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
To tell you a litle more perticularly then I could in the middle of much
businesse this morning my proceeding towards the advancement of your soe
laudable designe of publique Infirmarys I did the very next meeting after your
Honouring me with a coppy of your Project offer it to my Fellow-Officers, whoe
concurred instantly with me in the haveing it presented as the vote of this
Board that your sayd proposition should be layd before his Royal Highness (4)
as a matter worthy his Royal Highness’s recomending to his Majesty and to be
put in present execution.
This I did in the name
and presence of our whole board to his Royal Highness at my Lord Treasurers (5)
on Wednesday last (6), giveing him for memory sake the Following abstract of
your proposall, vizt
Mr Evelyns Infirmary
for 500 men
£
1st to be built and
furnished for
1400
2 to be mayntayned at
the Monthly Charge of
471
3 the like number of
men stand the King monthley
(as
it is now mannaged)
840
4 Which saves the King
monthly in each 500 Men 370
Which
is Yearely 4817
And reimburses the King his £1400 in 15 weekes.
Besides these
additional Conveniencys:-
1 .... The present unavoydable neglect of Sick men, through the distance
of thyre Quarters, will be (7) remooved.
2 .... They will be kept from Intemperance and consequently from thyr
frequent relapses
3 .... Accounts will be more regularly kept
4 .... The Building will dureing peace serve for a worke house or other
Uses.
5 .... The Clamours of landladys etc to the reproch of the service will
be taken away.
6 .... Lastly, the Seamen will more regularly be entred and discharged
and (if recovered) with more certainty be secured for further service.
You will forgive me if
I omitted any of the considerable advantages intended to his Majesty in this
proposall. But these were enough to move his Royal Highness to promise the reminding
(8) of his Majesty about it which he did with great sence of the vallue of it,
and comanded us to speake with you about the method of proceeding towards the
doeing it, and how we might cast to have another erected about Harwich
If it thwart noe occasions
of yours it might be usefull that you would let us see you heere on Tuesday
morning about 10 where we shall be all together and perhaps may determine on
some thing to offer to his Royal Highness the next day, when (in course) we
attend him. my good will to further what you have with soe much paynes and
Goodness intended will excuse the length of the Trouble I now give you whoe am
(9)
Your
most affectionat and most Humble Servant
SP
Source: NMM Letter-Book 8, 369. Used by
permission of the National Maritime Museum. The letter probably crossed with
E’s of the same date (A21, below).
2 No place, but in
the diary P records he was busy there in the morning.
3 MS: ‘17 Febry 65’,
for 1665/6, at foot of letter which is in sequence following letters of
December 1665.
4 The Duke of York.
5 Thomas
Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.
6 Pepys’s diary, 14
February 1666.
7 MS: ‘wilbe’; ‘will
be’ is substituted here and later in this letter.
8 Amended from
‘recomending’ or vice-versa.
9 E’s diary for 20
February (Tuesday): ‘To the Commissioners of the Navy, who having seene the
project of the Infirmary, encouragd the worke, and were very earnest it should
be set about speedily: but I saw no mony, though a very moderate expense, would
have saved thousands to his Majestie and ben much more commodious for the cure
and quartering our sick and wounded, than the dispersing of them into private
houses, where many more Chir[ur]giones, and tenders were necessary, and the
people tempted to debaucherie etc:’.
P’s diary for 20 February:
‘...to the office... Mr Evelyn’s proposition about public infirmarys was read
and agreed on, he being there. And at noon I took him home to dinner, being
desirous of keeping my acquaintance with him; and a most excellent-humourd man
I still find him, and mighty knowing’.
On 13 March E ‘went to Chattham
to take order and view a place design’d to take an Infirmarie’ (diary). He then
sent P an estimate in the letter of 26 March (see below).
A21. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
His Majesty well
pleased with the Chatham plans
For Samuell Pepys Esqr
One of the principall Officers of
his Majesties Navy at
the Navy-Office in
Seething Lane London
Sayes Court
17 February 1666 (2)
Sir,
His Majestie was well pleas’d with what I shew’d him of our Infirmary
for Chatham, which he gave me leave to explaine to him at large (3): If you
have thought it worthy your recommendation to his Royal Highnesse I would be
glad to heare of the successe; being still as assur’d of its effects to all the
purposes I pretend in the annexed papers, as ever: It were tyme something were
resolv’d on before the Spring advance upon us, that we may apply it to the
designe of
Sir,
Your
most affectionate and
humble
Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P.29/148, f.51. Endorsed by P,
‘17th Feby 65. Says-Court Esqr Evelin.’
2 MS: ‘Says-Court
17: Feb: 65/6’.
3 This interview
took place on 8 February when the King ‘call’d me into his bed-chamber, to
lay-before, and describe to him my project of an Infirmarie, which I
read to him, with greate approbation, recommending it to his Royal Highness’
(E’s diary, 8 February 1666).
A22. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn dare not show
his face till he has more money
For Samuell Pepys Esqr
One of the principall Officers of
his Majesties Navy at
the Navy Office:
Sayes Court
28 February 1666 (2)
Sir,
I had immediately yealded obedience to your Commands in going downe to
Chatham, and prepard what was necessary to put that affaire in some
forwardnesse, if I could have receiv’d the monyes which I have long expected
that must enable me to appeare there; not for the carrying on of that Worke,
but the discharge of our Sick-mens quarters there, my arreare being so greate,
that I dare not shew my face, ’till I can bring them some refreshment: but so
soone as I shall be enabld (and I am daily promisd monye) to appeare amongst
them, I shall not retard my journey a moment, and so soone as I have (with the
advise of Mr Commissioner Pett) made choyce of a fitting place; I shall either
waite on you with the account of it, or transffer the particulars to you, if I
find it necessary that my aboade there may more conduce to your Service: Sir, I
beseech you be pleas’d to make part of this to the rest of the Principall
Officers from (3)
Sir,
Your
most humble and faithfull Servant
JEvelyn:
Source: PRO S.P.29/149, f.59. Endorsed by P,
‘Says Court 28:Feb:65 Mr Eveline’.
2 MS: ‘Sayes-Court
28:Feb:65/6’.
3 P makes no
reference to this letter in his diary but records his concern that the
Additional Aid Act of 1665 was ‘putting us out of a power of raising money’
(diary, 28 February 1666). He had already outlined the financial shortfall in a
letter to Coventry on 19 February (Tanner 1929, no. 94; NMM LBK/8, p.371).
There was a deficit of more than £0.8 million, ‘besides the charge for the sick
and wounded, widows and orphans...’ (ibid).
A23. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Evelyn prepares
accounts as fast as he can
For my honord Friend
Samuell Pepys Esqr
one of the principall Officers,
of his Majesties Navy:
at the Navy Office:
Whitehall
16 March 1666 (2)
Sir,
That I may by degrees observe your Commands, I do by this Bearer send
you the Dover Accompt for your present occasion, and the rest as fast as they
are return’d me (3); this day and every day expecting those of Deale and
Gravesend etc: Be pleasd to returne me by this hand, the Particulars, or paper
of the estimate I gave you of our proposd Infirmary, that it may direct me to
draw up and calculate what I am to laye before you upon this expedition to
Chatham (4) which I shall do, so soone as I have an houre to spare from my
present miseries and care how to get a little monye to relieve your sick flock
in my district: I am Sir, with all affection
Your
most
humble and obedient Servant
JEvelyn:
Sir,
Since the writing hereof, I have certaine tidings of our Deale Accompt:
and am promisd it shall be given you in tomorrow.
Source: PRO S.P. 29/151, f.35. Endorsed by P,
‘16 Mar. 65 Esqr Evelin’.
2 MS: ‘White-hall 16
Mar:65/6’.
3 On the 19 March P
sat down with Brouncker, Penn, and Coventry to deal with the accounts for ‘most
of the morning’ (diary); but, there is little of the sense of urgency which
characterises E’s letter on the subject.
4 It took place on
the 13 March (E’s diary).
A24. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
Despite the work an
estimate for Chatham is prepared
To Samuell Pepys, Esqr
One of the principall officers
of his Majesties Navy at Navy Office
Sayes Court
26 March 1666 (2)
Sir,
I know not with what successe I have endeavourd to performe your
Commands; but it has ben to the uttmost of my skill, of which you are to be my
judges: The favour I bespeake of you is, your pardon for not sending it before:
I have not enjoy’d one minutes repose since my returne (now a fortnight past)
’till this very morning; having ben ever since soliciting for a little monye to
preserve my miserable flock from perishing (3): On Saturday, very late, I
dispatch’d Mr Barbour towards (4) my Kentish Circle where our sick people are
in quarters; and at his returne, I hope to present you a compleate Accompt but
’till this instant morning I had not written one line of these tedious Papers;
so that if through hast (the parent of mistakes) there may happly appeare some
Escapes, give Pardon to your Servant; or let me purchase it with this small
Present of Fragments (such as yet you have ben pleasd to accept) and a little
Booke (5), that I also recommend to excuse my expense of such Leasure as I can
redeeme from the other impertinences of my life. As to the Report which I send
you, I would receive it as a favour; however your resolutions of putting it in
execution may succeede (the tyme of yeare being so farr Elaps’d, in reguard of
Action, and more immediate use) it might yet be gracefully presented to his
Royall Highnesse, or rather indeede, to his Majestie himselfe, who has so
frequently ben pleas’d to take notice of it to me as an acceptable Project;
because it would afflict me to have them thinke I have either ben remisse, or
trifling in my proposall.
This obligation I can
onely hope for from your Dexterity, Addresse and Friendship, who am,
Sir,
Your
most affectionate, and humble servant
JEvelyn:
Sir, (6)
There is nothing in the other Paper which you commanded me to returne;
but what is included in these, with ample, and (I hope) considerable
improvements.
I must beg a Copy of
these Papers when your Clearkes are at Leasure, having never a duplicate by me;
and it may happly neede a review.
Sir, (7)
The Bearer hereoff Roger Winne, being our Messenger (and without whose
service I cannot possibly be, having so frequent occasions of sending him about
buisinesse belonging to my troublesome Employment) dos by me supplicate your
protection, that he may not be Pressed, of which he is hourely in danger as he
travells about our affaires, without your particular indulgence, which I
therefore, conjure you to let him have under your hand and signature.
Source: Bodleian MS Rawl. A195, f.249. No
endorsement. This letter is associated with a Report by E on the projected
Chatham Infirmary, presented as a further letter of the same date to P (see
next letter, A25). Both were originally published by William Bray in
editions of the diary with correspondence, presumably from this source, but
this is not stated.
2 MS: ‘Sayes-Court
26 Mar:66’.
3 E had ‘sent away
2000 pounds to Chattham’ (diary, 24 March 1666).
4 MS: ‘to’, altered
to ‘towards’.
5 Probably E’s
(anonymous) translation of Les Pernicieuses Conséquences De la nouvelle
Heresie des Jesuites contre le Roy et contre l’Estat, by Pierre Nicole, and
published in 1666 by E as The Pernicious Consequences of the new Heresie of
the Jesuites, against the King and the State (diary, 1 March 1666; and
Keynes, no. 79).
6 Footnote on the
MS.
7 Marginal note on
the MS.
A25. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
A very thorough
estimate
Sayes Court
26 March 1666 (2)
Sir,
If to render you an account of the progresse of my late Proposal, be any
testimony of my obedience to your Commands; be pleas’d to believe, that I most
faithfully present it in these papers according to the best of my talent. And
if you find the Estimate considerably to exceede the first Calculation, you
will remember it was made to the meridian of London; that the Walles were, both
by his Majestie and the directions of the Principall Officers to be made
thicker, and higher; that the Materials, and Worke-men were presum’d to be
found much cheaper in the Country; and that the Place and area to build on was
suppos’d a Level: But it has fall’n out so much to our prejudice, and beyond
all expectation in these particulars; that to commence with the ground, we
could not in 4 or 5 miles walking about Chatham and Rochester, find one
convenient spot that would bear a level of 200 foote square, unlesse it were
one Field beyond the Dock, in the Occupation of Mr Commissioner Pett neare the
bogg and marsh, which has neither solid foundation, nor fresh-water to it.
There is a very handsome greene Close at the end of the Long Rope-house towards
Chatham; but the declivity is so suddaine and greate to the West, that lesse
than a ten-foote raising will not bring it to such a rectitude as that we can
lay our plate upon the Wall, which will be a considerable trouble and charge to
reforme, as may easily be demonstrated: For either the earth must be so much
abated towards the East, or the Wall advanc’d to the height of neere 20 foote,
whiles one Extreame of the roofe will touch the superficies of the earth:
Besides, the field is not above 150 feet wide: But supposing all this might be
encounter’d (as indeede it might with charge) it bordures so neere to the
Rope-houses, the Dock, and that ample way leading to it from the Hill-house and
Chatham, as might endanger his Majesties people in case of any Contagion;
because it will be impossible to restraine them from sometimes mingling amongst
the Worke-men and others, who have Employment in the Dock, when the
Convalescent-men shall be able, or permitted to walk abroad. This, and some other
difficulties made us quit the thoughts of that otherwise gracefully situated
place. After many other Surveyes, we at last pitch’d on a Field call’d the
Warren, just beneath the Mill, and reguarding the North towards the River. The
Accesse is commodious; it has a well of excellent Water, ready dugg, and
wanting only repaires; and though this ground be likewise somewhat uneven, yet,
with helpe, it will carry about 240 feet in length, and 150 in breadth,
allowing the filling up of some Vallies and depressures of about 4 or 5 foote
deepe, to be taken from severall risings: This, for many reasons, I conceive to
be the fittest for our purpose, it having also a solid foundation on the
Chalke, and being at a competent distance from all dangerous commerce with the
Towne, which will greately contribute to the health of the sick, and protection
of the Inhabitants; but being at present in Lease to the Chest, leave must be
obtayn’d, and the Tennant, who now rents it, satisfied; in all which Mr
Commissioner Pet (whose direction and assistance I tooke, according to your
injunctions) informes me, there will be no difficulty:
Upon examination of the
Materials on the Place:
£ s
d
Bricks will not be deliverd at the place under 00: 18: 00
Lime, per Load, containing 32 Bushels, per thousand 00: 16: 00
Drift Sand, by Tonn 00: 00: 14
Tyles, per thousand deliverd 01: 01: 00
Heart-Lathes, per Load, containing 36 bundles 02: 10: 00
Sawing, per hundred 00: 03: 04
Workmen sufficient (in which was our greate mistake) 00: 02: 06
Upon these Matirials we conceiv’d thus of the Scantlings.
Walls, at 1 Brick ½
Wall-plates 9
in. 5
Parallel rafters 9 6 middle 16½ feet long
11 7 ends
Single rafters 4½ 3½
Purlins 9 6 17
Binding-beames 12 12
Windoe-frames 4½ 3½ 4 2
Dore-cases, in brick-Worke: single-doores 7 6 6 2 8in
The two outward double, with Architrave 7 6 9 9 4
Ground-floor gist 4 4 18
And if stone-floores to the 4 Corner-roomes, as has been since judg’d
more commodious, the
Gists 8 3
So’men 14 11
Besides Partitions,
Posts, Interstise, Quarterage.
At these scantlings,
together with the alteration of the Walles for height and thicknesse, etc.
Every rod of square Brick-worke, solid, at 1½ thick: containing in
bricks of 9 Inch: about 12 bricks Long, to 16½ in height: 15 bricks to every
3-feet high, which to 16½ is about 83: so that 83 by 21 is 1743 bricks
superficial: This, at the design’d thicknesse, is every square-rod 5229 bricks,
which I suppose at 17 (the lowest we can expect) deliver’d at the place, is
every rod square, £09 08s 01d. The total of brick-worke then,
contains about 118 square rodd, without defalcations of doores, Windows (being
8 doors at 6 and 3-feet; windows 114 at 3 and 2-feet, reduc’d to measure,
contains doores 24 feet by 48, which is 1152 square foot; windows, 342 feet by
228 feet is 77,976 feet square); both these reduc’d to square rodds, are almost
30 rodds square; whereof allow 10 square rods for inequality of the foundation
and Chimnies (if upon the Warren ground), and then the Bricks of the whole
(without lime and sand) will cost for 98 square rods, at £04 08 01
431 12 02
And every rod after the rate of of 18d for one foot high, in
workmanship, to 01 04 09
Which for 98 rod, is 122 06 00
So as the Brick-worke for the whole will come to 650 00 00
Tyling, at 30s per square 450 00 00
Timber, at 40s per square 600 00 00
Glasse about 684 feet, at 6d per foote 17 00 00
Windoe-frames, at 4s each 22 00 00
Single doores and Cases, at 20s each; Double doores and Cases
(for the more commodious bringing in of the sick, being frequently carried), at
36s with the casements, locks, hinges, etc 30 00 00
Stone-floores 32 00 00
Stayres, per step, 3s., 76 in all 11 08 00
Levelling the ground, as computed upon view 46 10 00
Total:- 1859 18 00
But this Erection reduc’d to 400 Bedds, or rather persons (which would
be a very competent number, and yet exceedingly retrench his Majesties Charge
for their maintenance) and the whole abated to neere a 5th part of the Expense,
which amounts to about 371 00 00
The Whole would not exceede
1487 18 00
Whereoff the Timber and roofe 480 00 00
The Timber alone to 360 00 00
Which, if furnish’d from the Yard, the whole charge
of the building will be
reduc’d to 1127 18 00
So as the number of Bedds diminish’d, Cradeles, and Attendance
proportionable, the Furniture compleate will cost 480 00 00
Total- 1607 18 00
according to the formerly-made estimate, and which whole charge will be
sav’d in quarters of 400 men onely, within 6 monethes, and about 15 dayes, at 6d
per head, being no lesse than £10 per diem, 70 per Weeke, 280 per Moneth, 3640
per Annum;
Which is more then
double what his Majestie is at in one yeares quarters for them in
private-houses; besides all the incomparable advantages enumerated in the
subsequent paper, which will perpetually hold upon this, or any the like
occasion: The quartering of so many persons at 1s per diem amounting to
no lesse than £7280 per annum.
If this shall be
esteem’d inconvenient, because of disfurnishing the Yard, or other-wise a
temptation to imbezill the Timber of the Yard:
All the Materials bought as above 1487 18 0
Furniture 480 0 0
Total- 1967 18 0
The whole Expense will be reimbours’d in 8 monethes:
viz. in 400 men’s diet
alone, by 6d per diem £378
per Month
4536
per Annum
Whereas the same number at his Majesties
ordinary entertainement
is 627 04 00 per month
7526 08 00 per annum
So as there would be saved yearely 2990 08 00
Note, that the Sallary of the stuard (who buyes in all provisions,
payes, and keepes the Accompts, takes charge of the Sick when set on shore, and
discharges them when recover’d, etc.) is not computed in this estimate: because
it is the same which our Clearks and deputies do by the present Establishment:
Thus I deduce the particulars:
Chirurgeons 7: viz 3 Master-Chirurgeons, at 8s per diem each;
Mates 4: at 4s; diet for 400 - £280; one Matron, per week, 10s;
20 Nurses, at 5s per week; Fire, Candles, Sope, etc, 3d per week
280
56
42
£378 per
Month
Cradle-Bedds, 200, at 11s per Cradle, at 4½ feet wide, 6 long 110 00 00
Furniture, with Bedds, Rug, Blanquet, Sheetes, at 30s per bed 300 00 00
Utensils for Hospitals, etc 70 00 00
£480 00 00
But I do farther affirme, and can demonstrate, that supposing the whole
Erection, and Furniture (according to my first and largest project, and as his
Majestie and the Principall Officers did thinke fit to proportion the height
and thickness of the Walles), for the Entertainement of 500 men, should amount
to 1859 18 00
Furniture to 582 10 00
Total 2442 08 00
Then would be saved to his Majesty £332 18s per month, £3994 16s
per Annum.
So that in lesse than 8 moneths time there will be saved, in the
quarters of 500 men alone, more monye than the whole expense amounts to; Five
hundred mens quarters at 1s per diem coming to £25 per diem, 175 per
week, 700 per Month, 9408 per Annum.
Upon which I assume, if
£3994, by five-hundred men, or £3640 in foure-hundred men, or, lastly, if but
£2990 be sav’d in one Yeare in the quarters of 400 sick persons, etc., there
would a farr greater summ be saved in more than 6000 men; there having ben sent
7000 Sick and Wounded men to Cure in my district onely, and of those 2800 put
on shore at Chatham and Rochester, for which station I propos’d the Remedy. Now,
five-hundred sick-persons quarter’d at a Towne in the Victualers and scattered
Ale-houses (as the Costome is), will take up at least 160 houses, there being
very few of those miserable places which afford accommodation for above 2 or 3
in an house; with, frequently at greate distances, employ of Chirurgeons,
Nurses, and Officers innumerable; so as when we have ben distress’d for
Chirurgeons, some of them (upon computation) walked 5 or 6 miles every day, by
going but from quarter to quarter, and not ben able to visite their patients as
they ought: Whereas, in our Hospital, they are continualy at hand: We have
essay’d to hire some capacious empty houses, but could never meet with any
tollerably convenient; and to have many, or more then one, would be chargeable
and very troublesome: By our Infirmary, then we have these considerable
advantages.
At 6d per diem
each (in the way of Commons), the sick shall have as good, and much more proper
and wholesome diet, than now they have in the Ale-houses, where they are fed
with trash, and Embezil their monye more to inflame themselves, retard and
destroy their Cures out of ignorance or intemperance; whiles a sober Matron
governs the Nurses, lookes to their provisions, Rollers, Linnen etc. And the
nurses attend the Sick, Wash, Sweepe, and Serve the Offices, The Coock and
Laundrer comprehended in the number, and at the same rate, etc. By this Method
likewise are the almost indefinite number of Chirurgeons and Officers
exceedingly reduc’d; The Sick dieted, kept from drinke and Intemperance, and
consequently from most unavoydably relapsing: They are hindred from Wandering,
Slipping-away, and dispersion: They are more sedulously attended; the Physitian
better inspects the Chirurgeons, who neither can nor will be in all places, as
now they are scattered, in the nasty Corners of the Townes: They are sooner,
and more certainely cur’d (for I have at present neere 30 bedds employ’d in a
Barne at Graves-end, which has taught us much of this experience). They are
receiv’d and discharg’d with infinitely more ease: Our Accompts better and more
exactly kept: A vast, and very considerable Summ is saved (not to say gain’d)
to his Majestie: The materialls of the house will be good if taken downe; or,
if let stand, it may serve in tyme of Peace, for a Store, or Worke-house: The
Furniture will (much of it) be useful upon like occasion; And what is to be
esteem’d none of the least Virtues of it, ’twill totaly cure the altogether
intollerable clamor and difficulties of rude and ungratefull people; their
Landlords and Nurses, rays’d by their poverty upon the least obstruction of
constant and Weekely payes; for want of which they bring an ill repute upon his
Majesties Service, Incense the very Magistrates and better sort of Inhabitants
(neighbours to them) who too frequently promote (I am sorry to speake it) their
mutinies; so as they have been sometimes menacing to expose our Men in the
streetes, where some have most inhospitably perish’d: In fine, This
would encounter all Objections whatsoever; is an honorable, Charitable, and
frugal Provision; Effectual, full of Encouragement, and very practicable; so
as, however for the present it may be consider’d, I cannot but persist in
wishing it might be resolv’d upon towards Autumne at the farthest; Chatham and
Rochester alone having within 17 or 18 monethes cost his Majestie full £13,000
in cures and quarters; halfe whereof, would have neere ben saved had this
method ben establish’d: Add to this, the almost constant station of his
Majesties shipps at the Buoy in the Noore, and river of Chatham; the Clamor of
that place against our quartering these, this crazy tyme, and the altogether
impossibility of providing else-where for such numbers as continualy presse in
upon us there, more than any where else, after Action, or the returne of any of
his Majesties fleete: which, with what has ben Offer’d, may recommend this
Project, by your favourable representation of the premises, for a permanent
Establishment in that Place especially, if his Majestie and Royal Highnesse so
thinke meete. This Account, being what I have ben able to lay before you, as
the Effects of my late Inspection upon the Place, by Commands of the Honourable
the Principal Officers, I request through your hands may be address’d to them
from,
Sir,
Your
most obedient servant,
JEvelyn
We might this Summer burne our owne Bricks, and procure timber at the
best hand, which would save a considerable charge.
Source: Bodleian MS Rawl. A195, f.251ff.
Endorsed in E’s own hand, ‘Mr Evelyns Report touching Erecting an Infirmary at
Chatham 1666’. This accompanied the previous letter of the same date (p.58) but
was presented as a separate letter. The document is extremely complex and has
required substantial adjustment of the layout.
2 MS: ‘Sayes-Court
26:Mar:1666’.
A26. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
A Scheme of the Dutch
Action in 1667
For my honor’d Friend Samuell Pepys Esqr
Clearke of the Acts etc:
at the Navy Office with,
a little Roll of Paper. London.
encl:
Sayes Court
20 January 1668 (2)
Sir,
I am heartily asham’d I could not performe your Commands before now: It
was friday (3) ’ere I could possibly get home, and since I am here, I have ben
so afflicted with the Griping of the Gutts (4), that I was not able to bestow
the paines I intended on the Scheme (5) I send you, which will onely serve you
to preserve our reproch in memory, and my little skill in designing; But I have
don it as I could, and as it appear’d to me from the Hill above Gillingham. The
draught which I follow for Chatham River is from an old paper lying by me, and
not from any printed Mapp, and some of the flexures I have presumed to reforme
(as I thinke at least) as the River then presented itselfe to my Eye: You must
excuse the defects of Sir,
Your
most humble servant
J
Evelyn:
The extreame whiteness of my Inke also deceived me etc
Source: Bodleian MS Rawl. A195, f.77. No
endorsement.
2 MS: ‘Sayes-Court
20th:Jan:-67/8’.
3 Friday, 17
January.
4 A constriction of
the bowels; not an uncommon complaint of E’s but, curiously, there is no
mention of the ailment in his diary, as there often is.
5 The drawing is
bound with this letter at MS Rawl. A195, f.78, endorsed by E, ‘A Scheme of the
Posture of the Dutch-Fleete, and Action at Shere-nesse and Chatham 10th, 11th
and 12 of June 1667 taken up on place by JE’. A reproduction was published in
Braybrooke’s editions of Pepys’s diary and correspondence in 1825 and 1854. An
earlier version, also in E’s hand, is in Texas (Pforzheimer MS 35B). It seems
to have been sent originally to P with the letter of 6 December 1681 (C10 -
see the book from which this page is taken) and was sold as Item 2862 in the
Davey Catalogue. It was described as the draft sketch made on site, forming the
model for the fair copy above. Both drawings depict the lower reaches of the
Thames and Medway, and the location of numbered ships marked with a table of
their names and fates.
A27. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
Praise for Evelyn’s
draughtsmanship
Esqr Evelin
[Navy Office] (2)
8 February 1668 (3)
Sir
You will not wonder at the backwardness of my thankes for the Præsent
you made mee soe many days since of the Prospect of Medway, while the Hollander
rode Master on’t (4), when I have seriously told you, that the sight of it hath
ledd mee to such reflections on my perticuler Interest (by my employment) in
the reproach due to that Miscarriage, as have given mee litle lesse disquiet
then he is fancyed to have who found his face in Michaell Angelo’s Hell (5).
The same should serve
mee allso in excuse for my silence in the celebrating your Mastery shewen in
the Designe and Draught, did not Indignation rather then Court shipp urge mee
soe farr to commend them, as to wish the furniture of our House of Lords
changed from the Story of 88 to that of 67 (6), (of Evelins designeing) till
the pravity of this were reformed to the temper of that Age, wherein God
Almighty found his Blessing more operative, then (I feare) hee doeth in ours
his Judgements. Adieu
Your
most affectionate and humble Servant
SP
Source: NMM Letter-Book 8, 526. Copy in P’s
hand. Used by permission of the National Maritime Museum. Howarth published
this letter, incorrectly stating his source to be Tanner 1929: the only
previous edition of this letter is Braybrooke’s. It is possible, however, that
Tanner made his notes available to Howarth. Howarth’s text is certainly
slightly more accurate than Braybrooke’s.
2 He was at the
office all day (diary).
3 MS: ‘8 Febry 67’,
for 1667/8, at foot of letter. The letter is in sequence following December
1667).
4 See A26, note 5.
5 This is a
reference to Michelangelo’s Last Judgement (1534-41). One of its
detractors was Biagio da Cesena whom Michelangelo punished by portraying him as
Minos in the composition.
6 Tapestries
depicting the Armada in the House of Lords.
A28. JOHN EVELYN TO SAMUEL PEPYS (1)
A brief guide to Paris
Directed thus
For my noble Friend
Samuel Pepys Esqr, One of the Principal Officers
of his Majestys Navy etc
Sayes Court
21 August 1669 (2)
Sir,
I send you my Rhapsodies; but know, that as soon as I had set pen to
paper, I was diverted by a thousand accidents; then follow’d Mr Cowley’s
Funeral (3), but I sneak’d from Church, and when I came home (which was near 5
a Clock) an Army of Work-men (your Wall-builders) and others, besiege me for
money, and to reckon with them (4); so as what I send you is snatches and
night-work, and unconnected, which you must pardon; and if you judge worthy it,
cause to be transcrib’d; for my Running Hand is an Arabic not to be endur’d:
But yours is a Running Voyage and desultory; and therefore you will the easier
pardon me. There may be likewise diverse gross Omissions, which you will best
judge of when you come to Paris, and begin to traverse the Town; so as it is
from you I shall expect to be payd with fresh and more material Observations. I
could have sett you down Catalogues of many rare Pictures and Collections to be
seen in that City, but you will every day meet with fresher intelligence. It is
now many years since I was there, et mutantur tempora, et mores, et homines
(5). Pray forget not to visit the Taille-Douce shops, and make Collection of
what they have excellent, especially the Draughts of their Palaces, Churches,
and Gardens, and the particulars you will have seen; they will greatly refresh
you in your Study, and by the fire-side, when you are many years return’d.
Israel, Sylvestre, Morin, Chaveau, are great Masters, both for things of the
kind extant, and Inventions extreamly pleasant. You will easily be acquainted
with the best Painters, especially Le Brun, who is the Chief of them; and it
would not be amiss to be present at their Academie, in which Monsieur du Bosse
(a principal Member) will conduct you. For the rest, I recommend you to God
Almighty’s Protection, augure you a happy Journey; and kissing your Lady’s
Hands, remain,
Sir,
Your most humble and obedient Servant,
J
Evelyn
These 3 Letters I enclose to be presented according to the Directions;
with many more I could burthen you; but your short Stay at Paris will not
require it; and besides, being Persons of great Quality, much of your time would
be consum’d in making and repaying but impertinent Visites, in which I believe
you would not willingly engage. I send you the Letters open for you to seal
when you please.
P.S.
Sir,
When you are arriv’d at Paris, the best Service [which] (6) can be done
you, will be to address you where you may immediately repose your self, till
you are provided and settled in a Lodging suitable to your Company. Therefore
you may please to enquire for One Hughs an Englishman, who lives in la Rue
de la Boucherie, au Fauxborg St Germain, a Friend of Sir Samuel Tukes, who
will send for Dr Fitz-Gerrard (to whom you have a Letter) and he will assist
you both to find out a fit Lodging, and whatever else you shall require. (7)
Sir, (8)
If you make your Journey through Picardy (which I believe you may
resolve to do in regard of the Contagion) if you could so contrive it as to see
Monsieur de Lion-Court’s Seat at Lion-Court, the Gardens and Water-works would
much please you; at least, if they are continu’d with that Care we have knowne
them. But because I cannot tell you how inconvenient it may prove to deviate so
far from your direct Road, I do only mention it en passant.
Calais (9) You will find a strong Town by the new
Fortifications and by two adjoyning Forts, besides the Citadelle and the
Sluces, by which they can environ it with water at pleasure. The Market-place
and Magazine, which was once a Staple for English Wool is observable; and so is
the Architecture of an Altar-piece (as I take it) of black marble. I us’d to
lodge at the Silver Lyon. Hence you have 7 Leagues to Boulogne a small
Town; but famous for our Henry 8’s Expedition. The Lower Town has a large
Street, and there I suppose you may lodge au Bras d’or. The Fortifications
are not considerable. After 7 Leagues riding you will come to
Montreuil, where you will see an irregular Citadel; but
the Town situated on a strong Eminence; and towards Paris-side the
Fortification is very considerable by an Horn-work, and most noble Bastions,
which are worth Remark, and will give you an idea of the Strength of such
Places as they fortify abroad.
Abbeville - is 10 Leagues, a reasonable pretty Town; and
though it be well fortify’d, there is nothing very observable in it. Here they
used to offer us Pistols and Guns to buy. I think you will lodge there, or
proceed 4 Leagues further to
Pont Dormis. A Little strong-Place regularly
fortify’d. Thence to Crevecoeur 4 Leagues: And thence to
Poix Where you come into wretched Places, till you
arrive at
Beauvais 9 Leagues (as I remember) a pretty large Town,
and Market-place, and well-water’d: The Houses built of Wood. The Bishop’s
House is of Stone, and has some good Appartments in it. The Church is
imperfect; but the Architecture good, though plain, and with handsome Sculpture
behind the Quire. Pray observe the measures of the Town for their Serges (10),
and the Standards of them by Iron-Chains of different Lengths. After 8 Leagues
you come to
Beaumont. Here, and before you will enter among the
Vine-yards, I know little more observable, except it be the House and Garden of
the President Nicolais, as you draw near Paris; which I esteem much for the
Avenue and Fountains. But your mind will be so set on Paris, which is now but 4
leagues distant, that you will hardly stay. And indeed this whole Journey will
render you little satisfaction, being for the most part, through a Frontier and
miserable Country, and where you will see part of the Calamity of a Tyrannical
Government, and the Effects of a continual War, such as has afflicted all that
Tract for diverse Years. When you are arrived at
Paris, My Counsel is, that you take Chambre
garnie (11) (as they call it). Sir Samuel Tukes addresses you to a Friend
of his, an Irish Doctor of Physick (unknown to me) who he assures will be so
honest, humble, and necessary to you, that you shall need no other to conduct
you to all the considerable Places, and to introduce you both at the Courts and
other Assemblys, which it is necessary for you to see. He will likewise find
you out a convenient place for your Lodging, and do the Offices of a Guide in
all that you can desire; and which will therefore much shorten the trouble I
was going to engage you in, by giving you any large Directions of my owne-
That yet, this Paper
may serve to put you in mind of some Particulars, which happly the shortness of
your Expedition may otherwise indanger you to omit. I would in the first place
climb-up into St Jacques Steeple to take a synoptical Prospect of that
monstrous City, to consider the Situation, extent, and Approaches; so as to be
the better able to make Comparisons with our London; which you will do with
pleasure, by imagining it extended to a Length which you will find in a Circle.
(12)
The principall Places
where Persons of Quality dwell are in the Sub-urbs, especially that of St
Germains, and in that the Abbey, an old Foundation, but nothing much remarkable
in it. But the Hospital of La Charité is worthy your seeing, for the
worthy Charity which is every day there exercis’d in so full, so cleanly and
devout a manner, as must needs much affect you; especially when you shall have
seen the rest of those admirable Foundations, among which you must not forget
the Hostel-Dieu near Notre-dame, though it be not altogether so
neat and comp[ac]t; yet for the Number and manner of it, very considerable.
There are diverse noble
Houses in these Fauxbourgs; but none comparable to that of
Luxembourg call’d le Palais d’Orleans; which for the Fabrick and
Garden (now I hear much neglected since the Decease of the best Gardiner in the
World, the Duke) is exceedingly worthy your frequent Visite. Consider the
Building well, and the Extent of the Ground about it, as within so great a
City; The Fountains, Walks, Eminency on which it stands; and you will judge it
almost as fine as Clarendon-House, whose situation somewhat resembles it. The
Duke’s Library and Gallery well furnish’d with Books, and incomparable Medals
(of which he was the most knowing and curious Person in Europ) together with the
Gallery painted by the Hand of Rubens (so as we have none in England, and
therefore our Painters know not what belongs to Historical Works) will
exceedingly please You, if these Curiosities remain still in the Lustre they
did at my Sojourn there. (13)
In the City, the first
Place of note is the Louvre, or Court of that Great Monarch. The Galleries, Salle
of Antiquities, Printing-house, Monnoye (14), Gardens of the
Thuilleries, Furniture, Architecture, and ten thousand Particulars will take
you up a good time here. Besides that you ought to kiss the King and Queen’s
Hands; to see some publick Audience; Observe his Table, his Guard, Council, and
what else will be suggested to you by your Conductor. As you go to Court, you
will pass over Pont-neuf, and wish ours of London had no more Houses
upon it, but instead thereof a Statue, such as you will there find erected, the
Work of the famous Giovanni de Bologna, greatly esteem’d (15). At the foot of
this Bridge (for the River is not considerable) there was a Water-work called
the Samaritaine, and in my time such a curious and rich Piece of
Artificial Rock-Work, as was hardly to be seen in Europ. But the curious Person
that then was Master of it, is since many years dead, and perhaps the Rock
demolish’d and sold: It is but asking the Question. However one would see the
Machine. (16)
Notre-Dame
is the Chief Church of Paris, built (as Tradition goes) by the English, but
infinitely inferiour to St Pauls, or Westminster. You will do well to consider
it, if the Giant at the Entry do not forbid you (17). There are some Pictures
in it considerable.
Near this is the Pont
au Change, which though but short, is for the uniformity of the Houses and
Bass-relieve of Brass at the front of it, pretty in perspective.
You will be much
entertain’d in visiting the several Convents of the <Orders of Fryers and
other Religious Men: One would therefore see the> (18) Convents of the
Franciscans, Capucines, Fathers of the Oratory, and above all the Jesuites,
both that of the Novitiate in the Suburbs near Luxembourg, for the trueness of
the Architecture, and though plain, yet very excellent and that of St Louis,
more splendid and costly. And you must not only behold the Out-side, but
procure Admission within to see their manner of living, which will bee wholly
new to You; especially that of the Carthusians, which I conjure you not to
omit; and to visit likewise a Nunnery or two, not forgetting Sion, and the
Monument of Sir Samuel Tukes’s Lady. (19)
When among the several
Churches and Oratories you shall have once contemplated the Val de Grace,
your Eyes will never desire to behold a more accomplished Piece (20). There it
is you will see the utmost effects of good Architecture and Painting, and
heartily wish such another stood where once St Pauls was, the boast of our
Metropolis; for than this, you will never see a more noble (though not great
Fabrick;) the Co[n]vent and other Buildings about it are very compleat,
especially the Carmes over against it.
After the Churches and
Hospitals, remember the University, particularly the Sorbonne: The Schools are
a plain Building, but the Church is a noble Structure, and the melancholy
Situation of it within the Court, has some what (methinks) of particular in it,
which affects me. Here, be sure to be at some publick Scholastical Exercise,
and love our owne Universitys the better after it.
There is le College
des quatre Langues founded by Cardinal Mazarin, but not yet finish’d,
worthy your Enquiry after: And if his Majesty have done any thing for the
Virtuosi (our Emulators) in designing <them> a Mathematical College, seek
after it, and procure to be admitted into their present Assembly, that you may
render our Society an Account of their Proceeding. You will easily obtain that
by the assistance of some Friend: But Mr Oldenburg being in the Country, (for I
went to his House) you will miss of an infallible Address.
Now you must be sure to
be early at some famous Aacdemy to see the Gentlemen ride the Great Horse, and
their other Exercises, that you may be astonish’d a great Kingdom as ours, and
so great a City as London, should not afford one Cavalerizio for the
noblest Institution of Youth; there being so many in Paris, and in almost all
the considerable Citys of France, which daily ride near an hundred managed
Horses.
When you visit le
Palais Cardinal, You will find many things worth your seeing, especially
the Galeries and the Paintings; the King and Queen’s Bathing-Rooms, Chambers of
Audience; Theater for the Comedies, Gardens, and near it Cardinal Mazarin’s
Palace, at my being in Paris, and in his Life-time, doubtless the most richly
furnish’d in the World.
I suppose the Library
is yet extant: You must by all means see it, as one of the most considerable
things in Paris <but the King has a Library well worth your seeing near
Monsieur Colbert’s house>. But what is of greater Antiquity, and to be
reverenc’d for being so, is, the Abbey de St Victoire whose Bibliotheque
is very remarkable. But infinite are the Collections of rare Books, Pictures,
Statues, Curiositys etc, which the Noblemen and many private Persons have in
Paris; which daily augmenting and diminishing, according to the genius of the
Possessors of them, you must enquire after upon the Place, and procure means of
seeing: For which I transmit you the 3 Enclos’d Letters to Friends of mine
(though of the lower Rank) who will abundantly satisfy your Curiosity; and you
will do well to purchase of them what they have of most rare of their own
Works, as well Books as Tailles-Douces; the One being the most famous Artist
for things in Graving with the Burin, and the other in Etching. Monsieur Du
Bosse’s Books of Architecture and Perspective etc are worthy your Collections
(21). And if you stayd so long to have your Lady’s and your own Pictures
engraven by le Chevalier de Nanteuille you would bring home Jewels not to be
parallel’d by any Mortal at present, and perhaps by none hereafter. He is the
greatest Man that ever handl’d the Graver, and besides, he is a Scholar and a
well-bred Person (22). And Monsieur Du Bosse (the other) is a plain, honest,
worthy, and intelligent good man; both my Singular Friends and Correspondents
for those Matters of Art etc.
The King’s medicinal
Garden and Laboratory with all the Apparatus, is at no hand to be omitted,
because it is so well furnish’d and so rarely fitted for the Design, as having
all the affections of Ground and Situation desirable. If you stayd a whole
Winter in Paris, I would invite you to see a Course of Chimistry, which is both
there and in several private Places shew’d to the Curious to their wonderful
satisfaction and Benefit of Philosophic Spirits.
Near to this is the Gobelins,
where was wont to be the Manufacture of Tapestry; pray enquire it out most
diligently, and by no means omit the visiting of all those Particulars; no, not
Monsieur Colbert’s late Silk-Worm-Work, or whatever there be of that Nature.
<At these Gobelins are all the King’s Manufactures: Pray therefore
visit it most studiously.>
You must likewise see
the Hostel de Ville, being their Guild-Hall, the Palais (which is
their Exchange) and there the Hall of Justice; answerable to ours of
Westminster, neater, but not so large, especially the Parliament-Chamber, and
other Tribunals, which you will find to be much more august and splendid than
most of ours. Here you will take notice of the Habits of their Advocates and
Men at Law, and be curious to hear a Pleading, as well as a Masse and other
Ceremomies at some of the Churches, that you may love your own Religion the
better.
The Place Royal
is our Piazza of Covent-Garden; but in my judgement nothing so chearful. The
Brazen Horse in it is considerable.
By some especial Favour
you may be admitted to take a View of the Bastille (which is their Tower) and
Arsenal joyning to it. There you will see in what Equipage for Strength they
are; for there they cast their great Guns, and there is the Repository of
Stores. There are many noble Houses and pretty Oratories here-about, especially
St Louis belonging to the Jesuites, with a Noble Frontispice.
For once you would be
at the Preach at Charenton, and for once see a publick Comedy at l’Hostel de
Bourgogne, and even the Mad-men at the Petites-Maisons: For all
these Places and Humours are instructive; but none more Divertissant
than the Mountebanks and prodigious Concourse of Mankind au Pont-Neuf
(23), which I would therefore have you frequently to traverse, and contemplate,
as a lively Image of that Mercurial Nation.
In the St Chappel
are some Reliques (24) which you may also see, when you are at the Palais;
and be sure to bring home with you some good French Books, which you will
encounter in you visiting their Shops.
The Cours you
should likewise see, to compare it with our Assemblys of Gallants and Faire
Ladys at Hide-Park: And then I know not what to say more; for by this time you
will be willing to take some air perhaps abroad, and make a Journey about the
Town, to see how they live in the Countrey, and how they make their Wine (for
the Vintage almost meets you) among their Villa’s. The Places I recommend to
your view are chiefly,
St Cloud, those noble
Gardens, where you will kiss the Hand of Madame la Duchesse d’Orleans (25).
Ruel, formerly a most elegant Villa (26). St Germain-en-Laye, one of the
King’s Countrey-Houses, nobly situated, and where there were the most
Artificial Water-Works and Grotts in France, now I hear run exceedingly to
decay. Maisons in my poor Judgment for the Architecture, Situation, cutt
into the River, Forest, Gardens, Stables, etc, one of the most accomplish’d and
sweet Abodes that ever I saw: But it is not perfect. Madrid is not very
considerable; but one Appartment at Bois St Vincennes is worth your
view, with the Park; of which you will find none comparable to ours in England.
St Denys, I suppose, you might see in your Journey going or returning; and
there, besides a venerable Church, the Dormitory of the French Kings, a
Treasury of Reliques emulating even that of our Lady’s of Loretto, and you must
not omit it.
I would have you also make
a step to Arcueil, which Mary of Medicis built for an Aquæduct; because it will
furnish you with an Idea what those stupen-dious structures were extended to
many miles, and of greater Altitude only.
Chantilly, Melun,
Verneuil, Monceaux, Villers Cotteret, Limours, Bois le Vicomte (27), Bisestre,
an Hospital, are Countrey-Palaces and Gardens of great Fame, if your time serve
you may do well to visit. <Many of these Places will be too far for you.>
But at no hand must you forget to take a th[o]rough Survey of their renowned
Fontainebleau; which when you have seen you will not judge comparable to
Hampton-Court; nor can the French Monarch shew such a Castle, Palace, and
Church, as our Windsor in all his wide Dominions. Yet here the Canal, and
plenty of Water, with the Forest <about it> is stupendious; and there are
some good Paintings in the House; but especially that Gallery, the Work of the
famous Prima Titia.
Versailles will much
please you; and Veau, the House of the late President Fouquet, amaze you for
the infinite Cost both in Building and Gardens, august even in its very Ruines,
and absence of its magnificent Founder.
I had forgott to
acquaint you that the Church-yard of St Innocents in Paris is observable for
the Quality of the Earth, which by the innumerable Buryings there, is become
Sarcophagus; and there it is you will see the Hieroglyphics of the Philosophie
Works of Nicolas Flamel; but in nothing beautifull or considerable.
I should not have so
slightly mention’d les Carmes, a Church near Val de Grace, because it is
most worthy your seeing, and particularly the Tabernacles upon the High Altar.
In the English College
of Jesuites, Clermont, you will see the Systems of Copernicus, and the new
Astronomers, moved by Water; For the rest, the Place is nothing observable.
Sir, Had I anything
more to add, I should weary you; it is already late, and I almost blind: So as
I am perfectly asham’d at my wretched Character.
J
E (28)
Source: PL.2237
(1-12), copy by P. E seems to have examined P’s copy and made a number of
insertions in his own hand. These are marked <>. The extensive
description of Paris frequently matches E’s diary in order and it is evident
that he used it (or the same source) to write this letter (de Beer, I, 72ff).
2 MS: ‘Sayes-Court
21 Aug.1669’.
3 Thomas Cowley (d.
11 August 1669), not his brother Abraham Cowley (d. 1667).
4 A section of
dockyard land had in 1667 been leased to Sayes Court (see plan, p.338; and, E’s
diary, 14 August 1668). The effect was to distance E’s house from the dockyard.
The reference here is probably to the erection of a new dividing wall.
5 ‘And times,
customs, and men are changed.’
6 MS: ‘wch’,
possibly deleted.
7 Pepys referred to
this recommendation of (correctly) Fitzgerald by E in a letter of 29 September
1679 to his brother-in-law Balthazar St Michel ‘when your poor Sister and I
were in France’ (Heath 1955, 106). None of E’s introductory letters is extant.
8 The copy now
continues on a fresh leaf at PL.2237.3.
9 These and other
towns here italicised appear in the margin of the MS.
10 Lengths of woollen
cloth.
11 ‘A furnished
apartment’.
12 See E’s The
State of France (1652), quoted in de Beer (1955, III, 637-8).
13 E’s diary, 1 April
1644 (de Beer, II, 128-31).
14 Mint.
15 Of Henri IV; see
also E’s diary, 24 December 1643, and below, p.74, note 1.
16 It depicted the
Samarian woman washing Christ’s feet. See de Beer (II, 93, note 3).
17 Perhaps the ‘huge
Colosse of St Christopher’ (diary, 24 December 1643).
18 Insertion in E’s
hand. Further insertions by E are indicated <> and not foot-noted.
19 His first wife,
Mary, née Guldeford. She had died in Paris in 1666.
20 Built 1645-66 (de
Beer, I, 84, note 1). Evelyn could not have seen it.
21 E had Abraham du
Bosse’s Maniere Universelle de Mr Desargues... (1648). This and others
by him in E’s possession are now at the British Library (Eve.a.114-6).
22 He had engraved
portraits of E, his wife, and parents-in-law (diary, 13 June 1650).
23 ‘Possessd by
Montebankes, Operators and Puppet Players’ (diary, 3 February 1644).
24 The ‘almost intyre
Crowne of Thornes’ (diary, 3 February 1644).
25 Henrietta Anne
(1644-70), sister of Charles II.
26 Richlieu’s villa
at, correctly, Rueil (diary, 27 February 1644).
27 Sic; Michael
Hunter (pers. comm.) points out this is a mistake for Vaux-le-Vicomte.
28 P adds here
further notes (in French) on Paris following his nephew’s 1698 visit.
A29. SAMUEL PEPYS TO JOHN EVELYN (1)
On the death of Mrs
Pepys
Mr Evelyn
Navy Office
2 November 1669 (2)
Sir,
I begge you to beleive that I would not have beene ten daies returned
into England without waiting on you (3), had it not pleased God to afflict mee
by the sickness of my wife, who, from the first day of her coming back into
London (4), hath layne under a fever soe severe as at this houre to render her
recoverey desperate. Which affliction hath very much unfitted mee for those
acts of civillitie and respect which, amongst the first of my friends, I should
have paid to yourselfe, as hee to whome singly I owe the much greater part of
the satisfaction I have met with in my late voyage. Next to you, I have my acknowledgements
to make to Sir Samuel Tuke; to whome (when in a condition of doeing it) I shall
beg your introducing mee, for the owneing of my obligations to him on the like
behalfe. But Sir, I beg you heartilie to dispence with the ceremonie, till I am
better qualified for paying it; and in the meane time receive the enclosed,
which I should with much more satisfaction have delivered with my owne hands.
I
am, Sir,
Your
most obliged and obedient Servant,
SPepys
I most humbly kiss your ladies hands, and pray my service be presented
to Sir Richard Browne. (5)
Source: BL Upcott
Antiquaries II. Endorsed by E, ‘Mr Pepys 2 November Navy Office’.
2 MS: ‘Navy Office
November 2 1669’.
3 MS: ‘without
waiting on you’ inserted.
4 Elizabeth Pepys.
She had been taken ill in Flanders while travelling with her husband in autumn
1669. She died on 10 November. The funeral took place on 13 November at St
Olave’s, Hart Street, where her monument remains. E attended the funeral and
noted the fact in his diary entry for 14 November.
5 A letter from P to
Richard Browne, dated 26 March 1670, is at BL Up AnII. It was published by
Braybrooke in 1825, and is included in various other editions, and that of
Howarth (no. 36).
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