Tuesday 10 January 1659/60

Went out early, and in my way met with Greatorex, and at an alehouse he showed me the first sphere of wire that ever he made, and indeed it was very pleasant; thence to Mr. Crew’s, and borrowed 10l., and so to my office, and was able to pay my money. Thence into the Hall, and meeting the Quarter Master, Jenings, and Captain Rider, we four went to a cook’s to dinner. Thence Jenings and I into London (it being through heat of the sun a great thaw and dirty) to show our bills of return, and coming back drank a pint of wine at the Star in Cheapside. So to Westminster, overtaking Captain Okeshott in his silk cloak, whose sword got hold of many people in walking.

Thence to the Coffee-house, where were a great confluence of gentlemen; viz. Mr. Harrington, Poultny, chairman, Gold, Dr Petty; &c., where admirable discourse till at night. Thence with Doling to Mother Lams, who told me how this day Scott was made Intelligencer, and that the rest of the members that were objected against last night, their business was to be heard this day se’nnight. Thence I went home and wrote a letter, and went to Harper’s, and staid there till Tom carried it to the postboy at Whitehall. So home to bed.

34 Annotations

First Reading

Ted Mills  •  Link

"...and coming back drank a pint of wine at the Star in Cheapside. "

A pint! No wine snobbery in those days, I think.

Could someone out there enlighten us on the history of wine drinking in England, what kind they were drinking, where it was made, and how this fell out of favor over the centuries to good ol' British ale/lager/bitter?

Perhaps Pepys' "wine" means any drink made from fermented fruit?

David Gurliacci  •  Link

So, what is a "sphere of wire" for?

Nicholas Laughlin  •  Link

"A great confluence of gentlemen":

This, of course, is the Rota club which Pepys joined the day before. James Harrington was its founder; William Poultney (or Pulteney) was chairman, as Pepys notes; Nicholas Gold was a merchant; William Petty was a physician and statistician.

Nicholas Laughlin  •  Link

"Sphere of wire":

"Probably an armillary sphere", says Latham-Matthews.

Lisa  •  Link

Today in England there was sun and a bit of a thaw as well. It's rather comforting to know that some things have not changed so much after all.

David Gurliacci  •  Link

And an armillary sphere is (I'm such a spoilsport)...

. . . "a sighting instrument . . . used in ancient times, formed of rings fixed in the position of the great circles such as the tropics, the ecliptic, the meridian, etc.: later developed into the astrolab."

PHE  •  Link

Wine in England
Later in the diary (I'm sure there is a scholar who knows precisely when) Pepys mentions his first try of Haut Brion wine - still a very well known Bordeaux. This is apparently the first recorded instance of a French wine being named for its chateau. A lot of wine in England came from Bordeaux - in part due to earlier history when England and the Bordeaux area were ruled by the same monarch (others will know this in more detail). In fact, the international fame of Bordeaux is very much due to its associations with England, probably its first major export destination.

I understand that a key reason why alcohol was consumed so regularly at that tiime (both wine and ale) was due to the disinfectant properties of the alcohol making it safer to drink than water - at a time when there was little or no understanding of how water could be made safe through treatment or boiling. I may not be entirely correct on this since alcohol as a diuretic also has a tendency to dehydrate - so this benefit may only be restricted to drinks with a low alcohol content (eg. weaker ale).

Of course, regular alcohol consumption would be a contributor to Pepys's kidney stones.

Andy  •  Link

Even in Victorian times, the wealthier classes really only drank tea, coffee, beer, or wine. This was due to the fact that the boiling and fermenting meant that what they were consuming was relatively safe, at least compared to what the standards of water purity were at the time

Gareth  •  Link

I think Mr. Gurliacci means an "astrolabe", not an "astrolab".

Eunice Muir  •  Link

No worries about driving drunk!

Consuming a pint (20 ozs. UK measure) of wine was not too much of a problem before the invention of the motor vehicle, although there must have been were plenty incidences of drunken horse riders and pedestrians.

Roger Miller  •  Link

This is part of a print of Cheapside dating from 1639.

Signs on poles in front of the houses indicate shops or inns. In the centre of this section of the print is one that bears a star. Does anyone know if this could be the Star mentioned 20 years later by Pepys?

http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.c…

Han  •  Link

Although the source of the wine is likely Bordeaux, as PHE suggests, Pepys could be referring to wine made of almost anything. The "Sack" to which he has referred to previously is a form of Metheglyn - a mead flavoured/fermented with fruit juices (in this case fennel root) and the English have long used the Elderberry for brewing.

Wines in this era were significantly different - approximately the same strength, but a yeast cloudiness would be considered acceptable, and simply disguised by using an opaque glass.

Also palates of the time differed, and if any homebrewer attempts a comtemporary receipe - it is likely to be hideously sweet to your taste. However, a much less daunting prospect to drink a pint of sweet wine!

Maso  •  Link

. . .whose sword got hold of many people in walking.

Sounds like it was as much of a pain to walk with a sword on (i'm assuming a rapier on frog) in a crowd then as it is today.

David Gurliacci  •  Link

astrolabE and correct spelling

Yes, I should have written "astrolabe" -- sorry, and thanks for the catch, Gareth. Back in the 17th century they could afford to spell even names with casual abandon -- misspellings become more annoying and even misleading now that we're using computers and Internet search engines.

language hat  •  Link

Han: metheglyn??
Do you have some reason for thinking that "sack" here does not have its usual meaning of 'white wine from Spain and the Canaries'?
Markham (1623): "Your best Sacks are of Seres [Jerez, source of sherry] in Spaine, your smaller of Galicia and Portugall; your strong Sacks are of the Ilands of the Canaries, and of Malligo [presumably Málaga].”

Maso  •  Link

I was assuming that the sack was just a very sweet mead.

iirc Metheglyn is a spiced mead, fruit mead is referred to as melomel although I'd consider fennel more of a spice than a fruit.

language hat  •  Link

But why would "sack" be used for mead here when it elsewhere refers to wine?

Wulf Losee  •  Link

"...who told me how this day Scott was made Intelligencer..." Was Intelligencer an official office of Parliament at this time? I presume that Scott would be in charge of intelligence gathering activities.

--Wulf

David Bell  •  Link

One thing to remember is that wine and beer do vary in strength, and somebody used to something like the American Budweiser could be making a misleading comparison. That example is closer to the "small-beer" of the past than to some of the traditionally-brewed beers which are available in the UK.
And the same for wine.
One of the differences is that there were not the modern yeasts, which have a bit more tolerance for alcohol. That could be a partial explanation for the sweetness, as less of the sugars in the wine can be converted to alcohol before the yeast dies.
A quick check finds a bottle of Italian wine with 4% alcohol (by volume), and one of beer at 5% abv. So drinking a pint of wine isn't the excess we might think.
(OK, so the beer is called "Tanglefoot".)

PHE  •  Link

Wine with 4% alcohol?
This does sound a little weak. Wines are normally between 11 and 13%, occaisionaly 14% (normally Australian). British ale/bitter was traditionally about 3.5% up to 10 or 20 years ago, although stronger beers of 4 or 4.5% tend to be more popular now. Lager beers (ie. the pale beer standard in Europe, USA and Australia) are normally 5 to 6%.

As many people know, the tradition of pub names in Britain derives from a time when few people could read. Thus names like Star, Bell, Bull, etc, which could be denoted with a clear picture, were popular.

A major difference of 17th century wines was that the cork had not been invented so they could not keep as they do today. Presumably in this case, sweet wines kept better.

Mark Bernstein  •  Link

The modern reader will be astonished at the amount of alcohol consumed by Europeans of this period, and indeed through the end of the following century.

In addition to concerns over sanitation mentioned by others, a major concern since ancient times had been preservation of the food value of fruit and grain through the long seasons. Even an abundant harvest could be depleted alarmingly by rodents, and rodent-proof storage can be difficult indeed! The best way to keep grain from being eaten was often to turn it into beer, and the best way to preserve the caloric value of fruit was to turn it into wine. (Remember that, in this period, sugar was extremely expensive, and lump sugar was treated much as we treat wine, as a luxury food; later, when widespread plantings reduced the price of sugar, lots of fruit that once became alcohol instead became jams and preserves)

Compare Pepys pint of wine to the grog ration of a common seaman of his time or Nelson's. Everyone drank a great deal, even those of very modest means.

Grahamt  •  Link

"their business was to be heard this day se'nnight” means a week from today. “se’ennight” is a short form of sevennight or septnight meaning week. This is rarely used in British English now, but fortnight for fourteennight, or two weeks, is in daily use.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Doling...told me how this day Scott was made Intelligencer"

Thomas Scott, republican and regicide, was now given (for the third time) control of the intelligence service, and a week later made Secretary of State. Thomas Doling was a Council messenger and an old friend of Pepys.
(L&M note)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Thence I went home and wrote a letter, and went to Harper’s, and staid there till Tom carried it to the postboy at Whitehall."

So Pepys picked up enough information to warrant another letter to Montagu tonight. The appointment of Thomas Scott as the head of intelligence was probably worthy of note.

And how interesting the Palace of Whitehall had its own postboy. I suppose he collected everyone's letters and took them to the post office for sorting and to go out first thing in the morning. Maybe it gave the letters some sort of diplomatic immunity from inspection. Which would be why Montagu's boy would have to hand it in, and not Sam.

I just realized that was probably why Pepys went to an Anglican service on Sunday -- to see who else was there.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Thence Jenings and I into London ... to show our bills of return ..."

Anyone know what a bill of return is.

My guess is that Jennings as a Quartermaster, and Pepys (who has been paying soldiers at the Exchequer) have to account for the coins distributed in order to receive more money from someone in London -- maybe at the Mint or a goldsmith (who acted as bankers at the time). He says "show" the bills, but he must mean "deliver", or he would have had to take it/them back to the office. They couldn't be bulky, or Pepys would have noted that they took a coach.

Jane Wickenden  •  Link

I'm a little late in the day to this conversation, but one thing to remember, English pints were 16 fl.oz at that time rather than the 20 fl.oz. they became when Imperial measures were introduced in the 19th century.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Welcome aboard, Jane ... I did not know that.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"the rest of the members that were objected against last night,"

L&M: These were associates of Vane who, like him, had collaborated with the army. Two were expelled on the 17th. CJ, vii. 806, 813-14, 837.

Third Reading

Derek Salmon  •  Link

Pint of Wine. Interesting paper from Nottingham University (UK) on Volumes or Capacity. No mention of pints but the measure of gallon of ale was different to a gallon of wine. Also A Pipe measure of Maderia was equivalent to 92 UK gallons; Sherry 108 gallons; Port 115 gallons. Other sources also quote local/regional measurements as differing.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manu…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thanks, Derek, that is really interesting.

Our Encyclopedia does have an "Other general reference sites" page where I think this recomendation also belongs
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Obviously there are no Diary links to it, but as a catch-all for the important but obscure, it's helpful to know about it.

Carl  •  Link

Monday was washday because there would be cold cuts from the Sunday lunch. So no extra work cooking

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Pepys liked his Sack. There are 44 references to it in the Diary; he genuinely seems to have enjoyed it, sometimes using it as a gratuity or gift.

Sack has 2 annotations in our WINE Encyclopedia page:
✹ Andrew Hamilton on 15 Nov 2003
Sack
Definition from 1911 Enclyclopedia site:
A Spanish wine, which was of a strong, rough, dry kind (in Fr. vin sec, whence the name), and therefore usually sweetened and mixed with spice and mulled or burnt. It became a common name for all the stronger white wines of the South.
and about "sack mead" (which Pepys never specifies but is an historical contender):
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Sack is also mentioned in the SYLLABUB and POSSET Encyclopedia pages.
So use the Search box (top right), and you'll find all sorts of Shakespeare quotes, recipes and interesting variations, like Raspberry Sack (which Australian Susan thought sounded like vinegar -- but I suspect was delicious.)

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