now taken him into his service,' which is a plain affront to the Duke of Albemarle; and two of the others, Sir W. Coventry did speak very slenderly of their faults. Only the last, which was old Teddiman, he says, is in fault, and hath little to excuse himself with; and that, therefore, we should not be forward in condemning men of want of courage, when the Generals, who are both men of metal, and hate cowards, and had the sense of our ill success upon them, thought fit to remove no more of them, when desired by the King and Duke of York to do it, without respect to any favour any of them can pretend to in either of them.

28th. To the Pope's Head, where my Lord Brouncker and his mistress dined, and Commissioner Pett, Dr. Charleton, and myself, [were] entertained with a venison pasty by Sir W. Warren. Here very pretty discourse of Dr. Charleton's, concerning Nature's fashioning every creature's teeth according to the food she intends them; and that men's, it is plain, was not for flesh, but fruit, and that he can at any time tell the food of a beast unknown by the teeth; and that all children love fruit, and none brought to flesh, but against their wills, at first. Thence with my Lord to his coach-house, and there put in six horses into his coach, and he and I alone to Highgate. Being come thither, we went to

1 As Yeoman of the Cellar and Cup-bearer. This most improper step of the Duke of York is alluded to in the Poems on State Affairs, vol. i., p. 36, ed. 1703:

"Cashier the memory of Dutell, raised up

To taste, instead of death, his Highness' cup."

2 Walter Charleton, a native of Somersetshire, physician in ordinary to Charles II. during his exile and after the Restoration. He was a learned and voluminous author, and died in 1707.

my Lord Lauderdale's house to speak with him, and find him and his lady, and some Scotch people, at supper: pretty odd company, though, my Lord Brouncker tells me, my Lord Lauderdale is a man of mighty good reason and judgement. But at supper there played one of their servants upon the viallin some Scotch tunes only; several, and the best of their country, as they seemed to esteem them, by their praising and admiring them: but, Lord! the strangest ayre that ever I heard in my life, and all of one cast. But strange to hear my Lord Lauderdale say himself that he had rather hear a cat mew, than the best musique in the world; and the better the musique, the more sick it makes him; and that of all instruments, he hates the lute most, and, next to that, the baggpipe.

29th. Before sermon was done at Church, comes news by a letter to Sir W. Batten, to my hand, of the late fight, which I sent to his house, he at Church. But, Lord! with what impatience I staid till sermon was done, to know the issue of the fight, with a thousand hopes and fears and thoughts about the consequences of either. At last sermon is done, and he come home, and the bells immediately rung soon as the church was done. But coming to Sir W. Batten to know the news, his letter said nothing of it; but all the town is full of a victory. By and by, a letter from Sir W. Coventry tells me that we have the victory. Beat them into the Weelings; had taken two of their great ships; but, by the orders of the Generals, they are burned. This being, methought, but a poor result after the fighting of two so great fleets, and four days having no tidings of them, I was still impatient; but could know

no more. I to Sir W. Batten, where the Lieutenant of the Tower was, and Sir John Minnes, and the news I find is what I had heard before; only that our Blue squadron, it seems, was pursued the most of the time, having more ships, a great many, than its number allotted to its share. Young Seymour is killed, the only captain slain. The Resolution burned; but, as they say, most of her crew and commander saved. This is all, only we keep the sea, which denotes a victory, or, at least, that we are not beaten; but no great matters to brag of, God knows.

30th. To Sir W. Coventry, at St. James's, where I find him in his new closet, which is very fine, and well supplied with handsome books. I find him speak very slightly of the late victory: dislikes their staying with the fleet up their coast, believing that the Dutch will come out in fourteen days, and then we, with our unready fleet, by reason of some of the ships being maymed, shall be in bad condition to fight them upon their coast is much dissatisfied with the great number of men, and their fresh demands of twenty-four victualling ships, they going out the other day as full as they could stow. He spoke slightly of the Duke of Albemarle, saying, when De Ruyter come to give him a broadside "Now," says he, chewing of tobacco the while, "will this fellow come and give me two broadsides, and then he shall run;" but it seems he held him to it two hours, till the Duke himself was forced to retreat, to refit, and was towed off, and De Ruyter staid for him till he come back again to fight. One in the ship saying to the Duke, "Sir, methinks De Ruyter hath given us more than two broadsides;"-"Well,"

says the Duke, “but you shall find him run by and by ;" and so he did, says Sir W. Coventry; but after the Duke himself had been first made to fall off. The Resolution had all brass guns, being the same that Sir J. Lawson had in her in the Straights. It is observed, that the two fleets were even in number to one ship.

Thence home; and to sing with my wife and Mercer in the garden; and coming in, I find my wife plainly dissatisfied with me, that I can spend so much time with Mercer, teaching her to sing, and could never take the pains with her, which I acknowledge; but it is because that the girl do take musick mighty readily, and she do not, and musick is the thing of the world that I love most, and all the pleasure almost that I can now take. So to bed, in some little discontent, but no words from me.

31st. The Court empty, the King being gone to Tunbridge, and the Duke of York a-hunting. I had some discourse with Povy, who is mightily discontented, I find, about his disappointments at Court; and says, of all places, if there be hell, it is here. No faith, no truth, no love, nor any agreement between man and wife, nor friends. He would have spoke broader, but I put it off to another time; and so parted. Povy discoursed with me about my Lord Peterborough's £50, which his man did give me from him, the last year's salary I paid him, which he would have Povy pay him again; but I have not taken it to myself yet, and therefore will most heartily return him, and mark him out for a coxcomb. Povy went down to Mr. Williamson's, and brought me up this extract out of the Flanders, letters to day come:-That Admiral Everson, and the

Admiral and Vice-Admiral of Freezeland, with many captains and men, are slain; that De Ruyter is safe, but lost 250 men out of his own ship; but that he is in great disgrace, and Trump in better favour; that Bankert's ship is burned, himself hardly escaping with a few men on board De Haes; that fifteen captains are to be tried the seventh of August; and that the hangman was sent from Flushing to assist the Council of War. How much of this is true, time will show. Mighty well, and end this month in content of mind and body. The public matters looking more safe for the present than they did, and we having a victory of the Dutch just such as I could have wished, and as the kingdom was fit to bear-enough to give us the name of conquerors, and leave us masters of the sea, but without any such great matters done as should give the Duke of Albemarle any honour at all, or give him cause to rise to his former insolence.

August 1st. Walked over the Park with Sir W. Coventry, who I clearly see is not thoroughly pleased with the late management of the fight, nor with any thing that the Generals do; only is glad to hear that De Ruyter is out of favour, and that this fight hath cost them 5000 men, as they themselves do report. And it is a strange thing, as he observes, how now and then the slaughter runs on one hand; there being 5000 killed on theirs, and not above 400 or 500 killed and wounded on ours, and as many flag officers on theirs as ordinary captains in ours: there being Everson, and the Admiral and Vice-Admiral of Freezeland on theirs, and Seymour, Martin, and, on ours.

2nd. To the office, where we sat, and in discourse at