able fact is confirmed by Evelyn, in a letter to Sir
Samuel Tuke, September 27th, 1666. See "Correspondence," vol.
iii., p. 345, edit. 1879.]

After dinner I to the King's playhouse, my eyes being so bad since last
night's straining of them, that I am hardly able to see, besides the
pain which I have in them. The play was a new play; and infinitely full:
the King and all the Court almost there. It is "The Storme," a play
of Fletcher's;' which is but so-so, methinks; only there is a most
admirable dance at the end, of the ladies, in a military manner, which
indeed did please me mightily. So, it being a mighty wet day and night,
I with much ado got a coach, and, with twenty stops which he made, I got
him to carry me quite through, and paid dear for it, and so home, and
there comes my wife home from the Duke of York's playhouse, where she
hath been with my aunt and Kate Joyce, and so to supper, and betimes to
bed, to make amends for my last night's work and want of sleep.

26th. Up, and to my chamber, whither Jonas Moore comes, and, among other
things, after our business done, discoursing of matters of the office,
I shewed him my varnished things, which he says he can outdo much, and
tells me the mighty use of Napier's bones;

[John Napier or Neper (1550-1617), laird of Merchiston (now
swallowed up in the enlarged Edinburgh of to-day, although the old
castle still stands), and the inventor of logarithms. He published
his "Rabdologiae seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo" in 1617,
and the work was reprinted and translated into Italian (1623) and
Dutch (1626). In 1667 William Leybourn published "The Art of
Numbering by Speaking Rods, vulgarly termed Napier's Bones."]

so that I will have a pair presently. To the office, where busy all
the morning sitting, and at noon home to dinner, and then with my wife
abroad to the King's playhouse, to shew her yesterday's new play, which
I like as I did yesterday, the principal thing extraordinary being the
dance, which is very good. So to Charing Cross by coach, about my wife's
business, and then home round by London Wall, it being very dark and
dirty, and so to supper, and, for the ease of my eyes, to bed, having
first ended all my letters at the office.

27th. Up, and to the office, where very busy all the morning. While I
was busy at the Office, my wife sends for me to come home, and what was
it but to see the pretty girl which s