Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Friday 11 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

toyle
foil, net into which game is driven.
(Select Glossary)

This seems to be an inference. Perhaps the OED does more?

About Thursday 10 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

The editor, SP, says today is "the shortest day in the year" = that on which he can get the least done; he has no benefit of the "Old Farmers' Almanac". but goes with what the conventional wisdom was/is.

About Thursday 10 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

More kudos for Robert Gertz' backstories!

Glyn - Why was Pepys riding to Chelsey?
Was his being robbed an appropriate comeuppance?

About Vane Room (Whitehall Palace)

Terry F  •  Link

The Vane Room (so-called because the main wind-vane of the Palace stood above it), was on the first floor at the intersection of the Matted Gallery and the Privy Gallery (L&M Companion), which would put it above apartments 20 and 26 on the 1680 Ground Plan of Whitehall. http://www.londonancestor.com/map…

About Wednesday 9 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

London's air pollution in 1952's not so off-topic given todays connubial health concerns and 1662's F U M I F U G I U M: or The Inconveniencie of the AER AND SMOAK of LONDON DISSIPATED. TOGETHER With some REMEDIES humbly PROPOSED By J[ohn] E[velyn]. Esq; To His Sacred MAJESTIE, AND To the PARLIAMENT now Assembled. http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Le…

About Wednesday 9 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

"'Twas the year of death by lung infections caused by fog soaked in coal dust and white hankies would be be blackend after one sneeze."

"Historic air pollution disasters -- Meuse Valley, Belgium in 1930, Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948, and London, England in 1952 -- in which large numbers of people fell ill and died, have been clearly associated with high concentrations of particulate and sulfur dioxide pollution. Such acute air pollution episodes have killed children because of their heightened susceptibility to the damage that can be done by air pollutants." http://www.nrdc.org/health/kids/o…

WithaGrainOfSalt, it's a wonder you survived - as active as you were - but we are all glad o' that!

About Wednesday 9 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

"...those."

Perhaps a reference to *her* st..ls? If so, that's a very, very sensitive matter for Wheatley, whose Monarch is, umn....

About Tuesday 8 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

(Ebenezer) Pepys's accounts of his accounts -

How much more often we read in the Journall of expenditures rather than income!

How did it come about that at the end of last month Pepys could say "making up my accounts of this month, and blessed be God I have got up my crumb again to 770l."

Robert, simply brilliant!

About Tuesday 8 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

"did discourse with Captain Taylor, and I think I shall safely get 20l. by his ship's freight at present, besides what it may be I may get hereafter."

This goes back to 21 February 1662/63 - "Captn. Taylor and Bowry, whose ship we have hired for Tangier, they walked along with me to Cornhill talking about their business, and after some difference about their prices we agreed, and so they would have me to a tavern, and there I drank one glass of wine and discoursed of something about freight of a ship that may bring me a little money" http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

A little here, a litte there; it all adds up, if we don't spend too much on clothes, etc.

About Monday 7 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

Thanks, Paul Chapin, for the pronominal clarity (once again).

L&M note that five days ago, 2 Dec., John Knapp, styling himself [somewhat pompously] "'dr. medecinae', had written [presumtously] to his 'honoured friend Mr. Peeps'" concerning the latter's supposed promise to appoint a man named "George Gouye [? Gouge]" surgeon on a frigate.

Having the power to place a man on a ship is evidently both a blessing (?) and a curse.

About Monday 7 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

neap
O.E. nepflod "neap flood," the tide occurring at the end of the first and third quarters of the lunar month, in which high waters are at their lowest, of unknown origin, with no known cognates (Dan. niptid probably is from English). Original sense seems to be "without power." http://www.etymonline.com/index.p…

but the OED likely says more.

About Monday 7 December 1663

Terry F  •  Link

"last night the greatest tide that ever was remembered in England to have been in this river: all White Hall having been drowned"

L&M note a spring tide and a northerly gale in the North Sea had coincided - not the first time Whitehall - lying along the Thames - had suffered water damage.

"Around new and full moon when the Sun, Moon and Earth form a line (a condition known as syzygy), the tidal forces due to the Sun reinforce those of the Moon. The tides' range is then at its maximum: this is called the 'spring tide,' or just 'springs' and is derived not from the season of spring but rather from the verb 'to jump' or 'to leap up.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide