By coach with Sir W. Pen; my wife and I toward Westminster, but seeing Mr. Moore in the street I light and he and I went to Mr. Battersby’s the minister, in my way I putting in at St. Paul’s, where I saw the quiristers in their surplices going to prayers, and a few idle poor people and boys to hear them, which is the first time I have seen them, and am sorry to see things done so out of order, and there I received 50l. more, which make up 100l. that I now have borrowed of him, and so I did burn the old bond for 50l., and paying him the use of it did make a new bond for the whole 100l. Here I dined and had a good dinner, and his wife a good pretty woman. There was a young Parson at the table that had got himself drunk before dinner, which troubled me to see.
After dinner to Mr. Bowers at Westminster for my wife, and brought her to the Theatre to see “Philaster,” which I never saw before, but I found it far short of my expectations. So by coach home.
the light is going
a few idle boys burn a table
for the heat
Erasure haiku derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 18 November 1661.
Could Sir W. Pen be William Penn?
Yes. It’s the William Penn for whom Pennsylvania was named, but not the one who founded it, his son (who was still just a college dropout in 1661).
(The fact that Pepys was a next-door neighbor and friend of the Penns is one reason why I’m reading the diary.)