Monday 12 May 1662

Mr. Townsend called us up by four o’clock; and by five the three ladies, my wife and I, and Mr. Townsend, his son and daughter, were got to the barge and set out. We walked from Mortlake to Richmond, and so to boat again. And from Teddington to Hampton Court Mr. Townsend and I walked again. And then met the ladies, and were showed the whole house by Mr. Marriott; which is indeed nobly furnished, particularly the Queen’s bed, given her by the States of Holland; a looking-glass sent by the Queen-mother from France, hanging in the Queen’s chamber, and many brave pictures.

So to Mr. Marriott’s, and there we rested ourselves and drank. And so to barge again, and there we had good victuals and wine, and were very merry; and got home about eight at night very well. So my wife and I took leave of my Ladies, and home by a hackney-coach, the easiest that ever I met with, and so to bed.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Tony Eldridge  •  Link

A nice reminder of the slow pace of travelling - they could walk the 3 or 4 miles from Mortlake to Richmond while the barge went the long way round via the great bends of the river.
I assume the barge is a rowing vessel? Also, the river is tidal below Teddington (Tide-end-town) so the flow would dramatically affect the speed of the boat.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

A lovely outing.

Wonder what the path was from Teddington to Hampton Court? It is not much farther by river, so I assume the boat's land-speed was slower on this upstream patch.

Nix  •  Link

And still a lovely outing on a lazy May day -- a highlight on both my visits to London.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Mr. Marriott? Pinch me, I must be dreaming...Though things get even better as the Diary goes on.

Marriott pauses in his tour...

"Mr. Pepys, Mr. Townsend, ladies...I must tell you. I have a dream. A dream that one day my descendants will take great houses like this...Or new ones, built solely for the purpose...The purpose of entertaining the average man and woman during their hard-won periods of leisure. I may not live to see that dream realized. But one day...One day."

Nonsense...Pepys hisses to Elisabeth.

God hath smiled on Sam this week by delaying the Queen and allowing Bethie to have her chance to share a little of the spectacle.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

"...We walked from Mortlake to Richmond,[ mortlake
http://www.motco.com/map/81001/Se…

] and so to boat again. And from Teddington to Hampton Court ..."across the park from Hampton Wick? {map 33}
Hampton Palace: [ p32 ]http://www.motco.com/map/81001/SeriesSearchPlatesFulla.asp?mode=query&title=Hampton+Court+Palace&artist=383&other=237&x=11&y=11

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"Mr Marriott"

Noting the reference to Dutch taste, could this be some relation of Jean Marot the Paris architecht? (Father of the famous emigre Daniel who worked as a designer of interiors for the Oranges at Het Loo in Holland and, at the end of the C 17th., at Kensington and Hampton Court?)

Thornton, Seventeenth-Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland (1978) throws no light.

john lauer  •  Link

"...hackney-coach, the easiest that ever I met with...”
In what sense? Cheapest?

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

"In what sense? Cheapest?" fare; it be fixed. Monday lite, no cursing,and nor smoke nor ruts nor stuck in mud. Everyone waiting on the News.
it be dry lately and the potholes befilled .

Jesse  •  Link

"the easiest that ever I met with...
I’ll say. “up by four o'clock; and … got home about eight at night.”

PHE  •  Link

Where's the journalist?
For someone who has typically been very good at describing 'the scene', it seems odd that Sam has put far more effort into describing the ordinary activities of travel and merrymaking rather than the details of a rare visit to a Royal Palace. He must surely have seen many items, architecture and gardens, etc that should have grabbed his interest - some of which may have been the 'best ever seen'.

andy  •  Link

home by a hackney-coach, the easiest that ever I met with,

I think Sam means that normally there isn't one to meet with when you need it - and then 6 come along at the same time...

Pauline  •  Link

Where's the journalist?
Perhaps distracted and exhausted by the children for whom this outing seems to have been planned.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

the Hamptons

Delightful map, Vincent. Shows clearly how
Teddington to Hampton Court saved the walking Sam distance, and the likely parkland route. Also records presence of Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill, a curious feature of the next century on, and in a little corner of Twickenham up against the river towards the top of the map is what I suppose to be the site of Alexander Pope's villa.

Tom Burns  •  Link

Where's the journalist?

Does anyone know at what time of day Sam habitually made his diary entries? If it was the last thing he did before bed, that could account for the perfunctory nature of some of the entries.

language hat  •  Link

"could this be some relation of Jean Marot"

Not the same name but of similar origin. Marriott (other versions are Marratt, Marritt, and Marryatt) is from French Mariot/Mariotte; that and the French name Marot are from different diminutives of the given name Marie. I've taken the French family-name etymologies from:
http://www.jtosti.com/noms/m3.htm

A. Hamilton  •  Link

A nice reminder of the slow pace of travelling

For those who might be interested, I've used the map links provided by Vincent to work out a rough schedule for the day.
Depart Puddlewharf, 5 AM.
At Mortlake, 11 miles up-river, leave barge.
At Richmond, after 2-3/4 mile walk, rejoin barge, which has meanwhile traveled about 5-3/4 miles by river.
Leave barge at Teddington, another 2-3/4 miles up river.
Walk about 2-3/4 miles to Hampton Court, rejoining ladies, whose barge has meanwhile travelled another 5-1/2 miles by river. Total river miles, about 25. ETA somewhere between 8 and 9 AM.
Visit Hampton Court and Mr. Marriott, 9-12.
Leisurely trip back down river with meals, wine etc., going with the flow, Noon-8 PM.
It would appear that they caught a rising tide for trip upriver.

Glyn  •  Link

"Re A Hamilton: A nice reminder of the slow pace of travelling"

But I was just thinking how fast they had travelled! I have in front of me a timetable of the Thames river schedule for 2005 and it isn't much faster. Nowadays you can get on a ferry from Westminster to Hampton Court, with stops at Kew Bridge and Richmond, which takes exactly 3 1/2 hours (= 7 hours there and back). If it was slower then, then they spent most of their day sailing on the river.

But like PHE I'm wondering why he didn't write more about this, unless it was a journey he was quite used to: he was sailing past a number of very impressive residences (a bit like taking a ride around past stars' homes in Los Angeles). There may be others but they would have sailed past Chiswick House, which was home to the Burlingtons; the royal palace at Kew (now demolished), Syon House (the home of the Duke of Northumberland) and Ham House to name but four (sorry, don't have links to them).

I'm presuming they are all able to go there because most of the residents and staff are in Portsmouth, so it's fairly quiet (a bit like Westminster Hall now being open to visitors in summer when Parliament is in recess).

Sjoerd  •  Link

Easy and nice pace of travelling:

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary "easy" and "easy-going" has been associated with horses and maybe the way they trot, canter or whatever Hackney Coach horses do ?

"Easy-chair is from 1707; easy-going is from 1649, originally of horses."

Bradford  •  Link

"a hackney-coach, the easiest that ever I met with"---i.e., furnishing him the smoothest and least bumpety ride. New shocks, no doubt.

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Another source of travel annoyance as noted by the members of the priviledge group of gaiters,and rumpers, see the the bill winding its way across the floor of the houses. The Delivery dreys and livestock being transfered for buchery would cause serious delays to the passage of the traveling class, helped along from the calls from orange girls and other fine salable merchandise private enterprise merchants providing lower cost goods to the thriving city flock..

Cumgranissalis  •  Link

Bill to prevent Stoppages in the Streets of Westminster.
ORDERED, That the Committee for the Bill to prevent the Stoppage of the Streets by Carts shall meet on Monday Morning next, at Nine of the Clock

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 10 May 1662', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 452-53. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 14 May 2005.

Grahamt  •  Link

Bill to prevent Stoppages in the Streets of Westminster:
Ah yes, the congestion charge.

Second Reading

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘easy, adj., < Old French aisié (modern aisé ) . .
5. a. Not hard pressed: not hurried, gentle; said of motion . .
. . 1608 E. Topsell Hist. Serpents 282 They haue a very slowe and easie pace.
. . 1852 G. W. Curtis Wanderer in Syria i. i. 8 The donkeys are like large dogs, and of easy motion.’

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"to Hampton Court Mr. Townsend and I walked again. And then met the ladies, and were showed the whole house by Mr. Marriott;"

L&M: Richard Marriott, housekeeper of the palace. Since October 1661 repair work had been in progress, and some new building: CTB, i.296, 320. Pepys kept several prints and drawings of Hampton Court: PL 2972, pp. 209-13.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and many brave pictures."

L&M: After the recovery at the Restoration of some of Charles I's works of art, a number of pieces were set up at Hampton Court, although the finest pieces were perhaps reserved for Whitehall. The inventory of Charles II's pictures (c. 1667; see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… ) lists over 200 pictures at Hampton Court, mainly in the Queen's Gallery, the King's Dressing Room, in Paradise and in the King's Gallery. Perhaps the best pictures then in the palace were Mantegna's Triumph of Caesar and Van Dyck's equestrian portrait of the King's father with M. St. Antoine.

Michaela  •  Link

Sam isn’t writing as a journalist, and he isn’t imagining eager readers from hundreds of years in the future frustrated by his lack of detail. Things that we long to hear about are just everyday background stuff to him. I suppose if we had a day trip to a local place of interest we would write a similar account in our own diary.
(I know I’m replying to a comment 16 years too late, this is beginning to remind me of Tom’s Midnight Garden”)

Third Reading

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