27th November. I went to see Sir John Stonehouse, with whom I was treating a marriage between my son and his daughter-in-law.1

2

28th. Came over the Duke of Monmouth from Holland unexpectedly to his Majesty; whilst the Duke of York was on his journey to Scotland, whither the King sent him to reside and govern. The bells and bonfires of the City at this arrival of the Duke of Monmouth publishing their joy, to the no small regret of some at Court. This Duke, whom for distinction they called the Protestant Duke (though the son of an abandoned woman), the people made their idol.

3

4th December. I dined, together with Lord Ossory and the Earl of Chesterfield, at the Portugal Ambassador's, now newly come, at Cleveland House, a noble palace, too good for that infamous. The staircase is sumptuous, and the gallery and garden; but, above all, the costly furniture belonging to the Ambassador, especially the rich Japan cabinets, of which I think there were a dozen. There was a billiard-table, with as many more hazards as ours commonly have; the game being only to prosecute the ball till hazarded, without passing the port, or touching the pin; if one miss hitting the ball every time, the game is lost, or if hazarded. It is more difficult to hazard a ball, though so many, than in our table, by reason the bound is made so exactly even, and the edges not stuffed; the balls are also bigger, and they for the most part use the sharp and small end of the billiard-stick, which is shod with brass, or silver. The entertainment was exceeding civil; but, besides a good olio, the dishes were trifling, hashed and condited after their way, not at all fit for an

1 [Martha Spencer (see infra, p. 43).]

2 [As Lord High Commissioner. He went in September.] 3 [See ante, vol. ii. p. 266.]

English stomach, which is for solid meat. There was yet good fowls, but roasted to coal, nor were the sweetmeats good.

30th December. I went to meet Sir John Stonehouse, and give him a particular of the settlement on my son, who now made his addresses to the young lady his daughter-in-law, daughter of Lady Stonehouse.

1679-80: 25th January. Dr. Cave, author of Primitive Christianity, etc., a pious and learned man,' preached at Whitehall to the household, on James iii. 17, concerning the duty of grace and charity.

30th. I supped with Sir Stephen Fox, now made one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury.

19th February. The writings for the settling jointure and other contracts of marriage of my son were finished and sealed. The lady was to bring £5000, in consideration of a settlement of £500 a-year present maintenance, which was likewise to be her jointure, and £500 a-year after mine and my wife's decease. But, with God's blessing, it will be at the least £1000 a-year more in a few years. I pray God make him worthy of it, and a comfort to his excellent mother, who deserves much from him!

21st. Shrove Tuesday. My son was married to Mrs. Martha Spencer, daughter to my Lady Stonehouse by a former gentleman, at St. Andrew's, Holborn, by our Vicar, borrowing the church of Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's, the present incumbent. We afterwards dined at a house in Holborn; and, after the solemnity and dancing was done, they were bedded at Sir John Stonehouse's lodgings in Bow Street, Covent Garden.

1 Dr. William Cave, 1637-1713, Vicar of Islington, author also of Lives of the Apostles and Martyrs, and Historia Literaria.

26th February. To the Royal Society, where I met an Irish Bishop with his Lady,' who was daughter to my worthy and pious friend, Dr. Jeremy Taylor, late Bishop of Down and Connor; they came to see the Repository. She seemed to be a knowing woman, beyond the ordinary talent

of her sex.

3rd March. I dined at my Lord Mayor's, in order to the meeting of my Lady Beckford, whose daughter (a rich heiress) I had recommended to my brother of Wotton for his only son, she being the daughter of the lady by Mr. Eversfield, a Sussex gentleman.

2

16th. To London, to receive £3000 of my daughter-in-law's portion, which was paid in gold.

26th. The Dean of Sarum preached on Jerem. xlv. 5, an hour and a half from his common-place book, of kings and great men retiring to private situations. Scarce anything of Scripture in it.

18th April. On the earnest invitation of the Earl of Essex, I went with him to his house at Cashiobury, in Hertfordshire. It was on Sunday, but going early from his house in the square of St. James, we arrived by ten o'clock; this he thought too late to go to church, and we had prayers in his

5

1 [Francis Marsh, 1627-93, at this date Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, and eventually Archbishop of Dublin. His wife was Jeremy Taylor's second daughter, Mary. Taylor died in 1667.]

2

[John Evelyn of Wotton, d. 1691, aged thirty-eight (see post, under 10th February, 1681).]

3 [Dr. Thomas Pierce (see ante, vol. ii. p. 116).]

4 [Cassiobury (or Cashiobury) Park, near Watford, Herts, still the seat of the Essex family. Hugh May's house, visited by Evelyn, was erected by Arthur Capel, first Earl of Essex, 1631-83, after his return from Ireland in 1677. It was pulled down in 1800; and a new Gothic mansion, from the designs of James Wyatt, erected in its place. There is a sumptuous volume by John Britton on Cassiobury.]

5

[On the north side of the Square.]