Volume II Part 8 (1/2)
This is the substance of what she told me, and what I saw and curiously examined. I was formerly acquainted with the impostorious nuns of Loudun, in France, which made such noise among the Papists; I therefore thought this worth the notice. I remember Monsieur Monconys[19] (that curious traveler and a Roman Catholic) was by no means satisfied with the _stigmata_ of those nuns, because they were so shy of letting him sc.r.a.pe the letters, which were Jesus, Maria, Joseph (as I think), observing they began to scale off with it, whereas this poor wench was willing to submit to any trial; so that I profess I know not what to think of it, nor dare I p.r.o.nounce it anything supernatural.
[Footnote 19: Balthasar de Monconys, a Frenchman, celebrated for his travels in the East, which he published in three volumes. His object was to discover vestiges of the philosophy of Trismegistus and Zoroaster; in which, it is hardly necessary to add, he was not very successful.]
20th August, 1670. At Windsor I supped with the Duke of Monmouth; and, the next day, invited by Lord Arlington, dined with the same Duke and divers Lords. After dinner my Lord and I had a conference of more than an hour alone in his bedchamber, to engage me in the History. I showed him something that I had drawn up, to his great satisfaction, and he desired me to show it to the Treasurer.
28th August, 1670. One of the Canons preached; then followed the offering of the Knights of the Order, according to custom; first the poor Knights, in procession, then, the Canons in their formalities, the Dean and Chancellor, then his Majesty (the Sovereign), the Duke of York, Prince Rupert; and, lastly, the Earl of Oxford, being all the Knights that were then at Court.
I dined with the Treasurer, and consulted with him what pieces I was to add; in the afternoon the King took me aside into the balcony over the terrace, extremely pleased with what had been told him I had begun, in order to his commands, and enjoining me to proceed vigorously in it. He told me he had ordered the Secretaries of State to give me all necessary a.s.sistance of papers and particulars relating to it and enjoining me to make it a LITTLE KEEN, for that the Hollanders had very unhandsomely abused him in their pictures, books, and libels.
Windsor was now going to be repaired, being exceedingly ragged and ruinous. Prince Rupert, the Constable, had begun to trim up the keep or high round Tower, and handsomely adorned his hall with furniture of arms, which was very singular, by so disposing the pikes, muskets, pistols, bandoleers, holsters, drums, back, breast, and headpieces, as was very extraordinary. Thus, those huge steep stairs ascending to it had the walls invested with this martial furniture, all new and bright, so disposing the bandoleers, holsters, and drums, as to represent festoons, and that without any confusion, trophy-like. From the hall we went into his bedchamber, and ample rooms hung with tapestry, curious and effeminate pictures, so extremely different from the other, which presented nothing but war and horror.
The King pa.s.sed most of his time in hunting the stag, and walking in the park, which he was now planting with rows of trees.
13th September, 1670. To visit Sir Richard Lashford, my kinsman, and Mr.
Charles Howard, at his extraordinary garden, at Deepden.
15th September, 1670. I went to visit Mr. Arthur Onslow, at West Clandon, a pretty dry seat on the Downs, where we dined in his great room.
17th September, 1670. To visit Mr. Hussey, who, being near Wotton, lives in a sweet valley, deliciously watered.
23d September, 1670. To Albury, to see how that garden proceeded, which I found exactly done to the design and plot I had made, with the crypta through the mountain in the park, thirty perches in length. Such a Pausilippe[20] is nowhere in England. The ca.n.a.l was now digging, and the vineyard planted.
[Footnote 20: A word adopted by Evelyn for a subterranean pa.s.sage, from the famous grot of Pausilippo, at Naples.]
14th October, 1670. I spent the whole afternoon in private with the Treasurer who put into my hands those secret pieces and transactions concerning the Dutch war, and particularly the expedition of Bergen, in which he had himself the chief part, and gave me instructions, till the King arriving from Newmarket, we both went up into his bedchamber.
21st October, 1670. Dined with the Treasurer; and, after dinner, we were shut up together. I received other [further] advices, and ten paper books of dispatches and treaties; to return which again I gave a note under my hand to Mr. Joseph Williamson, Master of the Paper office.
31st October, 1670. I was this morning fifty years of age; the Lord teach me to number my days so as to apply them to his glory! Amen.
4th November, 1670. Saw the Prince of Orange, newly come to see the King, his uncle; he has a manly, courageous, wise countenance, resembling his mother and the Duke of Gloucester, both deceased.
I now also saw that famous beauty, but in my opinion of a childish, simple, and baby face, Mademoiselle Querouaille,[21] lately Maid of Honor to Madame, and now to be so to the Queen.
[Footnote 21: Henrietta, the King's sister, married to Philip, Duke of Orleans, was then on a visit here. Madame Querouaille came over in her train, on purpose to entice Charles into an union with Louis XIV.; a design which unhappily succeeded but too well. She became the King's mistress, was made d.u.c.h.ess of Portsmouth, and was his favorite till his death.]
23d November, 1670. Dined with the Earl of Arlington, where was the Venetian Amba.s.sador, of whom I now took solemn leave, now on his return.
There were also Lords Howard, Wharton, Windsor, and divers other great persons.
24th November, 1670. I dined with the Treasurer, where was the Earl of Rochester, a very profane wit.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
15th December, 1670. It was the thickest and darkest fog on the Thames that was ever known in the memory of man, and I happened to be in the very midst of it. I supped with Monsieur Zulestein, late Governor to the late Prince of Orange.
10th January, 1670-71. Mr. Bohun, my son's tutor, had been five years in my house, and now Bachelor of Laws, and Fellow of New College, went from me to Oxford to reside there, having well and faithfully performed his charge.
18th January, 1671. This day I first acquainted his Majesty with that incomparable young man, Gibbon,[22] whom I had lately met with in an obscure place by mere accident, as I was walking near a poor solitary thatched house, in a field in our parish, near Sayes Court. I found him shut in; but looking in at the window, I perceived him carving that large cartoon, or crucifix, of Tintoretto, a copy of which I had myself brought from Venice, where the original painting remains. I asked if I might enter; he opened the door civilly to me, and I saw him about such a work as for the curiosity of handling, drawing, and studious exactness, I never had before seen in all my travels. I questioned him why he worked in such an obscure and lonesome place; he told me it was that he might apply himself to his profession without interruption, and wondered not a little how I found him out. I asked if he was unwilling to be made known to some great man, for that I believed it might turn to his profit; he answered, he was yet but a beginner, but would not be sorry to sell off that piece; on demanding the price, he said 100. In good earnest, the very frame was worth the money, there being nothing in nature so tender and delicate as the flowers and festoons about it, and yet the work was very strong; in the piece was more than one hundred figures of men, etc. I found he was likewise musical, and very civil, sober, and discreet in his discourse. There was only an old woman in the house. So, desiring leave to visit him sometimes, I went away.
[Footnote 22: Better known by the name of Grinling Gibbon; celebrated for his exquisite carving. Some of his most astonis.h.i.+ng work is at Chatsworth and at Petworth.]