Tuesday 3 January 1659/60

I went out in the morning, it being a great frost, and walked to Mrs. Turner’s to stop her from coming to see me to-day, because of Mrs. Jem’s corning, thence I went to the Temple to speak with Mr. Calthrop, and walked in his chamber an hour, but could not see him, so went to Westminster, where I found soldiers in my office to receive money, and paid it them. At noon went home, where Mrs. Jem, her maid, Mr. Sheply, Hawly, and Moore dined with me on a piece of beef and cabbage, and a collar of brawn. We then fell to cards till dark, and then I went home with Mrs. Jem, and meeting Mr. Hawly got him to bear me company to Chancery Lane, where I spoke with Mr. Calthrop, he told me that Sir James Calthrop was lately dead, but that he would write to his Lady, that the money may be speedily paid. Thence back to White Hall, where I understood that the Parliament had passed the act for indemnity to the soldiers and officers that would come in, in so many days, and that my Lord Lambert should have benefit of the said act. They had also voted that all vacancies in the House, by the death of any of the old members, shall be filled up; but those that are living shall not be called in. Thence I went home, and there found Mr. Hunt and his wife, and Mr. Hawly, who sat with me till ten at night at cards, and so broke up and to bed.

Wednesday 4 January 1659/60Monday 2 January 1659/60

Also on this day

Temperature: 0°C / 32°F

(Average for January 1660)

In Parliament

House of Commons (1, 2)

(About this data)

Annotations

N David Gurliacci on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 05:59am. Flag this

Is this Tuesday? Wednesday?

Ever been perplexed trying to figure out which day of ye week Pepys is in? It’s only going to get harder as the diary goes on. But be not vexed, Dear Reader! Thy troubles are at an ende!

Hie thee (or rather, click thee) to this site, which calculateth ye day of the week (just remember, it considers the Olde Style New Year to start on March 25, so Pepys is still in 1659 right now):

http://www.albion.edu/english/calendar/weekday.htm
N David Goldfarb on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 10:03am. Flag this

People with access to UNIX shells (including those using Mac OS X) have a nice little utility available called “cal”. It even takes into account the 11 dropped days in 1752.
N George Kowalski on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 03:26pm. Flag this

I tried the command “cal 1 1659” and January 3rd shows up as being a Monday. The page off of albion.edu calculates this to be a Tuesday. Any official site for a tie breaker ? I’m running a Mandrake 8.2 system.
N M. Stolzenbach on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 03:38pm. Flag this

Just to note the scanning error: it should be “Mrs. Jem’s coming” in the first sentence, not “corning.”

Awed at the labors of the person who created this site, and most grateful!
N Keith Browne on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 04:59pm. Flag this

I think the Unix cal program is literal-minded about its years. “cal 1 1660” shows January 3 to have been a Tuesday, which agrees with Jan. 1 having been the Lord’s Day.
N Bill McFarland on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 05:03pm. Flag this

If you use cal 1 1660 you get Tuedsay, so it would seem that for cal, the year begins 1/1 always.

I love the site, thanks for doing this.
N David Gurliacci on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 05:50pm. Flag this

Can anyone tell us what these mean?

(1) “to the Temple … and walked in his chamber an hour…” — I assume “walked” means paced. Is “chamber” simply his office, or is it a bigger section of the Temple?

(2) “Collar of brawn” — Does anyone know what “collar” means in this context? I don’t think it has anything to do with being around the neck. We covered the definitions of “brawn” in both the annotations and trackbacks for the Jan. 2 entry.

Thanks to anyone who can help!
N Lisa on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 06:21pm. Flag this

Once the meat is “collared” (wrapped up into a bundle of meat) it is then refered to as a “collar” or sometimes as a “round” of brawn. (from http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/874meat.htm )
N David Gurliacci on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 07:09pm. Flag this

Well that was a fast answer!

Thanks Lisa (for an answer with both brains and “brawn”).

“A collar was a convenient package that could be cooked and sliced,” the entry says. That makes it much more likely that the brawn Mrs. Pepys sliced for Sam yesterday was not the “headcheese” type but the less processed variety.

That site also has a neat glossary of old culinary words that might come in handy in the future:

http://www.kal69.dial.pipex.com/gloss.htm
N naomi on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 07:41pm. Flag this

Me thinks I shall read along……such a very cool idea.
N PHE on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 08:34pm. Flag this

With regard to which day of the week it is, Pepys regularly states when it is the ‘Lord’s day’ (ie. Sunday), as was 1 Jan - and he often refers to going to church on this day, so there should be little difficulty in working out which day is which.
N Eunice Muir on Sat 4 Jan 2003, 11:54pm. Flag this

A Chamber means a room, from the French Chambre. In Mr. Pepys entry I assume the Temple meant the law court, and the reference to the Chamber, which we still use today as in Judges chambers and bedchamber, meant the room which served as his office.

As I noted yesterday, Mr. Pepys spent a lot of time walking from place to place to contact people.
N nick sweeney on Mon 6 Jan 2003, 01:51am. Flag this

The ‘Temple’ is the where many of London’s lawyers kept their offices, and even now, you’ll find barristers whose chambers are there. Inner and Middle Temple are still two of the four ‘Inns of Court’ for English barristers.
N lynn on Mon 28 Jan 2008, 12:39pm. Flag this

Recently found the site and resolved to read all the entries! My father has read all the books so i’ve read bits and pieces along the way but this site is such a good idea. Thank you. I’ve linked it at my site.