Thursday 14 November 1661

Annotations

• N Bradford on Sun 14 Nov 2004, 11:57pm

  May Sam never run out, during the course of the Diary, of things which are the best he has ever encountered in all his life.

• N Pauline on Mon 15 Nov 2004, 06:52am

  “May Sam never run out……..”
  But may he take a minute to give a detail or two; “a pie of such pleasant variety of good things” is too intriguing to let go at that if he’s going to finish up with the best-ever-in-all-my-life line. (I’m having one of those moments where the 343 years have collapsed into a daily unfolding “now” and the unrecorded details should therefore be available in some “recent” memory.)

• N Australian Susan on Mon 15 Nov 2004, 08:11am

  “pleasant variety of good things”
  Such a felicitous phrase! I am wondering if, as this is near winter, that lots of things are being slaughtered as they can’t be kept during the cold months and all sorts of victuals are being tipped into the pie dish!

• N Todd Bernhardt on Mon 15 Nov 2004, 07:22pm

  re: all sorts of victuals

  Susan, wouldn’t it be *easier* to keep things during the colder months? (And yes, Pauline, I’d love to read more about the contents of this pie, but I bet the description was enough for Sam, even re-reading the passage in his old age…)

  Mmmmmm … pie.
  http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/pie.htm

• N Grahamt on Mon 15 Nov 2004, 08:31pm

  re: all sorts of victuals (2)
  Susan is quite right. We have discussed this before. November is a little early, but Midwinter or Yule, was the traditional time to kill off all but breeding stock and have a feast on the meat. This is where our Christmas overindulgence originated.
  During winter there is little grass in the fields to feed the cattle, the hens stop laying, the cows’ milk dries up. In an agricultural society that means expense without reward, so the losses - along with the throats - were cut. The cold winter weather also helps with the preservation of the meat, along with smoking, pickling, salting and drying.
  By Pepys’ time beef cattle were being kept alive on expensive hay during the winter, but mainly to capitalise on the fresh meat shortage of late winter/early spring.