Annotations and comments

Chris Squire UK has posted 896 annotations/comments since 16 February 2013.

Comments

Second Reading

About Sunday 10 January 1663/64

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . a mad, swearing, confident fellow, . . ’

‘confident, adj. and n. < Latin . .
. . 4. In bad sense: Over-bold, unduly self-reliant; forward, presumptuous, impudent. Obs.
. . 1664 S. Pepys Diary 6 July (1971) IV. 197 Mrs. Clerkes kinswoman sings very prettily, but is very confident in it.
1688 T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia iii. i. 48 Oh she's a Confident thing! . . ‘

About Friday 8 January 1663/64

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . his man is guilty of confederacy . .’

‘confederacy, n. < Anglo-Norman . .
. . 2. a. Condition or fact of being confederate: union for joint action, alliance. In a bad sense: . . collusion.
. .1641 Rastell's Termes de la Ley (new ed.) f. 73, Two were indicted of Confederacie.
1677 C. Hatton Corr. Family of Hatton (1878) I. 146 They were guilty of confederacy . . ‘
(OED)

About Wednesday 6 January 1663/64

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘It was a leather strop indeed,’

‘strop, n.1 < Old English? < Greek στρόϕος . .
. . 3. A strip of leather (or of a special textile), or a strip of wood covered with leather or other suitable material, used for sharpening a razor . .
1702 Post Man 3–5 Feb. 2/1 Strops for setting Razors, Pen-knives, &c. upon . . ‘ (OED)

About Tuesday 5 January 1663/64

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ .. . I shall over clogg myself with it . . ’

‘clog, v. < clog n. Known since 14th cent.; derivation obscure.
. . 3. a. fig. To load, burden, encumber, hamper.
. . 1618 E. Elton Complaint Sanctified Sinner vi. 115 Clogged with the yoke and burden of their sinnes . .
b. fig. To hinder, impede, obstruct (actions).
1679 R. South Serm. Several Occasions 56 The Devotion of men is apt to be clogged by such Ceremonies . . ‘
(OED)

About Thursday 31 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ' . . besides all my household stuff . . '

‘ . .< Old French estoffe . .
I. 1. . . g. Property, esp. movable property, household goods or utensils; furniture . . Obs. exc. in household stuff n. arch.
. . 1656 A. Cowley Davideis iii. 89 in Poems Some lead the groaning waggons, loaded high, With stuff, on top of which the Maidens ly.’

About Tuesday 29 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: "their discourse so free about clap and other foul discourse that I was weary of them."

‘clap, n.2 < Of uncertain origin. Compare Old French ‘clapoir . .
Obs. in polite use.
a. Gonorrhœa.
. . 1605 A. Montgomerie Flyting with Polwart 312 The clape and the canker.
1854 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860) 204/1 Clap, vulgar name for the disease Baptorrhœa . .

b. With a, and pl.
. . 1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 6 And truly so [circumcis'd] he was perhaps, Not as a Proselyte, but for Claps . . ‘
(OED)

About Sunday 27 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re copyright, wikipedia, etc.:

‘Wikipedia's textual content is copyright, but you may reuse it under the terms of our licensing requirements:

Most text in Wikipedia, excluding quotations, has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA) . . and can therefore be reused (provided) you release any derived work under (on the same terms). This requires that, among other things, you attribute the authors and allow others to freely copy your work . . '

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wik…

About Capt. Robert Holmes

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

' . . Holmes's command of the Jersey was also notable for its trial of two sea-going pendulum clocks, . . in search of a solution to the ‘longitude problem’. On his return, Holmes considerably overplayed the usefulness and accuracy of the clocks, though the voyage does represent the first sea trial of devices successfully developed in the following century . .

Holmes's (reputation) suffered . . , primarily because of his clashes with Pepys and his reputation as the begetter of two wars . . (He was) Undoubtedly brave and passionately loyal to his monarchs, despite propensities for quarrelling, exceeding orders, and self-aggrandizement . . ‘
(DNB)

About Sunday 27 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘ . . Holmes received . . instructions for another voyage to Guinea . . Ostensibly intended to protect the African Company's trade, the real purpose of the expedition was to disrupt that of the Dutch and to seize Dutch possessions on the Guinea coast. . .

On 21 January Holmes attacked Goree . . Sailing on to Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas, he took the 30-gun . . Walcheren on 28 March . . taking the Dutch fort of Anta . .

He . . took (several) Dutch positions along the Gold Coast before sailing for England on 16 June. The Jersey . . the Downs on the 27 December.

By the time of his return, a . . Dutch fleet under De Ruyter had retaken virtually all of his conquests, and, in turn, a large English fleet under Rupert was fitting out to oppose it. The African Company was baying for compensation . . and he was committed to the Tower . . his . . pardon came on 23 March (because) largely to his activities in Africa, England had gone to war with the Netherlands on 22 February.

Holmes's command of the Jersey was also notable for its trial of two sea-going pendulum clocks, . . in search of a solution to the ‘longitude problem’. On his return, Holmes considerably overplayed the usefulness and accuracy of the clocks, though the voyage does represent the first sea trial of devices successfully developed in the following century . .

Holmes's (reputation) suffered . . , primarily because of his clashes with Pepys and his reputation as the begetter of two wars . . (He was) Undoubtedly brave and passionately loyal to his monarchs, despite propensities for quarrelling, exceeding orders, and self-aggrandizement . . ‘
(DNB)

About Thursday 24 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . at home found my wife making mince pies, . .’

‘mince pie, n. < mince v. *
. .1. b. A pie or tart containing mincemeat** (see mincemeat n. 1b), usually one eaten during the Christmas season and also (in N. Amer.) at Thanksgiving. In Britain, the pies are now usually small, round covered tarts; elsewhere they are often traditionally larger.
. . 1662 S. Pepys Diary 6 Jan. (1970) III. 4 We have, besides a good chine of beef and other good cheer, eighteen mince-pies in a dish, the number of the years that he hath been married . . ‘

* ‘mince, v. < Anglo-Norman. .
1. trans. a. To cut up or grind (food, esp. meat) into very small pieces, now typically in a machine with revolving blades . . ‘

** ‘1.b. The mixture of currants, raisins, sugar, suet, apples, almonds, candied peel, spices, etc., and originally meat chopped small, typically baked in pastry, as in mince pies and other traditional Christmas dishes.
. . 1845 E. Acton Mod. Cookery xvi. 428 Mince Pies. Butter some tin pattypans well, and line them evenly with fine puff paste rolled thin; fill them with mincemeat [etc.].’

‘minced meat, n.
. .1. b. = mincemeat n. 1b8. Now rare.
1762 W. Gelleroy London Cook 236 Mix your minced meat and sweetmeats accordingly.’

(OED)

About Wednesday 23 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . I made up to the mourners . . ‘

‘to make up
I. . . 7. trans. To set out the items of (an account) in order; to add up and balance (an account).
. . 1616 Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. i. 142 Yet I can make my Awdit vp, that all From me do backe receiue the Flowre of all.
. . 1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. viii. 182 Who but an Atheist could think of leaving the World without having first made up his Account? ' (OED)

Same agreed with the professional mourners what services they had provided and the amount of the bill they would present after the funeral, ensuring there would be no hidden extras.

About Monday 21 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . I did go to Shoe Lane to see a cocke-fighting at a new pit there . . ’

‘cock-fight, n.
1. A fight between cocks; spec. a match in which cocks, usually armed with long steel spurs, are set to fight each other in a place called a ‘cock-pit’.
1565–6 Stat. Hartlebury, Worc. in N. Carlisle Endowed Gram. Sch. II. 759 The said Schoolmaster shall..have use and take the profits of all such cock-fights and potations as are commonly used in Schools.
. . 1854 H. Miller My Schools & Schoolmasters (1858) 49 The school, like almost all the other grammar-schools of the period [1815] in Scotland, had its yearly cock-fight.’ (OED)
………….
Cockfighting was banned in England and Wales by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835.

Much more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coc…

About Saturday 19 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . going down to Norfolke with the corps . . ’

‘corpse, n. < Middle English corps . . < Latin corpus body. In the 14th cent. the spelling of Old French cors was perverted after Latin to corps , and this fashion came also into English . . and became gradually . . the prevalent, and at length the ordinary form . . in French the p is a mere bad spelling, which has never affected the pronunciation. In English also, at first, the p was mute . . .

But apparently by the end of the 15th cent. . . the p began to be pronounced, and this became at length the ordinary practice; . . The spelling with final e, corpse . . was . . rare . . before the 19th cent., in which it has become the accepted form in the surviving sense 2, which is thus differentiated < corps n.1, used with French pronunciation in the military sense..

About Saturday 19 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . gave something to the boys’ box against Christmas. . . ‘
‘box, n.2 probably < classical Latin pyxis . . < Hellenistic Greek πυξίς box < ancient Greek πύξος box-tree . .
. . 5. Short for Christmas-box* n., q.v.
. . 1668 S. Pepys Diary 28 Dec. (1976) IX. 403 Called up by drums and trumpets; these things and boxes having cost me much money this Christmas.

* 1. A box, usually of earthenware, in which contributions of money were collected at Christmas, by apprentices, etc.; the box being broken when full, and the contents shared.
. . 1634 Bp. J. Hall Contempl. Hist. New Test. (STC 12640.5) 165 It is a shame, for a rich Christian to be like a Chistmas boxe, that receives all, and nothing can be got out, till it be broken in peeces.

About Friday 18 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘dram, n.1 . . < drachm, n. . . < Greek δραχμή, an Attic weight and coin, probably originally, ‘as much as one can hold in the hand’ . .
. . 3. . . (b) A small draught of cordial, stimulant, or spirituous liquor.
. . 1597 Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet v. i. 60 Giue me a dram of some such speeding geere.
. . 1682 J. Bunyan Holy War 242, I have a cordial of Mr. Forgetgoods making, the which, Sir, if you will take a dram of..it may make you bonny and blith . . ‘ (OED)
………..
Re: ‘I took water (taking a dram of the bottle at the waterside) with a gally,’; I read this as ‘I took TO THE water with a gally, drinking a dose from the bottle of ?physic I bought with me from home. . ’

About Thursday 17 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Sam has his own motive for seeing the escutcheon is done properly: to strengthen his own claim to gentry status. Though only the son of a tailor, he is already well educated and dressed, with an important job, in the money, and attended by a boy; and he carries a sword, even though he can have little skill in using it. Getting his claim to the Pepys arms confirmed so that he can put them on his silverware is the next step.

His connections: ‘ . . Although his immediate background was urban and modest, Pepys's family came from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, and he had landed connections there and in Huntingdonshire. Among these was his father's brother Robert, who owned an estate at Brampton which Pepys eventually inherited.

Of more immediate importance was the marriage of (his great-aunt) to Sir Sydney Montagu of Hinchingbrooke; their son Edward Mountagu (later earl of Sandwich) . . was the agent for Pepys's advancement into public service . . ‘ (DNB)

His second cousin, Richard (d. 1659), was knighted.

About Thursday 17 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘escutcheon, n. < Old Northern French . .
1. a. Heraldry. The shield or shield-shaped surface on which a coat of arms is depicted; also in wider sense, the shield with the armorial bearings; a sculptured or painted representation of this.
. . 1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. Pref. sig. a, The figures on the right hand each Escocheon, shewing what Armes belong to the Houses . .

Pronunciation: /ɛˈskʌtʃən/’ (OED)

About Monday 14 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . denial of pratique . . ’

‘pratique, n. < French . .
Permission granted to a ship to use a port after quarantine, or on showing a clean bill of health; a licence, letter, etc., granting this. Now also applied to aircraft. Also fig. Originally used esp. in connection with southern European ports.
. . 1663 S. Pepys Diary 14 Dec. (1971) IV. 418 To remove the inconveniences his ships are put to [at Leghorn] by denial of pratique—which is a thing that is nowadays made use of only as a cheat.
. . 1973 P. O'Brian HMS Surprise iii. 55 The pratique boat hailed, backing water and turning back down the harbour . . ‘ (OED)

About Friday 11 December 1663

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ' . . they agree upon a place where the toyle is to be set; . .

‘toil, n.2 < Middle French . .
1. A net or nets forming an enclosed area into which a hunted quarry is driven, or within which game is known to be.
†a. In sing. Obs.
. . 1604 Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 334 Why doe you goe about to recouer the wind of mee, as if you would driue me into a toyle ?
a1667 A. Cowley Agriculture in Wks. (1710) II. 722 He drives into a Toil the foaming Boar . . ‘