Buxtorf’s Hebrew Grammar, and read a declaration of the gentlemen of Northampton which came out this afternoon.

26th Called for some papers at Whitehall for Mr Downing, one of which was an order of the Council for £1800 per annum, to be paid monthly, and the other two, Orders to the Commissioners of Customs, to let his goods pass free Home from my office to my Lord’s lodgings where my wife had got ready a very fine dinner -- viz a dish of marrow bones, a leg of mutton, a loin of veal, a dish of fowl, three pullets, and a dozen of larks all in a dish, a great tart, a neat’s tongue, a dish of anchovies, a dish of prawns and cheese. My company was my father, my uncle Fenner, his two sons, Mr Pierce, and all their wives, and my brother Tom²⁷. The news this day is a letter that speaks absolutely Monks concurrence with this Parliament, and nothing else, which yet I hardly believe.

28th I went to Mr Downing, who told me that he was resolved to be gone for Holland this morning. So I to my office again and dispatch my business there, and came with Mr Hawley to Mr Downing’s lodgings, and took Mr Squib from White Hall in a coach thither with me, and there we waited in his chamber a great while, till he came in, and in the mean time, sent all his things to the barge that lays at Charing- Cross stairs. Then came he in, and took a very civil leave of me, beyond my expectations, for I was afraid that he would have told me something of removing me from my office, but he did not, but that he would do me any service that lay in his power. So I went down and sent a porter to my house for my best fur cap, but he coming too late with it I did not present it to him and so I returned and went to Heaven,²⁸ where Luellin and I dined.

29th In the morning I went to Mr Gunnings, where he made an excellent sermon upon the 2nd of the Galatians, about the difference that fell between St Paul and St Peter, whereby he did prove, that, contrary to the doctrine of the Roman Church, St Paul did never own any dependance, or that he was inferior to St Peter, but that they were equal, only one a particular charge of preaching to the Jews, and the other to the Gentiles

30th This morning, before I was up, I fell a-singing of my song, ‘Great, good and just’, &c²⁹

Great, good, and just, could I but rate
My gerif and thy too rigd fate,
I’d weep the world to such a strain
That it should deluge once again
But since thy loud-toungued blood demands supplies
More from Briareus’ hands, than Argues’ eyes,
I’ll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds

31st After dinner to Westminster Hall, where all we clerks had orders to wait upon the Committee, at the Star-chamber that is to try Colonel Jones,³⁰ and to give an account what money we had paid him, but the Committee did not sit to-day Called in at Harper’s with Mr Pulford, servant to Mr Waterhouse, who tells me, that whereas my Lord Fleetwood³¹ should have answered to the Parliament to-day, he wrote a letter and desired a little more time, he being a great way out of town And how that he is quite ashamed of himself, and confesses how he had deserved this, for his baseness to his brother And that he is like to pay part of the money, paid out of the Exchequer during the Committee of Safety, out of his own purse again, which I am glad on I could find nothing in Mr Downing’s letter, which Hawley brought me concerning my office, but I could discern that Hawley had a mind that I would get to be Clerk of the Council, I suppose that he might have the greater salary, but I think it not safe yet to change this for a public employment

Great, good, and just, could I but rate
My grief and thy too rigid fate,
I’d weep the world to such a strain
That it should deluge once again
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies
More from Briareus’ hands, than Argus’ eyes,
I’ll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds