jeannine

Articles

jeannine has written 14 articles:

Encyclopedia topics

jeannine has written summaries for eight topics:

Annotations and comments

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

Comments

First Reading

About Friday 6 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

Roy L&M show commas inserted to read as follows:
"After that, we begun to talk of the Court; and he tells me how Mr. Edward Montagu begins to show respect to him again, after his endeavouring to bespatter him all was, possible - but he is resolved never to admit him into his friendship again."

The reference is to the argument that Lord Sandwich had with Mountagu on Feb 17th of this year.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

What is confusing to me, if I am reading this correctly, is that the "he" who was involved with Bennet, Buckingham & his wife refers to Edward Mountagu

"He tells me how he and Sir H. Bennet, the Duke of Buckingham and his Duchesse" ....

The reason I find this rather odd is that Edward Mountagu was Master of the Horse to Queen Catherine and very fond of her. It seems odd to me that he'd join in on the "pimping" of Frances Stuart for the King, especially when he must have known how much Catherine loved her husband.

About Thursday 5 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

Boring Math Lessons???

Our Sam taught his Beth arithmetic
Some would think she was bored til made sick
He didn't teach her to count
Or to balance his account
They never got past 36-28-36!

About Wednesday 4 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"Capturing people and treating them like cattle is wrong, regardless of whether it's the done thing or not."
Absolutely it's 10000000% wrong, but the issue at hand is that Catherine was blamed for it, even though she had no part in it.
When I was starting to research Catherine I came upon these articles. A little later on, I happened to be corresponding with a professor in Stuart History who had researched these claims against her and he stated flat out that the claims against her were totally false. Although slavery is totally detestable, being accused of supporting it and profiting from it, when you have not, is also wrong and that is what these articles address.
You couldn't pick 2 people who had more separate lives than Charles and Catherine. She absolutely had no say in his activity and never meddled with his political, financial (or even personal) life. For about 10 years she didn't even live with him. There articles address the disgust at the move for "political correctness" and how our current society has misrepresented her role in history.

About Wednesday 4 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"We focus so heavily these days (for good and sufficient reasons) on the slave trade that it blinds us to things that were more prominent at the time."
First, thanks to Pedro for the great summary and to LH for making this point, but in spite of putting things into perspective as to where they were over 300 years ago, there is a "damsel in distress", who has once again taken the hit to be the center of undeserved and false slave-trade accusations and controversy...

http://www.gothamgazette.com/law/…

http://www.newsday.com/search/lih…

About Wednesday 4 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"In those days they used a lot of spices to enhance food and drinks."
Ruben, you are correct to believe that spices were used heavily, when available in Pepys time. In "Pepys At Table" Driver and Berrierdale-Johnson, explain, that was true, especially in the preparation of meat:

"Since there was not enough fodder to heel them alive, the majority of animals were killed during the period from September to Christmas and pickled, soused, smoked or dried to preserve their flesh as long as possible. These methods of preservation were effective but left a strong flavour of their own which in turn needed to be counteracted by heavy spicing and flavouring. Now that freezers do our preserving for us without imparting taste we do not need such heavy disguise for our meat.

But whether the meat was spiced or newly killed there were no refrigerators to prolong its freshness. In this respect the Pepys were lucky -they lived in London which was well supplied with fresh and reasonably good quality meats, but even they had to take care. One more than one occasion Pepys complained about bad venison in a pasty. As a safeguard, meats were very thoroughly cooked or served, as they had been in the middle ages, with a sweet, spicy or fruit sauce. The natural antiseptic in the spices and acid fruits helped to counteract any 'poisins' in the meat. Since we seldom need to worry about freshness in our meat we can reduce the length of cooking and the strength of the sweet or spicy sauces" (p. 23).

About Tuesday 3 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"that it also resulted in the subordination of the monarchy to parliament."
Nate, There was an A&E movie about Charles II a few years ago called "The Last King" and this is what it referred to as he was the last king to rule without Parliament. (In the UK the move was called Charles II: the Power and the Passion).

About Tuesday 3 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"what happened in England in 1688?"
William of Orange arrived in the later part of the year and James (Duke of York, who had succeeded Charles II after his death) fled the country. From that point on it was Protestant rule in England and the Royal family always worked (perhaps not always very well) with Parliament.

About Monday 2 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"And before this time, had Charles and the Duke worn wigs, or that was their long hair?"
I know that this is the first time Charles had worn a wig and I believe it also true for James. They both had long hair prior to this (as did most men).

About Marmalet

jeannine  •  Link

From "Pepys At Table" by Driver and Berriedale-Johnson (p 110-111)

"Preserve making has always been catching and Elizabeth was obviously eager to try her hand with quinces after her session with Mrs. Hunt. A seventeenth-century 'marmalett' or marmalade could be made from any fruit which was boiled and crushed with sugar to help preserve it; the exclusive link between marmalade and oranges is of comparatively recent origin.

COTIGNACS AND MARMALADE OF QUINCES
Giles Rose "A Perfect School of Instruction for the Officers of the Mouth" 1682

Take what fruit you please, cut it in quarters and boyl it; and when it is boyled let the water run well from it, then strain it through a colander or Hair Strainer, then boyl half a pound of sugar a Soufle and being boiled, put into a pound of your Marmalad, first taking it from the fire, and let it stand till it be cool, and when it is cold dress or fashion it upon a plate and mark it as you do other pastes. This may serve to make a Tart either laced or covered.

Recipe [today's translation]

1 lb / 450 g quinces, pears, apples or other hard fruit
8 ozs / 225 g sugar

Peel the fruit, quarter or slice it roughly, put it in a saucepan just covered with water, bring to a boil and simmer till it is well cooked. Drain the fruit, then purée it either in a food processor or through a sieve. Drain the fruit very well once it is pureed. In a wide pan melt the sugar and allow it to cook until it is just beginning to turn colour. Remove it from the heat immediately and add the fruit purée to it. Stir the mixture well and allow to cool. It may then be 'shaped' and eaten alone or used as a filling for a fruit tart or pie."

About Monday 2 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

From "Pepys At Table" by Driver and Berriedale-Johnson (p 110-111)

"Preserve making has always been catching and Elizabeth was obviously eager to try her hand with quinces after her session with Mrs. Hunt. A seventeenth-century 'marmalett' or marmalade could be made from any fruit which was boiled and crushed with sugar to help preserve it; the exclusive link between marmalade and oranges is of comparatively recent origin.

COTIGNACS AND MARMALADE OF QUINCES
Giles Rose "A Perfect School of Instruction for the Officers of the Mouth" 1682

Take what fruit you please, cut it in quarters and boyl it; and when it is boyled let the water run well from it, then strain it through a colander or Hair Strainer, then boyl half a pound of sugar a Soufle and being boiled, put into a pound of your Marmalad, first taking it from the fire, and let it stand till it be cool, and when it is cold dress or fashion it upon a plate and mark it as you do other pastes. This may serve to make a Tart either laced or covered.

Recipe [today's translation]

1 lb / 450 g quinces, pears, apples or other hard fruit
8 ozs / 225 g sugar

Peel the fruit, quarter or slice it roughly, put it in a saucepan just covered with water, bring to a boil and simmer till it is well cooked. Drain the fruit, then purée it either in a food processor or through a sieve. Drain the fruit very well once it is pureed. In a wide pan melt the sugar and allow it to cook until it is just beginning to turn colour. Remove it from the heat immediately and add the fruit purée to it. Stir the mixture well and allow to cool. It may then be 'shaped' and eaten alone or used as a filling for a fruit tart or pie."

About Monday 2 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"I heard the Duke say that he was going to wear a perriwigg; and they say the King also will. I never till this day observed that the King is mighty gray."
It's believed that Charles went gray as a result of his distress over Catherine's illness and thereafter wore a perriwig.

About Sunday 1 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"Then to church again, whither Sir W. Pen came, the first time he has been at church these several months, he having been sicke all the while."
And forgive me if I'm hogging the annotation department here, but another thing to be grateful for is one's health and poor Sir W. Pen has surely been struggling with his for quite some time. How blessed we are to have the medical professions that we have today. I am sure that with Sam's recent bout of rather ill health that he's also keenly aware of how wonderful it is to just wake up feeling fine!

About Sunday 1 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"where I taught my wife some part of subtraction, and then fell myself to set some papers of my last night's accounts in order, and so to supper home, and after supper another bout at arithmetique with my wife"
In many ways this entry brings mixed feelings to me. While I am very grateful that Sam is teaching his wife basic arithmetic, it's also so sad to think that it's Elizabeth's first experience with basic math. In so many ways, the perfect way to keep people "under your thumb" and subservient is to deny them an education. Kudos to Sam to offer Elizabeth the chance to learn something and rather sad to the other women of the time who were denied that type of knowledge.

About Sunday 1 November 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"This morning my brother's man brought me a new black baize waistecoate, faced with silke, which I put on from this day, laying by half-shirts for this winter. He brought me also my new gowne of purple shagg, trimmed with gold, very handsome; he also brought me as a gift from my brother, a velvet hat, very fine to ride in, and the fashion, which pleases me very well, to which end, I believe, he sent it me, for he knows I had lately been angry with him."
Although Sam has been angry with his brother Tom about his accounting practices as of late, I don't recall his ever making a comment about Tom's actual workmanship. I am guessing (perhaps hopefully) that Tom's tailoring skills are quite good, as I assume that Sam would be the first to criticize if they were not. There are many fine craftsmen (and women) that perhaps are excellent in their craft and not the best accountants/buisiness people. Does anyone else have a different opinion-as I'm not sure if I've missed something in a previous entry.

About Saturday 31 October 1663

jeannine  •  Link

"The plague is much in Amsterdam, and we in fears of it here, which God defend."
I am curious-does anyone know how large this outbreak was? (Spoiler-a chilling thought for what will be coming Sam's way in the not so distant future)

About Hypocras

jeannine  •  Link

From Pepys At Table by Driver and Berriedale-Johnson

(p. 75-76) The "'burnt' claret, the hypocras with which Pepys allowed himself to be deceived, and Christmas Lamb's wool -spiced ale with apples- are simple devices that have changed little over the centuries. Party guests who have followed Pepys intermittent example and sworn off wine altogether may be glad to of a cup which could certainly have been made with summer fruit available to Pepys, whether or not the idea occurred to him." Their recipes follow for a variety of "hypocras" recipes (some including wine!)

From the section subtitled AN HYPOCRAS OF WHITE WINE are 3 of the 5 recipes that Pepys may have enjoyed.

Mulled Wine

Into an enameled or stainless steel pan put 3 bruised cloves, ½ stick of cinnamon, lemon and orange peel pared, 4 ozs of sugar, and half a pint of water. Boil together for 15 minutes; then add grated nutmeg, a pint of full-blooded red wine, and a wine-glass of port. Do not allow to boil again, but heat, strain, and serve.

Hypocras

Bruise together a cinnamon stick, ½ oz. coriander seeds, a blade of mace, and 1 oz of green ginger. Boil a quart of water with 8 ozs sugar for 5 minutes to make syrup.
Macerate the spices for an hour or two in some of the wine (red or white) you propose to use. Heat the mixture with the rest of the bottle of wine, the juice of half a lemon, a gill of brandy, the syrup to taste, strain clear and serve.

Lamb's Wool

Roast 8 apples; mash the, and add a quart of old ale (Winter Warmer or equivalent will do nicely). Press and strain; add grated nutmeg, powdered ginger, and sugar to taste as it heats.

About Thursday 29 October 1663

jeannine  •  Link

From Pepys At Table by Driver and Berriedale-Johnson

...(p. 75-76) "But 'burnt' claret, the hypocras with which Pepys allowed himself to be deceived, and Christmas Lamb's wool -spiced ale with apples- are simple devices that have changed little over the centuries. Party guests who have followed Pepys intermittent example and sworn off wine altogether may be glad to of a cup which could certainly have been made with summer fruit available to Pepys, whether or not the idea occurred to him." Their recipes follow for a variety of "hypocras" recipes (some including wine!)

From the section subtitled AN HYPOCRAS OF WHITE WINE are 3 of the 5 recipes that Pepys may have enjoyed.

Mulled Wine

Into an enameled or stainless steel pan put 3 bruised cloves, ½ stick of cinnamon, lemon and orange peel pared, 4 ozs of sugar, and half a pint of water. Boil together for 15 minutes; then add grated nutmeg, a pint of full-blooded red wine, and a wine-glass of port. Do not allow to boil again, but heat, strain, and serve.

Hypocras

Bruise together a cinnamon stick, ½ oz. coriander seeds, a blade of mace, and 1 oz of green ginger. Boil a quart of water with 8 ozs sugar for 5 minutes to make syrup.
Macerate the spices for an hour or two in some of the wine (red or white) you propose to use. Heat the mixture with the rest of the bottle of wine, the juice of half a lemon, a gill of brandy, the syrup to taste, strain clear and serve.

Lamb's Wool

Roast 8 apples; mash the, and add a quart of old ale (Winter Warmer or equivalent will do nicely). Press and strain; add grated nutmeg, powdered ginger, and sugar to taste as it heats.