Friday 12 October 1660
Office day all the morning, and from thence with Sir W. Batten and the rest of the officers to a venison pasty of his at the Dolphin, where dined withal Col. Washington, Sir Edward Brett, and Major Norwood, very noble company. After dinner I went home, where I found Mr. Cooke, who told me that my Lady Sandwich is come to town to-day, whereupon I went to Westminster to see her, and found her at supper, so she made me sit down all alone with her, and after supper staid and talked with her, she showing me most extraordinary love and kindness, and do give me good assurance of my uncle’s resolution to make me his heir. From thence home and to bed.
12 Annotations
First Reading
Paul Miller • Link
"to a venison pasty of his at the Dolphin"
To Season a Venison Pasty from a seventeenth century recipe.
Take out ye bones & turn ye fat syde down upon a board. Yn take ye pill of 2
leamons & break them in pieces as long as yr finger & thrust them into every
hole of yr venison. then take 2 ounces of beaten pepper & thrice as much salt,
mingle it, then wring out ye juice of leamon into ye pepper & salt & season it,
first takeing out ye leamon pills haveing layn soe a night. then paste it with
gross pepper layd on ye top & good store of butter or mutton suet.
Mary • Link
a venison pasty of his
This entry, combined with entries regarding the earlier pasty eaten in the first week of September at the Bull's Head tavern, imply that a venison pasty was very much a 'special' dish, either made to order or reserved for a particular client.
Glyn • Link
Phil has started a special section for "Venison Pasty" at:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/384/
I imagine most of the deer meat on sale in London would have been stolen, unless you had your own private deerpark as did Lord Sandwich.
vincent • Link
Game is never stolen, it just poached, very specialised?
Peter • Link
I suppose game is always poached because for quite some time it was a crime that could only be committed against French-speaking Norman landowners. The criminal would presumably try to get away with the game he had bagged in his pouch, pocket, or "poche".
Glyn • Link
I myself am pretty good at poaching eggs.
Peter • Link
Glyn, pocher des oeufs
Harry • Link
she showing me most extraordinary love and kindness, and do give me good assurance of my uncle's resolution to make me his heir.
Is this news to Sam, or just confirmation of what he already knew? Will this be a useful addition to his emerging wealth, and how soon it it likely to materialise?
vincent • Link
See this site for inside poop
but Robert of Brampton. Died Sine Prole
136 M i Capt. Robert Pepys
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pepys/pe…
Paul Brewster • Link
His uncle Robert Pepys
According to the Genealogical web site that vincent quoted above, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~pepys/pe…
, RP signed a will on 12/15 Aug 1657. ("Real estate left to my nephew Samuel Pepys son of my brother John. My brother John and his son Samuel executors."). So by the time of this entry, his inheritance was already in the bag although SP may not have known it.
I'm not sure his uncle was completely forthcoming about the existence of a will favoring him when they met on June 6, 1661 (“I had a great deal of talk about my uncle Robert, and he told me that he could not tell how his mind stood as to his estate, but he would do all that lay in his power for me.”). I think we can see a little of this uncertainty sneaking through on the 10th of August when SP feels guilty because he has not paid enough attention to RP (“how busy my head has been, so that I have neglected to write letters to my uncle Robert in answer to many of his”). Even if he did know of the existence of this document, SP may well have feared (correctly as it turns out) that RP's two stepsons from his wife by a previous marriage would contest it (they were both lawyers),
RP will die on 5 July 1661 and the will quoted above is probated on 23 Aug 1661. This marks the start of a complex, Dickensian process described in the L&M companion. In short, SP doesn’t get control over the estate until his father dies in 1680. Seems like it may have often seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth. But after all, land is still land.
vincent • Link
In the Will THAT YOU ARE maybe, could be ?? 'tis very Important test to please one's Uncle; Many fail that test.????.
Second Reading
Dick Wilson • Link
Pardon my cynicism, but I have to think that Sir William Batten is not being a Jolly Good Fellow treating his buddies. I have to think that he is paying them for some favor, or is asking them for something, or has some ulterior motive for wanting to ingratiate himself with these gents.