Chapter 27

12th. At St. James's we attended the Duke all of us. And there, after my discourse, Mr. Coventry of his own accord begun to tell the Duke how he found that discourse abroad did run to his prejudice about the fees that he took, and how he sold places and other things; wherein he desired to appeal to his Highness, whether he did any thing more than what his predecessors did, and appealed to us all. So Sir G. Carteret did answer that some fees were heretofore taken, but what he knows not; only that selling of places never was nor ought to be countenanced. So Mr. Coventry very hotly answered to Sir G. Carteret, and appealed to himself whether he was not one of the first that put him upon looking after this business of fees, and that he told him that Mr. Smith should say that he made 50001. the first year, and he believed he made 7000l. This Sir G. Carteret denied, and said, that if he did say so he told a lie, for he could not, nor did know, that ever he did make that profit of his place; but that he believes he might say, 2500l. the first year. Mr. Coventry instanced in another thing, particularly wherein Sir G. Carteret did advise with him about the selling of the auditor's place of the stores, when in the beginning there was an intention of creating such an office. This he confessed, but with some lessening of the tale Mr. Coventry told, it being only for a respect to my Lord FitzHarding. [Sir Charles Berkeley, mentioned before, created Lord Berkeley of Rathdown and Viscount Fitzharding in Ireland, second son to Sir Charles Berkeley of Bruton, co. Somerset; afterwards made an English peer by the titles of Lord Botetourt and Earl of Falmouth, and killed in the great sea-fight, June 1685.] In fine, Mr. Coventry did put into the Duke's hand a list of above 250 places that he did give without receiving one farthing, so much as his ordinary fees for them, upon his life and oath; and that since the Duke's establishment of fees he had never received one token more of any man; and that in his whole life he never conditioned or discoursed of any consideration from any commanders since he come to the Navy. And afterwards, my Lord Barkeley merrily discoursing that he wished his profit greater than it was, and that he did believe that he had got 50,000l. since he come in, Mr. Coventry did openly declare that his Lordship, or any of us, should have not only all he had got, but all that he had in the world, (and yet he did not come a beggar into the Navy, nor would yet he thought to speak in any contempt of his Royall Highness's bounty,) and should have a year to consider of it too, for 25,000l. The Duke's answer was, that he wished we all had made more profit than we had of our places, and that we had all of us got as much as one man below stayres in the Court, which he presently named, and it was Sir George Lane. [One of the Clerks of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Marquis of Ormond.]

13th. I find at Court, that either the King is doubtful of some disturbance, or else would seem so, (and I have reason to hope it is no worse,) by his commanding little commanders of castles, &c. to repair to their charges; and mustering the Guards the other day himself, where he found reason to dislike their condition to my Lord Gerard, finding so many absent men, or dead pays. My Lady Castlemaine, I hear, is in as great favour as ever, and the King supped with her the very first night he come from Bath: and last night and the night before supped with her; when there being a chine of beef to roast, and the tide rising into their kitchen that it could not be roasted there, and the cook telling her of it, she answered "Zounds! she must set the house on fire but it should be roasted!" So it was carried to Mrs. Sarah's husband's, and there it was roasted.

After dinner my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson's conduct, to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys In their vayles, and the women behind a lettice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear the Priest do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that every one desires to have the carrying of it, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a prayer for the King, in which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more: and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this.

17th. Some discourse of the Queene's being very sick, if not dead, the Duke and Duchesse of York being sent for betimes this morning to come to White Hall to her.

18th. The parson, Mr. Mills, I perceive, did not know whether to pray for the Queene or no, and so said nothing about her; which makes me fear she is dead. But enquiring of Sir J. Minnes, he told me that he heard she was better last night.

19th. Waked with a very high wind, and said to my wife, "I pray God I hear not of the death of any great person, this wind is so high! fearing that the Queene might be dead. So up; and going by coach with Sir W. Batten and Sir J. Minnes to St. James's, they tell me that Sir W. Compton, who it is true had been a little sickly for a week or fortnight, but was very well upon Friday at night last at the Tangier Committee with us, was dead,--died yesterday: at which I was most exceedingly surprised, he being, and so all the world saying that he was, one of the worthyest men and best officers of State now in England; and so in my conscience he was: of the best temper, valour, ability of mind, integrity, worth, fine person, and diligence of any one man he hath left behind him in the three kingdoms; and yet not forty years old, or if so, that is all. I find the sober men of the Court troubled for him; and yet not so as to hinder or lessen their mirth, talking, laughing, and eating, drinking, and doing every thing else, just as if there was no such thing.

Coming to St. James's, I hear that the Queene did sleep five hours pretty well to-night, and that she waked and gargled her mouth, and to sleep again; but that her pulse beats fast, beating twenty to the King's or my Lady Suffolk's eleven; but not so strong as it was. It seems she was so ill as to be shaved and pidgeons put to her feet, and to have the extreme unction given her by the priests, who were so long about it that the doctors were angry. The King they all say is most fondly disconsolate for her, and weeps by her, which makes her weep; which one this day told me he reckons a good sign, for that it carries away some rheume from the head. To the Coffee-house in Cornhill; where much talk about the Turke's proceedings, and that the plague is got to Amsterdam, brought by a ship from Argier; and it is also carried to Hambrough. The Duke says the King purposes to forbid any of their ships coming into the river. The Duke also told us of several Christian commanders (French) gone over to the Turkes to serve them; and upon enquiry I find that the King of France do by this aspire to the Empire, and so to get the Crowne of Spayne also upon the death of the King, which is very probable, it seems.

20th. This evening at my Lord's lodgings Mrs. Sarah talking with my wife and I how the Queene do, and how the King tends her being so ill. She tells that the Queene's sickness is the spotted fever; that she was as full of the spots as a leopard: which is very strange that it should be no more known; but perhaps it is not so. And that the King do seem to take it much to heart, for that he hath wept before her; but, for all that, that he hath not missed one night since she was sick, of supping with my Lady Castlemaine; which I believe is true, for she says that her husband hath dressed the suppers every night; and I confess I saw him myself coming through the street dressing up a great supper to-night, which Sarah says is also for the King and her; which is a very strange thing.

22nd. This morning, hearing that the Queene grows worse again, I sent to stop the making of my velvet cloak, till I see whether she lives or dies.

23rd. The Queene slept pretty well last night, but her fever continues upon her still. It seems she hath never a Portuguese doctor here.

24th. The Queene is in a good way of recovery; and Sir Francis Pridgeon, [Vertue (according to Walpole) had seen a portrait of Dr. Prujeon painted by Streater, and a print of "Opinion sitting on a tree," thus inscribed: "Viro clariss, Dno. Francisco Prujeano Medico, omnium bonarum artium et elegantiarum fautori et admiratori summo; D.D. D.H. Peacham." He was President of the College of Physicians, 1653.] hath got great honour by it, it being all imputed to his cordiall, which in her dispaire did give her rest, and brought her to some hopes of recovery. It seems that, after much talk of troubles and a plot, something is found in the North that a party was to rise, and some persons that were to command it, as I find in a letter that Mr. Coventry read to- day about it from those parts.

26th. Dr. Pierce tells me that the Queene is in a way to be pretty well again, but that her delirium in her head continues still; that she talks idle not by fits, but always, which in some lasts a week after so high a fever, in some more, and in some for ever; that this morning she talked mightily that she was brought to bed, and that she wondered that she should be delivered without pin and without being sick, and that she was troubled that her boy was but an ugly boy. But the King being by, said "No, it is a very pretty boy."--" Nay," says she, "if it be like you it is a fine boy indeed, and I would be very well pleased with it." They say that the Turkes go on apace, and that my Lord Castlehaven [The eldest son of the infamous Earl of Castlehaven, had a new creation to his father's forfeited titles, in 1634, and died c.p. 1684. He had served with distinction under the Duke of Ormond, and afterwards joined Charles II. at Paris.] is going to raise 10,000 men here for to go against him; that the King of France do offer to assist the Empire upon condition that he may be their Generalissimo, and the Dolphin chosen King of the Romans: and it is said that the King of France do occasion this difference among the Christian Princes of the Empire, which gives the Turke such advantages. They say also that the King of Spayne is making all imaginable force against Portugall again.

27th. Mr. Coventry tells me to-day that the Queene had a very good night last night; but yet it is strange that still she raves and talks of little more than of her having of children, and fancys now that she hath three children, and that the girle is very like the King. And this morning about five o'clock, the physician feeling her pulse, thinking to be better able to judge, she being still and asleep, waked her, and the first word she said was, "How do the children?"

29th. To Guild Hall; and meeting with Mr. Proby, (Sir R. Ford's son,) and Lieutenant-Colonel Baron, a City commander, we went up and down to see the tables; where under every salt there was a bill of fare, and at the end of the table the persons proper for the table. Many were the tables, but none in the Hall but the Mayor's and the Lords of the Privy Council that had napkins or knives, which was very strange. We went into the Buttry, and there stayed and talked, and then into the Hall again: and there wine was offered and they drunk, I only drinking some hypocras, which do not break my vowe, it being to the best of my present judgement, only a mixed compound drink, and not any wine. If I am mistaken, God forgive me! but I hope and do think I am not. By and by met with Creed; and we, with the others, went within the several Courts, and there saw the tables prepared for the Ladies and Judges and Bishops: all great sign of a great dinner to come. By and by about one o'clock, before the Lord Mayor come, come into the Hall, from the room where they were first led into, the Lord Chancellor (Archbishop before him,) with the Lords of the Council, and other Bishopps, and they to dinner. Anon comes the Lord Mayor, who went up to the lords, and then to the other tables to bid wellcome; and so all to dinner. I set near Proby, Baron, and Creed at the Merchant Strangers' table; where ten good dishes to a messe, with plenty of wine of all sorts, of which I drunk none; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins nor change of trenchers, and drunk out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes. It happened that after the lords had half dined, come the French Embassador up to the lords' table, where he was to have sat; he would not sit down nor dine with the Lord Mayor, who was not yet come, nor have a table to himself, which was offered; but in a discontent went away again. After I had dined, I and Creed rose and went up and down the house, and up to the ladys' room, and there stayed gazing upon them. But though there were many and fine, both young and old, yet I could not discern one handsome face there; which was very strange. I expected musique, but there was none but only trumpets and drums, which displeased me. The dinner, it seems, is made by the Mayor and two Sheriffs for the time being, the Lord Mayor paying one half, and they the other. And the whole, Proby says, is reckoned to come to about 7 or 800l. at most. The Queene mends apace, they say; but yet talks idle still.

30th. To my great sorrow find myself 43l. worse than I was the last month, which was then 760l. and now it is but 717l. But it hath chiefly arisen from my layings-out in clothes for myself and wife; viz. for her about 12l. and for myself 55l., or thereabouts: having made myself a velvet cloak, two new cloth skirts, black, plain both; a new shag gown, trimmed with gold buttons and twist, with a new hat, and silk tops for my legs, and many other things, being resolved, henceforward to go like myself. And also two perriwiggs, one whereof costs me 3l. and the other 40s. I have worn neither yet, but will begin next week, God willing. The Queene continues light-headed, but in hopes to recover. The plague is much in Amsterdam, and we in fear of it here, which God defend. The Turke goes on mighty in the Emperor's dominions, and the Princes cannot agree among themselves how to go against him.

NOVEMBER 2, 1663. Up, and by coach to White Hall, and there in the long matted Gallery I find Sir G. Carteret, Sir J. Minnes, and Sir W. Batten; and by and by comes the King to walk there with three or four with him; and soon as he saw us, says he, "Here is the Navy Office," and there walked twenty turns the length of the gallery, talking, methought, but ordinary talk. By and by come the Duke, and he walked, and at last they went into the Duke's lodgings. The King staid so long that we could not; discourse with the Duke, and so we parted. I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will. I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray,

6th. Lord Sandwich tells me how Mr. Edward Montagu begins to show respect to him again after his endeavouring to bespatter him all was possible; but he is resolved never to admit him into his friendship again. He tells me how he and Sir H. Bennet, the Duke of Buckingham and his Duchesse, was of a committee with somebody else for the getting of Mrs. Stewart for the King; but that she proves a cunning slut, and is advised at Somerset House by the Queene-Mother, and by her mother, and so all the plot is spoiled and the whole committee broke, Mr. Montagu and the Duke of Buckingham fallen a-pieces, the Duchesse going to a nunnery; and so Montagu begins to enter friendship with my Lord, and to attend the Chancellor whom he had deserted. My Lord tells me that Mr. Montagu, among other things, did endeavour to represent him to the Chancellor's sons as one that did desert their father in the business of my Lord of Bristoll; which is most false, being the only man that hath several times dined with him when no soul hath come to him, and went with him that very day home when the Earl impeached him in the Parliament House, and hath refused ever to pay a visit to my Lord of Bristoll, not so much as in return to a visit of his. So that the Chancellor and my Lord are well known and trusted one by another. But yet my Lord blames the Chancellor for desiring to have it put off to the next Sessions of Parliament, contrary to my Lord Treasurer's advice, to whom he swore he would not do it: and, perhaps, my Lord ChanceIlor, for ought I see by my Lord's discourse, may suffer by it when the Parliament comes to sit. My Lord tells me that he observes the Duke of York do follow and understand business very well, and is mightily improved thereby.

8th. To church, where I found that my coming in a perriwigg did not prove so strange as I was afraid it would, for I thought that all the church would presently have cast their eyes all upon me.