Fellows among his habitués; indeed, Mr. Pepys (afterwards President of the society) speaks of the number of 'ingenious men' he was accustomed to meet at the house in Winchester Street. During the earlier years of Mr. Pepys's acquaintance with him, its master was still young, full of life and bonhomie; and while possessing a large circle of acquaintance, was above all devoted to his brothers, forming one of the somewhat boyish troop of five, so frequently to be seen in each other's society.

Shortly before the outbreak of the plague had scattered all the guests, Pepys mentions in his Diary having dined in Winchester Street, 'at Mr. Houblon's, the merchant [till then a stranger to him], in company with Sir William Petty,' and abundance of most ingenious men, and with most excellent discourse.'

'After dinner,' he continues, 'Mr. Hill took me with Mrs. Houblon into another room, and there made her sing, which she do very well to my great content.'" Of James Houblon's wife Pepys speaks elsewhere as 'a fine gentlewoman,' while his musical soul appreciated her singing. Mr. Hill was likewise a great amateur of music, and the Houblons were his lifelong friends.3

James Houblon, while he could enjoy the society of his friends, and surround himself with all that the advancing science and requirements of the day permitted, was nevertheless a most painstaking and hard-working man of business. Genius has been said to consist in the infinite capacity for taking pains; if so, James Houblon deserved the appellation. He was laborious in making

1 The eminent political economist and Fellow of the Royal Society. 2 Pepys's Diary, 22 March 1665.

3 Sarah Houblon was the daughter of Charles Wynne, and was married in 1658. Her portrait by Mrs. Beale represents her as a dark young woman with a profusion of wavy hair, and attired in the négligé style affected by the 'beauties' of Charles II.'s day, a mode of dress really more pictorial than real. The couple had two sons named Wynne and James. The arms of Wynne are Vert, three eagles displayed in fess or. See Le Neve's Knights for the arms of Sir James Houblon's wife, p. 440.

ARMS OF WYNNE.

himself minutely acquainted with all details connected with his calling, especially with regard to shipping and navigation-on which matters the Government frequently sought the advice of the Royal Society. At a later date he was often requested, through the medium of the Secretary to the Admiralty, to draw up reports on various subjects on which it required information and data; and the drafts of some of these papers have been preserved among the Pepysian and other MSS. The connection between the merchant marine and the royal navy was a close one, while through the medium of the merchants, much 'foreign office' work was still carried on. We owe to Mr. Pepys's acquaintance with James, Houblon the younger the preservation of these documents, of considerable interest, partly on account of their intrinsic merit, and partly as bearing upon the character of the famous diarist, and the ingenuity with which he collected information, and absorbed the time and energies of his friends to the purposes he had in view.

Besides the great mass of papers bequeathed by Mr. Pepys, together with his library, to Magdalene College, Cambridge, a large collection of Pepysiana has been preserved among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford; and these include, besides letters from his friends, many copies and drafts of letters penned by himself, mostly at a later date than the close of the Diary, the last page of which was written on 1669 the 31st of May 1669. The papers relating to James Houblon in this collection comprise letters to and from him to Mr. Pepys, and reports, bearing upon naval and mercantile matters, drawn up at different times at the 1 Viz. fifty volumes of MSS.