John Evelyn's Diary 1676

20th February 1676. Dr. Gunning [aged 62], Bishop of Ely, preached before the King [aged 45] from St. John xx. 21, 22, 23, chiefly against an anonymous book, called "Naked Truth", a famous and popular treatise against the corruption in the Clergy, but not sound as to its quotations, supposed to have been the Bishop of Hereford and was answered by Dr. Turner, it endeavoring to prove an equality of order of Bishop and Presbyter.

27th February 1676. Dr. Pritchard, Bishop of Gloucester, preached at Whitehall [Map], on Isaiah v. 5, very allegorically, according to his manner, yet very gravely and wittily.

28th February 1676. [Note. Date adjusted to 28 Feb since original entry stated 29 Feb when it isn't a leap year.] I dined with Mr. Povey [aged 62], one of the Masters of Requests, a nice contriver of all elegancies, and exceedingly formal. Supped with Sir J. Williamson, where were of our Society Mr. Robert Boyle [aged 49], Sir Christopher Wren [aged 52], Sir William Petty [aged 52], Dr. Holden, subdean of his Majesty's [aged 45] Chapel, Sir James Shaen, Dr. Whistler, and our Secretary, Mr. Oldenburg [aged 57].

4th March 1676. Sir Thomas Linch was returned from his government of Jamaica.

16th March 1676. The Countess of Sunderland [aged 30] and I went by water to Parson's Green, to visit my Baroness Mordaunt [aged 44], and to consult with her about my Lord's monument. We returned by coach.

19th March 1676. Dr. Lloyd [aged 39], late Curate of Deptford, but now Bishop of Llandaff, preached before the King [aged 45], on 1 Cor. xv. 57, that though sin subjects us to death, yet through Christ we become his conquerors.

23rd March 1676. To Twickenham Park, Lord Berkeley's [aged 48] country seat, to examine how the bailiffs and servants ordered matters.

24th March 1676. Dr. Brideoake [aged 63], Bishop of Chichester, preached a mean discourse for a Bishop. I also heard Dr. Fleetwood [aged 72], Bishop of Worcester, on Matt. xxvi. 38, of the sorrows of Christ, a deadly sorrow caused by our sins; he was no great preacher.

30th March 1676. Dining with my Lady Sunderland [aged 30], I saw a fellow swallow a knife, and divers great pebble stones, which would make a plain rattling one against another. The knife was in a sheath of horn.

30th March 1676. Dr. North [aged 30], son of my Lord North [aged 74], preached before the King [aged 45], on Isaiah liii. 57, a very young but learned and excellent person. Note. This was the first time the Duke [aged 42] appeared no more in chapel, to the infinite grief and threatened ruin of this poor nation.

2nd April 1676. I had now notice that my dear friend Mrs. Godolphin [aged 23], was returning from Paris [Map]. On the 6th, she arrived to my great joy, whom I most heartily welcomed.

28th April 1676. My wife [aged 41] entertained her Majesty [aged 45] at Deptford [Map], for which the Queen [aged 37] gave me thanks in the withdrawing room at Whitehall [Map].

28th April 1676. The University of Oxford presented me with the "Marmora Oxoniensia Arundeliana"; the Bishop of Oxford writing to desire that I would introduce Mr. Prideaux, the editor (a young man most learned in antiquities) to the Duke of Norfolk [aged 49], to present another dedicated to his Grace, which I did, and we dined with the Duke at Arundel House [Map], and supped at the Bishop of Rochester's [aged 51] with Isaac Vossius [aged 58].

11th May 1676. I dined with Mr. Charleton, and went to see Mr. Montague's [aged 37] new palace, near Bloomsbury, built by Mr. Hooke [aged 40], of our Society, after the French manner.

13th May 1676. Returned home, and found my son [aged 21] returned from France; praised be God!

22nd May 1676. Trinity Monday. A chaplain of my Lord Ossory's [aged 41] preached, after which we took barge to Trinity House in London. Mr. Pepys [aged 43] (Secretary of the Admiralty) succeeded my Lord as Master.

2nd June 1676. I went with my Lord Chamberlain [aged 58] to see a garden, at Enfield [Map] town; thence, to Mr. Secretary Coventry's [aged 48] lodge in the Chase. It is a very pretty place, the house commodious, the gardens handsome, and our entertainment very free, there being none but my Lord and myself. That which I most wondered at was, that, in the compass of twenty-five miles, yet within fourteen of London, there is not a house, barn, church, or building, besides three lodges. To this Lodge are three great ponds, and some few inclosures, the rest a solitary desert, yet stored with no less than 3,000 deer. These are pretty retreats for gentlemen, especially for those who are studious and lovers of privacy.

2nd June 1676. We returned in the evening by Hampstead, to see Lord Wotton's [aged 33] house and garden (Bellsize House), built with vast expense by Mr. O'Neale, an Irish gentleman who married Lord Wotton's mother, Baroness Stanhope. The furniture is very particular for Indian cabinets, porcelain, and other solid and noble movables. The gallery very fine, the gardens very large, but ill kept, yet woody and chargeable. The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expense.

12th June 1676. I went to see Sir Thomas Bond's new and fine house by Peckham; it is on a flat, but has a fine garden and prospect through the meadows to London.

2nd July 1676. Dr. Castillion, Prebend of Canterbury, preached before the King [aged 46], on John xv. 22, at Whitehall.

19th July 1676. Went to the funeral of Sir William Sanderson [deceased], husband to the Mother of the Maids [aged 72], and author of two large but mean histories of King James and King Charles I. He was buried at Westminster Abbey [Map].

1st August 1676. In the afternoon, after prayers at St. James's Chapel, was christened a daughter of Dr. Leake's [aged 34], the Duke's [aged 42] Chaplain: godmothers were Lady Mary [aged 14], daughter of the Duke of York, and the Duchess of Monmouth [aged 25]: godfather, the Earl of Bath [aged 47].

15th August 1676. Came to dine with me my Lord Halifax [aged 42], Sir Thomas Meeres [aged 42], one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, Sir John Clayton, Mr. Slingsby [aged 55], Mr. Henshaw [aged 58], and Mr. Bridgeman.

25th August 1676. Dined with Sir John Banks [aged 49] at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, on recommending Mr. Upman to be tutor to his son going into France. This Sir John Banks was a merchant of small beginning, but had amassed £100,000.

26th August 1676. I dined at the Admiralty with Secretary Pepys [aged 43], and supped at the Lord Chamberlain's [aged 58]. Here was Captain Baker, who had been lately on the attempt of the Northwest passage. He reported prodigious depth of ice, blue as a sapphire, and as transparent. The thick mists were their chief impediment, and cause of their return.

2nd September 1676. I paid £1,700 to the Marquis de Sissac, which he had lent to my Lord Berkeley [aged 48], and which I heard the Marquis lost at play in a night or two.

2nd September 1676. The Dean of Chichester preached before the King [aged 46], on Acts xxiv. 16; and Dr. Crichton preached the second sermon before him on Psalm xc. 12, of wisely numbering our days, and well employing our time.

3rd September 1676. Dined at Captain Graham's, where I became acquainted with Dr. Compton [aged 44] (brother to the Earl of Northampton [aged 54]), now Bishop of London, and Mr. North, son to the Lord North, brother to the Lord Chief-Justice and Clerk of the Closet, a most hopeful young man. The Bishop had once been a soldier, had also traveled in Italy, and became a most sober, grave, and excellent prelate.

6th September 1676. Supped at the Lord Chamberlain's [aged 58], where also supped the famous beauty and errant lady, the Duchess of Mazarine [aged 30] (all the world knows her story), the Duke of Monmouth [aged 27], Countess of Sussex [aged 15] (both natural children of the King [aged 46] by the Duchess of Cleveland [aged 35]) [Note. A mistake by Evelyn. Jame's Scott's mother was Lucy Walter, Anne Fitzroy's mother was Barbara Villiers 1st Duchess of Cleveland], and the Countess of Derby [aged 16], a virtuous lady, daughter to my best friend, the Earl of Ossory [aged 42].

10th September 1676. Dined with me Mr. Flamsted [aged 30], the learned astrologer [Note. Astronomer] and mathematician, whom his Majesty [aged 46] had established in the new Observatory in Greenwich Park, furnished with the choicest instruments. An honest, sincere man.

12th September 1676. To London, to take order about the building of a house, or rather an apartment, which had all the conveniences of a house, for my dear friend, Mr. Godolphin [aged 31] and lady [aged 24], which I undertook to contrive and survey, and employ workmen until it should be quite finished; it being just over against his Majesty's [aged 46] wood-yard by the Thames side, leading to Scotland Yard.

19th September 1676. To Lambeth, Surrey [Map], to that rare magazine of marble, to take order for chimney-pieces, etc., for Mr. Godolphin's [aged 31] house. The owner of the works had built for himself a pretty dwelling house; this Dutchman had contracted with the Genoese for all their marble. We also saw the Duke of Buckingham's [aged 48] glasswork, where they made huge vases of metal as clear, ponderous, and thick as crystal; also looking-glasses far larger and better than any that come from Venice [Map].

9th October 1676. I went with Mrs. Godolphin [aged 24] and my wife [aged 41] to Blackwall, Essex [Map], to see some Indian curiosities; the streets being slippery, I fell against a piece of timber with such violence that I could not speak nor fetch my breath for some space; being carried into a house and let blood, I was removed to the water-side and so home, where, after a day's rest, I recovered. This being one of my greatest deliverances, the Lord Jesus make me ever mindful and thankful!

31st October 1676. Being my birthday, and fifty-six years old, I spent the morning in devotion and imploring God's protection, with solemn thanksgiving for all his signal mercies to me, especially for that escape which concerned me this month at Blackwall, Essex [Map]. Dined with Mrs. Godolphin [aged 24], and returned home through a prodigious and dangerous mist.

9th November 1676. Finished the lease of Spalding [Map], for Mr. Godolphin [aged 31].

16th November 1676. My son [aged 21] and I dining at my Lord Chamberlain's [aged 58], he showed us among others that incomparable piece of Raphael's, being a Minister of State dictating to Guicciardini, the earnestness of whose face looking up in expectation of what he was next to write, is so to the life, and so natural, as I esteem it one of the choicest pieces of that admirable artist. There was a woman's head of Leonardo da Vinci; a Madonna of old Palma, and two of Vandyke's, of which one was his own picture at length, when young, in a leaning posture; the other, an eunuch, singing. Rare pieces indeed!

4th December 1676. I saw the great ball danced by all the gallants and ladies at the Duchess of York's [aged 18].

10th December 1676. There fell so deep a snow as hindered us from church.

12th December 1676. To London, in so great a snow, as I remember not to have seen the like.

17th December 1676. More snow falling, I was not able to get to church.