HKB
man he was, and kept his countenance to the end: I was sorry to see him. It was believed there were at least 12 or 14,000 people in the street.
22nd. To Deptford, and there viewed Sir W. Petty's vessel; which hath an odd appearance, but not such as people do make of it.
26th. Tom Killigrew told us of a fire last night in my Lady Castlemaine's lodging, where she bid 40l. for one to adventure the fetching of a cabinet out, which at last was got to be done; and the fire at last quenched without doing much wrong.
27th. At the Coffee-house, where I sat with Sir G. Ascue [A distinguished naval officer before and after the Restoration; but he never went to sea subsequently to the action in 1666, when he was taken prisoner.] and Sir William Petty, who in discourse is, methinks, one of the most rational men that ever I heard speak with a tongue, having all his notions the most distinct and clear. To Covent Garden, to buy a maske at the French House, Madam Charett's, for my wife; in the way observing the street full of coaches at the new play, at "The Indian Queene;" ["The Indian Queen," a tragedy in heroic verse, by Sir Robert Howard and Mr Dryden.] which for show, they say, exceeds Henry the Eighth. Called to see my brother Tom, who was not at home, though they say he is in a deep consumption, and will not live two months.
30th. This evening I tore some old papers; among others, a romance which (under the title of "Love a Cheate") I begun ten years ago at Cambridge: and reading it over to-night, I liked it very well, and wondered a little at myself at my vein at that time when I wrote it, doubting that I cannot do so well now if I would try.