Up and to my office, where busy all the morning, and at home to dinner. It being Shrove Tuesday, had some very good fritters. All the afternoon and evening at the office, and at night home to supper and to bed.
This day, Sir W. Batten, who hath been sicke four or five days, is now very bad, so as people begin to fear his death; and I am at a loss whether it will be better for me to have him die, because he is a bad man, or live, for fear a worse should come.
busy all morning being me
good afternoon Sir Death
I am better to have alive
for fear a worse should come
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Tuesday 7 February 1665.