Diary, April 1668 | Page 8

I was quite troubled with it. Yet he is a fine gentleman, truly, and
his lady a fine woman; and, among many sons that I saw there, there
was a little daughter that is mighty pretty, of which he is infinite fond:
and, after dinner, did make her play on the gittar and sing, which she
did mighty prettily, and seems to have a mighty musical soul, keeping
time with most excellent spirit. Here I met with Mr. Brownlow, my old
schoolfellow, who come thither, I suppose, as a suitor to one of the
young ladies that were there, and a sober man he seems to be. But here
Mr. Montagu did tell me how Mr. Vaughan, in that very room, did say
that I was a great man, and had great understanding, and I know not
what, which, I confess, I was a little proud of, if I may believe him.
Here I do hear, as a great secret, that the King, and Duke of York and
Duchesse, and my Lady Castlemayne, are now all agreed in a strict
league, and all things like to go very current, and that it is not
impossible to have my Lord Clarendon, in time, here again. But I do
hear that my Lady Castlemayne is horribly vexed at the late libell,
["The Poor Whores' Petition to the most splendid, illustrious, serene
and eminent Lady of Pleasure the Countess of Castlemayne, &c.,
signed by us, Madam Cresswell and Damaris Page, this present 25th
day of March, 1668." This sham petition occasioned a pretended

answer, entitled, "The Gracious Answer of the Most Illustrious Lady of
Pleasure, the Countess of Castlem . . . . to the Poor Whores' Petition." It
is signed, "Given at our Closset, in King Street, Westminster, die
Veneris, April 24, 1668. Castlem . . . ." Compare Evelyn, April 2nd,
1668.]
the petition of the poor whores about the town, whose houses were
pulled down the other day. I have got one of them, but it is not very
witty, but devilish severe against her and the King and I wonder how it
durst be printed and spread abroad, which shews that the times are
loose, and come to a great disregard of the King, or Court, or
Government. Thence I to White Hall to attend the Council, and when
the Council rose we find my order mightily enlarged by the Sollicitor
Generall, who was called thither, making it more safe for him and the
Council, but their order is the same in the command of it that I drew,
and will I think defend us well. So thence, meeting Creed, he and I to
the new Cocke-pitt by the King's gate, and there saw the manner of it,
and the mixed rabble of people that come thither; and saw two battles
of cocks, wherein is no great sport, but only to consider how these
creatures, without any provocation, do fight and kill one another, and
aim only at one another's heads, and by their good will not leave till
one of them be killed; and thence to the Park in a hackney coach, so
would not go into the tour, but round about the Park, and to the House,
and there at the door eat and drank; whither come my Lady Kerneagy,
of whom Creed tells me more particulars; how her Lord, finding her
and the Duke of York at the King's first coming in too kind, did get it
out of her that he did dishonour him, and so bid her continue . . . ,
which is the most pernicious and full piece of revenge that ever I heard
of; and he at this day owns it with great glory, and looks upon the Duke
of York and the world with great content in the ampleness of his
revenge. Thence (where the place was now by the last night's rain very
pleasant, and no dust) to White Hall, and set Creed down, and I home
and to my chamber, and there about my musique notions again,
wherein I take delight and find great satisfaction in them, and so, after a
little supper, to bed. This day, in the afternoon, stepping with the Duke
of York into St. James's Park, it rained: and I was forced to lend the
Duke of York my cloak, which he wore through the Park.

7th. Up, and at the office all the morning, where great hurry to be made
in the fitting forth of this present little fleet, but so many rubs by reason
of want of money, and people's not believing us in cases where we had
money unless (which in several cases, as in hiring of vessels, cannot be)
they be paid beforehand, that every thing goes backward instead of
forward. At