odgings at
Whitehall. My dear friend Mr. Fuller of Twickenham and I dined alone at
the Sun Tavern, where he told me how he had the grant of being Dean
of St. Patrick's, in Ireland; and I told him my condition, and both
rejoiced one for another. Thence to my Lord's, and had the great coach
to Brigham's, who went with me to the Half Moon, and gave me a can of
good julep, and told me how my Lady Monk deals with him and others
for their places, asking him L500, though he was formerly the King's
coach-maker, and sworn to it. My Lord abroad, and I to my house and
set things in a little order there. So with Mr. Moore to my father's, I
staying with Mrs. Turner who stood at her door as I passed. Among other
things she told me for certain how my old Lady Middlesex----herself the
other day in the presence of the King, and people took notice of it.
Thence called at my father's, and so to Mr. Crew's, where Mr. Hetley had
sent a letter for me, and two pair of silk stockings, one for W. Howe,
and the other for me. To Sir H. Wright's to my Lord, where he, was, and
took direction about business, and so by link home about 11 o'clock. To
bed, the first time since my coming from sea, in my own house, for which
God be praised.

23d. By water with Mr. Hill towards my Lord's lodging and so to my
Lord. With him to Whitehall, where I left him and went to Mr. Holmes to
deliver him the horse of Dixwell's that had staid there fourteen days at
the Bell. So to my Lord's lodgings, where Tom Guy came to me, and there
staid to see the King touch people for the King's evil. But he did not
come at all, it rayned so; and the poor people were forced to stand all
the morning in the rain in the garden. Afterward he touched them in the
Banquetting-house.

[This ceremony is usually traced to Edward the Confessor, but there
is no direct evidence of the early Norman kings having touched for
the evil. Sir John Fortescue, in his defence of the House of
Lancaster against that of York, argued that the crown could not
descend to a female, because the Queen is not qualified by the form
of anointing her, used at the coronation, to cure the disease called
the King's evil. Burn asserts, "History of Parish Registers," 1862,
p. 179, that "between 1660 and 1682, 92,107 persons were touched for
the evil." Everyone coming to the court for that purpose, brought a
certificate signed by the minister and churchwardens, that he