Friday 6 November 1668
Up, and presently my wife up with me, which she professedly now do every day to dress me, that I may not see Willet, and do eye me, whether I cast my eye upon her, or no; and do keep me from going into the room where she is among the upholsters at work in our blue chamber. So abroad to White Hall by water, and so on for all this day as I have by mistake set down in the fifth day after this mark.1 In the room of which I should have said that I was at the office all the morning, and so to dinner, my wife with me, but so as I durst not look upon the girle, though, God knows, notwithstanding all my protestations I could not keep my mind from desiring it. After dinner to the office again, and there did some business, and then by coach to see Roger Pepys at his lodgings, next door to Arundell House, a barber’s; and there I did see a book, which my Lord Sandwich hath promised one to me of, “A Description of the Escuriall in Spain;” which I have a great desire to have, though I took it for a finer book when he promised it me. With him to see my cozen Turner and The., and there sat and talked, they being newly come out of the country; and here pretty merry, and with The. to shew her a coach at Mr. Povy’s man’s, she being in want of one, and so back again with her, and then home by coach, with my mind troubled and finding no content, my wife being still troubled, nor can be at peace while the girle is there, which I am troubled at on the other side. We past the evening together, and then to bed and slept ill, she being troubled and troubling me in the night with talk and complaints upon the old business.
This is the day’s work of the 5th, though it stands under the 6th, my mind being now so troubled that it is no wonder that I fall into this mistake more than ever I did in my life before.
13 Annotations
First Reading
Mary • Link
"my mind being now so troubled....."
Goodness, he really is in a state; diary records entered in the wrong order!
Robert Gertz • Link
"Periwig?"
"Secured..."
"Shirt...?"
"Deloused and secured..."
"Waistcoat...?"
"Battened down..."
"Coat..."
"Here..." "Bess...You have to follow the list...I can't see if all this is presentable..."
"Fine...Coat whatever you care to do with it..."
Sigh...
"Silver buttons..."
"Bit much..." "Bess...You promised..." "Right. Fastened..."
"Sword?...Bess, careful!..."
"Ooops...So sorry..."
"Sam'l!!...You forgot your pants!!"
Or maybe...He didn't forget... "Sam'l!!!!"
Clement • Link
"... my wife up with me, which she professedly now do every day to dress me..."
I was just posting this question when I saw Robert's vision of the scene, and it begs the same question.
Why does Sam require help getting dressed? It's not clear from the mid-late 17th C. fashion pages I've viewed online.
Is it arranging his wig that requires attention?
Terry Foreman • Link
Chapter MDCLXVIII, In which Clement asks a perfectly good question:
Why did Bertie Wooster need a Jeeves to help him dress upon rising?
(And, ask I: Why in England but in neither New England nor Australia?)
Tony Eldridge • Link
Prince Charles famously employs someone to put toothpaste on his brush for him and run his bath. I suppose in his case he has never needed to acquire these arcane skills but Sam must have managed alone in his poorer days.
djc • Link
It is the business of the wealthy man
To give employment to the artisan.
Hillare Belloc
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"my mind troubled and finding no content, my wife being still troubled, nor can be at peace while the girle is there, which I am troubled at on the other side. We past the evening together, and then to bed and slept ill, she being troubled and troubling me in the night with talk and complaints upon the old business."
L&M: Presumably their recent quarrel over Deb, but possibly their separation early in their married life (cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
JayW • Link
Recent comments in my newspaper about putting toothpaste on brush suggest that Prince Charles had hurt one arm playing polo which was why he couldn’t put his own toothpaste on his brush.
Stephane Chenard • Link
Aye, so what did happen on November 6 then? Were the entries just swapped and should we turn to that for November 5? Snap to it, man! We do know that on this Friday morning you were at the Treasury Board, where a minute [found at https://www.british-history.ac.uk…] records that "Mr. Pepys [was asked] to show how his business stands as to the 10,000L. he is to have of the Customs out of the Exchequer". And where was your mind while the question was asked, and maybe had to be asked again?
Why, something is distracting Mr. Pepys, who is now, uncharacteristically, fumbling with his papers. Old Albermarle, squirming from the dropsy in his Lord High Treasurer's chair at the head of the table, nods and thinks, "so you are now truly one of us, brother Pepys. Already senile".
Stephane Chenard • Link
Meanwhile, mylord Sandwich, and indirectly our Sam, cannot but be interested in this here State Paper, which closes the "Accounts of the Earl of Sandwich's expenses and receipts as Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain and Portugal, 1666-1668", after they were "examined by the Committee for Foreign Affairs, and allowed with certain reductions".
Earlier this year we had our own debates on what the damage might be, given the eye-popping cost of Court life on the one hand, and the gratuities which (if he behaves) an Ambassador can expect, on the other. Our friend the Venetian ambassador in London, for instance, has bemoaned the rapacious rent he has to pay for his rooms and the extravagant cost of everything in England, and from reports on him and other ambassadors of the time it seems a staff (or entourage) of about 40 people, including a bunch of other nobles used to the good life, is typical of a big Embassy (that would still be a mid-size European embassy as of 2021). On the happy side, recall the 4,000 doublons which Her Catholic majestie of Spain had granted Sandwich "for his maintenance" (see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…), and perhaps also the humongous wine licenses more recently signed off to French ambassador Colbert in London. All in all, we had opined that a warrant for £5,000 issued in February "for the entertainment of the Earl of Sandwich (...) and for other expenses in that embassy" (noted at https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…) was quite enough.
Well, oopsie. The final numbers (at https://books.google.fr/books?id=…, "Entry Book 30, f. 100" of Nov. 6) are "total receipts, 18,395L. 2s. 0d.; total expenses for ordinaries, 29,965L. 3s. 0d.; for extraordinaries, 7,574L. 18s. 3d", to a total negative balance of £19,144. No wonder cousin Sam was kindly asked for help make ends meet, but, oy nobles, did you think your titles were a free gift just because the king likes you?
But what about the Queen Regent's doublons then? We thought they converted into over £40k. Or were they totally off the books?
By coincidence, this afternoon the Treasury also went (at https://www.british-history.ac.uk…) over the budget for the Ambassador to Sweden, currently the coat-turning Earl of Carlisle, and warranted him £10 a day for ordinary (coffee, pencils, horsefeed, &c.), about the same per diem as Sandwich burned in Spain and so perhaps a standard rate (and about what most commoners make in a year, but that's for another day). The council, however, put off a request for wardrobe and jewels; presumably those would be the timid start of "extraordinaries".
john • Link
@Clement on dressing: Michaela (https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…) posted a link to a Youtube video on gentlewomen dressing. Here is a link on a Restoration era gentleman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E… . The gent dresses himself but one can imagine the help putting on coats and so on. (I cannot vouch for the accuracy but Prior Attire claims to have researched extensively.)
San Diego Sarah • Link
The volume of Domestic State Papers covering correspondence from Oct. 1668 to Dec. 1669 is at
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
@@@
November 6, 1668
Dublin
Sir George Carteret to the Navy Commissioners.
Ordered the Harp for Kinsale, but contrary winds prevented;
was forced to keep his chamber with a colic, or had looked after the wind better.
Can find nobody that will advance money to pay off the men, upon bills on Lord Anglesey, or any one else;
the credit must come from England, which if tey procure, Mr. Southwell of Kinsale will dispose of it according to directions.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 27.]
@@@
Nov. 6 1668.
Grant to Henry Bold, B.D.,
of the dignity of precentor of Exeter Cathedral, and of a canonry there,
void and in the King's gift by promotion of Dr. John Wilkins to the bishopric of Chester.
Minute. [S.P. Dom., Entry Book 19, p. 88.]
@@@
Nov. 6 1668.
Grant of denization to Hamme Salings, native of Holland.
Minute. [S.P. Dom., Entry Book 30, f. 87.]
@@@
Nov. 6 1668.
Grant of denization to Sipke Douwes, native of Holland.
Minute. [S.P. Dom., Entry Book 30, f. 87.]
@@@
Nov. 6 1668.
Accounts of the Earl of Sandwich's expenses and receipts as Ambassador Extraordinary to Spain
and Portugal, 1666-1668;
total receipts, 18,395/. 2s. Od.;
total expenses for ordinaries, 29,965/. 3s. Od.;
for extraordinaries, 7,574/. 18s. 3d.
With note that they were examined by the Committee for Foreign Affairs,
and allowed with certain reductions.
(S.P. Dom., Entry Book 30, f. 100.]
@@@
Nov. 6 1668.
Plymouth
John Clarke to Williamson.
A vessel from Malaga reports that Capt. Rooth, with his 2 frigates that lie before Sallee, has taken one of their men-of-war, and forced 2 or 3 more of them ashore;
50 ships have arrived outward bound,
18 or 20 of them being from Ireland and Wales,
and the rest from the eastward.
One of them, the Dartmouth frigate, is to convoy some ships to Tangier,
and then sail to the Canaries, to convoy home the Čanury fleet.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 249, No. 28.]
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... and then by coach to see Roger Pepys at his lodgings ..."
On Wednesday, 4 November ... before Pepys got confused ... he wrote:
"This day a boy is sent me out of the country from Impington by my cozen Roger Pepys’ getting, whom I visited this morning at his chamber in the Strand and carried him to Westminster Hall, where I took a turn or two with him and Sir John Talbot, ..."
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
In the past we'd know his name, whether or not he could sing, his disposition, etc. Nowadays Pepys is so focused on survival he's quite forgotten that his servants are his family.
Thanks to Phil and modern technology we know the boy was Jack, and he became Pepys footboy.
I suspect Jack may be today's reason for Pepys' visit to Roger Pepys MP's home presumably also near Arundal House.