Annotations and comments

JayW has posted 144 annotations/comments since 7 August 2015.

Comments

Second Reading

About Thursday 15 September 1664

JayW  •  Link

My thanks to our original first post from Terry F for the reminder about the visit from Mr Holliard on 3 September. I'd overlooked it on the day as so much was said about the proposed meeting with Jane!

About Tuesday 10 May 1664

JayW  •  Link

Last night I watched a play on BBC2 called Charles III in which the future monarch refused to sign a new Act of Parliament limiting the power of the Press. Relevant to previous annotations although not to today's short entry. Did the workmen even affect our boy's concentration on his Diary?

About Monday 9 May 1664

JayW  •  Link

In my experience, just having workmen in the house stops you getting on with anything else whether you want to work or not. Distraction techniques as described by earlier annotators can be used deliberately at any time, with or without the workmen, to keep you away from what you should be doing but don't really want to do.

About Monday 2 May 1664

JayW  •  Link

I suspect the 'debt' was a debt of thanks rather than an invoice of any sort.

About Wednesday 16 March 1663/64

JayW  •  Link

Re 'Friday next'. 'This Friday' would mean two days time to me (in the U.K.) and 'next Friday' would mean the week after.
However, the quote from Michael Robinson above refers to Parliament meeting again on 'Monday next'. It looks as if Pepys is referring to the day after tomorrow perhaps to give his mother time to arrive.

About Sunday 28 February 1663/64

JayW  •  Link

Sadly the abuse of children has continued through the years. The enforced emigration of children taken into care, orphaned or poor from the UK to Australia, run by the UK Government, took place in the mid-20th century and had horrendous consequences for many of the children although the stated intention was to give them a better future. Details are emerging from the enquiry into historic child abuse which started in London this week.

About Monday 22 February 1663/64

JayW  •  Link

Compare all these reports with Terry F's notes above, and it becomes clear that 'fake news' was about long before the Internet.

About Tuesday 9 February 1663/64

JayW  •  Link

Why the difference between the 1000£ that he stands "bound" and the 700£ bond he shows Bess?
I took this as two separate matters. Sam 'stands bound with Sandwich' in a bond for £1,000 to Thomas Pepys - who lent money to Mountagu in 1658 according to the information page about him. Then there is the £700 which Sam has loaned directly to Sandwich himself. In the event that Sandwich defaulted on both bonds Sam would be left with nothing.

About Friday 8 January 1663/64

JayW  •  Link

Reading the Newgate Calendar from the link above, the robbery wasn't an inside job, but the one that brought the criminal career of Colonel Turner to its end.

About Tuesday 22 December 1663

JayW  •  Link

Re Pedro's post on 25 December 2006 about the red sails: in the south of England, cars are sometimes covered in red dust from the Sahara Desert in North Africa. It sounds as if Holmes had a similar experience.

About Tuesday 15 December 1663

JayW  •  Link

I'm enjoying the Pepys Christmas Carol.
Re Bradford's comment about the galloping horse - my mother-in-law, born 1925 in Dorset, had a similar comment from her mother when she complained about a coat as a child. Something like 'no-one's going to turn away from a galloping horse to look at you'.

About Tuesday 1 December 1663

JayW  •  Link

The same law still applies in the UK today. No one owns the public highway outside their own house. Even parking bays put in for disabled residents aren't reserved. And users of footpaths have the right to pass and repass but not to stand around.

About Wednesday 28 October 1663

JayW  •  Link

Money for Will - £15 to pay for the lodgings and another £20 if I don't have to feed him in future?

About Tuesday 27 October 1663

JayW  •  Link

Trying to make sense of the agreement with Trice, I think Trice is being allowed to acquire £40 worth of land from Piggott which is charged with debt so Piggott gets let off £40 of debt but no money changes hands. Then Pepys releases the debt leaving himself £40 down and Trice with £40 of debt-free land but again no money changes hands.
Trice is to spend 40s to entertain Pepys and the lawyers who helped broker the deal, and fortunately he has 46/8d in cash so he'll be able to pay it.

About Tuesday 27 October 1663

JayW  •  Link

As it was washday yesterday I guess there are a lot of damp clothes about and the maids are busy trying to get them dry and probably ironing.

About Monday 26 October 1663

JayW  •  Link

Anyone else think that Sam was keeping out of the way while the maids were finishing the washing? It was already dark before he went to the solicitor, where he stayed about an hour before going to his office and writing this long entry. It must have been very late indeed by the time he ventured back home. And surprise, surprise, it was all over.

About Sunday 18 October 1663

JayW  •  Link

Extract from Tuesday last:
"by coach to the Old Exchange, and there cheapened some laces for my wife, and then to Mr.—— the great laceman in Cheapside, and bought one cost me 4l. more by 20s. than I intended, but when I came to see them I was resolved to buy one worth wearing with credit, and so to the New Exchange, and there put it to making"
Did everyone forget this entry with all the gory details about Sam's health issues (or non-issues!)?