Tuesday 27 May 1662
To my Lord this morning, and thence to my brother’s, where I found my father, poor man, come, which I was glad to see. I staid with him till noon, and then he went to my cozen Scott’s to dinner, who had invited him. He tells me his alterations of the house and garden at Brampton, which please me well.
I could not go with him, and so we parted at Ludgate, and I home to dinner, and to the office all the afternoon, and musique in my chamber alone at night, and so to bed.
12 Annotations
First Reading
Australian Susan • Link
Curiously flat entry - no details, Sam! I would love to know *what* the alterations to the Brampton house were and what music you played and on what instrument. And no mention of either your wife today (is she away?) or what you talked of with Lord Sandwich. Not happy, Sam!
Robert Gertz • Link
Sam's great affection and respect for his father is one of his most endearing traits but it's shame he never mentions any specific as to those qualities that made John Pepys so important to him. One can suspect that John was the first to recognize potential in his son...That he was the initial source of Sam's developing a love of music and finer things, etc. I would also guess that John had aspired after greater things and passed that ambition on to his son, making sure he got the best education possible and making the most of his more important Pepys family connections (With Montagu for example).
dirk • Link
"it's shame he never mentions any specific as to those qualities that made John Pepys so important to him"
Sam's probably has great affection and respect for his father … because he’s his father - not for any specific qualities. On a worldly level Sam has done far better than his father (don’t all fathers aspire that?), but there’s no reason that should come between them.
Mary • Link
Sam's filial feelings.
Sam's love for his father is heightened by the exasperation that he has felt (and probably still feels) at his mother's difficult temperament. We have no reason to believe that country living has improved her temper and now John is stuck with her in a small village with many fewer distractions than were available when he was running his tailoring business in London. Family concerns dictate John's residence at Brampton, but Sam probably feels the same sense of lurking guilt ("poor man") that many feel when circumstances oblige ageing parents to accept a way of life that is not what they would have chosen for themselves.
Xjy • Link
"Sam has done far better than his father (don't all fathers aspire that?)"
Nope.
A. De Araujo • Link
"his mother's difficult temperament."
Poor old Ma Pepys,went down through history as an old cranky woman without a chance to defend herself!
Pauline • Link
Parents in Brampton
I assumed John Pepys moved to Brampton by choice. If he wanted to stay in London, couldn't they have rented the Brampton property out? We don't know how he feels about country life.
Cumgranissalis • Link
Choices: They be having good clean country aire, people lived a lot longer in the country side especially if they did not have to dig ditches etc., in the cold icy damp weather and as they had a few farthings, they did not have to suffer like the pennyless yokels as they be living in the big house. Living in old smoakey was not a good way of living. One lived in London only to make a living [somes time money], not for it's aire. Country living be great if one can cover the expenses [food,tshirts, and a roof] and have some left over, also able to afford haveing some one to do all the sloppy work.
Not every one, be cut out to prance around bowing, scrapeing, quaffing, quacking ,smoozing in the pits.
Unfortunatly the Pepis had been lung filled with all the by products of the industry of the blossoming life under the care of the loose thinking Carlos and his nemisis Cromwell.
London had all the attributes of a Pittsburg Pen in the early 1900's.
Strange, It took London 300 years more before the nose and Lung in festation of soot was eradiated.
Mark Pearson • Link
Watching (and helping) as my father cared for my mother for the eight years she sufffered alzheimer's made me love him even more. Perhaps Sam is having some of those same feelings as he watches their relationship. On top of that I do suspect that his "da" was aways in his corner as is mine. It sure helps in life to have that.
Pedro • Link
On this day…
Robert Boyle writes to Michael Boyle the Bishop of Cork, concerning revenues from his estates in Ireland. He had been granted land under Cromwell, and renewed by Charles II, which included Church property. He was to devote two thirds to relieving the poor, and if needed towards the maintenance of the ministers or promoting other good work.
“And I should possibly employ the other third part also the same way, but that His Majesty has been pleased without my seeking (or so much as knowledge) to appoint me Governor to a Corporation for the propagation of the Gospel among the heathens in New England, and other parts of America.”
(Info from his biography of Boyle by Moore)
No offence to any present annotators!
Paul Chapin • Link
No offense taken, Pedro. Many of us are working hard to reclaim our proud heathen heritage.
Second Reading
john • Link
Annotaters have oft remarked on Pepys leaving out the commonplace and recording the uncommon. Here may be a case: "musique in my chamber alone at night".