Bill

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Bill has posted 2,777 annotations/comments since 9 March 2013.

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Second Reading

About Monday 26 November 1660

Bill  •  Link

Sasha, no problem, we always appreciate someone who explains science to us. Thanks. And back to Linda and my comment about the latest sunrise. If it occurs today around Jan.1 (Gregorian) then in Pepys' time it would have occurred on January 11 (Julian). Linda is right (the latest sunrise in 1660/61 London occurs in January) because I forgot about the Julian/Gregorian calendar mismatch.

About Saturday 5 January 1660/61

Bill  •  Link

"Tully’s Officys"

In the 17th century, and well into the 19th, Marcus Tullius Cicero was better known as "Tully" than as "Cicero." The town of Cicero, Illinois (founded 1849) is somewhat familiar though the village of Tully, New York (founded 1803), where I once lived, is not.

About Exchequer

Bill  •  Link

Exchequer, Court of, one of the oldest offices under the Crown, and usually attached to the palace of the Sovereign, was the Court for the receipt of monies due to the Crown, and for issuing all processes relating thereto. The chief officers were the Chancellor (a Cabinet minister), a Chief Baron, and a Comptroller General.

"The Exchequer is a four-cornered board, about ten foot long and five foot broad, fitted in manner of a table for men to sit about; on every side whereof is a standing ledge, or border, four fingers broad. Upon this board is laid a cloth bought in Easter Term, which is of black colour, rowed with strekes, distant about a foot or a span. . . . That this Court then had its name from the Board whereat they sate, there is no doubt to be made; considering that the Cloth which covered it was thus party-coloured; which the French call Chequy." - Dugdale, Origines Jurid., ed. 1680, p. 49.

---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Wednesday 30 January 1660/61

Bill  •  Link

"had a letter from my brother John, a very ingenious one"

INGENIOUS, quick-witted, full of Wit or Invention.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Moorfields

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Moorfields, a moor or fen without the walls of the City to the north, first drained in 1527; laid out into walks for the first time in 1606, and first built upon late in the reign of Charles II. The name has been swallowed up in Finsbury (or Fensbury) Square, Finsbury Circus, the City Road, and the adjoining localities.

This low-lying district became famous for its musters and pleasant walks; for its laundresses and bleachers; for its cudgel players and popular amusements; for its madhouse, better known as Bethlehem Hospital; and for its bookstalls and ballad-sellers.

In a petition of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London to the King, James I., about 1625, they state that they have at great charge made pleasant walks out of the boggy fields north of London, and pray his Majesty will direct the construction of a new street to lead to the said walks.

After the Great Fire of London in 1666 the people lived in sheds and tents in Moorfields till such time as other tenements could be erected for them.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About King Street

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King Street, Westminster, originally extended from Charing Cross, through or past Whitehall, to the King's Palace at Westminster. "King Street Gate," of which there is an engraving by Vertue, was demolished in the year 1723; and "Holbein's Gateway," which stood across King Street, in exactly the same manner, was taken down in 1759. In the reign of Henry VIII. fields and gardens sloped from the east side down to the Thames. The Book of Devotions, one of the earliest works of Julian Notary, fourth on the list of our English printers, declares itself to be "Emprynteth at Westmynster by me Julyan Notary. Dwellynge in Kynge Strete, A.d. 1500." Here Lord Howard of Effingham lived, Lord Admiral against the Spanish Armada in Queen Elizabeth's time; in the Admiral's house, the Privy Councillors of the Queen not unfrequently held their meetings.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

King Street Gate: http://www.museumoflondonprints.c…

About Monday 26 November 1660

Bill  •  Link

Linda, actually the latest sunrise in London will be at 8:06am every day from Dec. 26, 2013 to Jan. 4, 2014 so January mornings aren't darker than December's. (The shortest day is, of course, Dec. 20.)

About Sir William Davenant

Bill  •  Link

In a long career through great social change, William Davenant kept abreast of and sometimes advanced the tastes of the day: in the 1630s he wrote city comedies in the Jonsonian manner, and tragicomedies of statecraft, love, and intrigue; in the circle of Henrietta Maria he provided entertainments to meet the vogue for Neoplatonism, and wrote poetry in the stylish cavalier manner, honouring the conduct and taste of Caroline courtiers. With Inigo Jones he put on the final court masques, vainly attempting to promote Charles I as a benevolent autocrat, seeking the support of the ruling élite against a surge of discontent. In exile Davenant attempted to create a new style of heroic poetry, Christian, stoical, and high-minded. He returned to London in the dying days of the Commonwealth and surreptitiously introduced a form of English opera while playhouses were still banned: on the restoration of Charles II he opened a modern theatre with scenery, built up a distinguished company of players of both sexes, revived old plays and promoted writers of new ones, and exercised a virtual stage monopoly until his sudden death. His leading players, Betterton and Harris, carried on as directors without a break, until the opening three years later of their new playhouse, then the finest in the capital.
---Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/art…

About William Child

Bill  •  Link

Child forms a link between the old style of church music, of which Gibbons was the greatest master, and the school of the Restoration, of which Purcell is the great representative. But musically he remained true to the school in which he was educated, and his compositions are remarkable for simplicity and melody. It is said that at one time the choir of St. George's ridiculed them on this account, whereupon Child wrote his celebrated service in D to prove to them that the simplicity of his music arose from design and not from incapability.
---Dictionary of National Biography. 1887

Magnificat and Nunc dimittis in D
Description: Child's "Sharp Service" was reputedly the piece de resistance in St George's Chapel, Windsor in the first decade after the Restoration. It was probably the service performed exclusively for the entertainment of Pepys and his wife upon their expedition to meet Child, 26th February, 1666. It is said that Child wrote this service to puzzle his choirmen, they having ridiculed some of his music because it was so easy.
http://www.notamos.co.uk/145314.s… (Also wherein is a "preview" of the piece)

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About Tuesday 29 January 1660/61

Bill  •  Link

"so we three went to Blackfryers [actually, Whitefriars; see Emilio’s note, below. P.G.]"

I wonder if perhaps Sam went to "Blackfryers" after all. William Davenant did this particular play and his theatre was in Cobham House, Blackfriers in January 1661..

Pepys went to see Davenant's company for the first time on 29 January 1661, and it may be presumed that this devotee of the theatre went on or near the opening date. The manager was having teething troubles: the performance started late, and Pepys had to exercise ‘great patience’ and endure ‘poor beginnings’. He did eventually, to his ‘great content’ see three acts of The Maid in the Mill by Fletcher and Rowley.
---Davenant [D'Avenant], Sir William (1606–1668). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009. http://www.oxforddnb.com/template…

Davenant's Company first performed at the Cockpit, Drury Lane. They began to play at Salisbury Court Theatre on November 13th, 1660, and went to Cobham House, Blackfriars, on the site afterwards occupied by Apothecaries' Hall, in January, 1661.
---Memorials of Old London. P.H. Ditchfield, ed., 1908.

About Monday 28 January 1660/61

Bill  •  Link

"a pint of claret"

CLARET [Clairet, F. of Clarus, L. clear] a general Name for the red Wines of France.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Tyburn

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Tyburn, Tyburn Gallows, or Tyburn Tree (or Deadly Never Green), a celebrated gallows or public place of execution for criminals convicted in the county of Middlesex. It existed as early as the reign of Henry IV., and derives its name from Tyburn Brook. It stood, there is reason to believe, on the site of Connaught Place, and near its south-west corner, though No. 49 Connaught Square is said to be the spot.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Paternoster Row

Bill  •  Link

Paternoster Row was so named in the 13th century, long before any stationer settled in it. There can be no doubt that it was called Paternoster Row, as Mr. Riley observes, "from its being the residence of the trade of Paternostrers, or makers of paternosters, or prayer-beads, for the use probably, more especially, of the worshippers at St. Paul's." "Paternostrer" often occurs as a designation in City archives of the 13th and 14th centuries, and there is a record in 1374 of a devise of his premises in Paternoster Row, by "Richard Russell, paternostrer."
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Thursday 22 November 1660

Bill  •  Link

"paying 1000l. or 1500l. in gold"

Hard currency again. A gold Double-Crown (10 shillings) from 1660 weighs 4.43 grams and 1£ would weigh 8.86 grams.

http://museumvictoria.com.au/coll…

So 1000£ in gold would weight 8.86 kilograms. Or 19.5 pounds. 1500£ would weight 29.3 pounds

About Richard Pepys (cousin)

Bill  •  Link

Before the Diarist became known, one of the most distinguished members of the family was Richard Pepys, created Lord Chief Justice of Ireland by Charles I. When the King was executed, Richard resigned his off1ce; but he enjoyed the favour of Cromwell, and resumed the place. As he did not die until 1678, it is strange that there should be no allusion to him in the "Diary."
---Samuel Pepys and the world he lived in. H.B. Wheatley, 1895.
[Wheatley seems to have missed the 3 references noted above.]

About Mercers' Chapel

Bill  •  Link

Mercers' Hall and Chapel, Cheapside, between Ironmonger Lane and Old Jewry. The hall and chapel of the Mercers' Company, the first on the list of the Twelve Great Companies of London. The buildings occupy the site of the ancient college or hospital of St. Thomas of Acon or Acres. On the dissolution of this with the other conventual establishments Henry VIII. granted to the Mercers' Company, in consideration of the payment of a sum of £969 : 17 : 6, the church of the College of Acon, the parsonage of St. Mary Colechurch, and various other premises and properties. The church of St. Thomas was reopened for divine service, and "is now" (1598), says Stow, "called Mercers' Chapel, and therein is kept a Free Grammar School," the original of the present Mercers' School. ... Hall, chapel, and other buildings of the Mercers were all destroyed in the Great Fire. The hall and chapel were rebuilt about 1672. Sir C. Wren is said to have designed them, but they might have been by Edward Jerman, surveyor to the Gosham College.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Thomas Venner

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Venner, Thomas, a wine-cooper, who, not satisfied with the business of his profession, became a fanatical preacher, and persuaded his followers, who were called fifth monarchy men, that all human government was soon to cease, to make room for the coming of Christ and his saints. From preaching he proceeded to violence, and after representing Cromwell and Charles II. as usurpers, he headed a mob, and proclaimed the kingdom of king Jesus. This popular insurrection called for the interference of the civil power, and Venner and 12 of his followers, who considered themselves as invulnerable, were executed Jan. 1660-1, exclaiming, "that if they were deceived, the Lord himself was their deceiver."
---Universal Biography, J. Lemprière, 1810.