Pen told me to do) that expresse is come from my
Lord with letters, that by a great storm and tempest the mole of
Argier is broken down, and many of their ships sunk into the
mole. So that God Almighty hath now ended that unlucky business
for us; which is very good news.
4th. To Westminster Hall, where it was full terme. Here all the
morning, and at noon to my Lord Crewe's, where one Mr. Templer
(an ingenious man and a person of honour he seems to be) dined;
and, discoursing of the nature of serpents, he told us some in
the waste places of Lancashire do grow to a great bigness, and do
feed upon larkes, which they take thus:--They observe when the
lark is soared to the highest, and do crawl till they come to be
just underneath them; and there they place themselves with their
mouth uppermost, and there, as is conceived, they do eject poyson
upon the bird; for the bird do suddenly come down again in its
course of a circle, and falls directly into the mouth of the
serpent; which is very strange. He is a great traveller; and,
speaking of the tarantula, he says that all the harvest long
(about which times they are most busy) there are fidlers go up
and down the fields every where, in expectation of being hired by
those that are stung.
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