Sunday 11 December 1664

(Lord’s day). Up and to church alone in the morning. Dined at home, mighty pleasantly. In the afternoon I to the French church, where much pleased with the three sisters of the parson, very handsome, especially in their noses, and sing prettily. I heard a good sermon of the old man, touching duty to parents. Here was Sir Samuel Morland and his lady very fine, with two footmen in new liverys (the church taking much notice of them), and going into their coach after sermon with great gazeing. So I home, and my cozen, Mary Pepys’s husband, comes after me, and told me that out of the money he received some months since he did receive 18d. too much, and did now come and give it me, which was very pretty. So home, and there found Mr. Andrews and his lady, a well-bred and a tolerable pretty woman, and by and by Mr. Hill and to singing, and then to supper, then to sing again, and so good night. To prayers and tonight [bed].

It is a little strange how these Psalms of Ravenscroft after 2 or 3 times singing prove but the same again, though good. No diversity appearing at all almost.


22 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my cozen, Mary Pepys’s husband, comes after me, and told me that out of the money he received some months since he did receive 18d. too much, and did now come and give it me, which was very pretty."

This is Samuel de Santhune, and what was paid him was a legacy from the estate of “Uncle Robert” Pepys, late of Brampton, whose executor SP is.

The last mention of this matter was 22 October 1664: "At noon comes my uncle Thomas and his daughter Mary about getting me to pay them the 30l. due now, but payable in law to her husband." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

jeannine  •  Link

“Journal of the Earl of Sandwich” edited by R.C. Anderson

11th. Sunday. This morning came in the Expedition from Guinea, lost company of Major Holmes in the Chops of the Channel.
About 5 oclock in the morning I saw the Blazing Star in the Hydra below the tropic, S.S. W. about 10°00’ high, which I saw 2 or 3 days before also. Concerning which more hereafter.

[Anderson’s editorial note: “This comet, known simply as ‘the comet of 1664’ was discovered in Spain on Nov. 7th – 17th, 1664. Its perihelion passage was on Nov. 24th - Dec. 4th. It was last observed March 10th - 20th, 1664-5.”]

cape henry  •  Link

"It is a little strange how these Psalms of Ravenscroft after 2 or 3 times singing prove but the same again, though good. No diversity appearing at all almost."

This is the compliment of a discerning ear.

cgs  •  Link

Many heads and pending doom? over lands end eh!?
I can 'ear the voice of the Rev Tm Vincent telling of doom, hell and damnation and fire and pestilence.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"very handsome, especially in their noses"
A Virginia Woolf kind of nose I suppose.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Long, aquiline Gallo-Roman noses, perhaps?

Ruben  •  Link

A handsome nose in the Middle Ages was a big one. A small nose looked like a nose amputated by Lepra, a horrible disease, then very frequent in Europe. Later, with the gradual disappearence of the Lepra, the small nose become fashionable, leaving the Bourbons and other big noses-bearers in a delicate situation.
I am not sure, but I heard that the Chinese call Europeans "big noses", something that demonstrates the variability of this apendix of our body and the relativity of the concept of big-small.

Don McCahill  •  Link

How did our mercenary SP manage to miscount the money? I can't imagine him turning over 30 L without having counted it at least three times. And now we find that he was 18 p over. Undercounting I would understand.

Bradford  •  Link

"It is a little strange how these Psalms of Ravenscroft after 2 or 3 times singing prove but the same again, though good. No diversity appearing at all almost."

Expecting new subtleties of compositional dexterity to appear upon further acquaintance? Sometimes that depends upon the performer. Wait a month between repetitions, Sam, and come again.

Miss Lizzy  •  Link

No mention of business at all. Is this the first day that Sam didn't go into his office to work? I can't remember one, at least not lately.

Pedro  •  Link

“Here was Sir Samuel Morland and his lady very fine, with two footmen in new liverys (the church taking much notice of them), and going into their coach after sermon with great gazeing.”

Was Jenings telling porkies?

Mr. Jenings along with me (my old acquaintance), he telling me the mean manner that Sir Samuel Morland lives near him, in a house he hath bought and laid out money upon, in all to the value of 1200l., but is believed to be a beggar; and so I ever thought he would be.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

cgs  •  Link

Parsimonious or just being careful with his farthings usually the way with professors, living on the Granta be hard on the Pocket book, see I. Newtons expense sheet for this period, then thee would be carefull too, money did not grow on the pear tree.

Carl in Boston  •  Link

It is a little strange how these Psalms of Ravenscroft after 2 or 3 times singing prove but the same again, though good. No diversity appearing at all almost.”

Lots of music is pretty dry and repetitive, and disappears. Most of the American Colonial fife music is a variation on The Irish Washerwoman and nobody plays the tunes any more. All the romantic mousy music of the 1940s is all gone, just the Frank Sinatra tunes remain. There was a lot of ponderous big band music in the late fifties, but just the Beatles tunes remain. If you hear a musician playing off the top of his head, he will start to sound the same after an hour because his mind runs in the same tracks. There are a few jazz players that are so good they could make a record with every tune, but after an hour, you still hunger for some variety. It's good to play written compositions by composers, every tune is different because it comes from a different head.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"It is a little strange how these Psalms of Ravenscroft after 2 or 3 times singing prove but the same again, though good. No diversity appearing at all almost.”

Repetition under-girded the tradition. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psa…

A metrical psalter is a kind of Bible translation: a book containing a metrical translation of all or part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry, meant to be sung as hymns in a church. Some metrical psalters include melodies or even harmonizations. The composition of metrical psalters was a large enterprise of the Protestant Reformation, especially in its Calvinist manifestation. The metrical psalter was the tradition in which Ravencroft was a celebrated arranger in ballad or "common" metre:

In 1621, Thomas Ravenscroft published an expanded edition of the Sternhold and Hopkins [metrical] Psalter; Ravenscroft's edition added many more psalm tunes, some of which had been composed, since the original publication, by leading late Tudor and early Stuart English composers such as Thomas Morley, Thomas Tallis, John Dowland, and Thomas Tomkins. Another musical contributor to this volume was John Milton, senior, the father of the poet of that name.

Literary opinion after the sixteenth century of the Sternhold and Hopkins Psalter; was decidedly negative.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Met…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Curious that Pepys goes to the French church, but apparently didn't take Elizabeth.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Here was Sir Samuel Morland and his lady very fine, with two footmen in new liverys (the church taking much notice of them), and going into their coach after sermon with great gazeing."

I suspect Morland was property heavy, cash light, and living on credit like other courtiers without portfolio, hoping to attract notice (just like Pepys did with the wigs and velvet clothes). Dressed for success ... gambling that the trappings will attract the income. Worked for Pepys, and not for Morland.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'“Journal of the Earl of Sandwich” edited by R.C. Anderson

'11th. Sunday. This morning came in the Expedition from Guinea, lost company of Major Holmes in the Chops of the Channel.'

Yesterday I chided Pepys for being snarky calling Capt. Robert Holmes "Major" ... and here's Sandwich doing it also. Surely being the Captain of an expedition like this warrants more respect than being called Major? Was Sandwich doubting his seamanship? A Parliamentary Tarpaulin versus Cavalier Gentleman distinction?

LKvM  •  Link

I am indebted to this blog for acquainting me with many arcane bits of knowledge, but two of the most remarkable are William Petty as inventor of the first (European) catamaran and the remarkable Samuel Morland for inventing what could be called the first internal combustion engine, not to mention a lot of efficient pumps (very important to residents of New Orleans like me).

PS. Oz Susan.
Shouldn't the past tense of 'chide' be 'chid'? Or has 'chide' gone weak like 'plead' -- the current preferred past tense of which (in the U.S.) is no longer 'pled' but the awful 'pleaded.' Have lawyers become too weak-minded to learn strong verbs?

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

NB, today is the Winter solstice for Pepys (21st december in the Gregorian Calendar).

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: chided’:

‘chide, v. Pa. tense chid; pa. pple. chid, chidden. < Old English cíd-an weak verb . .
. . 1897 Daily News 15 Apr. 6/3 We..notice with interest that Mr. Meredith, after vacillating in former editions between ‘chid’ and ‘chidded’, has now resolved that the past tense of ‘to chide’ is ‘chided’.
1925 C. S. Durrant Link between Flemish Mystics & Eng. Martyrs i. x. 146 Margaret..quietly chode her elder . . ‘

Re: ‘pleaded’:

‘plead, v. Past tense and past participle pleaded, (chiefly Sc. and U.S.) pled . . ’

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thanks Chris. My English teacher at college wrote on my report card that I speak good English, but it's a shame I don't know why. Many years later that remains true.

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