Monday 23 June 1662
Up early, this morning, and my people are taking down the hangings and things in my house because of the great dust that is already made by the pulling down of Sir W. Batten’s house, and will be by my own when I come to it. To my office, and there hard at work all the morning. At noon to the Exchange to meet Dr. Williams, who sent me this morning notice of his going into the country tomorrow, but could not find him, but meeting with Frank Moore, my Lord Lambeth’s man formerly, we, and two or three friends of his did go to a tavern, and there they drank, but I nothing but small beer. In the next room one was playing very finely of the dulcimer, which well played I like well, but one of our own company, a talking fellow, did in discourse say much of this Act against Seamen,1 for their being brought to account; and that it was made on purpose for my Lord Sandwich, who was in debt 100,000l., and hath been forced to have pardon oftentimes from Oliver for the same: at which I was vexed at him, but thought it not worth my trouble to oppose what he said, but took leave and went home, and after a little dinner to my office again, and in the evening Sir W. Warren came to me about business, and that being done, discoursing of deals, I did offer to go along with him among his deal ships, which we did to half a score, where he showed me the difference between Dram, Swinsound, Christiania, and others, and told me many pleasant notions concerning their manner of cutting and sawing them by watermills, and the reason how deals become dearer and cheaper, among others, when the snow is not so great as to fill up the values that they may pass from hill to hill over the snow, then it is dear carriage. From on board he took me to his yard, where vast and many places of deals, sparrs, and bulks, &c., the difference between which I never knew before, and indeed am very proud of this evening’s work. He had me into his house, which is most pretty and neat and well furnished. After a glass, not of wine, for I would not be tempted to drink any, but a glass of mum, I well home by water, but it being late was forced to land at the Custom House, and so home and to bed, and after I was a-bed, letters came from the Duke for the fitting out of four ships forthwith from Portsmouth (I know not yet for what) so I was forced to make Will get them wrote, and signed them in bed and sent them away by express. And so to sleep.
45 Annotations
First Reading
Chris • Link
Just how abstemious is Sam being today in touching nothing but 'small beer' and 'mum'?
Alan Burkitt-Gray • Link
"when the snow is not so great as to fill up the values that they may pass from hill to hill over the snow"
Valleys, surely, not values
Glyn • Link
Pretty abstemious I think, although I don't know what Mum is. Small beer is about 2% or less alcohol, less than half the strength of a modern beer. The boiling part of the brewing process also killed off the bacteria in ordinary water.
But I'm surprised Sam isn't a Starbucks kinda guy, drinking coffee or chocolate in the coffee shops that are now opening up. There'll be more than 80 in London by the end of the Diary. Or even drinking this "tea" thing that the Portuguese seem to like so much (it'll never catch on).
"when the snow is not so great as to fill up the values" Is this a misprint for valleys? I don't understand why it would help.
Nix • Link
Deal --
From OED:
1. A slice sawn from a log of timber (now always of fir or pine), and usually understood to be more than seven inches wide, and not more than three thick; a plank or board of pine or fir-wood.
In the timber trade, in Great Britain, a deal is understood to be 9 inches wide, not more than 3 inches thick, and at least 6 feet long. If shorter, it is a deal-end; if not more than 7 inches wide, it is a BATTEN. In N. America, the standard deal (to which other sizes are reduced in computation) is 12 feet long, 11 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. By carpenters, deal of half this thickness (1 inches) is called whole deal; of half the latter ( inch) slit deal.
The word was introduced with the importation of sawn boards from some Low German district, and, as these consisted usually of fir or pine, the word was from the first associated with these kinds of wood.
1402 in C. Frost Early Hist. Hull (1827) App. 6 Mari Knyght de Dansk..xvj deles, iijm waynscots. Ibid. 18, iij dusen deles. a1450 Rature (in Hull Trin. House Records), Item for euerie hundreth of firre deales, xijd. 1558 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) I. 183 Ffyrdells of the biggest sorte..litle firdells..doble firr sparrs. 1583-4 Bk. Accts. Hull Charterhouse in N. & Q. 6th Ser. VIII. 217/1, 7 deals to seale the windows. 1595 A. DUNCAN Appendix Etymol., Asser, a deele or planke. 1604 Vestry Bks. (Surt.) 283 For fortie firre dales, xxiijs. iiijd. 1641 BEST Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 111 Robert Bonwicke of Wansworth demanded for everie deale a pennie, for bringing them from Hull to Parsonpooles, alledging that everie deale weighed three stone. 1762 STERNE Tr. Shandy VI. xxiii, A little model of a town..to be run up together of slit deals. 1820 SCORESBY Acc. Arctic Reg. I. 141 These huts, some constructed of logs, others of deals two inches in thickness. 1886 Law Times LXXX. 212/1 To there load a cargo of deals.
b. (Without a or pl.) Wood in the form of deals.
a1618 RALEIGH Obs. in Rem. (1661) 180 The huge piles of Wainscot, Clapboard, Firdeal, Masts, and Timber..in the Low-countries. 1627 CAPT. SMITH Seaman's Gram. ii. 14 Laying that Decke with spruce Deale of thirty foot long, the sap cut off. 1667 PRIMATT City & C. Builder 85, A handsom Door, lyned with Slit-deal. 1794 Builder's Price-Bk. 41 Whole deal dove-tailed dado. 1876 GWILT Encycl. Archit. 2365 The table shows that the value of 1 inch deal is 8d. per foot. Ibid. Gloss. 1196 Fir boards..one inch and a quarter thick, are called whole deal, and those a full half inch thick, slit deal.
2. As a kind of timber: The wood of fir or pine, such as deals (in sense 1) are made from.
white deal, the produce of the Norway Spruce (Abies excelsa); red deal, the produce of the Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris); yellow deal, the produce of the Yellow Pine (P. mitis), or kindred American species.
1601 HOLLAND Pliny I. 476 Some..haue their boughes disposed in good order, as the Pitch-tree, Firre, or Deale. Ibid. I. 488 For Mast-poles and crosse saile-yards in ships, the Fir or Deale [abies] is commended. 1673-4 GREW Anat. Trunks II. vii. ?2 Deal, especially the white Deal, if it be cut cross, it tears. 1765 PARSONS in Phil. Trans. LV. 3 What we call white deal, which is esteemed the lightest and tenderest of all the class of firs. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 31/2 The Norway Spruce Fir..In the market [its wood] is known under the name of white or Christiania deal. 1840 Ibid. XVIII. 170/2 The Scotch Pine..Its timber furnishes the red deal of the carpenters. 1877 JAPP De Quincy I. vii. 143 Preferring mahogany to deal for book-shelves.
JWB • Link
>Bulk: A beam
>Mum: Wheat beer
Australian Susan • Link
Sam loves getting all the detailed information from the experts, doesn't he? It was rope not long ago and masts - now planking. Wonder if he will visit the workshops where they make sails?
Todd Bernhardt • Link
re: All the detailed info
As Tomalin points out, Sam's curiousity is a principal reason for his success, and for his growing dislike of the Sir Williams, who he sees as not having the intellectual drive of a younger man such as, well, *him.*
I'm a bit surprised that Sam doesn't stand up for Montagu, though ... such gossip, gone undisputed, could spread and seriously hurt Monty's reputation, and thus Sam's.
Clement • Link
standing up for Montagu
I think Sam is judging that the source is not a respected voice (doesen't even get his name mentioned), and thinks it best left as tavern gossip.
He couldn't have offered too spirited of a defense ("I happen to know exactly his debt, and it's not nearly that much, considering all of the king's gold we just hoisted out of my cellar..."), without inviting further uncomfortable questions about his intimate knowledge, or more likely becoming the subject of subsequent barroom chin-wagging himself that would be more likely to touch him than this about Montague.
His silence and subsequent quick exit were probably prudent.
I doubt the speaker knew of Sam's association with Montague, or we would have heard that he was being deliberately provocative.
Alan Bedford • Link
Sam has learned the, erm, ropes from the shipyard workers...
And now he's getting the vendors to give him the details of masts, beams and planks. Soon, he'll have more knowlege of ship contruction than anyone on the Board with the exception of Peter Pett.
And while he's not being terribly forthcoming, I'd not be surprised if he's going to use that knowledge to strengthen his position.
JWB • Link
1662 Impressment Act bursts Jamestown, Virginia real estate bubble:
"...in a letter from Morryson to Lord Clarendon, amounted only to the construction of four or five houses. He declared that the erection of this scanty number of buildings had entailed the loss of hundreds of people, apprehension of impressment having driven many mechanics from the Colony."
Bruce, Philip A., Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century: An Inquiry into the Material Condition of the People, Based on Original and Contemporaneous Records
A. De Araujo • Link
"not of wine,for I would not be tempted to drink any"
Well but he is drinking beer! It beats me!
Leslie Katz • Link
By a funny coincidence, I received my July Scientific American in the post yesterday and, in its repeating of things that appeared in it years ago, was an item from July 1855, saying that it took 2,200 full grown trees (or 44 acres of mature woodland) to build one 74 gun ship. (Are those the kind called "first rate"? Shame on me, I've forgotten all my Patrick O'Brian.)
Cumgranissalis • Link
"..."when the snow is not so great as to fill up the values" Is this a misprint for valleys? .. “
Valleys I be sure. easier to drag on snow than pull up and down the slope to nearest water way see the map of Forest of Deene. Logging on the spot, Tis why Dirigibles be sought to lift timber out of deep forests.
Haulage be expensive by land , it be the reason that many of the rivers were opened up to drag stuff down from the hills, and why there be attemps to make Canals like the Tems to Guilford via the Wey. Reading the House of C., there be many projects to enhance trade and reduce costs and improve prophIts.
This period was really quite exciting watching Commerce thrive. The money trail be what drives humans to beget.
dirk • Link
"Well but he is drinking beer"
re - Araujo
**small** beer! Very low alcohol contents, often even lower than the 2% Glyn mentions.
So he's definitely avoiding alcohol.
Cumgranissalis • Link
"...Sam loves getting all the detailed information from the experts..." 'tis why most successful people suceed. Ask ask....... , Real people love to show off their expertise, only the dumb never ask questions of the Expert. Those that never tell either do not know or scared that they will lose their future prophIts as they have never leant anything new since Knee high.
Many times, U of Hardknocks be upto date while U of snore be 4 years behind the times.
Cumgranissalis • Link
"knowledge to strengthen his position" 'tis the way, be indispensible, Know thy bosses job and his bosses.
Years ago I gave this advice to many a lad when asked where do I go from here, I sayeth Know my job better than me then I get bumped and thou be on thy why. When asked by another why he did not get the promotion, I told him ,I do not have time to train him after promotion.
Pauline • Link
Dram, Swinsound, Christiania
Very Norwegian sounding, as is the snow that fills the valleys and makes transporting deal to the port cheaper. Christiania (today's Oslo) was "named after Christian IV, who commenced building it in 1624 after the destruction by fire of the ancient city of Oslo." Its chief export into at least the early 20th Century was timber. Its fjord is also named Christiania.
Pauline • Link
Dram Fjord and Svinesund Fjord
The first just southwest of Christiania/Olso, with the town Drammen. Swinesund Fjord is further south and to the east, forming the southern end of the border between Norway and Sweden today.
JWB • Link
Small beers-
Yesterday Will Swan, today "a talking fellow" -but satisfying. Did you notice he called Oliver "Oliver"?
A. Hamilton • Link
Dram, Swinsound, Christiania
Pauline, I think you've got it. Norwegian woods, all,("isn't it good?") with prices depending on the cost of getting them to market.
Pauline • Link
("isn't it good?")
Yes, it is. I imagine a seemingly spontaneous break out of whistling, humming, or singing of “Norwegian Woods” in the next 24 hours all around the globe—-us all and whomsoever overhears us and those hearing them, etc. Thanks, A. Hamilton!
Pedro • Link
"my Lord Sandwich, who was in debt 100,000l., and hath been forced to have pardon oftentimes from Oliver for the same : at which I was vexed at him."
Not for the first time Sam decides that discretion in the better part of valour, let's hope he doesn't take it out on young Will!
From Ollard's biography of Montagu I cannot find any references of his finances under Cromwell, but he says that although he was an acute and informed student of economic affairs when in government, was lazy and careless about money. He tells us that Clarendon says kindly things about his friend's character, but concedes that "avarice"was the sole blemish (though it never appeared in any gross instance) that seemed to cloud many noble virtues in that Earl."
After the Restoration he granted lands worth £4000 a year: was made Privy Counsellor and a Commissioner of the Treasury and, richest of all prizes he had he bestirred himself to exploit it , Master of the Great Wardrobe. (He adds that the imagination boggles at what Pepys would have extracted from such a goldmine.) Other offices that came to him were Master of the King's Swans and Bailiff of Whittlesea Mere.
A. Hamilton • Link
"so I was forced to make Will get them wrote, and signed them in bed and sent them away by express. And so to sleep."
'twas barely more than two years ago that Sam was performing such midnight clerical duties for My Lord. Now we can see how far Will has come in his short time in Sam's service.
language hat • Link
"In the next room one was playing very finely of the dulcimer, which well played I like well"
Excellent writing from Sam. When he's pleased with himself and the world he turns a good phrase.
Interesting that the OED talks about "the standard deal ... in N. America"; by now the word is purely UK, according to Merriam-Webster.
A. Hamilton • Link
deal in N. America
"Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, ..."
from The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens
Is this a counter-example to Mirriam-Webster?
(I'm aware that the OED reference is to deal as a technical term specifying a standard cut, and not to the more generalized meaning of pine or other fir board.)
A. Hamilton • Link
the pulling down of Sir W. Batten's house
I’m surprised no one has commented on this rather dramatic happening. I seem to recall that the frame for the new Batten house has been abuilding across the river, along with one for Sam.(Early version of prefabrication?) Does this mean that, for all his improvements to the premises in the past year and more, Sam is about to tear down his own house?
Greg Bean • Link
As a lurker on this site for over a year, I'd like you all to know that although Pepys is not my personal area of expertise, the diary and accompanying posts have given me hours of enjoyment. I hated it recently when the site seemed to be down for a while. Thanks.
Michiel van der Leeuw • Link
"their manner of cutting and sawing them by watermills"
The use of mills for cutting and sawing wood was a great improvement for the shipbuilding industry. One of the reasons the Dutch became a leading nation in the 17th century was the invention of the wind-driven sawmill, which enabled the Republic to produce a large number of ships in a (relatively) short time.
JonTom Kittredge • Link
Pulling Down the House
Good question, A Hamilton. I remember someone remarking earlier that the frames being built are to add another storey to Batten and Pepys houses. In that context, I would assume that when SP says "pulling down" he means "pulling apart to add the new frame on top." Does anyone else know more?
language hat • Link
A.Hamilton: The UK usage is specifically the 'plank' sense, not the general wood sense. But the Stevens poem is from 1922, not that much more recent than the OED entry (published 1894), so no, it wouldn't be a counterexample to the M-W 11th edition (2004). As for current American usage, I just asked my wife, who said she knew the word but thought of it as old-fashioned, which accords with my own feeling.
Bradford • Link
Ditto Mrs. Hat. The phrase, for instance, "a little deal endtable" would conjure to the middle-aged mind one made of matchwood.
Small beer. Mum. Might as well drink stale whey.
The Mollusc • Link
Leslie Katz,
The 74-gun ship (of-the-line), which required so many trees to construct, was known as a Third Rate. If I recall correctly, 80-100 gun ships were the Second Rates, and those over 100 guns were First Rates in the (Napoleonic) line of battle.
In Sam's time, the ships of all navies would have been 'a deal' smaller than the 1795-1815 vintage.
Australian Susan • Link
When stripped pine became a popular, nay even trendy, way of presenting furniture in the 60s in the UK, my mother was amused as to her pine or deal as she called it was symptomatic of poverty - it meant you couldn't afford better woods like mahogany, cedar, oak etc. In the 19th century here in Australia, it was common to have a table which had lovely legs of red cedar or silky oak (both beautiful native woods)with a table top of coarse pine, because the top was permanently covered with a cloth so was not seen.
Does a Naval expert know if ships were "rated" in Sam's day? Or was that an 18th century development?
With the house improvements, I took the action on the Battens' house to mean that the roof was being removed to accomodate the new upper storey. This would make a fearsome amount of dust.
Alan Bedford • Link
Yes, ships were rated in the 17th Century.
Sam's list of ships in the Navy as of 1651 includes their rates. You'll find it at:
http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica…
Bergie • Link
"Value" might be a typo for "vale."
language hat • Link
"the values"
Can someone check the Latham & Matthews edition to see if this is a typo?
Bradford • Link
At your service, Sir. The "Shorter Pepys" is identical in all substantives to the version above, except that the phrase in question reads:
"among others, when the snow is not so great as to fill up the vallys, that they pass from hill to hill over the snow, then it is dear carriage."
Thus the disputed word is "valleys".
language hat • Link
Thanks!
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M report this as the Act in question:
'Charles II, 1664 & 1665: An Act for repealing of part of an Act of Parlyament intituled An Act directing the prosecution of such as are accomptable for Prize Goods.', Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 555-556. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… prize. Date accessed: 14 May 2008.
***
Can we trust Lord Braybrooke’s endnote?
“In 1662 was passed “An Act for providing of carriage by land and by water for the use of His Majesty’s Navy and Ordinance” (13-14 Gar. II.[sic], cap. 20), which gave power for impressing seamen, &c.”
The Act by that name gives power for impressing only vehicles of conveyance --, not seamen.
‘Charles II, 1662: An Act for providing Carriage by Land and by Water for the use of His Majesties Navy and Ordnance.’, Statutes of the Realm: volume 5: 1628-80 (1819), pp. 413-414. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 14 May 2008.
Recital of 12 Car. II. c. 24. § 12, 13.
Carriages, Horses, &c. may be taken for the Service of the Navy or Ordnance; on Notice to Two or more neighbouring Justices; who shall issue Warrants to Places within Twelve Miles. Rate of Recompense.
II. Admiralty, Commissioners of the Navy, Master and Lieutenant of the Ordnance, may impress Ships, Hoys, &c. for the Service.
Rates of Hire.; If not agreed, to be settled by Trinity House.
III. Persons refusing to furnish Carriages, Ships, &c. or after they have undertaken neglecting, &c. the same;
on Conviction by Oath of Officer or two other Witnesses; Penalty; to be levied by Distress.
IV. Proviso respecting Length of Journey and Continuance in Employment.
V. Justices or Persons appointed by Admiralty, &c. taking Gift to spare any Person, or charging Persons not liable, or impressing more Carriages than necessary. Penalty £10.
Persons not empowered impressing Carriages, Horses, Ships, &c. Punishment as by 12 Car. II. c. 24.
VI. Certain Ships, Hoys, &c. not liable.
VII. Continuance of Act.
VIII. Proviso for extra Allowance for Carriage of Timber within the Division of the New Forest.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Deals were used for ships' upper-works, decks and bulkheads; spars (of various sizes) were the fir-staging used in the rigging as booms, bowsprits, etc.; balks were fir timbers roughly dressed before shipment; uphroes were large Norwegian spars, 28-42 ft. long. The yard was in Wapping. Warren was by this time probably the greatest timber merchant in England. (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
"letters came from the Duke for the fitting out of four ships forthwith from Portsmouth (I know not yet for what) so I was forced to make Will get them wrote, and signed them in bed and sent them away by express."
The Duke had written on 22 June from Hampton Court ordering two months' victualing abnd rgging for the Lion, Dover, Princess and York. Pepys added at the foot of the order:
"recd this warrt 23 June 62 eleaven at night and issued out warrts for the rigging and fitting of the abovesd shipps at the same time, as alsoe for their victuals."
The ships sailed to Portugal under Thomas Allin in August.
Gerald Berg • Link
I recall reading an account of moving logs on the Ontonabee River near Peterborough in Ontario in the early 19th century. These were massive tree trunks of 4-6 foot diameter. They would wait for winter snowfall and hitch a log to a team of horses and head out across country. The really tricky part was going downhill. The logs tended to get a momentum all their own so the reins were let loose and the horses were left to run for their lives as this massive log slid/rolled down the hill after them. Some didn't make it.
Terry Foreman • Link
"in the evening Sir W. Warren came to me about business, and that being done, discoursing of deals, I did offer to go along with him among his deal ships, which we did to half a score, where he showed me the difference between Dram, Swinsound, Christiania"
L&M: The three principal varieties of Norwegian fir-deals, named from the ports of shipment: Drammen, Svinesund and Christiana. See R. G. Albion, Forest and seapower, ch. iv, and map opp. p. 140. Other varieties are listed in an account book (c. 1683) in BL, add. 9303, f. 74v. Norwegian timber was both cheaper and accessible than other Eastland supplies, partly because it did not have to be shipped through the Sound, where dues were payable to Denmark.
Terry Foreman • Link
"and the reason how deals become dearer and cheaper, among others, when the snow is not so great as to fill up the values that they may pass from hill to hill over the snow, then it is dear carriage."
L&M: Transport was the main constituent of expense. Logs were hauled on sleds by oxen or horses. Albion, op. cit., p. 145; Ehrman, pp. 52-3.
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M provide more text: "From on board he took me to his yard, where vast and many piles of deals, sparrs, and bulks, and Euphroes"
L&M: Deals were used for ships' upper works, decks and bulkheads; spars (of various sizes) were the fir-staging used in th rigging as booms, bowsprits, etc.; balks were fir timbers roughly dressed before shipment; uphroes were large Norwegian spars, 28-32 feet long: Naval Expositor (1750), pp. 49-50, 155, 180; W. Sutherland, Britain's Glory: or Shipbuilding Unvail'd (1729), pp. 204, 213; OED. The yard was in Wapping. Warren was by this time probably the greatest timber-merchant in England