The Diary Samuel Pepys (love books to read .TXT) 📖

Heath, Attorney-General, in his pleadings in 1628, “as having a very fertile and fruitfull soyle, and being full of most pleasant and delightful playnes and lawnes, most useful and commodious for hunting and chasing of the game of redd and falowe deare,” and as “having been alwaies especiallie and above all theire other fforests, prized and esteemed by the Kinge’s Maiestie and his said noble progenitors the Kinges and Queenes of this Realme of England, as well for his and theire own pleasure, disport, and recreation from those pressing cares for the publique weale and safetie which are inseparablie incident to theire kinglie office, as for the interteynment of forreyne Princes and Embassadors, thereby to show unto them the honour and magnificence of the Kinges and Queenes of this Realme.” Sir William Hicks held the office of Deputy of Sub-Warden (called Lieutenant of the Forest) from 1640 to 1670. Pepys refers to him on September 11th and 13th, 1665, and on the latter day he visited his house, Ruckholts at Leyton, where he was not very well entertained (see note 2660 and note 2663) About 1668 a restraint on the killing of deer was ordered, and in 1670 Sir William Hicks was fined £50 for not making it appear that he had published this warrant to the keepers, whereby deer had been killed, particularly for himself. Sir William Hicks died in 1680, and on his monument in Leyton Church he is represented in a recumbent position, holding a baton in his hand as Lieutenant of Waltham Forest. He was an ancestor of the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer. Much timber fit for the use of the Navy was obtained from that part of the forest known as Hainault. (See W. R. Fisher’s Forest of Essex, pp. 1, 2, 120, 218, 240). ↩

Lord Braybrooke noted that off-square is evidently a mistake in the shorthand MS. for half-square, which is explained in W. Leybourn’s Complete Surveyor, third edition, London, 1674, folio, and he then quoted a series of calculations which, as they do not throw much light on the text, are omitted. Lord Braybrooke adds: “It is to be hoped that Pepys carried out his intention of putting an end to the nefarious practice of cheating the King in the purchase of timber. He speaks of it in good faith, and his term, mystery, simply implies his ignorance of the art of measuring. With regard to Sir William Warren, the case was probably different: he made large presents to Pepys, and confesses that he perjured himself before the Committee of the House of Commons, in concealing the fact. Frauds in the supply of timber for the use of the Navy have been common subjects of complaint at a much later period.” ↩

Henry Jermyn, younger nephew of the Earl of St. Albans. He was created Baron Jermyn of Dover, 1685, and died in 1708, s. p.; his elder brother, Thomas, became second Baron Jermyn of Bury St. Edmund’s, on the death of his uncle, the Earl of St. Albans, in 1683, and died unmarried in 1703. Thomas Jermyn was Governor of Jersey. ↩

See July 30th, 1662, ante. ↩

“Aug. 18, 1662. Capt. Thomas Howard, the Earl of Carlisle’s brother, and the Lord Dillon’s son, a Colonel, met with Mr. Giles Rawlings, privy purse to the D. of York, and Mr. Jermyn, the Earl of St. Alban’s nephew.⁠ ⁠… There had been a slight quarrel betwixt them, and as they, Rawlings and Jermyn, came from tennis, these two drew at them, and then Col. Dillon killed this Mr. Rawlings dead upon the spot. Mr. Jermyn was left for dead. This Captain Howard was unfortunate since the return of his Majy, in killing a horse-courser man in St. Giles, Mr. Rawlings was much lamented; he lived in a very handsome state, six horses in his coach, three footmen, etc. Oct. Capt. Thomas Howard, and Lord Dillon’s son, both of them fled about the killing of Mr. Giles Rawlings; but after a quarter of a year they came into England, and were acquitted by law.”

Rugge’s Diurnal

Thomas Howard, fourth son of Sir William Howard, was afterwards a colonel in the army, and third husband of Mary, Duchess of Richmond (see ante, April 21st, 1662). ↩

Colonel Cary Dillon, youngest son of Robert, second Earl of Roscommon (then Lord Dillon), who is previously referred to as the suitor of the beautiful Frances Boteler (or Butler), and not, as stated in former editions of the Diary, Charles, eldest son of James, fourth Viscount Dillon. Cary Dillon succeeded his nephew the poet, in 1684, as fifth Earl of Roscommon. He married Katharine, daughter of John Werden of Chester, and died November 25th, 1689. ↩

Hamilton gives the following account of the duel, which arose from rivalry between Howard and Jermyn about Lady Shrewsbury:

“Jermyn prit pour second, Giles Rawlings, homme de bonne fortune, et gros joueur. Howard se servit de Dillon, adroit et brave, fort honnête homme, et par malheur intime ami de Rawlings. Dans ce combat, la fortune ne fut point pour les favoris de l’amour. Le pauvre Rawlings y fut tué tout roide, et Jermyn, percé de trois coups d’épée, fut porté chez son oncle, avec fort peu de signes de vie.”

Mém. de Grammont

—⁠B. ↩

The old Pall Mall represents the present street, which was so called when the Mall was made in St. James’s Park. ↩

A Moorish usurper, who had put himself at the head of an army for the purpose of attacking Tangier. —⁠B. ↩

Sir Heneage Finch, Bart., was Solicitor-General from 1660 to 1670, in which latter year he became Attorney-General. He was created Earl of Nottingham in 1681. ↩

This must be some friend of Pepys who is unknown to fame. In former