12th April, 1696. A very fine spring season.
19th April, 1696. Great offense taken at the three ministers who absolved Sir William Perkins and Friend at Tyburn. One of them (Snatt) was a son of my old schoolmaster. This produced much altercation as to the canonicalness of the action.
21st April, 1696. We had a meeting at Guildhall of the grand committee about settling the draught of Greenwich hospital.
23d April, 1696. I went to Eton, and dined with Dr. Godolphin, the provost. The schoolmaster assured me there had not been for twenty years a more pregnant youth in that place than my grandson. I went to see the King's House at Kensington. It is very noble, though not great. The gallery furnished with the best pictures [from] all the houses, of Titian, Raphael, Correggio, Holbein, Julio Romano, Bassan, Vandyke, Tintoretto, and others; a great collection of porcelain; and a pretty private library. The gardens about it very delicious.
26th April, 1696. Dr. Sharp preached at the Temple. His prayer before the sermon was one of the most excellent compositions I ever heard.
28th April, 1696. The Venetian Ambassador made a stately entry with fifty footmen, many on horseback, four rich coaches, and a numerous train of gallants. More executions this week of the assassins. Oates dedicated a most villainous, reviling book against King James, which he presumed to present to King William, who could not but abhor it, speaking so infamously and untruly of his late beloved Queen's own father.
2d May, 1696. I dined at Lambeth, being summoned to meet my co-trustees, the Archbishop, Sir Henry Ashurst, and Mr. Serjeant Rotheram, to consult about settling
Mr. Boyle's lecture for a perpetuity; which we concluded upon, by buying a rent charge of £50 per annum, with the stock in our hands.
6th May, 1696. I went to Lambeth, to meet at dinner the Countess of Sunderland and divers ladies. We dined in the Archbishop's wife's apartment with his Grace, and stayed late; yet I returned to Deptford at night.
13th May, 1696. I went to London to meet my son, newly come from Ireland, indisposed. Money still continuing exceedingly scarce, so that none was paid or received, but all was on trust, the mint not supplying for common necessities. The Association with an oath required of all lawyers and officers, on pain of