13th.  A sitting day at our office.  After dinner to Whitehall; to the Privy Seal, whither my father came to me, and staid talking with me a great while, telling me that he had propounded Mr. John Pickering for Sir Thomas Honywood’s daughter, which I think he do not deserve for his own merit:  I know not what he may do for his estate.  My father and Creed and I to the old Rhenish Winehouse, and talked and drank till night.  Then my father home, and I to my Lord’s; where he told me that he would suddenly go into the country, and so did commend the business of his sea commission to me in his absence.  After that home by coach, and took my L100 that I had formerly left at Mr. Rawlinson’s, home with me, which is the first that ever I was master of at once.  To prayers, and to bed.

14th.  To the Privy Seal, and thence to my Lord’s, where Mr. Pim, the tailor, and I agreed upon making me a velvet coat.  From thence to the Privy Seal again, where Sir Samuel Morland came in with a Baronet’s grant to pass, which the King had given him to make money of.  Here he staid with me a great while; and told me the whole manner of his serving the King in the time of the Protector; and how Thurloe’s bad usage made him to do it; how he discovered Sir R. Willis, and how he hath sunk his fortune for the King; and that now the King hath given him a pension of L500 per annum out of the Post Office for life, and the benefit of two Baronets; all which do make me begin to think that he is not so much a fool as I took him to be.  Home by water to the Tower, where my father, Mr. Fairbrother, and Cooke dined with me.  After dinner in comes young Captain Cuttance of the Speedwell, who is sent up for the gratuity given the seamen that brought the King over.  He brought me a firkin of butter for my wife, which is very welcome.  My father, after dinner, takes leave, after I had given him 40s. for the last half year for my brother John at Cambridge.  I did also make even with Mr. Fairbrother for my degree of Master of Arts, which cost me about L9 16s.  To White Hall, and my wife with me by water, where at the Privy Seal and elsewhere all the afternoon.  At night home with her by water, where I made good sport with having the girl and the boy to comb my head, before I went to bed, in the kitchen.

15th.  To the office, and after dinner by water to White Hall, where I found the King gone this morning by 5 of the clock to see a Dutch pleasure-boat below bridge,

[A yacht which was greatly admired, and was imitated and improved by Commissioner Pett, who built a yacht for the King in 1661, which was called the “Jenny.”  Queen Elizabeth had a yacht, and one was built by Phineas Pett in 1604.]

where he dines, and my Lord with him.  The King do tire all his people that are about him with early rising since he came.  To the office, all the afternoon I staid there, and in the evening went to Westminster Hall, where I staid at Mrs. Michell’s,