pe it will take, for it is the prettiest dog that
ever I saw. So to the office, where very busy all the morning, and so to
the 'Change, and off hence with Sir W. Rider to the Trinity House, and
there dined very well: and good discourse among the old men of Islands
now and then rising and falling again in the Sea, and that there is many
dangers of grounds and rocks that come just up to the edge almost of
the sea, that is never discovered and ships perish without the world's
knowing the reason of it. Among other things, they observed, that there
are but two seamen in the Parliament house, viz., Sir W. Batten and Sir
W. Pen, and not above twenty or thirty merchants; which is a strange
thing in an island, and no wonder that things of trade go no better nor
are better understood. Thence home, and all the afternoon at the office,
only for an hour in the evening my Lady Jemimah, Paulina, and Madam
Pickering come to see us, but my wife would not be seen, being unready.
Very merry with them; they mightily talking of their thrifty living
for a fortnight before their mother came to town, and other such simple
talk, and of their merry life at Brampton, at my father's, this winter.
So they being gone, to the office again till late, and so home and to
supper and to bed.

24th. Called up by my father, poor man, coming to advise with me about
Tom's house and other matters, and he being gone I down by water to
Greenwich, it being very-foggy, and I walked very finely to Woolwich,
and there did very much business at both yards, and thence walked
back, Captain Grove with me talking, and so to Deptford and did the
like-there, and then walked to Redriffe (calling and eating a bit of
collops and eggs at Half-way house), and so home to the office, where we
sat late, and home weary to supper and to bed.

25th (Lady-day). Up and by water to White Hall, and there to chappell;
where it was most infinite full to hear Dr. Critton. Being not knowne,
some great persons in the pew I pretended to, and went in, did question
my coming in. I told them my pretence; so they turned to the orders of
the chappell, which hung behind upon the wall, and read it; and were
satisfied; but they did not demand whether I was in waiting or no; and
so I was in some fear lest he that was in waiting might come and
betray me. The Doctor preached upon the thirty-first of Jeremy, and the
twenty-first and twenty-second verses, about a woman compassing a man;
meaning the Virgin