Saturday 3 November 1660
Saturday. At home all the morning. In the afternoon to White Hall, where my Lord and Lady were gone to kiss the Queene’s hand.
To Westminster Hall, where I met with Tom Doling, and we two took Mrs. Lane to the alehouse, where I made her angry with commending of Tom Newton and her new sweetheart to be both too good for her, so that we parted with much anger, which made Tom and me good sport. So home to write letters by the post, and so to bed.
11 Annotations
First Reading
vincent • Link
John Evelyn does mention:"...[nov]3 Arived her Majestie Queene Mother in to England, whence she had ben now banished almost 20 years; together with her illustrious daughter the Princesse Henrietta, divers other Prines & noble-men accompanying them..."
vincent • Link
"...which made Tom and me good sport..." How one likes to pick on the weak? The diary does let us see other facets of the Mankind;
vincent • Link
"...So home to write letters by the post..." I wonder business or pleasure Or keeping the eye to the future?
Pauline • Link
"...to be both too good for her, so that we parted with much anger, which made Tom and me good sport."
Horrid! Bating the class of woman most willing to accommodate them in extra-marital pleasure. If only Mrs. Lane had kept a diary! How does she recover from this to go on with the daliances?
Jenny Doughty • Link
One wonders, given his recent mention of his 'pain' at his wife's unavailability to him because of her 'old complaint', whether he'd sought out Mrs Lane to relieve him of it. If so, this doesn't quite seem the best way to go about it...
vincent • Link
more fodder for..."the vote Mrs pankhurst?"
Andrew Hamilton • Link
"One wonders, given his recent mention of his 'pain' at his wife's unavailability to him because of her 'old complaint'”,…
Jenny, I find this a persuasive reading. Perhaps he is mad at Betty because she is no longer so available?
JWB • Link
sport...
Climb down off PC highhorse. Teasing women is man's greatest pleasure.
Glyn • Link
Absolutely right, it's teasing/leg-pulling, and I'm willing to bet that Betty will find a way to get back at him. She seems to be a woman who can look after herself, which is perhaps why Pepys picked on her: she got angry rather than upset. This is playfulness.
I take it that writing letters by the post, means that it was because the post didn't leave every day so he had to meet the schedule (why didn't he write them earlier?)
Pauline • Link
...Climb down off PC highhorse...
Not on that horse. They parted with much anger and Sam's only comment is that it was good sport. I hope Glyn is right, that Betty knows where the upper hand lies and how to use it. A diary with Sam's level of self-revelation from her would be an interesting read.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"So home to write letters by the post, and so to bed." Mail could be "posted" late evenings for dispatch.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…