Monday 14 May 1660

In the morning when I woke and rose, I saw myself out of the scuttle close by the shore, which afterwards I was told to be the Dutch shore; the Hague was clearly to be seen by us.

My Lord went up in his nightgown into the cuddy, to see how to dispose thereof for himself and us that belong to him, to give order for our removal to-day.

Some masty Dutchmen came on board to proffer their boats to carry things from us on shore, &c., to get money by us.

Before noon some gentlemen came on board from the shore to kiss my Lord’s hands. And by and by Mr. North and Dr. Clerke went to kiss the Queen of Bohemia’s hands, from my Lord, with twelve attendants from on board to wait on them, among which I sent my boy, who, like myself, is with child to see any strange thing.

After noon they came back again after having kissed the Queen of Bohemia’s hand, and were sent again by my Lord to do the same to the Prince of Orange. So I got the Captain to ask leave for me to go, which my Lord did give, and I taking my boy and judge Advocate with me, went in company with them. The weather bad; we were sadly washed when we came near the shore, it being very hard to land there.

The shore is, as all the country between that and the Hague, all sand. The rest of the company got a coach by themselves; Mr. Creed and I went in the fore part of a coach wherein were two very pretty ladies, very fashionable and with black patches, who very merrily sang all the way and that very well, and were very free to kiss the two blades that were with them.

I took out my flageolette and piped, but in piping I dropped my rapier-stick, but when I came to the Hague, I sent my boy back again for it and he found it, for which I did give him 6d., but some horses had gone over it and broke the scabbard. The Hague is a most neat place in all respects. The houses so neat in all places and things as is possible.

Here we walked up and down a great while, the town being now very full of Englishmen, for that the Londoners were come on shore today.

But going to see the Prince, he was gone forth with his governor, and so we walked up and down the town and court to see the place; and by the help of a stranger, an Englishman, we saw a great many places, and were made to understand many things, as the intention of may-poles, which we saw there standing at every great man’s door, of different greatness according to the quality of the person. About 10 at night the Prince comes home, and we found an easy admission. His attendance very inconsiderable as for a prince; but yet handsome, and his tutor a fine man, and himself a very pretty boy. It was bright moonshine to-night. This done we went to a place we had taken to sup in, where a sallet and two or three bones of mutton were provided for a matter of ten of us which was very strange. After supper the Judge and I to another house, leaving them there, and he and I lay in one press bed, there being two more in the same room, but all very neat and handsome, my boy sleeping upon a bench by me.

44 Annotations

First Reading

Glyn  •  Link

"two very pretty ladies ... who were very free to kiss the two blades that were with them."

They've finally (!) landed in the Netherlands.

"Blade" = "A dashing, pleasure-seeking fellow". I'm not really sure if Pepys means two other men or if he's referring to himself and his friend Creed.

The women are fashionably dressed and wearing patches: that needn't have been to cover scars or other disfigurements since they were an item of fashion and came in lots of different shapes (circles, stars, flowers etc) and colours as well as black.

helena murphy  •  Link

the Queen of Bohemia, was Elizabeth, daughter of James I and Anne of Denmark, and sister of Charles I.She was therefore the aunt of Charles II. In 1613 she married on February 14th, Saint Valentine's day, Frederick the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, leader of the Protestant Union and first secular prince in Germany. Elizabeth's mother in law was the daughter of William the Silent of the Dutch House of Orange. In 1619 Frederick was also offered the throne of Bohemia which he accepted when the inhabitants of Prague deposed the Catholic Ferdinand ,who was then elected Holy Roman Emperor. Elizabeth and Frederick were crowned King and Queen of Bohemia in November 1619. Six weeks later the Queen gave birth to the future Prince Rupert of the Rhine,who played a prominent role in the civil war and in Restoration Government. Shortly after this event they in turn were deposed and were offered exile in Holland by the House of Orange. Their acceptance of the Bohemian crown ushered in The Thirty Years War.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

I sent my boy, who, like myself, is with child to see any strange thing.

What a wonderful phrase that is, to express excitement and eagerness.

chip  •  Link

Yes Jenny D., when pregnant did mean full of wit. I assume the rapier-stick is a weapon carried because SP is on foregin soil. To show what a difference 343 years makes, consider that behavior today.

vincent  •  Link

"I...myself with child to see any strange thing" What a great Quality. Most Succesful people need that quality, an Open mind and be Curious. SP has shown Most of the the Requirements to be Succesful. i.e. Education ,Seeing and Observing, going the extra mile when needed, Paying heed to the the requirements of the situation, And of course watching those farthings grow.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Queen of Bohemia
Wheatley footnote adds "She was known as the 'Queen of Hearts' and the 'White Queen.' She is supposed to have married Lord Craven, and died February 12th, 1661-63"

Paul Brewster  •  Link

he was gone forth with his Governor
L&M identify the Governor as "Count Zuylestein (d. 1672) tutor and uncle of the Prince of Orange."

Paul Brewster  •  Link

for that the Londoners were come on shore today
according to L&M these were "Representatives of the city who had travelled in the Norwich"

Emilio  •  Link

The Prince of Orange
This is of course William, who will be William III of England after the Glorious Revolution. L&M disagree slightly with the info in his BG page - they say he's nine right now, the BG page ten. He was born in 1650, but perhaps it was toward the end of the year.
This entry is also one of the ones that stretches over a couple days - tomorrow's text will begin mid-sentence.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

so we walked up and down the town and Court to see the place
L&M identifies the "Court" as "the Binnenhof ... Its gardens were reckoned by Evelyn to be among the finest he knew"
for a modern internet enabled tour:
http://www.holland.com/denhaag/ga…
site also includes "a 360 degree view of the surroundings of Scheveningen, a fishing port northwest of The Hague."

David Bell  •  Link

Like Sam, my first time in a foreign country was a visit to Den Haag and Scheveningen, though in my case it was for the World Science Fiction Convention in 1990. Many old buildings, and many new, and a large part of Scheveningen is a seaside resort, though there is still the port.

While I was perhaps a little young and foolish in those days, walking through Scheveningen in the middle of the night felt a lot safer than walking through Cleethorpes.

My sea journey, via Rotterdam on a modern ferry, was maybe a little less romantic in style, but I reckon my excitement at seeing the Dutch coast when I awoke was not so unlike Sam's.

I wonder if Evelyn's diary would evoke the same sort of half-shared recollections? Though I do not intend to post anything I might be prompted to recall by Sam's "cruising and scoping the chicks", as somebody described it a few weeks ago.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Lots of hand-kissing going on!

Men coming over to kiss my Lord's hands, Montagu sending several groups to kiss the Queen of Bohemia's, as well as the Prince of Orange's. Does anyone know more about this custom?

Also, what makes a sallet and two or three bones of mutton for a group of 10 so very strange?

Phil, looks like you've been adjusting fonts and font sizes again ... I like it.

Keir  •  Link

"L&M identifies the “Court” as “the Binnenhof … Its gardens were reckoned by Evelyn to be among the finest he knew”" - the Binnenhof is currently the seat of the Dutch parliament; there isn't much of a garden there these days as it's all cobbled over.

Matthew  •  Link

Hand kissing -
I don't know about the rules in the 17th century, but I believe that the formal appointment of new Prime Ministers still involves them going to The Palace to "kiss hands".

M.Stolzenbach  •  Link

Todd, I think the supper perhsps seemed "strange" to Sam as not being enough for ten hungry travellers.

He doesn't seem so thrown by the "press bed," which I take to be the kind with doors in which you are closed up as in a cabinet.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

A sallet and two or three bones of mutton were provided for a matter of ten of us
The OED reference this day's entry from SP in its definition of Salad (sallet obs. forms of salad)

"1. a. A cold dish of herbs or vegetables (e.g. lettuce, endive), usually uncooked and chopped up or sliced, to which is often added sliced hard-boiled egg, cold meat, fish, etc., the whole being seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar."

But the OED also points to an earlier wider use of the term in the following quotations:

1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 84/2 Sallet, is either Sweet Herbs, or Pickled Fruits, or Cucumbers, Samphire, Elder-Buds, Broom-Buds, &c. eaten with Roasted Meats.

1687 in Wood Life (O.H.S.) III. 236, 36 plates of sallating, piled high and copped, viz., oranges, lemmons, olives, samphire, &c.

Nix  •  Link

"Sallet"

crossed the ocean and settled in the American southeast as "poke sallet" (pokeweed) --

http://members.aol.com/keninga/po…

-- best known outside the deep south from the 1969 Tony Joe White song, "Poke Sallet Annie"

Colin Gravois  •  Link

After some time at sea Sam seems so happy to be back to his London ways with the ladies (are we to understand that the "two blades" are he and Creed?) that when piping for the ladies in the forecoach he's oblivious to the world and loses his rapier-stick. Sam on dry land is soon back to being the Sam we love.

Nix  •  Link

Was Samuel sitting with the ladies? --

I would have guessed that "in the fore part" meant up with the driver, outside the passenger compartment ("wherein" the ladies rode). That could explain how he inadvertently dropped his sword while messing with his recorder. But alas! Remember how proud he was a few weeks ago to be carrying a sword like a gentleman?

Though I'm sure a close reader in the English department would tell us that the flageolet, as well as the rapier-stick, were all hidden sexual references and Sam was enjoying a tumble in the back seat.

Colin Gravois  •  Link

Nix, you put it in perspective, although knowing Sam I wouldn't rule out a tumble; but Sam was nevertheless besides himself to pipe for the ladies. Thanks.

language hat  •  Link

press bed (OED):
A bed constructed to fold up, when not in use, into a press (PRESS n.1 15) closed by a door or doors; sometimes less correctly applied to a box-bed (which does not fold up) shut in by folding doors. Also attrib.

1660 PEPYS Diary 14 May, The Judge and I.. lay in one press bed, there being two more in the same room. 1670 REDWAY in Bedloe Popish Plot (1679) 20 An inclosed Bed (commonly called a Press-Bed).

Swordfish  •  Link

Sallet

Is it just me - or does anybody else suspect that sallet was later corrupted into salad?

language hat  •  Link

sallet/salad:
It's a bit more complicated than that (even aside from the word "corrupted," which should have no place in the history of language); the spellings in -d and -t ran side by side for a long time until the former prevailed. Here's the OED's summary:

Forms: a. 5 selad, 5-7 salade, 6-7 sallade, 7-9 sallad, 7- salad; b. 6 sal(l)ett(e), -otte, -ite, 6-7 salat, 6-9 (now dial. or arch.) sallet, 7 sallat(e). [a. OF. salade (14th c.), a. Pr. salada = OIt. salata, Pg. salada (cf. It. insalata, Sp. ensalada): popular L. *salta, f. *salre (It., med.L. salare, Pr., Sp., Pg. salar, F. saler) to salt, f. L. sal salt.
The Romanic word has been generally taken into the Germanic langs.: Du. salade, late MHG. sal

Ed Brickell  •  Link

Pepys certainly described his own insatiable curiosiy for life, people, and events well with his line about being "with child to see any strange thing." Wonderful!

jeannine  •  Link

Sandwich's Journal Entry Today

Monday. The fleet came to anchor off Schevelinge in Holland, distant about a league and a half. In the morning Mr. Edward Bertie and Mr. Edward Pickering went ashore with letters to His Majesty. Mr. North also went ashore to the Hague to present the Generals' service to the Queen of Bohemia and Prince of Orange. About eight of the clock in the evening the Hampshire and Yarmouth came into Schevelinge Bay with the Commissioners of the Commons' House in Parliament, and the Norwich with the citizens of London."

Greg Beaman  •  Link

William III, the Prince of Orange, was born on 14 November 1650. Zuylestein was indeed his tutor, and an illegitimate son of Frederick Henry (d. 1647), William III's grandfather and William II's father. The Prince of Orange was at this time living in Leiden, having just begun his formal education.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

a sallet and two or three bones of mutton were provided for a matter of ten of us which was very strange.

Spoiler -- A few years to go before the publication of the first English vegetarian "cook book" and a culinary clasic:-

Evelyn, John, (1620-1706)
Acetaria. A discourse of sallets. By J.E. S.R.S. Author of the Kalendarium.
London: printed for B. Tooke at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet, 1699.
[40],192,[50] p.,[1] folded leaf of plates: table; 8⁰.
With errata leaf, appendix, and index at end of text.
Wing (CD-ROM, 1996), E3480
The "second edition" of 1706 is a re-issue with a cancel title.

There is a copy in the Pepysian library at Magdalene:
the text is available on the web:-
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15…
and in print still:-
http://www.amazon.com/Acetaria-Di…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Some masty Dutchmen came on board to proffer their boats to carry things from us on shore, &c., to get money by us."

MASTY : burly L&M Larger Glossary). 1384 Chaucer: "Masty...means fat, fattened up, and hence unwieldy, sluggish...Palsgrave has: 'Masty, fatte, as swyne be, gras.' The Promp. Parv. has: 'Mast-hog or swyne, [or] mastid swyne, Maialis'; and: 'Mastyn beestys, sagino, impinguo.' Way rightly explains masty as 'glutted with acorns or berries'; cf. 'Acome, mast for swyne, gland,' in Palsgrave. http://books.google.com/books?id=…

Mary K  •  Link

more bits of mast.

The fiddly little nutty fruit of the beech tree are still known collectively as beechmast. Delicious, but it takes ages to pry each little 'nut' open and one can get sore fingers doing so.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘masty, adj. Etym: < mast n.2 . . Compare mastiff Now Eng. regional.
1.†a. Of a pig: fattened. Obs.
c1450 (▸c1380) Chaucer House of Fame 1777 Ye masty swyn, ye ydel wrechches . .

b. Chiefly of a person: burly, big-bodied.
a1593 Marlowe Jew of Malta (1633) iv. sig. H4v, A masty slaue he is.
1660 S. Pepys Diary 14 May (1970) I. 138 Some masty Duchmen came on board.
. . 1886 R. E. G. Cole Gloss. Words S.-W. Lincolnshire 88 Masty, very large and big: as ‘They're a masty family’.
1995 J. M. Sims-Kimbrey Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 186/2 Masty, of a person; big and strong.’ [OED]

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

In Ireland the Restoration proceeded independently of, and even a little before, that in England. Having secured power at the end of 1659, a group of Cromwellian army officers, Sir Theophilus Jones, Sir Charles Coote, and Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, opened negotiations with Charles II well before Gen. Monck.

In February 1660 the officers called a convention in Dublin. It declared for Charles, who was proclaimed King on 14 May 1660.

Despite its early commitment to Charles' Restoration, Charles' chief interest in Ireland was as a source of revenue for his government and his favorites.

For more information, see http://www.oxforddnb.com/

Remember these gentlemen, as they will show up again in the Diary.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"by the help of a stranger, an Englishman, we saw a great many places, and were made to understand many things, as the intention of may- poles, which we saw there standing at every great man’s door, of different greatness according to the quality of the person."

L&M: For the customary planting of maypoles in Holland, see H. E. van Gelder, 'sGravenhage in zeven eeuwen, p. 189; J. Hastings (ed.), Encycl. religion and ethics, x. 95.'

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... to see how to dispose thereof for himself and us that belong to him, to give order for our removal to-day."

An interesting comment, given our present-day conversations regarding slavery.
I may consider the person/company that pays my salary worthy of my enlightened-self-interest support, but I would never say or think that that I "belong" to them.

"our removal" means that Pepys expects some assignments and projects to be required of him today. Hand kissing anyone? I bet he wears his new coat.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sallat and bones for dinner:

Breda quickly ran out of food and was unable to cater to the influx of nobles and ambassadors, even though the Estates General was willing to pay the tab. It's reasonable to think The Hague suffered from the same supply challenges.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Peter Johnson  •  Link

"... to see how to dispose thereof for himself and us that belong to him, to give order for our removal to-day."

I read it simply that my Lord and his immediate staff are having to downsize in expectation of the arrival of an even more prestigious person and his people, so space in the ship will be precious. Some days earlier when in the Downs, an instruction had gone to the fleet to get rid of all unnecessary bodies from the ships. So before getting formally dressed, Montague goes to arrange with Sam how the cabin space in the cuddy will be arranged, presumably leaving him to oversee the move of their possessions and papers there.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

As always Sam is giving us the ground truth so let's hear in a contemporary voice why Sam's getting such thin gruel. From Sir William Lower's admirable " "Relation in the form of journal of the voiage and residence", his Diurnall of Charles' passage through Holland (at https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…)

"The Estates General [that rule Holland] resolved, the same day, that the King's charges should be defrayed during the whole time he stayed in the United Provinces; and ordained likewise that provision should be made for it; but at first they met with so many difficulties, that it was absolutely impossible to execute this resolution. For the Town of Breda being already starved almost, because of the great number of persons of quality which came there every day, and the hot season permitting not provisions to be brought there from other places, there was no body would undertake to treat the King; and those that would have undertaken it, could not have accomplish'd it; so that the Estate would have had the displeasure to see their substance dissipated, at the expense of its reputation." (pages 12-13)

And persons of quality, who of course eat a lot and only quality, are only the start. In addition to all these Englishmen, Lower recalls that on the 7th (old style) a delegation sent by the States to compliment the king came with "four Cornets of Horse of the Garrison", which "arriving at the Town, (...) found there 12 Companies of Foot drawn up in battalia". As per Wikipedia (at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor…) a "cornet of horse" is "typically 100-300 men", so up to 1,200 more mouths to feed (plus barley for the horses). By the 13th, as Charles leaves Breda for The Hague and Scheveningen, the four horse regiments have become five (page 24). Dutch regiments, but we suspect they lived off the land.

That's not all. On the same day the States, falling upon themselves to be nice to Charles now that it's absolutely sure he's a head of state, wrote Parliament to advise that "they had sent commissions to Arnham, Heusden, Bergen op Zoom, and Gercum, for the Troops of Horse of Prince William of Nassau, of the Count Christian of Dona, and of Mrs. de Buat, de Wassenaer, and de la Lecque, son to Mr. Beverweert, with order to march with all speed, night and day, towards high Swaluwe, to attend there the King of great Britain" (page 13). Hooge Zwaluwe, still a small village in 2023, is between Breda and the Hague but Lower doesn't mention it again so it's not clear that Charles' convoy ever stopped there, to the Zwaluwers' mixed disappointment and relief perhaps.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

By the 11th it seems the States, perhaps a bit swamped, "required Mr. d'Amerongen, (...) to go to Breda; and to report from thence an exact estate of the Kings whole Court, and train of the Princes; as also of the number of the Lords, of the Councel, and of his Majesties House, to the end, that necessary proportions might be taken for the lodgings pointed out for the Lords; for the Tables which were to be furnished; and for the mouths to be fed, during the residence which the King should make at the Hage." A brief stay for which the budget, "not to come short", was set at "three hundred thousand gilders" (pages 20-21).

To Charles' credit, towns as far as Rotterdam wanted a piece of him, but "his Majesty excused himself, as well upon the present estate of his affairs, which permitted him not to stay any where; as because that his passage could not but incommodate the inhabitants" (page 22).

Note, in Lower's quote, the reference to "the hot season". So in May, it's already "the hot season"? In this, the Little Ice Age, maybe not so hot (surely Sam would have told us), but it seems to impede the quality's provisioning. Hot or not, however, at this time the wheat is high, and 'twould be a bad idea indeed for all the king's horses to take detours and shortcuts through the fields. Of late the weather has also be windy, and so perhaps also rainy, and the roads are likely in no condition for all these coaches to explore. More reasons to just beeline to the ships.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Meanwhile, back in Whithehall, it falls to "Robt. Blackborne", the State Papers tell us, to figure out where everybody is. The mail usually seems to take a couple of days between the fleet and London, but now both the fleet, the king and everything else is moving fast, so 'twould be nice if everything would just click, and Blackborne must be wishing they had already invented the radio:

"I hope that Mr. Pett came on board the Naseby before the fleet sailed from Dover", he writes today to someone unnamed but likely a boss also trying to follow the action - well, Pett was last seen playing ninepins on the 28th - "and that Mr. Creed is possessed of the 200L. There is 500L. more ordered to-day on the same account, and payable to such person as his lordship [Montagu?] or Mr. Creed shall assign". So Creed, at least, didn't come ashore just to sightsee; let's hope his 200L. didn't get too soaked, and wonder how and when that money order for 500L. "ordered today" will reach his lordship or Creed in a form that can be cashed.

Do we also detect a hint of chaos and improvisation in what follows? "His Excellency has given commission to Gen. Penn to hasten to the fleet, with such ships as are here in the river or at Portsmouth in a sailing posture, and accordingly he went on to Gravesend this morning about 2 o'clock, and wrote an express to Portsmouth", &c. It's not like fetching the king is a last-minute idea, but you see, there was a nice fleet until much of it was sent to escort the herring-boats.

And maybe the Dutch aren't the only ones caught short by just how many people are coming along. Let's commiserate with Robt. Blackborne as a page advises him that "there's also the marquess of Thisandthat and he has 12 horses, his furniture and 26 servants; says he's like a brother to His Majestie".

RLB  •  Link

As to "belong", remember that they're on a warship. An officer's subordinates belong to his company, or to his crew. Up to a point, he *can* dispose of them as he wants, certainly to the point of making them sleep somewhere else.

True, Samuel isn't actually a sailor, but I wouldn't be surprised if similar rules held for, and were seen as normal by, civilian personnel on board ship under the command of what was after all the General at Sea. It's a semi-military life, with semi-military rules.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"So Creed, at least, didn't come ashore just to sightsee; let's hope his 200L. didn't get too soaked, and wonder how and when that money order for 500L. "ordered today" will reach his lordship or Creed in a form that can be cashed."

They used Bills of Exchange, what we call a Letter of Credit today.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/indept…

Getting his half of the transaction wet would have been a problem. Pepys did say getting off the dingy and onto shore was a problem ...

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

As to the Letter of Credit not getting too soaked, I found a picture of a leather wallet as used by sailors in the 1630s, in an article about a recipe kept by a ship's captain:

"The recipe’s small size and marked fold lines suggests that it was stored folded into a rectangle, and likely tucked into a pocket of a sailor’s wallet for safekeeping. Leather wallets that sailors owned ... had an interior pocket for storing precious or useful documents.

"Another sheet in the same collection is identical in size to the recipe and show the same fold lines, so was also probably folded and stored in the same sailor’s wallet, which includes a handwritten prayer on one side of the document. It seems that both the recipe and prayer were treasured possessions on board a potentially treacherous voyage, both used in markedly different ways to preserve bodily and spiritual health respectively."
https://blog.nationalarchives.gov…

The article continues:

"The unexplored miscellanea of the High Court of Admiralty records seems an unlikely place to find a recipe. Nestled amongst a collection of account books that were likely used as exhibits during a legal case involving the ship The Abraham of London (circa 1633–1637) is this recipe ‘to make syrup of marchmallows [marshmallows]’.

"Marshmallow syrup was commonly used in Early Modern England as an herbal panacea, easing stomach pains, coughs, colds, and rheumatism. The recipe calls for marshmallow plant, a white flower indigenous to Europe and North Africa. The plant’s virtues were praised in contemporary herbals and receipt books in both manuscript and print form. This recipe, written in a neat and legible hand, instructs the reader to boil the marshmallow plant in water, strain the liquor through a sieve, and then boil it with 1 lb. of sugar to form a sweet and sticky syrup.

"Hugh Plat’s 1607 broadside ‘Certain Philosophical Preparations of Food and Beverage for Sea-Men, in their Long Voyages’ advocates the mariner’s use of such ‘essences of spices and flowers … incorporated with syrups’ as approved medicines and antidotes for ailments arising at sea. Plat is aware of the value of sugar in such remedies, which makes the syrups ‘more pleasing to nature’ and ‘more familiarly taken’."

I wonder if the Navy used a cookery book? Somehow I doubt it. I bet Montagu's cook did, though.

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