Monday 2 January 1659/60

In the morning before I went forth old East brought me a dozen of bottles of sack, and I gave him a shilling for his pains.

Then I went to Mr. Sheply who was drawing of sack in the wine cellar to send to other places as a gift from my Lord,1 and told me that my Lord had given him order to give me the dozen of bottles.

Thence I went to the Temple to speak with Mr. Calthropp about the 60l. due to my Lord, but missed of him, he being abroad. Then I went to Mr. Crew’s and borrowed 10l. of Mr. Andrewes for my own use, and so went to my office, where there was nothing to do. Then I walked a great while in Westminster Hall, where I heard that Lambert was coming up to London; that my Lord Fairfax was in the head of the Irish brigade, but it was not certain what he would declare for. The House was to-day upon finishing the act for the Council of State, which they did; and for the indemnity to the soldiers; and were to sit again thereupon in the afternoon. Great talk that many places have declared for a free Parliament; and it is believed that they will be forced to fill up the House with the old members. From the Hall I called at home, and so went to Mr. Crew’s (my wife she was to go to her father’s), thinking to have dined, but I came too late, so Mr. Moore and I and another gentleman went out and drank a cup of ale together in the new market, and there I eat some bread and cheese for my dinner. After that Mr. Moore and I went as far as Fleet-street together and parted, he going into the City, I to find Mr. Calthrop, but failed again of finding him, so returned to Mr. Crew’s again, and from thence went along with Mrs. Jemimah home, and there she taught me how to play at cribbage. Then I went home, and finding my wife gone to see Mrs. Hunt, I went to Will’s, and there sat with Mr. Ashwell talking and singing till nine o’clock, and so home, there, having not eaten anything but bread and cheese, my wife cut me a slice of brawn which I received from my Lady; which proves as good as ever I had any. So to bed, and my wife had a very bad night of it through wind and cold.

40 Annotations

First Reading

Phil  •  Link

"Sack" is...
"the name used in the sixteenth century during the reign of Elizabeth I for sherry or other fortified wines from malaga or the Canary Islands. Such wines were known as Malaga Sack and Canary Sack. The word comes from the Spanish sacar, meaning ‘to take out’ or ‘to export.’”

Source: http://eat.epicurious.com/diction…

David Gurliacci  •  Link

CRIBBAGE --

The first known reference to this card game is from 1630. Players keep score on a cribbage board by moving pegs around tiny holes.

The game is "not difficult to pick up but can take some time to play well" and is popular around the world, according to this website:
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games…

David Gurliacci  •  Link

BRAWN --
(1) "cooked boar's flesh."

(2) It can also mean "headcheese" which is "a loaf of jellied, seasoned meat, made from parts of the head and feet of hogs."

(No more disgusting than hot dogs or spam. Mmmmmmmmm!)

David Gurliacci  •  Link

Oops!

Didn't see the first "trackback" below before I posted the "brawn" definitions. Looks like Burnt Toast already had the definition, and an even better description.

She also had the same reaction: "Mmm"

Eunice Muir  •  Link

It is fascinating to read how people got in touch with each other prior to the telephone. Mr. Pepys seems to have spent a lot of his day walking to and from the homes and offices of people he needed to see. They also seem to have had far more personal contact than we have today.

PHE  •  Link

Communication: It is cetainly fascinating to see how business was carried out relatively efficiently without our modern means of communication. As is seen later in the diary, messangers were used regularly, sometimes several times a day to pass news and messages around London and to arrange meetings. Verbal communication was also the principal means of keeping abreast of the news, so that personal meetings, conversation, and stopping to chat to people was a common and important part of day-to-day life - and pressumably much more sociable than today.

language hat  •  Link

Anybody know what "the new market" was? Was it Covent Garden, which "began in 1656 as a few vegetable stalls in the middle a residential piazza designed by Inigo Jones for the Duke of Bedford" (from http://www.londonmuseum.on.ca/Art… )?

PHE  •  Link

"and so went to my office, where there was nothing to do" What a briliant line! How many of us wish this could happen to us?

Martin  •  Link

This is a great idea! I found myself wondering just what the city and it's inhabitants looked like in the 17th Century.

After some googling I came across what I was looking for. This site has images and information on the city of London and on what people wore in that era.

The url shows fashions of the 17th Century, then follow the link "17th Century London" to see images of London and read info about it.

http://www.ferdinando.org.uk/17th…

M. Stolzenbach  •  Link

Interesting - I'd always heard that "sack" was a "dry" wine, from French sec, Spanish seco. (And that's what my Webster's thinks)

I'm betting that the "wind" Mrs. Pepys suffered from was not coming through the window, but was internal; that she had, er, gas.

peter2168  •  Link

This is the first time I have encountered this site and I must say, I love it.

Came to it through an NPR interview in the U.S.

language hat  •  Link

M. Stolzenbach:
"Sack" (earlier "wyne seck") is indeed from "sec" (dry), but it has never referred to a dry wine. Etymology usually doesn't have much to do with current meaning. A comparable example from the wine world is "claret," which etymologically means 'clear (i.e., light red) wine' but refers to Bordeaux, which is not like that at all. If you're curious, the OED has a long historical discussion at the start of its entry (sack sb 3).

Graham  •  Link

More brawn than brains

My father was partial to brawn which was a frequent visitor to our fridge. As mentioned in other postings this consisted of shredded pork in a meat jelly and was particularly good on toast.

I recently spent some time in Finland where I discovered the local supermarket also stocked this "delicacy". Unfortunately this appeared to be more jelly than pork so I forwent the pleasure of reliving this particular childhood experience.

Martyn  •  Link

The reference to Lord Fairfax as being the 3rd Baron of that name is incorrect. He was a Scottish Lord and as such was not a baron but the 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Baron in Scotland is a feudal title which may be acquired by buying land that holds the title.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Then I went to Mr. Sheply who was drawing of sack in the wine cellar to send to other places as a gift from my Lord,1 and told me that my Lord had given him order to give me the dozen of bottles."

In 1660 Christmas gifts to your family, friends, equals and betters were given at New Years. Christmas "boxes" were given to your servants and apprentices on the day after Christmas (hence the name, Boxing Day). So Mr. Sheply is measuring into bottles the New Year's gifts of sack (sherry or fortified wine from Malaga or the Canary Islands), and "old East" is delivering the gifts.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Cribbage was a relatively new game: Sir John Suckling ... also ‘invented the game of cribbage’, as all the circumstantial evidence affirms and none contradicts.

For more information see: Tom Clayton, ‘Suckling, Sir John (bap. 1609, d. 1641?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/art…, accessed 6 April 2014]

Terry Foreman  •  Link

According to John Aubrey, cribbage was created by the English poet Sir John Suckling in the early 17th century, as a derivation of the game "noddy." While noddy has disappeared, crib has survived, virtually unchanged, as one of the most popular games in the English-speaking world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cri…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Mr. Sheply is measuring into bottles the New Year's gifts of sack " for the clients of Edward Mountagu, who was now at Hincingbrooke, his country estate near Huntingdon.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I heard that Lambert was coming up to London; that my Lord Fairfax was in the head of the Irish brigade, but it was not certain what he would declare for."

The French ambassador reported (2 January) that Lambert, on hearing of the reassembly of the Rump, had set out from Newcastle to march to the capital at the head of an army of sectaries: George Monk: Or the Fall of the Republic and the Restoration of the Monarchy ... By François-Pierre Guillaume Guizot https://books.google.com/books?id… Fairfax (Commander-in-Chief of the parliamentary army, 1645-50) had, in collusion with Monck, raised a rebellion in Yorkshire against Lambert on 30 December. The Irish Brigade consisted of troops brought over from Ireland to suppress Booth's rising in August 1659: they had served under Lambert unwillingly, and now deserted him im great numbers to join their old master Fairfax. Fairfax's intentions were unknow, because he had been out of politics for the past ten years. In fact, he and most of his followers among the gentry were secretly for restoration: but at the moment they had to temporize, the Irish Brigade being firmly for the Rump. The rebels took York on 1 January, and a discreetly ambiguous manifesto announcing their intentions arrived in London on the 4th: A declaration of the right honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax, and the knights and gentry in the north of England. With the raising of forces in the north, west, and eastern ridings of Yorkshire; and the rendezvouzing [sic] of fifteen hundred horse at Maulton Moor, and another great body near the city of York. : Also, the securing of Cliffords Tower, Carlisle, Leeds, Hallifax, Skipton, and divers other places: : And the Lord Lamberts resolution, at a general council of officers. With orders and instructions to several regiments.
London,: Printed for G. Horton, 1659. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Great talk that many places have declared for a free Parliament"

Open declarations from many parts of the nation for a free parliament (in the sense of declarations for elections) will begin in the end of January -- see the Mercurius Politicus 19 January; http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (Per L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Anybody know what "the new market" was?"

The 'New Market' was Clare Market an area of London in the parish of St Clement Danes to the west of Lincoln's Inn Fields, between the Strand and Drury Lane, with Vere Street https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cla…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"returned to Mr. Crew’s again, and from thence went along with Mrs. Jemima"

Jemima, Edward Mountagu's eldest child[ at this time living in the house of Scott, a surgeon or practitioner, where she was receiving treatment for malformation of the neck. One of Pepys's duties was to look after her.
(L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" my wife gone to see Mrs. Hunt, I went to Will’s, and there sat with Mr. Ashwell talking and singing till nine o’clock, and so home"

John and Eliza Hunt were neighbors and friends of the Pepyses; 'Will's' was an alehouse near Westminster Hall; Ashwell a colleague at the Exchequer. (L&M)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my wife cut me a slice of brawn which I received from my Lady"

Jemima Mountagu, wife of 'my Lord'. (L&M)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Today the second group are nearing the end of their Pepys' voyage. One thing that makes the trip frustrating is the number of now-useless links left by the first group. But today I discovered a "wayback machine" website ... journalists use it to find now-deleted information. Ah-ha.
I hope you find it helpful:
https://gijn.org/2021/05/05/tips-…

Third Reading

EyeOnMadisonStreet  •  Link

Fascinating connection to Dickens! (Expect I'll be using "fascinating" often here)

EyeOnMadisonStreet  •  Link

My comment of a minute ago was meant to link to Mr. Foreman's annotation of 11 March, 2017, but I see there is no feature for direct reply.

Michael Sheahan  •  Link

I first started following the diary towards the end of the second reading and am delighted that it has started again, Many thanks to those behind this.

Elisabeth  •  Link

Brawn. This 1658 recipe from The Compleat Cook by WM is given in foodsofengland.co.uk:

To bake Brawn.
Take two Buttocks and hang them up two or three dayes, then take them down and dip them into hot Water, and pluck off the skin, dry them very well with a clean Cloth, when you have so done, take Lard, cut it in peices as big as your little finger, and season it very well with Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Nutmeg, and Salt, put each of them into an earthen Pot, put in a Pint of Claret wine, a pound of Mutton Suet. So close it with past let the Oven be well heated; and so bake them, you must give them time for the baking according to the bignesse of the Haunches, and the thicknesse of the Pots, they commonly allot seven hours for the baking of them; let them stand three dayes, then take off their Cover, and poure away all the Liquor, then have clarified Butter, and fill up both the Pots, to keep it for the use, it will very well keep two or three moneths.

Charles II Coinage  •  Link

Hi everyone! I'm Wayne from the U.K.

I followed the diary for about 7 months last year until it ended, and was really pleased to see it cycle again for another full run. I'm a numismatist who specializes in the coinage of Charles II, so may well point everyone towards the odd photo of various coins that Pepys himself may have used! Thank you Phil for running the diary again, and I for one will be following it daily.

Jonathan V  •  Link

I'm in for the third reading! Picked up about half-way through the second reading, I think, so there is much that I've missed. Welcome back, all.

RM  •  Link

“Verbal communication was also the principal means of keeping abreast of the news, so that personal meetings, conversation, and stopping to chat to people was a common and important part of day-to-day life.”

As indeed was dinner (i.e. lunch), often with relative strangers invited to add the possibility of interesting and useful news from further afield.

RM  •  Link

“...I'm a numismatist who specializes in the coinage of Charles II, so may well point everyone towards the odd photo of various coins that Pepys himself may have used!...”

You may also have info about the tokens issued by London taverns, as the 1660s were apparently particularly troublesome for low denomination coinage that would pay for a drink or two.

Regertz  •  Link

Always curious that Sam and his father- in-law never met furing the space of the diary ( at least Sam never mentions a meeting) yet Sam is never indicating any real conflict or anger and he seems to tolerate Bally, his brother-in-law

Regertz  •  Link

Always curious that Sam and his father- in-law never met during the space of the diary ( at least Sam never mentions a meeting) yet Sam is never indicating any real conflict or anger and he seems to tolerate Bally, his brother-in-law

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