under pretence of going a-hunting, went to see her and make friends, and never was a-hunting at all After which she came back to Court, and commands the King as much as ever, and hath and doth what she will No longer ago than last night, there was a private entertainment made for the King and Queene at the Duke of Buckingham’s, and she was not invited but being at my Lady Suffolk’s,⁶⁰ her aunt’s (where my Lady Jemimah and Lord Sandwich dined,) yesterday, she was heard to say, ‘Well, much good may it do them, and for all that I will be as merry as they’ and so she went home and caused a great supper to be prepared And after the King had been with the Queene at Wallingford House⁶¹ he come to my Lady Castlemaine’s, and was there all night, and my Lord Sandwich with him He tells me he believes that, as soon as the King can get a husband for Mrs Stewart, however, my Lady Castlemaine’s nose will be out of joynt, for that she comes to be in great esteem, and is more handsome than she Wotten tells me the reason of Harris’s⁶² going from Sir Wm Davenant’s house is, that he grew very proud and demanded £20 for himself extraordinary, more than Betterton or any body else, upon every new play, and £10 upon every revive which with other things Sir W Davenant would not give him, and so he swore he would never act there more, in expectation of being received in the other House, but the King will not suffer it, upon Sir W Davenant’s desire that he would not, for then he might shut up house, and that is true He tells me that his going is at present a great loss to the House, and that he fears he hath a stipend from the other House privately He tells me that the fellow grew very proud of late, the King and every body else crying him up so high, and that above Betterton he being a more ayery man, as he is indeed But yet Betterton, he says, they all say do act some parts that none but himself can do I hear that the Moores have made some attaques upon the outworks of Tangier, but my Lord Teviott, with the loss of about 200 men, did beat them off, and killed many of them To-morrow the King and Queene for certain go down to Tunbridge But the King comes back again against Monday to raise the Parliament.

25th Having intended this day to go to Banstead Downes to see a famous race, I sent Will to get himself ready to go with me but I hear it is put off, because the Lords do sit in Parliament to-day After some debate, Creed and I resolved to go to Clapham, to Mr Gauden’s⁶³ When I come there, the first thing was to show me his house, which is almost built I find it very regular and finely contrived, and the gardens and offices about it as convenient and as full of good variety as ever I saw in my life It is true he hath been censured for laying out so much money but he tells me that he built it for his brother, who is since dead, (the Bishop⁶⁴) who when he should come to be Bishop of Winchester, which he was promised, (to which bishopricke at present there is no house), he did intend to dwell here By and by to dinner, and in comes Mr Creed, I saluted his lady and the young ladies, and his sister, the Bishop’s widow, who was, it seems, Sir W Russel’s daughter, the Treasurer of the Navy, who I find to be very well-bred, and a woman of excellent discourse Towards the evening we bade them adieu and took horse, being resolved that, instead of the race which fails us, we would go to Epsom When we come there we could hear of no lodging, the town so full, but which was better, I went towards Ashsted, and there we got a lodging in a little hole we could not stand upright in While supper was getting I walked up and down behind my cosen Pepys’s house that was, which I find comes little short of what I took it to be when I was a little boy.

26th (Lord’s day) Up and to the Wells, where a great store of citizens, which was the greatest part of the company, though there were some others of better quality Thence I walked to Mr Minnes’s house and thence to Durdan’s and walked within the Court Yard and to the Bowling-green, where I have seen so much mirth in my time, but now no family in it, (my Lord Barkeley whose it is, being with his family at London) Then rode through Epsom, the whole town over, seeing the various companys that were there walking which was very pleasant to see how they are there without knowing what to do, but only in the morning to drink waters But Lord to see how many I met there of citizens, that I could not have thought to have seen there, that they had ever had it in their heads or purses to go down thither We went through Nonesuch Parke to the house, and there viewed as much as we could of the outside, and looked through the great gates, and found a noble court, and altogether believe it to have been a very noble house, and a delicate parke about it, where just now there was a doe killed for the King to carry up to Court.