Saturday 30 January 1668/69

Lay long in bed, it being a fast-day for the murder of the late King; and so up and to church, where Dr. Hicks made a dull sermon; and so home, and there I find W. Batelier and Balty, and they dined with us, and I spent all the afternoon with my wife and W. Batelier talking, and then making them read, and particularly made an end of Mr. Boyle’s Book of Formes, which I am glad to have over, and then fell to read a French discourse, which he hath brought over with him for me, to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation, which it do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years, if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy, and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun. At night to supper, and after supper, and W. Batelier gone, my wife begun another book I lately bought, called “The State of England,” which promises well, and is worth reading, and so after a while to bed.


11 Annotations

First Reading

ticea  •  Link

If I'm reading this correctly, Sam and his friends haven't keeping the fast for Charlie I...

Carl in Boston  •  Link

the late King, Charles I, of glorious memory, is a saint in the Episcopal Church.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"a French discourse, which he hath brought over with him for me, to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation"

L&M suggest this may have been either *Le commerce honorable, ou, Considerations politiques : contenant les motifs de necessite , d'honneur, & de profit, qui se treuvent a former des compagnies de personnes de toutes conditions pour l'entretien du negoce de mer en France.* Mathias de Saint-Jean, Père. (Nantes : Par Guillaume le Monnier, 1646).
http://www.worldcat.org/title/com…

or

*Relation de l'établissement de la Compagnie Française pour le commerce des Indes Orientales* François Charpentier (Paris: Sébastien Cramoisy & Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1666)
http://www.e-corpus.org/eng/notic…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Fast Day

Possibly meant not eating meat - and Sam doesn't say exactly what he ate.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation, which it do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years, if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy, and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun."

"The French East India Company (French: La Compagnie française des Indes orientales or Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales) was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies in colonial India.

Planned by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, it was chartered by King Louis XIV for the purpose of trading in the Eastern Hemisphere. It resulted from the fusion of three earlier companies, the 1660 Compagnie de Chine, the Compagnie d'Orient and Compagnie de Madagascar." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fren…

Jesse  •  Link

more: Fast Day

This may have been covered before but Wikipedia has it (under Fasting) "Individual Anglicans are free to determine for themselves what particular measures of abstinence they will follow in the observance of these days". My guess is that it was not much different back then.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation, which it do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years, if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy, and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun."

Pepys is right: Colbert's efforts to turn the energies of France toward maritime efforts were now at their height. In 1673-8 Pepys, as Secretary of the Admiralty, was to be more concerned about this than any other issue. (L&M note)

The First French Colonial Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fre…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation, which it do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years, if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy, and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun."

An excellent article about the French school for navigation. This accounts for Pepys and former Secretary of State Sir Joseph Williamson later on starting similar schools.

https://aeon.co/essays/how-europe…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

""to invite the people of France to apply themselves to Navigation, which it do very well, and is certainly their interest, and what will undo us in a few years, if the King of France goes on to fit up his Navy, and encrease it and his trade, as he hath begun.""

L&M: Colbert's efforts to turn the energies of France towards maritime achievements were now at their height. In 1673-8 Pepys, as Secretary to the Admiralty, was to be more concerned about this than about any other issue.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"ticea: If I'm reading this correctly, Sam and his friends haven't keeping the fast for Charlie I..."

Pepys went to church on a Saturday ... that's unusual.

He didn't go to work ... that's unusual. But a Fast Day is also a holiday for the clerks and cook and maids. And there were no manditory summonses to Committee hearings.

We have no idea what they ate, but it would have been something simple like cold cuts and leftovers rather than their usual fare.

What more does Ticia want? There was no "fast police" enforcing Court-ordered self-denial, with the army breaking down the doors to check on adherance. This wasn't Puritan England in the 1640s.
I'm sure Charles II and the Court ate as well as usual, but not with the complexity they usually enjoyed. They always "wasted" a lot, because that was served to the staff of hundreds downstairs. Therefore excess was not waste.

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