which is preserved in the British Museum
(Add. MSS. 10,116, 10,117). The following is the description of this
interesting work as given by Lord Braybrooke

"MERCURIUS POLITICUS REDIVIVUS;

or, A Collection of the most materiall occurrances and transactions
in Public Affairs since Anno Dni, 1659, untill
28 March, 1672,
serving as an annuall diurnall for future satisfaction and
information,
BY THOMAS RUGGE.

Est natura hominum novitatis avida.--Plinius.

"This MS. belonged, in 1693, to Thomas Grey, second Earl of
Stamford. It has his autograph at the commencement, and on the
sides are his arms (four quarterings) in gold. In 1819, it was sold
by auction in London, as part of the collection of Thomas Lloyd,
Esq. (No. 1465), and was then bought by Thomas Thorpe, bookseller.
Whilst Mr. Lloyd was the possessor, the MS. was lent to Dr. Lingard,
whose note of thanks to Mr. Lloyd is preserved in the volume. From
Thorpe it appears to have passed to Mr. Heber, at the sale of whose
MSS. in Feb. 1836, by Mr. Evans, of Pall Mall, it was purchased by
the British Museum for L8 8s.

"Thomas Rugge was descended from an ancient Norfolk family, and two
of his ancestors are described as Aldermen of Norwich. His death
has been ascertained to have occurred about 1672; and in the Diary
for the preceding year he complains that on account of his declining
health, his entries will be but few. Nothing has been traced of his
personal circumstances beyond the fact of his having lived for
fourteen years in Covent Garden, then a fashionable locality."

Another work I have found of the greatest value is the late Mr. J. E.
Doyle's "Official Baronage of England" (1886), which contains a mass of
valuable information not easily to be obtained elsewhere. By reference
to its pages I have been enabled to correct several erroneous dates in
previous notes caused by a very natural confusion of years in the case
of the months of January, February, and March, before it was finally
fixed that the year should commence in January instead of March. More
confusion has probably been introduced into history from this than from
any other cause of a like nature. The reference to two years, as in the
case of, say, Jan. 5, 1661-62, may appear c