Monday 2 November 1663

Up, and by coach to White Hall, and there in the long Matted Gallery I find Sir G. Carteret, Sir J. Minnes, and Sir W. Batten — and by and by comes the King to walk there with three or four with him; and soon as he saw us, says he, “Here is the Navy Office,” and there walked twenty turns the length of the gallery, talking, methought, but ordinary talke. By and by came the Duke, and he walked, and at last they went into the Duke’s lodgings. The King staid so long that we could not discourse with the Duke, and so we parted. I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will. I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray.

Thence, meeting with Creed, walked with him to Westminster Hall, and thence by coach took up Mrs. Hunt, and carried her towards my house, and we light at the ’Change, and sent her to my house, Creed and I to the Coffeehouse, and then to the ’Change, and so home, and carried a barrel of oysters with us, and so to dinner, and after a good dinner left Mrs. Hunt and my wife making marmalett of quinces, and Creed and I to the perriwigg makers, but it being dark concluded of nothing, and so Creed went away, and I with Sir W. Pen, who spied me in the street, in his coach home.

There found them busy still, and I up to my vyall. Anon, the comfiture being well done, my wife and I took Mrs. Hunt at almost 9 at night by coach and carried Mrs. Hunt home, and did give her a box of sugar and a haunch of venison given me by my Lady the other day. We did not ’light, but saw her within doors, and straight home, where after supper there happening some discourse where my wife thought she had taken Jane in a lie, she told me of it mighty triumphantly, but I, not seeing reason to conclude it a lie, was vexed, and my wife and I to very high words, wherein I up to my chamber, and she by and by followed me up, and to very bad words from her to me, calling me perfidious and man of no conscience, whatever I pretend to, and I know not what, which troubled me mightily, and though I would allow something to her passion, yet I see again and again that she spoke but somewhat of what she had in her heart. But I tempered myself very well, so as that though we went to bed with discontent she yielded to me and began to be fond, so that being willing myself to peace, we did before we sleep become very good friends, it being past 12 o’clock, and so with good hearts and joy to rest.


28 Annotations

First Reading

Bob T  •  Link

But I tempered myself very well, so as that though we went to bed with discontent she yielded to me and began to be fond,
Well done Sam. You don't need Doctor Phil.

Roboto  •  Link

"we did before we sleep become very good friends" Moral of the story: "Never go to sleep mad at each other."

jeannine  •  Link

"I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will. I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray."
It's believed that Charles went gray as a result of his distress over Catherine's illness and thereafter wore a perriwig.

jeannine  •  Link

From "Pepys At Table" by Driver and Berriedale-Johnson (p 110-111)

"Preserve making has always been catching and Elizabeth was obviously eager to try her hand with quinces after her session with Mrs. Hunt. A seventeenth-century 'marmalett' or marmalade could be made from any fruit which was boiled and crushed with sugar to help preserve it; the exclusive link between marmalade and oranges is of comparatively recent origin.

COTIGNACS AND MARMALADE OF QUINCES
Giles Rose "A Perfect School of Instruction for the Officers of the Mouth" 1682

Take what fruit you please, cut it in quarters and boyl it; and when it is boyled let the water run well from it, then strain it through a colander or Hair Strainer, then boyl half a pound of sugar a Soufle and being boiled, put into a pound of your Marmalad, first taking it from the fire, and let it stand till it be cool, and when it is cold dress or fashion it upon a plate and mark it as you do other pastes. This may serve to make a Tart either laced or covered.

Recipe [today's translation]

1 lb / 450 g quinces, pears, apples or other hard fruit
8 ozs / 225 g sugar

Peel the fruit, quarter or slice it roughly, put it in a saucepan just covered with water, bring to a boil and simmer till it is well cooked. Drain the fruit, then purée it either in a food processor or through a sieve. Drain the fruit very well once it is pureed. In a wide pan melt the sugar and allow it to cook until it is just beginning to turn colour. Remove it from the heat immediately and add the fruit purée to it. Stir the mixture well and allow to cool. It may then be 'shaped' and eaten alone or used as a filling for a fruit tart or pie."

snorri  •  Link

>>I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will.

And before this time, had Charles and the Duke worn wigs, or that was their long hair?

jeannine  •  Link

"And before this time, had Charles and the Duke worn wigs, or that was their long hair?"
I know that this is the first time Charles had worn a wig and I believe it also true for James. They both had long hair prior to this (as did most men).

Terry F  •  Link

Of course the King and the Duke do not yet have wigs

which is why Pepys "this day observed that the King is mighty gray."

Terry F  •  Link

When do the Duke and King first wear wigs?

L&M note we can wait until next February 15 for the Duke to wear one; Pepys first sees the King wear one next April 18. They don't say when he began to wear it. Does anyone know?

Mary  •  Link

Charles and his hair.

According to Antonia Fraser (King Charles II) Charles's black and lustrous hair was favourably commented upon at the time of his return to England. This was in itself remarkable, as his father had become grey at a very early age. She notes that by the mid-1670s he had become completely bald though he maintained his dark moustache until the end of his life.

Apropos wigs, she quotes Pepys' remarks in this diary entry and notes that Charles started wearing a wig in consequence of his greying hair.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray."

I think of Rupert Everett as Charles II in "Stage Beauty" in the scene where he's found in bed with wig off.

***

"...calling me perfidious and man of no conscience, whatever I pretend to, and I know not what, which troubled me mightily, and though I would allow something to her passion, yet I see again and again that she spoke but somewhat of what she had in her heart."

She's got your number, Pepys. Clearly Bess has been seething a while. I wonder if she's been adding up the clothing budget for the two of you or if she's paid more attention to some of your wheeler-dealer dealings with merchants and vendors than you've realized. Or even troubled by your quick adjustment from near-Republican Crowellian to staunch defender of the King's Divine Right? Hmmn...Mrs. Hunt was with you two today. Could it be she hinted to Bess you've been noted as ignoring or abandoning old friends?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...she yielded to me and began to be fond, so that being willing myself to peace, we did before we sleep become very good friends..."

Can't help lovin' dat [bouncing little spark plug of a] man of [hers] I guess.
Always nice to end it on a peaceful note but best to consider her words carefully, Sam. I doubt to but hope to hear more specifics of "perfidies".

snorri  •  Link

>> This was in itself remarkable, as his father had become grey at a very early age.

Pauline Gregg wrote, that Charles found a grey hair in 1630, while negotiating with Spain. But his later portraits show him more or less dark, as well as the exhumation report of 1813 states.

J. A. Gioia  •  Link

... and my wife making marmalett of quinces

Marmalade is impossible without sugar, and sugar would not have been available in bulk in old Blighty had not Adm. Penn taken Jamaica, and its cane plantations, from Spain a few years back.

One wonders, given Sam's gift to Mrs. Hunt, if a regular boodle of the sweet stuff was granted the Navy office from a grateful crown.

Bradford  •  Link

Whatever the King or Duke may do, the Companion (to repeat) says that November 1663 (once the shop is open again) marks the start of Pepys's wearing of a periwig.

"we did before we sleep become very good friends": a delightful periphrasis. What say we try to reintroduce it into modern conversation?

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"went gray as a result of his distress"
There was also of Marie Antoinette's hair turning gray because of her tribulations;methinks it is just coincidence; until a few years ago even the medical profession related peptic ulcers to distress but thanks to some
Australian doctor we now know better.

Pedro  •  Link

Jamaica, Barbados and sugar.

Spain were given the rights to the New World by Papal Bull in1493. In 1540 Jamaica was given to the Columbus family as a personal estate, but under the Spanish it never really flourished. Then in 1655 along came Penn to take the Island as a consolation for messing up the raid on Hispaniola. According to Ollard (Biography of Henry Morgan) the planters in Jamaica did not turn to sugar in a large way until 1664.

Barbados on the other hand was passed over by the Spaniard, and the English colonised it around 1625. The first planters concentrated on tobacco, ginger and indigo, but then turned to sugar, and by 1650 the sugar crop was valued at 3 million pounds.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...related peptic ulcers to distress but thanks to some
Australian doctor we now know better."

Oh glorious, sneaky H.pylori. The bacterium that sank a thousand antacid companies.

Australian Susan  •  Link

It was only during the blockading of French ports by the English navy in the Napoleonic wars, that inventers were driven to develop sugar from beet in France and challenge the cane monopoly.
It is evident rom studying photographs that Shackelton's hair went grey during the stressful period when he was trying to rescue his stranded company from Elephant Island after the debacle of the Endeavour expedition. At the time, this was put down to stress, but may have been due to the physical stress of the conditions he had endured.

cum salis grano  •  Link

ass u me,[ cum salis grano required ] gets every one "...related peptic ulcers to distress but thanks to some Australian doctor we now know better..." look deeper, I wonder how many more items of consequence will be uncovered as false after a doubting Thomas has the brass neck to dig?

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Premature graying from distress
This has also been said of Barbara Bush, the wife of the first President Bush. In 1953, when she was 28, her 3-year-old daughter, Robin, died of leukemia. During the months-long battle to save the child, Mrs. Bush's hair became white.
However, Snopes, the "urban legends reference pages," lists this as one of many "mistaken hair beliefs," concurring with Dr. De Araujo that it is coincidence. http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/ha…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Charles' premature graying

He was now 33. (L&M footnote)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I'm surprised Pepys isn't waiting for at least James, Duke of York to wear the latest French fashion first. Making the boss look dowdy and unfashionable doesn't seem to be good office politics. But I suppose the older, more follically-challenged like Clarendon and Pepys' Navy Board colleagues are already wearing them, for warmth if nothing else. Okay, don't wait for the Stuart brothers.

I wonder if Pepys was going thin on top, and he's been too vain to tell us?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I wonder if Pepys was going thin on top, and he's been too vain to tell us?"

San Diego Sarah, wouldn't Pepys, born February 23, 1633, at this time 30 going on 31 and a hypochondriac, surely have noted premature baldness, and Dr, Hollier's remedies for it?! Look above at the portrait Phil Gyford keeps there of Samuel Pepys, by John Hayls, 1666, and tell me with a straight face the man was balding in 1663!. I rest my case.

But I digress: no.

Methinks SP is a fashionisto: there is always the Countess of Castlemaine to impress,. Surely someone has written a book on the fashion politics of the very small and hierarchy-conscious English court in this period; if not, write on!

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Terry - that's not his hair ... that's a wig! But you're right about his hypochondriac need to examine every medical irregularity in 1663.

Robert Harneis  •  Link

A. De Araujo on 3 Nov 2006
‘"went gray as a result of his distress"
There was also of Marie Antoinette's hair turning gray because of her tribulations; methinks it is just coincidence; until a few years ago even the medical profession related peptic ulcers to distress but thanks to some Australian doctor we now know better.’

I have found many good things on this site but I never thought I would find a reference to one that medical heroe, the very Pepsyian Dr Barry Marshall, and the best bit is he finally confirmed his revolutionary theories about the ‘Oh glorious, sneaky H.pylori, the bacterium that sank a thousand antacid companies’ almost by accident. The worst part of this wonderful story is the medical profession happily using endoscopy equipment for decades from one patient to another, without sterilizing it properly because they believed that no dangerous bacteria could live in a human stomach. Anybody who likes this site will enjoy this characteristic interview with him in 1998 - http://www.achievement.org/autodo….

As for anxiety and hair, I don't know about going grey but I knew a man who was a decorated a WWII bomber pilot, who told me that he came back after one particularly terrifying episode, took off his flying helmet and large chunks of his hair came out with it.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

No Roboto, the moral is: Never argue at night. Save it for the morning.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will. I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray."

L&M : The Duke first wore one on 15 February 1664, and Pepys first saw the King in one on the following 18 April. The King was now 33.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my wife and I took Mrs. Hunt at almost 9 at night by coach and carried Mrs. Hunt home, and did give her a box of sugar and a haunch of venison given me by my Lady the other day."

L&M TRANSCRIBE THIS OTHERWISE: "my wife and I took Mrs. Hunt at almost 9 at night by coach and carried Mrs. Hunt home, and did give her a box of sugar and a haunch of venison given me by Mapleden the other day.:

L&M: Gervase Maplesden was a landowner and timber-merchant of Shorne, Kent. The gift may have been connected with disputes about his contracts: CSPD 1661-2, p. 426; ib., 1663-4, p. 257. Payments to him were authorized by the Navy Treasury on 11 October and 11 November: PRO, Adm. 20/4, p. 285.

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