Saturday 22 March 1661/62
At the office all the morning. At noon Sir Williams both and I by water down to the Lewes, Captain Dekins, his ship, a merchantman, where we met the owners, Sir John Lewes and Alderman Lewes, and several other great merchants; among others one Jefferys, a merry man that is a fumbler, and he and I called brothers, and he made all the mirth in the company. We had a very fine dinner, and all our wives’ healths, with seven or nine guns apiece; and exceeding merry we were, and so home by barge again, and I vexed to find Griffin leave the office door open, and had a design to have carried away the screw or the carpet in revenge to him, but at last I would not, but sent for him and chid him, and so to supper and to bed, having drank a great deal of wine.
35 Annotations
First Reading
Bradford • Link
"had a design to have carried away the screw or the carpet in revenge"
L&M Companion Large Glossary defines the former as "key, screw-bolt." Any historical locksmiths out there to explain how this worked and how long it would take to realize it was missing?---in comparison to the carpet.
Robert Gertz • Link
Am I right in assuming after each toast to a wife's health eight or nine guns were fired off in salute from one or more ships?
"To Elisabeth Pepys..." Ka-boom!
Too bad Beth couldn't've been there. Not to mention the oft neglected Lady Penn.
dirk • Link
John Evelyn's diary today:
"I made an accord with Mr. Scott for 150 pounds for the rectifying my son Johns crooked leg, & knee-pan:"
Apparently 17th c surgery was very expensive... (Still is!)
"In 2002, £150 0s 0d from 1662 is worth:
£12,280.85 using the retail price index."
Source:
http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/
vicenzo • Link
If it be in the States, having a baby be in excess of $10 G's for a normal birthing.
A. Hamilton • Link
a merry man that is a fumbler
Any ideas as to Sam's meaning?
JWB • Link
two conjectures:
1) The gun ("seven or nine guns apiece") refers to the "buck"(as in 'the buck stops here') or model gun set on the wardroom table & pointed at the man who is to say grace or make a toast.
2) The "screw" was a letter press.
vicenzo • Link
"...a merry man that is a fumbler..."
fumbler maybe a bumbler who be one who keeps every one in stiches for airhead ideas. He appears to be a merchant therefore his speech is not aligned with his appearance. Not one to command a serious or wise crowd, none the less, he be a succesful merchant, and your mind is picked clean as he is never given serious consideration.? O.E. needed.
vicenzo • Link
"...having drank a great deal of wine...." the ledger be duly and cleanly up to date.
Mary • Link
fumbler
L&M notes that Jefferys was childless - "hence a fumbler" - and so he and Pepys were reckoned to be brothers. Neither Sam nor Jefferys seems to have taken the joke badly.
Mary • Link
More fumbling.
OED quotes a 1700 Dictionary of Cant[ing] Crew: an unperforming Husband; one that is insufficient.
Australian Susan • Link
"...a fumbler, and he and I are called brothers, and he made all the mirth in the company"
Poor Sam. Poor Jeffreys. 'Tis ever best to make sure they laugh with you, not at you. Many a successful comic began in self-defence. Because if you try and point out that a certain self-directed remark is *not* funny, you are called a kill-joy, or over-sensitive etc.
"having drank a great deal of wine"
Bad head and cross with wife and servants tomorrow?? Even money, I think.
Rex Gordon • Link
" ... seven or nine guns ... "
L&M point out in a footnote that an even number "signalled a funeral".
APB • Link
I'm afraid Mr Bradford has spoilt my day as I was thinking Sam's removal of the screw was 'by the look and the dress' the office bicycle who had been collected on his travels yesterday :)
A. Hamilton • Link
fumbler
Mary,
Much obliged. I saw the OED entry, but failed to make the connection to Sam's childless state, being slow of mind.
JohnT • Link
Is not the second sentence grammatically strained ? I presume that the first"Lewes" is a reference to the surname "Lewis" and not as I first thought to the slightly inland Sussex town of that name. But what is the significance of the definite pronoun ? Is it some sort of implied possessive, as in the Lewis' house/harbour/mooring etc ? Or is Lewes/Lewis some recognisable place accessible by boat ? Is it the name of Captain Dekens' ( also known as Deakins or Daking ) boat ? Even if any of these, the sentence construction is abnormal for Sam.
JWB • Link
17th Century Signal Chamber Cannon
http://www.adrax.com/watsons/sigc…
2Wms+2Lewes+2fumblers+several others=~10. 10 X 7 or8 salutes=~80 salutes in or just below Pool of London. Looking at the "cannon" and seeing ease with which could be loaded & fired, I guess the were not just "passing the buck" as I speculated above.
Mary • Link
The Lewis is a merchant-ship.
See backround info. for more.
Andrew Hamilton • Link
"and exceeding merry we were... having drank a great deal of wine."
I rather like the imagined scene of this party sitting around a wardroom table (it being perhaps a bit fresh out on deck) taking turns to propose a toast when pointed to by a model cannon. Seven or nine toasts apiece would imply a lot of wine and a merry time. Poor young Sam, being made the butt of the fumbler joke, along with Captain Jeffreys, by all the worthy graybeard sirs and notables!
vicenzo • Link
Mary : perfect:
Maurie Beck • Link
Back to his old ways.
It's nice to see Sam backsliding and tearing it up. He may aspire to more seriousness and all work and no play, but tis not his nature I think.
Nix • Link
"a very fine dinner ... drank a great deal of wine" --
So much for Lent! Or were the rules suspended on the water?
Eric Walla • Link
Will there come a time when Sam realizes that drink and entertainment are in fact an integral part of his duties? Were he to go about his business and nothing but his business, it appears pretty clear that his informants and associates would begin to take their business elsewhere. He would become the butt of jokes ("stuffy ol' Sam") and find, without too great a stretch of the imagination, that his influence and upward mobility had come to an end.
dirk • Link
"At noon Sir Williams both and I by water down to the Lewes, Captain Dekins, his ship, a merchantman, where we met the owners, Sir John Lewes and Alderman Lewes, and several other great merchants; (etc)
For the sake of clarity:
I read this:
"At noon both Sir W. and I by water down to the "Lewes" (= name of the ship), Captain Dekins' ship (old genitive construction with name + his), a merchant vessel (cf. man-o-war = war vessel), where we met the owners, Sir John Lewes and Alderman Lewes (not unnatural that their vessel is named after them: "Lewes"), and several other great merchants; etc.
A. Hamilton • Link
Will there come a time when Sam realizes...
Well observed, though I think Sam does realize it. This trip differs, by being related to business, from some of his more optional frolics. Whenever he is in the company of the two Sir Williams, I suspect, he doth as he must when in Rome, and there is little evidence that they share his more puritan scruples.
Carolina • Link
I have been meaning to ask this before: This firing of the guns -
What did they fire?
Could they just do it for no good reason?
dirk • Link
This firing of the guns
re - Carolina
See:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
and
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
vicenzo • Link
If it were 3 guns, it be someones funeralle [Sailors Grammar P 69]
"...with seven or nine guns apiece; and exceeding merry we were.."
I'm so glad!
Second Reading
Bill • Link
"We had a very fine dinner, and all our wives’ healths, with seven or nine guns apiece; and exceeding merry we were ... having drank a great deal of wine."
GUN, a great Flagon for Drink.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675
jpmrb • Link
@Bill : Bravo, Bill, great detective work. That firing of guns thing was becoming silly!
HRW • Link
GUN, a great Flagon for Drink.
---An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1675
Thanks Bill! Makes much more sense.
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘fumble . . probably onomatopoeic; compare bumble , jumble , mumble , stumble , also famble n., fimble . .
1. a. intr. To use one's hands or fingers awkwardly or ineffectually; to grope about . . ‘
‘fumbler, n.
a. One who fumbles,
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria iii. f. 31, No man shulde rebuke..a stuttar or fumblar.
b. slang. (See quot. 1699.)
. . 1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Fumbler, an unperforming Husband, one that is insufficient.’
Elyse • Link
Claire Tomalin's interpretation: "The impression given by the Diary is that he [as opposed to Elizabeth] was the one to brood [over his childlessness]. In January 1662 he was 'considering the possibility there is of my having no child.' A few weeks later, at a shipboard dinner, where men's tongues were loosened, he had to accept being linked with another man who could give his wife no children, both called 'fumblers.'"
In the endnotes she says "fumbler" in this context means "impotent."
Terry Foreman • Link
"We had a very fine dinner, and all our wives’ healths, with seven or nine guns apiece"
L&M: An even number signalled a funeral.
Third Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Why does an even number of naval salutes indicate a death?
"....seven or nine guns apiece."
L&M: An even number signalled a funeral.
Terry Foreman • Link
Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/21-…
The system of firing an odd number of rounds is said to have been originated by Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Navy in the Restoration, as a way of economizing on the use of powder, the rule until that time having been that all guns had to be fired.[citation needed] Odd numbers were chosen, as even numbers indicated a death.[3]
The system of firing an odd number of rounds is said to have been originated by Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the English Navy in the Restoration, as a way of economizing on the use of powder, the rule until that time having been that all guns had to be fired. Odd numbers were chosen, as even numbers indicated a death.