Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Saturday 22 September 1660

Bill  •  Link

JACK [from Scullion Boys, commonly called Jack, used to be Turnspits] an Engine, to roast Meat
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Sunday 29 July 1660

Bill  •  Link

Giving and receiving “gifts” can be a valid way of establishing and maintaining relationships, even business relationships. Though the quote signs indicate my unease, because, really, western society, and we personally, no longer look kindly on the way Sam is enriching himself. We understand that Sam didn't feel that way, I don't think we judge him harshly, and we read this diary to immerse ourselves in a different time and also a different way of thinking.

But. Would Sam have let a gift, a better gift than others might give, influence a decision? Would he take multiple gifts before a decision was made? There are situations, as Rob notes, that even he might be uncomfortable with. And, don't forget, “My Lord” must get his cut.

My impression is that at this stage of Sam's career he's getting multiple small amounts for doing routine bureaucratic functions. Sort of like gratuities. Later the scale, and the possibility for "corruption," will change.

About Samphire

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SAMPHIRE, SAMPIRE. [Minshew derives it of Saint Pierre, St. Peter's Herb] a Plant which generally grows upon rocky Cliffs in the Sea; it is usually pickled and eaten for a dainty Sallet.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1731.

About Cannon Street

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Cannon Street, Watling Street - correctly Candlewick Street, from Candlewick Ward - ran originally from Watling Street to near London Bridge, and was the earliest highway through the City. ... A scene in the second part of King Henry VI. is laid in this street.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Sunday 16 September 1660

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"I saw the King in purple mourning for his brother."

The colours of the mourning dress are different in different countries. In Europe, the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China, it is white; in Turky, blue, or violet; in Ethiopia, brown; in Egypt, it is yellow; and kings and cardinals mourn in purple.
---A new complete English dictionary. J. Marchant, 1760.

About Poultry

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Poultry. A Street connecting Cheapside and Cornhill, and long famous for its compter [a sheriffs prison].

In the 16th and first half of the 17th century the Poultry was famous for its taverns. The Rose Tavern was noted for its wines, and down to the days of Ned Ward and the London Spy maintained its reputation. The Three Cranes is often referred to as a well-known house in the pamphlets and light literature of the day. The King's Head Tavern, No. 25, was kept in Charles II.'s time by William King. His wife, happening to be in labour on the day of the King's restoration, was anxious to see the returning monarch, and Charles, in passing through the Poultry, was told of her inclination, and stopped at the tavern to salute her.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Mitre (Wood St)

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Mitre Tavern in Wood Street, was kept in Charles II.'s time by William Proctor. He died insolvent in 1665. The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire of the year following.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Thursday 13 September 1660

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"I did give him a bottle of Northdown ale"

Since the Iate Rebellion, England hath abounded in variety of Drinks (as it did lately in variety of Religions) above any Nation in Europe. Besides all sorts of the best wines from Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Grecia, there are sold in London above twenty sorts of other Drinks, as Brandy, Coffee, Chocolate, Tee, Aromatick, Mum, Sider, Perry, Mede, Meheglin, Beer, Ale, many sorts of Ales, very different, as Cock, Stepony, Stich-back, Hull, North-Down, Sambidge, Betony, Scurvy-grass, Sage-Ale, Colledge-Ale, &c. a piece of wantonness whereof none of our Ancestors were ever guilty.
---Angliae Notitia: Or The Present State Of England. E. Chamberlayne, 1684.

About Tuesday 11 September 1660

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CHARGEABLE.
1. Expensive; costly. Watton.
2. Imputable as a debtor crime. South.
3. Subject to charge; accusable. Spectator.
CHARGEABLENESS. Expence; cost; costliness. Boyle.
CHARGEABLY. Expensively. Ascham.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Chine

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CHINE. [eschine, Fr.]
1. The part of the back, in which the backbone is found. Sidney.
2. A piece of the back of an animal. Shakespeare.

To CHINE. To cut into chines. Dryden.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Southwark Fair

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Southwark Fair, called also the Lady Fair and St. Margaret's Fair. It was one of the three great fairs of special importance described in a Proclamation of Charles I., "unto which there is usually extraordinary resort out of all parts of the kingdom." The three fairs were Bartholomew Fair, Sturbridge Fair, near Cambridge, and Our Lady Fair, in the borough of Southwark. Liberty to hold an annual fair in Southwark, on September 7, 8, and 9, was granted to the City of London by the charter of 2 Edward IV. (November 2, 1462), but it was probably held long before in a loose informal manner.

September 13, 1660.—I saw in Southwark at St. Margaret's Faire, monkies and apes dance and do other feates of activity on ye high rope; they were gallantly clad a la mode, went upright, saluted the company, bowing and pulling off their hatts; they saluted one another with as good a grace as if instructed by a dauncing-master. They turn'd heels over head with a basket having eggs in it without breaking any; also with lighted candles in their hands and on their heads without extinguishing them, and with vessells of water without spilling a drop. I also saw an Italian wench daunce and performe all the tricks on ye high rope to admiration; all the Court went to see her. Likewise here was a man who tooke up a piece of iron cannon of about 400 lb. (sic) weight with the haire of his head onely.—Evelyn.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Monday 1 October 1660

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"Mr. Mansell, a poor Reformado of the Charles"

That is, a discharged officer from the Royal Charles.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Tea

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When I came to my Friend's House in a Morning, I used to be ask'd, if I had my Morning Draught yet? I am now ask'd, if I have yet had my Tea?
---An essay on ways and means for inclosing, fallowing, planting. W. Mackintosh, 1729.

About Brazen-nose Tavern

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Are there, then, people may ask no myths arising from forgetfulness of the meaning of words? There are multitudes; there are all the myths springing from 'folk etymologies.' Thus we have the brazen nose over Brasenose gate. 'Brasenose' merely means 'brewing house' but the meaning was lost.
---The Nineteenth Century, v.19. Andrew Lang, 1886.

About Wednesday 1 August 1660

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"The problem is more common in ... people who drink alcohol."

We seem to have no lack of those people.

About John Claypole ("Lord")

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John Lorn Claypole married, 1645, Mary, second daughter of Oliver Cromwell, to whom he became Master of the Horse, and a Lord of the Bedchamber: he was also placed in his father-in-law's Upper House. During Richard Cromwell's time he retained all his places at Court; and at the Restoration, never having made an enemy whilst his relations were in power, he was not molested, and lived till 1688. His father had been proceeded against in the Star Chamber, for resisting the payment of Ship Money, and was by Cromwell constituted Clerk of the Hanaper, and created a baronet.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Holland House, Kensington

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Holland House, Kensington, whose "turrets and gardens," as Macaulay wrote, "are associated with so much that is interesting and noble, with the courtly magnificence of Rich, with the loves of Ormond, with the counsels of Cromwell, with the death of Addison . . . which was the favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen." The house was built in 1607 (attributed to John Thorpe, architect) by Sir Walter Cope, gentleman of the bedchamber to James I. and one of the Chamberlains of the Exchequer, and was known as Cope Castle.

Cope's daughter and heir, as Clarendon says, by the intervention of James I. married Henry Rich (second son of Robert, Earl of Warwick), who was created Baron Kensington in 1622 and Earl of Holland. He was in arms for Charles I.; took part in the last royalist fight at Kingston-on-Thames; was shortly after captured, tried, convicted, and, March 9, 1649, beheaded in Palace Yard, Westminster. Until the rupture between Charles and the Parliament Rich lived here in great splendour. He built (1622-1624) the wings and arcades which add so much to the picturesque character of the exterior, and employed the best artists of the time to decorate the interior. When Fairfax was marching with his army into London the Lords and Commons met him, August 6, 1647, at Holland House.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Hartgill Baron

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Bickerstaffe doesn't seem to have left office peacefully:

Feb. 24 [1669]. Petition of Hartgill Baron, clerk of the Privy Seal, to the King, Whitehall, to summon Charles Bickerstaff to a hearing, for interfering with the petitioner's right to his office, which was conferred on him at Brussels in 1658, and has been confirmed since the Restoration.
---Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, October 1668 to December 1669