KATHERINE PEGG.
Sir,—I think you may safely add Pepys's Diary to the list of books in illustration of which you are willing to receive both Queries and Answers. There is not a passage in the Diary that does not deserve to be understood.
At vol. iv. p. 435. of the new edition is the following entry:—
"7 May, 1668. Here [at the King's Theatre] I did kiss the pretty woman newly come, called Pegg, that was Sir Charles Sedley's mistress, a mighty pretty woman, and seems (but is not) modest."
On this Lord Braybrooke has the following note:—
"Pegg must have been Margaret Hughes, Prince Rupert's mistress, who had probably before that time lived with Sir Charles Sedley."
And then follows some account of Mrs. Hughes. But, query, was the "Pegg" of the Diary, Peg Hughes? was she not rather as I belived her to have been, Katherine Pegg, by whom king Charles II. had a son, Charles Fitz-Charles, created Earl of Plymouth, 29th July, 1675, died 1680?
Katherine Pegg has escaped Lord Braybrooke. Can any of your correspondents tell me who she was?
PETER CUNNINGHAM