Monday 17 September 1660

Office very early about casting up the debts of those twenty-five ships which are to be paid off, which we are to present to the Committee of Parliament.

I did give my wife 15l. this morning to go to buy mourning things for her and me, which she did. Dined at home and Mr. Moore with me, and afterwards to Whitehall to Mr. Dalton and drank in the Cellar, where Mr. Vanly according to appointment was.

Thence forth to see the Prince de Ligne, Spanish Embassador, come in to his audience, which was done in very great state.

That being done, Dalton, Vanly, Scrivener and some friends of theirs and I to the Axe, and signed and sealed our writings, and hence to the Wine cellar again, where I received 41l. for my interest in my house, out of which I paid my Landlord to Michaelmas next, and so all is even between him and me, and I freed of my poor little house. Home by link with my money under my arm. So to bed after I had looked over the things my wife had bought to-day, with which being not very well pleased, they costing too much, I went to bed in a discontent.

Nothing yet from sea, where my Lord and the Princess are.

22 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Brewster  •  Link

which we are to present to the Comittee of parliament tomorrow.
L&M add the word "tomorrow" and the following footnote: "The committee continued to sit during the parliamentary adjournment (13 September - 6 November)."

Paul Brewster  •  Link

which was done in very great State
L&M add the footnote: "The audience was in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, and the procession consisted of 50 coaches. ... The cavalcade consisted of '16 ritch coaches, one especially comparable to His Majesties, drawne with sixteen faire blacke horses' (Mundy). This was the only audience de Ligne was given and it was said the he went away sad to think he was not to be allowed to repeat the splendid occasion." L&M don't explain the difference in the count of coaches.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Wheatley is certainly busy with his grammatical corrections in this entry
Per L&M:
"to buy mourning things for her and I"
"so all is even between him and I"
"where my Lord and the Princesse is"

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Nothing yet from sea, where my Lord and the Princess is.
L&M: "They did not set sail from Holland until the 20/30th." I was unfamiliar with the 20/30th notation until I remembered that Holland had accepted the Gregorian changes ahead of England and thus the 10 day difference. I guess they sailed from Holland three days from now on the 20th (in England) or 30th (in Holland) and arrived before they left. I don't think the Concorde could rival this form of time travel.

Pauline  •  Link

"Home by link with my money under my arm."
I like this--a certain jauntiness; but I suppose it means he clinched his money under his arm against pickpockets.

Glyn  •  Link

Did they have pickpockets at this time - I think they were "cutpurses". Did they have pockets even?

Bullus Hutton  •  Link

to buy mourning things for her and me,
Ok, who is it we're buying these funereal weeds for? Henry the King's bro, or Sam's sainted mum, or am I missing some body?
Is the reason he sups twice in the same cellar instead of usual upscale venues somehow guilt-related?
As for going home with money under arm, that's as good as anything - when walking around New York I used to put my money in my shoe, until my chum told me that's the first place muggers look.

helena murphy  •  Link

Pepys and his wife now have new standards to adhere to and it is necessary to have appropriate attire as the occasion demands, therefore the mourning clothes form part of their general wardrobe along with the more elegant garments. The mortality rate is high and as an up and coming bureaucrat living in London one is expected to conform to the correct dress code. It is to be noted that Pepys goes to Whitehall Garden , probably rigged out in black where hopefully he caught the eye of the king in his purple. The practical Pepys is right to comment on the cost as it is the appropriate shade which matters.

Pauline  •  Link

mourning things
I wonder what these "things" are. Sam has visited his father Saturday and "bespoke mourning." I thought he had ordered a suit then. What now? Wonder what the specific trappings are.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

afterwards to White-hall ... and drank in the Seller ...then to the Wine Seller again
I'm not sure that the wine cellar wasn't "upscale" or anything of the kind. My guess is that SP may be referring to a place that the L&M Companion identifies as a Wine Cellar in the entry on Whitehall Palace. They describe it as "part of Woolsey's original palace; under the Guard Chamber. It was not wholly destroyed by the fire of 1698 and still survives. The King's or Privy cellar was separate." I believe this may be one and the same as Wine Cellar in the Old War Office Building which according to a web site on the history of the building was once used as "a luncheon club for Ministry of Transport staff". On the web site the Wine Cellar is labelled as "King Henry VIII's Wine Cellar" and is described as "the only substantial part of the old "Whitehall Palace" that remained after the disastrous fire of 1698 and a fine example of a Tudor brick-vaulted roof some 70 feet long and 30 feet wide.” http://www.mod.uk/aboutus/history/mainbldg.htm

Nix  •  Link

"with my money under my arm" --

I don’t think he was worried about pickpockets -- home “by link” means it was nighttime, when there would not have been crowds to facilitate pickpockets. He’s concerned about robbers holding him up in a dark, empty street. I’d guess that “Under my arm” probably means stuffed as far as he could get it up the sleeve of his coat.

martha wishart  •  Link

Pockets were not sewn into garments. Rather, they were worn on a string around the waist. Clothes had slits in them through which you could reach to put your hand into your pocket.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

Re pockets being worn on a string around the waist - hence the children's nursery rhyme, which makes no sense if you think of modern pockets:

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it.
Not a penny was there in it
But a ribbon round it.

Mary  •  Link

Pockets on strings

I've also heard it stated that women often wore these pockets beneath their skirts, which must have meant that they would have accessed them through a placket in one of the skirt's seams.

Glyn  •  Link

Has this anything to do with the phrase "holding the purse strings"?

tamara  •  Link

purse strings

yes, that's exactly where it comes from

vincent  •  Link

"pockets" were not attached, they were what we call a purse today. A story I read recently about a couple that went by coach at this period of time . When they got home, the husband asked for some money, because she kept the money in her pocket under her skirts. She says the pocket has gone, He says "how come"?. Well she says "I felt this hand and took no notice because I thought it was after my honor not my money". He says yer should have known better, Yer too old for that". Enough said.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

POCKET. The small bag inserted into the cloathes.
---A Dictionary of the English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1768.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good"

It looks as though the unfortunate death of Prince Henry is going to give a "fiscal boost" to certain parts of the economy!

Adam  •  Link

It must be a strange time to live in. High infant mortality, people dropping like flies from smallpox and common illnesses. Sam probably had to wear those mourning clothes a lot.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Vincent has added John Evelyn's more informative notes about attending the parade for the new Spanish Ambassador, Claude Lamoral, Prince de Ligne.

He was sent as the representative of the Spanish King to the Court of St. James's. His was the first foreign recognition of Charles II and the newly restored English monarchy.

The previous array of envoys, representatives and Ambassadors were left overs from the old regime, who made courtesy visits. The Prince de Ligne was the real thing representing the new regime.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1309/#c76…

John Evelyn's Diary – he and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.
http://brittlebooks.library.illinois.edu/brittleb…

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