Wednesday 30 October 1661

Annotations

• N Bob T on Sat 30 Oct 2004, 11:17pm. Flag this

  and we walked together to Deptford.

  This is a very long walk. Why did they waste so much time when they could have hired horses on the south side? Would they have been headed to what I knew as Deptford Creek?

• N dirk on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 12:13am. Flag this

  “Sir Henry Vane, Lambert, and others, are lately sent suddenly away from the Tower, prisoners to Scilly; but I do not think there is any plot as is said”

  A plot? Does anyone have any more background info on this?
  

• N dirk on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 12:28am. Flag this

  Doll

  First reference to Doll was on sunday 8 September, when in the afternoon, after church service, “coming home again found our new maid Doll asleep, that she could not hear to let us in, so that we were fain to send the boy in at a window to open the door to us”.

  We don’t seem to know much about Doll, when she was hired, whether she was young and pretty, nor anything else really. There’s no background info on her yet.
  

• N dirk on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 12:35am. Flagged

  “Sir R. Slingsby

• N David A. Smith on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 12:36am. Flag this

  “shew me every hole and corner of the ship, much to my information”
  Here is that restless insatiable curiosity come to the fore: fiddling with his theorbo at lunch, then into the bowels of the boat.
  Sam is from the Yogi Berra School of Management: “You can observe a lot just by watching.”
  A useful trait, seen many times already. Inferential spolier alert!

• N David A. Smith on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 12:41am. Flag this

  “by being forced to keep more servants, which brings trouble”
  More challenges of a hot updraft trajectory — you have to swell the household to cope with the bigger house, and the managerial span of control broadens.
  Sam, my boy, soon you’re going to need a capable assistant ….
  

• N Bradford on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 01:32am. Flagged

  Sam sees “the inconvenience that do attend the increase of a man

• N vicente on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 02:00am. Flag this

  an old saw: one servant much work done[please the mrs] Two servants, half a job done . Three servants much mischief.

• N vicente on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 02:26am. Flagged

  “…We don

• N vicente on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 02:43am. Flag this

  “…and we walked together to Deptford…” lots of questions would be asked and answered in this pleasant stroll, so much will be accomplished this way rather than being a stuffy conference room on the ‘Bosses’ turf. All the best Decisions are made in business world on neutral turf and in pleasant surroundings.[‘tis why Coffee houses were a success]
  “…”shew me every hole and corner of the ship, much to my information”…”
  Every Genius and truly succeessful Executive asks and listens, then he can execute the best action. Tis one of the main reasons Airplanes shuttle the leaders over billions of miles to get an eyeball. This only way one can find out who Knows wot and WHO can do the carry out the commission.
  Ears came months before mouth.

• N JWB on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 02:46am. Flag this

  “…pretending…”
  Well, Slingsby did die Sat. the 26th. Sam writes that he admired the man as uncorrupted. Perhaps he thought him uncorruptable.

• N Pauline on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 03:06am. Flag this

  Perhaps he thought him uncorruptable.
  JWB, you are naughty.
  Sam also says “I fear he hath left his family in great distraction.” So perhaps the quick and unexpected death of a man as well-respected and loved by his family as by Sam has left things in a dither and certain basic expediencies have taken over.

• N Mary on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 06:49am. Flag this

  “said she would stay only six months”

  Maids (according to L&M Companion) were normally employed on a monthly basis. This is why it seemed so impertinent for the previous applicant to demand a six-month contract.

• N Lawrence on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 11:12am. Flag this

  The prisoners were shipped on the 25th-Vane to the Scillies, Lambert to Guernsey, Corbet and Waller to Jersey:
  The scare was caused by the Worcestershire or Yarranton Plot. L&M

• N David A. Smith on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 03:10pm. Flag this

  “all things out of order, and no such thing done to-night”
  Responding to Dirk, I agree with Pauline on the Occam’s Razor explanation. Sir Robert was a healthy, successful, capable man; his sudden death has left his family in grief and confusion, unable to arrange a proper reception and viewing. So they invent an exculpatory white lie (“the corpse stinks”) that lets them politely but briskly turn away the callers.

• N David A. Smith on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 03:22pm. Flagged

  “I do not think there is any plot as is said, but only a pretence”
  Via Google (my distillation, read the whole thing):
  Andrew Yarranton, born Worcestershire 1616. Parliamentary Army in the war; 1648 frustrated a Royalist plan to seize Doyley House in Hereford, rewarded with

• N David A. Smith on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 03:25pm. Flag this

  “as there was once pretended often against the Cavaliers”
  Reading Yarranton’s life story, I am struck at how similar in many ways it is to Sam’s, but for accident of age and place — the same enterprise, the same commitment, the same political odyssey, the same interest in waterways.

• N vicente on Sun 31 Oct 2004, 08:41pm. Flag this

  “Maids (according to L&M Companion) were normally employed on a monthly basis”. According to Liza Picard P176 the contract was for 1 yr as the Mistress had to provide the “[french maid?]” outfit. Many absconded with silver and outfit. Servants had no security, could be dumped at the whim of the Mistress. Nice reading pages 175-179. There is a nice ad for missing wench and her trophies.

• N Nix on Mon 1 Nov 2004, 03:48pm. Flag this

  “and so will unbespeak all their guests”

  Here is the OED entry on “unbespeak”:

  v. trans. To countermand; to cancel an order or request for.
  
  1661 PEPYS Diary 30 Oct., Pretending that the corps stinks, they will bury it to-night privately, and so will unbespeak all their guests. 1693 Let. in Academy 9 Aug. (1890) 109/3 You will force me elce to..unbespeake ye continuance of a Kindenesse I cannot repay. 1740 GARRICK Lying Valet 1, I can immediately run back and unbespeak what I have order’d. 1743 MRS. DELANY in Life & Corr. (1861) II. 207 He says he has not strength to perform the journey. The lodgings are unbespoke, the coach forbid.

• N Todd Bernhardt on Mon 1 Nov 2004, 09:36pm. Flag this

  re: David, Pauline and Occam’s Razor

  “Sir Robert was a healthy, successful, capable man; his sudden death has left his family in grief and confusion, unable to arrange a proper reception and viewing.”

  OR … is it possible that “but I fear he hath left his family in great distraction” means that he left a great many debts and other problems unknown to his family? Which puts them at their wits’ ends, and renders them unable to pay for a proper funeral?

  Your Satanic attorney,
  Todd