The Greenwich Patriot

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The Greenwich Patriot has posted 13 annotations/comments since 4 September 2018.

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Third Reading

About Wednesday 5 June 1661

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In case Mary is still following, she might like to know that there is a Skittle (Bowling) Alley at the Old Royal Naval College Greenwich. Although installed rather later than Sam's time, it gives a good impression of what Slingby's alley might have been like. And sometimes - when no one else is around - the attendants let you have a go!

About Thursday 28 February 1660/61

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I'm pretty sure that the Rotherhithe "Halfway House" ( South of the river - not the Essex one) was demolished with building of the railway - 1834/35. But alas all my notes and references are in storage and I cannot get chapter and verse at the moment...

Second Reading

About The end of the second cycle

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To join with so many others to thank you Phil SO MUCH for the daily delight. And please could we have a third round - there is always so much more to discover on re-reading, and the annotations add even more.

About Monday 23 December 1667

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And to add my thanks, and send my best wishes to all for as good a Christmas as possible in the Current Circumstances, and a Happier and Healthy New Year.

About Wednesday 9 October 1667

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Coming late to the discussion about summerhouses and gazebos. Readers might be amused to learn of the one in Greenwich (on Crooms Hill) built in 1672, designed by Robert Hooke. It is in the garden of a house which Samuel Pepys is known to have visited. Erected to be able to look over the wall into Greenwich Park. Tempting to speculate about seventeenth century conversations on the subject...

About Friday 31 August 1666

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And if you want to see another library by a contemporary bibliophile, visit Dr Thomas Plume's Library in Maldon, Essex. He was Vicar of St Alfege Greenwich from 1658 to 1704, and his sermons were enjoyed by Pepys and Evelyn. He had his library built on a derelict church in Maldon (from 1698) and after his death in 1704 the books (more than 8,00 books and pamphlets) were taken, packed in barrels, from Greenwich and Rochester and placed on the shelves in the order they came out of the barrels. And remain in that order. Although a little later than Pepys's presses, the library gives a good idea of the books available at the time.

About Monday 22 January 1665/66

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To be fair, Greenwich and Deptford and Wricklemarsh (north and east of Blackheath) are all very close to each other, but certainly a day crammed with appointments. The time taken on the river to and from Depteford would vary according to the tide and the amount of rain (I don't think it had rained much recently).

About Sunday 10 December 1665

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Margaret Willes's book "The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn" explores the friendship between them, which really flourished later. And of course, Evelyn wrote that charming tribute in his diary when Pepys died.

About Monday 4 September 1665

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Combe Farm continued through the centuries, including being photographed on 11th August 1858. The farmhouse was eventually demolished in 1901.

Interesting that Pepys refers to Woolwich as "home" in this entry.

About Sunday 3 September 1665

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Or take the train (first passenger-carrying railway in London 1836 - 1838) from London Cannon Street or London Bridge, or even better do as Pepys did and travel by boat. A number of sites in Greenwich with Pepys connections.