Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Sunday 14 October 1660

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CLOSET. [from close.]
1. A small room of privacy and retirement. Wotton.
2. A private reposítory of curiosities. Dryden.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Maj-Gen. Thomas Harrison

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Thomas Harrison, son of a butcher at Newcastle-under-Line, appointed by Cromwell to convey Charles I. from Windsor to White Hall, in order to his trial. He signed the warrant for the execution of the King.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Hercules Pillars (Fleet St)

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Locke the philosopher, in his letter of advice to a foreigner about visiting England, 1679, speaking of "the home-made drinks of England," says, "There are also several sorts of compounded ales, as cock-ale, wormwood-ale, lemon-ale, scurvy-grass-ale, college-ale, etc. These are to be had at Hercules' Pillars, near the Temple."
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Monday 8 October 1660

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"to buy some household stuff"

STUFF. [stuffe, Dutch] 1. Any matter or body. Davies. 2. Material out of which any thing is made. Roscommon. 3. Furniture; goods. Hayward, Cowley. 4. That which fills any thing. Shakesp. 5. Essence; elemental part. Shakesp. 6. Any mixture of medicine. Shakesp. 7. Cloth or texture any kind. 8. Textures of wool thinner and slighter than cloth. Bacon. 9. Matter or thing. Dryden.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1768.

About William Spurstow

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William Spurstow, D.D., Vicar of Hackney and Master of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, both which pieces of preferment he lost for nonconformity, 1662.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Ketch / catch

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A KETCH a Vessel having only a Mizen and Main Mast
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1731.

About Tuesday 2 October 1660

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HUMOUR (Humeur, F, of Humor, L.) Moisture, Juice; also Temper of Mind, Fancy, Whim.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Wednesday 29 August 1660

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As per Terry, I think he's been grounded. What's more interesting to me is that he must have very few clothes.

About Tuesday 2 October 1660

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VESPERS [in the Church of Rome] Evening Songs, or Evening Prayers.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

The proper time for Vespers or Even-song is six of the clock.
---A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer. C. Wheatly, 1720.

About Monday 1 October 1660

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"one of my bags of 100l."

So now we find out what the form the money takes that Sam has been raking in. Cold, hard cash. As I calculated earlier, one Silver Crown weighs about one ounce, and each is 1/4 of a (monetary) pound. So a bag of 400 of them would weight about 25 (physical) pounds. Gold would weigh less but probably not too much in circulation at this stage of the Restoration. So Sam has the equivalent of 50 (physical) pounds of silver!

About Saturday 1 September 1660

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I wonder if this talk of refrigeration and microorganisms misses the point of a pasty. Baking meat inside a pastry layer will preserve it longer than just leaving that same meat on a shelf. That pasty will taste just fine in a few days.

About Saturday 25 August 1660

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draft/draught

DRAFT [corrupted for draught]
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Wednesday 22 August 1660

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Sasha, doth = do in all the online dictionaries so is there no change of meaning in the two diary versions? And is it indeed present subjunctive (conditional) and not a definite statement?

About Tuesday 21 August 1660

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Dick, I agree that this is the general usage of "bred up." Penn seems to have used it to mean that Batten had mentored him in the Navy and that confused me. But a good metaphor.
As for that corpse in front parlor...

About Monday 20 August 1660

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About this 100l. Is this all Pepys' money? Does "My Lord" get any of it or is his pile separate? If it is separate it must be a even larger pile. £9,000 (current value) a month for each of the clerks and more for the Lord Privy Seal seems like a lot of money.

About Wednesday 22 August 1660

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"I met with Mr. G. Montagu, and joyed him in his entrance (this being his 3d day) for Dover."

To JOY.
1 To congratulate; to entertain kindly.
2 To gladden; to exhilarate.
3 [Jouir de, French] To enjoy; to have happy possession.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Sir William Batten

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On the Restoration Batten was reinstated in his office of surveyor of the navy; in the exercise of its duties his remaining years were passed, during which time, through the pleasant pages of Pepys's Diary, we seem to become almost personally acquainted with him. Pepys was often very much out of humour with Batten, though he continued throughout on good terms with him; and much of what we read in the Diary must be attributed to some passing pique. To say that in an age of almost universal corruption Batten's official hands were not quite clean is unnecessary; but there is something ridiculous in Pepys and Sir W. Warren discoursing on Batten's iniquities for some four hours on end, forgetful even of eating or drinking (4 July 1662); or on another occasion adjourning to a tavern to talk 'of the evils the king suffers in our ordering of business in the navy, as Sir W. Batten now forces us by his knavery' (5 May 1664). The relations of Pepys and Warren to each other were of such a nature as to permit us to suspect that Batten's 'knavery' may have largely shown itself in restraining the greed of the clerk of the acts or in insisting on a just interpretation of the clauses of a contract (e.g. 10 Feb. 1662-3, 2 Feb. 1663-4, 16 Sept. 1664). There is, in fact, no reason to suppose that Batten ever exceeded the bounds of what was then considered fair and right; and the story of Batten's cowardice (4 June 1664) as related to Pepys by Coventry, who said he had it from the king, is probably false (29 Aug. 1648); though it is quite possible that he may have shown marks of agitation, of a spirit torn with conflicting emotions, which the king thought a fitting subject for jest. In 1665 Batten had a serious illness, and lay for four or five days at the point of death. 'I am at a loss,' wrote Pepys (7 Feb. 1664-5), 'whether it will be better for me to have him die, because he is a bad man, or live, for fear a worse should come.' He revived, however, and lived on for another two years and a half. On 4 Oct. 1667 Pepys notes: 'Sir W. Batten is so ill that it is believed he cannot live till to-morrow, which troubles me and my wife mightily, partly out of kindness, he being a good neighbour, and partly because of the money he owes me.' He died on the early morning of 5 Oct., 'having been but two days sick;' and on the 12th 'the body was carried, with a hundred or two of coaches, to Walthamstow, and there buried.' From 1661 he had sat in parliament as member for Rochester, and since June 1663 had held the honourable post of master of the Trinity House. He was twice married, and left a son and daughter both grown up and married.
---Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 3, 1885.

About Herring

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Salted Herrings applied whole to the Soles of the Feet, are good to avert the Humours, which mount to the Head, and to allay the burning Heat of Fevers; being reduced into Ashes, they give it in Liquor to dissolve the Stone.
---Dictionaire oeconomique, N. Chomel, 1725.