An extraordinary wet season, though temperate as to cold. The "Royal Sovereign" man-of-war burned at Chatham. It was built in 1637, and hav[Pg 335]ing given occasion to the levy of ship money was perhaps the cause of all the after troubles to this day. An earthquake in Dorsetshire by Portland, or rather a sinking of the ground suddenly for a large space, near the quarries of stone, hindering the conveyance of that material for the finishing St. Paul's.