13th December, 1685. Dr. Patrick, Dean of Peterborough, preached at Whitehall, before the Princess of Denmark, who, since his Majesty came to the Crown, always sat in the King's closet, and had the same bowings and ceremonies applied to the place where she was, as his Majesty had when there in person.
Dining at Mr. Pepys's, Dr. Slayer showed us an experiment of a wonderful nature, pouring first a very cold liquor into a glass, and superfusing on it another, to appearance cold and clear liquor also; it first produced a white cloud, then boiling, divers coruscations and actual flames of fire mingled with the liquor, which being a little shaken together, fixed divers suns and stars of real fire, perfectly globular, on the sides of the glass, and which there stuck like so many constellations, burning most vehemently, and resembling stars and heavenly bodies, and that for a long space. It seemed to exhibit a theory of the eduction of light out of the chaos, and the fixing or gathering of the universal light into luminous bodies. This matter, or phosphorus, was made out of human blood and urine, elucidating the vital flame, or heat in animal bodies. A very noble experiment!
16th December, 1685. I accompanied my Lord-Lieutenant as far as St. Alban's, there going out of town with him near 200 coaches of all the great officers and nobility. The next morning taking leave, I returned to London.
18th December, 1685. I dined at the great entertainment his Majesty gave the Venetian Ambassadors, Signors Zenno and Justiniani, accompanied with ten more noble Venetians of their most illustrious families, Cornaro, Maccenigo, etc., who came to congratulate their Majesties coming to the Crown. The dinner was most magnificent and plentiful, at four tables, with music, kettledrums, and trumpets, which sounded upon a whistle at every health. The banquet [dessert] was twelve vast chargers piled up so high that those who sat one against another could hardly see each other. Of these sweetmeats, which doubtless were some days piling up in that exquisite manner, the Ambassadors touched not, but leaving them to the spectators who came out of curiosity to see the dinner, were exceedingly pleased to see in what a moment of time all that curious work was demolished, the comfitures voided, and the tables cleared. Thus his Majesty entertained them three days, which (for the table only) cost him £600, as the Clerk of the Greencloth (Sir William Boreman) assured me. Dinner ended, I saw their procession, or cavalcade, to Whitehall, innumerable coaches attending. The two Ambassadors had four coaches of their own, and fifty footmen (as I remember), besides other equipage as splendid as the occasion would permit, the Court being still in mourning. Thence, I went to the audience which they had in the Queen's presence chamber, the Banqueting House being full of goods and furniture till the galleries on the garden-side, council chamber, and new chapel, now in the building, were finished. They went to their audience in those plain black gowns and caps which they constantly wear in the city of Venice. I was invited to have accompanied the two Ambassadors in their coach to supper that night, returning now to their own lodgings, as no longer at the King's expense; but, being weary, I excused myself.
19th December, 1685. My Lord Treasurer made me dine with him, where I became acquainted with Monsieur Barillon, the French Ambassador, a learned and crafty advocate.
LONDON
20th December, 1685. Dr. Turner, brother to the Bishop of Ely, and sometime tutor to my son, preached at Whitehall on Mark viii. 38, concerning the submission of Christians to their persecutors, in which were some passages indiscreet enough, considering the time, and the rage of the inhuman French tyrant against the poor Protestants.
22d December, 1685. Our patent for executing the office of Privy Seal during the absence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, being this day sealed by the Lord Chancellor, we went afterward to St. James, where the Court then was on occasion of building at Whitehall; his Majesty delivered the seal to my Lord Tiviot and myself, the other Commissioners not being come, and then gave us his hand to kiss. There were the two Venetian Ambassadors and a world of company; among the rest the first Popish Nuncio that had been in England since the Reformation; so wonderfully were things changed, to the universal jealousy.
24th December, 1685. We were all three Commissioners sworn on our knees by the Clerk of the Crown, before my Lord Chancellor, three several oaths: allegiance, supremacy, and the oath belonging to the Lord Privy Seal, which last we took standing. After this, the Lord Chancellor invited us all to dinner, but it being Christmas eve we desired to be excused, intending at three in the afternoon to seal divers things which lay ready at the office; so attended by three of the Clerks of the Signet, we met and sealed. Among other things was a pardon to West, who being privy to the late conspiracy, had revealed the accomplices to save his own neck. There were also another pardon and two indenizations; and so agreeing to a fortnight's vacation, I returned home.
31st December, 1685. Recollecting the passages of the year past, and having made up accounts, humbly besought Almighty God to pardon those my sins which had provoked him to discompose my sorrowful family; that he would accept of our humiliation, and in his good time restore comfort to it. I also blessed God for all his undeserved mercies and preservations, begging the continuance of his grace and preservation. The winter had hitherto been extraordinarily wet and mild.