her absence, to save one penny, to dine with me on Friday next, of which I
am glad. Roger bids me to help him to some good rich widow; for he is
resolved to go, and retire wholly, into the country; for, he says, he is
confident we shall be all ruined very speedily, by what he sees in the
State, and I am much in his mind. Having staid as long as I thought fit
for meeting of Burroughs, I away and to the 'Change again, but there I do
not find her now, I having staid too long at the House, and therefore very
hungry, having eat nothing to-day. Home, and there to eat presently, and
then to the office a little, and to Sir W. Batten, where Sir J. Minnes and
Captain Cocke was; but no newes from the North at all to-day; and the
newes-book makes the business nothing, but that they are all dispersed. I
pray God it may prove so. So home, and, after a little, to my chamber to
bed.

27th. Up, and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and here I had
a letter from Mr. Brisband on another occasion, which, by the by,
intimates my Lord Hinchingbroke's intention to come and dine with me
to-morrow. This put me into a great surprise, and therefore endeavoured
all I could to hasten over our business at the office, and so home at noon
and to dinner, and then away by coach, it being a very foul day, to White
Hall, and there at Sir G. Carteret's find my Lord Hinchingbroke, who
promises to dine with me to-morrow, and bring Mr. Carteret along with him.
Here I staid a little while talking with him and the ladies, and then away
to my Lord Crew's, and then did by the by make a visit to my Lord Crew,
and had some good discourse with him, he doubting that all will break in
pieces in the kingdom; and that the taxes now coming out, which will tax
the same man in three or four several capacities, as for lands, office,
profession, and money at interest, will be the hardest that ever come out;
and do think that we owe it, and the lateness of its being given, wholly
to the unpreparedness of the King's own party, to make their demand and