all this night
before the King. All the way he talking very ingenuously, and I find
him a fine gentleman, and one that loves to live nobly and neatly, as I
perceive by his discourse of his house, pictures, and horses. He brought
me first to the Duke's chamber, where I saw him and the Duchess at
supper; and thence into the room where the ball was to be, crammed with
fine ladies, the greatest of the Court. By and by comes the King and
Queen, the Duke and Duchess, and all the great ones: and after seating
themselves, the King takes out the Duchess of York; and the Duke, the
Duchess of Buckingham; the Duke of Monmouth, my Lady Castlemaine; and so
other lords other ladies: and they danced the Bransle.

"Branle. Espece de danse de plusieurs personnes, qui se tiennent
par la main, et qui se menent tour-a-tour. "Dictionnaire de
l'Academie. A country dance mentioned by Shakespeare and other
dramatists under the form of brawl, which word continued to be used
in the eighteenth century.

"My grave Lord Keeper led the brawls;
The seals and maces danced before him."
Gray, 'A Long Story.'

After that, the King led a lady a single Coranto--[swift and
lively]--and then the rest of the lords, one after another, other ladies
very noble it was, and great pleasure to see. Then to country dances;
the King leading the first, which he called for; which was, says he,
"Cuckolds all awry," the old dance of England. Of the ladies that
danced, the Duke of Monmouth's mistress, and my Lady Castlemaine, and
a daughter of Sir Harry de Vicke's, were the best. The manner was, when
the King dances, all the ladies in the room, and the Queen herself,
stand up: and indeed he dances rarely, and much better that the Duke
of York. Having staid here as long as I thought fit, to my infinite
content, it being the greatest pleasure I could wish now to see at
Court, I went out, leaving them dancing, and to Mrs. Pierces, where I
found the company had staid very long for my coming, but all gone but my
wife, and so I took her home by coach and so to my Lord's again, where
after some supper to bed, very weary and in a little pain from my riding
a little uneasily to-night in the coach.

Thus ends this year with great mirth to me and my wife: Our condition
being thus:--we are at present spending a night or two at my Lord's
lodgings at White Hall. Our home at