Stewart Books, John Evelyn's Diary 1662

1st January 1662. I went to London, invited to the solemn foolery of the Prince de la Grange, at Lincoln's Inn, where came the King (age 31), Duke, etc. It began with a grand masque, and a formal pleading before the mock Princes, Grandees, Nobles, and Knights of the Sun. He had his Lord Chancellor (age 52), Chamberlain, Treasurer, and other Royal Officers, gloriously clad and attended. It ended in a magnificent banquet. One Mr. Lort was the young spark who maintained the pageantry.

6th January 1662. This evening, according to custom, his Majesty (age 31) opened the revels of that night by throwing the dice himself in the privy chamber, where was a table set on purpose, and lost his £100. (The year before he won £1,500.) The ladies also played very deep. I came away when the Duke of Ormond (age 51) had won about £1,000, and left them still at passage, cards, etc. At other tables, both there and at the groom-porter's, observing the wicked folly and monstrous excess of passion among some losers; sorry am I that such a wretched custom as play to that excess should be countenanced in a Court, which ought to be an example of virtue to the rest of the Kingdom.

9th January 1662. I saw acted the Third Part of "The Siege of Rhodes". In this acted the fair and famous comedian called Roxalana (age 19) from the part she performed; and I think it was the last, she being taken to be the Earl of Oxford's (age 34) Miss [Note. Probably Diana Kirke Countess of Oxford] (as at this time they began to call lewd women). It was in recitative music.

10th January 1662. Being called into his Majesty's (age 31) closet when Mr. Cooper (age 53), the rare limner, was crayoning of the King's face and head, to make the stamps for the new milled money now contriving, I had the honor to hold the candle while it was doing, he choosing the night and candlelight for the better finding out the shadows. During this, his Majesty discoursed with me on several things relating to painting and graving.

11th January 1662. I dined at Arundel House [Map], where I heard excellent music performed by the ablest masters, both French and English, on theorbos, viols, organs, and voices, as an exercise against the coming of the Queen (age 23), purposely composed for her chapel. Afterward, my Lord Aubigny (age 42) her Majesty's Almoner to be) showed us his elegant lodging, and his wheel-chair for ease and motion, with divers other curiosities; especially a kind of artificial glass, or porcelain, adorned with relievos of paste, hard and beautiful. Lord Aubigny (brother to the Duke of Lennox) was a person of good sense, but wholly abandoned to ease and effeminacy.

11th January 1662. I received of Sir Peter Ball, the Queen's (age 52) attorney, a draft of an Act against the nuisance of the smoke of London, to be reformed by removing several trades which are the cause of it, and endanger the health of the King (age 31) and his people. It was to have been offered to the Parliament, as his Majesty commanded.

12th January 1662. At St. James's chapel preached, or rather harangued, the famous orator, Monsieur Morus, in French. There were present the King (age 31), Duke (age 28), French Ambassador, Lord Aubigny (age 42), Earl of Bristol (age 49), and a world of Roman Catholics, drawn thither to hear this eloquent Protestant.

15th January 1662. There was a general fast through the whole nation, and now celebrated in London, to avert God's heavy judgments on this land. Great rain had fallen without any frost, or seasonable cold, not only in England, but in Sweden, and the most northern parts, being here near as warm as at midsummer in some years.

15th January 1662. This solemn fast was held for the House of Commons at St. Margaret's [Map]. Dr. Reeves, Dean of Windsor, preached on Joshua vii. 12, showing how the neglect of exacting justice on offenders (by which he insinuated such of the old King's murderers as were yet reprieved and in the Tower [Map]) was a main cause of God's punishing a land. He brought in that of the Gibeonites, as well as Achan and others, concluding with an eulogy of the Parliament for their loyalty in restoring the Bishops and Clergy, and vindicating the Church from sacrilege.

16th January 1662. Having notice of the Duke of York's (age 28) intention to visit my poor habitation and garden this day, I returned, when he was pleased to do me that honor of his own accord, and to stay some time viewing such things as I had to entertain his curiosity. Afterward he caused me to dine with him at the Treasurer of the Navy's house, and to sit with him covered at the same table. There were his Highness, the Duke of Ormond (age 51), and several Lords. Then they viewed some of my grounds about a project for a receptacle for ships to be moored in, which was laid aside as a fancy of Sir Nicholas Crisp (age 63). After this, I accompanied the Duke to an East India vessel that lay at Blackwall, Essex [Map], where we had entertainment of several curiosities. Among other spirituous drinks, as punch, etc., they gave us Canary that had been carried to and brought from the Indies, which was indeed incomparably good. I returned to London with his Highness. This night was acted before his Majesty (age 31) "The Widow", a lewd play.

18th January 1662. I came home to be private a little, not at all affecting the life and hurry of Court.

24th January 1662. His Majesty (age 31) entertained me with his intentions of building his Palace of Greenwich, Kent [Map], and quite demolishing the old one; on which I declared my thoughts.

25th January 1662. I dined with the Trinity Company at their house, that corporation being by charter fixed at Deptford, Kent [Map].

3rd February 1662. I went to Chelsea, to see Sir Arthur Gorges' house.

11th February 1662. I saw a comedy acted before the Duchess of York (age 24) at the Cockpit [Map]. The King (age 31) was not at it.

17th February 1662. I went with my Lord of Bristol (age 49) to see his house at Wimbledon, Surrey, newly bought of the Queen-Mother (age 52), to help contrive the garden after the modern. It is a delicious place for prospect and the thickets, but the soil cold and weeping clay. Returned that evening with Sir Henry Bennett (age 44).

17th February 1662. This night was buried in Westminster Abbey [Map] the Queen of Bohemia (deceased), after all her sorrows and afflictions being come to die in the arms of her nephew, the King (age 31);

20th February 1662. I returned home [Map] to repair my house, miserably shattered by the late tempest.

24th March 1662. I returned home [Map] with my whole family, which had been most part of the winter, since October, at London, in lodgings near the Abbey of Westminster [Map].

6th April 1662. Being of the Vestry, in the afternoon we ordered that the communion-table should be set (as usual) altar-wise, with a decent rail in front, as before the Rebellion.

17th April 1662. The young Marquis of Argyle (age 33) [Note. Evelyn makes a mistake here insofar as Archibald Campbell 9th Earl Argyll was only restored to the Earldom.], whose turbulent father was executed in Scotland, came to see my garden. He seemed a man of parts.

7th May 1662. I waited on Prince Rupert (age 42) to our Assembly where were tried several experiments in Mr. Boyle's (age 35) VACUUM. A man thrusting in his arm, upon exhaustion of the air, had his flesh immediately swelled so as the blood was near bursting the veins: he drawing it out, we found it all speckled.

14th May 1662. To London, being chosen one of the Commissioners for reforming the buildings, ways, streets, and incumbrances, and regulating the hackney coaches in the city of London, taking my oath before my Lord Chancellor (age 53), and then went to his Majesty's (age 31) Surveyor's office, in Scotland Yard, about naming and establishing officers, adjourning till the 16th, when I went to view how St Martin's Lane might be made more passable into the Strand [Map]. There were divers gentlemen of quality in this commission.

25th May 1662. I went this evening to London, in order to our journey to Hampton Court [Map], to see the Queen (age 23); who, having landed at Portsmouth, Hampshire [Map], had been married to the King (age 31) a week before by the Bishop of London (age 63).

30th May 1662. The Queen (age 23) arrived with a train of Portuguese ladies in their monstrous fardingales, or guard-infantes, their complexions olivader and sufficiently unagreeable. Her Majesty (age 32) in the same habit, her foretop long and turned aside very strangely. She was yet of the handsomest countenance of all the rest, and, though low of stature, prettily shaped, languishing and excellent eyes, her teeth wronging her mouth by sticking a little too far out; for the rest, lovely enough.

31st May 1662. I saw the Queen (age 23) at dinner; the Judges came to compliment her arrival, and, after them, the Duke of Ormond (age 51) brought me to kiss her hand.

2nd June 1662. The Lord Mayor and Aldermen made their addresses to the Queen (age 23), presenting her £1,000 in gold. Now saw I her Portuguese ladies, and the Guardadamas, or mother of her maids, and the old knight, a lock of whose hair quite covered the rest of his bald pate, bound on by a thread, very oddly. I saw the rich gondola sent to his Majesty (age 32) from the State of Venice; but it was not comparable for swiftness to our common wherries, though managed by Venetians.

4th June 1662. Went to visit the Earl of Bristol (age 49), at Wimbledon, Surrey.

8th June 1662. I saw her Majesty (age 23) at supper privately in her bedchamber.

9th June 1662. I heard the Queen's (age 23) Portugal music, consisting of pipes, harps, and very ill voices.

9th June 1662. Hampton Court [Map] is as noble and uniform a pile, and as capacious as any Gothic architecture can have made it. There is an incomparable furniture in it, especially hangings designed by Raphael, very rich with gold; also many rare pictures, especially the Cæsarean Triumphs of Andrea Mantegna, formerly the Duke of Mantua's; of the tapestries, I believe the world can show nothing nobler of the kind than the stories of Abraham and Tobit. The gallery of horns is very particular for the vast beams of stags, elks, antelopes, etc. The Queen's bed was an embroidery of silver on crimson velvet, and cost £8,000, being a present made by the States of Holland when his Majesty (age 32) returned, and had formerly been given by them to our King's sister, the Princess of Orange, and, being bought of her again, was now presented to the King. The great looking-glass and toilet, of beaten and massive gold, was given by the Queen-Mother (age 52). The Queen (age 23) brought over with her from Portugal such Indian cabinets as had never before been seen here. The great hall is a most magnificent room. The chapel roof excellently fretted and gilt. I was also curious to visit the wardrobe and tents, and other furniture of state. The park¹, formerly a flat and naked piece of ground, now planted with sweet rows of lime trees; and the canal for water now near perfected; also the air-park. In the garden is a rich and noble fountain, with Sirens, statues, etc., cast in copper, by Fanelli; but no plenty of water. The cradle-work of horn beam in the garden is, for the perplexed twining of the trees, very observable. There is a parterre which they call Paradise, in which is a pretty banqueting-house set over a cave, or cellar. All these gardens might be exceedingly improved, as being too narrow for such a palace.

Note 1. The gardener at Hampton Court being Hendrick Danckerts (age 37).

10th June 1662. I returned to London, and presented my History of Chalcography (dedicated to Mr. Boyle (age 35)) to our Society.

19th June 1662. I went to Albury, to visit Mr. Henry Howard (age 33), soon after he had procured the Dukedom to be restored. This gentleman had now compounded a debt of £200,000, contracted by his grandfather. I was much obliged to that great virtuoso, and to this young gentleman, with whom I stayed a fortnight.

2nd July 1662. We hunted and killed a buck in the park, Mr. Howard (age 33) inviting most of the gentlemen of the country near him.

3rd July 1662. my wife (age 27) met me at Woodcot, whither Mr. Howard (age 33) accompanied me to see my son John, who had been much brought up among Mr. Howard's children at Arundel House [Map], till, for fear of their perverting him in the Catholic religion, I was forced to take him home.

8th July 1662. To London, to take leave of the Duke and Duchess of Ormond, going then into Ireland with an extraordinary retinue.

13th July 1662. Spent some time with the Lord Chancellor (age 53), where I had discourse with my Lord Willoughby, Governor of Barbadoes, concerning divers particulars of that colony.

28th July 1662. His Majesty (age 32) going to sea to meet the Queen-Mother (age 52), now coming again for England, met with such ill weather as greatly endangered him. I went to Greenwich, to wait on the Queen (age 23), now landed.

30th July 1662. To London, where was a meeting about Charitable Uses, and particularly to inquire how the city had disposed of the revenues of Gresham College, and why the salaries of the Professors there were no better improved. I was on this commission, with divers Bishops and Lords of the Council; but little was the progress we could make.

31st July 1662. I sat with the Commissioners about reforming buildings and streets of London, and we ordered the paving of the way from St. James's North, which was a quagmire, and also of the Haymarket about Piqudillo [Piccadilly], and agreed upon instructions to be printed and published for the better keeping the streets clean.

1st August 1662. Mr. H. Howard (age 34), his brothers Charles (age 32), Edward (age 25), Bernard (age 21), Philip (age 33), now the Queen's (age 23) Almoner (all brothers of the Duke of Norfolk, still in Italy), came with a great train, and dined with me; Mr. H. Howard leaving with me his eldest and youngest sons, Henry (age 7) and Thomas (age 5), for three or four days, my son, John (age 7), having been sometime bred up in their father's house.

4th August 1662. Came to see me the old Countess of Devonshire, with that excellent and worthy person, my Lord her son (age 44), from Roehampton, Surrey.

5th August 1662. To London, and next day to Hampton Court [Map], about my purchase, and took leave of Sir R. Fanshawe (age 54), now going Ambassador to Portugal.

13th August 1662. Our Charter being now passed under the broad Seal, constituting us a corporation under the name of the Royal Society for the improvement of natural knowledge by experiment, was this day read and was all that was done this afternoon, being very large.

14th August 1662. I sat on the commission for Charitable Uses, the Lord Mayor and others of the Mercers' Company being summoned, to answer some complaints of the Professors, grounded on a clause in the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder.

14th August 1662. This afternoon, the Queen-Mother (age 52), with the Earl of St. Alban's (age 57) and many great ladies and persons, was pleased to honor my poor villa with her presence, and to accept of a collation. She was exceedingly pleased, and staid till very late in the evening.

15th August 1662. Came my Lord Chancellor (the Earl of Clarendon) (age 53) and his lady (age 45), his purse and mace borne before him, to visit me. They were likewise collationed with us, and were very merry. They had all been our old acquaintance in exile, and indeed this great person had ever been my friend. His son, Lord Cornbury, was here, too.

17th August 1662. Being the Sunday when the Common Prayer Book, reformed and ordered to be used for the future, was appointed to be read, and the solemn League and Covenant to be abjured by all the incumbents of England under penalty of losing their livings; our vicar read it this morning.

20th August 1662. There were strong guards in the city this day, apprehending some tumults, many of the Presbyterian ministers not conforming. I dined with the Vice-Chamberlain, and then went to see the Queen-Mother (age 52), who was pleased to give me many thanks for the entertainment she received at my house, when she recounted to me many observable stories of the sagacity of some dogs she formerly had.

21st August 1662. I was admitted and then sworn one of the Council of the Royal Society, being nominated in his Majesty's (age 32) original grant to be of this Council for the regulation of the Society, and making laws and statutes conducible to its establishment and progress, for which we now set apart every Wednesday morning till they were all finished. Lord Viscount Brouncker (age 51) (that excellent mathematician) was also by his Majesty, our founder, nominated our first President. The King gave us the arms of England to be borne in a canton in our arms, and sent us a mace of silver gilt, of the same fashion and size as those carried before his Majesty, to be borne before our president on meeting days. It was brought by Sir Gilbert Talbot (age 56), master of his Majesty's jewel house.

22nd August 1662. I dined with my Lord Brouncker (age 51) and Sir Robert Murray (age 54), and then went to consult about a newly modeled ship at Lambeth, the intention being to reduce that art to as certain a method as any other part of architecture.

23rd August 1662. I was spectator of the most magnificent triumph that ever floated on the Thames, considering the innumerable boats and vessels, dressed and adorned with all imaginable pomp, but, above all, the thrones, arches, pageants, and other representations, stately barges of the Lord Mayor and companies, with various inventions, music, and peals of ordnance both from the vessels and the shore, going to meet and conduct the new Queen (age 23) from Hampton Court [Map] to Whitehall [Map], at the first time of her coming to town. In my opinion, it far exceeded all the Venetian Bucentoras, etc., on the Ascension, when they go to espouse the Adriatic. His Majesty (age 32) and the Queen came in an antique-shaped open vessel, covered with a state, or canopy, of cloth of gold, made in form of a cupola, supported with high Corinthian pillars, wreathed with flowers, festoons and garlands. I was in our newly built vessel, sailing among them.

29th August 1662. The Council and Fellows of the Royal Society went in a body to Whitehall [Map], to acknowledge his Majesty's (age 32) royal grace in granting our Charter, and vouchsafing to be himself our founder; when the President made an eloquent speech, to which his Majesty gave a gracious reply and we all kissed his hand. Next day we went in like manner with our address to my Lord Chancellor (age 53), who had much promoted our patent: he received us with extraordinary favor. In the evening I went to the Queen-Mother's (age 52) Court, and had much discourse with her.

1st September 1662. Being invited by Lord Berkeley (age 34), I went to Durdans, where dined his Majesty (age 32), the Queen (age 23), Duke, Duchess (age 25), Prince Rupert (age 42), Prince Edward, and abundance of noblemen. I went, after dinner, to visit my brother (age 45) of Woodcot, my sister having been delivered of a son a little before, but who had now been two days dead.

4th September 1662. Commission for Charitable Uses, my Lord Mayor and Aldermen being again summoned, and the improvements of Sir Thomas Gresham's estate examined. There were present the Bishop of London (age 64), the Lord Chief Justice, and the King's (age 32) attorney.

6th September 1662. Dined with me Sir Edward Walker (age 51), Garter King-at-Arms, Mr. Slingsby (age 41), master of the Mint, and several others.

17th September 1662. We now resolved that the Arms of the Society should be a field argent, with a canton of the arms of England; the supporters two talbots argent; crest, an eagle Or holding a shield with the like arms of England, viz, three lions. The words "Nullius in verbâ". It was presented to his Majesty (age 32) for his approbation, and orders given to Garter King-at-Arms (age 51) to pass the diploma of their office for it.

20th September 1662. I presented a petition to his Majesty (age 32) about my own concerns, and afterward accompanied him to Monsieur Febure his chemist (and who had formerly been my master in Paris), to see his accurate preparation for the composing Sir Walter Raleigh's rare cordial: he made a learned discourse before his Majesty in French on each ingredient.

27th September 1662. Came to visit me Sir George Saville, grandson to the learned Sir Henry Saville, who published St. Chrysostom [Note. Sir Henry Saville had a daughter only so unclear as to who Sir George Saville is? ]. Sir George was a witty gentleman, if not a little too prompt and daring.

3rd October 1662. I was invited to the Royal College of Physicians, where Dr. Meret, a learned man and library-keeper, showed me the library, theater for anatomy, and divers natural curiosities; the statue and epigram under it of that renowned physician, Dr. Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood. There I saw Dr. Gilbert, Sir William Paddy's and other pictures of men famous in their faculty.

3rd October 1662. Visited Mr. Wright (age 45), a Scotchman, who had lived long at Rome, and was esteemed a good painter. The pictures of the Judges at Guildhall are of his hand, and so are some pieces in Whitehall [Map], as the roof in his Majesty's (age 32) old bedchamber, being Astræa, the St. Catherine, and a chimney-piece in the Queen's (age 23) privy chamber; but his best, in my opinion, is Lacy, the famous Roscius or comedian, whom he has painted in three dresses, as a gallant, a Presbyterian minister, and a Scotch highlander in his plaid. It is in his Majesty's dining room at Windsor Castle. He had at his house an excellent collection, especially that small piece of Correggio, Scotus of de la Marca, a design of Paulo; and, above all, those ruins of Polydore, with some good agates and medals, especially a Scipio, and a Cæsar's head of gold.

15th October 1662. I this day delivered my "Discourse concerning Forest Trees" to the Society, upon occasion of certain queries sent to us by the Commissioners of his Majestie's Navy, being the first book that was printed by order of the Society, and by their printer, since it was a corporation.

16th October 1662. I saw "Volpone" acted at Court before their Majesties [Note. King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 32) and Catherine of Braganza Queen Consort England (age 23)].

21st October 1662. To the Queen-Mother's (age 52) Court, where her Majesty (age 32) related to us divers passages of her escapes during the Rebellion and wars in England.

28th October 1662. To Court in the evening where the Queen-Mother (age 52), the Queen-Consort (age 23), and his Majesty (age 32) being advertised of some disturbance, forbore to go to the Lord Mayor's show and feast appointed next day, the new Queen not having yet seen that triumph.

29th October 1662. Was my Lord Mayor's show, with a number of sumptuous pageants, speeches, and verses. I was standing in a house in Cheapside [Map] against the place prepared for their Majesties. The Prince (age 9) and heir of Denmark was there, but not our King. There were also the maids of honor. I went to Court this evening, and had much discourse with Dr. Basiers, one of his Majesty's (age 32) chaplains, the great traveler, who showed me the syngraphs and original subscriptions of divers eastern patriarchs and Asian churches to our confession.

4th November 1662. I was invited to the wedding of the daughter of Sir George Carteret (age 52) (The Treasurer of the Navy and King's Vice-Chamberlain), married to Sir Nicholas Slaning (age 19), Knight of the Bath, by the Bishop of London (age 64), in the Savoy chapel [Map]; after which was an extraordinary feast.

5th November 1662. The Council of the Royal Society met to amend the Statutes, and dined together; afterward meeting at Gresham College, where was a discourse suggested by me, concerning planting his Majesty's (age 32) Forest of Dean with oak, now so much exhausted of the choicest ship timber in the world.

20th November 1662. Dined with the Comptroller, Sir Hugh Pollard (age 59); afterward saw "The Young Admiral" acted before the King (age 32).

21st November 1662. Spent the evening at Court, Sir Kenelm Digby (age 59) giving me great thanks for my "Sylva"..

27th November 1662. Went to London to see the entrance of the Russian Ambassador (age 17), whom his Majesty (age 32) ordered to be received with much state, the Emperor not only having been kind to his Majesty in his distress, but banishing all commerce with our nation during the Rebellion.

27th November 1662. First, the city companies and trained bands were all in their stations: his Majesty's (age 32) army and guards in great order. His Excellency came in a very rich coach, with some of his chief attendants; many of the rest on horseback, clad in their vests, after the Eastern manner, rich furs, caps, and carrying the presents, some carrying hawks, furs, teeth, bows, etc. It was a very magnificent show.

27th November 1662. I dined with the Master of the Mint (age 41), where was old Sir Ralph Freeman (age 73); passing my evening at the Queen-Mother's (age 53) Court; at night, saw acted "The Committee", a ridiculous play of Sir R. Howard (age 36), where the mimic, Lacy, acted the Irish footman to admiration.

30th November 1662. St. Andrew's day. Invited by the Dean of Westminster (age 61) to his consecration dinner and ceremony, on his being made Bishop of Worcester. Dr. Bolton preached in the Abbey Church [Map]; then followed the consecration by the Bishops of London (age 64), Chichester (age 70), Winchester (age 64), Salisbury (age 70), etc. After this, was one of the most plentiful and magnificent dinners that in my life I ever saw; it cost near £600 as I was informed. Here were the judges, nobility, clergy, and gentlemen innumerable, this Bishop being universally beloved for his sweet and gentle disposition. He was author of those Characters which go under the name of Blount. He translated his late Majesty's (age 32) "Icon" into Latin, was Clerk of his Closet, Chaplain, Dean of Westminster, and yet a most humble, meek, and cheerful man, an excellent scholar, and rare preacher. I had the honor to be loved by him. He married me at Paris, during his Majesty's and the Church's exile. When I took leave of him, he brought me to the cloisters in his episcopal habit. I then went to prayers at Whitehall [Map], where I passed that evening.

1st December 1662. Having seen the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St James' Park [Map], performed before their Majesties [Note. King Charles II of England Scotland and Ireland (age 32) and Catherine of Braganza Queen Consort England (age 24)] by divers gentlemen and others with skates, after the manner of the Hollanders, with what swiftness they pass, how suddenly they stop in full career upon the ice; I went home by water, but not without exceeding difficulty, the Thames being frozen, great flakes of ice encompassing our boat.

17th December 1662. King (age 32) "The Law against Lovers"..

21st December 1662. One of his Majesty's (age 32) chaplains preached; after which, instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying the organ, was introduced a concert of twenty-four violins between every pause, after the French fantastical light way, better suiting a tavern, or playhouse, than a church. This was the first time of change, and now we no more heard the cornet which gave life to the organ; that instrument quite left off in which the English were so skillful. I dined at Mr. Povey's (age 48), where I talked with Cromer, a great musician.

23rd December 1662. I went with Sir George Tuke, to hear the comedians con and repeat his new comedy, "The Adventures of Five Hours", a play whose plot was taken out of the famous Spanish poet, Calderon.

27th December 1662. I visited Sir Theophilus Biddulph (age 50).

29th December 1662. Saw the audience of the Muscovy Ambassador (age 17), which was with extraordinary state, his retinue being numerous, all clad in vests of several colors, with buskins, after the Eastern manner! their caps of fur; tunics, richly embroidered with gold and pearls, made a glorious show. the King (age 32) being seated under a canopy in the Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace [Map], the Secretary of the Embassy went before the Ambassador in a grave march, holding up his master's letters of credence in a crimson taffeta scarf before his forehead. The Ambassador then delivered it with a profound reverence to the King, who gave it to our Secretary of State: it was written in a long and lofty style. Then came in the presents, borne by 165 of his retinue, consisting of mantles and other large pieces lined with sable, black fox, and ermine; Persian carpets, the ground cloth of gold and velvet; hawks, such as they said never came the like; horses said to be Persian; bows and arrows, etc. These borne by so long a train rendered it very extraordinary. Wind music played all the while in the galleries above. This finished, the Ambassador was conveyed by the master of the ceremonies to York House [Map], where he was treated with a banquet, which cost £200, as I was assured.