me, that do know how likely a man my Lord Barkeley of all the world is, to
do such a thing as this. Here I spoke with Sir W. Coventry, who tells me
plainly that to all future complaints of lack of money he will answer but
with the shrug of his shoulder; which methought did come to my heart, to
see him to begin to abandon the King's affairs, and let them sink or swim,
so he do his owne part, which I confess I believe he do beyond any officer
the King hath, but unless he do endeavour to make others do theirs,
nothing will be done. The consideration here do make me go away very sad,
and so home by coach, and there took up my wife and Mercer, who had been
to-day at White Hall to the Maundy,

[The practice of giving alms on Maundy Thursday to poor men and
women equal in number to the years of the sovereign's age is a
curious survival in an altered form of an old custom. The original
custom was for the king to wash the feet of twelve poor persons, and
to give them a supper in imitation of Christ's last supper and his
washing of the Apostles' feet. James II. was the last sovereign to
perform the ceremony in person, but it was performed by deputy so
late as 1731. The Archbishop of York was the king's deputy on that
occasion. The institution has passed through the various stages of
feet washing with a supper, the discontinuance of the feet washing,
the substitution of a gift of provisions for the supper, and finally
the substitution of a gift of money for the provisions. The
ceremony took place at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall; but it is now
held at Westminster Abbey. Maundy is derived from the Latin word
'maudatum', which commences the original anthem sung during the
ceremony, in reference to Christ's command]

it being Maundy Thursday; but the King did not wash the poor people's feet
himself, but the Bishop of London did it for him, but I did not see it,