Tuesday 28 November 1665

Up before day, and Cocke and I took a hackney coach appointed with four horses to take us up, and so carried us over London Bridge. But there, thinking of some business, I did ’light at the foot of the bridge, and by helpe of a candle at a stall, where some payers were at work, I wrote a letter to Mr. Hater, and never knew so great an instance of the usefulness of carrying pen and ink and wax about one: so we, the way being very bad, to Nonesuch, and thence to Sir Robert Longs house; a fine place, and dinner time ere we got thither; but we had breakfasted a little at Mr. Gawden’s, he being out of towne though, and there borrowed Dr. Taylor’s sermons, and is a most excellent booke and worth my buying, where had a very good dinner, and curiously dressed, and here a couple of ladies, kinswomen of his, not handsome though, but rich, that knew me by report of The. Turner, and mighty merry we were.

After dinner to talk of our business, the Act of Parliament, where in short I see Sir R. Long mighty fierce in the great good qualities of it. But in that and many other things he was stiff in, I think without much judgement, or the judgement I expected from him, and already they have evaded the necessity of bringing people into the Exchequer with their bills to be paid there.

Sir G. Carteret is titched —[fretful, tetchy]— at this, yet resolves with me to make the best use we can of this Act for the King, but all our care, we think, will not render it as it should be. He did again here alone discourse with me about my Lord, and is himself strongly for my Lord’s not going to sea, which I am glad to hear and did confirm him in it. He tells me too that he talked last night with the Duke of Albemarle about my Lord Sandwich, by the by making him sensible that it is his interest to preserve his old friends, which he confessed he had reason to do, for he knows that ill offices were doing of him, and that he honoured my Lord Sandwich with all his heart. After this discourse we parted, and all of us broke up and we parted.

Captain Cocke and I through Wandsworth. Drank at Sir Allen Broderick’s, a great friend and comrade of Cocke’s, whom he values above the world for a witty companion, and I believe he is so. So to Fox-Hall and there took boat, and down to the Old Swan, and thence to Lumbard Streete, it being darke night, and thence to the Tower. Took boat and down to Greenwich, Cocke and I, he home and I to the office, where did a little business, and then to my lodgings, where my wife is come, and I am well pleased with it, only much trouble in those lodgings we have, the mistresse of the house being so deadly dear in everything we have; so that we do resolve to remove home soon as we know how the plague goes this weeke, which we hope will be a good decrease. So to bed.


19 Annotations

First Reading

Patricia  •  Link

"we had breakfasted a little at Mr. Gawden’s, he being out of towne though," This sounds odd to me: they just dropped in and ate at Mr. Gauden's, even though he wasn't home? It is against such visitors that locks were invented!

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... Dr. Taylor’s sermons, and is a most excellent booke and worth my buying, ..."

Taylor was a spiritual adviser and friend to the devout Evelyn, might SP's opinion perhaps be the result of some recent hints or subtle suggestions?

Australian Susan  •  Link

"...never knew so great an instance of the usefulness of carrying pen and ink and wax about one:..."

Wouldn't Sam have loved Blackberries.

Just reading all this made me feel tired.....What a busy day.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Sir G Carteret is tickled at this, yet resolves with me to make the best use we can of this Act for the King;"

So transcribe L&M....

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"Sir G Carteret is tickled at this"

That would seem to put a different cast on Sir George's reaction than "titched," going by our modern meaning of "tickled." So I went to the OED to see whether the verb meant the same in Sam's time as now. Indeed it did, but it could also mean the opposite, as per definition 7:

†7. a. To excite, affect, move; also, to vex, irritate, provoke. Obs.
1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 116 Some men there be, whom bodily lust tickleth not at all. a1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV 204 These newes sodaynly brought to the kynge did not a littell vexe & tykil hym. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 153 Shee's tickled now, her Fume needs no spurres. 1693 Dryden Persius' Sat. i. 28, I cannot rule my Spleen; My Scorn Rebels, and tickles me within. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 316 What once tickled the Spleen of a Philosopher, might here hourly give him the Diversion.

I confess that I cannot recall whether the new law was in Carteret's interest or not, and I don't have the energy to go back and figure it out. Knowing that would probably clue us in to which meaning of "tickled" Sam intended.

Speaking of "tickled" (in the modern sense), that was my reaction to Australian Susan's remark about the Blackberry. My thought exactly.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Addendum - now that I've gone back to yesterday's entry, I've reread the following passage:
"Our next discourse is upon this Act for money, about which Sir G. Carteret comes to see what money can be got upon it. But none can be got, which pleases him the thoughts of, for, if the Exchequer should succeede in this, his office would faile."

So I guess Sir George was tickled happy.

AussieRene  •  Link

I reckon Sam would have been tickled by Blueberries or Raspberries too.

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

"we had breakfasted a little at Mr. Gawden’s, he being out of towne though"

The diary is full of people turning up unannounced for dinner at others' houses. I guess that, if you had a certain standing socially, you were expected to maintain a household able to offer hospitality whether you were at home or not. I'm not so sure about borrowing people's books, though.

Firenze  •  Link

Certainly if you turned up at a Gentleman's Seat in the country - as Elizabeth Bennett and her rellies did at Mr Darcy's - you would expect to be shown round by the housekeeper.

A display of hospitality and ostentation (see what I possess, and welcome to it) has always had a high social value.

language hat  •  Link

"Certainly if you turned up at a Gentleman’s Seat in the country - as Elizabeth Bennett and her rellies did at Mr Darcy’s - you would expect to be shown round by the housekeeper."

That was over a century later, in a very different England, and did not involve getting fed, so I'm not sure it's relevant.

Tony is right: if you were a person of standing, you were expected to feed drop-ins of quality, even if you weren't home. The whole concept of locking out the public at large (as opposed to potential thieves) had not really developed yet; open house was the rule.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"He tells me too that he talked last night with the Duke of Albemarle about my Lord Sandwich, by the by making him sensible that it is his interest to preserve his old friends, which he confessed he had reason to do, for he knows that ill offices were doing of him,..." Uh-oh...Now he needs have "old friends" (Monck, an old friend?) "preserve" him? I sense an early version of the guillotine is being set up for Lord Sandwich.

"...and that he honoured my Lord Sandwich with all his heart."

"And I want you to know Wilmer, that I feel towards you as I would toward my own son...But...If you lose one son it is possible to get another." -The Maltese Falcon

"Look, Hector how the sun begins to set; How ugly night comes breathing at his heels; Even with the vail and darkening of the sun, To close the day up, Hector's life is done." -Troilus and Cressida

Harvey  •  Link

"...if you were a person of standing, you were expected to feed drop-ins of quality, even if you weren’t home. The whole concept of locking out the public at large (as opposed to potential thieves) had not really developed yet; open house was the rule..."

What's changed? Certainly in New Zealand, if I showed up at a property several hours travel from home, and it was open (someone in the their family was there) and they recognised me as a friend of the owner, then it would be no surprise to be treated hospitably.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Sir Robert Longs house; a fine place"

L&M: Worcester [ Park ] House. In 1663 the King had leased to Long (Auditor of the Receipt in the Exchequer) the reversion of the mansion of the park (Worcester Park, near Ewell, Surrey [ near the upper-right corner of this map:
http://www.motco.com/map/81001/Se… ], originally the Great Park of Nonsuch) and of the Great Park Meadow. Long took full possession in 1670 after the death of the Queen Mother. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wor… ]

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Michael Robinson posted a query:

" ... Dr. Taylor’s sermons, and is a most excellent booke and worth my buying, ..."
Taylor was a spiritual adviser and friend to the devout Evelyn, might SP's opinion perhaps be the result of some recent hints or subtle suggestions?

I don't know that this book of sermons will persuade Pepys to reform his morals (which I take it might be your interest): L&M say the volume's subtitle is 'A collection of polemical discourses, wherein the Church of England in its worst as well as more flourishing condition, is defended ...against Papists...and the Fanaticks...(1657); PL 2640 (3rd ed. 1674).

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Captain Cocke and I through Wandsworth. Drank at Sir Allen Broderick’s"

Courtier: he had inherited a house at Wandsworth, Surrey. (L&M note)

Tonyel  •  Link

Wouldn't Sam have loved Blackberries.
A fine example of the speed of change! Ten years later and I can't recall what a Blackberry was.

Gerald Berg  •  Link

"where some payers were at work," Payers?

"usefulness of carrying pen and ink and wax about one" Never mind a Blackberry how about a ballpoint pen and sealed envelopes?

jimmigee  •  Link

And you know that Sam would be wedded to his iPhone--or Samsung, etc.

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