ENFIELD
2d June, 1676. I went with my Lord Chamberlain to see a garden, at Enfield town; thence, to Mr. Secretary Coventry's lodge in the Chase. It is a very pretty place, the house commodious, the gardens handsome, and our entertainment very free, there being none but my Lord and myself. That which I most wondered at was, that, in the compass of twenty-five miles, yet within fourteen of London, there is not a house, barn, church, or building, besides three lodges. To this Lodge are three great ponds, and some few inclosures, the rest a solitary desert, yet stored with no less than 3,000 deer. These are pretty retreats for gentlemen, especially for those who are studious and lovers of privacy.
We returned in the evening by Hampstead, to see Lord Wotton's house and garden (Bellsize House), built with vast expense by Mr. O'Neale, an Irish gentleman who married Lord Wotton's mother, Lady Stanhope. The furniture is very particular for Indian cabinets, porcelain, and other solid and noble movables. The gallery very fine, the gardens very large, but ill kept, yet woody and
chargeable. The soil a cold weeping clay, not answering the expense.
12th June, 1676. I went to see Sir Thomas Bond's new and fine house by Peckham; it is on a flat, but has a fine garden and prospect through the meadows to London.
2d July, 1676. Dr. Castillion, Prebend of Canterbury, preached before the King, on John xv. 22, at Whitehall.
19th July, 1676. Went to the funeral of Sir William Sanderson, husband to the Mother of the Maids, and author of two large but mean histories of King James and King Charles I. He was buried at Westminster.
1st August, 1676. In the afternoon, after prayers at St. James's Chapel, was christened a daughter of Dr. Leake's, the
Duke's Chaplain: godmothers were Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of York, and the Duchess of Monmouth: godfather, the Earl of Bath.
15th August, 1676. Came to dine with me my Lord Halifax, Sir Thomas Meeres, one of the Commissioners of the Admiralty, Sir John Clayton, Mr. Slingsby, Mr. Henshaw, and