Sunday 29 April 1666

(Lord’s day). Up, and to church, where Mr. Mills, a lazy, simple sermon upon the Devil’s having no right to any thing in this world. So home to dinner, and after dinner I and my boy down by water to Redriffe and thence walked to Mr. Evelyn’s, where I walked in his garden till he come from Church, with great pleasure reading Ridly’s discourse, all my way going and coming, upon the Civill and Ecclesiastical Law. He being come home, he and I walked together in the garden with mighty pleasure, he being a very ingenious man; and the more I know him, the more I love him. His chief business with me was to propose having my cozen Thomas Pepys in Commission of the Peace, which I do not know what to say to till I speake with him, but should be glad of it and will put him upon it.

Thence walked back again reading and so took water and home, where I find my uncle and aunt Wight, and supped with them upon my leads with mighty pleasure and mirthe, and they being gone I mighty weary to bed, after having my haire of my head cut shorter, even close to my skull, for coolnesse, it being mighty hot weather.


16 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Mr. Mills, a lazy, simple sermon upon the Devil's having no right to any thing in this world"

I can imagine a sermon contesting the devil's claim in this passage in Luke.4:
[5] And the devil took him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, [6] and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
[7] If you, then, will worship me, it shall all be yours."

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"His chief business with me was to propose having my cozen Thomas Pepys in Commission of the Peace, which I do not know what to say to till I speake with him, but should be glad of it and will put him upon it."

On April 11, John Evelyn noted in his diary: "As his Majestie came from Chapell, he call’d me in the lobby, & told Me he must now have me Sworn for Justice of Peace (having long since made me of the Commission) for preventing some dissorder in our parish at this time; I replied, that it was altogether inconsistent with the other service I was ingag’d in, during this hostility with Dutch & French and humbly desir’d to be excus’d, notwithstanding he persisted: After dinner ....againe his Majestie asked me, if I had found out any able person about our Parts, that might supplie my place of Justice of Peace (the thing in the world, I had most industriouly avoided to act in hitherto, in reguard of the perpetual trouble thereoff in this numerous Parish &c) on which I nominated one, whom his Majestie commanded me to give immediate notice of to my L: Chancellor, & I should be excus’d: for which I rendred his Majestie many thankes:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

It makes sense for Evelyn to nominate his good neighbor, the eminent Thomas Pepys as JP in his stead.

Carl in Boston  •  Link

upon the Civill and Ecclesiastical Law. I think Sam reads ponderous books of an improving nature. There's something to be said for reading sermons and reciting Psalms in these degenerate times. As Jeeves would say, most improving.
Then there is this Thomas Pepys, who I never heard of before, a man of parts, and well recommended. Administrative ability must run in the family.
I hear from others, they have not the time to annotate in these times of Swine Flu and downsizing, so I am doing what I can to keep up the Level C annotations.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"it being mighty hot weather"

Mighty hot? Must have been warmer than the 8C/46F our right column shows as the April average that year - even an Englishman couldn't consider that hot, could he?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...a lazy, simple sermon upon the Devil’s having no right to any thing in this world..."

Only if he pays cash up front, eh Sam?

(Yes, things are busy here in Atlanta...But some things like Sam are just too important to miss.
PS. Don't forget that normal seasonal flu and my guys, s.pneumoniae, do a much greater toll without most taking notice, so be careful but don't get too frazzled about it.)

jeannine  •  Link

"where I find my uncle and aunt Wight, and supped with them upon my leads with mighty pleasure and mirthe"

Is there some mistake here--'uncle and aunt Wight' and 'mighty pleasure and mirth' in the same sentence?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...—‘uncle and aunt Wight’ and ‘mighty pleasure and mirth’ in the same sentence?"

Indeed...Hard to imagine Bess experiencing much glee in dear ole (indecent proposal) Uncle's presence. Still, perhaps he really has behaved himself since and she's accepted him as a rather pathetic figure, easily put in his place.

Then again, perhaps Uncle spent dinner hanging over the leads, screaming for mercy's sake not to have the ropes cut. Now that would bring considerable mirth and pleasure...

Roger  •  Link

'after having my haire of my head cut shorter, even close to my skull, for coolnesse, it being mighty hot weather.'

Paul et al, the temperature shown on the right is an average temperature for the WHOLE day for the whole month(ie including night time), this temperature being the maximum plus minimum temperature for each day divided by two, and then the whole 30 days averaged. Does that make sense?! It ISN'T the average maximum temperature! If there was a warm spell at the end of this April then there were certainly corresponding cooler days(and nights). Climatic averages take into account the temperature for the whole day, not just the maximum. Temperatures can vary a lot in the UK, especially in Spring. For example, today's Maximum in London was about 8 degrees higher then yesterday's. The same sort of thing happened in Samuel's time.
April 1666 was just a little warmer than the average over the last 350 years, ranking 183rd coldest since 1659.
I wonder if Sam will refer to the dryness of the 1666 summer?!

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Diary of Ralph Josselin

Ap. 29. God good in manifold mercies air warm and dry.

Michael L  •  Link

"having my haire of my head cut shorter, even close to my skull"

Probably an accidentally healthy habit in a city still convulsing with flea-borne plague.

Ruben  •  Link

Plague fleas are rat fleas not human's! they will occasionally bite a human (in his leg, most probably) but they will not "settle" on him.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam's haircut. Presumably this means he was wearing his wig on top of his own hair and then found it to be too hot. Shaving or near shaving the head will help with head lice (which lay their eggs on hair), but not the human flea. Everyone scratching yet?

DK  •  Link

Was John Evelyn a member of gentry or middle class?

cgs  •  Link

A proper Gent with many of interesting facets
see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John…
or google:
In my 'umble opinion, 'e was a gentleman and Scholar, a man of conscience, well educated, in the top 2% of pecking order, from an eminent family , whom in part made lots of money in production of explosives. Was A Royalist and spent time with Charles in Pari[s] when Charles was exiled.
To understand him, 'tis best to read his Diary edited by De Beers.

DK  •  Link

Yes, I read wiki and I'm reading his Diary but I still don't know if he was gentry? His family was rich and eminent but he wasn't Sir ( his grandson was) so can he be added to gentry? ( I'm not Englishwomen so I little lose myself in this problem)

cgs  •  Link

just a comment by a ne'er do well.
rough Family tree, firstborn that gets to live to adult age gets the title to the money, land, and the title too, gets introduction to the potential breeding stock.
The followers have to find solace in having the genes and wait for their turn at bat so see if no 1 does not get his head knocked off or if the he [first born] fails to produce heirs, other wise try and distinguish themselves in other endeavours , like trying for Bishop, Admiral, General failing that go in for the less favoured endeavers of dealing in money or trade [heaven forbid].
It was a game of odds, life had many ways of evening the playing field. There be many with titled genes, but most return to the plebeian state.

Evelyn was not first born of the the first born.
see

http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Titles were scarce to come by, but Charles II found title making was a good source of income and loyalty.

The seventh son of the seventh son of the seven son usually ends up emigrating and start a new family tree in new soil.

So by my limited knowledge JE by brains and genes was one of the privilege class, and never required official sanction to prove it.

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