From the diary of Samuel Pepys (1663-1703)
My Lord being gone, I took Mr. Hill to my Lord Chancellors new house that is building, and went with trouble up to the top of it and there is there the noblest prospect that ever I saw in my life, Greenwich being nothing to it. And in everything is a beautiful house---and most strongly built in every respect---and as if, as it hath, it had the Chancellor for its maister. Thence with him [Mr. Hill] to his painter, Mr. Hales, who is drawing his picture---which will be mighty like him, and pleased me, so that I am resolved presently to have my wife's and mine done by him, he having a very maisterly hand. Here I perceive Sir G. Carteret had prepared himself to answer a Choque of Sir W. Coventry, by offering of himself to show all he had paid, and what is unpaid and what moneys and assignments he hath in his hands---which, if he makes good, was the best thing he ever did say in his life---and the best timed, for else it must have fallen very foul of him. -- Pepys' Diary, 14 Feb. 1666