Ruslan

Annotations and comments

Ruslan has posted 88 annotations/comments since 26 October 2022.

Comments

Third Reading

About Jane Turner (b. Pepys, Pepys' cousin)

Ruslan  •  Link

I'm confused. The 1893 text states:

"Jane, daughter of John Pepys of South Creake, Norfolk, married to John Turner, Sergeant-at-law, Recorder of York; their only child, Theophila..."

Yet Pauline (above) and other annotators (elsewhere in the diary) refer to "their children" and provide details of said offspring.

About Tuesday 29 July 1662

Ruslan  •  Link

Australian Susan wrote:

"I used to live in Bristol and there is a road there called Blackboys' Hill which is where the little black boys so prized as pages were 'exhibited' (can't think of another word for this) having come on the ships from West Africa."

Not true.

First off, it's "Blackboy Hill". Secondly, the street name comes from the Black Boy Inn. The pub name was probably linked to King Charles II, who was known as ‘the Black Boy’ because of his dark hair and complexion, rather than to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans (not least because enslaved Africans never were auctioned on the Downs).

Source: https://collections.bristolmuseum…

About Monday 3 February 1661/62

Ruslan  •  Link

361 years later, here I am wondering what on earth the Battens' pie looked like. And annoyingly, I am 18 years too late to see Wim's visualization (which seems to have hit the mark).

About Saturday 1 February 1661/62

Ruslan  •  Link

I've been playing around with ChatGPT and asked it to explain the following sentence from today's entry.

> express is come from my Lord with letters, that by a great storm and tempest the mole of Argier is broken down, and many of their ships sunk into the mole.

This is what it came up with:

> The sentence is saying that an express message has arrived from someone referred to as "my Lord" with letters, reporting that a severe storm and tempest caused the mole (a breakwater or pier) in the port of Algiers to break down, and that as a result, many ships have sunk into the mole. In other words, the message is relaying news that the storm has caused significant damage to the port infrastructure in Algiers, and that many ships have been lost as a result. The use of the phrase "God Almighty hath now ended that unlucky business for us" suggests that the author of the text views this news as positive and that the destruction of the mole may have been seen as a positive outcome for their interests or plans.

You can carry on chatting with the bot and ask it questions about Algiers, piracy at the time, moles, why this was good news, or whatever else comes to mind.

https://chat.openai.com/chat