Monday 29 July 1661
This morning we began again to sit in the mornings at the office, but before we sat down. Sir R. Slingsby and I went to Sir R. Ford’s to see his house, and we find it will be very convenient for us to have it added to the office if he can be got to part with it.
Then we sat down and did business in the office. So home to dinner, and my brother Tom dined with me, and after dinner he and I alone in my chamber had a great deal of talk, and I find that unless my father can forbear to make profit of his house in London and leave it to Tom, he has no mind to set up the trade any where else, and so I know not what to do with him.
After this I went with him to my mother, and there told her how things do fall out short of our expectations, which I did (though it be true) to make her leave off her spending, which I find she is nowadays very free in, building upon what is left to us by my uncle to bear her out in it, which troubles me much.
While I was here word is brought that my aunt Fenner is exceeding ill, and that my mother is sent for presently to come to her: also that my cozen Charles Glassecocke, though very ill himself, is this day gone to the country to his brother, John Glassecocke, who is a-dying there.
Home.
33 Annotations
First Reading
dirk • Link
Murphy's Law at work?
Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong - and so will everything that can't go wrong. Sam's appears to be experiencing this first hand now.
So many people with health problems. Something to do with the weather?
Louis • Link
In any life of sufficient length, there will come a period when one seems to know an unusual number of the sick or dying. Shorten the general lifespan, and the period can come sooner rather than later. One can expect that, as he has done before, Pepys will soon stop a moment to give thanks for his good health---at present.
A. De Araujo • Link
"aunt Fenner is exceedingly ill... Charles Glassecocke..very ill himself...John Glassecocke who is a dying there."better get used to it Sam, that is the shape of things to come...
vicente • Link
If ye have it spend it:"...After this I went with him to my mother, and there told her how things do fall out short of our expectations, which I did (though it be true) to make her leave off her spending, which I find she is nowadays very free in, building upon what is left to us by my uncle to bear her out in it, which troubles me much..." but he don't have all that he tells others. Got caught in his own petard..
vicente • Link
Parliament rushing thru the last minute business, should have left for the Shires. There being some difference of Opinion between the houses.[Interesting reading.]
Hodie 3a vice lecta est Billa, "An Act for paving and repairing the Highways from Charing Crosse to the Stone Bridge beyond Pickadilly, and from Charing Crosse to St. James', and from thence to the Common Road, and so round the Wall of St. James', and up to Hyde Parke."
The Question being put, "Whether this Bill, with this Proviso, shall pass for a Law ?"
It was Resolved in the Affirmative.
From: British History Online
Source: House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 29 July 1661. House of Lords Journal Volume 11, ().
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Date: 30/07/2004
Copyright 2003 University of London & History of Parliament Trust
note later The commons is giving dispute.
also note the wonderful wording in the next Para..
Blunt, Lord Abergavenny’s Servant, arrested.
Upon Complaint made this Day to the House, “That William Blunt, a menial Servant of the Lord Abergaveny, and so owned by his Lordship, who is a Peer of this Realm, and a Member of Parliament, is arrested, by Thomas Addams, contrary to the Privilege of Parliament; and that the said Addams and one Mathew Bull between them do detain and keep a Ring of good Value, and a Protection, from the said Blunt:”
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sir R. Slingsby and I went to Sir R. Ford's to see his house, and we find it will be very convenient for us to have it added to the office if he can be got to part with it.”
Hope good Sir Richard has heard how Sam ‘acquired’ his current home at the Navy complex from the previous owner…
Mary • Link
Sir R. Ford's house.
(L&M footnote). This was a large house, taxed on 18 hearths in 1666, on the east side of Seething Lane, next to and south of the Navy Office. Ford, a wealthy merchant, had been tenant there since 1653 and held a lease that ran until 1676. He let out parts of the house.
Pedro. • Link
"to make her leave off her spending"
Nice to see Mrs.P back to her best, up and down into the city buying things, and lately under a great expense of money upon herself. But alas unable to make it up in the summer.
Another Aunt ill and needs looking after.
L Crichton • Link
What is Tom's trade? Does any one know? and what is he doing at the moment - does Sam support him financially?
BradW • Link
Got caught in his own petard
We got curious about that phrase, which is actually "Got hoist on his own petard," so we looked up "petard." It's not, as I always assumed, some kind of pike or polearm, but rather a primitive early bomb. In the late Middle Ages, when gunpowder was still new and unpredictable in European warfare, a soldier sent to the enemy castle's gate with a lit petard sometimes ended up Hoist on it instead, when it went off prematurely. Would perhaps look just as comical to an observer as being snagged on your own pike, but a petard-hoisting would perhaps not be something that the hoistee could laugh about at that night's campfire.
Let's hope Sam can recover from this particular petard accident.
Ruben • Link
"Got caught in his own petard"
I could not find any "petard" in SP's diary. (this is a distraction!)
Still, if you are interested in this kind of bombs know that in Spanish "el petardo" is still a daily use word for a small explosive charge, mostly used in festivities for the noise.
Pedro. • Link
What is Tom's trade?
Not much background on Thomas Pepys at the moment and so some info, up to the present stage of the Diary, from Claire Tomalin.
Born summer 1634
Tom was not clever, he learnt to read and write but not much better than his father, and he struggled with a speech impediment. Sam was always protective of him. …he had little chance of going to St.Paul's with his speech problem and was sent to learn tailoring in his father's shop, though showed little talent or enthusiasm for that.
The only thing he had an aptitude for was French which he managed to speak fluently. (how he did this is unknown)
Became a member of the "London Prentices" in 1648.
JWB • Link
Tom's predicament
Aside from the over-achieving older brother, he had TB.
L Crichton • Link
Pedro and JWB
Thanks for the info on Tom. Satisfied my curiosity and confirmed my suspicion that he was a younger brother. Sam does have a lot of responsibilities...
Pedro. • Link
London Prentices.
A little off topic but may be of interest, and found when searching for info on the above. A ballad "The Glory of These Nations" describing Charles' return to England.
http://www.poemsonline.org/poem/c…
Nigel Pond • Link
More on petard from http://www.phrases.org.uk:
A petard is an explosive device used to break down doors or walls. Hence - "hoist on one's...". Used by Shakespeare in Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his owne petar". From the [old] French "peter" - to fart.
vicente • Link
The phrase is to mean to be punished for doing a bad thing then getting caught or inadvertently getting punished for something of his own doing. I.E. Sam puts about how they have inherited and Mamma believes him and the spends all his money thats not there.
Bob T • Link
From the [old] French "peter" - to fart.
Modern french too in Canada
A. De Araujo • Link
"peter" in portuguese: peidar, so it must come from Latin; very old!
dirk • Link
petard
n.
1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
2. A loud firecracker.
[French pétard, from Old French, from peter, to break wind, from pet, a breaking of wind, from Latin peditum, from neuter past participle of pedere, to break wind. (…) ]
Word History: The French used pétard, “a loud discharge of intestinal gas”, for a kind of infernal engine for blasting through the gates of a city. “To be hoist by one’s own petard”, a now proverbial phrase apparently originating with Shakespeare’s Hamlet (around 1604) not long after the word entered English (around 1598), means “to blow oneself up with one’s own bomb, be undone by one’s own devices”. The French noun pet, “fart”, developed regularly from the Latin noun peditum, from the Indo-European root *pezd-, “fart”.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright - 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company
(the verb still exists in modern colloquial French)
Jenny Doughty • Link
Interestingly, I vaguely recall an out-of-date school dictionary that defined a fart as 'a small explosion between the knees'.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Commons: Regulating Pot Holes and Preventing any Great Fire
Horses used in Carts. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Rebuilding Houses.
Ordered, That such Members of this House, as are of the Privy Council, do attend his Majesty, and desire him to issue a Proclamation, to restrain the great Number of Horses and Oxen that are employed in Waggons, Carts, and Carriages, and also the great Burdens that are carried therein, whereby the Highways are much prejudiced; and to confine the Horses and Oxen which are employed, and the Burdens which are carried in Waggons and Carts, to such Numbers and Proportions, that the Highways may be preserved: And that the Members of this House, of his Majesty's Privy Council, do also desire his Majesty to inhibit all Rebuilding or Repairing of any Houses in or near the Cities of London and Westminster, upon old Foundations, except it be with Brick or Stone.
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘hoise, v. . . In 15–16th cent. hysse . . It is not yet known in which language this nautical word arose; the English examples are earlier than any cited elsewhere . . It is to be noticed that the word appears early as an interjection, being the actual cry of sailors in hauling: English hissa (c1450) . .
. . 2. b. hoist with his own petard (Shakespeare): Blown into the air by his own bomb; hence, injured or destroyed by his own device for the ruin of others.
1604 Shakespeare Hamlet iii. iv. 185 + 6 Tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his owne petar.
. . 1882 Nature 15 June 146/2 The criticism of practical men..was disarmed; these found themselves hoist with their own petard.’
Terry Foreman • Link
"This morning we began again to sit in the mornings at the office"
The parliamentary recess (beginning on the 30th) would enable members of the Board who were M.P.s to attend in the mornings. (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
"gone to the country to his brother, John Glassecocke, who is a-dying there."
L&M note he made his will on the 28th, and died shortly thereafter.
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Adm. Edward, Earl of Sandwich's log -- moored in the Algiers Road:
29th July. Monday.
About 9 oclock we came to an anchor in Algiers Road, about a mile from the mole head in 29 fathom, Fisher's Gate just open of the mole gate.
This day I also sent Capt. Sprague with the King's letter to the Governor and another one from myself, and to bring me off the Consul.
The which was performed, and together with the Consul at a full Council of War we framed our proposals and I sent them on shore by 6 oclock the next morning by Capt. Sprague and the Consul, Mr. Browne.
Copied from
The Journal of Edward Mountagu,
First Earl of Sandwich
Admiral and General-at-Sea 1659 - 1665
Edited by RC Anderson
Printed for the Navy Records Society
MDCCCCXXIX
Section III - Mediterranean 1661/62
@@@
Capt. Edward Spragge aka Sprague
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
No list of English Consuls to Algiers seems to exist, so I can't help you with Mr. Browne. I suspect he was a representative from the East India Company????
According to the Wiki list posted in our Encyclopedia under "Algiers" the Governor was Ramadan Agha. But before you think he had any power, read the background material -- very few trucks rolled -- at
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
"Fisher's Gate just open of the mole gate" -- no information comes up when I search on this. I find it hard to believe a Muslim city or fort had anything named Fisher, so it was probably an English nickname for something known locally by a completely different name.
A mole is a breakwater protecting an inner harbor.
Hoff • Link
So they anchored in 29 fathoms, or (6' feet per fathom x 29 =) 174 feet. That's pretty deep. If they used a normal sailboat scope of 7, they would need to let out (7 x 174 ft. or) 1,218 ft.(!) of anchor rode. I can just imagine the men working the capstan a VERY long time to weigh that anchor. The Greeks and Romans already had iron and metal anchors, so I suppose Sandwich did too.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"This morning we began again to sit in the mornings at the office, but before we sat down. Sir R. Slingsby and I went to Sir R. Ford’s to see his house, ..."
The Navy Board has been sitting in the afternoon to accommodate the Sir Wills who are both MPs. The House of Commons sits in the morning.
And although Parliament is supposed to be finished for this session, as you can see from the links above right, both Houses are still completeing their agendas.
So how come the Sir Wills are agreeing to morning meetings? Are they tryiong to dodge being implicated in the final decisions on the remaining Regicides and religious negotiations?
Maybe they hurried to Westminster, before coming home early -- giving Slingsby and Pepys time to look at Ford's House. Did the two MPs avoid non-attendance fines that way?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thank you, Hoff -- Sandwich was ANCHORED in Algiers Bay, not moored.
"The Greeks and Romans already had iron and metal anchors, so I suppose Sandwich did too."
I understand big ships had several heavy, metal anchors. In heavy weather they needed more than one to stabilize their position, and if they had to cut anchor for a fast get-away, they needed backups.
San Diego Sarah • Link
So many sick people -- note that it's the end of July. Well-to-do people went to the country in the summer until September because the hot August days encouraged the plague and other illnesses.
The bugs seem to have arrived on time in 1661.
Charles II and the MPs are anxious to be gone.
Nate Lockwood • Link
It's not the anchor, weighing a couple of tons in the 17th century, that holds the ship in place so much as the large diameter and heavy hawser (rope). The anchor 'anchors' the end to prevent it from slipping on the harbor bottom since its flukes will dig in. Weighing anchor on a ship of the line required considerable crew at the capstan located midships, perhaps on two decks. The seven to one ratio is still used, I believe.
Tonyel • Link
'also that my cozen Charles Glassecocke, though very ill himself, is this day gone to the country to his brother, John Glassecocke, who is a-dying there.'
This splendid name also seems to have died out, at least I've never heard of one. Maybe they got tired of the obvious jokes and changed it to Glossop.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"The seven to one ratio is still used, I believe." -- Could you explain that more fully, please, Nate?
I recall seeing two big men pushing each prong of a 4-pronged "wheel" -- is it called a capstan? -- to bring up the anchor. I'm way out of my depth here.