My son lives in Abingdon and works in a brewery there. he visits the Broad Face often and the story was told him by old brewery workers and regulars at the Broad Face. Folk fable isn't always reliable, which is why I said "supposedly so named".
Reading is now the county town of Berkshire, replacing Abingdon when the county boundaries changed in 1974 and Abingdon "moved" to Oxfordshire. Coincidentally, there is still a pub in Abingdon (though no longer in Reading) called the Broad Face. It was supposedly so named because the inn had a good view of the gallows at the nearby prison. The Reading Gaol of Oscar Wilde fame wasn't built in 1668, but it is on the site of the old county prison, so maybe the inn sign seen by Pepys had a similar history. Reading is a favourite to gain City status next year: Salisbury is of course already a Cathedral city, though Reading is much larger and has 3 times the population.
In Britain we tend to call the twilight period before sunrise "dawn" and the corresponding evening period "dusk". I would be suprised if these terms weren't also common in North America. First light would, I guess, be the very earliest part of dawn.
Given the change in calendar, sunrise in Cambridge on this day would be about 3:45 (GMT) and civil dawn (sun 6 degrees below horizon, and light in all of sky) starts about 2:57. Not quite high day as we might think it, but certainly light enough to travel.
We were corrected at school if we ever read ate as "eight". We always said it "et" in normal speech, just as the OED says, (and eaten was "etten", but that's a northern thing) but when learning to read you tend to read words according to the rules you have been taught - the exceptions come later.
A little off-topic linguistic pedantry here: "bob" is used for singular and plural, "bobs" is never heard, so; a bob (a shilling) , two-bob (two shillings = one florin), five-bob (five shillings = one crown) e.g. Scouts' fund raising - Bob-a-Job, Ten-bob note - old currency note worth half a sov/quid/pound, replaced by the 50 pence piece at decimalisation. Quid is a pound = 20 bob = 240 old pence = 100 new pence. Easy.
"Sir Philip Howard, a Barkeshire Howard" I had believed that the British pronunciation of Berkshire changed to Barkshire during the Regency period, certainly after the American Revolution, in which country it is pronounced as written. This entry, assuming the shorthand was transcribed phonetically, seems to show that it preceded that by at least 100 years. Can someone with L&M confirm that "Barkeshire" is not just a Wheatley anachronism?
lugular appears to be a mis-scan of iugular = jugular. The two veins in the neck are still called jugulars, (as in "going for the jugular") but the arteries are now call carotids, as Ruben says above.
I guess the everyday phrase "The mind boggles" or "mind-boggling" (OED: a., that causes the mind to boggle or be overwhelmed;) is not as common in the US as it is here in the UK.
Pepys, though, says he wasn't that boggled. "..which is a thing I neither did or have reason to do.."
Snap = bait = a small meal. The food a Nottinghamshire miner takes down the pit is his snap, (in a snap tin, inside his snap-bag) for a Durham miner, it is his bait. This compares with the French term for a snack; casse-croute (snap-crust)
YMM2 OK, I see now, I also made a mistake with the conversion from Gregorian to Julian by adding 10 days instead of subtracting them. Pepys full moon is thus 22 Sep 1667 (Julian), so 1 day ahead of ours. Still remarkably close.
More Moonshine: The Nasa Calendar starts from year zero, not year one, so for 1667 I assume you have to use the 1666 calendar. This gives full moon as 13 Sep Gregorian style, which is 23 Sep 1667 Julian, (10 days out in Pepys time, but 11 by the time Britain embraced the Gregorian calendar) i.e. the same date as at present. This also happens to be the Autumn Equinox. The moon in southern England was very bright last night, though not yet full, and certainly bright enough to see ones way without needing a link boy.
Glyn, The tenter grounds were for stretching new cloth, I believe, rather than laundry. A link remains today: I was in the "Rack and Tenter" pub, off [Little] Moorfields, on Friday, (about where Tenter Alley is on this map: top left http://www.motco.com/map/81002/Se…) though there aren't many weavers, or fields, there now.
Comments
First Reading
About Tuesday 16 June 1668
Grahamt • Link
My son lives in Abingdon and works in a brewery there. he visits the Broad Face often and the story was told him by old brewery workers and regulars at the Broad Face. Folk fable isn't always reliable, which is why I said "supposedly so named".
About Tuesday 16 June 1668
GrahamT • Link
Reading is now the county town of Berkshire, replacing Abingdon when the county boundaries changed in 1974 and Abingdon "moved" to Oxfordshire.
Coincidentally, there is still a pub in Abingdon (though no longer in Reading) called the Broad Face. It was supposedly so named because the inn had a good view of the gallows at the nearby prison. The Reading Gaol of Oscar Wilde fame wasn't built in 1668, but it is on the site of the old county prison, so maybe the inn sign seen by Pepys had a similar history.
Reading is a favourite to gain City status next year: Salisbury is of course already a Cathedral city, though Reading is much larger and has 3 times the population.
About Saturday 13 June 1668
GrahamT • Link
I remember my mother buying a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream each Christmas. Now I know where the name came from.
About Tuesday 2 June 1668
Grahamt • Link
There was an old woman of Woolwich,
Ran a coven just over by Dulwich.
She had a black cat,
A toad and a bat,
That witchy old woman of Woolwich.
About Sunday 24 May 1668
GrahamT • Link
In Britain we tend to call the twilight period before sunrise "dawn" and the corresponding evening period "dusk". I would be suprised if these terms weren't also common in North America. First light would, I guess, be the very earliest part of dawn.
Given the change in calendar, sunrise in Cambridge on this day would be about 3:45 (GMT) and civil dawn (sun 6 degrees below horizon, and light in all of sky) starts about 2:57. Not quite high day as we might think it, but certainly light enough to travel.
About Wednesday 26 February 1667/68
GrahamT • Link
EAT ATE
We were corrected at school if we ever read ate as "eight". We always said it "et" in normal speech, just as the OED says, (and eaten was "etten", but that's a northern thing) but when learning to read you tend to read words according to the rules you have been taught - the exceptions come later.
About Wednesday 26 February 1667/68
GrahamT • Link
Re:"pronounced /et/, in Pepys’ day."
and still is though the spelling has changed:
From OED:
ate
(ɛt, occas. eɪt)
pa. tense of eat v.
(I believe the second pronunciation is more common in the US)
About Saturday 22 February 1667/68
GrahamT • Link
A little off-topic linguistic pedantry here: "bob" is used for singular and plural, "bobs" is never heard, so; a bob (a shilling) , two-bob (two shillings = one florin), five-bob (five shillings = one crown)
e.g.
Scouts' fund raising - Bob-a-Job,
Ten-bob note - old currency note worth half a sov/quid/pound, replaced by the 50 pence piece at decimalisation.
Quid is a pound = 20 bob = 240 old pence = 100 new pence. Easy.
About Thursday 16 January 1667/68
Grahamt • Link
Better than that; from our perspective, he changed the history of the Navy.
About Sunday 5 January 1667/68
GrahamT • Link
"Sir Philip Howard, a Barkeshire Howard"
I had believed that the British pronunciation of Berkshire changed to Barkshire during the Regency period, certainly after the American Revolution, in which country it is pronounced as written.
This entry, assuming the shorthand was transcribed phonetically, seems to show that it preceded that by at least 100 years.
Can someone with L&M confirm that "Barkeshire" is not just a Wheatley anachronism?
About The Royal Society
GrahamT • Link
An interesting slideshow about past presidents of the Society:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science…
Including the one closest to our hearts.
About Thursday 14 November 1667
GrahamT • Link
lugular appears to be a mis-scan of iugular = jugular.
The two veins in the neck are still called jugulars, (as in "going for the jugular") but the arteries are now call carotids, as Ruben says above.
About Wednesday 30 October 1667
GrahamT • Link
I guess the everyday phrase "The mind boggles" or "mind-boggling" (OED: a., that causes the mind to boggle or be overwhelmed;) is not as common in the US as it is here in the UK.
Pepys, though, says he wasn't that boggled. "..which is a thing I neither did or have reason to do.."
About Tuesday 29 October 1667
Grahamt • Link
Snap = bait = a small meal.
The food a Nottinghamshire miner takes down the pit is his snap, (in a snap tin, inside his snap-bag) for a Durham miner, it is his bait. This compares with the French term for a snack; casse-croute (snap-crust)
About Sunday 13 October 1667
GrahamT • Link
RIP Bradford. We will miss his warm knowledgeable comments.
About Tuesday 8 October 1667
Grahamt • Link
Drawers:
As this is shown with a capital initial D, could it not be a surname, perhaps a mis-transcription of their hosts' name, the Drawwaters?
About Saturday 6 October 1660
GrahamT • Link
..and sex is what Kensington people have their coal delivered in.
About Saturday 21 September 1667
GrahamT • Link
YMM2
OK, I see now, I also made a mistake with the conversion from Gregorian to Julian by adding 10 days instead of subtracting them. Pepys full moon is thus 22 Sep 1667 (Julian), so 1 day ahead of ours. Still remarkably close.
About Saturday 21 September 1667
GrahamT • Link
More Moonshine:
The Nasa Calendar starts from year zero, not year one, so for 1667 I assume you have to use the 1666 calendar. This gives full moon as 13 Sep Gregorian style, which is 23 Sep 1667 Julian, (10 days out in Pepys time, but 11 by the time Britain embraced the Gregorian calendar) i.e. the same date as at present. This also happens to be the Autumn Equinox.
The moon in southern England was very bright last night, though not yet full, and certainly bright enough to see ones way without needing a link boy.
About Tuesday 13 August 1667
GrahamT • Link
Glyn,
The tenter grounds were for stretching new cloth, I believe, rather than laundry. A link remains today: I was in the "Rack and Tenter" pub, off [Little] Moorfields, on Friday, (about where Tenter Alley is on this map: top left http://www.motco.com/map/81002/Se…) though there aren't many weavers, or fields, there now.