The Diary of John Evelyn Volume II Part 17

I went this evening with my Lord Duke to Windsor, where was a magnificent Court, it being the first time of his Majesty's removing thither since it was repaired.

27th August, 1678. I took leave of the Duke, and dined at Mr. Henry Bruncker's, at the Abbey of Sheene, formerly a monastery of Carthusians, there yet remaining one of their solitary cells with a cross. Within this ample inclosure are several pretty villas and fine gardens of the most excellent fruits, especially Sir William Temple's (lately Amba.s.sador into Holland), and the Lord Lisle's, son to the Earl of Leicester, who has divers rare pictures, above all, that of Sir Brian Tuke's, by Holbein.

After dinner I walked to Ham, to see the house and garden of the Duke of Lauderdale, which is indeed inferior to few of the best villas in Italy itself; the house furnished like a great Prince's; the parterres, flower-gardens, orangeries, groves, avenues, courts, statues, perspectives, fountains, aviaries, and all this at the banks of the sweetest river in the world, must needs be admirable.

Hence, I went to my worthy friend, Sir Henry Capel [at Kew], brother to the Earl of Ess.e.x; it is an old timber-house; but his garden has the choicest fruit of any plantation in England, as he is the most industrious and understanding in it.

29th August, 1678. I was called to London to wait upon the Duke of Norfolk, who having at my sole request bestowed the Arundelian Library on the Royal Society; sent to me to take charge of the books, and remove them, only stipulating that I would suffer the Herald's chief officer, Sir William Dugdale, to have such of them as concerned heraldry and the marshal's office, books of armory and genealogies, the Duke being Earl Marshal of England. I procured for our Society, besides printed books, near one hundred MSS. some in Greek of great concernment. The printed books being of the oldest impressions, are not the less valuable; I esteem them almost equal to MSS. Among them, are most of the Fathers, printed at Basil, before the Jesuits abused them with their expurgatory Indexes; there is a n.o.ble MS. of Vitruvius. Many of these books had been presented by Popes, Cardinals, and great persons, to the Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk; and the late magnificent Earl of Arundel bought a n.o.ble library in Germany, which is in this collection. I should not, for the honor I bear the family, have persuaded the Duke to part with these, had I not seen how negligent he was of them, suffering the priests and everybody to carry away and dispose of what they pleased; so that abundance of rare things are irrecoverably gone.

Having taken order here, I went to the Royal Society to give them an account of what I had procured, that they might call a Council and appoint a day to wait on the Duke to thank him for this munificent gift.

[Sidenote: LONDON]

3d September, 1678. I went to London, to dine with Mrs. G.o.dolphin, and found her in labor; she was brought to bed of a son, who was baptized in the chamber, by the name of Francis, the susceptors being Sir William G.o.dolphin (head of the family), Mr. John Hervey, Treasurer to the Queen, and Mrs. Boscawen, sister to Sir William and the father.

8th September, 1678. While I was at church came a letter from Mr.

G.o.dolphin, that my dear friend his lady was exceedingly ill, and desiring my prayers and a.s.sistance. My wife and I took boat immediately, and went to Whitehall, where, to my inexpressible sorrow, I found she had been attacked with a new fever, then reigning this excessive hot autumn, and which was so violent, that it was not thought she could last many hours.

9th September, 1678. She died in the 26th year of her age, to the inexpressible affliction of her dear husband, and all her relations, but of none in the world more than of myself, who lost the most excellent and inestimable friend that ever lived. Never was a more virtuous and inviolable friends.h.i.+p; never a more religious, discreet, and admirable creature, beloved of all, admired of all, for all possible perfections of her s.e.x. She is gone to receive the reward of her signal charity, and all other her Christian graces, too blessed a creature to converse with mortals, fitted as she was, by a most holy life, to be received into the mansions above. She was for wit, beauty, good nature, fidelity, discretion, and all accomplishments, the most incomparable person. How shall I ever repay the obligations to her for the infinite good offices she did my soul by so often engaging me to make religion the terms and tie of the friends.h.i.+p there was between us! She was the best wife, the best mistress, the best friend, that ever husband had. But it is not here that I pretend to give her character, HAVING DESIGNED TO CONSECRATE HER WORTHY LIFE TO POSTERITY.

Her husband, struck with unspeakable affliction, fell down as dead. The King himself, and all the Court, expressed their sorrow. To the poor and miserable, her loss was irreparable; for there was no degree but had some obligation to her memory. So careful and provident was she to be prepared for all possible accidents, that (as if she foresaw her end) she received the heavenly viatic.u.m but the Sunday before, after a most solemn recollection. She put all her domestic concerns into the exactest order, and left a letter directed to her husband, to be opened in case she died in childbed, in which with the most pathetic and endearing expressions of the most loyal and virtuous wife, she begs his kindness to her memory might be continued by his care and esteem of those she left behind, even to her domestic servants, to the meanest of which she left considerable legacies, as well as to the poor. It was now seven years since she was maid of honor to the Queen, that she regarded me as a father, a brother, and what is more, a friend. We often prayed, visited the sick and miserable, received, read, discoursed, and communicated in all holy offices together. She was most dear to my wife, and affectionate to my children. But she is gone! This only is my comfort, that she is happy in Christ, and I shall shortly behold her again. She desired to be buried in the dormitory of his family, near three hundred miles from all her other friends. So afflicted was her husband at this severe loss, that the entire care of her funeral was committed to me. Having closed the eyes, and dropped a tear upon the cheek of my dear departed friend, lovely even in death, I caused her corpse to be embalmed and wrapped in lead, a plate of bra.s.s soldered thereon, with an inscription, and other circ.u.mstances due to her worth, with as much diligence and care as my grieved heart would permit me; I then retired home for two days, which were spent in solitude and sad reflection.

17th September, 1678. She was, accordingly, carried to G.o.dolphin, in Cornwall, in a hea.r.s.e with six horses, attended by two coaches of as many, with about thirty of her relations and servants. There accompanied the hea.r.s.e her husband's brother, Sir William, two more of his brothers, and three sisters; her husband was so overcome with grief, that he was wholly unfit to travel so long a journey, till he was more composed. I went as far as Hounslow with a sad heart; but was obliged to return upon some indispensable affairs. The corpse was ordered to be taken out of the hea.r.s.e every night, and decently placed in the house, with tapers about it, and her servants attending, to Cornwall; and then was honorably interred in the parish church of G.o.dolphin. This funeral cost not much less than 1,000.

With Mr. G.o.dolphin, I looked over and sorted his lady's papers, most of which consisted of Prayers, Meditations, Sermon-notes, Discourses, and Collections on several religious subjects, and many of her own happy composing, and so pertinently digested, as if she had been all her life a student in divinity. We found a diary of her solemn resolutions, tending to practical virtue, with letters from select friends, all put into exact method. It astonished us to see what she had read and written, her youth considered.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Footnote 39: Ezrael Tonge was bred in University College, Oxford, and being puritanically inclined, quitted the University; but in 1648 returned, and was made a Fellow. He had the living of Pluckley, in Kent, which he resigned in consequence of quarrels with his paris.h.i.+oners and Quakers. In 1657, he was made fellow of the newly-erected College at Durham, and that being dissolved in 1660, he taught school at Islington. He then went with Colonel Edward Harley to Dunkirk, and subsequently took a small living in Herefords.h.i.+re (Lentwardine); but quitted it for St. Mary Stayning, in London, which, after the fire in 1666, was united to St. Michael, Wood Street. These he held till his death, in 1680. He was a great opponent of the Roman Catholics. Wood mentions several publications of his, among which are, "The Jesuits Unmasked," 1678; "Jesuitical Aphorisms," 1678; and "The Jesuits' Morals," 1680 (1670); the two latter translated from the French. (Wood's "_Athenae, Oxon._" vol.

ii. p. 502.) Evelyn speaks of the last of these translations as having been executed by his desire: and it figures in a notable pa.s.sage of Oates's testimony. Oates said, for example, "that Thomas Whitbread, a priest, on 13th of June, 16 . . did tell the rector of St. Omer's that a Minister of the Church of England had scandalously put out the 'Jesuits' Morals' in English, and had endeavored to render them odious, and had asked the Rector whether he thought Oates might know him? and the Rector called, the deponent, who heard these words as he stood at the chamber door, and when he went into the chamber of the Provincial, he asked him 'If he knew the author of the "Jesuits' Morals?"' deponent answered, 'His person, but not his name.' Whitbread then demanded, whether he would undertake to poison, or a.s.sa.s.sinate the author; which deponent undertook, having 50 reward promised him, and appointed to return to England."]

16th October, 1678. Mr. G.o.dolphin requested me to continue the trust his wife had reposed in me, in behalf of his little son, conjuring me to transfer the friends.h.i.+p I had for his dear wife, on him and his.

21st October, 1678. The murder of Sir Edmondbury G.o.dfrey, 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 G.o.d, 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.

[Sidenote: 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 circ.u.mstances 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 G.o.dolphin, a member of the Commons' House, to the Bishop of Ely (Dr. Peter Gunning), to be resolved whether ma.s.ses 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 s.p.a.cious 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 t.i.tian and Vand.y.k.e, and some of Ba.s.sano, very excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a butcher in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss; and of Vand.y.k.e, 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 G.o.dliness; 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.

[Sidenote: 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. G.o.dolphin, 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 Amba.s.sador.

17th June, 1679. I was G.o.dfather 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 Ess.e.x, 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 G.o.dolphin's, and with that learned gentleman went to take the air in Hyde Park, where was a glorious _cortege_.

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.

[Sidenote: 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.