Bill

Annotations and comments

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

Comments

Second Reading

About Elizabeth Mountagu

Bill  •  Link

Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Anthony Irby, of Boston in com. Linc. Knt. and of Frances his wife, daughter of Sir William Wray, Bart.
---Peerage of England. A. Collins, 1756.

About George Mountagu

Bill  •  Link

George Montagu, Esq; at twenty years of age, was elected a burgess for the town of Huntington, to that memorable parliament which met at Westminster, 3 Novem. 1640; and after the restoration of King Charles II. by the interest of the Earl of Sandwich, was chosen one of the barons of the Cinque Ports of Dover, in the room of the said Earl, on his taking his seat in the House of Peers. Mr. Montague was also returned for the port of Dover, to the parliament which met at Westminster, 8 March 1661, which was continued by several prorogations and adjournments for 17 years, 8 months, and 17 days, being dissolved on 24 Jan. 1678-9. He was seated at Horton in Northamptonshire; and after succeeding his brother the honourable Henry Montagu, Esq; in his place of master of St. Catharine's hospital near the Tower, departed this life at Manchester-house in Channel-Row, Westminster, in the 59th year of his age, on 19 July 1681, and was buried in the church of St. Catharine's, on Saturday the 23d of the same month.
---Peerage of England. A. Collins, 1756.

About Sir Isaac Penington (Lord Mayor of London, 1642-3)

Bill  •  Link

Pennington. I am unwilling to be troublesome to the Court. This I shall take the boldness to say; (which shall be nothing but truth) I never had a hand in plotting, contriving malicious practices against his Majesty, demonstrated by utterly refusing to sign the Warrant for his Execution though often sollicited thereunto; I cannot deny but I sate amongst them that day of the Sentence but I cannot remember I was there when the Sentence passed. My sitting amongst them was out of ignorance, I knew not what I did, therefore I hope you wil believe there was nothing of malice in any thing I did. I was misled to it.
---An Exact and Most Impartial Accompt of the Indictment, Arraignment, Trial, and Judgment (according to Law) of Twenty Nine Regicides. 1679.

About Tuesday 29 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

(Here's another book with the same solution.)

How to measure a height with two strawes or two small stickes. Take two strawes or two stickes which are one as long as another, and place them right Angles one to the other ...
---Mathematicall Recreations. J. Leurechon, 1653.

About Tuesday 29 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

How to take the Height of any upright Building that is approachable, by two Sticks or Rulers joined together Square-wise.

Let some Structure be standing upright upon plain Ground whose height you require. Go unto some convenient Court, Yard, Garden, or other piece of level Ground adjoining to the building to be measured, then take your Square in both your hands, holding it perpendicular, which you may do, by having a Thread and Plummet, as hung upon a pin near the top of the Square, then keeping it in this posture, go backwards or forwards (as occasion requires) till your Eye can see the other end of your Square, and the Top of the Building, all in one Right Line, which when you do, make a stand; Then measure the height of your eye from the Ground, with a string, and set that length upon the ground from the place of your standing. Then measure the distance, for that shall be equal to the height of the building.

---Pleasure with profit: consisting of recreations of divers kinds. W. Leybourn, 1694. [edited slightly since I can't reproduce his diagram.] (This is essentially the method I outlined above.)

About Martin Beckman

Bill  •  Link

Sir Martin Beckman was a prisoner in Tower in 1663-4. His name occurs twice Bayley's list; once, however, as Bokman. Tower of London no. 624. 4to. 1821.

In the Calendar of State Papers by Mrs. Green, Car II. 1663-4, Dom. Ser. p.170 there is this record: -

Petition of Martin Bokman to the King and Council for a trial. Has been half a year close prisoner in the Tower, through the malice of one person, for discovering the designs of the Spaniards and others against his Majesty, though dismissed from his service; has had his goods and clothes pillaged; often pleaded for justice but might as well have petitioned the stone walls, being an afflicted stranger in a strange country.

About Tuesday 29 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

top
│
│
│
│a
│___b_______ eye (45° angle from eye to top of cliff using "2 stick" device.)
base
of cliff

length a = length b
(Perhaps adding a yard and 3/4 for the height of the eye.)

About Sir Thomas Crew

Bill  •  Link

Crew was re-elected in 1660 to the family borough, two miles from Steane, without a contest. He seems to have been completely inactive in the Convention, in which his father also sat, though Lord Wharton regarded him as a friend. In the following election he was involved in a double return with Sir William Fermor, decided in his favour on 18 July 1661. He does not appear to have held county office for long, and his committee record suggests that he was one of the least active Members of the Cavalier Parliament; he was added to the committee of elections and privileges in 1666 and 1673 and to that for an estate bill in 1678. Perhaps his health was poor; he was suffering from continued apoplectic fits in 1662 and troubled with the vapours and dizzy spells in the following year. Nevertheless, Samuel Pepys found him ‘mighty busy’ to save his brother-in-law, Lord Sandwich (Edward Montagu) from the committee for miscarriages in 1668, and with his father ‘bemoaning my lord’s folly in leaving his old interest, by which he hath now lost all’. Although he appears on the list drawn up by Sir Thomas Osborne in 1669 as one who might be engaged for the Court by the Duke of York, he probably remained in opposition. He was noted as ‘thrice worthy’ by Shaftesbury in 1677.

http://www.historyofparliamentonl…

About Tuesday 29 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

The "two stick" method is not that difficult. You want to form a right (angled) isosceles triangle between a person on the ground (or at least their eye), the base of the cliff and the top of the cliff. Then the height of the cliff will be the same as the distance to the base of the cliff. (Assuming the cliff is perpendicular to the ground)

So the tricky part is to stand where you look up at a 45 degree angle to the top of the cliff. To ensure this you build a small isosceles triangle using two sticks of equal length set at a right angle. (You don't really need a stick for the third side.) Then you use this small triangle, sorta like a sextant, to find a spot where you see the top of the cliff at a 45 degree angle. Then pace off the distance to the base of the cliff. Voila!

It won't be particularly accurate, but close enough for this wager.

About Sunday 27 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

Coach, or Couch, in naval affairs, a cabbin or large apartment near the stern of a large ship of war, the floor of which is the same with the quarter-deck; it is always the habitation of the captain.
---The complete dictionary of arts and sciences. T.H. Crocker, 1764.

About Charles Scarborough

Bill  •  Link

COR CAROLI is a single Star of the second Magnitude near the Great Bear so call'd in Memory of King Charles I. by Sir Charles Scarborough Physician to King Charles II.

About Thursday 24 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

And considering what advantage may arise to the Kingdom, by Linning Manufactories, no Nation Spinning better and cheaper, We do earnestly intreat all who love the Honour , prosperitie and wealth of the Kingdom, cordially and speedily to set about the erecting of Manufactories for Cloath, Stuffs, Linnen & others.
---A REPRESENTATION of the ADVANTAGES, that would arise to this KINGDOM, by the erecting and improving of MANUFACTORIES. 1683.

About Wednesday 23 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

If some equated "Democracy with Anarchy" don't forget that we have four states who decided to be called "commonwealth" instead. Wonder where they got that idea?

About Wednesday 23 May 1660

Bill  •  Link

It's only a little simplistic to say that in Pepys' time, as in antiquity, the best history was a good story with a moral. And what better story than a hero wandering in the (sometimes figurative) wilderness, overcoming adversity and betrayal, and returning tiumphant in the end. Think Moses or Heracles or Odysseus or Elizabeth I or Charles II! No wonder that today's entry is even more alive than usual.

About Marmaduke Darcy

Bill  •  Link

Marmaduke Darcy, born 1615, a gallant gentleman, as my Lord Clarendon writes, who was sent by the Earl of Rochester into the north to prepare the way for the restoration of King Charles the second; where he brought many who would have rose for the King, had not the Earl, who came there, discouraged them. He was Gentleman usher of the privy chamber to King Charles the second, and dying unmarried on the 3d of July 1687, aged 72, was buried at Windsor.
---Peerage of England. A. Collins, 1756.

About Thomas Killigrew

Bill  •  Link

Sometimes like Will Sommers before Henry VIII., Killigrew would appear in the presence of Charles in disguise. Once he came before the King in pilgrim's attire, "cockled hat and shoon." "Whither away?" asked Charles. "I am going to hell," boldly replied the jester, "to ask the devil to send back Oliver Cromwell to take charge of the affairs of England; for as to his successor, he is always employed in other business."
---The History of Court Fools. J. Doran, 1858.