to do it over better, or else I shall not fancy my rule, which is such a
folly that I am come to now, that whereas before my delight was in
multitude of books, and spending money in that and buying alway of other
things, now that I am become a better husband, and have left off buying,
now my delight is in the neatness of everything, and so cannot be pleased
with anything unless it be very neat, which is a strange folly. Hither
came W. Howe about business, and he and I had a great deal of discourse
about my Lord Sandwich, and I find by him that my Lord do dote upon one of
the daughters of Mrs. [Becke] where he lies, so that he spends his time
and money upon her. He tells me she is a woman of a very bad fame and
very impudent, and has told my Lord so, yet for all that my Lord do spend
all his evenings with her, though he be at court in the day time, and that
the world do take notice of it, and that Pickering is only there as a
blind, that the world may think that my Lord spends his time with him when
he do worse, and that hence it is that my Lord has no more mind to go into
the country than he has. In fine, I perceive my Lord is dabbling with
this wench, for which I am sorry, though I do not wonder at it, being a
man amorous enough, and now begins to allow himself the liberty that he
says every body else at Court takes. Here I am told that my Lord Bristoll
is either fled or concealed himself; having been sent for to the King, it
is believed to be sent to the Tower, but he is gone out of the way.
Yesterday, I am told also, that Sir J. Lenthall, in Southwarke, did
apprehend about one hundred Quakers, and other such people, and hath sent
some of them to the gaole at Kingston, it being now the time of the
Assizes. Hence home and examined a piece of, Latin of Will's with my
brother, and so to prayers and to bed. This evening I had a letter from
my father that says that my wife will come to town this week, at which I
wonder that she should come to town without my knowing more of it. But I
find they have lived very ill together since she went, and I must use all
the brains I have to bring her to any good when she do come home, which I