SAMUEL PEPYS AND JOHN EVELYN
1665-9
This text is taken from my publication of the complete Correspondence
of these two seventeenth-century diarists, published by Boydell still
available in paperback at £16-99, and covering their letters from 1665-1703
(the 1690s are available on this site too).
There is more information at John Evelyn
. A complete version of the text,
without notes, is available at: http://astext.com/history/contents.html
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A1 27
April 1665 SP to JE
A2 1 May
1665 JE to SP
A3 9
August 1665 SP to JE
A4 23
September 1665 JE to SP
A5 26
September 1665 SP to JE
A6 29
September 1665 JE to SP
A7 30
September 1665 JE to SP
A8 3
October 1665 JE to SP
A9 12
October 1665 JE to SP
A10 13
October 1665 JE to SP
A11 14
October 1665 JE to SP
A12 23
October 1665 JE to SP
A13 4
November 1665 JE to SP
A14 23
November 1665 JE to SP
A15 7
December 1665 JE to SP
A16 9
December 1665 JE to SP
A17 12
December 1665 SP to JE
A18 13
December 1665 JE to SP
A19 31
January 1666 JE to SP
A20 17
February 1666 SP to JE
A21 17
February 1666 JE to SP
A22 28
February 1666 JE to SP
A23 16
March 1666 JE to SP
A24 26
March 1666 JE to SP
A25 26
March 1666 JE to SP
A26 20
January 1668 JE to SP
A27 8
February 1668 SP to JE
A28 21
August 1669 JE to SP
This page consists of the letters passed between the two men in the
1660s.
The 1660s
Most of the letters written by Pepys and Evelyn to one another during
the 1660s were concerned with the practical difficulties of dealing with sick
and wounded seamen. With Pepys as Clerk of the Acts in the Navy Office and
Evelyn a newly-appointed commissioner for sick and wounded seamen and
prisoners-of-war they were bound to encounter one another. The corres-pondence
opens with a letter from Pepys which is the earliest letter located between the
two.
Very few of these early
letters remained in the archives of either diarist. The main sequence belongs
to the second half of 1665 and early 1666. Entirely concerned with the Second
Dutch War most were written by Evelyn, sometimes on consecutive days and with a
mounting sense of urgency. It is clear that his personal anxiety was intense as
the problems of looking after hordes of sick men with totally inadequate
financial resources plagued him night and day. For Pepys though Evelyn’s
troubles were only a small part of the administrative headaches which made his
life so complicated. Glancing through the pages of his diary we can see that
Evelyn’s problems were hardly a preoccupation, 13 December 1665 being a case in
point.
Evelyn regarded his
relationship with Pepys on a professional basis, raising points which were
relevant to the latter’s concerns. He was often franker in his letters to
others. The additional material included in Appendix 1 and in the footnotes
here makes it clear that for a while Evelyn was in a precarious financial
position. Not until the end of this period does Pepys feature in Evelyn’s
diary, perhaps a mark of his marginally-inferior social status. They had also
socialised on a number of occasions, Pepys’s accounts of which contrast
markedly with the harsh realities of their professional responsibilities. In
his letter of 3 October 1665 Evelyn reciprocated some of Pepys’s admiration by
expressing an apparently genuine desire that they become better acquainted.
Once the War was over
their relationship took a new turn. Pepys was planning a trip to Europe and
Evelyn, ever the informed expert, was only too happy to produce a detailed list
of suggested sights and contacts. By June 1669 Pepys had closed his diary.
Ironically it was only then that Evelyn refers to him in his own, describing
how he took his younger brother Richard to see Pepys to give him courage to
undergo surgery for the removal of a kidney stone. But the 1660s close with a
letter from Pepys, returned from his trip, telling Evelyn of his wife’s serious
illness. She died shortly afterwards. In the 1670s the two men turned once more
to a naval war with the Dutch.
A1. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Sick men set ashore in
Ireland
Mr Evelin
[Navy Office]
27 April 1665 (2)
Sir,
From a letter this day come to my hand from a Shipp of ours (the little Guift)
(3) that in a Conflict with a Hollander on the Irish Coast (wherein shoe though
much over matched hath acquitted her selfe very well) hath had severall Men
wounded, who are putt on shoare for care at Galloway, give me leave to aske you
whether any Provision for sick and wounded men is made in Ireland, not with
respect to theis Men only, but to the future ocasions in Generall which wee may
Probably have of useing it there. You will Pardon this enquiry from one that
hath soe little Right to offer you trouble as
Your
humble servant
S:P
Source: NMM
Letter-Book 8, 199 (copy in P’s hand). Used by permission of the National
Maritime Museum. This is the earliest letter in the sequence of correspondence
which could be located, and was oddly omitted by Tanner (1929; it perhaps went
unnoticed because E’s name is tucked tightly into the bottom left corner of the
page). It is implicit, though, from the content of this letter that P had some
personal knowledge of E. P had certainly witnessed and recorded E’s paper on
bread-making at the Royal Society on the preceding 1 March (diary) but does not
mention E by name. Prior to that both had recorded their presence (diaries) at
the launching of the double-bottomed Experiment at Deptford on 22
December 1664.
It may
also be noted that Evelyn, Clifford, Reymes, and Doyly signed a document dated
24 November 1664 addressed to the Commissioners of the Navy, in which they
requested details of ships at sea to restrict claims for relief of the sick and
wounded to those ‘as shall really suffer in His Majesties service’. The
document was endorsed by P (Sotheby’s Catalogue for 24 July 1995, Lot
488).
2 MS: ‘27 Aprill
1665’ in lower left margin. P was at the Navy Office all day (diary).
3 Sic. This is
almost certainly the Gift, also known as the Gift Minor. It was a
16-gun vessel, originally the Spanish Bon Jesus, captured in 1658 and
sold in 1667. Its name distinguished it from the Gift Major, a 40-gun
French ship captured in 1652 (Colledge 1987).
A2. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
On the sick and wounded
in Ireland
For Samuel Pepys Esqr:
at the Navy Office
London
Sayes Court
1 May 1665 (2)
Sir,
My absence neere 30 miles from my house, when your Letter (3) came
thither, will, I hope, excuse the slow returne of this answer: Sir, there is
neither in our Commission, or Instructions the least mention made of any
provision for Sick and Wounded-men in Ireland; our Districts reaching no
farther then Plymouth towards the West, and Yarmouth North-East; and the
intermedial ports reduc’d to as few as could be, for sundry important reasons:
Notwithstanding I conceive it were very fit there should, for the future, be
some courses taken for the settling of some Correspondence there for this
effect; but our Commission dos take no Cognizance of it: Sir, when my Collegues
in Office meete, I will not faile to Communicat this particular to them, and
what his Majestie shall be pleas’d to superadd to his other Commands, I know
they will be ready to undertake as far as lyes in their power; this comeing onely
from
Sir,
Your
most humble servant
JEvelyn:
Source: BL.1469.
Endorsed by P, ‘1st: May 1665 Mr Eveling About want of Provision made for sick
and wounded in Ireland.’ The letter also bears: a handwritten note that it was
purchased in June 1869 from ‘Sotheby and Hodge’; and, a clipping from the sale
catalogue describing the letter (Lot 364). It was probably purchased by, or on
behalf of, William John Evelyn of Wotton who expended much energy on recovering
books and manuscripts connected with the diarist.
MS: ‘Says-Court
May.1:65.’ P visited Sayes Court in the evening (‘it being dark and late’ -
diary) on this day, perhaps in response to the letter though he does not
mention it (ibid). E was not there and states in his own diary only that he
went to London on 1 May. He had presumably departed before P arrived.
See letter of 27
April (A1), above.
A3. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Pepys seeks advice for
the sick and wounded in Ireland
Mr Evelyn
Navy Office
9 August 1665 (2)
Sir,
I am once more to trouble you with my old question concerning the
provision made for the sick and wounded seamen in Ireland (3), for that a
charge is and hath for a good while beene running on at Kinsale in expectation of
paiement from this office; which we have yet no authoritie to make nor is it
fitt the care of it should be put upon persons soe little at leisure to look
after it as the Officers of the Navy; besides that, I have been told, That it
hath beene by the King and Councill left to the Lord Leiuetent of Ireland to
give directions in: I beseech you Sir what advice you can give me in any part
hereof, be pleased to let me receive, for that what is disburst must soone or
late be paid some where, and the longer it’s left unsettled ’tis likely the
King will be soe much the more Sufferer.
Sir I have looked after
when you woulde thinke fitt (in pursuance of our last discourse (4), and Sir
William Coventrie’s advice) to intimate at what ports, and what number of
recovered men are ready to be called for, That soe as we have Ships in the way
they may be directed to take them in. I remaine
Your
affectionate and most humble
Servant
SPepys
Source: BL.1080. Endorsed by E, ‘Mr Pepys 9
Aug 1665 Navy-office.’
2 MS: ‘Navy Office 9
August 1665 Mr Evelyn’ at foot of letter.
3 See letter of 27
April 1665 (A1).
4 Although P records
visiting E’s house on 1 and 5 May 1665, he does not record a face-to-face
meeting until 9 September (diary). This letter and the previous one suggest
that his diary is unintentionally misleading in this respect. It seems clear
that they must have met before this letter and very probably before that of 27
April.
A4. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn in despair for
want of cash
For Samuell Pepys Esqr
One of the Principall Officers
of His Majesties Navy at Greenewich:
Sayes Court
23 September 1665 (2)
Sir,
There are divers miserably sick prisoners at Wollwich, especialy in this
bearers Ship: If they could be conveyd downe to our Fly-boates before
Gravesend, Our Chirurgeon there might looke after them; and they have also a
Guard; but you know I am prohibited realiving any at Wollwich, even of our Owne
men: They might be, I suppose, at Eryth; but how shall we (when recoverd)
secure them from running away? At Gravesend we are forc’d to make stay of one
of the Flie-boats on purpose, for the numerous Sick-prisoners which we could
not march with their fellows to Leeds; therefore I beseech you order them by
some meanes or other to be sent (viz, the sick onely) to those Vessels at
Gravesend, where there will be care taken for them:
Sir, Since I saw you
yesterday, comes notice to me that of the £5000 I was to touch by promise this
Weeke from Mr Kingdome (3) by order of my Lord Ashley, no lesse then £3000 of
it is diverted for other purposes from Oxford (4): consider with indignation,
the misery, and confusion all will be in at Chatham, and Gravesend, where I was
threatnd to have our sick all expos’d, if by Thursday next I do not send them
£2000; and in what a condition our prisoners at Leeds, are like to be: If my
Lord of Albemarle (to whom I am now hailing (5)) do not this day helpe me by an
high hand (6); dreadfull will be the consequences, and I will leave you to
consider, at whose doores, this dealing at Oxon is to be layd (7); I am almost
in despair, so you will pardon the passion of Sir,
your
most faithfull Servant:
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/133, f.28. Endorsed, ‘23
7ber 65 Sayes Ct Mr Evelyn’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
23d:Sbr:-65’.
3 Captain Richard
Kingdon. Neither E nor P record the previous day’s meeting.
4 The King had
arrived in Oxford on 25 September (de Beer, III, 423, n. 7).
5 Or ‘heading’.
6 See E’s diary for
23 September. Albemarle told E to attend for an instalment of cash (9 October;
BL Evelyn S & W folder II). Brouncker wrote to E saying ‘£10000’ was to be
paid to E by Kingdon (11 October; HMCR IX [Morrison], Pt II, 446b).
7 See E’s letter to
Sir Richard Browne, 14 October 1665, Appendix 1.
A5. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Pepys has done all he
can
Greenwich (2)
26 September 1665 (3)
Sir,
as I will in every thing else, soe I have in your request this
afternoone done what you with any moderate reason can expect of mee. But I
beseech you consider that what I have done reaches but for foure days, and
therefore pray you to hasten some other expedient to serve your selfe at theyr
determination; what wee have done herein being very irregular, and not
excusable I thinke to bee done twise. Sir I would have been glad to have kissed
your hands before I returne to the fleete which will bee to morrow afternoone
(4). I will endeavour it if possible and rest
Your
most affectionate humble
Servant
SPepys
Source: BL.1081.
Endorsed by E, ‘Mr Pepys: 26: September Greenwich 1665.’
2 Pepys had stayed
the night before at the Crowne Inne at Rochester, leaving at 5am for Greenwich
(diary). Once arrived he went straight to the office there, presumably writing
this letter, before setting off to requisition East India Company ships at
Erith.
3 MS: ‘Greenwch Sept
26 1665’.
4 P travelled in E’s
coach on the 27th to see Albemarle and later ‘had most excellent discourse of
Mr Eveling touching all manner of learning; wherein I find him a very fine
gentleman, and perticularly of Paynting...’ (diary, 27 September 1665).
A6. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn obliged to
repeat a request
For my most honord Friend
Samuel Pepys Esqr
at the Navy-Office in Greenewich
Sayes Court
29 September 1665 (2)
Sir
This being but an iteration of what was Orderd on Thursday, when we were
with his Grace (3), I cannot divine how it comes to be repeated; But being told
it was brought hither by two Captaines (in my absence this day at Erith) (4)
who it seemes applyed them selves to my Lord for the conveying of their
Sick-men (and indeede I have no quarters neerer then those places his Grace
mentions Graves-end and Chatham being full) I suppose it was written to pacifie
their importunity, and quicken the raising of the monyes to be assign’d me:
There was a Copy of the letter, left at my house with it, which causes me to
write thus confidently of the Contents: Sir, I am
Your
most humble
and
obedient Servant:
JEvelyn
The bearer hereoff (one of our Chyrurgeons) whom I sent to see the state
of our sick, will give you an account (5) of the extreame misery of both our
owne and Prisoners, for want of bread to preserve (6) them perishing
Source: PRO S.P.
29/133, f.58. Endorsed by P, ‘29 7ber. 65. Says Court. Esqr Evelin.’
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
29th:-7br -65’.
3 Thursday was the
28th. E reports that he met Albemarle on the 28th (diary). P records a meeting
with Albemarle and E on the 27th (diary, see p.34, note 4). De Beer (III, 420,
n.1) suggested that two meetings were unlikely and that P was more likely to be
right. However, de Beer does not refer to this letter which appears to confirm
E, or that there were two meetings.
4 E had spent the
day there organising the sale of East India ‘prizes’ which, it had been agreed
on 23 September by Albemarle, would help finance care of the prisoners (E’s
diary 23 and 29 September).
5 MS: ‘acco-t’.
6 Clumsily formed (p[r]eò erue) where ‘p[r]es’ is
formed as a single character.
A7. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn cannot do
miracles
For my honor’d Friend
Samuell Pepys Esqr at
the Navy Office or Else Where: (2)
For his Majesties Special Service
in all speede:
Sayes Court
30 September 1665 (3)
Sir,
The inclos’d had kiss’d your hands before this (4), had not the most
infinite trouble of other dispatches in order to your Commands, hindred mee,
and the present necessities of sending Orders to Woolwich and the places
adjacent, for the Quartr[in]g of more Sick-men obtruded on us, but refuse to be
entrtaind: I have sent for a Martiall to Chel[sea] (5) to send downe to Erith,
and thence to Graves-End for Guards for the prisoners, but I heare not yet of
him; nor can I heare of Assistants that will undertake to gouverne that
affaire, if he faile me from London; One of my men, this afternoone, desiring
to be dismissd in regu[ar]d of the Contagion: I inclose you the letter[s?] you
desird, and you must forgive the dissorderly writing, There is plainesse, and
truth in the particulars, and I am not solicitous of any mans censure of the
forme, when I discharge my Conscie[nce] (6) I know I shall be thought
impertinent, unlesse you back me with your attestation, and that with some
zeale, which therefour I humbly supplicate of you: In the interim, I bes[eech]
(7) you not to look on me as sluggish in my station, or indiligent as far as my
talent reaches; nor of so slavish and disingenuous a nature to be tyd to
impossibility and servitude: I cannot do miracles, nor know I how to sell goods
and treate with the Merchant (8); but I can dispence such effects as shall be
put into my hands for the discharge of what is intrustd to me; and if I should
pretend to other excellences, it were to abuse you; But I am at all moments
ready (in accknowledgme[n]ts of these deficiencys) to resigne the honor his
Majestie has don me, to greate[r candi]date[s] (9): I beseech you inter[pret]
(10) this to myne advantage (11), who am
Sir,
Your
most obedient Servant:
JEvelyn
10 o’clock (12) at night
I have not eaten one
bit of bread to-day.
Be pleasd to seale
[this?] (13) when perusd;
Look on Sir William
Doolye last:
[.....]
1 Source: PRO S.P. 29/133, f.63. Endorsed by P,
‘30 7ber. 65 = Says Court. Eqsr Evelin.’ The MS is scrawled, obviously written
in a state of anger and frustration.
2 P sailed to
Woolwich on the 30th on the Bezan (a 4-6 gun, 35-ton, yacht, ‘the King’s
new pleasure-boat’ - P’s diary, 12 September 1661) leaving the following
evening to sail on to Gillingham arriving on the morning of 2 October. From
there he walked to Chatham, and on to Rochester where he dallied with three
local women in the castle ruins. He left on horseback for Gravesend and then
took a boat to Woolwich for the night before returning to the Navy Office, then
at Greenwich, late on the 3rd (diary).
3 MS: ‘Says-Court
30th: 7br: 65.’
4 A letter to Sir
George Carteret, see Appendix 1. It describes the horrific conditions in which
the sick and wounded seamen and prisoners were suffering. There is no
suggestion in P’s diary that he responded immediately. However, he wrote to
Coventry on 3 October 1665 (NMM LBK/8; Tanner 1929, no. 48), bemoaning the
‘Want of money, numbers of prisoners (which the Commissioners for Sick and
Wounded have flung upon us) to be fed’ amongst ‘our present burthen’.
E had also written a letter to
Sir William Coventry which described the desperate situation: ‘Sir William
D’Oylie and my selfe have near ten thousand upon our Care, whiles there seems
to be no care of us; who, having lost all our Servants, Officers, and most
necessary Assistants, have nothing more left us to expose but our Persons,
which are at every moment at the mercy of a raging pestilence... Our
prisoners... beg at us, as a mercy, to knock them on the head; for we have no
bread to relieve the dying Creatures...’ (BL CLBI.257, dated 2 October 1665,
published in various Bray editions of E’s diary with correspondence). A further
copy of this letter, dated 30 September 1665, in two unknown hands, and not
signed in E’s name, is at NMM MS AGC20 51/064/11. Probably a Navy Office copy,
and as such its date is more likely to be correct because it will have been
made from the letter-sent.
5 MS torn.
6 MS: ‘Conscie’.
7 MS torn.
8 E is perhaps being
a little insincere here in his anxiety to distance himself from trade and
commerce, a socially-inferior occupation. In fact he was reasonably familiar
with the practical financial realities of life. On 9 December 1657 he bought
East India Company stock; in 1666 he began to look into the possibilities of a
commercial brick-making enterprise, and in 1668 purchased a mill close to the
Sayes Court estate.
9 Reading here is
extremely uncertain due to a hole in the MS.
10 MS torn.
11 P’s diary entry
for this day suggests he was aware of the depth of the problem.
12 MS: ‘Xk’.
13MS: ‘y~’.
A8. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
What I shall do with
these miserable Creatures?
For Samuell Pepys Esqr
Sayes Court
3 October 1665 (2)
Sir,
I was in some doubt whither those Letters you commanded me to prepare,
ariv’d timely enough to accompany yours to Court on Saturday-night (3); For
finding divers Chyrurgeons, and Sick-persons at my dores who had come from
Several places with sad complaints that they could not procur quarters for
them. I was forc’d to dispatch Warrants to the Connestables and other Officers
to be ayding and assistant to my Deputyes, and some of these concernd me as far
as Deale and Sandwich, where we are so overlayd, that they send them back upon
us, and they perish in the returne; so that I had not a moments leasure to
finish my letters, till it was neere 7 of the Clock; and I would be glad to
know whither [any] (4) came to your hands at all. Sir, I have had earnest
intreaties from Severall of the Commanders (riding before Woolwich) to dispose
of their Sick- and wounded-men on shore, but the Clearke of the Cheque (5)
there reproches our Chyrurgeon, and obstructs the effect of the Warrant I sent
to the Connestable, upon a pretence, of bringing the Contagion amongst them;
whiles in the meane time, I am sure, they suffer others to tipple in the
Ale-houses; And Sir Theophilus Biddulph was with me to spare Greenewich,
because of your sitting there, and Deptford in reguard of his Majesties Yard: I
would be glad to know (Since Chatham, and Graves-End can hold no more,) and
that I have peopld all the intermedial Villages, what I shall do with these
miserable Creatures, who are not able to move? Though had halfe of these but
bread to eate (I speake not here of the Prisoners, but our owne men) we should
not have neere the multitudes, which are impos’d upon us. Sir, I do not tell
you these stories out of any designs to engage or trouble you with other folkes
buisinesse, as you have lately seem’d to impute it to me; because without
monnye I could not feede two-thousand Prisoners; but to let you see, that it is
not without reason I have made my Complaints nor at all my crime, if his
Majesties Subjects perish for want of harbor. It was also tr[eat]ed as a
failure in my Industry, that I had not receiv’d the Prisoners into my c[are]
(6) and assisted towards the raising the £5000 to be assign’d me; But upon my
pa[rticular] (7) applications to my Lord Broncker and Sir John Mennes
(according to his Graces direction) a[bout?] (8) my Yesterdays dispatching two
very able Officers to take their names, receive them out of the (9) respective
prizes and shipps; there were none of those Vessells ready you were pleas’d to
name, nor roome in them for a quarter of the number; so as my Martials return’d
re infecta (10), and could not fall downe with them to Graves End when I
had also provided Guards to secure (11) them: For this service Sir, I therefor
yet attend your Commands, and am ready, when the Vessels are so; and more then
so, to take them quite off your hands, and the Vessels too when I have touch’d
the mony which must make them live; having since I saw you contracted with my
Lord Culpeper (fourty miles from this place,) for Leeds-Castle, where I am
repairing, and fitting things for their safty, that I may not seeme to be
indiligent, because I am unhappy, and have no talent (12) to rayse monnye,
though I can tell where it may be had, when I know the Commodity: Sir, I have
at this moment* [*which belong to all 4 Commissioners and not to my care
alone.] (13) Chelsey College, two Hospitals in London and Nine other townes,
besides Villages, where I have Deputys, Physitians, Chyrurgeons, and Martials,
who employ me with buisinesse sufficient to take up any one persons time, but
to reply to their Letters, make them Warrants, send them Medicaments, Mates,
Monye, if I had not the importunity of a thousand Clamors at my dores which
neither lets me rest day nor night: Sir, in a Word, I have studied my
Commission (14), and the Instructions annex’d to them, and I hope shall be able
to justifie every article, though I cannot compare my faces (15) and abillities
with others: Nor did I in the least obtrude the importunity which I am sensible
(16) the Prisoners have been to you; but upon his Grace’s certaine knowledge of
our wants of monyes (17) to feed them, and without any provocation of mine
(more then what you heard of our poverty) he was pleased to Order what was so
very necessary, and I have not I hope presum’d to any favour upon my own Score;
for I no where find, by my Commission, that I was to provide monyes, but to
dispense it when I had it, and to give a just accoumpt of its application which
I am ready to do with joy: Nor have I yet been wanting in giving notice to the
Greate-ones at Court, from post to post-day (long before this as having
prospect sufficient of what is befallen us) in a style more zealous and
peremptory, than perhaps becomes me; and as I continu’d to do this very morning
in a letter I writ to my Lord High Chancellor (18) which I sent by Sir Richard
Browne; having alarm’d all the rest (not one excepted) with my continual
representations of our miserys: And if (as I could tell you from a Person that
best knowes in England) I should shew you from whence this neglect of us
proceedes, it would not add a Cubite to your stature: Be assur’d Sir, from me,
that I shall be most tender of adding to your trouble, (whose burthen I find is
already so insupportable) and I hope I shall not be esteem’d remisse, when I
also keepe within my owne Sphære. What has come collateraly on you (not through
my fault) ought not be imputed to me; And I hope when you do know me well (as I
am greatly ambitious of that honour) you will find I have taken too exact a
measure of your reale merits, and personal Civilities to me, then to forfaite
them by my impertinencies; as I beseech you to believe, that I have not in this
paper exaggerated any thing of mine Owne Sufferings, to magnifie the poore
Service I have hitherto don (as by little acts we are prone to do) but that you
would looke on me as a plaine-Man, who desires to serve his Majestie (till he
is pleas’d to release me) in the station I am assigned to the best of my
abilities; and which I shall be sure to improve, if you still allow me a part
of your Esteeme, who cannot eclipse the brightnesse of your Example from
Sir
Your
most faithfull, and
most
obedient Servant
JEvelyn
Source: PRO S.P. 29/134, f.23-4. Endorsed by P, ‘3 Octobr 65 Says Court Esqr
Evelin.’
2
MS: ‘Says-Court 3:Octo:-65’. P’s diary entry for the 5th gives a flavour of his
approach to the problem, ‘...so away to Mr Evelings to discourse of our
confounded business of prisoners and sick and wounded seamen, wherein he and we
are so much put out of order.’ (5 Oct 1665). Pepys was not so concerned about the
subject that on his way to Evelyn’s he had overlooked the opportunity to ‘pass
some time with Sarah’, moving on to visit Mrs Bagwell and ‘there did what I
would con ella’ (ibid). He and E then spent the rest of the evening discussing
trees and gardens which contrasts markedly with the subject matter of the
letters.
3
Saturday, 30 September. See previous letter.
4
MS torn but enough survives to make the reading fairly certain.
5
MS: ‘Cheq’.
6
MS torn.
7
MS torn.
8
MS torn.
9
MS: ‘their’; ‘ir’ struck out.
0
‘With the task unfinished’.
1
Replaces ‘take’ (struck out).
2
Replaces ‘skill’ (struck out).
3
Note in the margin; the * is E’s.
4
A copy of this, dated 8 June 1665 and endorsed by E, is amongst P’s papers, now
Bod MS Rawl. A289, f.89.
15 MS reading
uncertain. Appears to read ‘faces’, perhaps using ‘face’ as an analogy for the
various offices E was having to perform.
16‘Which I am
sensible’ is inserted.
17 I.e. out of his
own pocket.
18 Edward Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon. It is not extant, and E did not retain a copy.
19 Replaces ‘I hope
will’, struck out.
A9. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Some inconvenience,
mischiefe, and another Cheate
For my most honord Friend
Samuell Pepys Esqr:
at Greenewich:
Sayes Court
12 October 1665 (2)
Sir,
This Enclos’d from his Grace (3) concernes the whole Fleete so neerely:
that (after our former attempts) we are even forc’d to renew our Petition for
prevention of the mischeife which now threatens more then ever, and especialy
at Chatham.
I do also take the
liberty on this opportunity to informe you of some inconveniences which
concerne the honourable the Principal Officers, in relation to the Chest (4);
and to supplicate their advice in order to the redresse: First, Our men in the
London Hospitals steale downe to Chatham before they are Cur’d, and then
returning back, with their gratuity, inflame themselves with drinke and
dissorder, which exceedingly retards their health: They all this while
concealing their having pensions, enjoy the Kings Super-allowance in the
Hospitals, which formerly was not continud; when if their weekely allowance was
more then their annual pension; the over-plus was only paid them, and the
pension defaulked (5).
The remedy of this
(under submission) may be, a restitution of the former practise; that the
pay-master to the Hospital be ordered to difalk out of the additional
allowance, as much as their pensions at the Chest amounts to weekly: This, will
be our part to reforms: Whilst the Principall Officers and Comissioners of his
Majesties Navy are desir’d to order the Clearke of the Chest to give our
pay-master of our Hospital- Sick- Seamen etc an abstract of all Pensions and
Gratuities settld at the Chest, and bestowd on any this yeare past; and alsoe
that the sayd Clearke might once every fortnight transmitt our Officer a list
of such as are from time to time addmitted into Pensions:
They of late also
practise another Cheate; which is, when they are discharg’d our Hospitals as
cured, to conceale the Chirurgeons Certificats that they are in part, or totaly
dissabl’d (which is a caution we have chargd our Chirurgeons to insert) and
come ranting and swearing to us for Conduct-mony to returne to their Shipps,
when the next newes we hear, is, that they goe to the Chest, and no farther:
For prevention whereoff you may be pleas’d to order that none be admittd from
any our Infirmitories into Pensions, but such as have the hand of the
Pay-Master of our Hospitals etc to their Certificates:
Upon view of these
abuses, I thought fit to offer them to your Consideration, it being an Article
frequently repeatd in our Instructions, to be as frugal, and circumspect as we
could in the mangement of our Trust; and these coming under my particular
cognizance, as I have had (to the greate increase of my Trouble) the Hospitals
of London to look after during the absence of my Brother Commissioners (to whom
the care equaly belongs), I recommend those to your more careful[?] addresses
(6) who remaine Sir
Your
most humble and faithfull servant
JEvelyn:
Sir
Our small pittance at last in prospect, I am marching away with the
Prisoners as fast as I can, and hope in short time to cleere the shipps; after
which, (unlesse prevented by something very effectul) I resolve for Oxon (7),
where if I see no evident assurance of some solid fonds (8) to carry on the
Worke, without exposing us to such another plunge, and accidental subsistance;
I shall cease for the future to continue the trouble to you and resigne to some
more fortunate Person.
Source: MS,
collection of William H. Fern, Connecticut (ex-Sothebys 24 July 1995 sale
catalogue, Lot 487). Endorsed by P, ‘12.8br:65 Commissioner for sick and wounded.
Some observations of his how the chest is abused by seamen, and propounds
remedy for it’. The letter came from a collection accumulated in the 1800s, but
was probably once in official records, where the others of this period still
are.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
12th: 8br-65’.
3 Albemarle. He had
written to E on 9 October (see A4 note 6), advising
E about where to collect money and also to instruct him to forward an enclosure
to Brouncker and Mennes. It is probable that this is what is referred to here.
The MS also bears, by the address, a pencilled note (by E?) ‘with to read’. P
went to see Albemarle on 13 October (diary).
4 A welfare fund for
disabled and wounded seamen (see Latham and Matthews, X, 59). The actual chest
is on display at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
5 Defalk: reduce by
deductions.
6 See previous note.
7 Pepys was
impressed by E’s assiduous pursuit of the corruption and his rigorous
record-keeping. He wrote to Coventry to tell him that, ‘Mr Eveling (to instance
one port) showed me his accompt of Graves-end where for every penny he demands
allowance for and for every sick man he hath had under his care he shews you
all you can wish for in Colloms of which I have here for your satisfaction
enclosed an Example which I dare say you will say with me he deserves greate
thanks for, I have since wrott to him [letter unknown] to cause transcripts of
these accompts to be sent to us and hope our people will see the King here have
the benefit of it in the payments of shipps and adjustment with pursers...’
(letter to Coventry, 14 October 1665, NMM LBK/8, 256; published by Tanner 1929,
no. 52).
8 E apparently never
made this threatened journey.
9 An obsolete,
pre-18th century, form of ‘funds’.
A10. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
A guard for the money,
and some pestiferous men
For my most honor’d Friend
Samuel Pepys Esqr his
house in Greenewich
Sayes Court
13 October 1665 (2)
Sir,
I am this afternoone to send away £1000 to Deale and Dover with a Guard,
not having been able to find any opportunity of returning the mony otherwise;
which will make me so unmanerly, as not to be able to waite on you as I ought:
There is likewise another Calamity on me, from the negligence of others;
therefore (though the occasion be very instant, as to those Vessells for our
pestiferous men) I must defer the kissing of your hands til to morrow, unlesse
you resolve to do me the honor of refreshing your Selfe in our poore Garden any
time this evening when you have best leasure, where I shall be to receive your
Commands, who am (3)
Sir
Your
most obedient
and
faithfull Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/134, f.85. Endorsed by P,
‘13 October 65 Says Court Esqr Evelin.’
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
13:Octr:65’.
3 Such a meeting, if
it occurred, is not recorded. E has no diary entry from the 11th to the 14th
October inclusive. P seems to have spent most of the day at the office engaged
on its ‘infinite business’ (diary, 13 and 14 October).
A11. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
The unconscionable
bills of the Apothecaries
For Samuel Pepys
Esqr etc at the Navy Office:
Greenewich:
Sayes Court
14 October 1665 (2)
Sir,
By what I have sent you, you will have a Specimen of the Method observed
where I have any-thing to do (3). If the heads (4) be not particular enough, be
pleas’d to give me your instructions where I may pertinently add: Take notice
also, I pray, how few have miscarried [Most of those who dyed perished for want
of covering] (5), the last winter consider’d, notwithstanding our agreement at
a certainety with our Doctors and Chirurgeons for 3s[hillings] (6) per head; to
avoyd the unconscionable bills of the Apothecaries, with one article alone
would have been double all the expense, as by experience in the last Warr we
learn’d: The Certificates answer to every individual person, which after you
have perus’d, and are satisfied in, pray returne by this bearer; because they
onely are my Vouchers; The other Accoumpt, keepe by you as long as you please,
I having a duplicate; and call to us for the Whole when ever you please;
because I long to give it in, and be discharg’d of so much of my Burthen: The
two printed papers are an invention I have particularly practis’d in my owne
Circle onely, which I hope you will not reprove, because it dos a little
obviate the quærie of Sir William Coventry, to whom (if what I transmitt, prove
satisfactory to you) speake your just thoughts of my Duty in the particulars he
mentions and add to your former favours, that of including these Letters in
your Packett for
Sir,
Your
most obedient,
and
faithfull Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/134, f.93. Endorsed by P,
‘14:8ber.65 Says Court. Esqr Evelin.’
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
14th:8br:-65’. See E’s letter of the same day to his father-in-law, Sir Richard
Browne for a more graphic account (Appendix 1, no. 3).
3 E attached a copy
of the printed form (see Appendix 1, no. 2).
4 I.e the headings.
5 Marginal note.
6 Abbreviation s
is a probable reading, though l for £ is a possibility.
A12. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Pepys is seeking
comprehensive records
For Samuel Pepys Esqr:
One of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy at Greenewich
Sayes Court
23 October 1665 (2)
Sir,
Yours of the 17th Instant (3) I found at my returne from Leades (4), and
Kentish Circle, requiring an accoumpt of what Sea-men have been sick on shore?
the ships whence they came? and the place to which? with other particulars to
encounter the fraud of the Pursers etc. Sir, for mine owne concerne, I sent you
that of Deale, and am ready to present you with the rest of mine to the 5th
June last [from November to June] (5); since which we have not yet altogether
finished the last quarter; but I presume may be ready with it to a day, by that
time you have examin’d these: For those of my other Breathren, I presume they
are also prepard for you: But I can give no positive account of it, they being
all of them many miles distant from our place of meeting: In the meane time I
have sent your Letter to Sir William Doily, that he may know what your Commands
are: I verily believe his are in very good order, having lent him my Clearke
(6) so long, though to mine owne prejudice: With what concernes my Selfe as to
this particular, I shall to morrow (God willing) waite on you, who am Sir,
Your
most obedient and humble Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P.
29/135, f.44. Endorsed, ‘23 October 65. Says Court. Esqr Evelin’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
23d:Octr:1665’. E wrote more freely to Sir Richard Browne, the same day:
‘...The King will not have a man to serve him shortly... Do they believe 12000
Sick-men can be maintained with nothing?... The Major of Rochester, swore to
me, they would throw our sick-men in the streetes if I did not send them mony,
their poore miserable Landlords who quarter them clamoring so to the Court
there, and exclaiming, not to say cursing, with dreadful imprecations, comparing
the tymes, with former. But of this, more when I see you, and may speake
freely...’ (BL.1480).
3 Not known - it is
evident from later in this letter that E had sent it on to Doyly and presumably
never made a copy. P made no copy in his letter book (NMM LBK/8).
4 Leeds Castle,
Kent. E marched 500 prisoners there from Maidstone on 18 October, returning to
Deptford on the 22nd (diary).
5 Marginal note.
6 Probably William
Barbour (see Latham and Matthews, X, 19).
7 He did (P’s diary,
24 and 25 October 1665).
A13. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
The cost of ulcerate
sores of inveterate malignity
Sayes Court
4 November 1665 (2)
I have six or seaven men who have spent us a greate deale of mony, and
care at Deale, who are likely never to be cured, having some of them been
dissmembrd (3), others dissabl’d by ulcerate sores of inveterate malignity,
totaly unfit for any service: I once made it my suite to you (and you seemd to
consent) that such persons might be discharg’d: be pleas’d to signifie what my
Deputy, and Chirurgeon (who are both ready to certifie this) shall do with them
to
Sir,
Your
most
obedient Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P.
29/136, f.31. Endorsed by P, ‘4 9ber. 65 Says=Court. Esqr Evelin.’ The letter
is included by Marburg (her M8) who did not note that the surviving manuscript
seems only to be the second half of the original letter. For this reason no
destination address survives. The missing text probably amounted to at most
around six or seven lines. However, the clear space immediately above the first
line suggests that there is a possibility that only an opening ‘Sir’ may be
missing. The letter, like most of those from this period, is not represented in
E’s copy-letter book and its original length cannot therefore be verified.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
4th:9br:-65’ at foot of letter. The following day the men found time to relax
as Pepys described in remarkable and memorable detail (diary, 5 November 1665).
E, typically, restricts his own diary entry for 5 November to a notice of a
sermon.
3 E’s diary entry
for 24 March 1672 during the Third Dutch War is a particularly graphic account
of the misery such amputations created:
‘I din’d with Mr. Commissioner
Cox having seene that morning my Chirurgeon cut off a poore creaturs Leg, a
little under the knee, first cutting the living and untainted flesh above the
Gangreene with a sharp knife, and then sawing off the bone in an instant; then
with searing and stoopes stanching the blood, which issued aboundantly; the
stout and gallant man, enduring it with incredible patience, and that without
being bound to his chaire, as is usual in such painefull operations, or hardly
making a face or crying oh: I had hardly such courage enough to be present, nor
could I endure to see any more such cruel operations.’
A14. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
A hospital ship
indispensable
For Samuel Pepys Esqr
on[e] of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy
at Greenewich
Sayes Court
[23 November 1665] (2)
Sir,
I am but just now ariv’d (3); of which I will give you no farther
account at present, because the post shall not goe without the direction you
require, though it be not so particular as I could wish it: The last I receiv’d
was from Mr Fillingham (4), and since that he is gon very sick home to his owne
house to which I have no other addresse then by Mr Fillingham; so that the most
expeditious will be to enclose Sir Williams Letter in a paper to him with this
superscription
For
Mr Fillingham at Mr Loverans’s in Hadleigh to be left at Stratford beyond
Colchester Suffolk:
Sir,
Mr Conny (5) (who is now with me) informes me of the indispensable
necessity of having an Hospital Ship, and therfor conjures me to put you in
mind of the favour: Pardon dear Sir, this abrupt scribble of
Sir,
Your
most humble Servant
JEvelyn:
Says-Court at
7 the Clock.
Source: PRO S.P. 29/137, f.84. Endorsed by P,
‘23.9br.65 Mr Evelyns direction how to send to Sir W[illia]m Doyley’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court at
7 the Clock’ below. Date given by P’s endorsement. E had been at Wotton,
returning to Deptford this day (diary). In his own diary P reports a meeting
with E the following day (24 November 1665) in which they looked at old
manuscripts. There is no reference to official business, or this letter.
3 From a meeting
with Albemarle (diary, 23 November 1665).
4 Bartholomew
Fillingham. A number of letters of this date from E to him exist as loose MSS
in the Evelyn archive at the British Library.
5 John Conny, a
surgeon at Chatham.
A15. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Unclothed miserable
Creatures and unserviceable Old-Men
For Samuel Pepys Esqr
One of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy at Greenewich
Sayes Court
7 December 1665 (2)
Sir,
Forgive me that I (3) beg the favour of having these Letters convey’d to
the Post by your Ordinary Messenger this Evening: And that I do not let slip
this opportunity of bespeaking your assistance and advice where I am to apply
myselfe, that some effectual Course be taken with divers miserable Creatures
under our Chirurgeons hands (at Deale especialy) to furnish them with Clothes,
that so they may at last be sent on board; since it is not health, but Covering
which they have long wanted; and whilst they suffer this Calamity, spend his
Majestie five times the value in quarters: There are likewise more then 50, who
being Old-Men, tabid, inveteratly Ulcer’d and universaly infirme, will never be
render’d serviceable to his Majestie but have layne at prodigious expenses for
Cure: As many as I have been able to convey, I have removed into the London
Hospitals (since the abating of the Contagion amongst them has again opned
their doores) but some that are remote I cannot stir (for you have never
allow’d us any boates to call as we beggd you would, and wh[ich] would have
aboundantly borne (4) the charge of it) unlesse I should cart them: This (5) I
the rather mention because I have been frequently not onely promis’d they
should have their Ticketts, and be totaly discharg’d; but been injoynd to
signifie their names to you: which both my Deputys and Chirurgions have don,
with all necessary attestation: Yet still they remaine upon our hands: Sir, I
depend very much upon your addresse in representing how much his Majestie
suffers by these two Inconveniences, whilst I can but give notice of them
according to my duty, and as they occurr to Sir,
Your
most humble and
faithfull
Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/138, f.60. Endorsed, by P,
‘7 December 65 Says Court Esqr Evelin’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
7th:Dr:-65’.
3 Inserted.
4 Replaces ‘cost’,
deleted.
5 ‘Wh[ich] some
cannot’ deleted before ‘This’.
A16. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn fears he will be
forgotten
For Samuell Pepys Esqr
On[e] of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy
at the Navy Office
Greenewich
Sayes Court
9 December 1665 (2)
Sir,
Your Letter of the 7th (3) concerning our Prisoners in the Golden-hand
(4) and Prince William (5) came not an houre since to me; by what
neglect I know not: I have sent to my Martiall at Leeds (6), to be here on
Moneday (if possible) and to march away with them; so that those Vessells shall
speedily be cleared: Sir William Coventry gives me hopes our Lazers (7) shall
be cloathed, but you must coöperate or we shall be forgotten: I am Sir, Stylo
Læconico (8)
Your
most faithfull Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/138, f.77. Endorsed by P,
‘9 December 65. Says Court. Esqr Evelin’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
9th:Decr:-65’. P saw E at dinner on 10 December (diary) but makes no record of
the conversation.
3 Not known. There
is no copy in NMM Letter-Book 8.
4 This is probably the
Golden Hand, a storeship referred to in The Journals of Sir Thomas
Allin 1660-78, ed., R.C. Anderson for the Navy Records Society 1939-40,
vol. II, pp.98, 116, et alia (for 1667). For Allin, see DNB, Allin, Sir
Thomas (1612-85).
5 MS: ‘Pr: W:llm’. It
can probably be identified as the ‘flyboat’ (a flat-bottomed coaster) Prince
William captured from the Dutch in 1665 but recovered by them in 1666
(Colledge 1987).
6 Leeds Castle,
Kent.
7 Variant of ‘Lazar’
from ‘Lazarus’, a diseased person.
8 ‘In the manner of
a sweat-bath’ - presumably a reference to the haste and intensive work
involved.
A17. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Evelyn’s ships are
needed to fetch coal
Mr Evelyn
Navy Office Greenwich
12 December 1665 (2)
Sir
His Royal Highness hath commanded, that the Golden hand and Prince
William (3) be imediatly sent to New Castle to fetch Coales for the poore
of the Citty of London (4): I doe therefore entreat you that if they have any
Dutch (5) prisoners now onboard them as I am told they have you will please to
thinke of some fitt place for the removal of them unto, and to cleare the
shipps of them that we may in obedience to his Royal Highness’s comands see the
said shipps imediatly proceed on the forenamed service: I am
Your
affectionat Servant
SPepys
Source: Pierpont Morgan Library (catalogued
as: ‘[No MA number]. Collection: Rulers of Europe’ under Pepys).
Endorsed by E, ‘Mr Pepys Navy-Office 12 Decr -65’. An oddity of the MS is that
the date of both letter and E’s endorsement have quite clearly been altered,
and by the same hand; it now reads ‘12’ in both cases but may have originally
read ‘7’ or ‘17’.
2 MS: ‘Navy Office
Greenwich 12 December 1665’ at foot of letter. Notwithstanding the observation
in note 1 above, Pepys recorded writing his letters late this day, just before
going home for supper but not too late for them to be dispatched as E seems to
have replied the next day (diary).
3 MS: ‘Wm’. See A16, note 5.
4 ‘The weather
setting in cold’ (P’s diary, 12 December 1665). P had also recorded, on 13
October preceding, that he encountered Albemarle, William, Earl of Craven, and
Alderman Sir John Robinson, Lord-Lieutenant of the Tower ‘talking of ships to
get of the King to fetch Coles for the poor of the City, which is a good work.
But Lord, to hear the silly talk between these three great people...’ (diary;
see Latham and Matthews, VI, 264, n.3, for additional references on this
topic).
5 Inserted.
A18. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn will empty the
ships but needs substitutes
For Samuell Pepys Esqr.
One of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy
at the Navy Office in Greenewich
Sayes Court
13 December 1665 (2)
Sir,
Being now willing to remove not onely the Prisoners out of the Golden-hand,
and Prince William (3) (according to the Command) but likewise to Cleere
all the Shipps at once, that so you may be at full liberty for the future to
dispose of them: I most humbly make it my request that you will facilitate the
Worke by gratifying my Martial with your Warrant, impowering him to presse some
tiltboate or other, as there shall be occasion, for the transporting them to
Gravesend, in order to their march: This, Sir, if you shall do, you will much
oblige
Sir,
Your
most humble Servant
JEvelyn:
My Martials name is Mr John Rowlandson
Martiall at
Leeds-Castle. Kent
Be pleasd to send the Order to me by the Bearer hereoff. (4)
Source: PRO S.P. 29/139, f.11. Endorsed by P,
‘13 December Says Court. Esqr Evelin.’ This letter bears the text of a
shorthand letter or memorandum in P’s hand on the verso. Also dated 13 December
1665, it appears to be concerned with a bill of imprest (a cash advance) to
Captain George Cocke, part of which Cocke was to use to pay a debt to P. E’s
letter does not appear to be mentioned. The negotiations with Cocke, conducted
in the Pope’s Head tavern in Chancery Lane, are discussed in P’s diary (13
December 1665). The present letter was addressed to Greenwich. It seems that
having collected, or been delivered, his post P found E’s letter a convenient
scrap of paper to use in the tavern to make a record of the deal with Cocke.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
13:Dr:-65’.
3 See A16, notes 4 and 5.
4 Although
undoubtedly in E’s hand this letter, and particularly the postscriptum, is
written in a larger, and better-defined, hand than normal.
A19. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Plan for an infirmary
at Chatham
For Samuell Pepys Esqr:
One of the principall Officers
of his Majesties Navy,
at the Navy Office in Seething-Lane London
With a roll of paper
Sayes Court
31 January 1666 (2)
Sir,
I do, according to your Commands, transmit you an hasty Draught of the
Infirmary, and Project for Chatham (3); the reasons, and advantages of it,
which challenges your Promise of promoting it to the Use design’d: I am, my
Selfe, convinc’d of the exceeding benefit it will every way afford us: If, upon
examination of the Particulars, and your intercession, it shall merit a
recommendation from the rest of the Principall Officers, I am very confident
the effects will be fully answerable to the pretence of the Papers which I send
to accompany it: In all Events, I have don my Endeavor; and, if upon what appeares
even Demonstrable to me (not without some considerable Experience, and frequent
Conference with our Officers, discreete, and sober Persons) I persist in my
fondnesse to it, from a prospect of the many advantages would be reaped by
setting it on foote; I beseech you to pardon the honest intentions, and to
passe-by the Errors of
Sir,
Your most obedient
and
faithfull Servant
JEvelyn:
Sir, I must beg your excuse, if my desire to comply with your commands
as soone as might be, and having severall avocations (4), I could not delineate
the Plot so accurately as I intended; but I hope it may suffice to explaine the
Designe: neither had I one to write so fairely, as the paper inclosd in the
rolle should have ben written:
Source: PRO S.P. 29/146,
f.73. Endorsed by P, ‘31 January 65 Sayes court Mr Evelen’.
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
Jan:31: -65/6’.
3 See P’s diary, 29
January 1666. The MS drawing is now in the Bodleian at MS Rawl. A195, f.255
4 Distractions.
A20. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Pepys passes the
Chatham infirmary idea to the Duke of York
To Mr Evelyn
[Navy Office] (2)
17 February 1666 (3)
Sir