Temperature measuring in the 17th/18th century. Thermometers were around in the 1660's, though the scales were not standardised. Galileo's didn't have a scale at all and was more correctly a thermoscope, not a thermometer. Fahrenheit's scale was based on Rømer's in that 1°F = 4°R, though with a different starting point for 0° More interesting for our period, is that Newton devised a scale around 1700 with 0° as the freezing point of water, but boiling point at 33°. If only he had chosen 100° instead he might have had two units named after him, as his predated Celsius' by 42 years. Fahrenheit's thermometer (a term first used in 1624) used mercury whereas Newton's used Linseed oil, which is probably why Fahrenheit's suceeded over Newton's, Galileo's and Rømer's. The USA is the only major country still using Fahreheit - which is now defined as a sub-standard of Celsius/Kelvin rather than a standard in its own right.
Penn'orth. Still in use as "That's my two penn'orth" (equivalent to "my two cents (worth)") Far less common since decimalisation before which many things were sold by penn'orths, especially sweets and chips (fries) "Fish and four pen'north" being a standard fish supper.
All this discussion of opiates may be correct, but is it possible that Pepys is just referring to having to strain to "make stool" when he says "[I am] forced to drive away my pain. " because he is not "loose"?
Life on the colliers was dirty and dangerous. The boats were often overloaded to get the best return for a voyage, the sailors often having to climb over the shifting coal to get to the rigging. The coal also tended to spontaneously ignite when exposed to air. many ships and hands were lost through fire at sea.
In the 19th century, Samual Plimsoll started his great campaign to prevent the overloading of ships, having watched three colliers sink with all hands in a storm one night when travelling back from Newcastle to London. It is unlikely conditions were much better in the 17th century, and they had the Dutch to contend with too.
Giving over: I read this as being similar to giving up, as in giving up trade. "Give over" is used in current East Midland English as a command to stop doing something, as in "Give over, yer hurtin' me!"
Font sizes: Mine have not been affected, but for those whose have - hold down the Ctrl key while turning the mouse wheel. This will zoom the text size in or out. This works in Firefox and IE7; I don't know about IE5/6. A bit quicker than copy-and-paste into Word.
Re: "Lord Bragg is a novelist and TV presenter, not a language expert." LH, you damn the man with faint praise. True, he is both of those, but he is also the author of "The Routes of English (2001)" and "The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language (2003)", a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, chairperson of the Arts Council Literature Panel, President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986) and Chancellor of Leeds University. The television programmes he presents are serious arts and history programmes, not Wheel of Fortune. He is an expert in the history of language, as well as a successful writer of both fiction and non-fiction. His biography is public. ( http://www.contemporarywriters.co… )
"Aye, There's the rub" I'm surprised no one quoted Hamlet's soliloquy: "To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,"
Still very much in use - as a cliche - in the sense of "yes, that's the problem"
They probably knew about polar bears, even before Canada was explored, as the bears' natural range takes them into the Russias and Greenland. However, a White Bear pub sign could also have been a heraldic symbol - like the Red Lion (John of Gaunt) and White Hart (Richard II) - rather than a representation of a real animal. The white bear was used on the arms of Richard III's wife Queen Anne.
I am a little surprised that he uses memorandums, rather than memoranda, especially as he is a Latin scholar. I had thought that this was a modern habit. Apparently not.
"...I find that we did spend our time and thoughts then otherwise than I think boys do now, and I think as well as methinks that the best are now." Refreshing that he thinks that schoolboys spend their time better 'now' then when he was a boy. It is now usually expressed that "the kids of today don't know what hard work is".
Don't go down Fleet Lane, Sam, it only leads on to the Road to Ruination. Betty Lane is a far friendlier thoroughfare. Neither lane goes anywhere near the path to Salvation, though.
English place names. Read Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" for a section on British place names. He lists some that have five or six different pronunciations, and some with two different spellings. In my birth county of Nottinghamshire we have Gotham (goatem or gottem, but never goth-am) and Averham (pronounced airum) and two in the West Country that fooled me as a visitor were Frome (froom) and Bicester (bister). The common ones that catch out US visitors are Leicester and Worcester. The Featherstonehaughs & Cholmondelys are modern ballet groups (male and female respectively) who often perform together - as well as being English surnames.
Patricia: Early in the diary Pepys talks of going to his naked bed. It was said then that night clothes were only worn in winter and the mode of the time was to sleep naked. See Wheatley's annotations to http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Ruben, It certainly wouldn't have been warm lager; that wasn't invented until the 18th century. Ale might have been at cellar temperature, so cold compared to a hot summer's day.
Comments
First Reading
About Monday 6 February 1664/65
GrahamT • Link
Temperature measuring in the 17th/18th century.
Thermometers were around in the 1660's, though the scales were not standardised. Galileo's didn't have a scale at all and was more correctly a thermoscope, not a thermometer.
Fahrenheit's scale was based on Rømer's in that 1°F = 4°R, though with a different starting point for 0°
More interesting for our period, is that Newton devised a scale around 1700 with 0° as the freezing point of water, but boiling point at 33°. If only he had chosen 100° instead he might have had two units named after him, as his predated Celsius' by 42 years.
Fahrenheit's thermometer (a term first used in 1624) used mercury whereas Newton's used Linseed oil, which is probably why Fahrenheit's suceeded over Newton's, Galileo's and Rømer's.
The USA is the only major country still using Fahreheit - which is now defined as a sub-standard of Celsius/Kelvin rather than a standard in its own right.
About Friday 3 February 1664/65
GrahamT • Link
Penn'orth.
Still in use as "That's my two penn'orth" (equivalent to "my two cents (worth)")
Far less common since decimalisation before which many things were sold by penn'orths, especially sweets and chips (fries) "Fish and four pen'north" being a standard fish supper.
About Thursday 19 January 1664/65
GrahamT • Link
All this discussion of opiates may be correct, but is it possible that Pepys is just referring to having to strain to "make stool" when he says "[I am] forced to drive away my pain. " because he is not "loose"?
About Tuesday 3 January 1664/65
GrahamT • Link
Life on the colliers was dirty and dangerous. The boats were often overloaded to get the best return for a voyage, the sailors often having to climb over the shifting coal to get to the rigging. The coal also tended to spontaneously ignite when exposed to air. many ships and hands were lost through fire at sea.
In the 19th century, Samual Plimsoll started his great campaign to prevent the overloading of ships, having watched three colliers sink with all hands in a storm one night when travelling back from Newcastle to London.
It is unlikely conditions were much better in the 17th century, and they had the Dutch to contend with too.
About Saturday 31 December 1664
GrahamT • Link
A Happy New Year to Phil and all the annotators and lurkers around the world
About Friday 16 December 1664
GrahamT • Link
Giving over:
I read this as being similar to giving up, as in giving up trade.
"Give over" is used in current East Midland English as a command to stop doing something, as in "Give over, yer hurtin' me!"
About Saturday 12 November 1664
GrahamT • Link
Font sizes:
Mine have not been affected, but for those whose have - hold down the Ctrl key while turning the mouse wheel. This will zoom the text size in or out. This works in Firefox and IE7; I don't know about IE5/6. A bit quicker than copy-and-paste into Word.
About Friday 28 October 1664
GrahamT • Link
Re: "Lord Bragg is a novelist and TV presenter, not a language expert." LH, you damn the man with faint praise. True, he is both of those, but he is also the author of "The Routes of English (2001)" and "The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language (2003)", a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, chairperson of the Arts Council Literature Panel, President of the National Campaign for the Arts (since 1986) and Chancellor of Leeds University. The television programmes he presents are serious arts and history programmes, not Wheel of Fortune.
He is an expert in the history of language, as well as a successful writer of both fiction and non-fiction. His biography is public. ( http://www.contemporarywriters.co… )
About Thursday 27 October 1664
GrahamT • Link
"Aye, There's the rub"
I'm surprised no one quoted Hamlet's soliloquy:
"To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,"
Still very much in use - as a cliche - in the sense of "yes, that's the problem"
About Tuesday 4 October 1664
GrahamT • Link
Squill is a bulbous plant of the lily family. Oxymel squill is used as both an expectorant in cough mixtures, and as an emetic ("a vomit"?)
About Saturday 8 October 1664
GrahamT • Link
They probably knew about polar bears, even before Canada was explored, as the bears' natural range takes them into the Russias and Greenland.
However, a White Bear pub sign could also have been a heraldic symbol - like the Red Lion (John of Gaunt) and White Hart (Richard II) - rather than a representation of a real animal.
The white bear was used on the arms of Richard III's wife Queen Anne.
About Friday 30 September 1664
GrahamT • Link
I am a little surprised that he uses memorandums, rather than memoranda, especially as he is a Latin scholar. I had thought that this was a modern habit. Apparently not.
About Moyre
GrahamT • Link
Also Moire.
Silk with a rippled or 'watered' effect.
About Monday 12 September 1664
GrahamT • Link
Re: Neat.
CSG's memory must be going: he says "could not find previous references ..."
Well there are encyclopedia references for neats' tongue and neats' foot and diary entries as follows -
1660 Jan: 26, Dec: 6
1661 Jan: 1, Apr: 9, Nov: 6
1662 Mar: 26
1663 Apr: 23
1664 Jul: 6 (only 2 months ago)
About Saturday 23 July 1664
GrahamT • Link
That should of course have been Fleet Alley, not lane.
About Monday 25 July 1664
GrahamT • Link
"...I find that we did spend our time and thoughts then otherwise than I think boys do now, and I think as well as methinks that the best are now."
Refreshing that he thinks that schoolboys spend their time better 'now' then when he was a boy. It is now usually expressed that "the kids of today don't know what hard work is".
About Saturday 23 July 1664
GrahamT • Link
Don't go down Fleet Lane, Sam, it only leads on to the Road to Ruination. Betty Lane is a far friendlier thoroughfare. Neither lane goes anywhere near the path to Salvation, though.
About Saturday 23 July 1664
GrahamT • Link
English place names.
Read Bill Bryson's "Mother Tongue" for a section on British place names. He lists some that have five or six different pronunciations, and some with two different spellings.
In my birth county of Nottinghamshire we have Gotham (goatem or gottem, but never goth-am) and Averham (pronounced airum) and two in the West Country that fooled me as a visitor were Frome (froom) and Bicester (bister).
The common ones that catch out US visitors are Leicester and Worcester.
The Featherstonehaughs & Cholmondelys are modern ballet groups (male and female respectively) who often perform together - as well as being English surnames.
About Saturday 9 July 1664
GrahamT • Link
Patricia:
Early in the diary Pepys talks of going to his naked bed. It was said then that night clothes were only worn in winter and the mode of the time was to sleep naked.
See Wheatley's annotations to http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
About Tuesday 28 June 1664
GrahamT • Link
Ruben,
It certainly wouldn't have been warm lager; that wasn't invented until the 18th century.
Ale might have been at cellar temperature, so cold compared to a hot summer's day.