Bill

Annotations and comments

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

Comments

Second Reading

About Tangier, Morocco

Bill  •  Link

This place, so often mentioned, was first given up to the English fleet under Lord Sandwich, by the Portuguese, January 30th, 1662; and Lord Peterborough left governor, with a garrison. The greatest pains were afterwards taken to preserve the fortress, and a fine mole was constructed at a vast expense, to improve the harbour. At length, after immense sums of money had been wasted there, the House of Commons expressed a dislike to the management of the garrison, which they suspected to be a nursery for a popish army, and seemed disinclined to maintain it any longer. The king consequently, in 1683, sent Lord Dartmouth to bring home the troops, and destroy the works; which he performed so effectually, that it would puzzle all our engineers to restore the harbour. It were idle to speculate on the benefits which might have accrued to England, by its preservation and retention; Tangier fell into the hands of the Moors, its importance having ceased with the demolition of the mole. Many curious views of Tangier were taken by Hollar, during its occupation by the English; and his drawings are preserved in the British Museum. Some have been engraved by himself; but the impressions are of considerable rarity. — B.
---Wheatley, 1899.

Views of Tanger by Wenzel Hollar: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki…

About Capt. George Penn

Bill  •  Link

George Penn, elder brother of Sir William, was a merchant at San Lucar.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Royal Mews

Bill  •  Link

The Mews stood on the site of the present National Gallery. The place was originally occupied by the king's falcons, but in the reign of Henry VIII. it was turned into a stable. After the battle of Naseby it was used as a prison for a time. The Mews was rebuilt in 1732, and taken down in 1830.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Buckden, Cambridgeshire

Bill  •  Link

Bugden, or Buckden, a village and parish in the St. Neots district of Huntingdonshire, four miles S.W. of Huntingdon.
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Wednesday 11 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

"have hope to trepan and get for his wife"

To TREPAN (some derive it of [Greek word], a crafty Beguiler; others derive it of Trepany in Sicily, where some English Ships being friendly invited in, in Stress or Weather, were afterwards detained, contrary to the Assurance given them) to ensnare or decoy.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675.

About Saturday 10 August 1661

Bill  •  Link

"She is very ugly, so that I cannot care for her"

Elizabeth may indeed have been trying to blunt SP's 'tendencies' but, spoiler alert, the new maid didn't last long.

About Sir George Ayscue

Bill  •  Link

AYSCUE, Sir GEORGE (fl.1646-1671), admiral; knighted by Charles I; was a captain in 1646; appointed admiral of Irish seas under parliament, 1649; actively engaged in relief of Dublin when besieged by Ormonde, 1649 ; assisted in reduction of Scilly, 1651; reduced Barbados and Virginian settlements, 1651-2; defeated Dutch in the Downs, and engaged them off Plymouth, the result being indecisive, 1652; superseded in his command but pensioned, 1652; commanded Swedish fleet, 1658; appointed a commissioner of the navy at Restoration; in second Dutch war (1664-6) successively rear-admiral, admiral of the blue, and admiral of the white; prisoner in Holland, 1666-7; probably did not serve again after return to England, 1667.
---Dictionary of National Biography: Index and Epitome. S. Lee, 1906.

About Sir George Ayscue

Bill  •  Link

Admiral Sir George Ayscue, knighted by Charles I., but appointed Admiral of the Fleet in the Irish Seas in 1649 "for his fidelity and good affection to the Parliament." Vice-Admiral of the Blue Squadron under the Duke of York in the action with the Dutch fleet on June 3rd, 1665, and Admiral of the White under Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle in 1666, when he was taken prisoner by the Dutch (Diary, June 7th, 1666).
---Wheatley, 1899.

About Saturday 24 August 1661

Bill  •  Link

Pedro, above and in the encyclopedia entry for Robert Holmes, gives a good summary (From Ollard's biography "Man of War") of Holmes' expedition to the River Gambia to look for gold. But Ollard makes a point that should be noted. This expedition rescued Holmes from possible obscurity to a position of naval prominence. And someone that Pepys would tussle with for the rest of both their careers.

"For Holmes himself the voyage was the turning point of his career. Before it he was an unknown ex-Cavalier, said to be a good man in a tight corner, whose abilities Rupert was known to value. He returned a commander of proved abilities. ... When any further expedition should be sent his knowledge and conduct would make him the obvious choice to command it."

About Monday 30 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

The joke: Though I see that BATtville is the Spanish ambassador and d'ESTRADES is the French ambassador and "battre" means "hit." haha

About Monday 30 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

"the French were at least four to one in number"

The French accounts swell the number of the Spanish Ambassador's attendants to 2000: 200 would, perhaps, be the truth.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Monday 30 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

"There were several men slain of the French"

This fray was the occasion of a good joke at the French Court, thus related in the Menagiana, vol. ii., p. 336:—" Lorsqu'on demandoit, 'Que fait Batteville en Angleterre?' on repondoit, 'Il bat L'Estrade.'" This expression, as is well known, means "battre la campagne avec de la cavalerie pour avoir des nouvelles des ennemis."
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

I'm sure someone can explain this joke. The closest I can get for "battre l'estrade" is "to do military reconnaissance."

About Monday 30 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

"they intended to fight for the precedence"

This had been a frequent source of contention, and many absurd incidents had occurred. In 1618, Gaspar Dauvet, Comte des Marets, Ambassador to James I., left our Court in dissatisfaction upon a point of precedence claimed by him over Gondomar, which was not allowed by James. The question now came to a crisis, and was settled.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Saturday 7 September 1661

Bill  •  Link

"So I having appointed the young ladies at the Wardrobe"

Lord Sandwich's family of daughters
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Sir Theophilus Jones

Bill  •  Link

Sir Theophilus Jones had represented the county of Dublin in Parliament, and served as a colonel in the Commonwealth army.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.

About Thomas Hobbes

Bill  •  Link

... The earl of Devonshire remained his constant patron, and Hobbes continued in the family till his death, which happened in 1679, When his physician assured him there were no hopes of a recovery, he said, "Then I am glad to find a loop-hole to creep out of the world at." It is wonderful to relate, that though he was a sceptic, he had great apprehensions of dying, and could not bear to be left alone for fear of apparitions, though in his writings he ridicules all ideas of immaterial beings,
---Eccentric biography. 1801.

About Thomas Hobbes

Bill  •  Link

HOBBES, (Thomas) was born at Malmesbury in Wiltshire in 1588, and educated at Magdalenhall, Oxford. In 1608 he was engaged by the earl of Devonshire, as tutor to lord William Cavendish, with whom he made the tour of Europe. On the death of his patron and pupil, he became employed in the same character by a young gentleman; but the countess dowager of Devonshire recalled him to undertake the education of the young earl; a trust which he discharged with great fidelity. In 1628 he published an English translation of Thucydides, and reprinted it in 1634. The same year he accompanied the earl upon his travels, and at Pisa contracted an intimacy with Galileo. In 1637 he returned with his pupil to England, and, through the recommendation of Sir Charles Cavendish, afterwards duke of Newcastle, he was appointed mathematical tutor to the prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II. In 1650 appeared in English, his Treatise on Human Nature, and another De Corpore Politico, or The Elements of the Law. This latter piece was presented to Gassendus, and read by him a few months before his death; who is said to have kissed it, and then to have given his opinion of it in the following words :— "This treatise is indeed small in bulk, but, in my judgment, the very marrow of science." In 1651 he published his religious, political, and moral principles, in a complete system, which he called "The Leviathan," and caused a copy of it to be presented to the king; but his Majesty was dissuaded from giving it any countenance. In his 88th year, he published a translation, in English verse, of the whole Iliad and Odyssey of Homer: but his poetry was below mediocrity; though he had before given some tokens of a poetic turn, in a Latin poem, entitled De Mirabilitus Pecci, or The Wonders of the Peak. He engaged in a dispute with Dr. Wallis, on the subject of Mathematics, but gained no honour in the contest. On the Restoration of the king he obtained a pension; but in 1666 the parliament passed a censure on his writings, at which he was exceedingly alarmed. There have been few persons whose writings have had a more pernicious influence, in spreading irreligion and infidelity than those of Hobbes; and yet none of his pieces are directly levelled against revealed religion.—His Leviathan, by which he is now chiefly known, tends not only to subvert the authority of scripture, but to destroy God's moral government of the world: it cofounds the natural difference of good and evil, virtue and vice; it destroys the best principles of the human nature; and, instead of that innate benevolence and social disposition which should unite men together, supposes all men to be naturally in a state of war with one another. ...