Exchanging Fortunes
1660, Week 31
Yet again, the week’s busyness has left me with little time. I have a long list of important correspondence to write relating to all three of my offices, as well as personal matters – but there are indeed so many, I can’t find the heart to start.
So instead, I’ll spend some time here with you. It has been an interesting week, seeing both the ceiling and the cellar of my recent decisions. What opinion should I form of my current situation?
Perhaps I can draw something of a metaphor from my visit to Whitehall Chapel last Sunday, where the Bishop of Salsbury delivered a service. Salsbury has made this chapel the centre of the ‘Laudian revival’, which is very high in pomp but rather drab in spirit.
Likewise is the Navy at present. It is renowned throughout the world, and everyone in our government is proud of it – not least the king. But alas, there is substance lacking behind the show – in this case, money.
Indeed, most of this week was spent in consultation with my Lord and other members of the board discussing how we might raise funds. I gave up taking notes, for no sooner was an idea suggested that it was struck out and replaced.
When I eventually arrived at a parliament committee on Saturday to present the debts, I had to admit there were five years we could not account for: those betwixt 1636 and 1640. In our defence, the Navy was lacking parliamentary oversight in that time, as well as being occupied by the war with Spain. Now things are different, things should be better.
I hope so, at any rate, for this job has yet to provide remuneration equivalent to its stresses. As it happens, though, on Monday, a gentleman by the name of Mr Man approached me in the Rhenish winehouse, where I was sat drinking with my friend Mr Moore. This Mr Man offered to buy the job of Clerk of the Acts from me.
I didn’t say yes outright – but I haven’t yet declined him either. Having spent so much of this week calculating the Navy’s debts, I am sorely tempted. We have arranged to speak again this coming Monday.
My other line of work was relentlessly busy also. I counted so many papers to sign, a full 300 by Thursday – and I only went into the Privy Seal office for this first time this week on Wednesday! That was almost eight times as many as during an equivalent period under the last king.
Our current king is issuing so many new warrants, appointments, and pardons. No wonder my colleague Mr Hooper tried to encourage me to spend all my time at that office. When he put this to me over an ale in The Leg on Wednesday night, though, I replied that I am loathe to release myself so swiftly from the work I do for my cousin (though I held back about my work for the Navy…).
By the end of Thursday, though, I was ready for a change of heart. Every bill I write for the Privy Seal, you see, earns me a fee – in addition to my salary. I hadn’t quite correctly calculated the benefit in this – not until that Thursday, when I received a full 40l! Just to cover my fees for that Wednesday and Thursday…!
As a point of comparison, my Lord sent me my salary for my first Quarter’s work with him on the Monday just gone. That came to 50l.
So thanks to the Privy Seal, I nearly doubled my worth in less than a single week!
I spent most of Friday and Saturday at the Privy Seal also.
There were a couple of other events which gave me pause to give gratitude for my current position, both related to Axe Yard actually – though one sincerely more sombre than the other.
Of the fairest, my father brought our old neighbour Mrs Crisp around to view our new home on Monday, and she was most praising of our furnishings. Since I can still recall the jealousy I felt in the surroundings of her possessions last March, this filled me with some pride.
Just today, though, I have learned that another old neighbour, Mrs Shaw, has died. Her husband has been taken ill, too, and is likely to follow his spouse soon. I give many thanks and praises to our Lord that we now live in a community with a gate, and among finer neighbours, where plagues and disturbances are far less likely to befall us.
Indeed, I dare say it would keep the Plague at bay, should instances of that foulness ever strike up again – though Lord have mercy that they don’t…
So: my opinion regarding my current situation?
Most, most fortunate.
Long may it remain so.
My purse
I am most lately 200l clear in my purse. 200l!
In return for the smiles you took from these words, please send them to a friend!
Your smiles will then be compounded twice: once for sharing joy with your friend, then again for my undying gratitude. {:-)