Wednesday 2 April 1662

Mr. Moore came to me, and he and I walked to the Spittle an hour or two before my Lord Mayor and the blewcoat boys come, which at last they did, and a fine sight of charity it is indeed. We got places and staid to hear a sermon; but, it being a Presbyterian one, it was so long, that after above an hour of it we went away, and I home and dined; and then my wife and I by water to the Opera, and there saw “The Bondman” most excellently acted; and though we had seen it so often, yet I never liked it better than to-day, Ianthe acting Cleora’s part very well now Roxalana is gone. We are resolved to see no more plays till Whitsuntide, we having been three days together. Met Mr. Sanchy, Smithes, Gale, and Edlin at the play, but having no great mind to spend money, I left them there. And so home and to supper, and then dispatch business, and so to bed.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Bradford  •  Link

Can some calendarically inclined soul determine or remind us when Easter 1662 was, so we can count ahead 7 Sundays to Whitsun? (Aka Pentecost, which comes from the Greek for 50 days after Easter, isn't that interesting.) We'll check and see how Elizabeth's resolution-keeping compares to Sam's---though on reflection, whose suggestion do you suppose it was?

Alan Bedford  •  Link

Bradford - Easter 1662 was this past Sunday, March 30, so Whitsun should fall around the 18th of May. If the Greek Christians counted Easter as day 1, then Pentecost would indeed be the 50th day. It's the same reckoning by which Christians say "On the third day He arose again from the dead" although Sunday was the second day after the Crucifixion.

Pauline  •  Link

Blewcoat Boys
(from the National Trust website)

"The Blewcoat School, London (now a National Trust shop) is a representative example of a tradition of charitable educational establishments, built to provide education for poor boys. Blewcoat boys wore a distinctive uniform of a long blue coat, breeches and yellow stockings."

vicenzo  •  Link

"...there saw "The Bondman" most excellently acted; and though we had seen it so often, yet I never liked it better than to-day,…”
has seen it before plus the diary ref:s they be, 4 and 1/4 times plus bought the publish script.
his words do read like an ad .
“…done to admiration…”
“… which of old we both did so doat on…”

ref:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam was able to escape the long and boring sermon, but the poor school boys no doubt sitting on hard backless benches had to sit through the whole lot!
Presumably this is the school now at Christs Hospital in Sussex?

Mary  •  Link

Bluecoat schools.

There are a number of Bluecoat schools, though I believe that it is only the one that Australian Susan mentions that retains the long, blue cassock and yellow stockings as everyday uniform. Other Bluecoat schools reserve it for 'dress' occasions only.

Mary  •  Link

Sanchy, Smithes, Gale and Edlin.

All parsons and all, apparently, Cambridge men.

Glyn  •  Link

the Blewcoat boys

http://www.dg28.com/sep-christsho…

"...Much later in 1673, as part of his long-term campaign to professionalise the navy Pepys persuaded Charles II to establish here [i.e. Christchurch School] a Royal Mathematical School to teach mathematics and navigation to boys aged from 11 in order to prepare them for a naval career. Pepys was later for many years a governor of Christ's Hospital (also known as Christchurch school or the "Bluecoat School" after its school uniform) and in 1699 was awarded the Freedom of the City of London, not for his achievements for the navy but in recognition of his services to this school. Although no traces survive, Christ's Hospital school is still in existence as one of England's most prestigious independent schools and is now located out of London in Horsham, Surrey.”

Extract from the “Pepys in the City Walk”: http://www.pepysdiary.com/about/a…

which seems very authoritative and extremely well written.

Glyn  •  Link

Do people remember that some time ago Elizabeth and Sam quarrelled because he was always going to the theatre in the evenings by himself, leaving her feeling lonely at home? As I recall, he promised to take her with him more often, and this at least is one promise that he has appeared to have kept.

Glyn  •  Link

Although as Susan has pointed out, Horsham is in West Sussex, not Surrey.

vicenzo  •  Link

Keeping another promise , don't spend, watch the penny."...Met Mr. Sanchy, Smithes, Gale, and Edlin at the play, but having no great mind to spend money, I left them there..." Besides being men from the Granta, they may not be useful, in the quest for succes [de scandal].
Cave quicquam incipias quod paeniteat postea,
Syrus Maxim.
id est.be careful about starting something you may regret.

Australian Susan  •  Link

There is a Bluecoat school in Bristol. When I was in the VIth Form at school in Bristol, only the boys in the VIth form wore the traditional uiniform. It is strange that charitable schools, which had to provide clothing for their pupils (a female example is the Red Maids School in Bristol)because they had none have now become prestiguous private schools (in England of course confusingly called public schools), and the originators of school uniforms, which are now seen as some form of emblem or indicator of worth. School uniforms here in Brisbane are zealously promulgated as if just wearing bizarre clothing (which includes boaters at one school here)makes you a better person.In Sam's time, the wearers of school uniforms (such as the blue coats) were stigmatised as charity cases.

vicenzo  •  Link

There be Blewcoats, BlueStockings, Publick for those that not have Tutor then used Private monies rather than Publick monies. This Period of Tyme allowed more Children to develope their possibilities, sorting the chaff from the grain. Pepis seeing first hand the Talent released by the InterRegnum problems, that men of courage and undiscovered brainpower were able to rise to their level of incompetence, inspite of the ingrained thoughts of BREEDING {spaniels be blowed made for sitting on Silk Pillows.
Still too many wasted youth, not being exposed to their potential, only to be raised for Fodder,[factory,fast foods, and Cannon]. The Knowledge was seeping out never to be but back under the saddle of Monarchy.
People love to show their by inferiority pointing to some weakness [like, Oh! look cheep junk, oh,look {not like me}Dah! .

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

re: "which seems very authoritative and extremely well written."

Why Glyn, *all* the Pepys walks are authoritative and well-written! Just like your posts... :-)

Rex Gordon  •  Link

The Spital (Hospital) Sermons ...

... usually on charity, were given at Easter in Spital Square, Spitalfields, and attended by Bluecoat boys of Christ's Hospital, with representatives of four other royal hospitals - St Bartholomew's, Bridewell, Bethlehem (Bedlam)and St Thomas's. Originally five in number, the sermons dwindled in the later 17th century to three, later to two, and nowadays to one. They have been delivered continuously, except for the interregnum, since the time of Richard II. (L&M's note to today's entry)

David Quidnunc  •  Link

Dissecting a brief social situation

"Met Mr. Sanchy, Smithes, Gale, and Edlin at the play,"

All parsons and all Cambridge men, as Mary points out above.

Pepys apparently knew two of these men, Sankey and Edlin, because they were at Magdalene College when he was there. Pepys may never have met the other two, Gale and Smythes. They never appeared in the diary before and never will again.

When Pepys was at Magdalene (1651-54) he would have at least known who SAMUEL EDLIN was (he entered Magdalene two years after Pepys, in 1653). Edlin has appeared six times in the diary so far and this is his last appearance. On 18 February 1660, Pepys met Edlin, now a fellow at Magdalene, and a third party at a tavern, and the third party told a bawdy story about Edlin, at which Edlin blushed.

CLEMENT SANKEY graduated from Magdalene in 1652 and that year was elected a fellow there, so Edlin would have known him only when Sankey was a fellow. Sanky seems to be at the social center of this group.

Sankey apparently likes the theater. This is the third time Pepys mentions seeing him there. He has been in the diary more than the other three (nine times) and will be there four more times over the years.

We don't even know GALE's first name for certain. The L&M Index volume doesn't attempt to guess his first name, but Latham's Companion volume suggests that he's Henry Gale, who graduated from Magdalene in 1658 and therefore wouldn't have known Pepys or Edlin while they were students. His connection to the group is likely through Sankey.

SMYTHES is the only non-Magdalene graduate in the group, although he was at Cambridge too (at Trinity, graduated 1650). He is apparently the oldest in the group (graduated first, anyway), and Sankey is closest to him in age. How Latham, in the Companion volume, calls Smythes a "Cambridge contemporary of Pepys" is beyond me, based on that graduation date.

SLIGHTLY SPECULATIVE CONCLUSION:

Sociable cleric Clement Sanky, who we've seen at taverns and at the theater before, has three friends from Cambridge whom he gets together for an afternoon's entertainment -- first theater, then tavern. At the theater, Sanky or Edlin spot Pepys (or vice versa) and they chat. Pepys is introduced to Gale and Smythes. Pepys is invited to go with the group to the tavern after the show, but he begs off, thinking about his pocket book/purse (for whatever reason). Pepys isn't close to even the two men he does know. He does, however, remember the names of the two men he's just met when he's writing up the events of the day that evening.

I suppose the purpose of writing down their names is to help remember just where he met them if he sees them again and becomes curious about just where he'd met them before. If there was a thought-out purpose for that.

-- L&M Index volume, Latham's Companion volume, L&M Vol. I (1660) p. 59 & n. 2

Pedro  •  Link

The Rev Josselin today..

April. 2. began to pull down my old barn. which was done by 2 carpenters in 2 days. the walls and splints gathered up together in 2 days more, and timber laid by for the working place to frame it again.

http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earl…

David Wilson  •  Link

Rev Samuel Edlin born 1637, married on 18 April 1665 at Burnham by her father, to Mary Hawtrey, daughter of Rev Edward Hawtrey rector of Burnham. The Hawtreys are descended from the family which owned the Chequers Estate which is now the country home of the British Prime Minister.

He matriculated from Watford School in 1653 and was admitted as a pensioner age 16 to Magdalene College Cambridge University 20 June 1653. BA 1656/7, MA 1660 Fellow. He was ordained as a deacon and priest at Peterborough August 17 1662. Incorporated at Oxford University 1669. Rector of Silchester Hampshire 1667. He was buried 4 June 1698 at Silchester. In 1664 he owned Brickwall House Pinner.

He registered his pedigree with the Heralds on the visitation to Hampshire in 1686. This pedigree wrongly identifies his descent from Richard of Woodhall rather than Henry and is reproduced in many American pedigrees. He died in 1690 before his pedigree was proved.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Rev. Clement Sankey's unwitting influence

In the rectory house at Whitchurch, in Shropshire, there is a valuable library, left as an heirloom by the request of Jane, Countess Dowager of Bridgewater; who in 1707, having purchased from his executors the library of the Rev. Clement Sankey, Rector of Whitchurch for £305, left it for ever for the use of the rector for the time being. The number of the volumes was two thousand two hundred and fifty, among which are a fine copy of Walton's Polyglott Bible, some of the Ancient Fathers, and other theological works. This collection was afterwards increased by a bequest from the Rev. Francis Henry, Earl of Bridgewater, founder of the Bridgewater Treatises, who by his will, dated in 1825, gave the whole of his own books in the rectory house at Whitchurch to be added to the others j and left also the sum of £150 to the rector to be invested in his name, and the dividends thereof expended by him, together with the money arising from the sale of the wines and liquors in the cellars at Whitchurch, in the purchase of printed books for the use of the rector, and that parish, for the time being. http://goo.gl/iTYcKi

The Bridgewater Treatises
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"We got places and staid to hear a sermon; but, it being a Presbyterian one, it was so long, that after above an hour of it we went away,"

L&M: The sermons were usually long. Isaac Barrow once preached for 3 1/2 hours: W. Pope, Seth Ward (1697), p. 148.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I by water to the Opera, and there saw “The Bondman” most excellently acted; and though we had seen it so often, yet I never liked it better than to-day, Ianthe acting Cleora’s part very well now Roxalana is gone."

L&M: Mary Saunderson, lastr Mrs Betterton,, was one of the leading actresses in th Duke of York's Company, and is here called 'Ianthe' after the part she played in The Siege of Rhodes. 'Roxalana' was Hester Davenport, and was so called after her part in the same work. She had been enticed from the stage by the Earl of Oxford; see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I by water to the Opera, and there saw “The Bondman” most excellently acted; and though we had seen it so often, yet I never liked it better than to-day, Ianthe acting Cleora’s part very well now Roxalana is gone."

L&M: Mary Saunderson, lastr Mrs Betterton,, was one of the leading actresses in th Duke of York's Company, and is here called 'Ianthe' after the part she played in The Siege of Rhodes. 'Roxalana' was Hester Davenport, and was so called after her part in the same work. She had been enticed from the stage by the Earl of Oxford; see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

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