Gerald Berg

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Gerald Berg has posted 229 annotations/comments since 4 March 2013.

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About Saturday 14 October 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Pepys Praised To High King with Sandwich as Toast.

More evidence for the hive off of Pepys theory?

Meanwhile SP chases fleas with meat at a tavern.

About Tuesday 26 September 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Speaking of the Dutch! “prating” Is this the first time he has used it? I feel not. Middle Dutch praten - chattering. Great onomatopoeia or what?

About Friday 22 September 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Buried trees and timeline: Quite a difference between prehistoric and Jurassic. I am assuming the dock was along the Thames which would alter course over time through flooding and silting. No way would a petrified nut be crackable.

About Thursday 7 September 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Sam and his usage of the word “merrily”. Has he used it or synonyms so much as in this plague time? He seems absurdly enjoying near all the time. Except for a few beautifully reflective death summations which are hardly... Well compare J.Evelyn’s somber renderings quoted above with all the statistically moaning. I am respectful of the statistics yet here we all are dancing with Sam at the edge of his abyss!

About Monday 28 August 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

I would think sugar production would be somewhere in this mix. Wikipedia states that Barbados was still mostly white in 1650. Whereas by 1680 a median size sugar plantation had 60 slaves this moves to 250 slaves by the 1832.

About Monday 21 August 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

And then there is a "hollar" which is neither a valley nor a marsh but a hollow between 2 mountains that isn't deep enough to be called a valley.

About Friday 18 August 1665

Gerald Berg  •  Link

News travels. Pepys gets rumours on Bergen August 16 while Sandwich doesn’t sight his bad news till today. How does that work?