take off his displeasure. They talk that the Queene hath a great mind to alter her fashion, and to have the feet seen; which she loves mightily.

21st. Sir H. Cholmly tells me how Mr Williamson stood in a little place to have come into the House of Commons, and they would not choose him; they said, ‘No courtier.’ And which is worse, Bab May went down in great state to Winchelsea with the Duke of York’s letters, not doubting to be chosen; and there the people chose a private gentleman in spite of him, and cried out they would have no Court pimp to be their burgesse; which are things that bode very ill.

24th. Holmes did last Sunday deliver in his articles to the King and Cabinet against Smith, and Smith hath given in his answer, and lays his not accompanying the fleet to his pilot, who would not undertake to carry the ship further; which the pilot acknowledges. The thing is not accommodated, but only taken up, and both sides commanded to be quiet, but no peace like to be. The Duke of Albemarle is Smith’s friend, and hath publickly sworn that he would never go to sea again, unless Holmes’s commission were taken from him. I find by Hayes⁷⁴ that they did expect great glory in coming home in so good condition as they did with the fleet; and therefore I the less wonder that the Prince was distasted with my discourse the other day about the sad state of the fleet. But it pleases me to hear that he did expect great thanks, and lays the fault of the want of it upon the fire, which deadened every thing, and the glory of his services.

25th. To Mrs Pierce’s, where she was making herself mighty fine to go to a great ball to-night at Court, being the Queene’s birth-day; so the ladies for this one day wear laces, but are to put them off again tomorrow. To Mrs William’s, where we met Knipp. I was glad to see the jade. Made her sing; and she told us they begin at both houses to act on Monday next. But I fear after all this sorrow, their gains will be but little. Mrs Williams says, the Duke’s house will now be much the better of the two, because of their women; which I was glad to hear.

27th. The two Houses begin to be troublesome: the Lords to have quarrels one with another. My Lord Duke of Buckingham having said to the Lord Chancellor (who is against the passing of the Bill for prohibiting the bringing over of Irish cattle,) that whoever was against the Bill, was there led to it by an Irish interest, or an Irish understanding, which is as much as to say he is a fool; this bred heat from my Lord Chancellor, and something he said did offend my Lord of Ossory (my Lord Duke of Ormond’s son,) and they two had hard words, upon which the latter sends a challenge to the former; of which the former complains to the House, and so the business is to be heard on Monday next. Then as to the Commons; some ugly knives, like poignards, to stab people with, about two or three hundred of them were brought in yesterday to the House, found in one of the house’s rubbish that was burned, and said to be the house of a Catholique. This and several letters out of the country, saying how high the Catholiques are every where and bold in the owning their religion, hath made the Commons mad, and they presently voted that the King be desired to put all Catholiques out of employment, and other high things; while the business of money hangs in the hedge.

28th. Captain Guy to dine with me, and he and I much talk together. He cries out of the discipline of the fleet, and confesses really that the true English valour we talk of, is almost spent and worn out; few of the commanders doing what they should do, and he much fears we shall therefore be beaten the next year. He assures me we were beaten home the last June fight, and that the whole fleet was ashamed to hear of our bonfires. He commends Smith and cries out of Holmes for an idle, proud, conceited, though stout fellow. He tells me we are to owe the loss of so many ships on the sands, not to any fault of the pilots, but to the weather; but in this I have good authority to fear there was something more. He says the Dutch do fight in very good order, and we in none at all. He says that in the July fight, both the Prince and Holmes had their belly-fulls, and were fain to go aside; though, if the wind had continued, we had utterly beaten them. He do confess the whole to be governed by a company of fools, and fears our ruine. The Revenge having her forecastle blown up with powder to the killing of some men in the River, and the Dyamond’s being overset in the careening at Sheernese, are further marks of the method all the King’s work is now done in. The Foresight also and another come to disasters in the same place this week in the cleaning; which is strange.