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Sunday 14 October 1660

(Lord’s day). Early to my Lord’s, in my way meeting with Dr. Fairbrother, who walked with me to my father’s back again, and there we drank my morning draft, my father having gone to church and my mother asleep in bed. Here he caused me to put my hand among a great many honorable hands to a paper or certificate in his behalf. To White Hall chappell, where one Dr. Crofts made an indifferent sermon, and after it an anthem, ill sung, which made the King laugh. Here I first did see the Princess Royal since she came into England. Here I also observed, how the Duke of York and Mrs. Palmer did talk to one another very wantonly through the hangings that parts the King’s closet and the closet where the ladies sit. To my Lord’s, where I found my wife, and she and I did dine with my Lady (my Lord dining with my Lord Chamberlain), who did treat my wife with a good deal of respect. In the evening we went home through the rain by water in a sculler, having borrowed some coats of Mr. Sheply. So home, wet and dirty, and to bed.

Monday 15 October 1660Saturday 13 October 1660

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  • who did treat my wife with a very great deal of respect
    L&M substitute “very great” for “good”.

  • a sculler

    A waterman rowing a scull, i.e. a small river-boat rowed by a single man with one pair of oars.

    In theory, watermen were not allowed to ply for hire on The Lord’s Day, but this chap must have decided that it was worth his while to bend the rules on a wet Sunday in autumn.

  • sculling on a Sunday
    This issue came up back on July 22, 1660, “It was the first time that ever I went by water on the Lord

  • “skulling” Just goes to prove that Olde adage “it’s not wot yer know, but who yer know , in order to get to know who, always have some of the ever ready.”
    All rules can be broken by the priveledged, ‘tis why one wants to become priveledged.

  • For more on the Thames Watermen, see the entry at:

    http://www.taxi-l.org/anect.htm

  • Sam takes a morning(?) draft before church. What would that consist of? Ale, or something stronger. Also what is the nature of the closets in the chapel?

  • closet
    per the OED:
    2. a. The private apartment of a monarch or potentate; the private council-chamber; a room in a palace used by the sovereign for private or household devotions. Obs. exc. Hist. Clerk of the Closet: … A pew in the chapel of a castle occupied by the lord and his family, or in a Chapel Royal by the Royal family. Obs.
    c1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. … Chaplaynez to

  • From which we get Water Closet(W.C.)Slightly less space than Charlies; He did so need it for his Hobbies.
    Then the Expression coming out of the Closet, and one is closetted with ( wench) then in the close ….so on so on.

  • Closets in Church
    I recently read a description of the private chapel of a Victorian country house: “the family pew was hung with red velvet curtains and looked like an opera box.” I imagine these “closets” in the Whitehall Palace chapel as being something like that, taking into account a two century difference in time.

  • The King’s closet —

    was a study or private office adjacent to his bedchamber. I have the sense that this is very much larger than what we now would envision as a family pew or an opera box.

    http://www.okima.com/tour/whitehall.html

    Is anyone familiar enough with Whitehall Palace to know whether there would have been a separate “closet” in the Whitehall chapel, or did the chapel open off the closet-by-the-bedroom?

    For a description and picture of the king’s closet at Hampton court, go to:

    http://www.hrp.org.uk/webcode/content.asp?ID=412#anchor214


  • Presumably the document that Dr Fairbrother asks Sam to sign is not too contentious. We have seen Sam do some fancy footwork in the past to avoid signing petitions in favour of certain people. Presumably the list of “many honourable hands” reassures him here. If he hadn’t seen that list I suppose it would have been a case of: “sorry, I don’t seem to have my quill on me”…..
    Speaking of which, Sam does a lot of work on the hoof (paying off ships, signing documents etc). He presumably has to carry writing materials with him, the tools of his trade as it were. Does anybody know how this was done? Some quills, a bottle of ink etc. in a natty little box, perhaps?

  • “…after it an anthem, ill sung, which made the King laugh.”

    I suppose when you’re the King, you don’t have to worry too much about being polite.

  • King’s Closet
    According to the L&M Companion: It was “in a gallery [of the chapel]. Curtains separated the King from the ladies of the bedchamber who sat at either side.” The map of Whitehall Palace shown in the same book shows the King’s Closet “in the ante-chapel” portion of the Chapel. It is quite a distance from the residential sections of the sprawling complex.

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