Phil Gyford

Articles

Phil Gyford has written four articles:

Annotations and comments

Phil Gyford has posted 773 annotations/comments since 27 December 2002.

Comments

First Reading

About Apologies for recent problems

Phil  •  Link

Good point Eric! I've moved all the comments referring to the 18th over to the correct (new) page. Hopefully it all makes sense still...

About Saturday 30 March 1661

Phil  •  Link

Just a gentle reminder... although the date on which work is completed isn't a crucial part of the "plot", most people here are reading along with no idea what's going to happen tomorrow, let alone further ahead.

So please be careful when mentioning anything that happens in the future, however mundane. If you really must mention future events, please begin your post with "SPOILER"! Thanks.

About Pell Mell

Phil  •  Link

[Originally posted to the Pall Mall page on 28 July 2003 by Pauline.]

Pell-mell Headlong; in reckless confusion. From the players of pallmall, who rush heedlessly to strike the ball. The "pall" is the ball (Italian, palla), and the "mall" is the mallet or bat (Italian, maglia; Latin, malleus). Sometimes the game is called "pall mall;" and sometimes the ground set apart for the game, as Pall Mall, London

Brewer: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Refer…

About Pell Mell

Phil  •  Link

[Originally posted to the Pall Mall page on 27 July 2003 by Grahamt.]

Paille Maille Translates as "straw nets".

About Pell Mell

Phil  •  Link

[Originally posted to the Pall Mall page on 27 July 2003 by Paul Miller.]

In seventeenth and eighteenth century France, mallet and ball games were quite popular and one of them, 'Paille Maille', was introduced to London where it was played in open ground near St. James's Palace. The are used for the pitch became known as 'The Mall' which is the famous London street that leads up to Buckingham Palace and this whole area became known as Pall Mall which is how that other well trodden thoroughfare obtained its name. The game was played on a huge strip of land, in this case about 1000 yards long and so was more like golf than Croquet - players took great swings at the balls in an effort to hoof them as far along the pitch as possible. The object was to finish by hoicking the ball through a raised hoop using a different spoon-like tool which was adapted more for accuracy and less for power like a putter in the game of Golf.

About Versions of the diary

Phil  •  Link

The most complete version of the diaries is only available in book form, by Robert Latham and William Matthews (often abbreviated to "L&M" on this site), published in the 1970s. There are nine volumes of the diary (with extensive footnotes), a companion volume of background information and an exhaustive index to the entire diary:

1660
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1661
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1662
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1663
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1664
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1665
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1666
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1667
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

1668-9
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

Companion
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

Index
UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obid…
US http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos…

About Versions of the diary

Phil  •  Link

The text used for this website comes from the 1893 edition of the diary edited by Henry B. Wheatley. This version of the diary is missing some passages and the few footnotes it contains are somewhat erratic and Victorian.

It is available free from Project Gutenberg as a single file (http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B… ) or broken down into smaller volumes:

1660: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B… (includes introduction)
1661: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1662: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1663: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1664: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1665: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1666: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1667: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1668: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…
1669: http://www.gutenberg.net/browse/B…

About Financial transactions

Phil  •  Link

The comment is by Nix, copied from the 29 Jan 1659/60 entry: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… ]

Some observations on money and credit:

In reading Pepys’ discussions of money, credit, “notes”, debts, wealth, etc., it is clear that the financial system under which he lives is drasticallly different from what we have now.

The important thing to remember is that financial transactions were not institutionalized: “Banks” were not large, impersonal institutions — they were individuals who made their living handling money for others.

Because there was no paper money, the only currency was metal coinage. This was highly inconvenient for transactions of any size, so a person purchasing something for, say, 20 l. would give a promissory note. The note could say “I will pay you this whenever you ask” — a demand note. The maker of the note was, at least theoretically, obliged to pay over in cash whenever the payee showed up at his home or place of business (they were quite often the same, particularly in the case of tradesmen). Or it could say “I will pay you this in 30 days” or 60 or six months or whatever.

The person to whom the note was offered as payment had to make the same sorts of judgments creditors make today: How confident am I that I can collect this debt? They didn’t have credit reports in those days, so the basis for the decision would include the reputation of the payor (if he was known), the appearance of the payor (that is one reason why clothing was viewed as so important), the address for payment (both as evidence of substance and to evaluate how far you’d have to go — how much trouble it would be to collect it), etc.

Having the paper, what was the creditor to do with it? He could retain it and try to collect it when it came due. But (a) collection was likely outside his “core competency”, as they say in business today, and (b) his capital was tied up until he could collect it. So the practice arose of “discounting” — essentially, selling the note to a third party for something less than face value. That passed the risk of non-collectability as well as the time delay on to the third party — the greater the perceived risk, the greater the discount from the face value. Offering cash for notes was one of the earliest functions of bankers, and you can still see its remnants: Your checks don’t say “Pay to Smith”, they say “Pay to the Order of Smith” — that is, Mr. Banker, please give the cash to whoever buys this note from Smith. And the indorsement on the back of the check is the way Jones shows the bank (and ultimately the court) that he did in fact buy the note from Smith.

Sorry to go on and on, but I hope this provides some clarification on these murky financial doings.

P.S. — A while back, people were asking about Pepys’ possible misuse of government funds. My impression is that, in those days, one of the perks of public office was that you had the use of funds from the time they were given to you until they had to be paid out. You were responsible for being sure they were there when they were needed, but in the meantime you could lend them out and earn some interest. That is, after all, what banks do even today.