and converse with him at Whitehall, with Mr. Oates, one that was lately an apostate to the church of Rome, and now returned again with this discovery. He seemed to be a bold man, and, in my thoughts, furiously indiscreet; but everybody believed what he said; and it quite changed the genius and motions of the Parliament, growing now corrupt and interested with long sitting and court practices; but, with all this, Popery would not go down. This discovery turned them all as one man against it, and nothing was done but to find out the depth of this. Oates was encouraged, and everything he affirmed taken for gospel ;-the truth is, the Roman Catholics were exceeding bold and busy everywhere, since the Duke forbore to go any longer to the chapel.

16th October. Mr. Godolphin requested me to continue the trust his wife had reposed in me, in behalf of his little son, conjuring me to transfer the friendship I had for his dear wife, on him and his.

21st. The murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, found strangled about this time, as was manifest,

mentions several publications of his, among which are, The Jesuits unmasked, 1678; Jesuitical Aphorismes, 1679; and The Jesuits' Morals, 1680 (1670); the two latter translated from the French (Wood's Athen. Oxon. vol. ii. p. 502). Evelyn speaks of the last of these translations as having been executed by his desire: and it figures in a notable passage of Oates's testimony. Oates said, for example, " that Thomas Whitbread, a priest, on 13th June, 16.. did tell the rector of St. Omer's that a Minister of the Church of England had scandalously put out the Jesuits' Morals in English, and had endeavoured to render them odious, and had asked the Rector whether he thought Oates might know him? and the Rector called the deponent, who heard these words as he stood at the chamber-door, and when he went into the chamber of the Provincial, he asked him ' If he knew the author of the Jesuits' Morals?' deponent answered, 'His person, but not his name.' Whitbread then demanded, whether he would undertake to poison, or assassinate the author; which deponent undertook, having £50 reward promised him, and appointed to return to England" (Bray's Note slightly altered).

by the Papists,' he being the Justice of the Peace, and one who knew much of their practices, as conversant with Coleman (a servant of the . . .. 2 now accused), put the whole nation into a new ferment against them.

31st October. Being my [the ?] 58th of my age, required my humble addresses to Almighty God, and that he would take off His heavy hand, still on my family; and restore comforts to us after the loss of my excellent friend.

5th November. Dr. Tillotson preached before the Commons at St. Margaret's. He said the Papists were now arrived at that impudence, as to deny that there ever was any such as the gunpowder-conspiracy; but he affirmed that he himself had several letters written by Sir Everard Digby (one of the traitors), in which he gloried that he was to suffer for it; and that it was so contrived, that of the Papists not above two or three should have been blown up, and they, such as were not worth saving.

15th. The Queen's birthday. I never saw the

1 [Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, 1621-78, was a wood and coal dealer, and a well-known Justice of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and the City of Westminster. He had received the first depositions of Oates and Tonge in September, and communicated them to the Catholic Duke of York. On the 17th October, he was found dead in a dry ditch on the south side of Primrose Hill, his body, it was affirmed, bearing marks of strangulation, and his own sword being thrust through his heart. But where he met his end, and how, is still to seek, though three innocent men, Hill, Berry, and Green, were hanged in February, 1679, for murdering him. The subject is minutely discussed in Mr. John Pollock's Popish Plot, 1903, pp. 83-166; and in Mr. Andrew Lang's Valet's Tragedy and other Studies, 1903, pp. 55-103. A later writer, Mr. Alfred Marks (Who Killed Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey? 1905), fortified by an expert medical opinion, inclines (like Mr. Lang) to the theory of suicide.]

2 [The Duke of York, whose secretary he was.

3 [See ante, vol. ii. p. 291.]

as.]

4 [Sir Everard Digby-Sir Kenelm Digby's father-executed in 1606 in connection with the Gunpowder Plot.]

2

Court more brave, nor the nation in more apprehension and consternation. Coleman and one Staley1 had now been tried, condemned, and executed. On this, Oates grew so presumptuous, as to accuse the Queen of intending to poison the King; which certainly that pious and virtuous lady abhorred the thoughts of, and Oates's circumstances made it utterly unlikely in my opinion. He probably thought to gratify some who would have been glad his Majesty should have married a fruitful lady; but the King was too kind a husband to let any of these make impression on him. However, divers of the Popish peers were sent to the Tower, accused by Oates; and all the Roman Catholic lords were by a new Act for ever excluded the Parliament; which was a mighty blow. The King's, Queen's, and Duke's servants, were banished, and a test to be taken by everybody who pretended to enjoy any office of public trust, and who would not be suspected of Popery. I went with Sir William Godolphin, a member of the Commons' House, to the Bishop of Ely (Dr. Peter Gunning),' to be resolved whether masses were idolatry, as the test expressed it, which was so worded, that several good Protestants scrupled, and Sir William, though a learned man and excellent divine himself, had some doubts about it. The Bishop's opinion was, that he might take it, though he wished it had been otherwise worded in the test.

1678-9: 15th January. I went with my Lady

1 [Edward Coleman was executed 3rd December, William Staley, 26th November. The former, upon his own letters, was found "guilty of treason in trying to subvert the Protestant religion as it is by law established,'' by the aid and assistance of Foreign Powers" (Trevelyan's England under the Stuarts, 1904, p. 397).] [See post, p. 32 n.] 3 [Lords Stafford, Petre, Arundel, Belasyse, and the Earl of Powis.]

2

4 [30 Car. II. Stat. 2, c. 1.] 5 [See ante, vol. ii. p. 125.]

Sunderland to Chelsea, and dined with the Countess of Bristol [her mother] in the great house, formerly the Duke of Buckingham's, a spacious and excellent place for the extent of ground and situation in a good air.1 The house is large, but ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol who purchased it after he sold Wimbledon to my Lord Treasurer, expended much money on it. There were divers pictures of Titian and Vandyck, and some of Bassano,_very excellent, especially an Adonis and Venus, a Duke of Venice, a butcher in his shambles selling meat to a Swiss; and of Vandyck, my Lord of Bristol's picture, with the Earl of Bedford's at length, in the same table. There was in the garden a rare collection of orange trees, of which she was pleased to bestow some upon me.

16th January. I supped this night with Mr. Secretary at one Mr. Houblon's, a French merchant, who had his house furnished en Prince, and gave us a splendid entertainment.2

25th. The Long Parliament, which had sat ever

1 This mansion stood at the north end of Beaufort Row, Chelsea, extending westward about 100 yards from the waterside. It was originally called Buckingham House, after the Duke of Buckingham. In January 1682 Lord Bristol's widow sold it to Henry Somerset, Marquis of Worcester, created Duke of Beaufort in the same year; after whom it was known by the title of Beaufort House (see post, 3rd September, 1683). It continued in the possession of this family till about 1738, when, having stood empty for several years, it was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, and was pulled down in 1740.

2 One of the most eminent of the merchants of London at this period. Two of James Houblon's sons obtained the honour of knighthood. Sir James became one of the members for the city, in 1648; Sir John was Lord Mayor, one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, and Governor of the Bank of England. From the former descend the Houblons of Hallingbury-place, Essex, and of Culverthorpe, Lincoln. Pepys mentions "five brothers Houblon," and he adds, "mighty fine gentlemen they are all, and used me mighty respectfully" (5th February, 1666).

since the Restoration, was dissolved by persuasion of the Lord Treasurer, though divers of them were believed to be his pensioner. At this, all the politicians were at a stand, they being very eager in pursuit of the late plot of the Papists.

30th January. Dr. Cudworth' preached before the King at Whitehall, on 2 Timothy iii. 5, reckoning up the perils of the last times, in which, amongst other wickedness, treasons should be one of the greatest, applying it to the occasion, as committed under a form of reformation and godliness; concluding that the prophecy did intend more particularly the present age, as one of the last times; the sins there enumerated, more abundantly reigning than ever.

2nd February. Dr. Durel,' Dean of Windsor, preached to the household at Whitehall, on 1 Cor. xvi. 22; he read the whole sermon out of his notes, which I had never before seen a Frenchman do, he being of Jersey, and bred at Paris.

3

4th. Dr. Pierce, Dean of Salisbury, preached on 1 John iv. 1, "Try the Spirits, there being so many delusory ones gone forth of late into the world"; he inveighed against the pernicious doctrines of Mr. Hobbes.

5

My brother, Evelyn, was now chosen Knight for the County of Surrey, carrying it against my Lord Longford and Sir Adam Browne, of Betchworth Castle. The country coming in to give him their suffrages were so many, that I believe they eat and drank him out near £2000, by a most abominable custom.

1 [Dr. Ralph Cudworth, 1617-88.] 2 See ante, vol. ii. p. 25.]

4I.e. George Evelyn of Wotton.]

5 See ante, p. 14.]

[See ante, vol. ii. p. 116.]

[See post, under February, 1703. It was his daughter, Mrs. Fenwick, who sold Betchworth Castle to Abraham Tucker (see ante, vol. ii. p. 98).]