DIARY OF

of Rome was a true church; but it was a captious mistake;
for he never affirmed anything that could be more to
their reproach, and that such was the present Church of
Rome, showing how much it had erred. There was not
in this sermon so much as a shadow for censure, no
person of all the clergy having testified greater zeal
against the errors of the Papists than this pious and
most learned person. I dined at the Bishop of Roches-
ter's, and then went to St. Paul's to hear that great wit,
Dr. Sprat, now newly succeeding Dr, Outram, in the
cure of St. Margaret's. His talent was a great memory,
never making use of notes, a readiness of expression in a
most pure and plain style of words, full of matter, easily
delivered.

26th November, 1679. I met the Earl of Clarendon
with the rest of my fellow executors of the Will of my
late Lady Viscountess Mordaunt, namely, Mr. Laurence
Hyde, one of the Commissioners of the Treasury, and
lately Plenipotentiary-Ambassador at Nimeguen; Andrew
Newport; and Sir Charles Wheeler; to examine and
audit and dispose of this year's account of the estate
of this excellent Lady, according to the direction of her
Will.

27th November, 1679. I went to see Sir John Stone-
house, with whom I was treating a marriage between
my son and his daughter-in-law.

28th November, 1679, Came over the Duke of Mon-
mouth from Holland unexpectedly to his Majesty; while
the Duke of York was on his journey to Scotland,
whither the King sent him to reside and govern. The
bells and bonfires of the city at this arrival of the Duke
of Monmouth publishing their joy, to the no small regret
of some at Court, This Duke, whom for distinction they
called the Protestant Duke (though the son of an aban-
doned woman), the people made their idol.

4th December, 1679. I dined, together with Lord
Ossory and the Earl of Chesterfield, at the Portugal
Ambassador's, now newly come, at Cleveland House, a
noble palace, too good for that infamous. . , . The
staircase is sumptuous, and the gallery and garden; but,
above all, the costly furniture belonging to the Ambas-
sador, especially the rich Japan cabinets, of which I
think there were a dozen. There was a billiard table,ty they boast of. I