yet closely, my Lord Ashly carries himself to Mr. Yeabsly in his business, so as I think we shall do his business for him in very good manner. But it is a

most extraordinary thing to observe, and that which I would not but have had the observation of, for a great deal of money.

23rd. Towards White Hall, calling in my way on my Lord Bellasses, where I come to his bed-side, and he did give me a full and long account of his matters, how he kept them at Tangier. Declares himself fully satisfied with my care: seems cunningly to argue for encreasing the number of men there. Told me the whole story of his gains by the Turky prizes, which he owns he hath got about £5,000 by. Promised me the same profits Povy was to have had; and, in fine, I find him a pretty subtle man; and so I left him. Staid at Sir G. Carteret's chamber till the Council rose, and then he and I, by agreement this morning, went forth in his coach by Tiburne, to the park; discoursing of the state of the Navy as to money, and the state of the kingdom too, how ill able to raise more: and of our office, as to the condition of the officers; he giving me caution as to myself, that there are those that are my enemies as well as his, and by name my Lord Brouncker, who hath said some odd speeches against me. So that he advises me to stand on my guard; which I shall do, and, unless my too-much addiction to pleasure undo me, will be acute enough for any of them. My right eye sore, and full of humour of late, I think, by my late change of my brewer, and having of 8s. beer.

24th. Mr. Shepley is newly come out of the country, and come to see us. He left all well there; but I per

ceive under some discontent in my Lord's behalfe, thinking that he is under disgrace with the King; but he is not so, as Sir G. Carteret assures me.

25th. Captain Cocke tells me my silver plates are ready for me, and shall be sent me speedily; and proposes another proposition of serving us with a thousand tons of hemp, and tells me it shall bring me £500 if the bargain go forward, which is a good word. A gentleman arrived here this day, Mr. Brown, of St. Maloes, among other things, tells me the meaning of the setting out of dogs every night out of the town walls, which are said to secure the city; but it is not so, but only to secure the anchors, cables, and ships that lie dry, which might otherwise in the night be liable to be robbed. And these dogs are set out every night, and called together in, every morning, by a man with a horne, and they go in very orderly.

27th. To church, my wife with me. whither come my uncle Wight, and Norbury.

Home to dinner,

aunt and uncle

28th. Mr. Lovett and his wife come to see us. They are a pretty couple, and she a fine bred woman. They dined with us, and Browne, the painter, and she plays finely on the lute. My wife and I were well pleased with her company. To bed, my wife telling me where she hath been to-day with my aunt Wight, and seen Mrs. Margaret Wight, and says that she is one of the beautifullest women that ever she saw in her life-the most excellent nose and mouth. They have been also to see pretty Mrs. Batelier, and conclude her to be a prettier woman than Mrs. Pierce, whom my wife led my aunt to see also this day.

29th. King's birth-day, and Restoration day. Waked with the ringing of bells all over the town: so up before five o'clock, and to the office. At noon I did, upon a small invitation of Sir W. Pen's, go and dine with Sir W. Coventry at his office, where great good cheer, and many pleasant stories of Sir W. Coventry. After dinner, to the Victualling Office; and there, beyond belief, did acquit myself very well to full content; so that, beyond expectation, I got over that second rub in this business; and if ever I fall on it again, I deserve to be undone. My wife comes to me, to tell me, that if I would see the handsomest woman in England, I shall come home presently; and who should it be but the pretty lady of our parish, that did heretofore sit on the other side of our church, over against our gallery, that is since married-she with Mrs. Anne Jones, one of this parish, that dances finely. And so I home; and indeed she is a pretty black woman-her name Mrs. Horsely. But, Lord! to see how my nature could not refrain from the temptation; but I must invite them to go to Foxhall, to Spring Gardens, though I had freshly received minutes of a great deal of extraordinary business. However, I sent them before with Creed, and I did some of my business; and so after them, and find them there, in an arbour, and had met with Mrs. Pierce, and some company with her. So here I spent 208. upon them, and were pretty merry. Among other things, had a fellow that imitated all manner of birds, and dogs, and hogs, with his voice, which was mighty pleasant. Staid here till night: then set Mrs. Pierce in at the New Exchange; and ourselves took coach, and so set Mrs. Horsly home,

and then home ourselves, but with great trouble in the streets, by bonfires, it being the King's birth-day and day of Restoration; but, Lord! to see the difference how many there were on the other side, and so few on ours, the City side of the Temple, would make one wonder the difference between the temper of one sort of people and the other: and the difference among all between what they do now, and what it was the night when Monk come into the City.

Such a night as that I never think to see again, nor think it can be.

30th. I find the Duke gone out with the King to-day on hunting. Word is brought me that my father and my sister are come: he, poor man, looks very well, and hath rode up this journey on horseback very well, only his eyesight and hearing is very bad. I staid and dined with them, my wife being gone by coach to Barnett, with W. Hewer and Mercer, to meet them, and they did come Ware way. To Lord Ashly, who, it is strange to see, how prettily he dissembles his favour to Yeabsly's business, which none in the world could mistrust, only I, that am privy to his being bribed. My wife tells me, that Balty's wife is brought to bed, by some fall, or fit, before her time, of a great child, but dead. If the woman do well, we have no reason to be sorry, because his staying a little longer without a child will be better for him and her.

31st. Saw all my family up, and my father and sister, who is a pretty good-bodied woman, and not over-thicke, as I thought she would have been, but full of freckles, and not handsome in face. To dinner with my father and sister and family, mighty pleasant all of us; and among other things, with a sparrow that our Mercer hath

VOL. III.

brought up now for three weeks, which is so tame, that it flies up and down, and upon the table, and eats and pecks, and do everything so pleasantly, that we are mightily pleased with it. A public Fast-day, appointed to pray for the good success of the fleet. But it is a pretty thing to consider how little a matter they make of this keeping of a Fast, that it was not so much as declared time enough to be read in the churches, the last Sunday; but ordered by proclamation since: I suppose upon some sudden news of the Dutch being come out. Thus ends this month, with my mind oppressed by my defect in my duty of the victualling, which lies upon me as a burden, till I get myself into a better posture therein. As to public business; by late tidings of the French fleet being come to Rochelle, how true, though, I know not, our fleet is divided; Prince Rupert being gone with about thirty ships to the Westward, as is conceived, to meet the French, to hinder their coming to join with the Dutch. My Lord Duke of Albemarle lies in the Downes with the rest, and intends presently to sail to the Gunfleete.

June 1st. Dined at aunt Wight's. Here dined the fair Mrs. Margaret Wight, who is a very fine lady, but the cast of her eye, got only by an ill habit, do her much wrong, and her hands are bad; but she hath the face of a noble Roman lady. My uncle and Woolly and I out into their yard, to talk about what may be done hereafter to all our profits, by prize-goods, which did give us reason to lament the loss of the opportunity of the last year, which, if we were as wise as we are now, and at the peaceable end of all those troubles that we met with, all might have