Wednesday 27 June 1660
With my Lord to the Duke, where he spoke to Mr. Coventry to despatch my business of the Acts, in which place every body gives me joy, as if I were in it, which God send.1
Dined with my Lord and all the officers of his regiment, who invited my Lord and his friends, as many as he would bring, to dinner, at the Swan, at Dowgate, a poor house and ill dressed, but very good fish and plenty. Here Mr. Symons, the Surgeon, told me how he was likely to lose his estate that he had bought, at which I was not a little pleased.
To Westminster, and with Mr. Howe by coach to the Speaker’s, where my Lord supped with the King, but I could not get in. So back again, and after a song or two in my chamber in the dark, which do (now that the bed is out) sound very well, I went home and to bed.
- The letters patent, dated July 13th, 12 Charles II., recite and revoke letters patent of February 16th, 14 Charles I., whereby the office of Clerk of the Ships had been given to Dennis Fleming and Thomas Barlow, or the survivor. D. F. was then dead, but T. B. living, and Samuel Pepys was appointed in his room, at a salary of 33l. 6s. 8d. per annum, with 3s. 4d. for each day employed in travelling, and 6l. per annum for boathire, and all fees due. This salary was only the ancient “fee out of the Exchequer,” which had been attached to the office for more than a century. Pepys’s salary had been previously fixed at 350l. a year. ↩
Eric Walla Link to this
Do we have previous dealings ...
... with Mr Symons, the surgeon? I'd love to hear the background history that leads Sam to delight in his suffering.
I can just see Sam standing in the dark of his chamber letting loose in song! A fine image.
Eric Walla Link to this
Or does "not a little pleased" mean the opposite of my reading?
Tim Bray Link to this
Did Sam retain his 350l salary, so is this a 10% raise? The footnote leaves me a bit puzzled as to why this was such good news.
Paul Brewster Link to this
he was likely to lose his estate that he had bought
The L&M footnote gives only the briefest of hints, "The estate had been confiscated from the church." It then points forward in time (23 August 1660) to another discussion of the loss of a church estate. But in August the diary passage refers to W. Symons and not Mr. Symons, the Chyurgeon. On this date, the footnote discusses W. Symons's relationship with his uncle, Henry Scobell. Apparently Scobell was responsible for the sale of the land of deans and chapters during the Commonwealth Parliament. In 1660, Scobell died and passed on some of this property to W. Symons and now the restoration was doing its job of restoring the property to its original owner.
The L&M companion clearly differentiates between Thomas? Symons, the medical man attached to Montagu's Regiment having their party at the Swan, and Will Symons, the clerk who had the useful uncle. My only conjecture is that although there is no mention in L&M, they're somehow related and both profited (?) from this same Uncle's ill-starred position.
This doesn't leave us much closer to SP's state of mind when he says he's "not a little pleased". I suspect that SP now places himself firmly in the Royalist camp and it does his heart good to see the boys that may have leaped ahead of him in the old days taken down a peg or two.
chip Link to this
What is also noteworthy is SP's honesty about his schadenfreude. His noticing the difference in resonance without the bed (and I assume its harmonics sucking mattress) prove that his ears were astute. But did he sing or play his flute?
vincent Link to this
"to lose his estate that he had bought, at which I was not a little pleased" my reading is Symons got the estate for a "song" (left in a will?), he having good connections, and our SP is quite "chuffed " that he will lose it, whose property was it, before being taken over by the old regime? was really the churches? Or was it the Deans'? Is the Dean, is or was known by SP ? Did SP like this Character? Symons may not be SP's favourite drinking companion?
Paul Chapin Link to this
Sam's salary
Re Tim Bray's question, I interpret the footnote as follows. The post had a statutory salary established a century earlier, which was way too low by Sam's time. So they in fact had already told Sam that the salary would be 350l. The 33l+ figure was official but not real.
If this is right, and Sam knew he would shortly be receiving 350l per annum, it would explain why the offer of 500l to pass up the appointment wouldn't be all that tempting.
Paul Brewster Link to this
Sam's salary
It should also be noted that this potential position was a lifetime appointment. As the L&M companion states “a public official appointed under a royal patent acquired a legal tenure for life and was customarily immune for dismissal for anything short of criminal conviction.
anthony Link to this
Like Eric and Chip, I was amused by Sam's appreciation of the altered acoustic in his chamber; I recall on the way to Cambridge some months previously he had played his flute in a cellar and remarked on room's echo. Verily a Stuart Phil Spector ...
Pauline Link to this
"So back again, and after a song or two in my chamber in the dark..."
I am assuming Sam went back to Montagu's lodgings in Whitehall and up to his old room in the garret. After a song or two, he goes "home" to where the bed now resides.
So not only revealing about his feeling for music but in that he takes a quiet interlude in these days of rapid advancement and change to go up to the old chamber where he began his career (and his marriage) and plays/sings in the dark.
Glyn Link to this
The Swan, at Dowgate, a poor house and ill dressed, but very good fish and plenty.
Sam should have been a restaurant guide - what more would you require in a concise review. Of course, it's right next to the river, so there would have been fresh fish a plenty.
The Swan is thought to have been located on the west side of Dowgate Hill and immediately north of the church of St John the Baptist - just south of what is now Cannon Street.
Like a lot of the places Sam visits, it was a celebrated Elizabethan tavern that was at least 100 years old. At this point in time it was owned by a Thomas Cox, who held it from 1638 to 1661.
It's known that he was promoted to Captain, then Major, then to Lieutenant-Colonel during the early years of the Civil War. I presume from this that he had fought on the Parliamentarian side (because London was strongly Parliamentarian), and that he was quite rich (because important officers had to bankroll their own troops).
Glyn Link to this
Here's an official letter that he wrote on this day. It's nothing very important but probably fairly typical of his daily work. Capt Thomas Bun appears later in the Diary, but not Capt Mootham so far as I can see.
"To Captain Mootham, commander of the Foresight, Captain Bun, commander of the Essex, or which of these Vice-Admiral Lawson shall appoint convoy to Bilbao.
Whitehall, 27 June 1660
SIR
I am to advise you in your passage into the Bay of Biscay that you are to forbear to surprise, block or molest any of the Spanish boats or vessels which you shall meet with there. It was not thought proper to insert this in your instructions, wherefore you are desired to observe it as if it had. I am directed to give you private advice hereor and rest,
Your loving friend and humble servant
S. PEPYS SECRETARY"