Wednesday 3 October 1660

With Sir W. Batten and Pen by water to White Hall, where a meeting of the Dukes of York and Albemarle, my Lord Sandwich and all the principal officers, about the Winter Guard, but we determined of nothing. To my Lord’s, who sent a great iron chest to White Hall; and I saw it carried, into the King’s closet, where I saw most incomparable pictures. Among the rest a book open upon a desk, which I durst have sworn was a reall book, and back again to my Lord, and dined all alone with him, who do treat me with a great deal of respect; and after dinner did discourse an hour with me, and advise about some way to get himself some money to make up for all his great expenses, saying that he believed that he might have any thing that he would ask of the King.

This day Mr. Sheply and all my Lord’s goods came from sea, some of them laid of the Wardrobe and some brought to my Lord’s house.

From thence to our office, where we met and did business, and so home and spent the evening looking upon the painters that are at work in my house.

This day I heard the Duke speak of a great design that he and my Lord of Pembroke have, and a great many others, of sending a venture to some parts of Africa to dig for gold ore there. They intend to admit as many as will venture their money, and so make themselves a company. 250l. is the lowest share for every man. But I do not find that my Lord do much like it.

At night Dr. Fairbrother (for so he is lately made of the Civil Law) brought home my wife by coach, it being rainy weather, she having been abroad today to buy more furniture for her house.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Paul Brewster  •  Link

advise about getting of some way to get himself some money
L&M insert the phrase "getting of". I suspect Wheatley was just cleaning up SP's wording.

David A. Smith  •  Link

"so make themselves a company. 250l. is the lowest share"
The Restoration was much more than just a choice between Parliament and a limited monarchy. It also brought back culture, license (in various forms!), science, and commerce. Here we witness the birth of investment securities.
At time Montagu and Pembroke are planning these ventures, in Holland they are forming the Dutch East India Company, and soon we'll have the British equivalent, and off we go from trade to empire.
Last week it was tea, today it's profit-making-adventuring. Hold on to your perukes, friends, here comes the British Empire.

helena murphy  •  Link

Were the pictures already in the closet or did the iron chest contain them? If so we may assume that they are pictures which formed part of his father's vast collection which was sold off after his death by the Commonwealth.Charles II tried very hard to reassemble the original collection but sadly many works were irretrievably lost.

Mary  •  Link

The illusionist picture

L&M note refers to ' A picture of a book upon the closet door' recorded as belonging James II's collection. The picture was later at Kensington Palace, but is not recorded in the inventories of the royal collection after 1714.

Mary  •  Link

The Royal African Company

(per L&M) was eventually incorporated on 18 December 1660; it consisted of the Duke of York and 31 others. Pembroke was the chairman and Sandwich became a member.

Michiel van der Leeuw  •  Link

Dutch East India Company
This company, known as the VOC, was not (as David says) formed in these years, but already established in 1602.

Alan  •  Link

''which I durst have sworn was a reall book'' Why is SP so excited about this? Does reall mean royal?

Alan Bedford  •  Link

"which I durst have sworn was a reall book" Why is SP so excited about this? Does reall mean royal?

I believe the reference is to a trompe l’oeil painting on a door panel on the closet door. He had seen, and been impressed by, similar paintings in the Netherlands a few months ago.

Pauline  •  Link

"Why is SP so excited about this?"
I think we are so accustomed to seeing pictures depicting things "really" and to photographs that we cannot imagine (or relive) Sam's astonishment at seeing a book in a painting that looks very very real.

Getting the perspective exact is what makes an image most life-like. I wonder if the artist in this case used a camera obscura. See the following link for a discussion of Vermeer's possible use of a camera obscura in the 17th century:
http://www.grand-illusions.com/ve…

vincent  •  Link

"trading co." who first? It is a matter of who said what when ?
one version.?The East India Company chartered by the British crown and ultimately responsible to the parliament, launched British rule in India. The British East India Company was established under a Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I for 15 years for spice trading on 31st December 1600 AD with the capital of £70,000.
http://www.historyofindia.com/his…
Voc 1602:
http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw…

Kevin Peter  •  Link

The Royal African Company was originally called the "Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa". After eventual financial failure (mostly due to the war with Holland) it was reorganized in 1672 as the Royal African Company.

The Royal African Company began the British slave trade in the late 1600s, since labor was badly needed in the Caribbean colonies. It had a monopoly on the slave trade, transporting an average of 5000 slaves a year, until Parliament repealed its monopoly in 1698.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Capt. Robert Holmes, who we met in June 1660, will command this gold-hunting, Dutch-baiting, empire-building expedition to Africa in January. See his encyclopedia entry for more details: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Dick Wilson  •  Link

And of course it never occurred to anyone to ask the Africans.

Tonyel  •  Link

'she having been abroad today to buy more furniture for her house.'
The entry a few days ago referred to Bess buying a bed for "her" chamber which I took to mean her separate private room. This sounds as though Sam has given her responsibility for furnishing the whole house which he now sees as her domain.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"To my Lord’s, who sent a great iron chest to White Hall; and I saw it carried, into the King’s closet, where I saw most incomparable pictures. Among the rest a book open upon a desk, which I durst have sworn was a reall book."

L&M: The King's Closet contained some of the most important and highly prized small pictures in the reconstituted royal collection. The inventory of Charles II's pictures (MS., c. 1667; in the office of the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures) lists some 160 pictures, drawings and miniatures in this room (nos. 305-465 in the section ff. 18-26 dealing with Whitehall). The illusionist picture is presumably A picture of a book upon the closet door, recorded in James II's collection: Cat. of the collection . . . belonging to King James the Second (1758), p. 12, np. 136. It was later at Kensington Palace, but is not recorded in the inventories of the royal collection after 1714.

Third Reading

MartinVT  •  Link

"she having been abroad today to buy more furniture for her house"

I believe this is the first time Sam has referred to the house as "her house", rather than "my house". Quite a significant statement for its day, both for the fact that he trusts his wife to purchase furnishings for their house, and for referring to the house as belonging to her.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sandwich wasn't away for long, so I guess he made a quick trip across the Narrow Sea either to The Hague or France, and brought back the trunk that Pepys had the honor of taking the last mile:

"To my Lord’s, who sent a great iron chest to White Hall; and I saw it carried, into the King’s closet,"

A gift from Charles II's cousin Louis or his mother? Things he had left behind, or sister Mary's belongings?

As a good secretary, Pepys keeps his secrets when he thinks he has to.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Stephane, do Sandwich's logs say where he went and what he did?

Peter Johnson  •  Link

What was the "Winter Guard"? Presumably something significant to warrant the attention of the very top table. Perhaps they were settling on Navy and Army deployments for the coming months, to guard against any unfriendly incursions?

As well as the iron chest,
" Mr. Sheply and all my Lord’s goods came from sea, some of them laid of the Wardrobe and some brought to my Lord’s house."
Could these have been bulky items my Lord was sending around the coast from Hitchingbrooke for his official and domestic apartments in London? It's an established water route (I recall a vessel being sent from the south into the estate), and easier and cheaper for furniture and suchlike than hauling them overland. Much later, in 1899, my grandparents moved from Middlesbrough to London and sent their household goods by coastal steamer.

Sam Ursu  •  Link

What were "Winter Guards"?

Well, they were naval vessels that were NOT first-class ships of the line. This is because those big ships could only be safely used during summertime (i.e. in calmer seas, as autumn-winter in this part of the world is characterized by more frequent storms, and first-of-the-line ships were really tall and prone to foundering in higher waves).

Most commonly, a "Winter Guard" referred to a group of warships used for coastal defense during times of hostility (hence the name), but they were deployed against Holland during Pepys's lifetime. There is no official size of what constitutes a "Winter Guard" but it usually refers to a group of 10-30 vessels under one command, which can include fireships.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

This is a guess: the problem with organizing the Winter Guard this year is that so few ships are ship-shape. Yes, the money has been raised to pay off the Commonwealth army and a navy, but I don't think they had budgetted for repairing any ships.

That the Seething Lane houses (from the painting invoice it appears they are ALL being overhauled) using Navy workmen shows that they are not working on ships -- not that Seething Lane needed ALL the Navy's carpenters and painters, obviously, but if a massive repair program was underway. they wouldn't be fixing Pepys' floors and plastering and painting the Batten's kitchen etc.

Also, Parliament has approved paying off the sailors. But not for paying loyal sailors sailing into the future.

Given these realities, how to defend the country and the merchant fleets must have presented a big problem, and one reason Pepys doesn't have much to do at the office.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... after dinner did discourse an hour with me, and advise about some way to get himself some money to make up for all his great expenses, saying that he believed that he might have any thing that he would ask of the King." ...
"the Duke speak of a great design that he and my Lord of Pembroke have, and a great many others, of sending a venture to some parts of Africa to dig for gold ore there." ...
"But I do not find that my Lord do much like it."

Sandwich knew too much, and didn't want to be involved, is my guess.

100 years before, Drake and the Gilberts had sailed the seven seas for Queen Elizabeth, capturing as much Spanish and Portuguese galleons carrying gold as possible. Amongst the cargo they had been puzzled to find black prisoners.
England was no longer ignorant about slavery and the transporting of Africans to South America and the Caribbean.
It was a nasty, smelly, unpleasant job, and no fighting courtier/Admiral would want to be involved in that for years on end.

If James was sincere about just bringing back gold, then Sandwich would be called upon to defend the treasure ships. He probably didn't see that as being desirable either. He's a courtier and a fighting admiral with a house and family in the country, not a merchant marine man like his Parliamentary colleague Vice Admiral John Lawson.

So Sandwich and Pepys brain-storm about other useful and profitable things for him to do so he can dodge this African opportunity.

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