14 June 1664
Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning …
So home to dinner, and after dinner by coach to Kensington. In the way overtaking Mr. Laxton, the apothecary, with his wife and daughters, very fine young lasses, in a coach; and so both of us to my Lady Sandwich, who hath lain this fortnight here at Deane Hodges’s.
Much company came hither to-day, my Lady Carteret, &c., Sir William Wheeler and his lady, and, above all, Mr. Becke, of Chelsy, and wife and daughter (Betty Becke) my Lord’s mistress and one that hath not one good feature in her face, and yet is a fine lady, of a fine taille, and very well carriaged, and mighty discreet. I took all the occasion I could to discourse with the young ladies in her company* to give occasion to her to talk, which now and then she did, and that mighty finely, and is, I perceive, a woman of such an ayre, as I wonder the less at my Lord’s favour to her, and I dare warrant him she hath brains enough to entangle him….
Two or three houres we were in her company, going into Sir H. Finche’s garden, and seeing the fountayne, and singing there with the ladies, and a mighty fine cool place it is, with a great laver of water in the middle and the bravest place for musique I ever heard….
So home to supper, and a little at my office, and to bed.
Thomas Hodges (Dean of Hereford)
My Lord: Sir Edward Mountagu (Earl of Sandwich)
"Taille" means a woman’s figure, shape, or bodily proportions (from French). Sam praises her attractive build and graceful posture despite her plain face. He values figure, carriage (posture and manner), and presence (“ayre”) over facial symmetry. This is a recurring Pepysian theme in that he is highly attuned to female allure in motion and demeanor rather than static features. My guess of the meaning of “entangle” here is that she can cleverly captivate and hold a powerful man.
*Young men, pay attention to the master at work: Spot the most interesting woman in the room → immediately befriend every young lady nearby → manufacture reasons to make her speak. Diary it later.
Sir Heneage Finch (Solicitor-General)
Educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he remained until he became a member of the Inner Temple in 1638. He was called to the bar in 1645, and soon obtained a lucrative practice. He was a member of the Convention Parliament of April 1660, and shortly afterwards was appointed Solicitor General, being created a baronet the day after he was knighted.
Portrait after Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1680