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They reach Epsom, and, after spending a great part || find him acting in the manner which he ingenuously of the day there agrecably, walk ont upon the Downs: describes in the following paragraph. Seldom, how"There a flock of sheep was the most pleasant and innocent ever, does he meet with opposition as determined as sight that ever I saw in my life. We found a shepherd, and his that of the damsel who displayed, pins to frighten little boy reading, far from any houses or sight of people, the him:Bible to him; so I made the boy read to me, which he did with the forced tone that children do usually read. That was mighty pretty. And then I did give him something, and went to his father, and talked with him. We took notice of his woollen-knit stockings, of two colours mixed, and of his shoes shod with iron hoth at the toes and heels, and with great nails in the soles of his feet, which was mighty pretty; and, taking notice of them, 'Why,' says the poor man the Downes, you see, are full of stones, and we are fain to shoe ourselves thus; and these, said he, will make the stones fly till they ring before me.' I did give the poor man something, for which he was mighty thankful, and I tried to cast stones with his horn crook. He values his dog mightily, that would turn a sheep any way which he would have him, when he folds them; told me there was about eighteen score sheep in his flock; and that he hath four shillings a-week, the year round, for keeping of them."

au

"I walked towards Whitehall, but, being wearied, turned into St. Dunstan's Church, where I heard an able sermon by the minister of the place, and stood by a pretty, modest maid, whom I did labour to take by the hand; but she would not, but got further and further from me; and, at last, I could perceive her to take pins out of her pocket to prick me if I should touch her again, which seeing, I did forbear, and was glad I did spy her design: and then I fell to gaze upon another pretty maiden, in a pew close to me, and she at me; and I did go about to take her by the hand, which she suffered a little, and then withdrew. So the sermon ended, and my amours ended also."

To describe Pepys as an arrant profligate, is to do him no injustice. The society of the most abandoned persons was pleasure to him; actresses and other questionable women enjoyed the liberality which he begrudged his wife; and in everything, indeed, he appears a pitiful and sordid votary of vice. We constantly meet him in a place of public resort, feasting and rioting in company with Knipp, the actress, and other low characters; and as frequently find him recording such testimonies to his own meanness as "My wife nightly praying for a new pair of cuffs, which I am against the laying out of money upon yet; which makes her angry."

From his position as Secretary to the Admiralty, Pepys was enabled to dive into the depths of that policy which influenced the movements of Government. He saw how all the outward aspect of affairs was a mere dramatic show; how the grand displays of pomp and power were mere painted scenes designed to secure the applause of credulous spectators. He knew how the resources of the State were uselessly drained away, and how little there really was to prevent the Dutch from carrying through their expedition to its catastrophe. That in the end, had they even landed just below Lon- Peace being at length concluded between Great don Bridge, and spread fire and slaughter through the Britain and the States of the United Provinces, and metropolis, they would have been annihilated or com- also of the King of France and Denmark, the joy-bells pelled to retreat, there can exist no doubt; but had were rung on the 24th of August, 1667; but no they known the real position of affairs, it is easy to bonfires were kindled, which Pepys accounts for partly believe that they would have been infinitely more daring by the dearness of fuel, "but principally from the little in their attempts. Pepys describes all this with minute- || content most people have in the peace." It served, ness and frank fidelity; and his testimony may be ac- however, the end in which he most delighted; it gave cepted the more readily from the fact that the confi-him leisure to pursue his inclinations, and security for dential disclosures made to him, which have now seen the his money. With regard to the purity of his plealight, were written by him in cypher, and were never in-sures, it must be owned he had a royal example for tended to be revealed. The confidant of men high in vices from the indulgence of which even his not sensithority, he was also the confidant of his friends and relative mind would have revolted. This diary lays bare, tives, who deposited their secrets with him, with solicita- in connection with the Court, scenes of the most hideous tions for advice-thinking, as very many people do in the infamy; displaying the utter corruption and demoralipresent day, that wealth and station confer wisdom. zation which was the normal condition of society under His cousin Roger, for example, acquainted him, in the reign of Charles II. This was the king at whose strict privacy, that he had made an offer of marriage || restoration joy-bells pealed, and bonfires glared, throughto Miss Elizabeth Wiles, a friend of Pepys', "an ugly out London! A category of his vices, a list of his old maid, but good housewife, and is said to have profligacies, would be too revolting to attempt; and yet £2,500 to her portion." "If," said his cousin, "you can it is for preserving him that the royal oak has been discover that she really has so much even as £200, I revered and counted of blessed memory through all will love her, as I have known her long and intimately succeeding generations. We recommend to the perusal to be a good housewife and a discreet woman.' of all those who find cause for congratulation in the Pepys, however, entertained a serious aversion to this result of that most abominable act of treachery, which match, because, as he tells us, she was so ugly, "and it will be branded through all time as the blackest act of hath been the very bad fortune of all the Pepyses that baseness ever committed by a slave, this Diary of ever I know, never to marry a handsome woman, except- Samuel Pepys. Here he will find the King's closet ing Ned Pepys ;" an observation to which Lord Bray-unlocked; here he will see the secret chambers of the brooke appends a witty query, by way of annotation. palace opened to his gaze, with all the profligate "The author's own wife could not be included amongst syrens that peopled them, and all the infamies and the plain women whom the Pepyses married? It is other-vices with which they were stained. The old ladies wise well for his domestic peace that he wrote in who still sigh over the fate of the royal martyr are, in cypher." That is a question for the consideration of deed, indebted largely to the diarist for adding fresh women, which we shall not meddle with. jewels of reputation to the crown of his amiable son.

As we accompany Pepys through his peregrinations to his office, in the country, to the play, in the park, to church, and to places of pleasure, we constantly

But the vices of royalty, like the vices of common people, are expensive; and Charles expended so much on the gratification of his debasing pleasures that he was

compelled, with his ample revenue, to stint himself in
shirts. Connected with this, a little scene is described
by Pepys, as taking place at Sir George Corbet's house,
where he dined in company with Mr. Ashburnham :
"After dinner comes in Mr. Townsend; and there I was witness
of a horrid rating which Mr. Ashburnham, as one of the grooms
of the King's bedchamber, did give him for want of linen for the
King's person, which he swore was not to be endured, and that
the King would not endure it; and that the King his father

would have hanged his wardrobeman, should he have been served
so; the King having, at this day, no handkerchiefs, and but three
bands to his neck, he swore. Mr. Townsend pleaded want of
money, and the owing of the linen-draper £5,000; and that he
hath of late got many rich things made-beds, and sheets, and
saddles, without money, and that he can get no further; but
still this old man, indeed, like a loving servant, did cry out for
the King's person to be so neglected. But when he was gone,
Townsend told me that it is the grooms' taking away the King's
linen at the quarter's end, as their fee, which makes this great
want; for whether the King can get it or no, they will run away
at the quarter's end with what he hath had-let the King get

more as he can."

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On the 13th of October, he had an interview with the Duke of York, who flattered him highly by the information that King Charles was pleased to be satisfied with his services; words which conveyed "mighty joy" into the heart of Pepys, to whom not even the present of a silver flagon, or five pieces of gold, was so sweet as a honeyed word from royal lips. Business and pleasure now divided his attention somewhat equally. The office by day, and the theatre by night, were his resorts. Good eating, the society of gay women, prize-fights and dramas, with the intimation of his favour at Court, formed his enjoyments. His wife rushed readily into all these sources of delight, except where pretty women were concerned. And here she had just ground for complaint. If ever woman had reason for jealousy, Mrs. Pepys had; and it was a pity her solicitude was expended upon an object so unworthy of it as the Secretary to the Admiralty, who did not hesitate to display his fondness for other women, even in his wife's presence.

He was always anxious that his servant-maids should be pretty, that the pleasure of kissing them might be greater. He took them, with his wife, to the theatre, and elicited her anger by his affectionate behaviour towards them. Mrs. Pepys, good woman! was also extremely loyal, and held the same respect towards royalty as a mouse towards a cat. She was irritated with her husband because on the 19th October, on the occasion of "The Black Prince" being performed for the first time, he ventured to laugh in the presence of the King.

But a serious cause of disquietude now arose. Parliament commenced an inquiry into the business transactions of the Admiralty. It is marvellous how official personages tremble and turn pale at the bare hint of inquiry. Pepys, though confident that he was the best in his department, still allows us to perceive, through this secret record of his feelings, that he does not look forward without

To linger wherever Pepys pauses to describe things equally curious, would be to progress but slowly through the diary, which is full to repletion of such incidents. But we must hasten ou a little, until we find the Secretary to the Admiralty at a house in Brampton, where his father was, and where, which was infinitely dearer to him, some of his much-loved treasure was buried in the garden. The company staying somewhat late, it was not till after dark that he, with his father and his wife, could go into the garden to dig up the gold. The exact spot had been forgotten, which excited his wrath; but, after much searching, it was discovered. Turning up the ground with spades, they commenced collecting the money; but, good God! says Pepys, to see how silly they had hid it, not half-a-foot || under ground, and in the sight of the world." If he was angry at this, he was enraged when he found that, while throwing up the earth, he also threw up gold pieces; for the place being damp, the bags had rotted away, and there the glittering trea-anxiety to the time when all his transactions shall sure was mixed with mud and rubbish. Collecting be laid bare to the eye of the Parliament. He, dirt and money together, and carrying them into a indeed, is comforted by hearing that the Duchess private room, he then, with one assistant, with pails of of Albemarle thinks he will come off honourably, water and brushes, separated the coins from the and solaces himself on it. "And so, I thank God, mould, and counting them, found there were a hun-I hear everybody speaks of me; and, indeed, I dred pieces short, which, as he says, made him mad. Sleepless, and agitated with a miser's fear, he remained shut up in the room until midnight, when, taking William Hewer, a confidential friend, with him, he again sallied forth into the garden, and, by candlelight, contrived to pick up forty-five pieces. Carrying them in to wash, he laboured till the clock struck two, and then retiring to a trundle bed, lay counting the hours until morning. And then W. Hewer and I, with pails and a sieve, did lock ourselves into the garden, and there gathered all the earth about the place into pails, and then sift those pails in one of the summer-houses, just as they do for diamonds in other parts of the world; and there we, with great content, did make the last night's forty-five up seventy-nine." This somewhat satisfied the gold-loving Pepys, who consoled himself with the idea that his loss was trifling, and not occasioned through any negligence of his own. The next morning, he went home, carrying his treasure in bags, and was infinitely rejoiced when it again lay snugly in his own house.

think in that vanity I may expect to be profited rather than injured by this inquiry, which the Par||liament makes its business."

This, however, does not stifle his fears. He is constantly preparing a species of defence, endea vouring to arrange his documents, consulting with his colleagues, who put their heads together in order to agree in their account of the transactions. Finally he succeeded, partly, perhaps, because the Parliament men set on inquiry were more solicitons for the overthrow of the Lord Chancellor (then so obnoxious) than for the honest clearing up of the official mist; and partly, no doubt, because the business of this department was, through the straightforward honesty of Pepys, conducted in a manner less equivocal than in most others. Indeed, we may fairly say, that, much as he served himself, and sought his own aggrandisement, he still served the Government, and sought to promote the interests of the country connected with the branch of the Administration in which he held sa important a position.

He refers.

By means of industry, parsimony, and other more history, political and domestic, to which it equivocal methods, Pepys amassed much wealth. had not yet actually set up his carriage, although the idea had taken firm possession of his mind, but did so shortly after. Investment was in those days neither so easy nor so safe as at present. He therefore kept much of his money at home, piled up in unproductive heaps, under lock and key, with his watchful eye continually keeping ward. One morning, however, he fairly gave himself up almost to despair, for to be spoiled of his gold pieces would have been to him a misfortune far more dire than to be robbed of his wife. The incident is very ludicrous, and narrated in so entertaining a manner by the diarist, that we quote it:

"29th Nov.-Waked about seven o'clock this morning with a noise I supposed I heard, near our chamber, of knocking, which, by-the-by, increased; and I, more awake, could distinguish it better. I then waked my wife, and both of us wondered at it, and so lay a great while, while that it increased; and at last heard it plainer, knocking as if it were breaking down a window for people to get out; and then removing of stools and chairs; and plainly, by-and-by, going up and down our stairs. We lay, both of us afraid; yet I would have rose, but by my wife would

not let me. Besides, I could not do it without making noise; and

The night before, they had been fearfully alarmed by hearing a strange noise on the staircase, which in reality was nothing more than a young cat descending the whole flight at two leaps. At first it was supposed that the house was haunted.

The diary extends to the 31st of May, 1689, when Pepys was compelled to relinquish this daily task, through the weakness of his eyesight. The fifth || volume, just published, opens with the 1st of Sept., 1688, when he mingles in the gaieties of Bartholomew Fair, and takes occasion to kiss " a mighty belle-fille that was exceeding plain, but fort belle." The second of this month was a general and strict fast, in commemoration of the burning of London, an event which had risen the price of books to a great extent, for on the next morning we find Pepys at his bookseller's, buying a copy of "Hobbes' Leviathan," then much in repute, which was formerly sold for eight shillings, but "I now give twenty-four shillings for at the second hand, and is sold at thirty shillings, it being a book the bishops will not let be printed again.'

In November, 1688, he buys a carriage, and is thenceforward raised many degrees in the estima tion of his friends; although, whilst enjoying the ease and dignity of the possession, its cost is continually present to his mind. Thus elevated, however, he does not disdain to cat twopennyworth of oysters opened for him by a woman in the street. The livery of his coachman and serving-boy please him "mightily," and it is with joyful delight, almost approaching to exultation, that he anticipates the first drive in the park.

we did both conclude that thieves were in the house, but wondered what our people did, whom we thought either killed or afraid as we were. There we lay till the clock struck eight, and high day. At last I removed my gown and slippers softly to the other side of the bed over my wife; and then safely rose, and put on my gown and breeches; and then with a firebrand in my hand, safely opened the door, and saw nor heard anything. Then, with fear, I confess, went to the maid's chamber door; and all quiet and safe. Called Jane up, and went down safely, and In order to regulate his expenditure more strictly, opened my chamber door, where all well. Then more freely now that the establishment of a carriage opened a albout, and to the kitchen, where the cook-maid up, and all safe. || fresh drain from his purse, he came to an agreeSo up again; and when Jane came, and we demanded whether ment with his wife, to allow her £30 a-year for all exshe heard no noise, she said, 'yes, but was afraid;' but rose with the other maid, and found nothing; but heard a noise from the penses-clothing and everything-which "mightily great stack of chimneys that goes from Sir J. Maine's house pleased her, it being much more than she ever asked through ours. So we ventured their chimneys had been swept this or expected." Gratified and contented as Mrs. morning; and that was the noise, and nothing else." Pepys was at this "generosity," she never forgot her husband's eccentricities with regard to other women, continually vexing him with allusions, and avoiding conversations in which he found pleasure. On the 10th of January (Sunday), he, before rising, spoke to her of the servant-maids, and said one "little word that did give occasion to my wife to fall out." She prolonged the discussion almost all the morning with excessive bitterness, and then The fact that she was relapsed into friendliness. continually ripping up old wounds, gave Pepys, as he tells us, much annoyance, and made him melana rent in his fine camlet cloak on the latch of a choly for the rest of the day. On the night of the door, and how it was darned-how he met two 12th, however, having ceased from her hostilities for boys one evening, and was amused by their two days, she returned to the assault, and, this swearing, stamping, and fretting, because untime, invented a more practical method of expressable to get their horse over a stile and ditch, ing the indignation of her heart. Observing her one of them swearing and cursing most bit-"mighty dull" in the evening, Pepys acknowledg terly; "and I would fain, in revenge, have persuaded him to have drove his horse through the ditch, by which, I believe, he would have stuck there." In this, however, he failed, for the horse would not go, and he was disappointed of his amiable desire. Many other things he tells us, too, equally remarkable and eccentric; and many of them, to the last degree, are curious illustrations of the civilization of that period. But, as we have said, it is impossible to notice more than a few of the curiosities of this diary, which is a complete museum of facts connected with the period of|

We must hasten on with Pepys, and avoid to notice countless curious things both of what occurred to him and of what he heard, which in themselves are well worthy of attention. He tells us now how his wife was as mad as the devil, and there was nothing but ill words during a whole evening, and how he tore

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ing that he himself was not "mighty fond," because of the hard words she had given him, retired to bed, expecting his wife to follow. Waking after a short sleep, he found she had not come, but was in the room, lighting fresh candles, piling fuel on the fire, and making the place comfortable, without in the least preparing to go into the bed.

"At this, being troubled, I, after a while, prayed her to come to bed; so, after an hour or two, she silent, and I now and then praying her to come to bed, she fell all into a fury-that I was a r rogue, and false to her. I did, as I might truly, deny it, and was mightly troubled; but all would not serve.

"At last, about one o'clock, she came to the side of the bed,

And I cannot blame her

mean

discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me!"

These are the last words in this extraordinary diary.

The present is a work which will not lose its value when scores of contemporary books are gone and forgotten as leaves rotting in the earth. Spring brings forth new buds, green and fresh, and the old vegetation of the past year is trodden underfoot and perishes, to be no more thought of; but the next season, rich as it may be in works of enduring interest, will not, neither will any that succeed it, bring out another set of volumes more valuable, more curious, more extraordinary, in every point of view, than this Diary of Samuel Pepys, which is a treasury of rare facts, antique ideas, and secret information. It is the unveiling of the reign of Charles II. The people of those days saw events succeeding each other in rapid succession, but were unaware of the motive power which carried them on. We have here exposed the hidden machinery of those days.

They wit

and drew my curtain open, and with the tongs red-hot at the end, made as if she did design to pinch me with them. At which, in distaay, I rose up; and, with a few words, she laid them down; and did, by little and little, very sillily, let all the discourse fail:] and about two, but with much seeming difficulty, came to bed, and there lay well all night, and lay in bed taiking together, with much pleasure-it being, I know, nothing but her doubt of my going out yesterday, without telling her of my going, which did vex her, poor wretch! last night. jealousy, though it do vex me to the heart." Mrs. Pepys seems to have been watchful of her husband; and though, after this explosion, no violent "scene" took place for some time, she seizes the occasion when Pepys is going home from the play to utter a wicked allusion upon the industry with which he employed his eyes at the theatre, ing," as he naively explains, "upon women." The next day, she again vexes him, so that, going to bed without supping, he weeps to himself for grief, "which she discerning, comes to bed, and mightily kind." On another occasion, soon after, Knipp winks at Pepys while at the theatre, a circumstance not unnoticed by his wife, who is careful to mention it. Numerous little instances of this kind occur to disturb the tenor of our diarist's life.uessed and felt the effects of policy; we find here With his carriage, however, his favours at Court, the causes, and see the secret springs. In a word, his aristocratic friends, his increasing wealth, the we are admitted into the concealed chamber of the fine dinners he can give, the presents he receives, past, and trace, to their deepest and most intricate and the pleasure he enjoys, he has few causes of roots, things which, branching out and fructifying annoyance, except in the increasing weakness of his in every variety of form and character, appeared, to eyes. This he speaks of with great regret; but his regrets the ordinary spectator of those days, either as the are sometimes equally grievous where trifles are in the result of a miracle, or as the ordinary effects of a case as when real misfortunes occur. This is also true natural and unalterable process. The source of the river, the root of the tree, the very seed from of his gratification. He exults over the merest commonplace incidents, as though some great event had occurred. which the flower sprang, the hidden fountain of One particular source of delight displays a very peculiar events, are here revealed. For this, the book is Could the part of his character. So attached was he to royalty, at once intoxicating and valuable. so dearly did he love to come in contact with it, that reader be suddenly transplanted and set down he exults, as an honour almost too grand to be conin a distant region, in the midst of a city exactly ceived, that he was allowed to kiss the corpse of a corresponding in aspect to the manners and customs queen who had laid in her grave for more than two of its population, and in every minute particular, hundred years. Visiting Westminster Abbey on Shrove with the London and the citizens of Pepys' time, Tuesday, he saw, "by particular favour, the body of he would, doubtless, be sensible of as astonishing a Queen Katherine of Valois; and I had the upper part change as the savage from Timbuctoo would exof her body in my hands, and I did kiss her mouth, perience if suddenly transported to the spot of refiecting upon it, that I did kiss a queene; and that ground opposite the Royal Exchange, where the this was my birthday (23d February, 1688), thirty-whirl of locomotion would turn him giddy, where six years old, that I did kiss a queene!" the roar of traffic would stun him, and where the strangeness of every sight would bewilder his senses, Next to this, and little less astonishing to our unprepared mind, must be the perusal of the Pepysian diaries, from which Mr. Macaulay, while sketching the manners and civilization of the period, has largely borrowed.

To afford an idea of what this queen was whom Pepys so lovingly hugged and kissed, we may quote from Dart :-" "There it hath ever since continued to be seen; the bones being firmly united, and thinly clothed with flesh, like scrapings of tanned leather." The reader, doubtless, does not envy Pepys the pri vilege he enjoyed.

At length the weakness and soreness of his eyes became almost intolerable. To relinquish his diary was now imperative. He could, it is true, continue, by the aid of a secretary, to note down such facts of importance, either public or private, as it was essentially necessary for him to do; but this pri-larged, improved, and corrected. vate record of his thoughts, legible then to him alone, must be abandoned. The sacrifice was great, for he seems to have cherished those journals with something like affection. However, the sacrifice was imperative, and he submitted to it, grieving bitterly over the necessity :

We cannot now pause to accompany Pepys through the remainder of his life, to his grave. It is with the diary we have had to do; and that ended, we take leave of him. The new edition now published will, doubtless, have for many the novelty and the interest of a new work. It has been enLord Braybrooke must congratulate himself on the admiration with which his most excellent performance of the part His industry of editor has filled every reader. and his judicious ability cannot too highly be praised. His notes are valuable and interesting. The whole is arranged with regularity and precision, whilst the copious index may be considered as adding most materially to the value of the edition.

GLASGOW CROSS-A SKETCH.