LONDON
6th April, 1683. Good Friday. There was in the afternoon, according to custom, a sermon before the King, at Whitehall; Dr. Sprat preached for the Bishop of Rochester.
17th April, 1683. I was at the launching of the last of the thirty ships ordered to be newly built by Act of Parliament, named the "Neptune," a second rate, one of the goodliest vessels of the whole navy, built by my kind neighbor, young Mr. Shish, his Majesty's master shipwright of this dock.
1st May, 1683. I went to Blackheath, to see the new fair, being the first procured by the Lord Dartmouth. This was the first day, pretended for the sale of cattle, but I think in truth to enrich the new tavern at the bowling-green, erected by Snape, his Majesty's farrier, a man full of projects. There appeared nothing but an innumerable assembly of drinking people from London, peddlars, etc., and I suppose it too near London to be of any great use to the country.
March was unusually hot and dry, and all April excessively wet.
I planted all the out limits of the garden and long walks with holly.[50]
9th May, 1683. Dined at Sir Gabriel Sylvius's and thence to visit the Duke of Norfolk, to ask whether he would part with any of his cartoons and other drawings of Raphael, and the great masters; he told me if he might sell them all together he would, but that the late Sir Peter Lely (our famous painter) had gotten some of his best. The person who desired me to treat for them was Vander Douse, grandson to that great scholar, contemporary and friend of Joseph Scaliger.
16th May, 1683. Came to dinner and visited me Sir Richard Anderson, of Pendley, and his lady, with whom I went to London.
8th June, 1683. On my return home from the Royal Society, I found Mr. Wilbraham, a young gentleman of Cheshire.
11th June, 1683. The Lord Dartmouth was elected Master of the Trinity House; son to George Legge, late Master of the Ordnance, and one of the grooms of the bedchamber; a great favorite of the Duke's, an active and understanding gentleman in sea affairs.