Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Monday 22 September 1662

Bill  •  Link

“ there with him did overlook many pretty things, new inventions, and have bespoke a weather glass of him”

(Evangelista Torricelli invented the first mercury barometer in 1644. The word “barometer” itself did not come into use until around 1665 and is generally attributed to Robert Boyle.)

TORRICELLIAN Instrument, A glass tube or pipe of about three foot long, and a quarter of an inch bore, sealed or closed by fire at one end, and quite filled at the other with quick-silver; which unsealed end, being stopp’d with the finger, is thrust down into some quick-silver contained in a vessel; and then the finger being taken away, and the tube set upright, the quick-silver will run out or descend till it remains in the tube of the height of between twenty eight and thirty one inches, leaving an empty space in the upper part.
The quick-silver being thus suspended or hanged up, will encrease or lessen its height in the tube, according as the weather alters for dry or wet; and being put into a frame with a plate of divisions, shewing the several degrees, is called a Mercurial Barometer, or quick-silver weather-glass.
---New Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1760.

About Friday 29 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

Gerald makes a good point here as does the encyclopedia entry on weather: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

The Wikipedia entry on the "Little Ice Age" has this sentence: "The NASA Earth Observatory notes three particularly cold intervals: one beginning about 1650..."

About James Scott ("Mr Crofts", 1st Duke of Monmouth)

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SCOTT, JAMES (known as Fitzroy and as Crofts), Duke of Monmouth And Buccleuch (1649-1685), natural son of Charles II, by Lucy, daughter of Richard Walters of Haverfordwest; born at the Hague; entrusted on his mother's death to the care of Lord Crofts, as whose kinsman he passed; instructed in protestant religion; acknowledged by Charles II as his son, 1663, and made Baron Tyndale, Earl of Doncaster, Duke of Monmouth, and K.G.; married Anne Scott, countess of Buccleuch, and took surname of Scott, 1663; captain of Charles II’s lifeguard of horse, 1668; privy councillor, 1670; captain-general of Charles II's forces, 1670; served against Dutch, 1672 and 1673; chancellor of Cambridge University, 1674; served against the French at Ostend and Mons, 1678; identified himself with protestant movement in England; quelled insurrection which ensued in Scotland on murder of Archbishop Sharp, 1679; deprived of commission as general, in consequence of reaction in favour of Duke of York, and banished, 1679; retired to Holland, but returned immediately and was deprived of all offices; deprived of chancellorship of Cambridge, 1682; made progress through west of England, and was arrested at Taunton, but released on bail; joined Russell, Essex, and Sidney in plot to murder Charles II and Duke of York; in conjunction with Essex, Howard, Russell, Hampden, and Sidney arranged for risings in England and Scotland; was promised pardon, having revealed to Charles II all he knew of the conspiracy after its discovery, but was banished from the court; retired to Zealand, 1684; treated with marked respect by Prince of Orange, who, however, dismissed him on death of Charles II; arranged with Argyll and Ferguson expedition to England; landed at Lyme Regis, 11 June 1685, and claimed as 'head and captain-general of protestant forces of the kingdom' a ‘legitimate and legal' right to the crown; was proclaimed king at Taunton, 20 June; defeated by Feversham and Churchill at Sedgemoor, 5 July; escaped, but was captured; executed in the Tower of London, 15 July. Portraits of him by Lely and W. Wissing are in the National Portrait Gallery.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Tuesday 9 September 1662

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“things he takes notice of that he resolves to abridge me of”

ABRIDGED OF, Deprived of, debarred from.
ABRIDGMENT …
3 Restraint, or abridgment of liberty.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

About Monday 8 September 1662

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“my blinding his lights over his stairs”

LIGHTS, … in Architecture, they are the Windows or Openings in the Walls to let in the Air and Light.
---A new general English dictionary. T. Dyche, 1735.

About Saturday 6 September 1662

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“of which I eat but little, being almost cloyed”

to CLOY, to give one his fill, to glut.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About New Palace Yard

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Palace Yard (New), the open space before the north entrance to Westminster Hall, so called from being the great court of the new palace begun by William II., of which Westminster Hall was the chief feature completed. The Clock-tower, long the distinguishing feature of New Palace Yard, was originally built, temp. Edward I., out of the fine imposed on Ralph de Hingham, Chief Justice of England. There is a capital view of it by Hollar. The great bell of the tower (Westminster Tom) was given by William III. to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's; and the metal of which it was made forms a part of the great bell of the Cathedral.
Before the Great Hall there is a large Court called the new Palace, where there is a strong tower of stone, containing a clock, which striketh on a great Bell every hour, to give notice to the Judges how the time passeth; when the wind is south-south-west, it may be heard unto any part of London, and commonly it presageth wet weather.—Howell's Londinopolis, fol. 1657, p. 378; and see Ned Ward, The London Spy, pt. 8.

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

About Saturday 23 August 1662

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“then would take their child, which the nurse held in her armes, and dandle it”

to DANDLE, to fondle or make much of.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Friday 22 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

"that it was 10,000 to one it had not broke Captain Badily’s neck"

I too found this expression interesting and I'm sure the basic idea does come from gaming, though it's hard to imagine a game where this small a chance would appear. The modern mathematical theory of probability dates from the late 1650s when two famous French mathematicians, Pascal and Fermat, worked out the solution to a difficult dice problem.

Note that this year (1662) John Graunt published a work (Pepys noted it in March) that also is an important step in establishing the ideas of probability and statistical inference.

Graunt's 'Natural and political observations made upon the bills of mortality' http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

About Goody Lawrence

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When he and his brother Tom were children they lived with a nurse (Goody Lawrence) at Kingsland, and in after life Samuel refers to his habit of shooting with bow and arrow in the fields around that place.
---Wheatley, 1896

About Monday 18 August 1662

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In case you think I am exaggerating about the difficulty of multiplication, let me mention that currently in the US there is a mini-controversy about new Common Core educational standards. Common Core has proposed a "new" method of mutiplication. Ha. It's driving parents (and presidential candidates) crazy because they contend (wrongly) that it's too complicated. It is a bit complicated, as is any method of multiplication. As Pepys and lumber yard workers in the 1660s knew. But the CC method really is easier and explicates better what it all means.

http://www.businessinsider.com/co…

About Henry Jermyn (Master of the Horse to the Duke of York)

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Henry Jermyn, younger nephew of the Earl of St Albans. He was created Baron Jermyn of Dover, 1685, and died in 1708, s.p.; his elder brother, Thomas, became second Baron Jermyn of Bury St Edmund's, on the death of his uncle, the Earl of St Albans, in 1683, and died unmarried in 1703. Thomas Jermyn was Governor of Jersey.

About Monday 11 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

Louise, it's the roof.

LEADS, a flat roof covered with lead to walk on.
---A new complete English dictionary. 1760.

About Friday 15 August 1662

Bill  •  Link

"I hear that next Sunday will be the last of a great many Presbyterian ministers in town, who, I hear, will give up all"

There is more background information in the encyclopedia:
Act of Uniformity 1662 http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Book of Common Prayer http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

David Hume, the philosopher, quoted in the second entry, had the best succinct comment, I think. "Instead of [the church party] enlarging their terms of communion, in order to comprehend the Presbyterians, they gladly laid hold of the prejudices, which prevailed among that sect, in order to eject them from all their livings."

About Monday 11 August 1662

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CHEAP [of ceapan, Sax. to buy or sell] denotes the place's name, to which it is added, to be or have been a market-town or place, as Cheapside, Eastcheap, Westcheap, &c.
---Dictionarium Britannicum. 1730.

About Sunday 26 October 1662

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To SLUBBER OVER, to do carelessly or without Application.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

About Sunday 26 October 1662

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“which makes me write thus slubberingly”

This passage, as well as one written on August 5th, 1662, for which he makes an excuse, is written quite plainly, and the manuscript is as neat as usual.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Nicholas Lechmere

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Nicholas Lechmere, born September, 1613, called to the bar in 1641, and elected a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1655. He took the side of the Parliament, and was afterwards a staunch supporter of Richard Cromwell; but he made his peace with Charles II., and obtained a full pardon at Breda. At the age of seventy-six he was made a Baron of the Exchequer (May 4th, 1689), and knighted. He died April 30th, 1701.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Peter Lely

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LELY, Sir PETER (1618-1680), portrait-painter; born at Soest by Amersfoort, near Utrecht; studied at Haarlem; came to England, 1641; introduced to Charles I, 1647; painted Charles I's portrait during his captivity at Hampton Court; painted Cromwell and enjoyed considerable private practice under him; in high favour with Charles II; painted portraits of the beauties of Charles II's court, and of the admirals and commanders in the naval victory at Solebay, 1665; knighted, 1679.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.