Sunday 6 September 1668

(Lord’s day). Up betimes, and got myself ready to go by water, and about nine o’clock took boat with Henry Russell to Gravesend, coming thither about one, where, at the Ship, I dined; and thither come to me Mr. Hosier, whom I went to speak with, about several businesses of work that he is doing, and I would have him do, of writing work, for me. And I did go with him to his lodging, and there did see his wife, a pretty tolerable woman, and do find him upon an extraordinary good work of designing a method of keeping our Storekeeper’s Accounts, in the Navy. Here I should have met with Mr. Wilson, but he is sick, and could not come from Chatham to me. So, having done with Hosier, I took boat again the beginning of the flood, and come home by nine at night, with much pleasure, it being a fine day. Going down I spent reading of the “Five Sermons of Five Several Styles,” worth comparing one with another: but I do think, when all is done, that, contrary to the design of the book, the Presbyterian style and the Independent are the best of the five sermons to be preached in; this I do, by the best of my present judgment think, and coming back I spent reading of a book of warrants of our office in the first Dutch war, and do find that my letters and warrants and method will be found another gate’s —[?? D.W.]— business than this that the world so much adores, and I am glad for my own sake to find it so. My boy was with me, and read to me all day, and we sang a while together, and so home to supper a little, and so to bed.


16 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

ANOTHER GATE’S BUSINESS : different altogether (L&M Select Glossary

Jim  •  Link

In the Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900, Volume 63) William Holden Hutton (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wri… described the book by Abraham Wright > >

"Five Sermons,’ 1656; in the style respectively of Bishop Andrewes, Bishop Hall, Dr. Mayne, and Mr. Cartwright, the presbyterian way, and the independent way. These in his preface ‘to the Christian reader’ he declares to show ‘what a scholar may do more than a mere preacher, and that there is a vast difference between shop-board breeding and the Universities,’ and he disparages the ignorant preaching of the day."

Terry Foreman  •  Link

L&M say the sermons by Bps. Lancelot Andrews and Joseph Hall were genuine, the others parodies, thus making the point Jim quotes from DNB.

Chris Squire  •  Link

‘Gate n.2 Etym: < Old Norse gata, = modern German gasse lane, . .
. . III. Way, manner, method.
9. a. Way, manner, or method of doing or behaving; a peculiar habit. †at no gate: nowise. Obs.
β.
1793 R. Burns Let. Sept. (2003) II. 253 Ilka man wears his belt his ain gate.
1808 E. Hamilton Cottagers of Glenburnie xiii. 259 Aye, says she, we have new gaits now.

† aˈnother-gates, adj.
View as: Outline |Full entryQuotations: Show all |Hide all
Etymology: originally genitive case, ‘of another gate,’ i.e. of another way, manner, or fashion: see gate n.1 [sic]
Of another fashion or sort, of a different kind.
. . 1631 R. Sanderson 21 Serm. Ad Aul. i. (1673) 7 That, I ween, is another-gates matter.
1693 W. Robertson Phraseologia Generalis 891 'Tis another-gates matter, than to mock and slight me so.’ [OED]

Mary  •  Link

gate.

One still, very occasionally, hears the expression "anygate", meaning "anyway".

john  •  Link

Samuel seems to have little trouble reading (or at least, does not mention it). I would have thought reading to be more fatiguing than writing.

JWB  •  Link

Pretty tolerable nother-gate Sunday, Huckleberry.

JKM  •  Link

@john: from what he says at the end, I think he was reading audiobooks: i.e. his "boy" was reading aloud to him the whole time.

john  •  Link

Thank you, JKM, I missed that. Now I wonder how much his "boy" absorbed from this reading. This is not something I could see happening today.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This is not something I could see happening today."

John, what does "this" refer to here?

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...there did see his wife, a pretty tolerable woman,"

Hmmn...Now there's the way one wants to be remembered in His-(or Her-)story.

Heaven...

"Sam'l? Woman with battleaxe at the door, says she wants to see you?"

"What?!"

"Anyone on your list I should know about...?" Bess frowns.

cgs  •  Link

Gate/gait.?

john  •  Link

Terry, sorry for not being clear. I meant that I could not see asking a boy (or girl) nowadays to read out such a weighty tome. Granted he was a servant and had little choice but nevertheless.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

ANOTHER GATE’S BUSINESS : different altogether: ix.300; more commonly 'another gate's matter'; 'another-gates' (i.e. of another gait, fashion) 1594 (L&M Large Glossary)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The volume covering correspondence from November 1667 through September 1668, is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
PAGE 618 – 619

Sept. 6. 1668
Hugh Salesbury to Williamson.
Portsmouth

The Dragon and 2 others have been paid off with great satisfaction,
and 100 of the marines are to go to Bristol to bring about the Edgar,
5/. and upwards being stopped from each as a pledge until the work is performed.

The fleet has sailed from Cowes.

His Majesty intending to be at Portsmouth on Thursday,
I beg, if Lord Arlington comes with him, that I may be recommended to him, as being mayor of the town, I shall have to attend his Majesty on his arrival.
[S.P. Dom., Car. 11. 245, No. 187.]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... and coming back I spent reading of a book of warrants of our office in the first Dutch war, and do find that my letters and warrants and method will be found another gate’s business than this that the world so much adores, and I am glad for my own sake to find it so."

The "good old days" of the Commonwealth, when all the trains ran on time, and Oliver Cromwell was a much better administrator than Charles II, were much admired at this time. I'm guessing the Committeemen that Pepys has been dealing with for the last year have been leading him to believe his books were not up to those kept during the First Anglo-Dutch War.

We have heard in the past that every few months Pepys takes his files to the book binders to be hard bound ... sorry, can't find the references now ... and so he's borrowed a First Anglo-Dutch War one from storage to see how his compare. He is relieved to find his stand the comparison.

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