Sasha Clarkson

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

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Second Reading

About Sunday 23 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

According to my home-brew book, Izaak Walton wrote: "Turkeys, Carp, Hops, Pickerel, and Beer, Came into England all in one year." (1524). This referred to when the traditional herbs which flavoured ale began to be replaced by hops, as well as the introduction of the turkey, pike and carp.

Incidentally, the boars head is a very old pagan tradition, rebranded by Christianity. At Yule, It was customary to sacrifice a boar to Freyr/Frey, the Norse/Germanic fertility god. Incidentally, here in Pembrokeshire there is a village called Freystrop, a slight corruption of Freyrstorp: "Freyr's village".

About Friday 21 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

'.... St Thomas Gray, St Thomas Gray,
Longest night and shortest day.' "

According to Ronald Hutton*, this rhyme was first recorded in the late 19th century. It can't go back to Pepys' time as, by the Julian calendar, the shortest day was already gone, on 11th December. Britain didn't adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752.

* Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain - for the full version google the rhyme.

About Tuesday 11 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Today, you can't be tried before a jury unless committed to trial by magistrates. It was the same in Pepys' day, although the examinations were less formal. According to Robert Neill's 'Mist Over Pendle', handwritten records of magistrate Roger Nowell's examinations (in 1611-12) of the Pendle witch case accused are still extant. Neill partly based the novel on these records.

On another subject completely, Pepys' "today" was the winter solstice, the Julian calendar then being 10 days behind the Gregorian.

About Saturday 8 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Re Rick's comment about the Thames freezing and the old London Bridge. It should also be remembered that the Thames in London is tidal to Teddington Lock beyond Twickenham, and that salt-water needs a lower temperature to freeze than fresh water. But because the old London Bridge restricted the flow so much, the water upstream would have been fresher (or at least less saline) and have a greater propensity to freeze for this reason too (until 1831 when the mediaeval bridge was finally demolished).

About Tuesday 4 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

It's interesting that Cromwell was referred to as "Oliver", but the rest by their surnames.

Incidentally, he still has his fans here in Wales. There is a firm in Welsh-speaking Cardigan known as "O C Davies A'r Mab" (Oliver Cromwell Davies and son.)

About Saturday 1 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Note, as previously mentioned, the winter solstice would have been on December 11th by Pepys' (Julian) calendar, which then corresponded to December 21st in the Gregorian calendar, at that time still only used in Catholic countries.

About Saturday 1 December 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

The traditional country celebrations of Christmas did indeed have pagan roots, which were merely rebranded by the early and mediaeval church. For example, carols like 'The Holly And The Ivy', and 'The Boar's Head', refer to pagan customs.

The boar was sacred to the Norse/Germanic fertility god Freyr/Frey, and also to his sister Freyja. At Yule, the Norse winter solstice festival, it was traditional to sacrifice a boar to Freyr. I would imagine, the pagans being practical people, that the head would have been the god's portion, whilst the village folk ate the rest!

About Monday 26 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

In a course I took recently, I cursed my tutor (mentally) for the multiple errata, and then the errata to the errata. Well, hoist by my own petard, my corrected correction is "The (Julian) October revolution occurred in Gregorian November ..."

Let E be an astronomical event, such as a solstice; let t(E) be its date in the Julian calendar, and let T(E) be its date in the Gregorian calendar. Then, in Pepys' time, t(E) = T(E) - 10, or T(E) = t(E) +10.

So, for Pepys, an event such as the winter solstice occurs around Dec 21st - 10 = December 11th. And "today" in Pepys diary, corresponds to 26th November +10 = 6th December in OUR (Gregorian) calendar.

However, for a fixed CALENDAR date such as Christmas, C in the Gregorian calendar and c in the Julian, then T(c) = T(C) + 10, or t(C) = t(c) - 10.

So, England would have celebrated Christmas 10 days later than the Catholic countries. By 1752, when Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, the difference was 11 days: now it's 13. Russian Orthodox Christmas is currently celebrated on January 7th.

About Monday 26 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Errgh - got it wrong: it would have been about 10 days EARLIER according to the calendar. The "October" revolution occurred in Julian November; Julian Christmas is in Gregorian January. The Julian calendar was a remarkable achievement, but it slightly over-estimated the solar year, meaning that the calendar was slowly moving out of sync with the seasons.

So all the seasons would have started about 10 days earlier in Pepys' time, so he's closer to midwinter and the solstice than we are!

About Monday 26 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

To expand on Bill's point, because the Earth is close to it's January perihelion, Kepler's second law means that, in the northern hemisphere, solar days are longer than the average 24 hours close to the winter solstice, so astronomical noon moves a little forward each day. At London's latitude, the earliest sunset is around 10th December, and the latest sunrise is around the 31st/1st January, with the actual shortest day in the middle.

In Pepys time this would have been about 10 days later, because Britain still used the Julian Calendar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepl…

Kepler's laws and Descartes' methods helped Pepys' mate Newton come up with his theory of gravity.

About Thursday 22 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"1500£ would weight 29.3 pounds" Well researched (again) Bill! :)

So £1000 in gold would weigh about 20lb - little enough for one man to carry. So Sandwich's £1000 of a week ago was almost certainly a mixture of silver AND gold.

About Thursday 15 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sorry Bill - I was unaware of exactly when the link between the value of a pound sterling and and a (Troy) pound's worth of silver was broken. Poor research on my part! :)

About Monday 19 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Interesting Bill :) This gets curiouser and curiouser - and it just goes to show that one must be careful to distinguish historical and contemporary usage.

My two volume "shorter" OED was helpful though not conclusive, so I got the magnifying glass out for my "Compact" version of the full one. Although of "obscure origin", it seems that the word "muscadine" was originally used in English for all wine made from muscat grapes. The first reference quoted was from a Rutland MSS of 1541: "for a galon and pynte .. of Muskadyne". Today's entry from Pepys is also cited.

I would guess that the American wild grape now known as muscadine was so named because of similarities in character to the muscat family. However, I suspect that any supposed connection to Muscadet is a red herring. The first time I ordered Muscadet, expecting it to have the fragrance and character of Muscat, I was greatly disappointed. It seems to be misnamed. The appellation is 20th century, and the grape variety, Melon de Bourgogne, is genetically unconnected to the muscat family.

About Saturday 17 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Sam and Sandwich have a financial interest in the Privy Seal office. So, by inventing a new form to be filled in, Sam might have invented a new money-spinner too?

About Thursday 15 November 1660

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I suspect that you're right Bill, that Gold was involved. :) But Silver crowns never weighed 4oz.

The system of weights used for precious metals was based on the Troy ounce, which is different to the Avoirdupois (Imperial) ounce. "The weight of the English penny was fixed at 22.5 troy grains (about 1.46 grams) by Offa of Mercia," Thus a pound's worth of silver, 240 pennies, would weigh about 350 grammes, just over 12 imperial ounces, no matter what the denomination of the coins. Despite mediaeval debasement of the currency, by the 17th century sterling (92.5%) silver had been restored.

So, £1000, if all in silver, would have weighed about 770 pounds or 350 kilograms - about seven hundredweight - far too much for two people to carry!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coi…