Diary, August 1668 | Page 4

OF SAMUEL PEPYS. AUGUST 1668
August 1st. All the morning at the office. After dinner my wife, and
Deb., and I, to the King's house again, coming too late yesterday to
hear the prologue, and do like the play better now than before; and,
indeed, there is a great deal of true wit in it,

[Alexander Pope definition of 'True Wit':
"Nature to advantage dress'd, What has oft' been thought, But ne'r so
well express'd."
D.W.]
more than in the common sort of plays, and so home to my business,
and at night to bed, my eyes making me sad.

2nd. (Lord's day). Up and at home all the morning, hanging, and
removing of some pictures, in my study and house. At noon Pelling
dined with me. After dinner, I and Tom, my boy, by water up to Putney,
and there heard a sermon, and many fine people in the church. Thence
walked to Barne Elmes, and there, and going and coming, did make the
boy read to me several things, being now-a-days unable to read myself
anything, for above two lines together, but my eyes grow weary. Home
about night, and so to supper and then to bed.

3rd. Up, and by water to White Hall and St. James's, where I did much
business, and about noon meeting Dr. Gibbons, carried him to the Sun
taverne, in King Street, and there made him, and some friends of his,
drink; among others, Captain Silas Taylor, and here did get Gibbons to
promise me some things for my flageolets. So to the Old Exchange, and
then home to dinner, and so, Mercer dining with us, I took my wife and
her and Deb. out to Unthanke's, while I to White Hall to the
Commissioners of the Treasury, and so back to them and took them out
to Islington, where we met with W. Joyce and his wife and boy, and
there eat and drank, and a great deal of his idle talk, and so we round by
Hackney home, and so to sing a little in the garden, and then to bed.

4th. Up, and to my office a little, and then to White Hall about a
Committee for Tangier at my Lord Arlington's, where, by Creed's being
out of town, I have the trouble given me of drawing up answers to the
complaints of the Turks of Algiers, and so I have all the papers put into
my hand. Here till noon, and then back to the Office, where sat a little,
and then to dinner, and presently to the office, where come to me my
Lord Bellassis, Lieutenant-Colonell Fitzgerald, newly come from
Tangier, and Sir Arthur Basset, and there I received their informations,
and so, they being gone, I with my clerks and another of Lord

Brouncker's, Seddon, sat up till two in the morning, drawing up my
answers and writing them fair, which did trouble me mightily to sit up
so long, because of my eyes.

5th. So to bed about two o'clock, and then up about seven and to White
Hall, where read over my report to Lord Arlington and Berkeley, and
then afterward at the Council Board with great good liking, but, Lord!
how it troubled my eyes, though I did not think I could have done it,
but did do it, and was not very bad afterward. So home to dinner, and
thence out to the Duke of York's playhouse, and there saw "The
Guardian;" formerly the same, I find, that was called "Cutter of
Coleman Street;" a silly play. And thence to Westminster Hall, where I
met Fitzgerald; and with him to a tavern, to consider of the instructions
for Sir Thomas Allen, against his going to Algiers; he and I being
designed to go down to Portsmouth by the Council's order, and by and
by he and I went to the Duke of York, who orders me to go down
to-morrow morning. So I away home, and there bespeak a coach; and
so home and to bed, my wife being abroad with the Mercers walking in
the fields, and upon the water.

6th. Waked betimes, and my wife, at an hour's warning, is resolved to
go with me, which pleases me, her readiness. But, before ready, comes
a letter from Fitzgerald, that he is seized upon last night by an order of
the General's by a file of musqueteers, and kept prisoner in his chamber.
The Duke of York did tell me of it to-day: it is about a quarrel between.
him and Witham, and they fear a challenge: so I to him, and sent my
wife by the coach round to Lambeth. I lost my labour going to his
lodgings, and he in bed: and, staying a great while