Category: Uncategorized (Page 10 of 21)

After dinner we took horse with the Messagere ((Probably the “Messagère” or postal messenger -GS)), hoping to have arrived at Boulogne that night; but there fell so great a snow, accompanied with hail, rain, and sudden darkness, that we had much ado to gain the next village; and in this passage, being to cross a valley by a causeway, and a bridge built over a small river, the rain that had fallen making it an impetuous stream for near a quarter of a mile, my horse slipping had almost been the occasion of my perishing. We none of us went to bed; for the soldiers in those parts leaving little in the villages, we had enough to do to get ourselves dry, by morning, between the fire and the fresh straw.

Having a reasonable good passage, though the weather was snowy and untoward enough, we came before Calais, where, as we went on shore, mistaking the tide, our shallop struck on the sands, with no little danger; but at length we got off.

Calais is considered an extraordinary well-fortified place, in the old castle and new citadel regarding the sea. The haven consists of a long bank of sand, lying opposite to it. The market place and the church are remarkable things, besides those relics of our former dominion there. I remember there were engraven in stone, upon the front of an ancient dwelling which was showed us, these words in English—”God save the King,” ((Possibly the home of Mr Booth, a merchant of Calais.  He is described as “Mr Booth [in Calais] is my good friend, and will instruct you in all. On his house is engraved in stone, “God save ye King,” and is part of the English building when we had that town.” from the book  “Memoirs of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Knt” -GS)) together with the name of the architect and date. The walls of the town are substantial; but the situation toward the land is not pleasant, by reason of the marshes and low grounds about it.

and two days after took boat at the Tower-wharf, which carried me as far as Sittingbourne, though not without danger, I being only in a pair of oars, exposed to a hideous storm: but it pleased God that we got in before the peril was considerable. From thence, I went by post to Dover, accompanied with one Mr. Thicknesse, a very dear friend of mine.

I arrived at London on the 7th

Lying by the way from Wotton at Sir Ralph Whitfield’s, at Blechingley (whither both my brothers had conducted me),

but, finding it impossible to evade the doing very unhandsome things, and which had been a great cause of my perpetual motions hitherto between Wotton and London, October the 2d, I obtained a license of his Majesty ((This seems to suggest that he had obtained a previous license. But that now granted evidently did not, like the license issued to James Howell by the Lords of the Council in 1617, include a prohibition to visit Rome (see post, under 4th November, 1644). –AD)), dated at Oxford and signed by the King, to travel again.

The Covenant being pressed, I absented myself;

I sent my black menage horse (([Horse trained for war in the riding academy. Evelyn’s contemporary, the Duke of Newcastle (see post, under 18th April, 1667), is said to have taken particular pleasure in “ Horses of Mannage,” and Scott makes Edward Waverley familiar with “the arts of the manège” (ch. vii.). The Duke, it may be remembered, wrote two famous works on horsemanship. ] –AD See also Menage – GS))  and furniture with a friend to his Majesty, then at Oxford.

I went from Wotton to London, where I saw the furious and zealous people demolish that stately Cross in Cheapside.