" Sir W.
Coventry was herewith much moved, (as well as I, who could hardly
abstain from weeping,) and took their names, and so parted;
telling me that he would move his Royal Highness as in a thing
very extraordinary. The truth is, Sir Christopher Mings was a
very stout man, and a man of great parts, and most excellent
tongue among ordinary men: and as Sir W. Coventry says, could
have been the most useful man at such a pinch of time as this.
He was come into great renowne here at home, and more abroad in
the West Indys. He had brought his family into a way of being
great; but dying at this time, his memory and name (his father
being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a
hoyman's daughter; of which he was used frequently to boast) will
be quite forgot in a few months as if he had never been, nor any
of his name be the better by it; he having not had time to will
any estate, but is dead poor rather than rich. So we left the
church and crowd.
14th. With my wife and father to Hales's, and there looked only
on my father's picture, (which is mighty like); and so away to
White Hall to a committee for Tangier.
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