Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
(Lord’s day). Before church time walking with my father in the garden contriving. So to church, where we had common prayer, and a dull sermon by one Mr. Case, who yet I heard sing very well. So to dinner, and busy with my father about his accounts all the afternoon, and people came to speak with us about business. Mr. Barnwell at night came and supped with us. So after setting matters even with my father and I, to bed.
Monday 23 September 1661Saturday 21 September 1661
13°C / 55°F
(monthly average for September 1661) About
There are no journals available for this date.
Evelyn’s diary:
“Our Viccar on 26. Matt: 39: An exceeding sickly wet Autumne after a very wet summer:”
Sam doesn’t mention any rain today, so maybe he had a pleasant walk with his father - the clouds would have been of a judicial nature…
Matt 26:39
“And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Lord
“contriving”
One always gets the sense that Sam loves making good plans and seeing them carried out “to my satisfaction”. Remember how pleased he was to “be about my workmen” when the staircase was being built. He derives pleasure from sorting things out, getting them right and ordered “putting my papers in order”. One can sense that what is happening at Hinchinbrook really rubs him up the wrong way: he can’t stand matters not being progressed! Look how pleased he was at finally seeing the “bottom” of everything to do with the Gravely business. Soon all these traits will be harnessed to wonderful effect to organise what became the civil service and the modern navy administration. Good to see it in embryo. Sam isn’t wandering about admiring the garden or the views, but “contriving” - discussing, planning, fixing - Sam in his element.
“Common prayer” Is that the same as Morning Prayer ?
Might it be short for ‘the book of Common Prayer’?
For a different aspect of Pepys’s era, try “Memoirs of Louis XIV and his Court and of the Regency” by the Duke of Saint-Simon. These delightful memoirs provide a fascinating and insightful view of the Court of Louis XIV and the Regent, an era nearly contemporaneous with Sam’s. The “Memoirs” portray the culture, life style, and attitudes of the ruling class of France, and I think provides an excellent understanding of the behavior and attitudes of James II and Charles II. The “Memoirs” also help the reader to understand the hatred for the aristocracy and clergy that led to so much violence and bloodshed during the French Revolution a few decades later. Saint-Simon, while writing only of the very upper class and the French Court, does so with honesty, clarity, humor, and insight, much like Sam’s “Diary”.
The French view…
Thanks Jim W for the reference to Saint-Simon’s Memoirs of Louis XIV. Here’s the whole text in English available for download thanks to Project Gutenberg:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3875
Here’s a quote from the Intro:
—- Villemain declared their author to be “the most original of geniuses in French literature, the foremost of prose satirists; inexhaustible in details of manners and customs, a word-painter like Tacitus; the author of a language of his own, lacking in accuracy, system, and art, yet an admirable writer.” Leon Vallee reinforces this by saying: “Saint-Simon can not be compared to any of his contemporaries. He has an individuality, a style, and a language solely his own…. Language he treated like an abject slave. When he had gone to its farthest limit, when it failed to express his ideas or feelings, he forced it