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1678-79                        JOHN EVELYN

which was so worded, that several good Protestants
scrupled, and Sir William, though a learned man and
excellent divine himself, had some doubts about it. The
Bishop's opinion was that he might take it, though he
wished it had been otherwise worded in the text

iSth January, 1678-79. I went with my Lady Sunder-
land to Clielsa, and dined with the Countess of Bristol
[her mother] in the great house, formerly the Duke of
Buckingham's, a spacious and excellent place for the ex-
tent of grcrand and situation in a good air. The house
is large but ill-contrived, though my Lord of Bristol,
who purchased it after he sold Wimbledon to my Lord
Treasurer, expended much money on it. There were
divers pictures of Titian and Vandyke, and some of
Bassano, very excellent, especially an Adonis and
Venus, a Duke of Venice, a butcher in his shambles
selling meat to a Swiss; and of Vandyke, my Lord of
Bristol's picture, with the Earl of Bedford's at length, in
the same table. There was in the garden a rare collec-
tion of orange trees, of which she was pleased to bestow
some upon me.

16th January, 1679. I supped this night with Mr. Sec-
retary at one Mr. Houblon's, a French merchant, who
"had his house furnished en Prince, and gave, us a splendid
entertainment.

25th January, 1679. The Long Parliament, which had
sat ever since the Restoration, was dissolved by persua-
sion of the Lord Treasurer, though divers of them were
believed to be his pensioner. At this, all the politicians
were at a stand, they being very eager in pursuit of the
late plot of the Papists.

3oth January, 1679. Dr. Cudworth preached before the
King at Whitehall, on 2 Timothy iii. 5, reckoning up the
perils of the last times, in which, among other wicked-
ness, treasons should be one of the greatest, applying it
to the occasion, as committed under a form of reforma-
tion and g*odliness; concluding that the prophecy did in-
tend more particularly the present age, as one of the last
times; the sins there enumerated, more abundantly reign-
ing than ever.

2d February, 1679. Dr. Durell, Dean of Windsor,
preached to the household at Whitehall, on i Cor. xvi
22; lie read the whole sermon out of his notes, which If St. Omer's