Diary, Nov/Dec 1662 | Page 7

to a cook. I am glad she is disposed of, for she grows old,
and is very painfull,-- [painstaking]--and one I have reason to wish well
for her old service to me. Then to my brother's, where my wife, by my
order, is tonight to stay a night or two while my house is made clean,
and thence home, where I am angry to see, instead of the house made in
part clean, all the pewter goods and other things are brought up to
scouring, which makes the house ten times worse, at which I was very
much displeased, but cannot help it. So to my office to set down my
journal, and so home and to bed.

8th. All the morning sitting at the office, and after that dined alone at
home, and so to the office again till 9 o'clock, being loth to go home,
the house is so dirty, and my wife at my brother's. So home and to bed.

9th (Lord's day). Lay alone a good while, my mind busy about pleading
to-morrow to the Duke if there shall be occasion for this chamber that I
lie in against Sir J., Minnes. Then up, and after being ready walked to
my brother's, where my wife is, calling at many churches, and then to
the Temple, hearing a bit there too, and observing that in the streets and
churches the Sunday is kept in appearance as well as I have known it at
any time. Then to dinner to my brother's, only he and my wife, and
after dinner to see Mr. Moore, who is pretty well, and he and I to St.
Gregory's, where I escaped a great fall down the staires of the gallery:
so into a pew there and heard Dr. Ball make a very good sermon,
though short of what I expected, as for the most part it do fall out. So
home with Mr. Moore to his chamber, and after a little talk I walked
home to my house and staid at Sir W. Batten's. Till late at night with
him and Sir J. Minnes, with whom we did abundance of most excellent
discourse of former passages of sea commanders and officers of the
navy, and so home and to bed, with my mind well at ease but only as to
my chamber, which I fear to lose.

10th. Up betimes and to set my workmen to work, and then a little to
the office, and so with Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and myself by
coach to White Hall, to the Duke, who, after he was ready, did take us
into his closett. Thither come my Lord General Monk, and did privately
talk with the Duke about having the life-guards pass through the City
today only for show and to fright people, for I perceive there are great
fears abroad; for all which I am troubled and full of doubt that things
will not go well. He being gone, we fell to business of the Navy.
Among other things, how to pay off this fleet that is now come from
Portugall; the King of Portugall sending them home, he having no more
use for them, which we wonder at, that his condition should be so soon
altered. And our landmen also are coming back, being almost starved in
that poor country. Having done here I went by my Lord Sandwich's,
who was not at home, and so to Westminster Hall, where full of term,
and here met with many about business, among others my cozen Roger
Pepys, who is all for a composition with my uncle Thomas, which upon
any fair terms I am for also and desire it. Thence by water, and so by
land to my Lord Crew's, and dined with him and his brother, I know not
his name; where very good discourse; among others, of France's
intention to make a patriarch of his own, independent from the Pope, by
which he will be able to cope with the Spaniard in all councils, which
hitherto he has never done. My Lord Crew told us how he heard my
Lord of Holland say that, being Embassador about the match with the
Queene-Mother that now is, the King of France--[Louis XIII., in
1624.]--insisted upon a dispensation from the Pope, which my Lord
Holland making a question of, and that he was commanded to yield to
nothing to the prejudice of our religion, says the King of France, "You
need not fear that, for if the Pope will not dispense with the match, my
Bishopp of Paris shall." By and by come in great Mr. Swinfen, the
Parliament-man, who, among other discourse of the rise and fall of
familys, told us of Bishopp Bridgeman (brother of Sir Orlando) who