Louise Hudson

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Louise Hudson has posted 502 annotations/comments since 9 November 2013.

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Third Reading

About Thursday 21 November 1661

Louise Hudson  •  Link

"it being the first afternoon that we have sat, which we are now to do always, so long as the Parliament sits, who this day have voted the King 120,000 l. 1 to be raised to pay his debts."

The more things change the more they stay the same,

About Thursday 10 October 1661

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Telling that he counts his sixth wedding night. Not THEIR sixth wedding anniversary but HIS sixth wedding night! Perhaps Elizabeth wasn't there.

About Tuesday 4 June 1661

Louise Hudson  •  Link

I like the phrase, “The houses did not like us.” I’ve been in many houses that didn’t like me! I know exactly what Pepys meant.

About Sunday 27 January 1660/61

Louise Hudson  •  Link

I suspect Elizabeth was suffering from endometriosis. She’s had continuous menstrual problems, according to Pepys. That would explain her menstrual pain and her inability to get pregnant. The condition was unidentified in the 1600s. There are treatments for it now, unheard of then.

About Tuesday 1 January 1660/61

Louise Hudson  •  Link

£300 in 1660 would be worth about $70,000 today.

A father could be much more cavalier about a dead child than a mother who would have been physically close to the child from birth. Fathers probably paid very little attention to babies and children until perhaps when they were ready for school, and then only sons.
Apparently it didn’t occur to Anthony to stay with the mother of their only child to comfort her in her grief.

About Monday 19 November 1660

Louise Hudson  •  Link

I suspect that Elizabeth didn’t trust the maid to handle boiling water right. Imagine what would happen if it boiled over. She was probably too anxious to sleep.

About Thursday 1 November 1660

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Footnote: “Pepys might well be anxious on this point, for in October of this year Phineas Pett, assistant master shipwright at Chatham, was dismissed from his post for having when a Child spoken disrespectfully of the King. See ante, August 23rd.”

I can’t make head or tail out of this footnote. Dismissed from his post for having what?

About Monday 15 October 1660

Louise Hudson  •  Link

For those unclear on what “hanged, drawn and quartered” consisted of:
“In one the victim was drawn by a horse to a gallows, hanged, and then cut into four pieces and scattered; in the other the victim was hanged, disemboweled while still alive (drawn), and then beheaded and dismembered. In both the victim was said to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.”Dictionary.com

Gruesome in either case. It’s good to know we’ve gotten past those particular practices.

About Sunday 30 September 1660

Louise Hudson  •  Link

“Foul” could have meant very messy with lumber everywhere.

If he really wanted to have prayers the household could have gathered in the nice kitchen. I suspect he welcomed the excuse.

About Tuesday 25 September 1660

Louise Hudson  •  Link

From what’s been discussed here regarding “brush” on the foot, it sounds to me like blisters one would get from a badly fitting shoe. “Brush” would fit the description.