Volume 2 — THE DIARY OF JOHN EVELYN. (continued 8)

26th October, 1690. Kinsale at last surrendered, meantime King James's party burn all the houses they have in their power, and among them that stately palace of Lord Ossory's, which lately cost, as reported,

3d November, 1690. Went to the Countess of Clancarty, to condole with her concerning her debauched and dissolute son, who had done so much mischief in Ireland, now taken and brought prisoner to the Tower.

16th November, 1690. Exceeding great storms, yet a warm

23d November, 1690. Carried Mr. Pepys's memorials to Lord Godolphin, now resuming the commission of the Treasury, to the wonder of all his friends.

1st December, 1690. Having been chosen President of the Royal Society, I desired to decline it, and with great difficulty devolved the election on Sir Robert Southwell, Secretary of State to King William in Ireland.

20th December, 1690. Dr. Hough, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, who was displaced with several of the Fellows for not taking the oath imposed by King James, now made a

4th January, 1690-91. This week a PLOT was discovered for a general rising against the new Government, for which (Henry) Lord Clarendon and others were sent to the

LONDON

18th January, 1691. Lord Preston condemned about a design to bring in King James by the French. Ashton executed. The Bishop of Ely, Mr. Graham, etc., absconded.

13th March, 1691. I went to visit Monsieur Justell and the Library at St. James's, in which that learned man had put the MSS. (which were in good number) into excellent order, they having lain neglected for many

21st March, 1691. Dined at Sir William Fermor's, who showed me many good pictures. After dinner, a French servant played rarely on the lute. Sir William had now bought all the remaining statues collected with so much expense by the famous Thomas, Earl of Arundel, and sent them to his seat at Easton, near Towcester.75

25th March, 1691. Lord Sidney, principal Secretary of State, gave me a letter to Lord Lucas, Lieutenant of the Tower, to permit me to visit Lord Clarendon; which this day I did, and dined with him.

LONDON

10th April, 1691. This night, a sudden and terrible fire burned down all the buildings over the stone gallery at Whitehall to the water side, beginning at the apartment of the late Duchess of Portsmouth (which had been pulled down and rebuilt no less than three times to please her), and consuming other lodgings of such lewd creatures, who debauched both King Charles II. and others, and were his destruction.

The King returned out of Holland just as this accident happened—Proclamation against the Papists, etc.

16th April, 1691. I went to see Dr. Sloane's curiosities, being an universal collection of the natural productions of Jamaica, consisting of plants, fruits, corals, minerals, stones, earth, shells, animals, and insects, collected with great judgment; several folios of dried plants, and one which had about 80 several sorts of ferns, and another of grasses; the Jamaica pepper, in branch, leaves, flower, fruit, etc. This collection,76 with his Journal and other philosophical and natural discourses and observations, indeed very copious and extraordinary, sufficient to furnish a history of that island, to which I encouraged him.

19th April, 1691. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishops of Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, Gloucester, and the rest who would not take the oaths to King William, were now displaced; and in their rooms, Dr. Tillotson, Dean of St. Paul's, was made Archbishop: Patrick removed from Chichester to Ely; Cumberland to Gloucester.

22d April, 1691. I dined with Lord Clarendon in the Tower.

24th April, 1691. I visited the Earl and Countess of Sunderland, now come to kiss the King's hand after his return from Holland. This is a mystery. The King preparing to return to the army.

7th May, 1691. I went to visit the Archbishop of Canterbury [Sancroft] yet at Lambeth. I found him alone, and discoursing of the times, especially of the newly designed Bishops; he told me that by no canon or divine law they could justify the removing of the present incumbents; that Dr. Beveridge, designed Bishop of Bath and Wells, came to ask his advice; that the Archbishop told him, though he should give it, he believed he would not take it; the Doctor said he would; why then, says the Archbishop, when they come to ask, say "Nolo," and say it from the heart; there is nothing easier than to resolve yourself what is to be done in the case: the Doctor seemed to deliberate. What he will do I know not, but Bishop Ken, who is to be put out, is exceedingly beloved in his diocese; and, if he and the rest should insist on it, and plead their interest as freeholders, it is believed there would be difficulty in their case, and it may endanger a schism and much disturbance, so as wise men think it had been better to have let them alone, than to have proceeded with this rigor to turn them out for refusing to swear against their consciences. I asked at parting, when his Grace removed; he said that he had not yet received any summons, but I found the house altogether disfurnished and his books packed up.

1st June, 1691. I went with my son, and brother-in-law, Glanville, and his son, to Wotton, to solemnize the funeral of my nephew, which was performed the next day very decently and orderly by the herald in the afternoon, a very great appearance of the country being there. I was the chief mourner; the pall was held by Sir Francis Vincent, Sir Richard Onslow, Mr. Thomas Howard (son to Sir Robert, and Captain of the King's Guard), Mr. Hyldiard, Mr. James, Mr. Herbert, nephew to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and cousin-german to my deceased nephew. He was laid in the vault at Wotton Church, in the burying place of the family. A great concourse of coaches and people accompanied the solemnity.

LONDON

10th June, 1691. I went to visit Lord Clarendon, still prisoner in the Tower, though Lord Preston being pardoned was released.

17th June, 1691. A fast.

11th July, 1691. I dined with Mr. Pepys, where was Dr. Cumberland, the new Bishop of Norwich,77 Dr. Lloyd having been put out for not acknowledging the Government. Cumberland is a very learned, excellent man. Possession was now given to Dr. Tillotson, at Lambeth, by the Sheriff; Archbishop Sancroft was gone, but had left his nephew to keep possession; and he refusing to deliver it up on the Queen's message, was dispossessed by the Sheriff, and imprisoned. This stout demeanor of the few Bishops who refused to take the oaths to King William, animated a great party to forsake the churches, so as to threaten a schism; though those who looked further into the ancient practice, found that when (as formerly) there were Bishops displaced on secular accounts, the people never refused to acknowledge the new Bishops, provided they were not heretics. The truth is, the whole clergy had till now stretched the duty of passive obedience, so that the proceedings against these Bishops gave no little occasion of exceptions; but this not amounting to heresy, there was a necessity of receiving the new Bishops, to prevent a failure of that order in the Church. I went to visit Lord Clarendon in the Tower, but he was gone into the country for air by the Queen's permission, under the care of his warden.

18th July, 1691. To London to hear Mr. Stringfellow preach his first sermon in the newly erected Church of Trinity, in Conduit Street; to which I did recommend him to Dr. Tenison for the constant preacher and lecturer. This Church, formerly built of timber on Hounslow-Heath by King James for the mass priests, being begged by Dr. Tenison, rector of St. Martin's, was set up by that public-minded, charitable, and pious man near my son's dwelling in Dover Street, chiefly at the charge of the Doctor. I know him to be an excellent preacher and a fit person. This Church, though erected in St. Martin's, which is the Doctor's parish, he was not only content, but was the sole industrious mover, that it should be made a separate parish, in regard of the neighborhood having become so populous. Wherefore to countenance and introduce the new minister, and take possession of a gallery designed for my son's family, I went to London, where,

19th up two or three free schools at his own charges. Besides this, he was of an exemplary, holy life, took great pains in constantly preaching, and incessantly employing himself to promote the service of God both in public and private. I never knew a man of a more universal and generous spirit, with so much modesty, prudence, and piety.

The great victory of King William's army in Ireland was looked on as decisive of that war. The French General, St. Ruth, who had been so cruel to the poor Protestants in France, was slain, with divers of the best commanders; nor was it cheap to us, having 1,000 killed, but of the enemy 4,000 or 5,000.

26th July, 1691. An extraordinary hot season, yet refreshed by some thundershowers.

28th July, 1691. I went to Wotton.

2d August, 1691. No sermon in the church in the afternoon, and the curacy ill-served.

16th August, 1691. A sermon by the curate; an honest discourse, but read without any spirit, or seeming concern; a great fault in the education of young preachers. Great thunder and lightning on Thursday, but the rain and wind very violent. Our fleet come in to lay up the great ships; nothing done at sea, pretending that we cannot meet the French.

13th September, 1691. A great storm at sea; we lost the "Coronation" and "Harwich," above 600 men perishing.

14th October, 1691. A most pleasing autumn. Our navy come in without having performed anything, yet there has been great loss of ships by negligence, and unskillful men governing the fleet and Navy board.

7th November, 1691. I visited the Earl of Dover, who having made his peace with the King, was now come home. The relation he gave of the strength of the French King, and the difficulty of our forcing him to fight, and any way making impression into France, was very wide from what we fancied.

8th to 30th November, 1691. An extraordinary dry and warm season, without frost, and like a new spring; such as had not been known for many years. Part of the King's house at Kensington was burned.

6th December, 1691. Discourse of another PLOT, in which several great persons were named, but believed to be a sham.—A proposal in the House of Commons that every officer in the whole nation who received a salary above £500 or otherwise by virtue of his office, should contribute it wholly to the support of the war with France, and this upon their oath.

25th December, 1691. My daughter-in-law was brought to bed of a daughter.

26th December, 1691. An exceedingly dry and calm winter; no rain for many past months.

28th December, 1691. Dined at Lambeth with the new Archbishop. Saw the effect of my greenhouse furnace, set up by the Archbishop's son-in-law.

30th December, 1691. I again saw Mr. Charlton's collection of spiders, birds, scorpions, and other serpents, etc.

1st January, 1691-92. This last week died that pious, admirable Christian, excellent philosopher, and my worthy friend, Mr. Boyle, aged about 65,—a great loss to all that knew him, and to the public.

LONDON

6th January, 1692. At the funeral of Mr. Boyle, at St. Martin's, Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, preached on Eccles. ii. 26. He concluded with an eulogy due to the deceased, who made God and religion the scope of all his excellent talents in the knowledge of nature, and who had arrived to so high a degree in it, accompanied with such zeal and extraordinary piety, which he showed in the whole course of his life, particularly in his exemplary charity on all occasions,—that he gave £1,000 yearly to the distressed refugees of France and Ireland; was at the charge of translating the Scriptures into the Irish and Indian tongues, and was now promoting a Turkish translation, as he had formerly done of Grotius "on the Truth of the Christian Religion" into Arabic, which he caused to be dispersed in the eastern countries; that he had settled a fund for preachers who should preach expressly against Atheists, Libertines, Socinians, and Jews; that he had in his will given £8,000 to charitable uses; but that his private charities were extraordinary. He dilated on his learning in Hebrew and Greek, his reading of the fathers, and solid knowledge in theology, once deliberating about taking Holy Orders, and that at the time of restoration of King Charles II., when he might have made a great figure in the nation as to secular honor and titles, his fear of not being able to discharge so weighty a duty as the first, made him decline that, and his humility the other. He spoke of his civility to strangers, the great good which he did by his experience in medicine and chemistry, and to what noble ends he applied himself to his darling studies; the works, both pious and useful, which he published; the exact life he led, and the happy end he made. Something was touched of his sister, the Lady Ranelagh, who died but a few days before him. And truly all this was but his due, without any grain of flattery.

This week a most execrable murder was committed on Dr. Clench, father of that extraordinary learned child whom I have before noticed. Under pretense of carrying him in a coach to see a patient, they strangled him in it; and, sending away the coachman under some pretense, they left his dead body in the coach, and escaped in the dusk of the evening.

12th January, 1692. My granddaughter was christened by Dr. Tenison, now Bishop of Lincoln, in Trinity Church, being the first that was christened there. She was named Jane.

24th January, 1692. A frosty and dry season continued; many persons die of apoplexy, more than usual. Lord Marlborough, Lieutenant-General of the King's army in England, gentleman of the bedchamber, etc., dismissed from all his charges, military and other, for his excessive taking of bribes, covetousness, and extortion on all occasions from his inferior officers. Note, this was the Lord who was entirely advanced by King James, and was the first who betrayed and forsook his master. He was son of Sir Winston Churchill of the Greencloth.

7th February, 1692. An extraordinary snow fell in most parts.

13th February, 1692. Mr. Boyle having made me one of the trustees for his charitable bequests, I went to a meeting of the Bishop of Lincoln, Sir Rob.... wood, and serjeant, Rotheram, to settle that clause in the will which related to charitable uses, and especially the appointing and electing a minister to preach one sermon the first Sunday in the month, during the four summer months, expressly against Atheists, Deists, Libertines, Jews, etc., without descending to any other controversy whatever, for which £50 per annum is to be paid quarterly to the preacher; and, at the end of three years, to proceed to a new election of some other able divine, or to continue the same, as the trustees should judge convenient. We made choice of one Mr. Bentley, chaplain to the Bishop of Worcester (Dr. Stillingfleet). The first sermon was appointed for the first Sunday in March, at St. Martin's; the second Sunday in April, at Bow Church, and so alternately.

28th February, 1692. Lord Marlborough having used words against the King, and been discharged from all his great places, his wife was forbidden the Court, and the Princess of Denmark was desired by the Queen to dismiss her from her service; but she refusing to do so, goes away from Court to Sion house. Divers new Lords made: Sir Henry Capel, Sir William Fermor, etc. Change of Commissioners in the Treasury. The Parliament adjourned, not well satisfied with affairs. The business of the East India Company, which they would have reformed, let fall. The Duke of Norfolk does not succeed in his endeavor to be divorced.78

20th March, 1692. My son was made one of the Commissioners of the Revenue and Treasury of Ireland, to which employment he had a mind, far from my wishes. I visited the Earl of Peterborough, who showed me the picture of the Prince of Wales, newly brought out of France, seeming in my opinion very much to resemble the Queen his mother, and of a most vivacious countenance.

April, 1692. No spring yet appearing. The Queen Dowager went out of England toward Portugal, as pretended, against the advice of all her friends.

4th April, 1692. Mr. Bentley preached Mr. Boyle's lecture at St. Mary-le-Bow. So excellent a discourse against the Epicurean system is not to be recapitulated in a few words. He came to me to ask whether I thought it should be printed, or that there was anything in it which I desired to be altered. I took this as a civility, and earnestly desired it should be printed, as one of the most learned and convincing discourses I had ever heard.

6th April, 1692. A fast. King James sends a letter written and directed by his own hand to several of the Privy Council, and one to his daughter, the Queen Regent, informing them of the Queen being ready to be brought to bed, and summoning them to be at the birth by the middle of May, promising as from the French King, permission to come and return in safety.

24th April, 1692. Much apprehension of a French invasion, and of an universal rising. Our fleet begins to join with the Dutch. Unkindness between the Queen and her sister. Very cold and unseasonable weather, scarce a leaf on the trees.

LONDON

5th May, 1692. Reports of an invasion were very hot, and alarmed the city, Court, and people; nothing but securing suspected persons, sending forces to the seaside, and hastening out the fleet. Continued discourse of the French invasion, and of ours in France. The eastern wind so constantly blowing, gave our fleet time to unite, which had been so tardy in preparation, that, had not God thus wonderfully favored, the enemy would in all probability have fallen upon us. Many daily secured, and proclamations out for more conspirators.

8th May, 1692. My kinsman, Sir Edward Evelyn, of Long Ditton, died suddenly.

12th May, 1692. A fast.

13th May, 1692. I dined at my cousin Cheny's, son to my Lord Cheny, who married my cousin Pierpoint.

15th May, 1692. My niece, M. Evelyn, was now married to Sir Cyril Wyche, Secretary of State for Ireland. After all our apprehensions of being invaded, and doubts of our success by sea, it pleased God to give us a great naval victory, to the utter ruin of the French fleet, their admiral and all their best men-of-war, transport-ships, etc.

29th May, 1692. Though this day was set apart expressly for celebrating the memorable birth, return, and restoration of the late King Charles II., there was no notice taken of it, nor any part of the office annexed to the Common Prayer Book made use of, which I think was ill done, in regard his restoration not only redeemed us from anarchy and confusion, but restored the Church of England as it were miraculously.

9th June, 1692. I went to Windsor to carry my grandson to Eton School, where I met my Lady Stonehouse and other of my daughter-in-law's relations, who came on purpose to see her before her journey into Ireland. We went to see the castle, which we found furnished and very neatly kept, as formerly, only that the arms in the guard chamber and keep were removed and carried away. An exceeding great storm of wind and rain, in some places stripping the trees of their fruit and leaves as if it had been winter; and an extraordinary wet season, with great floods.

23d July, 1692. I went with my wife, son, and daughter, to Eton, to see my grandson, and thence to my Lord Godolphin's, at Cranburn, where we lay, and were most honorably entertained. The next day to St. George's Chapel, and returned to London late in the evening.

25th July, 1692. To Mr. Hewer's at Clapham, where he has an excellent, useful, and capacious house on the Common, built by Sir Den. Gauden, and by him sold to Mr. Hewer, who got a very considerable estate in the Navy, in which, from being Mr. Pepys's clerk, he came to be one of the principal officers, but was put out of all employment on the Revolution, as were all the best officers, on suspicion of being no friends to the change; such were put in their places, as were most shamefully ignorant and unfit. Mr. Hewer lives very handsomely and friendly to everybody. Our fleet was now sailing on their long pretense of a descent on the French coast; but, after having sailed one hundred leagues, returned, the admiral and officers disagreeing as to the place where they were to land, and the time of year being so far spent,—to the great dishonor of those at the helm, who concerted their matters so indiscreetly, or, as some thought, designedly.

This whole summer was exceedingly wet and rainy, the like had not been known since the year 1648; while in Ireland they had not known so great a drought.

26th July, 1692. I went to visit the Bishop of Lincoln, when, among other things, he told me that one Dr. Chaplin, of University College in Oxford, was the person who wrote the "Whole Duty of Man"; that he used to read it to his pupil, and communicated it to Dr. Sterne, afterward Archbishop of York, but would never suffer any of his pupils to have a copy of it.

9th August, 1692. A fast. Came the sad news of the hurricane and earthquake, which has destroyed almost the whole Island of Jamaica, many thousands having perished.

11th August, 1692. My son, his wife, and little daughter, went for Ireland, there to reside as one of the Commissioners of the Revenue.

14th August, 1692. Still an exceedingly wet season.

15th September, 1692. There happened an earthquake, which, though not so great as to do any harm in England, was universal in all these parts of Europe. It shook the house at Wotton, but was not perceived by any save a servant or two, who were making my bed, and another in a garret. I and the rest being at dinner below in the parlor, were not sensible of it. The dreadful one in Jamaica this summer was profanely and ludicrously represented in a puppet play, or some such lewd pastime, in the fair of Southwark, which caused the Queen to put down that idle and vicious mock show.

1st October, 1692. This season was so exceedingly cold, by reason of a long and tempestuous northeast wind, that this usually pleasant month was very uncomfortable. No fruit ripened kindly. Harbord dies at Belgrade; Lord Paget sent Ambassador in his room.

6th November, 1692. There was a vestry called about repairing or new building of the church [at Deptford], which I thought unseasonable in regard of heavy taxes, and other improper circumstances, which I there declared.

10th November, 1692. A solemn Thanksgiving for our victory at sea, safe return of the King, etc.

20th November, 1692. Dr. Lancaster, the new Vicar of St. Martin's, preached.

A signal robbery in Hertfordshire of the tax money bringing out of the north toward London. They were set upon by several desperate persons, who dismounted and stopped all travelers on the road, and guarding them in a field, when the exploit was done, and the treasure taken, they killed all the horses of those whom they stayed, to hinder pursuit, being sixteen horses. They then dismissed those that they had dismounted.

14th December, 1692. With much reluctance we gratified Sir J. Rotherham, one of Mr. Boyle's trustees, by admitting the Bishop of Bath and Wells to be lecturer for the next year, instead of Mr. Bentley, who had so worthily acquitted himself. We intended to take him in again the next year.

LONDON

January, 1692-93. Contest in Parliament about a self-denying Act, that no Parliament man should have any office; it wanted only two or three voices to have been carried. The Duke of Norfolk's bill for a divorce thrown out, he having managed it very indiscreetly. The quarrel between Admiral Russell and Lord Nottingham yet undetermined.

4th February, 1693. After five days' trial and extraordinary contest, the Lord Mohun was acquitted by the Lords of the murder of Montford, the player, notwithstanding the judges, from the pregnant witnesses of the fact, had declared him guilty; but whether in commiseration of his youth, being not eighteen years old, though exceedingly dissolute, or upon whatever other reason, the King himself present some part of the trial, and satisfied, as they report, that he was culpable. 69 acquitted him, only 14 condemned him.

Unheard of stories of the universal increase of witches in New England; men, women, and children, devoting themselves to the devil, so as to threaten the subversion of the government.79 At the same time there was a conspiracy among the negroes in Barbadoes to murder all their masters, discovered by overhearing a discourse of two of the slaves, and so preventing the execution of the design. Hitherto an exceedingly mild winter. France in the utmost misery and poverty for want of corn and subsistence, while the ambitious King is intent to pursue his conquests on the rest of his neighbors both by sea and land. Our Admiral, Russell, laid aside for not pursuing the advantage he had obtained over the French in the past summer; three others chosen in his place. Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury's book burned by the hangman for an expression of the King's title by conquest, on a complaint of Joseph How, a member of Parliament, little better than a madman.

19th February, 1693. The Bishop of Lincoln preached in the afternoon at the Tabernacle near Golden Square, set up by him. Proposals of a marriage between Mr. Draper and my daughter Susanna. Hitherto an exceedingly warm winter, such as has seldom been known, and portending an unprosperous spring as to the fruits of the earth; our climate requires more cold and winterly weather. The dreadful and astonishing earthquake swallowing up Catania, and other famous and ancient cities, with more than 100,000 persons in Sicily, on 11th January last, came now to be reported among us.

26th February, 1693. An extraordinary deep snow, after almost no winter, and a sudden gentle thaw. A deplorable earthquake at Malta, since that of Sicily, nearly as great.

19th March, 1693. A new Secretary of State, Sir John Trenchard; the Attorney-General, Somers, made Lord-Keeper, a young lawyer of extraordinary merit. King William goes toward Flanders; but returns, the wind being contrary.

31st March, 1693. I met the King going to Gravesend to embark in his yacht for Holland.

23d April, 1693. An extraordinary wet spring.

27th April, 1693. My daughter Susanna was married to William Draper, Esq., in the chapel of Ely House, by Dr. Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln (since Archbishop). I gave her in portion £4,000, her jointure is £500 per annum. I pray Almighty God to give his blessing to this marriage! She is a good child, religious, discreet, ingenious, and qualified with all the ornaments of her sex. She has a peculiar talent in design, as painting in oil and miniature, and an extraordinary genius for whatever hands can do with a needle. She has the French tongue, has read most of the Greek and Roman authors and poets, using her talents with great modesty; exquisitely shaped, and of an agreeable countenance. This character is due to her, though coming from her father. Much of this week spent in ceremonies, receiving visits and entertaining relations, and a great part of the next in returning visits.

11th May, 1693. We accompanied my daughter to her husband's house, where with many of his and our relations we were magnificently treated. There we left her in an apartment very richly adorned and furnished, and I hope in as happy a condition as could be wished, and with the great satisfaction of all our friends; for which God be praised!

14th May, 1693. Nothing yet of action from abroad. Muttering of a design to bring forces under color of an expected descent, to be a standing army for other purposes. Talk of a declaration of the French King, offering mighty advantages to the confederates, exclusive of King William; and another of King James, with an universal pardon, and referring the composing of all differences to a Parliament. These were yet but discourses; but something is certainly under it. A declaration or manifesto from King James, so written, that many thought it reasonable, and much more to the purpose than any of his former.

June, Whitsunday. I went to my Lord Griffith's chapel; the common church office was used for the King without naming the person, with some other, apposite to the necessity and circumstances of the time.

11th June, 1693. I dined at Sir William Godolphin's; and, after evening prayer, visited the Duchess of Grafton.

21st June, 1693. I saw a great auction of pictures in the Banqueting house, Whitehall. They had been my Lord Melford's, now Ambassador from King James at Rome, and engaged to his creditors here. Lord Mulgrave and Sir Edward Seymour came to my house, and desired me to go with them to the sale. Divers more of the great lords, etc., were there, and bought pictures dear enough. There were some very excellent of Vandyke, Rubens, and Bassan. Lord Godolphin bought the picture of the Boys, by Murillo the Spaniard, for 80 guineas, dear enough; my nephew Glanville, the old Earl of Arundel's head by Rubens, for £20. Growing late, I did not stay till all were sold.

24th June, 1693. A very wet hay harvest, and little summer as yet.

9th July, 1693. Mr. Tippin, successor of Dr. Parr at Camberwell, preached an excellent sermon.

LONDON

13th July, 1693. I saw the Queen's rare cabinets and collection of china; which was wonderfully rich and plentiful, but especially a large cabinet, looking-glass frame and stands, all of amber, much of it white, with historical bas-reliefs and statues, with medals carved in them, esteemed worth £4,000, sent by the Duke of Brandenburgh, whose country, Prussia, abounds with amber, cast up by the sea; divers other China and Indian cabinets, screens, and hangings. In her library were many books in English, French, and Dutch, of all sorts; a cupboard of gold plate; a cabinet of silver filagree, which I think was our Queen Mary's, and which, in my opinion, should have been generously sent to her.

18th July, 1693. I dined with Lord Mulgrave, with the Earl of Devonshire, Mr. Hampden (a scholar and fine gentleman), Dr. Davenant, Sir Henry Vane, and others, and saw and admired the Venus of Correggio, which Lord Mulgrave had newly bought of Mr. Daun for £250; one of the best paintings I ever saw.

1st August, 1693. Lord Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncomb, made Lord Justices in Ireland; Lord Sydney recalled, and made Master of the Ordnance.

6th August, 1693. Very lovely harvest weather, and a wholesome season, but no garden fruit.

31st October, 1693. A very wet and uncomfortable season.

12th November, 1693. Lord Nottingham resigned as Secretary of State; the Commissioners of the Admiralty ousted, and Russell restored to his office. The season continued very wet, as it had nearly all the summer, if one might call it summer, in which there was no fruit, but corn was very plentiful.

14th November, 1693. In the lottery set up after the Venetian manner by Mr. Neale, Sir R. Haddock, one of the Commissioners of the Navy, had the greatest lot, £3,000; my coachman £40.

17th November, 1693. Was the funeral of Captain Young, who died of the stone and great age. I think he was the first who in the first war with Cromwell against Spain, took the Governor of Havanna, and another rich prize, and struck the first stroke against the Dutch fleet in the first war with Holland in the time of the Rebellion; a sober man and an excellent seaman.

30th November, 1693. Much importuned to take the office of President of the Royal Society, but I again declined it. Sir Robert Southwell was continued. We all dined at Pontac's as usual.

3d December, 1693. Mr. Bentley preached at the Tabernacle, near Golden Square. I gave my voice for him to proceed on his former subject the following year in Mr. Boyle's lecture, in which he had been interrupted by the importunity of Sir J. Rotheram that the Bishop of Chichester80 might be chosen the year before, to the great dissatisfaction of the Bishop of Lincoln and myself. We chose Mr. Bentley again. The Duchess of Grafton's appeal to the House of Lords for the Prothonotary's place given to the late Duke and to her son by King Charles II., now challenged by the Lord Chief Justice. The judges were severely reproved on something they said.

10th December, 1693. A very great storm of thunder and lightning.

1st January, 1693-94. Prince Lewis of Baden came to London, and was much feasted. Danish ships arrested carrying corn and naval stores to France.

11th January, 1694. Supped at Mr. Edward Sheldon's, where was Mr. Dryden, the poet, who now intended to write no more plays, being intent on his translation of Virgil. He read to us his prologue and epilogue to his valedictory play now shortly to be acted.

21st January, 1694. Lord Macclesfield, Lord Warrington, and Lord Westmorland, all died within about one week. Several persons shot, hanged, and made away with themselves.

11th February, 1694. Now was the great trial of the appeal of Lord Bath and Lord Montagu before the Lords, for the estate of the late Duke of Albemarle.

10th March, 1694. Mr. Stringfellow preached at Trinity parish, being restored to that place, after the contest between the Queen and the Bishop of London who had displaced him.

22d March, 1694. Came the dismal news of the disaster befallen our Turkey fleet by tempest, to the almost utter ruin of that trade, the convoy of three or four men-of-war, and divers merchant ships, with all their men and lading, having perished.

LONDON

25th March, 1694. Mr. Goode, minister of St. Martin's, preached; he was likewise put in by the Queen, on the issue of her process with the Bishop of London.

30th March, 1694. I went to the Duke of Norfolk, to desire him to make cousin Evelyn of Nutfield one of the Deputy-Lieutenants of Surrey, and entreat him to dismiss my brother, now unable to serve by reason of age and infirmity. The Duke granted the one, but would not suffer my brother to resign his commission, desiring he should keep the honor of it during his life, though he could not act. He professed great kindness to our family.

1st April, 1694. Dr. Sharp, Archbishop of York, preached in the afternoon at the Tabernacle, by Soho.

13th April, 1694. Mr. Bentley, our Boyle Lecturer, Chaplain to the Bishop of Worcester, came to see me.

15th April, 1694. One Mr. Stanhope preached a most excellent sermon.

22d April, 1694. A fiery exhalation rising out of the sea, spread itself in Montgomeryshire a furlong broad, and many miles in length, burning all straw, hay, thatch, and grass, but doing no harm to trees, timber, or any solid things, only firing barns, or thatched houses. It left such a taint on the grass as to kill all the cattle that eat of it. I saw the attestations in the hands of the sufferers. It lasted many months. "The Berkeley Castle" sunk by the French coming from the East Indies, worth £200,000. The French took our castle of Gamboo in Guinea, so that the Africa Actions fell to £30, and the India to £80. Some regiments of Highland Dragoons were on their march through England; they were of large stature, well appointed and disciplined. One of them having reproached a Dutchman for cowardice in our late fight, was attacked by two Dutchmen, when with his sword he struck off the head of one, and cleft the skull of the other down to his chin.

A very young gentleman named Wilson, the younger son of one who had not above £200 a year estate, lived in the garb and equipage of the richest nobleman, for house, furniture, coaches, saddle horses, and kept a table, and all things accordingly, redeemed his father's estate, and gave portions to his sisters, being challenged by one Laws, a Scotchman, was killed in a duel, not fairly. The quarrel arose from his taking away his own sister from lodging in a house where this Laws had a mistress, which the mistress of the house thinking a disparagement to it, and losing by it, instigated Laws to this duel. He was taken and condemned for murder. The mystery is how this so young a gentleman, very sober and of good fame, could live in such an expensive manner; it could not be discovered by all possible industry, or entreaty of his friends to make him reveal it. It did not appear that he was kept by women, play, coining, padding, or dealing in chemistry; but he would sometimes say that if he should live ever so long, he had wherewith to maintain himself in the same manner. He was very civil and well-natured, but of no great force of understanding. This was a subject of much discourse.

24th April, 1694. I went to visit Mr. Waller, an extraordinary young gentleman of great accomplishments, skilled in mathematics, anatomy, music, painting both in oil and miniature to great perfection, an excellent botanist, a rare engraver on brass, writer in Latin, and a poet; and with all this exceedingly modest. His house is an academy of itself. I carried him to see Brompton Park [by Knightsbridge], where he was in admiration at the store of rare plants, and the method he found in that noble nursery, and how well it was cultivated. A public Bank of £140,000, set up by Act of Parliament among other Acts, and Lotteries for money to carry on the war. The whole month of April without rain. A great rising of people in Buckinghamshire, on the declaration of a famous preacher, till now reputed a sober and religious man, that our Lord Christ appearing to him on the 16th of this month, told him he was now come down, and would appear publicly at Pentecost, and gather all the saints, Jews and Gentiles, and lead them to Jerusalem, and begin the Millennium, and destroying and judging the wicked, deliver the government of the world to the saints. Great multitudes followed this preacher, divers of the most zealous brought their goods and considerable sums of money, and began to live in imitation of the primitive saints, minding no private concerns, continually dancing and singing Hallelujah night and day. This brings to mind what I lately happened to find in Alstedius, that the thousand years should begin this very year 1694; it is in his "Encyclopædia Biblica." My copy of the book printed near sixty years ago.

WOTTON

4th May, 1694. I went this day with my wife and four servants from Sayes Court, removing much furniture of all sorts, books, pictures, hangings, bedding, etc., to furnish the apartment my brother assigned me, and now, after more than forty years, to spend the rest of my days with him at Wotton, where I was born; leaving my house at Deptford full furnished, and three servants, to my son-in-law Draper, to pass the summer in, and such longer time as he should think fit to make use of it.

6th May, 1694. This being the first Sunday in the month, the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to have been celebrated at Wotton church, but in this parish it is exceedingly neglected, so that, unless at the four great feasts, there is no communion hereabouts; which is a great fault both in ministers and people. I have spoken to my brother, who is the patron, to discourse the minister about it. Scarcely one shower has fallen since the beginning of April.

30th May, 1694. This week we had news of my Lord Tiviot having cut his own throat, through what discontent not yet said. He had been, not many years past, my colleague in the commission of the Privy Seal, in old acquaintance, very soberly and religiously inclined. Lord, what are we without thy continual grace!

Lord Falkland, grandson to the learned Lord Falkland, Secretary of State to King Charles I., and slain in his service, died now of the smallpox. He was a pretty, brisk, understanding, industrious young gentleman; had formerly been faulty, but now much reclaimed; had also the good luck to marry a very great fortune, besides being entitled to a vast sum, his share of the Spanish wreck, taken up at the expense of divers adventurers. From a Scotch Viscount he was made an English Baron, designed Ambassador for Holland; had been Treasurer of the Navy, and advancing extremely in the new Court. All now gone in a moment, and I think the title is extinct. I know not whether the estate devolves to my cousin Carew. It was at my Lord Falkland's, whose lady importuned us to let our daughter be with her some time, so that that dear child took the same infection, which cost her valuable life.

3d June, 1694. Mr. Edwards, minister of Denton, in Sussex, a living in my brother's gift, came to see him. He had suffered much by a fire. Seasonable showers.

14th June, 1694. The public fast. Mr. Wotton, that extraordinary learned young man, preached excellently.

1st July, 1694. Mr. Duncomb, minister of Albury, preached at Wotton, a very religious and exact discourse.

The first great bank for a fund of money being now established by Act of Parliament, was filled and completed to the sum of £120,000, and put under the government of the most able and wealthy citizens of London. All who adventured any sum had four per cent., so long as it lay in the bank, and had power either to take it out at pleasure, or transfer it. Glorious steady weather; corn and all fruits in extraordinary plenty generally.

13th July, 1694. Lord Berkeley burnt Dieppe and Havre de Grace with bombs, in revenge for the defeat at Brest. This manner of destructive war was begun by the French, is exceedingly ruinous, especially falling on the poorer people, and does not seem to tend to make a more speedy end of the war; but rather to exasperate and incite to revenge. Many executed at London for clipping money, now done to that intolerable extent, that there was hardly any money that was worth above half the nominal value.

4th August, 1694. I went to visit my cousin, George Evelyn of Nutfield, where I found a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters—all beautiful women grown, and extremely well-fashioned. All painted in one piece, very well, by Mr. Lutterell, in crayon on copper, and seeming to be as finely painted as the best miniature. They are the children of two extraordinary beautiful wives. The boys were at school.

5th August, 1694. Stormy and unseasonable wet weather this week.

LONDON

5th October, 1694. I went to St. Paul's to see the choir, now finished as to the stone work, and the scaffold struck both without and within, in that part. Some exceptions might perhaps be taken as to the placing columns on pilasters at the east tribunal. As to the rest it is a piece of architecture without reproach. The pulling out the forms, like drawers, from under the stalls, is ingenious. I went also to see the building beginning near St. Giles's, where seven streets make a star from a Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area; said to be built by Mr. Neale, introducer of the late lotteries, in imitation of those at Venice, now set up here, for himself twice, and now one for the State.

28th October, 1694. Mr. Stringfellow preached at Trinity church.

22d November, 1694. Visited the Bishop of Lincoln [Tenison] newly come on the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who a few days before had a paralytic stroke,—the same day and month that Archbishop Sancroft was put out. A very sickly time, especially the smallpox, of which divers considerable persons died. The State lottery81 drawing, Mr. Cock, a French refugee, and a President in the Parliament of Paris for the Reformed, drew a lot of £1,000 per annum.

29th November, 1694. I visited the Marquis of Normanby, and had much discourse concerning King Charles II. being poisoned. Also concerning the quinquina which the physicians would not give to the King, at a time when, in a dangerous ague, it was the only thing that could cure him (out of envy because it had been brought into vogue by Mr. Tudor, an apothecary), till Dr. Short, to whom the King sent to know his opinion of it privately, he being reputed a Papist (but who was in truth a very honest, good Christian), sent word to the King that it was the only thing which could save his life, and then the King enjoined his physicians to give it to him, which they did and he recovered. Being asked by this Lord why they would not prescribe it, Dr. Lower said it would spoil their practice, or some such expression, and at last confessed it was a remedy fit only for kings. Exception was taken that the late Archbishop did not cause any of his Chaplains to use any office for the sick during his illness.

9th December, 1694. I had news that my dear and worthy friend, Dr. Tenison, Bishop of Lincoln, was made Archbishop of Canterbury, for which I thank God and rejoice, he being most worthy of it, for his learning, piety, and prudence.

13th December, 1694. I went to London to congratulate him. He being my proxy, gave my vote for Dr. Williams, to succeed Mr. Bentley in Mr. Boyle's lectures.

29th December, 1694. The smallpox increased exceedingly, and was very mortal. The Queen died of it on the 28th.

13th January, 1694-95. The Thames was frozen over. The deaths by smallpox increased to five hundred more than in the preceding week. The King and Princess Anne reconciled, and she was invited to keep her Court at Whitehall, having hitherto lived privately at Berkeley House; she was desired to take into her family divers servants of the late Queen; to maintain them the King has assigned her £5,000 a quarter.

20th January, 1695. The frost and continual snow have now lasted five weeks.

February, 1695. Lord Spencer married the Duke of Newcastle's daughter, and our neighbor, Mr. Hussey, married a daughter of my cousin, George Evelyn, of Nutfield.

3d February, 1695. The long frost intermitted, but not gone.

17th February, 1695. Called to London by Lord Godolphin, one of the Lords of the Treasury, offering me the treasurership of the hospital designed to be built at Greenwich for worn-out seamen.

24th February, 1695. I saw the Queen lie in state.

27th February, 1695. The Marquis of Normanby told me King Charles had a design to buy all King Street, and build it nobly, it being the street leading to Westminster. This might have been done for the expense of the Queen's funeral, which was £50,000, against her desire.

5th March, 1695. I went to see the ceremony. Never was so universal a mourning; all the Parliament men had cloaks given them, and four hundred poor women; all the streets hung and the middle of the street boarded and covered with black cloth. There were all the nobility, mayor, aldermen, judges, etc.

8th March, 1695. I supped at the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry's, who related to me the pious behavior of the Queen in all her sickness, which was admirable. She never inquired of what opinion persons were, who were objects of charity; that, on opening a cabinet, a paper was found wherein she had desired that her body might not be opened, or any extraordinary expense at her funeral, whenever she should die. This paper was not found in time to be observed. There were other excellent things under her own hand, to the very least of her debts, which were very small, and everything in that exact method, as seldom is found in any private person. In sum, she was such an admirable woman, abating for taking the Crown without a more due apology, as does, if possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth.

10th March, 1695. I dined at the Earl of Sunderland's with Lord Spencer. My Lord showed me his library, now again improved by many books bought at the sale of Sir Charles Scarborough, an eminent physician, which was the very best collection, especially of mathematical books, that was I believe in Europe, once designed for the King's Library at St. James's; but the Queen dying, who was the great patroness of that design, it was let fall, and the books were miserably dissipated.

The new edition of Camden's "Britannia" was now published (by Bishop Gibson), with great additions; those to Surrey were mine, so that I had one presented to me. Dr. Gale showed me a MS. of some parts of the New Testament in vulgar Latin, that had belonged to a monastery in the North of Scotland, which he esteemed to be about eight hundred years old; there were some considerable various readings observable, as in John i., and genealogy of St. Luke.

24th March, 1695. Easter Day. Mr. Duncomb, parson of this parish, preached, which he hardly comes to above once a year though but seven or eight miles off; a florid discourse, read out of his notes. The Holy Sacrament followed, which he administered with very little reverence, leaving out many prayers and exhortations; nor was there any oblation. This ought to be reformed, but my good brother did not well consider when he gave away this living and the next [Abinger].

March, 1695. The latter end of the month sharp and severely cold, with much snow and hard frost; no appearance of spring.

31st March, 1695. Mr. Lucas preached in the afternoon at Wotton.

LONDON

7th April, 1695. Lord Halifax died suddenly at London, the day his daughter was married to the Earl of Nottingham's son at Burleigh. Lord H. was a very rich man, very witty, and in his younger days somewhat positive.

14th April, 1695. After a most severe, cold, and snowy winter, without almost any shower for many months, the wind continuing N. and E. and not a leaf appearing; the weather and wind now changed, some showers fell, and there was a remission of cold.

21st April, 1695. The spring begins to appear, yet the trees hardly leafed. Sir T. Cooke discovers what prodigious bribes have been given by some of the East India Company out of the stock, which makes a great clamor. Never were so many private bills passed for unsettling estates, showing the wonderful prodigality and decay of families.

5th May, 1695. I came to Deptford from Wotton, in order to the first meeting of the Commissioners for endowing an hospital for seamen at Greenwich; it was at the Guildhall, London. Present, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Keeper, Lord Privy Seal, Lord Godolphin, Duke of Shrewsbury, Duke of Leeds, Earls of Dorset and Monmouth, Commissioners of the Admiralty and Navy, Sir Robert Clayton, Sir Christopher Wren, and several more. The Commission was read by Mr. Lowndes, Secretary to the Lords of the Treasury, Surveyor-General.

17th May, 1695. Second meeting of the Commissioners, and a committee appointed to go to Greenwich to survey the place, I being one of them.

21st May, 1695. We went to survey Greenwich, Sir Robert Clayton, Sir Christopher Wren, Mr. Travers, the King's Surveyor, Captain Sanders, and myself.

24th May, 1695. We made report of the state of Greenwich house, and how the standing part might be made serviceable at present for £6,000, and what ground would be requisite for the whole design. My Lord Keeper ordered me to prepare a book for subscriptions, and a preamble to it.

31st May, 1695. Met again. Mr. Vanbrugh was made secretary to the commission, by my nomination of him to the Lords, which was all done that day.

7th June, 1695. The commissioners met at Guildhall, when there were scruples and contests of the Lord Mayor, who would not meet, not being named as one of the quorum, so that a new commission was required, though the Lord Keeper and the rest thought it too nice a punctilio.

14th May, 1695. Met at Guildhall, but could do nothing for want of a quorum.

5th July, 1695. At Guildhall; account of subscriptions, about £7,000 or £8,000.

6th July, 1695. I dined at Lambeth, making my first visit to the Archbishop, where there was much company, and great cheer. After prayers in the evening, my Lord made me stay to show me his house, furniture, and garden, which were all very fine, and far beyond the usual Archbishops, not as affected by this, but being bought ready furnished by his predecessor. We discoursed of several public matters, particularly of the Princess of Denmark, who made so little figure.

11th July, 1695. Met at Guildhall; not a full committee, so nothing done.

14th July, 1695. No sermon at church; but, after prayers, the names of all the parishioners were read, in order to gathering the tax of 4s. for marriages, burials, etc. A very imprudent tax, especially this reading the names, so that most went out of the church.

19th July, 1695. I dined at Sir Purbeck Temple's, near Croydon; his lady is aunt to my son-in-law, Draper; the house exactly furnished. WOTTONWent thence with my son and daughter to Wotton. At Wotton, Mr. Duncomb, parson of Albury, preached excellently.

28th July, 1695. A very wet season.

11th August, 1695. The weather now so cold, that greater frosts were not always seen in the midst of winter; this succeeded much wet, and set harvest extremely back.

25th September, 1695. Mr. Offley preached at Abinger; too much controversy on a point of no consequence, for the country people here. This was the first time I had heard him preach. Bombarding of Cadiz; a cruel and brutish way of making war, first began by the French. The season wet, great storms, unseasonable harvest weather. My good and worthy friend, Captain Gifford, who that he might get some competence to live decently, adventured all he had in a voyage of two years to the East Indies, was, with another great ship, taken by some French men-of-war, almost within sight of England, to the loss of near £70,000, to my great sorrow, and pity of his wife, he being also a valiant and industrious man. The losses of this sort to the nation have been immense, and all through negligence, and little care to secure the same near our own coasts; of infinitely more concern to the public than spending their time in bombarding and ruining two or three paltry towns, without any benefit, or weakening our enemies, who, though they began, ought not to be imitated in an action totally averse to humanity, or Christianity.

29th September, 1695. Very cold weather. Sir Purbeck Temple, uncle to my son Draper, died suddenly. A great funeral at Addiscombe. His lady being own aunt to my son Draper, he hopes for a good fortune, there being no heir. There had been a new meeting of the commissioners about Greenwich hospital, on the new commission, where the Lord Mayor, etc. appeared, but I was prevented by indisposition from attending. The weather very sharp, winter approaching apace. The King went a progress into the north, to show himself to the people against the elections, and was everywhere complimented, except at Oxford, where it was not as he expected, so that he hardly stopped an hour there, and having seen the theater, did not receive the banquet proposed. I dined with Dr. Gale at St. Paul's school, who showed me many curious passages out of some ancient Platonists' MSS. concerning the Trinity, which this great and learned person would publish, with many other rare things, if he was encouraged, and eased of the burden of teaching.

25th October, 1695. The Archbishop and myself went to Hammersmith, to visit Sir Samuel Morland, who was entirely blind; a very mortifying sight. He showed us his invention of writing, which was very ingenious; also his wooden calendar, which instructed him all by feeling; and other pretty and useful inventions of mills, pumps, etc., and the pump he had erected that serves water to his garden, and to passengers, with an inscription, and brings from a filthy part of the Thames near it a most perfect and pure water. He had newly buried £200 worth of music books six feet under ground, being, as he said, love songs and vanity. He plays himself psalms and religious hymns on the theorbo. Very mild weather the whole of October.

LONDON

10th November, 1695. Mr. Stanhope, Vicar of Lewisham, preached at Whitehall. He is one of the most accomplished preachers I ever heard, for matter, eloquence, action, voice, and I am told, of excellent conversation.

13th November, 1695. Famous fireworks and very chargeable, the King being returned from his progress. He stayed seven or eight days at Lord Sunderland's at Althorpe, where he was mightily entertained. These fireworks were shown before Lord Romney, master of the ordnance, in St. James's great square, where the King stood.

17th November, 1695. I spoke to the Archbishop of Canterbury to interest himself for restoring a room belonging to St. James's library, where the books want place.

21st November, 1695. I went to see Mr. Churchill's collection of rarities.

23d November, 1695. To Lambeth, to get Mr. Williams continued in Boyle's lectures another year. Among others who dined there was Dr. Covel, the great Oriental traveler.

1st December, 1695. I dined at Lord Sunderland's, now the great favorite and underhand politician, but not adventuring on any character, being obnoxious to the people for having twice changed his religion.

23d December, 1695. The Parliament wondrously intent on ways to reform the coin; setting out a Proclamation prohibiting the currency of half-crowns, etc., which made much confusion among the people.

25th December, 1695. Hitherto mild, dark, misty, weather. Now snow and frost.

12th January, 1695-96. Great confusion and distraction by reason of the clipped money, and the difficulty found in reforming it.

2d February, 1696. An extraordinary wet season, though temperate as to cold. The "Royal Sovereign" man-of-war burned at Chatham. It was built in 1637, and having given occasion to the levy of ship money was perhaps the cause of all the after troubles to this day. An earthquake in Dorsetshire by Portland, or rather a sinking of the ground suddenly for a large space, near the quarries of stone, hindering the conveyance of that material for the finishing St. Paul's.

23d February, 1696. They now began to coin new money.

26th February, 1696. There was now a conspiracy of about thirty knights, gentlemen, captains, many of them Irish and English Papists, and Nonjurors or Jacobites (so called), to murder King William on the first opportunity of his going either from Kensington, or to hunting, or to the chapel; and upon signal of fire to be given from Dover Cliff to Calais, an invasion was designed. In order to it there was a great army in readiness, men-of-war and transports, to join a general insurrection here, the Duke of Berwick having secretly come to London to head them, King James attending at Calais with the French army. It was discovered by some of their own party. £1,000 reward was offered to whoever could apprehend any of the thirty named. Most of those who were engaged in it, were taken and secured. The Parliament, city, and all the nation, congratulate the discovery; and votes and resolutions were passed that, if King William should ever be assassinated, it should be revenged on the Papists and party through the nation; an Act of Association drawing up to empower the Parliament to sit on any such accident, till the Crown should be disposed of according to the late settlement at the Revolution. All Papists, in the meantime, to be banished ten miles from London. This put the nation into an incredible disturbance and general animosity against the French King and King James. The militia of the nation was raised, several regiments were sent for out of Flanders, and all things put in a posture to encounter a descent. This was so timed by the enemy, that while we were already much discontented by the greatness of the taxes, and corruption of the money, etc., we had like to have had very few men-of-war near our coasts; but so it pleased God that Admiral Rooke wanting a wind to pursue his voyage to the Straits, that squadron, with others at Portsmouth and other places, were still in the Channel, and were soon brought up to join with the rest of the ships which could be got together, so that there is hope this plot may be broken. I look on it as a very great deliverance and prevention by the providence of God. Though many did formerly pity King James's condition, this design of assassination and bringing over a French army, alienated many o£ his friends, and was likely to produce a more perfect establishment of King William.

1st March, 1696. The wind continuing N. and E. all this week, brought so many of our men-of-war together that, though most of the French finding their design detected and prevented, made a shift to get into Calais and Dunkirk roads, we wanting fire-ships and bombs to disturb them; yet they were so engaged among the sands and flats, that 'tis said they cut their masts and flung their great guns overboard to lighten their vessels. We are yet upon them. This deliverance is due solely to God. French were to have invaded at once England, Scotland, and Ireland.

8th March, 1696. Divers of the conspirators tried and condemned.

Vesuvius breaking out, terrified Naples. Three of the unhappy wretches, whereof one was a priest, were executed82 for intending to assassinate the King; they acknowledged their intention, but acquitted King James of inciting them to it, and died very penitent. Divers more in danger, and some very considerable persons.

Great frost and cold.

LONDON

6th April, 1696. I visited Mr. Graham in the Fleet.

10th April, 1696. The quarters of Sir William Perkins and Sir John Friend, lately executed on the plot, with Perkins's head, were set up at Temple Bar, a dismal sight, which many pitied. I think there never was such at Temple Bar till now, except once in the time of King Charles II., namely, of Sir Thomas Armstrong.83

12th April, 1696. A very fine spring season.

19th April, 1696. Great offense taken at the three ministers who absolved Sir William Perkins and Friend at Tyburn. One of them (Snatt) was a son of my old schoolmaster. This produced much altercation as to the canonicalness of the action.

21st April, 1696. We had a meeting at Guildhall of the grand committee about settling the draught of Greenwich hospital.

23d April, 1696. I went to Eton, and dined with Dr. Godolphin, the provost. The schoolmaster assured me there had not been for twenty years a more pregnant youth in that place than my grandson. I went to see the King's House at Kensington. It is very noble, though not great. The gallery furnished with the best pictures [from] all the houses, of Titian, Raphael, Correggio, Holbein, Julio Romano, Bassan, Vandyke, Tintoretto, and others; a great collection of porcelain; and a pretty private library. The gardens about it very delicious.

26th April, 1696. Dr. Sharp preached at the Temple. His prayer before the sermon was one of the most excellent compositions I ever heard.

28th April, 1696. The Venetian Ambassador made a stately entry with fifty footmen, many on horseback, four rich coaches, and a numerous train of gallants. More executions this week of the assassins. Oates dedicated a most villainous, reviling book against King James, which he presumed to present to King William, who could not but abhor it, speaking so infamously and untruly of his late beloved Queen's own father.

2d May, 1696. I dined at Lambeth, being summoned to meet my co-trustees, the Archbishop, Sir Henry Ashurst, and Mr. Serjeant Rotheram, to consult about settling

6th May, 1696. I went to Lambeth, to meet at dinner the Countess of Sunderland and divers ladies. We dined in the Archbishop's wife's apartment with his Grace, and stayed late; yet I returned to Deptford at night.

13th May, 1696. I went to London to meet my son, newly come from Ireland, indisposed. Money still continuing exceedingly scarce, so that none was paid or received, but all was on trust, the mint not supplying for common necessities. The Association with an oath required of all lawyers and officers, on pain of præmunire, whereby men were obliged to renounce King James as no rightful king, and to revenge King William's death, if happening by assassination. This to be taken by all the Counsel by a day limited, so that the Courts of Chancery and King's Bench hardly heard any cause in Easter Term, so many crowded to take the oath. This was censured as a very entangling contrivance of the Parliament in expectation, that many in high office would lay down, and others surrender. Many gentlemen taken up on suspicion of the late plot, were now discharged out of prison.

29th May, 1696. We settled divers offices, and other matters relating to workmen, for the beginning of Greenwich hospital.

DEPTFORD

1st June, 1696. I went to Deptford to dispose of our goods, in order to letting the house for three years to Vice Admiral Benbow, with condition to keep up the garden. This was done soon after.

4th June, 1696. A committee met at Whitehall about Greenwich Hospital, at Sir Christopher Wren's, his Majesty's Surveyor-General. We made the first agreement with divers workmen and for materials; and gave the first order for proceeding on the foundation, and for weekly payments to the workmen, and a general account to be monthly.

11th June, 1696. Dined at Lord Pembroke's, Lord Privy Seal, a very worthy gentleman. He showed me divers rare pictures of very many of the old and best masters, especially one of M. Angelo of a man gathering fruit to give to a woman, and a large book of the best drawings of the old masters. Sir John Fenwick, one of the conspirators, was taken. Great subscriptions in Scotland to their East India Company. Want of current money to carry on the smallest concerns, even for daily provisions in the markets. Guineas lowered to twenty-two shillings, and great sums daily transported to Holland, where it yields more, with other treasure sent to pay the armies, and nothing considerable coined of the new and now only current stamp, cause such a scarcity that tumults are every day feared, nobody paying or receiving money; so imprudent was the late Parliament to condemn the old though clipped and corrupted, till they had provided supplies. To this add the fraud of the bankers and goldsmiths, who having gotten immense riches by extortion, keep up their treasure in expectation of enhancing its value. Duncombe, not long since a mean goldsmith, having made a purchase of the late Duke of Buckingham's estate at nearly £90,000, and reputed to have nearly as much in cash. Banks and lotteries every day set up.

18th June, 1696. The famous trial between my Lord Bath and Lord Montague for an estate of £11,000 a year, left by the Duke of Albemarle, wherein on several trials had been spent,£20,000 between them. The Earl of Bath was cast on evident forgery.

20th June, 1696. I made my Lord Cheney a visit at Chelsea, and saw those ingenious waterworks invented by Mr. Winstanley, wherein were some things very surprising and extraordinary.

21st June, 1696. An exceedingly rainy, cold, unseasonable summer, yet the city was very healthy.

25th June, 1696. A trial in the Common Pleas between the Lady Purbeck Temple and Mr. Temple, a nephew of Sir Purbeck, concerning a deed set up to take place of several wills. This deed was proved to be forged. The cause went on my lady's side. This concerning my son-in-law, Draper, I stayed almost all day at Court. A great supper was given to the jury, being persons of the best condition in Buckinghamshire.

30th June, 1696. I went with a select committee of the Commissioners for Greenwich Hospital, and with Sir Christopher Wren, where with him I laid the first stone of the intended foundation, precisely at five o'clock in the evening, after we had dined together. Mr. Flamstead, the King's Astronomical Professor, observing the punctual time by instruments.

4th July, 1696. Note that my Lord Godolphin was the first of the subscribers who paid any money to this noble fabric.

7th July, 1696. A northern wind altering the weather with a continual and impetuous rain of three days and nights changed it into perfect winter.

12th July, 1696. Very unseasonable and uncertain weather.

26th July, 1696. So little money in the nation that Exchequer Tallies, of which I had for £2,000 on the best fund in England, the Post Office, nobody would take at 30 per cent discount.

3d August, 1696. The Bank lending the £200,000 to pay the array in Flanders, that had done nothing against the enemy, had so exhausted the treasure of the nation, that one could not have borrowed money under 14 or 15 per cent on bills, or on Exchequer Tallies under 30 per cent. Reasonable good harvest weather. I went to Lambeth and dined with the Archbishop, who had been at Court on the complaint against Dr. Thomas Watson, Bishop of St. David's, who was suspended for simony. The Archbishop told me how unsatisfied he was with the Canon law, and how exceedingly unreasonable all their pleadings appeared to him.

September, 1696. Fine seasonable weather, and a great harvest after a cold, wet summer. Scarcity in Scotland.

6th September, 1696. I went to congratulate the marriage of a daughter of Mr. Boscawen to the son of Sir Philip Meadows; she is niece to my Lord Godolphin, married at Lambeth by the Archbishop, 30th of August. After above six months' stay in London about Greenwich Hospital, I returned to Wotton.

24th October, 1696. Unseasonable stormy weather, and an ill seedtime.

November, 1696. Lord Godolphin retired from the Treasury, who was the first Commissioner and most skillful manager of all.

8th November, 1696. The first frost began fiercely, but lasted not long. More plots talked of. Search for Jacobites so called.

15th-23d November, 1696. Very stormy weather, rain, and inundations.

13th December, 1696. Continuance of extreme frost and snow.

17th January, 1696-7. The severe frost and weather relented, but again froze with snow. Conspiracies continue against King William. Sir John Fenwick was beheaded.

7th February, 1697. Severe frost continued with snow. Soldiers in the armies and garrison towns frozen to death on their posts.

(Here a leaf of the MS. is lost.)

17th August, 1697. I came to Wotton after three months' absence.

September, 1697. Very bright weather, but with sharp east wind. My son came from London in his melancholy indisposition.

12th September, 1697. Mr. Duncombe, the rector, came and preached after an absence of two years, though only living seven or eight miles off [at Ashted]. Welcome tidings of the Peace.

3d October, 1697. So great were the storms all this week, that near a thousand people were lost going into the Texel.

LONDON

16th November, 1697. The King's entry very pompous; but is nothing approaching that of King Charles II.

2d December, 1697. Thanksgiving Day for the Peace, the King and a great Court at Whitehall. The Bishop of Salisbury preached, or rather made a florid panegyric, on 2 Chron. ix. 7, 8. The evening concluded with fireworks and illuminations of great expense.

5th December, 1697. Was the first Sunday that St. Paul's had had service performed in it since it was burned in 1666.

6th December, 1697. I went to Kensington with the Sheriff, Knights, and chief gentlemen of Surrey, to present their address to the King. The Duke of Norfolk promised to introduce it, but came so late, that it was presented before be came. This insignificant ceremony was brought in in Cromwell's time, and has ever since continued with offers of life and fortune to whoever happened to have the power. I dined at Sir Richard Onslow's, who treated almost all the gentlemen of Surrey. When we had half dined, the Duke of Norfolk came in to make his excuse.

12th December, 1697. At the Temple Church; it was very long before the service began, staying for the Comptroller of the Inner Temple, where was to be kept a riotous and reveling Christmas, according to custom.

18th December, 1697. At Lambeth, to Dr. Bentley, about the Library at St. James's.

23d December, 1697. I returned to Wotton.

1697-98. A great Christmas kept at Wotton, open house, much company. I presented my book of Medals, etc., to divers noblemen, before I exposed it to sale.

2d January, 1698. Dr. Fulham, who lately married my niece, preached against atheism, a very eloquent discourse, somewhat improper for most of the audience at [Wotton], but fitted for some other place, and very apposite to the profane temper of the age.

LONDON

5th January, 1698. Whitehall burned, nothing but walls and ruins left.

30th January, 1698. The imprisonment of the great banker, Duncombe: censured by Parliament; acquitted by the Lords; sent again to the Tower by the Commons.

The Czar of Muscovy being come to England, and having a mind to see the building of ships, hired my house at Sayes Court, and made it his court and palace, newly furnished for him by the King.84

21st April, 1698. The Czar went from my house to return home. An exceedingly sharp and cold season.

8th May, 1698. An extraordinary great snow and frost, nipping the corn and other fruits. Corn at nine shillings a bushel [£18 a load].

30th May, 1698. I dined at Mr. Pepys's, where I heard the rare voice of Mr. Pule, who was lately come from Italy, reputed the most excellent singer we had ever had. He sung several compositions of the late Dr. Purcell.

5th June, 1698. Dr. White, late Bishop of Norwich, who had been ejected for not complying with Government, was buried in St. Gregory's churchyard, or vault, at St. Paul's. His hearse was accompanied by two non-juror bishops, Dr. Turner of Ely, and Dr. Lloyd, with forty other non-juror clergymen, who would not stay the Office of the burial, because the Dean of St. Paul's had appointed a conforming minister to read the Office; at which all much wondered, there being nothing in that Office which mentioned the present King.

8th June, 1698. I went to congratulate the marriage of Mr. Godolphin with the Earl of Marlborough's daughter.

9th June, 1698. To Deptford, to see how miserably the Czar had left my house, after three months making it his Court. I got Sir Christopher Wren, the King's surveyor, and Mr. London, his gardener, to go and estimate the repairs, for which they allowed £150 in their report to the Lords of the Treasury. I then went to see the foundation of the Hall and Chapel at Greenwich Hospital.

6th August, 1698. I dined with Pepys, where was Captain Dampier,85 who had been a famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted Prince Job, and printed a relation of his very strange adventure, and his observations. He was now going abroad again by the King's encouragement, who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He seemed a more modest man than one would imagine by the relation of the crew he had assorted with. He brought a map of his observations of the course of the winds in the South Sea, and assured us that the maps hitherto extant were all false as to the Pacific Sea, which he makes on the south of the line, that on the north end running by the coast of Peru being extremely tempestuous.

25th September, 1698. Dr. Foy came to me to use my interest with Lord Sunderland for his being made Professor of Physic at Oxford, in the King's gift. I went also to the Archbishop in his behalf.

7th December, 1698. Being one of the Council of the Royal Society, I was named to be of the committee to wait on our new President, the Lord Chancellor, our Secretary, Dr. Sloane, and Sir R. Southwell, last Vice-President, carrying our book of statutes; the office of the President being read, his Lordship subscribed his name, and took the oaths according to our statutes as a Corporation for the improvement of natural knowledge. Then his Lordship made a short compliment concerning the honor the Society had done him, and how ready he would be to promote so noble a design, and come himself among us, as often as the attendance on the public would permit; and so we took our leave.

18th December, 1698. Very warm, but exceedingly stormy.

January, 1698-99. My cousin Pierrepoint died. She was daughter to Sir John Evelyn, of Wilts, my father's nephew; she was widow to William Pierrepoint, brother to the Marquis of Dorchester, and mother to Evelyn Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston; a most excellent and prudent lady.

LONDON

The House of Commons persist in refusing more than 7,000 men to be a standing army, and no strangers to be in the number. This displeased the Court party. Our county member, Sir R. Onslow, opposed it also; which might reconcile him to the people, who began to suspect him.

17th February, 1699. My grandson went to Oxford with Dr. Mander, the Master of Baliol College, where he was entered a fellow-commoner.

19th February, 1699. A most furious wind, such as has not happened for many years, doing great damage to houses and trees, by the fall of which several persons were killed.

5th March, 1699. The old East India Company lost their business against the new Company, by ten votes in Parliament, so many of their friends being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs.

The persecuted Vaudois, who were banished out of Savoy, were received by the German Protestant Princes.

24th March, 1699. My only remaining son died after a tedious languishing sickness, contracted in Ireland, and increased here, to my exceeding grief and affliction; leaving me one grandson, now at Oxford, whom I pray God to prosper and be the support of the Wotton family. He was aged forty-four years and about three months. He had been six years one of the Commissioners of the Revenue in Ireland, with great ability and reputation.

26th March, 1699. After an extraordinary storm, there came up the Thames a whale which was fifty-six feet long. Such, and a larger of the spout kind, was killed there forty years ago (June 1658). That year died Cromwell.

30th March, 1699. My deceased son was buried in the vault at Wotton, according to his desire.

The Duke of Devon lost £1,900 at a horse race at Newmarket.

The King preferring his young favorite Earl of Albemarle to be first Commander of his Guard, the Duke of Ormond laid down his commission. This of the Dutch Lord passing over his head, was exceedingly resented by everybody.

April, 1699. Lord Spencer purchased an incomparable library86 of ... wherein, among other rare books, were several that were printed at the first invention of that wonderful art, as particularly "Tully's Offices, etc." There was a Homer and a Suidas in a very good Greek character and good paper, almost as ancient. This gentleman is a very fine scholar, whom from a child I have known. His tutor was one Florival of Geneva.

29th April, 1699. I dined with the Archbishop; but my business was to get him to persuade the King to purchase the late Bishop of Worcester's library, and build a place for his own library at St. James's, in the Park, the present one being too small.

3d May, 1699. At a meeting of the Royal Society I was nominated to be of the committee to wait on the Lord Chancellor to move the King to purchase the Bishop of Worcester's library (Dr. Edward Stillingfleet).

4th May, 1699. The Court party have little influence in this Session.

7th May, 1699. The Duke of Ormond restored to his commission. All Lotteries, till now cheating the people, to be no longer permitted than to Christmas, except that for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital. Mr. Bridgman, chairman of the committee for that charitable work, died; a great loss to it. He was Clerk of the Council, a very industrious, useful man. I saw the library of Dr. John Moore,87 Bishop of Norwich, one of the best and most ample collection of all sorts of good books in England, and he, one of the most learned men.

11th June, 1699. After a long drought, we had a refreshing shower. The day before, there was a dreadful fire at Rotherhithe, near the Thames side, which burned divers ships, and consumed nearly three hundred houses. Now died the famous Duchess of Mazarin; she had been the richest lady in Europe. She was niece of Cardinal Mazarin, and was married to the richest subject in Europe, as is said. She was born at Rome, educated in France, and was an extraordinary beauty and wit but dissolute and impatient of matrimonial restraint, so as to be abandoned by her husband, and banished, when she came into England for shelter, lived on a pension given her here, and is reported to have hastened her death by intemperate drinking strong spirits. She has written her own story and adventures, and so has her other extravagant sister, wife to the noble family of Colonna.

LONDON

15th June, 1699. This week died Conyers Seymour, son of Sir Edward Seymour, killed in a duel caused by a slight affront in St. James's Park, given him by one who was envious of his gallantries; for he was a vain, foppish young man, who made a great éclât about town by his splendid equipage and boundless expense. He was about twenty-three years old; his brother, now at Oxford, inherited an estate of £7,000 a year, which had fallen to him not two years before.

19th June, 1699. My cousin, George Evelyn, of Nutfield, died suddenly.

25th June, 1699. The heat has been so great, almost all this month, that I do not remember to have felt much greater in Italy, and this after a winter the wettest, though not the coldest, that I remember for fifty years last past.

28th June, 1699. Finding my occasions called me so often to London, I took the remainder of the lease my son had in a house in Dover Street, to which I now removed, not taking my goods from Wotton.

23d July, 1699. Seasonable showers, after a continuance of excessive drought and heat.

August, 1699. I drank the Shooters' Hill waters. At Deptford, they had been building a pretty new church. The Bishop of St. David's [Watson] deprived for simony.88 The city of Moscow burnt by the throwing of squibs.

3d September, 1699. There was in this week an eclipse of the sun, at which many were frightened by the predictions of the astrologers. I remember fifty years ago that many were so terrified by Lilly, that they dared not go out of their houses. A strange earthquake at New Batavia, in the East Indies.

4th October, 1699. My worthy brother died at Wotton, in the 83d year of his age, of perfect memory and understanding. He was religious, sober, and temperate, and of so hospitable a nature, that no family in the county maintained that ancient custom of keeping, as it were, open house the whole year in the same manner, or gave more noble or free entertainment to the county on all occasions, so that his house was never free. There were sometimes twenty persons more than his family, and some that stayed there all the summer, to his no small expense; by this he gained the universal love of the county. He was born at Wotton, went from the free school at Guildford to Trinity College, Oxford, thence to the Middle Temple, as gentlemen of the best quality did, but without intention to study the law as a profession. He married the daughter of Colwall, of a worthy and ancient family in Leicestershire, by whom he had one son; she dying in 1643, left George her son an infant, who being educated liberally, after traveling abroad, returned and married one Mrs. Gore, by whom he had several children, but only three daughters survived. He was a young man of good understanding, but, over-indulging his ease and pleasure, grew so very corpulent, contrary to the constitution of the rest of his father's relations, that he died. My brother afterward married a noble and honorable lady, relict of Sir John Cotton, she being an Offley, a worthy and ancient Staffordshire family, by whom he had several children of both sexes. This lady died, leaving only two daughters and a son. The younger daughter died before marriage; the other afterward married Sir Cyril Wych, a noble and learned gentleman (son of Sir —— Wych), who had been Ambassador at Constantinople, and was afterward made one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. Before this marriage, her only brother married the daughter of —— Eversfield, of Sussex, of an honorable family, but left a widow without any child living; he died about 1691, and his wife not many years after, and my brother resettled the whole estate on me. His sister, Wych, had a portion of £6,000, to which was added £300 more; the three other daughters, with what I added, had about £5,000 each. My brother died on the 5th of October, in a good old age and great reputation, making his beloved daughter, Lady Wych, sole executrix, leaving me only his library and some pictures of my father, mother, etc. She buried him with extraordinary solemnity, rather as a nobleman than as a private gentleman. There were, as I computed, above 2,000 persons at the funeral, all the gentlemen of the county doing him the last honors. I returned to London, till my lady should dispose of herself and family.

21st October, 1699. After an unusual warm and pleasant season, we were surprised with a very sharp frost. I presented my "Acetaria," dedicated to my Lord Chancellor, who returned me thanks in an extraordinarily civil letter.

15th November, 1699. There happened this week so thick a mist and fog, that people lost their way in the streets, it being so intense that no light of candles, or torches, yielded any (or but very little) direction. I was in it, and in danger. Robberies were committed between the very lights which were fixed between London and Kensington on both sides, and while coaches and travelers were passing. It began about four in the afternoon, and was quite gone by eight, without any wind to disperse it. At the Thames, they beat drums to direct the watermen to make the shore.

19th November,

24th November, 1699. I signed Dr. Blackwell's election to be the next year's Boyles Lecturer.

Such horrible robberies and murders were committed, as had not been known in this nation; atheism, profaneness, blasphemy, among all sorts, portended some judgment if not amended; on which a society was set on foot, who obliged themselves to endeavor the reforming of it, in London and other places, and began to punish offenders and put the laws in more strict execution; which God Almighty prosper! A gentle, calm, dry, temperate weather all this season of the year, but now came sharp, hard frost, and mist, but calm.

3d December, 1699. Calm, bright, and warm as in the middle of April. So continued on 21st of January. A great earthquake in Portugal.

LONDON

The Parliament reverses the prodigious donations of the Irish forfeitures, which were intended to be set apart for discharging the vast national debt. They called some great persons in the highest offices in question for setting the Great Seal to the pardon of an arch-pirate,89 who had turned pirate again, and brought prizes into the West Indies, suspected to be connived at on sharing the prey; but the prevailing part in the House called Courtiers, out-voted the complaints, not by being more in number, but by the country party being negligent in attendance.

14th January, 1699-1700. Dr. Lancaster, Vicar of St. Martin's, dismissed Mr. Stringfellow, who had been made the first preacher at our chapel by the Bishop of Lincoln [Dr. Tenison, now Archbishop], while he held St. Martin's by dispensation, and put in one Mr. Sandys, much against the inclination of those who frequented the chapel. The Scotch book about Darien was burned by the hangman by vote of Parliament.90

21st January, 1700. Died the Duke of Beaufort, a person of great honor, prudence, and estate.

25th January, 1700. I went to Wotton, the first time after my brother's funeral, to furnish the house with necessaries, Lady Wych and my nephew Glanville, the executors having sold and disposed of what goods were there of my brother's. The weather was now altering into sharp and hard frost.

LONDON

One Stephens, who preached before the House of Commons on King Charles's Martyrdom, told them that the observation of that day was not intended out of any detestation of his murder, but to be a lesson to other Kings and Rulers, how they ought to behave themselves toward their subjects, lest they should come to the same end. This was so resented that, though it was usual to desire these anniversary sermons to be printed, they refused thanks to him, and ordered that in future no one should preach before them, who was not either a Dean or a Doctor of Divinity.

4th February, 1700. The Parliament voted against the Scots settling in Darien as being prejudicial to our trade with Spain. They also voted that the exorbitant number of attorneys be lessened (now indeed swarming, and evidently causing lawsuits and disturbance, eating out the estates of the people, provoking them to go to law).

18th February, 1700. Mild and calm season, with gentle frost, and little mizzling rain. The Vicar of St. Martin's frequently preached at Trinity chapel in the afternoon.

8th March, 1700. The season was like April for warmth and mildness.—11th. On Wednesday, was a sermon at our chapel, to be continued during Lent.

13th March, 1700. I was at the funeral of my Lady Temple, who was buried at Islington, brought from Addiscombe, near Croydon. She left my son-in-law Draper (her nephew) the mansion house of Addiscombe, very nobly and completely furnished, with the estate about it, with plate and jewels, to the value in all of about £20,000. She was a very prudent lady, gave many great legacies, with £500 to the poor of Islington, where her husband, Sir Purbeck Temple, was buried, both dying without issue.

24th March, 1700. The season warm, gentle, and exceedingly pleasant. Divers persons of quality entered into the Society for Reformation91 of Manners; and some lectures were set up, particularly in the city of London. The most eminent of the clergy preached at Bow Church, after reading a declaration set forth by the King to suppress the growing wickedness; this began already to take some effect as to common swearing, and oaths in the mouths of people of all ranks.

25th March, 1700. Dr. Burnet preached to-day before the Lord Mayor and a very great congregation, on Proverbs xxvii. 5, 6, "Open rebuke is better than secret love; the wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy." He made a very pathetic discourse concerning the necessity and advantage of friendly correction.

April, 1700. The Duke of Norfolk now succeeded in obtaining a divorce from his wife by the Parliament for adultery with Sir John Germaine, a Dutch gamester, of mean extraction, who had got much by gaming; the Duke had leave to marry again, so that if he should have children, the Dukedom will go from the late Lord Thomas's children, Papists indeed, but very hopeful and virtuous gentlemen, as was their father. The now Duke their uncle is a Protestant.

The Parliament nominated fourteen persons to go into Ireland as commissioners to dispose of the forfeited estates there, toward payment of the debts incurred by the late war, but which the King had in great measure given to some of his favorites of both sexes, Dutch and others of little merit, and very unseasonably. That this might be done without suspicion of interest in the Parliament, it was ordered that no member of either House should be in the commission. The great contest between the Lords and Commons concerning the Lords' power of amendments and rejecting bills tacked to the money bill, carried for the Commons. However, this tacking of bills is a novel practice, suffered by King Charles II., who, being continually in want of money, let anything pass rather than not have wherewith to feed his extravagance. This was carried but by one voice in the Lords, all the Bishops following the Court, save one; so that near sixty bills passed, to the great triumph of the Commons and Country party, but high regret of the Court, and those to whom the King had given large estates in Ireland. Pity it is, that things should be brought to this extremity, the government of this nation being so equally poised between King and subject; but we are satisfied with nothing; and, while there is no perfection on this side heaven, methinks both might be contented without straining things too far. Among the rest, there passed a law as to Papists' estates, that if one turned not Protestant before eighteen years of age, it should pass to his next Protestant heir. This indeed seemed a hard law, but not only the usage of the French King to his Protestant subjects, but the indiscreet insolence of the Papists here, going in triumphant and public processions with their Bishops, with banners and trumpets in divers places (as is said) in the northern counties, has brought it on their party.

24th April, 1700. This week there was a great change of State officers. The Duke of Shrewsbury resigned his Lord Chamberlainship to the Earl of Jersey, the Duke's indisposition requiring his retreat. Mr. Vernon, Secretary of State, was put out. The Seal was taken from the Lord Chancellor Somers, though he had been acquitted by a great majority of votes for what was charged against him in the House of Commons. This being in term time, put some stop to business, many eminent lawyers refusing to accept the office, considering the uncertainty of things in this fluctuating conjuncture. It is certain that this Chancellor was a most excellent lawyer, very learned in all polite literature, a superior pen, master of a handsome style, and of easy conversation; but he is said to make too much haste to be rich, as his predecessor, and most in place in this age did, to a more prodigious excess than was ever known. But the Commons had now so mortified the Court party, and property and liberty were so much invaded in all the neighboring kingdoms, that their jealousy made them cautious, and every day strengthened the law which protected the people from tyranny.