Thursday 26 March 1663
Up betimes and to my office, leaving my wife in bed to take her physique, myself also not being out of some pain to-day by some cold that I have got by the sudden change of the weather from hot to cold.
This day is five years since it pleased God to preserve me at my being cut of the stone, of which I bless God I am in all respects well. Only now and then upon taking cold I have some pain, but otherwise in very good health always. But I could not get my feast to be kept to-day as it used to be, because of my wife’s being ill and other disorders by my servants being out of order.
This morning came a new cook-maid at 4l. per annum, the first time I ever did give so much, but we hope it will be nothing lost by keeping a good cook. She did live last at my Lord Monk’s house, and indeed at dinner did get what there was very prettily ready and neat for me, which did please me much.
This morning my uncle Thomas was with me according to agreement, and I paid him the 50l., which was against my heart to part with, and yet I must be contented; I used him very kindly, and I desire to continue so voyd of any discontent as to my estate, that I may follow my business the better.
At the Change I met him again, with intent to have met with my uncle Wight to have made peace with him, with whom by my long absence I fear I shall have a difference, but he was not there, so we missed. All the afternoon sat at the office about business till 9 or 10 at night, and so dispatch business and home to supper and to bed.
My maid Susan went away to-day, I giving her something for her lodging and diet somewhere else a while that I might have room for my new maid.
30 Annotations
First Reading
TerryF • Link
"my uncle Thomas was with me...and I paid him...50l."
No wonder yesterday Sam'l schemed to profit from a Nsvy supplies deal, since today there are the cost of the new cook-maid and the settlement of a very troubling and extended episode.
At the end of last month he found himself with 640l. on hand, no more than had been worth at the end of the previous month.
How's a fellow to keep a household in the style to which he hopes to become accustomed, provide for his and his families' aged years, and celebrate the removal of Ye Stone sppropriately?!
Robert Gertz • Link
"But...Mama." The Turner shakes head sadly, eyeing her gay dress decked out in the ribbons her Valentine had bought her.
"Tis' Stone Day. Cousin Sam'l wouldn't forget Stone Day."
"The. Cousin Elisabeth and one of her servants are ill. Cousin Sam'l will have his feast in a day or two."
"But...It's Stone Day." a berefit The stares despondantly. Her ribbons drooping.
"Now The."
dirk • Link
John Evelyn's diary today:
"I sat at the Commission of Sewers, where was a great case pleaded by his Majesty's counsel; he having built a wall over a water-course, denied the jurisdiction of the Court. The verdict went for the plaintiff [i.e. against the King]."
jeannine • Link
In celebration of the Stone
Some "food for thought"...and the moral of the story is actually quite fitting to all of us sharing our thoughts, comments, etc.
http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/sto…
Happy Stone Day Sam and all.....
Nate • Link
Yes, the stone, the operation without much in the way of anesthesia, under less than sterile conditions, with out antibiotics of any kind. I just had three biopsies (all negative) with one to go and for one of them I was as anxious and nervous as I have ever been (for the procedure not the result). I was thinking of Sam afterward and my anxieties must have been as nothing compared to his, knowing of the pain he was to encounter. Truly this is an anniversary to remember with thanksgiving.
Nate
TerryF • Link
"Only now and then upon taking cold I have some pain"
In summing up 1661, Sam'l specified that catching cold "brings great pain in my back and making of water, as it use to be when I had the stone” - per an L&M annotation by Naomi from “The Illustrated Pepys” selected and edited by Robert Latham.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
"[B]ut otherwise in very good health always", and of a mind to celebrate it at the end of every day or shortly thereafter in his Journall - reading the transcriptions of which, how very lucky are we, to be able to celebrate another Ex-Stone's-day with him!!
Sjoerd • Link
Jeannine, about "stone soup",
my mother would definitely have said:
“spit that out. You don't know where it's been.”
;-{
Dan Jenkins • Link
Happy Stone Day to everyone.
:-)
(Thank you, Sir Gertz, for that vignette.)
jeannine • Link
General Stone Question?
Does anyone know what ever happened to Sam's famous stone? Where he kept it his entire life I am wondering if it was also preserved?
Rod McCaslin • Link
Happy Stone Day. The following site pictures some interesting varieties- which one do you think is Samuel's?
<http://www.herringlab.com/photos/>
jeannine • Link
As she’s pulling up the covers to go to bed Elizabeth smiles to herself in the dark and asks,
“Sam, when will I hear your stone story again?”
Sam rolls over and sings in her ear….…
“Well, I’ll stone ya when you're trying to be so good,
I’ll stone ya just a-like I said I would.
I’ll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home.
Then I’ll stone ya when you're there all alone.
Bess don’t you feel so all alone,
Everybody hears about my stone.
Well, I’ll stone ya when you're walkin' 'long the street.
I’ll stone ya when you're tryin' to keep your seat.
I’ll stone ya when you're sweeping up the floor.
I’ll stone ya when you're walkin' to the door.
Bess don’t you feel so all alone,
Everybody hears about my stone.
I’ll stone ya when you're at the breakfast table.
I’ll stone ya when you are young and able.
I’ll stone ya when you're tryin' to make a buck.
I’ll stone ya and then I’ll say, "good luck."
Bess don’t you feel so all alone,
Everybody hears about my stone.
Well, I’ll stone you and say that it's the end.
Then I’ll stone you and then I’ll come back again.
I’ll stone you when we’re wishing on a star.
I’ll stone you when I’m playing my guitar.
Bess don’t you feel so all alone,
Everybody hears about my stone……”
“I love you Sam”
“I love you Bess”……….
celtcahill • Link
" jeannine on Mon 27 Mar 2006, 3:43 pm | Link
General Stone Question?
Does anyone know what ever happened to Sam’s famous stone? Where he kept it his entire life I am wondering if it was also preserved? "
Given comments elsewhere in the diary I have the notion that he did not keep his own.
It may have been sold for other uses....
Rex Gordon • Link
Sam's stone ...
"(Sam) kept his stone in a case and Evelyn, to whom he showed it in 1669, wrote that it was the size of a tennis ball - i.e. it must have weighed c. 2 oz." L&M Companion Volume, "Health", p 173. Tomalin's biography also reports that Sam had a case made for his stone and would show it to visitors. After his death it disappeared somewhere. Maybe someday, someone will buy it in a dusty curio store and have it appraised on the Antiques Roadshow.
Ruben • Link
Stone
I remember some comments 2 years ago about "the stone" being the size of a "tennis ball". Then someone annotated that tennis balls in those days where smaller than today.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Stone day, again! Mon Dieu! When am I ever gonna get .... day!" Bess fumes, stalking grimly through the house.
Sam and Will Hewer eye each other. Every month it's ... day.
***
Ok, now my one real sinking to an abyssmal level...
"My God...It's sooo big, Sam'l. Ohhhh, I can't believe it!" Bess sighs.
Our boy nodding archly...
(No, you will never be sure...)
***
Jeannine that was a great song...Now if only the Stones would turn out to be Pepysians.
Next year. The Stone Day Concert...
Pedro • Link
And let’s not forget to celebrate Sam’s mother’s stone!
“I went to my father’s and there found my mother still ill of the stone, and had just newly voided one, which she had let drop into the chimney, and looked and found it to shew it me.”
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
jeannine • Link
And let’s not forget to celebrate Sam’s mother’s stone!
Leave it to that master annotator Pedro to remind us that we must leave no stone unturned here! For the sake of annotator precision, we should be sure to kill two birds with one stone by mentioning both mother and son! We should use stone cold analysis in our annotations to ensure every detail is accurate regarding this rocky subject! Even though mom chose to pitch her stone in the fire it was only to be sure that if her stone rolled it would gather no moss. Sam should be wise never to question their stylistic stone saving differences as it's best that people who live in glass houses never throw stones....and of course, for those whose stomachs are turning just about now, before you reprimand me for being so annoying please be sure that you are without any annotation sins before you cast the first stone! A toast to mom and Sam!
TerryF • Link
The Story of Stone Soup
Old recipe -- Put one stone in a pot of water, bring to a boil, add bits of this and that, and there's a meal for all. http://stonesoup.esd.ornl.gov/sto…
That's this site today!
TerryF • Link
I forgot Stone Soup's essential ingredient is that EVERYONE adds her/his bit of this and that...!
TerryF • Link
(essential, besides Ye Stone, of course)
A. De Araujo • Link
"the operation without much in the way of anesthesia"
They probably gave him some wine or gin in which case he most likely was stone drunk.;)
dirk • Link
"the operation without much in the way of anesthesia"
Don't forget the wet spunge on the patient's face (causing a suffocation reflex) at the time of the cut...
Nate • Link
"They probably gave him some wine or gin in which case he most likely was stone drunk.;)"
Didn't they have access to opium at this time to be added to the alcohol?
"Don’t forget the wet spunge on the patient’s face (causing a suffocation reflex) at the time of the cut…"
I sure did!
dirk • Link
anesthesia
"European physicians did their best to relieve their patients' pain, most often through the judicious use of opium [from poppies] or, after 1680, laudanum, the mixture of opium in sherry introduced by Thomas Sydenham (1624-1689)."
http://opioids.com/pain-managemen…
"Only a few surgical procedures were available before the mid-1800s. Little was known about diseases or how to prevent infection. There was also no satisfactory anesthesia available to put the patient into a deep sleep and allow doctors to perform unhurried operative procedures. Certain means of reducing surgical pain had been available since ancient times, however. These included such drugs as alcohol, hashish, and opium derivatives. --- Also available were rudimentary physical methods of producing analgesia (insensitivity to pain). These included packing a limb in ice or applying a tourniquet. Another technique used, although an extreme one, was to induce unconsciousness, either by inflicting a blow to the head or by strangulation. Most often, however, the patient was simply restrained by physical force, thus making surgery a last resort."
http://www.discoveriesinmedicine.…
Robert Gertz • Link
What do ye do with a drunken stoneman?
What do ye do with a drunken stoneman?
What do ye do with a drunken stoneman, ear-li in the morning?
Pull his legs apart and cut him right open.
Pull his legs apart and cut him right open.
Pull his legs apart and cut him right open, ear-li in the morning.
Hold him down, the surgeon can't feel it.
Hold him down, the surgeon can't feel it.
Hold him down, the surgeon can't feel it, ear-li in the morning.
Watch his Bess, she's gonna keel over.
Watch his Bess, she's gonna keel over.
Watch his Bess, she's gonna keel over, ear-li in the morning.
Now, bind him up and say a prayer over.
Bind him up and say a prayer over.
Bind him up and say a prayer over, ear-li in the morning.
***
Jacqueline Gore • Link
Robert, can I suggest it be changed to "drunken Samuel"? I mean for the permanent songbook you and Jeannine should be compiling.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers persuade local people of a town to give them food. It is usually told as a lesson in cooperation, especially amid scarcity. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as button soup, wood soup, nail soup, and axe soup. It is Aarne-Thompson tale type 1548. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sto…
Bill • Link
jeannine, a while back, asked, "Does anyone know what ever happened to Sam's famous stone?" A novelist 3 years earlier had given his thoughts to that question. And I added his answer as an annotation to the relevant encyclopedia article.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Bill • Link
Speaking of jeannine, I appreciate her Gertzian mini-drama, but she really should have given some credit to Bob. Maybe she was waiting for someone to notice. Here I am 10 years later!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-…
Sasha Clarkson • Link
“I love you Sam”
“I love you Bess”………."
I wonder?
Perhaps they called each other 'Mr Pepys' and "Mistress Pepys" even in bed?
... unless she referred to his/their secret ambitions:
"Arise Sir Samuel" (giggle)
".... You do please me greatly Lady Pepys"
etc ;)