Speaking of "walking on the roof"' I have come to doubt that walking on the lead(s) means that. A "lead" is also the path that leads from the street to the house. This would make more sense than walking on the roof! Most roofs were steeply pitched in the 1600s and walking on the roof seems very odd in any case. Is it possible that a lead did not mean the roof but a path to the house?
Everyone knows that servants are not people. They are, well, servants, hardly of any value at all. They were to be unseen and unheard, in other words, not present at all.
For a man who goes to church nearly every Sunday, sometimes twice, Sam doesn't seem to have taken in much when it comes to Christian morality, especially adultery, yet there it is in black and white, in the 10 Commandments along with the one about coveting one's neighbor's wife. But, of course, the maids were not married, so were fair game. Perhaps he and his cohorts had defined adultery as taking a married woman and it was not adultery if she wasn't married. I suppose they didn't think it could be adultery if it didn't involve taking another man's "property." He, along with most men in his time, believed any poor, unmarried girl was fair game--a gift to men from God. As for his concern that he might be refused, I think it had more to do with his wife finding out if the girl was uninterested and might take revenge. I don't have much respect for Sam's morals, even if he was only doing what other men like him were doing. Going to church was apparently just for show and to look like a respectable man to his superiors, not for any religious lessons. I shake my head in despair, but men's attitudes haven't changed much to this day. Just the laws have changed after centuries of resistance by men like Pepys. At least we have that.
I think we may forget how young Pepys' wife was. Though they were married for 7 years she was only 22 in 1662 when this diary entry was written. She was still a young girl. She should have been "merry", especially when she was out with people close to her age.
Worms in fish won't kill you. There are worms in fish even today and we've all probably feasted on them. Preservation methods being so primitive in Pepys' time would have meant most fish were infested. Rather than pickling, per se, fish were probably brined with salt--though not long enough on the day sturgeon was placed before Pepys.
The refrigerator was, no doubt, a matter of simultaneous invention, like the typewriter. Everyone on earth needed to preserve food and everyone needed a reliable way to do it. Someone, somewhere was bound to come up with mechanical refrigeration sooner or later. The person(s) who got it going would have been the one(s) who got the credit, which has happened with most inventions (of which necessity is always the mother).
Although the London Foundling Hospital was not established until 1741, it provides a look into how abandoned babies were cared for in those years (not too well, of course). It is open to the public and is well worth a trip. It's at Brunswick Square. It's a view of history we don't often get--the history of the common people who struggled to survive in crushing poverty.
"To church, and heard a good sermon of Mr. Woodcocke’s at our church; only in his latter prayer for a woman in childbed, he prayed that God would deliver her from the hereditary curse of child-bearing . . ."
Of course, being a man, Mr. Woodcocke himself would never think that he (or any man) was able to deliver his wife from the "hereditary curse of childbearing." It was apparently all God's doing and had nothing to do with human males.
Her position at Court was Lady of the Bedchamber--a ftting position. She had one child, supposedly but not definitely by her husband, Lord Palmer, before her liaison with the King and five more whom the King acknowledged as his. She remained married to Lord Palmer.
Serafina and Mary, notice he said his wife is shopping for a gown for him, not herself--probably some sort of nightshirt for wearing to bed, or a dressing gown.
". . .but there rather appeared the symptoms of an universal face of Sadness in that vast and generally tumultuous Assembly, who were the Spectators of their several Deaths."
"So to the office, then home to dinner . . "
Seeing three human beings hanged and quartered doesn't seem to have created "a face of sadness" on Sam nor did it have had any apparent negative effect on his appetite--nor his conscience. Just another bit of pleasant entertainment to round out the day.
Sam doesn't draw the line at beating boys. He has also beaten female servants and written about it in his diary. . I wonder if he beats Elzabeth, there being no law or custom against it. I doubt he'd mention it in his diary, though. I wonder if he could be beaten by his superiors for supposed lapses. Beatings of social inferiors seemed to be common and accepted in Sam's day and continued well into the 20th century. I'd rather think Sam was above that, but apparently not.
"Being weary last night I lay very long in bed to-day, talking with my wife, and persuaded her to go to Brampton, and take Sarah with her, next week, to cure her ague by change of ayre, and we agreed all things therein.
"So home and walked upon the leads with my wife, and whether she suspected anything or no I know not, but she is quite off of her going to Brampton, which something troubles me, and yet all my design was that I might the freer go to Portsmouth when the rest go to pay off the yards there, which will be very shortly. But I will get off if I can."
Does that not sound like manipulation by Sam to you? I see no evidence of Elizabeth doing any manipulating. She merely suggested she might not go and it sent Sam into a tailspin.
Comments
Second Reading
About Monday 11 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Speaking of "walking on the roof"' I have come to doubt that walking on the lead(s) means that. A "lead" is also the path that leads from the street to the house. This would make more sense than walking on the roof! Most roofs were steeply pitched in the 1600s and walking on the roof seems very odd in any case. Is it possible that a lead did not mean the roof but a path to the house?
About Monday 11 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Everyone knows that servants are not people. They are, well, servants, hardly of any value at all. They were to be unseen and unheard, in other words, not present at all.
About Wednesday 6 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
The question should be, Is Sam a man or a mouse?
A rat, I think, judging by his plans for his "wench." He should be shut up in a desk.
About Friday 1 August 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
For a man who goes to church nearly every Sunday, sometimes twice, Sam doesn't seem to have taken in much when it comes to Christian morality, especially adultery, yet there it is in black and white, in the 10 Commandments along with the one about coveting one's neighbor's wife. But, of course, the maids were not married, so were fair game. Perhaps he and his cohorts had defined adultery as taking a married woman and it was not adultery if she wasn't married. I suppose they didn't think it could be adultery if it didn't involve taking another man's "property." He, along with most men in his time, believed any poor, unmarried girl was fair game--a gift to men from God. As for his concern that he might be refused, I think it had more to do with his wife finding out if the girl was uninterested and might take revenge. I don't have much respect for Sam's morals, even if he was only doing what other men like him were doing. Going to church was apparently just for show and to look like a respectable man to his superiors, not for any religious lessons. I shake my head in despair, but men's attitudes haven't changed much to this day. Just the laws have changed after centuries of resistance by men like Pepys. At least we have that.
About Friday 18 July 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"My" dining room . . . "my" house. I guess Beth is a guest or, worse, the help.
I know, I know, a different time, but still . . .
About Tuesday 15 July 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
I think we may forget how young Pepys' wife was. Though they were married for 7 years she was only 22 in 1662 when this diary entry was written. She was still a young girl. She should have been "merry", especially when she was out with people close to her age.
About Saturday 12 July 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
I won't soon forget Maggie Smith on Downton Abbey, asking whitheringly, "What is a week-end?" And that was supposed to be in the 20th century.
About Thursday 26 June 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Worms in fish won't kill you. There are worms in fish even today and we've all probably feasted on them. Preservation methods being so primitive in Pepys' time would have meant most fish were infested. Rather than pickling, per se, fish were probably brined with salt--though not long enough on the day sturgeon was placed before Pepys.
The refrigerator was, no doubt, a matter of simultaneous invention, like the typewriter. Everyone on earth needed to preserve food and everyone needed a reliable way to do it. Someone, somewhere was bound to come up with mechanical refrigeration sooner or later. The person(s) who got it going would have been the one(s) who got the credit, which has happened with most inventions (of which necessity is always the mother).
About Sunday 22 June 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Although the London Foundling Hospital was not established until 1741, it provides a look into how abandoned babies were cared for in those years (not too well, of course). It is open to the public and is well worth a trip. It's at Brunswick Square. It's a view of history we don't often get--the history of the common people who struggled to survive in crushing poverty.
About Monday 26 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
One pound in 1666 would be worth approximately 125L today so his Lord would be in debt for some 275,000L by today's value of a pound.
Hardly a drop in the bucket.
http://epsomandewellhistoryexplor…
About Sunday 25 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"To church, and heard a good sermon of Mr. Woodcocke’s at our church; only in his latter prayer for a woman in childbed, he prayed that God would deliver her from the hereditary curse of child-bearing . . ."
Of course, being a man, Mr. Woodcocke himself would never think that he (or any man) was able to deliver his wife from the "hereditary curse of childbearing." It was apparently all God's doing and had nothing to do with human males.
About Monday 19 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"Long in bed, sometimes scolding with my wife, "
Probably bickering, as married couples are wont to do.
"and walked and eat some cheesecake and gammon of bacon, but when I was come home I was sick, forced to vomit it up again."
Cheesecake and bacon, no wonder he was sick.
"So my wife walking and singing upon the leads till very late, it being pleasant and moonshine."
Liz apparently got over any annoyance at the "scolding" or bickering. Maybe she thought his being sick served him right.
About Saturday 10 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Her position at Court was Lady of the Bedchamber--a ftting position. She had one child, supposedly but not definitely by her husband, Lord Palmer, before her liaison with the King and five more whom the King acknowledged as his. She remained married to Lord Palmer.
Interesting article here:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba…
About Monday 5 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Yes. Few women would go on a shopping trip for one thing at a time, then or now.
About Monday 5 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Serafina and Mary, notice he said his wife is shopping for a gown for him, not herself--probably some sort of nightshirt for wearing to bed, or a dressing gown.
About Saturday 3 May 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"So to supper and to bed, it being exceeding hot."
Probably all of 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
About Sunday 27 April 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Just as well Sam wouldn't take Elizabeth along. The bed would have been crowded with the doctor in it.
About Saturday 19 April 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
". . .but there rather appeared the symptoms of an universal face of Sadness in that vast and generally tumultuous Assembly, who were the Spectators of their several Deaths."
"So to the office, then home to dinner . . "
Seeing three human beings hanged and quartered doesn't seem to have created "a face of sadness" on Sam nor did it have had any apparent negative effect on his appetite--nor his conscience. Just another bit of pleasant entertainment to round out the day.
About Friday 18 April 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
Sam doesn't draw the line at beating boys. He has also beaten female servants and written about it in his diary. . I wonder if he beats Elzabeth, there being no law or custom against it. I doubt he'd mention it in his diary, though. I wonder if he could be beaten by his superiors for supposed lapses. Beatings of social inferiors seemed to be common and accepted in Sam's day and continued well into the 20th century. I'd rather think Sam was above that, but apparently not.
About Monday 14 April 1662
Louise Hudson • Link
"Being weary last night I lay very long in bed to-day, talking with my wife, and persuaded her to go to Brampton, and take Sarah with her, next week, to cure her ague by change of ayre, and we agreed all things therein.
"So home and walked upon the leads with my wife, and whether she suspected anything or no I know not, but she is quite off of her going to Brampton, which something troubles me, and yet all my design was that I might the freer go to Portsmouth when the rest go to pay off the yards there, which will be very shortly. But I will get off if I can."
Does that not sound like manipulation by Sam to you? I see no evidence of Elizabeth doing any manipulating. She merely suggested she might not go and it sent Sam into a tailspin.