Annotations and comments

Tim has posted 20 annotations/comments since 4 May 2014.

The most recent first…

Comments

Second Reading

About Sunday 29 June 1662

Tim  •  Link

Speaking as one, Samuel is a rather untypical husband in noticing and complimenting (or criticising) his wife's clothes....

About Sunday 25 May 1662

Tim  •  Link

Pumice is a very common method of removing stains etc from hands. Using it instead of shaving seems to be step too far. (of course, living in a volcanic region, I can pick up pumice from any sea shore - the sea water does wear off the really rough bits of the stone)

About Sunday 15 December 1661

Tim  •  Link

With servants sharing the bedroom during winter (See above, some entries ago) and with much of the housework involving the mistress as well as the servant, for compatible relationships between all in the household would have been essential for a smooth runing - It was only in Victorian times that servants and mistresses became separate beings

About Monday 2 December 1661

Tim  •  Link

I wonder if Savill hurriedly told his servant to tell Sam that he was sick. Just didn't feel up to Sam pointing out where he was going wrong in his brush strokes and otherwise peering over his shoulder...

About Thursday 7 November 1661

Tim  •  Link

Yes, Mrs P may have been at many of these meetings, just silent and unrecorded. Sam seems to be quite skilled on the theorbo - enough to tell a bad teacher, at any rate

About Sunday 3 November 1661

Tim  •  Link

Right up to the 1970s, we only ate chicken at Christmas. Otherwise it was beef or mutton, with the occasional pork.

About Friday 4 October 1661

Tim  •  Link

- Did Lady Batten's enthusiasm persuade Sam to give 'Victoria' another go? - But, no - Lady B's still a fool... Cheese very much an essential food for the servants, sailors and poor- Meat expensive and rare - meatless Fridays no hardship since most other days were meatless. And Sam himself a couple of days ago dined on bread and cheese.

About Monday 23 September 1661

Tim  •  Link

That is what I find strange - trying to engage with commentators of a decade ago. Are such as the formidable Vicente and Australian Susan still around?

About Sunday 15 September 1661

Tim  •  Link

Kite and carrion:
I agree with A Hamilton of a decade ago. Sam makes a clumsy pun - sort of thing one tries out on friends, one or two who , probably in their cups, think to be hilarious (but then they all can't be gems). Interesting that according to annotations, Peg Kite marries a weaver whom Sam thinks to be a 'beggarly rogue'

About Sunday 8 September 1661

Tim  •  Link

Sunday an unofficial halfday off for servants? - they would get very little other breaks - and they would grab a chance to sleep when they could -

About Friday 6 September 1661

Tim  •  Link

Referring to the comments a decade ago - Yes, there is something of Leopold Bloom about Pepys. The diary form does approach a stream of consciousness level. And the life of both - being ambulatory and relying on social contacts be it at the pub or elsewhere, in their day-to-day business, whether as a civil servant for the navy or as an advertising canvasser (admittedly Pepys has contact with more high-flown society) and their sometimes dodgy relationship with Elizabeth and Molly (Suspicions of young Somerset as against certainty of Blazes Boylan). Early 20th century Dublin and mid-17th century London appear to b e surprisingly close.

About Tuesday 23 July 1661

Tim  •  Link

I suppose Mrs Palmer was used to the rude and libidinous twisting around in their seats to goggle at her...

About Tuesday 11 June 1661

Tim  •  Link

To wander off-topic, capital punishment under the Commonwealth and in Pepys' time
was not as widespread as it became from 1723 on ('The Bloody Code'), in which the death penalty was prescribed for such things as consorting with gypsies, strong evidence of malice in a child 7-14 years of age and theft of over the value of 12 pence was prescribed. The jury system was breaking down as juries refused to convict in large numbers of cases. Solved only br bringing in Transportation to the colonies asan alternative

About Saturday 11 May 1661

Tim  •  Link

Ray, I speak into the ether seven years on - in fact it's a bit of a myth that the Cavaliers had a monopoly on lovely long hair, lact twirls etc, as many portraits show.

Yes- it's more to do with fashion and class than an ideological or religious statement - Under Parliament the richer and more prominent had flowing locks. Quite natural that SP feels the need for his hair to grow along with his status

About Tuesday 7 May 1661

Tim  •  Link

Any particular reason why the Trainbands have a muster on 7 May - leading to the closure of shops in the city, so obviously not a regular military exercise. Why that date? During the Civil War they were strongly parliamentarian - Is this a special event to demonstrate their newly-acquired loyalty to His Maj?

About Sunday 5 May 1661

Tim  •  Link

Face must have been extremely florid, to be mentioned twice - This in an age where high blood pressure would have been not unusual among the well-eating and well-drinking classes to which the parson would belong

About Sunday 5 May 1661

Tim  •  Link

All rather OT but
"Even palm trees grow there."
alas - not palm trees at Torquay but cordyline Australis - NZ cabbage tree or Ti kouka will. A variant of the lily family - grow quite happily in snow in NZ

About Tuesday 30 April 1661

Tim  •  Link

"However, I can't think offhand of any "water" there (either pond or river) that might have spoiled Sam's hat"
One of the many streams paved over as London expanded?