Pepys specifically says "China Ale" -- In fact, sarsaparillas were used in folk medicine and entered the international trade market in the 1530s. The drink originates from the Americas, but more specifically modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Read More: https://www.mashed.com/268060/the…
The picture on this website says "Sarsaparilla Wine".
He didn't say "Spanish" or "American" wine. He says China Ale.
The third reason my vote is against sarsaparilla is that I think Pepys would have mentioned if at least one of them was in need of a medicinal drink. He is a bit of a hypercondriac, after all.
"Production and consumption of beer in China has occurred for around 9,000 years, with recent archaeological findings showing that Chinese villagers were brewing beer-type alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC on small and individual scales. Made with rice, honey, grape, and hawthorn fruits, this early beer seems to have been produced similarly to that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ancient Chinese beer was important in ancestral worship, funeral and other rituals of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, ... After the Han dynasty, Chinese beer faded from prominence, which remained the case for the next 2,000 years
"Modern beer brewing was not introduced into China until the end of 19th century, when Polish people established a brewery ..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee…
In 2016 the KPBS newsletter, 'The Salt' agreed, with a different recipe: "Archaeologists uncovered ancient beer-making tool kits in underground rooms built between 3400 and 2900 B.C. Discovered at a dig site in the Central Plain of China, the kits included funnels, pots and specialized jugs. The shapes of the objects suggest they could be used for brewing, filtration and storage.
"It's the oldest beer-making facility ever discovered in China — and the evidence indicates that these early brewers were already using specialized tools and advanced beer-making techniques
"The scientists found a pottery stove, which the ancient brewers would have heated to break down carbohydrates to sugar. And the brewery's underground location was important for both storing beer and controlling temperature — too much heat can destroy the enzymes responsible for that carb-to-sugar conversion ...
"The research group found ancient grains that had lingered inside. The grains showed evidence that they had been damaged by malting and mashing, two key steps in beer-making. Residue from inside the uncovered pots and funnels was tested with ion chromatography to find out what the ancient beer was made of ...
"The recipe included a mix of fermented grains: broomcorn millet, barley and Job's tears, a chewy Asian grain also known as Chinese pearl barley. The recipe also called for tubers, the starchy and sugary parts of plants, which were added to sweeten and flavor the beer, the researchers write.
"Finding evidence of barley in the beer was surprising. Scientists had never seen barley in China this early before.
"The Chinese became brewmasters early: They were making barley beer in the same period as "the earliest chemically attested barley beer from Iran" and the "earliest beer-mashing facilities in Egypt," as well as "the earliest wine-making facility in Armenia," he writes in an email. ..." https://www.npr.org/sections/thes…
What Pepys was drinking? I think "China Ale" was an early brand name, and it had nothing to do with China.
There are 2 more ancient emblems of the City of London: Gog and Magog.
Gog and Magog are the tallest participants in the Lord Mayor’s parade. If that doesn’t set them apart, then their wicker-based physiognomies surely do. They always come as a double act.
The marching wicker giants, crafted from willow by the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, come on parade every year. They are the most photographed manifestation of Gog and Magog, but they are not the only ones. More rooted, and less flimsy versions of the duo can be found inside the Guildhall — the ancient civic heart of the Square Mile.
The easiest way to tell them apart is to remember that Gog carries a spiky ball on a chain, known as a flail. (He shouldn’t have been able to get it past the security checks in the Guildhall lobby!) They were crafted by the sculptor David Evans in 1953. A predecessor Gog and Magog went up in flames during the Blitz. Their fate is alluded to in an equally remarkable stained glass window elsewhere in Guildhallm where Gog and Magog flank a flaming Guildhall, with the phoenix of rebirth beneath.
The pair lost during WWII were carved from pine by a Capt. Richard Saunders of King Street, Cheapside in 1709. They were much celebrated, and a more recognised symbol of the Square Mile than their modern counterparts. But even these early-Georgian manifestations were not the first of their kind. Representations of Gog and Magog were noted at the Coronation preparations of Queen Elizabeth in 1558. Four years earlier, they’d greeted Queen Mary and Philip of Spain upon their post-nuptial arrival at London Bridge. Another pair stood on a triumphal arch, which greeted the restored Charles II to Cheapside in 1660. The official website for the Lord Mayor’s Show claims that the giants have been part of the Lord Mayor’s procession since the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), although that’s based on tradition and some citation is needed.
Whenever they first appeared on the streets of London, the giants Gog and Magog have cast a long shadow. How did these 2 scrunch-faced Goliaths come to hobnob with Lord Mayors and monarchs? The giants, in name at least, are older than Methuselah’s mother. Literally. Their names feature in the earliest holy books, including some from the Old Testament.
That's a fascinating thesis, Eric the Bish. Thanks for the lead, and thank you, Way-Back Machine, for keeping it available to us all for ever. I've got it bookmarked for further consultation.
"I signed a bond to Mr. Battersby, a friend of Mr. Moore’s, who lends me 50l., the first money that ever I borrowed upon bond for my own occasion,"
Pepys has done himself a disservice: He told his colleagues that he was left 200l. a year in income from Uncle Robert. Now he has to live up to that expectation. Plus all this running around means he hasn't been in the office, collecting gratuities when the opportunities arose. Plus that running around cost money for horses and lodging and entertaining -- and researching and filing legal documents clarifying his claims, or letting them go. It's been an expensive couple of months, before adding on his theater and singing expenses for him and Elizabeth.
In the late summer of 1661 Sandwich sends home baskets full of Portuguese melons to Jemima and the Pepys, and probably other people. It sounds as if they were a great novelty. We have a page for melons: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
MartinVT -- my apologies; I went and checked the text in the book, and there's an "r" on the end of disembarcadero. I therefore think he was probably a Spaniard of no importance or nobility who needed to go to Tangier, and hitched a ride with Sandwich.
Danvers House -- per L&M -- was a substantial house of 36 hearths, at the southeast end of Danvers St., opposite Crosby Hall.
Aubrey (c. 1691) wrote of it: 'The house is very elegant and ingeniose but not according to that staid perfection of Roman architecture now in vogue' (qu. Davies, pp. 138-9).
[By 1691 they were drifting towards the Rococo style as popularized by Christopher Wren and his school of architects, so Danvers House must have been more Inigo Jones style -- but he liked Roman columns too. So maybe it was more Elizabethan style?] We'll never know as it was demolished in 1690s. per https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
"... so home and to bed, without prayers, which I never did yet, since I came to the house, of a Sunday night: ..."
So Pepys always holds family prayers on Sundays. Interesting that he specifies regularly holding them just on Sunday nights. I had assumed it was a nightly duty that he frequently missed. How very progressive of him. Did Elizabeth hold them in his absence, so were the maids, Will and Wayneman trusted to pray nightly on their own? Or was the nightly duty only for country people? Cosmopolitan city folk were exempt?
So Lady Penn was away, and Sir Will. and daughter Peg hold a feast for his brother, George Penn.
Lady Penn is the ruler of the household, and there are several examples of her parsimonious nature. Sir Will. enjoys a more liberal lifestyle; their son follows his mother spiritually and his father materially. Young Peg Penn seems to follow her father; maybe this was one of her first (formative) experiences of being "the lady of the house"?
As for Pepys being forgiven, I suspect Sir Will. realizes there is more to be lost by obviously holding a grudge -- Pepys knows they went too far, and Batten is Batten. Sam and Elizabeth are invited because they are good company, and the sort of cosmopolitan people brother George will enjoy; no mention of Batten being invited, so it probably wasn't an intentional peace feast. We shall see ...
The Braun map of Paris depicts the city with a bird's-eye view to the east as it appeared around 1530. The map includes the city wall of Philippe Auguste, and shows gates in the section of the wall on the Right Bank, which would be pulled down after 1530. It was first published in Cologne in 1572 as the sixth plate (unnumbered) in Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Liber primus by Georg Braun, Simon Van der Novel, and Franz Hogenberg. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wik…
Pepys hangs a map of Paris in the Red Chamber in 1661. It's possible this was the one. Apparently Elizabeth liked to emphasize her French connections -- which could be a bit controversial. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Thanks RLB for the clarification -- my source was Wiki, but I won't fault them. It was me jumping to a conclusion. I think my confusion will continue to another annotation a bit later on.
In an article named "The Most Stunning Coastal Towns in Europe" there is a lovely picture of Cadiz, Spain, with this caption:
In their rush to tick off the sights of Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, visitors sometimes overlook Cadiz, but to do so would be a shame. In the 17th and 18th centuries, merchants built watchtowers to ensure they knew their ships had returned to port. Today, 126 of the 160 remain. Get a bird’s-eye view from the Camera Obscura at the top of Torre Tavira before taking a stroll at ground level to gaze up at these interesting structures.
And further down there are pictures and paragraphs featuring Fowey, Cornwall and Tavira, Portugal, both places known of by Pepys.
In an article named "The Most Stunning Coastal Towns in Europe" there is a lovely picture of Cadiz, Spain, with this caption:
In their rush to tick off the sights of Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, visitors sometimes overlook Cadiz, but to do so would be a shame. In the 17th and 18th centuries, merchants built watchtowers to ensure they knew their ships had returned to port. Today, 126 of the 160 remain. Get a bird’s-eye view from the Camera Obscura at the top of Torre Tavira before taking a stroll at ground level to gaze up at these interesting structures.
And further down there are pictures and paragraphs featuring Fowey, Cornwall and Tavira, Portugal, both places known of by Pepys.
There are many contenders for stunning coastal towns along Portugal’s beautiful Algarve, but Tavira is a stand out. The town itself is located inland of a long sandy beach and the salt pans are home to a wide variety of seabirds including waders, spoonbills and flamingos. In the heart of the medieval town, you’ll find a castle built in the 13th century on the site of a mosque and Santa María do Castelo Church, which houses the tombs of 7 knights allegedly ambushed by the Moors.
"I thence home to the Rose, and then had Doll Lane venir para me … [but it was in a lugar mighty ouvert, so as we no poda hazer algo; so parted and then met again at the Swan, where for la misma reason we no pode hazer, but put off to recontrar anon, which I only used as a put-off; ..."
Pepys is doing his best to celebrate May Day in the old traditional way:
In Henry VIII’s times, May Day was often called Robin Hood Day in order to excuse the people going out into the countryside for rural sports. The main sport might be archery competitions, but morris dances were also the rule, the dancers leading Maid Marion to the May Pole beneath which she might sit with a doll on her lap. The more wily celebrants said the young maid who played the part was the Virgin Mary, but no one was fooled. In many places it was said the festivities continued through the night into morning. In his 'Anatomie of Abuses' (1583), Phillipe Stubbes informs his Puritan readership that he has “… heard it credibly reported, ... by men of great gravitie, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred maides goyng to the woode ouer night, there have scarcely the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled.”
In England, the Puritans especially rejected the Catholic Church as the devil's church for its willingness to allow their parishioners to engage in such festivities as harmless traditions.
Under Queen 'Bloody' Mary I, the Catholic Church largely looked the other way in such matters. Robin Hood / May Day continued to be celebrated when the Church of England Protestants came permanently back into power under Queen Elizabeth.
Comments
Third Reading
About Friday 4 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Pepys specifically says "China Ale" -- In fact, sarsaparillas were used in folk medicine and entered the international trade market in the 1530s. The drink originates from the Americas, but more specifically modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Read More: https://www.mashed.com/268060/the…
The picture on this website says "Sarsaparilla Wine".
He didn't say "Spanish" or "American" wine. He says China Ale.
The third reason my vote is against sarsaparilla is that I think Pepys would have mentioned if at least one of them was in need of a medicinal drink. He is a bit of a hypercondriac, after all.
About Ale
San Diego Sarah • Link
CHINA ALE:
On Oct. 4, 1661, Pepys says he drank China Ale.
"Production and consumption of beer in China has occurred for around 9,000 years, with recent archaeological findings showing that Chinese villagers were brewing beer-type alcoholic drinks as far back as 7000 BC on small and individual scales.
Made with rice, honey, grape, and hawthorn fruits, this early beer seems to have been produced similarly to that of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. Ancient Chinese beer was important in ancestral worship, funeral and other rituals of Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, ...
After the Han dynasty, Chinese beer faded from prominence, which remained the case for the next 2,000 years
"Modern beer brewing was not introduced into China until the end of 19th century, when Polish people established a brewery ..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee…
In 2016 the KPBS newsletter, 'The Salt' agreed, with a different recipe:
"Archaeologists uncovered ancient beer-making tool kits in underground rooms built between 3400 and 2900 B.C. Discovered at a dig site in the Central Plain of China, the kits included funnels, pots and specialized jugs. The shapes of the objects suggest they could be used for brewing, filtration and storage.
"It's the oldest beer-making facility ever discovered in China — and the evidence indicates that these early brewers were already using specialized tools and advanced beer-making techniques
"The scientists found a pottery stove, which the ancient brewers would have heated to break down carbohydrates to sugar. And the brewery's underground location was important for both storing beer and controlling temperature — too much heat can destroy the enzymes responsible for that carb-to-sugar conversion ...
"The research group found ancient grains that had lingered inside. The grains showed evidence that they had been damaged by malting and mashing, two key steps in beer-making. Residue from inside the uncovered pots and funnels was tested with ion chromatography to find out what the ancient beer was made of ...
"The recipe included a mix of fermented grains: broomcorn millet, barley and Job's tears, a chewy Asian grain also known as Chinese pearl barley. The recipe also called for tubers, the starchy and sugary parts of plants, which were added to sweeten and flavor the beer, the researchers write.
"Finding evidence of barley in the beer was surprising. Scientists had never seen barley in China this early before.
"The Chinese became brewmasters early: They were making barley beer in the same period as "the earliest chemically attested barley beer from Iran" and the "earliest beer-mashing facilities in Egypt," as well as "the earliest wine-making facility in Armenia," he writes in an email. ..."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thes…
What Pepys was drinking? I think "China Ale" was an early brand name, and it had nothing to do with China.
About Margaret Lowther (b. Penn)
San Diego Sarah • Link
cgs notation above, posted on 24 Nov 2007:
"addition info for the M Poirot's of the inter net
from Mary on Fri 23 Nov 2007, 09:54pm
Peg Penn"
This info is about the mother, Lady Margaret Jasper Van der Schure Penn - see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About The City of London
San Diego Sarah • Link
There are 2 more ancient emblems of the City of London: Gog and Magog.
Gog and Magog are the tallest participants in the Lord Mayor’s parade. If that doesn’t set them apart, then their wicker-based physiognomies surely do. They always come as a double act.
The marching wicker giants, crafted from willow by the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers, come on parade every year. They are the most photographed manifestation of Gog and Magog, but they are not the only ones. More rooted, and less flimsy versions of the duo can be found inside the Guildhall — the ancient civic heart of the Square Mile.
The easiest way to tell them apart is to remember that Gog carries a spiky ball on a chain, known as a flail. (He shouldn’t have been able to get it past the security checks in the Guildhall lobby!) They were crafted by the sculptor David Evans in 1953. A predecessor Gog and Magog went up in flames during the Blitz. Their fate is alluded to in an equally remarkable stained glass window elsewhere in Guildhallm where Gog and Magog flank a flaming Guildhall, with the phoenix of rebirth beneath.
The pair lost during WWII were carved from pine by a Capt. Richard Saunders of King Street, Cheapside in 1709. They were much celebrated, and a more recognised symbol of the Square Mile than their modern counterparts. But even these early-Georgian manifestations were not the first of their kind.
Representations of Gog and Magog were noted at the Coronation preparations of Queen Elizabeth in 1558.
Four years earlier, they’d greeted Queen Mary and Philip of Spain upon their post-nuptial arrival at London Bridge.
Another pair stood on a triumphal arch, which greeted the restored Charles II to Cheapside in 1660.
The official website for the Lord Mayor’s Show claims that the giants have been part of the Lord Mayor’s procession since the reign of Henry V (1413-1422), although that’s based on tradition and some citation is needed.
Whenever they first appeared on the streets of London, the giants Gog and Magog have cast a long shadow. How did these 2 scrunch-faced Goliaths come to hobnob with Lord Mayors and monarchs?
The giants, in name at least, are older than Methuselah’s mother. Literally. Their names feature in the earliest holy books, including some from the Old Testament.
See photos and original post at
https://londonist.substack.com/p/…
About Sunday 6 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... Mrs. Margaret Pen, this day come to church in a new flowered satin suit that my wife helped to buy her the other day."
Lady Penn must still be away. Young Peg and Elizabeth splurged on a flowered satin suit -- how very un-Puritan!
About James Buck
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: James Buck, later Rector of St. James Garlickhithe and St. Peter's Cornhill, and Preacher at the Temple.
Eric the Bish gave us more info at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Sunday 6 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
That's a fascinating thesis, Eric the Bish. Thanks for the lead, and thank you, Way-Back Machine, for keeping it available to us all for ever. I've got it bookmarked for further consultation.
About Thursday 3 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I signed a bond to Mr. Battersby, a friend of Mr. Moore’s, who lends me 50l., the first money that ever I borrowed upon bond for my own occasion,"
Pepys has done himself a disservice: He told his colleagues that he was left 200l. a year in income from Uncle Robert. Now he has to live up to that expectation.
Plus all this running around means he hasn't been in the office, collecting gratuities when the opportunities arose. Plus that running around cost money for horses and lodging and entertaining -- and researching and filing legal documents clarifying his claims, or letting them go.
It's been an expensive couple of months, before adding on his theater and singing expenses for him and Elizabeth.
About About fruit and vegetables
San Diego Sarah • Link
In the late summer of 1661 Sandwich sends home baskets full of Portuguese melons to Jemima and the Pepys, and probably other people. It sounds as if they were a great novelty.
We have a page for melons:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
About Thursday 3 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... one other disembarcadero for Tangier."
MartinVT -- my apologies; I went and checked the text in the book, and there's an "r" on the end of disembarcadero.
I therefore think he was probably a Spaniard of no importance or nobility who needed to go to Tangier, and hitched a ride with Sandwich.
About Thursday 3 October 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
If you want to read Evelyn's entry for yourself, go to
John Evelyn's Diary, Vol. I
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4…
He and Mary Browne Evelyn live at Saye's Court, Deptford.
About Sir John Robartes (2nd Baron Robartes, Lord Privy Seal)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Danvers House -- per L&M -- was a substantial house of 36 hearths, at the southeast end of Danvers St., opposite Crosby Hall.
Aubrey (c. 1691) wrote of it: 'The house is very elegant and ingeniose but not according to that staid perfection of Roman architecture now in vogue' (qu. Davies, pp. 138-9).
[By 1691 they were drifting towards the Rococo style as popularized by Christopher Wren and his school of architects, so Danvers House must have been more Inigo Jones style -- but he liked Roman columns too. So maybe it was more Elizabethan style?] We'll never know as it was demolished in 1690s. per https://www.british-history.ac.uk…
About Sunday 29 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... so home and to bed, without prayers, which I never did yet, since I came to the house, of a Sunday night: ..."
So Pepys always holds family prayers on Sundays. Interesting that he specifies regularly holding them just on Sunday nights. I had assumed it was a nightly duty that he frequently missed. How very progressive of him. Did Elizabeth hold them in his absence, so were the maids, Will and Wayneman trusted to pray nightly on their own?
Or was the nightly duty only for country people? Cosmopolitan city folk were exempt?
About Sunday 29 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
So Lady Penn was away, and Sir Will. and daughter Peg hold a feast for his brother, George Penn.
Lady Penn is the ruler of the household, and there are several examples of her parsimonious nature. Sir Will. enjoys a more liberal lifestyle; their son follows his mother spiritually and his father materially. Young Peg Penn seems to follow her father; maybe this was one of her first (formative) experiences of being "the lady of the house"?
As for Pepys being forgiven, I suspect Sir Will. realizes there is more to be lost by obviously holding a grudge -- Pepys knows they went too far, and Batten is Batten.
Sam and Elizabeth are invited because they are good company, and the sort of cosmopolitan people brother George will enjoy; no mention of Batten being invited, so it probably wasn't an intentional peace feast.
We shall see ...
About Paris, France
San Diego Sarah • Link
The Braun map of Paris depicts the city with a bird's-eye view to the east as it appeared around 1530.
The map includes the city wall of Philippe Auguste, and shows gates in the section of the wall on the Right Bank, which would be pulled down after 1530.
It was first published in Cologne in 1572 as the sixth plate (unnumbered) in Civitates Orbis Terrarum, Liber primus by Georg Braun, Simon Van der Novel, and Franz Hogenberg.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wik…
Pepys hangs a map of Paris in the Red Chamber in 1661. It's possible this was the one. Apparently Elizabeth liked to emphasize her French connections -- which could be a bit controversial.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
About Thursday 26 September 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks RLB for the clarification -- my source was Wiki, but I won't fault them. It was me jumping to a conclusion. I think my confusion will continue to another annotation a bit later on.
About Cadiz
San Diego Sarah • Link
In an article named "The Most Stunning Coastal Towns in Europe" there is a lovely picture of Cadiz, Spain, with this caption:
In their rush to tick off the sights of Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, visitors sometimes overlook Cadiz, but to do so would be a shame.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, merchants built watchtowers to ensure they knew their ships had returned to port. Today, 126 of the 160 remain.
Get a bird’s-eye view from the Camera Obscura at the top of Torre Tavira before taking a stroll at ground level to gaze up at these interesting structures.
And further down there are pictures and paragraphs featuring Fowey, Cornwall and Tavira, Portugal, both places known of by Pepys.
https://www.thediscoverer.com/blo…
About Cadiz
San Diego Sarah • Link
In an article named "The Most Stunning Coastal Towns in Europe" there is a lovely picture of Cadiz, Spain, with this caption:
In their rush to tick off the sights of Seville, Cordoba, and Granada, visitors sometimes overlook Cadiz, but to do so would be a shame.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, merchants built watchtowers to ensure they knew their ships had returned to port. Today, 126 of the 160 remain.
Get a bird’s-eye view from the Camera Obscura at the top of Torre Tavira before taking a stroll at ground level to gaze up at these interesting structures.
And further down there are pictures and paragraphs featuring Fowey, Cornwall and Tavira, Portugal, both places known of by Pepys.
https://www.thediscoverer.com/blo…
About Monday 30 December 1661
San Diego Sarah • Link
For a picture of Tavira, see
https://www.thediscoverer.com/blo…
There are many contenders for stunning coastal towns along Portugal’s beautiful Algarve, but Tavira is a stand out. The town itself is located inland of a long sandy beach and the salt pans are home to a wide variety of seabirds including waders, spoonbills and flamingos.
In the heart of the medieval town, you’ll find a castle built in the 13th century on the site of a mosque and Santa María do Castelo Church, which houses the tombs of 7 knights allegedly ambushed by the Moors.
About Wednesday 1 May 1667
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I thence home to the Rose, and then had Doll Lane venir para me … [but it was in a lugar mighty ouvert, so as we no poda hazer algo; so parted and then met again at the Swan, where for la misma reason we no pode hazer, but put off to recontrar anon, which I only used as a put-off; ..."
Pepys is doing his best to celebrate May Day in the old traditional way:
In Henry VIII’s times, May Day was often called Robin Hood Day in order to excuse the people going out into the countryside for rural sports. The main sport might be archery competitions, but morris dances were also the rule, the dancers leading Maid Marion to the May Pole beneath which she might sit with a doll on her lap.
The more wily celebrants said the young maid who played the part was the Virgin Mary, but no one was fooled.
In many places it was said the festivities continued through the night into morning. In his 'Anatomie of Abuses' (1583), Phillipe Stubbes informs his Puritan readership that he has “… heard it credibly reported, ... by men of great gravitie, credite, and reputation, that of fourtie, three score, or a hundred maides goyng to the woode ouer night, there have scarcely the thirde parte of them returned home againe undefiled.”
In England, the Puritans especially rejected the Catholic Church as the devil's church for its willingness to allow their parishioners to engage in such festivities as harmless traditions.
Under Queen 'Bloody' Mary I, the Catholic Church largely looked the other way in such matters. Robin Hood / May Day continued to be celebrated when the Church of England Protestants came permanently back into power under Queen Elizabeth.
Adapted from https://vgs-pbr-reviews.blogspot.…