Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning. My wife this morning went, being invited, to my Lady Sandwich, and I alone at home at dinner, till by and by Luellin comes and dines with me. He tells me what a bawdy loose play this “Parson’s Wedding” is, that is acted by nothing but women at the King’s house, and I am glad of it. Thence to the Fishery in Thames Street, and there several good discourses about the letting of the Lotterys, and, among others, one Sir Thomas Clifford, whom yet I knew not, do speak very well and neatly.
Thence I to my cozen Will Joyce to get him to go to Brampton with me this week, but I think he will not, and I am not a whit sorry for it, for his company both chargeable and troublesome.
So home and to my office, and then to supper and then to my office again till late, and so home, with my head and heart full of business, and so to bed.
My wife tells me the sad news of my Lady Castlemayne’s being now become so decayed, that one would not know her; at least far from a beauty, which I am sorry for.
This day with great joy Captain Titus told us the particulars of the French’s expedition against Gigery upon the Barbary Coast, in the Straights, with 6,000 chosen men. They have taken the Fort of Gigery, wherein were five men and three guns, which makes the whole story of the King of France’s policy and power to be laughed at.
not good about letting others speak
I am sorry for the ice in my head
and heart full of decay
I am sorry for this gun
which makes the hole of power
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 11 October 1664.
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