Sunday 15 July 1660

Lay long in bed to recover my rest. Going forth met with Mr. Sheply, and went and drank my morning draft with him at Wilkinson’s, and my brother Spicer. After that to Westminster Abbey, and in Henry the Seventh’s Chappell heard part of a sermon, the first that ever I heard there. To my Lord’s and dined all alone at the table with him.

After dinner he and I alone fell to discourse, and I find him plainly to be a sceptic in all things of religion, and to make no great matter of anything therein, but to be a perfect Stoic. In the afternoon to Henry the Seventh’s Chappell, where I heard service and a sermon there, and after that meeting W. Bowyer there, he and I to the Park, and walked a good while till night.

So to Harper’s and drank together, and Captain Stokes came to us and so I fell into discourse of buying paper at the first hand in my office, and the Captain promised me to buy it for me in France. After that to my Lord’s lodgings, where I wrote some business and so home. My wife at home all the day, she having no clothes out, all being packed up yesterday. For this month I have wholly neglected anything of news, and so have beyond belief been ignorant how things go, but now by my patent my mind is in some quiet, which God keep. I was not at my father’s to-day, I being afraid to go for fear he should still solicit me to speak to my Lord for a place in the Wardrobe, which I dare not do, because of my own business yet. My wife and I mightily pleased with our new house that we hope to have.

My patent has cost me a great deal of money, about 40l., which is the only thing at present which do trouble me much. In the afternoon to Henry the Seventh’s chapel, where I heard a sermon and spent (God forgive me) most of my time in looking upon Mrs. Butler. After that with W. Bowyer to walk in the Park. Afterwards to my Lord’s lodgings, and so home to bed, having not been at my father’s to-day.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Glyn  •  Link

The last two sentences: is he simply repeating himself (perhaps out of tiredness)? The sentences are very staccato - as if he can't stop his mind jumping from topic-to-topic.

Paul Miller  •  Link

I stood before the entrance to Henry the Sevenths chapel. A flight of steps lead up to it, through a deep and gloomy, but magnificent arch. Great gates of brass, richly and delicately wrought, turn heavily upon their hinges, as if proudly reluctant to admit the feet of common mortals into this most gorgeous of sepulchres.On entering, the eye is astonished by the pomp of architecture, and the elaborate beauty of sculptured detail. The very walls are wrought into universal ornament, incrusted with tracery, and scooped into niches, crowded with the statues of saints and martyrs. Stone seems, by the cunning labor of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb.Along the sides of the chapel are the lofty stalls of the Knights ofthe Bath, richly carved of oak, though with the grotesque decorations of Gothic architecture. On the pinnacles of the stalls are affixed the helmets and crests of the knights, with their scarfs and swords; and above them are suspended their banners, emblazoned with armorial bearings, and contrasting the splendor of gold and purple and crimson, with the cold gray fretwork of the roof. In the
midst of this grand mausoleum stands the sepulchre of its founder,- his effigy, with that of his queen, extended on a sumptuous tomb, and the whole surrounded by a superbly-wrought brazen railing.

--- Washington Irving Sketchbook 1820

vincent  •  Link

Spending 40 Quid, a lifetime savings for us beneath the stairs 12+ years of not spending a dime. Just Image, at the modern minimum salary or OAP pension 40L/week times 12 years:( mental math don't compute) 'tis a lot of doe ray me, no wonder he's tired out.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

In the afternoon to Henry the Seventh's chapel (occurance #2)
L&M note: “Pepys here repeats has account of the afternoon’s doings. He wrote these passages on 19th July.” They base this conclusion on the fact that he will say this in the diary entry of the 19th.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

buying paper at the best[first] hand in my office
L&M interpret the word as "best" and not "first" as Wheatley had done. I'm not sure that I understand either phrase.

vincent  •  Link

"In the afternoon to Henry the Seventh’s chapel, where I heard a sermon and spent (God forgive me) most of my time in looking upon Mrs. Butler." Oh! La La! The Power of Prayer, or was it the power of Beauty. Glyn, Yes, He doth repeat himself twice to the chapel, His cup doth runneth over, Beauty, his brain is near the wrong end of his spine, I do believe,She kept her little finger well covered, no come hither it so seems..

Paul Brewster  •  Link

I was not at my father's tonight [to-day] (occurrence #1)
L&M have it as tonight in the first instance and today in the second. Wheatley has it as to-day in both cases. This may be a case of Wheatley trying to clear up a rather messy chronology without reference to the shorthand.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Best hand -- OED to the rescue:
Hand n:
10. Used of or in reference to a person as the source from which something is obtained
...
b. as the supplier of goods: in phrases denoting rate or price (with qualifying adj.), as at the best hand, most profitably or cheaply; so at the better hand, at the dear hand. Obs.

1552 Huloet, Bye dearer, or at the last hande. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. xxxiii. 82b, To the end our Merchaunts might buye theyr Spices at the better hande. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 3 For the procuring of which commodities at the best and first hand. 1696 J. F. Merchants' Ware-ho. 11 The whole sute is generally sold at the best hand for three Pound ten. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 288 33 Buying and importing Linens, and Pictures, at the best hand. 1767 Cowper Let. to Hill 14 May Wks. 1837 XV. 16, I might serve your Honour with cauliflowers and broccoli at the best hand.

vincent  •  Link

"...and so I fell into discourse of buying paper at the first hand in my office, and the Captain promised me to buy it for me in France...".
May be it refers to what we now name Wholesale, and The good Captain is want of making some extra cash by getting it from the Source i.e. France, as it could be less expensive, and some room for prophit and still less than getting it Through the official source. No facts to back this up, but 'tis the kind of deals one makes when one has many connections in the right places.

chip  •  Link

I think you hit it there Vincent. Pepys will assiduously learn that very system of sources and its rewards. Here again I see him using the diary somewhat like a confessional. Those poor Puritans, deprived of the sanctitiy of 'reconciliation.'

helena murphy  •  Link

Pepys'choice of religious edifice this Sunday is telling. It is also politic in post Cromwellian London to attend services in Westminster Abbey where English and Scottish sovereigns lie buried.Charles I however is interred in Saint George's Chapel, Windsor.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

to Westminster Abbey, and in Henry the 7ths chapel heard part of a sermon
The L&M footnote to this passage: "Pepys's own orthodoxy and his reference later in the entry to the 'service' make it clear that the Anglicans were now using the chapel, while the Independents (in possession of the abbey during the revolution) still worshipped elsewhere in the building."

Brian McMullen  •  Link

SP has spent a considerable amount of money to obtain his patent. I remember awhile back that he was calculating his net worth. If memory serves he just used up almost 40 percent of his assests. This must have been very important.

Mary  •  Link

Sam's £40 outlay
is seen as a sprat to catch a mackerel. Now that Sam has his letters patent all signed, sealed and delivered he can look forward to an income that greatly exceeds the nominal value of his new post. The expenditure of £40 still leaves him notably richer than he was before he took ship with Sandwich in the spring.

Glyn  •  Link

"After dinner he (i.e. Montagu) and I alone fell to discourse, and I find him plainly to be a sceptic in all things of religion."

Pepys has known him and worked for him for many years - I'm surprised that it's only now that Montagu is talking to him seriously about his religious beliefs. And that Pepys didn't know about them before.

Nix  •  Link

Talking candidly about religion --

was not an altogether safe practice during the commonwealth, was it? My impression is that Samuel's intimacy with Montague is quite recent -- before the trip to Holland he he was more a junior clerk, a distant cousin used for errands, than a protege. Though that of course may be due to our foreshortened view -- we know Samuel only since January.

Also, I seem to recall some mention of Montague's skeptical views earlier, perhaps when they were on ship (though I may be confusing it with someone else).

Rainer Doehle  •  Link

No confusion, you can rely on your memory:

15 May 1660

"In the afternoon my Lord and I walked together in the coach two hours, talking together upon all sorts of discourse: as religion, wherein he is, I perceive, wholly sceptical, as well as I, saying, that indeed the Protestants as to the Church of Rome are wholly fanatiques: he likes uniformity and form of prayer."

So not only did Sam and Montague have a chat about My Lord's religious scepticism before but Sam also confided to his diary that he shares these views.

But we also should be well aware that "scepticism" is something way different from "agnosticism" let alone "atheism". We had some annotations on this before. Virtually everybody in Europe in the 17th century believed in salvation through religion. It's just that some began to become "sceptic" about the more "fanatique" forms of religious devotion, having witnessed the bloody struggles resulting from it. Yet God or religion for Sam (and Montague) is certainly not just a mere hypothesis he could also do without.

In a way though such moderate scepticism paved the way for more radical thoughts on religion later on and this also makes Sam a quite "modern" personality.

Second Reading

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Talking candidly about religion --

was never "safe" under any regime, but it was less unsafe in the Commonwealth and Protectorate than under either of the Charleses. Cromwell believed in private liberty of conscience, even for Catholics. Sacrilege was occasionally punished by death until at least the 1780s, but this was much more likely in the provinces than in London.

http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/

Bill  •  Link

I think this is why the Presbyterians are still a bit nervous and worried.

Rob  •  Link

Let's not forget; "talking candidly about religion" is still not "safe" in large parts of the modern world as well....

Bill  •  Link

My Lord is Master of the Wardrobe (with over 25 employees) and Sam doesn't want to solicit a position for his father there. Is he really that worried about his own position or is something else going on?

Gerald Berg  •  Link

I think not soliciting for Pa is more like being worried about wearing out your welcome before being fully welcomed yourself. ie Thanks for the job but could give you give my Dad one and maybe little brother too? While we are at it could I have...?

That could sound very ungrateful and be really annoying.

Weavethe hawk  •  Link

I think Montagu was possibly agnostic, or even atheist, who knew that he had to pay lip service to religion for his own safety.

Dick Wilson  •  Link

There must have been some paper-making industry in Britain at this time. Does anyone know where it was centered, or the different processes used to make newsprint, book paper, stationery, and the fancy stuff for certificates? Pepys' office, and the Navy, are going to need paper goods, and Pepys is on the board that has to buy it.

Ivan  •  Link

Following on from Sam's choice of house he does seem mighty proud of it, as he takes Mr Butler to see it on the 14th, but things are not quite tied down as he now tells us that both he and his wife are "mightily pleased" with their new house "that we hope to have." Is someone else going to lay claim to it? I presume Sam has shown his wife the premises, although I don't think he has mentioned doing so.

meech  •  Link

Ivan - Sam mentioned showing his wife their new place on July 13th:
"So to the Navy office, and showed her my house, and were both mightily pleased at all things there, and so to my business."
At least that's how I interpreted it.

AndreaLouise Hanover  •  Link

For this month I have wholly neglected anything of news - I can relate, so busy at work no time for twitter .... same thing really.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.

http://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittleb…

@@@

15 July, 1660.
Came Sir George Carteret and lady to visit us: he was now Treasurer of the Navy.

@@@

Sir George and Lady Elizabeth Carteret.
John Evelyn was first introduced to Sir George, then Governor of Jersey, in Paris on 1 August, 1649, by Chancellor Edward Hyde.
At the Restoration Sir George was made Vice-Chamberlain to Charles II, Treasurer of the Navy, and a Privy Councillor, and by July 3 he has a private office at Seething Lane, because that’s when Pepys first mentions having a Navy Board meeting in Carteret’s large private office. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1660/07/03/

From Claire Tomalin's "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self" pp 49-50:
"Sir George Carteret, … had official lodgings at Whitehall, a house in Pall Mall, another at Deptford and a country mansion near Windsor ..." http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/482/#c6017

So why stay at Sayes Court, since they are neighbors? Maybe the Carterets had the painters and decorators in? Maybe it was convenience as Sayes Court is next to the Dockyards, or maybe it was a getting-to-know-you-properly visit? Their friendship continued and we’ll find Pepys and Evelyn were at the same events hosted by the Carterets later.

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