1849.] PEPYS'S DIARY. attentive observer will appear very extraor- | A less imperative call on his gratitude was dinary. Page after page retails with seeming accuracy the particulars of conversations which must necessarily have lasted through several hours, and which it would be thought almost impossible to take down except by the aid of shorthand. That these details are generally accurate, we are very willing to believe; but the circumstances should be remembered, in estimating the information so conveyed. After such specimens, however, of his method and diligence, we can no longer wonder at the value set on the official services of the Clerk of the Acts. one day made by the necessitous monarch himself. The hint was not very pleasantly received, "there being," as our journalist observes, "no delight in lending money now, to be paid by the king two years hence.' However, he went to "Westminster, to the Exchequer, to see what sums of money other people lend upon the Act, and find of all sizes, from £1000 to £100, nay to £50 and to £20 and to £5, for I find that one Dr. Reade, Doctor of Law, gives no more, and others of them £20, which is a poor thing methinks that we should stoop so low as to borrow such sums. Upon the whole I do think to lend, since I must lend, £300, though God knows, it is much against my will to lend my money... but I find it necessary I should, and so will speedily do it, before any of my fellows begin-and lead to a bigger sum!""" To appreciate these and similar entries, it is necessary to be acquainted with the gradual progress of Mr. Pepys's circumstances; and, indeed, this little financial history supplies a very good illustration of several characteristics of the age. Our hero was in the habit of making up "monthly balances" of his property and effects, so that we are enabled to trace his worldly advancement with unusual precision. He began life with that stimulative capital-nothing. His first record of his plight gives "My own private condition very handsome-and esteemed rich, but indeed very poor; besides my goods of my house, and my office (not the Clerkship of the Acts), which is at present somewhat certain."-"June 3. 1660. At sermon in the morning: after dinner into my cabin to cast my accounts up, and find myself to be worth near £100, for which I bless Almighty God, it being more than I hoped for so soon, being, I believe, not clearly worth £25 when I came to sea, besides my house and goods." This, however, soon improves by the gettings of his new office. A year afterward, "To my father's. There I told him how I would have him speak to my uncle Robert concerning my buying of land-that I could pay ready money £600 and the rest by £150 per annum, to make up as much as will buy £50 per annum; which I do, though I am not worth above £500 per annum, that he may think me to be a greater saver than I am. About this time (1662) his expenses seem to have been, rather to his disquiet, about £500 "March 2nd. Talking long in bed "March 2nd. wife about our come, proposing frugall life for the to her what I could and would do if I were worth £2000; that | proved dirty and stormy, the reins were is, be a knight and keep my coach-which splashed, the coach befouled, and all the pleased her." This desirable consummation, trouble lost for lack of spectators and adhowever, was some time in coming. Through mirers. the year 1663 he barely kept his "£700 beforehand with the world," and could show but twice as much in April, 1665. Thereafter, however, he "did rapidly gather," and in the same month of the year following was worth £5200. "One thing I reckon remarkable in my own condition is, that I am come (Christmas, 1666) to abound in good plate, so as at all entertainments to be served wholly with silver plates, having two dozen and a half." His "gathering" indeed is nothing strange,considering that his clerkship brought him £3560 in 1665, and £2986 in 1666, though in this latter year his expenditure made a clear jump from £500 to £1000. There were evidently pretty pickings in the Admiralty; nor did many things come amiss even to our conscientious clerk. April 3, 1663. I met Captain Grove, who did give me a letter directed to myself from himself. I discerned money to be in it; and took it, knowing, as I found it to be, the proceed of the place I have got him to be, the taking up of vessels for Tangier. But I did not open it till I came home, not looking into it till all the money was out, that I might say I saw no money in the paper, if ever I should be questioned about it! There was a piece of gold and £4 in silver."-"Oct. 27, 1667. After dinner, I down to Deptford to look upon the Maybolt which the king hath given me; and I did meet with Mr. Braithwayte, who do tell me that there are new sails ordered to be delivered her and a cable, which I did not speak of at all to him. So thereupon I told him I would not be my own hindrance so much so as to take her into my custody before she had them, which was all I said to him." Yet, after all this, it was not until the eighth year of his lucrative office that he thought himself qualified to set up a coach and a footman, though the price of the vehicle, when brought home, was but £53-less than he had often given for a necklace or jewel for his wife-and but a few months before, when seen in so handsome a hackney that it was taken for a private coach, he was "somewhat troubled." The launch of the new equipage will tend greatly to the edification of any reader inclined to moralize. Nothing could exceed the pains lavished on the turn-ont. The wheels were blue, the horses black, and the reins green;-the boy's livery, green, lined with red. But after all these preparations and anticipations, the day Such, in those days, was the housekeeping of a gentleman of £3000 a year: though of course Mr. Pepys's management is not to be taken as an average specimen of economy. The current prices of household articles are constantly specified and commented on. Coals fetched from 20s. to 30s. a chaldron, though "during the (Dutch) war poor people were forced to give 45s., 50s., and £3;" indeed, "such is the despair of having any supply from the enemy's being abroad, and no fleet of ours to secure them, that they are come this day (26th June, 1667) to £5 108. per chaldron." Dinners at an ordinary-such at least as Mr. Pepys ordered-were rather costly, running from 7s. to a guinea. A "hundred of sparrowgrass," brouhgt home from Fenchurch Street, cost 18d. "We had them, and a little bit of salmon my wife had a mind to; cost 3s. So to supper." The first dish of green peas tasted by Mr. Pepys in the year 1668 was on the 22nd of May-"extraordinary young and pretty." The same year a pound of cherries, on the 2nd of June, cost 2s. The theatre was perhaps not an advantageous market for the purchase of fruit; but oranges, when retailed by Nell Gwynn's sisterhood, fetched 68. a dozen-"there I sat, with my wife and Deb. and Mrs. Pierce and Corbet and Betty Turner, it costing me 8s. upon them in oranges, at 6d. a piece." The general character of the meals particularized in the Diary is decidedly solid. Mr. Pepys and his wife, for instance, often sit down alone to two substantial joints of meat. One noticeable fact is the constant occurrence of venison, at tables which it would scarcely reach now-a-days; and, what is more, the substitution of the coarser parts of the buck for the haunch is noted, even in the case of thrifty households, as a censurable piece of parsimony; while a pasty made of mutton instead of venison scandalizes the journalist beyond all measure. The current histories of the East India Company mention the first order for tea as having been given in 1668-100 lbs. weighta circumstance which gives an interest to the following entry of the previous year. "June 28th, 1667. Home, and there find my wife making of tea-a drink which Mr. Pelling, the Potticary, tells her is good for her cold and defluxions." The expenses of dress bore a considerably greater proportion to the rest of the year's 66 | outgoings than in later times. A night-yearly accounts the "goods of his house" gown for Mrs. Pepys is mentioned as a great bore a very large proportion to the more bargain at 24s.: "the very stuff" of a cloak convertible part of his property. for her lord and master cost £6., and "the outside" of a coat, £8. Nay, a gratifying result, discovered on making up a certain year's balance, is set down especially to an "abatement of outlay" in coats, bands, periwigs, &c. At this time £80 was not thought an extravagant price for "a necklace of pearl" for Mrs. Pepys, so that we can the less wonder at the valuation subsequently her stock of jewelry. set upon A fairing to Knipp, stood our hero in five guineas, but then he had not given her anything for a great while." Altogether, what with theatres, gardens, and the incidental demands on the purse of so gallant a gentleman, we suspect that pocket-money must have formed a large item in Mr. Pepys's expenditure. Furniture, too, was decidedly dear. "A set of chairs and a couch are set "at near £40;" and "three pieces of hangings for my room at "almost £80." In this matter, however, he was very fastidious, and no doubt proportionately extravagant. The tapestry at Audley End he condemns as poor, and takes a general delight in comparing other houses with his own. "Oct. 16. To my aunt Wights; the first time, I think, these two years, and there mighty kindly used, and had a barel of oysters; and so to look up and down their house, they having hung a room since I was there- but with hangings not fit to be seen with mine." A cabinet, very pretty, of walnutt tree," cost £11, and a looking glass for the dining room," £6 7s. 6d. Pictures must have told largely in the. ist of outgoings. The painter had £30 for Mrs. Pepys's miniature, and £8 3s. 4d. were further expended upon the case. One of our hero's fancies in this matter was highly characteristic. "Aug. 29, 1668. After dinner Harris and I to Chyrurgeons' Hall, where they are building it new, very fine, and there to see their theatre which stood all the fire, and, which was our business, their great picture of Holbeins; thinking to have bought it, by the help of Mr. Pierce, for a little money; I did think to give £200 for it, it being said to be worth £1000." This was the famous picture, still preserved by the company, of the grant of their charter by Henry VIII. So went the world, in the way of earnings and spendings, with Mr. Samuel Pepys. Upon the whole, considering his various tastes for books, prints, paintings, and other rarities, it may be concluded that what he terms in his VOL. XVIII. NO. IV. 66 As might have been expected from his character and station, the Clerk of the Acts was a regular and devout attendant at church, where few sermons escaped his comments. That either the discourse, however, or the prayers were the chief object of attraction to him he never pretends. His curiosity was excited by the organs, and his interest by a certain class of the congregation. "April 21, 1667. To Hackney church, where very full, and found much difficulty to get pews, I offering the sexton money, and he could not help me. So my wife and mercer ventured into a pew, and I into another. A knight and his lady very civil to me, when they came, being Sir George Viner, and his lady, rich in jewels, but most in beauty; almost the finest woman that I ever saw. That which I went chiefly to see was the young ladies of the schools, whereof great store, very pretty; and also the organ, which is handsome and tunes the psalm, and plays, with the people; which is mighty pretty." The next Sunday, "To Barn Elms by water, and there took one turn alone, and then back to Putney church, where I saw the girls of the schools, few of which pretty. Here a good sermon and much company; but I sleepy and a little out of order, at my hat falling down through a hole beneath the pulpit which, however, after sermon, by a stick and the help of the clerk I got up again." Here follows a still more explicit record: " Aug. 18. I walked toward White Hall, but being wearied, turned into St. Dunstan's church, where I heard an able sermon of the minister of the place; and stood by a pretty modest maid, whom I did labor to take by the hand; but she would not, but got further and further from me; and at last I could perceive her to take pins out of her pocket to prick me if I should touch her again which seeing, I did forbear, and was glad I did spy her design! And then I fell to gaze on another pretty maid in a pew close to me, and she on me; and I did go about to take her by the hand, which she suffered a little and then withdrew. So the sermon ended.” It is difficult to cap such a story-but we will make a trial with the adventures of the next succeeding Sabbath. "Aug. 25. Myself to Westminster and the parish church, thinking to see Betty Michell, and did stay an hour in the crowd, thinking, by the end of a nose that I saw, that it had been her! but 35 at last the head turned toward me and it was her mother- which vexed me." The reader should recollect that the recorder of these passages was a distinguished public servant of grave repute, and with an income of three thousand pounds a year. son. One of these took a form somewhat - Few men, indeed, have ever surpassed Mr. Samuel Pepys in his constant and extensive attachment to the opposite sex. He would quit his office and go any distance for the sight of a comely woman; and the wives of half the citizens of London under Charles II. have been immortalized in his memoranda. He was not averse to any style of beauty in its turn, having recorded on that score only one mighty objection. The effect, however, which a certain head-dress produced upon him was singularly powerful. May 11th, 1667. My wife being dressed this day in fair hair did make me so mad, that I spoke not, one word to her, though I was ready to burst with anger. After that, Creed and I into the Park and walked a most pleasant evening; and so took coach, and took up my wife, and in my way home discovered my trouble to my wife for her white locks, swearing several times, which I pray God forgive me for, and bending my fist, that I would not endure it. She, poor wretch, surprised at it,. . . . I cannot blame her jealousy, poor and made me no answer all the way home, but there we parted; and I to the office late, and then home, and without supper to bed, vexed. 12th, (Lord's Day). Up and to my chamber to settle my accounts there, and by and by down comes my wife to me in her night-gown, and we begun calmly, that upon having money to lace her gown for second mourning, she would promise to wear white locks no more in my sight-which I, like a severe fool, thinking not enough, began to except against, and made her to fly out to very high terms and cry, and in her heat told me of my keeping company with Mrs. Knipp, saying that if I would promise never to see her more of whom she hath more reason to suspect than I had heretofore of Pemberton- she would never wear white locks more. This vexed me, but I restrained myself from saying anything-but do think never to see this woman at least to have her here any more--and so all very good friends as ever." Whether Mrs. Pepys kept her part of this bargain we cannot ascertain, but the reader will very soon discover how far the connection was interrupted between her husband and Mrs. Knipp. The "poor wretch's" jealous fits occupy no unsubstantial portion of the concluding years of the Journal, and not without evident rea -- wretch- though it do vex me to the heart." The Diary, however, prematurely as it terminates, does not end without giving us a glimpse of the hour of retribution. There is a certain gentleman whose visits sorely "trouble " Mr. Pepys, "and the more so as I do perceive my wife take pleasure in his company." All this, it has been said, betokens merely such a participation in the current humors of the day as was necessarily to be expected in a gentleman of Mr. Pepys's estate. Perhaps so; but surely in this case our hero's grave strictures on the deportment of his sovereign are a little misplaced. King Charles was a very shameless monarch; but not many of his servants had a right to be scandalized at his doings--and amongst the number certainly not Mr. Pepys. A great many entries of this Journal, it should be remembered, are still concealed; and it is hardly too much to suppose that the omissions would not augment the writer's credit for morality. We have given these personal matters a precedence in our review, not only for interest's sake, but because they really form the staple of the Diary; and have yet nevertheless been less prominently introduced to public notice than other less curious subjects. There is, however, no lack of more purely historical topics for some of which curious | in the Hope. At this intelligence our Clerk enough parallels may be found in our own of the Acts gave all up for lost; and forthtime. Only twelve months ago, or there- with busied himself about bestowing his abouts, the British Isles were troubled with family, and, above all, his savings, in some serious, though not very definite, alarms re- place of security. "So I presently resolved specting a foreign invasion. Now in the of my father's and wife's going into the days when Mr. Pepys was Clerk of the Acts country; and at two hours' warning they did a descent upon our coast did actually take go by the coach this day, with about £1300 place; and as the phenomenon has never in gold in their night-bag. Pray God give since occurred, perhaps the reader may like them good passage, and good care to hide to know how Londoners really did feel, and it when they come home! but my heart is how Government really did act, when an full of fear. They gone, I continued in fright enemy's fleet was not only in the Channel, and fear what to do with the rest. I cannot but abreast Chatham Yard in the Medway. have my 200 pieces of gold again for silver, On the 10th June, 1667, "news was brought us that the Dutch were come up as high as the Nore." Upon this all the energies of the Government, or, we should rather say, all the frantic endeavors of the Admiralty, were exerted to procure and dispatch some fireships wherewith to burn the enemy's vessels. By a most extraordinary windfall, Mr. Pepys and his colleagues actually found themselves at this juncture possessed of a little ready money; but this good fortune was so astonishing, that they could hardly either believe it themselves, or persuade others of the fact. And so, "partly we, being used to be idle and in despair, and partly people that have been used to be deceived by us as to money, won't believe us," so that, in the end, they were little the better for their store. Next day they received intelligence that "Sheernesse was lost, after two or three hours dispute, and the enemy in possession of that place-which is very sad, and puts us in great fears of Chatham." However, an order from Council was issued, empowering them "to take any man's ships," and indeed some statesmen went further, and argued that "under an invasion, as this is owned to be, the king might take any man's goods." Meantime the "soldiers" were drawn off to Chatham and elsewhere, and all night long the drums beat up for the trainbands, every man of which was to appear on the morrow, with bullet and powder, and money to supply themselves with victuals for a fortnight" under pain of death. 66 All, however, availed but little; for presently the sad tidings came that "the Dutch did brake the chayne!" This was the very next day; and "some lacquies" told Pepys that "hardly anybody in the court but do look as if they cried." Next morning the mischief thickened; the " Royall Charles" had been captured and manned by the Dutch, and another fleet of theirs had been signaled all being bought up last night that were to be had, and sold for 24s. and 25s. apiece. So I must keep the silver by me, which sometimes I think to fling into the house of office; but then again know not how I shall come by it, if we be made to leave the office. Every minute some one or other calls for this or that order; and so I forced to be at the office most of the day about the fireships that are to be suddenly fitted out; and it's a most strange thing that we hear nothing from any of my brethren at Chatham, so that we are wholly in the dark. About noon I did resolve to send Mr. Gibson away after my wife with another 1000 pieces, under color of an express to Sir Jeremy Smith, who is I hear with some ships at Newcastle, which (the express) I did really send to him, and may possibly prove of good use to the king, for it is possible in the hurry of business they may not think of it at court, and the charge of an express is not considerable to the king!" Was there ever such a case of conscience stated before! Meantime the rulers of the country characteristically displayed their wisdom and courage. The king harangued the city militia, and the Duke of York followed him. "At the council table, D. Gauden did tell me yesterday the council were ready to fall together by the ears, arraigning one another of being guilty of the counsel that brought us into this misery, by laying up all the great ships." The city again was "troubled at their being put upon duty, summoned one hour and discharged two hours after, and then again summoned two hours after that, to their great charge as well as trouble." And at the Admiralty, "the people that come hither to hear how things go make me ashamed to be found unable to answer them, for I am left alone here at the office. The dismay that is upon us all, in the business of the kingdom and navy at this day, is not to be expressed, otherwise than by the con |