excluded, and by that means the writs could not go out to-day. In the evening Simons and I to the Coffee House, where I heard Mr Harrington, and my Lord of Dorset and another Lord, talking of getting another place at the Cockpit, and they did believe it would come to something.

21st In the morning I saw many soldiers going towards Westminster Hall, to admit the secluded members again. So I to Westminster Hall, and in Chancery I saw about twenty of them who had been at White Hall with General Monk, who came thither this morning, and made a speech to them, and recommended to them a Commonwealth, and against Charles Stuart. They came to the House and went in one after another, and at last the Speaker came But it is very strange that this could be carried so private, that the other members of the House heard nothing of all this, till they found them in the House, insomuch that the soldiers that stood there to let in the secluded members, they took for such as they had ordered to stand there to hinder their coming in Mr Prin³⁹ came with an old basket-hilt sword on, and a great many shouts upon his going into the Hall. They sat till noon, and at their coming out Mr Crewe saw me, and bid me come to his house and dine with him, which I did, and he very joyful told me that the House had made General Monk, General of all the Forces in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and that upon Monk’s desire, for the service that Lawson had lately done in pulling down the Committee of Safety, he had the command of the Sea for the time being He advised me to send for my Lord forthwith and told me that there is no question that, if he will, he may now be employed again, and that the House do intend to do nothing more than to issue writs, and to settle a foundation for a free Parliament. After dinner I back to Westminster Hall with him in his coach. Here I met with Mr Lock and Pursell,⁴⁰ Master of Musique, and went with them to the Coffee House, into a room next the water, by ourselves, where we spent an hour or two till Captain Taylor come and told us, that the House had voted the gates of the City to be made up again, and the members of the City that are in prison to be set at liberty, and that Sir G Booth’s⁴¹ case be brought into the House tomorrow. Here we had variety of brave Italian and Spanish songs, and a canon for eight voices, which Mr Lock had lately made on these words Domine salvum fac Regem Here out of the window it was a most pleasant sight to see the City from one end to the other with a glory about it, so high was the light of the bonfires, and so thick round the City, and the bells rang every where.

22nd Walking in the Hall, I saw Major General Brown,⁴² who had a long time been banished by the Rump, but now with his beard overgrown, he comes abroad and sat in the House To White Hall, where I met with Will Simons and Mr Mabbot at Marsh’s, who told me how the House had this day voted that the gates of the City should be set up at the cost of the State And that Major-General Brown’s being proclaimed a traitor be made void, and several other things of that nature I observed this day how abominably Barebone’s windows are broke again last night.

23rd Thursday, my birth-day, now twenty-seven years To Westminster Hall, where, after the House rose, I met with Mr Crewe, who told me that my Lord was chosen by 73 voices, to be one of the Council of State Mr Pierpoint⁴³ had the most, 101, and himself the next, 100.

24th I rose very early, and taking horse at Scotland Yard, at Mr Garthwayt’s stable, I rode to Mr Pierce’s we both mounted, and so set forth about seven of the clock, at Puckndge we baited, the way exceeding bad from Ware thither Then up again and as far as Foulmer, within six miles of Cambridge, my mare being almost tired here we lay at the Chequer. I lay with Mr Pierce, who we left here the next morning upon his going to Hinchingbroke to speak with my Lord before his going to London, and we two come to Cambridge by eight o’clock in the morning I went to Magdalene College to Mr Hill, with whom I found Mr Zanchy, Burton and Hollins, and took leave on promise to sup with them To the Three Tuns, where we drank pretty hard and many healths to the King. Then we broke up, and I and Mr Zanchy went to Magdalene College, where a very handsome supper at Mr Hill’s chambers I suppose upon a club among them, where I could find that there was nothing at all left of the old preciseness in their discourse, specially on Saturday nights And Mr Zanchy told me that there was no such thing now-a-days among them at any time.