in his government of the Ocean, all which was
presumption in the highest degree. First, you had upon the fore
part of your chariot, tempestuous waves and wrecks of ships; on your
left hand, forts and great guns, and ships a-fighting; on your right
hand was a fair harbour and galleys riding, with their flags and
pennants spread, kindly saluting each other, just like P[epys] and
H[ewer]. Behind it were high curled waves and ships a-sinking, and
here and there an appearance of some bits of land."]
He gone, my wife and I to supper; and so she to read, and made an end of
the Life of Archbishop Laud, which is worth reading, as informing a
man plainly in the posture of the Church, and how the things of it were
managed with the same self-interest and design that every other thing
is, and have succeeded accordingly. So to bed.
30th. Up betimes, and with W. Hewer, who is my guard, to White Hall, to
a Committee of Tangier, where the business of Mr. Lanyon
[John Lanyon, agent of the Navy Commissioners at Plymouth. The
cause of complaint appears to have been connected with his contract
for Tangier. In 1668 a charge was made against Lanyon and Thomas
Yeabsley that they had defrauded the king in the freighting of the
ship "Tiger" ("Calendar of State Papers," 1668-69, p. 138).]
took up all the morning; and where, poor man! he did manage his business
with so much folly, and ill fortune to boot, that the Board, before his
coming in, inclining, of their own accord, to lay his cause aside, and
leave it to the law, but he pressed that we would hear it, and it ended
to the making him appear a very knave, as well as it did to me a fool
also, which I was sorry for. Thence by water, Mr. Povy, Creed, and I,
to Arundell House, and there I did see them choosing their Council, it
being St. Andrew's-day; and I had his Cross
[The cross of St. Andrew, like that of St. Patrick, is a saltire.
The two, combined with the red cross of St. George, form the Union
flag.]
set on my hat, as the rest had, and cost me 2s., and so leaving them I
away by coach home to dinner, and my wife, after dinner, went the first
time abroad to take the maidenhead of her coach, calling on Roger Pepys,
and visiting Mrs. Creed, and my cozen Turner, while I at home all
the afternoon and evening, very busy and doing much work, to my great
content. Home at night, and there comes Mrs. Turner and
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