[Winchcombe St. Peter, a market-town in Gloucestershire.  Tobacco was first cultivated in this parish, after its introduction into England, in 1583, and it proved, a considerable source of profit to the inhabitants, till the trade was placed under restrictions.  The cultivation was first prohibited during the Commonwealth, and various acts were passed in the reign of Charles ii. for the same purpose.  Among the king’s pamphlets in the British Museum is a tract entitled “Harry Hangman’s Honour, or Glostershire Hangman’s Request to the Smokers and Tobacconists of London,” dated June 11th, 1655.  The author writes:  “The very planting of tobacco hath proved the decay of my trade, for since it hath been planted in Glostershire, especially at Winchcomb, my trade hath proved nothing worth.”  He adds:  “Then ’twas a merry world with me, for indeed before tobacco was there planted, there being no kind of trade to employ men, and very small tillage, necessity compelled poor men to stand my friends by stealing of sheep and other cattel, breaking of hedges, robbing of orchards, and what not.”]

The place, she says, is a miserable poor place.  They gone, I to the office, where all the afternoon very busy, and at night, when my eyes were weary of the light, I and my wife to walk in the garden, and then home to supper and pipe, and then to bed.

20th.  At the office doing business all the morning.  At noon expected Creed to have come to dine with me and brought Mr. Sheres (the gentleman lately come from my Lord Sandwich) with him; but they come not, so there was a good dinner lost.  After dinner my wife and Jane about some business of hers abroad, and then I to the office, where, having done my business, I out to pay some debts:  among others to the taverne at the end of Billiter Lane, where my design was to see the pretty mistress of the house, which I did, and indeed is, as I always thought, one of the modestest, prettiest, plain women that ever I saw.  Thence was met in the street by Sir W. Pen, and he and I by coach to the King’s playhouse, and there saw “The Mad Couple,” which I do not remember that I have seen; it is a pretty pleasant play.  Thence home, and my wife and I to walk in the garden, she having been at the same play with Jane, in the 18d. seat, to shew Jane the play, and so home to supper and to bed.

21st.  All the morning at the office, dined at home, and expected Sheres again, but he did not come, so another dinner lost by the folly of Creed.  After having done some business at the office, I out with my wife to Sheres’s lodging and left an invitation for him to dine with me tomorrow, and so back and took up my wife at the Exchange, and then kissed Mrs. Smith’s pretty hand, and so with my wife by coach to take some ayre (but the way very dirty) as far as Bow, and so drinking (as usual) at Mile End of Byde’s ale, we home and there busy at my letters till late, and so to walk by moonshine with my wife, and so to bed.  The King, Duke of York, and the men of the Court, have been these four or five days a-hunting at Bagshot.