through the garden till he came to the Hall, where I left him and went up
to my office, where Mr. Hawly brought one to me, a seaman, that had
promised Rio to him if he get him a purser's place, which I think to
endeavour to do. Here comes my uncle Tom, whom I took to Will's and drank
with, poor man, he comes to inquire about the knights of Windsor, of which
he desires to get to be one.

[The body of Poor Knights of Windsor was founded by Edward III. The
intention of the king with regard to the poor knights was to provide
relief and comfortable subsistence for such valiant soldiers as
happened in their old age to fall into poverty and decay. On
September 20th, 1659, a Report having been read respecting the Poor
Knights of Windsor, the House "ordered that it be referred to a
Committee, to look into the revenue for maintenance of the Poor
Knights of Windsor," &c. (See Tighe and Davis's "Annals of
Windsor.")]

While we were drinking, in comes Mr. Day, a carpenter in Westminster, to
tell me that it was Shrove Tuesday, and that I must go with him to their
yearly Club upon this day, which I confess I had quite forgot. So I went
to the Bell, where were Mr. Eglin, Veezy, Vincent a butcher, one more, and
Mr. Tanner, with whom I played upon a viall, and he a viallin, after
dinner, and were very merry, with a special good dinner, a leg of veal and
bacon, two capons and sausages and fritters, with abundance of wine. After
that I went home, where I found Kate Sterpin who hath not been here a
great while before. She gone I went to see Mrs. Jem, at whose chamber
door I found a couple of ladies, but she not being there, we hunted her
out, and found that she and another had hid themselves behind a door.
Well, they all went down into the dining-room, where it was full of tag,
rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking, of which I was ashamed,