seems every company have their granary and obliged to keep such a quantity
of corne always there or at a time of scarcity to issue so much at so much
a bushell: and a fine thing it is to see their stores of all sorts, for
piles for the bridge, and for pipes, a thing I never saw before.

[From the commencement of the reign of Henry VIII., or perhaps
earlier, it was the custom of the City of London to provide against
scarcity, by requiring each of the chartered Companies to keep in
store a certain quantity of corn, which was to be renewed from time
to time, and when required for that purpose, produced in the market
for sale, at such times and prices, and in such quantities, as the
Lord Mayor or Common Council should direct. See the report of a
case in the Court of Chancery, "Attorney-General v. Haberdashers'
Company" (Mylne and Keens "Reports," vol. i., p. 420).--B.]

Thence to the office, and there busy all the morning. At noon to my uncle
Wight's, and there dined, my wife being there all the morning. After
dinner to White Hall; and there met with Mr. Pierce, and he showed me the
Queene's bed-chamber, and her closett, where she had nothing but some
pretty pious pictures, and books of devotion; and her holy water at her
head as she sleeps, with her clock by her bed-side, wherein a lamp burns
that tells her the time of the night at any time. Thence with him to the
Parke, and there met the Queene coming from Chappell, with her Mayds of
Honour, all in silver-lace gowns again: which is new to me, and that which
I did not think would have been brought up again. Thence he carried me to
the King's closett: where such variety of pictures, and other things of
value and rarity, that I was properly confounded and enjoyed no pleasure
in the sight of them; which is the only time in my life that ever I was so
at a loss for pleasure, in the greatest plenty of objects to give it me.
Thence home, calling in many places and doing abundance of errands to my