No More Learning

After some unconnected teaching, which began
when he was four years old, he was placed in the free school
of Southover in January 1630, where he remained until he was
entered, in 1637, as a fellow-commoner of Balliol college, Oxford.
In 1640, his father died, and, at the age of twenty, he was left his
own master. Richard Evelyn was a man of ample means, his estate
being estimated as worth about £40,000 a year; and, when high
sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, he distinguished himself by his
princely hospitality. John was the second son; but George, the
eldest, was attached to his brother and always encouraged him to
feel that Wotton was his home. The growing political troubles
caused Evelyn to leave England for a time; so he embarked for
Holland on 21 July 1641, and made good use of his time in visiting
some of the chief continental towns. He returned to England on
12 October and, at Christmas, was appointed one of the comp-
trollers of the Middle Temple revels; but, wishing to spend the
· The Quarterly Review, XIX, 53.


## p. 245 (#267) ############################################

Evelyn's Younger Days and Travels 245
holidays at Wotton, he obtained leave to resign his staff of
office.
Evelyn was a cavalier and a hearty royalist; but, as Sir Leslie
Stephen says, “his zeal was tempered with caution. ' This may be
seen in the instance of the battle of Brentford (12 November 1642)
between the royal and parliamentary troops. Evelyn came in with
his horse and arms just at the retreat, and he only stayed with the
royal army until the 15th, because it was about to march to
Gloucester. Had he marched with it, he and his brothers would
have been exposed to ruin, without any advantage to the king.
So he returned to Wotton, and no one knew that he had been with
the royal army.
)
In spite of his attempts to live in retirement at Wotton, he
was forced to leave the country, in order to escape the constant
pressure upon him to sign the covenant. Therefore, in November
1643, he obtained from Charles I a licence to travel, and he
made an extensive tour on the continent, the particulars of which
are recorded in the diary in an interesting narrative. The
diarist tells just the things we want to know, and many bits of
information given by him help us to form a vivid picture of the
places which he visited, both in France and Italy. The galleys at
Marseilles and the beauty of malls at Blois and Tours (where 'pall
mall' was played) are specially noted. He passed across the Alps
from Italy to Geneva, and, after travelling along many miles of
level country, came suddenly to the mountains. He remarks that
nature seemed to have swept up the rubbish of the earth in the
Alps, to form and clear the plains of Lombardy. Bears and wolves
abounded in the rocky fastnesses; and, the accommodation for
travellers being of the most meagre description, they had some
excuse for speaking of the horrid mountains' in what is now the
playground of Europe. '
On Thursday 27 June 1647, Evelyn was married by John Earle
(afterwards bishop of Salisbury) to Mary, daughter of Sir Richard
Browne, Charles I's resident at the French court, with whom, on
his first visit to Paris, Evelyn became very intimate. His newly
married wife was a mere child of fifteen, and when, after an
absence of four years, he returned to England, he left her 'under
the care of an excellent lady and prudent mother. ' On 10 October
1647, he kissed the captive king's hand at Hampton court, and gave
him an account of certain things he had in charge to tell. He also
went to see Sayes court at Deptford, then inhabited by a brother-
in-law of its owner, Sir Richard Browne. A little over a year after


## p. 246 (#268) ############################################

246
Memoir and Letter Writers
this, Evelyn himself took up his residence at Sayes court, which
was associated with him for many years of his life.
About the same time (January 1648—9) appeared his first publi-
cation, a translation from the French of an essay by François de la
Mothe Le Vayer, entitled Liberty and Servitude. In the preface,
Evelyn was overbold in his reference to the captive king; and, in
his own copy of this little volume, he wrote the following pencil
note: 'I was like to be call'd in question by the Rebells for this
booke, being published a few days before His Majesty's decollation. '
At midsummer of the same year (1649), he left England for a time,
as it was not then a place where a pronounced royalist could
live with comfort. In September 1651, he visited Hobbes of
Malmesbury in Paris, from whose window he saw the procession
of the young king Louis XIV (then in his fourteenth year) to
parliament, where he took upon himself the government. After-
wards, Evelyn accompanied Sir Richard Browne to an audience
with the king and his mother. The news of the decisive battle of
Worcester, fought on 3 September, did not reach Paris until the
twenty-second of the month. This event dashed all the hopes of
the royalists, and Evelyn decided to settle with his wife in England.
He went first, at the beginning of 1652, Mrs Evelyn following in
June. It was an adventurous journey; for, at the time when the
party escaped from Paris, that city was being besieged by Condé.
Thus ended Evelyn's travels abroad, which occupied nearly ten
years of his life, and the account of which takes up more than a
third of the diary. He now quietly settled with his wife in
England. In January 1653, he sealed the writings connected with
his purchase from the commonwealth of Sayes court, for which he
paid £3500. When the property was securely in his own possession
(though, in 1672, the king would only renew the lease of the pastures
for 99 years), Evelyn began to set out the oval garden, which, he
says, was the beginning of all succeeding gardens, walks, groves,
enclosures and plantations. Before he took it in hand, the place
was nothing but an open field of one hundred acres, with scarcely
a hedge in it, so that he had a fine scope for his skill in the art of
horticulture.
There is little to record of his experiences during this com-
paratively quiet period of his life, besides the birth and death of
some of his children, and the production of the children of his
brain, a notice of which will be found in the bibliography. His
eldest child Richard was born in 1652 and died in 1658. The father
was very proud of his boy, who was so filled with the ardour of
2


## p. 247 (#269) ############################################

Evelyn's Later Life and Activities 247
a
knowledge that, when he was told that Terence and Plautus were
too difficult for him, he wept for very grief and would hardly be
pacifiedDuring these years, Evelyn was in the constant practice
of sending abroad intelligence to Charles II; and he mentions, in
his diary for 22 October 1657, that he had contracted a friendship
with the Dutch ambassador, whose information he found of great
use in his correspondence with the king.
We now come to the period when the diaries of Evelyn and
Pepys cover somewhat the same ground; thus, there is much about
the newly-founded Royal Society in both, for the two men were
greatly interested in its proceedings. In December 1660, Boyle,
Oldenburg, Denham, Ashmole and Evelyn were elected fellows,
and, in the following January, Evelyn was one of those whom the
king nominated as members of council. From this time forward,
the records of the society prove how constant an attendant he was
at the meetings. Pepys did not join the society until 1664.
In 1672, Evelyn was elected secretary, in place of his friend
Thomas Henshaw; but he only held the office for a single year.
Ten years afterwards, he was importuned to stand for election as
president; infirmities were, however, growing upon him, and he
desired his friends to vote, in his stead, for Sir John Hoskins, who
was elected. Eleven years later, he was again importuned to take
the presidentship, but he again refused? Pepys was president for
two years from 1684; and, after his retirement, he continued to
entertain some of the most distinguished fellows.
34
Immediately after the restoration, Evelyn's public life became
a very busy one. He was employed on many important com-
missions, without slackening in his literary labour. In 1661, he
published, by the king's special command, Fumifugium, or The
inconvenience of the Air and Smoke of London dissipated.
Charles was pleased with the book, and commanded the author
to prepare a bill for the next session of parliament to make certain
provisions for the prevention of evils caused by smoke in London;
but the royal interest cooled, and nothing was done.
A curious instance of the value of these diaries in respect to
notices of passing events may be found in the narrative of the
adoption of a special costume by the king and his court, in
opposition to the fashions of the French. The whole story is
1 Diary, 27 January 1657/8; and see Evelyn's translation of The Golden Book of
St John Chrysostom, 1658.
. Cf. , as to Evelyn's interest in science, and his connection with the Royal Society,
post, chap. xv.


## p. 248 (#270) ############################################

248
Memoir and Letter Writers
amusing, as showing how an international quarrel may arise out
of a very small matter. In 1661, Evelyn published a booklet
entitled Tyrannus, or the Mode, in which he condemns the
tyranny of a foreign fashion, and urges Charles II to form a
standard for his people, writing, we have a Prince whose shape
is elegant and perfect to admiration. ' Henrietta, duchess of
Orleans, was of the same opinion as to her brother doing justice
to the costume she suggested. She wrote to him on 8 April 1665:
Madame de Fiennes having told me that you would be glad to see a
pattern of the vests that are worp here, I take the liberty of sending you
one, and am sure that on your fine figure it will look very welli,
On 10 October 1666, Evelyn wrote:
To Court. It being the first time His Majesty put himself solemnly into
the Eastern fashion of vest, changing doublet, stiff coller, bands and cloake
into a comely dress, after the Persian mode, with girdle, or straps and shoe
strings and garters into boucles, of which some were set with precious stones:
resolving never to alter it.
The courtiers wagered the king that he would not persist in his
resolution, and they soon won their bets. Evelyn, in his book,
takes credit for having suggested this change of costume. Pepys
gives an account (22 November 1666) of the sequel of the story,
which is that Louis XIV caused all his footmen to be put into
vests like those adopted by Charles II. Pepys adds: 'It makes
me angry to see that the King of England has become so little as
to have this affront offered to him. '
After the restoration, special attention was paid to the wants
of the navy, and the officers of the navy found great difficulty in
obtaining the timber required in shipbuilding. There had been a
serious destruction of woods caused by the glassworks, the iron
furnaces and, partly, by the increase of shipping; and this destruc-
tion had culminated during the period of the civil wars. Not only
was destruction rampant, but cultivation was neglected. In its
difficulty, the navy office propounded certain queries to the Royal
Society, who gave them to Evelyn to answer. Thus originated
that noble book Sylva (1664), which revived the spirit of planting
in England, and exerted an enormous influence upon the future of
the country. Evelyn was able to say, in his dedication to the king:
'Many millions of timber trees have been propagated and planted
at the instigation and by the sole direction of this work. '
Evelyn obtained his first public appointment in May 1662,
when he was chosen one of the commissioners for reforming the
buildings, ways, streets and encumbrances, and regulating the
i Cartwright, Julia (Mrs Henry Ady), Madame, p. 210.


## p. 249 (#271) ############################################

Evelyn's Public Services
249
hackney coaches, in London. About the same time, he was appointed
on a commission for the purpose of enquiring how the revenues of
Gresham college had been disposed of, and why the salaries of
the professors were not improved. Little came of either of these
commissions. He was appointed on others; but he was not in full
public employment until 1664, when he was named one of four
commissioners for dealing with the sick and wounded in the Dutch
war. This was a most onerous duty, which caused him immense
anxiety, not only in providing accommodation and food, but as to
meeting the difficulty of obtaining money. In May 1665, Evelyn was
called into the council chamber before the king, when he explained
why the expenses of the commission were not less than £1000
a week. In June, he asked for £20,000, and he obtained the use
of Savoy hospital, where he fitted up fifty beds. The plague was
then raging in London; and he was left single-handed to deal with
the vast business of providing for the sick and wounded prisoners.
It is interesting to note that, when others fled, Pepys, as well as
Evelyn, remained to do their duty in the plague-stricken city.
On 17 September 1666, Evelyn received news of the defeat of
the Dutch by lord Sandwich, and learned that 3000 prisoners had
been sent to him to dispose of. He was at a loss how to deal with
this great responsibility, but proposed the erection of an infirmary
at Chatham, and made an elaborate estimate of the cost, which he
sent to Pepys. The commissioners of the navy encouraged the
scheme, but they were without money, and the project fell through.
At this time, Evelyn required £7000 for the weekly expenses of his
charge, but he had great difficulty in obtaining it. Money was still
owing to him long after the revolution, and he had to petition for
his rights so late as March 1702, when some of his just charges
were disallowed. The highest office held by Evelyn was that of
one of the commissioners appointed to execute the office of lord
privy seal, in September 1685, when the second earl of Clarendon
was sent to Ireland as lord lieutenant. Evelyn took the test in
February 1686, and went to lodge at Whitehall, in the lord privy
seal's apartments. It was not an easy position for him, as he was
unable to agree to James II's arbitrary proceedings; and he refused
to put his seal to certain documents for purposes forbidden by acts
of parliament. In March 1687, the commissioners were relieved
of their duties. Evelyn was highly gratified by his appointment
as treasurer of Greenwich hospital in 1695, and laid the first stone
of the new building on 30 June of the following year. At the time
of the great fire of London, he was ready with help; and, like
7


## p. 250 (#272) ############################################

2 50
Memoir and Letter Writers
Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke, he prepared a plan of con-
siderable merit for the improved building of London. To the two
great diaries we owe many vivid pictures of this great calamity,
which was turned into a blessing by the self-reliant courage of the
men and women of London.
Evelyn was in every way admirable in his public life; but our
interest in him centres in his private virtues. He was a fast friend,
who stood by those he loved through good report and evil report.
He was not ashamed to visit those who were in disgrace, and, as
bishop Burnet tells us, was always ready to contribute everything
in his power to perfect other men's endeavours. ' His charity was
not of the kind which costs nothing; for we find that, when Jeremy
Taylor was in want, Evelyn settled an annual allowance upon him.
Both his benevolence and his taste were exhibited in his patronage
of Grinling Gibbons. The large correspondence which he left
behind him shows him to have been in relations of close intimacy
with some of the most worthy persons of his time. Clarendon
consulted him respecting the magnificent collection of portraits
which he gathered together, and Tenison asked his advice when
projecting a library for the parish of St Martin in the Fields.
A matchless collection of manuscripts which he had once possessed
and greatly valued gradually passed out of his custody through
the carelessness of borrowers. Some were lent to the duke of
Lauderdale, and, as he omitted to return them, were sold with
his library. Burnet borrowed others for his History of the Re-
formation, and asserted that they had been lost by the negligence
of the printers. Still more were borrowed by Pepys, and these are
now in the Pepysian library at Magdalene.
The best known of his friends was the beautiful Margaret
Blagge (afterwards Mrs Godolphin), who, in October 1672 (when
she was twenty years of age), gave him a signed declaration of
'inviolable friendship. ' Evelyn says in the diary (3 September
1678) that she regarded him as a father, a brother and what is
more a friend. . . . She was most deare to my wife and affectionate
to my children. ' Her Life, which he wrote some years after her
death and left in manuscript, first saw the light in 1847, under the
editorship of bishop Samuel Wilberforce. This volume has estab-
lished itself in popular esteem as the revelation of a beautiful
soul, by one who knew his subject thoroughly, and who was
able, with exquisite taste, to make the purity of a woman's life,
lived not in seclusion but in the midst of a vicious court, reveal
itself.


## p. 251 (#273) ############################################

Evelyn's Life of Mrs Godolphin 251
Lady Sylvius, to whom Evelyn afterwards addressed his Life
of Mrs Godolphin, introduced Margaret Blagge to Evelyn. She
was married privately to Sidney Godolphin (afterwards earl of
Godolphin), at the Temple church, on 16 May 1675; on which
Evelyn remarks, 'Her not acquainting me with this particular
of a good while after, occasioned a friendly quarrel between us. '
On 3 September 1678, she gave birth to a son, and she died of
puerperal fever on the 9th of September following. Evelyn's
expression of his grief occupies some space in the diary; but he
adds, 'It is not here that I pretend to give her character, having
design to consecrate her worthy life to posterity. ' Her husband
was so completely overcome by his grief at her loss that the entire
care of the funeral was committed to Evelyn? The two men who
loved her best looked over and sorted her papers, and they were
astonished 'to see what she had written, her youth considered. '
We have great cause to be grateful for the Life of Mrs
Godolphin, a book which, written with fidelity and charm, presents
to us a portrait of a woman who lived for those around her, and,
while always seeking heavenly guidance in her difficult position at
court, was never austere, but moved in her proper sphere with an
air of bright cheerfulness seasoned with witty speech. Her life,
however, was a great trial, and, when, at last, she was allowed to
take leave of the king and queen, her biographer tells us
the moment she sett foote in the coach her eyes sparkled with joy . . . the
roses of her cheeks were soe fresh and her countenance soe gay as if with the
rest of her perfections she had caryed all the beautyes as well as all the virtue
of the court away with her too. As she left the presence chamber a whisper
went round the circle-'the court had never such a starre in all its hemi-
sphere.
Evelyn was a good husband and a fond father, and the most
pathetic portions of the diary are devoted to the troubles which
came upon him owing to the early deaths of many of his children.
His widow thus testified in her will to her husband's devotion
to her:
•
His care of my education was such as might become a father, a lover, a
friend and a husband, for instruction, tenderness, affection and fidelity to
the last moment of his life; which obligation I mention with a gratitude to
his memory, ever dear to me; and I must not omit to own the sense of my
parent's care and goodness in placing me in such worthy hands.
1 Lady Sunderland, a woman of a different type, wrote to her favourite correspondent
Henry Sidney: «Mr Godolphin, I believe, will best like your saying nothing to him on
that subject, for dare swear there neither is, nor will be, any such thing as his
marriage. ' Diary of Henry Sidney, ed. Blencowe, R. W. , vol. I, p. 209.
>


## p. 252 (#274) ############################################

252 Memoir and Letter Writers
The publication of Evelyn's diary only increased the fame
of the writer, and added a fuller portraiture of one who was well
known before the new material appeared. On the other hand,
the fame of Pepys had so far escaped recognition at the time
of the publication of his diary that it was an entirely new man
who was now presented to public notice. The enthralling interest
of the diary has had the effect of urging lovers of Pepys to obtain
further information respecting him, with the result that we have
come to know much more respecting his life-history, and this know-
ledge has added greatly to our appreciation of the importance of the
author. The reputation of Samuel Pepys had much changed at
various times. When he died, his great qualities were generally
recognised, although he was half forgotten as years rolled by; but
it is to the credit of the admiralty that his name has always been
honoured there. Thus, his reputation remained the property of
an intelligent few until the end of the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century, when readers were startled by the appearance
of a work in which the inner life of the diarist is portrayed in a
manner absolutely unique and without either precedent or parallel.
Confessions have frequently been made in writing; but their
authors wrote them for the public eye, and their disclosures are
made in such a manner as to attract the reader's sympathy. This
was not so with Pepys's diary, for there can be no doubt that its
pages were never intended to be seen by other eyes than those of
the writer. Everyone read and was entertained. A new man was
added to the circle of our intimate friends a man whose con-
fessions are ever fresh and can never tire. Can we be surprised
that, for a time, little was thought of Pepys outside the diary?
With a revived public interest in the history of the navy came
the rediscovery of Pepys's great work at the admiralty.
Samuel Pepys went into the navy office without any knowledge
of any particular ships or of the navy as a whole; and yet, in
a few years, according to high authority, he had become the right
hand of the Navy,' and not only understood more of administration
than all the other officers (some of them brilliantly successful
admirals) put together, but, in spite of opposition, was able to
carry on the work of his office with no small success. Pepys was
a historical character of mark, for he figured in all the most
important scenes that occurred during his official life. He acted
with vigour during the Dutch war; and, when the Dutch fleet was
in the Medway, in 1667, he was among the few who, during a time
of national humiliation, deserved credit for their conduct. His
1
.
>
1
.


## p. 253 (#275) ############################################

Pepys's Early Life
253
name, too, stands out among those who performed their duty
during the terrible times of the plague and the fire of London.
He suffered during the reign of terror caused by the action of the
promoters of the trials of persons supposed to be involved in
the so-called popish plot. He was committed to the Tower in
May 1679; but, when brought before the privy council to answer
charges against him, he covered his influential enemies with con-
fusion, and his defence was so complete that he was ordered to be
set free without a trial. His last great work, as secretary of the
admiralty, was to reform the navy, which had been brought into a
dangerous state by an incompetent commission.
Samuel Pepys was born on 23 February 1632/3, probably in
London, since he tells us that, as a small boy, he went to school
with his bow and arrows across the fields to Kingsland. Later,
it is fair to suppose that his kinsman and patron through life,
Sir Edward Montagu, first earl of Sandwich, the 'My lord' of the
diary, sent him to school, first to Huntingdon grammar school,
then to St Paul's school, and, afterwards, to the university of
Cambridge. We may take it for certain that John Pepys never
had sufficient money for the satisfactory education of his son.
Samuel seems to have done fairly well at St Paul's, and he always
retained an affection for the school. At Cambridge, he was first
entered at Trinity hall; but, subsequently, he was transferred to
Magdalene college, of which, in after life, he became one of the
best friends? In 1655, he married Elizabeth St Michel, a pretty
girl, the daughter of an impecunious Frenchman and his English
wife. Mr and Mrs Pepys were a young and inexperienced couple,
the bridegroom being twenty-two years old and the bride only
fifteen? . The newly-married pair went to live at Sir Edward
Montagu's London house, and Pepys seems to have acted as a
sort of steward or factotum to‘My lord. ' On 26 March 1658,
Pepys underwent an operation for the stone, which was removed;
and, afterwards, he kept the anniversary of the operation as a
festival. In the same year, he became clerk (at a salary of £50)
to George Downing (who gave his name to Downing street).
1 See Purnell, E. K. , History of Magdalene College, Cambridge, chap. IX.
In connection with the date of this marriage, there is a most incomprehensible
confusion. Both Pepys and his wife believed that they were married on 10 October,
and they kept that day as the anniversary of the wedding. The register, however, gives
the date of the marriage as December 1. In the absence of further information on this
curious point, it seems that the only possible explanation is that a religious ceremony
of some sort was performed on 10 October 1655, just before the banns were published,
And that the civil marriage took place, as above stated, on 1 December.


## p. 254 (#276) ############################################

2 54
Memoir and Letter Writers
The diary opens on 1 January 1660, when Pepys was no longer
living at Sir Edward Montagu's, but in Axe yard, Westminster
(which stood on part of the site of the present India office), in a
very humble way of life, his family consisting of himself, his wife and
one servant named Jane. During the frosty weather, they have
not a coal in the house, and Samuel is forced to dine at his father's,
or to make himself as comfortable as he can in the garret. That
the larder is not very plentifully supplied is seen by the fact that,
on 1 February, he and his wife dine on pease pudding-a very
different meal from most of those recorded in the diary; but a
great change soon occurred in Pepys's condition. He had every
reason for welcoming the restoration, as it was through the change
of government that he obtained a comfortable income. This was
the turning-point of his career, when he became a prosperous
man.
Through Montagu's influence, he was appointed secretary to
the two generals of the fleet (Monck and Montagu). On 30 March
1660, Montagu and his party went on board the 'Naseby,' the ship
in which he had sailed to the Sound, Pepys accompanying him,
in the previous year. Things went slowly as well as surely; so
the ships remained in the neighbourhood of Deal, and it was not
until 3 May that Montagu received the king's declaration, and
a letter to the two generals. He dictated to Pepys the words in
which he wished the vote of the fleet in favour of the king to be
couched. The captains all came on board the 'Naseby,' and Pepys
read the letter and declaration to them; and, while they were
discoursing on the subject, he pretended to be drawing up the
form of vote, which Montagu had already settled. When the
resolution was read, it passed at once; and the seamen cried 'God
bless King Charles,' a cry that was echoed by the whole fleet.
About the middle of May, the English fleet was off the Dutch
coast, and, on the 22nd, the dukes of York and Gloucester came
on board the 'Naseby. Pepys took the opportunity to bespeak
the favour of the former, and was overjoyed when the duke called
him 'Pepys.
' This was the beginning of their long friendship.
Again through Montagu's influence, Pepys was appointed clerk
of the privy seal (which, for a time, turned out to be a very
profitable appointment) as well as clerk of the acts. Montagu
told Pepys: We must have a little patience, and we will rise
together; in the meantime I will do you all the good jobs I can'
(2 June 1660). Pepys's salary was fixed at £350 a year; at this
time, however, fixed salaries bore little relation to actual income,


## p. 255 (#277) ############################################

Pepys's Progress
255
9
which was largely obtained from fees. At the opening of the diary,
Pepys was only worth £40 and, at one time, found it difficult to
pay his rent; but, by June 1667, he had accumulated £6900.
Besides his salary, he had the advantage of a house in the navy
office, Seething lane, which he found very comfortable after the
little home at Westminster. The diary contains many particulars
of the new apartments, and of those belonging to his colleagues.
He lived here during all the time the diary was being written,
and he did not leave until he obtained the more important post
of secretary of the admiralty. One of the most interesting pas-
sages in the diary relates to the great speech he made at the bar
of the House of Commons on 5 March 1667-8. A storm of in-
dignation had been stirred up against the navy office, and this
storm burst in parliament when some members demanded that
officers should be put out of their places. The whole labour of
defence fell upon Pepys, and he presented his case with such
success, in a speech which occupied more than three hours in
delivery, that the House received it as a satisfactory defence, and
his fellow-officers, who were unable to assist him, were naturally
overjoyed at the result. The orator was congratulated on every
side, and the flattery he received is set down in the diary in all
good faith. Sir William Coventry addressed Pepys the next day
with the words 'Good morrow Mr Pepys that must be Speaker
of the Parliament House,' and the solicitor-general protested that
he spoke the best of any man in England. No report of this
important speech is known, and The Commons Journals merely
contain a statement that the principal officers of the navy appeared
at the bar, Pepys's name not being mentioned.
This was his first great public achievement; but he had
previously (1665) shown what grit was in him. One of the most
unsatisfactory divisions of the naval accounts related to the
pursers. He was early interested in the victualling department,
out of which he afterwards made much money; and, on 12 Sep-
tember 1662, we find him trying 'to understand the method of
making Purser's accounts, which is very needful for me, and very
hard. ' On 22 November 1665, he was pleased to have it demon-
strated that a Purser without professed cheating is a professed
loser twice as much as he gets. ' Pepys received his appointment
of surveyor general to the victualling office chiefly through the
influence of Sir William Coventry; and, on 1 January 1665/6, he
addressed a letter and New Yeares Guift' on the subject of the
pursers to his distinguished friend. He relates, in the diary, how


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Memoir and Letter Writers
he wrote the letter, and how Sir William praised his work to the
duke of York.
Pepys's habit of sitting up late reading and writing by candle-
light began to tell upon his eyesight, and, in January 1663/4, he
found that his sight failed him for the first time. On 5 October 1664,
he consulted the celebrated Edmund Cocker as to the glass which
would best suit his eyes at night; but the weakness of the eyes con-
tinued to trouble him, and he proposed to get some green spectacles.
How the eyesight became weaker, so that the diary had to be
discontinued, we all know to our great cost. On 16 May 1669,
Pepys drew up a rough copy of a petition to the duke of York for
leave of absence for three or four months. A few days after this
entry, the duke took him to the king, who expressed his great regret
for the cause of his trouble and gave him the leave he desired. On
31 May 1669, Pepys made his last entry; and the diary ends with
these words of deep and subdued feeling:
And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes
in the keeping of my Journal. I being not able to do it any longer, having
done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in
my hand; and therefore whatever comes of it I must forbear. . . . And so I
betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into
my grave; for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being
blind, the good God prepare me! S. P.
We know that Pepys did not become blind, and that he lived for
over thirty-three years after the closing of the diary; but, having
closed the manuscript, he does not appear to have had the courage
to continue his record
The life of Pepys after the finish of the diary must be told in
brief, although it forms a most important period of his career.
He took advantage of his leave of absence to make a tour with
his wife in France and Holland, which seems to have done him
permanent good; but it was fatal to Mrs Pepys, who died shortly
after their return home on 10 November 1669, at the early age of
twenty-nine. Pepys suffered greatly from the death of his wife, to
whom he was beyond doubt deeply attached. He returned to the
navy office, but only for a short space of time; for, at the end of the
year 1672, he was appointed secretary of the admiralty, the duke
of York being suspended and king Charles taking over the office
of lord high admiral with the help of a commission. When Pepys
entered upon the office of greater honour, he, no doubt, annexed
to the admiralty much of the work he had previously done at the
navy office, and the latter did not regain the power which it had


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Pepys and the Popish Plot
257
possessed when under Pepys's superintendence. He made great
improvements in the personnel and business of the office; and,
during six years, he exercised a wise authority, causing officers to
be smart and constant to their duty.
Disaster came suddenly, without fault on Pepys's part, and
his career was closed for a time. In 1678, the popish plot was
invented, and the death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey drove the
public mad with alarm, while unprincipled men took the oppor-
tunity of compromising their enemies in order to bring about
their condemnation on false issues. Pepys had enemies who
sought to sacrifice him by means, chiefly, of the fictitious evidence
of a miscreant named John Scott (calling himself colonel Scott).
He was first attacked through his clerk Samuel Atkins; but, when
the latter was brought to trial, in December 1678, as an accessory
in the supposed murder of Godfrey, he was able to prove an alibi.
Then, his enemies opened fire upon Pepys himself; and, on 22 May,
he and Sir Anthony Deane, his fellow member of parliament for
Harwich, were sent to the Tower on a baseless charge. Pepys,
with his usual thoroughness, set to work to obtain evidence against
Scott and sent agents to the continent and to the plantations in
North America, who returned with a large number of certified
documents proving the untrustworthiness of Scott's evidence and
his general dishonesty. These, when presented to the privy council,
were sufficient to allow the prisoners to be relieved of their bail
and set free on 12 February 1679/80. Scott refused to acknow-
ledge the truth of his original deposition, and John James,
previously a butler in Pepys's service, confessed, on his death-bed
in 1680, that he had trumped up the whole story relating to his
former master's change of religion at the instigation of William
Harbord, member of parliament for Thetford, one of the diarist's
most malignant enemies.
Pepys was now out of office, and remained unemployed for
some time, although he retained the confidence of the king. He
was sent to Tangier with lord Dartmouth, in 1683, and wrote a
diary of his proceedings during his stay there, which gives an
interesting picture of the condition of the place and a vivid
account of its maladministration. In 1684, he was again appointed
secretary to the admiralty, when the greatest undertaking of his
life was begun. The navy had been brought to a most serious
condition of decay by the neglect of an incompetent commission.
When he took office, he determined to reform the administration
and to supply the country with a sufficient number of thoroughly
17
E. L. VIII.
CH. X


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258
Memoir and Letter Writers
.
sound ships, and this intention he carried out with triumphant
success. Then came the revolution, and the man who had not
spared any pains in his endeavour to place the country in a proper
condition of national defence was sent by the new government to
the Gatehouse in Westminster as an enemy to the state. After a
time, he was released by the help of stalwart friends, and he now
entered into a period of honourable retirement, in which all his old
friends and his pupils and followers gathered round him, so that,
for the rest of his life, he was considered and treated as 'the Nestor
of the Navy,' his advice always being respectfully received. He
wrote his Memoires of the Navy (1690), which book contains full
particulars of the great work he had done, and kept up his general
interest in intellectual pursuits, for some years holding social
gatherings of fellows of the Royal Society at his home on Saturday
evenings. In 1700, he removed from York buildings (Buckingham
street) to what Evelyn calls his 'Paradisian Clapham. ' Here, he
lived with his old clerk and friend William Hewer; but his in-
firmities kept him constantly in the house. On 26 May 1703, he
breathed his last in the presence of the learned George Hickes,
the non-juring dean of Worcester, who bears witness to the big-
mindedness of the man, his patience under suffering and the fervent
piety of his end. He died full of honour—a recognition thoroughly
deserved by his public conduct through life; but he was shabbily
treated by the men in power. The last two Stewart kings were
many thousands of pounds—£28,007. 28. 11dn, to be exact-in his
debt, and the new government did not see that they were called to
help him in recovering it. They might, however, have considered
how much the country was indebted to him for a strong navy, and
remembered that most of the money owing to him had been spent
upon the state.
Pepys's diary is so various in its interest that it is not easy in a
few words to indicate where its chief distinction lies. The absolute
sincerity and transparent truth of the narrative naturally explains
much, but the vitality of the man and his intense interest in the
pageant of life supplies the motive power. Important events gain
by the strength of their presentment, and trivialities delight us
by the way in which they are narrated. Here is not only a
picture of the life and manners of the time, but, also, the
dissection of the heart of a man, and the exposure suggests a
psychological problem difficult of solution. We naturally ask how
it came to pass that the writer of the diary arrived at a perfection
of style suitable to the character of what he had to relate. Is it


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Secret of the Charm of Pepys's Diary 259
possible that he had previously practised the writing of a journal ?
We see the man grow in knowledge and power as the diary pro-
ceeds; but the narrative is equally good at the beginning and at
the end. Pepys apparently made notes on slips of paper and then
elaborated them without any unnecessary delay. It is remarkable
that there should be few or no corrections in the written manuscript.
He wrote in secret, and, when he unguardedly (at the time of his
detention in the Tower) told Sir William Coventry that he kept a
diary, he was immediately afterwards sorry for his indiscretion.
It is also matter for wonder that he should have trusted a binder
with the precious book. Was the binder brought into the house to
bind the pages under the writer's eye?
J
The brilliancy of the narrative and the intimacy of the
confessions so thoroughly charm the reader that, in many cases,
he overlooks the fact that, although Pepys was devoted to pleasure,
he was not absorbed by it, but always kept in view the main
object of his life—the perfection of the English navy. Pepys was
not a man of letters in the same way that Evelyn was one. When
the latter was interested in a subject, he wanted to write upon it,
and not only wanted to, but did write, as is shown by the list of
his works in our bibliography. This was not the case with Pepys.
Early in his official life, he proposed to write a history of the navy,
and collected materials for the purpose; but, although he talked
about the project, he never got at all forward with it. His
Memoires of the Navy was prepared under an urgent desire to
present his apologia, and was only a chapter in the great work
that had long been projected. This little book contains a
thoroughly effective statement of his case; but it is not lively
reading or a work of any literary merit. The question, therefore,
arises why the diary is different, and why it is remarkable as a
literary effort.
The entries are all made with care, and there is no hurry about
any of them; but we must remember that they were written fresh
í from the heart, and many hard judgments passed on colleagues
were the result of temporary indignation. He was himself careful,
tidy and methodical, and he was impatient of untidiness and
improvidence in those around him. His wife often irritated him
by her carelessness and want of method; but his poor sister,
Paulina Pepys, comes off as badly as anyone in the diary. She did
not receive much kindness from her brother and sister-in-law,
although Pepys did his best to find her a husband, and, when
the search was followed by success, gave her a handsome
17-2


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Memoir and Letter Writers
dowry? The pages of the diary are full of particulars respecting
Pepys's various servants, and their part in constant musical per-
formances. It is necessary to bear in mind that most of these
servants were more properly companions or maids of Mrs Pepys.
Pepys's system of vows and the excuses made for not carrying
them out are very singular and amusing. He feared the waste
of time that would arise from a too frequent attendance at the
theatre, and from his tendency to drink. The fines which he levied
upon himself had some influence in weaning him from bad habits.
It does not appear that he neglected his work, even when taking
pleasure; for, although the working day was often irregular in
arrangement, the work was done either early in the morning or late
at night, to make up for occasional long sittings after the midday
meal. The diary contains a mine of information respecting theatres
and music; there is much about the buying of his books and
book-cases, but it should be borne in mind that the larger portion
of the Pepysian library now preserved at Magdalene college,
Cambridge, was purchased after the conclusion of the diary.
It has been said that Pepys knew Evelyn a great deal better
than we know that stately gentleman, but that we know Pepys a
hundred times better than Evelyn did. In illustration of this
dictum, two passages from Pepys's diary come to mind. On
10 September 1665, he joined a party at Greenwich, where
Sir John Minnes and Evelyn were the life of the company and
full of mirth. Among other humours, Evelyn repeated some verses
introducing the various acceptations of may and can,' which made
all present nearly die of laughing. This is certainly a fresh side
of his character. On the following 5th of November, Pepys visited
Evelyn at Deptford, when the latter read to the former extracts
from an essay he had in hand, also a part of a play or two of his
making, and some short poems. 'In fine a most excellent person
he is and must be allowed a little for a little conceitedness but he
may well be so, being a man so much above others. ' So Pepys
helps us to know Evelyn better and love him none the less; while,
as for Pepys himself, we certainly know him better than Evelyn
knew him, though we readily accept Evelyn's noble tribute to his
merits. His frailties he has himself recorded; but, even were there
no other evidence on the subject than is to be found in the diary
itself, it would show him to have been a patriot and a true and
steadfast friend.
6
a
1 Her descendants--the family of Pepys Cockerell—are now the representatives of
Samuel Pepys.


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Memoirs of Gramont
261
II. OTHER WRITERS OF MEMOIRS AND LETTERS
A.
The anonymous Mémoires de la Vie du Comte de Gramont,
published for the first time at Cologne in 1713, is universally
acknowledged to be a masterpiece of French literature; in fact,
Voltaire went so far as to say that the author was the first to
discover the essential genius of the French language. Yet this
book was written by an Englishman, and it deals chiefly with the
English court of Charles II. It was carelessly translated into
English by Abel Boyer (a French Huguenot who settled in England
and wrote histories of king William III and queen Anne) and
published in the year after that of the appearance of the original
work. This translation was touched up by Sir Walter Scott and
has generally been used in the various editions of the English
version. No first-rate writer has been at the pains of retranslating
it and making it a masterpiece of English prose. Some of the
blunders made by the original translator have been continued
without correction, and have given considerable trouble? The
names of persons mentioned in the original French are often
wrong, as 'Stwart' for Stewart and 'Hubert' for Hobart, and so
forth; but, in the English translation, they are usually given with
an initial followed by a line; this allowed of the publication, at
the price of twopence, of a needed Key to the Memoirs? .
The author was Anthony Hamilton, third son of Sir George
Hamilton and grandson of the earl of Abercorn. At the end of
the first chapter of his book, he wrote 'To himself we owe these
Memoirs since I only hold the pen. ' Report told how Gramont
dictated his Memoirs to Hamilton in the year 1701 and sold the
manuscript to a publisher for fifteen hundred livres. When
Fontenelle, then censor of the press, saw the manuscript, he is said
to have refused to license the publication, on account of the scanda-
lous conduct of the hero in cheating at cards which is described
in the third chapter. There is little authority for this report, and
Gramont is only known as a brilliant talker and not as an author.
1 Thus, Elizabeth Davenport, the actress who took the part of Roxolana in Davenant's
ege of Rhodes, has been confused with Anne Marshall, who was Roxana in Lee's
Rival Queens. In the original French, we find the statement 'Le rôle de Roxelane, dans
une pièce nouvelle'; but this is incorrectly translated by Boyer : 'particularly the part
of Roxana in the Rival Queens. '
In the modern editions, Mademoiselle is translated as Miss; but even Boyer knew
better than this, and always printed Mrs. We know what Evelyn says of the term
"Miss,' and it certainly should not be attached to the names of maids of honour.


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262
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The book is divided into eleven unequal chapters, of which the
first five are short and relate only to continental adventures.
This portion closes with the chevalier Gramont's banishment from
the French court owing to his persistent attentions to Mlle La
Motte Houdancourt, one of Louis XIV's mistresses. This escapade
brought him to England, and chapters VI to XI are devoted to the
doings of the English court. Hamilton knew nothing of Gramont's
adventures abroad, and this portion has all the marks of having
been taken down from Gramont's dictation. The English portion
of the book is quite different in mode of treatment, and, here,
Gramont does not relate his own adventures as before.
In some
scenes he does not even appear, and Hamilton evidently wrote
from his own intimate knowledge about subjects and persons
unlikely to be known so well to Gramont, as a foreigner.
It is most improbable that Hamilton should have handed over
his manuscript, upon which he must have spent much time and
labour, to be disposed of by Gramont as his own. Moreover,
Hamilton waited for six years after Gramont's death in 1707,
and then issued the work at Cologne instead of at Paris. No
doubt, although many of the actors in the scandalous scenes
related were dead, some influential persons still lived, who would
use all their influence to prevent the publication. In 1713, how-
ever, Hamilton was sixty-seven years of age; and, if he wished to
see his beloved book in print, he had to find a publisher with as
little delay as possible.
The question as to the truthfulness of the details related by
Hamilton is one of the greatest importance. In reply to Lord
Hailes's remark that the chronology of the Memoirs is not
exact, Horace Walpole exclaimed, “What has that book to do
with chronology ? ' Hallam, likewise, was of opinion that the
Memoirs 'scarcely challenge a place as historical. ' It must be
admitted that Hamilton produced a book which is too much a
work of art to be entirely trustworthy, and the subject matter
is often arranged for effect, which would scarcely have been
allowed if strict accuracy had been the main object.
1 The king and queen with their court made two visits to Tunbridge Wells, one in
1663 and the other in 1666, but the author confuses the incidents and makes the two
visits into one. There was good excuse for this in the length of time that had elapsed
since the visits were made when the author wrote his book. Several of the adventures
described are also recounted by Pepys and, in these cases, we are able to attach a date.
Peter Cunningham (appendix to The Story of Nell Gwyn, 1852, p. 188) set himself to
give some indications of the chronology of the Memoirs; but, unfortunately, he made
a mistake in the date of Gramont's marriage with la belle Hamilton, sister of the
author of the book.
8


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Hamilton and Gramont
263
Anthony Hamilton became an intimate friend of Gramont
immediately after his arrival in England; but he never mentions
himself in his book. Moreover, he purposely confuses the cir-
cumstances and date of Gramont's marriage with his sister,
Elizabeth Hamilton, which actually took place in December 16631
There is evidence that the chevalier de Gramont and his wife
left London for France in November 1664, and took up their per-
manent residence there. They appear to have made frequent visits
to the English court in succeeding years; but their settlement in
France in itself proves that the later portion of the book, some of
the incidents in which seem to have occurred in the year 1669,
must have been written by Hamilton without help from Gramont.
Therefore, the following passage from the last chapter can hardly
be considered to be written in good faith:
We profess to insert nothing in these Memoirs but what we have from the
mouth of him whose actions we transmit to posterity.
The subject of these Memoirs was an ill-formed man-it was
said that he had the face of an ape—and his character was
thoroughly worthless. He does not appear to have possessed
even the most elementary feelings of honour, as he is proved to
have been a cheat. Doubtless, his attentions had compromised
,
mistress Hamilton, or her brothers would not have been anxious
for the marriage, as the lady had had many more eligible suitors.
It may be said that Hamilton has performed a feat in making so
showy and profligate a man passable as the hero of his book; but
even he is not able to speak highly of Gramont as a husband.
1 This well known story is told in a letter from Lord Melfort to Richard Hamilton
(written about twenty-seven years after the marriage). Gramont, being suddenly
recalled to France, was on the point of returning without mistress Hamilton (to whom
he had made violent love), and had got as far as Dover, when he was overtaken by the
lady's two brothers—George and Anthony. They at once put this question to him
Chevalier de Gramont, n'avez-vous rien oublié à Londres? ' To which, the chevalier
replied, "Pardonnez-moi, messieurs, j'ai oublié d'épouser votre sąur. ' He then returned
to London and the marriage was solemnised.
On 22 December in that year, Pepys noted: “This day I hear for certain that
Lady Castlemaine is turned Popish. ' In illustration of this entry, Lord Braybrooke
printed an extract from a letter of the count d'Estrades to Louis XIV-in which he
wrote that the marriage of chevalier de Gramont and the conversion of Madame de
Castlemaine were published on the same day. This fact would never be gathered from
the statement in the Memoirs, that Gramont was recalled to France by his sister, the
marchioness de Saint-Chaumont, who told him that the king had given him leave to
retum. When he arrived, be found that it was all a mistake. His brother, marshal de
Gramont, had orders from the king for him to go back again without appearing at court.
Sir William Musgrave fixed the date of the occurrences recorded in the Memoirs
from 1663 to 1665; but Cunningham fixes the longer period of May 1662 to October
1669, supposing, as we have already seen, that Gramont remained in England until
the end of the book.
>


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Memoir and Letter Writers
The author certainly had ever before his eyes the great aim of
putting his sister in a prominent position, and wiping out of exist-
ence any discreditable rumours respecting her. In this he has
succeeded, and she stands out as the one woman in the book
of whom nothing ill can be said. Many of the women described
in the Memoirs, such as Castlemaine and Shrewsbury, probably
deserved every ill word that could be said of them; but we may
hope that some, at least, of the others were less vicious than they
are painted; for Hamilton was one of those authors who will not
lose a point that adds to his picture to save a reputation, and no
scandal was likely to be scrutinised too keenly by him in order to
prove
it untruthful. We have seen that at least one pure woman
-Evelyn's friend Mrs Godolphin-lived for a time in a court which
was a hotbed of corruption; but even she, because she was not
like other ladies, is treated with contempt in: these Memoirs? .
It is not necessary to analyse the contents of so well known a
book as the Gramont Memoirs. They will always be consulted
with interest, for they turn a searchlight upon the inner history
of a period, which, indeed, owes the bad reputation it bears largely
to their revelations.
The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby are the work of an accom-
plished man who united in himself the qualities of a courtier and
those of a country squire. The book contains a pleasing record of
the chief events, some of them of very great importance, which
came under his notice, as well as of other matters founded on the
mere gossip of court circles. The author writes with distinction,
and the reader cannot well follow his adventures without a feeling
of esteem and sympathy, although it must be confessed that he was
somewhat of a self-seeker-indeed, he has been styled 'a cautious
time-serving politician. ' To those who read his pleasant narrative
with interest, this must, however, appear a hard saying. He lived
in a difficult period, and, although he was whole-heartedly loyal to
Charles II, he does not appear to have approved of the next
sovereign, and his protestant feelings prevented him from being
troubled with much regret when the revolution was completed; so
that he had not any difficulty in deciding to swear allegiance to
William III.
a
1 Miss Hobart is made to say 'Alas! poor Mrs Blague! I saw her go away about
this time twelve month in a coach with such lean horses that I cannot believe she
is half way to her miserable little castle' (chap. IX).
In the Dictionary of National Biography.


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Reresby's Memoirs and Travels
265
Reresby had really small reason for gratitude to Charles II,
since, although the king was glad to enjoy his agreeable conversa-
tion, and to make use of him generally, all that the courtier
obtained from his long attendance at court was
an appointment to be high sheriff of his county, to which his rank alone
entitled him, the government of a city that had no garrison, and the command
of a fort, which never appears to have been built1.
Reresby was only 55 years of age when he died in 1689; and it was
not until 1734 that his Memoirs were first published, the manu-
script having, in the interval, passed through several hands. The
book was popular, and several editions of it? were called for;
among which, that of 1813 for the first time printed the author's
Travels, while that of 1875 printed some of his letters, together
with passages of the diary previously omitted. It is well that the
diary and the travels—both of them short works-should be united,
as, together, they form a connected whole, and the chronology of
Reresby's life is thus completed. The scheme of his writings has a
certain likeness to that of Evelyn's diary. The same circumstances
in the history of the country caused these two men to begin their
lives with the experience of foreign travel.