Monday 15 October 1660

Annotations

• N Paul Brewster on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 01:53am

  but his quarters, by a great favour, are not to be hanged up
  L&M footnote: “John Carew was a regicide, but also (being a republican and a Fifth Monarchist) an opponent of Cromwell. The Commons had only by a small majority excepted him from the Act of Indemnity, and now, after his condemnation and execution, his quarters were granted to his brother and given decent burial that night.”

• N Paul Brewster on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 01:56am

• N Paul Brewster on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 02:02am

  such ships as are fit to be kept out for the winter guard
  The L&M footnote says that 35 were chosen (“Large ships were unable to ride out the winter seas.”)

• N vincent on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 02:42am

  Snoring, Reading in bed; What was the source of lite? 1 candle power?
  A stooping? Did she have a Nose bleed?
  “…which I read in bed till I had made an end of it, and do find it the best writ tale that ever I read in my life. After that done to sleep, which I did not very well do, because that my wife having a stopping in her nose she snored much, which I never did hear her do before….”
  

• N Glynn on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 03:28am

  A stopping - A blocked nose

• N Jenny Doughty on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 03:55am

  ‘his quarters, by a great favour, are not to be hanged up’

  Well I bet that was a relief for him…

• N Mary on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 08:01am

  Reading in bed

  Yes, candle-light. Gas-light won’t be available until the 19th Century and oil-lamps have not yet come into use. The light from the candle may have been maximised by the addition to the candle-stick of a reflector behind the flame.

  Numerous fires were caused every year by the careless use and positioning of candles. In the 1640’s a Lord Mayor of London issued a particular warning about fire-hazards to the citizens, quoted by Picard (Restoration London).

  “If you will use Candle all night, let your Candlestick be a pot of water brim full, and set it where it shall stand, and then light a Candle and stick a great pin in the bottom of the Candle, and let it slowly into the water, and it will burn all night without danger….”

• N upper_left_hand_corner on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 04:44pm

  Thanks Mary, interesting example of early scientific understanding!

  Mary’s quote from Picard regarding the candlestick in water is early evidence of instinctive understanding of surface tension.

  The comment about the pot being “brim full” is the giveaway. Try this yourself — if you put a bottom-weighted candle in a wide-mouthed cup or pot that has been filled so that the water is actually higher than the brim, then surface tension will force the candle to stay in the middle of the vessel. The candle will also hollow itself out since the wax touching the water will be too cool to melt.

• N M.Stolzenbach on Thu 16 Oct 2003, 04:59pm

  We often talk here of the samenesses of life in all periods, but in this entry we see also the great differences.

  Pepys talks just as we might about a wedding anniversary dinner at the folks’ - then drops in an almost casual, daily-news sort of comment about a prisoner who had his dead body hacked into four quarters.

  Think not only of the man who had this done to him, but of the men who were obliged to do it as part of their jobs.

• N Mary House on Fri 17 Oct 2003, 03:00am

  I don’t find this to be a great difference at all. We watch daily atrocities on television and then cheerfully resume our mundane activities.

• N Nate Lockwood on Fri 17 Oct 2003, 03:55am

  How big in diameter are the candles we are talking about and what were thay made of.

  Beeswax was quite expensive and the “wax” candles we use today are from the mid 19th century, I think. Did most folks use tallow candles? Rotten things.

• N Mary on Fri 17 Oct 2003, 07:31am

  Candles

  Most ‘household’ candles at this date would have been smelly, tallow candles; beeswax candles were indeed too expensive for general, everyday use. Paraffin-wax candles did not appear until the early 19th Century, though in the U.S. some candles were made earlier than this from the bayberry (myrica cerifera) that was native to the north-eastern states. Other names for the bayberry are wax berry and candle berry. The fruit has a waxy covering that could be refined.