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Thursday 6 September 1660

To Whitehall by water with Sir W. Batten, and in our passage told me how Commissioner Pett did pay himself for the entertainment that he did give the King at Chatham at his coming in, and 20s. a day all the time he was in Holland, which I wonder at, and so I see there is a great deal of envy between the two. At Whitehall I met with Commissioner Pett, who told me how Mr. Coventry and Fairbank his solicitor are falling out, one complaining of the other for taking too great fees, which is too true. I find that Commissioner Pett is under great discontent, and is loth to give too much money for his place, and so do greatly desire me to go along with him in what we shall agree to give Mr. Coventry, which I have promised him, but am unwilling to mix my fortune with him that is going down the wind. We all met this morning and afterwards at the Admiralty, where our business is to ask provision of victuals ready for the ships in the Downs, which we did, Mr. Gauden promising to go himself thither and see it done. Dined Will and I at my Lord’s upon a joint of meat that I sent Mrs. Sarah for. Afterwards to my office and sent all my books to my Lord’s, in order to send them to my house that I now dwell in. Home and to bed.

Friday 7 September 1660Wednesday 5 September 1660

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Parliament on this day

Annotations

  • PER L&M, the banquet Batten makes sure to get paid for was on 28 May when the King reviewed the fleet. Also, there was no establishment of fees fixed by the Admiral until April 1661; now and later the matter caused much dispute. The solicitor (Fairbanke) was an intermediary between Coventry and those who sought favours of him. Finally, Denis Gauden was victualler of the Navy. The ships were the Dartmouth and Happy Return, about to go to the Canaries, and the Plymouth bound for Constantinople with the new English ambassador. The Duke of York had on the 3rd ordered them to be victualled. Pepys seems to inspire the kind of confidence a superior respects since Batten and Pett are confiding in him so. I do not get who is going down the wind that Pepys does not want to mix his fortune with. Also why does he send the books to his Lord’s? Why not just send them to his house?

  • Pepys’ books

    L&M reads, “afterwards to my house and sent all my books to my Lord’s, in order to send them to my house….”

    Pepys goes to the old, Axe Yard, house and sends his books from there to Sandwich’s house before they are further removed to the Seething Lane house. At Seething Lane Pepys has the joiners in (on 4 Sept. they were flooring the dining-room) so he probably prefers to keep his precious books somewhere clean and out of the way of workmen until the renovation has been finished.

  • Pepys’ books

    L&M reads, “afterwards to my house and sent all my books to my Lord’s, in order to send them to my house….”

    Pepys goes to the old, Axe Yard, house and sends his books from there to Sandwich’s house before they are further removed to the Seething Lane house. At Seething Lane Pepys has the joiners in (on 4 Sept. they were flooring the dining-room) so he probably prefers to keep his precious books somewhere clean and out of the way of workmen until the renovation has been finished.

  • Commissioner Pett

    would appear to be the one that Pepys sees as going down the wind. Back in the early 1650s, under the Comonwealth, Pett had already been accused of large-scale corruption and embezzlement, charges that were dropped on the outbreak of war in 1652. With these latest runours of venality making the rounds, Pepys probably fears that Pett is up to his old, alleged, tricks and may not last long in office.

  • “unwilling to mix my fortune with him that is going down the wind”
    While picking up exactly the same line Pauline did, I’m looking at the converse: Sam’s discretion. Pett has put the arm on him for a show of solidarity, which Sam elected to promise, evidently without meaning to. Discretion and duplicity — already, life in Restoration politics is going to be far from dull!

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