26th.  Thanks to God I got to bed in my own poor cabin, and slept well till 9 o’clock this morning.  Mr. North and Dr. Clerke and all the great company being gone, I found myself very uncouth all this day for want thereof.  My Lord dined with the Vice-Admiral to-day (who is as officious, poor man! as any spaniel can be; but I believe all to no purpose, for I believe he will not hold his place), so I dined commander at the coach table to-day, and all the officers of the ship with me, and Mr. White of Dover.  After a game or two at nine-pins, to work all the afternoon, making above twenty orders.  In the evening my Lord having been a-shore, the first time that he hath been a-shore since he came out of the Hope (having resolved not to go till he had brought his Majesty into England), returned on board with a great deal of pleasure.  I supped with the Captain in his cabin with young Captain Cuttance, and afterwards a messenger from the King came with a letter, and to go into France, and by that means we supped again with him at 12 o’clock at night.  This night the Captain told me that my Lord had appointed me L30 out of the 1000 ducats which the King had given to the ship, at which my heart was very much joyed.  To bed.

27th (Lord’s day).  Called up by John Goods to see the Garter and Heralds coat, which lay in the coach, brought by Sir Edward Walker,

[Edward Walker was knighted February 2nd, 1644-5, and on the 24th of the same month was sworn in as Garter King at Arms.  He adhered to the cause of the king, and published “Iter Carolinum”, being a succinct account of the necessitated marches, retreats, and sufferings of his Majesty King Charles I., from Jan. 10, 1641, to the time of his death in 1648, collected by a daily attendant upon his sacred Majesty during all that time:  He joined Charles ii. in exile, and received the reward of his loyalty at the Restoration.  He died at Whitehall, February 19th, 1676-7, and was buried at Stratford-on-Avon, his daughter having married Sir John Clepton of that place.]

King at Arms, this morning, for my Lord.  My Lord hath summoned all the Commanders on board him, to see the ceremony, which was thus:  Sir Edward putting on his coat, and having laid the George and Garter, and the King’s letter to my Lord, upon a crimson cushion (in the coach, all the Commanders standing by), makes three congees to him, holding the cushion in his arms.  Then laying it down with the things upon it upon a chair, he takes the letter, and delivers it to my Lord, which my Lord breaks open and gives him to read.  It was directed to our trusty and well beloved Sir Edward Montagu, Knight, one of our Generals at sea, and our Companion elect of our Noble Order of the Garter.  The contents of the letter is to show that the Kings of England have for many years made use of this honour, as a special mark of favour, to persons of good extraction and virtue (and that many Emperors, Kings and Princes