I to my barber's again, and did meet in the street my
Jane, but could not talk with her, but only a word or two, and so by
coach called my wife, and home, where at my office late, and then, it
being washing day, to supper and to bed.

8th. Up and to the office, where by and by Mr. Coventry come, and after
doing a little business, took his leave of us, being to go to sea with
the Duke to-morrow. At noon, I and Sir J. Minnes and Lord Barkeley (who
with Sir J. Duncum, and Mr. Chichly, are made Masters of the Ordnance),
to the office of the Ordnance, to discourse about wadding for guns.
Thence to dinner, all of us to the Lieutenant's of the Tower; where a
good dinner, but disturbed in the middle of it by the King's coming
into the Tower: and so we broke up, and to him, and went up and down
the store-houses and magazines; which are, with the addition of the
new great store-house, a noble sight. He gone, I to my office, where
Bagwell's wife staid for me, and together with her a good while, to meet
again shortly. So all the afternoon at my office till late, and then to
bed, joyed in my love and ability to follow my business. This day, Mr.
Lever sent my wife a pair of silver candlesticks, very pretty ones. The
first man that ever presented me, to whom I have not only done little
service, but apparently did him the greatest disservice in his business
of accounts, as Purser-Generall, of any man at the board.

9th. Called up, as I had appointed, by H. Russell, between two and three
o'clock, and I and my boy Tom by water with a gally down to the Hope, it
being a fine starry night. Got thither by eight o'clock, and there, as
expected, found the Charles, her mainmast setting. Commissioner Pett
aboard. I up and down to see the ship I was so well acquainted with,
and a great worke it is, the setting so great a mast. Thence the
Commissioner and I on board Sir G. Ascue, in the Henery, who lacks men
mightily, which makes me think that there is more believed to be in
a man that hath heretofore been employed than truly there is; for one
would never have thought, a month ago, that he would have wanted 1000
men at his heels. Nor do I think he hath much of a seaman in him: for
he told me, says he, "Heretofore, we used to find our ships clear and
ready, everything to our hands in the Downes. Now I come, and must look
to see things done like a slave, things that I never minded, nor
cannot look after." And by his discourse I find that he hath no