Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Up, being frighted that Mr. Coventry was come to towne and now at the office, so I run down without eating or drinking or washing to the office and it proved my Lord Berkeley. There all the morning, at noon to the ‘Change, and so home to dinner, Mr. Wayth with me, and then to the office, where mighty busy till very late, but I bless God I go through with it very well and hope I shall.
Sunday 13 November 1664Friday 11 November 1664
Pending Dirk, from the Carte Calendar
Mr Hamilton to Ormond
Written from: Portsmouth
Date: 12 November 1664
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 215, fol(s). 107
Document type: Holograph
Sends advice of naval affairs.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/projects/carte/carte40.html
Sam to Mr. Coventry (from “Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys” edited by Tanner)
12 November, 1444.
… We did yesterday attend the Lords Commissioners, who seem resolved to sit close to the Navy business, for they against Monday morning next have commanded us to bring them the names of all his Majesty’s ships in service, their stations, the time for which at this day each ship is victualled, and an account of all the ships in the River, with their names, burthen, and force, which are abIe to carry demiculverins in their lower tier, and besides all this, a state of his Majesty’s stores in all the yards. They enquired of us our opinion touching the 2 commissioners intended for Portsmouth and Harwich, to which Sir John M[ennes] answered he was a stranger to them both. Sir W. B[atten], saying nothing of Colonel Middleton, represented Taylor for such a fanatic as put them all to a sudden rejecting his name and recommending it to us to name another. I told them that I believed the naming of him was with a single respect to the ability of the man, not only in his art (which his Majesty was well informed) but the report given of his dispatch in his place the last Dutch War. It was answered, others as able that were loyal might be found out to supply the place. Sir W. B. since hath asked me who we might name, and whether it were not necessary he should be a shipwright that should go to that place. I told him I would not have to do with the altering of the choice already made, but let their Lordships do as they see fit. And thus that business stands. Somebody I suppose he will propound, but I hope I shall find some fair way of suspending the choice till you are advised of it… .
… To our general hurry of business, and the waiting 3 times a week (personally or by written reports) upon the Lords Commissioners (which I am sure cannot be afforded without neglecting the main), my Lord Treasurer hath sent the enclosed report, which will ask a great deal of care and time, I think…
Holy…! The Boss’s stopped by on his way to war?!!
“Ah, Pepys. Good. Here we are…Manning the nervous center of the war. Seems it’s up to us while the sea boys are off and about it, eh?”
Phew. Only Berkeley.
“Hmmn, yes. Going a bit easy on the ole wash these days, Pepys? Commendable and all…Yes. Look here, Pepys, know it’s wartime and all. Here myself a bit on the early, what with all the fuss at court you know. But, well…You might care to take a mo and rub the old tooth powder? Word to the wise, eh?”
“…being frighted…” I read that passage and for some reason what popped into my mind was,”… And looking up I noticed I was late/Found my coat and grabbed my hat/ Made the bus in seconds flat/Found my way upstairs and had a smoke/Somebody spoke and I went into a dream…”
Through the lack of it, which gets mentioned, we now know Sam’s morning routine: he has something to eat and drink (though we don’t exactly know what that would consist of) and he has a wash - hands and face only probably.
Jeannine’s entry shows us something of what Sam means when he talks of sitting all morning at the office or, in the afternoon to the Commissioners etc. Thank you.
cape henry - can’t see Sam getting off on the wacky baccy, but maybe? Over to you, RG!
As to dreams…Is there anyone who hasn’t once or twice pictured Jonathan Pryce reprising his Sam Lowry in the flying dream sequences of “Brazil” as our boy during some of his little fantasies of Lady C, etc?
“SSSSammm…”
[Ever more ot-Pity Pryce is getting too old to do Pepys, I can’t imagine a better. Make a great Coventry or Charles, though.]
Jonathan Pryce live on stage is mesmerising - much more so than on the small or large screens - just amazing. that said, and i agree he’d make a good Charles - Rufus Sewell was a great Charles in recent BBC drama.
Adding to the Jeannine’s theme, and as Sam is reporting Yesterday’s events.
From the Memorials to Sir William Penn by Granville Penn on the 11th November 1664…
“That 5000 men be added to the above 20000 men (mentioned on the 12th October), for one whole year.”
“Letters to several ports, &c. for the chief magistrates to assist the commissioners appointed by the board for providing quarters for the sick and wounded seamen.”
“Letters to the hospitals of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas for receiving the sick and wounded seamen.”
Great additions to the diary, Thanks.
For the last two or three days the font size in both the diary and annotations has become so minute that the only way I can read each day’s entries is to mark and copy them to a Word document.
Is this affecting anybody else?
What can I do about it?
It doesn’t affect anything else from the Internet.
PS The preview is quite normal. It’s only the web material that’s affected.
Mine has been just the same.
Font sizes:
Mine have not been affected, but for those whose have - hold down the Ctrl key while turning the mouse wheel. This will zoom the text size in or out. This works in Firefox and IE7; I don’t know about IE5/6. A bit quicker than copy-and-paste into Word.
N Phil Gyford 
on Wed 14 Nov 2007, 01:35pm. Flag this
If you have problems with something technical on the site it’s best to email me directly, or the Yahoo discussion group, as I don’t always have time to read the annotations (and it stops the annotations getting filled with things not relevant to the diary itself).
Let me know what browser and version you’re using, and whether it’s Windows or Mac, at phil@gyford.com. Thanks.