for my last night's work and want of sleep.

26th. Up, and to my chamber, whither Jonas Moore comes, and, among other
things, after our business done, discoursing of matters of the office, I
shewed him my varnished things, which he says he can outdo much, and tells
me the mighty use of Napier's bones;

[John Napier or Neper (1550-1617), laird of Merchiston (now
swallowed up in the enlarged Edinburgh of to-day, although the old
castle still stands), and the inventor of logarithms. He published
his "Rabdologiae seu numerationis per virgulas libri duo" in 1617,
and the work was reprinted and translated into Italian (1623) and
Dutch (1626). In 1667 William Leybourn published "The Art of
Numbering by Speaking Rods, vulgarly termed Napier's Bones."]

so that I will have a pair presently. To the office, where busy all the
morning sitting, and at noon home to dinner, and then with my wife abroad
to the King's playhouse, to shew her yesterday's new play, which I like as
I did yesterday, the principal thing extraordinary being the dance, which
is very good. So to Charing Cross by coach, about my wife's business, and
then home round by London Wall, it being very dark and dirty, and so to
supper, and, for the ease of my eyes, to bed, having first ended all my
letters at the office.

27th. Up, and to the office, where very busy all the morning. While I
was busy at the Office, my wife sends for me to come home, and what was it
but to see the pretty girl which she is taking to wait upon her: and
though she seems not altogether so great a beauty as she had before told
me, yet indeed she is mighty pretty; and so pretty, that I find I shall be
too much pleased with it, and therefore could be contented as to my