Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Friday 3 April 1663

Bill  •  Link

"He ripped up Hugh Peters (calling him the execrable skellum), his preaching and stirring up the maids of the city to bring in their bodkins and thimbles."

And now for a fling at your Thimbles,
Your Bodkins, Rings, and Whistles,
In truck for your Toyes,
We'll fit you with Boyes:
('Tis the doctrine of Hugh's Epistles.)
...
To pull down their King,
Their plate they could bring,
And other precious things,
So that Sedgwick and Peters,
Were no small getters
By their Bodkins, thimbles and rings.
---Rump: Or An Exact Collection of the Choycest Poems and Songs. 1662.

BODKIN, an Utensil Women roll their Hair on, and also for other Uses.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Friday 3 April 1663

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“Dr. Creeton, the Scotchman, preached a most admirable, good, learned, honest and most severe sermon, yet comicall”

COMICAL, Merry, Facetious, Pleasant, belonging to, or fit for a Comedy.

COMEDY, a Play composed with Art, either in Prose or Verse, to represent some Action agreeable to Human Life, and not cruel.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Friday 3 April 1663

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“where we find ourselves at a great stand”

A STAND, a Pause or Stay, Doubt or Uncertainty; also a Frame to set any thing upon .
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Friday 30 March 1660

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"where every thing was out of order"

Etre en desordre, to be out of order or out of countenance. [Being in disarray]
---A short dictionary English and French. G. Miège, 1684.

About Wednesday 29 April 1663

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"But I perceive great differences there are at Court; and Sir H. Bennet and my Lord Bristol, and their faction, are likely to carry all things before them (which my Lord’s judgment is, will not be for the best), and particularly against the Chancellor, who, he tells me, is irrecoverably lost."

Bennet and Bristol do not carry all things before them, and the Chancellor is not lost.

The earl of Bristol's friendship with Clarendon, which had subsisted, with great intimacy, during their exile and the distresses of the royal party, had been considerably impaired since the restoration, by the chancellor's refusal of his assent to some grants, which Bristol had applied for to a court lady: And a little after, the latter nobleman, suitable to the impetuosity and indiscretion of his temper, broke out against the minister in the most outrageous manner. He even entered a charge of treason against him before the House of Peers; but had concerted his plan so imprudently, that the judges, when consulted, declared, that, neither for its matter nor its form, could it legally be received. The articles indeed resemble more the incoherent altercations of a passionate enemy, than a serious charge, fit to be discussed by a court of judicature; and Bristol himself was so ashamed of his conduct and defeat, that during some time he absconded. Notwithstanding his fine talents, his eloquence, his spirit, and his courage, he could never regain the character, which he lost by this hasty and precipitant measure.
---The History of Great Britain. David Hume, 1759.

About Thursday 2 April 1663

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"He told me, that this day the King hath sent to the House his concurrence wholly with them against the Popish priests, Jesuits, &c., which gives great content, and I am glad of it."

The House of Commons represented to the King, that his declaration of Breda contained no promise to the Presbyterians and other Dissenters, but only an expression of his intentions, upon the supposition of the Parliament's concurrence; that even if the Nonconformists had been entitled to plead a promise, they had entrusted this claim as well as all their other rights and privileges, to the House of Commons, who were their representatives, and who now freed the King from that obligation; that it was not to be supposed, that his Majesty and the Houses were so bound by that declaration as to be incapacitated from making any laws, which might be contrary to it; that even at the King's restoration, there were laws of uniformity in force, which could not be dispensed with but by act of Parliament; and that the indulgence proposed would prove most pernicious both to Church and State, would open the door to schism, encourage faction, disturb the public peace, and discredit the wisdom of the legislature. The King did not think proper, after this remonstrance, to insist any farther at present on the project of indulgence.

In order to deprive the Catholics of all hopes, the two Houses concurred in a remonstrance against them. The King gave a very gracious answer; tho' he scrupled not to profess his gratitude towards many of that perswasion, on account of their faithful services in his father's cause and in his own. A proclamation, for form's sake, was soon after issued against Jesuits and Romish priests: But care was taken, by the very terms of it, to render it ineffectual. The Parliament had allowed, that all the foreign priests, belonging to the two Queens, should be excepted, and that a permission for them to remain in England should still be granted. In the proclamation, the word foreign, was purposely omitted; and the Queens were thereby authorized to give protection to as many English priests as they should think proper.
---The History of Great Britain. David Hume, 1759.

About Thursday 2 April 1663

Bill  •  Link

Yes, indeed.

BETIMES, early, in season.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Monday 30 March 1663

Bill  •  Link

@in Aqua Scripto, "This rising and falling barometer be pressure but then it not be not agreed upon that it be not Temperature until his Buddy Boyle proves that, at one of the boy's nights out."

Almost, but not quite. Boyle realized that temperature AND atmospheric pressure affected a weather-glass. The glass needed to be sealed:

But Experimental Philosophy hath since made a further discovery, and shew'd us that the Air may not only be more or less expanded by the Degrees of Heat and Cold in the Ambient Air, but also by the alteration of the pressure of the Atmosphere, which doth less or more depress the Surface of the stagnant tinged Liquor in the Cistern or Receptacle so that That Instrument, commonly call'd a Weather-glass, is no longer a true Standard to measure the Degree of Heat and Cold, but serves only to give us the result of two Powers acting upon it promiscuously ...
---The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke. 1705.

About Thursday 26 March 1663

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jeannine, a while back, asked, "Does anyone know what ever happened to Sam's famous stone?" A novelist 3 years earlier had given his thoughts to that question. And I added his answer as an annotation to the relevant encyclopedia article.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

About Slide rule

Bill  •  Link

Gunter's Line, a Logarithmic line, usually graduated upon scales, sectors, &c; and so called from its inventor Mr. Gunter. This is otherwise called the line of lines, or line of numbers, and consists of the logarithms transferred upon a ruler, &c, from the tables, by means of a scale of equal parts, which therefore serves to resolve problems instrumentally, in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically. For, whereas logarithms resolve proportions, or perform multiplication and division, by only addition and subtraction, the same are performed on this line by turning a pair of compasses over this way or that, or by sliding one slip of wood by the side of another, &c.

A line of this description has been contrived various ways, for the advantage of having it as long as possible. As, first, on the two feet ruler or scale, by Gunter. Then, in 1627 the logarithms were drawn by Wingate, on two separate rulers, sliding against each other, to save the use of compasses in resolving proportions. They were also in 1627 applied to concentric circles by Oughtred. Then in a spiral form by Mr. Milburne of Yorkshire, about the year 1650. Also, in 1657, on the present common sliding rule, by Seth Partridge.
---A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary. C. Hutton, 1815.

About Wednesday 25 March 1663

Bill  •  Link

"reading over and consulting upon the book and Ruler that I bought this morning of Browne concerning the lyne of numbers"

Gunter's Line, a Logarithmic line, usually graduated upon scales, sectors, &c; and so called from its inventor Mr. Gunter. This is otherwise called the line of lines, or line of numbers, and consists of the logarithms transferred upon a ruler, &c, from the tables, by means of a scale of equal parts, which therefore serves to resolve problems instrumentally, in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically. For, whereas logarithms resolve proportions, or perform multiplication and division, by only addition and subtraction, the same are performed on this line by turning a pair of compasses over this way or that, or by sliding one slip of wood by the side of another, &c.

A line of this description has been contrived various ways, for the advantage of having it as long as possible. As, first, on the two feet ruler or scale, by Gunter. Then, in 1627 the logarithms were drawn by Wingate, on two separate rulers, sliding against each other, to save the use of compasses in resolving proportions. They were also in 1627 applied to concentric circles by Oughtred. Then in a spiral form by Mr. Milburne of Yorkshire, about the year 1650. Also, in 1657, on the present common sliding rule, by Seth Partridge.
---A Philosophical and Mathematical Dictionary. C. Hutton, 1815.

About Tuesday 24 March 1662/63

Bill  •  Link

I wonder if Robert Gertz retains copyright on his little mini-dramas? Perhaps he or Phil will do a kickstarter and publish them as a stand-alone, with short intros on each to set the stage. There is a Fortune to be made...

About Tuesday 24 March 1662/63

Bill  •  Link

Actually, tomorrow, he mentions a book he bought from Browne in connection with a "Ruler." Sam the geek buys the latest technology!

About Ralph Greatorex

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GREATOREX, RALPH (d.1712?), mathematical-instrument maker; friend of Oughtred and acquaintance of Evelyn and Pepys.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Tuesday 24 March 1662/63

Bill  •  Link

"I homewards calling at Browne’s, the mathematician in the Minnerys, with a design of buying White’s ruler to measure timber with"

The earliest edition of this book by John Brown was in 1662 but the edition of 1688 gave credit to White for his "sliding-rule."

The Description and Use of the Carpenters-Rule: Together with the Use of the Line of Numbers Commonly Called Gunters-Line ... Together with the Use of the Glasiers and Mr. White's Sliding-rules, Etc. By John Brown. For W. Fisher & R. Mount, 1688.

https://books.google.com/books?id…

Following is an excerpt from a recent Times Literary Supplement (March 16, 2016) of a review of the book: Samuel Pepys and His Books, Kate Loveman, OUP.

"Some of the most exciting moments in Loveman's book come from linking an entry in Pepys's diary with a book in his library, such as the humble instructional manual The Description and Use of the Carpenters-Rule (1662), which gave Pepys the technical knowledge he needed to take control of the navy's timber contracts (in terms of its impact on Pepys career, Loveman suggests it may be "the most important book he ever read") ..."

There is no entry for this book in the encyclopedia but SP mentions "my book of Timber measure" on 15 April 1663 in connection with a "new Sliding Rule."

About Minories

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Minories. This street extends from Aldgate street to Tower hill. The middle part of the east side is called the Little Minories; this part is railed in, and is out of the liberties of the city. Here anciently stood an abbey of nuns of the order of St. Clare, called the Minoresses; whence the street obtained the name of the Minories.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.