San Diego Sarah

Annotations and comments

San Diego Sarah has posted 8,791 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

Comments

Second Reading

About Friday 29 November 1667

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

How about the noise being a small child climbing through the flues, knocking down the soot as s/he went? Tudor chimneys had stone steps inside for this purpose.

"Chimney Sweeps came to prevalence in the 17th century around the time of the Great Fire of London in 1666. The great fire brought about far more concern related to fire safety, and small children were introduced into the world of chimney sweeping. It was believed that small children could do a better job removing all of the combustible soot from the chimney to prevent chimney fires. Around this time, chimneys were also made smaller in order to increase the velocity of the smoke travelling up the chimney and increase the temperature in the flue so the amount of soot produced was reduced, and chimneys were less likely to ignite.

Children were apprenticed by a Master Sweep. Often these apprentices were orphans. It was an unfortunate job for the children, who could have been as young as 3, and the life expectancy was low. Children would often become wedged in the chimneys, which were as small as 9 inches by 9 inches (230mm x 230mm), and little fires would sometimes be lit in the fireplace to speed up the child. Master Sweeps were often known to have sticks with sharp ends that they would use to stab the children in the feet to hurry them if they were at all scared or hesitant. It wasn’t as uncommon for a child to die in the flues If they became stuck. Sometimes they could not remove the child without breaking a hole in the chimney wall further up in the house. This depended on the homeowner valuing the life of a child more than the decor of their house."
https://www.thelocalchimneysweep.…

About Friday 29 November 1667

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Why is it safer to get out of bed on his wife's side?"

Having been in a few very old houses, there are sometimes squeaks where there's give in the floorboards. Perhaps there was one on Pepys' side of the bed, but Elizabeth was closer to a wall so there was less give. By getting out on her side, he could quietly pick up the firebrand (hard to imagine him wandering around the house with a piece of glowing wood in his hand, but that's what he says) and get to the door.

We had a loose board under fitted carpet in a hallway when I was growing up. My sheltie loved to run down the hallway, purposely landing on the loose board a couple of times. I think it made him feel like a BIG dog, but drove my parents nuts.