A little before noon comes
my old good friend, Mr. Richard Cumberland,--[Richard Cumberland,
afterwards Bishop of Peterborough]--to see me, being newly come to town,
whom I have not seen almost, if not quite, these seven years. In his
plain country-parson's dress. I could not spend much time with him,
but prayed him come with his brother, who was with him, to dine with me
to-day; which he did do and I had a great deal of his good company; and
a most excellent person he is as any I know, and one that I am sorry
should be lost and buried in a little country town, and would be glad to
remove him thence; and the truth is, if he would accept of my sister's
fortune, I should give L100 more with him than to a man able to settle
her four times as much as, I fear, he is able to do; and I will think
of it, and a way how to move it, he having in discourse said he was not
against marrying, nor yet engaged. I shewed him my closet, and did give
him some very good musique, Mr. Caesar being here upon his lute. They
gone I to the office, where all the afternoon very busy, and among
other things comes Captain Jenifer to me, a great servant of my Lord
Sandwich's, who tells me that he do hear for certain, though I do not
yet believe it, that Sir W. Coventry is to be Secretary of State, and my
Lord Arlington Lord Treasurer. I only wish that the latter were as fit
for the latter office as the former is for the former, and more fit
than my Lord Arlington. Anon Sir W. Pen come and talked with me in the
garden, and tells me that for certain the Duke of Richmond is to marry
Mrs. Stewart, he having this day brought in an account of his estate
and debts to the King on that account. At night home to supper and so
to bed. My father's letter this day do tell me of his own continued
illness, and that my mother grows so much worse, that he fears she
cannot long continue, which troubles me very much. This day, Mr.
Caesar told me a pretty experiment of his, of angling with a minikin, a
gut-string varnished over, which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond
any hair for strength and smallness. The secret I like mightily.

19th. Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon dined
at home very pleasantly with my wife, and after dinner with a great deal
of pleasure had her sing, which she begins to do with some pleasure
to me, more than I expected. Then to the office again, where all the
afternoon close, and at night home to supper and to bed. I