Monday 2 February 1662/63

Up, and after paying Jane her wages, I went away, because I could hardly forbear weeping, and she cried, saying it was not her fault that she went away, and indeed it is hard to say what it is, but only her not desiring to stay that she do now go.

By coach with Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten to the Duke; and after discourse as usual with him in his closett, I went to my Lord’s: the King and Duke being gone to chappell, it being collar-day, it being Candlemas-day; where I staid with him a while until towards noon, there being Jonas Moore talking about some mathematical businesses, and thence I walked at noon to Mr. Povey’s, where Mr. Gawden met me, and after a neat and plenteous dinner as is usual, we fell to our victualling business, till Mr. Gawden and I did almost fall out, he defending himself in the readiness of his provision, when I know that the ships everywhere stay for them.

Thence Mr. Povey and I walked to White Hall, it being a great frost still, and after a turn in the Park seeing them slide, we met at the Committee for Tangier, a good full Committee, and agreed how to proceed in the dispatching of my Lord Rutherford, and treating about this business of Mr. Cholmely and Sir J. Lawson’s proposal for the Mole.

Thence with Mr. Coventry down to his chamber, where among other discourse he did tell me how he did make it not only his desire, but as his greatest pleasure, to make himself an interest by doing business truly and justly, though he thwarts others greater than himself, not striving to make himself friends by addresses; and by this he thinks and observes he do live as contentedly (now he finds himself secured from fear of want), and, take one time with another, as void of fear or cares, or more, than they that (as his own termes were) have quicker pleasures and sharper agonies than he.

Thence walking with Mr. Creed homewards we turned into a house and drank a cup of Cock ale and so parted, and I to the Temple, where at my cozen Roger’s chamber I met Madam Turner, and after a little stay led her home and there left her, she and her daughter having been at the play to-day at the Temple, it being a revelling time with them.1

Thence called at my brother’s, who is at church, at the buriall of young Cumberland, a lusty young man.

So home and there found Jane gone, for which my wife and I are very much troubled, and myself could hardly forbear shedding tears for fear the poor wench should come to any ill condition after her being so long with me.

So to my office and setting papers to rights, and then home to supper and to bed. This day at my Lord’s I sent for Mr. Ashwell, and his wife came to me, and by discourse I perceive their daughter is very fit for my turn if my family may be as much for hers, but I doubt it will be to her loss to come to me for so small wages, but that will be considered of.


54 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"after a neat and plenteous dinner as is usual, we fell to our victualling business"

The toffs eat plenty, Sir Denis Gauden [the very name suggests it] sure that all is well, but the Navy elsewhere lack hardtack.

Bradford  •  Link

So the conundrum about Jane in yesterday's entry is explained. The complex emotion might be paraphrased as "Don't break our hearts by reminding us that we have lost you."
---As one half of a couple, parting for good, might say, "If you love me, never let me hear from you again."

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Coventry's advice to Sam is interesting and valuable -- from reading Tomalin, it looks as if Sam will take it to heart and use it to guide him in future years. The trick, of course, is getting to the point where you're "secured from fear of want," so you can do "business truly and justly," even though it may mean thwarting others greater than yourself.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Neat scene with Gauden (Gawden)...

Sam's drawing a good line. He'll take what he considers his due but he'll insist on value for the public service. We'd be lucky to have him.
***

Todd, you've hit it on the head. Coventry himself was notorious for the selling of offices before he reached his plateau of security. Still he's a reasonably courageous, wise, and skillfully technocratic public officer and a good figure for Sam to follow, excepting his faith in benevolent autocracy.

Not to say that in Sam's day there weren't poor men who put or tried to put the public good and/or right first. Including those fellows who defied Sir Will Batten's wrath to protest to Sam.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Speaking of Coventry, Sam seems to be back in good graces...Perhaps he was right in assuming it was his own fear that made him think earlier that he'd slipped out of favor a bit.

He clearly sees Sam as a kind of protege... I'm convinced he wants to groom young Pepys as an able future member of King James II's government of technicians.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

I love the comment about the 'sliding' going on in the Park. I picture Sam longing to join in and holding back out of a sense of the dignity of his position.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Best bib and tucker "2nd PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY Candlemas Collar Day "

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"... after a turn in the Park seeing them slide..." brings wonderful memories of the school yard and the local village ponds, patting down the any snow, shining the the ice with our backsides, and all the Mums be outraged with our pink rear ends, hanging loose.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Rule 1["...(now he finds himself secured from fear of want),..."] for any one that does not want to be in the hands of the payee, always be able to be free to tell the powers "Go and do a biological unthinkable," by being debt free and a years worth of food and palliase monies, otherwise read some Espinoza, or Adam Smith" the Wealth of Nations"

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

The great sin of Familiarty breeding contempt.When one finds out that 'thems' that has cash, or they think they do, then you find out they have to put on the unmentionables one leg at a time like ye do, they be upset when Thee say sumat with out [M]maaam or [S]siir, they be irate. That thin line, that be what got poor Jane in deep. It were ok to get rid of thy lice, put up with thy BO, and thy deep heavy breathing but speaking to the Mistrees without the due respect. That be beyond the pail. [but before you go, do not forget to empty the Po. ]
"...but only her not desiring to stay that she do now go...."
[I do not blame Jane, she has her dignity too.]
But Sam "...but bid her never to let me hear what became of her, for that I could never pardon ingratitude..."
Pecking order be working over time.

Terry F  •  Link

Secured from fear of want, for Coventry to read Spinoza would be to pursue, in addition, the intellectual amor Dei.
Adam Smith, in London, ca. 1750, would share his ideas [derived from Coventry?} with the aforementioned Samuel Johnson.

Al  •  Link

"...seeing them slide"? I think this might refer to ice-skating, not necessarily sliding on their backsides. I've recently read that "sliding" was an earlier term for skating. Though I don't remember what period was referred to; so I could be way off.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"quicker pleasures"

Quicker here means livelier from the ancient meaning of quick for living (still retained in a nail's quick). Very familiar from the BCP's Apostles' Creed which has "the quick and the dead", whereas now it's "the living and the dead".
Coventry's idea of being able to be freer from behaving in a manner he was not comfortable with now he has sufficient income is, in our circles, refrred to as having "F*** You" money: a concise way of conveying "There is no way you can induce me to do that according to my conscience and I am not beholding to you for income, so there you are. Go Away."

andy  •  Link

drank a cup of Cock ale

will be joining in a pint or two tonight - I'll see if they have Cock on tap, and nod to Sam in the corner of the Vaults.

jeannine  •  Link

"because I could hardly forbear weeping"-perhaps filling a void, perhaps just my speculation?
One of the thoughts that occurs to me from time to time is that perhaps in some way the servants fill a "void" in Sam's life. Where the Pepys don't have children and many of their servants are still "kids" and integrated into their life so intricately, perhaps on some level this is their "family". Sam writes of the things that are out of routine (ie. smacking Wayneman or scolding someone for mouthing off) but on a day to day basis, when they aren't mentioned he is still interacting with them. Perhaps to some extent those relationships have an element of his feeling "fatherly" towards some over time, as he easily could feel towards Jane, as seen by the emotions today.

language hat  •  Link

"it being collar-day, it being Candlemas-day"

I just want to call attention to this awkward construction to remind people that these are diary jottings, not finely honed compositions, and are unlikely to contain many literary flourishes (as distinct from the pleasures of Sam's fine, straightforward prose style).

language hat  •  Link

sliding:
Al is right that this refers to ice-skating. The OED says "Formerly used of skating" and gives citations like:

1530 PALSGR. 721/1, I have sene one in Hollande slyde as faste upon the yse as a bote dothe in the water whan it is rowed.
1617 MORYSON Itin. III. 34 The Virgins in Holland,.. hand in hand with young men, slide upon the yce farre from their Fathers house.
1681 DRYDEN Span. Friar III. ii, As Boys [fear] to venture on the unknown Ice, That crackles underneath 'em while they slide.
1776 JOHNSON in Boswell (Oxf. ed.) I. 41, I answered I had been sliding in Christ-Church meadow.

Rex Gordon  •  Link

The lusty, young tailor ...

St. Bride's burial register for this day identified Henry Cumberland as a "Tayler in Salisbury Court." (L&M footnote) Sam's brother, Tom, took over their father's tailoring business in St. Bride's parish in 1661 and no doubt was acquainted with the lusty, young Cumberland as a practitioner of the same trade. Sam knew him well enough to give us an idea of his personality three and a half centuries later.

JWB  •  Link

...diary jottings...straightforward style...
I'm sceptical, by nature or perhaps from reading Frank Harris @ young age. To me, many of Sam's entries have the smell of midnight oil. Here's a Puritan apostate writing in the 17th C. Puritan form of discovery , ruminating over each day's events, trying to make sense of this new world opening up to him by searching for patterns. It's only nautral that he would then try to shoe-horn passing events into these patterns.

Mary  •  Link

the play today at the Temple

(per an L&M footnote) On festive occasions private dramatic performances were staged at the Temple by the King's Company and The Duke of York's Men. The presentation in this instance was a performance of Samuel Tuke's 'The adventures of five houres' given by the Duke of York's company.

Sam rhapsodized about a performance of the same play after he and Elizabeth had seen it on 8th January 1663.

language hat  •  Link

JWB, I don't think we disagree.
I certainly feel he's trying to fit events into patterns, as do we all; what I was talking about was suggestions that he's making elaborate plays on words like "pretty" in some entries. I just don't think he's trying for that kind of literary effect, and I submit the obviously awkward phrase I highlighted (which anyone concerned about style would have rewritten) as evidence for my point of view.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "perhaps filling a void"

Jeannine, I think you're right about the servants being part of the family ... Sam does feel fatherly toward Jane sometimes, but let's remember he's also had, um, "other feelings" for her:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive…

Perhaps this also has something to do with fighting back the tears?

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: the lusty young tailor

Speaking of "other feelings," could anyone shed light on what exactly Sam means when he describes Cumberland as "a lusty young man"? Is he referring to Cumberland's desire to enjoy life to the fullest, or to certain proclivities?

Terry F  •  Link

perhaps the *lusty* young tailor died in the fullness of life?

"lusty" can mean
-lustful: vigorously passionate [of course, but also]
- hearty: endowed with or exhibiting great bodily or mental health; "a hearty glow of health"
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl…

jeannine  •  Link

"so small wages"
Do you suppose Sam will always be so aware of money or do you think he'll loosen up over the years when he makes more? Someone remind me in 1669 and we can compare then!

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

My take on those that be counting their 'Farthings', that it be a habit that never dies but gets reinforced by seeing others, that be cursed with lack of a square meal. Naturally there be always exceptions. Nothing is all, the 80/20 rule nearly always applies.

Bradford  •  Link

Merriam-Webster:
lusty: 1: archaic: merry, joyous
2: lustful [lusty passion]
3: full of viality; robust
4: full of strength: powerful
Plenty to choose from.

Jeannine's suggestion is both poignant and convincing. No matter what the master-mistress vs. servant distinction, they all lived together as much as blood relatives; and when attachment cannot go in one direction (toward, for example, children), it finds another.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

So Jane does depart, after all

Of her own volition. Now what is to become of young Wayneman her boy brother? Seems she is rebuking Sam for his treatment of her brother and herself. Will all be forgiven and will she return to Sam's service?

matthew newton  •  Link

'paying Jane her wages..'
Anyone any idea how much she may have been given?
What was the going rate at the time?

Mary  •  Link

The going rate for a maid.

According to Liza Picard, the going rate for a competent cook-maid at this time was about £4 per annum, with £3 per annum for a less qualified general maid. On top of these sums, servants received their keep and also appropriate clothing.

In theory, they were hired from year to year. Outright dismissal had, in principal, to be deemed reasonable by a JP but where a parting was mutually agreed a special bargain mught be made between master and servant.

matthew newton  •  Link

The 'going' rate
humm.....
Going rate indeed!
I wonder if there was a little something extra for Jane?
Any thoughts anyone?
(Thanks Mary for info.)

Glyn  •  Link

Happy birthday to Nell Gwyn, wherever you are, who is 13 today.

Incidentally, when Coventry talks about "quicker pleasures and sharper agonies" (and I guess Pepys is remembering that phrase word for word), I assume that he is using "quicker" in the now archaic meaning of "more lively" or "more animated".

However, high-principled he is, Coventry sometimes seems to me to be a bit of a wiseacre. And when I looked up the definition of wiseacre in the dictionary I see that it is from a Dutch word - there are more words of Dutch origin in English than I had realised.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Paid every quarter[1 quid] ; the little extra be that she gets this quarters money early, plus some odds and ends i.e her patterns, and clothes that she has been using.
The hired help had no real rights at this time, and some of the employers were down right tightwads and mean with it too. They could be turfed out on their ear with just the clothes that they came with,[right down to the intermates] as the clothes that she received from the Pepys, be the Pepys property, and they could retain them for the next soup maker. So anything she dothe receive, would be considered fantsticly generous.
See the Old Bailey records for meanest.

dirk  •  Link

lusty

If I'm not mistaken, at the time "lusty" usually didn't imply the negative connotations we associate with the word nowadays. It rather referred to vigour, vitality, joy of life.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Glyn and Dirk

See earlier annotations on this page.

Joe  •  Link

On talking w/ Coventry about "doing business truly and justly," and other matters:

Pepys clearly admires Coventry for his ethical ambitions, and presents him almost as a classical model--remember a conversation from Thursday, 30 Oct., 1662:

"But which pleased me mightily, he said in these words, that he was resolved, whatever it cost him, to make an experiment, and see whether it was possible for a man to keep himself up in Court by dealing plainly and walking uprightly, with any private game a playing: in the doing whereof, if his ground do slip from under him, he will be contented.... [B]y my troth, I do see more reall worth in him than in most men that I do know. " www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1662/10/…

Nix  •  Link

Cock ale --

Apparently a blend of beer and chicken soup.

"Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flaw him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun - stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel.

"In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale."

http://brewery.org/cm3/recs/13_23…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Yuck

Somehow the name of Bobbitt came to my mind. Has Elizabeth got access to this recipe?

Peter  •  Link

Crossed legs all round from the male readers, Susan!

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

Samuell be before 'is time:"...drank a cup of Cock ale and so parted..."
There he be arfter slurping his Cock ale and saying to Mr Creed " Say Creed, gluverly dink be that cocktail "

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"and drank a cup of Cock ale"

To make Cock Ale. Take a couple of young Cocks, boil them almost to a Jelly in Water, and put them into four Gallons of Ale; put in also four Pound of Raisins of the Sun stoned; infuse a Pound of Dates, Mace and Nutmegs of each two Ounces in a Quart of Canary, put them to the Ale; strain and squeeze out the Liquor, and put to it half a Pint of new Ale Yeast, let it work for a Day, you may drink it the next, but it is better the third Day; you may make it weaker by mingling it with plain Ale as you draw it, or you may put it into a Firkin of Ale. It is good against a Consumption, and to restore decay'd Nature.

Another Way. Parboil a young Cock, skin him, pound him in a Mortar, till you have broken all his Bones, put two Quarts of Canary to it, and let it infuse all Night, the next Morning put to it eight Gallons of Ale, and four Pounds of Raisins of the Sun, ston'd and bruis'd, and half a Pound of Dates ston'd cut to pieces, an Ounce of Cloves, and as much more bruis'd, and a quarter of a Pound of Nutmegs flic'd thin, stop these up close, and let them stand for a Week; then boil it up, and put a Lump of fine Sugar into each Bottle, it will be fit to drink in eight or ten Days.
---The cooks and confectioners dictionary. J. Nott, 1723.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Jane Turner's husband John was a Serjeant at Law, which means a very senior barrister, senior even to a Queen's/King's Counsel (QC/KC).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ser…

All barristers belong to an Inn Of Court, so meeting Jane with Roger suggests that John, like Roger, might have been a member of the Middle Temple. The Middle Temple and Inner Temple are two Inns of court which occupy a magnificent site between Fleet Street and the Thames.

It's worth looking at on Google maps satellite image and Street View. The two Inns share the historical Temple Church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tem…

When I was a student at KCL (next to Somerset House) in the 1970s, I frequently walked past the Temple on my way from Blackfriars Station to College: other days I walked down Fleet St itself, occasionally hearing the bells of St Clement Danes (a Wren Church) chime "Oranges and Lemons".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6…

Bill  •  Link

"the buriall of young Cumberland, a lusty young man"

LUSTY, strong, hale, healthful.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Candlemas is a Christian holiday celebrated annually on February 2.
It celebrates three occasions according to Christian belief:
1. the presentation of the child Jesus;
2. Jesus’ first entry into the temple; and
3. the Virgin Mary’s purification (mainly in Catholic churches).
So why was this one of three annual Collar Days? The linked annotation seems to refer to modern tradition, so more clarification would be appreciated if you know it. Were there other/more/fewer Collar Days back then? What dates were they, and what is the significance?

John York  •  Link

Collar days
"Collar days are designated days on which the collar forming part of the insignia of certain members of orders of knighthood may be worn. Collars are special large and elaborate metal chains worn over the shoulders, hanging equally in front and back, often tied with a bow at the shoulders, with a distinctive pendant attached to the front."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col…
From the list quoted in the 1831 London Gazette there are 32 collar days (excluding royal birthdays) and these are nearly all religious festivals where members of the court would have been expected too attend chapel.
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Lond…
The London Gazette was only established in 1665 so we are a few years short of being able to look in there for the collar days for 1663.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

There is a recipe for "Cock Ale" in C J J Berry's 'Home Brewed Beers and Stouts' (from which I taught myself the craft of brewing 45 years ago.) Cyril Berry records how he adapted the recipe and made 1 gallon (Imperial - 4.54 litres) as an experiment. His verdict was that it was 'surprisingly good'.

I've posted a scan here on my Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.ph…

Clark Kent  •  Link

Coventry, Sam, and the rest of the naval administration seem inspired by the Greek credo "First secure an independent income, then practice virtue."

A. Hamilton  •  Link

Coventry's professed willingness "(now he finds himself secured from fear of want)" to do what he thinks right "though he thwarts others greater than himself" reminds me of a story about Averill Harriman, who after having been governor of New York and an unsuccessful presidential candidate took a fourth-level State Department job in the Kennedy Administration. At one point he found himself the acting official responsible for a policy decision that he took in opposition to the known view of the president and Secretary of State Dean Rusk. A young foreign service officer asked him how he had the courage to go against his superiors, and Harriman replied! " Because I have great wealth."

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘collar-day, n. A day on which Knights wear the collar of their Order, when taking part in any court ceremony.
. . 1662 S. Pepys Diary 29 Sept. (1970) III. 207 It being Collar day—we had no time to talk with him about any business.
1663 S. Pepys Diary 2 Feb. (1971) IV. 31 It being Coller-day, it being Candlemas-day.
. . 1764 Low Life 56 This being Whitsunday and consequently Collar Day at Court . . ‘
………………..

‘If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will have another fight
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain
Winter won't come again.

If Candlemas Day be dry and fair
The half o the winter's to come and mair
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul
The half o the winter's gone at yule.’

Better known to godless colonials as Groundhog Day!

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has;

‘Ground-hog Day n. N. Amer.
1871 M. Schele de Vere Americanisms 369 Candlemas is known as Ground-hog Day, for on that day the ground-hog comes annually out of his hole, after a long winter nap, to look for his shadow. If he perceives it, he retires again to his burrow, which he does not leave for six weeks—weeks necessarily of stormy weather. But if he does not see his shadow, for lack of sunshine, he stays out of his hole till he can, and the weather is sure to become mild and pleasant . . ‘

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... we met at the Committee for Tangier, a good full Committee, and agreed how to proceed in the dispatching of my Lord Rutherford, and treating about this business of Mr. Cholmely and Sir J. Lawson’s proposal for the Mole."

I wonder if this is what they discussed, or whether Charles II acted without consultation:

Earl of TEVIOT, a title in the peerage of Scotland, conferred 2 February, 1663, by Charles II on Lieutenant-General Andrew Rutherford, Lord Rutherford, with limitation to the heirs male of his body.

http://www.electricscotland.com/h…

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