GrahamT

Annotations and comments

GrahamT has posted 458 annotations/comments since 9 January 2003.

The most recent first…

Comments

Third Reading

About Wednesday 23 May 1660

GrahamT  •  Link

As a symbol of Charles II hiding from Cromwell's forces in an oak tree, May 29 1660 was designated a public holiday - Oak Apple Day. Although it ceased to be a holiday in 1859, it was still being celebrated in my childhood in the 1950s. I well remember teachers bringing in oak leaves and the class painting oak trees with the king sticking out of the branches at various angles.

About Saturday 12 May 1660

GrahamT  •  Link

Scube, I assume they are moving towards Holland, so Eastwards. The coasts of France and England diverge to the east of the Straits of Dover towards the North Sea, so the ships will move out of sight of land on both sides.

About Friday 16 March 1659/60

GrahamT  •  Link

I'm just glad that, 20 years after I posted the original, someone has come up with a better translation.

Second Reading

About Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution

GrahamT  •  Link

I was a little disappointed. Despite the large size of the rooms, the exhibition was very superficial. The slide show of the great fire lasted just over two minutes and barely scraped the surface of the diary's descriptions. The past exhibition at the Museum of London was far better in that respect. However, that was dedicated to the fire and plague years, whereas this one covers almost the whole of the 17th century, from before the execution of Charles I to the death of Pepys. Good, perhaps, as an over view, but not for the detail.
It also seemed odd to me that this website wasn't credited on the panel at the end of the exhibition, though the Twitter feed was.

First Reading

About Monday 31 May 1669

Grahamt  •  Link

For nine years and some months I have read the journal betimes the morn after its writing with my morning draught of coffee. This day being of note, I make an exception, it being the best entry that I ever read in my life before.
Enough of the Pepysian hyperbole; what will we do now? It is a shame that he self-censored his longhand entries in his future journals.
Fare ye well Sam, Elizabeth, Will, Jane, Deb and the rest of Restoration Britain that has stepped off the screen and into our lives these too few years. I will miss you.
Now to read Jeannine's Next Chapter - and so to bed.

About Belated improvements

GrahamT  •  Link

As regards a reference for Phil, may I paraphrase Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph:
"Reader, if you seek his reference - look around you."

About Wednesday 26 May 1669

GrahamT  •  Link

I still think of shops selling nails, nuts, bolts and other metal products as Ironmongers, but I'm probably just showing my age.

About Tuesday 25 May 1669

GrahamT  •  Link

Good pictures David (djc). It isn't often I see photographs of myself as I'm usually behind the camera.

About End of Diary Events Update

GrahamT  •  Link

Phil,
I would like to thank you for organising today's events. My wife and I really enjoyed both the walk and lunch, and meeting some other Pepysians.
Thank you also to Peter for putting into eloquent words what we all felt.
Thank you.

About Thursday 20 May 1669

GrahamT  •  Link

Although he was telling the King and DoY that he was going to Holland for his trip abroad, the fact that he hopes to get a French speaking maid to travel with them suggests that France was the intended destination all along.

About Roll Call. Say hello!

GrahamT  •  Link

I have been reading almost from the start, and have managed to follow the diary from various parts of the UK, France and Switzerland, and while visiting Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, New Jersey and San Francisco - wherever I can get an internet connection.
I live in Maidenhead, Berkshire, near Windsor Castle, but usually read the daily updates from work. My office is sited in what was the Moorfields in Pepys' day, (now Finsbury Circus) opposite the old Bedlam Hospital, so I get a little thrill at knowing I walk in his footsteps whenever he visits Moorfields.
Several times I have visited Crutched Friars and St Olave's, and I photographed the bust of Elizabeth on the wall there. There is a link to my photos somewhere on the site.
I will be at the London walk/lunch at the end of the month.

About Monday 26 April 1669

GrahamT  •  Link

Guns and Chimneys

I wondered if maybe the blast of Carbon dioxide from a well primed musket (without the ball) would be enough to "blow out" a chimney fire. There is probably more to it than that.

About Saturday 24 April 1669

GrahamT  •  Link

"...his wandering eye..." I think it was his wandering hands that got him into this position with Eizabeth.

About Wednesday 17 March 1668/69

GrahamT  •  Link

@Robert Watson: There is quite a lot of information in the annotations and encyclopedia on this site about Pepys' operation for the stone in his bladder, not kidneys - though he certainly had those too later in life.
From the description of the invasive surgery, it is quite easy to see how it could have left him infertile. The stone was removed intact (about the size of a contemporary tennis ball) not crushed.

About Sir George Downing

GrahamT  •  Link

There is an interesting article here about George Downing and his hunting down of the regicides: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16303861 (I don't know how long this will remain active)
It also states that the picture shown on the main article here is "now thought to be of someone else"