“So when our Sickness, and our Poverty Had greater wants than we could well supply; Strict Orders did but more enrage our grief, And hinder in accomplishing relief.” – George Wither (1588-1667) on the 1625 plague
A note from pandemic 2020 ... enraged grief at Strict Orders is indeed a problem.
After filling several public positions under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, Sir John Trevor (1626 – 28 May 1672) a Welsh politician, was a member of the council of state appointed in February 1660 and under Charles II, he rose to a high position. Having purchased the office of secretary of state he was knighted and entered upon its duties towards the end of 1668, just after he had helped to arrange an important treaty between England and France. Trevor predeceased his father by a year, dying on 28 May 1672.
"... the settling of my Tangier accounts towards the evening of all reckonings now against the new year, ..."
How confusing it must have been to have two New Years every year ... and a different calendar from Europe. Were England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland the only countries caught in this silly time warp for a couple of centuries -- just because they didn't want a long-dead Pope to be right?
If it were me, I'd be cleaning up the books because of all the Parliamentary Committees and investigations, and not wanting to get caught with my trousers down, so to speak. But that's me.
How interesting that, with most of the book printers out of business, Henry Herringman was able to get away with printing and selling such a Nonconformist -- and anti-Royalist -- book as "The Commonwealth of Oceana". Another sign that Parliament might pass all the laws they like, but implementation was a big problem.
Also interesting that Pepys wants to read about ideas he will recognize from his visits to the Rota Club. He must be preparing his mind for radical change ... like the end of the monarchy, or the end of Anglican rule.
"Nothing in today's entry (a morning draught in The Swan, a visit to the bookseller, a trip to the theatre) explains why Sam couldn't go to cousin Mary's burial."
No it doesn't. But Pepys doesn't tell us why he got up and went to Whitehall to start with. Did he anticipate a meeting that didn't happen, and he kept himself available all day just in case? Was he anxious not to be at the office with Mennes who may have heard of Pepys' efforts to replace him? Would Pepys have been expected to take Elizabeth to the funeral, and she is still socially on the injured list? The Encyclopedia says Uncle Thomas ended up being poor: Maybe Pepys didn't want to be petitioned for money from anyone else in the family? I believe not attending would be considered rude by the family (remember Lady Batten?), so this entry is curious in many ways.
"... and by chance met Mr. Spicer and another ‘Chequer clerk, and there made them drink ..." What an interesting choice of words. It implies he would not take any refusal to his invitation to buy drinks for them.
I agree, Kevin. Perhaps Spicer and the other Clerk didn't want to talk shop with the CoA -- speculating how new arrangements are going to work with someone affected by those changes might easily backfire.
There was another form of cock torture going on, as below. I like the excuse that the English took it out on the poor birds because they didn't like the French.
"Cock throwing, also known as cock-shying or throwing at cocks, was a blood sport widely practiced in England until the late 18th century. A rooster was tied to a post, and people took turns throwing coksteles (special weighted sticks) at the bird until it died.
"Cock throwing was traditionally associated with Shrove Tuesday; a contributor to The Gentleman's Magazine in 1737, during an anti-Gallican phase of British culture, was of the opinion that cock throwing arose from traditional enmity towards the French, for which the cock played an emblematic role.
"Cock throwing was a popular pastime with people of all classes, especially with children, and although widespread, was less common than cockfighting.
"Sir Thomas More referred to his skill in casting a cokstele as a boy. If the bird had its legs broken or was lamed during the event, it was sometimes supported with sticks in order to prolong the game. The cock was also sometimes placed inside an earthenware jar to prevent it from moving.
"Variations on the theme included goose quailing (or squailing), when a goose was substituted, and cock thrashing or cock whipping, which involved a cock being placed in a pit where the blindfolded participants would attempt to hit it with their sticks. A Sussex variation was similar to bull-baiting with the rooster tied to a 4-or-5-foot-long (1.2 or 1.5 m) cord.
"In 1660, an official pronouncement by Puritan officials in Bristol to forbid cock throwing (as well as cat and dog tossing) on Shrove Tuesday resulted in a riot by the apprentices.
"Cock throwing's popularity slowly waned in England, as social values changed and animal welfare became a concern. William Hogarth depicted it as a barbarous activity, the first stage in a "slippery slope", in The Four Stages of Cruelty in 1751, and Nathan Drake credited this in part for changes in public attitudes to the sport. From the middle of the 18th century, magistrates began to deal with the problem more harshly, a marker of its loss in popularity among the "respectable" classes, imposing fines for public order offences, and local by-laws banned the practice in many places." ...
See also: Fox tossing Goose pulling
References "Gentleman's Magazine: An Enquiry into the Original Meaning of Cock-Throwing on Shrove-Tuesday". 1737. Retrieved 19 January 2007.
Wray Vamplew (2005). Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports. Routledge. p. 301. ISBN 0-415-35224-X.
The first few stanzas of “Iter Boreale” give us an idea of how Gen. Monck, Duke of Albemarle's reputation was built. He was a Marlborough, a Wellington, a Churchill. The nation idolized him as their savior.
"But to sit down poor Britains Heraclite, Now sing the triumphs of the Men of War, The Glorious Rayes of the bright Northern Star, Created for the nonce by Heaven to bring The wise men of three Nations to their King: MONCK! the great Monck! that syllable outshines Plantagenet's bright Name, or Constantine's. 'Twas at His Rising that Our Day begun, Be he the Morning Star to CHARLES our Sun. He took Rebellion rampant, by the throat, And made the Canting Quaker change his Note; His hand it was that wrote, (we saw no more) Exit Tyrannus over Lamberts dore. Like to some subtle Lightning, so His Words Dissolved in their Scabbards Rebels Swords. He with success the Soveraign skill hath found To dress the Weapon, and to heal the Wound. George, and his Boyes (as Spirits do, they say) Only by walking, scare our Foes away."
A few early stanzas of “Iter Boreale” give us an idea of how Gen. Monck, Duke of Albemarle's reputation was built. He was a Marlborough, a Wellington, a Churchill. The nation idolized him as their savior.
"But to sit down poor Britains Heraclite, Now sing the triumphs of the Men of War, The Glorious Rayes of the bright Northern Star, Created for the nonce by Heaven to bring The wise men of three Nations to their King: MONCK! the great Monck! that syllable outshines Plantagenet's bright Name, or Constantine's. 'Twas at His Rising that Our Day begun, Be he the Morning Star to CHARLES our Sun. He took Rebellion rampant, by the throat, And made the Canting Quaker change his Note; His hand it was that wrote, (we saw no more) Exit Tyrannus over Lamberts dore. Like to some subtle Lightning, so His Words Dissolved in their Scabbards Rebels Swords. He with success the Soveraign skill hath found To dress the Weapon, and to heal the Wound. George, and his Boyes (as Spirits do, they say) Only by walking, scare our Foes away."
I didn't read it like that ... he was expecting a woman to give birth to a baby and see it dressed [in swaddling clothes?] ... in other words, a Nativity Pageant. Instead he got Mass with the beautiful people saying their beads in one hand and pointing and waving with the other. Nice music, while worrying about getting his pocket picked in the crowd, and enough time to do The Thing and no one notices.
Midnight service aint like that any more, fortunately, Mr. Pepys. We would definitely notice today, and you would be out on your ear.
"Homeless people sleeping in the street?" You had better believe it, Fern. It took 10 years to rebuild London after the Fire.
Remember, "I fain to go all in a hackney-coach round by London Wall, for fear of cellars, this being the first time I have been forced to go that way this year, ..." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ?
If you were sleeping in that cellar, a horse and chariot might fall on top of you, off the road above. That note was last September.
Maybe that's why Pepys appears to have been more generous in his Christmas Box donations this year than in years past? Since he seems to have given up vows and paying for misdemeanors, these are lump sums out of his pocket for no other reason than it being Christmas.
He never mentions the poor ... seeing poverty must have been an everyday part of everyday life. Along with having his maids up at 3 a.m. baking pies for a pittance. They were the lucky ones.
"... I left people receiving the Sacrament: and the Queen gone, and ladies; only my Lady Castlemayne, who looked prettily in her night-clothes, ..."
No, not her nightgown. I know that because Pepys said "we find my Lord newly up in his night-gown very well." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
My guess is she was wearing warm, evening clothes and a cloak. And she was the only one to stay for communion? If it was anyone other than Barbara Villiers Palmer, I'd think this was a sign she was maturing into a decent person. With her, I know better!
As one of the Duke of Ormonde’s supporters in the House, Sir John Talbot MP opposed the prohibition of Irish cattle imports in the Oxford session.
In October 1666 Talbot was second to Lord Fauconberg in a duel with Sir Thomas Osborne MP (then one Buckingham’s followers). Fauconberg was badly wounded. A few days later Talbot was named to the committee on a bill to prevent dueling.
When a petition was presented to the House of Commons on behalf of the merchants trading with France on 22 Jan. 1667, Sir John Talbot MP opposed hearing it, but a week later he was one ordered to attend Charles II with an address on their behalf.
Also on 22 January, 1667, Sir John Talbot MP was teller for the motion to allow John, Lord Mordaunt counsel during his impeachment.
As an opponent of Buckingham, Talbot cannot have welcomed the fall of Clarendon. He was appointed to the miscarriages of the second Anglo-Dutch war committee, to consider charges against John, Viscount Mordaunt, and to consult with Albemarle about measures against highwaymen.
When John Wildman MP was proposed for the commission of public accounts, ‘Sir John Talbot did fly out ... and took notice how [he] was entertained in the bosom of the Duke of Buckingham’.
On 16 Dec. 1667 Talbot acted as teller for the second reading of the Lords’ bill to banish and disable Chancellor Clarendon, and was appointed to the committee, and was teller for the motion to agree with the Lords on the Clarendon bill.
After the Christmas 1667/68 recess, Sir John Talbot was involved in the duel as second to the elderly Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, who was mortally wounded by his wife’s paramour, Buckingham.
Talbot was also injured in the arm, but had returned to the House by 27 Mar. 1668, when he was teller for the bill to reform the collection of hearth-tax, and took a few days leave to attend Shrewsbury’s funeral.
During the short 1669 session, Talbot was appointed to the committees on the bills for extending the Conventicles Act.
Still a zealous friend of the Duke of Ormonde, on whose behalf Sir John Talbot MP talked ‘mighty high’, he was noted as a court supporter at this period both by Government and Opposition.
Sir John Talbot MP sounds like a fighting man who tried to calm down as a MP. An abbreviated look at his career during Diary times:
In 1659 Anglican Col. John Talbot was arrested for complicity in Booth’s Rising.
Although under the Long Parliament ordinance his eligibility was doubtful, he stood for Parliament in 1660, but was defeated by a Presbyterian.
A moderately active Member of the Convention Parliament, Col. John Talbot paraded his troop on Blackheath at the arrival of Charles II, and was knighted.
On 6 July 1660 Sir John Talbot MP supported the indemnity bill to exclude lawyers who had acted for the prosecution in state trials under the Protectorate. He expressed surprise on 16 July 1660 that ‘those that formerly desired to hasten the settlement of religion most obstruct the question’.
Talbot was appointed to the committee to settle ministers in their livings.
On 2 Aug. 1660, he wed a second wife, Barbara, da. of Sir Henry Slingsby, 1st Bt. of Scriven, Yorks.
After the recess, Talbot was added to the committees for the militia bill and the revenue.
Sir John Talbot MP supported a bill to compensate two Nottinghamshire Cavaliers out of the estate of John Hutchinson.
Sir John Talbot MP was returned for Knaresborough on the interest of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Slingsby.
Although Col. Sir John Talbot MP was given a regular commission in the guards and served in the army for most of Charles II’s reign, he was an active member of the Cavalier Parliament. The marshalling of votes perhaps appealed to his military mind, for he was teller in 60 divisions. He was named to more than 400 committees and made 26 recorded speeches.
After the Christmas recess, Sir John Talbot MP was on the deposition sent to ask Charles II on 8 Apr. 1662 for the suspension of the Merchant Adventurers’ monopoly for the rest of the year.
A zealous friend to the Lord Lt. of Ireland, Thomas Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Sir John Talbot MP was ordered on 12 May, 1662 to obtain an undertaking from his son, Thomas Butler, MP, Lord Ossory not to fight a duel with the Hon. Philip Howard MP.
In 1663 Sir John Talbot MP acted as teller about the Declaration of Indulgence and for committing the bill for the maintenance of the urban clergy. Talbot was named to the committee to consider a bill to prevent the growth of Popery, although Andrew Marvell believe him the leader of the unacknowledged Papists in the House, perhaps because the head of his family, Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, was Catholic.
Sir John Talbot MP favored the bill for improving the revenue from the Forest of Dean, and served on the delegation to ask Charles II to preserve the timber.
Lady Barbara and Sir John Talbot MP entertained Charles II at Lacock Abbey, Wilts., in the autumn of 1663.
Pepys doesn't mention playing SNAPDRAGON, but since it was played in Elizabethan times through to the Victorians, I assume he was familiar with this one ... which you can also play [I recommend WITH ADULTS only!]. For a picture of how the flames should look, and a testimonial that no one got hurt and they did indeed eat the nuts and raisins, see: https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…
Briefly, Snapdragon: While we cannot recommend anyone play with fire in their own home, here’s how the Gastro Obscura team played snapdragon.
½ cup raisins ½ cup almonds ¾ cup, plus ¼ cup of around 50 percent alcohol, such as brandy or rum Salt
1. Take a large, flat plate, and sprinkle the raisins and almonds on top, making sure to space them out.
2. Pick where you’ll play the game. A dim-to-dark room or outside at night is best for seeing the blue flames. Make sure wherever you set the plate is free of any tablecloth or flammable materials.
3. Pour the ¾ cup of alcohol onto the plate. Add more if the bottom of the plate is not thoroughly covered. Then, heat the other ¼ cup in a pot on the stove until it sizzles and steams. (This volatilizes the alcohol, increasing the amount of vapor and making it easier to set alight.)
4. Carefully pour the hot liquor into a mug or a bowl, making sure not to burn yourself.
5. Gather a large spoon, matches or a lighter, the mug, and the salt.
6. When ready to start playing, pour the liquor into the large spoon and set it alight. Then, carefully tip the flaming liquor onto the plate, letting it light the rest of the alcohol. It may not take right away. Reheat more alcohol and try again if it doesn’t work the first time.
7. Once the blue flames are leaping, players can reach for the raisins and almonds. Pinches of salt will make the fire briefly burn yellow and flare. Take care, since the plate will gradually heat up.
8. To refresh the flames, carefully stir the mix with the spoon, or add more alcohol. Eat what you pull from the fire.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP’s ancestors had been great landowners in Nottinghamshire since the 13th century, and first represented the county in 1417.
His father, Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, and elder brothers were somewhat reluctant Royalists in the Civil War, but Hon. William Pierrepont MP, who had been a ship-money sheriff, remained staunch to Parliament.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP withdrew from overt participation in politics after Pride’s Purge, but grew even more influential behind the scenes, especially during the protectorate of Richard Cromwell.
Pierrepont refused to take his seat on the return of the secluded Members, on the grounds that Parliament had been automatically dissolved by the death of King Charles, but some Royalists believed that he was still a Cromwellian, and he attended the meetings of Presbyterians, who were planning a restoration on conditions.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP’s standing in Nottinghamshire in 1660 was so high that he secured not only his own return but that of his son-in-law, Gilbert Holles Lord Houghton, as representatives of the county at the general election. …
Hon. William Pierrepont MP was defeated by Anthony Eyre at the general election of 1661, but he remained ‘the celebrated sage of that time both in and out of Parliament’.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP was recalled from retirement when the Commons chose him as one of the Commissioners of Public Accounts in 1667.
Comments
Second Reading
About Sunday 3 September 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
“So when our Sickness, and our Poverty
Had greater wants than we could well supply;
Strict Orders did but more enrage our grief,
And hinder in accomplishing relief.” – George Wither (1588-1667) on the 1625 plague
A note from pandemic 2020 ... enraged grief at Strict Orders is indeed a problem.
About John Trevor
San Diego Sarah • Link
After filling several public positions under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, Sir John Trevor (1626 – 28 May 1672) a Welsh politician, was a member of the council of state appointed in February 1660 and under Charles II, he rose to a high position. Having purchased the office of secretary of state he was knighted and entered upon its duties towards the end of 1668, just after he had helped to arrange an important treaty between England and France. Trevor predeceased his father by a year, dying on 28 May 1672.
About Henry Herringman
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: John Starkey and Henry Herringman, booksellers, had shops by Temple Bar after the Fire.
About John Starkey
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: John Starkey and Henry Herringman, booksellers, had shops by Temple Bar after the Fire.
About Sunday 29 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... the settling of my Tangier accounts towards the evening of all reckonings now against the new year, ..."
How confusing it must have been to have two New Years every year ... and a different calendar from Europe. Were England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland the only countries caught in this silly time warp for a couple of centuries -- just because they didn't want a long-dead Pope to be right?
If it were me, I'd be cleaning up the books because of all the Parliamentary Committees and investigations, and not wanting to get caught with my trousers down, so to speak. But that's me.
About Thursday 26 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
How interesting that, with most of the book printers out of business, Henry Herringman was able to get away with printing and selling such a Nonconformist -- and anti-Royalist -- book as "The Commonwealth of Oceana". Another sign that Parliament might pass all the laws they like, but implementation was a big problem.
Also interesting that Pepys wants to read about ideas he will recognize from his visits to the Rota Club. He must be preparing his mind for radical change ... like the end of the monarchy, or the end of Anglican rule.
About Thursday 26 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Nothing in today's entry (a morning draught in The Swan, a visit to the bookseller, a trip to the theatre) explains why Sam couldn't go to cousin Mary's burial."
No it doesn't. But Pepys doesn't tell us why he got up and went to Whitehall to start with. Did he anticipate a meeting that didn't happen, and he kept himself available all day just in case? Was he anxious not to be at the office with Mennes who may have heard of Pepys' efforts to replace him?
Would Pepys have been expected to take Elizabeth to the funeral, and she is still socially on the injured list?
The Encyclopedia says Uncle Thomas ended up being poor: Maybe Pepys didn't want to be petitioned for money from anyone else in the family?
I believe not attending would be considered rude by the family (remember Lady Batten?), so this entry is curious in many ways.
About Thursday 26 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and by chance met Mr. Spicer and another ‘Chequer clerk, and there made them drink ..."
What an interesting choice of words. It implies he would not take any refusal to his invitation to buy drinks for them.
I agree, Kevin. Perhaps Spicer and the other Clerk didn't want to talk shop with the CoA -- speculating how new arrangements are going to work with someone affected by those changes might easily backfire.
About Cock fighting
San Diego Sarah • Link
There was another form of cock torture going on, as below. I like the excuse that the English took it out on the poor birds because they didn't like the French.
"Cock throwing, also known as cock-shying or throwing at cocks, was a blood sport widely practiced in England until the late 18th century. A rooster was tied to a post, and people took turns throwing coksteles (special weighted sticks) at the bird until it died.
"Cock throwing was traditionally associated with Shrove Tuesday; a contributor to The Gentleman's Magazine in 1737, during an anti-Gallican phase of British culture, was of the opinion that cock throwing arose from traditional enmity towards the French, for which the cock played an emblematic role.
"Cock throwing was a popular pastime with people of all classes, especially with children, and although widespread, was less common than cockfighting.
"Sir Thomas More referred to his skill in casting a cokstele as a boy. If the bird had its legs broken or was lamed during the event, it was sometimes supported with sticks in order to prolong the game. The cock was also sometimes placed inside an earthenware jar to prevent it from moving.
"Variations on the theme included goose quailing (or squailing), when a goose was substituted, and cock thrashing or cock whipping, which involved a cock being placed in a pit where the blindfolded participants would attempt to hit it with their sticks. A Sussex variation was similar to bull-baiting with the rooster tied to a 4-or-5-foot-long (1.2 or 1.5 m) cord.
"In 1660, an official pronouncement by Puritan officials in Bristol to forbid cock throwing (as well as cat and dog tossing) on Shrove Tuesday resulted in a riot by the apprentices.
"Cock throwing's popularity slowly waned in England, as social values changed and animal welfare became a concern. William Hogarth depicted it as a barbarous activity, the first stage in a "slippery slope", in The Four Stages of Cruelty in 1751, and Nathan Drake credited this in part for changes in public attitudes to the sport. From the middle of the 18th century, magistrates began to deal with the problem more harshly, a marker of its loss in popularity among the "respectable" classes, imposing fines for public order offences, and local by-laws banned the practice in many places." ...
See also:
Fox tossing
Goose pulling
References
"Gentleman's Magazine: An Enquiry into the Original Meaning of Cock-Throwing on Shrove-Tuesday". 1737. Retrieved 19 January 2007.
Wray Vamplew (2005). Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports. Routledge. p. 301. ISBN 0-415-35224-X.
https://encyclopedia.thefreedicti…
About Wednesday 25 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
The first few stanzas of “Iter Boreale” give us an idea of how Gen. Monck, Duke of Albemarle's reputation was built. He was a Marlborough, a Wellington, a Churchill. The nation idolized him as their savior.
"But to sit down poor Britains Heraclite,
Now sing the triumphs of the Men of War,
The Glorious Rayes of the bright Northern Star,
Created for the nonce by Heaven to bring
The wise men of three Nations to their King:
MONCK! the great Monck! that syllable outshines
Plantagenet's bright Name, or Constantine's.
'Twas at His Rising that Our Day begun,
Be he the Morning Star to CHARLES our Sun.
He took Rebellion rampant, by the throat,
And made the Canting Quaker change his Note;
His hand it was that wrote, (we saw no more)
Exit Tyrannus over Lamberts dore.
Like to some subtle Lightning, so His Words
Dissolved in their Scabbards Rebels Swords.
He with success the Soveraign skill hath found
To dress the Weapon, and to heal the Wound.
George, and his Boyes (as Spirits do, they say)
Only by walking, scare our Foes away."
And it goes on for another 16 pages.
http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/v…
About Wednesday 25 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
A few early stanzas of “Iter Boreale” give us an idea of how Gen. Monck, Duke of Albemarle's reputation was built. He was a Marlborough, a Wellington, a Churchill. The nation idolized him as their savior.
"But to sit down poor Britains Heraclite,
Now sing the triumphs of the Men of War,
The Glorious Rayes of the bright Northern Star,
Created for the nonce by Heaven to bring
The wise men of three Nations to their King:
MONCK! the great Monck! that syllable outshines
Plantagenet's bright Name, or Constantine's.
'Twas at His Rising that Our Day begun,
Be he the Morning Star to CHARLES our Sun.
He took Rebellion rampant, by the throat,
And made the Canting Quaker change his Note;
His hand it was that wrote, (we saw no more)
Exit Tyrannus over Lamberts dore.
Like to some subtle Lightning, so His Words
Dissolved in their Scabbards Rebels Swords.
He with success the Soveraign skill hath found
To dress the Weapon, and to heal the Wound.
George, and his Boyes (as Spirits do, they say)
Only by walking, scare our Foes away."
And it goes on for pages.
http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/v…
About Tuesday 24 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Is he referring to the sacrament of baptism?"
I didn't read it like that ... he was expecting a woman to give birth to a baby and see it dressed [in swaddling clothes?] ... in other words, a Nativity Pageant.
Instead he got Mass with the beautiful people saying their beads in one hand and pointing and waving with the other.
Nice music, while worrying about getting his pocket picked in the crowd, and enough time to do The Thing and no one notices.
Midnight service aint like that any more, fortunately, Mr. Pepys. We would definitely notice today, and you would be out on your ear.
About Wednesday 25 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Homeless people sleeping in the street?"
You had better believe it, Fern.
It took 10 years to rebuild London after the Fire.
Remember, "I fain to go all in a hackney-coach round by London Wall, for fear of cellars, this being the first time I have been forced to go that way this year, ..." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ?
If you were sleeping in that cellar, a horse and chariot might fall on top of you, off the road above. That note was last September.
Maybe that's why Pepys appears to have been more generous in his Christmas Box donations this year than in years past? Since he seems to have given up vows and paying for misdemeanors, these are lump sums out of his pocket for no other reason than it being Christmas.
He never mentions the poor ... seeing poverty must have been an everyday part of everyday life.
Along with having his maids up at 3 a.m. baking pies for a pittance. They were the lucky ones.
About Tuesday 24 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... I left people receiving the Sacrament: and the Queen gone, and ladies; only my Lady Castlemayne, who looked prettily in her night-clothes, ..."
No, not her nightgown. I know that because Pepys said "we find my Lord newly up in his night-gown very well." https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
My guess is she was wearing warm, evening clothes and a cloak. And she was the only one to stay for communion? If it was anyone other than Barbara Villiers Palmer, I'd think this was a sign she was maturing into a decent person. With her, I know better!
About Tuesday 24 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I sorry for my coming, missing of what I expected; which was, to have had a child born and dressed there, and a great deal of do: ..."
Pepys evidently didn't know much about childbirth.
About Tuesday 24 December 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"We hear from France, it is added, that the King of France has warned Lord Clarendon to leave that Kingdom."
Louis the Grinch.
About Sir John Talbot
San Diego Sarah • Link
PART 2
As one of the Duke of Ormonde’s supporters in the House, Sir John Talbot MP opposed the prohibition of Irish cattle imports in the Oxford session.
In October 1666 Talbot was second to Lord Fauconberg in a duel with Sir Thomas Osborne MP (then one Buckingham’s followers). Fauconberg was badly wounded. A few days later Talbot was named to the committee on a bill to prevent dueling.
When a petition was presented to the House of Commons on behalf of the merchants trading with France on 22 Jan. 1667, Sir John Talbot MP opposed hearing it, but a week later he was one ordered to attend Charles II with an address on their behalf.
Also on 22 January, 1667, Sir John Talbot MP was teller for the motion to allow John, Lord Mordaunt counsel during his impeachment.
As an opponent of Buckingham, Talbot cannot have welcomed the fall of Clarendon. He was appointed to the miscarriages of the second Anglo-Dutch war committee, to consider charges against John, Viscount Mordaunt, and to consult with Albemarle about measures against highwaymen.
When John Wildman MP was proposed for the commission of public accounts, ‘Sir John Talbot did fly out ... and took notice how [he] was entertained in the bosom of the Duke of Buckingham’.
On 16 Dec. 1667 Talbot acted as teller for the second reading of the Lords’ bill to banish and disable Chancellor Clarendon, and was appointed to the committee, and was teller for the motion to agree with the Lords on the Clarendon bill.
After the Christmas 1667/68 recess, Sir John Talbot was involved in the duel as second to the elderly Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, who was mortally wounded by his wife’s paramour, Buckingham.
Talbot was also injured in the arm, but had returned to the House by 27 Mar. 1668, when he was teller for the bill to reform the collection of hearth-tax, and took a few days leave to attend Shrewsbury’s funeral.
During the short 1669 session, Talbot was appointed to the committees on the bills for extending the Conventicles Act.
Still a zealous friend of the Duke of Ormonde, on whose behalf Sir John Talbot MP talked ‘mighty high’, he was noted as a court supporter at this period both by Government and Opposition.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…
About Sir John Talbot
San Diego Sarah • Link
Sir John Talbot MP sounds like a fighting man who tried to calm down as a MP. An abbreviated look at his career during Diary times:
In 1659 Anglican Col. John Talbot was arrested for complicity in Booth’s Rising.
Although under the Long Parliament ordinance his eligibility was doubtful, he stood for Parliament in 1660, but was defeated by a Presbyterian.
A moderately active Member of the Convention Parliament, Col. John Talbot paraded his troop on Blackheath at the arrival of Charles II, and was knighted.
On 6 July 1660 Sir John Talbot MP supported the indemnity bill to exclude lawyers who had acted for the prosecution in state trials under the Protectorate. He expressed surprise on 16 July 1660 that ‘those that formerly desired to hasten the settlement of religion most obstruct the question’.
Talbot was appointed to the committee to settle ministers in their livings.
On 2 Aug. 1660, he wed a second wife, Barbara, da. of Sir Henry Slingsby, 1st Bt. of Scriven, Yorks.
After the recess, Talbot was added to the committees for the militia bill and the revenue.
Sir John Talbot MP supported a bill to compensate two Nottinghamshire Cavaliers out of the estate of John Hutchinson.
Sir John Talbot MP was returned for Knaresborough on the interest of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Slingsby.
Although Col. Sir John Talbot MP was given a regular commission in the guards and served in the army for most of Charles II’s reign, he was an active member of the Cavalier Parliament. The marshalling of votes perhaps appealed to his military mind, for he was teller in 60 divisions. He was named to more than 400 committees and made 26 recorded speeches.
After the Christmas recess, Sir John Talbot MP was on the deposition sent to ask Charles II on 8 Apr. 1662 for the suspension of the Merchant Adventurers’ monopoly for the rest of the year.
A zealous friend to the Lord Lt. of Ireland, Thomas Butler, Duke of Ormonde, Sir John Talbot MP was ordered on 12 May, 1662 to obtain an undertaking from his son, Thomas Butler, MP, Lord Ossory not to fight a duel with the Hon. Philip Howard MP.
In 1663 Sir John Talbot MP acted as teller about the Declaration of Indulgence and for committing the bill for the maintenance of the urban clergy. Talbot was named to the committee to consider a bill to prevent the growth of Popery, although Andrew Marvell believe him the leader of the unacknowledged Papists in the House, perhaps because the head of his family, Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, was Catholic.
Sir John Talbot MP favored the bill for improving the revenue from the Forest of Dean, and served on the delegation to ask Charles II to preserve the timber.
Lady Barbara and Sir John Talbot MP entertained Charles II at Lacock Abbey, Wilts., in the autumn of 1663.
About Twelfth Night
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys doesn't mention playing SNAPDRAGON, but since it was played in Elizabethan times through to the Victorians, I assume he was familiar with this one ... which you can also play [I recommend WITH ADULTS only!]. For a picture of how the flames should look, and a testimonial that no one got hurt and they did indeed eat the nuts and raisins, see:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…
Briefly, Snapdragon:
While we cannot recommend anyone play with fire in their own home, here’s how the Gastro Obscura team played snapdragon.
½ cup raisins
½ cup almonds
¾ cup, plus ¼ cup of around 50 percent alcohol, such as brandy or rum
Salt
1. Take a large, flat plate, and sprinkle the raisins and almonds on top, making sure to space them out.
2. Pick where you’ll play the game. A dim-to-dark room or outside at night is best for seeing the blue flames. Make sure wherever you set the plate is free of any tablecloth or flammable materials.
3. Pour the ¾ cup of alcohol onto the plate. Add more if the bottom of the plate is not thoroughly covered. Then, heat the other ¼ cup in a pot on the stove until it sizzles and steams. (This volatilizes the alcohol, increasing the amount of vapor and making it easier to set alight.)
4. Carefully pour the hot liquor into a mug or a bowl, making sure not to burn yourself.
5. Gather a large spoon, matches or a lighter, the mug, and the salt.
6. When ready to start playing, pour the liquor into the large spoon and set it alight. Then, carefully tip the flaming liquor onto the plate, letting it light the rest of the alcohol. It may not take right away. Reheat more alcohol and try again if it doesn’t work the first time.
7. Once the blue flames are leaping, players can reach for the raisins and almonds. Pinches of salt will make the fire briefly burn yellow and flare. Take care, since the plate will gradually heat up.
8. To refresh the flames, carefully stir the mix with the spoon, or add more alcohol. Eat what you pull from the fire.
Good luck!
About William Pierrepoint
San Diego Sarah • Link
Hon. William Pierrepont MP’s ancestors had been great landowners in Nottinghamshire since the 13th century, and first represented the county in 1417.
His father, Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, and elder brothers were somewhat reluctant Royalists in the Civil War, but Hon. William Pierrepont MP, who had been a ship-money sheriff, remained staunch to Parliament.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP withdrew from overt participation in politics after Pride’s Purge, but grew even more influential behind the scenes, especially during the protectorate of Richard Cromwell.
Pierrepont refused to take his seat on the return of the secluded Members, on the grounds that Parliament had been automatically dissolved by the death of King Charles, but some Royalists believed that he was still a Cromwellian, and he attended the meetings of Presbyterians, who were planning a restoration on conditions.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP’s standing in Nottinghamshire in 1660 was so high that he secured not only his own return but that of his son-in-law, Gilbert Holles Lord Houghton, as representatives of the county at the general election. …
Hon. William Pierrepont MP was defeated by Anthony Eyre at the general election of 1661, but he remained ‘the celebrated sage of that time both in and out of Parliament’.
Hon. William Pierrepont MP was recalled from retirement when the Commons chose him as one of the Commissioners of Public Accounts in 1667.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…