prisoners taken, parleys; and, in short, all the circumstances of a formal siege, to appearance, and, what is most strange, all without disorder, or ill accident, to the great satisfaction of a thousand spectators. Being night, it made à formidable show. The siege being over, I went with Mr. Pepys back to London, where we arrived about three in the morning.

15th September. To Council, about fetching away the English left at Surinam, &c., since our reconciliation with Holland.

21st. I went to see the great loss that Lord Arlington had sustained by fire at Goring House, this night consumed to the ground, with exceeding loss of hangings, plate, rare pictures, and cabinets; hardly anything was saved of the best and most princely furniture that any subject had in England. My lord and lady were both absent at the Bath.

6th October. The Lord Chief Baron Turner, and Serjeant Wild, Recorder of London,' came to visit me.

20th. At Lord Berkeley's, I discoursed with Sir Thomas Modiford, late Governor of Jamaica, and with Colonel Morgan, who undertook that gallant exploit from Nombre de Dios to Panama, on the Continent of America; he told me 10,000 men would easily conquer all the Spanish Indies, they were so secure. They took great booty, and much greater had been taken, had they not been betrayed and so discovered before their approach, by which the Spaniards had time to carry their vast treasure on board ships that put off to sea in sight of our men, who had no boats to follow. They set fire to Panama, and ravaged the country sixty miles about. The Spaniards were so supine and unexercised, that they were afraid to fire a great gun. 31st. My birth-day, 54th year of my life. Blessed be God! It was also preparation-day for the Holy Sacrament, in which I participated the next day, imploring God's protection for the year following, and confirming my resolutions of a more holy life, even upon the Holy Book. The Lord assist and be gracious unto me! Amen.

1 Sir Edward Turner, Speaker of the House of Commons, subsequently Solicitor-General, and Lord Chief Baron, died in 1675. Serjeant, afterwards Sir William Wild, was Member for the City of London, and Recorder.

15th November. The anniversary of my baptism: I first heard that famous and excellent preacher, Dr. Burnet (author of the History of the Reformation) on Colossians iii. 10, with such flow of eloquence and fulness of matter, as showed him to be a person of extraordinary parts.

Being her Majesty's birth-day, the Court was exceeding splendid in clothes and jewels, to the height of excess.

17th. To Council, on the business of Surinam, where the Dutch had detained some English in prison, ever since the first war, 1665.

19th. I heard that stupendous violin, Signor Nicholao (with other rare musicians), whom I never heard mortal man exceed on that instrument. He had a stroke so sweet, and made it speak like the voice of a man, and, when he pleased, like a concert of several instruments. He did wonders upon a note, and was an excellent composer. Here was also that rare lutanist, Dr. Wallgrave; but nothing approached the violin in Nicholao's hand. He played such ravishing things as astonished us all.

2nd December. At Mr. Slingsby's, Master of the Mint, my worthy friend, a great lover of music. Heard Signor Francisco on the harpsichord, esteemed one of the most excellent masters in Europe on that instrument; then, came Nicholao with his violin, and struck all mute, but Mrs. Knight, who sung incomparably, and doubtless has the greatest reach of any English woman; she had been lately roaming in Italy, and was much improved in that quality.

15th. Saw a comedy1 at night, at Court, acted by the ladies only, amongst them Lady Mary and Ann, his Royal Highness's two daughters, and my dear friend, Mrs. Blagg,

1 This was the Masque of Calisto, or the Chaste Nymph, by John Crowne. The performers in the piece were, the two daughters of the Duke of York, Lady Henrietta Wentworth (afterwards mistress to the Duke of Monmouth), Countess of Sussex, Lady Mary Mordaunt, Mrs. Blagg, who had been Maid of Honour to the Queen, and Mrs Jennings, then Maid of Honour to the Duchess of York, and afterwards the celebrated Duchess of Marlborough. The Duke of Monmouth, Lord Dumblaine, Lord Daincourt, were among the dancers; and Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Knight, Mrs. Butler, and other celebrated comedians of the day, also acted and sung in the performance. The Masque was printed (1675) in 4to.

who, having the principal part, performed it to admiration. They were all covered with jewels.

22nd December. Was at the repetition of the Pastoral, on which occasion Mrs. Blagg had about her near £20,000 worth of jewels, of which she lost one worth about £80, borrowed of the Countess of Suffolk. The press was so great, that it is a wonder she lost no more. The Duke made it good.

1674-5. 20th January. Went to see Mr. Streeter, that excellent painter of perspective and landscape, to comfort and encourage him to be cut for the stone, with which that honest man was exceedingly afflicted.'

22nd March. Supped at Sir William Petty's, with the Bishop of Salisbury, and divers honourable persons. We had a noble entertainment in a house gloriously furnished; the master and mistress of it were extraordinary persons. Sir William was the son of a mean man somewhere in Sussex, and sent from school to Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, but was most eminent in Mathematics and Mechanics; proceeded Doctor of Physic, and was grown famous, as for his learning so for his recovering a poor wench that had been hanged for felony; and her body having been begged (as the custom is) for the anatomy lecture, he bled her, put her to bed to a warm woman, and, with spirits and other means, restored her to life.' young scholars joined and made a little portion, and married her to a man who had several children by her, she living fifteen years after, as I have been assured. Sir William

The

The King, who had a great regard for this artist, is said to have sent for a famous surgeon from Paris, on purpose to perform the opera

tion.

2 A full account of this event was given in a published pamphlet at the time, entitled "Newes from the Dead, or a true and exact Narration of the miraculous Deliverance of Anne Greene, who being executed at Oxford, Dec. 14, 1650, afterwards revived; and by the care of certain Physicians there, is now perfectly recovered. Oxford, the second Impression, with Additions, 4to. 1651.” Added to the Narrative are several copies of Verses in Latin, English, and French, by Gentlemen of the University, commemorative of the event; amongst others, by Joseph Williamson, afterwards Secretary of State, by Christopher Wren, the famous architect, then of Wadham College, by Walter Pope, Dr. Ralph Bathurst (the last under other names), and many more. The pamphlet was reprinted, but very negligently, from the first and worst edition, in Morgan's Phoenix Britannicus, 4to.

came from Oxford to be tutor to a neighbour of mine; thence, when the rebels were dividing their conquests in Ireland, he was employed by them to measure and set out the land, which he did on an easy contract, so much per acre. This he effected so exactly, that it not only furnished him with a great sum of money; but enabled him to purchase an estate worth £4000 a year. He afterwards married the daughter of Sir Hardress Waller; she was an extraordinary wit as well as beauty, and a prudent woman.

It con

Sir William, amongst other inventions, was author of the double-bottomed ship, which perished, and he was censured for rashness, being lost in the Bay of Biscay in a storm, when, I think, fifteen other vessels miscarried. This vessel was flat-bottomed, of exceeding use to put into shallow ports, and ride over small depths of water. sisted of two distinct keels cramped together with huge timbers, &c., so as that a violent stream ran between; it bare a monstrous broad sail, and he still persists that it is practicable, and of exceeding use; and he has often told me he would adventure himself in such another, could he procure sailors, and his Majesty's permission to make a second Experiment; which name the King gave the vessel at the launching.

The Map of Ireland made by Sir William Petty is believed to be the most exact that ever yet was made of any country. He did promise to publish it; and I am told it has cost him near £1000 to have it engraved at Amsterdam. There is not a better Latin poet living, when he gives himself that diversion; nor is his excellence less in Council and prudent matters of state; but he is so exceeding nice in sifting and examining all possible contingencies, that he adventures at nothing which is not demonstration. There was not in the whole world his equal for a superintendent of manufacture and improvement of trade, or to govern a plantation. If I were a Prince, I should make him my second Counsellor, at least. There is nothing difficult to him. He is, besides, courageous; on which account, I cannot but note a true story of him, that when Sir Aleyn Brodrick sent him a challenge upon a difference betwixt

1 See ante, vol. i. pp. 400, 409.

them in Ireland, Sir William, though exceedingly purblind, accepted the challenge, and it being his part to propound the weapon, desired his antagonist to meet him with a hatchet, or axe, in a dark cellar; which the other, of course, refused.

Sir William was, with all this, facetious and of easy conversation, friendly and courteous, and had such a faculty of imitating others, that he would take a text and preach, now like a grave orthodox divine, then falling into the Presbyterian way, then to the fanatical, the Quaker, the monk and friar, the Popish priest, with such admirable action, and alteration of voice and tone, as it was not possible to abstain from wonder, and one would swear to hear several persons, or forbear to think he was not in good earnest an enthusiast and almost beside himself; then, he would fall out of it into a serious discourse; but it was very rarely he would be prevailed on to oblige the company with this faculty, and that only amongst most intimate friends. My Lord Duke of Ormond once obtained it of him, and was almost ravished with admiration; but by-and-bye, he fell upon a serious reprimand of the faults and miscarriages of some Princes and Governors, which, though he named none, did so sensibly touch the Duke, who was then Lieutenant of Ireland, that he began to be very uneasy, and wished the spirit laid which he had raised, for he was neither able to endure such truths, nor could he but be delighted. At last, he melted his discourse to a ridiculous subject, and came down from the joint stool on which he had stood; but my lord would not have him preach any more. He never could get favour at Court, because he outwitted all the projectors that came near him. Having never known such another genius, I cannot but mention these particulars, amongst a multitude of others which I could produce. When I, who knew him in mean circumstances, have been in his splendid palace, he would himself be in admiration how he arrived at it; nor was it his value or inclination for splendid furniture and the curiosities of the age, but his elegant lady could endure nothing mean, or that was not magnificent. He was very negligent himself, and rather so of his person, and of a philosophic temper. "What a to-do is here!" would he say, "I can lie in straw with as much satisfaction."