Monday 12 September 1664

Up, and to my cozen Anthony Joyce’s, and there took leave of my aunt James, and both cozens, their wives, who are this day going down to my father’s by coach. I did give my Aunt 20s., to carry as a token to my mother, and 10s. to Pall.

Thence by coach to St. James’s, and there did our business as usual with the Duke; and saw him with great pleasure play with his little girle, —[Afterwards Queen Mary II.]— like an ordinary private father of a child.

Thence walked to Jervas’s, where I took Jane in the shop alone, and there heard of her, her master and mistress were going out. So I went away and came again half an hour after. In the meantime went to the Abbey, and there went in to see the tombs with great pleasure. Back again to Jane, and there upstairs and drank with her, and staid two hours with her kissing her, but nothing more. Anon took boat and by water to the Neat Houses over against Fox Hall to have seen Greatorex dive, which Jervas and his wife were gone to see, and there I found them (and did it the rather for a pretence for my having been so long at their house), but being disappointed of some necessaries to do it I staid not, but back to Jane, but she would not go out with me. So I to Mr. Creed’s lodgings, and with him walked up and down in the New Exchange, talking mightily of the convenience and necessity of a man’s wearing good clothes, and so after eating a messe of creame I took leave of him, he walking with me as far as Fleete Conduit, he offering me upon my request to put out some money for me into Backewell’s hands at 6 per cent. interest, which he seldom gives, which I will consider of, being doubtful of trusting any of these great dealers because of their mortality, but then the convenience of having one’s money, at an houre’s call is very great.

Thence to my uncle Wight’s, and there supped with my wife, having given them a brave barrel of oysters of Povy’s giving me.

So home and to bed.

35 Annotations

First Reading

Cum salis grano  •  Link

"...talking mightily of the convenience and necessity of a man's wearing good clothes,..."

Ah Ha! cloth maketh man or be it the man maketh [of] the cloth?

AutumnK  •  Link

Those are attractive terms: six percent interest and having one's money at an hour's call. I'd put my money in Mr. Backewell's hands.

cape henry  •  Link

This casts a light on Sam no one should want to be seen in, that of a desperate lech.

Cum salis grano  •  Link

"...Neat Houses over against Fox Hall..." along with
like she has neat's foot, not to be said of a female of the Homo Sapien's variety.

'Mens Neat Leather Shoes of the best common sort.'

Neat was the word of the time for bovine :
[could not find previous references using search]

noun[Cognate with Old Frisian n{amac}t, Middle Dutch (rare) noot (early modern Dutch noot: in the compound nootstal cowshed), Old Saxon n{omac}t- in the derivative n{omac}til (cf. -LE 1; Middle Low German n{omac}t-: in the compound n{omac}thof cattle farm), Old High German n{omac}z (Middle High German n{omac}z livestock, German regional (southern and Austria) Noß livestock, German regional (Swiss) Nooss young sheep or goat), Old Icelandic naut (cf. NOWT n.), Old Swedish nöt (Swedish nöt), Old Danish nøt (Danish (arch.) nød), prob. < an ablaut variant of the Germanic base of Old English n{emac}otan (see NAIT v.2). Cf. GENEAT n., NOTE n.1
Finnish nauta, Old Russian nuta, Church Slavonic nuta, all in sense 'cattle', prob. represent early borrowing from Germanic (although the latter may perh. be reflexes of a Slavonic formation from the same Indo-European base).]

I. Simple uses.

1. A bovine animal; an ox or bullock; a cow or heifer. Also fig.
Now rare exc. in compounds denoting items or products made from the skin, etc., of a neat: see neat hide, neatfoot oil, neat's skin, sense 3; NEAT'S FOOT n., NEAT'S LEATHER n.
[< NEAT n.1 + HOUSE n.1 Cf. Old Swedish nöthus (Swedish nöthus, Swedish regional nötse), Danish nøss (1533 or earlier), nødhus, Danish regional (East Jylland) nøds).
With the English regional (E. Anglian) forms listed above cf. the shortened forms in Swedish and Danish.]

1. Chiefly Eng. regional (E. Anglian). A house or shed in which cattle are kept.
2. In sing and pl. Usu. with capital initial. Originally: (the name of) a celebrated market garden near Chelsea Bridge in London. Later also: the locality of this market. Obs.
a1640 P. MASSINGER City-Madam (1658) III. i. 14 The Neathouse for Musk-mellons, and the Gardens Where we traffick for Asparagus.

1661 S. PEPYS Diary 19 Aug. (1970) II. 158 Among some trees near the neate-houses.

1851 Gentleman's Mag. 36 470/2 There is little doubt that, in a state of drunkenness, she [sc. Nell Gwyn's mother] fell into a ditch, near the Neat-houses, on the road to Chelsea.

jeannine  •  Link

"and there did our business as usual with the Duke; and saw him with great pleasure play with his little girle, --[Afterwards Queen Mary II.]-- like an ordinary private father of a child."

A historical spoiler thought -So sad that this father-daughter relationship will end so miserably.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"...to have seen Greatorex dive..."

Greatorex is a mathematician, but this phrase makes him seem like someone who should have been at Bart's Fair last week, doing feats of diving into a bucket or some such. So, what IS going on here? A transcription error? At the moment it reads as if one said: "I'm off to see Einstein juggle".

Terry F  •  Link

Fleete Conduit

An object of interest which once occupied a prominent position in the centre of Fleet Street was THE CONDUIT, near Shoe Lane. This conduit not only supplied water to this end of the thoroughfare, but formed a feature in most of those pageants which, from mediaeval times to the days of the Stuarts, were such picturesque additions to London's gaiety. When Anne Bullen went from the Tower to be crowned at Westminster, the Conduit poured forth wine instead of water, and was decorated and surmounted with angels ; when Philip of Spain came to England to wed Queen Mary, a pageant took place at the Conduit ; while it was pressed into a like service when Elizabeth passed through Fleet Street on her accession in 1558.

The Conduit is frequently mentioned, in contemporary records, not only in such august connections, but also as a landmark, and as a spot where civic proclamations were ordered to be exhibited. It appears to have begun to be re-edified by Sir William Eastfield, Lord Mayor, in 1439, and finished, as the result of certain directions left by Sir William to his executors, in 1471 ; but it dated from a much earlier period, as, in 1388, the residents in Fleet Street were empowered by the civic authorities to erect a penthouse as a protection over the pipes of the Conduit, then described as being " opposite to the house and tavern of John Walworth, vintner," in order to obviate the damage caused by the overflowing of the Conduit, " which," we are told, " frequently, through the breaking of the pipes thereof, rotted and damaged their houses and cellars, and the party walls thereof, as also their goods and wares, by the overflow there from."

Stow describes the Conduit as consisting of a stone tower, decorated with images of St. Christopher on the top, and angels round about, lower down, with sweet-sounding bells, which bells, by an engine placed in the tower, every hour " with hammers chymned such an hymne as was appointed."

In 1478, the inhabitants of Fleet Street obtained a licence to make at their own expense two cisterns, one of which was to be erected at this conduit or ` Standard,' as it was termed, and the other at Fleet Bridge. And a record, dated the same year, tells us how " a wex chandler in Flete Street, had bi crafte perced a pipe of the condit withynne the grounde and so conveied the water into his selar ; wherefore he was judged to ride through the citee with a condit uppon his hedde." The man's name, it appears, was Campion, and the " condit on his hedde " was a small model of the building. In 1582, the Conduit was again rebuilt, and a larger cistern placed by it ; but Sir Hugh Middleton's great New River scheme, inaugurated in 1618, obviated the further necessity of the Conduit,, which was probably taken down about this period or soon after.

In the Plan of London issued by Ryther of Amsterdam in 1604, we get an excellent view of the Conduit, which was a building of considerable size and importance.
http://www.oldandsold.com/article…

Terry F  •  Link

"to see Greatorex dive"

Greatorex, Ralph (died 1712?): London mathematical instrument maker and entrepreneur. Boyle refers to him in Workdiary 12, and in 13-40 and 14-4, and to his vitriol in 29-298. He is evidently also the 'Mr Gr.' or 'Mr G.' referred to in relation to the lead mines in Derbyshire in 19-7 and 21-518 (as also 21-396, 715, where he is described as an 'ingeneer'). In addition, he is almost certainly the 'Ingeneer' referred to in relation to diving [in a diving bell] in 21-394, since he had contacts with the Royal Society on such matters over the period 1664-1669, not least in connection with Tangier (cf. Thomas Birch, The History of the Royal Society (4 vols., London, 1756-7), i, 370, ii, 262, 363). This means that he may also be the 'Mr Gr' lately at Tangiers' in 21-714, hence explaining the side trip to Teneriffe about which he told Pepys. ( Pepys Diary, R. Latham and W. Matthews (eds), The Diary of Samuel Pepys(11 vols., London 1970-83), ii, p. 21).
http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/…

Cum salis grano  •  Link

Dive [very interesting, Susan] was an expression of action of Baptism immersion, as a noun ,, at a latter time.
Sso it dothe appear to be a first for the OED if it be a demonstration of the The diving bell of Boyles.

1660 BOYLE New. Exp. Phys. Mech. Digress. 375 Those that dive for Pearles in the West Indies.

GrahamT  •  Link

Re: Neat.
CSG's memory must be going: he says "could not find previous references ..."
Well there are encyclopedia references for neats' tongue and neats' foot and diary entries as follows -
1660 Jan: 26, Dec: 6
1661 Jan: 1, Apr: 9, Nov: 6
1662 Mar: 26
1663 Apr: 23
1664 Jul: 6 (only 2 months ago)

PJK  •  Link

Diving
According to:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/Boyle/teache…
The Earl of Sandwich dived in the West Indies and Robert Boyle quizzed him about the experience as he (Boyle) collected information for his studies into the effects of pressure on gases (Boyles Law).

It surprised me even to find that a submarine had visited the Thames by this date (and, what's more, Dutch a one): http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/sp…

PJK  •  Link

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyles Work diaries can be found at:
http://www.livesandletters.ac.uk/…
Unfortunately he did not date them all but many will be roughly contemporaneous with Pepys. (The transcriptions are more readable in Internet Exporer than Firefox)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Indeed as to submarines, the Dutch inventor Cornelius Van Drebbel had even developed a method of fixing carbon dioxide along with a form of snorkel allowing survival of a crew under water for a few hours. Would be interesting to know how Greatorex made out with his exploration, it must have been extremely risky, it being difficult to assure easy lowering and rapid raising of his diving bell.

Bit sad that Sam, once on fire to see all the latest "toys" and a friend of Greatorex, is merely using the event to cover his rendezvous. Jane Welch must have been quite intriguing as well as highly skilled at fending her superiors off.

At least Sam at this point seems willing to take No for an answer.

PJK  •  Link

Correction:
Sorry, but as the source shows, Sandwich dived of Africa, not West Indies.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

to have seen Greatorex dive...but being disappointed of some necessaries to do it I staid not

As I read it, G. was "disappointed of some necessaries" (i.e., not prepared) and so the dive was delayed. Sam's inner dialogue probably ran along the lines of "There's Jervas and his wife. Good! Now I won't be suspected of dallying with Jane. Oh! The dive is postponed but the crowd is staying. Good! Now I can safely return to Jane." (And resume our duet, "La ci darem la mano, la mi dirai di si.... Vorrei, e non vorrei, mi trema un poco il cor.") When its Mozart, this desperate leching has its graceful moments.

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

graceful moments

Even when the predictable outcome is an expense of spirit in a waste of shame.

C.J.Darby  •  Link

No mention of breakfast,does he ever mention breakfast? A few drinks with Jane, a messe of cream and some pickled oysters, our hero most have a robust digestive system of to take in these assorted treats in a matter of hours. Maybe I have not been paying sufficient attention but this lack of a regular breakfast bothers me.

language hat  •  Link

There have been many references to breakfast. Use the search box at the upper right and you will be taken to a list of them.

JWB  •  Link

Diving

Experiments underwater the result of Boyle's development of the air pump. Greatorex was for a time his lab assistant. One note of interest, Boyle raised & lowered air pressure on small animals & observed an air bubble in the eye of a snake-the first indication of the "bends". For a view of Boyle's lab goto: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/Thorbu…

Bradford  •  Link

"went in to see the tombs with great pleasure. Back again to Jane, and . . . staid two hours with her kissing her": the old, old juxtaposition:

"What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?" (Browning's "Toccata"---a touch-piece!)

"saw him with great pleasure play with his little girle, ---- like an ordinary private father of a child."
Is there a royal way to play with your kids?

PJK  •  Link

Other notebooks of the time (Robert Hooke's) are available at: http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Entries for 1664 are pretty slim but...

March. 9 1664:
The exp(eriment)t of shutting up a bird in condensd air was
tryd againe wth this successe,that the air being compressed to half the space & double the quantity of air being forced into the cavity of the Engine the Bird seemd to be pretty well in it having continued in it therein from twelve of the clock till about 4 in the afternoon of that....
...Mr. Hooke produced his Leaden boxes for furnishing of air by a couple of pipes whilst the Diver comes out of a bell or tub, & walks up & down working. which air being spent the Diver returnes againe to the Bell or tub for a fresh supply. Orderd that the expt. be made under water wth. those boxes. & that mr. Evelyn enquire after the Diver about Deptford for this purpose.

(This is not necessarily the experiment/display that Sam went to see).

and later (but off topic)...

By playing at tennis/ his majesty weighing lighter 2lb. 3oz
Restored by drinking 2 draughts after playing.

How true...

Cum salis grano  •  Link

"Is there a royal way to play with your kids?"
Yes there be :
Rule 1: Child seen and not be heard:
Rule 2: Stand still.
Rule 3: Nanny remove child to the Nursery.

John Eure  •  Link

Terry F - Thank you for the fascinating link to information about Fleet Street.

Cactus Wren  •  Link

"...talking mightily of the convenience and necessity of a man's wearing good clothes..."
I said it, back at the entry for 4 September -- unload the clothes you don't wear, and it give you a wonderful opportunity to BUY CLOTHES.
("Convenience and necessity". Must remember that phrase.)

Nix  •  Link

Breakfast --

Samuel also has referred many times to taking his "morning draught", which I have understood to be a liquid (fermented or distilled) morning meal.

Cum grano salis  •  Link

Quote of the day "As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria."
So Samuell would be safe, to have his morning draught,
tis stange that we be saved from our not knowings.

jeannine  •  Link

"Journal of the Earl of Sandwich" edited by R.C. Anderson

12th. Monday. At 4 oclock afternoon anchored off the Isle of Wight, the white cliffs called Swan-Cliff a league off N.W. 41º 40', Dunnose due West or N.W. 88º 00'.

This noon was exactly the equinox and we saw the sun set and observed him [with] the azimuth compass, by which the sun set about one degree to northward of the west. Therefore the variation of the compass should be Iº 00' westwardly.

The tide of ebb ran E.N.E. northerly. We made one sit at the top-masthead, and when the body of the sun was quite immersed from us on the quarter deck he on the top-masthead saw it for one minute of time longer.

Cum grano salis  •  Link

"...he on the top-masthead saw it for one minute of time longer...."

so how tall be the mast?

Pedro  •  Link

so how tall be the mast?

Come on Mr Salis, you'll have us up all night! Do we have to show all the calculations?

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"he offering me upon my request to put out some money for me into Backewell’s hands at 6 per cent. interest, which he seldom gives, which I will consider of, being doubtful of trusting any of these great dealers because of their mortality, but then the convenience of having one’s money, at an houre’s call is very great."

Pepys now had ca. £1000 in his house: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… Nothing came of this proposal, but in 1666 he deposited £2000 at Vyner's: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… He continued, however, to keep large sums of cash in his study. Even substantial merchants did the same. Certainly bankers were often broken -- Pepys at 6 July 1665 reports a run on Backwell caused by his going abroad. The 6% here mentioned was the maximum statutory rate of interest fixed by an act of 1660. In 1666 Vyner allowed Pepys 7% for money recoverable at will. (Per L&M footnote)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"I did give my Aunt 20s., to carry as a token to my mother, and 10s. to Pall."

Sam has mentioned a couple of times that this number of people descending on Brampton will be expensive for his father, so this might be his contribution. In which case, why send the money to his mother and sister? Probably makes no difference; money in is money in.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to the Neat Houses over against Fox Hall to have seen Greatorex dive"

Several experiments with diving bells under the auspices of the Royal Society were made. In July 1661 the society's amanuensis stayed under water for 28 minutes in a bell let down in the river at Deptford; Birch, i. 35; Evelyn, 19 July. James Maule and Robert Hooke are mentioned at about this time in the RS minutes as inventors of apparatus, but not Greatorex: Birch, i. 399-400, 422, 425, 431, 433. Both diving-bells and diving-suits had been known in England since the late 16th century: Oppenheim, M.: "A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy and of Merchant Shipping in Relation to the Royal Navy. 1509-1660." London, 1896. [Search for diving-bell, etc.] https://books.google.com/books?id… (Per L&M note)

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.