Monday 9 July 1660

All the morning at Sir G. Palmer’s advising about getting my bill drawn. From thence to the Navy office, where in the afternoon we met and sat, and there I begun to sign bills in the Office the first time. From thence Captain Holland and Mr. Browne of Harwich took me to a tavern and did give me a collation. From thence to the Temple to further my bills being done, and so home to my Lord, and thence to bed.

25 Annotations

First Reading

Colin Gravois  •  Link

"...we met and sat, and there I begun to sign bills in the Office the first time."

Well, Sam must have had the best night's sleep in a long while tonight -- if possession is 9/10 of the law, as the old saying goes, he's now occupying the office, sitting in the chair, signing the bills, and will heretofore be a person to reckon with.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Mr. Browne of Harwich
L&M identify him as a "Browne, [John] Storekeeper at Harwich; reappointed 1660."

I suspect that SP is already getting to work learning his trade...

The L&M Companion identifies Harwich as the site of a small dockyard used mainly for storage and repairs that plays some part in the Dutch Wars. Presumably Mr. Browne was an official of the dockyard.

Note that this is the first mention in the diary of the town he will later (post-diary) represent as an MP.

Paul Miller  •  Link

"took me to a tavern and did give me a collation."
COLLATION was a light meal served cold with an emphasis on sweets. In the 16th century it was part of the French court. Themes often centered around classical mythology or allegories. In 1571 at a feast honoring Elizabeth of Austria, new bride of Charles IX, the dinner was followed by dancing. After dancing a collation was served with preserves, sweet biscuits, fruits, marzipan, sugar paste formed into meats and fish, with six large sugar sculptures of Minerva bringing peace to Athens.

[This quote is taken from 'Some Sweet Terms' by Elise Fleming: http://home.netcom.com/~alysk/SomeSweetTerms.htm P.G.]

Glyn  •  Link

People still use the word collation, perhaps a little pompously, as in the phrase "cold collation" which is usually a selection of cold meats and a salad. I don't think it's gone out-of-use in England.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

You are what you eat ... A database of the meals of Samuel Pepys
A wonderful (yet incomplete) companion to the diary ... It has been linked before but deserves to be referenced again.
http://astext.com/history/mealticket_sp.html

vincent  •  Link

Paul, et al: Fantanstic on foods of SP, (just need to know if he took any anti acids):

chip  •  Link

Vincent, how could you think Pepys dyspeptic? Our boy loved to eat (and it shows). Thanks to the Pauls and Glyn for clarification. Perhaps we should start a dining club, eating what Pepys ate on a certain date. He would surely get a kick out of that.

Anthony  •  Link

"The Dreaded Cold Collation"

Small part of cold dead chicken...slice of tomato laid like wreath on dead chicken bit... thin slice of bread curling at edges as though about to fly off plate... six pale peas glued together for security ...

Spike Milligan: Where have all the bullets gone ? p 150.

Sorry, couldn't resist it !

deepfatfriar  •  Link

"Collation" is still in use on the continent. When I lived in Italy, everyone there was having prima collatione most mornings about the time I was looking for brekfast.

Ann  •  Link

OED Says re: Collation

Hence, in gen. use, A light meal or repast: one consisting of light viands or delicacies (e.g. fruit, sweets, and wine), or that has needed little preparation (often

bchan  •  Link

Harwich (pron. "herrich") is very much an active port today. Ferries from the Continent (for example, from the Hook of Holland) call there regularly.

Mary  •  Link

Harwich
Who pronounces this 'herrich'? Most of UK would say 'harrich' without a second thought. Is the 'e' version a north Essex/south Suffolk dialectal variant?

Frank G.  •  Link

"Herrich" is how the Dutch pronouce the name. It seems to be the way that the Dutch think an "a" is pronounced. When they say "the man came to the door" it's not possible to tell if there was one or more men.

Tim Whitsett  •  Link

Having once lived in the vicinity of Harwich, I thought it was pronounced
"Harridge."

Colin Gravois  •  Link

The collation question.

Also used in standard French. The snack airlnes serve after lunch but before landing on a long flight is called "une collation." OED says it's a light meal/repast, but what the airlines are now serving at 35,000 feet is so light it has almost the weightlessness of space.

Second Reading

Rob  •  Link

Thanks Frank for your resume on how we, the Dutch (mis)pronounce man, men and Harwich.... You are probably right....

Bill  •  Link

COLLATION, a handsome Treat or Entertainment.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

Dick Wilson  •  Link

Did Capt. Holland and Mr. Browne put Pepys under any sort of obligation to them, by feeding him lunch? (late afternoon. Tea time, except, they didn't do that, then) Or were they trying to ingratiate themselves with a man who might someday send naval contracts their way?

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:
‘ . . II . . 8. Extended to the light repast or refection taken by the members of a monastery at close of day, after the reading or conference mentioned in sense 7.

. . 9. Hence, in gen. use, A light meal or repast: one consisting of light viands or delicacies (e.g. fruit, sweets, and wine), or that has needed little preparation (often ‘a cold collation’). ‘A repast; a treat less than a feast’ (Johnson).
Originally applied to a repast between ordinary meals, and still retaining much of that character.

. . 1534 N. Udall tr. Terence Floures for Latine Spekynge 75 (R.) Such bankettes are called collacions, a collatum, tu, that is of laiyng together every one his porcion.
. . 1664 S. Pepys Diary 6 July (1971) IV. 197 Came to the Hope about one, and there..had a collacion of anchoves, Gammon, &c.
. . 1882 J. H. Shorthouse John Inglesant II. 205 A plentiful and delicate collation was spread..with abundance of fruit and wine.'

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"All the morning at Sir G. Palmer’s advising about getting my bill drawn. "

The "bill" in this case was the Attorney-General's warrant for Pepys's appointmen as Clerk of the Acts. Pepys got it on the 10th; had it made into a 'King's Bill' on the 11th; on the 12th obtained a privy seal writ and on the 13th the letters patent. The enrollment of the patent is in the "Public Records Office", now the UK National Archives, C 66/2742, no. 2. (L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" in the afternoon we met and sat, and there I begun to sign bills in the Office"

These "bills" are warrants to the Navy Treasurer (orders to "pay invoice") which had to be signed by two of the Principal Officers. (L&M)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

To make a marchpane [marzipan] according to Delightes for Ladies (1608):

"Take two pounds of almonds being blanched, and dried in a sieve over the fire, beat them in a stone mortar, and when they be small, mix them with two pound of sugar being finely beaten, adding two or three spoonfuls of rosewater, and that will keep your almonds from oiling; when your paste is beaten fine, drive it thin with a rolling pin, and so lay it on a bottom of wafers, then raise up a little edge on the side, and so bake it, then yce it with rosewater and sugar, then put it in the oven again, and when you see your yce is risen up and dry, then take it out of the oven and garnish it with pretty concepts, as birds and beasts, being cast out of standing molds. Stick long comfits upright in it, cast bisket and carrowaies in it and so serve it; guild it before you serve it: you may also print of this marchpane paste in your molds for banqueting dishes. And of this paste our comfit makers at this day make their letters, knots, arms, escutcheons, beasts, birds and other fancies."

Mary K  •  Link

Marchpane

All that pounding of almonds and loaf-sugar would have made for some sore muscles. Again, I am reminded of Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book (1857).
"To stir butter and sugar together is the hardest part of cake-making. Have this done by a manservant."

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Marchpane

The German name has largely ousted the original English name marchpane with the same apparent derivation: "March bread". (The word marchpane occurs in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 5, Line 9.) Marzapane is documented earlier in Italian than in any other language, and the sense "bread" for pan is Romance. The origin could be from the Latin term "martius panis", which means bread of March. However, the ultimate etymology is unclear; for example, the Italian word derives from the Latin words "Massa" (itself from Greek Μάζα "Maza") meaning pastry and "Pan" meaning bread, this can be particularly seen in the Provençal massapan, the Portuguese maçapão (where 'ç' is an alternative form for the phoneme 'ss') and old Spanish mazapán – the change from 'ss' to 'z' in Latin words was common in old Spanish and the 'r' appeared later. It could also be derived from martis pan, bread of March. Among the other possible etymologies set forth in the Oxford English Dictionary, one theory proposes that the word "marzipan" may be a corruption of Martaban, a Burmese city famous for its jars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzipan

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