Sunday 22 January 1659/60

I went in the morning to Mr. Messum’s, where I met with W. Thurburn and sat with him in his pew. A very eloquent sermon about the duty of all to give good example in our lives and conversation, which I fear he himself was most guilty of not doing. After sermon, at the door by appointment my wife met me, and so to my father’s to dinner, where we had not been to my shame in a fortnight before. After dinner my father shewed me a letter from Mr. Widdrington, of Christ’s College, in Cambridge, wherein he do express very great kindness for my brother, and my father intends that my brother shall go to him.

To church in the afternoon to Mr. Herring, where a lazy poor sermon. And so home with Mrs. Turner and sitting with her a while we went to my father’s where we supt very merry, and so home. This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes, which I have bought yesterday of Mr. Wotton.


25 Annotations

First Reading

Susanna  •  Link

Mr. Widdrington

Mr. Widdrington was probaby Ralph Widdrington, who appears at this time to have been Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (later he would become Lady Margaret Professor of divinity, also at Cambridge). His brother, Sir Thomas, was at this time a member of the Council of State.

http://26.1911encyclopedia.org/W/…

Nicholas Laughlin  •  Link

"This day I began to put on buckles to my shoes"

Latham-Matthews notes that this was a new fashion; Pepys is doing his best to be trendy!

David Quidnunc  •  Link

Another Widdrington, Edward, lived at Axe Yard

And he was related to both the speaker of the House and Ralph Widdrington of Cambridge. Pepys mentions meeting "my Lord Widdrington" two days ago, and I thought it was Edward, but Thomas appears to have been one of his superiors at the Exchequer and so has a better claim to the "my lord" title. Here's a link to Friday's page:

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

David Quidnunc  •  Link

The information in my link just above comes from Claire Tomalin's "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self," p. 68.

Christopher  •  Link

How can Mr Widdrington become Lady Margaret?

mark  •  Link

its "[the]lady margret professor of divinity"

The position of "professor of divinity" was created by Lady Margret - the mother of Henry the VII. It still exists today:

http://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/LM5…

James  •  Link

Okay, probably a bit late to be asking this question. How do you pronounce Pepys? I've heard several variations, having chatted with a group of friends about the online diary. Thanks!

M. Stolzenbach  •  Link

We may note from this entry that in those times even people who weren't terribly devout often went to church twice of a Sunday.

I was amused by Pepys' criticism of the morning preacher as not "giving good example in ... life and conversation." If the diarist had any thoughts or questions as to whether HE measured up to this standard, we don't hear about them.

And then in the evening there was that "lazy poor sermon"!

I would love to know at which churches Mssrs. Messum and Herring held forth.

Nix  •  Link

Of course they went to church -- there wasn't anything else to do! The offices, pubs, etc. where Pepys passes the other days were all closed on Sunday. He was an intensely sociable man, and the place to find gatherings of people on a Sunday was in a church.

Eric Walla  •  Link

Re: Pronunciation of Pepys

Is that correct to say it is generally pronounced "Peeps"? The 1893 notes make it sound as if "Pepis" is (was) the pronunciation preferred by scholars. Admittedly this is not what they believed Pepys himself would have said so the modern judgment may have changed.

Please let me know if I'm misreading something.

Jim Rain  •  Link

Re: Pronounciation of Pepys

As I read the 1893 notes, it appears that in the 17th century it may have been pronounced something closer to "Papes" than "Peeps".

language hat  •  Link

Pronunciation:
I gather that the family today says "Peppis" (two syllables) but that Pepys himself clearly used a one-syllable pronunciation, whether Peeps (the usual pronunciation of his name today) or Pepps or Payps. Here's the conclusion of the 1893 article (and it would be well to point out that the bit on pronunciation comes at the very end of the long, long page):

"The most probable explanation is that the name in the seventeenth century was either pronounced ‘Pips’ or “Papes’; for both the forms ‘ea’ and ‘ey’ would represent the latter pronunciation. The general change in the pronunciation of the spelling ‘ea’ from ‘ai’ to ‘ee’ took place in a large number of words at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth-century, and three words at least (yea, break, and great) keep this old pronunciation still.”

Glyn  •  Link

M.Stolzenbach: All I know is that Mr Messum was an Anglican (Episcopalian) preacher and Mr Herring was a Presbyterian one, but I don't think that is relevant to whether he liked those particular sermons because he praised Presbyterian preachers at other times. It sounds like Pepys (Peeps!) and his wife attended a lot of different churches.

But I think NIX is mistaken in saying that the pubs and taverns were shut on Sundays. I believe that they were closed ONLY during the services but were open for the rest of the day. All-day closing was more of a Victorian thing I think.

Roger Miller  •  Link

Does anyone know what sort of service the one on Sunday morning was?

When Pepys says that he left after the sermon does he imply that he didn't stay for the sacrament, assuming it was a eucharist?

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Diary of Ralph Josselin (Private Collection)
22.1.1660 (Sunday 22 January 1660)
document 70012225
Jan: 22 The Lord good to us in many outward mercies, health of my little ones restoring to them, a hope prayer shall be answered for Harris wife , god gave her rest in the day, and a sore appeared, the season cold, the frost is going away, and yet checked with cold and snow, the lord was good to me in his word, the lord make it an abiding savour upon my heart, that I may live to glorify and praise his holy name.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pepys is out buying buckles for his shoes? ... they have no coal; he had to borrow money to pay the rent; he doesn't know where he will be working; Monck could attack Parliament any day now if the Lord Mayor's representatives negotiate badly. Bizarre -- totally bizarre.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Pepys is out buying buckles for his shoes? ... Bizarre -- totally bizarre."

Wherever he goes, Pepys wants to be conspicuously stylish in his new and heady milieu. She buckles, he apparently figures, are a way to do that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sho…

This style was sufficiently pervasive and lasting as to give birth to the familiar nursery- and counting-out rhyme "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe", first recorded in Songs for the Nursery, published in London in 1805. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Of course they went to church -- there wasn't anything else to do!" -- uh, no. We know Pepys went twice, but there is no mention of Elizabeth going in the afternoon and he specifically says she did not go in the morning. What was she doing? Not cooking lunch, that we know.

My current theory about Pepys' church going is that he wanted to see who went to Anglican and who to Presbyterian services. Intelligence is important when you know war could break out again -- and you have no idea who is probably going to win. Parliament and the Lord Mayor of London are currently not working together on the threat from Monck, who could attack any day, and Lawson lies still in the Thames, saying nothing.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Of course they went to church -- there wasn't anything else to do!" -- uh, no. We know Pepys went twice, but there is no mention of Elizabeth going in the afternoon and he specifically says she did not go in the morning. What was she doing? Not cooking lunch, that we know.

My current theory about Pepys' church going is that he wanted to see who went to Anglican and who to Presbyterian services. Intelligence is important when you have no idea whether or not war is about to break out again -- or who is probably going to win. Parliament and the Lord Mayor of London are currently not working together. Monck could attack at any time, and Lawson lies still in the Thames.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

For today's preachers and services:

Their names in the text of the entry are linked to information about them.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sahttp://brittlebooks.library.ill…

John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.

@@@

22 January, 1660.
I went this afternoon to visit Col. Morley. After dinner I discoursed with him; but he was very jealous, and would not believe that Monck came in to do the King any service; I told him that he might do it without him, and have all the honor. He was still doubtful, and would resolve on nothing yet, so I took leave.

@@@

Col. Herbert Morley, MP. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Gen. George Monck https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... the season cold, the frost is going away, and yet checked with cold and snow, ..." but even in those days, it's warmer in London than at Rev. Ralph's farm and rectory in Essex.

Put those fashionable buckles on your boots, Pepys. Of course you had to spruce up the wardrobe for the new job.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Nice shoe buckles.

"Thank you", Sam responds absent-mindedly.

Think ye that Oliver will enjoy their glitter, whence he is, or will, from the improved vista he'll soon have?

"Beg pardon?"

Ye should! How fast it fades, then, the good English restraint, the god-fearing modesty! Six years, I say, six years, 'ere the Beast returns. Until then, roll in the baubles, the golden lace, the pretty wigs, the painted coaches, the beauty spots, the ostritch feathers, the jesters, the harlots, the actors! Babylon! Sodom! Gomorrah!

"Who's speaking?" Sam scans the street, which is empty.

Soon London will be like a parade of Romish bishops, twinkling harder than the court of the Grand Mogol! Six years! Heh heh heh heh heeeh. Enjoy your buckles! And remember: Look ye not behind thee!

(Elizabeth now asks, with a bit of concern, "Samuel, who're you talking to?")

"Hmpf. Nobody. Some crazy Leveller hidden in a barrel". They walk on to Fleet Street.

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