The Diary Of John Evelyn Vol-2

16/2 JOHN EVELYN 85

26th September, 1672. I carried with me to dinner my
Lord H. Howard (now to be made Earl of Norwich and
Earl Marshal of England) to Sir Robert Clayton's, now
Sheriff of London, at his new house, where we had a
great feast; it is built indeed for a great magistrate, at
excessive cost. The cedar dining room is paintedx
with the history of the Giants' War, incomparably
done by Mr. Streeter, but the figures are too near the
eye.

6th October, 1672. Dr. Thistlethwaite preached at
Whitehall on Rev. v. 2,— a young, but good preacher.
I received the blessed Communion, Dr. Blandford, Bishop
of Worcester, and Dean of the Chapel, officiating. Dined
at my Lord Clifford's, with Lord Mulgrave, Sir Gilbert
Talbot, and Sir Robert Holmes.

8th October, 1672. I toot leave of my Lady Sunder-
land, who was going to Paris to my Lord, now ambassa-
dor there. She made me stay to dinner at Leicester
House, and afterward sent for Richardson, the famous
fire-eater. He devoured brimstone on glowing coals be-
fore us, chewing and swallowing them; he melted a beer-
glass and ate it quite up; then, taking a live coal on his
tongue, he put on it a raw oyster, the coal was blown
on with bellows till it flamed and sparkled in his mouth,
and so remained till the oyster gaped and was quite
boiled. Then, he melted pitch and wax with sulphur,
which he drank down as it flamed; I saw it flaming in
his mouth a good while; he also took up a thick piece
of iron, such as laundresses use to put in their smooth-
ing boxes, when it was fiery hot, held it between his
teeth, then in his hand, and threw it about like a stone;
but this, I observed, he cared not to hold very long; then
he stood on a small pot, and, bending his body, took a
glowing iron with his mouth from between his feet, with-
out touching the pot, or ground, with his hands; with
divers other prodigious feats.

13th October, 1672. After sermon (being summoned
before), I went to my Lord Keeper's, Sir Orlando Bridge-
man, at Essex House, where our new patent was opened
and read, constituting us that were of the Council of
Plantations, to be now of the Council of Trade also, both
united. After the parent was read, we all took our oaths,
and departed.; and the Dean and Preben-