Diary, October 1667 | Page 8

give
occasion to us to call him. Sir Martin Marrall, and W. Hewer being his
helper and counsellor, we did call him, all this journey, Mr. Warner,
which did give us good occasion of mirth now and then. At last, rose,
and up, and broke our fast, and then took coach, and away, and at
Newport did call on Mr. Lowther, and he and his friend, and the master
of the house, their friend, where they were, a gentleman, did presently
get a-horseback and overtook us, and went with us to Audley-End, and
did go along with us all over the house and garden: and mighty merry
we were. The house indeed do appear very fine, but not so fine as it
hath heretofore to me; particularly the ceilings are not so good as I
always took them to be, being nothing so well wrought as my Lord
Chancellor's are; and though the figure of the house without be very
extraordinary good, yet the stayre- case is exceeding poor; and a great
many pictures, and not one good one in the house but one of Harry the

Eighth, done by Holben; and not one good suit of hangings in all the
house, but all most ancient things, such as I would not give the
hanging-up of in my house; and the other furniture, beds and other
things, accordingly.
[Mr. George T. Robinson, F.S.A., in a paper on "Decorative Plaster
Work," read before the Society of Arts in April, 1891, refers to the
ceilings at Audley End as presenting an excellent idea of the state of the
stuccoer's art in the middle of James I.'s reign, and adds, "Few houses
in England can show so fine a series of the same date . . . . The great
hall has medallions in the square portions of the ceiling formed by its
dividing timber beams. The large saloon on the principal floor-a room
about 66 feet long by 30 feet wide-has a very remarkable ceiling of the
pendentive type, which presents many peculiarities, the most notable of
which, that these not only depend from the ceiling, but the outside ones
spring from the walls in a natural and structural manner. This is a most
unusual circumstance in the stucco work of the time, the reason for the
omission of this reasonable treatment evidently being the unwillingness
of the stuccoer to omit his elaborate frieze in which he took such
delight" ("Journal Soc. of Arts," vol. xxxix., p. 449)]
Only the gallery is good, and, above all things, the cellars, where we
went down and drank of much good liquor; and indeed the cellars are
fine: and here my wife and I did sing to my great content. And then to
the garden, and there eat many grapes, and took some with us and so
away thence, exceeding well satisfied, though not to that degree that,
by my old esteem of the house, I ought and did expect to have done, the
situation of it not pleasing me. Here we parted with Lowther and his
friends, and away to Cambridge, it being foul, rainy weather, and there
did take up at the Rose, for the sake of Mrs. Dorothy Drawwater, the
vintner's daughter, which is mentioned in the play of Sir Martin Marrall.
Here we had a good chamber, and bespoke a good supper; and then I
took my wife, and W. Hewer, and Willet, it holding up a little, and
shewed them Trinity College and St. John's Library, and went to King's
College Chapel, to see the outside of it only; and so to our inne, and
with much pleasure did this, they walking in their pretty morning
gowns, very handsome, and I proud to find myself in condition to do
this; and so home to our lodging, and there by and by, to supper, with
much good sport, talking with the Drawers concerning matters of the

town, and persons whom I remember, and so, after supper, to cards;
and then to bed, lying, I in one bed, and my wife and girl in another, in
the same room, and very merry talking together, and mightily pleased
both of us with the girl. Saunders, the only violin in my time, is, I hear,
dead of the plague in the late plague there.

9th. Up, and got ready, and eat our breakfast; and then took coach: and
the poor, as they did yesterday, did stand at the coach to have
something given them, as they do to all great persons; and I did give
them something: and the town musique did also come and play: but,
Lord! what sad music they made! However, I was pleased with them,
being all of us in very good humour, and so through the town, and
observed at