Bill

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

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Second Reading

About Royal Mews

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Mews, the stables for the King's horses near Charing Cross, is a place of considerable antiquity, and is thus denominated from Mew, a term used among falconers, signifying to moult or cast feathers; for this place was used for the accommodation of the King's falconers and hawks, so early as the year 1377; but the King's stables at Lomesbury, since called Bloomsbury, being destroyed by fire in the year 1537, King Henry VIII. caused the hawks to be removed, and the Mews enlarged and fitted up for the reception of his Majesty's horses, where they have been kept ever since: the building going to decay, the north side was rebuilt in a magnificent manner by his present Majesty, in the year 1732.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.

About Covent Garden

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Covent Garden, received its name from its being formerly a garden belonging to the Abbot and Monks of the convent of Westminster, whence it was called Convent Garden, of which the present name is a corruption. At the dissolution of religious houses it fell to the Crown, and was given first to Edward Duke of Somerset; but soon after, upon his attainder, it reverted again to the Crown, and Edward VI. granted it in 1552 to John Earl of Bedford, together with a field, named the Seven Acres, which being now built into a street, is from its length called Long Acre. Covent Garden would have been without dispute one of the finest squares in Europe, had it been finished on the plan designed for it, by that excellent architect Inigo Jones. The piazza is grand and noble; besides the convenience of walking dry under it in wet weather, the superstructure it support is light and elegant. In the middle is a handsome column supporting four sun dials, and on the west side of the square, is the church, erected by Inigo Jones, and esteemed by the best judges one of the most simple, and at the same time most perfect pieces of architecture, that the art of man can produce. But the market before it diminishes the beauty of the square.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.

About Tuesday 13 August 1661

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Sasha, good analysis. (The 3rd time around, these annotations need "like" and "dislike" buttons!)

About Stourbridge Fair

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Stourbridge Fair holds a very important place in the history of science. In a few years Isaac Newton will buy a prism or two at the fair and use them to demonstrate that white light is composed of various colors of different frequencies.

About Stourbridge Fair

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Stourbridge-Fair. The greatest Fair or Mart in England, so called from the little Brook Stour, near which 'tis kept, in the common Fields, about 2 Miles from Cambridge.
---British Curiosities in Art and Nature. 1728.

About Kingsland

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Kingsland, a hamlet of the parish of Islington, lying between Hoxton and Clapton. Here was anciently an hospital for lepers, which is now appropriated to the cure of the venereal disease, and is an appendage to St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's hospitals. The edifice is a plain modern brick building, without ornamental decorations; it is large and proper for the use to which it is applied, and on the end of it is a dial, which has the following suitable motto, Post Voluptatem Misericordia; that is, After pleasure comes pain. This structure joins a little old chapel; but it is wisely contrived that the patients, who are obliged to attend divine service, can neither see nor be seen by the rest of the audience. This hospital is called The Lock.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.

About Kingsland

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Kingsland, a populous district in the parish of Hackney, except a small portion which belongs to Islington. Kingsland was noted for its fields and market-gardens, but is now wholly built over.

May 12, 1667.—Walked over the fields to Kingsland and back again; a walk I think I have not taken these twenty years; but puts me in mind of my boy's time, when I boarded at Kingsland, and used to shoot with my bow and arrows in these fields. —Pepys.

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

About Chaldron

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CHALDER / CHALRON, a quantity of coals containing 36 bushels heaped up, London measure, and 72 at Newcastle.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Gray's Inn

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Gray's Inn, on the north side of Holborn, near the Bars, is so called from its being formerly the residence of the ancient and noble family of Gray of Wilton, who in the reign of Edward III. demised it to several students of the law. It is one of the four Inns of Court, and is inhabited by Barristers and Students of the law, and also by such gentlemen of independent fortune, as chuse this place, for the sake of an agreeable retirement, or the pleasure of the walks.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.

About St James-the-Less

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St. James's Clerkenwell, situated on the north side of Clerkenwell Green, is a part of the church of the ancient priory; and is thus denominated from its dedication to St. James the Minor, Bishop of Jerusalem. This priory was founded so early as the year 1100, and the church belonging to it not only served the nuns but the neighbouring inhabitants. The priory was dissolved by King Henry VIII. in the year 1539, and the church was immediately made parochial.
The steeple of this edifice being greatly decayed by age, a, part of it fell down in the year 1623, upon which the parish contracted with a person to rebuild it; but the builder being desirous of getting as much as possible by the job, raised the new work upon the old foundation, and carried it on with the utmost expedition; but before it was entirely, finished, it fell down, and destroyed part of the church, which were both soon after rebuilt, as they are at present.
This church is a very heavy, structure, partly Gothic, which was the original form, and partly Tuscan. The body, though it has not the least appearance of elegance, is well enlightened, and the steeple consists of a low heavy tower crowned with a turret.
The church is a curacy in the gift of the parishioners.
---London and Its Environs Described. R. Dodsley, 1761.

About Sunday 11 August 1661

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"with not above two or three able to keep pace with him"

It's hard to imagine anyone even thinking about outpacing Charles...

About Sunday 15 September 1661

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"poor rascally people"

RASCALITY, the base Rabble, Scum or Dregs of the People.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Doctor's Commons

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Doctors' Commons, St. Bennet's Hill, St. Paul's Churchyard, a college, "or common house" of doctors of law, and for the study and practice of the civil law.
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Sunday 11 August 1661

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"I am out of conceit now with them"

To be out of conceit with, n'aimer (ne se soucier) plus, être degouté de
To be out of conceit with himself, se deplaire
To put out of conceit with, degouter de
---A short dictionary English and French. G. Miège, 1684.

dégoûter - to disgust

About Thursday 12 September 1661

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"at the little blind alehouse in Shoe Lane"

[Feb. 9, 1655] Major general Worsley to secretary Thurloe,
... We have put down a considerable number of alehouses, after takeing notice of these several quallifications following; viz.
1. Such as have been in armes against the parliament ...
2. Such as have good trades and need not thereunto.
3. Such as stand in by and dark corners, and go under the name of blind alehouses.
---A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, September, 1655 to May, 1656.

About Shoe Lane

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Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, runs due north from Fleet Street into Holborn, by St. Andrew's Church. The earliest mention of Shoe Lane in the City records is in 4 Edward II. (1310) ... In the 17th century there was a noted cock-pit in Shoe Lane. It was sometimes visited by persons we should not have expected to meet there. Writing to his nephew from "St. Martin's Lane by the Fields," June 3, 1633, Sir Henry Wotton says: "This other day at the Cock-pit in Shoe Lane (where myself am rara avis) your Nephew, Mr. Robert Bacon came very kindly to me, with whom I was glad to refresh my acquaintance, though I had rather it had been in the theatre of Redgrave."
---London, Past and Present. H.B. Wheatley, 1891.

About Wood Street

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Wood Street, Cheapside, runs from Cheapside into London Wall. Stow has two suppositions about the origin of the name: first, that it was so called because it was built throughout of wood; and secondly, and more probably, that it was so called after Thomas Wood, one of the sheriffs in the year 1491, who dwelt in this street, an especial benefactor to the church of St. Peter-in-Cheap, and the individual at whose expense "the beautiful front of houses in Cheap over against Wood Street end were built." "His predecessors," says Stow, "might be the first builders, owners, and namers of this street." ... In Strype's time the street was famous for the manufacture of wedding-cakes.

At the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning, the song of the Bird.

'Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees
A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.
Wordsworth, The Reverie of Poor Susan, 1797

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

About Wednesday 11 September 1661

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"as fine as hands could make him"

This phrase is a new one to me but it seems to have been a common one at the time.

These are as fine as hands can make them, il ne se peut rien faire de mieux
---A short dictionary English and French. G. Miège, 1684.