mouth, through the Downs, where it was believed there might be an encounter.

11th May. Went to Chatham.-12th. Heard a sermon in Rochester Cathedral.

13th. To Canterbury; visited Dr. Bargrave,1 my old fellow-traveller in Italy, and great virtuoso. 14th. To Dover; but the fleet did not appear till the 16th, when the Duke of York with his and the French squadron, in all 170 ships (of which above 100 were men-of-war), sailed by, after the Dutch, who were newly withdrawn. Such a gallant and formidable navy never, I think, spread sail upon the seas. It was a goodly yet terrible sight, to behold them as I did, passing eastward by the straits betwixt Dover and Calais in a glorious day. The wind was yet so high, that I could not well go aboard, and they were soon got out of sight. The next day, having visited our prisoners and the Castle, and saluted the Governor, I took horse for Margate. Here, from the North Foreland Lighthouse top (which is a Pharos, built of brick, and having on the top a cradle of iron, in which a man attends a great sea-coal fire all the year long, when the nights are dark, for the safeguard of sailors), we could see our fleet as they lay at anchor. The next morning, they weighed, and sailed out of sight to the N.E.

19th. Went to Margate; and, the following day, was carried to see a gallant widow, brought up a farmeress, and I think of gigantic race, rich, comely, and exceedingly industrious. She put me in mind of Deborah and Abigail, her house was so plentifully stored with all manner of countryprovisions, all of her own growth, and all her conveniences so substantial, neat, and well understood

1 [Dr. John Bargrave, 1610-80, Baron of Canterbury. He has not been mentioned previously; but he travelled on the Continent till the Restoration.]

she herself so jolly and hospitable; and her land so trim and rarely husbanded, that it struck me with admiration at her economy.

This town much consists of brewers of a certain heady ale, and they deal much in malt, etc. For the rest, it is raggedly built, and has an ill haven, with a small fort of little concernment, nor is the island [Thanet] well disciplined; but as to the husbandry and rural part, far exceeding any part of England for the accurate culture of their ground, in which they exceed, even to curiosity and emulation.

We passed by Richborough, and in sight of Reculvers, and so through a sweet garden, as it were, to Canterbury.

24th May. To London, and gave his Majesty an account of my journey, and that I had put all things in readiness upon all events, and so returned home sufficiently wearied.

1

31st. I received another command to repair to the sea-side; so I went to Rochester, where I found many wounded, sick, and prisoners, newly put on shore after the engagement on the 28th,1 in which the Earl of Sandwich, that incomparable person and my particular friend, and divers more whom I loved, were lost. My Lord (who was Admiral of the Blue) was in the Prince, which was burnt, one of the best men-of-war that ever spread canvass on the sea. There were lost with this brave man, a son of Sir Charles Cotterell (Master of the Ceremonies), and a son of Sir Charles Harbord (his Majesty's Surveyor-General), two valiant and most accomplished youths, full of virtue and courage, who might have saved themselves; but chose to perish with my Lord, whom they honoured and loved above their own lives.

1 [This was the defeat by the Duke of York of the Dutch under De Ruyter in Southwold, or Sole Bay.]