the table with Sir W. Batten, I was obliged to tell him it was an untruth, which did displease him mightily, and parted at noon very angry with me. Balty's wife is in great pain for her husband, not hearing of him since the fight, but I understand he was not in it, going hence too late.

3d. The death of Everson, and the report of our success, beyond expectation, in the killing of so great a number of men, hath raised the estimation of the late victory considerably; but it is only among fools: for all that was but accidental. But this morning, getting Sir W. Pen to read over the Narrative with me, he did sparingly, yet plainly, say that we might have intercepted their Zealand squadron coming home, if we had done our parts; and more, that we might have spooned1 before the wind as well as they, and have overtaken their ships in the pursuit, in all the while.

4th. Mr. Cooke dined with us, who is lately come from Hinchingbroke. The family all well. This evening Sir W. Pen come into the garden, and walked with me, and told me that he had certain notice that at Flushing they are in great distraction. De Ruyter dares not come on shore for fear of the people; nor any body open their houses or shops for fear of the tumult: which is a very good hearing.

5th. To the Church, where, I believe, Mrs. Horsly goes, by merchant-tailors' hall, and there I find in the pulpit Elborough, my old schoolfellow and a simple rogue,2 and yet I find preaching a very good sermon,

1 To spoom, or spoon, is to go right before the wind, without any sail.-Sea Dictionary, 1708.

2 See p. 269, post.

and in as right a parson-like manner, and in as good a manner, too, as I have heard anybody, and the church very full, which is a surprising consideration. After dinner with my wife and Mercer and Jane by water up as high as Mortlake with great pleasure, and a fine day, reading over the second part of the Siege of Rhodes with great delight. We landed, and walked at Barneelmes, and then at the net-houses I landed, and bought a millon, and we did also land and eat and drink at Wandsworth, and so to the Old Swan, and thence walked home. It being a mighty fine cool evening, my wife and I spent an hour in the garden talking of our living in the country, when I shall be turned out of the office, as I fear the Parliament may find faults enough to remove us all. Nan, at Sir W. Pen's, lately married to one Markeham, a kinsman of Sir W. Pen's-a pretty wench she is.

6th. To my Lady Montagu's, at Westminster, and there visited my Lord Hinchingbroke, newly come from Hinchingbroke, and find him a mighty sober gentleman, to my great content. In Fenchurch Street met with Mr. Battersby; says he, "Do you see Dan Rawlinson's door shut up?" which I did, and wondered. "Why," says he, "after all this sickness, and himself spending all the last year in the country, one of his men is now dead of the plague, and his wife and one of his maids sick, and himself shut up;" which troubles me mightily. So home; and there do hear also from Mrs. Sarah Daniel, that Greenwich is at this time much worse than ever it was, and Deptford too: and she told us that they believed all the town would leave the town, and come to London; which is now the receptacle of all the

people from all infected places. God preserve us! After dinner, in comes Mrs. Knipp, and I sat and talked with her, it being the first time of her being here since her being brought to bed. I very pleasant to her, but perceive my wife hath no great pleasure in her being here. However, we talked and sang, and were very pleasant. By and by comes Mr. Pierce and his wife, the first time she also hath been here since her lying-in, both having been brought to bed of boys, and both of them dead. Knipp and I sang, and then I offered to carry them home, and to take my wife with me, but she would not go: so I with them, leaving my wife in a very ill humour. However, I would not be removed from my civility to them, but sent for a coach, and went with them; and in our way, Knipp saying that she come out of doors without a dinner to us, I took them to Old Fish-streete, to the very house and woman where I kept my wedding-dinner,' where I never was since, and there I did give them a jole of salmon, and what else was to be had. And here we talked of the ill-humour of my wife, which I did excuse as much as I could, and they seemed to admit of it, but did both confess they wondered at it: but from thence to other discourse, of my Lord Brouncker. They told me how poorly my Lord carried himself the other day to his kinswoman, Mrs. Howard, and was displeased because she called him uncle to a little gentlewoman that is there with him, which he will not admit of; for no relation is to be challenged from others to a lord, and did

1 The tavern was evidently selected to mark Pepys's disgust at his wife's ill-humour; but he probably did not venture to mention the circumstance, on his return home.

treat her thereupon very rudely and ungenteely. Knipp tells me, also, that my Lord keeps another woman besides Mrs. Williams; and that, when I was there the other day, there was a great hubbub in the house, Mrs. Williams being fallen sick, because my Lord was gone to his other mistress, making her wait for him till his return from the other mistress; and a great deal of do there was about it, and Mrs. Williams swounded at it, at the very time when I wondered at the reason of my being received so negligently. I set them both at home-Knipp at her house, her husband being at the doore; and glad she was to be found to have staid out so long with me and Mrs. Pierce, and none else. Home, and there find my wife mightily out of order, and reproaching of Mrs. Pierce and Knipp as wenches, and I know not what. But I did give her no words to offend her, and quietly let all pass.

7th. Comes Mr. Reeve, with a twelve-foote glasse. Up to the top of the house, and there we endeavoured to see the moon, and Saturn and Jupiter, but the heavens proved cloudy, and so we lost our labour, having taken pains to get things together, in order to the managing of our new glass. I receive fresh intelligence that Deptford and Greenwich are now afresh exceedingly afflicted with the sickness more than ever.

8th. Discoursed with Mr. Hooke about the nature of sounds, and he did make me understand the nature of musicall sounds made by strings, mighty prettily; and told me that having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings, those flies that hum in their flying, by the note that it answers to

in musique, during their flying. That, I suppose, is a little too much refined; but his discourse in general of sound was mighty fine. To St. James's, where we attended with the rest of my fellows on the Duke, whom I found with two or three patches upon his nose and about his right eye, which came from his being struck with the bough of a tree the other day in his hunting; and it is a wonder it did not strike out his eye. After we had done our business with him, which is now but little, the want of money being such as leaves us little to do but to answer complaints of the want thereof: the representing of our want of money being now become uselesse. To Bow, to my Lady Pooly's,' where my wife was with Mr. Batelier and his sisters; and there I found a noble supper. About ten o'clock we rose from table, and sang a song; and so home in two coaches, Mr. Batelier and his sister Mary, and my wife and I in one, and Mercer alone in the other; and, after being examined at Allgate whether we were husbands and wives, home. I find Reeves there, it being a mighty fine bright night, and so upon my leads, though very sleepy, till one in the morning, looking on the moon and Jupiter, with this twelve-foot glass, and another of six foot, that he hath brought with him to-night, and the sights mighty pleasant, and one of the glasses I will buy. So to bed mighty sleepy, but with much pleasure, Reeves lying at my house; and mighty proud I am, and ought to be thankful to God Almighty that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.

9th. Mightily pleased with a Virgin's head that my wife is now drawing of. In the evening to Lumbard 1 Wife of Sir Edmund Pooly, mentioned before.