Part 10
13th August, 1673. I rode to Durdans, where I dined at my Lord Berkeley's of Berkeley Castle, my old and noble friend, it being his wedding anniversary, where I found the Duchess of Albemarle, and other company, and returned home on that evening late.
15th August, 1673. Came to visit me my Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
18th August, 1673. My Lord Clifford, being about this time returned from Tunbridge, and preparing for Devonshire, I went to take my leave of him at Wallingford House; he was packing up pictures, most of which were of hunting wild beasts and vast pieces of bull-baiting, bear-baiting, etc. I found him in his study, and restored to him several papers of state, and others of importance, which he had furnished me with, on engaging me to write the "History of the Holland War," with other private letters of his acknowledgments to my Lord Arlington, who from a private gentleman of a very noble family, but inconsiderable fortune, had advanced him from almost nothing. The first thing was his being in Parliament, then knighted, then made one of the Commissioners of sick and wounded, on which occasion we sat long together; then, on the death of Hugh Pollard, he was made Comptroller of the Household and Privy Councillor, yet still my brother Commissioner; after the death of Lord Fitz-Harding, Treasurer of the Household, he, by letters to Lord Arlington, which that Lord showed me, begged of his Lordship to obtain it for him as the very height of his ambition. These were written with such submissions and professions of his patronage, as I had never seen any more acknowledging. The Earl of Southampton then dying, he was made one of the Commissioners of the Treasury. His Majesty inclining to put it into one hand, my Lord Clifford, under pretense of making all his interest for his patron, my Lord Arlington, cut the grass under his feet, and procured it for himself, assuring the King that Lord Arlington did not desire it. Indeed, my Lord Arlington protested to me that his confidence in Lord Clifford made him so remiss and his affection to him was so particular, that he was absolutely minded to devolve it on Lord Clifford, all the world knowing how he himself affected ease and quiet, now growing into years, yet little thinking of this go-by. This was the great ingratitude Lord Clifford showed, keeping my Lord Arlington in ignorance, continually assuring him he was pursuing his interest, which was the Duke's into whose great favor Lord Clifford was now gotten; but which certainly cost him the loss of all, namely, his going so irrevocably far in his interest.
For the rest, my Lord Clifford was a valiant, incorrupt gentleman, ambitious, not covetous; generous, passionate, a most constant, sincere friend, to me in particular, so as when he laid down his office, I was at the end of all my hopes and endeavors. These were not for high matters, but to obtain what his Majesty was really indebted to my father-in-law, which was the utmost of my ambition, and which I had undoubtedly obtained, if this friend had stood. Sir Thomas Osborn, who succeeded him, though much more obliged to my father-in-law and his family, and my long and old acquaintance, being of a more haughty and far less obliging nature, I could hope for little; a man of excellent natural parts; but nothing of generous or grateful.
Taking leave of my Lord Clifford, he wrung me by the hand, and, looking earnestly on me, bid me God-b'ye, adding, "Mr. Evelyn, I shall never see thee more." "No!" said I, "my Lord, what's the meaning of this? I hope I shall see you often, and as great a person again." "No, Mr. Evelyn, do not expect it, I will never see this place, this city, or Court again," or words of this sound. In this manner, not without almost mutual tears, I parted from him; nor was it long after, but the news was that he was dead, and I have heard from some who I believe knew, he made himself away, after an extraordinary melancholy. This is not confidently affirmed, but a servant who lived in the house, and afterward with Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor, did, as well as others, report it, and when I hinted some such thing to Mr. Prideaux, one of his trustees, he was not willing to enter into that discourse.
It was reported with these particulars, that, causing his servant to leave him unusually one morning, locking himself in, he strangled himself with his cravat upon the bed-tester; his servant, not liking the manner of dismissing him, and looking through the keyhole (as I remember), and seeing his master hanging, broke in before he was quite dead, and taking him down, vomiting a great deal of blood, he was heard to utter these words: "Well; let men say what they will, there is a God, a just God above"; after which he spoke no more. This, if true, is dismal. Really, he was the chief occasion of the Dutch war, and of all that blood which was lost at Bergen in attacking the Smyrna fleet, and that whole quarrel.
This leads me to call to mind what my Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury affirmed, not to me only, but to all my brethren the Council of Foreign Plantations, when not long after, this accident being mentioned as we were one day sitting in Council, his Lordship told us this remarkable passage: that, being one day discoursing with him when he was only Sir Thomas Clifford, speaking of men's advancement to great charges in the nation, "Well," says he, "my Lord, I shall be one of the greatest men in England. Don't impute what I say either to fancy, or vanity; I am certain that I shall be a mighty man; but it will not last long; I shall not hold it, but die a bloody death." "What," says my Lord, "your horoscope tells you so?" "No matter for that, it will be as I tell you." "Well," says my Lord Chancellor Shaftesbury, "if I were of that opinion, I either would not be a great man, but decline preferment, or prevent my danger."
This my Lord affirmed in my hearing before several gentlemen and noblemen sitting in council at Whitehall. And I the rather am confident of it, remembering what Sir Edward Walker (Garter King-at-Arms) had likewise affirmed to me a long time before, even when he was first made a Lord; that carrying his pedigree to Lord Clifford on his being created a peer, and, finding him busy, he bade him go into his study and divert himself there till he was at leisure to discourse with him about some things relating to his family; there lay, said Sir Edward, on his table, his horoscope and nativity calculated, with some writing under it, where he read that he should be advanced to the highest degree in the state that could be conferred upon him, but that he should not long enjoy it, but should die, or expressions to that sense; and I think, (but cannot confidently say) a bloody death. This Sir Edward affirmed both to me and Sir Richard Browne; nor could I forbear to note this extraordinary passage in these memoirs.
14th September, 1673. Dr. Creighton, son to the late eloquent Bishop of Bath and Wells, preached to the Household on Isaiah, lvii. 8.
15th September, 1673. I procured £4,000 of the Lords of the Treasury, and rectified divers matters about the sick and wounded.
16th September, 1673. To Council, about choosing a new Secretary.
17th September, 1673. I went with some friends to visit Mr. Bernard Grenville, at Abs Court in Surrey; an old house in a pretty park.
23d September, 1673. I went to see Paradise, a room in Hatton Garden furnished with a representation of all sorts of animals handsomely painted on boards or cloth, and so cut out and made to stand, move, fly, crawl, roar, and make their several cries. The man who showed it, made us laugh heartily at his formal poetry.
15th October, 1673. To Council, and swore in Mr. Locke, secretary, Dr. Worsley being dead.
27th October, 1673. To Council, about sending succors to recover New York: and then we read the commission and instructions to Sir Jonathan Atkins, the new Governor of Barbadoes.
5th November, 1673. This night the youths of the city burned the Pope in effigy, after they had made procession with it in great triumph, they being displeased at the Duke for altering his religion and marrying an Italian lady.
30th November, 1673. On St. Andrew's day I first saw the new Duchess of York, and the Duchess of Modena, her mother.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
1st December, 1673. To Gresham College, whither the city had invited the Royal Society by many of their chief aldermen and magistrates, who gave us a collation, to welcome us to our first place of assembly, from whence we had been driven to give place to the City, on their making it their Exchange on the dreadful conflagration, till their new Exchange was finished, which it now was. The Society having till now been entertained and having met at Arundel House.
2d December, 1673. I dined with some friends, and visited the sick; thence, to an almshouse, where was prayers and relief, some very ill and miserable. It was one of the best days I ever spent in my life.
3d December, 1673. There was at dinner my Lord Lockhart, designed Ambassador for France, a gallant and sober person.
9th December, 1673. I saw again the Italian Duchess and her brother, the Prince Reynaldo.
20th December, 1673. I had some discourse with certain strangers, not unlearned, who had been born not far from Old Nineveh; they assured me of the ruins being still extant, and vast and wonderful were the buildings, vaults, pillars, and magnificent fragments;[34] but they could say little of the Tower of Babel that satisfied me. But the description of the amenity and fragrancy of the country for health and cheerfulness, delighted me; so sensibly they spoke of the excellent air and climate in respect of our cloudy and splenetic country.
[Footnote 34: The remarkable discoveries of Mr. Layard give now a curious interest to this notice by Evelyn.]
24th December, 1673. Visited the prisoners at Ludgate, taking orders about the releasing of some.
30th December, 1673. I gave Almighty God thanks for his infinite goodness to me the year past, and begged his mercy and protection the year following; afterward, invited my neighbors to spend the day with me.
5th January, 1673-74. I saw an Italian opera in music, the first that had been in England of this kind.
9th January, 1674. Sent for by his Majesty to write something against the Hollanders about the duty of the Flag and Fishery. Returned with some papers.
25th March, 1674. I dined at Knightsbridge, with the Bishops of Salisbury, Chester, and Lincoln, my old friends.
29th May, 1674. His Majesty's birthday and Restoration. Mr. Demalhoy, Roger L'Estrange, and several of my friends, came to dine with me on the happy occasion.
27th June, 1674. Mr. Dryden, the famous poet and now laureate, came to give me a visit. It was the anniversary of my marriage, and the first day I went into my new little cell and cabinet, which I built below toward the south court, at the east end of the parlor.
9th July, 1674. Paid £360 for purchase of Dr. Jacombe's son's share in the mill and land at Deptford, which I bought of the Beechers.
22d July, 1674. I went to Windsor with my wife and son to see my daughter Mary, who was there with my Lady Tuke and to do my duty to his Majesty. Next day, to a great entertainment at Sir Robert Holmes's at Cranbourne Lodge, in the Forest; there were his Majesty, the Queen, Duke, Duchess, and all the Court. I returned in the evening with Sir Joseph Williamson, now declared Secretary of State. He was son of a poor clergyman somewhere in Cumberland, brought up at Queen's College, Oxford, of which he came to be a fellow; then traveled with ... and returning when the King was restored, was received as a clerk under Mr. Secretary Nicholas. Sir Henry Bennett (now Lord Arlington) succeeding, Williamson is transferred to him, who loving his ease more than business (though sufficiently able had he applied himself to it) remitted all to his man Williamson; and, in a short time, let him so into the secret of affairs, that (as his Lordship himself told me) there was a kind of necessity to advance him; and so, by his subtlety, dexterity, and insinuation, he got now to be principal Secretary; absolutely Lord Arlington's creature, and ungrateful enough. It has been the fate of this obliging favorite to advance those who soon forgot their original. Sir Joseph was a musician, could play at _Jeu de Goblets_, exceedingly formal, a severe master to his servants, but so inward with my Lord O'Brien, that after a few months of that gentleman's death, he married his widow,[35] who, being sister and heir of the Duke of Richmond, brought him a noble fortune. It was thought they lived not so kindly after marriage as they did before. She was much censured for marrying so meanly, being herself allied to the Royal family.
[Footnote 35: Lady Catherine Stuart, sister and heir to Charles Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, the husband of Mrs. Frances Stuart, one of the most admired beauties of the Court, with whom Charles II. was so deeply in love that he never forgave the Duke for marrying her, having already, it is thought, formed some similar intention himself. He took the first opportunity of sending the Duke into an honorable exile, as Ambassador to Denmark, where he shortly after died, leaving no issue by the Duchess.]
[Sidenote: GROOMBRIDGE]
6th August, 1674. I went to Groombridge, to see my old friend, Mr. Packer; the house built within a moat, in a woody valley. The old house had been the place of confinement of the Duke of Orleans, taken by one Waller (whose house it then was) at the battle of Agincourt, now demolished, and a new one built in its place, though a far better situation had been on the south of the wood, on a graceful ascent. At some small distance, is a large chapel, not long since built by Mr. Packer's father, on a vow he made to do it on the return of King Charles I. out of Spain, 1625, and dedicated to St. Charles, but what saint there was then of that name I am to seek, for, being a Protestant, I conceive it was not Borromeo.
I went to see my farm at Ripe, near Lewes.
19th August, 1674. His Majesty told me how exceedingly the Dutch were displeased at my treatise of the "History of Commerce;" that the Holland Ambassador had complained to him of what I had touched of the Flags and Fishery, etc., and desired the book might be called in; while on the other side, he assured me he was exceedingly pleased with what I had done, and gave me many thanks. However, it being just upon conclusion of the treaty of Breda (indeed it was designed to have been published some months before and when we were at defiance), his Majesty told me he must recall it formally; but gave order that what copies should be publicly seized to pacify the Ambassador, should immediately be restored to the printer, and that neither he nor the vender should be molested. The truth is, that which touched the Hollander was much less than what the King himself furnished me with, and obliged me to publish, having caused it to be read to him before it went to press; but the error was, it should have been published before the peace was proclaimed. The noise of this book's suppression made it presently to be bought up, and turned much to the stationer's advantage. It was no other than the preface prepared to be prefixed to my "History of the Whole War;" which I now pursued no further.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
21st August, 1674. In one of the meadows at the foot of the long Terrace below the Castle [Windsor], works were thrown up to show the King a representation of the city of Maestricht, newly taken by the French. Bastians, bulwarks, ramparts, palisadoes, graffs, horn-works, counter-scarps, etc., were constructed. It was attacked by the Duke of Monmouth (newly come from the real siege) and the Duke of York, with a little army, to show their skill in tactics. On Saturday night they made their approaches, opened trenches, raised batteries, took the counter-scarp and ravelin, after a stout defense; great guns fired on both sides, grenadoes shot, mines sprung, parties sent out, attempts of raising the siege, prisoners taken, parleys; and, in short, all the circumstances of a formal siege, to appearance, and, what is most strange all without disorder, or ill accident, to the great satisfaction of a thousand spectators. Being night, it made a formidable show. The siege being over, I went with Mr. Pepys back to London, where we arrived about three in the morning.
15th September, 1674. To Council, about fetching away the English left at Surinam, etc., since our reconciliation with Holland.
21st September, 1674. I went to see the great loss that Lord Arlington had sustained by fire at Goring House, this night consumed to the ground, with exceeding loss of hangings, plate, rare pictures, and cabinets; hardly anything was saved of the best and most princely furniture that any subject had in England. My lord and lady were both absent at the Bath.
6th October, 1674. The Lord Chief Baron Turner, and Sergeant Wild, Recorder of London, came to visit me.
20th October, 1674. At Lord Berkeley's, I discoursed with Sir Thomas Modiford, late Governor of Jamaica, and with Colonel Morgan, who undertook that gallant exploit from Nombre de Dios to Panama, on the Continent of America; he told me 10,000 men would easily conquer all the Spanish Indies, they were so secure. They took great booty, and much greater had been taken, had they not been betrayed and so discovered before their approach, by which the Spaniards had time to carry their vast treasure on board ships that put off to sea in sight of our men, who had no boats to follow. They set fire to Panama, and ravaged the country sixty miles about. The Spaniards were so supine and unexercised, that they were afraid to fire a great gun.
31st October, 1674. My birthday, 54th year of my life. Blessed be God! It was also preparation day for the Holy Sacrament, in which I
## participated the next day, imploring God's protection for the year
following, and confirming my resolutions of a more holy life, even upon the Holy Book. The Lord assist and be gracious unto me! Amen.
15th November, 1674. The anniversary of my baptism: I first heard that famous and excellent preacher, Dr. Burnet, author of the "History of the Reformation" on Colossians iii. 10, with such flow of eloquence and fullness of matter, as showed him to be a person o£ extraordinary parts.
Being her Majesty's birthday, the Court was exceeding splendid in clothes and jewels, to the height of excess.
17th November, 1674. To Council, on the business of Surinam, where the Dutch had detained some English in prison, ever since the first war, 1665.
19th November, 1674. I heard that stupendous violin, Signor Nicholao (with other rare musicians), whom I never heard mortal man exceed on that instrument. He had a stroke so sweet, and made it speak like the voice of a man, and, when he pleased, like a concert of several instruments. He did wonders upon a note, and was an excellent composer. Here was also that rare lutanist, Dr. Wallgrave; but nothing approached the violin in Nicholao's hand. He played such ravishing things as astonished us all.
2d December, 1674. At Mr. Slingsby's, master of the mint, my worthy friend, a great lover of music. Heard Signor Francisco on the harpsichord, esteemed one of the most excellent masters in Europe on that instrument; then, came Nicholao with his violin, and struck all mute, but Mrs. Knight, who sung incomparably, and doubtless has the greatest reach of any English woman; she had been lately roaming in Italy, and was much improved in that quality.
15th December, 1674. Saw a comedy at night, at Court, acted by the ladies only, among them Lady Mary and Ann, his Royal Highness' two daughters, and my dear friend Mrs. Blagg, who, having the principal part, performed it to admiration. They were all covered with jewels.
22d December, 1674. Was at the repetition of the "Pastoral," on which occasion Mrs. Blagg had about her near £20,000 worth of jewels, of which she lost one worth about £80, borrowed of the Countess of Suffolk. The press was so great, that it is a wonder she lost no more. The Duke made it good.
20th January, 1674-75. Went to see Mr. Streeter, that excellent painter of perspective and landscape, to comfort and encourage him to be cut for the stone, with which that honest man was exceedingly afflicted.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
22d March, 1675. Supped at Sir William Petty's, with the Bishop of Salisbury, and divers honorable persons. We had a noble entertainment in a house gloriously furnished; the master and mistress of it were extraordinary persons. Sir William was the son of a mean man somewhere in Sussex, and sent from school to Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, but was most eminent in Mathematics and Mechanics; proceeded Doctor of Physic, and was grown famous, as for his learning so for his recovering a poor wench that had been hanged for felony; and her body having been begged (as the custom is) for the anatomy lecture, he bled her, put her to bed to a warm woman, and, with spirits and other means, restored her to life. The young scholars joined and made a little portion, and married her to a man who had several children by her, she living fifteen years after, as I have been assured. Sir William came from Oxford to be tutor to a neighbor of mine; thence, when the rebels were dividing their conquests in Ireland, he was employed by them to measure and set out the land, which he did on an easy contract, so much per acre. This he effected so exactly, that it not only furnished him with a great sum of money; but enabled him to purchase an estate worth £4,000 a year. He afterward married the daughter of Sir Hardress Waller; she was an extraordinary wit as well as beauty, and a prudent woman.
Sir William, among other inventions, was author of the double-bottomed ship, which perished, and he was censured for rashness, being lost in the Bay of Biscay in a storm, when, I think, fifteen other vessels miscarried. This vessel was flat-bottomed, of exceeding use to put into shallow ports, and ride over small depths of water. It consisted of two distinct keels cramped together with huge timbers, etc., so as that a violent stream ran between; it bore a monstrous broad sail, and he still persists that it is practicable, and of exceeding use; and he has often told me he would adventure himself in such another, could he procure sailors, and his Majesty's permission to make a second Experiment; which name the King gave the vessel at the launching.