He do not
disowne but that the dividing of the fleet upon the presumptions
that were then had (which, I suppose, was the French fleet being
come this way,) was a good resolution.
25th. News from Sir W. Coventry that the Dutch are certainly
come out. Mrs. Pen carried us to two gardens at Hackny, (which I
every day grow more and more in love with,) Mr. Drake's one,
where the garden is good, and house and the prospect admirable;
the other my Lord Brooke's [Robert Lord Brooke, ob. 1676. Evelyn
mentions this garden as Lady Brooke's. Brooke House at Clapton,
was lately occupied as a private madhouse.] where the gardens
are much better, but the house not so good, nor the prospect good
at all. But the gardens are excellent; and here I first saw
oranges grow: some green, some half, some a quarter, and some
full ripe, on the same tree, and one fruit of the same tree do
come a year or two after the other. I pulled off a little one by
stealth (the man being mightily curious of them) and eat it, and
it was just as other little green small oranges are: as big as
half the end of my little finger.
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