son to keep his ship in employment, but
so false a fellow as Sir W. Pen is I never did nor hope shall ever know
again. So to the office, and there did business, till dinnertime, and
then home to dinner, wife and I alone, and then down to the Old Swan,
and drank with Betty and her husband, but no opportunity para baiser la.
So to White Hall to the Council chamber, where I find no Council held
till after the holidays. So to Westminster Hall, and there bought a pair
of snuffers, and saw Mrs. Howlett after her sickness come to the Hall
again. So by coach to the New Exchange and Mercer's and other places to
take up bills for what I owe them, and to Mrs. Pierce, to invite her to
dinner with us on Monday, but staid not with her. In the street met with
Mr. Sanchy, my old acquaintance at Cambridge, reckoned a great minister
here in the City; and by Sir Richard Ford particularly, which I wonder
at; for methinks, in his talk, he is but a mean man. I set him down in
Holborne, and I to the Old Exchange, and there to Sir Robert Viner's,
and made up my accounts there, to my great content; but I find they do
not keep them so regularly as, to be able to do it easily, and truly,
and readily, nor would it have been easily stated by any body on my
behalf but myself, several things being to be recalled to memory, which
nobody else could have done, and therefore it is fully necessary for me
to even accounts with these people as often as I can. So to the 'Change,
and there met with Mr. James Houblon, but no hopes, as he sees, of peace
whatever we pretend, but we shall be abused by the King of France. Then
home to the office, and busy late, and then to Sir W. Batten's, where
Mr. Young was talking about the building of the City again; and he told
me that those few churches that are to be new built are plainly not
chosen with regard to the convenience of the City; they stand a great
many in a cluster about Cornhill; but that all of them are either in the
gift of the Lord Archbishop, or Bishop of London, or Lord Chancellor, or
gift of the City. Thus all things, even to the building of churches, are
done in this world! And then he says, which I wonder at, that I should
not in all this time see, that Moorefields have houses two stories high
in them, and paved streets, the City having let leases for seven years,
which he do conclude will be very much to the hindering the building of
the City; but it was considered that the streets cannot be passable i