Tuesday 18 November 1662

Up and to the office, where Mr. Phillip the lawyer came to me, but I put him off to the afternoon. At noon I dined at Sir W. Batten’s, Sir John Minnes being here, and he and I very kind, but I every day expect to pull a crow with him about our lodgings. My mind troubled about Gosnell and my law businesses. So after dinner to Mr. Phillips his chamber, where he demands an abatement for Piggott’s money, which vexes me also, but I will not give it him without my father’s consent, which I will write to him to-night about, and have done it. Here meeting my uncle Thomas, he and I to my cozen Roger’s chamber, and there I did give my uncle him and Mr. Philips to be my two arbiters against Mr. Cole and Punt, but I expect no great good of the matter.

Thence walked home, and my wife came home, having been abroad to-day, laying out above 12l. in linen, and a copper, and a pot, and bedstead, and other household stuff, which troubles me also, so that my mind to-night is very heavy and divided.

Late at my office, drawing up a letter to my Lord Treasurer, which we have been long about, and so home, and, my mind troubled, to bed.

37 Annotations

First Reading

Bradford  •  Link

“to pull a crow”: the sense is clear enough; Brewer’s "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" (1894) indicates that it is cognate with “I must pluck a crow with you; I have a crow to pick with you. I am displeased with you, and must call you to account.” He cites Part II.2 of Butler’s "Hudibras," a work which I believe Pepys has mentioned before: “If not, resolve before we go, / That you and I must pull a crow.”

Pedro  •  Link

“to pull a crow”

To have a bone to pick?

dirk  •  Link

"which I will write to him to-night about, and have done it"

"will write" and "have done it"...

An indication that Sam doesn't necessarily write one diary entry in one session?

I take it that he first wrote the part up to "which I will write to him tonight about". Then did other things (also wrote the letter). And then, possibly hours later, completed his diary entry, with the sentence "and have done it" and the rest of the entry.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

" and other household stuff"
and methought "stuff" was slang!!

RobertGertz  •  Link

"Gadzooks! Mrs. Pepys, what have you done?! Did I not tell you we must economize what with Mrs. Gosnell's advent upon our household?!!"

"Sam'l. You distinctly said, 'Methinks we could use a new bedstead for the new bedroom.' And I just happened to see a few other absolutely necessary things along the way. 'Sides, if we can blow good money on some foolish play...Not even Shakespeare." High-minded stare...

RobertGertz  •  Link

It will only get worse, Sam. Grin and bear it.

But the house'll be a beaut when Beth gets through, I'm sure.

Terry F  •  Link

abatement

A reduction, a decrease or a diminution. The suspension or cessation, in whole or in part, of a continuing charge, such as rent. For example, a landlord might grant an abatement in rent. Abate may also refer more specifically to a situation where property identified in a will cannot be given to a beneficiary because it had to be sold to pay off the deceased's debts. Debts are paid before the distribution of gifts and where a specific gift has to be sold to pay off a debt, it is said to abate.
http://www.leanlegal.com/dictiona…

Australian Susan  •  Link

12 pounds is about a thousand today.

Terry F  •  Link

"Mr. Phillips...demands an abatement for Piggott’s money..., but I will not give it him without my father’s consent"

Michael Robinson, this year you have more than once clarified the issue regarding Piggott's claim; what is this now?

Diana Bonebrake  •  Link

Re : the home furnishing thing : Fascinating...Sam being so similar to many modern men!

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

"and a pot" the proverbial chamber I dothe think, no selfrightous bedstead would be without one.

Pauline  •  Link

Re : the home furnishing thing
But perhaps with the twist that Sam has been in charge and directing things to be the way he wants them. We haven't had much evidence of Elizabeth having a say in the decorating or furnishing to date.

A. De Araujo, I too stub up against "stuff"--good ol' Sam, talking like us.

Mary  •  Link

a copper.

This may possibly indicate a large vessel in which the new linen (and other linen) was to be boiled, but in the mid-seventeenth century is more likely to be a large, copper vessel to be used for the boiling of food.

By the 19th century a domestic copper, whether made of that metal or not, was understood to be an item of laundry equipment. On shipboard, however, the term continued to be used for a food-boiler.

Rene Pedersen  •  Link

Would I be correct in venturing that "in Aqua Scripto" is our old mate Vincent with a title change once more?

Ruben  •  Link

A Man of many Names
Thank you Pedro for the Aramco site.
Nassar el Din was and is a popular figure not only in the Middle East, but also along the Silk Road. His stories were told in Samarkand and on China. There are many distortions in the Aramco site all good to please a certain public.
The comparison to Cervantes stories is ridiculous as anyone knows he did not need to be a slave in Algiers to become acquainted with Eastern stories: in his days Spain was still full of echoes of the Moorish rule. Don Quijote himself met some Moors (in the book).
I would not dare compare Nassar el Din with Mr. Vincent (or salty water, to resume his other names).
First, we are sure he exists, when we know that Nasser el Din is a folklore creation.
Second, Nasser el Din has a popular kind of wisdom, where our Aqua Scripto Man has a wide and profound classical education, more of the kind learned in old European Universities, than the kind learned in Baghdad's shuk.

RobertGertz  •  Link

"Well, Pepys we shall see you at the office." Batten waves Sam off. He and Minnes watching as Sam goes, still muttering to himself as he has all through dinner.

"What's with the little bastard?" Sir Will B. turns to Sir John. "Still fretting about that house of his?" a sly grin.

"I'll be letting him twist slowly in the wind on that for a bit." Minnes smiles. "But Sir Will, I think Sandwich's boy has other concerns these days."

"The ah, lovely young lady I saw with Mrs. Pepys yesterday...?" Batten eyes him.

"Her new companion. I would say, Sir Will, if I may be allowed to borrow from the King's foes. That the serpent has entered Paradise."

J A Gioia  •  Link

'pulling a crow'

do the british 'eat crow' when admitting they were wrong, or is it a uniquely - if underserved - american dish?

Jeannine  •  Link

"where our Aqua Scripto Man has a wide and profound classical education, more of the kind learned in old European Universities, than the kind learned in Baghdad’s shuk"...Ruben, I always thought Vincent got his education based on a core element of culinary skills --you know that adding a little "pinch of salt" usually spices things up quite nicely (as he does here!). Come to think of it, that little "pinch of salt" is also pretty good around the rim of a margarita glass....and if you keep pinching that salt around the margarita glass each time you refill it, after a while, you wouldn't care what name "pinch of salt" called himself...

Paul Dyson  •  Link

A Man of many Names

To be utterly pedantic "In Aqua Scripto" looks like incorrect Latin, as "scribo" is the verb for "I write". Our classically educated correspondent may have in mind the second half of poem 70 of Catullus:
"dicit: sed mulier cupido quod sit amanti,
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua."
Which translates as "So she says: but what a woman says to an ardent lover she should write on the wind and swift-flowing water."
A metaphor for unreliability or frivolity, which hardly seems a fair self-criticism for the pithy Vincent and his successors, except in respect of their spelling.

Paul Dyson  •  Link

A Man of many Names - slight correction:

To be utterly pedantic “In Aqua Scripto” looks like incorrect Latin, as “scribo” is the verb for “I write”. Our classically educated correspondent may have in mind the second half of poem 70 of Catullus:
“dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti,
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.”
Which translates as “So she says: but what a woman says to an ardent lover she should write on the wind and swift-flowing water.”
A metaphor for unreliability or frivolity, which hardly seems a fair self-criticism for the pithy Vincent and his successors, except in respect of their spelling.

Terry F  •  Link

"My mind troubled about Gosnell"

"troubled" - Hmmm - a double entendre?
In the annotations to yesterday's entry apropos Sam's, ah, examination of W. Gosnell, there were suggestions that there might be something more than her voice that was of positive interest to him. Today in the Encyclopedia we have evidence she was quite otherwise esteemed by others (click on the link for *Gosnell*)

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Piggott's Rent & Abatement

Once again the note is cryptic. Working from Pauline’s summary of the L&M note on the dispute (http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…) abatement could be being used here to mean one of several possibilities – all of which result in money out of Sam and his father’s pocket. The two most plausible uses seem to me to be:-

Recall that despite the Brampton manorial judgment in the executor’s favor the Brampton tenants are being threatened with suit (as a consequence of their challenge to the will itself) by the “heir-at-law” if they pay money to the executors; in return for Piggott making his payment to the executors, rather then the “heirs at law,” either Piggott wants a rent reduction for the future for deciding to pay money to the executors now, or if the executor’s receive the money in their capacity as executors (presumably to pay current estate debts & resolve one of the issues in the suit) it may be abated from their eventual life and remainder interests as legatees in the estate once settled. But this is a guess only…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

“My mind troubled about Gosnell”

There are Gosnell's who are Bampton tenants also -- could the troubling involve an association with their decisions about rent payments and what they might request in return for making payment to the executors.

Terry F  •  Link

Thank you, Michael Robinson, for again helping us understand the "law businesses" troubling Pepys's days and nights.

Bradford  •  Link

Indeed, Pedro, nowadays we seem to pick bones in preference to picking a bird, and anyone who's ever scalded and plucked a chicken will prefer the former.

“[W]hich I will write to him to-night about, and have done it” rather puts me in my of my dear departed father, who sometimes said he had actually done something in hopes that it would prompt him to go ahead and actually do it.

in Aqua Scripto  •  Link

pedantic... perfecto... displaying a slack knowledge of scholarship, lacking in judgement or sense.
or if I tried to explain then
"Male dictum interpretando facia acrius."
a Maxim from Syrus
Explaing a bad saying makes it worse.
P.S not all Romans spoke or wrote perfect Latin, and that be true of the caste offs of the 20 C.
scripum be a neutered book
"under a wet manuscript".

Phil Gyford  •  Link

Can I, once again, draw peoples' attention to the annotation guidelines and the discussion and social groups, and suggest that the identity of an annotator has no relevance to today's diary entry. Thank you.

Justin  •  Link

'Eat crow' in the UK? Certainly not. We would 'eat humble pie' which derives from 'eat umble pie', where the umbles are the cheap meat (liver, kidneys etc). In other words, to lower oneself.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Pull a Crow. A common Saying; and signifies, that the two contending Persons, must have a tryal of Skill, which is the best Man, or which will overcome.
---Hudibras [notes]. S. Butler, 1744.

To pluck [or pull] a Crow is to be industrious or contentious about that which is of no value.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

If a crow help us in, we will pluck a crow together.
--Comedy of Errors. William Shakespeare.

To pluck a crow with any one is to quarrel him. It is a vulgar expression still in use.
---Comments on the Last Edition of Shakespeare's Plays. J. Mason, 1785.

Bill  •  Link

"laying out above 12l. in linen, and a copper, and a pot"

COPPER, A boiler larger than a movable pot.
---A Dictionary Of The English Language. Samuel Johnson, 1756.

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Australian Susan says £12 would be £1,000 in 2005, only slightly more in 2015. It would be a bargain to buy a bedstead, a copper , a pot, linen and other household stuff for £1,000 today. A bed of good qualty might cost that much alone.

Bridget Davis  •  Link

Pull a crow: thank you Bill!
And to Phil Gyford of 2005, a double thank you.

JayW  •  Link

"I will not give it him without my father’s consent, which I will write to him to-night about, and have done it"
I would interpret this as 'I said I would write to him tonight, and I have now done so' rather than Pepys stopping half way through his diary entry to write the letter as suggested by Dirk above.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘crow n. , Old English cráwe . .
. . 3.b. to have a crow to pluck or pull . .with any one: to have something disagreeable or awkward to settle with him; to have a matter of dispute, or something requiring explanation, to clear up; to have some fault to find with him . .
. . a1616 Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) iii. i. 84 If a crow help vs in, sirra, wee'll plucke a crow together.
1662 S. Pepys Diary 18 Nov. (1970) III. 261 He and I very kind, but I every day expect to pull a crow with him about our lodgings . . ‘

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