17th. I to the Duke of York's lodging, where in his dressing- chamber, he talking of his journey to-morrow or next day to Harwich, to prepare some fortifications there; so that we are wholly upon the defensive part this year. I to walke in the Parke; where to the Queene's chapel, and there heard a fryer preach with his cord about his middle in Portuguese, something I could understand, showing that God did respect the meek and humble as well as the high and rich. He was full of action, but very decent and good, I thought, and his manner of delivery very good. Then I went back to White Hall, and there up to the closet, and spoke with several people till sermon was ended, which was preached by the Bishop of Hereford, [Dr. Herbert Croft was made Bishop of Hereford 1661, but he could not then be very old, as he lived till 1691. The Bishop's father was a knight and his son a Baronet.] an old good man, that they say made an excellent sermon. He was by birth a Catholique, and a great gallant, having 1500l. per annum patrimony, and is a Knight Barronet: was turned from his persuasion by the late Archbishop Laud. He and the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Ward, are the two Bishops that the King do say he cannot have bad sermons from. Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me, that undoubtedly my Lord Bellasses do go no more to Tangier, and that he do believe he do stand in a likely way to go governor; though he sees and showed me a young silly lord (one Lord Allington [William 2nd Baron Allington of Killard, Ireland, created an English Peer 1682; which title was extinct 1692. He was thrice married.]) who hath offered a great sum of money to go, and will put hard for it, he having a fine lady, and a great man would be glad to have him out of the way. The King is very kind to my Lord Sandwich, and did himself observe to him (Sir G. Carteret) how those very people (meaning the Prince, and Duke of Albemarle) are punished in the same kind as they did seek to abuse my Lord Sandwich.
18th. Comes my old good friend Mr. Richard Cumberland [Richard Cumberland educated at St. Paul's School, and Magdalene College, Cambridge, made Bishop of Peterborough 1691. Ob. 1718, aged 86.] to see me, being newly come to town, whom I have not seen almost, if not quite these seven years. In a plain country-parson's dress. I could not spend much time with him, but prayed him to come with his brother, who was with him, to dine with me to-day; which he did do: and I had a great deal of his good company; and a most excellent person he is as any I know, and one that I am sorry should be lost and buried in a little country town, and would be glad to remove him thence; and the truth is, if he would accept of my sister's fortune, I should give 100l. more with him than to a man able to settle her four times as much as I fear he is able to do. Comes Captain Jenifer to me, a great servant of my Lord Sandwich's, who tells me that he do hear for certain, though I do not yet believe it, that Sir W. Coventry is to be Secretary of State, and my Lord Arlington Lord Treasurer. I only wish that the latter were as fit for the latter office as the former is for the former, and more fit than my Lord Arlington. Anon Sir W. Pen come and talked with me in the garden; and tells me that for certain the Duke of Richmond is to marry Mrs. Stewart, he having this day brought in an account of his estate and debts to the King on that account. This day Mr. Caesar told me a pretty experiment of his of angling with a minikin, a gut- string varnished over, which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond any hair for strength and smallness. The secret I like mightily.
19th. It comes in my mind this night to set down how a house was the other day in Bishopsgate-street blowed up with powder; a house that was untenanted; but, thanks be to God, it did no more hurt; and all do conclude it a plot. This afternoon I am told again that the town do talk of my Lord Arlington's being to be Lord Treasurer, and Sir W. Coventry to be Secretary of State; and that for certain the match is concluded between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stewart; which I am well enough pleased with: and it is pretty to consider how his quality will allay people's talk; whereas had a meaner person married her, he would for certain have been derided at first dash.
20th. To our church to the vestry, to be assessed by the late Poll Bill, where I am rated as an Esquire, and for my office all will come to about 50l. But not more than I expected, nor so much by a great deal as I ought to be for all my offices. The Duke of Richmond and Mrs. Stewart were betrothed last night. It is strange how "Rycaut's Discourse of Turky," which before the fire I was asked but 8s. for, there being all but twenty-two or thereabouts burned, I did now offer 20s., and he demands 50s., and I think I shall give it him, though it be only as a monument of the fire.
21st. To the Duke of York's playhouse, where unexpectedly I come to see only the young men and women of the house act; they having liberty to act for their own profit on Wednesdays and Fridays this Lent: and the play they did yesterday, being Wednesday, was so well taken, that they thought fit to venture it publickly to- day; a play my Lord Falkand's, [Henry Carey, third Viscount Falkland, M.P, for Arundell 1661. Ob. 1664.] called "The Wedding Night," a kind of a tragedy, and some things very good in it, but the whole together, I thought, not so. I confess I was well enough pleased with my seeing it; and the people did do better (without the great actors) than I did expect, but yet far short of what they do when they are there. Our trial for a good prize came on to-day, "The Phoenix, worth 2 or 3000l." when by and by Sir W. Batten told me we had got the day, which was mighty welcome news to me and us all. But it is pretty to see what money will do. Yesterday Walker [Sir W. Walker.] was mighty cold on our behalf, till Sir W. Batten promised him, if we sped in this business of the goods, a coach; and if at the next trial we sped for the ship, we would give him a pair of horses. And he hath strove for us to-day like a prince. Though the Swedes' Agent was there with all the vehemence he could to save the goods, but yet we carried it against him.
23rd. At the office, where Sir W. Pen come, being returned from Chatham, from considering the means of fortifying the river Medway, by a chain at the stakes, and ships laid there with guns to keep the enemy from coming up to burn our ships; all our care being now to fortify ourselves against their invading us.
24th. With Sir G. Carteret and Sir J. Minnes; and they did talk of my Lord Brouncker; whose father it seems did give Mr. Ashburnham and the present Lord Digby [The Earl of Bristol, frequently called in the Diary Lord Digby, long after he had succeeded to the Earldom.] 1200l. to be made an Irish lord, and swore the same day that he had not 12d. left to pay for his dinner: they made great mirth at this, my Lord Brouncker having lately given great matter of offence both to them and us all, that we are at present mightily displeased with him. By and by to the Duke of York, where we all met, and there was the King also; and all our discourse was about fortifying of the Medway and Harwich, which is to be entrenched quite round, and Portsmouth: and here they advised with Sir Godfrey Lloyd and Sir Bernard de Gunn, [Engineer-general, who had been employed in 1661 to construct the works at Dunkirk.] the two great engineers, and had the plates drawn before them; and indeed all their care they now take is to fortify themselves, and are not ashamed of it; for when by and by my Lord Arlington come in with letters, and seeing the King and Duke of York give us and the officers of the Ordnance directions in this matter, he did move that we might do it as privately as we could, that it might not come into the Dutch Gazette presently, as the King's and Duke of York's going down the other day to Sheerenesse was the week after in the Harlem Gazette. The King and Duke of York both laughed at it, and made no matter, but said, "Let us be safe, and let them talk, for there is nothing will trouble them more, nor will prevent their coming more, than to hear that we are fortifying ourselves." And the Duke of York said further, "What said Marshal Turenne, when some in vanity said that the enemies were afraid, for they entrenched themselves? 'Well,' says he, 'I would they were not afraid, for then they would not entrench themselves, and so we could deal with them the better.'" Away thence, and met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he do believe the government of Tangier is bought by my Lord Allington for a sum of money to my Lord Arlington, and something to Lord Bellasses. I did this night give the waterman who uses to carry me 10s. at his request, for the painting of his new boat, on which shall be my arms.
25th. Called at Mr. Lilly's, who was working; and indeed his pictures are without doubt much beyond Mr. Hales's, I think I may say I am convinced: but a mighty proud man he is, and full of state. To the King's playhouse; and by and by comes Mr. Lowther and his wife and mine, and into a box forsooth, neither of them being dressed, which I was almost ashamed of. Sir W. Pen and I in the pit, and here saw "The Mayden Queene" again; which indeed the more I see the more I like, and is an excellent play, and so done by Nell her merry part, as cannot be better done in nature.
26th. To Exeter House, where the Judge was sitting, and there heard our cause pleaded; Sir — Turner, Sir W. Walker, and Sir Ellis Layton being our counsel against Sir Robert Wiseman [D.C.L. King's Advocate 1669.] on the other. The second of our three counsel was the best, and indeed did speak admirably, and is a very shrewd man. Nevertheless as good as he did make our case, and the rest, yet when Wiseman come to argue (nay, and though he did begin so sillily that we laughed in scorn in our sleeves at him,) he did so state the case, that the Judge [Sir Leoline Jenkins, Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, and afterwards made Judge of the Admiralty and the Prerogative Court. He was subsequently employed on several Embassies, and in 1680 succeeded Henry Coventry as secretary of State. Ob. 1685, aged 62.] did not think it to decide the cause to-night, but took to to-morrow, and did stagger us in our hopes, so as to make us despair of the success. I am mightily pleased with the Judge, who seems a very rational, learned, and uncorrupt man, though our success do shake me.
27th. To the Castle Taverne by Exeter House; and there Sir Ellis Layton, whom I find a wonderful witty, ready man for sudden answers and little tales, and sayings very extraordinary witty. He did give me a full account, upon my demand, of this Judge of the Admiralty, Judge Jenkins; who, he says, is a man never practised in this Court but taken merely for his merit and ability's sake from Trinity Hall where he had always lived; only by accident the business of the want of a Judge: being proposed, the present Archbishop of Canterbury sent for him up: and here he is against the gre and content of the old Doctors made Judge, but is a very excellent man both for judgment and temper (yet majesty enough), and by all men's report not to be corrupted. After dinner to the Court, where Sir Ellis Layton did make a very silly motion in our behalf, but did neither hurt nor good after him Walker and Wiseman. And then the Judge did pronounce his sentence; for some a part of the goods and ship, and the freight of the whole to be free and returned and paid by us, and the remaining (which was the greater part) to be ours. The loss of so much troubles us; but we have got a pretty good part, thanks be to God! Received from my brother the news of my mother's dying on Monday about five or six o'clock in the afternoon, and that the last time she spoke of her children was on Friday last, and her last words were, "God bless my poor Sam!" The reading; hereof did set me a-weeping heartily.