Diary, Mar/Apr 1661/62 | Page 8

ill, and was forced to go out and
vomit, and so was well again and went home by and by to bed. Fearing
that Sarah would continue ill, wife and I removed this night to our
matted chamber and lay there.

17th. All the morning at the office by myself about setting things in
order there, and so at noon to the Exchange to see and be seen, and so
home to dinner and then to the office again till night, and then home
and after supper and reading a while to bed. Last night the Blackmore
pink
[A "pink" was a form of vessel now obsolete, and had a very narrow
stern. The "Blackmoor" was a sixth-rate of twelve guns, built at
Chatham by Captain Tayler in 1656.]
brought the three prisoners, Barkestead, Okey, and Corbet, to the
Tower, being taken at Delfe in Holland; where, the Captain tells me,
the Dutch were a good while before they could be persuaded to let them
go, they being taken prisoners in their land. But Sir G. Downing would
not be answered so: though all the world takes notice of him for a most
ungrateful villain for his pains.

18th. All the morning at the office with Sir W. Pen. Dined at home, and
Luellin and Blurton with me. After dinner to the office again, where Sir
G. Carteret and we staid awhile, and then Sir W. Pen and I on board
some of the ships now fitting for East Indys and Portugall, to see in
what forwardness they are, and so back home again, and I write to my
father by the post about Brampton Court, which is now coming on. But
that which troubles me is that my Father has now got an ague that I fear
may endanger his life. So to bed.

19th. All the morning and afternoon at my office putting things in order,
and in the evening I do begin to digest my uncle the Captain's papers
into one book, which I call my Brampton book, for the clearer

understanding things how they are with us. So home and supper and to
bed. This noon came a letter from T. Pepys, the turner, in answer to one
of mine the other day to him, wherein I did cheque him for not coming
to me, as he had promised, with his and his father's resolucion about the
difference between us. But he writes to me in the very same slighting
terms that I did to him, without the least respect at all, but word for
word as I did him, which argues a high and noble spirit in him, though
it troubles me a little that he should make no more of my anger, yet I
cannot blame him for doing so, he being the elder brother's son, and not
depending upon me at all.

20th. At my office all the morning, at noon to the Exchange, and so
home to dinner, and then all the afternoon at the office till late at night,
and so home and to bed, my mind in good ease when I mind business,
which methinks should be a good argument to me never to do
otherwise.

21st. With Sir W. Batten by water to Whitehall, and he to Westminster.
I went to see Sarah and my Lord's lodgings, which are now all in dirt,
to be repaired against my Lord's coming from sea with the Queen.
Thence to Westminster Hall; and there walked up and down and heard
the great difference that hath been between my Lord Chancellor and my
Lord of Bristol, about a proviso that my Lord Chancellor would have
brought into the Bill for Conformity, that it shall be in the power of the
King, when he sees fit, to dispense with the Act of Conformity; and
though it be carried in the House of Lords, yet it is believed it will
hardly pass in the Commons. Here I met with Chetwind, Parry, and
several others, and went to a little house behind the Lords' house to
drink some wormwood ale, which doubtless was a bawdy house, the
mistress of the house having the look and dress: Here we staid till noon
and then parted, I by water to the Wardrobe to meet my wife, but my
Lady and they had dined, and so I dined with the servants, and then up
to my Lady, and there staid and talked a good while, and then parted
and walked into Cheapside, and there saw my little picture, for which I
am to sit again the next week. So home, and staid late writing at my
office, and so home and to bed, troubled that now my boy is also fallen
sick of an ague