goldsmith's wife, Mrs. Stokes, and bespoke a silver chafingh dish for warming plates. Three weeks later he called for the chafing-dishes, having apparently bought more than one and also took home a silver dredger. This good lady waste doubtless the wife of Humphrey Stokes, at the Black Horse in Lombard Street.

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Once more the cupboard of plate of our diarist is men tioned, this time in connection with his intention to pick out about forty pounds' worth to be changed for more useful pieces. Additions were now made to it after a visit to the shop of the goldsmith-banker, Sir Robert Vyner, where he had gone to see some silver plates made as a present from Pe Captain George Cocke to my Lord Brouncker. So charmed was Pepys with these plates that he bespoke a dozen for himself, but greater still was his joy when the generous captain begged him to accept them as a gift. To the great satisfaction and pride of Pepys these silver plates adorned his dining-table at a dinner given by him to Lord Sandwich and four others, when all things were mighty rich and handsome. Captain Cocke presented Pepys with another dozen silver plates obtained from Sir Robert Vyner. Added to his collection at the same time were a fair pair of candle sticks and six plates, truly a very pretty present," from one Foundes.

Stirred as was the country at a time when public affairs were in a deplorable condition, the seamen in a state of mutiny for want of their just pay, our enemies, the French and Dutch, growing daily more turbulent, the City in ruinous state since the Great Fire, the inhabitants moving elsewhere and no encouragement to traders, a d and vicious and negligent Court, and all sober men fearful of the coming ruin of the whole kingdom within a year-such is the gloomy picture painted by Pepys-yet amidst all this gloom he complacently contemplates his prosperous con dition, abounding in good plate to such an extent as to enable him, as he proudly states, to serve his guests on silver plates now two and a half dozen in number. On January 4, 1667 he gave a great dinner-party, dazing all his guests by seeing themselves so nobly served in plate. As evidence of his great pride in his possessions, the following episodes are of interest. Lord Brouncker, a guest on one occasion, had

* Silver plates of the Stuart period are of great rarity to-day. Twenty-two, varying in date from 1639 to 1643, are or were in the Kremlin, having been a gift from Charles I to the Tsar. Prince Rupert bought a set from Alderman Backwell, but this has probably been melted and the metal made into other objects.

taken much notice of the handsome Pepysian silver, especially admiring the fine flagons and observing merrily, though enviously, that Pepys could not have come honestly by them. Vexed at the peer's ignoble soul, he was determined to beware of him in future, but slyly rejoiced at the opportunity afforded him to show my Lord Brouncker that he was no mean fellow, and that he could live well in the world and be the happy possessor of good things. The second episode bccurred at a large dinner-party, when he observed with evident satisfaction the way his guests looked upon all his fine plate; while the third was the dinner given by Sir William Penn, who had borrowed Pepys's silver platesa dinner described by Pepys, a guest, as a sorry affair, with nothing, handsome but these plates..

Two more additions to his cupboard of plate are chronicled, namely, a standish and a snuff-dish..

An interesting circumstance now occurs in the Diary. On one of his frequent visits to the shop of Sir Robert Vyner, Pepys was shown two or three great silver flagons, engraved with inscriptions as gifts from the King to certain persons of quality who had rendered conspicuous services by remaining in town during the Great Plague.*

The arrival of the Dutch ships in the Thames created a panic in London. Pepys, anxious for the safety of his plate, adopted the same course as he had done in the Great Fire, and distributed it in different places, hoping thereby to save at least a portion of it in the event of the capture of London by the Dutch. His gold coin, to the value of £300, he carried in a girdle around his body.†

With a brief reference to his admiration of the splendour of the Coronation plate of Charles II, happily still preserved in the Tower of London, and to the noble silver warmingpan presented to him by Captain Beckford on New Year's Day in 1668-9, ends this survey of the considerable quantity

The original" flagons" have not been traced. A silver tankard, presented to an unknown person by Sir Edmund Bery Godfrey, one of the recipients of "flagon" from Charles II, was acquired by the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. This tankard was, however, made in 1673-4 and was not the original piece presented by the King, as stated in one or two books on plate. Another tankard, dated two years later, with a similar inscription, was presented to the borough of Sudbury by Sir Gervase Elwes, M.P. Both these tankards were probably copies of the original "flagons."

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The descent of the Dutch fleet on the Thames has been commemorated by pictures, medals, etc. Admiral Michael De Ruyter and Cornelis De Witt were presented with gold and enamelled cups, both of which are preserved, one in Amsterdam, the other in Paris.

Probably one of the vase-shaped silver burners to contain charcoal, easily

of plate acquired by Pepys by gift or purchase and the plate recorded in his Diary. But many other pieces were added to the Pepys collection between that time and his death. He likewise enriched the Clothworkers' Company in y 1677, the year in which he was Master, with a handsome m silver cup, enriched with characteristic ornament of the pers period.

Pepys displayed a real interest in pictures-an interesti which dates from his visit to Audley End and from hisgi admiration of Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII there What was perhaps his first purchase of a picture occurred in July 1660, when he sent Mrs. Pepys to his father's with the sum of five pounds to be expended in buying pictures, at a time when the diarist had saved one hundred pounds Ever ready to admire pictures, he notices the incomparable collection in the King's closet at Whitehall. From this day onward to the end of his busy life, no opportunity to see works of art escaped his keenness.

For Lely's work he had a discriminating admiration. He praised this artist's portrait of Edward Montagu, firsts Earl of Sandwich, and quaintly remarks that he is "with child" until he gets a copy done. Taking the portrait in the absence of Lord Sandwich at sea to the artist, Emmanuel De Critz, to be copied, he received it within a few weeks, completed to his content. A little later he bought some pictures, but he does not mention the subject or the artist's

name.

That essentially English art of portrait-painting in miniature had in Pepys an ardent admirer. One miniaturist Salisbury, had painted a portrait of Lord Sandwich, and according to Pepys he had become within two years a great limner.*

At the end of the year 1661 Pepys was determined to follow the fashion of society and have his portrait and that of his wife painted, and proceeded to the studio of Savill in Cheapside to arrange for sittings. He sat for the first time on November 27th. Six days later he again visited the artist and had more of his picture done, but at once expressed disappointment with it as not being a good likeness. Mrs. Pepys accompanied him on the third visit for her first sitting. She was painted in the fashionable vogue, with a little black dog in her lap, and the portrait was finished to his carried in the hand from room to room. Specimens of this period are still

extant.

* A miniature portrait of Lord Sandwich, by Samuel Cooper, dated 1659,

is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

satisfaction. To his unconcealed annoyance, Lady Sandwich, while expressing her satisfaction with his own portrait, was much" offended offended" with that of Mrs. Pepys. With that petty vanity and touch of snobbishness characteristic of Pepys, he now changed his opinion in compliance with that of the peeress and announced his intention to have the picture altered, and took it back to Savill, who improved. t to the satisfaction of Mr. and Mrs. Pepys. Both portraits were hung in his dining-room, which now appears Thandsome" with all his pictures. Savill was shortly afterwards commissioned to paint a miniature portrait. of Pepys himself.

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The taste of our diarist for pictures increases daily. Not only was he made acquainted with Samuel Cooper, the great limner in little," but he also visited William Faithorne, the well-known engraver, from whom he bought some pictures, which he proceeded to hang up in his house, spending the whole of a day in doing so. Within a few days he was a visitor at the place of De Critz, already mentioned, and there examined some pictures copied by this artist from pictures attributed to Michael Angelo and Raphael in the collection of Charles II. Pepys borrowed from De Critz a copy of a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, to hang up in his house. On the same day Pepys met Salisbury, the artist, in the studio of De Critz, and both went to an ale-house in Covent Garden to see a picture offered for sale for the small sum of twenty shillings. Pepys, with the instinct of the bargainhunter, offered fourteen shillings for a picture which he declared to be worth more, but he did not buy it, giving as a reason that he had no mind to break his oath of frugality. He had just made a vow to abstain from wine and also from theatre-going, a pleasure to which he was much addicted. As a slave to feminine beauty-more than once was his. wife angry for his gadding abroad in search for beautiesand of the charms of the notorious Lady Castlemaine, Pepys was moved to see her portrait by Sir Peter Lely, and to this end made a clandestine arrangement with a menial in the artist's house to see it, but at the moment the picture was not accessible. He was, however, rewarded for his pertinacity by being shown the portrait by Lely himself, exclaiming what a "most blessed picture!"* From Lely's establishment Pepys proceeded to the place of Joseph Michael Wright, the Scottish painter, recently established in London, but Pepys shared Evelyn's opinion of this artist that he was not a considerable artist.

This picture is in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich at Hinchingbrooke.

Pepys was always observant. Whether it was in one to of the King's palaces, the Duke of York's residence or the Duke of Albemarle's, he never passed out without a glance at the objects of art. For example, on Christmas Day in 1662 he walked to Whitehall, intending to receive the Sacrament in the Royal Chapel, but being late, he walked up into the palace and spent his time looking over the pictures, particularly comparing the ships in the "Voyage of Henry VIII to Boulogne" with those of his own day.

To the number of his acquaintances among artists must be added the name of Jacob Huysmans, the Dutchman, who, according to Horace Walpole, created himself the Queen's painter and made her sit for every Madonna or Venus that he drew. On one visit he was shown portraits by Huysmans of the Queen as a shepherdess and as St. Catherine, and one of Mrs. Stewart (afterwards Duchess of Richmond), which is still in the Royal collection; and on another visit he appears to have decided to commission the artist to paint a portrait of Mrs. Pepys, herself soon to become a "limner" under the tuition of one Browne.

Disappointed at the meanness of the dinner at the house of Sir W. Hickes, he found consolation in contemplating the beauty of a picture of the Queen-Mother when young, by Vandyck, at his host's house. Another portrait which he admired was one of the beautiful Mrs. Myddleton, at the house of Evelyn, where he saw for the first time some mezzotints. Frequent visits to the houses of artists are now recorded in the Diary. John Hayls, a rival of Lely, was asked to paint portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Pepys, the diarist deciding to be portrayed in an Indian gown, hired for the purpose. It is odd that he should have selected Hayls, whom he regarded as inferior to Lely, but perhaps Lely was too busy or too expensive. Amusing comments are made in the Diary on Lely's failure after two or three attempts to obtain a satisfactory likeness of the Duchess of York.

If the meretricious works of Verrio and Laguerre, artistic giants in the time of Pepys and Evelyn, have not stood the test of time, it is different with the reputation of the miniature portrait painter, Samuel Cooper, from whom Pepys ordered a miniature of his wife. Watching the progress of the work from day to day, he spent a whole afternoon observing the completion of it, whether to the pleasure of the artist or not, Cooper has not left any record. But while the miniature was done to Pepys's" content," it did not quite *This picture is in the National Portrait Gallery. Another portrait Pepys by Hayls, one of his worst works, is at Clothworkers' Hall.

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