Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About William Cecil (1st Baron Burghley)

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CECIL, WILLIAM, Baron Burghley (1520-1598), statesman; only son of a wealthy Northamptonshire squire (d. 1552), in the service of Henry VIII; educated at Grantham school; at St. John's College, Cambridge, 1535-41; studied Greek; entered Gray's Inn, 1541; allied by marriage with Sir John Cheke, of Cambridge, the Greek scholar; held the lucrative office of custos brevium in the court of common pleas, 1547-61; M.P., Stamford, 1547; secretary to Lord Protector Somerset; imprisoned in the Tower on Somerset's fall, 1549; secretary of state, 1550-3; recorder of Boston, 1551; knighted, 1551; began building Burleigh House and Wimbledon House, 1553; employed by Queen Mary to recall Cardinal Pole, 1554, and (unsuccessfully) to mediate between the French king and emperor, 1555; M.P., Lincolnshire, 1555; secretary of state, 1558-72; chancellor of Cambridge University, 1559; envoy to Scotland, 1560; his influence threatened by Elizabeth's partiality to Lord Robert Dudley (earl of Leicester in 1564); master of the court of wards, 1561; attended Queen Elizabeth on her state visits to Cambridge, 1564, and to Oxford, 1566; organised secret police to detect plots against Elizabeth, 1570; created Baron of Burghley, February 1571; lord high treasurer, 1572-98, and chief minister of Queen Elizabeth; responsible for execution of Mary Queen of Scots, 1587; founded a hospital at Stamford Baron; his correspondence preserved at Hatfield.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir John Colladon

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Sir John Colladon, M.D., was elected an Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians in December, 1664. He was naturalized 14 Car. II., and was one of the Physicians to the Queen (Munk's "Roll of the Royal College of Physicians," vol. i., p. 321).
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Friday 18 September 1663

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“if they be born there, they do call the Breedlings’ of the place”

Explained in Murray's "New English Dictionary," as "one born and bred in a place, a native," but no other quotation is given for the word besides this passage in the Diary.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Monday 7 September 1663

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“the Prerogative Office in Paternoster Row”

The Prerogative Will Office was situated in Paternoster Row (or rather in Ivy Lane) before it was transferred to Doctors' Commons.
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Friday 4 September 1663

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“Ayrid on a dolphin”

Harry Goldingham represented "Arion on a dolphin's back " in the pageantry exhibited at Kenilworth in honour of Queen Elizabeth (see Thoms's "Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839, p. 28).
---Wheatley, 1893.

Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back,
I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves
So long as I could see.
---Twelfth Night. W, Shakespeare.

Arion was a legendary kitharode in ancient Greece, a Dionysiac poet credited with inventing the dithyramb. The islanders of Lesbos claimed him as their native son, but Arion found a patron in Periander, tyrant of Corinth. Although notable for his musical inventions, Arion is chiefly remembered for the fantastic myth of his kidnapping by pirates and miraculous rescue by dolphins, a folktale motif.
---Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. (With images)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wik…

About Wednesday 2 September 1663

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“we talked, among other things, of the Lord Mayor’s sword. They tell me this sword, they believe, is at least a hundred or two hundred years old; and another that he hath, which is called the Black Sword, which the Lord Mayor wears when he mournes, but properly is their Lenten sword to wear upon Good Friday and other Lent days, is older than that.”

Mr. W. H. St. John Hope, assistant secretary of the Society of Antiquaries, has paid particular attention to the history of the municipal insignia of the City of London, and in 1891 he read a paper on the subject before that society. It appears that until 1520 the City swords were provided, not by the Chamberlain, but at the charges of the Mayor for the time being. We are told by Mr. Hope that the swords now belonging to the City of London are four in number: (1) the pearl sword, (2) the Sunday sword, (3) the Old Bailey sword, and (4) the mourning sword. No. 1 is a "fine sword said to have been given to the City by Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of the opening of the Royal Exchange in 1570." There is, however, no mention of such a gift in the City records, neither do Stow nor other old writers notice it. The sword is certainly of sixteenth century date, and is very possibly that bought in 1554, if it be not that "verye goodly sworde" given by Sir Ralph Warren in 1545. "It has long been the custom in the City as in other places to have a sword painted black and devoid of ornament, which is carried before the Lord Mayor on occasions of mourning or special solemnity. . . . The present mourning sword has an old blade, but the hilt and guard, which are of iron japanned black, are of the most ordinary character and seemingly modern. The grip and sheath are covered with black velvet."
---Wheatley, 1893.

About Great Fire of London

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To mark the 350th anniversary of the most devastating fire in the city's history, the Museum of London has created Great Fire 1666, an exciting virtual experience in the Minecraft computer game. Great Fire 1666 features a new set of Minecraft maps which will offer a unique and immersive perspective on the Great Fire of London. We’ve worked with brilliant Minecrafters to build a detailed virtual model of 17th century London – and then burn it down.
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/…

About Wednesday 12 August 1663

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Ambages, a circuity of words, or a long idle or foolish discourse.
---The Law-French Dictionary. 1701.

AMBAGES, an idle circumlocution, or vain connecting together of words and sayings, remote from the true purpose of the speaker.
---A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. 1763.

About Beadles

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BEADLE, a messenger or Apparitor of a Court; also an Officer that belongs to an University, to a Hall or Company of Citizens, to a Ward or Parish; Also a Forest Officer.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Tuesday 18 August 1663

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“and in fine I find that he thinks 50l. per ann. will go near to keep them all”

In fine, or at last, en fin [finally]
---A short dictionary English and French. G. Miège, 1684.

About Tuesday 18 August 1663

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“Susan being come and helped my wife to dress dinner”

To DRESS, to clothe, also to cook Meat.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Sunday 16 August 1663

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StanB, I'm with you 100% on light pollution, but what about the air? London in the 1660s, with every house and industry burning wood or coal, must have produced tremendous air pollution. John Evelyn in 1661 wrote "Fumifugium, or, The inconveniencie of the aer and smoak of London" and proposed remedies, though he was more concerned about health problems. Does Pepys ever mention the night sky?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fum…

About Gorget

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GORGET, a Woman's Neck Dress; also a Neck Piece of Plate, worn by the Officers of Foot Soldiers; Also the throat.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Monday 17 August 1663

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“and resolve to speak to him of it if I can seasonably”

SEASONABLE, that which is done in season, opportune, convenient.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Saturday 15 August 1663

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“He joyed me in my condition”

To JOY.
1 To congratulate; to entertain kindly. ...
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Great Fire of London

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The Fire That Shaped London

LONDON — In the early hours of Sept. 2, 1666, a small fire broke out in a London bakery owned by Thomas Farriner. Stoked by easterly winds, the blaze engulfed timber-framed houses and warehouses stocked with brandy, wine and oil. By the time it was extinguished four days later, about 13,000 buildings had been destroyed — including the 500-year-old St. Paul’s Cathedral — and nearly 80 percent of the ancient city of London had been wiped out. As many as 100,000 people were left homeless.

The Museum of London is commemorating the 350th anniversary of the conflagration with an exhibition (“Fire! Fire!”) that traces the events surrounding it and how it shaped the city’s future. ...

The New York Times, 11 August 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10…

About Sunday 9 August 1663

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DAWES OF PUTNEY
Created 1st June 1663 Extinct 28th May 1741
Lineage
I. Sir John Dawes, knt of Putney, in the county of Surrey, son of Sir Thomas Dawes, and grandson of Sir Abraham Dawes, knt of Putney, one of the farmers of the customs temp. Charles I. was created a Baronet by King Charles II. 1st June 1663. ...
---A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies. J. Burke, 1844.

About Tuesday 11 August 1663

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LIST, Will, Desire, &c.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

LIST...
3. Desire; willingness; choice.

To LIST...
5. To hearken to; to listen; to attend.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.