., at the new shop over against the
New Exchange; [and the master, who is] come out of London--[To the
Strand.]--since the fire, says his and other tradesmen's retail trade is
so great here, and better than it was in London, that they believe
they shall not return, nor the city be ever so great for retail as
heretofore. So home and to my business, and to bed.

28th (Lord's day). Up, and to church, and then home to dinner, where
Betty Turner, Mercer, and Captain Deane, and after dinner to sing, Mr.
Pelting coming. Then, they gone, Deane and I all the afternoon till
night to talk of navy matters and ships with great pleasure, and so at
night, he gone, I to supper, Pelling coming again and singing a while,
then to bed. Much talk of the French setting out their fleete afresh;
but I hear nothing that our King is alarmed at it, at all, but rather
making his fleete less.

29th. Called up by my Lady Peterborough's servant about some business of
hers, and so to the office. Thence by and by with Sir J. Minnes toward
St. James's, and I stop at Dr. Turberville's, and there did receive a
direction for some physic, and also a glass of something to drop into my
eyes: who gives me hopes that I may do well. Thence to St. James's,
and thence to White Hall, where I find the Duke of York in the
Council-chamber; where the Officers of the Navy were called in about
Navy business, about calling in of more ships; the King of France
having, as the Duke of York says, ordered his fleete to come in,
notwithstanding what he had lately ordered for their staying abroad.
Thence to the Chapel, it being St. Peter's day, and did hear an anthem
of Silas Taylor's making; a dull, old-fashioned thing, of six and seven
parts, that nobody could understand: and the Duke of York, when he come
out, told me that he was a better store-keeper than anthem-maker, and
that was bad enough, too. This morning Mr. May' shewed me the King's
new buildings at White Hall, very fine; and among other things, his
ceilings, and his houses of office. So home to dinner, and then with my
wife to the King's playhouse--"The Mulberry Garden," which she had not
seen. So by coach to Islington, and round by Hackney home with much
pleasure, and to supper and bed.

30th. Up, and at the Office all the morning: then home to dinner, where
a stinking leg of mutton, the weather being very wet and hot to keep
meat in. Then to the Office again, all the afternoon: we met about the
Victualler's new