Wednesday 26 October 1664

Up, my people rising mighty betimes, to fit themselves to go by water; and my boy, he could not sleep, but wakes about four o’clock, and in bed lay playing on his lute till daylight, and, it seems, did the like last night till twelve o’clock.

About eight o’clock, my wife, she and her woman, and Besse and Jane, and W. Hewer and the boy, to the water-side, and there took boat, and by and by I out of doors, to look after the flaggon, to get it ready to carry to Woolwich.

That being not ready, I stepped aside and found out Nellson, he that Whistler buys his bewpers of, and did there buy 5 pieces at their price, and am in hopes thereby to bring them down or buy ourselves all we spend of Nellson at the first hand.

This jobb was greatly to my content, and by and by the flaggon being finished at the burnisher’s, I home, and there fitted myself, and took a hackney-coach I hired, it being a very cold and foule day, to Woolwich, all the way reading in a good book touching the fishery, and that being done, in the book upon the statute of charitable uses, mightily to my satisfaction.

At Woolwich; I there up to the King and Duke, and they liked the plate well. Here I staid above with them while the ship was launched, which was done with great success, and the King did very much like the ship, saying, she had the best bow that ever he saw.

But, Lord! the sorry talke and discourse among the great courtiers round about him, without any reverence in the world, but with so much disorder.

By and by the Queene comes and her Mayds of Honour; one whereof, Mrs. Boynton, and the Duchesse of Buckingham, had been very siclee coming by water in the barge (the water being very rough); but what silly sport they made with them in very common terms, methought, was very poor, and below what people think these great people say and do.

The launching being done, the King and company went down to take barge; and I sent for Mr. Pett, and put the flaggon into the Duke’s hand, and he, in the presence of the King, did give it, Mr. Pett taking it upon his knee. This Mr. Pett is wholly beholding to me for, and he do know and I believe will acknowledge it.

Thence I to Mr. Ackworth, and there eat and drank with Commissioner Pett and his wife, and thence to Shelden’s, where Sir W. Batten and his Lady were. By and by I took coach after I had enquired for my wife or her boat, but found none. Going out of the gate, an ordinary woman prayed me to give her room to London, which I did, but spoke not to her all the way, but read, as long as I could see, my book again.

Dark when we came to London, and a stop of coaches in Southwarke. I staid above half an houre and then ’light, and finding Sir W. Batten’s coach, heard they were gone into the Beare at the Bridge foot, and thither I to them. Presently the stop is removed, and then going out to find my coach, I could not find it, for it was gone with the rest; so I fair to go through the darke and dirt over the bridge, and my leg fell in a hole broke on the bridge, but, the constable standing there to keep people from it, I was catched up, otherwise I had broke my leg; for which mercy the Lord be praised! So at Fanchurch I found my coach staying for me, and so home, where the little girle hath looked to the house well, but no wife come home, which made me begin to fear [for] her, the water being very rough, and cold and darke. But by and by she and her company come in all well, at which I was glad, though angry.

Thence I to Sir W. Batten’s, and there sat late with him, Sir R. Ford, and Sir John Robinson; the last of whom continues still the same foole he was, crying up what power he has in the City, in knowing their temper, and being able to do what he will with them. It seems the City did last night very freely lend the King 100,000l. without any security but the King’s word, which was very noble. But this loggerhead and Sir R. Ford would make us believe that they did it. Now Sir R. Ford is a cunning man, and makes a foole of the other, and the other believes whatever the other tells him. But, Lord! to think that such a man should be Lieutenant of the Tower, and so great a man as he is, is a strange thing to me.

With them late and then home and with my wife to bed, after supper.


29 Annotations

First Reading

Pedro  •  Link

"she had the best bow that ever he saw."

Now there is a compliment if there ever was one!

Pedro  •  Link

From Davidson's biography of Catherine...

Catherine had made the journey in her state barge and was not in the least affected, and enjoyed the trip immensely. De Lionne admired the ship’s grandeur and beauty and described it in a letter (to Louis), as well as the seventy guns it carried.

Many old naval officers who had held commissions in Cromwell’s time were present, and Charles was extremely agreeable and gracious to them, telling the French ambassador that these gentlemen had all had the plague, but were now cured of it, and not likely to be infected again. He and the Duke had come by land in state coaches, and after the voyage they all took to the Nore in the newly launched ship, they came back in the royal barge and lunched on board, expecting to return the way they came.

But the rough weather increased, and all the ladies that Catherine had brought with her were prostrated, she alone being quite well. She stole from the royal barge with them, when they came to Woolwich once more, and, hurrying on shore, they took possession of the King’s coaches, and drove back to London. The King and his attendants found that they could not row up the Thames in the royal barge, so had to go on to Greenwich, and hire horses and coaches to return to Whitehall. This playful trick of Catherine’s shows the terms she and Charles were on, when she could venture such a jest with him.

Pedro  •  Link

“otherwise I had broke my leg; for which mercy the Lord be praised!”

On Monday Sam twice told us he had good lucke, and Wednesday the third bit of luck. Better not to meet Bagwell or Martin this week.

JWB  •  Link

"siclee"

I suggest a new figure of speech-a word whose spelling looks like its meaning.

Terry F  •  Link

"a stop of coaches"

Is this the first traffic-jam reported by Pepys? or is it a collective noun?

***

"Mrs. Boynton, and the Duchesse of Buckeingham, had been very sick coming by water in the barge" -- transcribe L&M -- so “siclee” is likelee a scanning error, but a most fortumate one, JWB, I agreeing with you.

Eric Walla  •  Link

So a brief while ago we were watching Sam get appraisals of his existing and/or desired metal work. Could this actually be a side benefit from his search for the ceremonial flagon? (Maybe he as much as said so, but I didn't notice at the time.)

language hat  •  Link

I once had a similar experience: I was taking a long-distance bus to New York, and during a long stopover in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a couple of fellow travelers and I decided to go find a bar and have a few drinks. We thought we were keeping track of the time, but when we got back to the stop we saw the bus's lights disappearing into the distance. The next bus wasn't until (if I remember correctly) 2 A.M. Ah well, no legs were broken.

"It seems the City did last night very freely lend the King 100,000l. without any security but the King’s word, which was very noble"

For the last word, substitute "stupid."

Bradford  •  Link

"what silly sport they made with them in very common terms, methought, was very poor, and below what people think these great people say and do."

Fancy that---hereditary royalty and high position do not automatically confer wit, propriety, intelligence, or even common sense. What an indictment of the Great Chain of Being.

"my boy, he could not sleep, but wakes about four o’clock, and in bed lay playing on his lute till daylight, and, it seems, did the like last night till twelve o’clock."

Four hours' sleep---ah, the resilience of the young!---and then back to practicing on his axe.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...my boy, he could not sleep, but wakes about four o’clock, and in bed lay playing on his lute till daylight, and, it seems, did the like last night till twelve o’clock." Just how old is Tom? From Sam's descriptions of his behavior he sure doesn't seem like a 17th century teen bordering on young manhood. But perhaps given the more limited flow of delights and excitements it was easier then to get so worked up about a little excursion.

"We're hittin' the sea, yeah! Yeah! Launch that sucker! Woo!!!" fist in the air.

Urgh...

"I can't wait!! How much longer?!"

"Eight hours and twenty three minutes...Two minutes less than the last time you asked. Bess, please."

"Hows about we go downstairs and drink some ale together from Pett's flagon?!"

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...but what silly sport they made with them in very common terms, methought, was very poor, and below what people think these great people say and do."

There's a famous story of Edward Bernays I believe, riding with Tom Edison and Henry Ford at the 1929 Light's Golden Jubilee celebration and trying to remain quiet to hear the two great ones' lofty conversation.

"Tom! You look good!!" Ford, shouting for the partially deaf Edison. "How do you do it?"

"Well. Every morning my wife gives me some Carter's Liver Pills to take." Edison.

"You look good!"

Martha Wishart  •  Link

That must have been one unattractive woman Sam took to London in the coach. It's hard to imagine him passing up such an opportunity otherwise.

Pedro  •  Link

At the launch of the Royal Catherine…

Casimiro, the Portuguese biographer of Catherine, adds this interesting anecdote to the launch from and edition of “The News” on October 27th.

“When the ship entered the water a rainbow appeared in the sky, a sign of a pact between God and the World: never would it be lost at sea. We hope that this bodes well for the new ship.”

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... reading in a good book touching the fishery"

One such (not in the Pepysian Library) published by Ford, with whom SP spent the evening:

Keymor, John, fl. 1610-1620.
John Keymors observation made upon the Dutch fishing, about the year 1601. Demonstrating that there is more wealth raised out of herrings and other fish in His Majesties seas, by the neighbouring nations in one year, then the King of Spain hath from the Indies in four. And that there were twenty thousand ships and other vessels, and about four hundred thousand people then set on work by both sea and land; and maintained only by fishing upon the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
London : printed from the original manuscript, for Sir Edward Ford in the year, 1664.
[2], 12, [2] p. ; 4⁰. Imprimatur at foot of leaf B3v: Licensed, Febr. 22. 1664. Roger L’Estrange.
Wing K-390

Ford was an active promoter of texts on trade; he was responsible for the appearance of Thomas Mun's 'England's Treasure by Foreign Trade' written circa 1630 but published in 1664.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

An 'edsel' of an annotation

Pepys spent the evening with Sir Richard Ford, not Sir Edward Ford the promoter of the tract on fishing. Thanks to Paul Chapin for drawing my attention to the error.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Re pedro's quotation: The first rainbow was (supposedly) that which appeared in the sky after the end of the Great Flood to show the forging of the covenant between God and all humankind through Noah.

pepf  •  Link

"so I fair to go through the darke and dirt over the bridge"

Another siclee typo? Should probably read "fain".

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Another siclee typo? Should probably read "fain"."

So read L&M, pepf.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"It seems the City did last night very freely lend the King 100,000l. without any security but the King’s word, which was very noble."

The city had lent £100,000 in June; now a second loan of the same amount was advanced, the Common Council expressing their gratitude to the King for his help in preventing the construction of a bridge [across the Thames] between Westminster and Lambeth, 'which as is conceived would have been of dangerous consequence to the state of this city': Sharpe, ii. 407; CSPD 1664-51, P. 43. (Westminster Bridge was not built until 1750.) (L&M footnote)

Ivan  •  Link

Slightly off at a tangent but why did the City Councillors wish to prevent a bridge being built between Westminster and Lambeth, and why did they conceive it to have possibly dangerous consequences. Letting the mob have easier access to their privileged domain?

Bill  •  Link

"Here I staid above with them while the ship was launched"

On this day there was a meeting of the Royal Society, but the "greatest part of the members were absent, being gone to Woolwich, together with the King and Council and most of the Court, to see the great ship St. Catharine launched" (Birch's "History of the Royal Society," vol. i., p. 477, note).
--- Wheatley. Diary, 1904.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Ivan asks "why did the City Councillors wish to prevent a bridge being built between Westminster and Lambeth, and why did they conceive it to have possibly dangerous consequences"? Here's an answer:

¶Suggestions for a bridge across the river at Westminster were mooted soon after the Restoration but were vigorously resisted by the citizens of London, and it is significant that in granting a loan of £100,000 to King Charles II in 1664 they took the opportunity to express their thanks to him for preventing “the new bridge proposed to be built over the river of Thames betwixt Lambeth and Westminster, which, as is conceived, would have been of dangerous consequence to the state of this City.” The objections of the City were fully set out in a document of 1722, when the project was again under discussion, the main points being the loss of custom to the watermen and to the City markets and the danger of the navigation of the river being impeded. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The City of London was not the City of Westminster.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

How the objections to the Westminster bridge were overcome

Westminster was growing rapidly at the beginning of the 18th century and the inconvenience of having to cross the river by boat or to make the long detour to the south side of the river by London Bridge was increasingly felt by its inhabitants. In 1735, when a Bill for a bridge at Westminster was introduced into Parliament, the City could no longer uphold its objections and the Bill became law in the following year. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I stepped aside and found out Nellson, he that Whistler buys his bewpers of, and did there buy 5 pieces at their price, and am in hopes thereby to bring them down or buy ourselves all we spend of Nellson at the first hand."

Cf. Navy White Book, p. 66: 'This day it came in my head and I did go to Nellson's house.... [H]e was not at home; the servant showed mr some.... He had only five pieces in the house. I bought and paid for them at 7s 6d.'
(L&M note)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Much as I like Michael Robinson's theory about Pepys reading John Keymer's observation on Dutch fishing written in about 1601, which was reprinted by Sir Edward Ford in 1664 (so it is possible, even if it isn't in the Pepys library), after some prodding around I have reached the conclusion that Sir Edward Ford and Sir Richard Ford were not related, and this idea is not supported by any evidence.

For information on Sir EDWARD Ford (brother-in-law to Gen. Ireton, but a Royalist) see:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fo…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"But by and by she and her company come in all well, at which I was glad, though angry."

It was girls day and night out, escorted of course. You don't get it yet, Pepys, do you? Elizabeth is really miffed at you for (1) forgetting your anniversary, (2) leaving her at Church to go home and on to Uncle Wight's alone because she had no idea when you'd be home from chasing a pretty girl over Tower Hill, and (3) working hard to throw a big dinner party for you, and being rewarded by being hit.

Her passive-aggressive responses are probably going to throw you into the arms of Betty Lane and Mrs. Bagwell, but things at home are in the tank because of your behavior. Not waiting for you with the boat, and then dallying around so they got home later than you, were no accidents.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Personally, I think all that happened today is that they all had a day out, and Elizabeth & the servants were late home. Sam was worried about their safety, especially as the weather was "foule", and he himself had nearly "broke" his leg.. Under those circumstances anger mixed with relief on their eventual return is perfectly natural, as is a rapid reconciliation afterwards. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

marinetti  •  Link

I love this entry for some reason

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . a stop of coaches in Southwarke . . ‘

‘stop, n.2 < Old English < Latin . . The sense ‘bring or come to a stand’ is a specially English development, but in marine and railway use the English word has been widely adopted in other languages . .
I. . . 5. A block or obstruction of traffic caused by the overcrowding of vehicles.
1625 Bacon Apophthegmes §86 in Wks. (1778) I. 539 A citizen of London passing the streets very hastily, came at last where some stop was made by carts;..where being in some passion that he could not suddenly pass [etc.]. . . ‘

(OED)
.....
I agree with Sasha!

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