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18th. To Lovett's house, where I stood godfather. But it was
pretty that, being a Protestant, a man stood by and was my proxy
to answer for me. A priest christened it, and the boy's name is
Samuel. The ceremonies many, and some foolish. The priest in a
gentleman's dress, more than my own: but is a Capuchin, one of
the Queen-mother's priests. He did give my proxy and the woman
proxy, (my Lady Bills, [Probably the widow of Sir Thomas Pelham,
who re-married John Bills, Esq, of Caen Wood, and retained the
title derived from her first husband with the name of her
second.] absent, had a proxy also,) good advice to bring up the
child, and at the end that he ought never to marry the child nor
the godmother, nor the godmother the child or the godfather:
but, which is strange, they say the mother of the child and the
godfather may marry. By and by the Lady Bills come in, a well-
bred but crooked woman. The poor people of the house had good
wine, and a good cake; and she a pretty woman in her lying-in
dress. It cost me near 40s. the whole christening: to midwife
20s.


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