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Diary
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General SummarySAMUEL PEPYS (1633–1703), whose Diary is one of the most fascinating books ever written, held an important position in the navy office at London. The Diary covers the period 1660–1669, the first ten years of the reign of Charles II. It was written in shorthand, quite without any thought of publication, and, indeed, was only deciphered and printed more than one hundred years after Pepys’s death. He jotted down in this unique journal matters of every sort: his domestic affairs, his visits, the people he met, the books he read, and all his thoughts and feelings. Pepys’s connection with the British government brought him in contact with the leading men of the time and enabled him to be a spectator of many important events. Hence the Diary, apart from its personal interest, is a historical document of the highest significance.
CHAPTER III
English Life and Manners Under the Restoration1
13. Arrival of Charles II in England2
May 23, 1660. In the morning came infinity of people on
board from the king to go along with him. My Lord, Mr.
Crew, and others, go on shore to meet the king as he comes off
from shore, where Sir R. Stayner bringing his Majesty into the
boat, I hear that his Majesty did with a great deal of affection
kiss my Lord upon his first meeting. The king, with the two
dukes, the queen of Bohemia, princess royal, and prince of
Orange, came on board, where I in their coming in kissed the
king’s, queen’s, and princess’s hands. Infinite shooting off of
the guns, and that in a disorder on purpose, which was better
than if it had been otherwise. All day nothing but lords and
persons of honor on board, that we were exceeding full. Dined
in a great deal of state, the royal company by themselves in the
coach, which was a blessed sight to see. . . . We now weighed
anchor, and with a fresh gale and most happy weather we set sail
for England.
All the afternoon the king walked here and there, up and down
(quite contrary to what I thought him to have been), very active
and stirring. Upon the quarterdeck he fell into discourse of his
escape from Worcester,1 where it made me ready to weep to hear
the stories that he told of his difficulties that he had passed
through, as his traveling four days and three nights on foot, every
step up to his knees in dirt, with nothing but a green coat and a
pair of country breeches on, and a pair of country shoes that
made him so sore all over his feet, that he could scarcely stir.
Yet he was forced to run away from a miller and other company,
that took him for a rogue. His sitting at table at one place,
where the master of the house, that had not seen him in eight
years, did know him, but kept it private; when at the same table
there was one that had been of his own regiment at Worcester,
did not know him, but made him drink the king’s health and said
that the king was at least four fingers higher than he. At another
place he was by some servants of the house made to drink,
that they might know him not to be a Roundhead, which they
swore he was. In another place at his inn, the master of the
house, as the king was standing with his hands upon the back of a
chair by the fireside, kneeled down and kissed his hand, privately,
saying that he would not ask him who he was, but bid God bless
him whither he was going. Then the difficulty of getting a boat
to get into France, where he was fain to plot with the master
thereof to keep his design from the four men and a boy (which
was all his ship’s company), and so got to Fécamp in France.
At Rouen he looked so poorly, that the people went into the
rooms before he went away to see whether he had not stole
something or other.
May 25, 1660. By the morning we were come close to the
land, and everybody made ready to get on shore. . . . The
king was received by General Monk with all imaginable love and
respect at his entrance upon the land of Dover. Infinite the
crowd of people and the horsemen, citizens, and noblemen of all
sorts. The mayor of the town came and gave him his white
staff, the badge of his place, which the king did give him again.
The mayor also presented him from the town a very rich Bible,
which he took and said it was the thing that he loved above all
things in the world. A canopy was provided for him to stand
under, which he did, and talked awhile with General Monk and
others, and so into a stately coach there set for him, and so
away through the town toward Canterbury, without making
any stay at Dover. The shouting and joy expressed by all is
past imagination.
1 , edited by H. B. Wheatley. 10 vols. London,
1893–1899. George Bell and Sons.
2 Pepys, , vol. i, pp. 155–158, 161–162.
1 The battle of Worcester, won by Cromwell in 1651.
Contents:
Chicago: H. B. Wheatley, ed., "Arrival of Charles II in England," Diary in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 22–23. Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SHPN7YPGNQ19DLP.
MLA: . "Arrival of Charles II in England." Diary, edited by H. B. Wheatley, Vol. i, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 22–23. Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SHPN7YPGNQ19DLP.
Harvard: (ed.), 'Arrival of Charles II in England' in Diary. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.22–23. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SHPN7YPGNQ19DLP.
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