The Diary by Samuel Pepys (children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

year after, his Majesty told me that hee had discovered the cheat, and that Mr. Monpesson, upon his Majesty sending for him, confessed it to him. And yet Mr. Monpesson, in a printed letter, had afterwards the confidence to deny that hee had ever made any such confession.”Letters of the Second Earl of Chesterfield, p. 24, 1829, 8vo.

Joseph Glanville published a relation of the famous disturbance at the house of Mr. Monpesson, at Tedworth, Wilts, occasioned by the beating of an invisible drum every night for a year. This story, which was believed at the time, furnished the plot for Addison’s play of The Drummer, or the Haunted House. In the Mercurius Publicus, April 16⁠–⁠23, 1663, there is a curious examination on this subject, by which it appears that one William Drury, of Uscut, Wilts, was the invisible drummer. —⁠B. ↩

Sir Francis Clerke was M.P. for Rochester in the Parliament of 1661. ↩

Sir Richard Temple, of Stowe, Bart., M.P. for Buckingham, and K.B. Died 1694. —⁠B. ↩

In the same spirit, long after this, some question arising as to the best material to be used in building Westminster Bridge, Lord Chesterfield remarked, that there were too many wooden piers (peers) at Westminster already. —⁠B. ↩

Captain Allen, afterwards Sir Thomas Allen; Captain Smith, afterwards Sir Jeremy Smith; Captain Beach, afterwards Sir Richard Beach, captain of the Crown in 1661. Up to 1672, when he became a rear-admiral, he had commanded the York, the Leopard, the Fairfax, the Greenwich, and the Hampshire. In 1679 he was appointed Commissioner-resident at Portsmouth, and held the office till 1693, when he was moved to be Comptroller of Stores (Duckett’s Naval Commissioners, 1889, p. 61). ↩

Captain Holmes, afterwards Sir Robert Holmes. Captain Batts was described by the Duke of York as “a very stout man” (see January 2nd, 1667⁠–⁠68). ↩

Paternoster Row, now famous as the headquarters of the publishing houses, was at this time chiefly inhabited by mercers. “This street, before the Fire of London, was taken up by eminent Mercers, Silkmen and Lacemen; and their shops were so resorted to by the nobility and gentry in their coaches, that oft times the street was so stop’d up that there was no passage for foot passengers” (Strype’s Stow, book iii, p. 195) ↩

See note 1415. ↩

See July 1st, 1663. ↩

Sir William Rider’s house was known as Kirby Castle, and was supposed to have been built in 1570 by John Thorpe for John Kirby. It was associated in rhyme with other follies of the time in bricks and mortar, as recorded by Stow:

“Kirkebyes Castell, and Fisher’s Follie,
Spinila’s pleasure, and Megse’s glorie.”

The place was known in Strype’s time as the “Blind Beggar’s House,” but he knew nothing of the ballad, “The Beggar’s Daughter of Bednall Green,” for he remarks, “perhaps Kirby beggared himself by it.” Sir William Rider died at this house in 1669. ↩

He was natural son of Philip IV, King of Spain, who, after his father’s death in 1665, exerted his whole influence to overthrow the Regency appointed during the young king’s minority. —⁠B. ↩

Probably the wine-house in Cannon Row, Westminster. ↩

See note 1042. ↩

George Digby, second Earl of Bristol, born 1612, succeeded his father in 1653; died March 20th, 1677⁠–⁠8. He was Lord Clarendon’s greatest enemy. ↩

Robert, fourth Lord Spencer, and second Earl of Sunderland, did actually marry Lady Anne Digby, second daughter, and eventually heir of Lord Bristol, shortly after this date. He was ambassador to Spain, 1671⁠–⁠72; ambassador to Paris, 1672⁠–⁠73, 1678; Secretary of State, 1679⁠–⁠81, 1683, 1685⁠–⁠88; Lord President of the Council, 1685⁠–⁠88; K.G., 1687. Died September 28th, 1702. ↩

A letter from the Comte de Comminges, French ambassador at Whitehall, to M. de Lionne, dated “Juillet 2⁠–⁠12, 1663,” contains another account of this rumour:

“Je vous avois mandé que le Comte de Sunderland épousoit la fille du Comte de Bristol. Il se retira le soir qu’on devoit l’épouser, et donna ordre à un de ses amis de rompre le mariage. Le procédé surprit toute la cour, et le Roi même s’en est moqué, et l’a blamé au dernier point.”

↩

Sir Charles Sedley, Bart., well known for his wit and profligacy, and author of several plays. He is said to have been fined £500 for this outrage. He was father to James II’s mistress, created Countess of Dorchester, and died 1701. —⁠B. ↩

Sir Robert Foster, Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, had been a steady Royalist during the period of the Commonwealth, and he was rewarded with this high office almost immediately after the Restoration. He died October 4th, 1663. ↩

The details in the original are very gross. Dr. Johnson relates the story in the Lives of the Poets, in his life of Sackville, Lord Dorset: “Sackville, who was then Lord Buckhurst, with Sir Charles Sedley and Sir Thomas Ogle, got drunk at the Cock, in Bow Street, by Covent Garden, and going into the balcony exposed themselves to the populace in very indecent postures. At last, as they grew warmer, Sedley stood forth naked, and harangued the populace in such profane language, that the public indignation was awakened; the crowd attempted to force the door, and being repulsed, drove in the performers with stones, and broke the windows of the house. For this misdemeanour they were indicted, and Sedley was fined five hundred pounds; what was the sentence of the others is not known. Sedley employed [Henry]