r things till I did
understand measuring of timber and board very well. So to dinner and by
and by, being sent for, comes Mr. Cooper, our officer in the Forest, and
did give me an account of things there, and how the country is backward
to come in with their carts. By and by comes one Mr. Marshall, of whom
the King has many carriages for his timber, and they staid and drank
with me, and while I am here, Sir W. Batten passed by in his coach,
homewards from Colchester, where he had been seeing his son-in-law,
Lemon, that lies a-dying, but I would take no notice of him, but let him
go. By and by I got a horseback again and rode to Barking, and there saw
the place where they ship this timber for Woolwich; and so Deane and I
home again, and parted at Bowe, and I home just before a great showre of
rayne, as God would have it. I find Deane a pretty able man, and able to
do the King service; but, I think, more out of envy to the rest of the
officers of the yard, of whom he complains much, than true love, more
than others, to the service. He would fain seem a modest man, and
yet will commend his own work and skill, and vie with other persons,
especially the Petts, but I let him alone to hear all he will say.
Whiled away the evening at my office trying to repeat the rules of
measuring learnt this day, and so to bed with my mind very well pleased
with this day's work.

19th. Up betimes and to see how my work goes on. Then Mr. Creed came
to me, and he and I walked an hour or two till 8 o'clock in the garden,
speaking of our accounts one with another and then things public. Among
other things he tells me that my Lord has put me into Commission with
himself and many noblemen and others for Tangier, which, if it be, is
not only great honour, but may be of profit too, and I am very glad of
it. By and by to sit at the office; and Mr. Coventry did tell us of
the duell between Mr. Jermyn, nephew to my Lord St. Albans, and Colonel
Giles Rawlins, the latter of whom is killed, and the first mortally
wounded, as it is thought. They fought against Captain Thomas Howard, my
Lord Carlisle's brother, and another unknown; who, they say, had armour
on that they could not be hurt, so that one of their swords went up to
the hilt against it. They had horses ready, and are fled. But what is
most strange, Howard sent one challenge, but they could not meet,
and then another, and did meet yesterday at the old Pall Mall at St.
James's, and would not to the