Annotations and comments

San Diego Sarah has posted 9,788 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

Comments

Second Reading

About Tuesday 30 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 3

142

In this park are 600 deer, to which the mixture of plain, of hill, of coppice-wood, and meadowland, together with two plentiful springs of water, which are within the same enclosure, afford a most suitable abode. The deer are of two sorts, black and red; the latter, though smaller, fatten sooner than the others.

They begin to hunt them early in June and continue it for 6 weeks; they hunt only the fattest, driving them with dogs into a corner of the park; they kill about 100 annually.

In winter, when the pasture fails, they give them hay and leaves of trees, particularly when snow falls (although it soon melts in these parts); making this observation, that where the moles dwell (of which there is a great abundance, and, on this account, they keep strict watch, to prevent them spoiling the land) deer seldom resort.

Near the house is a wood for pheasants, with its walks cut with the greatest exactness, which greatly enhances its pleasantness.

On the other side, towards the village, is the parish church, an ordinary building, and by no means large, where the people assemble for the exercise of their worship. It has no altar; but in the body of the church are suspended solely the king's arms, as is the case in the greater part of the churches or temples of England, in which they were placed by an edict of Edward VI, who, when the images of saints were prohibited, caused them to be removed from the churches; and, instead of the crucifix, which was usually placed in the principal part of them, ordered the armorial bearings of the kings of England to be engraved and put up.

143

On the Gospel-side of the church is a chapel of the family of Paulet, in which are deposited several members of the family; amongst the most distinguished, is that of my Lord Paulet, father of the present baron, which, besides being more modern, is worthy of notice, from its being built in good style, of colored stone, and illuminated with gold; it is also adorned with a sepulchral urn, supported by two satyrs, under which is the epitaph.

Three leagues from Axminster you leave Devonshire and, crossing a small tongue of the county of Dorset, enter that of Somerset, in which is Hinton St. George.

@@@

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.

About Tuesday 30 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

His highness amused himself in the morning with riding in the park, and in the afternoon with walking in the garden, where Mr. John Sidney, cousin of my Lord Paulet, arrived from his villa, 6 miles distant, bringing his lady with him, to pay his respects. His highness took her by the hand, and conducted her to a gallery hard by, and, departing after a short conversation, continued in discourse with the above gentleman till the close of the day.

[ I can find nothing on John Sidney and his wife – but Lady Isabella Theresa Mary Howard Paulet, soon to be the Marchioness of Winchester, was mentioned by Pepys. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl… ]

141

The villa of my Lord Paulet is an ancient irregular building, faced on the outside with a sort of porous stone; the house, therefore, is of a noble appearance, good, and spacious, nor are gardens wanting, both for utility and pleasure. One of them contains every kind both of culinary vegetables and fruit that grows in this climate: in the other there is a parterre very different from the common style of English gardens; these are, usually, walks of sand, made perfectly level, by rolling them with a stone cylinder, through the axis of which a lever of iron is passed, whose ends being brought forward, and united together in form of a triangle, serve to move it backwards or forwards; and between the walks are smooth grass-plats covered with the greenest turf, without any other ornament.

This of my Lord Paulet is a meadow divided into several compartments of brickwork, which are filled with flowers.

Round the house is the park, 3 miles in circumference, surrounded by a thick row of trees, between each of which is a terrace of turf; and where the trees begin to shoot out branches; these, intertwined together, form, along with the earth of the terraces, a fence of the strongest description.

About Tuesday 30 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Today Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, leaves Axminster on his way to London.

I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. Sometimes I got confused making the N.S./O.S. date conversions, so I apologize if they are wrong:

@@@

On 30 March/9 April, 1669, having travelled 12 miles through a country more cultivated, pleasanter, and more fertile than on the preceding day, we arrived at Hinton St. George, a villa of my Lord John Paulet, so called from a village of that name, from which he takes the title of baron, in addition to the others which this noble and ancient family enjoys, and which were conferred upon it by Edward VI in the year 1552; that of duke, however, which it enjoyed in right of the lordship of the island of Jersey, it lost, having been deprived of it after the death of Queen Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

[John Paulett, 5th Marquis of Winchester = http://bcw-project.org/biography/… and http://www.berkshirehistory.com/b… ]
[The Paulett’s home at Hinton St. George https://www.british-history.ac.uk… ]
His highness dined there, entertaining at his table, besides Major Andrews, Mr. Dennis Rolle.
[ Dennis Rolle was a son of John Rolle, MP https://www.historyofparliamenton…
[ Major Andrews was deputy to Sir Charles Cotterell, the master of the ceremonies at the court of Charles II. ]

About Monday 29 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

[ Baron Henry Howard of Norfolk, soon to be the Ambassador to Fez: https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
[ Honiton – https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… AND https://www.historic-uk.com/Cultu….
[ Axminster - The first coach service from London to Exeter, via Axminster, began in 1658 but in the 1750s the turnpikes brought the coaching age to Axminster. The George Inn, built on its current site in 1759, became the town’s premier coaching inn. Axminster was also on the road route from Falmouth in Cornwall to London’s Admiralty, bringing news of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1805 dispatches came through the town with reports of the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson’s death. -- https://axminsterheritage.org/the…'s%20world%2Dfamous%20carpet%20industry,a%20move%20to%20rebuilt%20premises. ]

The master of the horse was admitted to an audience by the serene prince and departed that same evening for London.

His highness then went out to walk, and passed the evening in seeing some ancient medals, which had been dug up in this neighborhood, and were brought for his inspection by the minister of the church.

140

Axminster is a collection of 200 houses, many of which are made of mud, and thatched with straw. It contains nothing considerable, except the parish church, which has a tower, in which are bells so well-tuned, that their sound is exceedingly harmonious and agreeable.
The trade of the inhabitants consists in the manufactory of woolen cloth.

@@@

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.

About Monday 29 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

A contemporary view of Exeter, Devon, is given by Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin.

I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. Sometimes I got confused making the N.S./O.S. date conversions, so I apologize if they are wrong:

@@@

On the morning of 29 March/8 April, 1669, his highness sent Piatt to present his compliments to the mayor. Towards noon, Mr. Kirkam and the Messrs. Rolle came to wish him a good journey; after which, having dined, he got into his coach, and departed for Axminster, where he arrived at an early hour.

[ The Kirkham family of Blagdon, near Paignton, were an old Devonian family, but their ancestral home had transferred to the Blount family in 1630 through marriage. The man Cosmo met probably came from a junior branch of the family. Paignton to Exeter is about 26 miles, so it’s a do-able journey.
[ John and Dennis Rolle were sons of John Rolle, MP https://www.historyofparliamenton…
[ Thomas Piatt served his highness as interpreter on his passage from Spain and in England.
[ 1668/9 George Tuthill was the mayor of Exeter – nothing seems to be available about him ]

The road was through an uneven country, divided into fields under the plough, and spacious meadows for feeding cows, in which this district abounds.

At first, we suffered a good deal of inconvenience, because they had to travel a road full of water, and muddy, though not deep.

We passed through Honiton, a small, but populous village, situated in a valley, and having ascended a hill, from which we could see the sea, we arrived at Axminster, where we found the master of the horse of Henry Howard, brother of the Duke of Norfolk, and of my Lord Philip, grand almoner to the queen, who delivered to Col. Gascoyne a letter from his master, in which he excused himself for not coming in person to pay his respects to his highness, in consequence of his approaching departure on his embassy to Fez; and informed him that he had sent his carriage to Salisbury, to be at the service of his highness.

About Henry Howard

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

A Letter from a gentleman of the Lord Ambassador [Henry] Howard's retinue, to his friend in London dated at Fez, Nov. 1, 1669 wherein he gives a full relation of the most remarkable passages in their voyage thither, and of the present state of the countries under the power of Taffaletta, emperour of Morocco : with a brief account of the merchandizing commodities of Africa : as also the manners and customs of the people there.” -- https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…

About Capt. John Graunt

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

According to our Wikipedia article for John Graunt, he worked in his father's shop until his father died in 1662, and then Graunt became influential in the City. He served in various ward offices in Cornhill ward, becoming a common councilman about 1669–71, and warden of the Drapers' Company in 1671.

According to an article in Country Life, December 2022:
“The Great Fire of London in 1666 completely destroyed Drapers’ Hall and a replacement building was completed to the designs of Edward Jerman by Thomas Cartwright, both professionals who were otherwise widely involved in the reconstruction of the City.

“Work to the shell of the building was finished in 1671, but the fitting out took much longer. By then, the importance of the wool trade had diminished, and membership of the Drapers’ Company was increasingly by descent or ‘patrimony’, a tradition that continues to the present. Such were the Company’s inherited resources that it could afford the huge rebuilding costs of more than £13,000.

“The new building comprised a series of first-floor reception rooms organized around a central courtyard. This essential arrangement has been preserved, but only one 17th-century room, now the Court Dining Room, survives.”

For gorgeous pictures of what’s left of the Drapers Hall that John Graunt and his friends paid for in the Diary years, see
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/arc…

About Mercers' Hall

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

mer·cer
/ˈmərsər/

noun -- HISTORICAL • BRITISH
a dealer in textile fabrics, especially silks, velvets, and other fine materials.

But not woolens -- woolens belonged to the Drapers Company.

About Stationers' Hall

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Since we don't have a page for the Worshipful Company of Stationers, this seems to be a good spot to remind annotators that in the 17th century the concept of an individual author owning the copyright to their work had not yet emerged.

Authorship and publishing were collective endeavors, and the boundaries between authors, publishers, printers, and booksellers was indistinct.

For information about the collective nature of Early Modern authorship and publication, see Adrian Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998, 58–60.

About Monday 29 March 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... now our whole house will, in a manner, be new which, since Jane is gone, I am not at all sorry for, for that my late differences with my wife about poor Deb. will not be remembered."

This amnesia only holds until you chase poor Deb again. The "differences" start all over again when you are caught. Your slate is only clean so long as you behave yourself, which I do not believe you intend to do.

About Isabella Theresa Mary Paulet

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Lady Isabella Theresa Mary Howard Paulet, third wife of John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester (1598 – 1675), daughter of William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford and Mary Stafford, sister of the 5th Baron Stafford.

They married 30 April, 1669, and lived in Englefield House, Berkshire, which was a wedding gift from his second marriage to Lady Honora de Burgh in the early 1630s.

John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester died on 5 March 1674/5 and was buried at Englefield.

She died on 2 September 1691, without issue and was buried on the 5th.
See https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/How…

About Friday 23 October 1668

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Corpse medicine continued: Chancellor Sir Francis Bacon once remarked that skull moss, which was thought to be good for nosebleeds, could be harvested from the “heaps of slain bodies lying unburied over in Ireland.”

Moss-covered skulls looted from the battlefields became a common sight in London druggist shops.

The marketing of their skulls for consumption was one more brutality in a long list of oppressions practiced against the Irish at that time. The fact that there was money to be made, particularly from the export of skulls, seemed to be enough to keep anyone, English or otherwise, from questioning the ethics of this business for an uncomfortably long time. Germany had a particularly big hunger for corpse medications. So there was a brisk trade in pillaging Irish skulls and selling them to Germany.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/arti…

About Sunday 2 May 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Today Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, concluded his visit to Cambridge and left, bound for Oxford.
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
@@@

244
On the morning of 2/12 May, 1669 the weather being very fine, his highness, having heard mass privately, left Cambridge, taking the road to Northampton, over an open plain, divided into arable and pasture land, and for the most part rather wet as far as Stow, a village of a few houses, where his highness stopped to dine.

As he continued his journey, the country was of a better description, spreading out into an uneven champain, almost all under the plough. They met with thickly-scattered villages, which gave an interest to the journey, amongst which those of St. Neot's, belonging to the county of Cambridge, and of Highham Ferrers, were the best, though these were much surpassed by Wellingborough, a borough containing a great number of houses, all built of stone, and a considerable population; besides other places situated on each side of the road along which they travelled, and of which they enjoyed the view as they passed along.

From Wellingborough, the remainder of the country was either clothed with trees, or devoted to tillage or pasture, all the way to Northampton, the chief town of the county, called by the English Northamptonshire.

FOR THE REST OF COSMO’S DAY, SEE
NORTHAMPTON and HOLDENBY HOUSE = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
ALTHORPE, see SPENCER, ROBERT, 2nd Earl of Sunderland = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

@@@

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.

About Northampton

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

PART 2

In it are buried Queen Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, Sovereigns of Spain, and wife of Henry VIII; also Queen Mary Stuart, daughter of James, Viceroy of Scotland and Madam Mary of Guise, who was first wife of Francis II, King of France, and afterwards of Henry Stuart, son of the Earl of Lenox, a Scotsman, son of Margaret, eldest sister of Henry VIII — both unfortunate women; the one, owing to her divorce, being compelled to die in the village of Kimbolton; and the other, in consequence of suspicions entertained against her by Queen Elizabeth, deprived of life at Fotheringhay.

247

There are in this county, amongst other things worthy of notice, the castles of Towcester, Kettering, Oundle, and Collyweston, celebrated for the stone quarries, from which they dig not only the stone for ornamenting the buildings, but likewise the slate for covering them; and, therefore, Margaret of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, availing herself of the convenience of these materials, built there a very noble mansion.

The title of Earl of Northampton (which was given to the Earl of Essex by Edward VI) is now enjoyed by my Lord James Compton, one of the most illustrious families in the county of Warwick, from which was descended Henry Compton, who received the title of baron from Queen Elizabeth.

His highness left Northampton for Oxford, in variable weather; the road, almost the whole of the way, was uneven; and the country, for the most part uncultivated, abounding in weeds, which surround on every side the royal villa of Holdenby, a square palace, situated on the highest part of an eminence, of which you have a view on the right, as you go along the road.

In this villa of Holdenby, King Charles I was shut up by order of the Parliament, on suspicion that he had attempted, with the assistance of Lord Murray, to fly from Newcastle in the county of Northumberland, where he was kept in strict confinement by the Scots.
Lord Murray = Sir Robert Moray FRS = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

248

It was almost destroyed by the Parliamentarians in the time of Cromwell, but was restored by Charles II, and given to my Lord Arlington, and afterwards sold by him to the Duke of York.
Henry Bennet, Lord Arlington = https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

After taking a view of Holdenby, we entered into a park, separated by palisades from the adjacent territory, belonging to the villa of Althorp, a seat of my Lord Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who had given his highness repeated and pressing invitations to visit him there.

For Cosmo’s visit to Althorp, see https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

About Northampton

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

In May 1669 Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, travelled through Northants. on his way from Cambridge to Oxford.
I've standardized the spelling of names I know, corrected scanning errors I could figure out, and increased the number of paragraphs. I apologize if I guessed incorrectly:
@@@

From Wellingborough, the remainder of the country was either clothed with trees, or devoted to tillage or pasture, all the way to Northampton, the chief town of the county, called by the English Northamptonshire.

245

His highness alighted at the Inn of St. George, situated near the belfry of the principal church. On the arrival of his highness, the bells were immediately rung as a mark of joy, and, being well tuned, the sound of them was very agreeable; but the ringing being continued a great part of the night, they proved a great interruption to sleep. The mayor and aldermen, with whom the civil government rests, came to pay their respects to his highness, who made use of the same formalities towards them as had been adopted in other places.

His highness walked though Northampton, which, both in the structure and elegance of its buildings, is not inferior to the other towns of the kingdom.

He went to see the church close to his lodgings, which was formerly dedicated to St. Andrew, but now profaned by the exercise of the Anglican religion; it was intended by Simon St. Liz, 1st Earl of Northampton, for the place of his burial, having been built by him, along with the castle, which stands on the Western side of the city; his highness then returned, and supped alone.

Northampton, as before described, is the chief town of the county, and is situated almost in the centre of England. It stands on an eminence, which rising gradually, renders the site, in some degree, hilly.

246

Its circumference, which is 2,120 paces, is surrounded by walls, not far from which runs the river Nen. The streets and the buildings are good, and in a respectable style of architecture; the greater part of them are built of earth, and of stone, a good deal ornamented. The inhabitants are estimated at about 16,000; and all the places of the county are well peopled, in consequence both of the salubrity of the air and the fertility of the soil.

Of these, the most considerable after Northampton, is the city of Peterborough where, united to the monastery built (according to tradition) by King Wolfer, is the cathedral formerly consecrated to St. Peter the Apostle, but now profaned, and it is more celebrated than anything else in the place for the nobleness and antiquity of its structure.

About Trapan, Trepan

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Humans began practicing trepanation, the process of drilling a hole in the skull, during the Neolithic Age, which began around 10,000 BCE.

It’s believed the operation was used to treat epilepsy, migraines, mental problems, and intracranial disorders by relieving pressure — and with some success. Based on prehistoric bones, archaeologists have found the surgery had a decent rate of survival.

-- Source: World History Encyclopedia

About Thursday 15 April 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

“but it being holiday and the place full of people, we parted, leaving further discourse and doing to another time.” … L&M makes no comment, so I looked back and in 1667 found this:

L&M note: It was the first day of the Easter law term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East… and even when not stated as such, I see that Pepys behaves as if it is a holiday by either doing the minimum, or seeing relatives and friends, or catching up on personal accounting if the weather was bad. It’s hard to tell in war and plague years as nothing was particularly normal then – just as things haven’t exactly been normal for all of us the last two years.

The wiki link isn’t helpful, but doing a Google search revealed that Easter Tuesday does still seem to have an academic holiday tradition in places like Australia.

About Chancery

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

In 2022 a new book was published: “Family Feuds: An Introduction to Chancery Proceedings”. Amongst historians, Chancery Proceedings has become a generic term that encompasses the records of all courts of equity.

For the purposes of this book, it is used to cover the records not just of the court of Chancery but of the other principal courts of equity.

The jurisdiction of the courts covered England and Wales only, although colonial disputes were sometimes brought to court as were cases relating to Scotland and Ireland.

The booklet is in two parts. The first describes why the records of Equity Courts are worth looking into and answering such questions as what sought of cases were brought to these courts, what sort of people brought them and how easy are they to read. The second part describes the records themselves, and the indexes and calendars that will enable you to look at them together with some guidelines on searching them effectively.

£5.95
Manufacturer/Publisher: FFHS Publications
Binding: Paperback
Author: Susan T Moore
SKU: 9781860061639
https://shop.nationalarchives.gov…

No, I haven’t read it, but from the confused reports I have read about their proceedings, should I need to become knowledgeable about such a proceeding, having a guide like this would come in very handy.

I did find it interesting that the publisher also described themselves firstly as the manufacturer. That might possibly indicate that no fact checking or proofreaders were involved, or am I just being overly cynical?

About Tuesday 4 May 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"I sent the coachman to her lodging, and understand she is gone for Greenwich to one Mary’s"

Pepys guarded the coach, and a big enough tip got his this errand, I presume. I wonder if his boy was along and what story was spun to explain this strange event.

About Tuesday 4 May 1669

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Agreed Jesse – Imagine an evening spent discussing philosophy with the likes of Robert Hooke and Lord Brouncker! That would be “to my great content” and sublime also.

No wonder Pepys finds Sunday sermons dull. There was so much exciting information and ideas just wafting about in the ether. It's very hard for the Church of England to keep up with the age of reason.