Monday 15 June 1663
Up betimes, and anon my wife rose and did give me her keys, and put other things in order and herself against going this morning into the country. I was forced to go to Thames Street and strike up a bargain for some tarr, to prevent being abused therein by Hill, who was with me this morning, and is mightily surprised that I should tell him what I can have the same tarr with his for. Thence home, but finding my wife gone, I took coach and after her to her inn, where I am troubled to see her forced to sit in the back of the coach, though pleased to see her company none but women and one parson; she I find is troubled at all, and I seemed to make a promise to get a horse and ride after them; and so, kissing her often, and Ashwell once, I bid them adieu. So home by coach, and thence by water to Deptford to the Trinity House, where I came a little late; but I found them reading their charter, which they did like fools, only reading here and there a bit, whereas they ought to do it all, every word, and then proceeded to the election of a maister, which was Sir W. Batten, without any control, who made a heavy, short speech to them, moving them to give thanks to the late Maister for his pains, which he said was very great, and giving them thanks for their choice of him, wherein he would serve them to the best of his power. Then to the choice of their assistants and wardens, and so rose. I might have received 2s. 6d. as a younger Brother, but I directed one of the servants of the House to receive it and keep it.
Thence to church, where Dr. Britton preached a sermon full of words against the Nonconformists, but no great matter in it, nor proper for the day at all. His text was, “With one mind and one mouth give glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That done, by water, I in the barge with the Maister, to the Trinity House at London; where, among others, I found my Lords Sandwich and Craven, and my cousin Roger Pepys, and Sir Wm. Wheeler. Anon we sat down to dinner, which was very great, as they always have. Great variety of talk. Mr. Prin, among many, had a pretty tale of one that brought in a bill in parliament for the empowering him to dispose his land to such children as he should have that should bear the name of his wife. It was in Queen Elizabeth’s time. One replied that there are many species of creatures where the male gives the denomination to both sexes, as swan and woodcock, but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose.
Both at and after dinner we had great discourses of the nature and power of spirits, and whether they can animate dead bodies; in all which, as of the general appearance of spirits, my Lord Sandwich is very scepticall. He says the greatest warrants that ever he had to believe any, is the present appearing of the Devil1 in Wiltshire, much of late talked of, who beats a drum up and down. There are books of it, and, they say, very true; but my Lord observes, that though he do answer to any tune that you will play to him upon another drum, yet one tune he tried to play and could not; which makes him suspect the whole; and I think it is a good argument.
Sometimes they talked of handsome women, and Sir J. Minnes saying that there was no beauty like what he sees in the country-markets, and specially at Bury, in which I will agree with him that there is a prettiest women I ever saw. My Lord replied thus: “Sir John, what do you think of your neighbour’s wife?” looking upon me. “Do you not think that he hath a great beauty to his wife? Upon my word he hath.” Which I was not a little proud of.
Thence by barge with my Lord to Blackfriars, where we landed and I thence walked home, where vexed to find my boy (whom I boxed at his coming for it) and Will abroad, though he was but upon Tower Hill a very little while.
My head akeing with the healths I was forced to drink to-day I sent for the barber, and he having done, I up to my wife’s closett, and there played on my viallin a good while, and without supper anon to bed, sad for want of my wife, whom I love with all my heart, though of late she has given me some troubled thoughts.
56 Annotations
First Reading
TerryF • Link
Mr. Pepys does penance for his absence from church yesterday.
"Thence to church, where Dr. Britton preached a sermon full of words against the Nonconformists, but no great matter in it, nor proper for the day at all. 'With one mind and one mouth give glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'"
If this is SP's rendering of the Epistle to the Romans, 15:6, the Lesson for Matins today is, Ch. 15, -- the climax of Paul's letter's argument, in which Paul exhorts the diverse members of the church in Rome to evidence mutual aid and unity. It begins:
"1. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 3. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 5. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6. That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
A rather odd application, surely.! Why does SP judge it is not "proper for the day at all"?
On earlier Sundays there have been hints that he disapproves of sermons that treat the current religious/political situation. Is this it? Or has Dr. Britton touched another nerve?
TerryF • Link
The hints that he disapproves of sermons that treat the current events have also been reported of Fridays during Lent.
Stolzi • Link
I'm not sure why there was a sermon this Monday, unless perhaps for the benefit of the Brethren of Trinity House at their gathering? Was this their Annual Meeting?
I would imagine that the preacher's application was that Nonconformists, not being present for the =Common= Prayer, and having disagreements on doctrine with the Established Church, are =not= "of one mind and one mouth" with other Christians.
It is recorded somewhere that Sir Winston Churchill, who spoke a fluent but strange French of his own, once amazed his French hosts by informing them of what seemed a very dubious theological proposition, that he was "An Elder Brother of the Trinity."
TerryF • Link
Stolzi, a nice suggested application and occasion - it being the Monday after Trinity Sunday. Makes sense to me, but why not to SP?
TerryF • Link
"Makes sense to me, but why not to SP?"
Rhetorical Q.
Nice instance of the Churchill bon mot.
Bradford • Link
Remember Pepys being saddened a few days back when Elizabeth concurred, as a supporting witness, in his opinion of the (pregnant) Castlemaine's "decay"? Here the reverse, with his pleasure at M'Lud bearing witness to Elizabeth's beauty.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...I up to my wife’s closett, and there played on my viallin a good while, and without supper anon to bed, sad for want of my wife, whom I love with all my heart..."
That's sweet, Sam. And you enjoyed every doleful minute of playing the forlorn male bird singing for his lost mate...
(Why do I get the feeling there are some diary passages he did read to Bess?)
***
Sam?...
When your cousin milord Earl who no doubt feels you owe him everything...and anything (Anything being quite a lot in 1663)...goes out of his way to praise your wife's great beauty...
And when she is headed straight for his grand estate, where she will be within easy reach of milord or at least of designated callers for some time...Guarded only by your aging father...
I'd check cousin Ed's travel plans for the next few if I were you.
***
Brampton...
"Bess? Bess?!! I had a couple of days free and..."
Oh...My...
"Sam'l?"
"Bess? My Lord...?"
"Ah...Greetings, Cousin. I had to see how Lady Jemina and the children were doing and thought I would pay my respects to Cousin Bess. Forgive my somewhat...Inappropriate state of dress."
Or utter lack thereof...Sam thinks.
Well, at least Bess still has her drawers on.
Hmmn...My patron who could crush me like a small, energetic bug. Not exactly a situation calling for the Pembleton approach.
in Aqua scripto • Link
He doth gone an' said "IT". Strange weakness of the Human nature ,only be appreciative only when that be important be not available .
"...I up to my wife’s closett,
and there played on my viallin a good while,
and without supper
anon to bed,
sad for want of my wife,
whom I love with all my heart,
though of late
she has given me some troubled thoughts.
Paul Chapin • Link
The Pepys parlor game
"there are many species of creatures where the male gives the denomination to both sexes, as swan and woodcock, but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose."
Well, today (although I think not in Sam's time) we can add "cow" as a vernacular generic term for bovine creatures (at least in the U.S.). Can anyone think of any others? For some insects, like mosquitoes and bees, the female variety is the only one we normally ever see, but that's not quite the same thing.
Robert Gertz • Link
Or the really difficult sit...
"Sam'l! Help me! He came down here, forced himself on me, said he'd ruin us if I didn't...Please, don't let him!" Bess gasps.
"Cousin. If you value my patronage and properly fear my displeasure, turn around and walk out of here and stay outside in the garden for the next few minutes." Cold stare from cousin Ed.
***
dirk • Link
"there are many species of creatures where the male gives the denomination to both sexes, as swan and woodcock, but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose"
The nightMARE... (Yes LH, I know -- but it sounded like a good pun.)
rgh • Link
In L&M it corrects the statement "where I am troubled to see her forced to sit in the back of the coach, though pleased to see her company, none but women and one parson. She, I find is troubled NOT
at all and I seemed to make a promise to get a horse and ride after them;
rgh • Link
In L&M it corrects the statement "where I am troubled to see her forced to sit in the back of the coach, though pleased to see her company, none but women and one parson. She, I find is troubled (not)
at all and I seemed to make a promise to get a horse and ride after them;
Robert Gertz • Link
Brampton...
Bess in the clutches of the besotted Lord Sandwich...Threatening to unleash his wrath should cousin Sam dare oppose his desires...
How does our Sam handle such a situation?
Carefully, I'd guess.
"Ah. My most redoubted Lord...And Cousin. While every glass I take and each mouthful I eat do remind me of what ought by rights to be my duty to your gracious self in all... (My Lord, if you would leggo my wife's...Thankee, my Lord.) As I say, my Lord, whilst all this doth remind me of my duty to you, I must point out to you, my Lord that I also bear a special duty towards the wife to whom I am bound by ties fashioned by God and recorded in Heaven. Furthermore, my Lord..."
Is he defending me or describing terms under which I'm to be surrendered to His Lordship? Bess stares.
"...To one who holds the honor of your family as dear in my heart as I do, my Lord..."
"Yes, yes. Get on with it, Pepys. I'm extremely busy right now."
"Pardon, my Lord, yes...To one who holds the sacred honor of your family as precious as life itself. Such a situation can only be extremely distressing."
Am I being challenged or speechified to death? Sandwich stares.
"I feel therefore, my Lord, that for the reverence I bear your sacred honor and the esteem I have for your family, that I must...With the full consciousness of the duty and debt which I own feely that I owe you, my Lord..."
"Sam?" Bess glaring a bit now.
"...Oppose your wishes in this matter...Though in any other situation I stand ready to tender the most devoted..."
TerryF • Link
The "the beating of a drum" in Wilts. is not a poltergeists??!
POGO, 28 Aug, 1950. Psychoanalysis of the Pup Dog reveals that "poltergeists make up the principle type of spontaneous material manifestation." : http://www.igopogo.com/1950d.htm
(The full quotation came from elsewhere, but see this site for books [for sale] to complement Paul Chapin's survey at Amazon.com of the Pogo republication program coincidentally 28 Aug 1662, when Mam’zelle Hepzibah's carriage was cited [sighted?] by A. Hamilton) http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… )
Australian Susan • Link
TerryF did not reference whence his lesson for Morning Prayer today came from, but the Calendar for an old BCP says that the two readings (Lessons)are Job Ch 23 and Mark Ch 15. A revised BCP gives 2 Kings 22 for the first Lesson and John 21 for the 2nd Lesson.
I concluded that Sam had been expecting a sermon on the Trinity (as my husband had to preach this past weekend!)it being within the octave of Trinity Sunday the day before. He may also have a touch of the uneasy consciences about preachers who castigate Nonconformists.
Australian Susan • Link
Cows
I think they tended to call cows cattle then so the femininity appellation might not have occurred to them re goose/gander.
TerryF • Link
Australian Susan, because I do not trust my grasp of the 1662 BCP, you will see that all I weote about the "Lesson" was hypothetical -"If this is SP’s rendering....&c"
He did have an attraction to Dr William Bates, the Presbyterian divine, http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… whoSE last and memorable sermon was preached Sunday 17 August 1662 http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Jesse • Link
"yet one tune he tried to play and could not"
Clever with a little potential humor too. Was this test and the 'scepticall' result a tiny preview for Age of Enlightenment, reason over superstition, or just plain common sense? My vote is for the latter.
TerryF • Link
Australian Susan, in any case it was misleading to speak of Matins at all. Foregive me. After finally bidding the family adieu, Samuel attended Evening Prayer, for which the lessons be 2 Chron. 33 and James 3, as best as I can tell. http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bc…, though I am glad to be corrected. Evidently neither of these was used by Dr Bretton.
Mary • Link
The case of the goose
might have reminded Sam of the duck, where the name of the female also prevails.
Australian Susan • Link
The BCP Sam would have known has Job Chs 24 and 25 for the 1st Lesson of Evening Prayer (aka Evensong) on June 15th and I Corinthians 12 for the 2nd.
TerryF - I have gone to the site you cite [sorry for pun] and see that your problem is you are using an 1871 version. This section of the site http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bc…
has the calendar from the Prayer Book Sam would have known.
Australian Susan • Link
Bit more info re the BCP. One of the problems (as they saw it) facing the clergy post-Restoration was that people were not reading the Bible properly. They seized the chance with the restoration of the Prayer Book and a State regulated Church to rectify this. (this is all outlined in the Preface to the BCP) So the Calendar of lessons ploughs through the Bible Chapter by Chapter througout the year. Later, this was seen to be not really much use and a much more appropriate Calendar of Lessons was devised. This was the 1871 BCP, further revised in 1922 (the 1928[sic] BCP) and then revised again in 1980 The Alternative Service Book. Nowadays, most of the mainstream Churches all over the world use the Revised Common Lectionary which is spread over three years, A, B and C.
andy • Link
your neighbour’s wife
thou shouldst not covet...
tel • Link
The Devil in Wiltshire.
I lived in the next village to Tidworth years ago and would not be surprised if some people there still believe in phantoms and devils. It reminds me of the (true!) tale of a man who used to stand in his garden and hoot like a tawny owl, listening for the bird to reply. He stopped when his wife happened to mention this to a neighbour who said "That's funny - my husband does the same!" Maybe there were two drummers scaring each other.
And why is Sam upset that Bess has to sit in the back of the coach? Where else would she sit?
Don McCahill • Link
And why is Sam upset that Bess has to sit in the back of the coach? Where else would she sit?
I wondered at this too. Could it be that she was in some kind of rumble-seat affair, and not inside the coach proper?
Rex Gordon • Link
The back of the coach ...
Perhaps in the back she would bear the full brunt of the dust stirred up by the horses and arrive at Brampton looking poorer for it.
Rex Gordon • Link
The goose ...
Nobody thought of the titmouse, I guess. (Sorry, ladies!)
A. De Araujo • Link
"where I am troubled to see her forced to seat in the back of the coach"
So the seating arrangement, in public transportation, denoting social status go back a long ways in the anglo-saxon world I see.
language hat • Link
"might have reminded Sam of the duck"
Excellent point!
I wrote about the interesting case of "ruff" and "reeve" (the male and female of the same bird species) here:
http://www.languagehat.com/archiv…
TerryF • Link
Back to Stolzi's Q about the meeting at Trinity House -
Was this the Annual Meeting of the Brethren of Trinity House?
AND what does it mean to hold an "election...without any control"?
(Another day at the office, all slip-shod....)
TerryF • Link
"Was this the Annual Meeting of the Brethren of Trinity House?"
Evidently. Cf. Monday 26 May 1662 - "to the Trinity House; where the Brethren...choosing a new Maister; which is Sir J. Minnes, notwithstanding Sir W. Batten did contend highly for it"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
BUT what does it mean to hold an “election…without any control”?
Pauline • Link
"...there is a prettiest women I ever saw."
Note the indefinite article. So this is how Sam manages the many superlatives (best evers) he is given to!
Could he be making fun of himself and this propensity he has?
Pedro • Link
Stagecoach and post chaise: 17th - 18th century AD
Travel between towns by public transport, in the 17th and 18th century, is a slow business. The stagecoach, a heavy and cumbersome carriage often without any form of springs, is introduced in Britain in 1640.
Up to eight of the more prosperous passengers can be packed inside a stagecoach. Second-class seats are available in a large open basket attached to the back. The least privileged travellers sit on the roof with the luggage, relying on a hand rail to prevent themselves slithering off.
This immensely unwieldly vehicle, drawn by either four or six horses, lurches along the rutted roads at an average speed of about four miles an hour. Danger from highwaymen is only one of many inconveniences on such a journey
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldh…
“though pleased to see her company none but women and one parson”... Lets hope he is a Good Parson.
Lurker • Link
Is it just me or ... did Sam use the modern spelling of "cousin" for the first time? In the past I've only seen "cozen".
TerryF • Link
Lurker, your eyes may be sharper than Wheatley's - L&M read "Cosen Rogr Pepys".
Bradford • Link
Thanks to rgh for inserting a "not" where the sense seemed to want it ("she I find is not troubled at all.")
Sam is bothered by Elizabeth's seating; she doesn't care; he pretends he'll follow on horseback, as if fretful at her blithe farewell, though he has no intention of doing so. Nice bit of byplay ripe for transactional analysis.
Australian Susan • Link
"without any control"
Without a ballot?
dirk • Link
why is Sam upset that Bess has to sit in the back of the coach?
As far as I can make out, the back seats in the coach should be the ones that suffer most from the bumps in the road. The front seats are slightly (but not much) better off, because the weight of the shaft, to which the horses are fastened, rests on the front axis -- which makes this part of the coach heavier, and therefore somewhat more stable.
Have a look at
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tony…
for the kind of accidents that might occur (19th c., and New Zealand, but I guess not much different in Sam's time).
On coaches & carriages:
http://www.georgianindex.net/hors…
in Aqua scripto • Link
RE: domestic animals be used for insults, there be the canine ones, not PC to rite, see OED:
Cow it be a very olde Teutonic word that was used heavily.
cow 10 OED entries 1. a. The female of any bovine animal (as the ox, bison, or buffalo); most commonly applied to the female of the domestic species (Bos Taurus).
trans. ‘To depress with fear’ (J.); to dispirit, overawe, intimidate.
1605 SHAKES. Macb. V. viii. 18 Accursed be that tongue that tels mee so, For it hath cow'd my better part of man.
1664 BUTLER Hud. II. ii. 711 For when men by their Wives are Cow'd Their Horns of course are understood.
to cow [perh. a. ON. kúga ‘to cow, force, tyrannize over’, Norw. kue, Sw. kufva to subdue; but of late appearance in literature; app. often associated with COW n.1]
cattle be more modern.
then there be Gib cat, vixen, cob
Appositive, of persons, = VIXENISH a. 1.
a1660 Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) III. 80 O shame of soe greate a peere, imitatinge herin the vixinge calleaghs.
for the Purists see OED.
Australian Susan • Link
dirk gives us a bit of Australian history in his stage coach link, but the ones used by the legendary Cobb & Co had suspension and were based on the American ones made so famous by so many John Wayne films. In the 17th century, there was no suspension and the roads were much worse than Australian outback ones. Even in the 18th century (Before Mr Macadam resurfaced the roads) ruts could be huge. A contemporary of Jane Austen writes about winter ruts in the road near her house "in which a child of 10 could stand" All in all, you were better off on a horse methinks.
Lurker • Link
Reading above I see "my cousin Roger Pepys", however this may be Wheatly's or DW's doing.
in Aqua scripto • Link
Male swan be known as a cob but we call a mating pair Swans.
TerryF • Link
Lurker, I've provided the superior Latham & Matthews transcription of Pepys's shorthand above, namely “Cosen Rogr Pepys". As Wheately trancribed he also 'corrected'; DW made occasional comments to Wheately in the later edition in the public domain and made available online by Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ .
TerryF • Link
The Officers of The Corporation of Trinity House are elected at the Annual Meeting each year on Trinity Day. (L&M anent today's entry)
Patricia • Link
"Cattle" actually is an older word than the WaterWriter may have noted in the OED, from Middle English, according to Dictionary.com. However, it was originally used to refer to various different domesticated animals, even sheep and (from my reading elsewhere) horses.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"I might have received 2s. 6d. as a younger Brother"
The Younger Brethren received this amount annually in lieu of entertainment. (L&M footnote)
So, the Elder Brethren (the Good Ol' Boys) were given "entertainment"......!
L&M note Lord Craven was elected an Elder Brother this day.
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sir J. Minnes saying that there was no beauty like what he sees in the country-markets, and specially at Bury"
Bury St Edmunds, Suff. Mennes had inherited estates in that region from his brother: DNB.
(L&M footnote)
Bill • Link
"but not above one where the female do, and that is a goose."
This falls in the "who knew?" category but perhaps:
FALCON. 1. any of various hawks trained for use in falconry; especially : peregrine falcon —used technically only of a female — compare tiercel.
---Merriam-Webster online
San Diego Sarah • Link
I am surprised we don't know the name of the inn from which the coach to Huntingdon left.
Terry Foreman • Link
San Diego Sarah, we don't know the name of this inn because Pepys did not mention it (I've searched; others may know; it's like the name of his wife).
L&M say "Services of coaches [from London] were well-established by 1660." As they became more frequent and extensive "The London inns they used were large establishments, well-equipped with coachhouses...." (Companion, Travel). Pepys may have assumed the location of the inns for coaches departing for Huntingdon was well-known.
E • Link
Coach likely left from the Red Lion in Aldersgate Street (see notes)(NB mere steps from Barbican station!); coaches for Huntington were leaving from there in 1722 and it is probable that no changes happened to reroute. Coaching inns are particular buildings and not easily duplicated in a crowded city. According to W. Stow, reproduced very kindly and helpfully by Pascal Bonenfant, the waggon left on Monday and the coach on Wednesday in 1722. Schedule alterations are more easily accomplished than relocating the service point.
Shirley • Link
For all her great beauty, I seem to remember that Elizabeth Pepys was missing several teeth, one of which was a front one! Can't remember where I read it, however. Standards of beauty vary so widely ...
Chris Squire UK • Link
As a farmer’s son, I know that ‘beast’ is the current generic for bovines of unspecified gender and emasculation (“Are they bullocks or bulls? Can you see their dangly bits?”).
OED has:
‘beast, n. < Old French beste . .
. . 3. A domesticated animal owned and used as part of farm ‘stock’ or cattle; at first including sheep, goats, etc., but gradually more or less restricted to the bovine kind; now chiefly applied by farmers, graziers, etc. to fatting cattle . .
. . 1863 J. C. Atkinson Whitby Gloss. Beast, an..animal of the Ox kind . . applied to Cows or fatting-stock collectively.
1865 Daily Tel. 22 Aug. 6/5 One half..is devoted to ‘beasts’; the other half to sheep, pigs, and calves, none of which creatures are ‘beasts’ according to the natural history of the Caledonian-road . . ‘
San Diego Sarah • Link
Richard Foden on 27 Oct 2007 • Link • Flag
The George Inn, Holborn, was used as London point of departure for stage coaches from the 1650s onwards.
See advert in Mercurius Politicus, April 8th 1658, quoted in Martim de Albuquerque's "Notes and Queries" No. 14, page 146, published 1850 : "All persons who desire to travel into the cities, towns and roads, herein hereafter mentioned ... let them repair to the George Inn at Holborn Bridge, London, and thence they shall be in good coaches with good horses, upon every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at and for reasonable rates"
Pepys took his wife there on Monday, 28 July 1662 to take the coach to Bugden (Buckden in Cambridgeshire). So presumably this is where she left from today as well.
Terry Foreman • Link
"my Lord Sandwich is very scepticall. He says the greatest warrants that ever he had to believe any, is the present appearing of the Devil1 in Wiltshire, much of late talked of, who beats a drum up and down. There are books of it, and, they say, very true;"
L&M: These phenomena had been occuring in the house of John Mompesson of Tidworth, Wilts., for the past two years, and had recently become famous. Fot the pamphlet literature, see E. H. Goddard, Wilts. Bibliog., pp. 240-1. Both the King and the Queen sent agents to investigate, but nothing happened while they were there. Mompesson in the end admitted it was all a trick. Pepys later read the story in Glanvill's version on 25 December 1667. Accounts of the incident are in Merc. Pub., 23 April 1663, pp. 253-6; H. S. & L. M. L. Redgrove, /joseph Glanvill and psychical research in 17th cent., ch. vi. Addison's play, The Drummer, or The haunted house (1716) was founded on it. Both the diary and his later writings show that Pepys's interest in such things was real and lasting, for all his skepticism: e.g. Tangier Papers, pp. 10, 15; Priv. Corr., i. 240+ etc.