My wife not
very well of those.

23rd. Up, and Sir W. Pen and I in his coach to White Hall, there to
attend the Duke of York; but come a little too late, and so missed it:
only spoke with him, and heard him correct my Lord Barkeley, who fell foul
on Sir Edward Spragg, who, it seems, said yesterday to the House, that if
the Officers of the Ordnance had done as much work at Shereness in ten
weeks as "The Prince" did in ten days, he could have defended the place
against the Dutch: but the Duke of York told him that every body must have
liberty, at this time, to make their own defence, though it be to the
charging of the fault upon any other, so it be true; so I perceive the
whole world is at work in blaming one another. Thence Sir W. Pen and I
back into London; and there saw the King, with his kettle-drums and
trumpets, going to the Exchange, to lay the first stone of the first
pillar of the new building of the Exchange; which, the gates being shut, I
could not get in to see: but, with Sir W. Pen, to Captain Cocke's to drink
a dram of brandy, and so he to the Treasury office about Sir G. Carteret's
accounts, and I took coach and back again toward Westminster; but in my
way stopped at the Exchange, and got in, the King being newly gone; and
there find the bottom of the first pillar laid. And here was a shed set
up, and hung with tapestry, and a canopy of state, and some good victuals
and wine, for the King, who, it seems, did it; and so a great many people,
as Tom Killigrew, and others of the Court there, and there I did eat a
mouthful and drink a little, and do find Mr. Gawden in his gowne as
Sheriffe, and understand that the King hath this morning knighted him upon
the place, which I am mightily pleased with; and I think the other
Sheriffe, who is Davis, the little fellow, my schoolfellow,--the
bookseller, who was one of Audley's' Executors, and now become Sheriffe;
which is a strange turn, methinks. Here mighty merry (there being a good
deal of good company) for a quarter of an hour, and so I away and to
Westminster Hall, where I come just as the House rose; and there, in the
Hall, met with Sir W. Coventry, who is in pain to defend himself in the
business of tickets, it being said that the paying of the ships at Chatham
by ticket was by his direction, and he hath wrote to me to find his
letters, and shew them him, but I find none; but did there argue the case
with him, and I think no great blame can be laid on us for