Monday 13 July 1663

So, it being high day, I put in to shore and to bed for two hours just, and so up again, and with the Storekeeper and Clerk of the Rope-yard up and down the Dock and Rope-house, and by and by mustered the Yard, and instructed the Clerks of the Cheque in my new way of Callbook, and that and other things done, to the Hill-house, and there we eat something, and so by barge to Rochester, and there took coach hired for our passage to London, and Mrs. Allen, the clerk of the Rope-yard’s wife with us, desiring her passage, and it being a most pleasant and warm day, we got by four o’clock home. In our way she telling us in what condition Becky Allen is married against all expectation a fellow that proves to be a coxcomb and worth little if any thing at all, and yet are entered into a way of living above their condition that will ruin them presently, for which, for the lady’s sake, I am much troubled.

Home I found all well there, and after dressing myself, I walked to the Temple; and there, from my cozen Roger, hear that the judges have this day brought in their answer to the Lords, That the articles against my Lord Chancellor are not Treason; and to-morrow they are to bring in their arguments to the House for the same.

This day also the King did send by my Lord Chamberlain to the Lords, to tell them from him, that the most of the articles against my Lord Chancellor he himself knows to be false. Thence by water to Whitehall, and so walked to St. James’s, but missed Mr. Coventry.

I met the Queen-Mother walking in the Pell Mell, led by my Lord St. Alban’s. And finding many coaches at the Gate, I found upon enquiry that the Duchess is brought to bed of a boy.

And hearing that the King and Queen are rode abroad with the Ladies of Honour to the Park, and seeing a great crowd of gallants staying here to see their return, I also staid walking up and down, and among others spying a man like Mr. Pembleton (though I have little reason to think it should be he, speaking and discoursing long with my Lord D’Aubigne), yet how my blood did rise in my face, and I fell into a sweat from my old jealousy and hate, which I pray God remove from me.

By and by the King and Queen, who looked in this dress (a white laced waistcoat and a crimson short pettycoat, and her hair dressed ci la negligence) mighty pretty; and the King rode hand in hand with her. Here was also my Lady Castlemaine rode among the rest of the ladies; but the King took, methought, no notice of her; nor when they ’light did any body press (as she seemed to expect, and staid for it) to take her down, but was taken down by her own gentleman. She looked mighty out of humour, and had a yellow plume in her hat (which all took notice of), and yet is very handsome, but very melancholy: nor did any body speak to her, or she so much as smile or speak to any body. I followed them up into White Hall, and into the Queen’s presence, where all the ladies walked, talking and fiddling with their hats and feathers, and changing and trying one another’s by one another’s heads, and laughing. But it was the finest sight to me, considering their great beautys and dress, that ever I did see in all my life. But, above all, Mrs. Stewart in this dress, with her hat cocked and a red plume, with her sweet eye, little Roman nose, and excellent taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw, I think, in my life; and, if ever woman can, do exceed my Lady Castlemaine, at least in this dress nor do I wonder if the King changes, which I verily believe is the reason of his coldness to my Lady Castlemaine.

Here late, with much ado I left to look upon them, and went away, and by water, in a boat with other strange company, there being no other to be had, and out of him into a sculler half to the bridge, and so home and to Sir W. Batten, where I staid telling him and Sir J. Minnes and Mrs. Turner, with great mirth, my being frighted at Chatham by young Edgeborough, and so home to supper and to bed, before I sleep fancying myself to sport with Mrs. Stewart with great pleasure.


32 Annotations

First Reading

Glyn  •  Link

Pepys is running on adrenalin. He's been up all night inspecting the ships until 'high day' which I'm guessing means after 9 a.m. He gets a quick 2 hours' sleep (definitely not a siesta) and then has a busy work day as well as travel. He doesn't even have an early night as there's no Elizabeth to go home to.

TerryF  •  Link

Judges Opinion, concerning the E. of Bristol's Charge against the E. of Clarendon....:

This Day being appointed for the Judges to deliver their Opinion upon the Articles of High Treason exhibited by the Earl of Bristol against the Lord Chancellor; the Judges being all present, the House in order hereunto caused the said Articles to be read.

And then the Lord Chief Justice Bridgman, by the Agreement, and in the Name, of all the rest, delivered in this unanimous Answer following; videlicet,

"1. We conceive, That a Charge of High Treason cannot by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm be originally exhibited by any One Peer against another unto the House of Peers; and that therefore the Charge of High Treason by the Earl of Bristoll against the Lord Chancellor, mentioned in the Order of Reference to us of the Tenth of this Instant July, hath not been regularly and legally brought in.
"2. And if the Matters alledged in the said Charge were admitted to be true (although alledged to be traiterously done), yet there is not any Treason in it."...

Message from the King concerning it

The Lord Chamberlain acquainted the House, "That he had a Message to deliver to this House from the King; which, he said, he had written down from His Majesty, because he would not mistake; and desired Leave to read it."....

"His Majesty, having received from His House of Peers a Copy of the Writing which the Earl of Bristoll had delivered in, containing Articles of supposed High Treason and other Misdemeanors against the Chancellor of England, doth give your Lordships very many Thanks, for your great Care and Regard in transmitting the same to Him; upon View of which, His Majesty finds several Matters of Fact charged, which upon His own certain Knowledge are untrue. And His Majesty cannot but take Notice of the many scandalous Reflections in that Paper upon Himself and His Relations, which He looks upon as a Libel against His Person and Government; for which, and other Things, His Majesty will in due Time take such Course against him as shall be agreeable to Justice."

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 13 July 1663', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 558-59. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… Date accessed: 13 July 2006.

Bradford  •  Link

"But it was the finest sight to me, considering their great beautys and dress, that ever I did see in all my life. But, above all, Mrs. Stewart in this dress, with her . . . excellent taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw, I think, in my life":

"taille," the Large Glossary tells us, is French for "figure, shape of (person)," citing this passage.

An interesting little essay could be written, requiring no more research than the "Search" function on this site, to trace the first usage, and subsequent frequency, of Pepys's catchphrase "in my life" or "in all my life." What sort of sights or objects prompt this response from him? What common property links them? Does he use the phrase more, or less, often as he grows older, and has more experience from which to make comparisons, or draw contrasts? Somebody, steal this idea!

dirk  •  Link

"my Lady Castlemaine...looked mighty out of humour, and had a yellow plume in her hat (which all took notice of)"

I'm not sure how much sensitivity to colour symbolism had survived into the 17th century, but a hundred years earlier this yellow plume might have been significant. Up to the 1500s the colour yellow was closely associated with female "availability", and was used in the dress of prostitutes to indicate just that.

Maybe a "message" intended for King Charles, who may have been aware of this symbolic value?

TerryF  •  Link

"into the Queenes presence, where all the ladies walked, talking and fiddling with their hats and feathers, and trying one another's, but on another's heads, and laughing." - transcribe L&M.

So the other ladies try to deal with the tension of a new pecking-order at the top du jour (the King oblivious to that, as is his wont).

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Well Barbara, there's always the consolation of poor ole Roger and the children...Whosever's they are.

dirk  •  Link

Yellow

Some of the negative connotations of yellow ("not genuine") are still with us ---

Yellow has traditionally been associated with jaundice and cowardice. In American slang, a coward is said to be "yellowbellied" or "yellow.

Yellow journalism used to be a term referring to sensationalist journalism that distorts, exaggerates, or exploits news to maximize profit.

A yellow smile, in Arab culture, is an ingenuine smile.

The French expression "rire jaune" ("yellow laughter") could be translated into English as "mirthless laughter", laughing without mirth.

Source: Wikipedia

Jesse  •  Link

"a yellow plume in her hat (which all took notice of)"

Dirk's clever observation carries somewhat into the present day (see 2nd entry on http://www.urbandictionary.com/de… ). This link http://funreports.com/2002/04/30/… (hope the wife doesn't step in) has "Tsar Pavel I was known for his passion for uniforms and decorations, so he granted a special uniform to prostitutes. Public women were supposed to wear special yellow dresses. It did not take them long to wear such clothes, but it was enough for the yellow color to become the symbol of this profession. A medical certificate of a public woman was called “a yellow card.”"

Even though the good Tsar appears 100 yrs. later, Dirk's assertion of yellow's earlier association implies some type of continuity (glossing over the "become" part). My guess is that Pepys (1) explicit mention of the color (2) "which all took notice of" combined with (3) Lady Castlemaine's character and wit add up. Great observation!

Joe  •  Link

"Pepys is running on adrenalin"

Glyn--we might even say he's hypomanic today, acutely sensitive to stimulus (more so than usual?); note, as he does, how quickly his "blood did rise" at an imagined Pemberton (and, in a differing but equally passionate way, to an imagined Mrs. Stewart).

Mary  •  Link

"so it being high day..."

"High day" sounds like an equivalent expression to "broad daylight."

At this time of year and on a fair morning (Sam mentions that the day is pleasant and warm)"broad daylight" could apply to almost any time from 5.30 a.m. onwards.

GrahamT  •  Link

Frances Stewart was born in 1648 so would be 14 or 15 years old at the time of this entry.

Re:hats and "...trying one another’s, but on another’s heads, and laughing." thus transporting any lice and fleas to new hosts.

C.J.Darby  •  Link


"and out of him into a sculler" is it not unusual to refer to a boat as a "he" was this common usage.

Stolzi  •  Link

Some language notes:

"ci la negligence"

Looks like scanner error for "à la negligence," that is, dressed in careless-looking curls.

The Queen looks pretty, she and the King hold hands - Pepys again seems to have romantic hopes about them.

"fiddling with their hats" - it's always nice, and surprising, to find a modern idiom that started farther back than we might have thought.

"I left to look upon them" - i.e. "I left off looking at them."

Mary  •  Link

"out of him"

I suspect that the "him" is a transferred pronoun ..... transferred from the waterman in charge of the vessel to the vessel itself.

Bradford  •  Link

Oh, Lurker, my apologies! I had no idea the list would be so extensive; it makes me feel all yellow inside.

(B/t/way, I bet that any bright color you might pick---greensleeves, anyone?---has been associated, at some time or another, with "availability.")

Truth to tell, the idea for such a survey-essay first struck me, not in regards to "in (all) my life," but "(Very) strange but true," which would produce a much briefer and more manageable database. Again, pardon. (Pronounced in the French Dogg manner.)

But ho, at last one of the women of Pepys's fantasy is called by name!

dirk  •  Link

Colours

re - Bradford

Not entirily true. The symbolic values of colours were fairly fixed in the Middle Ages, and the essence of this system lingered on for about 200 years after the Middle Ages "sensu stricto" had ended. It was very complex -- the reason why it would eventually die out -- and some colours were somewhat ambivalent in meaning. But on the whole the significance of a colour was generally understood and accepted.

You mention "Greensleeves", and you're right of course. In Britain the colour green was also associated with prostitution. (This was not the case anywhere else on the continent, and no other colour was ever systematically used for this purpose.)

As an illustration, here are some of the colours and their symbolic values:

· white: purity, humility;
· blue: loyalty;
· red: love, strength, courage (but also occasionally pride);
· black: death, suffering;
· yellow: vanity, untrustworthiness, betrayal ("fake gold");
· green: the colour of life, but also the colour of poison – a colour with not always clear connotations

Aqua  •  Link

The OED has a wonderfull list for enjoyable uses for the meaning of Yellow, it be so long a read that the parchment will be yellowed, when thee get to taille.

Aqua  •  Link

"... excellent taille..."
OED: sauce: enough to keep the wordsmiths from coming up front.
taille tail tayle: a taxing word,printing, engraving too, opposite of head, word used law, 'in taile' thy property, Sam used the word in his accounts too.
The posterior extremity of an animal, in position opposite to the head, unPC refering to uses of relationship.

1. Cut, shape, form; shape of the bust from the shoulders to the waist; figure, build, make. In Dress-making, the waist or bodice of a gown; the style or fit of this.
1663 PEPYS Diary 13 July, Mrs. Stewart,..with her sweet eye, little Roman nose, and excellent taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw.
2. In old French law, a tax: see TAIL n.2 2b
taille-douce Engraving on a metal plate with a graver or burin, as distinguished from work with the dry point, and from etching.
1650 EVELYN Diary 21 June, A booke of statues..by which one may discover many errors in the taille douce of Perrier. 1657 in Burton's Diary (1828) II. App. 541 That no printers..imprint, or cause to be imprinted any work or works, book or books, taledoux or taledouxes.
1690 CROWNE Eng. Friar v. Wks. 1874 IV. 111 Madam, speak to the ladies now I am here, to let down their trains; 'tis not manners in the presence of a man o' my quality, to cock up their tails
1645 EVELYN Diary June (1827) I. 312 These vessells [gondolas] are built very long and narrow, having necks and tailes of steele.
3. Law. a. The limitation or destination of a freehold estate or fee to a person and the heirs of his body, or some particular class of such heirs, on the failure of whom it is to revert to the donor or his heir or assign.
IV. 4. a. = TALLY n.1 1; hence, a score, an account. by tail, by means of tallies; on credit. (Cf. on tick.) Obs. [Cf. Cotgr. ‘Taille..also, a tallie, or score kept on a peece of wood’.]
1607 COWELL Interpr. s.v., Taile in the other signification, is what we vulgarly call a Tallie;..a clouen peece of wood to nick vp an accoumpt vpon. 1647 City Law London 49 A Taile of debt ensealed by usage of the city, is as strong as an obligation
1577 SIR T. SMITH Commw. Eng. (1609) 71 Other officers are Tellers, Auditors, Collectors, rentgatherers, tailemakers.
law adverb :Of a fee or freehold estate (= AF. fee taylé, med.Anglo-L. feodum t tum): Limited and regulated as to its tenure and inheritance by conditions fixed by the donor: thus distinguished from fee simple or absolute ownership: see quot. 1592
1628 COKE On Litt. 26 If lands bee giuen to the husband & the wife, and to the heires which the husband shall beget on the body of the wife, in this case both of them haue an estate taile.
1663 BUTLER Hud. I. II. 163 Lawyers, lest the Bear Defendant, And Plaintiff Dog should make an end on't, Do stave and tail with Writs of Error, Reverse of Judgment, and Demurrer. Ibid. III. 134 First Trulla stav'd, and Cerdon tail'd, Until their Mastives loos'd their hold.
1633 J. CLARKE 2nd Praxis 44 Ne is alwayes tayled to the first word of the Interrogation.
1655 FULLER Ch. Hist. XI. i. §10 His bond of two thousand pounds wherewith he was tailed, continued uncancelled, and was called on the next Parliament.
8. intr. To deal by tally, or on credit. Obs
a. Affected with jealousy, jealous. (Cf. JAUNDICED 3.) Also in allusive phrases, as to wear yellow hose = to be jealous. Obs.

jeannine  •  Link

A French Perspective on the Chancellor-Bristoll exchanges.

Activities of the King, Court, Parliament, gossip, etc. were reported to Louis XIV by his Ambassadors. All quotes below are from Jusserand’s “A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II”. The situation with Bristol proved quite difficult for the French to comprehend, mostly due to the audacity of Bristol and Charles’ relying on “due process” to resolve the issue. Cominges (French Ambassador in England during this time) looked at these exchanges with ‘endless wonder’. In letters to Louis Cominges describes the English Parliament where “the members of which are not only allowed to speak their minds freely, but also to do a number if surprising extraordinary thing, and even to call the highest people (‘les plus qualifíes’) to the bar! Think of an Earl of Bristol remaining free in the town, when he has accused the Lord Chancellor of high treason!” [Cominges letter to Louis XIV, July 16, 1663]

“Bristol has first begun by going, through a peer, to the Lower House, to make a speech against the Ministers. At this the House had been very pleased; but not so the King. Charles had begged to see the harangue; Bristol refused then consented, and the King, having expressed his opinion that the speech was a seditious one, was sharply answered by the Earl. Charles ‘rather smoothly retorted that he would be a poor King indeed if her were not able to quiet an Earl of Bristol. May God spare you Majesty such subjects and such a lack of power! The King of England will wait till the end of the session, that is, about a fortnight, to notify his will to the Earl of Bristol; it will be probably nothing more than an order not to appear in Court.” [Cominges letter to Louis XIV, July 16, 1663], p. 104-105

Cominges further continues that “Nothing can be more astonishing and extraordinary, than what I have to inform you Majesty of and you will be not a little surprised when you see that, to find precedents for it, you must go back in your mind to the times that saw the violence of Sylla, the outbursts of the Gracchi, and the accusation of Cæsar (then a private citizen) against Dolabella, who was endowed at that time with the highest magistrature.” Bristol was till now merely a “presumptuous fool, blinded by his vanity”; but he had become “ a mad dog and bites all round”.

The proceeding baffled Cominges and he continued “Here we have a regular suit between a private person and the Chancellor, this last having his high rank, his past services, the goodwill of the King, of the Queen-mother, of the Duke of York (whose wife gave birth yesterday to a son), and of all the Court, to boast of; but the other [Bristoll] walks about town as if nothing were the matter, and does not in the least give up hope of success. I confess to your Majesty that I am at my wits’ end (je perds la tramontane), and that it seems to me as if I were transported beyond the sphere of the moon”.

Cominges then sends a private letter to Lionne {Louis’ Foreign Secretary, located in France and a more personal friend of Cominges} and explains “You will see in my dispatch to his Majesty how the clouds which rose in the evening gave birth on Friday to storms and thunderbolts. I must confess that nothing in the world is more surprising than what is to be seen in this Court, and less easily intelligible to a man who has been brought up under a different Government and different laws. It seems to me, every moment, I have been transferred to the antipodes, when I see a private gentleman walking the streets, sitting as a judge of Parliament, receiving the visits of his political friends, and leading no less pleasant a life than usual, when he has accused of capital crimes the first officer of the State, a dignitary on the best terms with his master, supported by the Queen-mother, and father-in-law to the heir of the crown.” {July 23, 1663}
Lionne gave this reply” If anybody had attacked her M. le Chancelier au Parlement, you may readily believe that he would not be seen at play every day on the bowling-green, and that there would be no great competition to marry into his house.” Lionne’s letter is interesting as the Lord of Sunderland had called off his planned wedding to Bristoll’s daughter on July 1. see http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Colours

When a ship came into port with disease on board, it flew a yellow flag and had to go to a particular dock or port - isolation. At the port of Bristol, the ships had to drop anchor partway up the Avon and discharge their sick crew. There developed a hospital at that site (appropriately called Pill, but this has nothing to do with tablets - it's a geographical feature), which developed into a hospital specialising in TB and tropical diseases. It's still there. When an undergraduate, I worked for a time at the Bristol TB clinic. If we had to type a referral to the hospital, this was done on a yellow form, which was known as a Yellow Peril (which was a hangover from the slang term for the Japanese, thus conflating two associations of "yellow".)

Green was associated with decline: "green-sickness" and it was unlucky to be married in green.

Australian Susan  •  Link

The Duchess of York's little baby is now second in line to the throne. What must Catherine be thinking - Charles's mistresses having male children and now his brother having a legitimate son, but she has not been able to have a baby.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

The French Perspective
Jeannine's interesting account of the views of Ambassador Cominges reminds me of a scene in the film "The Libertine", no doubt utterly fictitious. Sitting beside the king at one of Rochester's savagely satirical (and scatological) plays, the French ambassador leans over to Charles and says, "This is most interesting. In France he would be executed."
Incidentally, "The Libertine" is now available on DVD.

Aqua  •  Link

liberty,equality,Fraternity : 5 generations later, libertine see debauchee etal.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

yellow

is also the color of the cavalry in the American army (light blue -- infantry, red -- artillery, etc.) So not all its connotations are uniformly (heh!) pejorative.

Jeannine,

Your citation of the memoirs of a French ambassador is yet another gem. I especially liked the astonishment, tinged with indignation, with which he viewed the English parliament, where
“the members ... are not only allowed to speak their minds freely, but also to do a number if surprising extraordinary thing, and even to call the highest people (‘les plus qualifíes’) to the bar!" How utterly ancien regime of him.

Aqua  •  Link

Here be be a JAUNDICED view of
taille, tail, tayle => tally:
The posterior extremity of an animal, in position opposite to the head,

1. Cut, shape, form; shape of the bust from the shoulders to the waist; figure, build, make. In Dress-making, the waist or bodice of a gown; the style or fit of this.
1663 PEPYS Diary 13 July, Mrs. Stewart,..with her sweet eye, little Roman nose, and excellent taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw.
2. In old French law, a tax: see TAIL n.2 2b
taille-douce Engraving on a metal plate with a graver or burin, as distinguished from work with the dry point, and from etching.
1650 EVELYN Diary 21 June, A booke of statues..by which one may discover many errors in the taille douce of Perrier.
1657 in Burton's Diary (1828) II. App. 541 That no printers..imprint, or cause to be imprinted any work or works, book or books, taledoux or taledouxes.
1690 CROWNE Eng. Friar v. Wks. 1874 IV. 111 Madam, speak to the ladies now I am here, to let down their trains; 'tis not manners in the presence of a man o' my quality, to cock up their tails
1645 EVELYN Diary June (1827) I. 312 These vessells [gondolas] are built very long and narrow, having necks and tailes of steele.
3. Law. a. The limitation or destination of a freehold estate or fee to a person and the heirs of his body, or some particular class of such heirs, on the failure of whom it is to revert to the donor or his heir or assign.
IV. 4. a. = TALLY n.1 1; hence, a score, an account. by tail, by means of tallies; on credit. (Cf. on tick.) Obs. [Cf. Cotgr. ‘Taille..also, a tallie, or score kept on a peece of wood’.]
1607 COWELL Interpr. s.v., Taile in the other signification, is what we vulgarly call a Tallie;..a clouen peece of wood to nick vp an accoumpt vpon.
1647 City Law London 49 A Taile of debt ensealed by usage of the city, is as strong as an obligation
1577 SIR T. SMITH Commw. Eng. (1609) 71 Other officers are Tellers, Auditors, Collectors, rentgatherers, tailemakers.
law adverb :Of a fee or freehold estate (= AF. fee taylé, med.Anglo-L. feodum t tum): Limited and regulated as to its tenure and inheritance by conditions fixed by the donor: thus distinguished from fee simple or absolute ownership: see quot. 1592
1628 COKE On Litt. 26 If lands bee giuen to the husband & the wife, and to the heires which the husband shall beget on the body of the wife, in this case both of them haue an estate taile.

1663 BUTLER Hud. I. II. 163 Lawyers, lest the Bear Defendant, And Plaintiff Dog should make an end on't, Do stave and tail with Writs of Error, Reverse of Judgment, and Demurrer. Ibid. III. 134 First Trulla stav'd, and Cerdon tail'd, Until their Mastives loos'd their hold.
1633 J. CLARKE 2nd Praxis 44 Ne is alwayes tayled to the first word of the Interrogation.
1655 FULLER Ch. Hist. XI. i. §10 His bond of two thousand pounds wherewith he was tailed, continued uncancelled, and was called on the next Parliament.
8. intr. To deal by tally, or on credit. Obs
yellow a. Affected with jealousy, jealous. (Cf. JAUNDICED 3.) Also in allusive phrases, as to wear yellow hose = to be jealous. Obs.
that he had his tallys up and all the kind
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Second Reading

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"before I sleep fancying myself to sport with Mrs. Stewart with great pleasure."

What sort of sport and to what end pray tell?

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Here is a cut-down version of the google search for “and so to bed” in the Diary, which returns 1,410 hits:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?h…

The ampersand ‘&’ indicates the end of each search term

Using the ‘domain’ field in Google Advanced Search returns 1610 hits.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘She . . had a yellow plume in her hat (which all took notice of), and . . very melancholy’

The meaning here is clearly:

‘ . . 2. fig. a. Affected with jealousy, jealous . . Also in allusive phrases, as to wear yellow hose = to be jealous. Obs.
. . 1623 P. Massinger Duke of Millaine iv. ii. sig. I1v, If I were The Duke..I should weare yellow breeches.
. . c1680 Man's Felicity xiii, My Wife will wear no yellow hose . . ‘

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: So, it being high day . .

‘high day . . .
2. The time of full daylight, when the sun is high in the sky.
. . 1667 S. Pepys Diary 29 Nov. (1974) VIII. 552 Thus we lay till the clock struck 8, and high day.
1737 W. Pardon Dyche's New Gen. Eng. Dict. (ed. 2) at Hour, In the Jewish Account, the Day was divided into 4 Parts, Morning, High-day or Noon, the first Evening, and the last Evening . . ‘ [OED]

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and Mrs. Allen, the clerk of the Rope-yard’s wife with us, desiring her passage, and it being a most pleasant and warm day, we got by four o’clock home. In our way she telling us in what condition Becky Allen is married against all expectation a fellow that proves to be a coxcomb and worth little if any thing at all, and yet are entered into a way of living above their condition that will ruin them presently, for which, for the lady’s sake, I am much troubled."

L&M: Rebecca Allen, then about 18, had in August 1662 married Henry Jowles of Chatham, aged about 24. Her sister had married rather better -- her husband later this year succeeded his father-in-law as Clerk of the Ropeyard at Chatham.

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