Trevor M Randall

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Trevor M Randall has posted 42 annotations/comments since 26 June 2022.

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Third Reading

About Sunday 18 October 1668

Trevor M Randall  •  Link

…my Lord forced to lend me his coach till I got a hackney…

How relatable, three hundred and fifty years later and I’m still waiting for a hackney in the rain.

About Monday 31 August 1668

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This night lay the first night in Deb.’s chamber.

Um I might’ve missed something but what’s going on here? Deb was watching Hamlet an hour or two ago, so she’s not out of town….why is Sam sleeping in her room?

About Thursday 30 July 1668

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So close at my office all the afternoon till evening

What does ‘close’ to the office mean? If he was at home wouldn’t he just say I was at home rather than I was close to the office? In which case where is close? Did Sam have some other place, an away from the office office like Fonzie’s house of office?!

About Friday 5 June 1668

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Truncated entry, maybe, but who knew the void could be filled so adequately with a brief history of turnpikes?! Thanks for the wiki link JWB!

About Saturday 2 May 1668

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Milk
Pre Louis Pasteur there were only a few ways to mitigate against manky milk: the closer one was to the cow the fresher the milk; and the more hygienic the milking process the safer the milk.
If the fresh milk fad continues maybe Sam could develop his coach stable plans to include room for a cow…better still he could have a cow drawn coach!

About Tuesday 28 April 1668

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Hercules Pillars

Either there was a seventeenth century pillar known as the Hercules or it seems a possessive is missing…and it irks me.

About Saturday 18 April 1668

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Can’t understand the eating of oranges at the theatre.

In Sam’s case he may have been more interested in the procurement than the consumption…well, the oranges at least.

About Wednesday 5 February 1667/68

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and so to bed, and slept but ill all night, my mind running like a fool on my prize business

Even the soporific effect of a lobster couldn’t ease poor Sam’s ruminating.

About Tuesday 28 January 1667/68

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Up, and to the office, and there with W. Griffin talking about getting the place to build a coach-house, or to hire one, which I now do resolve to have, and do now declare it; for it is plainly for my benefit for saving money.

Yes! Finally! Get that coach house built Sam. Who hasn’t felt the pinch of taking too many hackney cabs? Beer blurred eyes watching the meter tick away your hard earned.

About Wednesday 4 December 1667

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Sam’s bowels

As Mary noted, it did seem that Sam was regularly on the physic earlier in the diary and a quick check of entries shows physic being mentioned a lot. However, other than a couple of times in ‘60 and a rough patch in the fall/winter of ‘63 the majority of entries refer to other’s use and not Sam himself. So maybe its reduced use was not just due to his status change. There have been earlier discussions about the possibility of unmentioned veggies in his diet and certainly Sam seems to enjoy summer fruits when he can snaffle them from a well appointed garden, but I wonder whether wild fruit and veg eating/picking/purchasing during his trips into the bucolic surroundings of 17C London also occurred more than mentioned?

About Saturday 26 October 1667

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I’m with Mary, did I miss something? Sam perfectly happy to leave Bess and Pendleton alone!? Not so long ago the mere thought would’ve given him ulcers.

About Saturday 5 October 1667

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Well Sam certainly seems to have taken Batten’s death in his stride, proposes Middleton as a replacement then jollies off to the theatre. But what about the money Sam? What are you going to do about the money?! If I hadn’t heard it before I’d think your issue with Nell’s make-up was just displacement.

About Monday 23 September 1667

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Thence I walked over the Park to White Hall and took water to Westminster…
Surely Whitehall to Westminster is quicker by foot than water!? I thought the great fire only reached Temple so land travel this far west would’ve been normal, maybe Sam was worried about the dangers of shattering glass carriages.