Monday 16 June 1662

Annotations

• N Bradford on Thu 16 Jun 2005, 11:09pm. Flag this

  … “I walked home from the Wardrobe, having left my wife at the tower wharf coming by—-whom I find gone to bed not very well, she having her month’s upon her. So to bed.”
  —-as given in “The Shorter Pepys”
  

• N Australian Susan on Thu 16 Jun 2005, 11:47pm. Flag this

  What a busy day for Sam - showing his usual way of doing things - Go And Have A Look Yourself: he goes to inspect the troublesome tallow and have firsthand information as well as keeping an eye on the workmen - he seems surprised they have got on with so much work so fast without someone perpetually around to chivy them along (which is how Sam seems to view house alterations). And then a lovely pleasure trip with the children he so enjoys being with. Alas, poor Elizabeth had her usual trouble and a badly timed reminder of their childlessness.

• N A. De Araujo on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 12:38am. Flag this

  “whom I found gone to bed not very well”
  Probably PMS,she was somewhat irritaded yesterday.

• N dirk on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 01:53am. Flag this

  Not immediately relevant to this particular entry, but useful to create a mental picture of Sam’s world: some dolls in period clothing…

  Two Stuart Gentlemen
  http://www.jillbennettdolls.co.uk/NewFiles/group3.html

  and (at the bottom of this page):
  Sam playing the lute for Elizabeth?
  http://www.jillbennettdolls.co.uk/NewFiles/17thc.html
  

• N language hat on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 01:57am. Flag this

  Joyce

• N Cumgranissalis on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 03:21am. Flag this

  So sorry dense Blooms -

• N Australian Susan on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 04:39am. Flag this

  Dirk, where *do* you find these lovely websites! This one is a delight! I have been looking at all the dolls - you’re right: the lute player and his lady are very much reminiscent of our Sam and his good lady. I also found, further on in the site, a Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett. Thank you for this pleasant interlude in my day.

• N Australian Susan on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 04:41am. Flag this

  Blooms Day.
  All we need now is for Sam to have fried kidneys or other offal.

  But, back to the tallow: was this for candles? or a food source?

• N C.J.Darby on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 12:39pm. Flag this

  Tallow was probably used for waterproofing ropes on the ships as a substitute for tar,if i’m right it was also used in yarn for stitching sails.

• N Mary on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 12:47pm. Flag this

  tallow.

  One of its principal uses was as a lubricant.

• N doj on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 01:25pm. Flag this

  Was not tallow used for candle production as well? If I recollect, whiter tallow would make a brighter (or at least less smoky) candle.
  

• N David Ross McIrvine on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 01:41pm. Flag this

  dirk writes:

  http://www.jillbennettdolls.co.uk/NewFiles/17thc.html

  I suspect Leopold Bloom ordered doll #4 to be sent to his secret P.O. Box, in a plain brown wrapper. Yesterday, in the Postal Office, with the pencil.

• N Tom Burns on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 04:28pm. Flag this

  Tallow and candles

  Tallow was the principal ingredient for candle in Sam’s time because it was readily available - it is simply rendered animal fat. Purity would have been an issue because tallow stank when it burned and, presumably, the purer stuff was less odiferous. An alternative material was beeswax, but this was used only by the wealthy because of its expense.

• N A. De Araujo on Fri 17 Jun 2005, 11:33pm. Flag this

  “because tallow stank when it burned”
  Mrs C is deaf so she did not know what a commotion she was creating.She is very sensitive on the subject of bad odors.Candles have to be taken out of the room to be snuffed.She finds violets oppressive.Can only tolerate a single kind of rose.Tea rose she will not have in her room.
  cf Mary Chestnut’s Civil War(American that is)

• N Robert Gertz on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 01:04am. Flag this

  Leopold and Samuel strolling some alternate universe’s merged London and Dublin together on a Monday morning…Now there’s a walk I’d like to be in on. Though I would also like to catch things in the Bloom parlor where Molly instructs Bess on how to manage a troublesome husband.

• N dirk on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 01:16am. Flag this

  I noted the following message on the Discussion Group site, which I think should be repeated here:

  From: Martha Rosen

  On Monday, June 16, 1662, Pepys writes “Then by water with my wife to the Wardrobe, and dined there; and in the afternoon with all the children by water to Greenwich, where I showed them the King

• N Pauline on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 01:37am. Flag this

• N Australian Susan on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 02:16am. Flag this

  Tallow is used as a cooking oil in cheap burger establishments nowadays. Would the Navy have done this too?
  Until paraffin wax became available (what most candles nowadays are made of), the poor had tallow (which smelt nasty) and the rich had beeswax (which smelt nice). Churches used beeswax candles. The poor used rushes as wicks, making lights for themselves by dipping the rush in melted fat. Burning the candle at both ends meant just that - the rush was twisted up so both ends could be lighted at the same time giving tqice the light for half the time. Beeswax candles are easy to make if you have a good sheet of beeswax with straight edges - you simply put a length of cotton wick in the middle and roll it up, then cut in into sections if you want smaller candles. Cotton wicks give the best light and need to be twisted and doubled in order to not burn down too quickly and outrace the wax and get lost in the candle. Would Sam have had cotton wicks by this time? Did they have access to Indian cotton? Or was it still rush wicks? But presumably candles purchased from a manufacturer. Or did Elizabeth have the maids dipping rushes to make their own supplies??

• N Australian Susan on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 02:20am. Flag this

  A further thought on oils - when did whale oil become available for domestic use? I know Whitby (NE England) sailors got whales in the 18th century, but I don’t know when the industry started.

• N Pauline on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 02:26am. Flag this

  Oliver and Charles
  Note, Oliver born in 1655 and Charles in 1658, and what this says about Lord Sandwich’s political leanings (or calculations). Would be interesting to know how these names were felt by the lads themselves as they grew up and began to understand the recent history.

  Son James is coming in 1664.

• N Australian Susan on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 03:48am. Flag this

  Not sure if this is a factoid, but I read somewhere that Princess Diana wanted to call her firstborn Oliver, until someone gently pointed out to her that calling the lad after someone who had caused her husband’s ancestor’s head to be cut off was a tad tactless to say the least.
  Even today, William and George are not popular names in the Highlands, because ofthe aftrmath of the Highland Clearances and in Northern Ireland, calling a child these names brands you a “Prod”. Oliver as a child’s name in the late 17th century was probably akin to Adolf in the late 20th century.

• N Ruben on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 04:16am. Flag this

  Tallow
  was also used to make soap.
  see:
  http://www.sdahq.org/cleaning/history/

• N dirk on Sat 18 Jun 2005, 09:33pm. Flag this

  when did whale oil become available…

  Susan, I dug up the following - it may answer at least part of your question:

  ”[…] for the poor cottager in Britain, if there was oil to be spared from food, it was likely to have come from fish. The wealthy could afford superior imported oils. […]

  Until paraffin oil became widely available, the difference in quality of oils was similar to that between tallow and wax candles. A higher price meant more light and less smell and smoke. In 1709 the tax imposed on candles was also levied on oil except from fish which, like rushlights, was exempted in recognition that this oil was a light of the poor. […]

  The finest and most expensive whale oil that produced a good light with little smell came from the sperm whale. It first became available in Britain in about l750.”

  http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/historicproperties/index.cfm?page_id=126

• N Patricia on Tue 25 Jul 2006, 02:08am. Flag this

  Once again we see that Elizabeth’s periods are pretty regular (last mention on May 13th) which indicates she has a reasonably good diet, I think.