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Monday 29 July 1661

This morning we began again to sit in the mornings at the office, but before we sat down. Sir R. Slingsby and I went to Sir R. Ford’s to see his house, and we find it will be very convenient for us to have it added to the office if he can be got to part with it. Then we sat down and did business in the office. So home to dinner, and my brother Tom dined with me, and after dinner he and I alone in my chamber had a great deal of talk, and I find that unless my father can forbear to make profit of his house in London and leave it to Tom, he has no mind to set up the trade any where else, and so I know not what to do with him. After this I went with him to my mother, and there told her how things do fall out short of our expectations, which I did (though it be true) to make her leave off her spending, which I find she is nowadays very free in, building upon what is left to us by my uncle to bear her out in it, which troubles me much. While I was here word is brought that my aunt Fenner is exceeding ill, and that my mother is sent for presently to come to her: also that my cozen Charles Glassecocke, though very ill himself, is this day gone to the country to his brother, John Glassecocke, who is a-dying there. Home.

Tuesday 30 July 1661Sunday 28 July 1661

Also on this day

Temperature: 15°C / 59°F

  • (Average for July 1661)

In Parliament

Annotations

  • Murphy’s Law at work?

    Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong - and so will everything that can’t go wrong. Sam’s appears to be experiencing this first hand now.

    So many people with health problems. Something to do with the weather?

  • In any life of sufficient length, there will come a period when one seems to know an unusual number of the sick or dying. Shorten the general lifespan, and the period can come sooner rather than later. One can expect that, as he has done before, Pepys will soon stop a moment to give thanks for his good health—-at present.

  • “aunt Fenner is exceedingly ill… Charles Glassecocke..very ill himself…John Glassecocke who is a dying there.”better get used to it Sam, that is the shape of things to come…

  • If ye have it spend it:”…After this I went with him to my mother, and there told her how things do fall out short of our expectations, which I did (though it be true) to make her leave off her spending, which I find she is nowadays very free in, building upon what is left to us by my uncle to bear her out in it, which troubles me much…” but he don’t have all that he tells others. Got caught in his own petard..

  • Parliament rushing thru the last minute business, should have left for the Shires. There being some difference of Opinion between the houses.[Interesting reading.]
    Hodie 3a vice lecta est Billa, “An Act for paving and repairing the Highways from Charing Crosse to the Stone Bridge beyond Pickadilly, and from Charing Crosse to St. James’, and from thence to the Common Road, and so round the Wall of St. James’, and up to Hyde Parke.”
    The Question being put, “Whether this Bill, with this Proviso, shall pass for a Law ?”
    It was Resolved in the Affirmative.

    From: British History Online
    Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 29 July 1661. House of Lords Journal Volume 11, ().
    URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=14160
    Date: 30/07/2004

  • “Sir R. Slingsby and I went to Sir R. Ford

  • Sir R. Ford’s house.

    (L&M footnote). This was a large house, taxed on 18 hearths in 1666, on the east side of Seething Lane, next to and south of the Navy Office. Ford, a wealthy merchant, had been tenant there since 1653 and held a lease that ran until 1676. He let out parts of the house.

  • “to make her leave off her spending”

    Nice to see Mrs.P back to her best, up and down into the city buying things, and lately under a great expense of money upon herself. But alas unable to make it up in the summer.
    Another Aunt ill and needs looking after.

  • What is Tom’s trade? Does any one know? and what is he doing at the moment - does Sam support him financially?

  • Got caught in his own petard

    We got curious about that phrase, which is actually “Got hoist on his own petard,” so we looked up “petard.” It’s not, as I always assumed, some kind of pike or polearm, but rather a primitive early bomb. In the late Middle Ages, when gunpowder was still new and unpredictable in European warfare, a soldier sent to the enemy castle’s gate with a lit petard sometimes ended up Hoist on it instead, when it went off prematurely. Would perhaps look just as comical to an observer as being snagged on your own pike, but a petard-hoisting would perhaps not be something that the hoistee could laugh about at that night’s campfire.

    Let’s hope Sam can recover from this particular petard accident.

  • “Got caught in his own petard”
    I could not find any “petard” in SP’s diary. (this is a distraction!)
    Still, if you are interested in this kind of bombs know that in Spanish “el petardo” is still a daily use word for a small explosive charge, mostly used in festivities for the noise.

  • What is Tom

  • Tom’s predicament
    Aside from the over-achieving older brother, he had TB.

  • Pedro and JWB
    Thanks for the info on Tom. Satisfied my curiosity and confirmed my suspicion that he was a younger brother. Sam does have a lot of responsibilities…

  • London Prentices.

    A little off topic but may be of interest, and found when searching for info on the above. A ballad “The Glory of These Nations” describing Charles’ return to England.

    http://www.poemsonline.org/poem/cavalier_songs/glory_of_these_nations/

  • More on petard from http://www.phrases.org.uk:

    A petard is an explosive device used to break down doors or walls. Hence - “hoist on one’s…”. Used by Shakespeare in Hamlet: “For ‘tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne petar”. From the [old] French “peter” - to fart.

  • The phrase is to mean to be punished for doing a bad thing then getting caught or inadvertently getting punished for something of his own doing. I.E. Sam puts about how they have inherited and Mamma believes him and the spends all his money thats not there.

  • From the [old] French

  • “peter” in portuguese: peidar, so it must come from Latin; very old!

  • petard

    n.
    1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
    2. A loud firecracker.

    [French p

  • Interestingly, I vaguely recall an out-of-date school dictionary that defined a fart as ‘a small explosion between the knees’.

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