satyre upon the service of the Duke of Albemarle the I took it home with me, and will copy it, last year. 21st. To the Swede's-Resident's in the Piazza, to discourse with him about two of our prizes. A cunning fellow. He lives in one of the great houses there, but ill-furnished; and come to us out of bed in his furred mittens and furred cap. Up to the Lords' House, and there come mighty seasonably to hear the Solicitor about my Lord Buckingham's pretence to the title of Lord Rosse. Mr. Atturny Montagu is also a good man, and so is old Sir P. Ball; but the Solicitor and Scroggs after him are excellent men. To Deptford, and walked home, and there come into my company 4 1 Sir John Denham's name is put to these poems, but they were supposed to have been written by Andrew Marvel; the printer being discovered, was sentenced to the pillory. 2 Sir James Barkman Leyenburg, many years the Swedish Resident in this country. He is the person mentioned in p. 158, vol. i., as having in 1671 married the widow of Sir W. Batten. 3 The ancient barony of De Ros, created by writ in 1264, was carried, with Belvoir Castle and other great possessions, into the family of Manners, by the marriage of Eleanor, sister and heir of Edmund Lord de Ros, (who died in 1508) to Sir Robert Manners. Katharine, only daughter and heir of Francis, sixth Earl of Rutland, married, first, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and secondly, Randal Macdonnel, Marquis of Antrim. On her death, the barony of De Ros was claimed by her son, the second Duke of Buckingham. He died without issue in 1687, and the barony remained in abeyance until the year 1806, when it was determined by the Crown in favour of Lady Henry Fitzgerald, the mother of the late and the present Lords de Ros. * Sir Peter Ball, the Queen's Attorney-General. 5 Sir William Scroggs, King's Serjeant, 1669; afterwards ChiefJustice of the King's Bench. three drunken seamen, but one especially, who told me such stories, calling me Captain, as made me mighty merry, and they would leap and skip, and kiss what maids they met all the way. I did at first give them money to drink, lest they should know who I was, and so become troublesome to me. This night, at supper, comes from Sir W. Coventry the Order of Councill for my Lord Brouncker to do all the Comptroller's part relating to the Treasurer's accounts, and Sir W. Pen, all relating to the Victualler's, and Sir J. Minnes to do the rest. This, I hope, will do much better for the King, and, I think, will give neither of them ground to over-top me, as I feared they would; which pleases me mightily. This evening, Mr. Wren and Captain Cocke called upon me at the office, and there told me how the House was in better temper to-day, and hath passed the Bill for the remainder of the money, but not to be passed finally till they have done some other things which they will have passed with it; wherein they are very open, what their meaning is, which was but doubted before, for they do in all respects doubt the King's pleasing them. 23rd. To St. James's, to see the organ Mrs. Turner told me of the other night, of my late Lord Aubigney's;. and I took my Lord Brouncker with me, he ing acquainted with my present Lord Almoner, Mr. Howard,1 brother to the Duke of Norfolke; so he and I did see the organ, but I do not like it, it being but a bauble, with 1 Philip Howard, Lord Almoner to Queen Catherine, and third son of Henry Howard, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1652. He was made a Cardinal by Clement X. in 1675, and died at Rome in 1694. He was generally styled the Cardinal of Norfolk. a virginal joining to it: so I shall not meddle with it. The Almoner seems a good-natured gentleman: here I observed the deske which he hath, [made] to remove, and is fastened to one of the armes of his chayre. I do also observe the counterfeit windows there was, in the form of doors with looking-glasses instead of windows, which makes the room seem both bigger and lighter, I think; and I have some thoughts to have the like in one of my rooms. He discoursed much of the goodness of the musique in Rome, but could not tell me how long musique had been in any perfection in that church, which I would be glad to know. He speaks much of the great buildings that this Pope, whom, in mirth to us, he calls Antichrist, hath done in his time. Away, and my Lord and I walking into the Park, I did observe the new buildings: and my Lord, seeing I had a desire to see them, they being the place for the priests and fryers, he took me back to my Lord Almoner; and he took us quite through the whole house and chapel, and the new monastery, showing me most excellent pieces in wax-worke: a crucifix given by a Pope to Mary Queene of Scotts, where a piece of the Cross is; two bits set in the manner of a cross in the foot of the crucifix: several fine pictures, but especially very good prints of holy pictures. I saw the dortoire1 and the cells of the priests, and we went into one; a very pretty little room, very clean, hung with pictures, set with books. The Priest was in his cell, with his hair clothes to his skin, bare-legged, with a sandall only on, and his little bed without sheets, and no feather-bed; but yet, I thought, soft enough. His cord about his 1 Dormitory. middle; but in so good company, living with ease, I thought it a very good life. A pretty library they have. And I was in the refectoire, where every man his napkin, knife, cup of earth, and basin of the same; and a place for one to sit and read while the rest are at meals. And into the kitchen I went, where a good neck of mutton at the fire, and other victuals boiling. I do not think they fared very hard. Their windows all looking into a fine garden and the Park; and mighty pretty rooms all. I wished myself one of the Capuchins. So away with the Almoner in his coach, talking merrily about the difference in our religions, to White Hall, and there we left him. To take up my wife and Mercer, and to Temple Bar to the Ordinary, and had a dish of meat for them, they having not dined, and thence to the King's house, and there saw "The Humerous Lieutenant:" a silly play, I think; only the Spirit in it that grows very tall, and then sinks again to nothing, having two heads breeding upon one, and then Knipp's singing, did please us. Here, in a box above, we spied Mrs. Pierce; and, going out, they called us, and so we staid for them; and Knipp took us all in, and brought to us Nelly,' a most pretty woman, who acted the great part of Cœlia to-day very fine, and did it pretty well: I kissed her, and so did my wife; and a mighty pretty soul she is. We also saw Mrs. Ball, which is my little Roman-nose black girl, that is mighty pretty: she is usually called Betty. Knipp made us stay in a box and see the dancing preparatory to to-morrow for "The Goblins," a play of Suckling's,2 1 Nell Gwynne. 2 Sir John Suckling, the poet. not acted these twenty-five years; which was pretty; and so away thence, pleased with this sight also, and specially kissing of Nell. In our way home, we find the Guards of horse in the street, and hear the occasion to be news that the seamen are in a mutiny; which put me into a great fright; and, when I come home, I hear of no disturbance there of the seamen, but that one of them, being arrested to-day, others do go and rescue him. 24th. At the office, we were frighted with news of fire at Sir W. Batten's by a chimney taking fire, and it put me into much fear and trouble, but with a great many hands and pains it was soon stopped. I home, where most of my company come of this end of the town-Mercer and her sister, Mr. Batelier and Pembleton, my Lady Pen, and Pegg, and Mr. Lowther, but did not stay long, and I believe it was by Sir W. Pen's order; for they had a great mind to have staid, and also Captain Rolt. And anon, at about seven or eight o'clock, comes Mr. Harris, of the Duke's playhouse, and brings Mrs. Pierce with him, and also one dressed like a country-maid with a straw hat on; and, at first, I could not tell who it was, though I expected Knipp: but it was she coming off the stage just as she acted this day in "The Goblins;" a merry jade. Now my house is full, and four fiddlers that play well. Harris I first took to my closet; and I find him a very curious and understanding person in all pictures and other things, and a man of fine conversation; and so is Rolt. So away with all my company down to the office, and there fell to dancing, and continued at it an hour or two, there coming Mrs. Anne Jones, a merchant's |