Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
‘twose the main Thorougfare, Stairs at the end of every lane,street, with activity at all times, it was the best cab service. It allowed all the men of the Inns to go and converse with courts.
The streets be crowded with humans, neighing horses, driven cattle, gaggles of geese, flocks of birds,flocks of baaing ewes. On the Tems, it be you and thy boatman. The coaches be stuck behind a dray, cars, carts.
It was a way to remove excess household extravagance, therefore when trailing ones hand in the water, have no cuts.
Reference 16 times under River {search] {not all checked}{+/- 5}
What would Sam have made of a whale ii the Thames?
“June 3, 1658. A large whale was taken betwitxt my land abutting on the Thames and Greenwich, which drew an infinite concourse to see it, by water, horse, coach, and on foot, from London, and all parts. It appeared first below Greenwich at low water, for at high water it would have destroyed all the boats, but lying now in shallow water encompassed with boats, after a long conflict, it was killed with a harping iron, struck in the head, out of which spouted blood and water by two tunnels; and, after a horrid groan, it ran quite on shore, and died. Its length was fifty-eight feet, height sixteen; black-skinned, like coach-leather; very small eyes, great tail, only two small fins, a peaked snout, and a mouth so wide, that divers men might have stood upright in it; no teeth, but sucked the slime only as through a grate of that bone which we call whale-bone; the throat yet so narrow, as would not have admitted the least of fishes. The extremes of the cetaceous bones hang downwards from the upper jaw, and are hairy towards the ends and bottom within side: all of it prodigious; but in nothing more wonderful than that an animal of so great a bulk should be nourished only by the slime through those grates.”
lifted from here; interesting piece why one left the center of commerce:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdsomers/history/jhuett.htm
What a great pair of posts!
Today’s whale story was exciting enough in its own right, and then Aqua-man comes up with John Evelyn’s observation of an even more prodigious creature in 1658. I’ll bet that curious Sam was among that “infinite concourse” that came to see it; too bad it was before the Diary. Thanks to both of you.
Farewell and Thanks.
A sad goodbye to our friend the whale, but thanks for giving ordinary persons the chance to see such a great creature. Maybe the interest you have arroused will bring about more pressure on those horrible Japanese scientists.
A River Thames Guide - Woolwich to Battersea
The guide details landmarks and features along stretches of the river that are rarely mentioned in the tourist guides - starting at Woolwich and travelling up river to Battersea.
There’s a wealth of fascinating information here from the historic to the present day.
Link for the above…
John Evelyn and the whale…
In June 1658, near John Evelyn’s home, Sayes Court at Deptford, a harpooned whale appeared on the shore of the Thames. Spouting blood and water “by two tunnels like smoke from a chimney.” Beached, the leviathan gave “a horid grone” and died, drawing large crowds. Evelyn bemused by the immense corpse, “nourished only by slime”, and even sketched it , one of very few drawings in his Diary.
(John Evelyn, Living for Ingenuity by Gillian Darley)