nly spoke with him, and heard him correct my Lord Barkeley, who fell
foul on Sir Edward Spragg, who, it seems, said yesterday to the House,
that if the Officers of the Ordnance had done as much work at Shereness
in ten weeks as "The Prince" did in ten days, he could have defended the
place against the Dutch: but the Duke of York told him that every body
must have liberty, at this time, to make their own defence, though it
be to the charging of the fault upon any other, so it be true; so I
perceive the whole world is at work in blaming one another. Thence
Sir W. Pen and I back into London; and there saw the King, with his
kettle-drums and trumpets, going to the Exchange, to lay the first stone
of the first pillar of the new building of the Exchange; which, the
gates being shut, I could not get in to see: but, with Sir W. Pen, to
Captain Cocke's to drink a dram of brandy, and so he to the Treasury
office about Sir G. Carteret's accounts, and I took coach and back again
toward Westminster; but in my way stopped at the Exchange, and got in,
the King being newly gone; and there find the bottom of the first pillar
laid. And here was a shed set up, and hung with tapestry, and a canopy
of state, and some good victuals and wine, for the King, who, it seems,
did it; and so a great many people, as Tom Killigrew, and others of the
Court there, and there I did eat a mouthful and drink a little, and do
find Mr. Gawden in his gowne as Sheriffe, and understand that the King
hath this morning knighted him upon the place, which I am mightily
pleased with; and I think the other Sheriffe, who is Davis, the little
fellow, my schoolfellow,--the bookseller, who was one of Audley's'
Executors, and now become Sheriffe; which is a strange turn, methinks.
Here mighty merry (there being a good deal of good company) for a
quarter of an hour, and so I away and to Westminster Hall, where I
come just as the House rose; and there, in the Hall, met with Sir W.
Coventry, who is in pain to defend himself in the business of tickets,
it being said that the paying of the ships at Chatham by ticket was by
his direction, and he hath wrote to me to find his letters, and shew
them him, but I find none; but did there argue the case with him, and I
think no great blame can be laid on us for that matter, only I see he is
fearfull. And he tells me his mistake in the House the other day,
which occasions him much trouble, in shewing of the House the Duke of
Albemarle's