the Office, and there discoursed of several things, particularly the
Instructions of Commanders of ships. But here happened by chance a
discourse of the Council of Trade, against which the Duke of York is
mightily displeased, and particularly Mr. Child, against whom he speaking
hardly, Captain Cox did second the Duke of York, by saying that he was
talked of for an unfayre dealer with masters of ships, about freight: to
which Sir T. Littleton very hotly and foolishly replied presently, that he
never heard any honest man speak ill of Child; to which the Duke of York
did make a smart reply, and was angry; so as I was sorry to hear it come
so far, and that I, by seeming to assent to Cox, might be observed too
much by Littleton, though I said nothing aloud, for this must breed great
heart-burnings. After this meeting done, the Duke of York took the
Treasurers into his closet to chide them, as Mr. Wren tells me; for that
my Lord Keeper did last night at the Council say, when nobody was ready to
say any thing against the constitution of the Navy, that he did believe
the Treasurers of the Navy had something to say, which was very foul on
their part, to be parties against us. They being gone, Mr. Wren [and I]
took boat, thinking to dine with my Lord of Canterbury; but, when we come
to Lambeth, the gate was shut, which is strictly done at twelve o'clock,
and nobody comes in afterwards: so we lost our labour, and therefore back
to White Hall, and thence walked my boy Jacke with me, to my Lord Crew,
whom I have not seen since he was sick, which is eight months ago, I think
and there dined with him: he is mightily broke. A stranger a country
gentleman, was with him: and he pleased with my discourse accidentally
about the decay of gentlemen's families in the country, telling us that
the old rule was, that a family might remain fifty miles from London one
hundred years, one hundred miles from London two hundred years, and so
farther, or nearer London more or less years. He also told us that he hath
heard his father say, that in his time it was so rare for a country
gentleman to come to London, that, when he did come, he used to make his