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

in council is dated January 16th, 1666⁠–⁠67, and commences as follows: “Whereas it is found by experience that the ofifice of Comptroller of his Majesty’s Navy, which being of ancient institution and exercised by a single person in times of less business, and when his Majesty’s Navy was much less, hath in these times of action so much business depending upon it, and many times in places far distant the one from the other, that it is not possible for one person to manage it as it ought to be for the good of his Majesty’s service; in consideration whereof, his Majesty hath pleased to direct that two assistants be added to Sir John Minnes, Knt., the present Comptroller of his Majesty’s Navy, and that the work and employment of that office be so divided as that each may manage a distinct part thereof, and be able to render an exact account of his performance, that so it may appear where the default is, in case his Majesty’s service suffer detriment through the undue execution of that otifice.” The order is printed in Memoires Relating to the Conduct of the Navy, 1729, p. 59, and in Penn’s Memorials of Sir Wm. Penn, vol. ii, p. 435. ↩

Philip Howard, Lord Almoner to Queen Catherine, and third son of Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1652. He was made a cardinal by Clement X in 1675, and died at Rome in 1694. He was generally styled the Cardinal of Norfolk. —⁠B. ↩

Fabio Chigi, of Siena, succeeded Innocent X in 1655 as Alexander VII. He died May, 1667, and was succeeded by Clement IX. ↩

Pieces of “the Cross” were formerly held in such veneration, and were so common, that it has been often said enough existed to build a ship. Most readers will remember the distinction which Sir W. Scott represents Louis XI (with great appreciation of that monarch’s character), as drawing between an oath taken on a false piece and one taken on a piece of the true cross. Sir Thomas More, a very devout believer in relics, says (Works, p. 119), that Luther wished, in a sermon of his, that he had in his hand all the pieces of the Holy Cross; and said that if he so had, he would throw them there as never sun should shine on them:⁠—and for what worshipful reason would the wretch do such villainy to the cross of Christ? Because, as he saith, that there is so much gold now bestowed about the garnishing of the pieces of the Cross, that there is none left for poore folke. Is not this a high reason? As though all the gold that is now bestowed about the pieces of the Holy Cross would not have failed to have been given to poor men, if they had not been bestowed about the garnishing of the Cross! and as though there were nothing lost, but what is bestowed about Christ’s Cross! Wolsey, says Cavendish, on his fall, gave to Norris, who brought him a ring of gold as a token of good will from Henry, “a little chaine of gold, made like a bottle chain, with a cross of gold, wherein was a piece of the Holy Cross, which he continually wore about his neck, next his body; and said, furthermore, ‘Master Norris, I assure you, when I was in prosperity, although it seem but small in value, yet I would not gladly have departed with the same for a thousand pounds.’ ” Life, ed. 1852, p. 167. Evelyn mentions, Diary, November 17th, 1664, that he saw in one of the chapels in St. Peter’s a crucifix with a piece of the true cross in it. Amongst the jewels of Mary Queen of Scots was a cross of gold, which had been pledged to Hume of Blackadder for £1,000 (Chalmers’s Life, vol. i, p. 31). —⁠B. ↩

Dormitory. The French word was commonly used, and it was also anglicized as dorter and dortour. The latter word was used by Spenser (Faerie Queen, VI, xii, 24). “This is a very fine convent with a very fine dortoire.” —⁠M. Lister, Journey to Paris, 1699, p. 131 ↩

Sir Walter Walker is referred to in the Calendar of State Papers, 1666⁠–⁠67, p. 463. ↩

Nell Gwynn. ↩

Betty Hall. She was Sir Philip Howard’s mistress. Compare March 30th, 1667, and December 19th, 1668. —⁠B. ↩

Sir John Suckling’s play was first published in 1646, having been acted at the Blackfriars. ↩

The passage between brackets is written in the margin of the MS. ↩

The report of “Examinations on oath of Capt. Page, commander, Barth. Peartree, master, Nich. Churchwood, chief mate, and two other officers named, as to the loss of their ship the Breda, by striking on the shoals off the Texel,” dated January 24th, 1667, is preserved among the State Papers (Calendar, 1666⁠–⁠67, p. 469). ↩

Henry Harris; see note 1875. ↩

The essay of Erasmus “De Conscribendis Epistolis” is printed in the first volume of his collected works, published at Leyden in 1703. ↩

Hugh May. ↩

There is little reason to doubt that it was such as Evelyn describes it at a later time. “I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, and, as it were, total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening) which this day se’nnight I was witness of; the King sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, Mazarin, etc. A French boy singing love songs in that