Monday 16 July 1660

This morning it proved very rainy weather so that I could not remove my goods to my house. I to my office and did business there, and so home, it being then sunrise, but by the time that I got to my house it began to rain again, so that I could not carry my goods by cart as I would have done. After that to my Lord’s and so home and to bed.

19 Annotations

First Reading

Glyn  •  Link

For comparison, sunrise in London on 16 July today was at 4.59 a.m. (British Summer Time). Sunset was at 9.11 p.m.

vincent  •  Link

Such a long day and no comment, wow!
again a repeat. Mrs Butler certainly affected his thoughts, did she not? Put SP right off his stroke? tongue tied?

Eric Walla  •  Link

But did Elizabeth get any clothes out?

I have this vision of Mrs. Pepys running around in her shift, waiting for the moving to be done. I imagine the reality to be more that she only had moving clothes available, not the more dress-up kinds for visiting.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

it being then sunshine [sunrise]
L&M make a more sense of this ... It's worth repeating in its entirety below:

This morning it proved very rainy weather so that I could not remove my goods to my house. I to my office and did business there, and so home, it being then sunshine, but by the time that I got to my house it begun to rain again, so that I could not carry my goods by cart as I would have done. After that to my Lord

vincent  •  Link

ah! little more sense thanks Paul:

cheska  •  Link

Ahhhh I remember Sam's first job (within this diary) where he wrote almost daily that he had "nothing to do" (at the office) with the last time entered on Monday 2 January 1659/60. Now his life is changing quickly and he is a very busy fellow and definitely on his way 'up'.

Arbor  •  Link

"... by cart..." Anyone any ideas whether this would have been horsedrawn or hand-cart? The latter is still much used in (particularly) the East End of London... everyone will have heard of 'barrow boys'. It's around 4 miles from Axe yard to Seething Lane, with pretty dreadful 'road' surfaces.

Poor families up to quite recently when moving used a hand-cart to do so.

Mary  •  Link

"by cart"
The word cart itself simply denotes a two-wheeled, unsprung goods-vehicle that could be either hand-drawn or horse-drawn.

A hand-drawn cart may have sufficed for the Pepys family. Their married life started in a single room, which Sam described as a turret. They have been in the Axe Yard house only since August 1658 and although the place has five rooms, Sam's salary has been modest and he has probably not had the cash to spend on too much in the way of furniture in those two years. At present their household is likely to comprise basic furniture (and the bed will be capable of dismantling), linen, clothing, crockery or pewter, pots, pans and, of course, Sam's music and instruments plus some books. Not too much for a sturdy hand-cart, so why pay extra for a horse?

Grahamt  •  Link

Don't forget the wench:
The cart would also have to carry Jane's bed and chattels. Two beds with mattresses, chairs, a table, chests and all the kitchen stuff... that would take a hefty lad to shift 4 miles on a handcart on muddy rutted London streets. I favour a horse drawn cart with Elizabeth sitting with the driver and Jane and Samuel following behind to make sure nothing "falls off" on its way through the City.

Arbor  •  Link

Mmmmm... I have visions of Elizabeth and Jane walking behind with Samuel seated on top. "My old man said follow the van, and don't dilly-dally on the way"... What a wonderful picture it conjures! Actually it's closer to 3 than 4... I've run it many times.

Mary  •  Link

Jane's bed and mattress?

Most servants in a modest household would not rate such luxury. More likely a palliasse that could be put on the floor wherever was convenient.

Larry Bunce  •  Link

Annotations today are getting longer than the entry. I suppose Sam could have gotten up really early and worked a while before sunrise, and it seems he has mentioned being up at 3 am before, but I looked at the entry again and wonder if 'sunrise' is being used to refer to the first appearance of the sun for the day, such as during a break in the clouds.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Sunrise/sunshine
Despite my personal conclusion that "sunshine" is the more plausible wording, Glyn's reference to the time of sunrise on July 16, 2003 got me thinking about an issue that always twists my mind. What day would be appropriate to compare to July 16, 1660 in terms of length of day? It would seem to be July 27, 2003. Since our calendar (after the adjustment of 1752) tracks with the seasons and the calendar of Pepys's day trailed the seasons by about 11 days, I think we need to adjust diary time forward to get a realistic value of the length of day.

"The Protestant German countries adopted the Gregorian reform in 1700. By this time, the calendar trailed the seasons by 11 days. England (and the American colonies) finally followed suit in 1752, and Wednesday, September 2, 1752 was immediately followed by Thursday, September 14, 1752." (from http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/a…)

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

There is also Will -- the foot boy, who lives in. So the household are four....

Dick Wilson  •  Link

Re: yesterday's entry. In the 17th Century, they thought they had to regulate commerce closely, and that the way to do it was to license a monopoly. There was a paper-making monopoly operating at Depford, in Kent. The monopoly had expired, however, so competitors were springing up just in time to supply the skyrocketing demand for newsprint. They used water wheels to operate the mills. Suddenly scores of people were printing pamphlets and handbills. Literacy rates were sharply increasing. So, there was a paper industry able to supply Pepys' office and the Navy, but to bring in some foreign competition from France was probably a good thing.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Saint Swithin, the 9th-century bishop of Winchester famous for the folklore that if it rains on 15th July (St. Swithun’s day), it will rain for forty days.

Phew -- missed it by a day.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Sam, gourmand that he is, may be interest'd in the following ADVERTISEMENT, published on this day in the Parliamentary Intelligencer, No. 29 with newses for July 9 thr'o 16:

******
Most excellent and approved Dentrifices to scour and cleanse the Teeth, making them white as Ivory, preserves from the Toothach; so that being constantly used, the parties using it, are never troubled with the Toothach: It fastens the [alas, word missing], sweetens the Breath, and preserves the Gums and Mouth from Cankers and Imposthumes, and being beaten to powder, and drunk in Wine, or any other drink, is a good remedy for any Flux or Lask. Invented and made by Robert Turner, the onely Author of them, and are onely to be had at the House of Thomas Rockes, Stationer, at the Holy Lamb at the East-end of St. Pauls Church, near the School, in Sealed Papers.
******

"Dentifrice" is still the French word for toothpaste but, should you wonder about dental hygiene overflowing from Louis XIV's demesne, is at root (ha ha) a Latin word with an ancestry going back to the Pyramids.

Hmm - Sam does keep his mouth closed in every portrait we have of him, no? But he did perhaps come across Mr. Turner's anti-imposthumall powder, having accompanied the missus "to La Roche’s to have her tooth drawn", on April 7 (https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…). If that's the one; the Encyclopedia refers to Peter La Roche, not Thomas Rockes, and he "worked near Fleet Bridge"; not quite the East-end of St. Paul.

The Intelligencer is at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…
&rgn3=title&Submit=Search

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