Sasha Clarkson

Annotations and comments

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

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Second Reading

About Monday 11 August 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Anyone who has ever been to the hamlet of Chop Gate, or more likely passed through it, would find it very difficult to imagine trading activity of any significance taking place there! This does not mean that proposed etymology of the name is incorrect, just that times have changed!

About Sunday 10 August 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sir William died childless, it was Jane's descendants, via her son Charles, who inherited his vast loot, and administration of his considerable charitable bequests.

About Saturday 9 August 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

To clarify regarding the calendar: today would be 19th August in the Gregorian calendar; therefore sunrise would be around 04:51 GMT. Daylight saving time was not observed in Sam's day. Hence Sam is getting up in the twilight before dawn.

http://sunrisesunsetmap.com/

About Tuesday 29 July 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

At times Pepys called Batten a "knave", but unlike Penn, never "base".

BTW "knave" is a good word, deriving from the German "Knabe" (boy). It's use wasn't always derogatory. Knave was also the commonly used word for "Jack" in a pack of cards, immortalised in Lewis Carrol's poem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The…

About Saturday 5 July 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

“... Sir W. Pen, who I hate with all my heart for his base treacherous tricks, but yet I think it not policy to declare it yet ...”

Sam is thinking in the Japanese way!

“.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.” (James Clavell, Shōgun)

About Monday 30 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Thanks as ever for your informed and insightful comments Jeannine! :)

The Carterets and the Sandwiches grow closer: this is in Sam's interest, as one is his patron, and the other is his boss. In view of recent disagreements, it does no harm to have a show of support in the office!

About Sunday 29 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"encrease": an interesting obsolete spelling of increase - as opposed to "engorge" which has an archaic spelling of "ingorge" :)

About Sunday 29 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

A. Hamilton (above) has it. On 3rd June Penn tried to pull rank on Pepys, speciously to redefine office roles and was overruled, presumably by Coventry and/or Carteret.

It was a cunning ploy: Penn claimed that drawing up the the heads of a contract was the comptroller's prerogative. However, the comptroller (Minnes) was not there, so Penn assumed the right to instruct Minnes' personal clerk Turner, who was a sort of rival to Pepys, having sought to buy his position from him.

Although Penn undoubtedly had seniority, this little contretemps, a failed coup really, firmly established that he was merely a colleague, and not Pepys' boss!

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

About Saturday 21 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"... hearing from my wife and the maids’ complaints made of the boy, ..."

reminds of the first time I was caned as a 10 year old in 1965. My class teacher, the dreaded Miss P, didn't like kids much. A mixed group of us got a bit rowdy one wet lunchtime and all the boys got caned on the hand after she wound the headmaster up about us. At least it was only on the hand. A couple of years later, I remember the the deputy headmistress in my secondary school making a classmate of mine drop his trousers and caning him in front of the class. Corporal punishment wasn't abolished in British state schools until the late 1980s. The decision was far from universally popular amongst parents, but, to be fair, the Deputy in the school I worked in expressed his great relief that he wouldn't have to do it any more!

About Saturday 14 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's worth mentioning that, despite the odd comment here, Vane was NOT a regicide, else he had already been despatched by a less honourable and more barbarous method.

About Quakerism

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's interesting that Charles intervened several times to order Quaker founder George Fox to be released from prison, and also others at Fox's behest. Unlike Oliver Cromwell, Charles never met Fox personally, despite receiving letters of advice from him. Cromwell too did his best to protect Quakers when possible.

Thus it was that a small sect survived to have influence out of all proportion to its numbers, because of Quakers' key role in advancing the industrial revolution. From chocolate to railways, Quakers had a finger in the pie. For example, because the Pease family financed the Stockton-Darlington railway, the "Stephenson gauge" of 4 ft 8½ inches is used on 60% of the world's railways and on all continents except Antarctica.

About Saturday 7 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's interesting that Charles intervened several times to order Quaker Founder George Fox to be released from prison, and also others at Fox's behest. Unlike Oliver Cromwell, Charles never met Fox personally, despite receiving letters of advice from him. Cromwell too did his best to protect Quakers when possible.

Thus it was that a small sect survived to have influence out of all proportion to its numbers, because of Quakers' key role in advancing the industrial revolution. From chocolate to railways, Quakers had a finger in the pie. For example, because the Pease family financed the Stockton-Darlington railway, the "Stephenson gauge" of 4 ft 8½ inches is used on 60% of the world's railways and on all continents except Antarctica.

About Wednesday 4 June 1662

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Latvia has had an extremely complicated history, and as a single entity did not exist in Sam's day, or indeed until the 20th century. Modern Latvia is (approximately) composed of the older territories of Livonia and Courland. At the time of the diary, Riga was the Capital of Swedish Livonia, which existed from 1629 -1721.

It's ethnicity was very complex too, including Letts, Estonians, Germans, Poles, Lithuanians and more.