Sasha Clarkson

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Sasha Clarkson has posted 752 annotations/comments since 16 February 2013.

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Second Reading

About Friday 25 March 1664

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Thank you all - especially Terry - for the considerable research and links for today's entry :)

I wondered whether the 'Presbyter John' reference had something to do with the 'Prester John' myth, of a Christian theocrat ruling a mysterious kingdom somewhere in Asia (or possibly Africa). This was part of the background to Umberto Ecco's novel, Baudolino.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre…

About Thursday 24 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Who owned the Pepys house in Fleet St/Salisbury Court?

We now know that John Sr had a lease on the property from its landlord, Edward Franke, and would go on to sub-let it. A leaseholder has more rights - and obligations - than a mere tenant.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

The area was rebuilt after the Great Fire, but it's worth a look on Google Street View. Pepys was brought up right next to St Bride's Church.

About Monday 21 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"I will remember his carriage to me in this particular the longest day I live."

SPOILER: Sam does look after young John of course - up to a point. After the diary is over, when Pepys, has been promoted to be Secretary of the Admiralty, John is appointed his successor as Clerk of the Acts, but only jointly with Tom Hayter who, one suspects did more of the work, Hayter's performance was good enough to ensure significant further promotion.

About Friday 18 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I wonder how the mulled wine was heated? Gently in a cauldron with a lid on I suppose (to stop too much loss of alcohol). There were rather a lot of people for it to be practical to use the red-hot-poker/mulling-iron method.

And *after* heating, they may have added some brandy! :)

About Friday 18 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"I had real grief for a while .... and ever since, I have had very little grief..."

Here Sam's honesty is invaluable - and typical of the man. The human psyche has defence mechanisms which help us to continue to function when we are in a state of shock. At a funeral, some next of kin arrive at a point of emotional exhaustion and numbness, when they can feel no more. (Some may then start faking it out of guilt - or grief for the grief they've lost.) Making arrangements is itself therapeutic to hide the numbness and feeling of emptiness. When the funeral is over, those really close to the deceased can grieve in peace and quiet, without the attention of the madding crowd.

About Friday 18 March 1663/64

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Consecration is a ritual to declare something holy, performed by a priest or initiate of that religion. In countries with an established religion, consecration may have a legal status. The consecrated object. eg land, icon, water etc is then effectively becomes a religious fetish (in anthropological terms).

Quakers do not perform religious rituals of this nature, and therefore graveyards next to Meeting Houses are not consecrated ground as such, although they will be regarded with respect and perhaps reverence.

About Tuesday 15 March 1663/64

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Mrs Turner had been saying since Jaunuary that Tom was dying; Sam has been in a bit of denial, hence his final shock. What's clear in retrospect is that Tom was suffering from "consumption": symptoms akin to those of pulmonary tuberculosis. Whether it was caused by the tuberculosis bacillus is something we will never know, although it seems likely.

TB often, but not always, runs through families, as with the Brontës, and may also be a secondary infection if something else has weakened the immune system. My father's elder brother died of "galloping consumption" at the age of 16, in 1928. He'd gone to work in the Dorman Long blast furnaces at the age of 12, so whether it was an infection which killed him, or the fumes had wrecked his lungs, or both, we don't know. No-one else in the family had TB, although, in the same year, his younger sister had already died of heart failure following rheumatic fever.

In the Soviet Union, my mother's aunt contracted TB in 1920, but it affected her spine rather than her lungs. She'd just graduated as a pianist and singer from the Kiev Conservatoire, and as she spent the next three years in bed, and several years more wearing a special corset/back brace, that put an end to her musical career. She eventually became an analytical chemist instead and, after many "adventures", died in California aged almost 92.

About Sunday 13 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Re "want" in the sense of "need", and not "desire"; it's still used that way today, especially in north Britain. I remember my grandmother: "you want a haircut!"

About Sunday 13 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Yet again, we are having sanctimonious judgements about what Pepys does or does not write down about feelings he may or may not have regarding his brother.

(1) One can choose one's friends, but not one's family.
IF you are lucky enough to feel close to your blood relations, that's a real bonus, but just because people are closely related, doesn't mean they are close in human terms. I have seen lots of hatred, indifference and, most often, very mixed feelings within families. It's hardly surprising, because the blood bond ties many people together who would very likely not choose to be acquainted otherwise. In the end, you feel what you feel and, to a private diary, why should you pretend?

(2) Even if you are close, if you know you are going to be either arranging the funeral and sorting out the estate, OR arranging care and managing someone's affairs, the worry of how the **** you are going to cope may well eclipse finer feelings, especially if you have an employer to please too.

My only conclusion is that people in Pepys' day weren't all that different to people today.

About Wednesday 9 March 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"how long does it take Charles II to go through £400 ..."

Not long, I 'doubt', but £400 is almost the whole of the official salary of the Clerk of the Acts. Whatever kickbacks Pepys may receive, he's certainly good value for the Crown.

About Monday 29 February 1663/64

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"He showed me a very excellent argument to prove, that our importing lesse than we export, do not impoverish the kingdom, according to the received opinion:"

A positive trade balance, as we would regard it today, would increase the bullion of a country, but decrease the goods. It seems that some at the time thought this would impoverish a country. In these days of largely free trade, and floating exchange rates, the currency would move higher thus making imports cheaper and exports dearer, thus tending to correct the imbalance. However, the recent and ongoing Eurozone crisis is a partly a result of exchange rate rigidity, combined with too-low remuneration in Germany leading to a net export of currency in the form of loans (now gone bad), as well as goods. So, as Prof Simon Wren-Lewis of Oxford pointed out yesterday, the debate discussed by Pepys and Warwick is still relevant today.

https://twitter.com/sjwrenlewis/s…

In Pepys' day policies were more mercantilist, so a surplus of bullion would lead either to domestic inflation and/or, in the case of a highly taxed country like France, the ability of the ruler to bribe foreign governments, as Louis XIV did with, say, the secret Treaty Of Dover.

It's worth pointing out that England did *not* at this time have a surplus of bullion: au contraire. Though this might have been a consequence of the money supply not being able to keep up with increased trade. This has been a problem with currencies based on rare metals several times in history. In the American colonies, it led to tobacco based currencies in the eighteenth century. Later, in the US, a similar problem inspired William Jennings Bryan's famous speech with the phrase "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cro…

Those interested in the economics should read John Maynard Keynes' very well written collection 'Essays in Persuasion'.

About Sunday 28 February 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"Because the boy is articulate and witty..."
Is it prejudice or experience? I taught in a large comprehensive school with a wide catchment area. The character of the area ranged from small town to extremely rural farming communities. At the age of eleven, it was easy to tell the difference between the country and the town kids. Growing up playing with your neighbours in the street hones banter in a way that growing up on a farm doesn't. It's a matter of environment, not innate intelligence. It's not for nothing that our language includes the term "street-wise".

Sam may be a city boy, but he has spent part of his youth in the country, and thus has experience of both worlds.

About Friday 26 February 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Elizabeth's advice translated: "You're not M'Lord's servant any more Sam, don't spend your time gossiping in the servants' quarters, and don't be seen doing it; it's not good for your image!"

It makes me think of Prince Hal's speech from Henry IV part 2

"Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn’d away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company."

http://www.shakespeareforalltime.…

About Tuesday 23 February 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"I pray God give me a heart to fear a fall, and to prepare for it!"

Well - wor Sammie has many faults, but hubris doesn't appear to be one of them. :D

About Saturday 20 February 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

News of ships' arrival and departure was one of the more important topics of the gossip in the 'Change. The foreunner of the newspaper 'Lloyd's List', would make its first appearance around 1690, published by the eponymous owner of the famous coffee house nearby. Eventually, until 2013 when it moved to digital format, it became a daily publication available throughout the UK. Amongst other news it recorded the arrival and departure of ships in British ports.

In my own home town of Middlesbrough Lloyd's List was prominently displayed by newsagents in the port area, and in some of the poorer areas of the town. As grubby-minded schoolchildren we believed that it was popular with "ladies of negotiable affection" who were interested in ships' arrivals for business purposes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llo…'s_List

About Wednesday 17 February 1663/64

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Long Acre: "It could not be that bad, me thinks..."

A feature of Cities is great wealth living in fairly close proximity to great poverty. Long Acre runs about half a kilometer long, from Great Queen St to St Martin's Lane. That's plenty long enough to have fashionable and unfashionable ends, or even two fashionable ends and an unfashionable middle. In those days, before the construction of Kingsway, Great Queen Street ran 350 metres or so (5 minute's walk) from Long Acre to Lincoln's Inn Fields, where M'Lords expensive new lodgings were situated. Great Queen Street itself began very well-to-do, with houses with 40 foot frontages, and still has some echoes of its former glories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gre…

It's worth looking at the area on Google Maps, and taking a virtual walk around with Street View :)