A Ham is a cut of pork: a leg joint, I think. Bacon is a type of pork that has been salt or smoke cured but should be cooked before eating. Though bacon was originally from the side or back of the pig, a "ham of bacon" would be a leg of cured pork for cooking. In modern (British) parlance, ham is cured meat that can be eaten uncooked. A "ham of bacon" would now be called gammon usually. American bacon, we would call crispy streaky-bacon and cooked ham is similar to our bacon. An informal (i.e. not checked against dictionary) etymology of ham: jamb = leg (French) jambon = a ham joint (French) jamon = ham/bacon (Spanish, pronounced hammon with a hard "h". This might be heard as gammon to an English speaker) I have never heard bacon used in French except as an English borrowing. Bacon is "lard" in French. Don't know about German (Schweinfleisch, nein?) Hams or gams are old British slang for (womens) legs.
Pepys on BBC2: Thursdays at 8:30 pm, Adam Hart-Davis is presenting "What did the Stuarts do for us?" The latest in the series "What did the Romans/Victorians/Tudors..." so you know what to expect. Tonight He talked about scientific advances in dyeing and pen design. Enter our Sam using one of the first fountain pens and Adam Hart-Davis apparently using a quill to write using the same shorthand as Pepys. For details of further programmes, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/prog… Today's programme was "Desygner Livinge" (sic)
Re: "...confound a bit the modern sense of personal monetary worth." An owned lease would be part of personal wealth. Even in modern Britain, a lease can be bought and sold, and inflates with the cost of housing even though its validity shortens with time. A London leasehold can cost more than a provincial freehold on a similar property. Property often has 25 or 99 year leases, so can be traded by many people before it expires.
I was hoping somebody would bring up measuring shadows, as in "The Musgrave Ritual" :-) There is a very good reason this wouldn't work with the cliffs of Dover: They are south-facing and in May the sun rises in the south-east, is in the south at midday and sets in the south west, so the cliffs never cast a shadow on the beach. Sherlock Holmes is not as smart as Montague.
An Example: Stick a = 2 yards (one arm span) stick b = one yard (nose to fingertips, half a span) stick a is stuck in sand, stick b is moved back and tops all align at 2 yards (paces) from stick a. Pacing out, b is 68 paces from bottom of cliff. Height of cliff is thus (68 x (2 - 1)/2) + 1 = (68/2) + 1 = 34 + 1 = 35 yards.
Explanation of technique here: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… I am not a mathematician nor surveyor. I worked this out from first principals using geometry I learned 40+ years ago. It is not rocket science.
OK, Here's how you calculate the height of a cliff using two sticks: You can't use Pythagorus unless you know two of the sides of a triangle: not easy if you are at the bottom of a cliff. Take the longer stick, (length a) push into sand some way from bottom of cliff. Take shorter stick, (length b) walk backwards with bottom of stick dragging on sand, sighting along top of stick until top of both sticks align with top of cliff. Measure distance between sticks (x) and between short stick and cliff (y). Height of cliff is (y(a-b)/x) + a. In English, difference in length of sticks times distance from cliff, divided by distance between sticks, plus length of short stick. If one stick is one yard, the other two yards and you pace out the distances on the ground, in yards, then you naturally get the cliff height in yards. Montague wasn't a sailor (he had to learn the names of ship parts like SP using models) so it is likely he knew this technque before he became a General at sea. You can also do it with one stick, but you get a sandy nose and wet knees!
"my Lord made a pretty good measure of it with two sticks": Presumably using the method of similar triangles (geometry) rather than trigonometry, unless he had a set of trig tables in his pocket. This level of mathematical knowledge (from a politician!) seems amazing in our age when estimating the height of a cliff would generally involve a GPS receiver and several multi million pound/dollar satellites!
Pepys and Restoration London (Study Day) This is being held at the London Museum and the National Portrait Gallery on the 26th & 27th September respectively. It is
Could the curtain painting have been Adriaen van der Spelt or Frans van Mieris? Here is A Trompe l'Oeil with a Flower Piece and a Curtain: (1658) http://www.students.sbc.edu/clark… The reproduction, unfortunately, is small and attributed only to van der Spelt, but is a collaboration with van Mieris, a specialist in curtain painting.
This was a period of high infant mortality. As Jenny Doughty says, it was thought that unbaptised children's souls went to purgatory as they inherited the "original sin", though innocent themselves. The Council of Florence (1438) decreed: "unless we be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, we can not enter into the kingdom of Heaven" Baptism by water, ritually washed away the sin, so was done as soon after birth as possible, especially if the child was sickly and unlikely to survive for long. As an aside, right up until the 1960's, British catholic children were being taught that protestants' souls went to purgatory.
Link to site: http://www.ukvillages.co.uk/ukvil… From here you can see a map and aerial photograph. It is now a suburb of Cambridge, and no longer the pretty village Pepys remembered.
Boers and boors: The SOED prefers Pepys' spelling of boor for a Dutch or German peasant. Boer is now a South African of Dutch descent, an Afrikaner. Boorish originally meant characteristic of boors, and later, rude, ill-mannered; coarse, uncultured. Neighbour is from the same root (the nigh/near boor) Good pun though!
Latin in UK Universities: By 1968, Latin was no longer a requirement for university entrance in which Latin wasn't an integral part of the degree. (Outside of Oxbridge, anyway) My daughter studies French and English literature at a London college and didn't need Latin to enter. However, she found that the French students she worked with when she spent a year at a French university had all studied Latin at school, and were very surprised that she hadn't.
Counties: In fact we would say County Durham, not county OF Durham. This usage is common in Ireland (County Antrim, County Clare, etc.) but not usually in England, apart from Durham. This may be because most English counties end in -shire, which means county, so it would be tautology to prefix a shire's name with County. Another reason is that Durham is both the town name and the county name, so prefixing with County differentiates the two. I can't think of any other non-shire counties where this is the case.
Cozen as a verb is to cheat: but as a noun it means cousin. A cheat (noun) is a cozener, not a cozen. Calling someone "cousin" in friendship is similar to calling someone "brother" or "bro'" when they aren't related. I am sure I have heard the diminutive of cousin - coz - used in the north of England in the past like we would use "mate" or "buddy", (another diminutive of brother) but I can't recall exact time and place.
John Wallis: John Wallis was a very important mathematician of this era. Newton cited him as an influence. Although Wallis was a Parliamentarian he spoke out against the execution of Charles I and, in 1648, had signed a petition against the King's execution. In 1660 when the monarchy was restored and Charles II came to the throne, Wallis had his appointment in the Savilian Chair confirmed by the King. Charles II went even further for he appointed Wallis as a royal chaplain and, in 1661, nominated him as a member of a committee set up to revise the prayer book.
Today, his legacy is the common symbol for infinity, (like an 8 on its side) which he introduced in 1655 in his books "Tract on Conic Sections" and "Arithmetica infinitorum". More at http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~… "Wallis contributed substantially to the origins of calculus and was the most influential English mathematician before Newton" according to the above site.
"resolving to rise betimes": betimes adv.ME. 1 At an early time, period, or season. ME. 2 spec. Early in the morning. LME. (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)
Comments
First Reading
About Tuesday 12 June 1660
Grahamt • Link
A Ham is a cut of pork:
a leg joint, I think. Bacon is a type of pork that has been salt or smoke cured but should be cooked before eating. Though bacon was originally from the side or back of the pig, a "ham of bacon" would be a leg of cured pork for cooking. In modern (British) parlance, ham is cured meat that can be eaten uncooked. A "ham of bacon" would now be called gammon usually. American bacon, we would call crispy streaky-bacon and cooked ham is similar to our bacon.
An informal (i.e. not checked against dictionary) etymology of ham:
jamb = leg (French)
jambon = a ham joint (French)
jamon = ham/bacon (Spanish, pronounced hammon with a hard "h". This might be heard as gammon to an English speaker)
I have never heard bacon used in French except as an English borrowing. Bacon is "lard" in French. Don't know about German (Schweinfleisch, nein?)
Hams or gams are old British slang for (womens) legs.
About Charles II and Claire Tomalin on TV, and a shorthand question
Grahamt • Link
Pepys on BBC2:
Thursdays at 8:30 pm, Adam Hart-Davis is presenting "What did the Stuarts do for us?" The latest in the series "What did the Romans/Victorians/Tudors..." so you know what to expect.
Tonight He talked about scientific advances in dyeing and pen design. Enter our Sam using one of the first fountain pens and Adam Hart-Davis apparently using a quill to write using the same shorthand as Pepys.
For details of further programmes, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/prog…
Today's programme was "Desygner Livinge" (sic)
About Sunday 3 June 1660
Grahamt • Link
Re: "...confound a bit the modern sense of personal monetary worth."
An owned lease would be part of personal wealth. Even in modern Britain, a lease can be bought and sold, and inflates with the cost of housing even though its validity shortens with time. A London leasehold can cost more than a provincial freehold on a similar property.
Property often has 25 or 99 year leases, so can be traded by many people before it expires.
About Tuesday 29 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
I was hoping somebody would bring up measuring shadows, as in "The Musgrave Ritual" :-)
There is a very good reason this wouldn't work with the cliffs of Dover: They are south-facing and in May the sun rises in the south-east, is in the south at midday and sets in the south west, so the cliffs never cast a shadow on the beach. Sherlock Holmes is not as smart as Montague.
About Tuesday 29 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
An Example:
Stick a = 2 yards (one arm span)
stick b = one yard (nose to fingertips, half a span)
stick a is stuck in sand, stick b is moved back and tops all align at 2 yards (paces) from stick a.
Pacing out, b is 68 paces from bottom of cliff. Height of cliff is thus (68 x (2 - 1)/2) + 1 = (68/2) + 1 = 34 + 1 = 35 yards.
About Mathematics
Grahamt • Link
Explanation of technique here:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
I am not a mathematician nor surveyor. I worked this out from first principals using geometry I learned 40+ years ago. It is not rocket science.
About Tuesday 29 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
OK, Here's how you calculate the height of a cliff using two sticks:
You can't use Pythagorus unless you know two of the sides of a triangle: not easy if you are at the bottom of a cliff.
Take the longer stick, (length a) push into sand some way from bottom of cliff. Take shorter stick, (length b) walk backwards with bottom of stick dragging on sand, sighting along top of stick until top of both sticks align with top of cliff. Measure distance between sticks (x) and between short stick and cliff (y).
Height of cliff is (y(a-b)/x) + a. In English, difference in length of sticks times distance from cliff, divided by distance between sticks, plus length of short stick. If one stick is one yard, the other two yards and you pace out the distances on the ground, in yards, then you naturally get the cliff height in yards.
Montague wasn't a sailor (he had to learn the names of ship parts like SP using models) so it is likely he knew this technque before he became a General at sea.
You can also do it with one stick, but you get a sandy nose and wet knees!
About Tuesday 29 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
"my Lord made a pretty good measure of it with two sticks":
Presumably using the method of similar triangles (geometry) rather than trigonometry, unless he had a set of trig tables in his pocket.
This level of mathematical knowledge (from a politician!) seems amazing in our age when estimating the height of a cliff would generally involve a GPS receiver and several multi million pound/dollar satellites!
About TLS article on Pepys and friends
Grahamt • Link
The programme for the study day mentioned at the bottom of the article is here:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/a…
About More Pepys exhibitions
Grahamt • Link
Pepys and Restoration London (Study Day)
This is being held at the London Museum and the National Portrait Gallery on the 26th & 27th September respectively. It is
About Saturday 19 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
Could the curtain painting have been Adriaen van der Spelt or Frans van Mieris?
Here is A Trompe l'Oeil with a Flower Piece and a Curtain: (1658)
http://www.students.sbc.edu/clark…
The reproduction, unfortunately, is small and attributed only to van der Spelt, but is a collaboration with van Mieris, a specialist in curtain painting.
About Anabaptism
Grahamt • Link
This was a period of high infant mortality. As Jenny Doughty says, it was thought that unbaptised children's souls went to purgatory as they inherited the "original sin", though innocent themselves. The Council of Florence (1438) decreed:
"unless we be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, we can not enter into the kingdom of Heaven"
Baptism by water, ritually washed away the sin, so was done as soon after birth as possible, especially if the child was sickly and unlikely to survive for long.
As an aside, right up until the 1960's, British catholic children were being taught that protestants' souls went to purgatory.
About Chesterton, Cambridgeshire
Grahamt • Link
Link to site:
http://www.ukvillages.co.uk/ukvil…
From here you can see a map and aerial photograph. It is now a suburb of Cambridge, and no longer the pretty village Pepys remembered.
About Saturday 19 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
Boers and boors:
The SOED prefers Pepys' spelling of boor for a Dutch or German peasant. Boer is now a South African of Dutch descent, an Afrikaner.
Boorish originally meant characteristic of boors, and later, rude, ill-mannered; coarse, uncultured.
Neighbour is from the same root (the nigh/near boor)
Good pun though!
About Wednesday 16 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
Latin in UK Universities:
By 1968, Latin was no longer a requirement for university entrance in which Latin wasn't an integral part of the degree. (Outside of Oxbridge, anyway)
My daughter studies French and English literature at a London college and didn't need Latin to enter. However, she found that the French students she worked with when she spent a year at a French university had all studied Latin at school, and were very surprised that she hadn't.
About Thursday 10 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
Counties:
In fact we would say County Durham, not county OF Durham. This usage is common in Ireland (County Antrim, County Clare, etc.) but not usually in England, apart from Durham. This may be because most English counties end in -shire, which means county, so it would be tautology to prefix a shire's name with County. Another reason is that Durham is both the town name and the county name, so prefixing with County differentiates the two. I can't think of any other non-shire counties where this is the case.
About Sunday 13 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
More on Stuart and Commonwealth ship's flags:
see http://tmg110.tripod.com/british1…
Already posted in background information in February (http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… ) but repeated here for relevance.
About Wednesday 9 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
Cozen as a verb is to cheat:
but as a noun it means cousin. A cheat (noun) is a cozener, not a cozen.
Calling someone "cousin" in friendship is similar to calling someone "brother" or "bro'" when they aren't related.
I am sure I have heard the diminutive of cousin - coz - used in the north of England in the past like we would use "mate" or "buddy", (another diminutive of brother) but I can't recall exact time and place.
About Mathematics
Grahamt • Link
John Wallis:
John Wallis was a very important mathematician of this era. Newton cited him as an influence.
Although Wallis was a Parliamentarian he spoke out against the execution of Charles I and, in 1648, had signed a petition against the King's execution. In 1660 when the monarchy was restored and Charles II came to the throne, Wallis had his appointment in the Savilian Chair confirmed by the King. Charles II went even further for he appointed Wallis as a royal chaplain and, in 1661, nominated him as a member of a committee set up to revise the prayer book.
Today, his legacy is the common symbol for infinity, (like an 8 on its side) which he introduced in 1655 in his books "Tract on Conic Sections" and "Arithmetica infinitorum".
More at http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~…
"Wallis contributed substantially to the origins of calculus and was the most influential English mathematician before Newton" according to the above site.
About Tuesday 8 May 1660
Grahamt • Link
"resolving to rise betimes":
betimes adv.ME.
1 At an early time, period, or season. ME.
2 spec. Early in the morning. LME.
(Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)