25th. To the office, where Sir W. Batten, Colonel Slingsby, and I sat awhile, and Sir R. Ford
[Sir Richard Ford was one of the commissioners sent to Breda to
desire Charles II. to return to England immediately.]
coming to us about some business, we talked together of the interest of this kingdom to have a peace with Spain and a war with France and Holland; where Sir R. Ford talked like a man of great reason and experience. And afterwards I did send for a cup of tee’
[That excellent and by all Physicians, approved, China drink, called
by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee, is sold at the
Sultaness Head Coffee-House, in Sweetings Rents, by the “Royal
Exchange, London.” “Coffee, chocolate, and a kind of drink called
tee, sold in almost every street in 1659.”—Rugge’s Diurnal. It is
stated in “Boyne’s Trade Tokens,” ed. Williamson, vol. i., 1889,
p. 593 “that the word tea occurs on no other tokens than those
issued from ‘the Great Turk’ (Morat ye Great) coffeehouse in
Exchange Alley. The Dutch East India Company introduced tea into
Europe in 1610, and it is said to have been first imported into
England from Holland about 1650. The English “East India Company”
purchased and presented 2 lbs. of tea to Charles II. in 1660, and 23
lbs. in 1666. The first order for its importation by the company
was in 1668, and the first consignment of it, amounting to 143 lbs.,
was received from Bantam in 1669 (see Sir George Birdwood’s “Report
on the Old Records at the India Office,” 1890, p. 26). By act 12
Car. II., capp. 23, 24, a duty of 8d. per gallon was imposed upon
the infusion of tea, as well as on chocolate and sherbet.]
(a China drink) of which I never had drank before, and went away. Then came Col. Birch and Sir R. Browne by a former appointment, and with them from Tower wharf in the barge belonging to our office we went to Deptford to pay off the ship Success, which (Sir G. Carteret and Sir W. Pen coming afterwards to us) we did, Col. Birch being a mighty busy man and one that is the most indefatigable and forward to make himself work of any man that ever I knew in my life. At the Globe we had a very good dinner, and after that to the pay again, which being finished we returned by water again, and I from our office with Col. Slingsby by coach to Westminster (I setting him down at his lodgings by the way) to inquire for my Lord’s coming thither (the King and the Princess
[“The Princess Royall came from Gravesend to Whitehall by water,
attended by a noble retinue of about one hundred persons, gentry,
and servants, and tradesmen, and tirewomen, and others, that took
that opportunity to advance their fortunes, by coming in with so
excellent a Princess as without question she is.”--Rugge’s Diurnal.
A broadside, entitled “Ourania, the High and Mighty Lady the
Princess Royal of Aurange, congratulated on her most happy arrival,
September the 25th, 1660,” was printed on the 29th.]
coming up the river this afternoon as we were at our pay), and I found him gone to Mr. Crew’s, where I found him well, only had got some corns upon his foot which was not well yet. My Lord told me how the ship that brought the Princess and him (The Tredagh) did knock six times upon the Kentish Knock,
[A shoal in the North Sea, off the Thames mouth, outside the Long
Sand, fifteen miles N.N.E. of the North Foreland. It measures seven
miles north-eastward, and about two miles in breadth. It is partly
dry at low water. A revolving light was set up in 1840.]
which put them in great fear for the ship; but got off well. He told me also how the King had knighted Vice-Admiral Lawson and Sir Richard Stayner. From him late and by coach home, where the plasterers being at work in all the rooms in my house, my wife was fain to make a bed upon the ground for her and me, and so there we lay all night.
26th. Office day. That done to the church, to consult about our gallery. So home to dinner, where I found Mrs. Hunt, who brought me a letter for me to get my Lord to sign for her husband, which I shall do for her. At home with the workmen all the afternoon, our house being in a most sad pickle. In the evening to the office, where I fell a-reading of Speed’s Geography for a while. So home thinking to have found Will at home, but he not being come home but gone somewhere else I was very angry, and when he came did give him a very great check for it, and so I went to bed.