Diary, May/Jun 1662 | Page 8

o'clock at night, and I forced to walk up and down the gallerys till that
time of night. They were reading all the bills over that are to pass
to-morrow at the House, before the King's going out of town and
proroguing the House. At last the Councell risen, and Sir G. Carteret
telling me what the Councell hath ordered about the ships designed to
carry horse from Ireland to Portugall, which is now altered. I got a
coach and so home, sending the boat away without me. At home I
found my wife discontented at my being abroad, but I pleased her. She
was in her new suit of black sarcenet and yellow petticoat very pretty.
So to bed.

19th. Long in bed, sometimes scolding with my wife, and then pleased
again, and at last up, and put on my riding cloth suit, and a camelott
coat new, which pleases me well enough. To the Temple about my
replication, and so to my brother Tom's, and there hear that my father
will be in town this week. So home, the shops being but some shut and
some open. I hear that the House of Commons do think much that they
should be forced to huddle over business this morning against the
afternoon, for the King to pass their Acts, that he may go out of town.
[To ears accustomed to the official words of speeches from the throne
at the present day, the familiar tone of the following extracts from
Charles's speech to the Commons, on the 1st of March; will be amusing:
"I will conclude with putting you in mind of the season of the year, and
the convenience of your being in the country, in many respects, for the

good and welfare of it; for you will find much tares have been sowed
there in your absence. The arrival of my wife, who I expect some time
this month, and the necessity of my own being out of town to meet her,
and to stay some time before she comes hither, makes it very necessary
that the Parliament be adjourned before Easter, to meet again in the
winter . . . . . The mention of my wife's arrival puts me in mind to
desire you to put that compliment upon her, that her entrance into the
town may be with more decency than the ways will now suffer it to be;
and, to that purpose, I pray you would quickly pass such laws as are
before you, in order to the amending those ways, and that she may not
find Whitehall surrounded with water." Such a bill passed the
Commons on the 24th June. From Charles's Speech, March 1st,
1662.--B.]
But he, I hear since, was forced to stay till almost nine o'clock at night
before he could have done, and then he prorogued them; and so to
Gilford, and lay there. Home, and Mr. Hunt dined with me, and were
merry. After dinner Sir W. Pen and his daughter, and I and my wife by
coach to the Theatre, and there in a box saw "The Little Thief" well
done. Thence to Moorefields, and walked and eat some cheesecake and
gammon of bacon, but when I was come home I was sick, forced to
vomit it up again. So my wife walking and singing upon the leads till
very late, it being pleasant and moonshine, and so to bed.

10th. Sir W. Pen and I did a little business at the office, and so home
again. Then comes Dean Fuller after we had dined, but I got something
for him, and very merry we were for an hour or two, and I am most
pleased with his company and goodness. At last parted, and my wife
and I by coach to the Opera, and there saw the 2nd part of "The Siege
of Rhodes," but it is not so well done as when Roxalana was there, who,
it is said, is now owned by my Lord of Oxford.
[For note on Mrs. Davenport, who was deceived by a pretended
marriage with the Earl of Oxford, see ante. Lord Oxford's first wife
died in 1659. He married, in 1672, his second wife, Diana Kirke, of
whom nothing more need be said than that she bore an inappropriate
Christian name.]
Thence to Tower-wharf, and there took boat, and we all walked to
Halfeway House, and there eat and drank, and were pleasant, and so

finally home again in the evening, end so good night, this being a very
pleasant life that we now lead, and have long done; the Lord be blessed,
and make us thankful. But, though I am much against too much
spending, yet I do think it best to enjoy some degree of pleasure