Australian Susan says £12 would be £1,000 in 2005, only slightly more in 2015. It would be a bargain to buy a bedstead, a copper , a pot, linen and other household stuff for £1,000 today. A bed of good qualty might cost that much alone.
A one-L lama is a priest. A two-L llama is a beast. But I will bet a silk pajama There isn't any three-L lllama.
A work colleague once recited this in the office and another colleage said "A Three-L Lllama is a very big fire." (I don't know if this will translate well outside the US).
Yes, Arby, I too wondered what "change lodgings" meant. Pepys doesn't elaborate. Of course, he was writing for himself and no one else, so he wouldn't feel the need to explain anything. He knew what it meant. We, the readers he would never have believed there would be, are the ones left to wonder and speculate.
"He took occasion to talk with me about Sir J. Minnes’s intention to divide the entry and the yard, and so to keep him out of the yard, and forcing him to go through the garden to his house. Which he is vexed at, and I am glad to see that Sir J. Minnes do use him just as he do me, and so I perceive it is not anything extraordinary his carriage to me in the matter of our houses, for this is worse than anything he has done to me, that he should give order for the stopping up of his way to his house without so much as advising with him or letting of him know it, and I confess that it is very highly and basely done of him. "
Thise sorts of disputes gave birth to condominiums and condo law, which settles everything!
Also, that was a very astute comment on death by Bradford.
According to my computer's word count, this entry is over 1,200 words long (!). Assuming that he's composing this as he goes along and writing at 20 words per minute - he must pause at some point to gather his thoughts - then he took just over an hour to write this. When did he find the time?
On first reading this, I jumped to the conclusion that Mr Wade had "discovered" the buried treasure, but it's clear that he was just passing on information and it's still to be found. On the face of it, it is at least plausible that the previous man in charge of the Tower could have hid his wealth there - it's very burglar proof.
This is what people got up to in the days before television or the Internet.
"she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked’
The handling of Uncle Robert's will may be a precursor to Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Dickens' Bleak House some 200 years later.
“Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least, but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee-house in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.”
A. Hamilton took the words right out of my mouth. I, too, wonder who is paying for the work and how much control Sam has over how it's done. It certainly can't be under his exclusive control because he has worried since the beginning that he would lose "my chamber," presumably against his will. Someone else must be making the final decisions. It would be interesting to know exactly how these renovations were decided upon and who is paying. Does Sam pay anything toward the cost? I, too, wonder about his use of "my workmen," since he apparently has not hired them nor does he seem to pay them. So far he has managed to wield a fair amount of control--more than today's average "tenant" would be able to do, unless he had an especially generous and cooperative landlord.
Todd Bernhardt wrote: "Interesting use of "catched." And how strange to us, with our modern knowledge of health, that he would think he could catch cold by removing his stockings..."
There have been strange ideas about how we catch cold right up to the 20th and even 21st century, despite what we know about colds and other communicable diseases. People still say you'll catch a cold if you get a chill or have wet clothes on. Not sure that in this day and age we'd think we could catch cold by taking our stockings off, but who knows? Maybe in those days with no central heating taking off one's stockings would allow the feet to get very cold and cause a chill and it wouldn't be so easy to warm them up again. Colds were probably more prevalent then than now, and how would they know what caused them? Haven't we all heard someone say, "You'll catch your death of cold' even today? We probably shouldn't criticize people's ideas of 500 years ago by today's standards, especially when so much of our own knowledge is not nearly as advanced as it should be.
It was mercury not lead poisoning that was a danger in making felt hats.
Mad Hatter syndrome Gastrointestinal and central nervous system manifestations of chronic mercury poisoning, including stomatitis, diarrhea, ataxia, tremor, hyperreflexia, sensorineural impairment, and emotional instability; previously seen in workers in lead manufacturing who put material that contains mercury in their mouths to make the material more pliable.
Not sure hats were made with mercury in Sam's time, though they were in the 19th century.
See also, Hatter's Castle, a 1931 novel by A.J. Cronin.
There were many poisons around in Sam's time that no one knew much about. It was a dangerous time to live. Only 20th Century science brought much understanding and relief.
It was mercury not lead poisoning that was a danger in making felt hats.
Mad Hatter syndrome Gastrointestinal and central nervous system manifestations of chronic mercury poisoning, including stomatitis, diarrhea, ataxia, tremor, hyperreflexia, sensorineural impairment, and emotional instability; previously seen in workers in lead manufacturing who put material that contains mercury in their mouths to make the material more pliable.
Not sure hats were made with mercury in Sam's time, though they were in the 19th century.
See also, Hatter's Castle, a 1931 novel by A.J. Cronin.
There were many poisons around in Sam's time that no one knew much about. It was a dangerous time to live. Only the 20th Century science brought much understanding and relief.
"But when I came home I found him there at his ease in his study, which vexed me cruelly, that he should no more mind me, but to let me be all alone at the office waiting for him. Whereupon I struck him, and did stay up till 12 o’clock at night chiding him for it, and did in plain terms tell him that I would not be served so, and that I am resolved to look out some boy that I may have the bringing up of after my own mind, and which I do intend to do, for I do find that he has got a taste of liberty since he came to me that he will not leave. "
Yessirree, Sam, don't let those lower classes try to rise above their stations. God himself wants it that way. A good cuff should put the likes of poor Will in his rightful place--and all's right with the world.
Speaking of "walking on the roof"' I have come to doubt that walking on the lead(s) means that. A "lead" is also the path that leads from the street to the house. This would make more sense than walking on the roof! Most roofs were steeply pitched in the 1600s and walking on the roof seems very odd in any case. Is it possible that a lead did not mean the roof but a path to the house?
Everyone knows that servants are not people. They are, well, servants, hardly of any value at all. They were to be unseen and unheard, in other words, not present at all.
For a man who goes to church nearly every Sunday, sometimes twice, Sam doesn't seem to have taken in much when it comes to Christian morality, especially adultery, yet there it is in black and white, in the 10 Commandments along with the one about coveting one's neighbor's wife. But, of course, the maids were not married, so were fair game. Perhaps he and his cohorts had defined adultery as taking a married woman and it was not adultery if she wasn't married. I suppose they didn't think it could be adultery if it didn't involve taking another man's "property." He, along with most men in his time, believed any poor, unmarried girl was fair game--a gift to men from God. As for his concern that he might be refused, I think it had more to do with his wife finding out if the girl was uninterested and might take revenge. I don't have much respect for Sam's morals, even if he was only doing what other men like him were doing. Going to church was apparently just for show and to look like a respectable man to his superiors, not for any religious lessons. I shake my head in despair, but men's attitudes haven't changed much to this day. Just the laws have changed after centuries of resistance by men like Pepys. At least we have that.
Comments
Second Reading
About Tuesday 18 November 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Australian Susan says £12 would be £1,000 in 2005, only slightly more in 2015. It would be a bargain to buy a bedstead, a copper , a pot, linen and other household stuff for £1,000 today. A bed of good qualty might cost that much alone.
About Monday 17 November 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"Mr. Creed carried my wife and I to the Cockpitt, "
Looks like pronounitis is not a new phenomenon.
Also, Elizabeth has got her woman and now Sam is happy about it. Maybe he read her letter after all.
About Monday 10 November 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
A Hamilton quoted Ogden Nash
A one-L lama is a priest.
A two-L llama is a beast.
But I will bet a silk pajama
There isn't any three-L lllama.
A work colleague once recited this in the office and another colleage said "A Three-L Lllama is a very big fire." (I don't know if this will translate well outside the US).
About Wednesday 5 November 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Yes, Arby, I too wondered what "change lodgings" meant. Pepys doesn't elaborate. Of course, he was writing for himself and no one else, so he wouldn't feel the need to explain anything. He knew what it meant. We, the readers he would never have believed there would be, are the ones left to wonder and speculate.
About Tuesday 4 November 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"He took occasion to talk with me about Sir J. Minnes’s intention to divide the entry and the yard, and so to keep him out of the yard, and forcing him to go through the garden to his house. Which he is vexed at, and I am glad to see that Sir J. Minnes do use him just as he do me, and so I perceive it is not anything extraordinary his carriage to me in the matter of our houses, for this is worse than anything he has done to me, that he should give order for the stopping up of his way to his house without so much as advising with him or letting of him know it, and I confess that it is very highly and basely done of him. "
Thise sorts of disputes gave birth to condominiums and condo law, which settles everything!
Also, that was a very astute comment on death by Bradford.
About Thursday 30 October 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
✹
Glyn wrote:
According to my computer's word count, this entry is over 1,200 words long (!). Assuming that he's composing this as he goes along and writing at 20 words per minute - he must pause at some point to gather his thoughts - then he took just over an hour to write this. When did he find the time?
On first reading this, I jumped to the conclusion that Mr Wade had "discovered" the buried treasure, but it's clear that he was just passing on information and it's still to be found. On the face of it, it is at least plausible that the previous man in charge of the Tower could have hid his wealth there - it's very burglar proof.
This is what people got up to in the days before television or the Internet.
About Monday 27 October 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"she did it because she did not like herself, nor had not liked herself, nor anything she did a great while. It seems she was well-favoured enough, but crooked’
Nothing changes.
About Tuesday 14 October 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
The handling of Uncle Robert's will may be a precursor to Jarndyce and Jarndyce in Dickens' Bleak House some 200 years later.
“Jarndyce and Jarndyce drones on. This scarecrow of a suit has, in course of time, become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means. The parties to it understand it least, but it has been observed that no two Chancery lawyers can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises. Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it. Scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in Jarndyce and Jarndyce without knowing how or why; whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit. The little plaintiff or defendant who was promised a new rocking-horse when Jarndyce and Jarndyce should be settled has grown up, possessed himself of a real horse, and trotted away into the other world. Fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers; a long procession of Chancellors has come in and gone out; the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality; there are not three Jarndyces left upon the earth perhaps since old Tom Jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee-house in Chancery Lane; but Jarndyce and Jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court, perennially hopeless.”
About Friday 26 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Thanks for the tip, Bryan. So,"my workmen" and "my house" are merely conventions.
About Friday 26 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
A. Hamilton took the words right out of my mouth. I, too, wonder who is paying for the work and how much control Sam has over how it's done. It certainly can't be under his exclusive control because he has worried since the beginning that he would lose "my chamber," presumably against his will. Someone else must be making the final decisions. It would be interesting to know exactly how these renovations were decided upon and who is paying. Does Sam pay anything toward the cost? I, too, wonder about his use of "my workmen," since he apparently has not hired them nor does he seem to pay them. So far he has managed to wield a fair amount of control--more than today's average "tenant" would be able to do, unless he had an especially generous and cooperative landlord.
About Monday 22 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Todd Bernhardt wrote: "Interesting use of "catched." And how strange to us, with our modern knowledge of health, that he would think he could catch cold by removing his stockings..."
There have been strange ideas about how we catch cold right up to the 20th and even 21st century, despite what we know about colds and other communicable diseases. People still say you'll catch a cold if you get a chill or have wet clothes on. Not sure that in this day and age we'd think we could catch cold by taking our stockings off, but who knows? Maybe in those days with no central heating taking off one's stockings would allow the feet to get very cold and cause a chill and it wouldn't be so easy to warm them up again. Colds were probably more prevalent then than now, and how would they know what caused them? Haven't we all heard someone say, "You'll catch your death of cold' even today? We probably shouldn't criticize people's ideas of 500 years ago by today's standards, especially when so much of our own knowledge is not nearly as advanced as it should be.
About Sunday 21 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Does anyone suppose the "fryers" were making fish and chips?
About Saturday 20 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
It was mercury not lead poisoning that was a danger in making felt hats.
Mad Hatter syndrome
Gastrointestinal and central nervous system manifestations of chronic mercury poisoning, including stomatitis, diarrhea, ataxia, tremor, hyperreflexia, sensorineural impairment, and emotional instability; previously seen in workers in lead manufacturing who put material that contains mercury in their mouths to make the material more pliable.
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012
Not sure hats were made with mercury in Sam's time, though they were in the 19th century.
See also, Hatter's Castle, a 1931 novel by A.J. Cronin.
There were many poisons around in Sam's time that no one knew much about. It was a dangerous time to live. Only 20th Century science brought much understanding and relief.
About Saturday 20 September 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
It was mercury not lead poisoning that was a danger in making felt hats.
Mad Hatter syndrome
Gastrointestinal and central nervous system manifestations of chronic mercury poisoning, including stomatitis, diarrhea, ataxia, tremor, hyperreflexia, sensorineural impairment, and emotional instability; previously seen in workers in lead manufacturing who put material that contains mercury in their mouths to make the material more pliable.
Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012
Not sure hats were made with mercury in Sam's time, though they were in the 19th century.
See also, Hatter's Castle, a 1931 novel by A.J. Cronin.
There were many poisons around in Sam's time that no one knew much about. It was a dangerous time to live. Only the 20th Century science brought much understanding and relief.
About Wednesday 27 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"But when I came home I found him there at his ease in his study, which vexed me cruelly, that he should no more mind me, but to let me be all alone at the office waiting for him. Whereupon I struck him, and did stay up till 12 o’clock at night chiding him for it, and did in plain terms tell him that I would not be served so, and that I am resolved to look out some boy that I may have the bringing up of after my own mind, and which I do intend to do, for I do find that he has got a taste of liberty since he came to me that he will not leave. "
Yessirree, Sam, don't let those lower classes try to rise above their stations. God himself wants it that way. A good cuff should put the likes of poor Will in his rightful place--and all's right with the world.
About Monday 11 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Speaking of "walking on the roof"' I have come to doubt that walking on the lead(s) means that. A "lead" is also the path that leads from the street to the house. This would make more sense than walking on the roof! Most roofs were steeply pitched in the 1600s and walking on the roof seems very odd in any case. Is it possible that a lead did not mean the roof but a path to the house?
About Monday 11 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Everyone knows that servants are not people. They are, well, servants, hardly of any value at all. They were to be unseen and unheard, in other words, not present at all.
About Wednesday 6 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
The question should be, Is Sam a man or a mouse?
A rat, I think, judging by his plans for his "wench." He should be shut up in a desk.
About Friday 1 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
For a man who goes to church nearly every Sunday, sometimes twice, Sam doesn't seem to have taken in much when it comes to Christian morality, especially adultery, yet there it is in black and white, in the 10 Commandments along with the one about coveting one's neighbor's wife. But, of course, the maids were not married, so were fair game. Perhaps he and his cohorts had defined adultery as taking a married woman and it was not adultery if she wasn't married. I suppose they didn't think it could be adultery if it didn't involve taking another man's "property." He, along with most men in his time, believed any poor, unmarried girl was fair game--a gift to men from God. As for his concern that he might be refused, I think it had more to do with his wife finding out if the girl was uninterested and might take revenge. I don't have much respect for Sam's morals, even if he was only doing what other men like him were doing. Going to church was apparently just for show and to look like a respectable man to his superiors, not for any religious lessons. I shake my head in despair, but men's attitudes haven't changed much to this day. Just the laws have changed after centuries of resistance by men like Pepys. At least we have that.
About Friday 18 July 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"My" dining room . . . "my" house. I guess Beth is a guest or, worse, the help.
I know, I know, a different time, but still . . .