Saturday 2 June 1660

Being with my Lord in the morning about business in his cabin, I took occasion to give him thanks for his love to me in the share that he had given me of his Majesty’s money, and the Duke’s. He told me he hoped to do me a more lasting kindness, if all things stand as they are now between him and the King, but, says he, “We must have a little patience and we will rise together; in the mean time I will do you all the good jobs I can.” Which was great content for me to hear from my Lord.

All the morning with the Captain, computing how much the thirty ships that come with the King from Scheveling their pay comes to for a month (because the King promised to give them all a month’s pay), and it comes to 6,538l., and the Charles particularly 777l. I wish we had the money. All the afternoon with two or three captains in the Captain’s cabin, drinking of white wine and sugar, and eating pickled oysters, where Captain Sparling told us the best story that ever I heard, about a gentleman that persuaded a country fool to let him gut his oysters or else they would stink.

At night writing letters to London and Weymouth, for my Lord being now to sit in the House of Peers he endeavours to get Mr. Edward Montagu for Weymouth and Mr. George for Dover.

Mr. Cooke late with me in my cabin while I wrote to my wife, and drank a bottle of wine and so took leave of me on his journey and I to bed.

30 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Brewster  •  Link

to get Mr. Edward Montagu for Weymouth and Mr. George for Dover
"One only of these two was elected, for Bullen Reymes became M.P. for Weymouth on June 22nd."
Wheatley footnote.

Paul Brewster  •  Link

Bullen Reymes is going to show up again

In the north aisle of the Parish Church of St. Peter in the Dorset village of Portesham near Weymouth is the Chafin memorial with a reference to Bullen Reymes. In 1695 he was found lying wounded in a street in Weymouth, perhaps after a tavern brawl, and was brought home to Waddon Manor to die. His father, COLONEL BULLEN REYMES, (1613-1672), who also lived at Waddon Manor, was a much worthier character. A Cavalier, friend of Pepys, Vice-Admiral of Dorset and MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, he was laid beside his wife in a vault under this aisle.

http://regionalwebs.co.uk/hosting…

I left in the reference to the son for a bit of local colour ...

Paul Brewster  •  Link

He seems to have played a minor part in the diary but it turn out there is a connection of a sort to our musical Mr. Pepys:

"Bullen Reymes (1613-72) was a lute-playing English nobleman who went on the Grand Tour between 1631 and 1637. Later, he served as a colonel in the Royalist army in the Civil War, and at the Restoration he became an MP and vice-admiral of Dorset. An invaluable constellation of his papers survive: not only important lute tablatures, with 126 pieces in seven different tunings ... but a diary of his travels, and letters to his family from the time of his Paris stay, 1631-4. ...

Evidently a noted player from his teens, Reymes was a bit of lute-obsessive, who made several references a day in his diary to the lute (rather fewer to the guitar). In 1632 Mesangeau agreed to give him free lessons, and then kept failing to turn up, so he had lessons with Merville instead, paying him £1 a month for the privilege. He regularly dined, and played chamber music with Merville and his family. Unfortunately he said little about the content of the lessons in his diary, but a good deal can be gathered from his tablature collection. He exchanged pieces with other amateur musicians, and sent lute music home for his father, and virginal music home for his sister. Only once does he mention printed music, and then only to say that it was too expensive for him to buy. He went on to Venice in September 1633, proceeding to Rome, Naples, Sicily, the Aegean and Istanbul. His diary entries for these travels are less extensive; he bought numerous instruments, and mentions hearing Monteverdi in Venetian churches, but no other famous musicians. He stopped writing in 1636, finally returning to England in 1637.”
According to François-Pierre Goy (Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
http://www.silvius.pwp.blueyonder…

Sorry for the length of the note. It may be better served within a bibliographic entry but I loved the detail.

john lauer  •  Link

"the best story that ever I heard..."
is great praise for a gentleman-and-country-fool oyster story. Can anyone find it?

Paul Chapin  •  Link

The oyster story ...
Perhaps someone will track down an authentic version of this joke, but Sam gives us enough information to know what the story must have been. Some city slicker found a country bumpkin with a bunch of oysters, and told him they would spoil if he didn't take the meat out of them. The c.s. kindly offered to remove the meat and take it away, leaving the c.b. with the shells. I can imagine that a good raconteur could put over a story like that very well.

vincent  •  Link

"...computing how much the thirty ships that come with the King from Scheveling their pay comes to for a month (because the King promised to give them all a month’s pay), and it comes to 6,538l., and the Charles particularly 777l. I wish we had the money: ..." Charles!!Just like Penniless man, counting his eggs before he could collect his tax money. Remember thats why the 3 cheers. oh well. Some things do never change. "computing " well well.

Colin Gravois  •  Link

"...and it comes to 6,538l., and the Charles particularly 777l. I wish we had the money. Can someone out there, perhaps a naval historian or such, help us understand the money question, and especially in this case pertaining to naval affairs (my similar question several months back was never satisfactorily addressed). Sam was intimately involved in the handling of naval funds over the years. How was pay computed, doled out, and how was the monies paid out by a central pay office in London (I presume in cash), to whom, then how transported to the fleet, etc.? What safeguards existed against the pocketing of “loose change” by the various intermediaries?

BTW isn’t today (new calendar) the 300 year anniversary of Pepys’s death (also my birthday!)

vincent  •  Link

Colin :-:The title of purser is related to a bursar - a treasurer:The Purser was the man(like the Butler, He did it) From about 1660 to 1797 (the Spithead, Plymouth and Nore mutinies were in April and May of the latter year) the pay of an Ordinary Seaman had remained at 19 shillings(5 1/4d a day), that of an Able Seaman at 24 shillings, a month.( thats before fixed paybacks) theres more on customs etc
http://www.geocities.com/brettchr…
lots of reading: scary stuff then this:: you will love how they 'Violenteered" for This Work.

REGULATIONS AND INSTRUCTIONS;RELATING TO HIS MAJESTY’S SERVICE AT SEA;Established by His Majesty in Council. The 13th Edition. LONDON;PRINTED IN THE YEAR 1790
from
http://www.exeterflotilla.fsnet.c…

for example :_It is only about 80 or so years since women ceased to be carried in men-o’-war, and it was Queen Victoria who ordered this practice to be discontinued
The origin of the call of the morning to "..Show a Leg.." "
Room to swing a cat . This expression is certainly of nautical origin and referred to the cat o’ nine tails.1651 lots other sayings that we use and do not understand:

Colin Gravois  •  Link

Vincent: you covered the waterfront, so to speak. Thanks for all the information, and the links you porovided are full of great details. Now where does Sam fit into this scheme of things? In Tomalin's book he's frequently called upon to "get" the money and "pay" the sailors, albeit oftentimes with some difficulty -- seems paymasters have always been tightfisted.

john lauer  •  Link

But Paul (Chapin), in the best of this genre
the bumpkin would end superior to the slicker -- so I would expect a zinger before I close this file. Unfortunately we know nothing about the Captain's humo(u)r, or opinion of "gentlemen".

vincent  •  Link

The way I understand the situation is this: SP makes out the schedule: warrants and other Paperwork for each ships Commission. The purser "guy "applies for a warrant for the position on a Ship: He gets the appropiate bag for time of service ( 3 months maybe) The details of processing are the pursers: The Commissioned folks, thats another story; In many cases its Peapis problem when the schedule is over run and Parliament has not got the funds or cash, so chits( ious ) are issued: (That was the problem in Jan/Feb no funds for the Regiments:)

Evelyn makes ref. to his agent Pay & accompt at Gravesend missbehaved himself(no details ? not very important pay?) ref 17 march 1678;

Edward Chaney  •  Link

For more on Bullen Reymes, including his portrait and page from his travel manuscript in which he records visiting Artemesia Gentileschi in Naples, see Edward Chaney, The Evolution of the Grand Tour, revised ed; 2000).

Second Reading

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

"my Lord being now to sit in the House of Peers he endeavours to get Mr. Edward Montagu for Weymouth"

Have I missed something, or is this the first mention by Pepys of "my Lord" being given a peerage?

Bill  •  Link

He is now a Knight of the Garter. Doesn't that do it? Though he isn't the Earl of Sandwich yet.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sasha Clasrkson, keen eye. We'd call Pepys's comment a spoiler.

27 May recall Pepys's comments on the historic priority of ennobling to the bestowal of the Knighthood of the Garter,
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… L&M refer the reader to F.R. Harris' biography of Mountagu, i.187:
"within twenty-four hours of the King's departure [ from Dover on his progress to London ], a letter was brought to Mountagu from the Lord Chancellor announcing that the Admiral had been created an Earl, and asking for the style of the earldom and barony, in order that the patent might be prepared. On the day following came a further honour; for the King sent Mountagu the Garter, the most prized of our distinctions. Pepys witnessed the ceremony, which took place upon a gorgeous summer Sunday, while the sound of bells was borne across the water."
http://archive.org/stream/lifeofe…

Bill  •  Link

"drinking of white wine and sugar"

What says sir John Sack-and-Sugar?
---The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare. Henry IV, part 1, 1790.

A footnote to the above says:
Much inquiry has been made about Falstaff's sack, and great surprise has been expressed that he should have mixed sugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the first time in this play, it may not be improper to observe that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry, a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sberris-sack. Nor will his mixing sugar with sack appear extraordinary, when it is known that it was a very common practice in our author's time to put sugar into all wines.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my Lord being now to sit in the House of Peers "

L&M disclose he had ben promised an earldom on 26 May; the patent was sealed on 12 July. They give no source.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"All the morning with the Captain, computing how much the thirty ships that come with the King from Scheveling their pay comes to for a month (because the King promised to give them all a month’s pay), and it comes to 6,538/., and the Charles particularly 777/. I wish we had the money."

Why isn't this Creed's problem?
"Tuesday 13 March 1659/60
It rained hard and I got up early, ... at my Lord’s lodgings, who told me that I was to be secretary, and Creed to be deputy treasurer to the Fleet, ..."

A sign of things to come?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Mr. Cooke late with me in my cabin while I wrote to my wife, and drank a bottle of wine and so took leave of me on his journey and I to bed."

I see sunrise today will be 3:40 a.m. Suppose Pepys finishes his letter to Elizabeth at 1 a.m. Mr. Cooke gets rowed ashore -- that takes an hour or more, and then walks up to hill to Poole's Inn, the Post House at Deal. Then I figured out it took about 7 or 8 hours of riding to get to Westminster. So they get their mail around lunch time. Not bad.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

That reminds me, the King landed at Dover, and I don't remember Pepys mentioning sailing to Deal.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Attention fellow State Papers fanatics: As a new Era begins, so does a new volume of the "Calendar of State Papers", for the years 1660 (starting on May 30, our birth-day) and 1661. Our playful book-seller Mr Goggle offers the 1860 edition at https://play.google.com/store/boo… (told ye he's playful).

And for a special welcoming gift, we find the first State Paper (that we know of) with Sam's name in it. Dated June 2, it's a suitably humdrum letter from "Rob. Blackborne to [Sam Pepys]", apparently not named in the original but already a celeb and ID'd as such by the 1860 compiler. "Will inform the Commissioners of the order for the Happy Return to go to Hull", yadda yadda yadda, the stuff that Sam spends his time on when he's not bowling.

Or drinking, like everybody else in England. Blackborne attaches a bunch of recent news to his letter, including a "proclamation made against debauchery". That interesting document, not otherwise detailed, would seem to be the Proclamation, signed by H.M. himself on May 30 - a day that must have been quite full, but in which he found the time - "against debauched and profane persons, who, on pretence of regard to the King, revile and threaten others, or spend their time in taverns and tippling houses, drinking his health; ordering magistrates to be strict in discovering and punishing the same".

On reviling and threatening in the King's name - not the first edict in recent days, that aims at curbing the zealots, or plain truants, who seem to be breaking doors all over England in search of stolen royal treasures, republican plots, or whatnot, truly or as an excuse. Standard fare after wars, revolutions or, hey, restorations.

On over-indulging in the King's name, we say - we'll have another. That one must have prompted a few chuckles among the hung-over brass of the Royal Charles.

Not everyone, however shares in our feelings. Among a mound of undated petitions stashed at the beginning of the State Papers volume is (at page 4) a letter of congratulations to the King from the mayor and good burghers of Lyme Regis ("the Pearl of Dorset" according to Wikipedia), "rejoicing (...) in the proclamation against vicious, profane, and debauched persons". We surmise that not everything in the Pearl of Dorset has been hanky-dory of late.

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

That part of the volume contains a few other gems. To wit, petitions for pardon from John Lambert ("resolves to spend the rest of his days in peace") and Arthur Hasslerigg (helped Monk to find Lambert; won't be quite enough, but both of them will keep their heads). The king (at page 7) is also offered a Treatise on "the way to make the King more King in wealth and power, and the subject more subject in faith and obedience", quite a project. Also the services of a Dr. Anderson, who "has travelled the Brazils, west Indies, Africa, &c.", and having received "the gift of revelation" after being "deprived of hearing whilst enslaved by the Turks", offers "to reveal something acceptable to His Majesty to some one appointed to hear him" (No. 138, page 14).

But the most fascinating petition (No. 129, page 13), for a job, we find to come from John Fowler, exiled by the Commonwealth "to the West Indies, as a present to the barbarous people there, which penalty he underwent with satisfaction and content". A quick check on "John Fowlers" find the author of a tome on Tobago in 1774 and a governor of Trinidad in the 1890s, but what about Fowler 1660? Did he go native and spend 15 years as a befeathered cacique?

Dave Bonta  •  Link

"He told the..." (second sentence) - Surely a transcription error for "me"?

Sam Ursu  •  Link

I'm really curious about the "white wine and sugar." Was that mixed together as a drink? Because the research I've seen says that sugar doesn't really dissolve well in wine (or any liquid that isn't piping hot).

Or were they just eating bits of sugar as a snack along with the oysters? I think that makes a little more sense to me (oysters are savory and sour, wine is dry, and the sweetness of the sugar would be a nice counterpoint), but that's my modern point of view.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sam Ursu raises a good point: what form(s) would sugar in Pepys's time have taken aboard ship?

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sack and sugar, and the aetiology of gout in England between 1650 and 1900
https://academic.oup.com/rheumato…
"Falstaff, a character in several of Shakespeare’s plays, took the nickname of Sack and Sugar because of his love for this drink, and perhaps not surprisingly, developed gout in the play Henry IV."

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I recall that sugar was made in "cakes" in those days -- very large sugar lumps. Something needed sweetening? You took out your knife and scratched some off the cake onto or into the food.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law." -- Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)

But Charles II's education probably didn't stretch to Sopho-who???

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