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Rh good ordinary and excellent company." On his return home Evelyn gives a picture of travelling by sea in those days, and records under date of October 14, 1641: " From hence the next day, I marched three English miles towards the pack-boate, being a pretty fregat of six guns, which embarked us for England about three in the after-noone. At our going off, the Fort against which our pinnace ankered saluted my Lord Marshall with twelve greate guns, while we answered with three. Not having the wind favourable, we ankered that night before Calais. About mid-night we weighed and at four in the morning, tho' not far from Dover, we could not make the peere till four in the afternoon, the wind proving contrary and driving us Westward; but at last we got on shore Oct. the 12th."

To the writings of Pepys and Evelyn we are indebted, not only for almost everything known concerning yachts and yachting at this period, but also for the daily lives and customs of the English people during this era, which may be regarded as the opening years in the history of modern England. It was during the reign of King Charles II., and largely through his influence and efforts, that England took her first infant steps in scientific knowledge as applied to naval architecture.

On August 15, 1660, Pepys records: "To the office, and after dinner by water to White Hall, where I found the King gone this morning by five of the clock to see a Dutch pleasure-boat below bridge where he dines, and my Lord with him, the