W. Pen, where my Lady Batten did come with desire
of meeting me there, and speaking with me about the
business of the L500 we demand of her for the Chest.
She do protest, before God, she never did see the
account, but that it was as her husband in his life-time
made it, and he did often declare to her his expecting
L500, and that we could not deny it him for his pains
in that business, and that he hath left her worth
nothing of his own in the world, and that therefore
she could pay nothing of it, come what will come, but
that he hath left her a beggar, which I am sorry truly
for, though it is a just judgment upon people that
do live so much beyond themselves in housekeeping
and vanity, as they did. I did give her little
answer, but generally words that might not trouble
her, and so to dinner, and after dinner Sir W. Pen
and I away by water to White Hall, and there did attend
the Duke of York, and he did carry us to the King’s
lodgings: but he was asleep in his closet; so
we stayed in the Green-Roome, where the Duke of York
did tell us what rules he had, of knowing the weather,
and did now tell us we should have rain before to-morrow,
it having been a dry season for some time, and so
it did rain all night almost; and pretty rules he
hath, and told Brouncker and me some of them, which
were such as no reason seems ready to be given.
By and by the King comes out, and he did easily agree
to what we moved, and would have the Commissioners
of the Navy to meet us with him to-morrow morning:
and then to talk of other things; about the Quakers
not swearing, and how they do swear in the business
of a late election of a Knight of the Shire of Hartfordshire
in behalf of one they have a mind to have; and how
my Lord of Pembroke says he hath heard him (the Quaker)
at the tennis-court swear to himself when he loses:
and told us what pretty notions my Lord Pembroke hath
of the first chapter of Genesis, how Adam’s
sin was not the sucking (which he did before) but the
swallowing of the apple, by which the contrary elements
begun to work in him, and to stir up these passions,
and a great deal of such fooleries, which the King
made mighty mockery at. Thence my Lord Brouncker
and I into the Park in his coach, and there took a
great deal of ayre, saving that it was mighty dusty,
and so a little unpleasant. Thence to Common
Garden with my Lord, and there I took a hackney and
home, and after having done a few letters at the office,
I home to a little supper and so to bed, my eyes being
every day more and more weak and apt to be tired.
5th (Lord’s day). Up, and to my chamber, and there to the writing fair some of my late musique notions, and so to church, where I have not been a good while, and thence home, and dined at home, with W. Hewer with me; and after dinner, he and I a great deal of good talk touching this Office, how it is spoiled by having so many persons in it, and so much work that is not made the work of any one man, but of all, and so is never done; and that the best way