Sue Nicholson
Articles
Sue Nicholson has written 10 articles:
- At home with Mr and Mrs Pepys (23 September 2011)
- The Garden at the Navy Office (2 March 2014)
- Sunday Lunch with Mr and Mrs Pepys (1 April 2014)
- The Invention of Improvement by Paul Slack (29 January 2016)
- Samuel Pepys: Plague, Fire, Revolution (9 February 2016)
- Samuel Pepys and the Stolen Diary by M J Lee (19 August 2016)
- Samuel Pepys and His Books by Kate Loveman (13 November 2016)
- Pepys’s Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-1689 by J. D. Davies (8 March 2018)
- The Closet by Danielle Bobker (18 June 2020)
- Samuel Pepys and the Strange Wrecking of the Gloucester by Nigel Pickford (13 November 2021)
Annotations and comments
Sue Nicholson has posted 37 annotations/comments since 17 November 2011.
The most recent first…
Comments
Second Reading
About Monday 27 May 1667
Sue Nicholson • Link
John Cade, according to the British Book Trade Index http://bbti.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/det…, was a Stationer, Map/ chart seller, Bookbinder and Bookseller with premises at the Royal Exchange, Cornhill. This was a very expensive folio Bible published by John Ogilby and lavishly illustrated with whole sheet engravings. It was presented to potential buyers unbound and they could then choose the materials and style of binding. Pepys favoured gilded lettering on the spine which would have added further to the cost. A (no doubt finely bound) copy was presented to King Charles II on his first coming to the Royal Chapel at Whitehall. It would have cost £25 in its unbound state, which may have more to do with Pepys' refusal than its size. See article: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/gatt/cata…
About At home with Mr and Mrs Pepys
Sue Nicholson • Link
Dear San Diego Sarah
This is not a picture of Pepys' Navy Office during the diary period. That burned down in 1673 and was rebuilt to a different orientation .The old office entrance was onto Seething Lane, while the new office, pictured in your link, oened onto Crutched Friars.
The old building was indeed rambling but never ramshackle.
About The BBC's 'A Concert For Samuel Pepys'
Sue Nicholson • Link
I was looking forward to the BBC Radio 4 programme but found it something of a disappointment. In addition to the concert, interviews had been recorded with authors Claire Tomalin ('Pepys the Unequalled Self') and Ben Long ('The Plot against Pepys') which were excellent in themselves but resulted in too much material for just one half-hour programme. The whole thing was chopped about so that no sooner had each piece of music begun, than it was quickly faded out in favour of the interviews. On the night I also saw members of the audience being interviewed, yet none of these featured in the final programme. A case of trying to get a quart into a pint pot ?
Morelli's music, recorded at St Olave's, is available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O…
About Sunday 27 March 1664
Sue Nicholson • Link
San Diego Sarah, a 'close' in this context is a field or piece of agricultural land surrounded by a hedge or wall. The son in question was around 20 years of age, I think.
About The BBC's 'A Concert For Samuel Pepys'
Sue Nicholson • Link
It was an atmospheric evening in St Olave's church, with Elizabeth's memorial bust looking down from her high perch above the altar and Pepys' Victorian image gazing morosely from the South wall where the Navy pew once stood. In the nave of Pepys "own church", an expectant audience gathered.
Lucie Skeaping gave an excellent commentary throughout, with lots of interesting background detail. Music scholar Dionysios Kyropoulos introduced his work: he had discovered four leather-bound volumes in the Pepys Library containing tablature for more than 100 songs in three sections; Light, Grave and Sacred and which he has rewritten in modern musical notation. The originals were mostly by Cesare Morelli, Pepys' personal musician employed from 1675 until 1682. Dionysios speculated that he would have been an intellectual companion for Pepys in the years after Elizabeth's death. (This friendship with an Italian catholic was to lead to difficulties however in the turmoil of the so-called "Popish Plot" of 1679 when Pepys was arrested and imprisoned for alleged Catholic sympathies.)
In total, eleven pieces including one by Pepys himself, were performed by Bass-baritone vocalist David Ireland with James Bramley on theorbo and Toby Carr on baroque guitar. Most were composed in "stilo representativo" where the music serves the text; no verse or chorus, simply an expressive tune to underpin the words. Pepys wrote the famous "Beauty Retire" in this style. He was so proud of this that he had himself painted by John Hayls, holding the score in his hand. I did think however that he would have been astounded to hear it performed in church in 2017.
The concert was a delight. It will be broadcast on Radio 4 on April 4th at 11.30am and will then be available on the Radio 4 website for a further 28 days. Not to be missed!
About Sunday Lunch with Mr and Mrs Pepys
Sue Nicholson • Link
Dear MN Graham Dukes,
You might be interested in Jeannine Kerwin's excellent In Depth Article, "A Voice for Elizabeth" which examines her background and her place in the diary.
Pepys was fluent in French himself so it seems reasonable to assume that Elizabeth, with her French background, was too. As for her accent...qui sais? She was of course born and brought up in England. Girls at this time didn't usually go to school, being educated (or not) at home by family and/ or tutors.
About Friday 11 September 1663
Sue Nicholson • Link
Griffith was the keeper of the gate into the Navy Office premises ( office, yards, garden and lodgings) keeping watch over the Seething Lane entrance. The gate which was left open and which the watchman had noted, was the back door to Pepys house, on Crutched Friars. There was a yard between the street and the house.
About Sunday 9 August 1663
Sue Nicholson • Link
"...the silver pen Mr Coventry did give me" Early reference to a fountain pen. I imagine it leaked, which would not have gone down well with fastidious Mr Pepys.
I note that it is "Mr" Coventry rather than "Sir William" so assume this is Henry, the elder brother. At this point in his career he was Groom of the Bedchamber:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen…
About Wednesday 1 April 1663
Sue Nicholson • Link
Re bedrooms at Seething Lane:
SPOILER. The clearest indication comes in the entry for 2nd March 1669 when Sam held the only major house party of the diary period. A large family gathering descended upon Seething Lane for one night only and Sam lists the various sleeping arrangements:
Cousin Pepys and his wife in our blue chamber
Cousin Turner, her sister and The. in our best chamber
Bab., Betty and Betty Turner in our own chamber
Myself and my wife in the maid’s bed which is very good
Our maids in the coachman’s bed
The coachman with the boy in his settle bed
And Tom where he uses to lie (in a little room off the Hall?)
About Sunday Lunch with Mr and Mrs Pepys
Sue Nicholson • Link
Saul, my apologies for not getting back to you before now; I don't often visit this page.
All the references for my research into Pepys' house are listed at the end of my in-depth article "At Home with Mr and Mrs Pepys". Thank-you for asking.
About Monday 9 March 1662/63
Sue Nicholson • Link
Hi Louise
If you'd like to read my "in-depth articles" on this website about Pepys' house and garden, I think that would answer your question.
Interesting reference today about the Lord Mayor requesting access through the garden entrance on Tower Hill. The map in my article on Pepys' garden shows where this entrance is, at the rear of the Navy Office site . Pepys used it once when he was being pursued by bailiffs.
About Thursday 16 February 1659/60
Sue Nicholson • Link
Assuming scallops were prepared and sold in the same measures as oysters, this link suggests that the "barrel" was only about 12 inches high. http://www.georgianlondon.com/a-p…
About Wednesday 15 February 1659/60
Sue Nicholson • Link
Phil
Just wanted to say thank-you for all your hard work in setting up the annotation facility again. I look forward to reading interesting and amusing posts from the Pepys community.
You are a brave man to take on this huge commitment and responsibility for a second time!
First Reading
About Sunday 30 May 1669
sue nicholson • Link
Pepys in later life became President of the Royal Society. People here might be interested in this link:
https://webspace.yale.edu/chem125…
About Sunday 30 May 1669
sue nicholson • Link
"Pepys's Later Diaries" ed CS Knighton, Pub. Sutton 2004.
Not a patch on the 1660-9 diary but gives you a sense of what happened next.
Claire Tomalin's biography and Sam's letters to John Evelyn are well worth a read and also give you a broader picture.
About What are your favourite diary moments?
sue nicholson • Link
Without a doubt the 6th May 1666 when Sam sat singing in the garden and all his neighbours opened their casement windows to listen.
About Sunday 16 May 1669
sue nicholson • Link
Dorothy, Navy Office Pew
The Navy Office had a separate pew at St Olave’s church across Seething Lane on the corner of Hart St. (19.8.60) “This morning Sir W Batten, Pen and myself went to church to the churchwardens, to demand a pew, which at present could not be given us, but we are resolved to have one built”.
The resulting addition to St Olave’s consisted of three pews in a gallery on the South side of the church with its own canopied entrance and external steps. The place where the door went through the wall is still visible but sadly no other trace of the pew remains.
There was a certain amount of jostling for precedence, another power struggle which Pepys was determined to win. On Easter Day, 30.3.62, Elizabeth sat in the pew in front of Sam “and by that means the precedence of the pew which my Lady Batten and her daughter takes, is confounded. And after sermon she and I did stay behind them in the pew and went out by ourselves a good while after them - which we judge a very fine project hereafter, to avoid contention.”
However Pepys himself was not above taking the rules of precedence seriously. On 24th August later that year, he was hoist with his own petard when Will Griffin the Office doorkeeper, and Tom Hewett a clerk, “got into the pew next to our backs where our mayds sit; but when I came they went out, so forward some people are to outrun themselves.”
About Roll Call. Say hello!
sue nicholson • Link
First started reading the L&M edition in 1997 (I was short of time and the format was appealing), finally finishing it in 2003. Then I started again at the beginning and so developed a bad Pepys habit! Got drawn in to reading about 17th century London and history of London in general (Tomalin, Ackroyd). Found this online version about 5 years ago when I was researching some ideas I had about Pepys' house.
Many thanks to all contributors (especially Terry Foreman) who have added so much to my understanding and of course Phil for his inspired creation and subsequent diligence in maintaining the site to the end of the diary; a huge achievement. Will be travelling down from Yorkshire with husband Rob for the walk/ lunch on 26th.
About Friday 14 May 1669
sue nicholson • Link
Swim-headed: Boat or barge with a flattened, square end (bow or stern) raked to overhang the water at an angle of about 45 degrees.
About Tuesday 27 April 1669
sue nicholson • Link
Legally, Tangier belonged personally to the King; part of his wife's dowry! A committee was set up to deal with the administration and Sam was made Treasurer of Tangier in 1665 so this isn't a Navy Office issue.
In 1683 Pepys visited Tangier in an official capacity... along with Henry Sheres!