glad. Roger bids me to help him to some
good rich widow; for he is resolved to go, and retire wholly, into
the country; for, he says, he is confident we shall be all ruined very
speedily, by what he sees in the State, and I am much in his mind.
Having staid as long as I thought fit for meeting of Burroughs, I away
and to the 'Change again, but there I do not find her now, I having
staid too long at the House, and therefore very hungry, having eat
nothing to-day. Home, and there to eat presently, and then to the office
a little, and to Sir W. Batten, where Sir J. Minnes and Captain Cocke
was; but no newes from the North at all to-day; and the newes-book makes
the business nothing, but that they are all dispersed. I pray God it may
prove so. So home, and, after a little, to my chamber to bed.

27th. Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and here I
had a letter from Mr. Brisband on another occasion, which, by the by,
intimates my Lord Hinchingbroke's intention to come and dine with me
to-morrow. This put me into a great surprise, and therefore endeavoured
all I could to hasten over our business at the office, and so home at
noon and to dinner, and then away by coach, it being a very foul day, to
White Hall, and there at Sir G. Carteret's find my Lord Hinchingbroke,
who promises to dine with me to-morrow, and bring Mr. Carteret along
with him. Here I staid a little while talking with him and the ladies,
and then away to my Lord Crew's, and then did by the by make a visit to
my Lord Crew, and had some good discourse with him, he doubting that all
will break in pieces in the kingdom; and that the taxes now coming out,
which will tax the same man in three or four several capacities, as for
lands, office, profession, and money at interest, will be the hardest
that ever come out; and do think that we owe it, and the lateness of its
being given, wholly to the unpreparedness of the King's own party, to
make their demand and choice; for they have obstructed the giving it by
land-tax, which had been done long since. Having ended my visit, I
spoke to Sir Thomas Crew, to invite him and his brother John to dinner
tomorrow, at my house, to meet Lord Hinchingbroke; and so homewards,
calling at the cook's, who is to dress it, to bespeak him, and then
home, and there set things in order for a very fine dinner, and then to
the office, where late very busy and to good purpose as to dispatch of
business, and then home. To bed, m