Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Sunday 29 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

The day's dynamics, from an annotation to the Sociogram

dirk http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…

Re - A. Hamilton

The following is the information I have (from Jeannine), in a summarized form.

Coventry-Montague:

"Coventry was no friend of Sandwich�s. [Coventry] had fought for the King in the Civil War, and he was detested by Clarendon, the great minister with whom Sandwich had close political relations - and worst of all, he was a steady advocate of the personal and professional merits of Sir William Penn." "Both Penn and Coventry represented a grave threat to Sandwich�s naval influence. Sandwich�s claim to power and office and all that went with it was that he was a Cromwellian General-at-Sea who had seen the light in 1659. But Penn was an infinitely more distinguished naval commander, also an ex-General-at-Sea, who, it was generally believed had seen the light a lot earlier. Penn was therefore a potential rival to Sandwich." "[Penn] was a direct competitor; a competitor for power, for patronage, for perquisites. And a dangerously well equipped competitor, for the good opinion of William Coventry."

York-Montague:

"York was very jealous of Montague and that never really subsided. He was polite to him, but always wanted what Montague had been given by Charles --Charles knew James to be James (hot head, temperamental) and continued to reward Sandwich over him and this caused the jealousy to be an underlying factor in all ways."

About Sunday 29 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"methinks it is strange they should not understand one another better at this time than to need another's mediation."

Dirk's "Pepys Sociogram" has a negative relation between York and Sandwich.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…
Pepys, earnest to be positive toward them both (however vexed his relation with Sandwich), surely not aware of the nuances in how these two relate -- sc. awkwardly, proud men who now need one another.

(Pedro, great posts! Thanks.)

About Saturday 28 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"it is only my legs that I take cold in from my having so long worn a gowne constantly."

Proper dress ib a transitional season like the current one in 1664 can be difficult: Pepys has been dressed for cooler weather.

About Thursday 26 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Thank you, Michael. That helps. It also helps imagine how
the conflation of a Galenic "cold" and the "cold" of Pepys's uncovered feet transmogrified across the generations into
the conflation of the "cold" one "caught" with the feared "cold" of a chill insufficient to compromise the immune system when I was a lad more than a half-century ago -- : clinically inadequate, but "conceptually" adequate.

About Thursday 26 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Well, OK, we do not know how "oft" Pepys sleeps with feet uncovered, but read about it when it is blamed for some ill effect(s).

About Thursday 26 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"in a little pain from some cold got last night lying without anything upon my feet."

Interesting report/diagnosis, from a 21st-century point of view. I wonder *where* he feels the pain. How does this "cold got" relate to the common cold http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comm… ? What does SP's oft sleeping with feet uncovered say about (a) his bedclothes, and/or (b) how he lies in the bed?

About Thursday 26 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Good point, Brian. Perhaps absent a tear the horizontals are better. In 1805, a century and a third from today, Captain Malcolm Cowan, of the Royal Navy, will say succinctly, "Sails are made with the seams horizontal instead of vertical." http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica…
But it was not always so.

In 1809 Cowan will report, "From the experiment that has been made in the royal navy, the difference in duration of the sails made with horizontal cloths, and those of the old make, has been proved to be as eighteen months to eleven,1 making a difference of seven months wear in favour of those with the horizontal cloths; and they are every way stronger, more effective, and stand nearer to the wind." Observations on the Dangers to which his Majesty's Ships and Vessels are unnecessarily exposed, from the present mode of making Sails in his Majesty's Navy; and on the unnecessary Expense attending them. http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica…

But one doesn't want a stack of strips.

About Thursday 26 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"I opposed him...about seams in the middle, and the profit of having many breadths and narrow,"

Sails split along sewn seams, presumably argues Pepys, and each seam adds weight. Sir W. Batten's rationale for the several horizontal strips of canvas may be that tears in that dimension are less drastic for the ship's welfare than vertical tears or splits. (Guessing a bit. Others?)

About Wednesday 25 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"The Bios of Tom and Charles don't seem to synch with this post."

The post is fine, but uses "cousin" ambiguously. This Thomas is Samuel's "second cousin" -- his father, also Thomas, was first cousin to Samuel's father. Charles, the joiner, is Samuel's first cousin, who has a brother Thomas, a turner by trade; they were sons of Samuel's Uncle Thomas, his father's older brother.

Whew! My father was one of 12, who took great pains their children's names NOT replicate family names; because he bore his father's first name, he was always "Mac" -- an abbreviation of McElroy, his middle name.

About Tuesday 24 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"Very interesting Jeannine...Was it from letters?"

Jeannine has a copy of A Very Useful Book and is generous in sharing:

Samuel Pepys and the Second Dutch War: Pepy's Navy White Book and Brooke House Papers (Navy Records Society Publications) (Hardcover)
by Samuel Pepys (Author), Robert Latham (Editor), Navy Records Society (January 1996)(Great Britain) http://www.amazon.com/Samuel-Pepy…

About Thomas Povey

Terry F  •  Link

Thomas Povey was an Original Fellow of the Royal Society (20/05/1663), and in 1693 would publish The Method, Manner and Order of the Transmutation of Copper into Brass, etc. By Thomas Povey, Esq; Brought into the Royal Soc. of Which He is a Fellow. Thomas Povey, Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), Vol. 22, 1700 - 1701 (1700 - 1701), pp. 474-475. http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.u…

About Saturday 21 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

Povey's mind

Not a dullard, FWIW, Thomas Povey was an Original Fellow of the Royal Society (20/05/1663), and in 1693 would publish The Method, Manner and Order of the Transmutation of Copper into Brass, etc. By Thomas Povey, Esq; Brought into the Royal Soc. of Which He is a Fellow
Thomas Povey, Philosophical Transactions (1683-1775), Vol. 22, 1700 - 1701 (1700 - 1701), pp. 474-475. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/169…

About Tuesday 24 May 1664

Terry F  •  Link

"more, I fear, for my father's sake, are going."

Papa's generation is passing from the scene -- and those whom SP has know his entire life. The earliest date we have for Uncle Fenner is 1633 -- the year of Samuel's birth --, in which T. Fenner "married as his first wife Katherine Kite [d. 1661], sister of Pepys's mother." Per Paul Brewster's background annote, citing L&M.

About Buttermilk

Terry F  •  Link

"Buttermilk is the liquid left over after producing butter from full-cream milk during the churning process. It has a slightly sour taste....Traditional buttermilk is quite different from cultured buttermilk [, that is, milk to which lactic acid bacteria have been added to simulate the traditional product]: it is thin and slightly acidic, while cultured buttermilk is thick and tart." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt…