Around 1657 John Michael Wright (age 39). Portrait of Mary Cromwell Countess Fauconberg (age 20).

Pepy's Diary. 22 Apr 1661. Both the King (age 30) and the Duke of York (age 27) took notice of us, as he saw us at the window. The show being ended, Mr. Young did give us a dinner, at which we were very merry, and pleased above imagination at what we have seen. Sir W. Batten (age 60) going home, he and I called and drunk some mum¹ and laid our wager about my Lady Faulconbridge's name³, which he says not to be Mary, and so I won above 20s. So home, where Will and the boy staid and saw the show upon Towre Hill, and Jane at T. Pepys's, The. Turner (age 9), and my wife at Charles Glassecocke's, in Fleet Street. In the evening by water to White Hall to my Lord's, and there I spoke with my Lord. He talked with me about his suit, which was made in France, and cost him £200, and very rich it is with embroidery. I lay with Mr. Shepley, and CORONACION DAY.

Note 1. Mum. Ale brewed with wheat at Brunswick. "Sedulous and stout With bowls of fattening mum". J. Phillips, Cyder, Vol. ii. p. 231.

Note 2. Mary (age 24), third daughter of Oliver Cromwell, and second wife of [her husband] Thomas Bellasis (age 62), second Viscount Fauconberg, created Earl of Fauconberg, April 9th, 1689.

Pepy's Diary. 12 Jun 1663. At noon to the Exchange [Map] and so home to dinner, and abroad with my wife by water to the Royall Theatre [Map]; and there saw "The Committee", a merry but indifferent play, only Lacey's part, an Irish footman, is beyond imagination. Here I saw my [her husband] Lord Falconbridge (age 36), and his Lady, my Lady Mary Cromwell (age 26), who looks as well as I have known her, and well clad; but when the House began to fill she put on her vizard¹, and so kept it on all the play; which of late is become a great fashion among the ladies, which hides their whole face.

Note 1. Masks were commonly used by ladies in the reign of Elizabeth, and when their use was revived at the Restoration for respectable women attending the Theatre [Map], they became general. They soon, however, became the mark of loose women, and their use was discontinued by women of repute. On June 1st, 1704, a song was sung at the Theatre [Map] in Lincoln's Inn Fields called "The Misses' Lamentation for want of their Vizard Masques at the Theatre [Map]". Mr. R. W. Lowe gives several references to the use of vizard masks at the Theatre [Map] in his interesting biography, "Thomas Betterton (age 27)"..