The Diary of John Evelyn (Volume 2 of 2)

LONDON

1st October, 1678. The Parliament and the whole Nation were alarmed about a conspiracy of some eminent Papists for the destruction of the King and introduction of Popery, discovered by one Oates and Dr. Tongue,39 WHICH LAST I KNEW, BEING THE TRANSLATOR OF THE "Jesuits' Morals"; I went to see and converse with him at Whitehall, with Mr. Oates, one that was lately an apostate to the church of Rome, and now returned again with this discovery. He seemed to be a bold man, and, in my thoughts, furiously indiscreet; but everybody believed what he said; and it quite changed the genius and motions of the Parliament, growing now corrupt and interested with long sitting and court practices; but, with all this, Popery would not go down. This discovery turned them all as one man against it, and nothing was done but to find out the depth of this. Oates was encouraged, and everything he affirmed taken for gospel; the truth is, the Roman Catholics were exceedingly bold and busy everywhere, since the Duke forbore to go any longer to the chapel.

16th October, 1678. Mr. Godolphin requested me to continue the trust his wife had reposed in me, in behalf of his little son, conjuring me to transfer the friendship I had for his dear wife, on him and his.

21st October, 1678. The murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, found strangled about this time, as was manifest, by the Papists, he being the Justice of the Peace, and one who knew much of their practices, as conversant with Coleman (a servant of the … now accused), put the whole nation into a new ferment against them.

31st October, 1678. Being the 58th of my age, required my humble addresses to Almighty God, and that he would take off his heavy hand, still on my family; and restore comforts to us after the death of my excellent friend.

LONDON

5th November, 1678. Dr. Tillotson preached before the Commons at St. Margaret's. He said the Papists were now arrived at that impudence, as to deny that there ever was any such as the gunpowder-conspiracy; but he affirmed that he himself had several letters written by Sir Everard Digby (one of the traitors), in which he gloried that he was to suffer for it; and that it was so contrived, that of the Papists not above two or three should have been blown up, and they, such as were not worth saving.

15th November, 1678. The Queen's birthday. I never saw the Court more brave, nor the nation in more apprehension and consternation. Coleman and one Staly had now been tried, condemned, and executed. On this, Oates grew so presumptuous as to accuse the Queen of intending to poison the King; which certainly that pious and virtuous lady abhorred the thoughts of, and Oates's circumstances made it utterly unlikely in my opinion. He probably thought to gratify some who would have been glad his Majesty should have married a fruitful lady; but the King was too kind a husband to let any of these make impression on him. However, divers of the Popish peers were sent to the Tower, accused by Oates; and all the Roman Catholic lords were by a new Act forever excluded the Parliament; which was a mighty blow. The King's, Queen's, and Duke's servants, were banished, and a test to be taken by everybody who pretended to enjoy any office of public trust, and who would not be suspected of Popery. I went with Sir William Godolphin, a member of the Commons' House, to the Bishop of Ely (Dr. Peter Gunning), to be resolved whether masses were idolatry, as the text expressed it, which was so worded, that several good Protestants scrupled, and Sir William, though a learned man and excellent divine himself, had some doubts about it. The Bishop's opinion was that he might take it, though he wished it had been otherwise worded in the text.

15th January, 1678-79. I went with my Lady Sunderland to Chelsa, and dined with the Countess of Bristol [her mother] in the great house, formerly the Duke of Buckingham's, a spacious and excellent place for the extent of ground and situation in a good air. The house is large but ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol, who purchased it after he sold Wimbledon to my Lord Treasurer, expended much money on it. There were divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of Bassano, very excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a butcher in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss; and of Vandyke, my Lord of Bristol's picture, with the Earl of Bedford's at length, in the same table. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange trees, of which she was pleased to bestow some upon me.

16th January, 1679. I supped this night with Mr. Secretary at one Mr. Houblon's, a French merchant, who had his house furnished en Prince, and gave us a splendid entertainment.

25th January, 1679. The Long Parliament, which had sat ever since the Restoration, was dissolved by persuasion of the Lord Treasurer, though divers of them were believed to be his pensioner. At this, all the politicians were at a stand, they being very eager in pursuit of the late plot of the Papists.

30th January, 1679. Dr. Cudworth preached before the King at Whitehall, on 2 Timothy iii. 5, reckoning up the perils of the last times, in which, among other wickedness, treasons should be one of the greatest, applying it to the occasion, as committed under a form of reformation and godliness; concluding that the prophecy did intend more particularly the present age, as one of the last times; the sins there enumerated, more abundantly reigning than ever.

LONDON

2d February, 1679. Dr. Durell, Dean of Windsor, preached to the household at Whitehall, on 1 Cor. xvi. 22; he read the whole sermon out of his notes, which I had never before seen a Frenchman do, he being of Jersey, and bred at Paris.

4th February, 1679. Dr. Pierce, Dean of Salisbury, preached on 1 John, iv. 1, "Try the Spirits, there being so many delusory ones gone forth of late into the world"; he inveighed against the pernicious doctrines of Mr. Hobbes.

My brother Evelyn, was now chosen Knight for the County of Surrey, carrying it against my Lord Longford and Sir Adam Brown, of Bechworth Castle. The country coming in to give him their suffrages were so many, that I believe they ate and drank him out near £2,000, by a most abominable custom.

1st April, 1679. My friend, Mr. Godolphin, was now made one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, and of the Privy Council.

4th April, 1679. The Bishop of Gloucester preached in a manner very like Bishop Andrews, full of divisions, and scholastical, and that with much quickness. The Holy Communion followed.

20th April, 1679. Easter day. Our vicar preached exceedingly well on 1 Cor. v. 7. The Holy Communion followed, at which I and my daughter, Mary (now about fourteen years old), received for the first time. The Lord Jesus continue his grace unto her, and improve this blessed beginning!

24th April, 1679. The Duke of York, voted against by the Commons for his recusancy, went over to Flanders; which made much discourse.

4th June, 1679. I dined with Mr. Pepys in the Tower, he having been committed by the House of Commons for misdemeanors in the Admiralty when he was secretary; I believe he was unjustly charged. Here I saluted my Lords Stafford and Petre, who were committed for the Popish plot.

7th June, 1679. I saw the magnificent cavalcade and entry of the Portugal Ambassador.

17th June, 1679. I was godfather to a son of Sir Christopher Wren, surveyor of his Majesty's buildings, that most excellent and learned person, with Sir William Fermor, and my Lady Viscountess Newport, wife of the Treasurer of the Household.

Thence to Chelsea, to Sir Stephen Fox, and my lady, in order to the purchase of the Countess of Bristol's house there, which she desired me to procure a chapman for.

19th June, 1679. I dined at Sir Robert Clayton's with Sir Robert Viner, the great banker.

22d June, 1679. There were now divers Jesuits executed about the plot, and a rebellion in Scotland of the fanatics, so that there was a sad prospect of public affairs.

25th June, 1679. The new Commissioners of the Admiralty came to visit me, viz, Sir Henry Capell, brother to the Earl of Essex, Mr. Finch, eldest son to the Lord Chancellor, Sir Humphry Winch, Sir Thomas Meeres, Mr. Hales, with some of the Commissioners of the Navy. I went with them to London.

1st July, 1679. I dined at Sir William Godolphin's, and with that learned gentleman went to take the air in Hyde Park, where was a glorious cortège.

3d July, 1679. Sending a piece of venison to Mr. Pepys, still a prisoner, I went and dined with him.

6th July, 1679. Now were there papers, speeches, and libels, publicly cried in the streets against the Dukes of York and Lauderdale, etc., obnoxious to the Parliament, with too much and indeed too shameful a liberty; but the people and Parliament had gotten head by reason of the vices of the great ones.

LONDON

There was now brought up to London a child, son of one Mr. Wotton, formerly amanuensis to Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Winton, who both read and perfectly understood Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, and most of the modern languages; disputed in divinity, law, and all the sciences; was skillful in history, both ecclesiastical and profane; in politics; in a word, so universally and solidly learned at eleven years of age, that he was looked on as a miracle. Dr. Lloyd, one of the most deeply learned divines of this nation in all sorts of literature, with Dr. Burnet, who had severely examined him, came away astonished, and they told me they did not believe there had the like appeared in the world. He had only been instructed by his father, who being himself a learned person, confessed that his son knew all that he himself knew. But, what was more admirable than his vast memory, was his judgment and invention, he being tried with divers hard questions, which required maturity of thought and experience. He was also dexterous in chronology, antiquities, mathematics. In sum, an intellectus universalis, beyond all that we read of Picus Mirandula, and other precocious wits, and yet withal a very humble child.

14th July, 1679. I went to see how things stood at Parson's Green, my Lady Viscountess Mordaunt (now sick in Paris, whither she went for health) having made me a trustee for her children, an office I could not refuse to this most excellent, pious, and virtuous lady, my long acquaintance.

15th July, 1679. I dined with Mr. Sidney Godolphin, now one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.

18th July, 1679. I went early to the Old Bailey Sessions House, to the famous trial of Sir George Wakeman, one of the Queen's physicians, and three Benedictine monks; the first (whom I was well acquainted with, and take to be a worthy gentleman abhorring such a fact), for intending to poison the King; the others as accomplices to carry on the plot, to subvert the government, and introduce Popery. The bench was crowded with the judges, Lord Mayor justices, and innumerable spectators. The chief accusers, Dr. Oates (as he called himself), and one Bedlow, a man of inferior note. Their testimonies were not so pregnant, and I fear much of it from hearsay, but swearing positively to some particulars, which drew suspicion upon their truth; nor did circumstances so agree, as to give either the bench or jury so entire satisfaction as was expected. After, therefore, a long and tedious trial of nine hours, the jury brought them in not guilty, to the extraordinary triumph of the Papists, and without sufficient disadvantage and reflections on witnesses, especially Oates and Bedlow.

This was a happy day for the lords in the Tower, who, expecting their trial, had this gone against the prisoners at the bar, would all have been in the utmost hazard. For my part, I look on Oates as a vain, insolent man, puffed up with the favor of the Commons for having discovered something really true, more especially as detecting the dangerous intrigue of Coleman, proved out of his own letters, and of a general design which the Jesuited party of the Papists ever had and still have, to ruin the Church of England; but that he was trusted with those great secrets he pretended, or had any solid ground for what he accused divers noblemen of, I have many reasons to induce my contrary belief. That among so many commissions as he affirmed to have delivered to them from P. Oliva40 and the Pope, – he who made no scruple of opening all other papers, letters, and secrets, should not only not open any of those pretended commissions, but not so much as take any copy or witness of any one of them, is almost miraculous. But the Commons (some leading persons I mean of them) had so exalted him that they took all he said for Gospel, and without more ado ruined all whom he named to be conspirators; nor did he spare whoever came in his way. But, indeed, the murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, suspected to have been compassed by the Jesuits' party for his intimacy with Coleman (a busy person whom I also knew), and the fear they had that he was able to have discovered things to their prejudice, did so exasperate not only the Commons, but all the nation, that much of these sharpnesses against the more honest Roman Catholics who lived peaceably, is to be imputed to that horrid fact.

The sessions ended, I dined or rather supped (so late it was) with the judges in the large room annexed to the place, and so returned home. Though it was not my custom or delight to be often present at any capital trials, we having them commonly so exactly published by those who take them in short-hand, yet I was inclined to be at this signal one, that by the ocular view of the carriages and other circumstances of the managers and parties concerned, I might inform myself, and regulate my opinion of a cause that had so alarmed the whole nation.

22d July, 1679. Dined at Clapham, at Sir D. Gauden's; went thence with him to Windsor, to assist him in a business with his Majesty. I lay that night at Eton College, the Provost's lodgings (Dr. Craddock), where I was courteously entertained.

LONDON

23d July, 1679. To Court: after dinner, I visited that excellent painter, Verrio, whose works in fresco in the King's palace, at Windsor, will celebrate his name as long as those walls last. He showed us his pretty garden, choice flowers, and curiosities, he himself being a skillful gardener.

I went to Clifden, that stupendous natural rock, wood, and prospect, of the Duke of Buckingham's, and buildings of extraordinary expense. The grots in the chalky rocks are pretty: it is a romantic object, and the place altogether answers the most poetical description that can be made of solitude, precipice, prospect, or whatever can contribute to a thing so very like their imaginations. The stand, somewhat like Frascati as to its front, and on the platform is a circular view to the utmost verge of the horizon, which, with the serpenting of the Thames, is admirable. The staircase is for its materials singular; the cloisters, descents, gardens, and avenue through the wood, august and stately; but the land all about wretchedly barren, and producing nothing but fern. Indeed, as I told his Majesty that evening (asking me how I liked Clifden) without flattery, that it did not please me so well as Windsor for the prospect and park, which is without compare; there being but one only opening, and that narrow, which led one to any variety; whereas that of Windsor is everywhere great and unconfined.

Returning, I called at my cousin Evelyn's, who has a very pretty seat in the forest, two miles by hither Clifden, on a flat, with gardens exquisitely kept, though large, and the house a staunch good old building, and what was singular, some of the rooms floored dove tail-wise without a nail, exactly close. One of the closets is pargeted with plain deal, set in diamond, exceeding staunch and pretty.

7th August, 1679. Dined at the Sheriff's, when, the Company of Drapers and their wives being invited, there was a sumptuous entertainment, according to the forms of the city, with music, etc., comparable to any prince's service in Europe.

8th August, 1679. I went this morning to show my Lord Chamberlain, his Lady, and the Duchess of Grafton, the incomparable work of Mr. Gibbon, the carver, whom I first recommended to his Majesty, his house being furnished like a cabinet, not only with his own work, but divers excellent paintings of the best hands. Thence, to Sir Stephen Fox's, where we spent the day.

31st August, 1679. After evening service, to see a neighbor, one Mr. Bohun, related to my son's late tutor of that name, a rich Spanish merchant, living in a neat place, which he has adorned with many curiosities, especially several carvings of Mr. Gibbons, and some pictures by Streeter.

13th September, 1679. To Windsor, to congratulate his Majesty on his recovery; I kissed the Duke's hand, now lately returned from Flanders41 to visit his brother the King, on which there were various bold and foolish discourses, the Duke of Monmouth being sent away.

19th September, 1679. My Lord Sunderland, one of the principal Secretaries of State, invited me to dinner, where was the King's natural son, the Earl of Plymouth, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Earl of Essex, Earl of Mulgrave, Mr. Hyde, and Mr. Godolphin. After dinner I went to prayers at Eton, and visited Mr. Henry Godolphin, fellow there, and Dr. Craddock.

25th September, 1679. Mr. Slingsby and Signor Verrio came to dine with me, to whom I gave China oranges off my own trees, as good, I think, as were ever eaten.

6th October, 1679. A very wet and sickly season.

23d October, 1679. Dined at my Lord Chamberlain's, the King being now newly returned from his Newmarket recreations.

4th November, 1679. Dined at the Lord Mayor's; and, in the evening, went to the funeral of my pious, dear, and ancient learned friend, Dr. Jasper Needham, who was buried at St. Bride's Church. He was a true and holy Christian, and one who loved me with great affection. Dr. Dove preached with an eulogy due to his memory. I lost in this person one of my dearest remaining sincere friends.

5th November, 1679. I was invited to dine at my Lord Teviotdale's, a Scotch Earl, a learned and knowing nobleman. We afterward went to see Mr. Montague's new palace near Bloomsbury, built by our curator, Mr. Hooke, somewhat after the French; it was most nobly furnished, and a fine, but too much exposed garden.42

LONDON

6th November, 1679. Dined at the Countess of Sunderland's, and was this evening at the remarriage of the Duchess of Grafton to the Duke (his Majesty's natural son), she being now twelve years old. The ceremony was performed in my Lord Chamberlain's (her father's) lodgings at Whitehall by the Bishop of Rochester, his Majesty being present. A sudden and unexpected thing, when everybody believed the first marriage would have come to nothing; but, the measure being determined, I was privately invited by my Lady, her mother, to be present. I confess I could give her little joy, and so I plainly told her, but she said the King would have it so, and there was no going back. This sweetest, most hopeful, most beautiful, child, and most virtuous, too, was sacrificed to a boy that had been rudely bred, without anything to encourage them but his Majesty's pleasure. I pray God the sweet child find it to her advantage, who, if my augury deceive me not, will in a few years be such a paragon as were fit to make the wife of the greatest Prince in Europe! I staid supper, where his Majesty sat between the Duchess of Cleveland (the mother of the Duke of Grafton) and the sweet Duchess the bride; there were several great persons and ladies, without pomp. My love to my Lord Arlington's family, and the sweet child made me behold all this with regret, though as the Duke of Grafton affects the sea, to which I find his father intends to use him, he may emerge a plain, useful and robust officer: and were he polished, a tolerable person; for he is exceedingly handsome, by far surpassing any of the King's other natural issue.

8th November, 1679. At Sir Stephen Fox's, and was agreeing for the Countess of Bristol's house at Chelsea, within £500.

18th November, 1679. I dined at my Lord Mayor's, being desired by the Countess of Sunderland to carry her thither on a solemn day, that she might see the pomp and ceremony of this Prince of Citizens, there never having been any, who for the stateliness of his palace, prodigious feasting, and magnificence, exceeded him. This Lord Mayor's acquaintance had been from the time of his being apprentice to one Mr. Abbot, his uncle, who being a scrivener, and an honest worthy man, one who was condemned to die at the beginning of the troubles forty years past, as concerned in the commission of array for King Charles I. had escaped with his life; I often used his assistance in money matters. Robert Clayton, then a boy, his nephew, became, after his uncle Abbot's death, so prodigiously rich and opulent, that he was reckoned one of the wealthiest citizens. He married a free-hearted woman, who became his hospitable disposition; and having no children, with the accession of his partner and fellow apprentice, who also left him his estate, he grew excessively rich. He was a discreet magistrate, and though envied, I think without much cause. Some believed him guilty of hard dealing, especially with the Duke of Buckingham, much of whose estate he had swallowed, but I never saw any ill by him, considering the trade he was of. The reputation and known integrity of his uncle, Abbot, brought all the royal party to him, by which he got not only great credit, but vast wealth, so as he passed this office with infinite magnificence and honor.

20th November, 1679. I dined with Mr. Slingsby, Master of the Mint, with my wife, invited to hear music, which was exquisitely performed by four of the most renowned masters: Du Prue, a Frenchman, on the lute; Signor Bartholomeo, an Italian, on the harpsichord; Nicholao on the violin; but, above all, for its sweetness and novelty, the viol d'amore of five wire strings played on with a bow, being but an ordinary violin, played on lyre-way, by a German. There was also a flute douce, now in much request for accompanying the voice. Mr. Slingsby, whose son and daughter played skillfully, had these meetings frequently in his house.

21st November, 1679. I dined at my Lord Mayor's, to accompany my worthiest and generous friend, the Earl of Ossory; it was on a Friday, a private day, but the feast and entertainment might have become a King. Such an hospitable costume and splendid magistrature does no city in the world show, as I believe.

23d November, 1679. Dr. Allestree preached before the household on St. Luke xi. 2; Dr. Lloyd on Matt. xxiii. 20, before the King, showing with how little reason the Papists applied those words of our blessed Savior to maintain the pretended infallibility they boast of. I never heard a more Christian and excellent discourse; yet were some offended that he seemed to say the Church of Rome was a true church; but it was a captious mistake; for he never affirmed anything that could be more to their reproach, and that such was the present Church of Rome, showing how much it had erred. There was not in this sermon so much as a shadow for censure, no person of all the clergy having testified greater zeal against the errors of the Papists than this pious and most learned person. I dined at the Bishop of Rochester's, and then went to St. Paul's to hear that great wit, Dr. Sprat, now newly succeeding Dr. Outram, in the cure of St. Margaret's. His talent was a great memory, never making use of notes, a readiness of expression in a most pure and plain style of words, full of matter, easily delivered.

26th November, 1679. I met the Earl of Clarendon with the rest of my fellow executors of the Will of my late Lady Viscountess Mordaunt, namely, Mr. Laurence Hyde, one of the Commissioners of the Treasury, and lately Plenipotentiary-Ambassador at Nimeguen; Andrew Newport; and Sir Charles Wheeler; to examine and audit and dispose of this year's account of the estate of this excellent Lady, according to the direction of her Will.

27th November, 1679. I went to see Sir John Stonehouse, with whom I was treating a marriage between my son and his daughter-in-law.

28th November, 1679. Came over the Duke of Monmouth from Holland unexpectedly to his Majesty; while the Duke of York was on his journey to Scotland, whither the King sent him to reside and govern. The bells and bonfires of the city at this arrival of the Duke of Monmouth publishing their joy, to the no small regret of some at Court. This Duke, whom for distinction they called the Protestant Duke (though the son of an abandoned woman), the people made their idol.