Sunday 30 June 1661

(Lord’s day). To church, where we observe the trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday, that we resolve to give no more to them.1 A good sermon, and then home to dinner, my wife and I all alone.

After dinner Sir Williams both and I by water to Whitehall, where having walked up and down, at last we met with the Duke of York, according to an order sent us yesterday from him, to give him an account where the fault lay in the not sending out of the ships, which we find to be only the wind hath been against them, and so they could not get out of the river. Hence I to Graye’s Inn Walk, all alone, and with great pleasure seeing the fine ladies walk there. Myself humming to myself (which now-a-days is my constant practice since I begun to learn to sing) the trillo, and found by use that it do come upon me. Home very weary and to bed, finding my wife not sick, but yet out of order, that I fear she will come to be sick. This day the Portuguese Embassador came to White Hall to take leave of the King; he being now going to end all with the Queen, and to send her over.

The weather now very fair and pleasant, but very hot. My father gone to Brampton to see my uncle Robert, not knowing whether to find him dead or alive. Myself lately under a great expense of money upon myself in clothes and other things, but I hope to make it up this summer by my having to do in getting things ready to send with the next fleet to the Queen.2

Myself in good health, but mighty apt to take cold, so that this hot weather I am fain to wear a cloth before my belly.

51 Annotations

First Reading

daniel  •  Link

"i am fain to wear a cloth before my belly"

it is also hot now where I reside and I often wear cloth on my belly (even when cold!) though I believe that Sam's intension differs to mine.

any idea what he is refering to?

Josh  •  Link

"Myself humming to myself (which now-a-days is my constant practice since I begun to learn to sing)"

Pepys, as Winnie-the-Pooh.

"finding my wife not sick, but yet out of order"

---i.e., the tipping point, when your four humours are deciding whether they can triumph or not over the problem: very well caught, in a phrase worth adopting.

vicente  •  Link

"...which we find to be only the wind hath been against them, and so they could not get out of the river...." It was nature not man that was the cause of the ill wind.

vicente  •  Link

"...Myself lately under a great expense of money upon myself in clothes and other things, but I hope to make it up this summer by my having to do in getting things ready to send with the next fleet to the Queen..." I've never ever seen a skinny quarter master yet.[more cheap toilet seats?]

Nix  •  Link

"the trade of briefs" --

OED:

3. A letter patent issued by the sovereign as Head of the Church, licensing a collection in the churches throughout England for a specified object of charity; called also a Church Brief or King's Letter. Obs. in practice.

1588 Marprel. Epist. 33 Spent thirteene score pounds in distributing briefes for a gathering towards the erecting of a Colledge. 1661 PEPYS Diary 30 June, To church, where we observe the trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday, that we resolve to give no more to them. 1781 COWPER Charity 469 The brief proclaimed, it visits every pew, But first the squire's, a compliment but due. 1820 SOUTHEY Lett. (1856) III. 193 A wooden thing..such as the churchwardens carry about in the church to collect money for a brief. 1836 Penny Cycl. V. 420/2 A brief was issued, in 1835, to increase the funds of the "Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts".

dirk  •  Link

"i am fain to wear a cloth before my belly" - re Daniel

Cfr. the diary entry for Friday 14 June: Sam (and his contemporaries) are convinced that by feeling cold/cooler one catches a cold. Being all sweaty, one experiences a cooling feeling when the breeze makes the sweat evaporate (which is of course why humans produce sweat anyway).

So my guess is that Sam has put a piece of cloth under his clothes to absorb the sweat, so that it cannot evaporate and make him feel "cold".

dirk  •  Link

"This day the Portuguese Embassador came to White Hall..."

So Sam is giving news from the outside world again! A couple of days ago he noticed that he had been neglecting this, and stated his intention to do something about it...

vicente  •  Link

"...Myself in good health, but mighty apt to take cold, so that this hot weather I am fain to wear a cloth before my belly...." today 'tis the fashion to only have a 'diamond' next to[or in ones] belly button and show the world, your worldly goods [and no summer cold?].

David Quidnunc  •  Link

"salaries ... a nice small addition to the graft..."

It's interesting to consider just what the attitude was of Pepys, his circle and his society toward graft. That annotation in the Wheatley text (#2) recounting 15th-16th century graft suggests that graft was probably either a venerable tradition or something close to it. I suppose it would have been viewed as something like a fee you might pay now for some government service. With that kind of history, graft would have been viewed as the normal, customary practice one would expect to participate in. Nonexistent or low salaries would have meant that the typical officeholder could never have expected to have survived without graft, which would make graft a positively good thing, or at least thought of that way.

In the past couple of days the New York Times article on Mexican police corruption mentioned that officers there often pay for their own bullets. Well, in those circumstances it's reasonable to ask for a tip from some citizen being assisted, and it's reasonable for the citizen not to begrudge it.

And then, of course, just about all people think they're worth more than they're being paid, so the demands for money increase ...

I bet most people were very polite when they approached a government official in his office. Friendly, even. Similar to the way most of us approach our car mechanic, and for the same reason.

Roger Arbor  •  Link

Belly cloth? Vest perhaps? (Those across the pond, would know under another name... but for the life of me I cannot think what it is!)

"Ne're cast a clout till May is out".. May long gone and still Samuel has his 'layers' on.

Rene  •  Link

A waistcoat perhaps Roger?

Pedro.  •  Link

The Portuguese Embassador.

The Portuguese Ambassador, Francisco de Melo a Torres, was also godfather to Catherine of Braganza.

J A Gioia  •  Link

A waistcoat perhaps...?

i say vest, you say waistcoat... let's call the whole thing cloth.

Glyn  •  Link

J.A.Goia - congratulations, that elicited a genuine groan from me (and no doubt many others).

I'm interested that Pepys spelled ambassador as embassador because it seems so logical to me that I'm surprised the spelling didn't survive, i.e. an embassador is in an embassy, or an ambassador in an ambassy, but why an ambassador in an embassy? What's the linguistic root of these words?

I see Sam wasn't long in going back to Gray's Inn Walk to see the fine ladies dressed up in their Sunday best.

Nix  •  Link

Glyn, you echo Dr. Johnson. Here is the OED etymology note under EMBASSY or AMBASSY:

(æm-, mbs) [a. OFr. ambassée (ambaxée, embascée, enbasée), cogn. w. Pr. ambaissada, OSp. ambaxada, It. ambasciata:L. *ambactita: see AMBASSADE. In Fr. the native ambassée was afterwards superseded by ambaxade (15th c.), ambassade, ad. Sp. (see -ADE), whence also our ambassade. (Ambassée, ambassy, is not:L. ambactia, ambaxia, which gave OFr. ambasse, not adopted in Eng.) Commonly written EMBASSY; Johnson considered the spelling ambassy quite obs.; see note under AMBASSADOR.]

And here’s the referenced note under AMBASSADOR or EMBASSADOR —

(æm-, mb?sd(r)) [The actual ambassador, -our, is a. Fr. ambassadeur (15th c. also ambaxadeur), ad. OSp. ambaxador (now emb-) and Pr. ambassador, cogn. w. It. ambasciatore, -dore, and OFr. (superseded by this adopted form) ambasseur (ambaseor, -asseor, -axeur, etc.). The innumerable early variants are chiefly adoptions or adaptations of the med.L. prop. *ambactitor (agent-noun f. *ambactire; see AMBASSADE), but found as ambaxi-, ambasci-, ambassi-, ambasi-ator, -itor; also with initial e and i, embassiator, imbassiator, etc.; varied with crosses between these and the Fr., and phonetic forms like embassader. Of these variants embassador, supported by embassy, was much more common than ambassador in 17-18th c., and was still the common spelling in United States in 19th c.

"Our authors write almost indiscriminately embassador or ambassador, embassage or ambassage; yet there is scarce an example of ambassy, all concurring to write embassy." JOHNSON.]

Ruben  •  Link

thank you Glyn & Nix for the interesting fine point:
In Spanish it is "embajador & embajada".
I looked at the Spanish Dictionary and found that "embajador" is a special envoy and "embajadora" is his wife!
From the Merriam Webster on line dictionary:
"Etymology: Middle English ambassadour, from Middle French ambassadeur, ultimately of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German ambaht service".
French was the language of diplomacy for many years.

Mary  •  Link

"cloth before my belly"

This could simply be the old-fashioned belly-band. Used to wrap babies (against colic etc),women (before during and after pregnancy) and anyone else who felt a need of warmth/comfort/support in the abdominal or lower back areas. Simply a wide strip of flannel bound fairly tightly around the body anywhere south of the rib-cage and diaphragm.

NOT to be confused with the belly-bands used in North America to train dogs not to mark their territory indoors.

daniel  •  Link

Cloth and bellies

well, if it was as sultry and warm in London then as Philadelphia is now, I would find any restrictive clothing unbearable. how did these well turned out folks in warmer climes suffer all of that lace and linen and heavy fabrics? i ask not only about Sam's period but any time right up to our own, men's clothing being very tighly perscribed until, probably, "it happened one night" when Clark Gable scandalously goes without an undershirt.

Pedro.  •  Link

The "Embaixador Portugês"

As he would describe himself.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

graft

Perhaps commission (whence commissioners?) or fee is a more appropriate understanding of the practice alluded to by Pepys. Graft implies cheating the state, e.g., accepting money from a vendor to bill the Navy for overpriced or inferior goods. Pepys is acting as (presumably an honest) middleman between the vendors and the fleet, and a commission is his recompense for this service.

Kevin Peter  •  Link

" To church, where we observe the trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday, that we resolve to give no more to them."

What does Sam mean by this? What are briefs? What does he mean by them resolving "to give no more to them"?

gerry  •  Link

Roger, does "singlet" ring any bells?

Mary  •  Link

trade of briefs.

Kevin Peter, see Nix's annotation (no. 5) above. Pepys is suffering from what we might now call compassion fatigue and is tired of being dunned for charity collections at church.

Ted Serrill  •  Link

Parallel thinking?
"CUMMERBUND, a girdle or waistbelt (Hindostani hamar-band, a loin-band). In the East the principle of health is to keep the head cool and the stomach warm; the turban protects the one from the sun, and the cummerbund ensures the other against changes of temperature..." From the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

Ted Serrill  •  Link

A 1911 encyclopedia, anyway. Not sure if Britannica.

josh  •  Link

Singlets? Wot, no surcingles? (belly-band for a horse, once upon a time)

dirk  •  Link

singlet

Interestingly, in the 17th c. "singlet" did not refer to a piece of underwear:

"close-fitting garments, covering the body from the neck to the waist or a little below. Sometimes have tabbed waists & occasionally slashed sleeves to show the lining. When worn without sleeves (rather like a modern waistcoat), called a singlet"
http://www.chepstowe.co.uk/clothe…

Bradford  •  Link

Maybe it was a cummerbund!

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Summing up at the halfway point of the year.

I'm surprised that no one has commented on the "summing up" nature of this post ... toward the end of it, Sam seems to slip into doing a quick mental inventory of where things stand with him and his at the end of the sixth month of the year, just as he does at the beginning of new years. Another piece of evidence, IMO, that he meant this diary to be a personal reference upon which he could look back in future years...

David A. Smith  •  Link

"by my having to do in getting things ready"
We have seen this before, and with all due respect to my 21st century colleagues, I think it is *we* who are blinded. Imagine that:

1. Sam is working not for the goverment but for a private acquirer.
2. Said acquirer has tasked Sam with getting the best deal possible, and authorized him to be paid a commission (right, A. Hamilton!) equal to Y% of the purchase price.
3. Sam's buyer makes clear that vendors should quote prices net to the buyer, and that they, the sellers, pay the commission.

On those facts:

1. This is a sound incentive comp system for the buyer, because it motivates Sam to consummate transactions rather than to waste time not getting things done.
2. Sam is providing value for money to his buyer, because he is selecting, negotiating, and so on.
3. *Sam is doing nothing improper.* He is not extorting money from anybody, nor deceiving anybody.
4. Sam has the *potential* for a conflict of interest in choosing vendors, but that conflicts is *unrelated to the commission he has openly disclosed*.

As to whether it is the seller or the buyer who's paying Sam's commission, that is in the eye of the beholder.

Lest you splutter about the impropriety of it all ... real estate agents representing home buyers work on *exactly* this basis in the US now.

In *our* era, we have come to associate payment to *government officials* as entirely inappropriate -- even to the point of passing laws rendering it illegal. But that's because we choose and pay government officials differently from how we pay certain kinuds of service-oriented folk.

vicente  •  Link

J Evelyn [on the 27th]notes, that he saw the King at dinner with Portugal Ambassador [note the A] . where was excellent Musique.

vicente  •  Link

If Sam had gone to the Abby, as noted by Evelyn "Dr Wollsal preached at the Abby on 14 Joh: 27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Then he would not have been upset at handing over his share of the requests.

tld  •  Link

...the Portuguese Embassador and "news"

Dirk here has noted that on 19 June, a few days ago, Sam mentioned,"..One thing I must observe here while I think of it, that I am now become the most negligent man in the world as to matters of news, insomuch that, now-a-days, I neither can tell any, nor ask any of others."

I took that line as a note to himself that with Montague off and Sam in a larger, more independent role, he was aware that he should keep things more to himself. Knowledge he may have of his sponsors interests, movements and intents would be of value to others. With his sponsor not around, it is dangerous and inappropriate to pass too much information that might be used in many unfortunate ways without defense.

This is a very insightful and mature thought process for a rising government leader with connections. Every similar type I have delt with in U.S. government shares this trait and process - very receptive of information but stingy with reaction or additional information. Even questions, "nor ask any of others," would tip ones hand on what might be brewing.

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

Is there any relationship between a singlet and a doublet?

dirk  •  Link

singlet & doublet - re Jenny

According to the site mentioned above, a doublet would have been a singlet with sleeves.

vicente  •  Link

singlet doublet french style 1610:
doublet : m. A Doublet; a Jewell,or stone of two peeces ioyned, glued together
Singlet: ascutchm, last, whiske,yerke or ierke with rod, &c.
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cotgr…

Anglais singlet: modern
doublet: renaissance for a closefitting vestcoat,leadin' to vest-[-coat,-ment,-ee,,-try,-ed interest, -ing,-pocket] or waist coat or waist-cloth [loin cloth] or [vest worn by the female of the species] vorn sleeveless under the doublet.
So what was his little garment absorbing the sweat, so simple? [a waist cloth?]
"this hot weather I am fain to wear a cloth before my belly"
else "subucula" under shirt? or a vestis,-is covering [vestio I cover,] if he so tried to explain that clothe to his readers.

Pedro.  •  Link

"news from the outside world again."

On ocassions Sam's Lord Montagu has asked him what the world was saying about certain things.

Ruben  •  Link

David A. Smith:
I agree with your very clear explanation. May I add that American and Western European companies are expected to do business with the rest of the world by their standards, as you describe them. Many honest folk in other countries do not see this as an advantage, but as an impediment.

Pat Stewart cavalier  •  Link

Belly band, cummerbund : whatever it's called, my (French) husband doing his national service in Algeria in the 1950s was issued with a strip of flannel to be bound round his body at night to keep the cold off his back (les reins = kidneys)

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This day the Portuguese Embassador came to White Hall to take leave of the King; he being now going to end all with the Queen, and to send her over."

The ambassador (Francesco de Mello, Marquez de Sande) was now about to go to Portugal to complete the arrangements for the Infanta Catherine's journey to England. He had dinner with the King and was treated with unusual ceremony: CSPDVeb. 1661-4, p. 6. (L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Myself humming to myself (which now-a-days is my constant practice since I begun to learn to sing) the trillo"

L&M: Not the modern trill but the accelerated reiteration of the same note. He was still hoping that Goodgroome could teach him the trillo on 7 September 1667
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/….

Third Reading

Eric the Bish  •  Link

“… trade of briefs is come now up to so constant a course every Sunday, that we resolve to give no more to them.“

This is an extra collection of money for a specific charitable purpose, on top of the normal two Church collections. The normal collections, then as now, had separate purposes, well expressed in the prayer book where God is asked to “accept our alms and oblations“: alms for the poor, and oblations for the administration of the Church.

In the UK context, today’s equivalent to the trade in briefs is the “retiring collection“ – “retiring“ because it is taken at the end of the church service as the congregation leave. Again, this is an additional collection over and above the normal Church collection (though the days of passing a bag or plate around the congregation are long gone in many UK churches because people give electronically and normally by standing order, with “one off“ gifts by scanning a QR code).

Retiring collections are often in response to an appeal from the archbishops of Canterbury and York, or the (secular) Disasters Emergency Committee. One example was the 2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal, which raised (from all sources) over £150 million. I imagine retiring collections were a small proportion of this.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I believe in the 17th century they collected funds to free English slaves from the Barbary Pirates, and to send relief to other parishes that had suffered a catastrophe like this fire or a flood (Pepys has told us it's been raining a lot recently, so maybe many communities have been damaged, leading to 14 weeks of appeals).

An early example of donor fatigue.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Diary of Ralph Josselin
Sunday 30 June 1661
document 70013130

June. 30: God good to us in many outward mercies,
the Quakers after a stop and silence, seem to be swarming and increased, and why lord you only know(.)
my heart very calm at the expectation of trouble, waiting only on the lord to carry me through the same, who will do it, and I shall praise his name(.)
this day good was god in the word, learn me to stay on you in all the afflictions I meet withal.

@@@

Quakers in mid-Essex have been practicing their distinctive form of worship for over 350 years.

Essex was a stronghold of Puritanism before the days of Quakers, and in the Essex Sessions Records there are many records of individual revolt.

For instance, in 1642, Bridget, wife of Walter Mildmay of Great Baddow, refused the Holy Sacrement and also refused to hear Divine Service; she was convicted.
In 1644 many more were convicted for not attending church, at Moulsham, Great Baddow and Springfield.
In 1644, Humphrey Sargent, a Pleshey yeoman, was accused of being one who mutinously and riotously assembled at London's Guildhall about a petition for peace, and to have spoken against the Parliament and Common Councilmen of London.
The seeds of unrest were sown for Quakers to harvest.

The Quaker movement was founded c.1652 in the north-west of England, but quickly spread as travelling preachers carried the Quaker message.

George Fox, a founding father, converted a young James Parnell in Carlisle goal, where Fox was imprisoned. The north of the county had a tradition of radical religious activity, having been a center of Lollardy and general dissatisfaction with the Church, and people were searching for new directions.
In 1655, Parnell aged 18, came to Essex. He preached in Halstead, Stebbing, Felstead, Coggeshall and Witham. Many were convinced, but there was also much opposition, especially from the Church and judiciary.
In July 1655 Parnell was arrested after speaking to the Church congregation in Coggeshall, and taken to Colchester Castle.
Walking to Chelmsford Assizes in chains for trial, he preached to people as he was escorted through the town and from the steps of the Assizes. He was found innocent of the charges against him, but convicted of contempt of court for refusing to remove his hat in court, and fined £40.
He refused to pay, and was marched back to Colchester Castle to be imprisoned. Here he died 8 months later after much mistreatment and a fatal fall whilst climbing in a weakened condition a rope to his elevated cell.

James Parnell's message must have been powerful, as Quaker Meetings were being held in Chelmsford in 1656.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CONCLUSION:

Key to the endurance of the Quaker movement has been the disciplined network created early by George Fox. At the grass roots were the groups of people who met each week for worship. ...

The Quaker 'Discipline' has been an enduring (and changing) feature - a foundation - of Quaker life.
'Discipline' is not now a popular word, but in the 17th century it was rooted in ideas of learning and discipleship, and for Quakers consists for the most part of advice and counsel.

One of the earliest copies of Quaker 'Discipline' is a letter penned in 1656 from Balby Meeting, setting out a framework for living a Quakerly life at that time.

Fox travelled the country advising his followers, and in Sept., 1667 he arrived in Felsted, Essex, to discuss Quaker organisation in Essex.
Witham Monthly Meeting was set up, comprising meetings at Heybridge, Steeple, Cressing, Witham, Baddow and Fuller Street; ...

From the earliest days Quakers kept written minutes of their meetings to discuss financial and spiritual matters. They also kept a record of births, marriages and deaths in the Meetings. The minutes of Witham Monthly Meeting commence in 1672, and in Essex Record Office there are volumes of minutes covering 1672 - 1948 can be accessed by the general public.

Highlights from http://www.midessexquakers.org.uk…

徽柔  •  Link

In the summer of 1662 Catherine of Braganza, arrived in England with a train of three hundred attendants, including some very odd-looking maids of honor, “ six frights ”, according to Anthony Hamilton, escorted by a duenna and several gentlemen of whom one, Don Pedro da Silva, was called Peter of the Wood by Buckingham. When poor Don Pedro left England in disgust at the tricks played on him by Buckingham “ the happy Duke,” says Hamilton, “ inherited [from him] a Portuguese nymph . . . whose appearance was still more appalling than that of the Queen’s maids of honor.”

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Why do you post spoilers, 徽柔 ? Please stop. We're not there yet.

徽柔  •  Link

I apologize for posting on the wrong date by mistake. I will ensure that it doesn't happen again. it doesn't happen again.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I did it myself this week. Accidents happen, 徽柔. My apologies for leaping to the wrong conclusion.

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