Diary, May/Jun 1665 | Page 4

entire meal of them. D.W.]

THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.
CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY
TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN
THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY MAGDALENE COLLEGE
CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE

FELLOW AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE
(Unabridged)
WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE'S NOTES
EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.

DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS. MAY & JUNE 1665
May 1st. Up and to Mr. Povy's, and by his bedside talked a good while.
Among other things he do much insist I perceive upon the difficulty of
getting of money, and would fain have me to concur in the thinking of
some other way of disposing of the place of Treasurer to one Mr. Bell,
but I did seem slight of it, and resolved to try to do the best or to give it
up. Thence to the Duke of Albemarle, where I was sorry to find myself
to come a little late, and so home, and at noon going to the 'Change I
met my Lord Brunkard, Sir Robert Murry, Deane Wilkins, and Mr.
Hooke, going by coach to Colonell Blunts to dinner. So they stopped
and took me with them. Landed at the Tower-wharf, and thence by
water to Greenwich; and there coaches met us; and to his house, a very
stately sight for situation and brave plantations; and among others, a
vineyard, the first that ever I did see. No extraordinary dinner, nor any
other entertainment good; but only after dinner to the tryall of some
experiments about making of coaches easy. And several we tried; but
one did prove mighty easy (not here for me to describe, but the whole
body of the coach lies upon one long spring), and we all, one after
another, rid in it; and it is very fine and likely to take. These
experiments were the intent of their coming, and pretty they are.
Thence back by coach to Greenwich, and in his pleasure boat to
Deptford, and there stopped and in to Mr. Evelyn's,--[Sayes Court, the
well-known residence of John Evelyn.]--which is a most beautiful place;
but it being dark and late, I staid not; but Deane Wilkins and Mr.
Hooke and I walked to Redriffe; and noble discourse all day long did
please me, and it being late did take them to my house to drink, and did
give them some sweetmeats, and thence sent them with a lanthorn
home, two worthy persons as are in England, I think, or the world. So
to my Lady Batten, where my wife is tonight, and so after some merry
talk home and to bed.

2nd. Up and to the office all day, where sat late, and then to the office
again, and by and by Sir W. Batten and my Lady and my wife and I by
appointment yesterday (my Lady Pen failed us, who ought to have been
with us) to the Rhenish winehouse at the Steelyard, and there eat a
couple of lobsters and some prawns, and pretty merry, especially to see
us four together, while my wife and my Lady did never intend ever to
be together again after a year's distance between one another. Hither by
and by come Sir Richard Ford and also Mrs. Esther, that lived formerly
with my Lady Batten, now well married to a priest, come to see my
Lady. Thence toward evening home, and to my office, where late, and
then home to supper and to bed.

3rd. Up betimes and walked to Sir Ph. Warwicke's, where a long time
with him in his chamber alone talking of Sir G. Carteret's business, and
the abuses he puts on the nation by his bad payments to both our
vexations, but no hope of remedy for ought I see. Thence to my Lord
Ashly to a Committee of Tangier for my Lord Rutherford's accounts,
and that done we to my Lord Treasurer's, where I did receive my Lord's
warrant to Sir R. Long for drawing a warrant for my striking of tallys.
So to the Inne again by Cripplegate, expecting my mother's coming to
towne, but she is not come this weeke neither, the coach being too full.
So to the 'Change and thence home to dinner, and so out to Gresham
College, and saw a cat killed with the Duke of Florence's poyson, and
saw it proved that the oyle of tobacco
["Mr. Daniel Coxe read an account of the effects of tobacco-oil distilled
in a retort, by one drop of which given at the mouth he had killed a
lusty cat, which being opened, smelled strongly of the oil, and the
blood of the heart more strongly than the rest .... One drop of the
Florentine 'oglio di tobacco' being again given to