warding the payment of the wages of any man, of which he sent us a copy yesterday, which we approved of, is set up, among other places, upon the House of Lords' door. I do not know how wisely this is done. This morning, also, there come to the office a letter from the Duke of York, commanding our payment of no wages to any of the muster-masters of the fleete the last year, but only two, my brother Balty, taking notice that he had taken pains therein, and one Ward, who, though he had not taken so much as the other, yet had done more than the rest. At night I, by appointment, home, where W. Batelier and his sister Mary, and the two Mercers, to play at cards and sup, and did cut our great cake lately given us by Russell: a very good one. Here very merry late. Sir W. Pen told me this night how the King did make them a very sharp speech in the House of Lords to-day, saying that he did expect to have had more Bills; that he purposes to prorogue them on Monday come se'nnight; that whereas they have unjustly conceived some jealousys of his making a peace, he declares he knows of no such thing or treaty and so left them. But with so little effect, that as soon as he came into the House, Sir W. Coventry moved, that now the King hath declared his intention of proroguing them, it would be loss of time to go on with the thing they were upon, when they were called to the King, which was the calling over the defaults of Members appearing in the House; for that, before any person could now come or be brought to town, the House would be up. Yet the Faction did desire to delay time, and contend so as to come to a division of the House; where, however, it was carried, by a few voices, that the debate should be laid by. But this shows that they are not pleased, or that they have not any awe over them from the King's displeasure.

19th. Sir W. Batten tells me to my wonder that at his coming to my Lord Ashly, yesterday morning, to tell him what prize-goods he would have saved for the Navy, and not sold, according to the King's order on the 17th, he fell quite out with him in high terms; and he says, too, that they did go on with the sale yesterday, even of the very hempe, and other things, at which I am astonished, and will never wonder at the ruine of the King's affairs, if this be suffered.

20th. (Lord's day.) I was sorry to hear of the heat the House was in yesterday about the ill management of the Navy; though I think they were well answered, both by Sir G. Carteret and Sir W. Coventry, as he informs me of the substance of their speeches. I to church, and there, beyond expectation, find our seat, and all the church crammed, by twice as many people, as used to be: and to my great joy find Mr. Frampton' in the pulpit; and Í think the best sermon, for goodness and oratory, without affectation or study, that ever I heard in my life. The truth is, he preaches the most like an apostle that ever I heard man; and it was much the best time that I ever spent in my life at church. His text, Ecclesiastes xi., verse 8th-" But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity." To White Hall, and there walked in the Parke, and a little to my Lord Chancellor's, where the King and Cabinet met, and there met Mr. Brisband, with whom good dis-, course, and there he did lend me "The Third Advice to a Paynter," a bitter satyre upon the service of the Duke of Albemarle the last year. I took it home

1 See ante, 10th October, 1666.

2 Sir John Denham's name is put to these poems, but they were

P

with me, and will copy it, having the former, being also mightily pleased with it.

21st. To the Swede's Resident's1 in the Piazza, to discourse with him about two of our prizes, wherein he put in his concernment as for his countrymen. We had no satisfaction, nor did give him any, but I find him a cunning fellow. He lives in one of the great houses there, but ill-furnished; and came to us out of bed in his furred mittens and furred cap. Thence to Exeter House to the Doctors Commons, and there with our Proctors to Dr. Walker, who did hear our matters, and after a dull seeming hearing of them read, did discourse most understandingly of them, as well as ever I heard man, telling us all our grounds of pretence to the prize would do no good, which troubled us, but I was mightily taken to hear his manner of discourse. Thence up to the Lords' House, and there came 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 Soli

2

supposed to have been written by Andrew Marvel. The printer, being discovered, was sentenced to the pillory.

1 Sir James Barkman Leyenburg, many years the Swedish Resident in this country. He is the person mentioned in the note to Nov. 26, 1660, as having in 1671 married the widow of Sir W. Batten.

2 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 Macdonnal, 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.

3 Sir Peter Ball, the Queen's Attorney-General.

citor1 and Scroggs' after him are excellent men. At home find Lovett, to whom I did give my Lady Castlemayne's head to do. He is talking of going into Spayne to get money by his art, but I doubt he will do no good, he being a man of an unsettled head. Thence by water to Deptford, and there did some little business and walked home, and there came into my company 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 mayds 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. Parted at Redriffe and there home and to the office, where did much business, and then to Sir W. Batten's, where Sir W. Pen, Sir R. Ford, and I to hear a proposition Sir R. Ford was to acquaint us with from the Swedes Embassador, in manner of saying, that for money he might be got to our side and relinquish the trouble he might give us. Sir W. Pen did make a long simple declaration of his resolution to give nothing to deceive any poor man of what was his right by law, but ended by doing whatever any body else would, and we did commission Sir R. Ford to give promise of not beyond 350l. to him and his Secretary, in case they did not oppose us in the Phoenix (the net profits of which, as Sir R. Ford cast up before us, the Admiral's tenths, and ship's thirds, and other charges all cleared, will amount to 3000/.) and that we did gain her. Sir R. Ford did pray for a curse upon his family, if he was privy to anything more than he told us (which I believe he is a knave in), yet we all concluded him the most fit man for it and very honest, and so left it

1 Sir Edward Turner.

2 Sir William Scroggs, King's Serjeant, 1669; afterwards ChiefJustice of the King's Bench.

wholly to him to manage as he pleased. So home, where W. Hewer's mother was, and supped with us. His mother a well favoured old little woman and a good woman, I believe. This night, at supper, comes from Sir W. Coventry the Order of Councill1 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.

22nd. Up, and there came to me Darnell the fiddler, one of the Duke's house, and brought me a set of lessons, all three parts, I heard them play to the Duke of York this Christmas at his lodgings, and bid him get me them. I did give him a crowne for them, and did enquire after the musique of the "Siege of Rhodes," which, he tells me, he can get me, which I am mighty glad of. So to the office, where among other things I read the Councill's order about my Lord Brouncker and Sir W. Pen to be assistants to the Comptroller, which quietly went down with Sir J. Minnes, poor man, he seeming a little as if he would be thought to have desired it, but yet apparently to his discontent; and, I fear, as the order

1 Dated 16th January, 1666-7, and printed in "Memoirs relating to the Conduct of the Navy," 8vo. 1729, p. 59.