Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Annotations
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Pronouncing “Oyster” as “Eye-ster”
Pepys apparently pronounced it “eye-ster,” according to L&M (Vol. 1, page lix). Pepys’s shorthand spells oyster and a number of words with “oi” in them with an “i” — such as jin, pint, ister, bil for join, point, oyster and boil.
These spellings reflect a pronunciation “in good standing” in Pepys’s day “and even later.” (I recall an English professor of mine reading a poem by Alexander Pope in which “join” was pronounced “jine.”) Does this pronounciation sound a little Irish?
When Pepys wrote in longhand, he consistently wrote “oy” or “oi” for these words, as we would.
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No, it’s not particularly Irish, but the common pronunciation of Engish at the time. In fact, these pronunciations continued in American dialects until quite recently. My uncle, Marion Lake Conner of Quindocua (Somerset Co.), Md. on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, used the same pronunciation for all of these words until his death in 1967 or thereabouts. Except for “oyster,” which he pronounced closer to “arse-ter” (with a full “r”), all of these words are borrowed from Norman French, spelled “oi,” and regularly pronounced “aye” in English. Old English had no “oi,” which was pronounced “oy” to rhyme with “boy” in Old French. The sound came into English with the Normans, and was probably influenced by actual Norman pronunciation. M.L. Conner, by the way, also pronounced “boy” as “bye,” in jest. “Bye,” he used to say, “Yer bones ain’t sot,” by which he was jokingly implying that you, whom he called, “boy,” had yet to arrive at manhood.
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Cheap food
Oysters, often imported from France, were cheap and plentiful, like many other shellfish in Pepys’s day. They were popular with rich and poor alike.
They are the most frequently mentioned seafood in the diary — 68 times.
— Robert Latham’s Companion volume (10)to the Latham & Matthews edition of the diary (“Food” entry, p 145).
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Whitstable oysters
It’s more likely that any oysters to arrive on board the Naseby at this point would have come from Whitstable, a town on the north Kent shore famous for its oysters since Roman times. Whitstable oysters still enjoy an enormous reputation for their succulence and this small town is a fashionable destination for seafood lovers.
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Re-post of steve’s annotation of the entry of 21st April 1660
Pickled oysters
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Colchester Oysters compared well to oysters in Podestaria Italy “.excellent oysters, small,& well tasted, like our Colchester,…” J Evelyn 1-8 aug 1645 diary
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Barrels of Oysters. Copied from Nick Sweeney’s annotation of 16 February 1659/60:
“Two barrels seems a lot of what you would think was a very perishable commodity.”
This actually came up a year ago on the C18 discussion list, when talking about the barrels of oysters that Samuel Johnson bought for his cat. In fact, the barrels used to store shellfish were much smaller than the sort of barrel one now associates with real-ale houses—between 7 and 13 inches tall—, so Pepys’ ‘little’ barrels were probably the size of a large tin can:
http://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0201&L=c18-l&P=R13502
You’ll find an entire thread on oyster barrels here:
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The River Thames had oysters for a long time
It would be reasonable that the oysters eaten by Pepys and his friends were brought up the Thames. These were eaten in large quantities and were not regarded as being as exotic as they are today.
The oyster beds were destroyed and the oysters rendered inedible by pollution of the river water.
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Given the depollution of the Thames, does anyone know if oysters are being reintroduced? The Sam Pepys Oyster House - there’s a business opportunity!
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From this website —
http://www.canterbury.gov.uk/cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=799
— I gather that oysters are harvested in the Thames estuary (i.e., downstream from London), but that there is sometimes a risk of Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning.
All in all, I think I’d stick with the ale.
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Algae poisoning : Has any one tabbed SPs Stomach problems to Oysters, I have noticed the Walnuts. [ and they do work wonders, need only one or two. Otherwise use a Pint of Guinness topped off with some Jamaican Rum.]
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oysters appear to come in barrels ,pecks or bushells
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from here a good reason; they are not at their best ‘tis the time for bringing forth a new generation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/108523_oysterwhen14.shtml -
here lie the r in oyster: http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/09/04/index.php
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I believe that Queenborough on the Isle os Sheppey was famous for oysters during these times and could also be a source of supply Sheerness was a well known dockyard visited by Peyps
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Oyster Pie - two recipes (for full text press ‘transcript’ button, link page right)
Wolley, Hannah, The Queen-like Closet, or Rich Cabinet
London: R.Lowndes, 1670http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/booksforcooks/1600s/pieshome/pies.html
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where some come from:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5232.php
said on this page
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/11/24/ -
The ‘oi’ as ‘i’ lasted well into the 18th C. A well-known Glee from 1787 (Samuel Webb’s ‘Glorious Apollo’) rhymes ‘joining’ with ‘combining’.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glee_(music)
This is an old staple of the Harvard Glee Club.
References in the diary
- 1660
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Mar: 7, 25
Apr: 7, 21, 23, 24
May: 21
Jun: 2
Jul: 14
Oct: 4, 13
Nov: 6, 13, 16, 23, 28, 30
Dec: 29
- 1661
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Jan: 1, 27
Feb: 28
Mar: 5
Apr: 5, 10, 17
Sep: 4
Oct: 8
Nov: 6, 11, 25
Dec: 30
- 1662
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Jan: 1, 13, 29
Mar: 3, 23
Apr: 8
Oct: 10, 15
- 1663
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Jan: 13, 15, 21
Mar: 2
Nov: 2, 20
- 1664
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Feb: 27
Mar: 15, 16, 18, 25
Aug: 31
Sep: 12, 18
Oct: 29
Nov: 1
Dec: 2
- 1665
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Sep: 13
Nov: 24
Dec: 4, 8