who is our kinsman, and we had
much discourse of Cottenhamshire, and other things with great pleasure.
My cozen Roger did tell me of a bargain which I may now have in
Norfolke, that my she-cozen, Nan Pepys, is going to sell, the title
whereof is very good, and the pennyworth is also good enough; but it is
out of the way so of my life, that I shall never enjoy it, nor, it may
be, see it, and so I shall have nothing to do with it. After dinner to
talk, and I find by discourse Mr. Turner to be a man mighty well read in
the Roman history, which is very pleasant. By and by Roger went, and
Mr. Turner spent an hour talking over my Lord Sandwich's condition as
to this Parliament, which we fear may be bad, and the condition of
his family, which can be no better, and then having little to comfort
ourselves but that this humour will not last always in the Parliament,
and that [it] may well have a great many more as great men as he
enquired into, and so we parted, and I to my chamber, and there busy all
the evening, and then my wife and I to supper, and so to bed, with much
discourse and pleasure one with another.

4th. Up betimes, and by water with Sir R. Ford (who is going to
Parliament) to Westminster; and there landing at the New Exchange
stairs, I to Sir W. Coventry: and there he read over to me the Prince's
and the Duke of Albemarle's Narratives; wherein they are very severe
against him and our Office. But [Sir] W. Coventry do contemn them; only
that their persons and qualities are great, and so I do perceive [he] is
afeard of them, though he will not confess it. But he do say that, if he
can get out of these briars, he will never trouble himself with Princes
nor Dukes again. He finds several things in their Narratives, which are
both inconsistent and foolish, as well as untrue, especially as to what
the Duke of Albemarle avers of his knowing of the enemy's being abroad
sooner than he says it, which [Sir] W. Coventry will shew him his own
letter against him, for I confess I do see so much, that, were I but
well possessed of what I should have in the world, I think I could
willingly retreat, and trouble myself no more with it. Thence home, and
there met Sir H. Cholmly, and he and I to the Excise Office to see what
tallies are paying, and thence back to the Old Exchange, by the way
talking of news, and he owning Sir W. Coventry, in his opinion, to be
one of the worthiest men in the nation, as I do really think he is. He
tells m