Friday 31 May 1667

Up, and there came young Mrs. Daniel in the morning as I expected about business of her husband’s. I took her into the office to discourse with her about getting some employment for him … [And there I did put my hand to her belly, so as to make myself do, but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her. So parted and I – L&M] by water to White Hall to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the first time I ever was there and I think the second that they have met at the Treasury chamber there. Here I saw Duncomb look as big, and take as much state on him, as if he had been born a lord. I was in with him about Tangier, and at present received but little answer from them, they being in a cloud of business yet, but I doubt not but all will go well under them. Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he is told this day by Secretary Morris that he believes we are, and shall be, only fooled by the French; and that the Dutch are very high and insolent, and do look upon us as come over only to beg a peace; which troubles me very much, and I do fear it is true. Thence to Sir G. Carteret at his lodgings; who, I perceive, is mightily displeased with this new Treasury; and he hath reason, for it will eclipse him; and he tells me that my Lord Ashly says they understand nothing; and he says he believes the King do not intend they shall sit long. But I believe no such thing, but that the King will find such benefit by them as he will desire to have them continue, as we see he hath done, in the late new Act that was so much decried about the King; but yet the King hath since permitted it, and found good by it. He says, and I believe, that a great many persons at Court are angry at the rise of this Duncomb, whose father, he tells me, was a long-Parliamentman, and a great Committee-man; and this fellow used to carry his papers to Committees after him: he was a kind of an atturny: but for all this, I believe this man will be a great man, in spite of all. Thence I away to Holborne to Mr. Gawden, whom I met at Bernard’s Inn gate, and straight we together to the Navy Office, where we did all meet about some victualling business, and so home to dinner and to the office, where the weather so hot now-a-days that I cannot but sleep before I do any business, and in the evening home, and there, to my unexpected satisfaction, did get my intricate accounts of interest, which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l., for which the Lord of Heaven be praised!


16 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

“Up, and there came young Mrs. Daniel in the morning as I expected about business of her husband's. I took her into the office to discourse with her about getting some employment for him And there I did put my hand to her belly, so as to make myself do, but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her.”

Text from L&M

tg  •  Link

but she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her.

Oh those skinny girls! Poor Sam needs his women a little bigger for his larger desires.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Daniels?"

"Mr. Pepys, sir."

"About your wife..."

"Sir?"

"Lean, Daniels, lean. I should hope no more need be said."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Anyway so much for my hope that reform of the Treasury might be curbing Sam in other areas...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Here I met with Sir H. Cholmly, who tells me that he is told this day by Secretary Morris that he believes we are, and shall be, only fooled by the French; and that the Dutch are very high and insolent, and do look upon us as come over only to beg a peace; which troubles me very much, and I do fear it is true."

It is true, Sam and you are begging a peace. And I'd beg it...Quick.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l., for which the Lord of Heaven be praised!"

Heaven, today...

"Pepys!!! Pepys!!! You cheating little rascal!!"

"Sir George, how nice to see you finally...er you are here."

"Mrs. Pepys. My Lady Carteret said to tell you you have her sympathies. Pepys!!! Get out here!!!"

"What's he done now?" Bess, anxious look. Oh, no...Spies copy of diary.

Not another angry reader...He's just recovered from Mr. Knipp's horsewhipping.

"Sir George? How nice to..."

"You little...Mixed my moneys? Mixed? I knew I had a thousand pound shortfall in May '67. You little thief!"

"Sir George...My Sam'l is many things...Many awful, lousy, slimy, unmentionable things...Things so low..."

"We get the picture, Bess..." Sam frowns.

"...But not a thief."

"Tell that to Tom Povy! Pepys, you owe me 1000Ls as of May 30, 1667 and with interest..."

"Sir George, this is Heaven...Where money counts for naught."

"Tis the principle, madam...The sacred principle."

"Of honesty?...In the Stuart administration?"

"No...Of a senior administrator famed for his shrewdness being taken by a junior administrator."

"Sir George, I am sure if you will examine the accounts, you will see they are right and true."

"I shall take the books..." Takes books offered. "My wife will need to go over them. She was the financial brains in the family...A mathematical wizard par excellence..."

"Really?" Sam blinks. "I never knew that."

"Of course not, you damned little fool. I was never so damned foolish as to write things like that into a diary."

"George?"

"My dear?" "My Lady..." Sam and Bess, bow and curtsy, respectively.

"I think I curtsy, you bow, Sam'l."

"Really...Been so long, I'd quite forgot."

"Are you bothering poor Pepys about that 1000Ls? George, you know damned well you had me lose 20000Ls of state money into our private accounts in that year alone."

Ummn...

"Damned principle of the thing, dear..."

"Well if Charlie Stuart doesn't have a problem with you, you let poor Mr. Pepys off."

"Just a mo..."Bess fumes a bit. "Sam'l has sworn he'd not taken that money. And we are prepared to undergo a full accounting."

"Really...?" Beam... "I've not done books in 350 years, I'd be happy to."

We are prepared to undergo a full accounting...? Bess hisses hopefully to Sam as Lady Carteret happily takes up the books.

"Yes...Of course..."Forthrightly.

Povy, another matter...hiss back.

"Very well. I'll leave it to you, medear." Sir George nodding to Sam and Bess. "Principle of the thing, you know."

cum salis grano  •  Link

friends and foes who be they?
The Portuguese are fed up with the Spanish playing tidlewinks in the Arguarve , the French are vacationing some troops to dissuade the Spanish from enjoying the corks required for oh Port and Sherry [Juarez] , The English are trying diplomacy in Iberia and placating The Portuguese English Queen, The Spanish want back the nether lands, the French want to be influential in low countries and Charles wants money from the Sun king, stop the Dutch from trading in spice and guineas, also wants the Spanish treasure from Peru.
Oh what a diplomatic mess.

Ruben  •  Link

"oh Port and Sherry [Juarez]"
May I presume that Jerez becomes Juarez when salted?

Don McCahill  •  Link

> he was a kind of an atturny

Wow, that's a slam. "Why, he is no better than a lawyer."

:)

Mr. Gunning  •  Link

...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the late new Act"

The Act for an Additional Aid of £1 1/4 m. (17 Car. II c.i passed on 31 October) would be “a new venture in English public finance” (L&M) in which bills would be paid by the Exchequer on credit, bypassing the Treasury, denying Carteret his poundage and other profits. SPOILER - On 31 Oct. we will see Pepys’s scapticism of financing on credit (a concern he will share with Carteret and the bankers); but the scheme is a success. (L&M note 6 November 16
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He says, and I believe, that a great many persons at Court are angry at the rise of this Duncomb, whose father, he tells me, was a long-Parliamentman, and a great Committee-man;"

L&M say Cartaret was misinformed : Duncombe's father, Sir Edward (of Battlesden, Bed.) had died in 1638, before the Long Parliament was summoned and Duncombe himself had been in France throughout most of the Interregnum. The Duncombes were a many-branched family and possibly the mistake was due to confusion with, e.g., Robert Duncombe of Suffolk whose name often appears in the lists of committeemen for his county in the 1650s.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I was in with him about Tangier, and at present received but little answer from them"

L&M: The Treasury minute runs: Mr. Pepys to be speedily considered for 30,000l. for Tangiers (CTB, ii. 3).

Terry Foreman  •  Link

""...which have been of late much perplexed by mixing of some moneys of Sir G. Carteret’s with mine, evened and set right: and so late to supper, and with great quiet to bed; finding by the balance of my account that I am creditor 6900l.,"

L&M: 'Private Accompt made up May.31.1667': Rawl. A 185. ff. 17-27; an abstract (with rough notes and some later items added), in Pepys's hand. The exact amount of his credit was £6948 12s. 0d.

john  •  Link

"he was a kind of an atturny" was not necessarily a slur.

attorney, n.1

1. One appointed or ordained to act for another; an agent, deputy, commissioner. In later times only fig. and perhaps with conscious reference to sense 2. Obs.

1347 Ord. R. Househ. 9 Clerkes, attorneys of the Victualles in sondry shiers.    c 1430 Lydg. Bochas viii. vi. (1554) 181 a, From occupacion hys rest for to take Hys attorney Maximian he doth make.    c 1440 Promp. Parv., Atturneye, suffectus, attornatus.    1590 Shakes. Com. Err. v. i. 100, I will attend my husband‥for it is my Office, And will haue no atturney but my selfe.    1642 Rogers Naaman 382 His Minister, whom he hath made his Attorney to receiue our acknowledgement.

OED

Terry Foreman  •  Link

More context from Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, v. i. 100.

ADRIANA

I will attend my husband, be his nurse,
Diet his sickness, for it is my office
100And will have no attorney but myself;
And therefore let me have him home with me.

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