Volume II Part 21 (2/2)
We ate at two tables, the Amba.s.sadors and interpreter by themselves.
Their garments were rich Indian silks, flowered with gold, viz, a close waistcoat to their knees, drawers, naked legs, and on their heads caps made like fruit baskets. They wore poisoned daggers at their bosoms, the hafts carved with some ugly serpents' or devils' heads, exceedingly keen, and of Damascus metal. They wore no sword. The second Amba.s.sador (sent it seems to succeed in case the first should die by the way in so tedious a journey), having been at Mecca, wore a Turkish or Arab sash, a little part of the linen hanging down behind his neck, with some other difference of habit, and was half a negro, bare legged and naked feet, and deemed a very holy man. They sat cross-legged like Turks, and sometimes in the posture of apes and monkeys; their nails and teeth as black as jet, and s.h.i.+ning, which being the effect, as to their teeth, of perpetually chewing betel to preserve them from the toothache, much raging in their country, is esteemed beautiful.
The first amba.s.sador was of an olive hue, a flat face, narrow eyes, squat nose, and Moorish lips, no hair appeared; they wore several rings of silver, gold and copper on their fingers, which was a token of knighthood, or n.o.bility. They were of Java Major, whose princes have been turned Mahometans not above fifty years since; the inhabitants are still pagans and idolaters. They seemed of a dull and heavy const.i.tution, not wondering at any thing they saw; but exceedingly astonished how our law gave us propriety in our estates, and so thinking we were all kings, for they could not be made to comprehend how subjects could possess anything but at the pleasure of their Prince, they being all slaves; they were pleased with the notion, and admired our happiness. They were very sober, and I believe subtle in their way.
Their meat was cooked, carried up, and they attended by several fat slaves, who had no covering save drawers, which appeared very uncouth and loathsome. They ate their pilaw, and other spoon-meat, without spoons, taking up their pottage in the hollow of their fingers, and very dexterously flung it into their mouths without spilling a drop.
17th July, 1682. Came to dine with me, the Duke of Grafton and the young Earl of Ossory, son to my most dear deceased friend.
30th July, 1682. Went to visit our good neighbor, Mr. Bohun, whose whole house is a cabinet of all elegancies, especially Indian; in the hall are contrivances of j.a.pan screens, instead of wainscot; and there is an excellent pendule clock inclosed in the curious flowerwork of Mr.
Gibbons, in the middle of the vestibule. The landscapes of the screens represent the manner of living, and country of the Chinese. But, above all, his lady's cabinet is adorned on the fret, ceiling, and chimney-piece, with Mr. Gibbons's best carving. There are also some of Streeter's best paintings, and many rich curiosities of gold and silver as growing in the mines. The gardens are exactly kept, and the whole place very agreeable and well watered. The owners are good neighbors, and Mr. Bohun has also built and endowed a hospital for eight poor people, with a pretty chapel, and every necessary accommodation.
1st August, 1682. To the Bishop of London at Fulham, to review the additions which Mr. Marshall had made to his curious book of flowers in miniature, and collection of insects.
4th August, 1682. With Sir Stephen Fox, to survey the foundations of the Royal Hospital begun at Chelsea.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
9th August, 1682. The Council of the Royal Society had it recommended to them to be trustees and visitors, or supervisors, of the Academy which Monsieur Faubert did hope to procure to be built by subscription of worthy gentlemen and n.o.blemen, for the education of youth, and to lessen the vast expense the nation is at yearly by sending children into France to be taught military exercises. We thought to give him all the encouragement our recommendation could procure.
15th August, 1682. Came to visit me Dr. Rogers, an acquaintance of mine long since at Padua. He was then Consul of the English nation, and student in that University, where he proceeded Doctor in Physic; presenting me now with the Latin oration he lately made upon the famous Dr. Harvey's anniversary in the College of Physicians, at London.
20th August, 1682. This night I saw another comet, near Cancer, very bright, but the stream not so long as the former.
29th August, 1682. Supped at Lord Clarendon's, with Lord Hyde, his brother, now the great favorite, who invited himself to dine at my house the Tuesday following.
30th October, 1682. Being my birthday, and I now entering my great climacterical of 63, after serious recollections of the years past, giving Almighty G.o.d thanks for all his merciful preservations and forbearance, begging pardon for my sins and unworthiness, and his blessing on me the year entering, I went with my Lady Fox to survey her building, and give some directions for the garden at Chiswick; the architect is Mr. May,--somewhat heavy and thick, and not so well understood: the garden much too narrow, the place without water, near a highway, and near another great house of my Lord Burlington, little land about it, so that I wonder at the expense; but women will have their will.
25th November, 1682. I was invited to dine with Monsieur Lionberg, the Swedish Resident, who made a magnificent entertainment, it being the birthday of his King. There dined the Duke of Albemarle, Duke of Hamilton, Earl of Bath, Earl of Aylesbury, Lord Arran, Lord Castlehaven, the son of him who was executed fifty years before, and several great persons. I was exceedingly afraid of drinking (it being a Dutch feast), but the Duke of Albemarle being that night to wait on his Majesty, excess was prohibited; and, to prevent all, I stole away and left the company as soon as we rose from table.
[Sidenote: LONDON]
28th November, 1682. I went to the Council of the Royal Society, for the auditing the last year's account, where I was surprised with a fainting fit that for a time took away my sight; but G.o.d being merciful to me, I recovered it after a short repose.
30th November, 1682. I was exceedingly endangered and importuned to stand the election,[48] having so many voices, but by favor of my friends, and regard of my remote dwelling, and now frequent infirmities, I desired their suffrages might be transferred to Sir John Hoskins, one of the Masters of Chancery; a most learned virtuoso as well as lawyer, who accordingly was elected.
[Footnote 48: For President of the Royal Society.]
7th December, 1682. Went to congratulate Lord Hyde (the great favorite) newly made Earl of Rochester, and lately marrying his eldest daughter to the Earl of Ossory.
18th December, 1682. I sold my East India adventure of 250 princ.i.p.al for 750 to the Royal Society, after I had been in that company twenty-five years, being extraordinarily advantageous, by the blessing of G.o.d.
23d January, 1682-83. Sir Francis North, son to the Lord North, and Lord Chief Justice, being made Lord Keeper on the death of the Earl of Nottingham, the Lord Chancellor, I went to congratulate him. He is a most knowing, learned, and ingenious man, and, besides being an excellent person, of an ingenious and sweet disposition, very skillful in music, painting, the new philosophy, and politer studies.
29th January, 1683. Supped at Sir Joseph Williamson's, where was a select company of our Society, Sir William Petty, Dr. Gale (that learned schoolmaster of St. Paul's), Dr. Whistler, Mr. Hill, etc. The conversation was philosophical and cheerful, on divers considerable questions proposed; as of the hereditary succession of the Roman Emperors; the Pica mentioned in the preface to our Common Prayer, which signifies only the Greek _Kalendarium_. These were mixed with lighter subjects.
2d February, 1683. I made my court at St. James's, when I saw the sea charts of Captain Collins, which that industrious man now brought to show the Duke, having taken all the coasting from the mouth of the Thames, as far as Wales, and exactly measuring every creek, island, rock, soundings, harbors, sands, and tides, intending next spring to proceed till he had finished the whole island, and that measured by chains and other instruments: a most exact and useful undertaking. He affirmed, that of all the maps put out since, there are none extant so true as those of Joseph Norden, who gave us the first in Queen Elizabeth's time; all since him are erroneous.
12th February, 1683. This morning I received the news of the death of my father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, Knt. and Bart., who died at my house at Sayes Court this day at ten in the morning, after he had labored under the gout and dropsy for nearly six months, in the 78th year of his age. The funeral was solemnized on the 19th at Deptford, with as much decency as the dignity of the person, and our relation to him, required; there being invited the Bishop of Rochester, several n.o.blemen, knights, and all the fraternity of the Trinity Company, of which he had been Master, and others of the country. The vicar preached a short but proper discourse on Psalm x.x.xix. 10, on the frailty of our mortal condition, concluding with an ample and well-deserved eulogy on the defunct, relating to his honorable birth and ancestors, education, learning in Greek and Latin, modern languages, travels, public employments, signal loyalty, character abroad, and particularly the honor of supporting the Church of England in its public wors.h.i.+p during its persecution by the late rebels' usurpation and regicide, by the suffrages of divers Bishops, Doctors of the Church, and others, who found such an asylum in his house and family at Paris, that in their disputes with the Papists (then triumphing over it as utterly lost) they used to argue for its visibility and existence from Sir R. Browne's chapel and a.s.sembly there.
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