Sunday 1 July 1660

This morning came home my fine Camlett cloak, with gold buttons, and a silk suit, which cost me much money, and I pray God to make me able to pay for it. I went to the cook’s and got a good joint of meat, and my wife and I dined at home alone.

In the afternoon to the Abbey, where a good sermon by a stranger, but no Common Prayer yet.

After sermon called in at Mrs. Crisp’s, where I saw Mynheer Roder, that is to marry Sam Hartlib’s sister, a great fortune for her to light on, she being worth nothing in the world. Here I also saw Mrs. Greenlife, who is come again to live in Axe Yard with her new husband Mr. Adams. Then to my Lord’s, where I staid a while. So to see for Mr. Creed to speak about getting a copy of Barlow’s patent. To my Lord’s, where late at night comes Mr. Morland, whom I left prating with my Lord, and so home.

16 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Brewster  •  Link

... the Abbey, where a good sermon by a stranger, but no Common Prayer yet.
Per L&M: "The Prayer Book came back into use gradually after the Restoration -- royal chapels and cathedrals leading the way -- but is was not read in all churches until use of the revised version became compulsory in August 1662."
an interesting site on the history of the Book of Common Prayer http://justus.anglican.org/resour…

vincent  •  Link

"I went to the cook’s and got a good joint of meat, and my wife and I dined at home alone". Do I read this correctly? went to a cook shop for a "take-out/away" of good old joint of Roast Beef(lamb,pig). Saves on the coal, ( it being kind of warm now, it being June) and not to use the oven/stove,(The trouble and stife, she will appreciate the gesture).

Mary  •  Link

the take-away joint

Small spoiler on domestic arrangements follows.

Although the Pepys' kitchen in Seething Lane was to have an oven, Elizabeth seems to have been cooking at an open, kitchen fire in Axe Yard, as was the most common practice at the time. The cooking of a joint would have required a spit or jack and a means of turning it. Jane is, perhaps, still lame and abed, unavailable for spit-turning/joint-basting, so the cook-shop is the answer.

As a general practice, the purchase of cooked meats (not just joints, but smaller cuts as well) for home consumption remained common in cities well into the 19th Century. In many areas of London even in the early 20th Century the Christmas goose, chicken, turkey or what-have-you was taken to the baker's the previous night to cook in the cooling bread-oven on Christmas morning.

Paul L  •  Link

"I pray God to make me able to pay for it" Is this Pepys still fretting about whether he's going to keep his new job? (Having already spent extravagantly in anticipation)

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link


"This morning came home my fine Camlett cloak,1 with gold buttons, and a silk suit, which cost me much money, and I pray God to make me able to pay for it."

How very British!

Barbara  •  Link

Re Camlett cloak and suit:
since his brother had made these, and he had already paid him

vincent  •  Link

"...To my Lord’s, where late at night comes Mr. Morland, whom I left prating with my Lord, and so home...."
I would not expect two well read men to prat, ME to pout, to talk meaninglessly; does it have a wiser meaning? Morland is very mathematical, SEX Beer maybe, but not idle chatter:

language hat  •  Link

Not "prat" but "prate":
OED To talk, to chatter: usually dyslogistic, implying speaking much or long to little purpose; formerly also to speak insolently, boastfully, or officiously; to tell tales, blab.

I think "yakking" would be a good current equivalent. Not necessarily implying "idle chatter," just an attitude on the part of the narrator.

vincent  •  Link

thanks Language hat.

vincent  •  Link

"Prat" to tell tales, That I can see.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

"my fine Camlett cloak"

CAMICA, Camlet, or fine Stuff, made of Camels Hair and Silk.

CAMLET, A kind of stuff made with Wool and Silk
---An Universal Etymological Dictionary. 1675

CAMBLET, or Camlet, a plain stuff, composed of a warp and woof, which is manufactured on a loom, with two treddles, as linens are.
There are camblets of several sorts, some of goats hair, both in the warp and woof; others, in which the warp is of hair, and the woof half hair and half silk; others again, in which both the warp and the woof are of wool; and lastly, some, of which the warp is of wool and the woof of thread. Some are dyed in the thread, others are dyed in the piece, others are marked or mixed; some are striped, some waved or watered, and some figured.
Camblets are proper for several uses, according to their different kinds and qualities: some serve to make garments both for men and women; some for bed curtains; others for houshold furniture, &c.
---The complete dictionary of arts and sciences. T.H. Crocker, 1764.

Bill  •  Link

"no Common Prayer yet "

The Presbyterians did not want Common Prayer returned.

The King confirmed by Word of Mouth what he had promised by his Declaration [at Breda]. But when they [a Presbyterian delegation] insinuated to him that he ought to suppress the Use of the Common Prayer in his Chapel and the wearing of the Surplice he warmly answered That whilst he gave them Liberty he would not have his own taken from him.
---The History of England. Mr. De Rapin Thoyras, 1731.

Tonyel  •  Link

It's worth reading the Wikipedia entry on Sir Samuel Morland - a fascinating character, credited amonst many other things with inventing the first internal combustion engine. I wonder if Sam's slightly dismissive "prating" was due to his not being included in the conversation.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"saw Mynheer Roder, that is to marry Sam Hartlib’s sister"

Nan, daughter of Samuel Hartlib, sen. (writer on religious and economic affairs and a neighbor of the Pepyses in Axe Yard), was married on 10 July to Jan Roder (Roth) , a merchant of Utrecht, who, with his father (a merchant of Amsterdam) had befriended Charles II in exile. In a letter of 3 August 1660, Nan's father had denied these stories that she had married a fortune. (Per L&M footnote)

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