Saturday 5 July 1662
To my office all the morning, to get things ready against our sitting, and by and by we sat and did business all the morning, and at noon had Sir W. Pen, who I hate with all my heart for his base treacherous tricks, but yet I think it not policy to declare it yet, and his son William, to my house to dinner, where was also Mr. Creed and my cozen Harry Alcocke. I having some venison given me a day or two ago, and so I had a shoulder roasted, another baked, and the umbles baked in a pie, and all very well done. We were merry as I could be in that company, and the more because I would not seem otherwise to Sir W. Pen, he being within a day or two to go for Ireland.
After dinner he and his son went away, and Mr. Creed would, with all his rhetoric, have persuaded me to have gone to a play; and in good earnest I find my nature desirous to have gone, notwithstanding my promise and my business, to which I have lately kept myself so close, but I did refuse it, and I hope shall ever do so, and above all things it is considerable that my mind was never in my life in so good a condition of quiet as it has been since I have followed my business and seen myself to get greater and greater fitness in my employment, and honour every day more than other. So at my office all the afternoon, and then my mathematiques at night with Mr. Cooper, and so to supper and to bed.
17 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"Sir W.Pen,who I hate with all my heart.......to my house to dinner"
What kind of poisoning did they use in those days? Arsenic?
daniel • Link
Sir W. Penn
Well, Sam does serve his enemy "umble pie".
Robert Gertz • Link
Frankly, I'm still waiting for Elisabeth to explode...I don't believe for a moment she's content with the new and even more neglectful Sam, however nice it may be to hear well of his work at the office.
I'd say she's at the ... "He's doing it for us, he's doing it for us, he's doing it for us..." stage, but it won't be long...
Pauline • Link
"...all very well done..."
I wish it were clearer if Elizabeth, Jane, and Sarah had done this cooking or if it was sent out.
"...umbles baked in a pie..."
This IS a revelation.
Rex Gordon • Link
... What kind of poison? ...
Arsenic was indeed in such common use in the 16th and 17th centuries that it was called "inheritance powder" in Britain. When cannily used it did not kill suddenly but by degrees, the increasingly debilitating symptoms mimicking a progressive disease. (Sam might have fantasized a more satisfactorily sanguine ending for Sir William.)
Mary • Link
a shoulder roasted, another baked
The distinction would seem to be between one shoulder roasted on a jack before the fire and another baked in an oven. Venison being such very lean meat, one can't help thinking that the roast joint might have been rather dry unless very assiduously basted.
Peter • Link
a shoulder roasted, another baked
and it sounds like Sam would like to offer Penn a third one cold... what with that and umble pie could a meal be more charged with meaning?
Jesse • Link
"I think it not policy to declare it yet"
Hmmm, what's he waiting for? A superior position soon to come about from his "greater and greater fitness in [his] employment"?
Australian Susan • Link
"I think it not policy to delcare it yet"
I took this to mean that Sam is still unsure of his standing and also that if Sir W goes off to Ireland thinking he has Sam's friendship and support, Sam can work away at whatever he chooses, knowing Sir W is in ignorance. Maybe he thinks Sir William might even postpone his trip if he feels his interests in London will be undermined.
Bradford • Link
When you wish to Settle Accounts with someone, the timing is as integral as the issues to be hashed. Why pick a fight now that, if postponed, a handy shipwreck could solve?
dirk • Link
Menu of the Month...
"A Bill of Fare of Suitable Meat for every Month in the Year" - July
1. A Westphalia Ham and Pidgeons.
2. A Loyn of Veal.
3. A Venison-Pasty.
4. Roast Capons.
Second Course:
1. Pease of French beans.
2. A Coding-Tart.
3. Artechoaks, or a Pye made thereof.
4. Roast Chickens.
From:
"The Gentlewoman's Companion: or, A Guide to the Female Sex”, 1675
http://chaucer.library.emory.edu/…
Australian Susan • Link
It's Venison Pasty time of year again!
Presumably what is left over from the joints will end up in a pasty.
Cumgranissalis • Link
"I think it not policy to delcare it yet"
Any politico worth his ‘salt of epsom’ never reveals his true self to any other person, for be it, it be used against his own self at a later date. Many a well known figure will shake the hand of his nemissis, insisting he be the greates’ fella in the world meanwhile wishing he had a way of dissolving the hand he be a shaking into an image of wot Lot saw.
A. Hamilton • Link
my wife, who has lately had but little of my company, since I begun to follow my business, but is contented therewith since she sees how I spend my time, and so to bed. ( From July 3)
"If you should wed a businessman, be wary, O be wary."
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
L&M transcribe the entry's beginning "To my office to get things ready against our sitting, and by and by we sat and did business all the morning;" more succinct, I think, and more logical.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
“... Sir W. Pen, who I hate with all my heart for his base treacherous tricks, but yet I think it not policy to declare it yet ...”
Sam is thinking in the Japanese way!
“.., by universal custom, your enemy is never more polite than when he is planning or has planned your destruction.” (James Clavell, Shōgun)
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED has:
‘umbles, n. < variant of numbles n. < Middle French nombles . .
1. a. The edible inward parts of an animal, usually of a deer.
. . 1665 S. Pepys Diary 13 Sept. (1972) VI. 222 He did give us the meanest dinner—of beef—shoulder and umbles of venison.
. . 2. attrib. in umble-pie . .
1663 S. Pepys Diary 8 July (1971) IV. 221 Mrs. Turner..did bring us an Umble-pie hot out of her oven.
. . 1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. 188/1 Noombles, or Umbles; the Hart or Bucks plucks, as Heart, Lights, Liver, with other appendices.’