[Principal officers of the navy, of which body Pepys was one as
     Clerk of the Acts.]

After sermon took him to Mr. Tippets’s to drink a glass of wine, and so at 4 back again by coach to Portsmouth, and then visited the Mayor, Mr. Timbrell, our anchor-smith, who showed us the present they have for the Queen; which is a salt-sellar of silver, the walls christall, with four eagles and four greyhounds standing up at the top to bear up a dish; which indeed is one of the neatest pieces of plate that ever I saw, and the case is very pretty also.

     [A salt-cellar answering this description is preserved at the
     Tower.]

This evening came a merchantman in the harbour, which we hired at London to carry horses to Portugall; but, Lord! what running there was to the seaside to hear what news, thinking it had come from the Queen.  In the evening Sir George, Sir W. Pen and I walked round the walls, and thence we two with the Doctor to the yard, and so to supper and to bed.

28th.  The Doctor and I begun philosophy discourse exceeding pleasant.  He offers to bring me into the college of virtuosoes—­[The Royal Society.]—­and my Lord Brouncker’s acquaintance, and to show me some anatomy, which makes me very glad; and I shall endeavour it when I come to London.  Sir W. Pen much troubled upon letters came last night.  Showed me one of Dr. Owen’s

     [John Owen, D.D., a learned Nonconformist divine, and a voluminous
     theological writer, born 1616, made Dean of Christ Church in 1653 by
     the Parliament, and ejected in 1659-60.  He died at Ealing in 1683.]

to his son,—­[William Penn, the celebrated Quaker.]—­whereby it appears his son is much perverted in his opinion by him; which I now perceive is one thing that hath put Sir William so long off the hooks.  By coach to the Pay-house, and so to work again, and then to dinner, and to it again, and so in the evening to the yard, and supper and bed.

29th.  At the pay all the morning, and so to dinner; and then to it again in the afternoon, and after our work was done, Sir G. Carteret, Sir W. Pen and I walked forth, and I spied Mrs. Pierce and another lady passing by.  So I left them and went to the ladies, and walked with them up and down, and took them to Mrs. Stephens, and there gave them wine and sweetmeats, and were very merry; and then comes the Doctor, and we carried them by coach to their lodging, which was very poor, but the best they could get, and such as made much mirth among us.  So I appointed one to watch when the gates of the town were ready to be shut, and to give us notice; and so the Doctor and I staid with them playing and laughing, and at last were forced to bid good night for fear of being locked into the town all night.  So we walked to the yard, designing how to prevent our going to London tomorrow, that we might be merry with these ladies, which I did.  So to supper and merrily to bed.