Thursday 28 August 1662

Annotations

• N Terry F, on Sun 28 Aug 2005, 11:30pm

  Last night’s lingering anger tempered by Will’s growth; both of which are surely written about this night — one of the “other matters” done at the office before retiring
  Cf. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1662/08/27/index.php#c34647
  

• N dirk on Sun 28 Aug 2005, 11:31pm

  “So I rose and among my workmen, in my gown…”

  Sam in his gown, his hair in a mess, just out of bed, harassing the workmen.

  I would have loved to see that. (Actually I had a similar experience recently with a plumber coming to fix my shower - finally, after 49 days of waiting…)
  
  

• N Australian Susan on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 02:15am

  In my gown
  Sam would have probably slept naked, but had a loose gown, a night gown, to put on quickly. He may have slept in his shirt - which was a muich more substantial item than the shirts of today. Mind you, I can remember from the 50s that my father’s smart business shirts in those days (with detachable heavily starched collars,) had long shirt ‘tails’ front and back, which were deemed necessary to keep the kidneys from a chill and were tucked into trousers *always* held up with braces, never a belt and then you buttoned a thick waistcoat (US: vest) over that. All this was prior to widespread central heating which was regarded with slight suspicion and held to encourage the catching of colds. My father used to point out that SP always keep his outside clothes on inside buildings and only added a cloak outside if the weather was really awful. Heating in buildings is not much referred to.

• N Terry F, on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 04:28am

  “in my gown, without a doublet…till I was afraid of getting an ague”

  “Ague: A fever (such as from malaria) that is marked by paroxysms of chills, fever, and sweating recurring regular intervals. Also a fit of shivering, a chill. Hence, ague can refer to both chills and fevers.

  “Pronounced ‘A-(“)gy

• N A. Hamilton on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 01:15pm

  In the evening we rose, and I to see how my work goes on, and so to my office, writing by the post and doing other matters, and so home and to bed late.

  Taking care of business and working overtime.

• N gerry on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 01:33pm

  With a nod, A Hamilton to BTO.

• N Terry F, on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 02:21pm

  “In the evening we rose,
  and I to see
  how my work goes”

  Very singable — nods to A.Hamilton and Gerry.

• N andy on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 04:42pm

  Maths problem from 1536:

  remembering Sam’s mastery of maths and the presence of his “Catte” I thought you’d like to read this, from Sunday’s newspaper -
  source:

  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article308632.ece

  The rule and questyon of a catte.

  There is a catte at the fote of a tre the length of 300 fote / this catte goeth upwarde eche daye 17 fote, and descendeth eche nyght 12 fote. I demaunde in how longe tyme shall she be at ye toppe.

  Answere Take vp and abate the nyght of the daye / that is 12 of 17, and there remayneth 5, therfore the catte mounteth eche daye 5 fote / deuyde now 300 by 5 & therof cometh 60, dayes then she shal be at the toppe.
  

• N Nix on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 05:15pm

  In my gown —

  I’m curious about AusSus’s observation that Samuel probably would have slept naked. In a chilly climate I would have assumed he’d wear a night shirt of some sort — in case he kicked off the blankets, or to get up to use the chamber pot, or to yell out the window at noisy neighbors. Can’t London nights get pretty chilly even in August (September new style)?

  Lovely recollections, by the way.

• N Pauline on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 06:01pm

  “…in my gown, without a doublet….”
  From Liza Picard’s “Restoration London”:
  “In bed, men wore long night-shirts, and elegant embroidered night-caps—to judge from the survivors in museums—to keep their heads warm, especially if they had shaved their scalps so as to wear wigs comfortably.

  “Men, too, had their ‘morning gowns’, also known as ‘night-gowns’, ‘dressing gowns’ or just ‘gowns’. They were descendants of the long, warm medieval robes whose wearers were so shocked when naughty young me displayed themselves in buttock-hugging hose, which eventually turned into breeches. To call these robes ‘dressing gowns’ in the modern sense would be misleading.”

• N Robert Gertz on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 08:40pm

  No comments on the dinner food or Lady Batten, what a pity…It would be interesting to know if she’s likewise avoiding Sam. Curious he’s never had much of an eye for her, I wonder if he subconsciously senses too much danger (even if only of making a fool of himself) that way, her being a neighbor, and so has made her an object of dislike.

• N Sjoerd on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 09:26pm

  I’m rather glad Pauline has set our minds at ease concerning the sleeping “au naturel”. With the house being rather draughty and the wife away and an aigue lurking i would say a nightshirt at least, and maybe some flannels with a button-up flap ?

• N dirk on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 09:27pm

  Mathes problem

  re - andy

  Curiously, the solution proposed by the author (60 days) is not correct.

  Look at it this way:
  * after 57 days the cat has reached a height of 57 x 5 ft = 285 ft
  * the next (58th) day the cat first climbs 17 ft … and reaches the top which is only 15 ft away - whether or not the cat decides to climb down 12 ft overnight is irrelevant: it has reached the top

  Mathematically this result can be reached by:

  (300 - 17)/5 = 56.6 rounded to next integer = 57 days

  57 days x 5 ft/day = 285 ft

  300 - 285 = 15 ft to climb the last 58th day
  

• N Terry F, on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 09:57pm

  “the catte mounteth eche daye 5 fote”

  Dirk, how can it climb 15 on day 58?
  I am puzzled.

• N dirk on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 10:04pm

  how can it climb 15

  Terry, it’s confusing, but the cat climbs 17 ft everyday, and then slides dow 12 ft.

  The net difference is of course 5 ft - but before reaching that “daily net” value, on the 58th day it has effectively climbed its daily 17 ft (well 15ft, because there are no 17ft left) and thereby reached the top.
  

• N Terry F, on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 10:16pm

  Aha! So it is not the net but the gross on day 58 that brings it to the toppe!

  Touch

• N gerry on Mon 29 Aug 2005, 10:26pm

  dirk, this type of problem is still very common in simple quizzes nowadays and its amazing how many people still make the same old mistake!

• N Terry F, on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 12:27am

  I sent this to a friend who is a math professor and chess master, and he responded “Terry,
  Of course the cat will be at the top in 58 days.
  Wayne”
  

• N Pauline on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 01:17am

  ‘No comments on…Lady Batten…be interesting to know if she

• N Cumgranissalis on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 02:59am

  Where be the better ladies be? Out to pasture while the the men be creating wealth. The Norse did love to leave home in the spring looking for opportunities to increase wealth, while the wives lazed around looking after the homestead waiting for the harvest.
  Summer cottage [Sandringham Estate e.g.] be part of the purifying the chest of the lung disorders. New Yorkers, the Catskills or better it be Maine with a fresh sea breeze. The Men doth love to have the still of a summers evening, enjoying the View down at the Hide Park, veddy invigorating.

• N Pauline on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 04:03am

  ‘Out to pasture while the the men be creating wealth.’
  Surely some relief from domesticity, but also a health (mental and physical) decision for your children/progenitors. And may even re-spark the marital connection.

• N Pauline on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 04:33am

  children/progenitors
  returning to correct myself for a trailing sense of something wrong: postgenitors? Progeny.

• N A. Hamilton on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 12:43pm

  I observe that Will, whom I used to call two or three times in a morning

  I enjoy this little glimpse of the Pepys household of a morning. Sam arises and rouses Will — and Jane, I would think, unless she anticipates Sam’s rising and is already busy about the kitchen. Does Sam ever mention breakfast? And when does Elizabeth (when not rusticating) arise? Sam doesn’t linger over such detail, does he?

• N Bradford on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 05:15pm

  How can a dead cat continue to climb a tree, after say, oh, forty days and forty nights, or so?

  Pepys hitherto has clued us in by saying he’s going “to my naked bed.”

• N Bradford on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 05:20pm

  All right, maybe it caught some birds on the wings, or perhaps a bat or two. Do cats eat bats?

• N Peter on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 05:46pm

  The cat was obviously Schroedinger’s….Sometimes it’s dead and sometimes it’s alive.

• N Dave on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 07:06pm

  Peter, if you superposition the cat, all answers are correct.

• N Cumgranissalis on Tue 30 Aug 2005, 07:35pm

• N Australian Susan on Wed 31 Aug 2005, 12:12am

  I always thought naked bed meant a four poster without hangings.
  Re cats and bats - I’m sure cats (if ours are anything to go by) will eat anything going, but I doubt they’d catch one! Some bats here in Queensland of course have a metre wingspan……..(but are vegetarian).

• N Cumgranissalis on Wed 31 Aug 2005, 03:37am

  Four poster be nicer, but poor old Samuell be lost with out ‘is Eliza, [being a male will never admit it] that be why he gives one and all a hard time. When I be spending time away on the road I would pack as many meetings in to a 18 hour day so I could be be back in my four poster.
  Cats love to catch dinner, to pay the rent with a live one , they needed a mother cat to teach them to fillet one, ready for dinner.

• N Robert Gertz on Thu 1 Sep 2005, 12:48am

  Why Cumgranissalis…My wife says to say you have become a true romantic.

• N Jenny Doughty on Fri 2 Sep 2005, 02:13pm

  Will, whom I used to call two or three times in a morning

  Do we know how old Will is at this stage? I have to do this all the time with my 19 year-old son, and it’s comforting to know that teenagers were ever thus!