or of the
Exchequer; where we met the auditors about settling the business of the
accounts of persons to whom money is due before the King's time in the
Navy, and the clearing of their imprests for what little of their debts
they have received. I find my Lord, as he is reported, a very ready,
quick, and diligent person. Thence I to Westminster Hall, where Term and
Parliament make the Hall full of people; no further news yet of the King
of France, whether he be dead or not. Here I met with my cozen Roger
Pepys, and walked a good while with him, and among other discourse as a
secret he hath committed to nobody but myself, and he tells me that his
sister Claxton now resolving to give over the keeping of his house at
Impington, he thinks it fit to marry again, and would have me, by the
help of my uncle Wight or others, to look him out a widow between thirty
and forty years old, without children, and with a fortune, which he will
answer in any degree with a joynture fit for her fortune. A woman sober,
and no high-flyer, as he calls it. I demanded his estate. He tells me,
which he says also he hath not done to any, that his estate is not full
L800 per annum, but it is L780 per annum, of which L200 is by the death
of his last wife, which he will allot for a joynture for a wife, but the
rest, which lies in Cambridgeshire, he is resolved to leave entire for
his eldest son. I undertook to do what I can in it, and so I shall. He
tells me that the King hath sent to them to hasten to make an end by
midsummer, because of his going into the country; so they have set upon
four bills to dispatch: the first of which is, he says, too devilish a
severe act against conventicles; so beyond all moderation, that he is
afeard it will ruin all: telling me that it is matter of the greatest
grief to him in the world, that he should be put upon this trust of
being a Parliament-man, because he says nothing is done, that he can
see, out of any truth and sincerity, but mere envy and design. Thence
by water to Chelsey, all the way reading a little book I bought of
"Improvement of Trade," a pretty book and many things useful in it. So
walked to Little Chelsey, where I found my Lord Sandwich with Mr. Becke,
the master of the house, and Mr. Creed at dinner, and I sat down with
them, and very merry. After dinner (Mr. Gibbons being come in also
before dinner done) to musique, they played a good Fancy, to which my
Lord is fallen again, and says he cannot endur