Monday 20 February 1664/65

Up, and with Sir J. Minnes to attend the Duke, and then we back again and rode into the beginning of my Lord Chancellor’s new house, near St. James’s; which common people have already called Dunkirke-house, from their opinion of his having a good bribe for the selling of that towne. And very noble I believe it will be. Near that is my Lord Barkeley beginning another on one side, and Sir J. Denham on the other. Thence I to the House of Lords and spoke with my Lord Bellasses, and so to the ’Change, and there did business, and so to the Sun taverne, haling in the morning had some high words with Sir J. Lawson about his sending of some bayled goods to Tangier, wherein the truth is I did not favour him, but being conscious that some of my profits may come out by some words that fell from him, and to be quiet, I have accommodated it. Here we dined merry; but my club and the rest come to 7s. 6d., which was too much. Thence to the office, and there found Bagwell’s wife, whom I directed to go home, and I would do her business, which was to write a letter to my Lord Sandwich for her husband’s advance into a better ship as there should be occasion. Which I did, and by and by did go down by water to Deptford, and then down further, and so landed at the lower end of the town, and it being dark ‘entrer en la maison de la femme de Bagwell’, and there had ‘sa compagnie’, though with a great deal of difficulty, ‘neanmoins en fin j’avais ma volont d’elle’, and being sated therewith, I walked home to Redriffe, it being now near nine o’clock, and there I did drink some strong waters and eat some bread and cheese, and so home. Where at my office my wife comes and tells me that she hath hired a chamber mayde, one of the prettiest maydes that ever she saw in her life, and that she is really jealous of me for her, but hath ventured to hire her from month to month, but I think she means merrily. So to supper and to bed.


31 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Lord Sandwich will get mail written today

William Coventry to Sandwich
Written from: St James's

Date: 20 February 1665
....
The Lord Admiral is satisfied with Lord Sandwich's report of his reasons for not sending a Squadron to the Northward. If ships bound for Turkey are now in the Downs, Lord Sandwich is desired to send them off in company with the Convoy for Tangier.

---------------------
Captain Roger Cuttance to Sandwich
Written from: Chatham

Date: 20 February 1665
.....
Reports the progress of repairing, equipping, and arming of ships for recruitment of Lord Sandwich's Fleet. Sir William Penn is at Chatham, busied about that service.

---------------------
Captain Richard Long to Sandwich
Written from: On board HMS Nightingale in 'Chatham river' [Medway]

Date: 20 February 1665
....
Reports his execution of orders as to the impressed seamen, with some incidents of his voyage.

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Phineas Ellwood to Sandwich
Written from: Sandwich

Date: 20 February 1665
....
Sends Advices of two Dutch Squadrons; the one seen off Flamborough Head, the other, off Scarborough.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

cape henry  •  Link

"haling" - in this instance I think it it used to mean that he was compelled to go to this meeting, so without enthusiasm.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Clever Elizabeth. She needs another maid. Sam has presumably been penny-pinching about this, so she lets the other maids hire a disreputable casual employee to help out and thus gets Sam to admit that he needs to pay for another servant. Elizabeth makes sure she hires a pretty maid as a "thank you"to Sam. Watch out for a lot of unpleasant behaviour on Sam's part over the next few weeks.
Words fail me over his treatment of Mrs Bagwell. Let's just hope that Mr B is happy with his promotion (if he ever gets it). And maybe now there is an end to it.

"....Here we dined merry; but my club and the rest come to 7s. 6d., which was too much. ..." This scene could be repeated today in many a City lunchtime snuggery. "No, no, I only had the garlic prawns and a glass of the Sauvignon - surely we should split it better." Whilst the waitress shifts from foot to foot and waits, patiently.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"having in the morning" is the way L&M transcribe Pepys's cypher here.

Makes more sense.

Carl in Boston  •  Link

Voila. When the French comes thick, Sam is doing his .... thing.
They do say the French know how to live, but I don't know this French.
though with a great deal of difficulty, ‘neanmoins en fin j’avais ma volont d’elle’
Anyone have any idea what is the French, and what is the difficulty,
and would you say? Lord Peter Wimsey would know, but he won't say.
Then comes the pretty maid, served up by Elizabeth to The Wolf.
I dunno, Elizabeth could have found a pitiful haggard looking wretch, but I suppose Elizabeth likes bright young things about her. What a strange world this is, or was, or is even yet.

cape henry  •  Link

Yes, I think that's it TF. Thanks.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... rode into the beginning of my Lord Chancellor’s new house, near St. James’s; which common people have already called Dunkirke-house, from their opinion of his having a good bribe for the selling of that towne."

"Lord Clarendon acquired the 8 acre (3.2 ha) site for his house by royal grant in 1664. Clarendon House was built between that year and 1667 to designs by Roger Pratt. ..." and much more:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clar…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Apologies for the above ...

Phil has provided a link to the text already, from "Dunkirke-house."

Terry  •  Link

The French

‘entrer en la maison de la femme de Bagwell’ = entered into Bagwell's wife's house.
‘sa compagnie’ = her company.
‘neanmoins en fin j’avais ma volont d’elle’ = nevertheless in the end I had my way with her.

The difficulty was in getting Mrs B to let him have his way!

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"... whom I directed to go home, and I would do her business, ... ‘entrer en la maison de la femme de Bagwell’, and there had ‘sa compagnie’, though with a great deal of difficulty, ‘neanmoins en fin j’avais ma volont d’elle’,..."

Yes, this is sounding more and more like "Oh Sir Jasper do not touch me!... And she lay beneath the lily-white sheets with nothing on at all."

" Basically you sing repeatedly the sentence 'Oh sir Jasper do not touch me' and at each iteration leave off one of the words. ..."
http://www.odps.org/slango.html

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"common people"

Hoi polloi, they say the most vulgar things about my buds, like Sir Edward Hyde!

CGS  •  Link

the only OED entree:
makes more sense that the ell S/B Vee
haling, vbl. n.

[f. HALE v.1 + -ING1.]

The action of the verb HALE; dragging, hauling.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 223/1 Halynge, or drawynge, tractus. 1584 FENNER Def. Ministers (1587) 41 By haling and pulling of sentences.

"...haling in the morning had some high words with Sir J. Lawson..."

CGS  •  Link

tut tut: disgusting behavior by one of the common folks

D. of York, Privilege. Sir H. Middleton his Gentleman Usher arrested.

Upon Oath made at the Bar of this House, by John Barcrost Esquire, "That Sir Hugh Middleton Baronet, Gentleman Usher in Ordinary to his Royal Highness the Duke of Yorke, was arrested, by Thomas Starkey Bailiff and his Tenants, at the Suit of Robert Gilbert, by the Instigation of John Reeve Solicitor, during the Sitting of Parliament, and detained in Custody till he was forced to pay the Money, notwithstanding they knew him to be the Servant to his Royal Highness as aforesaid:"
From the House of Lords today.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

haling > having
Methinks CGS is making overmuch of what is surely a simple scanning error by the Project Gutenberg folks.

PHE  •  Link

'Strong waters'. Does anyone know what is meant by this term? Is it some kind of mineral water (eg. from Bath or Bristol's Hotwells)? Or is it a type of 'eau de vie' - as in rough liquor?

andy  •  Link

Which I did

...and about time too. I wonder if he'll still see Mrs B. after tonight? Does she know he wrote it? Would she believe him if/when he told her - he'd hardly give her a copy of the letter and she wasn't there when he wrote and sent it.

Sandwich as a man of his times would doubtless understand what to do when he got the letter, and how to use it as collateral for a debt.

Oh Sir Jasper!!

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

"which common people have already called Dunkirke-house"

Tricky things names. One of our local building firms was once accused by a pompous councillor of treating his committee in a cavalier way. Ever since, every housing estate they have built has included a road called Cavalier Way.

Sorry, a digression I know, but it still amuses me.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Re Oh Sir Jasper!

In John Aubrey's Brief Lives (brilliantly and unforgettably brought to the stage by the late, great Sir Roy Dotrice), there is an anecdote about Sir Walter Raleigh having (in the Sam style) one of the Queen's ladies in waiting up against a tree in one of the Royal Parks. She apparently began by saying "Oh, sweet Sir Walter!"repeated over and over but as she got more involved/overwhelmed this degenerated into "Swisher swasher". Somehow can't see Mrs B getting that carried away. Reminds me also of the Flash character played by Ric Mayall in Blackadder 2, who rogers his way through an entire episode to the disquiet and reluctant envy of Edmund.

Mary  •  Link

Aubrey's Brief Lives.

The inimitable Roy Dotrice (by no means late, though a venerable gentleman) is shortly to stage his Brief Lives once more in London.

Bradford  •  Link

"and sated therewith": in three words, the whole story of "satisfaction" lacking affection.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

Can anyone point me to the entry where Sam first uses French to describe his amorous adventures? I suspect he is deliberately disassociating himself from his actions in doing so. But perhaps it was the fashion? Did he babble to Mrs. Bagwell in French in the moment of passion? One never knows, do one?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Andrew Hamilton, with help from Duncan Grey, Pepys first used Latin an erotic context: September 4, 1660:
“…. From thence to the Axeyard to my house; where I find standing at the door, Mrs. Diana comes by, whom I took into my house upstairs and there did dally with her a great while, and find in Latin “nulla puella negat.”
[L&M] Footnote 3 says “Probably Diana Crisp”. We translate “nulla puella negat.” as "the girl refused nothing"

On January 16, 1664, among other more ordinary matters, Pepy’s tells us:
“…. He being gone, I by water to Westminster-hall and there did see Mrs. Lane, and de la, elle and I to a cabaret at the Cloche in the street du roy; and there, after some caresses, je l’ay foutee sous de la chaise deux times [I gave it to her twice under the chair], and the last to my great pleasure: mais j’ai grand peur que je l’ay fait faire aussi elle meme [I was very afraid that I had undone her too?]. Mais after I had done, elle commencait parler [continued to talk] as before and I did perceive that je n’avais fait rein de danger a elle [I had nothing to fear from her]. Et avec ca, I came away; and though I did make grand promises a la contraire, nonobstant je ne la verrai pas long time [I don't expect to see her for a long time?]. So by coach home and to my office, where Browne of the Minerys brought me an instrument made of a Spyrall line, very pretty for all Questions in Arithmetique almost. But it must be some use that must make perfect in it.
“So home to bed-with my mind un peu trouble pour ce que j’ai fait today [my mind a little troubled by what I've done today]. But I hope it will be la derniere de toute ma vie.[the last time in my life] ”

http://www.pepys.info/bits2.html#…

Pedro  •  Link

How London Was Built.

Not sure where in the site to put this, but it may be of interest.

If anyone is planning a visit to London and fancies a walk through history, the History Channel have a series of podcasts from the series How London Was Built by Adam Hart-Davies.

They each end at a watering hole and many of the sites that appear in the Diary are mentioned. Even if you do not go it is worth a visit to the site to watch the videos.

http://www.thehistorychannel.co.u…

Paul Chapin  •  Link

strong waters
PHE, in this context it means alcoholic spirits.
OED: 2. Any form of alcoholic spirits used as a beverage. Now only in pl. (somewhat arch.).
a1613 Overbury Wife, etc. (1638) 178 His new Trade of brewing Strong-Waters makes a number of mad-men. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 160 After, with warme clothes and a little strong water, they had a little recouered him. 1687 Relat. De Chaumont's Embassy Siam 23 Eleven Barks full of Oxen, Sheep,+and Strong-water made with Rice. 1727 Gay Begg. Op. ii. iv, Strong waters will in time ruin your constitution. 1790 Act 30 Geo. III, c. 38 §9 Any distilled Spirituous Liquors or Strong Waters. 1820 Scott Monast. xxxv, Usquebagh—a liquor strange to Halbert, for the strong waters known in the south of Scotland came from France. 1855 Englishw. in Russia 9 He gave so much strong waters+, that everybody became so drunk that they could not move.

"Strong water" also was used in Sam's time as an English translation of aquafortis, or nitric acid. But if Sam had drunk that with his supper, the diary would have ended today.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...wherein the truth is I did not favour him, but being conscious that some of my profits may come out by some words that fell from him, and to be quiet, I have accommodated it."

Started down the Dark Path even in office matters, are you, COA Pepys? Take care that forever it does not guide your destiny.

***

Sam seems a little puzzled by Bess' action. Apparently she meant to tease by "merrily" suggesting the new girl was dangerously pretty but his uncertainty hints he's a bit concerned she may be onto his little amours.
***

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Nothing about Capt Phineas Ellwood in our encyclopedia, but we have heard of him before:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

6 September 1664

MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 214-215

Physical condition: Original. Addressed to Lord Sandwich, on board 'the London', in the Downs.

Title: Phineas Ellwood and Benjamin Harrison to Sandwich: written from Sandwich

Description: Explain their views as to the estimated cost of the proposed Improvement of Sandwich Harbours, and answer certain objections to former Estimates. Mention the ultimate advantage to the Nation at large of the project, when carried out, especially in the probable event of War with Holland. Enter, at length, into the details of Plans prepared and of the Taxation by which it is proposed to defray the charges.

Captain Ellwood adds, by way of P.S., that in the autumn of 1639 the Spaniards remained in the Downs more than five weeks (the English ships being wind-bound).

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Adm Sir John Lawson -- Per L&M Companion: "... He was particularly concerned with Tangier as one of the contractors for the mole." This incident isn't mentioned in LAWSON LIES STILL IN THE THAMES, but Lawson about this time has given away half his fortune as dowry for his oldest daughter, so he is probably fund-raising just like Pepys. Bird of a feather.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... I would do her business, which was to write a letter to my Lord Sandwich for her husband’s advance into a better ship as there should be occasion. Which I did, ..."

I take it this letter no longer exists?

mountebank  •  Link

"Where at my office my wife comes and tells me that she hath hired a chamber mayde, one of the prettiest maydes that ever she saw in her life"

Thinking of how things are going with Sam this year, my heart sank at reading these words.

I think the use of French to report the antics is a distancing technique so Sam can recall them but not face them directly.

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

" Basically you sing repeatedly the sentence 'Oh sir Jasper do not touch me' and at each iteration leave off one of the words. ..."

Try this with a rising pitch for each word the contrast by starting with a high pitch and lowering the pitch for each word. There's a world of difference (neglecting that pesky 'do').

HDS  •  Link

If Sir Jasper needs to be updated, there's "Oh, George, let's not park here."

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