Sunday 19 August 1660
(Lord’s day). In the morning my wife tells me that the bitch has whelped four young ones and is very well after it, my wife having had a great fear that she would die thereof, the dog that got them being very big.
This morning Sir W. Batten, Pen, and myself, went to church to the churchwardens, to demand a pew, which at present could not be given us, but we are resolved to have one built. So we staid and heard Mr. Mills, a very, good minister.
Home to dinner, where my wife had on her new petticoat that she bought yesterday, which indeed is a very fine cloth and a fine lace; but that being of a light colour, and the lace all silver, it makes no great show.
Mr. Creed and my brother Tom dined with me. After dinner my wife went and fetched the little puppies to us, which are very pretty ones. After they were gone, I went up to put my papers in order, and finding my wife’s clothes lie carelessly laid up, I was angry with her, which I was troubled for. After that my wife and I went and walked in the garden, and so home to bed.
13 Annotations
First Reading
Glyn • Link
At the moment, anyway, Pepys and Creed seem to be good friends. This is the third day in a row that they have socialized together, as well as their drinking session last Monday.
Glynn • Link
I was angry with her, which I was troubled for.
Does this mean that Sam was unhappy that he got angry with his wife or that it was a disturbance that he could have done without? It doesn't seem that they fell out over it as they went for a walk together.
m.stolzenbach • Link
Puppies and Petticoats
Everybody understands "the dog that got them," right? here it's the same sense as Biblical "begetting."
Pepys continues to become more pretentious in his new prosperity; five pounds for a petticoat (but it's not showy enough), and now he demands his own pew! La!
chip • Link
L&M mention this is St. Olave's Hart St., the Navy Office's parish church. As for the pew, they refer to the 24th of this month. The gallery contained two pews and was used for the first time on the following 11 November. It was built on the s. side of the nave and was approached from the churchyard by a covered staircase of which a view is given in A. Povah, St. Olave, Hart St, p 102. It was removed in 1853, a tablet now marking the position of the outside staircase, and the memorial to Pepys (1884) that of the gallery itself. Payments for the work, October-December 1660 (entered under 'Extra Service on the Seas') are in PRO, Adm. 20/1 pp.135, 193, 298. Both material and workmen came form Deptford yard.
Besides all that, they mention that Daniel Milles was rector since April 1657.
I see Pepys' anger as pent up from his inability to get ired the day before at the extravagance of the cloth. It comes out when he sees what he considers abuse of something dear that he has been forced to pay for. I wonder if he was forced to stand during service or did he just sit in a common pew?
vincent • Link
the Petticoat : Hope the dog/dogs are trained. Those poor seamstresses all hand done too,had to work veddy veddy 'ard, Wot service. We been told the cost of Material, I guess the Labo(u)r was for now't.
Arbor • Link
The Pew. For a man of his standing, even this early, convention dictated his own pew. I feel we are all too often guilty of looking at Restoration London as one would 21st century London, or New York or ... or...
'Ghastly Grim...' as it was know in Dickens is worth a visit [as are most of the City's Churches]. Hard by Pepys Street and Seething Lane, a morning hop, skip and jump from his new home.
David A. Smith • Link
"I was angry with her, which I was troubled for"
I'm with Arbor; Pepys is in an entirely new position and status, one in which the accoutrements of status *are* status (old Washington DC maxim: "in politics, perception IS reality"). He is managing a new job, new standing, new lodging, hangers-on and favor-seekers from all sides -- and most significantly, a brave new world (the Restoration) that has such people in it!
As Chip observes, his patience reservoir is going rapidly to drain, and at day's end he's going occasionally to take it out on his wife (about the only person, other than his diary, where he can vent unobserved; such is the lot of a spouse). At least he regrets it and walks with her in the park, trying non-verbally to make amends.
Of course, he *could* still prove vain, licentious, duplicitous, grasping, corrupt ... but judge him as a 17th century man, not a 21st, and I think you will cut him some slack.
Holt Parker • Link
Aug. 19th
9th Sunday after Trinity
Hmmmm, the Parable of the Unjust Steward. How appropriate for the worldly-wise.
The rest available here:
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1549/Rea…
The Gospel. Luke xvi.
JESUS sayd unto his disciples; There was a certaine riche man, which had a Steward, and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goodes. And he called him, and sayed unto him; howe is it that I heare this of thee? Geve accomptes of thy stewardship, for thou maiest be no longer Steward. The Steward sayd within himself e: what shal I do? For my Maister taketh away from me the Stewardshippe. I cannot digge, and to begge I am ashamed. I wote [=know] what to doe, that when I am put out of the Stewardshippe, they may receyve me into their houses.
cheska • Link
For all things on Elizabeth Pepy's be sure and check out her information in the People's link here by just clicking on 'my wife' above; it will take you directly to the many annotations, references, quotes, etc that will explain SP's behaviour towards her.
Barbara • Link
The pew was not for his personal use but for all the officers of the Navy Office, and their ladies
kim oliver • Link
I have been loving this diary, and reading faithfully, however, this is my first annotation.
Sam's rise in status does not seem to have changed Elizabeth's status greatly.
Yes there is that new petticoat, however, new servants, or household help are
never mentioned. Who lugged the water, slopped the slop, did the dishes (if
they did them at all?), tidied up, etc. Surely her one servant couldn't have
done it all. (Sam did get his own servant, but did he have household chores too? Her status seems not to
have improved greatly.
Glyn • Link
Where there's a Will
Kim Oliver makes a good point - just how many servants do the Pepys currently have? A year ago they had only Jane. Now they seem to have Jane and Will Hewer; but don't they also have another younger boy as well, who is also called Will? (Monday washing days don't seem to get any mention at all - unlike the full day they seemed to take back in January.)
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Mr. Mills apparently did not tax his flock with weighty things like discussing The Thirty-Nine Articles ... John Evelyn wasn't so lucky:
John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.
http://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittleb…
@@@
19 August, 1660.
Our vicar read the Thirty-nine Articles to the congregation, the national assemblies beginning now to settle, and wanting instruction.
@@@
The Thirty-Nine Articles (of faith). The Google Librarian has failed me in finding what the 1660 version was, which was revised and reissued in 1662. But this will give you an idea of what the clergy were talking about:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1571-39articl…