Nate Lockwood

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Nate Lockwood has posted 80 annotations/comments since 10 April 2013.

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Third Reading

About Sunday 19 February 1659/60

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

What was the attire for venturing out into rainy weather in those days? Surly not the umbrella, but a (hooded?) woolen cloak or a hoodless cloak and, I assume a wide brimmed, hat?

Would the cloak be made from wool with the natural oils retained for water repellence?

About Saturday 11 February 1659/60

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

"... and so we went to the Star Tavern (Monk being then at Benson’s), where we dined and I wrote a letter to my Lord from thence"

D. Menchaca (first reading) may have been correct that mail went out from taverns - else where does Samuel obtain paper, ink and a pen unless he carries his writing supplies with him? Not in his pocket. Pocket, which derives from 'pouch' would have been a pouch secured under his outer clothes. An image flashed by my brain (just finished my morning draught of coffee) of Samuel carrying the briefcase of the times, a bowler, and umbrella as he meanders around the City.

About Tuesday 7 February 1659/60

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

'Writing in character' by Mary, Queen of Scots, was mentioned in 'Nature Briefing' today, a daily missive from Nature Magazine; this one with a link to Gizmodo. It shows some of the substitutions.

Nature said: "Three scientists have decrypted 57 letters by Mary, Queen of Scots, written in cipher in the years before she was executed in 1587 for plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England. "

(I was disappointed that there was no mention of letters written in the years after her execution ....)

https://gizmodo.com/coded-letters…

Second Reading

About Thursday 9 July 1668

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

re: John Powell to Willliamson letter
"The very tempestuous weather sets the country in fear of a bad harvest, as likely to prove prejudicial to the corn; ..."

"Corn" does not refer to "Maize" which we Yanks call corn; is that correct?

About Monday 31 December 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

An echo from the past and past annotators: "Thus ends this year of publick wonder and mischief to this nation, and, therefore, generally wished by all people to have an end."

About Saturday 29 December 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Regarding cold temperatures, I assume that the temperatures in the houses and apartments were quite cold. They had no knowledge of the Franklin stove so the only heat came from really inefficient fireplaces and coal was expensive. The kitchen would be warmer for those that had one.

For the poor in the winter the daylight fades to darkness, it's really cold so the only recourse is to go to bed and snuggle up.

About Friday 28 December 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

YouTube has some videos showing some aspects of making and using rushlights/rush candles. A couple of months ago I saw one that showed the rushes being gathered and impregnated with fat.

There's a link below forr another, I've not actually reviewed it as I can't use the sound on my computer at present, but it has a good scene showing the light that is given off when burned correctly.

Folks in cities would probably have to buy the rushes as they couldn't harvest them nor would they have much available fat.

https://youtu.be/b_8bAZ_Lu40

About Sunday 23 December 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Thanks, Mary: "Mitchell himself could indeed have been in the coach. It is dark night, there will have been no light within the coach and precious little (if any) anywhere in the street. The weather is cold and snowy, so the chances are that the passengers are wearing long, winter cloaks whose folds might be used to conceal the assault. "

The coach also had curtains which surely would have been closed as it was cold and they had no need to show off, that is, to be seen. It would have been the kind of darkness we very seldom see in this age of light pollution.

About Wednesday 2 May 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Ahh, yes, Jonathan V. I imagine that Pepys would really be in the doghouse if the whole 'house' were to be shut up including the other residents!

About Wednesday 4 April 1666

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

The History Guy (THG) published a short video about John Evelyn today on YouTube. Describes who Evelyn was, his garden, and publication on trees, but zeros in on the occupation of his house by Peter The Great. Worth viewing.

About Sunday 11 February 1665/66

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

"Items which go by the board could be said to be jetsam" Probably flotsam unless perhaps cables and rigging needed to be cut to free the ship from the items or the items are just tossed overboard.

IIRC you find, say, an empty lifeboat from a ship floating in the ocean and manage to bring it to shore it no longer belongs to the ship if the crew is responsible for it being in the ocean. Then it's jetsam and belongs to you (and perhaps some government entity), but if it was somehow washed overboard it's flotsam; you just salvaged it and are entitled to salvage fees.

About Friday 5 January 1665/66

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

There was an age of consent, I quote from:

rictornorton.co.uk/though16.htm

"The legal history, though very complicated, can be summarized: the age of consent for girls was 12 in the 13th century, but was lowered to 10 in 1576, and remained there until it was raised to 12 in 1861, then to 13 in 1875, and then to 16 in 1885. One could enter into a Common Law marriage at the age of 12."

About Sunday 24 December 1665

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Happy Holidays. I came across a frozen Cornish Pasty which I will thaw and have as a small dinner in Pepys honor along with a British evening draught. My first pasty ever.

About Thursday 23 November 1665

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Nick, there was an age of consent in Pepys day, 12 years old.

"In 1275, the first age of consent was set in England, at age 12 (Westminster 1 statute).[3] In 1875, the Offences Against the Person Act raised the age to 13 in Great Britain and Ireland, and ten years later the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 raised it to 16.[4][5] In 1917, a bill raising the age of consent in Great Britain and Ireland from 16 to 17 was defeated by only one vote."

The quoted paragraph is from this much longer Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age…

Let's not get too self righteous:
In the US many colonies and later the states had ages of consent of 10 or 12 years but a legal defence that the child was not virgin was accepted. Many of those laws were changed starting in the late 19th century but some continued through the late 20th century: https://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/608…

I think that Europe might have had similar laws.