Samuel Pepys - Diary of Samuel Pepys

20th. Up early, and with Mr. Pickering and the child by waggon to Scheveling, where it not being yet fit to go off, I went to lie down in a chamber in the house, where in another bed there was a pretty Dutch woman in bed alone, but though I had a month’s-mind

[Month’s-mind. An earnest desire or longing, explained as alluding

to “a woman’s longing.” See Shakespeare, “Two Gentlemen of Verona,”

act i. sc. 2:

“I see you have a month’s mind to them.”—M. B.]

I had not the boldness to go to her. So there I slept an hour or two. At last she rose, and then I rose and walked up and down the chamber, and saw her dress herself after the Dutch dress, and talked to her as much as I could, and took occasion, from her ring which she wore on her first finger, to kiss her hand, but had not the face to offer anything more. So at last I left her there and went to my company. About 8 o’clock I went into the church at Scheveling, which was pretty handsome, and in the chancel a very great upper part of the mouth of a whale, which indeed was of a prodigious bigness, bigger than one of our long boats that belong to one of our ships. Commissioner Pett at last came to our lodging, and caused the boats to go off; so some in one boat and some in another we all bid adieu to the shore. But through badness of weather we were in great danger, and a great while before we could get to the ship, so that of all the company not one but myself that was not sick. I keeping myself in the open air, though I was soundly wet for it. This hath not been known four days together such weather at this time of year, a great while. Indeed our fleet was thought to be in great danger, but we found all well, and Mr. Thos. Crew came on board. I having spoke a word or two with my Lord, being not very well settled, partly through last night’s drinking and want of sleep, I lay down in my gown upon my bed and slept till the 4 o’clock gun the next morning waked me, which I took for 8 at night, and rising … mistook the sun rising for the sun setting on Sunday night.

21st. So into my naked bed

[This is a somewhat late use of an expression which was once

universal. It was formerly the custom for both sexes to sleep in

bed without any nightlinen.

“Who sees his true love in her naked bed,

Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white.”

Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis.

Nares (“Glossary”) notes the expression so late as in the very odd

novel by T. Amory, called “John Bunde,” where a young lady declares,

after an alarm, “that she would never go into naked bed on board

ship again.” Octavo edition, vol. i. p. 90.]

and slept till 9 o’clock, and then John Goods waked me, [by] and by the captain’s boy brought me four barrels of Mallows oysters, which Captain Tatnell had sent me from Murlace.—[Apparently Mallows stands for St. Malo and Murlace for Morlaise.]—The weather foul all this day also. After dinner, about writing one thing or other all day, and setting my papers in order, having been so long absent. At night Mr. Pierce, Purser (the other Pierce and I having not spoken to one another since we fell out about Mr. Edward), and Mr. Cook sat with me in my cabin and supped with me, and then I went to bed. By letters that came hither in my absence, I understand that the Parliament had ordered all persons to be secured, in order to a trial, that did sit as judges in the late King’s death, and all the officers too attending the Court. Sir John Lenthall moving in the House, that all that had borne arms against the King should be exempted from pardon, he was called to the bar of the House, and after a severe reproof he was degraded his knighthood. At Court I find that all things grow high. The old clergy talk as being sure of their lands again, and laugh at the Presbytery; and it is believed that the sales of the King’s and Bishops’ lands will never be confirmed by Parliament, there being nothing now in any man’s, power to hinder them and the King from doing what they have a mind, but every body willing to submit to any thing. We expect every day to have the King and Duke on board as soon as it is fair. My Lord do nothing now, but offers all things to the pleasure of the Duke as Lord High Admiral. So that I am at a loss what to do.

22nd. Up very early, and now beginning to be settled in my wits again, I went about setting down my last four days’ observations this morning. After that, was trimmed by a barber that has not trimmed me yet, my Spaniard being on shore. News brought that the two Dukes are coming on board, which, by and by, they did, in a Dutch boats the Duke of York in yellow trimmings, the Duke of Gloucester

[Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest child of Charles L, born

July 6th, 16—, who, with his sister Elizabeth, was allowed a

meeting with his father on the night before the King’s execution.

Burnet says: “He was active, and loved business; was apt to have

particular friendships, and had an insinuating temper which was

generally very acceptable. The King loved him much better than the

Duke of York.” He died of smallpox at Whitehall, September 13th,

1660, and was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel.]

in grey and red. My Lord went in a boat to meet them, the Captain, myself, and others, standing at the entering port. So soon as they were entered we shot the guns off round the fleet. After that they went to view the ship all over, and were most exceedingly pleased with it. They seem to be both very fine gentlemen. After that done, upon the quarter-deck table, under the awning, the Duke of York and my Lord, Mr. Coventry,

[William Coventry, to whom Pepys became so warmly attached

afterwards, was the fourth son of Thomas, first Lord Coventry, the

Lord Keeper. He was born in 1628, and entered at Queen’s College,

Oxford, in 1642; after the Restoration he became private secretary

to the Duke of York, his commission as Secretary to the Lord High

Admiral not being conferred until 1664; elected M.P. for Great

Yarmouth in 1661. In 1662 he was appointed an extra Commissioner of

the Navy, an office he held until 1667; in 1665, knighted and sworn

a Privy Councillor, and, in 1667, constituted a Commissioner of the

Treasury; but, having been forbid the court on account of his

challenging the Duke of Buckingham, he retired into the country, nor

could he subsequently be prevailed upon to accept of any official

employment. Burnet calls Sir William Coventry the best speaker in

the House of Commons, and “a man of the finest and best temper that

belonged to the court,” and Pepys never omits an opportunity of

paying a tribute to his public and private worth. He died, 1686, of

gout in the stomach.]

and I, spent an hour at allotting to every ship their service, in their return to England; which having done, they went to dinner, where the table was very full: the two Dukes at the upper end, my Lord Opdam next on one side, and my Lord on the other. Two guns given to every man while he was drinking the King’s health, and so likewise to the Duke’s health. I took down Monsieur d’Esquier to the great cabin below, and dined with him in state alone with only one or two friends of his. All dinner the harper belonging to Captain Sparling played to the Dukes. After dinner, the Dukes and my Lord to see the Vice and Rear-Admirals; and I in a boat after them. After that done, they made to the shore in the Dutch boat that brought them, and I got into the boat with them; but the shore was so full of people to expect their coming, as that it was as black (which otherwise is white sand), as every one could stand by another. When we came near the shore, my Lord left them and came into his own boat, and General Pen and I with him; my Lord being very well pleased with this day’s work. By the time we came on board again, news is sent us that the King is on shore; so my Lord fired all his guns round twice, and all the fleet after him, which in the end fell into disorder, which seemed very handsome. The gun over against my cabin I fired myself to the King, which was the first time that he had been saluted by his own ships since this change; but holding my head too much over the gun, I had almost spoiled my right eye. Nothing in the world but going of guns almost all this day. In the evening we began to remove cabins; I to the carpenter’s cabin, and Dr. Clerke with me, who came on board this afternoon, having been twice ducked in the sea to-day coming from shore, and Mr. North and John Pickering the like. Many of the King’s servants came on board to-night; and so many Dutch of all sorts came to see the ship till it was quite dark, that we could not pass by one another, which was a great trouble to us all. This afternoon Mr. Downing (who was knighted yesterday by the King’) was here on board, and had a ship for his passage into England, with his lady and servants.