Thursday 30 May 1661

Annotations

• N Australian Susan on Sun 30 May 2004, 11:35pm

  “Silver side table”
  Is this a table to show off silver on? Surely not made from silver?
  Good to see Sam keeping “shtum” when Sir G vents his spleen against the absent Sir Ws and making sure he spends time with Slingsby - “talking of many things”. Network, network. Bet Sam was careful to do a lot of listening and agreeing, but also not taking anyone’s part too much. His comments on Church matters show that he thinks Prin was shot himself in the foot by making such a rigorous stand against Bishops.

• N vicente on Mon 31 May 2004, 12:20am

  no mention of said bishops for the House of Lauds
  “…I hear, the Parliament have ordered a bill to be brought in for the restoring the Bishops to the House of Lords …” see
  http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=14113

• N daniel on Mon 31 May 2004, 01:03am

  spoiled clothes

  i wonder whether Sam’s breeches and finery dried out enough for today’s affairs.

• N Bradford on Mon 31 May 2004, 01:37am

  “went into his new barge to try her, and found her a good boat, and like my Lord

• N mary house on Mon 31 May 2004, 03:28am

  I like Hic’s amusing description of the “hideous ordeal” of the baby shower and note that today Sam is careful to avoid participation in yet another christening.

• N Australian Susan on Mon 31 May 2004, 03:46am

  The Gap
  Anyone with an L&M know what the missing words are? What was Sam up to at Milford?

• N Mary on Mon 31 May 2004, 07:47am

  The missing passage.

  ” and put in at Milford and there behind the door of the stairs shit, there being a house of office there.”

• N Mary on Mon 31 May 2004, 07:57am

  Another domestic makeover?

  It was only on 27th May that Sam got Slingsby’s agreement to the Pepys household taking over one small room from the Comptroller’s lodgings. Now, having had second thoughts, Slingsby proposes taking over the whole of the Pepys’ lodgings and finding accommodation for them elsewhere in the building. We’ll have to wait and see whether Sam comes to regret having raised the matter in the first place.

• N George on Mon 31 May 2004, 10:29am

  “To the office, where Sir R. Slingsby was, and he and I into his and my lodgings to take a view of them, out of a desire he has to have mine of me to join to his, and give me Mr. Turner

• N Kevin Sheerstone on Mon 31 May 2004, 11:09am

  Bradford - round door

  I’m not a salty tar but I have a feeling that this reference to a ‘round door’ might be significant. Could Sam be referring to the now- standard hatch, i.e: a ‘door’ on a ship with parallel sides but a semicircular top and bottom; a scuttle in other words, in which case ‘rounded’ would have been a better description.

  I know we have sailors among our posters - help!

• N helena murphy on Mon 31 May 2004, 12:35pm

  I think that there was silver furniture,silver framed wall mirrors and side tables in the 17th century ,but today they are of course very rare.
  Sam’s table is perhaps silver alloyed with another metal.The silver was highly decorative and I believe such pieces were on show to the general public in 2003 when part of the royal collection was displayed in Buckingham Palace in celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.I recall seeing two such pieces then. Perhaps somebody would like to further inform us on the matter.

• N Mary on Mon 31 May 2004, 02:28pm

  Lodgings.

  Yes, this is the Navy Office accommodation (cf. the modern concept of ‘company housing’ or living quarters on a military base). They are lodgings in the sense that this is where senior officers of the Navy Office are lodged during their terms of office. They are not lodgings in the later sense of a small, back room up two pair of stairs for which a weekly rent is paid to the owner who probably also lives on the premises.

• N Mary K. McIntyre on Mon 31 May 2004, 03:05pm

  Silver sidetable = a table to keep your silver in, like our modern sideboard or buffet table, surely!

  OT - was in London 7-17 May, made sure I paid a visit to the Cock to eyeball the G Gibbons fireplace (& hoist a 1/2 to SP!). The husband’s English rellies thot I was a bit silly, but hey.

• N Hic Retearius on Mon 31 May 2004, 03:10pm

  Scuttle

  It

• N Bob T on Mon 31 May 2004, 03:27pm

  The missing passage
  Does anyone know why this rates an entry in his diary.

• N Allan Russell on Mon 31 May 2004, 05:15pm

  Bob, the missing passage is why Sam is great, he tells us every detail, mundane to important. We learn from his honesty, I wouldnt write that in my diary, but that is why I am not a great diarist/blogger.

• N Bob T on Mon 31 May 2004, 05:33pm

  The missing passage.
  We can safely assume that this is something that Sam does on a regular basis, right? My point is, what makes this one rate a diary entry? He didn’t log all the others. Was it because he used what used to be called “a public convenience”? Maybe they weren’t so common as they are today, and that’s what made it’s use rate a diary entry.
  We’re reading this stuff 300 years later, and I’m sure that we are missing a lot because we don’t have an intimate knowledge of Sam’s world.

• N Pedro. on Mon 31 May 2004, 05:33pm

  Arundell-House.
  For small picture of Gresham College and Arundel House see;

  http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/library/home_gresh.htm

• N Pauline on Mon 31 May 2004, 06:57pm

  ”.. Sir R. Slingsby…and I into his and my lodgings to take a view of them, out of a desire he has to have mine of me to join to his, and give me Mr. Turner

• N vicente on Mon 31 May 2004, 07:42pm

  Scuttle from the horses mouth; Seamans grammar.A Scuttle hatch is a little Hatch doth cover a little Square-hole we call Scuttle , where but one man alone can go down into the Ship, they are in divers places of the Ship whereby men pa[f]ss from Deck to Deck, and there is alf[s]o Scuttles Grated, to give light to them betwixt Decks, and for the f[s]moak of Ordnance to paf[s]s away by.
  from Page 7 of the Sea-mans Grammar.
  So my guess it was that it was now rounded top and bottom to allow easier lifting, fitting a Mans bod, he not being square but rather rounded.
  

• N vicente on Mon 31 May 2004, 08:18pm

  More on holes in floor at http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/03/27/index.php
  http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1660/05/14/index.php
  

• N Hic Retearius on Mon 31 May 2004, 08:36pm

  Well done, Vincente! It was right there in plain sight. Kevin, you are vindicated!

• N Mary on Mon 31 May 2004, 10:13pm

  Neighbours at the Navy Office.

  The Pepys’ quarters could have shared party walls with neighbours who backed onto their rooms, as well as with those to either side. This was a substantial building that had been subdivided into living accommodation for a number of different families and these apartments were not necessarily composed of front-to-back ‘slices’ straight through the depth of the premises.

• N A. De Araujo on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 12:13am

  “and there behind the door of the stairs shit” when you gotta go you gotta go; it happened to me when I went to Paris the first time,after I had left the Gare du Nord.

• N Josh on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 01:48am

  No doubt some fact forever unknown to history made Sam

• N dirk on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 03:36am

  “toilet paper”

  Presumably not paper (yet): an expensive material! Out toilet paper was born when sufficient used newspapers were around. Now, we know there were already “newspapers” in Sam’s time, but I doubt whether there were sufficient to provide a continuous source of TP.

  I know of several instances in the 16th & 17th c on the continent when *mussel shells* were in common use for that purpose (don’t even ask me how that must have felt!) - in cities close to the sea or an estuary of course.

  I guess most people just used their imagination and whatever was available cheaply…

• N john lauer on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 04:12am

  Some Frenchman is yet to invent that other thingy,
  known in “old europe” as the bidet?

• N Australian Susan on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 04:13am

  When I lived in Botswana, it was common to use the husks of corn cobs for toilet paper. The Romans used similar items such as loofahs.
  Maybe Sam mentioned this visit because a house of office (forerunner of public conveniences)out on the streets was a novelty. And he always mentions novelties. Anyone out there know about the history of the development of the public convenience??!

• N vicente on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 04:58am

  When In Rome do as the Romans do: Dock leaves do well to.

• N vicente on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 05:36am

  Just look at a modern map, guess wot is marked at the top of Milford street, {does it have its blue plaque}

• N Ruben on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 02:07pm

  Australian Susan: less than a year ago we delt with the cabinets or houses of coprological uses.
  One of the interesting sites I saved was:
  http://www2002.stoke.gov.uk/museums/gladstone/gpminf64.htm

• N Ruben on Tue 1 Jun 2004, 02:17pm

  Sorry, that was the earth closet.
  The flashing tipe is in:
  http://www2002.stoke.gov.uk/museums/gladstone/gpminf62.htm

• N vicente on Thu 3 Jun 2004, 03:07am

  No word from Sam, maybe Evelyn got it wrong.”…30 The Queene arivd, with a traine of Portugueze Ladys in their mostrous fardingals or Guard-Infantas: Their complexions olivaster, & sufficiently unagreable: Her majestie in the same habit, her foretop long & turned aside very strangely: She was yet of the handsomest Countenance of all the rest, & tho low of stature pretily shaped, languishing & excellent Eyes, her teeth wronging her mouth by stiking a little too far out: for the rest sweete & lovely enough: This day was solemnly kept the Anniversary of his Majesties Birth, & restauration: Dr. Alestree preaching in the Chapell:…”
  

• N vicente on Thu 3 Jun 2004, 03:08am

  errata so sorry. wrong year