He answered, he would not force them; but that they should come to the Council of State, to give a reason why they would not.  Another rule is a proverb that he hath been taught, which is that a man that cannot sit still in his chamber (the reason of which I did not understand him), and he that cannot say no (that is, that is of so good a nature that he cannot deny any thing, or cross another in doing any thing), is not fit for business.  The last of which is a very great fault of mine, which I must amend in.  Thence by boat; I being hot, he put the skirt of his cloak about me; and it being rough, he told me the passage of a Frenchman through London Bridge, where, when he saw the great fall, he begun to cross himself and say his prayers in the greatest fear in the world, and soon as he was over, he swore “Morbleu! c’est le plus grand plaisir du monde,” being the most like a French humour in the world.

[When the first editions of this Diary were printed no note was required here.  Before the erection of the present London Bridge the fall of water at the ebb tide was great, and to pass at that time was called “Shooting the bridge”.  It was very hazardous for small boats.  The ancient mode, even in Henry viii.’s time, of going to the Tower and Greenwich, was to land at the Three Cranes, in Upper Thames Street, suffer the barges to shoot the bridge, and to enter them again at Billingsgate.  See Cavendish’s “Wolsey,” p. 40, ed. 1852]

To Deptford, and there surprised the Yard, and called them to a muster, and discovered many abuses, which we shall be able to understand hereafter and amend.  Thence walked to Redriffe, and so to London Bridge, where I parted with him, and walked home and did a little business, and to supper and to bed.

9th.  Up by four o’clock or a little after, and to my office, whither by and by comes Cooper, to whom I told my getting for him the Reserve, for which he was very thankful, and fell to work upon our modell, and did a good morning’s work upon the rigging, and am very sorry that I must lose him so soon.  By and by comes Mr. Coventry, and he and I alone sat at the office all the morning upon business.  And so to dinner to Trinity House, and thence by his coach towards White Hall; but there being a stop at the Savoy, we ’light and took water, and my Lord Sandwich being out of town, we parted there, all the way having good discourse, and in short I find him the most ingenuous person I ever found in my life, and am happy in his acquaintance and my interest in him.  Home by water, and did business at my office.  Writing a letter to my brother John to dissuade him from being Moderator of his year, which I hear is proffered him, of which I am very glad.  By and by comes Cooper, and he and I by candlelight at my modell, being willing to learn as much of him as is possible before he goes.  So home and to bed.