Sasha Clarkson

Annotations and comments

Sasha Clarkson has posted 752 annotations/comments since 16 February 2013.

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Second Reading

About Saturday 3 August 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's very interesting to use Google Maps to look at the situation of the various places connected with the Pepys family around Cambridge: Cottenham, Impington, Brampton and Hinchinbrooke.

About Saturday 3 August 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"how high the old doctors are in the University over those they found there, ... and, above all, Dr. Gunning."

The political divines who lost their places under the Commonwealth and Protectorate are, like Peter Gunning, now back AND in charge. They are showing their disdain for those who merely led a scholarly life during those times, and are reminding them: "We are the Masters now!"

About Tuesday 30 July 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I'm sure that the spelling of "Mr Whore" is a running joke by Sam to himself for his own amusement, like describing his friend Mr Butler as "Mons. l’Impertinent"

About Friday 26 July 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

If Mr Hill's protegés were indeed "no better than they ought to be", the I'm sure Sam would have at least remarked upon it, especially as Mr Hill was a Puritan divine! Au contraire, I suspect that they were too frumpish and respectable to arouse Sam's interest! :D

About Sunday 21 July 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

What is truly terrible about this, is that, without taking sides, the misundersanding/disagreement about the £200 bond must have poisoned decades of Robert and Anne's marriage: but in those days divorce would have been out of the question.

About Sunday 14th July 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Glyn is wrong about the borders of Scotland. In the North-East, the borders of "Alba" did not move south of the Forth until 950 or so. Berwick and East Lothian were part of Bernicia, the Angle rump of Northumbria, which was ruled from Bamburgh and stretched from the Forth to the Tees. Hence the origin of Scots English. Indeed, as everything South of the Tees was by now Saxon or Danish, one could argue that Scots and Geordie are the only "true" English! ;)

Viking influence is evident in parts of West Wales too. Swansea, "Sweyn's Eye" is allegedly named after Sweyn Forkbeard, father of Cnut. Here in Pembrokeshire we have "holm"s like Skokholm, and even a village called Freystrop, which seems to be a corruption of Freyrstorp - Freyr's village, named after the Norse god.

About Saturday 6 July 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I don't think you can necessarily interpret "made me sick" in the modern sense as implying disgust. I interpreted it as his Aunt being in a terrible mess, and he being very disturbed at the sight of it, perhaps more like "sick to one's stomach" today.

About Friday 21 June 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

The etymology of 'parlour' becomes obvious:

a room for talking - from the French verb parler (“to speak”).

About Friday 14 June 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Having "read forward" a bit, I'm sure that "Mr Edward Montagu" is Ned: It's clear from several future diary entries* that, whilst in Lisbon, Sandwich has entrusted Ned with certain duties on his behalf. It was the normal practice to give younger relatives a chance to show what they're worth. Unfortunately, Ned will prove less trustworthy than Sandwich hoped.

*eg this one: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Monday 10 June 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Which Edward Montagu?

I am convinced that this is "Ned", son of Baron Montagu of Boughton, not Manchester. See my annotation for June 14th.

About Friday 14 June 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Which Edward Montagu?

This is a mystery, and I am far from convinced that this is Manchester. Manchester would be 60 by now, and as Lord Chamberlain was certainly senior to Sandwich. Why would not Pepys refer to "My Lord Of Manchester", or "Lord Chamberlain" as he does elsewhere? I am sure that as Chamberlain, Manchester would have had his own official lodgings and would have no reason to camp at the Wardrobe "with his family", who would now likely be all grown up.

My favoured candidate would be Mr Edward (Ned) Montagu, son of the second Baron Montagu of Boughton. who would have been about 25 and would soon become Queen Catherine's Master of Horse. The only problem with this is that he was unmarried, and therefore did not have a "family" in the sense of wife and children. I suppose that a couple of servants might have counted as "family", too uninteresting to be described by Pepys?

None of this quite makes sense, but I would place a small bet on this being Ned, especially as on 3rd July Pepys records "To Westminster to Mr. Edward Montagu about business of my Lord’s" and has various other business and social interactions with him later in the year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwa…

About Tuesday 11 June 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

The term "human rights" is just a modern synonym for justice, or perhaps "natural justice". If ideas about the norms of justice have changed, both word and concept were there in the seventeenth century.

Under the Protectorate, capital punishment was restricted to murder and treason. In 1656, Cromwell told the Protectorate Parliament:

" ... the truth of it is, there are wicked and abominable laws, that will be in your power to alter. To hang a man for 6s8d and I know not what; to hang for a trifle and acquit murder, - is in the ministration* of the Law, through the ill framing of it. ... And to see men lose their lives for petty matters - this is a thing God will reckon for, and I wish it may not lie upon this nation a day longer than you have the opportunity to give it remedy ..."

* presumably "administration"?

Antonia Fraser (Cromwell Our Chief of Men) and G M Trevellyan (History Of England Under The Stuarts) both give only part of this quotation. There are various other sources with slight variations in the wording.

For more, Google "Cromwell wicked and abominable laws God will reckon" and look at the following result: Charles Knight's Popular History of England, Volume 4 page 202.

About Sunday 26 May 1661

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William Prynne kneel? He was a man who had had his ears cut off, nose slit and been branded on the cheek for "seditious libel". Prynne was ever arrogant, militant, self-righteous, intolerant and vengeful: on the one hand, a willing persecutor, on the other hand prepared to suffer persecution rather than submit himself.

More than anyone, he was responsible for the unhappy fate of Archbishop Laud, although in character rather than doctrine they were not unalike. It would not be unreasonable to regard him as a Christian Ayatollah:

"... Prynne had no distrust of power or abstract love of freedom. His pamphlet, The Sword of Christian Magistracy, is one of the most blood-curdling pleas for total repressive action from the civil authority in the English language."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will…

About Saturday 25 May 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

What's interesting to me is that Pepys says hearth AND range. I wonder what a restoration kitchen range might have been like? Perhaps a less elaborate version of the one in this picture from Fairfax House, apparently dating from a century later?

http://www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk/upl…

The inglenook fireplace in my own cottage is over 300 years old, and it is clear that there was an oven at one side of it once, but the evidence of anything else is gone.

About Tuesday 14 May 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I would guess that the Creeds were minor landowners neighbouring the Mountagu lands in Huntingdon. Having been an associate during the Commonwealth and protectorate years, the social obligations of the time would require 'My Lord' to continue to favour him in some way, even if he didn't particularly like him.

It's clear however that Sandwich doesn't just find Pepys useful: he and his his family clearly enjoy Sam's company too. And perhaps Sandwich is being a little naughty: playing his underlings off against each other? His disparaging remarks about Creed certainly reassure Sam about his position and help keep him motivated. But I do wonder what, if anything, he says to Creed about Sam - but we don't know whether Sandwich and Creed have this kind of private conversation. We only have one side of this particular story - and we are, I suppose, fortunate to have even that!

About Thursday 9 May 1661

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I doubt that Elizabeth was left alone: I think it safe to assume that Pall or Jane was with her. Just because the underlings are rarely mentioned, doesn't mean they are not there.

About Sunday 5 May 1661

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Remember that in our (Gregorian) calendar, it's really May 15th: spring should be quite advanced: day-length will be the same as at the end of July.