30th July, 1652. I took advice about purchasing Sir Richard's [Browne] interest of those who had bought Sayes Court.
1st August, 1652. Came old Jerome Lennier, of Greenwich, a man skilled in painting and music, and another rare musician, called Mell. I went to see his collection of pictures, especially those of Julio Romano, which surely had been the King's, and an Egyptian figure, etc. There were also excellent things of Polydore, Guido, Raphael, and Tintoretto. Lennier had been a domestic of Queen Elizabeth, and showed me her head, an intaglio in a rare sardonyx, cut by a famous Italian, which he assured me was exceedingly like her.
24th August, 1652. My first child, a son, was born precisely at one o'clock.
2d September, 1652. Mr. Owen, the sequestered divine, of Eltham, christened my son by the name of Richard.
22d September, 1652. I went to Woodcott, where Lady Browne was taken with scarlet fever, and died. She was carried to Deptford, and interred in the church near Sir Richard's relations with all decent ceremonies, and according to the church-office, for which I obtained permission, after it had not been used in that church for seven years. Thus ended an excellent and virtuous lady, universally lamented, having been so obliging on all occasions to those who continually frequented her house in Paris, which was not only an hospital, but an asylum to all our persecuted and afflicted countrymen, during eleven years' residence there in that honorable situation.
25th September, 1652. I went to see Dr. Mason's house, so famous for the prospect (for the house is a wretched one) and description of Barclay's "Icon Animarum."[46]
5th November, 1652. To London, to visit some friends, but the insolences were so great in the streets that I could not return till the next day.
Dr. Scarborough was instant with me to give the Tables of Veins and Arteries to the College of Physicians, pretending he would not only read upon them, but celebrate my curiosity as being the first who caused them to be completed in that manner, and with that cost; but I was not so willing yet to part with them, as to lend them to the College during their anatomical lectures; which I did accordingly.
22d November, 1652. I went to London, where was proposed to me the promoting that great work (since accomplished by Dr. Walton, Bishop of Chester), "Biblia Polyglotta," by Mr. Pierson, that most learned divine.
25th December, 1652. Christmas day, no sermon anywhere, no church being permitted to be open, so observed it at home. The next day, we went to Lewisham, where an honest divine preached.