Up betimes, and called on by abundance of people about business, and then away by water to Westminster, and there to the Exchequer about some business, and thence by coach calling at several places, to the Old Exchange, and there did much business, and so homeward and bought a silver salt for my ordinary table to use, and so home to dinner, and after dinner comes my uncle and aunt Wight, the latter I have not seen since the plague; a silly, froward, ugly woman she is. We made mighty much of them, and she talks mightily of her fear of the sicknesse, and so a deale of tittle tattle and I left them and to my office where late, and so home to supper and to bed.
This day I hear my Uncle Talbot Pepys died the last week, and was buried. All the news now is, that Sir Jeremy Smith is at Cales with his fleete, and Mings in the Elve.
The King is come this noon to towne from Audly End, with the Duke of Yorke and a fine train of gentlemen.
an abundance of salt
for my ordinary table
ugly talk fear and tittle tattle
is all the news now
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Monday 12 March 1666.