"my father being to go away tomorrow" -- hence all these pesky family meals with the Joyces. Or maybe the wives are very fond of Pall? Anyways, the end is in sight.
"... the first thing the Prince said to the King upon his coming, was complaining of the Commissioners of the Navy; ... which I am troubled at, and do fear may in violence break out upon this office some time or other; for we shall not be able to carry on the business."
Another part in the puzzle as to what the Navy complex looked like. I imagine the "house" fronted on Seething Lane (and being an Elizabethan building probably had three "wings" out the back in which the Commissioners lived), with the garden enclosed by a wall with a gate out onto Tower Hill. But this sounds as if it was more open to the public than that, and if the sailors and/or their relatives were upset, the Commissioners were vulnerable.
Probably reminds him of the rocks coming through the windows at Greenwich last summer.
The Duke of Medina ... not helpful, because there were several of them.
My nomination as to which Duke of Medina this might be comes from this 1664 entry in Lady Anne Fanshawe's memoires about her husband, Ambassador Richard Fanshawe (Sandwich's predecessor):
"October the 21st, we went to see the Buen Retiro. The Duke de Medina de las Torres, who has the keeping of this house of the King's from his Majesty, sent two of his gentlemen to show us all that belongs thereunto. The place is adorned with much water and fountains, trees and fine gardens, with many hermitages up and down the place, and a very good house for his Majesty; yet the pictures therein did far exceed the rest, they being many, and all very curious, done by the best hand in the world in their times."
### While I'm sharing about Lady Fanshawe, here's her take on Sandwich's appointment:
"December the 17th, 1665, my husband, upon the part of our King his master, and the Duke de Medina de las Torres, on the part of his Catholic Majesty, did conclude and signed together the peace between England and Spain, and the articles for the adjustment between Spain and Portugal, which articles were cavilled at by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon and his party, that they might have an opportunity to send the Earl of Sandwich out of the way from the Parliament, which then sat, and who, as he and his friends feared, would be severely punished for his cowardice in the Dutch fight.
"He neither understood the customs of the Court, nor the language, nor indeed anything but a vicious life; and thus was he shuffled into your father's employment to reap the benefit of his five years' negotiation of the peace between England, Spain, and Portugal: and after above thirty years studying state affairs, and many of them in the Spanish Court: so much are Ambassadors slaves to the public ministers at home, who often, through envy or ignorance, ruin them!"
Robert Boyle moved to Oxford in 1654. He proved to be an extremely competent physicist and gave his name to the law that relates the pressure and the volume of a gas.
Boyle stayed in Oxford until 1668 when he moved to London. If he was a regular attendee at the Wednesday afternoon lectures at Gresham College, he must also have been a regular traveler.
Gresham College, then in Bishopsgate Street, was a 120-mile round trip from his home near the Three Tuns public house in Oxford. With more than a day's ride each way he would have had little time left for anything else, so it seems safe to assume Robert Boyle did not make it his usual custom to attend the lectures on Wednesday afternoons.
But Boyle did sometimes come up to London to stay with his sister, Katherine Boyle Jones, Lady Ranelagh in Chelsea, as John Evelyn visited him there on 7 September 1660.
In 1666 John, 1st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was married to his third wife, Anne Paulet, daughter of the Marquis of Winchester.
Blue dye had long existed in England, but it was made from the flowering plant woad. Even when the more versatile indigo became available, the woad cultivators resisted importing the new blue.
Historian Dauril Alden notes in The Journal of Economic History that the woad cultivators campaigned aggressively against indigo, declaring: '[it] was properly “food for the devil” and was also poisonous, as in fact it was (particularly to the woadmen). By the end of the 16th century, they had succeeded in persuading governments in the Germanies, France, and England to prohibit use of the so-called “devil’s dye.”'
Still, the ban on indigo did not last long, especially when dyers discovered its potential. “Different textiles required different treatment and even different dyes to achieve a given color,” writes historian Susan Fairlie of The Economic History Review.
Wool is the easiest to dye, while silk, cotton, and linen are each a bit harder and need varying amounts of dyes like woad. “The only fast, attractive dye which worked equally on all four, with minor differences in preparation, was indigo.”
In the second half of the 18th century, the Royal Navy sailed the world in service of the expansion and enforcement of the British Empire. Its officers wore uniforms in a deep blue, now known as navy blue. The rich hue was a recent development, and wouldn’t have been possible in previous centuries when the color was scarce.
In 1748, the Royal Navy adopted dark blue officer’s uniforms. The blue of seamen’s uniforms is not due to the color of the sky and sea, but relates to the British colonization of India and the expansion of the East India Trading Company after the victory over the French in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).
The rich color comes from the indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria, native to India, and thus available to the British after they had colonized the country. It had been in use in Europe since the late 13th century.
“Indigo was then not only plentiful and affordable [in the 18th century], but unlike other dyes was particularly color fast, outclassing other colors in withstanding extensive exposure to sun and salt water.”
So by 1665 presumably some plants had been sent to St. Kitts/St. Christopher's to start a more convenient source.
"... to Lumbard Streete again, where much talke at Colvill’s, he censuring the times, and how matters are ordered, and with reason enough; but, above all, the thinking to borrow money of the City, which will not be done, but be denied, they being little pleased with the King’s affairs, and that must breed differences between the King and the City."
Downing saw this day coming. Whether or not the new-fangled way of raising money will work, Pepys truly does not know. Perhaps The City thought Lady Castlemaine should pay?
John, 1st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby lived in Lincolns Inn Fields, and was married in Pepys’ time to his third wife, Anne Paulet, daughter of the Marquis of Winchester.
"Was the City the center of the county's financial activities even then?" Yes it was.
In 1663 the City (i.e. the merchants through the great Guilds, and shareholders in the new organizations like the Royal Africa Company and the plantations) let Charles II know that the Dutch were hampering their profits. Downing told Charles that he didn't think the Dutch would fight. This power play seemed like a slam-dunk. But Charles made "the City" petition him formally, with a promise to pay for the war.
There are lots of entries about these negotiations around April 1663.
As usual, mission creep and the reality of war, belatedly discovering that the Dutch are excellent seamen, and that allies are not always reliable, has made "the City" change their collective minds about paying for everything, leaving Charles exactly where he did not want to be -- broke and losing.
That's why Downing rewrote the way the Exchequer works, making payment on loans more reliable and not based on personal relationships, so more small investors would want to support Government expenditures.
This is a tiny step away from feudal economics, and towards the eventual establishment of taxes and the system we have today. "The City" may not know it, but they just lost some power.
"... and a very fine gentleman Mr. Williamson is."
Pepys may or may not know that Secretary of State Joseph Williamson is responsible for intelligencing ... if anyone knows where the French fleet is, and what Louis XIV intends for his cousin Charles in this unwelcome conflict, it's that very fine gentleman, Mr. Williamson.
The involvement of Sir George Downing, MP in the Additional Aid Act:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1665 was Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Ashley. But as the former Chancellor, according to his House of Commons biography, Downing retained the title of Teller of the Exchequer from 1660 until his death.
In that capacity, when he finally came back from The Hague (where he was Dutch envoy extraordinary, obtaining intelligence with ‘the keys taken out of De Witt’s pocket when he was a-bed’) in 1665 Downing set himself to improving government credit, much to the disgust of Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who believed that he was chiefly concerned to increase the income from his tellership.
Resuming his seat for the Oxford session, Sir George Downing MP was supported by Secretary of State Sir Henry Bennet and Charles II in taking over from Heneage Finch the management of supply, in which his principal achievement was the Additional Aid Bill.
Aiming to revolutionize public borrowing by appealing to the small investor, Sir George Downing MP revived the principle of appropriating the revenue to specified purposes; but his great innovation (resisted by Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon as an entrenchment on the prerogative) provided for the repayment of loans ‘in course’ instead of by treasury whim or favor.
Returning to London, which was still infected by the plague, Sir George Downing MP used every publicity device available, including advertisements in Sir Joseph Williamson's Gazette and personal application to his acquaintances, to make the loan a success. Exhausted by Sir George Downing MP’s volubility and pertinacity, one reluctant investor confessed: ‘the beginning, end, and every part of it is to be imputed to him.’
In the next Parliamentary session Sir George Downing MP again took the chair of a committee on trade, which on 8 Oct. 1666 recommended a total prohibition of French imports.
So Downing's not "running" the Exchequer, but he is reforming it (and doubtlessly lining his own pocket at the same time). https://www.historyofparliamenton…...
"A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution" by Toby Green reveals the success Africans had in the first 400 years of their encounter with Europeans.
An early effect of European trade on West African politics was that organized states like Songhai broke up, while smaller ones were strengthened by the economic exchanges.
Initially, Europeans wanted gold, but with the start of New World plantations, demand for slaves rose, and it was the small less organized kingdoms that became Europe’s source.
Some African states resisted for generations. Today's Ghana, Benin, and Congo refused to sell slaves (but sometimes purchased them), and defeated efforts to gain control of their resources.
Kongo was an advanced state with elected kings when the Portuguese arrival in the 1480s. They embraced Christianity and kept ambassadors at the Vatican from the 1530s - 1620s, but slavery broke its relationship with Portugal.
Faced with Kongo’s resistance, in 1575 Portugal founded Luanda, from which it waged a destabilization campaign. Kongo eventually asked Holland to be their ally (as they were not yet engaged in slaving and were an enemy of the united kingdom of Spain and Portugal).
In 1623 Kongo’s King Pedro II wrote to Holland requesting “four or five warships as well as five or six hundred soldiers” and promised to pay for “the ships and the salaries of the soldiers in gold, silver, and ivory.”
Holland wanted to end this resource, which supplied more than half the slaves sent to Brazil and the Indies, hoping Brazil (Portugal’s leading source of wealth) would become nonviable.
Africa thus played a major role in the struggle for control over the South Atlantic during the 30 Years’ War, with Dutch warships helping Kongo defeat the Portuguese in 1624 and 1641.
In 1648, Portugal shipped blacks from Brazil across the Atlantic to restore its hold on Angola. This is African history as world history.
Portugal defeated Kongo in 1665, and then exploited a vulnerability it shared with the Ashanti Empire and Benin: control over its money supply.
In Kongo, a locally-made cloth was the traditional means of exchange, along with the nzimbu seashell. The Dutch flooded the region with textiles and shells, both local and imported.
These economic catastrophes combined with the fall in the value of exported gold, following New World discoveries of gold and silver. In return, Africans had received European goods, all of which decline in value over time, and was bled of its people, who were used to enrich Europe.
I'm constantly surprised by how secular Pepys is. Sermons are mostly boring; he goes to church to see and be seen, and for the music. Elizabeth rarely attends with him. Pepys' moments of introspection are few and far between.
He also rarely mentions reading the Gazette or other newsletters, and if I were just reading the Diary I would think he gets all his news from Court, letters or the Exchange.
We know about the rabbit's foot in his pocket which is keeping him healthy, and his observations of that pesky comet, but his fears are mute beyond rewriting his will which indicates he's worried. He's a hard-working junior politician, plays "the game" (when he figures it out), and often keeps his opinions to himself hoping someone else will verbalize them. A perfect President-in-the-making for the Royal Society, who seeks for the facts.
I dunno John ... Pepys says "with some kind of violence" but does not specify who performed it. Since Pepys was shortish, I always imagine Creed as bigger and more athletic. Pepys was the aggrieved party. Creed was on the defensive for his deceitfulness and lack of cooperation. I can't see the Clerk of the Acts getting into fisticuffs in the street with a colleague, but I can hear a loud accusatory betrayed voice being told to calm down and shut up, accompanied by some shoving. Who shoved who into the coach isn't specified. SPOILER: Creed comes to lunch tomorrow, and they are "friends" again. Pepys puts up with a lot to keep Creed's sword hand available.
Comments
Second Reading
About Wednesday 20 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
"my father being to go away tomorrow" -- hence all these pesky family meals with the Joyces. Or maybe the wives are very fond of Pall? Anyways, the end is in sight.
About Beans
San Diego Sarah • Link
The only mention of beans in the Diary is in June ... isn't this the time for those lovely long green beans I remember slicing finely in my childhood?
My first reaction was Boston Baked Beans, but that can't be right.
About Tuesday 19 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... the first thing the Prince said to the King upon his coming, was complaining of the Commissioners of the Navy; ... which I am troubled at, and do fear may in violence break out upon this office some time or other; for we shall not be able to carry on the business."
Another part in the puzzle as to what the Navy complex looked like. I imagine the "house" fronted on Seething Lane (and being an Elizabethan building probably had three "wings" out the back in which the Commissioners lived), with the garden enclosed by a wall with a gate out onto Tower Hill. But this sounds as if it was more open to the public than that, and if the sailors and/or their relatives were upset, the Commissioners were vulnerable.
Probably reminds him of the rocks coming through the windows at Greenwich last summer.
About Tuesday 19 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Duke of Medina ... not helpful, because there were several of them.
My nomination as to which Duke of Medina this might be comes from this 1664 entry in Lady Anne Fanshawe's memoires about her husband, Ambassador Richard Fanshawe (Sandwich's predecessor):
"October the 21st, we went to see the Buen Retiro. The Duke de Medina de las Torres, who has the keeping of this house of the King's from his Majesty, sent two of his gentlemen to show us all that belongs thereunto. The place is adorned with much water and fountains, trees and fine gardens, with many hermitages up and down the place, and a very good house for his Majesty; yet the pictures therein did far exceed the rest, they being many, and all very curious, done by the best hand in the world in their times."
###
While I'm sharing about Lady Fanshawe, here's her take on Sandwich's appointment:
"December the 17th, 1665, my husband, upon the part of our King his master, and the Duke de Medina de las Torres, on the part of his Catholic Majesty, did conclude and signed together the peace between England and Spain, and the articles for the adjustment between Spain and Portugal, which articles were cavilled at by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon and his party, that they might have an opportunity to send the Earl of Sandwich out of the way from the Parliament, which then sat, and who, as he and his friends feared, would be severely punished for his cowardice in the Dutch fight.
"He neither understood the customs of the Court, nor the language, nor indeed anything but a vicious life; and thus was he shuffled into your father's employment to reap the benefit of his five years' negotiation of the peace between England, Spain, and Portugal: and after above thirty years studying state affairs, and many of them in the Spanish Court: so much are Ambassadors slaves to the public ministers at home, who often, through envy or ignorance, ruin them!"
For more about this adventurous woman's incredible life in service to Charles I and II, see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/60…
About Robert Boyle
San Diego Sarah • Link
Robert Boyle moved to Oxford in 1654. He proved to be an extremely competent physicist and gave his name to the law that relates the pressure and the volume of a gas.
Boyle stayed in Oxford until 1668 when he moved to London. If he was a regular attendee at the Wednesday afternoon lectures at Gresham College, he must also have been a regular traveler.
Gresham College, then in Bishopsgate Street, was a 120-mile round trip from his home near the Three Tuns public house in Oxford. With more than a day's ride each way he would have had little time left for anything else, so it seems safe to assume Robert Boyle did not make it his usual custom to attend the lectures on Wednesday afternoons.
But Boyle did sometimes come up to London to stay with his sister, Katherine Boyle Jones, Lady Ranelagh in Chelsea, as John Evelyn visited him there on 7 September 1660.
Lots of information on all the Boyles from https://www.archive.org/stream/cu…
About Lincoln's Inn Fields
San Diego Sarah • Link
In 1666 John, 1st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby lived in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was married to his third wife, Anne Paulet, daughter of the Marquis of Winchester.
About Barbara Palmer (Countess of Castlemaine)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Some shout-outs to Pepys in this biography of Barbara, with pictures
https://www.thecrownchronicles.co…
About Order of the Garter
San Diego Sarah • Link
And if that's not enough, another site with the history, tradition, origins and photographs
https://www.thecrownchronicles.co…
About Thursday 4 May 1665
San Diego Sarah • Link
More on indigo:
Blue dye had long existed in England, but it was made from the flowering plant woad. Even when the more versatile indigo became available, the woad cultivators resisted importing the new blue.
Historian Dauril Alden notes in The Journal of Economic History that the woad cultivators campaigned aggressively against indigo, declaring:
'[it] was properly “food for the devil” and was also poisonous, as in fact it was (particularly to the woadmen). By the end of the 16th century, they had succeeded in persuading governments in the Germanies, France, and England to prohibit use of the so-called “devil’s dye.”'
Still, the ban on indigo did not last long, especially when dyers discovered its potential. “Different textiles required different treatment and even different dyes to achieve a given color,” writes historian Susan Fairlie of The Economic History Review.
Wool is the easiest to dye, while silk, cotton, and linen are each a bit harder and need varying amounts of dyes like woad. “The only fast, attractive dye which worked equally on all four, with minor differences in preparation, was indigo.”
In the second half of the 18th century, the Royal Navy sailed the world in service of the expansion and enforcement of the British Empire. Its officers wore uniforms in a deep blue, now known as navy blue. The rich hue was a recent development, and wouldn’t have been possible in previous centuries when the color was scarce.
In 1748, the Royal Navy adopted dark blue officer’s uniforms. The blue of seamen’s uniforms is not due to the color of the sky and sea, but relates to the British colonization of India and the expansion of the East India Trading Company after the victory over the French in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63).
The rich color comes from the indigo plant, Indigofera tinctoria, native to India, and thus available to the British after they had colonized the country. It had been in use in Europe since the late 13th century.
“Indigo was then not only plentiful and affordable [in the 18th century], but unlike other dyes was particularly color fast, outclassing other colors in withstanding extensive exposure to sun and salt water.”
So by 1665 presumably some plants had been sent to St. Kitts/St. Christopher's to start a more convenient source.
More from https://daily.jstor.org/coloniali…
About Monday 18 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... to Lumbard Streete again, where much talke at Colvill’s, he censuring the times, and how matters are ordered, and with reason enough; but, above all, the thinking to borrow money of the City, which will not be done, but be denied, they being little pleased with the King’s affairs, and that must breed differences between the King and the City."
Downing saw this day coming. Whether or not the new-fangled way of raising money will work, Pepys truly does not know. Perhaps The City thought Lady Castlemaine should pay?
About Anne Belasyse
San Diego Sarah • Link
John, 1st Baron Belasyse of Worlaby lived in Lincolns Inn Fields, and was married in Pepys’ time to his third wife, Anne Paulet, daughter of the Marquis of Winchester.
About Monday 18 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
Wikipedia identifies John Belasyse's daughter as Mary, who later married Robert Constable, 3rd Viscount of Dunbar.
About Monday 18 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Was the City the center of the county's financial activities even then?" Yes it was.
In 1663 the City (i.e. the merchants through the great Guilds, and shareholders in the new organizations like the Royal Africa Company and the plantations) let Charles II know that the Dutch were hampering their profits. Downing told Charles that he didn't think the Dutch would fight. This power play seemed like a slam-dunk. But Charles made "the City" petition him formally, with a promise to pay for the war.
There are lots of entries about these negotiations around April 1663.
As usual, mission creep and the reality of war, belatedly discovering that the Dutch are excellent seamen, and that allies are not always reliable, has made "the City" change their collective minds about paying for everything, leaving Charles exactly where he did not want to be -- broke and losing.
That's why Downing rewrote the way the Exchequer works, making payment on loans more reliable and not based on personal relationships, so more small investors would want to support Government expenditures.
This is a tiny step away from feudal economics, and towards the eventual establishment of taxes and the system we have today. "The City" may not know it, but they just lost some power.
About Saturday 16 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and a very fine gentleman Mr. Williamson is."
Pepys may or may not know that Secretary of State Joseph Williamson is responsible for intelligencing ... if anyone knows where the French fleet is, and what Louis XIV intends for his cousin Charles in this unwelcome conflict, it's that very fine gentleman, Mr. Williamson.
About Additional Aid Act (1665)
San Diego Sarah • Link
The involvement of Sir George Downing, MP in the Additional Aid Act:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1665 was Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Ashley. But as the former Chancellor, according to his House of Commons biography, Downing retained the title of Teller of the Exchequer from 1660 until his death.
In that capacity, when he finally came back from The Hague (where he was Dutch envoy extraordinary, obtaining intelligence with ‘the keys taken out of De Witt’s pocket when he was a-bed’) in 1665 Downing set himself to improving government credit, much to the disgust of Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who believed that he was chiefly concerned to increase the income from his tellership.
Resuming his seat for the Oxford session, Sir George Downing MP was supported by Secretary of State Sir Henry Bennet and Charles II in taking over from Heneage Finch the management of supply, in which his principal achievement was the Additional Aid Bill.
Aiming to revolutionize public borrowing by appealing to the small investor, Sir George Downing MP revived the principle of appropriating the revenue to specified purposes; but his great innovation (resisted by Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon as an entrenchment on the prerogative) provided for the repayment of loans ‘in course’ instead of by treasury whim or favor.
Returning to London, which was still infected by the plague, Sir George Downing MP used every publicity device available, including advertisements in Sir Joseph Williamson's Gazette and personal application to his acquaintances, to make the loan a success. Exhausted by Sir George Downing MP’s volubility and pertinacity, one reluctant investor confessed: ‘the beginning, end, and every part of it is to be imputed to him.’
In the next Parliamentary session Sir George Downing MP again took the chair of a committee on trade, which on 8 Oct. 1666 recommended a total prohibition of French imports.
So Downing's not "running" the Exchequer, but he is reforming it (and doubtlessly lining his own pocket at the same time).
https://www.historyofparliamenton…...
About English Royal Africa Company ("Guinea Company")
San Diego Sarah • Link
"A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution" by Toby Green reveals the success Africans had in the first 400 years of their encounter with Europeans.
An early effect of European trade on West African politics was that organized states like Songhai broke up, while smaller ones were strengthened by the economic exchanges.
Initially, Europeans wanted gold, but with the start of New World plantations, demand for slaves rose, and it was the small less organized kingdoms that became Europe’s source.
Some African states resisted for generations. Today's Ghana, Benin, and Congo refused to sell slaves (but sometimes purchased them), and defeated efforts to gain control of their resources.
Kongo was an advanced state with elected kings when the Portuguese arrival in the 1480s. They embraced Christianity and kept ambassadors at the Vatican from the 1530s - 1620s, but slavery broke its relationship with Portugal.
Faced with Kongo’s resistance, in 1575 Portugal founded Luanda, from which it waged a destabilization campaign. Kongo eventually asked Holland to be their ally (as they were not yet engaged in slaving and were an enemy of the united kingdom of Spain and Portugal).
In 1623 Kongo’s King Pedro II wrote to Holland requesting “four or five warships as well as five or six hundred soldiers” and promised to pay for “the ships and the salaries of the soldiers in gold, silver, and ivory.”
Holland wanted to end this resource, which supplied more than half the slaves sent to Brazil and the Indies, hoping Brazil (Portugal’s leading source of wealth) would become nonviable.
Africa thus played a major role in the struggle for control over the South Atlantic during the 30 Years’ War, with Dutch warships helping Kongo defeat the Portuguese in 1624 and 1641.
In 1648, Portugal shipped blacks from Brazil across the Atlantic to restore its hold on Angola. This is African history as world history.
Portugal defeated Kongo in 1665, and then exploited a vulnerability it shared with the Ashanti Empire and Benin: control over its money supply.
In Kongo, a locally-made cloth was the traditional means of exchange, along with the nzimbu seashell. The Dutch flooded the region with textiles and shells, both local and imported.
These economic catastrophes combined with the fall in the value of exported gold, following New World discoveries of gold and silver. In return, Africans had received European goods, all of which decline in value over time, and was bled of its people, who were used to enrich Europe.
For the whole review, and others books on the subject: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/…
About Saturday 9 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
Brian -- I think you nailed it! Thank you.
About Thursday 14 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
Hi Harvey L.
I'm constantly surprised by how secular Pepys is. Sermons are mostly boring; he goes to church to see and be seen, and for the music. Elizabeth rarely attends with him. Pepys' moments of introspection are few and far between.
He also rarely mentions reading the Gazette or other newsletters, and if I were just reading the Diary I would think he gets all his news from Court, letters or the Exchange.
We know about the rabbit's foot in his pocket which is keeping him healthy, and his observations of that pesky comet, but his fears are mute beyond rewriting his will which indicates he's worried. He's a hard-working junior politician, plays "the game" (when he figures it out), and often keeps his opinions to himself hoping someone else will verbalize them. A perfect President-in-the-making for the Royal Society, who seeks for the facts.
About Thursday 14 June 1666
San Diego Sarah • Link
I dunno John ... Pepys says "with some kind of violence" but does not specify who performed it. Since Pepys was shortish, I always imagine Creed as bigger and more athletic. Pepys was the aggrieved party. Creed was on the defensive for his deceitfulness and lack of cooperation. I can't see the Clerk of the Acts getting into fisticuffs in the street with a colleague, but I can hear a loud accusatory betrayed voice being told to calm down and shut up, accompanied by some shoving. Who shoved who into the coach isn't specified. SPOILER: Creed comes to lunch tomorrow, and they are "friends" again. Pepys puts up with a lot to keep Creed's sword hand available.
About Elizabeth Burrows
San Diego Sarah • Link
"So the Elizabeths knew each other, and Mr. Burrows knew Pepys, and they all sat around for an hour or two discussing ... the weather?"
It was, of course, Mr. Martin ... Lt. Burrows died in 1665. Sorry!