jeannine

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jeannine has written 14 articles:

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jeannine has written summaries for eight topics:

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jeannine has posted 1,236 annotations/comments since 16 June 2004.

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First Reading

About Monday 4 July 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"very high and very foule words from her to me"

Little anecdotes of the time

Speaking of husbands, wives and swear words...When Queen Catherine arrived she could not speak any English so she slowly began to learn the language. Charles thought it quite funny to teach her swear words (telling her some other meaning for the word of course) and then from time to time she would inappropriately let out a cuss and he found it highly amusing.

And more on bad language of the times...A while back we were discussing male-female relations and I remember an annotator saying that people wanting another view on the subject should read the poems of John Wilmot (Rochester). So, being the curious type that I am and interested in the male-female dynamics on the time, I did just that. Wilmot is not reading for polite society and you practically need a 'swear-translation" dictionary to get through it, but believe me there was a whole and wildly colorful set of words out there not for the faint at heart. I doubt that Elizabeth would have known 1/100th of them, but I do know that in a later time that Sam had a collection of Rochester's work so he must have. I'd also imagine that just about anything that Elizabeth said to Sam in the course of this argument would have bothered him. This argument seems to me to have been more focused on control, respecting his role, etc. so it's anyone's guess just how "foule" her "foule words" were.

About Friday 1 July 1664

jeannine  •  Link

Spoiler..

Perhaps John Sr. (Sam's dad) was not too impressed with Dr. Burnet's advice??? On July 10th he sends a long letter to Sam which ends with the following:

"dear Child I am very troubled what my lord potiecarries fear is of you -that you have an ulser groeing in your kidnes. for godsak let me beg of you that you will have mr holards advice and som able docter of his acquantance with as much speed as you can. and to beg a blesing from the lord that your life may be preserved for what a sad condishen shuld your poor old father and mother be in of the lord shuld tak you before us...."

Helen Heath's The LEtters of Samuel Pepys and his Family Circle"

About Friday 1 July 1664

jeannine  •  Link

After reading this list of concoctions all I could think is that perhaps Batten and a few other of Sam'e office enemies have slipped a few pounds to the good Doctor to take care of their problem once and for all!

I wonder if the above combination would have actually hurt him?

About Sunday 26 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"Wot' ever happened to compulsory fines for failure to attend?"

Gee Terry, if there was a fine for sleeping through church Sam's would have be made out of gold.......

About Sunday 26 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"my Lady Katharine was brought, who is lately come from my father's at Brampton, to have her cheek looked after, which is and hath long been sore. But my Lord will rather have it be as it is, with a scarr in her face, than endanger it being worse by tampering"..

Katherine is about 3 years old (give or take). Anyone have any idea what the problem is with her face?

On a side note -when I clicked on her link, it doesn't seem to have been anything too serious as she lives to be 96 years old!

About Friday 24 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"enjoyed no pleasure in the sight of them"

When I read this passage last night I was struck by the juxtaposition of the Queen's surroundings with that of Charles'. I wondered if seeing her simple, pious devotional surroundings left an impression on Sam which perhaps made it impossible to enjoy the oppulance and over abundance of those of Charles. For more modern example, perhaps spending the day in Amish country and then immediately walking into the overdone home of some vacuous rich star de jour would cause the riches to have little appeal for many.

About Friday 24 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"Can someone explain to me about the silver-lace gowns?"

C.W. I believe it's just a current trend in fashion. In L.C. Davidson's book Catherine of Bragança, she explains that Catherine's "most becoming costume was black velvet, but this summer she and her ladies all adopted the fashion of silver lace gowns, in which they flashed and shimmered in the sunshine in the Tour and St. James's Park. When she went to chapel at St. James's, they walked from Whitehall in this dazzling raiment. They carried the great green shading fans Catherine had brought with her from Portugal, when dust and sun did not force them to use riding masks. These fans were used in promenades at balls and plays, and even at church, where faces were delicately hidden by them at devotions. Catherine tried a little later to introduce short shirts showing the feet, but all the ladies of the Court did not possess as pretty feet as her own, and there was a general preference for the long, graceful, trailing draperies.

Catherine's simple tastes remained, in spite of the extravagance of the Whitehall Court. She had had none of the French influence which was plunging an emulous England into every folly and costly expense. Her bedchamber and her closet at Whitehall were furnished with extreme simplicity, and many historians have taken that fact to be proof of her inhuman treatment by her husband, since the apartments of his mistresses often glittered with lavish decorations, and were immoderately furnished. It is likely that she chose surroundings as suited herself, since she had lived at the rooms at Hampton Court, filled with the luxuries and lavish appointments of the time. She could have easily secured the same at Whitehall, but she preferred the pretty pious pictures and books of devotion in her little private oratory, and a stoup of holy water at the head of her bed. In her bedroom she had a curiously inlaid cabinet of ebony, mother-of-pearl, ivory, and silver -which does not look as if she lived like an anchorite. In the cabinet were placed a small altar and relics, ready for her private devotions. On a table near her bed was an illuminated clock, by which she could tell time at night. How many and many a weary hour must if have marked for her, while Charles tarried late at Lady Castlemaine's suppers and she waited for his unfailing return to herself!

Charles's closet was not given over to devotion. It was adorned with paintings, -- he was passionately fond of art - and beautifully furnished and decorated. ( p. 210-211)

About Monday 6 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

Sorry Paul

In my haste I missed it and in the book the date wasn't quoted exactly! Sir George wins but by vote and not by the preference of the sovereign! (Too many interruptions these days, I'm having trouble keeping up with things and catching Sam on the fly)

About Monday 6 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"Apologies for the duplication -- typing while Terry was posting".

Thus proving the well known theory that great minds think alike......

About Monday 6 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

From "All For the King" by Balleine

I won't spill the beans as to who wins the fight for the seat at Trinity House, but Balleine explains that they were fighting for the role of the "Master of the Fraternity of the Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity, the brotherhood who controlled the lighthouses, bouys and pilots around the coast."

Where this is an election, it will come down to the voters, but, my guess is that if it were a job appointed by the King that Carteret would have it already. There are so few people that Charles would CONSISTENTLY look out for and Sir George managed to gain that support through his fervent devotion and past relentless support of Charles I and II. (Oh yes, and did I forget to mention that cash that he shelled out from time to time to keep our good king happy?)

And we all know that had the job been to keep track of the girls instead of the bouys that Charlie would have kept that role for himself......

About Friday 3 June 1664

jeannine  •  Link

Save the Dairy!

Some would pledge "'save the diary as it is writ"
Sam may add the words he likes and others omit
His unique choice of words is truly legit
His style his own there is no counterfeit

Annotators may all decode bit by bit
Sharing insights for the whole group's benefit
Words oft need to change without conniption fit
As some turn them to poetry or a skit.......

About Sunday 29 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"An indication of great trust in our boy?"

Sorry to say I have seen nothing -I think he's still too low in the totem pole to have his opinions carry any weight to influence issues such as war....he'll have to stick to things like deciding sails, masts, etc. for now....

About Sunday 29 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

Arlington and the Dutch War (politics)

Violet Barbour in "Henry Bennett" [Arilngton] says of the English war with the Dutch -with pages noted in ( )

"This quarrel was the result of the commercial rivalry which had long marked the relations of the two great sea-powers. The boggled treaty signed the month before Bennet became Secretary had done nothing to relieve the situation, and popular prejudice in England had done much to embitter it. Bennet's natural preference was always for the security of peace, but he was ambitious to establish England's commercial supremacy, and believed, in common with most Englishmen, that the Dutch resistance -if they resisted at all- would be short and spiritless. What influenced him most, perhaps, was the fact that the party which he had allied himself in the House of Commons was enthusiastic for the war. " (p 77)..... How to humor the House of Commons was a problem over which Bennet seemed to spent a lifetime of study" (78)

Against Clarendon's advice, Bennet undertook to form a party in the House which should serve the King -men who as Clarendon said "spake confidently and often", and were 'busy and pragmatical'. In this Bennet was abetted by his old friend William Coventry, one of the leaders of the House, and, as secretary to the Lord High Admiral, the duke of York, virtual administrator of the navy. Though he served the Duke, he was one of the most inveterate antiClaredonians in the Commons. (78) Bennet's particular confidant was not Coventry but the member for Totnes, Thomas Clifford, little known when Parliament assembled in 1661, but soon attracting a considerable following by the strength of his convictions and eloquence with which he pressed them at his first coming to London, Clifford sought the patronage of Clarendon, but was repulsed, and then struck in with the Chancellor's opponents. However that may be, certainly no love was lost between the first minister and the hot-tempered gentleman from Devon." (78)

It was the party led by Coventry and Clifford that embraced the Dutch War most ardently. They were for the most part young inexperienced men, eager for great doings and jealous of the maritime power of the Dutch. Clarendon considered the matter more seriously. He and Southampton along realized the heavy expense of war, even if successful, would entail on the already necessitous Crown, and they had reason to believe that if the war were undertaken and failed, the blame would be visited upon them as the most responsible members of the government. They were of a very small minority. In the house of Lords Ashley made stirring speeches in favor of the war. At Lady Castlemaine's suppers, where politics as well as pleasure found place in the evening's diversions, the war spirit reigned unchallenged. Ashley and Bennet were always fraternally present; so were the Duke of Buckingham and Charles Berkeley, now Lord Fitzharding, both of whom aspired to military renown; so was another advocate of the war, the Earl of Lauderdale, a man who in appearance was stupid and uncouth, but under his repulsive exterior concealed great ability and greater cunning. He was Secretary of State for Scotland, and had recently obtained the dismissal of the royal Commissioner, the Earl of Middleton, in favor of a creature of his own. Quite openly he boasted that he had ruined one of the mainstays of the Chancellor. The fastidious Sir Henry Bennet, who had looked somewhat coldly on the coarse Scotsman at the outset of their acquaintance, had been dazzled by Lauderdale's brilliant assertation of the royal authority of Scotland, and hastened to make friends with him.(80)

The King had at first no great liking for the war, but the enthusiasm of the Court, particularly of that pasrt of itwhose society he most affected, gradually prevailed with him in spite of opposition from Clarendon and Southampton. But the decision lay not with the King, nor with the Chancellor, but with Parliament. (80).

About Sunday 29 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"I wonder if Castlemaine might be pushing the war party's line to Charles behind the scenes. Jeannine's Navy Book info suggests she had a very large finger in the pie."

Robert, I have been thinking that perhaps there should be a spot somewhere on the site (article, annotation spot?) where people could comment on the politics of the Dutch War-like the sociagram? -who was for, against, what may have influenced them, etc. The following post will be a section (long) from a bio on Henry Bennet, Lord Arlington, which explains some of the internal factions and where they stood regarding the war.

About Thursday 26 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"Pepys (relying on the advice of sail-makers and on the Dutch example) argued the broad canvas, with few seams, which was both cheaper and stronger."
Michael, over the course of a few months Sam has entries about the qualities of the different materials (Holland's duck vs. West Country duck vs. Suffolk cloth, etc.) used to make masts. He also collects information about the issue of the width of the cloth and how a narrower cloth needs more seams. Sam researches where most of the masts break apart due to wear and he finds it is on the seams, thus making a broader cloth a better choice as it requires fewer seams. Mennes supports that the seams have tended to give way first as based on his experience on the 'Henry' in 1661. (Spoiler) This talk won't end here today.

About Tuesday 24 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

"Has Matthews now published what Henry Wheatley, in a note there said "are not known to exist now," sc. in 1893?"
See http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Terry, I believe that he has. The intro to the Navy White Book section actually references the day before your April 8 entry. On the 7th Sam refers to it as his "office book" while the next day (your reference above) he calls it his office daybook. The intro to the Matthews' book says that Sam kept a previous memorandum book which he had begun in 1660. This new book, "the Navy White Book" was his 'personal record of the Board's debates and transactions and of how, in fact, each member of the Board had discharged his responsibilities. It was designed to be a means of defense against criticism. It also came to be, in Pepys words, a record of 'matters to be reformed or improved.'" (p xvii)

About Tuesday 24 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

Jeannine, which we've not had described in the Diary yet ... can you tell more about the source of this?

Todd, Terry's link above goes to the book itself (which is also available on ABEBOOKS http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/S… )

The book is in 2 parts. The first section (where today's entry came from) is called the "Navy White Book" and it's a collection of memorandum that Sam kept between 1664-1672. As Tanner (editor says) "These were year when war conditions made the Navy Board particularly busy, and the book's rich detail and comprehensive coverage, together with Pepys's frank comments on incompetent colleagues and dishonest contractors, provide a unique insight into the workings of the administrative machine." The interesting thing is that these notes aren't exactly in chronological order so you do have to bounce around to synch up with the Diary pages.

{Spoiler}The second part of the book is devoted to Sam's Brooke House Journal where he recorded his day-to-day "part in the debates held before the Privy Council between the Brooke House Commissioners and the Navy Board on the subject of the Commission's report."

The book is from the Naval Records Society publications. From the site: "The Navy Records Society was established in order to make rare and unpublished works relating to British naval history available on a broader basis. This is a list of their publications from 1894 to 1996." There are other books available that deal with Sam, Sandwich (his Journal~which I will post from when it picks up again in a fwe months), letters, etc. Several books deal with this time period and familar characters.
http://www.aandc.org/research/nav…

About Tuesday 24 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

From "Samuel Pepys and the Second Dutch War" edited by Robert Latham

May 24, 1664. Sir W. Batten taking money of the Victualler for the signing of his accounts. Sir J. Minnes did tell me, discoursing of the victualling business and the passing of his accounts, that Sir W. Batten did demand and hath received of Mr. Gauden, 20£ a time for the passing of his accounts. And that Mr. Gauden hath sometimes said to him that he was in his debt also, but he is resolved never to take it, though he says he thinks it may be found to have been the old practice that the Comptroller and the Surveyor should have 20£l apiece at an account, and by name, that My Lady Palmer [Lady Castlemaine] did always demand it for pin-money. And that Sir Guilfd Singsbys did receive it. And that Sir W. Batten hath often said to him that he ought to have it, and why did he not demand it; but he will not demand it, but quite contrary, gives 20£ a year out of his purse to have it done. But he desired me not to speak of it, for he will know that it comes from him.

About Monday 23 May 1664

jeannine  •  Link

May 23 letter believed to be from Sam to Mr. Coventry

[23 May 1664]
From "Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys" edited by J.R. Tanner

"After receipt of his Highness's warrant about the 30 ships this morning and drawing out order pursuant thereto, I went down and spent the day at Woolwich and Deptford, where (not to deceive you) I do not find the least par of the vigour which I expected and the present juncture requires, but (quite otherwise) every thing done after the old rate, without life or forecast, in so much that the fitting of ships for receipt of victuals (which you seemed to [have] looked for [ere] this) will not I am sure at Deptford be effected before the week after next, and not much sooner at Woolwich. Want of men principally will keep the works back, -- I mean seamen and caulkers, the first of which may possibly be removed by a speedy nomination of commanders and masters who will look after it; the latter I doubt but nothing else but pressing, which you will find must speedily be thought on, and that not only for our use here but Sir William Penn writes unless we can send him 40 caulkers his matters will be mightily back...
[Postscript] Not one man appears at Deptford and Woolwich to desire entrance into the service, towards which their backwardness I am very apprehensive nothing hath contributed more than the late ill usage they have had from commanders of being turned ashore in the Downs after 2 or 3 weeks' worth gratis in rigging time upon expectation of employment."