Diary, October 1667 | Page 7

Pelling comes and sits
with me, and there tells us how old Mr. Batelier is dead this last night
in the night, going to bed well, which I am mightily troubled for, he
being a good man. Supper done, and he gone, I to my chamber to write
my journal to this night, and so to bed.

7th. Up betimes, and did do several things towards the settling all
matters both of house and office in order for my journey this day, and
did leave my chief care, and the key of my closet, with Mr. Hater, with
directions what papers to secure, in case of fire or other accident; and
so, about nine o'clock, I, and my wife, and Willet, set out in a coach I
have hired, with four horses; and W. Hewer and Murford rode by us on
horseback; and so my wife and she in their morning gowns, very
handsome and pretty, and to my great liking. We set out, and so out at
Allgate, and so to the Green Man, and so on to Enfield, in our way
seeing Mr. Lowther and his lady in a coach, going to Walthamstow;
and he told us that he would overtake us at night, he being to go that
way. So we to Enfield, and there bayted, it being but a foul, bad day,
and there Lowther and Mr. Burford, an acquaintance of his, did
overtake us, and there drank and eat together; and, by and by, we parted,
we going before them, and very merry, my wife and girle and I talking,
and telling tales, and singing, and before night come to Bishop Stafford,
where Lowther and his friend did meet us again, and carried us to the
Raynedeere, where Mrs. Aynsworth,
[Elizabeth Aynsworth, here mentioned, was a noted procurerss at
Cambridge, banished from that town by the university authorities for
her evil courses. She subsequently kept the Rein Deer Inn at Bishops
Stortford, at which the Vice-Chancellor, and some of the heads of
colleges, had occasion to sleep, in their way to London, and were nobly
entertained, their supper being served off plate. The next morning their
hostess refused to make any charge, saying, that she was still indebted
to the Vice-Chancellor, who, by driving her out of Cambridge, had
made her fortune. No tradition of this woman has been preserved at
Bishops Stortford; but it appears, from the register of that parish, that
she was buried there 26th of March, 1686. It is recorded in the "History
of Essex," vol. iii., (p. 130) 8vo., 1770, and in a pamphlet in the British
Museum, entitled, "Boteler's Case," that she was implicated in the
murder of Captain Wood, a Hertfordshire gentleman, at Manuden, in
Essex, and for which offence a person named Boteler was executed at
Chelmsford, September 10th, 1667, and that Mrs. Aynsworth, tried at
the same time as an accessory before the fact, was acquitted for want of
evidence; though in her way to the jail she endeavoured to throw
herself into the river, but was prevented. See Postea, May 25th,

1668.--B.]
who lived heretofore at Cambridge, and whom I knew better than they
think for, do live. It was the woman that, among other things, was great
with my cozen Barnston, of Cottenham, and did use to sing to him, and
did teach me "Full forty times over," a very lewd song: a woman they
are very well acquainted with, and is here what she was at Cambridge,
and all the good fellows of the country come hither. Lowther and his
friend stayed and drank, and then went further this night; but here we
stayed, and supped, and lodged. But, as soon as they were gone, and
my supper getting ready, I fell to write my letter to my Lord Sandwich,
which I could not finish before my coming from London; so did finish
it to my good content, and a good letter, telling him the present state of
all matters, and did get a man to promise to carry it to-morrow morning,
to be there, at my house, by noon, and I paid him well for it; so, that
being done, and my mind at ease, we to supper, and so to bed, my wife
and I in one bed, and the girl in another, in the same room, and lay very
well, but there was so much tearing company in the house, that we
could not see my landlady; so I had no opportunity of renewing my old
acquaintance with her, but here we slept very well.

8th. Up pretty betimes, though not so soon as we intended, by reason of
Murford's not rising, and then not knowing how to open our door,
which, and some other pleasant simplicities of the fellow, did