business being about his going about to build his house new at the top,
which will be a great charge for him, and above his judgment. By and by
comes Mr. Deane, of Woolwich, with his draught of a ship, and the bend and
main lines in the body of a ship very finely, and which do please me
mightily, and so am resolved to study hard, and learn of him to understand
a body, and I find him a very pretty fellow in it, and rational, but a
little conceited, but that's no matter to me. At noon, by my Lady
Batten's desire, I went over the water to Mr. Castle's, who brings his
wife home to his own house to-day, where I found a great many good old
women, and my Lady, Sir W. Batten, and Sir J. Minnes. A good, handsome,
plain dinner, and then walked in the garden; which is pleasant enough,
more than I expected there, and so Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and I by
water to the office, and there sat, and then I by water to the Temple
about my law business, and back again home and wrote letters to my father
and wife about my desire that they should observe the feast at Brampton,
and have my Lady and the family, and so home to supper and bed, my head
aching all the day from my last night's bad rest, and yesterday's
distempering myself with over walking, and to-day knocking my head against
a low door in Mr. Castle's house. This day the Parliament kept a fast for
the present unseasonable weather.

22nd. Up, and by and by comes my uncle Thomas, to whom I paid L10 for his
last half year's annuity, and did get his and his son's hand and seal for
the confirming to us Piggott's mortgage, which was forgot to be expressed
in our late agreement with him, though intended, and therefore they might
have cavilled at it, if they would. Thence abroad calling at several
places upon some errands, among others to my brother Tom's barber and had
my hair cut, while his boy played on the viallin, a plain boy, but has a
very good genius, and understands the book very well, but to see what a
shift he made for a string of red silk was very pleasant. Thence to my