The modern book-keeper still prepares sets of accounts and we refer to 'the books' meaning 'the accounts' but no longer use the noun in the singular quite as Pepys does. One type of accountant does normally keep a (singular) book these days and that is a turf-accountant, or bookie.
L&M note that Cocke was asking an inflated price of £57 per ton for this, making the whole deal worth £57,000. Nice work if you can get it.
SPOILER. However, he didn't get it. Price too high; he wanted the cost of shipping from Hamburg to be paid by the Navy; wanted other goods to be part of the deal; wanted preferential treatment when it came to payment and couldn't deliver before November at the earliest
In the end he was left with the cargo on his hands in November (by which time other hemp had become available) and was forced to sell at £4 less per ton than he originally demanded.
L&M note that the price indicates that this was strong beer, which could sell for between 6s. and 10s. a barrel. Small beer, on the other hand, cost from 5s.-6s. Sam tries to explain his rheumy eye to himself by recourse to the theory of the four humours, the stronger beer having provoked an increase in the 'wet' humour in his body.
We must be using very different tables, djc. My diary for the current year gives sunset on 24th May (equivalent to Sam's 13th May) as 20.58 BST in London. This equates to 19.58 GMT, which would have been the sort of clock that Sam was working to; thus roughly 8 p.m. by his reckoning.
[The latest time ever given for London sunset in this table is 21.22 BST, which would be 20.22 GMT].
Now, this is a really early night and shows just how anxious Sam must have been to avoid any meeting with Pen this evening. Even allowing for the 11 days' calendar difference, London sunset would have been at about 8 p.m. with daylight lasting just a little longer than that.
Presumably the household was instructed that on no account was the master to be disturbed before morning.
Difficult to tell what had been intended for the girl if she had proved to be really ill.
During the height of the plague we did hear of at least one servant who was lodged in some kind of out-house, away from the family, when he fell ill. Perhaps this is what Pepys indicates by 'out of doors'. The plague, though much abated, is still present in the City.
Yes this, though it must have been wider in scope, is the kind of flat, leaded area that I believe that Pepys is talking about. In effect he has created a commodious balcony out of an area of flat, leaded roof.
If anyone remembers the TV production of "Brideshead Revisited", one of the early scenes shot at 'Brideshead' was of Sebastian and Charles up on the leads on the roof of the great house. Plenty of room for lazing around in privacy (and in the nude) in the open air until little sister Cordelia arrives.
I'm not sure that such a profession existed at this time. Many seamen seem to have worn their hair long, both at this point and much later; not in flowing locks around the face and shoulders, but plaited into a queue.
If you look at Lord Nelson's jacket, as preserved in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, you can observe the dark stain between the shoulder-blades where his greasy queue (plait) marked the cloth.
A lively expression for what must have been a painful and all-too-common situation, shoes not being made specifically for left or right feet at this date, but requiring use by the wearer to shape shoes to either foot. Think of the corns and blisters!
Yes, it was Sam's mother who suffered from kidney/bladder stones, not his father. The weakness appears to have run in her family as her sister Anne suffered similarly. Sam's brother John was also afflicted in the same way.
I can find no illuminating reference to John Sr.'s "distemper". Claire Tomalin mentions that Sam was sending his father medical advice from Dr. Hollier in the late 1670s but offers no reference to the letter or letters involved nor any mention of his particular ailment(s) at the time.
A footnote in the L&M Companion about this medical advice carries a reference to page 54 of "The Letters of Samuel Pepys and his family circle" ed. Helen T. Heath, pub. Oxford 1955.
I don't believe that we know exactly what ailed John Pepys, but it cannot have been anything terribly debilitating as he lived to the ripe old age of 79.
These would indeed be seashells. There was quite a vogue for collecting seashells from exotic, foreign locations.
[Off topic: this vogue never completely died out and in the 19th century Marcus Samuel made his initial fortune out of trading in seashells before diversifying into oil and eventually calling his company Shell].
Not necessarily. The adjective 'blond(e) first appears in print in the 15th Century with reference to 'yellow' hair, so if that was what Sam meant, then the precise term was available to him.
Comments
First Reading
About Friday 1 June 1666
Mary • Link
Thanks, Terry. That's what I thought, but it's nice to have the reference.
About Friday 1 June 1666
Mary • Link
Who was in the garden, hearing the great guns go thick off, please? It wasn't Pepys.
About Wednesday 30 May 1666
Mary • Link
"my Lord Ashly ...... being bribed"
This rumour was first mentioned ten days ago by Pepys, but was to prove false.
About Monday 28 May 1666
Mary • Link
"he will be ready with a book for me"
a book = a set of accounts.
The modern book-keeper still prepares sets of accounts and we refer to 'the books' meaning 'the accounts' but no longer use the noun in the singular quite as Pepys does. One type of accountant does normally keep a (singular) book these days and that is a turf-accountant, or bookie.
About Friday 25 May 1666
Mary • Link
Cocke's deal on hemp.
L&M note that Cocke was asking an inflated price of £57 per ton for this, making the whole deal worth £57,000. Nice work if you can get it.
SPOILER. However, he didn't get it. Price too high; he wanted the cost of shipping from Hamburg to be paid by the Navy; wanted other goods to be part of the deal; wanted preferential treatment when it came to payment and couldn't deliver before November at the earliest
In the end he was left with the cargo on his hands in November (by which time other hemp had become available) and was forced to sell at £4 less per ton than he originally demanded.
About Friday 25 May 1666
Mary • Link
The Cofferer
This was William Ashburnham. Three men involved in this meeting.
About Friday 25 May 1666
Mary • Link
"called together ..... by a man with a home"
For "home" read "horn"
About Wednesday 23 May 1666
Mary • Link
8s. beer.
L&M note that the price indicates that this was strong beer, which could sell for between 6s. and 10s. a barrel. Small beer, on the other hand, cost from 5s.-6s. Sam tries to explain his rheumy eye to himself by recourse to the theory of the four humours, the stronger beer having provoked an increase in the 'wet' humour in his body.
About Sunday 20 May 1666
Mary • Link
"at noon dined mighty nobly"
but, presumably, not on large quantities of lobster.
About Wednesday 16 May 1666
Mary • Link
to bait
is to stop in some course of action (stop work, interrupt a journey etc.) for a while in order to take refreshment.
A workman might take his bait ('packed lunch' of bread, cheese, onion or what you will) to work with him to eat at midday.
About Sunday 13 May 1666
Mary • Link
Light evenings.
We must be using very different tables, djc.
My diary for the current year gives sunset on 24th May (equivalent to Sam's 13th May) as 20.58 BST in London. This equates to 19.58 GMT, which would have been the sort of clock that Sam was working to; thus roughly 8 p.m. by his reckoning.
[The latest time ever given for London sunset in this table is 21.22 BST, which would be 20.22 GMT].
About Sunday 13 May 1666
Mary • Link
"I to bed even by daylight"
Now, this is a really early night and shows just how anxious Sam must have been to avoid any meeting with Pen this evening. Even allowing for the 11 days' calendar difference, London sunset would have been at about 8 p.m. with daylight lasting just a little longer than that.
Presumably the household was instructed that on no account was the master to be disturbed before morning.
About Wednesday 2 May 1666
Mary • Link
Difficult to tell what had been intended for the girl if she had proved to be really ill.
During the height of the plague we did hear of at least one servant who was lodged in some kind of out-house, away from the family, when he fell ill. Perhaps this is what Pepys indicates by 'out of doors'. The plague, though much abated, is still present in the City.
About Friday 27 April 1666
Mary • Link
djc
Yes this, though it must have been wider in scope, is the kind of flat, leaded area that I believe that Pepys is talking about. In effect he has created a commodious balcony out of an area of flat, leaded roof.
If anyone remembers the TV production of "Brideshead Revisited", one of the early scenes shot at 'Brideshead' was of Sebastian and Charles up on the leads on the roof of the great house. Plenty of room for lazing around in privacy (and in the nude) in the open air until little sister Cordelia arrives.
About Tuesday 10 April 1666
Mary • Link
Seaman barber.
I'm not sure that such a profession existed at this time. Many seamen seem to have worn their hair long, both at this point and much later; not in flowing locks around the face and shoulders, but plaited into a queue.
If you look at Lord Nelson's jacket, as preserved in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, you can observe the dark stain between the shoulder-blades where his greasy queue (plait) marked the cloth.
About Sunday 22 April 1666
Mary • Link
"the shoemaker's stocks"
A lively expression for what must have been a painful and all-too-common situation, shoes not being made specifically for left or right feet at this date, but requiring use by the wearer to shape shoes to either foot.
Think of the corns and blisters!
About Thursday 19 April 1666
Mary • Link
Yes, it was Sam's mother who suffered from kidney/bladder stones, not his father. The weakness appears to have run in her family as her sister Anne suffered similarly. Sam's brother John was also afflicted in the same way.
I can find no illuminating reference to John Sr.'s "distemper". Claire Tomalin mentions that Sam was sending his father medical advice from Dr. Hollier in the late 1670s but offers no reference to the letter or letters involved nor any mention of his particular ailment(s) at the time.
A footnote in the L&M Companion about this medical advice carries a reference to page 54 of "The Letters of Samuel Pepys and his family circle" ed. Helen T. Heath, pub. Oxford 1955.
About Thursday 19 April 1666
Mary • Link
I don't believe that we know exactly what ailed John Pepys, but it cannot have been anything terribly debilitating as he lived to the ripe old age of 79.
About Friday 20 April 1666
Mary • Link
These would indeed be seashells. There was quite a vogue for collecting seashells from exotic, foreign locations.
[Off topic: this vogue never completely died out and in the 19th century Marcus Samuel made his initial fortune out of trading in seashells before diversifying into oil and eventually calling his company Shell].
About Monday 16 April 1666
Mary • Link
Blond(e)?
Not necessarily. The adjective 'blond(e) first appears in print in the 15th Century with reference to 'yellow' hair, so if that was what Sam meant, then the precise term was available to him.