Saturday 11 August 1666

Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon home to dinner, where mighty pleased at my wife’s beginnings of a little Virgin’s head. To the office and did much business, and then to Mr. Colvill’s, and with him did come to an agreement about my 2600l. assignment on the Exchequer, which I had of Sir W. Warren; and, to my great joy, I think I shall get above 100l. by it, but I must leave it to be finished on Monday. Thence to the office, and there did the remainder of my business, and so home to supper and to bed. This afternoon I hear as if we had landed some men upon the Dutch coasts, but I believe it is but a foolery either in the report or the attempt.


16 Annotations

First Reading

Eric Walla  •  Link

Is this another virgin's head, or is it just getting better and better?

cape henry  •  Link

"Is this another virgin’s head..." I suspect it is the same one mentioned earlier. Amateurs such as Elizabeth would have likely worked from a charcoal cartoon, step by step, to the finished piece.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

I wonder if she's working from some master's work in which case more likely an Italian prostitute's head. Which no doubt would have its unique appeal to our hero...

Michael L  •  Link

"men upon the Dutch coasts"

Is this an early report of Holmes' Bonfire? I'm having trouble sorting out the dates for that with the 17th C. calendar confusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holm…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

“men upon the Dutch coasts”

Yes, this is Holmes 'bonfire' -- August 9 & 10 in the calendar.

*Spoiler* A detailed account reaches SP in London early on the 15th.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

“men upon the Dutch coasts”

William van De Velde the Elder, with the Younger
The burning of Dutch merchant ships between Terschelling and Vlieland, 19 August 1666
Dated on verso 1676
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk…
The elder van de Velde was present with the Dutch forces and, though a conventional areal perspective, presumably based on sketches made at the time.

Alternative link with an audio commentary by John Warner, former US Secretary of the Navy: http://www.vmfa.museum/rule/vande…

cgs  •  Link

"...This afternoon I hear as if we had landed some men upon the Dutch coasts, but I believe it is but a foolery either in the report or the attempt...."
Wiki report
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holm…

cgs  •  Link

An X-ray tells how many times the masters try and try again to get it to correspond to the expected result, practice makes perfect.

cgs  •  Link

A motto of the times : do not waste thy canvas, costs money use it again , [recycle] not like to-day, easy come, easy go.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

cgs on 12 Aug 2009 • Link • Flag

"...This afternoon I hear as if we had landed some men upon the Dutch coasts, but I believe it is but a foolery either in the report or the attempt...."
Wiki report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hol…'s_Bonfire

Nick Hedley  •  Link

During this second iteration of the diary, I am not sure that sufficient thanks and credit has been given to the regular and irregular annotators in this round; may I especially thank San Diego Sarah (do I detect a professional historian?) for her informative and knowledgeable comments, and especially her response to my query of yesterday, and of course Terry Foreman who has spanned both rounds and others I should no doubt mention. As a regular reader, but not a poster because all the comments I would like to make have already been made, I would like to say that your posts add an extra dimension to my daily Pepysian fix. Thank you.

Chris W  •  Link

As another daily reader, may I agree with all of Nick's comments, thank you to all the erudite posters who often clarify my confusions before I've even thought of them 😊

Mungo  •  Link

Yes. fully agree here to. I read every morning and benefit greatly from all the insightful comments.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

You made my day, Nick. The great thing about history is that you can become a "historian" just by being one. In about 1985 I realized I had WWI and WWII chronologies down, and most of the General Knowledge questions were covered, so the time had come to drill down on something. I picked Elizabeth Murray Tollemache Maitland, Countess of Dysart and Lauderdale who lived near my former home at Ham House, Middx. That required knowing the Stuart century. I lurked on this blog for 18 months before I offered any information, feeling totally intimidated. Now my curiosity has developed into being a researcher and content proofreader of 17th century historical novels. It's a job I made up! Someone's gotta do it.

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