Friday 19 April 1661

Among my workmen and then to the office, and after that dined with Sir W. Batten, and then home, where Sir W. Warren came, and I took him and Mr. Shepley and Moore with me to the Mitre, and there I cleared with Warren for the deals I bought lately for my Lord of him, and he went away, and we staid afterwards a good while and talked, and so parted, it being so foul that I could not go to Whitehall to see the Knights of the Bath made to-day, which do trouble me mightily. So home, and having staid awhile till Will came in (with whom I was vexed for staying abroad), he comes and then I went by water to my father’s, and then after supper to bed with my wife.

9 Annotations

First Reading

Vicente  •  Link

"...it being so foul that I could not go to..." still in use in my day when it was not fit for M**, Bird nor beast.
Rights [of way] of priveledge of Betters.
Re: old Wm Penn, he was very disappointed in his son, if what one reads is true.
Equality was one of the main thoughts of revolution. Does not sit well with Royalty to be twarted, for that matter, any other Dictatorial system, Tsar, Emir,Sultans,Kings, Kaisers, Emperor et al., and the representatives.
In cap and duffing it, I found out one of the ways to beat the rule was to have a cap under the Hat. Oh! my Dreaded Liege, I am in so much Awe of Thee.[Duff, see not no tonture]

Emilio  •  Link

Will and the workmen (19th)

Annoyance at Will being away has become a regular theme, but I wonder if Sam has a very practical reason for his irritation today--he doesn't want to leave until someone else is around to keep an eye on the workmen. So far Sam has shown an almost miraculous lack of concern in the diary about keeping tabs on the workmen: no complaints about them idling away the day, or not showing up at all in the morning, or having to send them back to correct their own shoddy work. This is completely different from my own experience with contractors, and you would especially think that someone as exacting as Sam would have found something he didn't like by this point.

Does anyone have an explanation for this downright weird situation?

Susan  •  Link

I thought when I read the bit about Will that it was because of the large sum of money mentioned a few days ago which is hidden away somewhere in Sam's house. He wants to make sure someone he can trust is always around. Having said that, I also agree that Sam's behaviour is unusual, for someone of such a fastidious and careful nature. Maybe he either has so much on his mind (coronation, ships to Portugal, money) he is not paying attention, or he has delegated detailed overseeing to Will, but, being Sam, cannot resist "being about my workmen" whenever he can. He hasn't complained about the length of time either, but if I was Elizabeth I would be getting fed up with not being in my own house and asking about this. Sam hasn't mentioned her being querulous.

JWB  •  Link

Jemima's Sulk
Being Puritan and daughter of Parliamentarian, I suppose Coronation holds no pleasure for Lady Sandwich. Plus she's pregnant now with her 9th, isn't she?

Hic retearius  •  Link

Sam and his workmen et tout à fait.

Could it be that Sam is beginning to be seen a bit less as a jumped up clerk and more as a sharp fellow with a future who will be moving upwards in the administration in coming years? Maybe Sam’s workmen are being especially diligent and productive on this latest project realizing that finding work with the navy and maybe elsewhere in future might be difficult if they do otherwise. They might be aiming now to leave behind an exemplar of superior workmanship right there in Sam’s own house and where he will be looking at it every day for years.

Jesse  •  Link

"could not go to Whitehall to see the Knights of the Bath made to-day"

John Evelyn seems to have made it. From his diary, "...it was in the Painted Chamber, Westminster. I might have received this honor; but declined it. The rest of the ceremony was in the chapel at Whitehall, when their swords being laid on the altar, the Bishop delivered them."

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

A large number of Knights of the Bath were made at the Coronation. A list is given in Haydn's "Book of Dignities," by Ockerby, 1890, p. 763.
---Wheatley, 1899.

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