Wednesday 8 August 1666
Up, and with Reeves walk as far as the Temple, doing some business in my way at my bookseller’s and elsewhere, and there parted, and I took coach, having first discoursed with Mr. Hooke a little, whom we met in the streete, about the nature of sounds, and he did make me understand the nature of musicall sounds made by strings, mighty prettily; and told me that having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings (those flies that hum in their flying) by the note that it answers to in musique during their flying. That, I suppose, is a little too much refined; but his discourse in general of sound was mighty fine.
There I left them, and myself by coach to St. James’s, where we attended with the rest of my fellows on the Duke, whom I found with two or three patches upon his nose and about his right eye, which come from his being struck with the bough of a tree the other day in his hunting; and it is a wonder it did not strike out his eye. After we had done our business with him, which is now but little, the want of money being such as leaves us little to do but to answer complaints of the want thereof, and nothing to offer to the Duke, the representing of our want of money being now become uselesse, I into the Park, and there I met with Mrs. Burroughs by appointment, and did agree (after discoursing of some business of her’s) for her to meet me at New Exchange, while I by coach to my Lord Treasurer’s, and then called at the New Exchange, and thence carried her by water to Parliament stayres, and I to the Exchequer about my Tangier quarter tallys, and that done I took coach and to the west door of the Abby, where she come to me, and I with her by coach to Lissen-greene where we were last, and staid an hour or two before dinner could be got for us, I in the meantime having much pleasure with her, but all honest. And by and by dinner come up, and then to my sport again, but still honest; and then took coach and up and down in the country toward Acton, and then toward Chelsy, and so to Westminster, and there set her down where I took her up, with mighty pleasure in her company, and so I by coach home, and thence to Bow, with all the haste I could, to my Lady Pooly’s, where my wife was with Mr. Batelier and his sisters, and there I found a noble supper, and every thing exceeding pleasant, and their mother, Mrs. Batelier, a fine woman, but mighty passionate upon sudden news brought her of the loss of a dog borrowed of the Duke of Albemarle’s son to line a bitch of hers that is very pretty, but the dog was by and by found, and so all well again, their company mighty innocent and pleasant, we having never been here before. About ten o’clock we rose from table, and sang a song, and so home in two coaches (Mr. Batelier and his sister Mary and my wife and I in one, and Mercer alone in the other); and after being examined at Allgate, whether we were husbands and wives, home, and being there come, and sent away Mr. Batelier and his sister, I find Reeves there, it being a mighty fine bright night, and so upon my leads, though very sleepy, till one in the morning, looking on the moon and Jupiter, with this twelve-foote glasse and another of six foote, that he hath brought with him to-night, and the sights mighty pleasant, and one of the glasses I will buy, it being very usefull.
So to bed mighty sleepy, but with much pleasure. Reeves lying at my house again; and mighty proud I am (and ought to be thankfull to God Almighty) that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.
33 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online
Aug. 8th. 1666. Ld Sandwich Letter. they were Read & commanded to the perusall of mr Hooke.
(Heuelius [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heve… ] his books of comets & mantissa.
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign… ] orderd. -- that the Pt. Sr P Neil. Dr. Wallis Dr. Goddard Dr. Wren Dr. Pope & mr Hooke should be desired to pervse & consider of this Booke and to bring in a Report to this Society, the Authour hauing altogether Referred & submitted these his Obseruations & Discourses to
their Iudgements. the booke was committed to the care of mr Hooke.
there was also read a Letter written from Paris Iuly. 16. 1666. by monr. Auzout to the society thanking them for the Honor of Receiuing him into their body. It was orderd that the Secr: should let him know that his Respect was kindly
Receiued.
Mr. Hooke exhibited his Obseruations of the comet in the End of 1664 intimating that he Intended to publish them very shortly.
The same produced a certaine contriuance to shew that the Circular pendulum was made of two streight Lines crossing one another. Dr. Goddard suggested that the wire mouing in a streight Line, and pretended to keep aequall time wth. the circular pendulum should moue vpon two points as the other did vpon 4. to be vpon aequall termes. -
The Pt. Reported that the expt. mentiond somewhile since mentioned by mr. Pouey of a new way of Laying on Colours, had been made this morning by mr streater at his house before himself Sr R Moray mr Slingsby, mr. Pouey. Dr. Charlton mr Hooke & mr Oldenburg. vizt that an egg was beaten yolk & white together with a few shreadings of a figtree branch, whereby the egge was Reduced into an oyly substance without any tenacity or Ropinese, soe that it would be ductile & follow the pencill. like oyle hauing further this quality, that being mixed with any Colour it would loose its own in it, and make a picture without any glazing however posited against the light, whereof an Example had been seen in mr. Poueys house, besides that whereas wth oyle makes all colours yellow in time & size washes off. this liquor will not suffer the colours to turn yellow nor easily wash off, if it were kept 2 or 3 months wthin doors to contract some hardnesse. It was added that any thing of a fig tree, the iuice, a sprig, the Leaues, or the shriddings of a branch would produce this effect at any time of the year. Dr. merret suggested that it might be tryed whether other Lactiscent plants especially Acrimonious ones would not perform the same thing, It being probable that by the corruption of the Iuice of the fig tree the fibres of the egge were destroyed, and the liquor that was tenacious before made Ductile after. The same mentiond that he had Lately suggested to a printer a way of Purifying Oyle deliuerd by Senertus vizt by percolating it though sand and that it succeeded well. such oyle quickly grows Rancid.
There was produced a box of seuerall stones & mine ralls prsented by S R Moray for Repository & Reduced into order by mr Hooke.
some Expts. were made to produce cold wth. seuerall salts. mr Hook affirmed that he had found white salt vitrioll & Alum had not any sensible virtue to Refrigerate, Sandeuer & pottashes being tryed befor the Company it was
found 1st. that the spt. of wine, in the Thermometer, standing at 1/4 below 1. descended after the throwing in of 1/4 pound of Sandiuer to the water 1 degr: /in/ about 5 minutes. 2ly that the spt. standing at 3 1/2 quarters below 1 did after the throwing in of 1/4 pound potashes into 1/4 of water, rise aboue . . 3/4 of a degree in 4 minutes.
At the next meeting mr Hooke was ordered to prosecute the circular pendulum as also to show his new watch affirmed by him, to be more exact then any pendulum watch & to produce some water neuts for the Expt. appointed formerly -
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
Terry Foreman • Link
"discoursed with Mr. Hooke a little...about the nature of sounds"
"Whispering Gallery:
did Hooke influence the design of The Whispering Gallery at St. Paul's cathedral? Hooke had already applied sound amplification methods in building construction at Montague House, and had already invented a hearing trumpet. He was greatly aware of the nature of sound and that sound-frequency was caused by beats or pulses." http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/m…
cgs • Link
Home land security 17C style.
"...and after being examined at Allgate, whether we were husbands and wives,..."
"Why, wot,ware ????"
Decent folks go traipsing in the wilds of Essex.
cgs • Link
Errata. lost the negative "do not"
JWB • Link
For R.C.Allen's (Prof. Econ. Hist., Oxford) 30p essay on underpinnings of the industrial revolution, which I think many of Pepys's readers will find interesting, goto:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cac…
Mr. Gunning • Link
“and after being examined at Allgate, whether we were husbands and wives”
Can anyone explain this please? What law was being upheld here?
I'm sorry cgs but I find your entries a little difficult to follow sometimes...as entertaining as they often are though :)
Mary • Link
"but all honest .... but still honest"
As opposed to criminal conversation.
Robin Peters • Link
"he did make me understand the nature of musicall sounds made by strings, mighty prettily; and told me that having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings (those flies that hum in their flying) by the note that it answers to in musique during their flying."
I once heard of a motorist who, when accused of speeding, said he was a musician with perfect pitch and knew from the note of his engine that he could not have been speeding. Don't think he got away with it.
Michael Robinson • Link
JWB, thanks for the article by Allen, I found it fascinating and am mulling over still -- at times I forget that SP is, with others, developing the systems necessary to supply, finance and administer the largest, by several orders of magnitude, technological and industrial enterprise of the day, the dockyards.
GrahamT • Link
"and told me that having come to a certain number of vibrations proper to make any tone, he is able to tell how many strokes a fly makes with her wings"
I believe he could if he knew the frequency (number of vibrations proper) of the string, but how did he measure the frequency of the string in the first place?
I couldn't understand this so I investigated.
Apparently Hooke came up with a novel method in 1672, but he must have used the 1648 method of Mersenne at this time. This required a string long enough to be able to count the vibrations (so several seconds per vibration) then shortening the string (by fingering like with a violin/guitar) until the tone matched the one to be measured. The ratio of the shortened string to the original is then the same as the ratio of the high frequency to the lower counted frequency.
Hooke must have realised just how clumsy and inaccurate this method was as he invented a much neater way.
ONeville • Link
"and then took coach and up and down in the country toward Acton, and then toward Chelsy."
In 1693 he was also taking a coach towards Chelsea (another honest mission) when he was stopped by highwaymen (a dishonest pair) who were subsequently hanged.
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/br…
Has anyone seen this before?
cgs • Link
"I’m sorry cgs but I find your entries a little difficult to follow sometimes"
At this Time there were town gates with night watchmen for the protection of the towns folk from being slain in their beds,not unlike modern times, enclosures of protected estates of the rich and famous and as I read today Southampton is going have private security patrolling for the prevention of cosher's coshing.
The circle doth rotate.
Here from Sam's fun and games in Portsmouth April 29 '62
" So I appointed one to watch when the gates of the town were ready to be shut, and to give us notice; and so the Doctor and I staid with them playing and laughing, and at last were forced to bid good night for fear of being locked into the town all night."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
JWB, thanks indeed for the challenging, rewarding article by Allen.
To chase down a detail in Allen I googled "stwyfer" (page 11), which yielded the PDF version whose tables and color figures are readable.
http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/user…
I too am "mulling" it. My only "wonder" so far is that he seems to think "the interplay between science and technology" must be face-to-face, failing to consider what might have been spurred by the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, which, as early as April 3 1665, included discussions and plates of practical machines. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28…
Michael Robinson makes a nice point about Pepys's contribution to the management of the dockyards in England. The dockyards as he found them are already launching-platforms for the nascent imperial trade that will drive the industrial revolution if Allen is correct (as I read him).
Terry Foreman • Link
Interesting that Allen compares the mines at Liege to those at Newcastle that became relatively much more efficient. The July 3. 1665 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society contains "An Account, how Adits & Mines are wrought at Liege without Air-shafts", communicated by Sir Robert Moray.
No quarrel with Allen, but this is good example of the service for which King Charles II had chartered the Royal Society. ;-)
Ruben • Link
An interesting day indeed for the readers of this annotations! thank you all.
cgs • Link
for crime and Safety 17C:Google Master-less men and Constables and the Night Watch
lifted from the Old Baily
Constables were required to apprehend anyone accused of a felony, and bring them before a justice of the peace. They also had a general responsibility to keep the peace, but there was no expectation that they should investigate or prosecute crimes. Night watchmen patrolled the streets between 9 or 10 pm until sunrise, and were expected to examine all suspicious characters. In the City of London, daytime patrols were conducted by the City Marshall and the beadles. Like the night watch, their primary responsibilities were to apprehend minor offenders and to act as a deterrent against more serious offences.
As for the Gates in the walls of London they became more of a nuisance than a benefit to the populace as it was hindering the fast moving changes, not unlike the Customs check, 50 years ago it would take an hour or more ,thus creating havoc now they must be wanded thru as quickly as possible [monies talk].
Bryan M • Link
“but all honest …. but still honest”
From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
honest
c.1300, "respectable, decent, of neat appearance," also "free from fraud," from O.Fr. honeste (12c.), from L. honestus "honorable, respected," from honos (see honor). Main modern sense of "dealing fairly, truthful" is c.1400, as is sense of "virtuous." Phrase to make an honest woman of "marry a woman after seduction" is from 1629.
Robert Gertz • Link
Mrs. Burroughs...
Desperate widow...Horny, selfish COA...Bad situation, however "honest".
***
The bevy of Bettys grows.
Australian Susan • Link
Night Watch
Dogberry and Verges
Sgt Colon and Cpl Nobbs
Parody only works when based on the truth.....
How on earth did they make people prove they were husbands and wives??!
I have had all kinds of D & V and C & N dialogues running through my mind!
Robert Gertz • Link
"Mr. Pepys...With another 'wife'."
"Is St. Peter being funny?" Bess fumes to Sam as they stand at the pearly gates, she bearing his signed provisional release from Purgatory, on wife's recognizance.
A. De Araujo • Link
"but all honest"
Was adultery considered a crime then?In the USA,in some States,e.g.South Carolina,it is ,although it is not prosecuted.
cgs • Link
"...Was adultery considered a crime ..."
It was not a listed civil crime.
Sexual crimes civil
* Assault with Intent to Rape
* Assault with Sodomitical Intent
* Bigamy
* Keeping a Brothel and Procuring
* Indecent Assault
* Rape
* Sodomy
* Miscellaneous
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/st…
cgs • Link
Adulterer :Violator of the marriage bed
OED
[a. OFr. avouterie, avoutrie, earlier aöuterie, aülterie, n. of condition f. avoutre, aöutre:{em}L. adulter, see -Y; found alongside of avoutire, earlier aöutire, aültere:{em}L. adult{emac}rium, occas. also in Eng. as avowter. In 14th c. Fr. a learned form adultère was formed afresh on L. adulterium, and gradually superseded the popular avoutire and avouterie; under the same influence the Eng. avoutrie was progressively refashioned as advoutrie or aduoutrie, aduoultrie, adoultry, adultry, adultery, thus ending in a direct Eng. repr. of adulterium, and practically a distinct word from avoutrie, though connected with it by every kind of intermediate form. This latinized type had also been used by Scotch and northern writers as early as 1430.
Advowtry survived to 1688.]
adultery
1. Violation of the marriage bed; the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex, whether unmarried, or married to another (the former case being technically designated single, the latter double adultery)
1366 MANDEVILLE 249 {Ygh}if ony man or woman be taken in Avowtery or Fornycacyoun, anon thei sleen him..
......
1641 W. CARTWRIGHT Ordinary IV. v. (1651) 75 There shall be no Advowtry in my ward.
1648 HERRICK To his Book Wks. 1859, 409 She'l runne to all adulteries.
1660 R. COKE Elem. Power & Subj. 194 Deadly sin, of Fornication, Avowtry, and such like.
1677 BAXTER Let. in Answ. Dodwell 114, I heard, when I was young, of one, or two, that for Adultery stood in a White Sheet in the Church.
....
2. Adulteration, debasement, corruption. Obs.
1609 B. JONSON Epicene I. i, Such sweet neglect more taketh me, Than all th' Adulteries of Art. 1673 Lady's Calling II. iii. §20. 92 Nor must she think to cure this by any the little adulteries of art: she may buy beauty, and yet can never make it her own.
1688 Pol. Ballads (1860) I. 265
As long as you've pence,
y' need scruple no offence,
For murder, advoutery, treason.
Australian Susan • Link
If a wife was having it away with another man, the husband would probably regard it as a property theft or violation - wives being still regarded in that century as little better than chattels. After all, rape in marriage was not recognised for centuries after this: a husband can do what he likes with the goods he's purchased.
The husbands of the wives Sam fondles and touches don't seem to object too much, but I think that's a class thing or hope for advancement or other advantages. As we have discussed before - Sam never tries it on with women who are his social equals, let alone superiors.
Glyn • Link
I think he means honest to his wife rather than honest to any law except his marriage vow, i.e. he didn't have sexual relations with this woman. Best not to discuss it with Mrs Pepys though.
The gatehouse at Aldgate was once the office of Geoffrey Chaucer, who was almost as far from Pepys as he is from us.
cgs • Link
"If a wife was having it away with another man, the husband would probably regard it as a property theft or violation"
Mr Palmer agreed to compensation to having a title for the use of the marriage bed.
Thus Castlemaine.
cgs • Link
Was this by permission of Elizabeth "...I am able to have a spare bed for my friends...."
The indoor dog house?
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Methinks GrahamT's analysis of Hooke's venture to calculate wing-stroke frequency is about right; http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
L&M cite this article: Nature 170, 1057 - 1058 (20 December 1952);
Flight-Tone and Wing-Stroke Frequency of Insects and the Dynamics of Insect Flight - OLAVI SOTAVALTA http://www.nature.com/nature/jour…
You don't have to be a subscriber to read Sotavolta's 1953 report on "RECORDINGS OF HIGH WING-STROKE AND THORACIC VIBRATION FREQUENCY IN SOME MIDGES"
http://www.biolbull.org/content/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
The Night Watch (De Nachtwacht), Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The…
San Diego Sarah • Link
In Terry's Royal Society report, what does Pt. stand for? The President?
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and so home in two coaches (Mr. Batelier and his sister Mary and my wife and I in one, and Mercer alone in the other); ..."
No mention of Mercer at dinner. Was she included in the party, or did she socialize with the servants? Either way it was uncomfortable for her.
I'm guessing one coach was Pepys', and one was Mr. Batelier's. Going to Lady Pooly's outside the walls means she probably lived in a more country setting so the coachmen had to wait. Presumably Elizabeth and Mercer went to Lady Pooley's with the Bateliers earlier. That could mean there were as many as six people in their coach that afternoon.
Now the toffs go home in one coach and Mercer's alone in the other. Nice to be able to joke around without the servants listening!
I suppose mother Suzanna and daughter Susan stayed at the Pooley's. Logistics like this fascinate me as they show the pecking order in action.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... the want of money being such as leaves us little to do but to answer complaints of the want thereof, and nothing to offer to the Duke, the representing of our want of money being now become useless, ..."
Then off to see Southampton, and does the quarterly Tangier tally at the Exchequer. This must have reminded Pepys of when he was starting out, with no money and many people asking to be paid. Turning in the accounts and tallies was a formality so when the money arrives, Tangier (hopefully) will not be overlooked.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"There I left them, and myself by coach to St. James’s, where we attended with the rest of my fellows on the Duke, whom I found with two or three patches upon his nose and about his right eye, which come from his being struck with the bough of a tree the other day in his hunting; and it is a wonder it did not strike out his eye."
What did they use to stick patches on their faces?