nito, I met with Captain Whittington (that had formerly brought a
letter to my Lord from the Mayor of London) and he did promise me to do
it, but first we went and dined at a French house, but paid 16s. for our
part of the club. At dinner in came Dr. Cade, a merry mad parson of the
King's. And they two after dinner got the child and me (the others not
being able to crowd in) to see the King, who kissed the child very
affectionately. Then we kissed his, and the Duke of York's, and the
Princess Royal's hands. The King seems to be a very sober man; and a very
splendid Court he hath in the number of persons of quality that are about
him, English very rich in habit. From the King to the Lord Chancellor,

[On January 29th, 1658, Charles II. entrusted the Great Seal to Sir
Edward Hyde, with the title of Lord Chancellor, and in that
character Sir Edward accompanied the King to England.]

who did lie bed-rid of the gout: he spoke very merrily to the child and
me. After that, going to see the Queen of Bohemia, I met with Dr. Fullers
whom I sent to a tavern with Mr. Edw. Pickering, while I and the rest went
to see the Queen,--[Henrietta Maria.]--who used us very respectfully; her
hand we all kissed. She seems a very debonaire, but plain lady. After
that to the Dr.'s, where we drank a while or so. In a coach of a friend's
of Dr. Cade we went to see a house of the Princess Dowager's in a park
about half-a-mile or a mile from the Hague, where there is one, the most
beautiful room for pictures in the whole world. She had here one picture
upon the top, with these words, dedicating it to the memory of her
husband:--"Incomparabili marito, inconsolabilis vidua."

[Mary, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Charles I., and widow of
William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. She was not supposed to be
inconsolable, and scandal followed her at the court of Charles II.,
where she died of small-pox, December 24th, 1660.]

Here I met with Mr. Woodcock of Cambridge, Mr. Hardy and another, and Mr.
Woodcock beginning we had two or three fine songs, he and I, and W. Howe
to the Echo, which was very pleasant, and the more because in a heaven of
pleasure and in a strange country, that I never was taken up more with a
sense of pleasure in my life. After that we parted and back to the Hague
and took a tour or two about the Forehault,--[The Voorhout is the
principal street of the Hague, and it is lined with handso