Gambler

In London and Westminster all this day paying of money and buying of things for my house.
In my going I went by chance by my new Lord Mayor’s house (Sir Richard Browne), by Goldsmith’s Hall, which is now fitting, and indeed is a very pretty house.
In coming back I called at Paul’s Churchyard and bought Alsted’s Encyclopaedia, which cost me 38s.
Home and to bed, my wife being much troubled with her old pain.

In and in, paying
and buying, I go.
Chance is a pretty church—
an encyclopedia, which cost me
much pain.

Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 27 October 1660.