Phil Gyford

Articles

Phil Gyford has written four articles:

Annotations and comments

Phil Gyford has posted 773 annotations/comments since 27 December 2002.

Comments

First Reading

About Axe Yard

Phil  •  Link

The Axe Yard footnote is tagged 'B', which signifies it was written by Lord Braybrooke, who produced editions of Pepys' Diary in earlier parts of the 19th century, so I assume Fludyer St still existed when he wrote this footnote. The Diary Introduction page was written by Wheatley in 1893. The map link indicates the modern equivalent location of Axe Yard, now Downing St, which hopefully makes things a little clearer.

Thanks for the comments 'language hat'.

About Wednesday 4 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

True and it's fine to use that. But that doesn't stop UKP being "a fairly common online notation," and one I come across at least as often as GBP.

About Friday 6 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

I can't speak for everyone in the UK, but as far as I know Twelfth Night is no longer celebrated here. The only time I've ever heard it referred to in practice is the date by which Christmas decorations should be taken down; if your tree and/or decorations are still on display by twelfth night it's bad luck! However, it could well be that those more religious than myself do mark the occasion in some other way.

About Sunday 1 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

Yes, there are differences between the text on this site and that of the 19070s Latham & Matthews edition (which I assume you looked at). As the http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/ explains, the text on this site comes from the 1893 edition of the diary, which is far from perfect. Latham & Matthews go into some detail about the problems with it. Any problems are not strictly to do with the "online text", but the "1893 text."

Should errors in the 1893 text be corrected before being put online? The only way they could really be corrected is by reference to Pepys' original shorthand -- Latham & Matthews is just another interpretation (albeit far more comprehensive) rather than the One True Text. If I were to correct errors in the 1893 text before posting it online I would have to decide where to draw the line. Do I just add in missing words? Do I correct punctuation? Do I correct obvious spelling errors? Do I research anything that looks like it *might* be a spelling error? Any line drawn would be arbitrary and would create yet another version of the text which, due to lack of time and resources, would not be an entirely satisfactory one.

Therefore I have taken the decision to present the 1893 text exactly as it is on Project Gutenberg, with no alterations other than separating out the footnotes. This makes it clear where the source, and any errors, comes from. Any corrections, clarifications or amendments should be made in the annotations, something everyone is making a wonderful job of! So thank you!

About Thursday 5 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

I've read before that the slower flow of the Thames was one of the reasons it used to freeze. I heard then that the cause was because the old London Bridge (and maybe others?) had a smaller amount of space for the water to flow through - it had many supports/piers and smaller gaps between them, thus slowing the river down.

The old London Bridge is a fascinating construction:
http://midtown.net/dragonwing/col…

About Wednesday 4 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

Although, because it's a less common character, Movable Type doesn't seem to automatically encode the character into its HTML entity - "& pound;" (without the space) This means the character may not show up at all on some web browsers. "UKP" is a fairly common online notation for pounds, eg UKP10. Or just use 'pounds'!

About Monday 2 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

"Sack" is...
"the name used in the sixteenth century during the reign of Elizabeth I for sherry or other fortified wines from malaga or the Canary Islands. Such wines were known as Malaga Sack and Canary Sack. The word comes from the Spanish sacar, meaning ‘to take out’ or ‘to export.’”

Source: http://eat.epicurious.com/diction…

About Sunday 1 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

It's actually the most complete copyright-free version that's available. The only better edition, as far as I know, is the one published in the 1970s which is under copyright.

About Sir Edward Mountagu ("my Lord," Earl of Sandwich)

Phil  •  Link

Pepys and Edward Montagu/Mountagu are distant relations and attended the same school at Huntingdon, although several years apart. Montagu was a supporter of Oliver Cromwell and attained high positions within the Admiralty.

Pepys' first job in London was working for Montagu from some time in the 1650s. He and his wife lodged at Montagu's house and Pepys managed the household, particularly during the many occasions Montagu was at sea. Even after finding employment elsewhere, Pepys continued to perform some administrative duties for him.

About Sunday 1 January 1659/60

Phil  •  Link

Thanks for the wonderful info Nick. I added the location of Exeter House to the list of places for which I have locations, so it should now always be a link in the diary entries (linking to a map). Having added that, I took the liberty of removing your link to Streetmap as that site couldn't find the supplied postcode!