Volume II Part 12 (1/2)
Dr. Compton, brother to the Earl of Northampton, preached on 1 Corinth.
v. 11-16, showing the Church's power in ordaining things indifferent; this worthy person's talent is not preaching, but he is likely to make a grave and serious good man.
I saw her Majesty's rich toilet in her dressing room, being all of ma.s.sy gold, presented to her by the King, valued at 4,000.
26th April, 1673. Dr. Lamplugh preached at St. Martin's the Holy Sacrament following, which I partook of, upon obligation of the late Act of Parliament, enjoining everybody in office, civil or military, under penalty of 500, to receive it within one month before two authentic witnesses; being engrossed on parchment, to be afterward produced in the Court of Chancery, or some other Court of Record; which I did at the Chancery bar, as being one of the Council of Plantations and Trade; taking then also the oath of allegiance and supremacy, signing the clause in the said Act against Transubstantiation.
25th May, 1673. My son was made a younger brother of the Trinity House.
The new master was Sir J. Smith, one of the Commissioners of the Navy, a stout seaman, who had interposed and saved the Duke from peris.h.i.+ng by a fire s.h.i.+p in the late war.
28th May, 1673. I carried one Withers, an ingenious s.h.i.+pwright, to the King to show him some new method of building.
29th May, 1673. I saw the Italian comedy at the Court, this afternoon.
10th June, 1673. Came to visit and dine with me my Lord Viscount Cornbury and his Lady; Lady Frances Hyde, sister to the d.u.c.h.ess of York; and Mrs. Dorothy Howard, maid of Honor. We went, after dinner, to see the formal and formidable camp on Blackheath, raised to invade Holland; or, as others suspected for another design. Thence, to the Italian gla.s.s-house at Greenwich, where gla.s.s was blown of finer metal than that of Murano, at Venice.
13th June, 1673. Came to visit us, with other ladies of rank, Mrs.
Sedley,[33] daughter to Sir Charles, who was none of the most virtuous, but a wit.
[Footnote 33: The Duke of York's mistress, afterward created by him Countess of Dorchester.]
19th June, 1673. Congratulated the new Lord Treasurer, Sir Thomas...o...b..rne, a gentleman with whom I had been intimately acquainted at Paris, and who was every day at my father-in-law's house and table there; on which account I was too confident of succeeding in his favor, as I had done in his predecessor's; but such a friend shall I never find, and I neglected my time, far from believing that my Lord Clifford would have so rashly laid down his staff, as he did, to the amazement of all the world, when it came to the test of his receiving the Communion, which I am confident he forbore more from some promise he had entered into to gratify the Duke, than from any prejudice to the Protestant religion, though I found him wavering a pretty while.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
23d June, 1673. To London, to accompany our Council who went in a body to congratulate the new Lord Treasurer, no friend to it because promoted by my Lord Arlington, whom he hated.
26th June, 1673. Came visitors from Court to dine with me and see the army still remaining encamped on Blackheath.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
6th July, 1673. This evening I went to the funeral of my dear and excellent friend, that good man and accomplished gentleman, Sir Robert Murray, Secretary of Scotland. He was buried by order of his Majesty in Westminster Abbey.
25th July, 1673. I went to Tunbridge Wells, to visit my Lord Clifford, late Lord Treasurer, who was there to divert his mind more than his body; it was believed that he had so engaged himself to the Duke, that rather than take the Test, without which he was not capable of holding any office, he would resign that great and honorable station. This, I am confident, grieved him to the heart, and at last broke it; for, though he carried with him music, and people to divert him, and, when I came to see him, lodged me in his own apartment, and would not let me go from him, I found he was struggling in his mind; and being of a rough and ambitious nature, he could not long brook the necessity he had brought on himself, of submission to this conjuncture. Besides, he saw the Dutch war, which was made much by his advice, as well as the shutting up of the Exchequer, very unprosperous. These things his high spirit could not support. Having stayed here two or three days, I obtained leave of my Lord to return.
In my way, I saw my Lord of Dorset's house at Knowle, near Sevenoaks, a great old-fas.h.i.+oned house.
30th July, 1673. To Council, where the business of transporting wool was brought before us.
31st July, 1673. I went to see the pictures of all the judges and eminent men of the Long Robe, newly painted by Mr. Wright, and set up in Guildhall, costing the city 1,000. Most of them are very like the persons they represent, though I never took Wright to be any considerable artist.
13th August, 1673. I rode to Durdans, where I dined at my Lord Berkeley's of Berkeley Castle, my old and n.o.ble friend, it being his wedding anniversary, where I found the d.u.c.h.ess of Albemarle, and other company, and returned home on that evening late.
15th August, 1673. Came to visit me my Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Shaftesbury.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
18th August, 1673. My Lord Clifford, being about this time returned from Tunbridge, and preparing for Devons.h.i.+re, I went to take my leave of him at Wallingford House; he was packing up pictures, most of which were of hunting wild beasts and vast pieces of bull-baiting, bear-baiting, etc. I found him in his study, and restored to him several papers of state, and others of importance, which he had furnished me with, on engaging me to write the ”History of the Holland War,” with other private letters of his acknowledgments to my Lord Arlington, who from a private gentleman of a very n.o.ble family, but inconsiderable fortune, had advanced him from almost nothing. The first thing was his being in Parliament, then knighted, then made one of the Commissioners of sick and wounded, on which occasion we sat long together; then, on the death of Hugh Pollard, he was made Comptroller of the Household and Privy Councillor, yet still my brother Commissioner; after the death of Lord Fitz-Harding, Treasurer of the Household, he, by letters to Lord Arlington, which that Lord showed me, begged of his Lords.h.i.+p to obtain it for him as the very height of his ambition. These were written with such submissions and professions of his patronage, as I had never seen any more acknowledging. The Earl of Southampton then dying, he was made one of the Commissioners of the Treasury. His Majesty inclining to put it into one hand, my Lord Clifford, under pretense of making all his interest for his patron, my Lord Arlington, cut the gra.s.s under his feet, and procured it for himself, a.s.suring the King that Lord Arlington did not desire it. Indeed, my Lord Arlington protested to me that his confidence in Lord Clifford made him so remiss and his affection to him was so particular, that he was absolutely minded to devolve it on Lord Clifford, all the world knowing how he himself affected ease and quiet, now growing into years, yet little thinking of this go-by. This was the great ingrat.i.tude Lord Clifford showed, keeping my Lord Arlington in ignorance, continually a.s.suring him he was pursuing his interest, which was the Duke's into whose great favor Lord Clifford was now gotten; but which certainly cost him the loss of all, namely, his going so irrevocably far in his interest.
For the rest, my Lord Clifford was a valiant, incorrupt gentleman, ambitious, not covetous; generous, pa.s.sionate, a most constant, sincere friend, to me in particular, so as when he laid down his office, I was at the end of all my hopes and endeavors. These were not for high matters, but to obtain what his Majesty was really indebted to my father-in-law, which was the utmost of my ambition, and which I had undoubtedly obtained, if this friend had stood. Sir Thomas...o...b..rn, who succeeded him, though much more obliged to my father-in-law and his family, and my long and old acquaintance, being of a more haughty and far less obliging nature, I could hope for little; a man of excellent natural parts; but nothing of generous or grateful.