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Terry Foreman has posted 16,447 annotations/comments since 28 June 2005.

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First Reading

About Tuesday 6 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Phineas Ellwood, and Benjamin Harrison, to Sandwich

Written from: Sandwich
Date: 6 September 1664

Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 214-215
Document type: Original. Addressed to Lord Sandwich, on board 'the London', in the Downs.

Explain their views as to the estimated cost of the proposed Improvement of Sandwich Harbours, and answer certain objections to former Estimates. Mention the ultimate advantage to the Nation at large of the project, when carried out, especially in the probable event of War with Holland. Enter, at length, into the details of Plans prepared and of the Taxation by which it is proposed to defray the charges. Captain Ellwood adds, by way of P.S., that in the autumn of 1639 the Spaniards remained in the Downs more than five weeks (the English ships being wind-bound).
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

About Tuesday 6 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"the meschants"

L&M cite a diplomatic dispatch from the Hague as implicating certain Puritan fanatics who were said this summer to have promised the Dutch "to raise a fifth column of 20,000 in England should war break out", so, evildoers indeed.

About Monday 5 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

gaily, galley

We've had the Q and a digressive discussion at least once before, and I quoted L&M's Large Glossary (in the Companion) of which my post above is a version.

About Monday 5 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Mr. William Penn was born in October of 1644, and Elizabeth St. Michel b. in October 1640, so they are almost 20 and 24, contemporaries with hormones raging, and he just come back dandified and style-conscious from France -- not her native land, but where she was reared --, and so they may have lots to talk about. (I wonder if her shopping's at all informed by tips from Penn.)

Rob, "a gaily" is a galley, sc. large rowed boat, here a water-taxi on the Thames.

About Walter Porter

Terry F  •  Link

Walter Porter
(c.1588 - 1659) English composer. Porter may have studied with Monteverdi in 1613-16. He became a tenor singer in the Chapel Royal in 1618, and in 1639 was made choirmaster at Westminster Abbey, although he lost the post in 1644. After 1644 he was in service to Sir Edmund Spenser. Porter's Italian leanings are apparent in his Madrigals and Ayres (1632) and the duet motets of 1657. He introduced the figured bass (although this did not catch on in English church music) and wrote in Italian recitative style with Italian types of ornamentation, indeed in a true baroque manner that stood quite apart from the English madrigal tradition. The 1632 publication includes instrumental toccatas, sinfonias and ritornellos as well as vocal pieces. http://www.hoasm.org/IVM/Porter.h…

About Saturday 3 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"Mr. Holliard came to me to discourse about the privileges of the Surgeon's hall as to our signing of bills, wherein I did give him a little, and but a little, satisfaction; for we won't lose our power of recommending them once approved of by the hall."

L&M clarify this -- an attempt by Hollier (as a Warden of the Worshipful Company of Barber-Surgeons) to get Pepys (as Clerk of the Acts for the Navy Board) to sign off on such ships' surgeons and surgical goods as the Company of Barber-Surgeons should propose. The Company failed to secure a monopoly franchise, and (in an 18 Oct. letter) would formally state its deference to the Board or the requests of ships' commanders.

About Saturday 3 September 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Thank you, Robert. I searched the "Janes" under "People" and didn't come up with this Jane, who we can s'pose is well-acquainted with Samuel Pepys's nits and ergo him, very up close and personal.

About Wednesday 31 August 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Rupert's unhappiness

L&M note that Sandwich had written from the Channel on 20 August about the need for speed in assembling the fleet. Rupert took the command, but his ships will not join Sandwich's until 15 October, and will never leave the channel.

About Wednesday 31 August 1664

Terry F  •  Link

The Peepsters Garage Band takes shape: SP on vyal or theorbo; TE on lute; and EP swings lead, backed by the boys!

About Tuesday 30 August 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Penn's An ESSAY towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe by the Establishment of an European Dyet, Parliament, or Estates (1693)
http://olldownload.libertyfund.or…

The advantage of a diet with representation proportionate to wealth (state by state) will be clear "especially such as have made the great Tour of Europe" (15) -- so his travels had some benefit. Of course, "Another Advantage is,The Great Security it will be to Christians against the Inroads of the Turk, in their most Prosperous Fortune" (15). Penn's proposal is but a sketch, but an interesting one. I had not known "the grand tour" was so venerable.

About Tuesday 30 August 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Fortunately, Pepys's expectation of the future of Sir W. Penn's son proves mistaken: two years hence the dandy's pantaloons will be shed for a Quaker's more humble garb. "As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe, 'European Dyet, Parliament or Estates,' in his voluminous writings. Before moving to America, Penn owned ironworks in the Kent village of Hawkhurst." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will…

About Monday 29 August 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Methinks further (not always a good thing) neither of us would have been good late-17c servants. Thanks be we don't have to bear the consequences thereof.