dy, did not appear. I made as much of them as
I could such ordinary company; and yet my heart was glad to see them,
though their condition was a little below my present state, to be
familiar with. She tells me how the lifeguard, which we thought a little
while since was sent down into the country about some insurrection,
was sent to Winchcombe, to spoil the tobacco there, which it seems the
people there do plant contrary to law, and have always done, and still
been under force and danger of having it spoiled, as it hath been
oftentimes, and yet they will continue to plant it.

[Winchcombe St. Peter, a market-town in Gloucestershire. Tobacco
was first cultivated in this parish, after its introduction into
England, in 1583, and it proved, a considerable source of profit to
the inhabitants, till the trade was placed under restrictions. The
cultivation was first prohibited during the Commonwealth, and
various acts were passed in the reign of Charles II. for the same
purpose. Among the king's pamphlets in the British Museum is a
tract entitled "Harry Hangman's Honour, or Glostershire Hangman's
Request to the Smokers and Tobacconists of London," dated June 11th,
1655. The author writes: "The very planting of tobacco hath proved
the decay of my trade, for since it hath been planted in
Glostershire, especially at Winchcomb, my trade hath proved nothing
worth." He adds: "Then 'twas a merry world with me, for indeed
before tobacco was there planted, there being no kind of trade to
employ men, and very small tillage, necessity compelled poor men to
stand my friends by stealing of sheep and other cattel, breaking of
hedges, robbing of orchards, and what not."]

The place, she says, is a miserable poor place. They gone, I to the
office, where all the afternoon very busy, and at night, when my eyes
were weary of the light, I and my wife to walk in the garden, and then
home to supper and pipe, and then to bed.

20th. At the office doing business all the morning. At noon expected
Creed to have come to dine with me and brought Mr. Sheres (the gentleman
lately come from my Lord Sandwich) with him; but they come not, so
there was a good dinner lost. After dinner my wife and Jane about some
business of hers abroad, and then I to the office, where, having done
my business, I out to pay some debts: among others to the taverne at the
end of Billiter La