eileen d.

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eileen d. has posted 69 annotations/comments since 28 August 2016.

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Second Reading

About Monday 7 December 1663

eileen d.  •  Link

Stan B: not sure how it's done, but surely your post about Rushworth should be added to the annotations at the Rushworth link in our encyclopedia... fascinating!

About Monday 23 November 1663

eileen d.  •  Link

"...nor have the ingenuity to take my advice as he ought kindly." [re: Sam's advice letter to Lord Sandwich]

have to record my chuckle over this one... I, too, am often dismayed by people's lack of ingenuity in accepting my peerless advice! :))

About Tuesday 19 May 1663

eileen d.  •  Link

so pleased Sam included his notes from the mint directly into the diary! I was expecting to learn they were buried somewhere in the Bodleian Library or had been lost. great entry today!

About Monday 26 January 1662/63

eileen d.  •  Link

slangist, thank you for the wonderful passage on the historian's experience in discovering the past. so very well describes the great fun and discourse found here on this site, don't you think?

About Thursday 30 October 1662

eileen d.  •  Link

re: Clark Kent's The Fatal Sequence, above, some sourcing info Wikiquote article titled Benjamin Franklin:

[under subsection headed] "Misattributed

'When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.'

"There is no evidence that Franklin ever actually said or wrote this, but it's remarkably similar a quote often attributed, without proper sourcing, to Alexis de Tocqueville and Alexander Fraser Tytler:

'A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.'"

About Saturday 4 October 1662

eileen d.  •  Link

Admiral Byng (re: Leslie Katz post, above)

"...Aged 50 in 1756 when the Seven Years’ War broke out, Byng, now a full admiral, sailed with ten ships of the line to Gibraltar. His orders were to prevent the French in Toulon from capturing the British stronghold of Fort St Philip on the island of Minorca, and to this end he was to carry a detachment of 700 men from the Gibraltar garrison to Port Mahon.

When Byng reached Gibraltar, however, he discovered that the French had already landed a sizeable force on Minorca and were besieging the fort. He and his council of war decided against landing more troops and he wrote to the Admiralty to explain that carrying out his orders would not stop the French and would be a needless waste of manpower.

The letter, which arrived at the end of May, aroused consternation and fury in London. George II said flatly: ‘This man will not fight!’...

...Mobs went about chanting ‘Swing, swing Admiral Byng’ and the court martial, which convened at the end of December, was reported in detail in all the newspapers. Byng was charged with ‘failing to do his utmost’. He defended himself, but the court found against him and with the utmost reluctance sentenced him to death...

...After a few agonizing moments he dropped the handkerchief, the six marines fired and the admiral fell gently on his side...

The rights and wrongs of the matter have been disputed ever since..."

from History Today, The Execution of Admiral Byng
http://www.historytoday.com/richa…

About Monday 15 September 1662

eileen d.  •  Link

Gerald, Sarah C. was referring to the house as shown here when she asked, "where are the leads?" I have the same question! the only roof access would seem to be up through some kind of hatch. however, as John York noted, this may be the house as rebuilt after the fire of 1673. I suspect that's the answer, darn it!

http://assets.londonremembers.com…

About Other general reference sites

eileen d.  •  Link

How to Pronounce British Place Names: a sampling of useful links

'How to Pronounce Deliberately Off-Putting British Place Names'
http://www.bbcamerica.com/angloph…

'List of places in the United Kingdom and Ireland with counterintuitive pronunciations'
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…

(here's the key to the the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols used [above] for English words and pronunciations by Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H… )

'197 English Place Names Americans Might Have a Hard Time Pronouncing'
http://www.lostinthepond.com/2014…

About A new chart of Pepys’ wealth

eileen d.  •  Link

Phil, this is fantastic! there have been so many discussions about how to put the monetary values into a contemporary context. this should prove a well-used reference...

About The Bedchamber

eileen d.  •  Link

thank you, Jeanine! this was fascinating. I continue to praise the day I found this site.

About Friday 11 July 1662

eileen d.  •  Link

more thanks to Dirk! and, joy of joys, the link still lives! :)
"Also have a look at this 17th c. mathematical "aide-memoire" - at a later stage Sam may have used something similar to help him remember his tables..."
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/staff/saj…

the discussion of the interest calculations references our very decade, the 1660's.
"The accountant and mathematical author, John Collins, wrote on simple and compound interest, annuities and related financial matters. In 1664/5 he issued a single folding sheet intended to be inserted in a letter case and to be used as a vade-mecum..."

About Wednesday 9 July 1662

eileen d.  •  Link

Ivan: A year and 1/2 late, but for what it's worth… I looked at our background article (wikipedia) on William Penn. Four years later, Pepys is still disgusted by him. I don't think it was just a temporary annoyance related to the recent contract dispute. the article also states that Penn "was not a high minded man…" I'd like to know more about that!