To London about Sir Nicholas Crisp's designs.
I went to see York House and gardens, belonging to the former great Buckingham, but now much ruined through neglect.
Thence, to visit honest and learned Mr. Hartlib, a public spirited and ingenious person, who had propagated many useful things and arts. He told me of the castles which they set for ornament on their stoves in Germany (he himself being a Lithuanian, as I remember), which are furnished with small ordnance of silver on the battlements, out of which they discharge excellent perfumes about the rooms, charging them with a little powder to set them on fire, and disperse the smoke: and in truth no more than need, for their stoves are sufficiently nasty. He told me of an ink that would give a dozen copies, moist sheets of paper being pressed on it; and remain perfect; and a receipt how to take off any print without the least injury to the original. This gentleman was master of innumerable curiosities, and very communicative. I returned home that evening by water; and was afflicted for it with a cold that had almost killed me.
This day, came forth the Protector's Edict, or Proclamation, prohibiting all ministers of the Church of England from preaching or teaching any schools, in which he imitated the apostate, Julian; with the decimation of all the royal party's revenues throughout England.