th October, 1671. Came all the great men from Newmarket, and other parts both of Suffolk and Norfolk, to make their court, the whole house filled from one end to the other with lords, ladies, and gallants; there was such a furnished table, as I had seldom seen, nor anything more splendid and free, so that for fifteen days there were entertained at least 200 people, and half as many horses, besides servants and guards, at infinite expense.

In the morning, we went hunting and hawking; in the afternoon, till almost morning, to cards and dice, yet I must say without noise, swearing, quarrel, or confusion of any sort. I, who was no gamester, had often discourse with the French Amba.s.sador, Colbert, and went sometimes abroad on horseback with the ladies to take the air, and now and then to hunting; thus idly pa.s.sing the time, but not without more often recess to my pretty apartment, where I was quite out of all this hurry, and had leisure when I would, to converse with books, for there is no man more hospitably easy to be withal than my Lord Arlington, of whose particular friendship and kindness I had ever a more than ordinary share. His house is a very n.o.ble pile, consisting of four pavilions after the French, beside a body of a large house, and, though not built altogether, but formed of additions to an old house (purchased by his Lordship of one Sir T. Rookwood) yet with a vast expense made not only capable and roomsome, but very magnificent and commodious, as well within as without, nor less splendidly furnished. The staircase is very elegant, the garden handsome, the ca.n.a.l beautiful, but the soil dry, barren, and miserably sandy, which flies in drifts as the wind sits. Here my Lord was pleased to advise with me about ordering his plantations of firs, elms, limes, etc., up his park, and in all other places and avenues. I persuaded him to bring his park so near as to comprehend his house within it; which he resolved upon, it being now near a mile to it. The water furnishing the fountains, is raised by a pretty engine, or very slight plain wheels, which likewise serve to grind his corn, from a small cascade of the ca.n.a.l, the invention of Sir Samuel Morland. In my Lord's house, and especially above the staircase, in the great hall and some of the chambers and rooms of state, are paintings in fres...o...b.. Signor Verrio, being the first work which he did in England.

[Sidenote: NORWICH]

17th October, 1671. My Lord Henry Howard coming this night to visit my Lord Chamberlain, and staying a day, would needs have me go with him to Norwich, promising to convey me back, after a day or two; this, as I could not refuse, I was not hard to be pursuaded to, having a desire to see that famous scholar and physician, Dr. T. Browne, author of the "_Religio Medici_" and "Vulgar Errors," now lately knighted. Thither, then, went my Lord and I alone, in his flying chariot with six horses; and by the way, discoursing with me of several of his concerns, he acquainted me of his going to marry his eldest son to one of the King's natural daughters, by the d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland; by which he reckoned he should come into mighty favor. He also told me that, though he kept that idle creature, Mrs. B----, and would leave 200 a year to the son he had by her, he would never marry her, and that the King himself had cautioned him against it. All the world knows how he kept his promise, and I was sorry at heart to hear what now he confessed to me; and that a person and a family which I so much honored for the sake of that n.o.ble and ill.u.s.trious friend of mine, his grandfather, should dishonor and pollute them both with those base and vicious courses he of late had taken since the death of Sir Samuel Tuke, and that of his own virtuous lady (my Lady Anne Somerset, sister to the Marquis); who, while they lived, preserved this gentleman by their example and advice from those many extravagances that impaired both his fortune and reputation.

Being come to the Ducal palace, my Lord made very much of me; but I had little rest, so exceedingly desirous he was to show me the contrivance he had made for the entertainment of their Majesties, and the whole Court not long before, and which, though much of it was but temporary, apparently framed of boards only, was yet standing. As to the palace, it is an old wretched building, and that part of it newly built of brick, is very ill understood; so as I was of the opinion it had been much better to have demolished all, and set it up in a better place, than to proceed any further; for it stands in the very market-place, and, though near a river, yet a very narrow muddy one, without any extent.

Next morning, I went to see Sir Thomas Browne (with whom I had some time corresponded by letter, though I had never seen him before); his whole house and garden being a paradise and cabinet of rarities; and that of the best collection, especially medals, books, plants, and natural things. Among other curiosities, Sir Thomas had a collection of the eggs of all the fowl and birds he could procure, that country (especially the promontory of Norfolk) being frequented, as he said, by several kinds which seldom or never go further into the land, as cranes, storks, eagles, and variety of water fowl. He led me to see all the remarkable places of this ancient city, being one of the largest, and certainly, after London, one of the n.o.blest of England, for its venerable cathedral, number of stately churches, cleanness of the streets, and buildings of flint so exquisitely headed and squared, as I was much astonished at; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the flints, in which they so much excelled, and of which the churches, best houses, and walls, are built. The Castle is an antique extent of ground, which now they call Marsfield, and would have been a fitting area to have placed the Ducal palace in. The suburbs are large, the prospects sweet, with other amenities, not omitting the flower gardens, in which all the inhabitants excel. The fabric of stuffs brings a vast trade to this populous town.

Being returned to my Lord's, who had been with me all this morning, he advised with me concerning a plot to rebuild his house, having already, as he said, erected a front next the street, and a left wing, and now resolving to set up another wing and pavilion next the garden, and to convert the bowling green into stables. My advice was, to desist from all, and to meditate wholly on rebuilding a handsome palace at Arundel House, in the Strand, before he proceeded further here, and then to place this in the Castle, that ground belonging to his Lordship.

I observed that most of the church yards (though some of them large enough) were filled up with earth, or rather the congestion of dead bodies one upon another, for want of earth, even to the very top of the walls, and some above the walls, so as the churches seemed to be built in pits.

18th October, 1671. I returned to Euston, in Lord Henry Howard's coach, leaving him at Norwich, in company with a very ingenious gentleman, Mr.

White, whose father and mother (daughter to the late Lord Treasurer Weston, Earl of Portland) I knew at Rome, where this gentleman was born, and where his parents lived and died with much reputation, during their banishment in our civil broils.

21st October, 1671. Quitting Euston, I lodged this night at Newmarket, where I found the jolly blades racing, dancing, feasting, and reveling; more resembling a luxurious and abandoned rout, than a Christian Court.

The Duke of Buckingham was now in mighty favor, and had with him that impudent woman, the Countess of Shrewsbury, with his band of fiddlers, etc.