; and, to that purpose, I pray you would quickly pass such laws
as are before you, in order to the amending those ways, and that she
may not find Whitehall surrounded with water." Such a bill passed
the Commons on the 24th June. From Charles's Speech, March 1st,
1662.--B.]

But he, I hear since, was forced to stay till almost nine o'clock at
night before he could have done, and then he prorogued them; and so
to Gilford, and lay there. Home, and Mr. Hunt dined with me, and were
merry. After dinner Sir W. Pen and his daughter, and I and my wife by
coach to the Theatre, and there in a box saw "The Little Thief" well
done. Thence to Moorefields, and walked and eat some cheesecake and
gammon of bacon, but when I was come home I was sick, forced to vomit it
up again. So my wife walking and singing upon the leads till very late,
it being pleasant and moonshine, and so to bed.

10th. Sir W. Pen and I did a little business at the office, and so home
again. Then comes Dean Fuller after we had dined, but I got something
for him, and very merry we were for an hour or two, and I am most
pleased with his company and goodness. At last parted, and my wife and
I by coach to the Opera, and there saw the 2nd part of "The Siege of
Rhodes," but it is not so well done as when Roxalana was there, who, it
is said, is now owned by my Lord of Oxford.

[For note on Mrs. Davenport, who was deceived by a pretended
marriage with the Earl of Oxford, see ante. Lord Oxford's first
wife died in 1659. He married, in 1672, his second wife, Diana
Kirke, of whom nothing more need be said than that she bore an
inappropriate Christian name.]

Thence to Tower-wharf, and there took boat, and we all walked to
Halfeway House, and there eat and drank, and were pleasant, and so
finally home again in the evening, end so good night, this being a very
pleasant life that we now lead, and have long done; the Lord be blessed,
and make us thankful. But, though I am much against too much spending,
yet I do think it best to enjoy some degree of pleasure now that we have
health, money, and opportunity, rather than to leave pleasures to old
age or poverty, when we cannot have them so properly.

21st. My wife and I by water to Westminster, and after she had seen her
father (of whom lately I have heard nothing at all what he does or her
mother), she comes to me to my Lord's lodgings, where she and I staid
walking in White Ha