Monday 19 November 1660

(Office day). After we had done a little at the office this morning, I went with the Treasurer in his coach to White Hall, and in our way, in discourse, do find him a very good-natured man; and, talking of those men who now stand condemned for murdering the King, he says that he believes that, if the law would give leave, the King is a man of so great compassion that he would wholly acquit them. Going to my Lord’s I met with Mr. Shepley, and so he and I to the Sun, and I did give him a morning draft of Muscadine.¹ And so to see my Lord’s picture at De Cretz, and he says it is very like him, and I say so too. After that to Westminster Hall, and there hearing that Sir W. Batten was at the Leg in the Palace, I went thither, and there dined with him and some of the Trinity House men who had obtained something to-day at the House of Lords concerning the Ballast Office. After dinner I went by water to London to the Globe in Cornhill, and there did choose two pictures to hang up in my house, which my wife did not like when I came home, and so I sent the picture of Paris back again. To the office, where we sat all the afternoon till night. So home, and there came Mr. Beauchamp to me with the gilt tankard, and I did pay him for it 20l.. So to my musique and sat up late at it, and so to bed, leaving my wife to sit up till 2 o’clock that she may call the wench up to wash.

Muscadine or muscadel, a rich sort of wine. ‘Vinum muscatum quod moschi odorem referat.’
“Quaffed off the muscadel, and threw the sops All in the sexton’s face.”
Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act iii. SC. 2.—M. B.

Tuesday 20 November 1660Sunday 18 November 1660

Also on this day

Temperature: 6°C / 43°F

(Average for November 1660)

In Parliament

In Earls Colne, Essex

Diary of Ralph Josselin

(About this data)

Annotations

N Glyn on Wed 19 Nov 2003, 11:20pm. Flag this

At last the household is back in the old routine and it
N Glyn on Wed 19 Nov 2003, 11:23pm. Flag this

But why couldn’t Elizabeth get a couple of hours sleep before waking Jane? Don’t they have men who are lamplighters so are on a regular nighly patrol, or guards, willing to knock on the windows and “knock them up”?

Or grandfather clocks with striking alarms?
N Glyn on Wed 19 Nov 2003, 11:30pm. Flag this

“The Treasurer (Sir George Carteret, i.e. one of Pepys’ bosses at the Navy Dept) … is … a very good-natured man; and, talking of those men who now stand condemned for murdering the King, he says that he believes that, if the law would give leave, the King is a man of so great compassion that he would wholly acquit them.”

Is Carteret one of those people who, being good-natured themselves, think that other people would feel and act in the very same way? Or is this an accurate prediction about King Charles? And to whom is he referring anyway? Were other people still in danger of trial and execution at this time? Or was Carteret talking about freeing people from imprisonment?
N Glyn on Wed 19 Nov 2003, 11:38pm. Flag this

Pepys somehow fooled or tricked the Treasurer (Sir George) back in July, although I’m not sure how or why:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/07/13/index.php

He seems to like him now though.
N vincent on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 03:19am. Flagged

Glyn …
N vincent on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 03:39am. Flag this

“…And so to see my Lord
N vincent on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 03:55am. Flag this

”..After dinner I went by water to London to the Globe in Cornhill, and there did choose two pictures to hang up in my house, which my wife did not like when I came home, and so I sent the picture of Paris back again. To the office, where we sat all the afternoon till night…” I would like to know about the one that he kept ?
He got one for the “Mrs” and she made her views known, [never shop for the house without the “she who must be obeyed along”]. Was our man in a sulk? I keep forgetting dinner was lunchtime [Noon] but he did stay till night.Also he chose the wrong day to do “sumeert” nice, she with her hands all lathered up, he was lucky, he did not get dumped into the pot of dirty linen.
N Alan Bedford on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 04:15am. Flag this

The Ballast Office was located in old Trinity House which in those days stood on the west side of Water Lane.

And yes, they seem to have been in charge of regulating the companies that supplied ballast to ships leaving the harbor. They seemed to have functioned along the lines of a “fair weights and measures” office.
N Ruben on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 05:01am. Flag this

Or grandfather clocks with striking alarms?

Glyn:
grandfather clocks depend on a pendulum. This invention is from the year 1658 by Huygens, a Dutch. In SP days a clock was a very expensive and not very reliable curiosity.
N Judy Bailey on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 05:03am. Flag this

“…up to wash.” And for a moment I thought they were actually going to wash themselves!

I know they do not wash often, but did people wash at all? Were there no occasions that cleanliness was desired?
N Mary on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 08:14am. Flag this

Lamplighters, grandfather clocks etc.

The lamplighter on his regular rounds had to wait for the arrival of street gas-lighting to become a feature of town life. Then he would make his rounds at dusk and dawn, not at 2 a.m.

Grandfather clocks were to become more affordable by people ‘of the middling sort’ during the 18th century, partly as a result of specialist manufacturers of their movements becoming established. Movements made in London, Birmingham etc. would be sent around the country to other towns, small and large, to be fitted into locally made cases.

A grandfather clock is not of great use as an alarm clock; its regular strike tends to be absorbed into the normal household sounds, and one ignores its chime unless one is specifically keeping an ear open for it.

It may have been possible to engage the watchman to wake a household at a particular time on a regular basis, but was probably not a feasible solution for occasional demands, such as the day of the household wash. Surely Elizabeth would not have propped her own eyelids open until 2 a.m. if there had been another solution available.
N Vera on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 10:29am. Flag this

So, no clocks, no ‘knocker-upper’
(FYI - some one who knocks on the door to wake you up)
so how does Elizabeth know when its 2 am?

I have some hazy (poss. inaccurate) memory about using candles that burned for a given time - would she have used something like that? Anyone know??
N Peter on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 10:51am. Flag this

“Two peoples separated by a common language”…. Many years ago, before I knew better, I offered to knock up a female American acqaintance in order to be sure of meeting an early appointment. Much hilarity and embarassment ensued.
N Mary on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 11:51am. Flag this

Clocks and watches

There could have been either a small, table clock in the house, or a watch.
The first domestic, table clock is thought to have been made c. 1490 and the first watch c. 1510. Around 1587 the watchmaking trade was establishing itself in Geneva and in 1610 the glass cover was introduced to protext the watch’s hand or hands.

What there will not have been is a grandfather clock striking the hours, as the pendulum-controlled clock has only just been invented (see note above).
N Jenny Doughty on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 12:25pm. Flag this

Elizabeth could have woken the maid and then gone to bed herself until the water was boiling, which would take some time in a big copper out at the back of the house probably.
N Matthew on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 02:46pm. Flag this

Weren’t there watchmen shouting “2 o’clock and all is well”, etc.?
N Alan Bedford on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 03:48pm. Flag this

Muscadine would have been wine probably made from the muscadine grape, which would have been found in the southern colonies in North America - the Carolinas, primarily. Details at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8203.html
N Nix on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 04:03pm. Flag this

“Vinum muscatum …” —

Can one of you able scholars translate this line? Or is the Shakespeare quatation a translation (doesn’t look like it to me)?
N Mary on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 04:25pm. Flag this

Muscadine

Another term for muscatel. According to L&M glossary, this was a name that could be applied to any sweet, strong wine and was not always reserved strictly for muscatel.

My Latin is very rusty and ‘moschi’ is not a classical term, but this looks as if it means, ‘Muscat wine, which resembles/recalls the scent of (?) musk’.
N David A. Smith on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 06:19pm. Flag this

“which my wife did not like when I came home, and so I sent the picture of Paris back again”
Fully sympathizing with Sam, I laughed out loud at this one: he picks something, she doesn’t like it, he promptly returns it. If he’s a smart husband, he will neither be ruffled nor let it show if he is. (His state of ruffle probably depends on how long he’s been married.) Some of us have learned in such situations always to remind the vendor that the purchase may be returned for credit ….
N Glyn on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 06:23pm. Flag this

Doesn’t it seem like the type of compromise typical in married life. He comes home with 2 paintings for the new house, which he obviously likes - she hates both of them. So they agree to keep one and send the other back.
N Glyn on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 06:52pm. Flag this

so I sent the picture of Paris back again

Hang on a minute, after thinking about David’s comment, my brain cell is beginning to warm up.

Why would Elizabeth particularly object to this painting? Presumably it isn’t a painting of Paris, France but of the classical person of that name?

Isn’t he most famous for judging some sort of beauty contest between three beautiful naked women (I really don’t remember). So could it be that Sam came back with some 17th century pornography as a present for his wife, and Elizabeth refused to give it house room?
N A. De Araujo on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 06:53pm. Flag this

One way to tell time at night before clocks were invented was by the cock’s crow; see the Gospels when Christ said that Peter was going to betray him before the third cock’s crow.
N Peter on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 06:55pm. Flag this

Picture of Paris. I immediately assumed some kind of cityscape…. but could it be the man? (i.e. a scene of the judgement of Paris)
N melinda trapelo on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 09:05pm. Flagged

“One way to tell time at night before clocks were invented was by the cock
N Kevin Peter on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 10:12pm. Flag this

It’s quite true that roosters not only crow at dawn, but really any time they are awake. My parents’ rooster crows all day long.

They don’t, however, crow at night when they are asleep, so this would not be a good way of keeping track of time.
N Kevin Peter on Thu 20 Nov 2003, 10:13pm. Flag this

According to dictionary.com:

knock up
1. Slang, To make pregnant.
2. Chiefly British, To wake up or summon, as by knocking at the door.
3. Chiefly British, To wear out; exhaust.
N vincent on Fri 21 Nov 2003, 12:25am. Flag this

Time: ‘Tis the bells that tell the story. The sand glass is set for half hour turning. A nice job for the watchman and with his dinger he does hit the bell. It being a navy place to keep those old Salts awake.’Twas 4 bells she listen’d for.
Warming the Bell” or “Flogging the Glass”
Old Naval synonyms for being early for an appointment or doing anything earlier than had been arranged. The phrases originate from the days when watches at sea were measured by a half-hour sand-glass; each time the glass was turned the bell was struck denoting the time. In those more leisurely days, measurement of time to the nearest half-hour was sufficiently accurate for much of life’s affairs, in fact “near enough for a sailing ship”.
watches:
http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/4765.html

Scuttlebutt
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/traditions/html/navyterm.html#watches

history of time
http://whyfiles.org/078time/3.html
slinging of hammock
http://www.gwpda.org/naval/br82708.htm
N vincent on Fri 21 Nov 2003, 03:26am. Flagged
N Barbara on Fri 21 Nov 2003, 11:08am. Flag this

Kevin Peter: another English use of the phrase “knock up” is the practice period before a tennis match.
N vera on Fri 21 Nov 2003, 03:00pm. Flag this

Re Time keeping: Ah Brain now in gear
Of course, Elizabeth and Sam may have had an Hourglass! found an interesting link re keeping time in the past :
http://www.love-watches.com/Hourglass.htm
N vera on Fri 21 Nov 2003, 03:03pm. Flag this

Barbera: Re. your Tennis definition,
I think it almost qualifies as Kevin Peter’s No 3!!
N language hat on Sat 22 Nov 2003, 03:28am. Flag this

Picture of Paris
I assumed this was the classical figure, as suggested by Glyn; it doesn’t seem to me very likely to have been a cityscape.

vincent: Not sure if you’re joking, but “moschi” is exceedingly unlikely to refer to a Caucasian tribe here! Mary’s got it right; it’s about the scent of musk.
N Todd Bernhardt on Sat 22 Nov 2003, 07:19pm. Flagged

re:
N Jackie on Sun 23 Nov 2003, 08:56am. Flag this

Anybody who has been involved in politics will also recognise “knocking up” as something done to alert voters to the fact that it’s Polling Day and persuade them to vote.

An American friend of mine once assisted in this process and the look on her face when told to go and know up a few voters was a picture.