Friday 22 February 1660/61

All the morning at the office. At noon with my wife and Pall to my father’s to dinner, where Dr. Thos. Pepys and my coz Snow and Joyce Norton. After dinner came The. Turner, and so I home with her to her mother, good woman, whom I had not seen through my great neglect this half year, but she would not be angry with me. Here I staid all the afternoon talking of the King’s being married, which is now the town talk, but I believe false. In the evening Mrs. The. and Joyce took us all into the coach home, calling in Bishopsgate Street, thinking to have seen a new Harpsicon that she had a making there, but it was not done, and so we did not see it. Then to my home, where I made very much of her, and then she went home. Then my wife to Sir W. Batten’s, and there sat a while; he having yesterday sent my wife half-a-dozen pairs of gloves, and a pair of silk stockings and garters, for her Valentine’s gift. Then home and to bed.

12 Annotations

Lawrence   Link to this

The King being married? I know its not true and its gossip and rumour, but who's he supposedly in wedlock with?

Lawrence   Link to this

Pall, bless her, she's out to dinner to Dad's, hopefully sitting as Sam and Lizzy's equal, telling the assembled family about how Sam and Liz do spoil her so!

Emilio   Link to this

Lawrence

See the discussion from a few days ago:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/02/18/

Glyn   Link to this

Nice to see the 8-year old Mistress The. making a welcome reappearance.

vincent   Link to this

Glyn: she[The.] was born in 1651, so she is becoming a right young teen- ager ,smart beyond her years, I do think. I do love the phrase "...where I made very much of her, and then she went home...." most likely testing her latin vocabulary????

vincent   Link to this

Fama malum quo non aliud velocius ullum. virgil Aenid, IV, 174 "...Here I staid all the afternoon talking of the King

mary   Link to this

Valentine's gift.

Here is circumstantial evidence that the gloves that Pepys bought at the Exchange on 20th February were indeed for Mrs. Martha. The gloves, stockings and garter mentioned today represent the reciprocal gift from Sir William to Elizabeth. These are all quite intimate gifts, aren't they? All items that will be worn in close contact with the skin.

Lawrence   Link to this

Thanks Emilio stopped concentrating after a befuddled weekend, I've got hold of the thread again now!

andy   Link to this

Quite intimate? I should say so.
I wonder what today's average bloke would think if his mate sent his wife a pair of silk stockings and garters!

Pauline   Link to this

Theophila, "The" was born in 1652
according to Claire Tomalin's Pepys Family Tree. Therefore she is 9 now.

But precocious: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/120/

Mickey   Link to this

I can't wait until tomorrow to post this... Today, Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac" (broadcast on NPR stations across the US) celebrated Sam's birthday with a biographical sketch and a poem from Sam's time by Robert Herrick. He also links to this site.

"The Writer's Almanac" can be found at http://www.writersalmanac.org/

Roger   Link to this

Who told them that poem was from Pepys' time? Herrick published all his poems during the civil war, and they were so old-fashioned by then (he had been amassing them in manuscript for decades)that they hardly sold.

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