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San Diego Sarah has posted 9,350 annotations/comments since 6 August 2015.

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Second Reading

About Friday 10 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Up to the Lobby, and there sent out for Mr. Coventry and Sir W. Batten, and told them if they thought convenient I would go to Chatham today, Sir John Minnes being already there at a Pay, and I would do such and such business there, which they thought well of..."

Pepys knew Bristol was going to do this, so he needed permission to leave the office empty of officers for a day or two. (Everyone except Pepys is in the Lords, out of town or sick.) He went to the Lords, saw his colleagues, got the news, and left that afternoon to take the information to Mennes in Chatham. He did act a bit crazy yesterday, so an outing is probably a good idea.

About Friday 10 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... prepared myself to go after, dinner with Sir W. Batten."

This comma has me baffled. Does it mean that Batten is going to hurry back from the House to have lunch with Pepys, and then Pepys will go alone to Chatham to do the Pay. Or does it mean he and Batten will go to Chatham after dinner?

"After dinner I took boat (H. Russell) and down to Gravesend in good time, and thence with a guide post to Chatham, ..." So there's no mention of Batten having dinner or going to Chatham.

And the guide post, I take to mean that Pepys didn't know the way so he took a guide with him so he could go fast (as in poste haste) to Chatham, and be first with the news.

About Tuesday 7 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sorry, Bill, I don't get what you are trying to say. Are you referring to Hilary Clinton???

Onwards ... "my Lord Bristoll told the King that he will impeach the Chancellor of High Treason: but I find that my Lord Bristoll hath undone himself already in every body’s opinion, and now he endeavours to raise dust to put out other men’s eyes, as well as his own; but I hope it will not take, in consideration merely that it is hard for a Prince to spare an experienced old officer, be he never so corrupt; though I hope this man is not so, as some report him to be."

I think this says that Pepys hopes Bristol's efforts to save himself by impeaching Hyde will not succeed, if, for no other reason than it is hard for Charles II to spare an experienced official; Pepys hopes the allegations against Hyde are unfounded.

About Thursday 9 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Abroad, it raining, ... Thence walked home ..., having taken great cold in my feet by walking in the dirt this day in thin shoes ..." What were you thinking? Did you get dressed up to impress Mrs. Bagwell?

About Thomas Turner

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Turners were more than neighbors ... their "house of office" emptied into Pepys' part of the cellars.

Cf. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…: 'This morning one came to me to advise with me where to make me a window into my cellar in lieu of one that Sir W. Batten had stopped up; and going down my cellar to look, I put my foot into a great heap of turds, by which I find that Mr. Turner's house of office is full and comes into my cellar, which doth trouble me; but I will have it helped.'60/10/20/

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
L&M transcribe the mess being transported in the dark from the cellar: "This night, Mr. Turner's house [of office] being to be emptied out of my cellar, and therefore I think to sit up a little longer than ordinary.[...] I called late for some victuals, and so to bed, leaving the men below in the cellar emptying the turds up through Mr. Turner's own house; and so, with more content, to bed late."

alta turpis fossa or caput posted this explanation: "One common cellar, for all? I have the impression that exterior wall be common, but the interior walls be installed to fit the pocket book of the different resident payee's. One could go from one subterranean area to another only by opening up the inserted wall. Doors, walls, stairs or fixtures would added and deleted at the convenience of new monies. Only in the abundant wealth of modern era does one tear down the existing structure to make the new ideal arrangements based on ergonomic and practical uses and requirements. Large structures like the Whitehall be a collection of mismashed dilapidated rooms, with a luverly title of palace to give a sense of grandeur. Oh how we like loverly words to cover fetid things.
My viewpoint of the caverns of Samuel's residence, be that there be a cellar for all his coals, which he purchases once a year, another area designated for his collection of bribes, sorry his gifts from satisfied clients, for best wines that be imported, then there be a root cellar to keep his turnips and spuds, then there be another designated room with the pipe [or pipes] coming down from his and her closets in the upper regions into a barrel for the collection of nite soil.
His neighbour be not watching his overflow of effluent so affluent Sam has to tell Turner to open up his pocket book and get the muck out of Sam's space.
The nite soil men only work during the hours of darkness, as they be unwanted, even by those that never had a bath."

About Wednesday 8 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

More on night soil men and gardening:

"... Yet what is perhaps rather surprising given the ubiquity of dung – animal and human – how little comment there is about it in early agricultural or horticultural texts. Thomas Tusser in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry (1573) written in verse has a couple of stanzas in the section on ‘Instructions for November’, but this is the only mention I can find…
"If Garden require it, now trench it ye may,
one trench not a yard, from another go lay.
which being well filled, with muck by & by:
go cover with mould, for a season to ly.

"And in the next lines he gives a clue as what the ‘muck’ is that should be used to fill the trenches.

"Foule privies are now, to be clensed & fyed, let night be appointed, such baggage to hide.
which buryd in gardein, in trenches a lowe:
shall make very many things, better to growe.

"It seems that Tusser thought this more a matter of household neatness and necessity rather than horticultural good practice, and that if it has to be done you might as well get a return on your labour. And he adds to the perhaps understandable sense of distaste by saying it should be done under cover of darkness.

"Leonard Meager in The Mystery of Husbandry (1697), has a chapter on The Dunging of Ground which starts with asking “what Dung doth most enrich the Earth?” The answer is that “The most Expert of the Ancient Husbandmen, appoint three sorts of Dungs: the first of Poultry, the next of Men, the third of Cattel. Of the first sort, the best is had out of Dove-Houses; the next is of Pulline, and other Fowl, except Geese and Ducks, which is hurtful… The next to this, is Man’s Ordure, if it be mixt with other Rubbish of the House: for of itself it is too hot, and burns the Ground. Man’s Urine, being kept six Months, and poured upon the Roots of Apple-trees, and Vines, causeth them to be very fruitful, and giveth a pleasant Taste to the Fruit. In the third place, is the Dung of Cattel.” -- https://parksandgardensuk.wordpre…

About Wednesday 8 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

alta turpis fossa or caput -- when did the term "night soil men" didn't come into use?

"A gong farmer was the term used in Tudor England for a person employed to remove human excrement from privies and cesspits. Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night and the waste they collected had to be taken outside the city or town boundaries. They later became known as "night soil men" or "nightmen". In the Manchester area they were also known as the Midnight Mechanic." -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nig…

"Human sewage, often euphemistically known as “night soil” has been the traditional fertiliser used by market gardeners throughout history, and it was certainly an organised, if highly unpleasant trade by the 16th century. Right through until the construction of a proper sewerage system in the 19th century the night soil man was a common figure on London streets, ... By 1617 The Worshipful Company of Gardeners which received its royal charter from James I in 1605, was claiming that it was its members who “cleansed the City of all dung and noisomeness.” This was a connection which dogged the company’s image throughout the following century or more, and certainly compromised the more genteel aspirations of many of its members!

In early modern London each of the city’s wards elected – or probably bullied – a scavenger and rakers to oversee the cleaning of the rubbish. Street sweepings, general rubbish and sewage were then supposed to be taken outside the city walls and spread out there on common land, or put on heaps known as laystalls. Originally a laystall was a holding area for cattle being taken to market, and obviously this led to accumulations of dung, so that by extension, it became a term for a place where rubbish of all sorts was dumped. There were several huge areas set aside for laystalls including the rather inappropriately named Mount Pleasant, where Laystall Street can still be found. By 1780 that site is thought to have covered over 7 acres. There was also a small stretch of the Thames near Blackfriars, known as Dung Wharf, where manure and sewage was collected to be sent to London’s market gardens. The vast majority of which lay close to the riverbanks and were fertilized by London’s night soil sent down on barges which then returned full of foodstuff for the London market. -- https://parksandgardensuk.wordpre…...

About Monday 6 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Thanks, Sam ... I needed a short evening, after the three marathons you've given us figuring out who all your colleagues were. My brain finally spritzed on three generations of Barbara Villiers!

About Monday 6 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... that he had his tallys up ..." -- in retail, you "tally up" at the close of business (i.e. count the cash in the drawer) to balance out at the end of the day. I find that easier to understand than the definition in the Pepys encyclopedia, even though it is quite possible Creed was walking around with a bunch of tally sticks in his pocket to aid his memory.

About Saturday 4 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

No, I'm wrong ... Barbara St.John Villiers wasn't Barbara Villiers Palmer/Cleveland's mother ... she was her aunt. So that does make Apsley an uncle. Aunt Barbara Villiers outlived a couple of husbands. On February 13, 1650 Barbara Villiers Wenman Wentworth married James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, her third marriage and his second. (These two "ladies" were the women foisted on Queen Catherine during the Bedroom Incident in 1662.)

However, I find a L&M note that on July 15, 1662 Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine went to the home of her uncle, Col. Edward Villiers, who lived in Richmond Palace. (Col. Edward Villiers, was Master of the Robes and the Groom of the Bedchamber to James, Duke of York at that time.) A much better candidate for her uncle/retreat.

About Saturday 4 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

John Evelyn saw the muster too -- compare his reference to "the French Ambassador Monsieur Cominges" with Sam's:

"I saw his Majesty's Guards being of horse & foot 4,000 led by the General, The Duke of Albemarle, in extrordinary Equipage & gallantry, consisting of Gent: of quality, & Veteran Soldiers, excellently clad, mounted & ordered, drawn up in batallia before their Majesties in Hyde Park, where the old Earl of Cleveland trailed a Pike, & led the right-hand file in a foot Company commanded by the Lord Wentworth his son, a worthy spactacle & example, being both of them old & valiant Soldiers: This was to show the French Ambassador Monsieur Cominges: There being a great Assembly of Coaches &c in the Park: In the Evening I went home:"

Gen. George Monck, Duke of Albemarle

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Cleveland (1591 – 25 March 1667) was a Cavalier general who fought for King Charles during the English Civil War. He attended his kinsman Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford at his execution, ... Cleveland was described by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, as "a man of signal courage and an excellent officer"; his cavalry charge at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, where he routed John Middleton's Parliamentary horse and then with Lord Wilmot's horse led another charge that captured the Parliamentary artillery, was one of the most brilliant incidents in the Civil War, and it was by his bravery and presence of mind that Charles II was enabled to escape from Worcester. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tho…
I wonder how he felt about having Barbara Palmer dubbed "Countess of Cleveland"?

Thomas Wentworth, 5th Baron Wentworth (bapt. 2 February 1612 – 1 March 1665). He was married by mid-March of 1658 to Philadelphia Carey (d. 1696), daughter of Sir Ferdinando Carey. Together they had one child: Henrietta Maria Wentworth was born on 11 August 1660. Thomas, Baron Wentworth died, age 53, on 1 March 1665, thereby predeceasing his father by two years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tho…

About Saturday 4 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The Comte de Schomberg, Armand-Frederic, Vicomte de Schomberg (1608-1690) who was then only 28, was the son of Johann Meinhardt von Schomberg, Grand Marshal of the Palatinate. His mother was English. The ancestral estates had been lost as a consequence of the Elector Frederick's adventure in Bohemia, and the young Schomberg grew up as an exile in Holland. He fought in the French army at Nordlingen, and later, after the death of the Stadtholder William II, he and his family emigrated to France.

In 1652 he purchased a company in the Gardes Ecossaises, and in July 1653 was made a Lieutenant-General. He continued to serve under Turenne with the greatest distinction, particularly at the moment of the setback at Valenciennes and the difficult retreat to Le Quenoi (1656).

In 1661 Lt. Gen. Armand-Frederic, Vicomte de Schomberg went to Portugal to reorganise the Portuguese army, and lead it in the war against Spain; and in the course of brilliant operations he assured the independence of Portugal.
Louis XIV conferred a dukedom upon him and made him a Marshal of France, and he took part in the campaigns of 1677 and 1678 in Flanders. Owing, however, to the persecution of his co-religionists - for Schomberg was a lifelong Calvinist - he decided to leave France.
-- Sir Arthur Bryant's introduction to the Memoirs of James II
http://archive.org/stream/memoirs…

About Hugh Audley

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/histor…

Baptised in 1577, Hugh Audley started his career with £100 and died age 86 with a fortune of more than £400,000. He worked as a philosopher, a lawyer and a money lender - the latter making his wealth - and owned land across London’s Mayfair.
Mr Audley also bought property in south Norfolk, including Old Buckenham Castle, New Buckenham Castle and Tibenham Hall.
Known as The Great Audley, he had roads in central London named after him and became the sheriff of Norfolk.
Mr. Reed said a mourning ring is given as a memory of the person who made it.
“According to Audley’s will, he had 11 rings made in two different sizes - one to fit men and the other for women,” he said. “I haven’t heard that any of the others are in existence,”
Hugh Audley had no children of his own, the rings were passed down to his great-nephews - with one selling his share to the other.
The great-nephew then died aged 29 and left his entire fortune, including the rings, to his six-month-old baby daughter, Mary Davis.
Aged 12, Mary married Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, Member of Parliament and ancestor of the current Dukes of Westminister.
The mourning ring is currently at the British Museum.

About Sunday 5 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

in Aqua epistula asks about the six week delay between Mrs. Martha confessing to her step-father and making the relationship official. I believe that's how long it takes to get the Banns read in the Anglican church. Gives time for the news to spread and former spouses to come forward to stop bigamy from taking place.

About Sunday 5 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

✹ TerryF on 6 Jul 2006 • Link • Flag
“my book of Latin plays, which I took in my pocket, thinking to have walked it” -- I took to mean he thought he would read it as he walked.

I thought this too, Terry, until I remembered that Pepys had hired a horse. Perhaps he was going to read the book as the horse ambled home? Or maybe he planned to walk the 6 miles to Walthamstow, before realizing he didn't have enough time and hired the horse. Either way, with all the mud and ruts, I think it better to look where you are going. The road would not have been flat like a paved courtyard.

(He sounds like one of our distracted pedestrians and drivers! Did Parliament make legislation on the subject?)

About Saturday 4 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Among other things Sir Allen Apsley showed the Duke the Lisbon Gazette in Spanish ..."

Sir Allen Apsley (Jr., MP Thetford) was the eldest son of Sir Allen Apsley and his third wife Lucy St.John of Lydiard Tregoze in Wiltshire. ... he was made keeper of the North Park of Hampton Court in 1661, also treasurer to James, Duke of York's household later that year. Also many of his old estates and revenues were returned to him. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo… Lucy's sister, Barbara St.John Villiers, was mother to Barbara Villiers Palmer, Countess of Castlemaine. Perhaps Sir Allen had a house in Richmond to which her ladyship could fly? But it does make him a cousin and not an uncle ...?

Either way, Sir Allen is showing himself on-the-job, unaffected by his relative's recent departure.

About Friday 3 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I was thinking it was a long time to keep the Archbishop's body there, then I remembered the awful weather, which could account for the delay.

About Friday 3 July 1663

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CORRECTION: I got carried away again ... Pepys couldn't see the hearse (and presumably Juxon's body) because it was morning. So the last paragraph above should read:

On the same site it says Juxon was buried on 9 July 1663, at the Chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, so the hearse would be setting out on a long journey soon after lying at Lambeth Palace for over a month.