Tonyel
Annotations and comments
Tonyel has posted 293 annotations/comments since 11 March 2013.
The most recent first…
Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Tonyel has posted 293 annotations/comments since 11 March 2013.
The most recent first…
Comments
Third Reading
About Saturday 14 December 1661
Tonyel • Link
'The House was adjourned during Pleasure, and the Lords went to the Conference; which being ended, the House was resumed.'
Never noticed this before - what was the Pleasure?
About Monday 18 November 1661
Tonyel • Link
Speaking as an old man, the casual over-consumption of alcohol is within living memory.
I recall a famous journalist in El Vinos needing to use both hands to pick up his glass before going back to his desk to write 2000 words of polished prose. I also recall falling asleep in my car at a red traffic light at the entrance to Trafalgar Square until being woken by a taxi hooting.
No more was thought of this, or the thick cloud of smoke in low-ceilinged pubs, until some medic or scientist produced enough evidence to make us all feel guilty.
About Sunday 10 November 1661
Tonyel • Link
I do hope we are not going to be regaled with Chat GDP's opinions too often. He/she seems to have difficulty in shutting up and also misses an obvious alternate solution: that a great many statements about religion simply do not make sense.
About Saturday 26 October 1661
Tonyel • Link
Thanks also, Ruslan. Now I've caught up with it I shall go back and read Tomalin again with a fresh eye.
About Wednesday 16 October 1661
Tonyel • Link
Cod cheeks - I was pressed to eat cod cheeks once in Iceland as a local delicacy. I still wonder why....
" eat and drank and were merry. " Impossible not to add Tom Lehrer's second line from his song about Mexico : "and we got typhoid and dysentery"
Sorry, way off topic.
About Sunday 29 September 1661
Tonyel • Link
Surely the ladies' function is to quietly sip their wine and observe their husband until his foxing becomes too obvious? At which point a stiletto heel (or a stiletto) may be employed.
About Monday 23 September 1661
Tonyel • Link
14d for a mouthful of pork is surely linked to the fayre. What is nowadays called 'dynamic pricing'. I wonder what they had to pay for the room? Whatever it was it was worth it.
About Thursday 5 September 1661
Tonyel • Link
My mental image as well. Still is. Even today, the royal families' attendants on state occasions wear some very fancy hats.
About Monday 29 July 1661
Tonyel • Link
'also that my cozen Charles Glassecocke, though very ill himself, is this day gone to the country to his brother, John Glassecocke, who is a-dying there.'
This splendid name also seems to have died out, at least I've never heard of one. Maybe they got tired of the obvious jokes and changed it to Glossop.
About Sunday 16 June 1661
Tonyel • Link
Mentions the sailing of the Duke [of York] at an earlier date than he had purposed...
A none-too subtle rebuke - "If your Lordship had thought about buying cloth a few days earlier, we wouldn't have had all this bother."
About Saturday 18 May 1661
Tonyel • Link
When I were a lad in Putney there was a large Victorian pub by the bridge which had a Doggetts coat and badge in a glass case on the outside of the building. Bright red and very impressive. Just looked on Google maps and both are gone, I'm afraid.
About Thursday 16 May 1661
Tonyel • Link
"From thence I went home (Mr. Moore with me to the waterside, telling me how kindly he is used by my Lord and my Lady since his coming hither as a servant)"
Ah, if only today's lawyers could see themselves that way (as servants)....
About Sunday 28 April 1661
Tonyel • Link
As recently as World War Two when I was a child in the country, it was commonly accepted that there was little treatment available for mental problems, especially for the mass of people on lower incomes. One heard people being described as 'simple' or 'a bit touched' but you rarely saw them - they were kept hidden indoors from a sense of shame or just for safety. It was a fact of life but also a burden for those who had to look after them. I imagine this was what worried Sam and his father.
About Wednesday 13 March 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
Thank you SD Sarah for this fascinating biography. It demonstrates that, however bold, brave and bright you were in those days, upsetting one or two wrong people could ruin your life.
That sense of insecurity must quite often have kept Sam awake at night and been lurking below his cheerfulness and good companionship during the day.
About Thursday 7 March 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
Slightly off-topic but interesting:
Watching a past episode of QI (BBC TV) last night I learned that, while the army had uniforms much earlier, the navy did not get them until 1748. Presumably officers only. Sam missed a chance there - he being the Management and his father in the trade.
Also, in World War 1, the airforce got their blue/grey uniforms because a chief supplier had a warehouse full of material in that colour bought for Russia but cancelled by the revolution.
I like to think of Sam looking down on that and chuckling quietly.
About Sunday 3 February 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
I wonder at wearing a sword in church, both bad manners and inconvenient - imagine fitting yourself into a narrow pew with a clattering sword. Or would there be some sort of container near the door where one could deposit swords, sticks, etc?
About Monday 28 January 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
Oranges were sold to theatre patrons so perhaps spitting in this case was not too unpleasant - merely ejecting a pip from the lady's (pretty) lips.
About Wednesday 9 January 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
Let's face it, Sam was afeard to go out but more afeard to to be seen not to go out. He showed his face on the street and then went home and sat until noon. Office politics triumphed over common sense. Most of us would have done the same in his position.
About Wednesday 2 January 1660/61
Tonyel • Link
Also, Sam is an ambitious, up-and-coming young man who is expected to entertain his superiors occasionally and to move in more sophisticated circles on business. The last thing he needs is an ill-favoured relative who could easily say the wrong thing at the wrong time if treated as an equal.
He has offered her an income, a place to live and the sights and sounds of London. Not a bad deal in her circumstances.
About Saturday 29 December 1660
Tonyel • Link
Thank you Martin for the recap on the gifts. I imagine there was a ritual dance on receiving or declining gifts depending on how high you were on the social scale and how useful the donor might be to you.
At Sam's present level any gifts are cheerfully accepted but later (spoiler alert!) he becomes more fussy about being under any implied obligation to certain donors. Some of our present political masters could learn lessons from him.