1GG8.] THE SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH. 265 



bouring parts of that County" — The "London Gazette," 

 May fi 1668. 



Samuel Pepys writes on May 23, 1668, that it was raining 

 hard all that day in London, consoling himself, however, with 

 the reflection that " because the King and the Duke of York 

 and the Court are at Newmarket, at a great horse-race, and 

 proposed great pleasure for two or three days, but are in the 

 same wet." But when Captain Forster dropped in to dinner 

 next day it transpired they had fair weather at Newmarket, 

 " though here nothing but rain, insomuch that the ways are 

 mighty full of water, so hardly to be passed." * In a subse- 

 quent entry at this time he adds : " Being there on a Sunday, 

 the Duke of Bucks preached an obscene sermon for the 

 edification of the king and court on the Canticles." f 



Lord Macaulay having gone on the wrong side of 

 the post in this heat, we may perhaps be excused for 

 stopping here to notice that, like another maligned 

 monarch, Charles IL is not so black as he is painted. 

 Owing to ignorance of the actual facts the popular 

 historian handicaps the Merry Monarch with the erratic 

 Sabbatarianism of the volatile Duke of Bucks, on this 

 occasion ; but the real truth is that the Sunday at 

 Newmarket was regally kept with as much propriety 

 in this reign as in that of William IIL, which is held up 

 for our edification. For instance. Archdeacon Echard 

 records that Dr. Calamy frequently preached before 

 the court of Charles IL at Newmarket;;]: and during 

 this reign the Sabbath day, so far as the king and the 

 Parliament were concerned, was observed with rigid 



* V)\^xy sub. ann. 



t Ibid., vol. iv., p. 488., edt. Lord Braybrooke. 



% Rutt's " Line of Calamy," vol. i., p. 59. Someof the sermons preached 

 at Newmarket before the court are printed in the revei'cnd doctor's 

 works. 



