Sunday 7 December 1662
(Lord’s day). A great snow, and so to church this morning with my wife, which is the first time she hath been at church since her going to Brampton, and Gosnell attending her, which was very gracefull. So home, and we dined above in our dining room, the first time since it was new done, and in the afternoon I thought to go to the French church; but finding the Dutch congregation there, and then finding the French congregation’s sermon begun in the Dutch, I returned home, and up to our gallery, where I found my wife and Gosnell, and after a drowsy sermon, we all three to my aunt Wight’s, where great store of her usuall company, and here we staid a pretty while talking, I differing from my aunt, as I commonly do, in our opinion of the handsomeness of the Queen, which I oppose mightily, saying that if my nose be handsome, then is her’s, and such like. After much discourse, seeing the room full, and being unwilling to stay all three, I took leave, and so with my wife only to see Sir W. Pen, who is now got out of his bed, and sits by the fireside. And after some talk, home and to supper, and after prayers to bed. This night came in my wife’s brother and talked to my wife and Gosnell about his wife, which they told me afterwards of, and I do smell that he I doubt is overreached in thinking that he has got a rich wife, and I fear she will prove otherwise. So to bed.
35 Annotations
First Reading
Terry F • Link
"finding the French congregation’s sermon begun in the Dutch"
L&M note: "The French and Dutch Calvinist congregations in the city exchanged churches once a month."
"thinking that he has got a rich wife, and I fear she will prove otherwise"
L&M note: "She proved both poor and improvident...."
Nix • Link
"after a drowsy sermon" --
Was Samuel preaching to Elizabeth and Gosnell? Or does the "gallery" mean he found them at their parish church, St. Olave's? They had already gone that morning -- it seems unusual that the women would go twice in one day, especially to the same church.
dirk • Link
"A great snow..."
The Rev. Josselin's diary:
"God good to us in manifold mercies, the Sabbath very cold and snowy, I came not home(.) a very deep snow. god good in the word, the lord rejoice over me for good"
Glyn • Link
Perhaps it's "our" gallery as in the Naval Office's gallery at St Olave's. Elizabeth may have decided to go to both services so her new companion can meet everyone, not just those who go to the morning service. When was her return from Brampton?
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Oh! you dothe say "...to go to both services so her new companion can meet everyone..." more like see My hubby is rising and now I dothe have my personnal attendant. Yea I be a cynic "...up to our gallery..." very possesive.
Terry F • Link
"Sir W. Pen...is now got out of his bed, and sits by the fireside."
Monday 27 October, Sam wrote “visited both Sir Williams, who are both sick, but like to be well again” http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Sir W. Pen is risen! after 5 1/2 weeks in bed.
What could have ailed him so long?
Paul Chapin • Link
Sir William P. had the gout.
See http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
in Aqua Scripto • Link
'tis a modern invention [cost incentive] to get people out of their bed and get moving.
Robert Gertz • Link
Naught to say about the Queen's beauty?!Off with yon varlet's head, including the nose!
(Actually I think Sam's nose was quite handsome.)
***
Maybe every time Sir Will P was ready to get out of bed, Will Jr. brought in another radical religious tract.
"Dad! So good to see thee out of thy sickbed! And here is that that will make thy recovery complete in the Lord! I'm having them distributed all over London as you read1" Will Jr., beaming, presses his latest into Dad's trembling hand.
Oh, Christ. When Coventry and the Duke see this...Not to mention that little bastard, Pepys...Sir Will groans, scanning the thing. "Get me back to bed...Now!"
***
Terry F • Link
"‘tis a modern invention...to get people out of their bed and get moving."
and yet Sir W. Penn sits by the fire for a chat, which I gather gout can do to you; also a great leadership device -- everyone comes to you (in the 17c in person, later by radio).
Robert Gertz • Link
Say...What was Gosnell doing while Sam and Bess were chatting up Sir Will P?
Back at the Pepys'...
Gosnell preening and bowing before mirror a`la Anne Baxter in "All About Eve" in her new bedroom as Jane, peeking through the accidentally-left-open door, observes from a hall corner.
"I want to thank the members of the Academy, my family, my producer, my director, and all the little people for making this day possible."
Robert Gertz • Link
Wonder why Bess didn't go to the French Huguenot church with Sam? And what were the Dutch doing there?
And on Sunday, December 7th...
Hmmn...
(Yes, I know in fact the Dutch had to use the only non-Church of England church available. But...What better place for the agents of the Republic to meet?
"Heh, heh, Voorhees. Who in England would suspect that the Republic's agents are secretly meeting in a French church? Say, who is that little fellow over there?...Mein Gott! The Clerk of the Acts, himself! We are undone! Everyone out, head for the nearest boat home!!"
Thus, Samuel Pepys saves England yet again.)
cyndi • Link
wonderful story... I felt like I was there.
JohnT • Link
I do not recall Bess going to church in the morning before. No doubt it is to show off " Gosnell". If she has not been to church at all since her return from Brampton,not even to accompany Sam to the French church in the afternoon, she obviously feels no compulsion for sabbath attendance. Is she unusual in that for her time I wonder ?
A. De Araujo • Link
"in thinking that he has got a rich wife, and I fear she will prove otherwise"
So, Sam is saying Balty is a Gold Digger;he might and then again maybe Sam is just projecting.
T. Carr • Link
"A great snow..."
I realize that this answer to this question might be subjective, but how much snow would our London readers define as a "great snow"?
David A. Smith • Link
"and Gosnell attending her, which was very gracefull"
Hormones, Sam, hormones. Keep 'em under control.
I've followed Sam's infatuation with Gosnell with some interest, as it is clear that he finds her attractive. Curious in this entry is how he repeatedly mentions her, yet each time it's only immediately after a mention of his wife Elizabeth. It's almost as if a libidinous devil is on one of Sam's shoulders, his chronicling angel on the other, and to give himself permission to mention Gosnell he must first genuflect toward Elizabeth.
But propinquity and hormones, I fear, will lead to more familiarity ....
Jerry Atkinson • Link
"begun in the Dutch"
Is this the first confirmation that Sam does not speak or understand Dutch?
Mary • Link
"no doubt it is to show off Gosnell"
Or rather, it is to allow Elizabeth to display herself attended by a waiting-woman and, by extension, to demonstrate Sam's position as a man who can afford/sees fit to provide his wife with such an attendant.
We have yet to learn what Gosnell hopes to gain from this employment over and above her bed and board. Presumably she hopes for introductions to some of the Pepys's more illustrious acquaintance.
Nix • Link
“no doubt it is to show off Gosnell” --
There is long and interesting discussion of the Pepys household staff online in chapter 8 of The Making of the English Middle Class --
http://texts.cdlib.org:8088/xtf/v…
(Forgive me if others have linked to this before, but it has escaped my memory -- I just stumbled across it. I am also posting this link on the household servants page of this site, which can be found through the Work and Education link).
Wim van der Meij • Link
To Jerry: In May 1660 Sam was at The Hague. On May 15 he implies that he does not understand or speaks Dutch, as he compliments the Dutch for speaking either or both Latin and French. Nowadays he would find most Dutchmen to speak English. Not much French, let alone Latin, any more.
Sjoerd • Link
Heu, Wilhelme, quid dicere audes? Nemo iam Latine hodie loquitur? Quod est demonstrandum! Linguam Latinam optime loquor, ut vides! Et tu, Brute...?
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...she obviously feels no compulsion for sabbath attendance. Is she unusual in that for her time I wonder ..."
My observation be that until females of the species were allowed to vote, they be separated from the males of the species and moved to a separate spot of the worship arena. Still, even in these modern times Religion still tries to separate the sexes. So why attend. The powers to be encourage the Females to attend by allowing them to display an Easter bonnet, and hide their crowning glory so that the males would also attend?
Terry F • Link
Full info re Peter Earle, The Making of the English Middle Class: Business, Society and Family Life in London 1660-1730. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989, posted in Background info. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Terry F • Link
Nix, the posting of the link to Ch. 8 of *The Making of the English Middle Class* in the new section on Pepys's household is exactly right!
Terry F • Link
Nix, I was thinking about the section Phil recently added at the suggestion of A.Hamilton, "Pepys' household"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/backgro…
Might you also post it there?!
JWB • Link
Segregation by sex
17th C church seating in Stour Valley had women on the north side & men on the south. Parish gentry sat as a family. (passim F.J. Bremer's "John Winthrop")
Nix • Link
The "Pepys household" page seems to be a referring page for individual servants -- not set up for posting annotations.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...London readers define as a “great snow..." I dothe 'tink' when snow stays the day or long enough for the 'prentices to round up enough of the white stuff to put jollops of the packed ice balls onto/into the Maidens as they be leaving the church.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
"...and after prayers to bed..." Oh! my! be it evil if do not say what I be thinking, as my beloved household be kneeling, Jane, sleepy head , Eliza and that rascal Wayneman.
Australian Susan • Link
"our gallery"
Sam is quite right to be possessive: the Naval officers had paid for the gallery to be erected.
Second Reading
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Sam uses the word "Dutch" congregation, but the people would likely have been mostly Flemings from modern day Belgium and France, who had fled religious persecution in the Spanish Netherlands and northern France. The Flemish spoken in Belgium is a dialect of Dutch and mutually comprehensible with it.
Incidentally, although the word 'Huguenot' refers to French speaking Protestants, but its origin may well be Dutch/Low-German. One theory gives its origin as 'Huis Genooten', meaning "house fellows", ie those who read the bible in secret with each other.
http://www.huguenot.netnation.com…
San Diego Sarah • Link
I'm shocked ... Elizabeth returned from Brampton on Saturday, 27 September, 1662, and this is the first time she has gone to church? That's 10 Sundays ... I would have thought that the turmoil caused by the adoption of the new Book of Common Prayer would mean there was more scrutiny of attendance than usual ... but apparently not.
Terry Foreman • Link
"This night came in my wife’s brother and talked to my wife and Gosnell about his wife, which they told me afterwards of, and I do smell that he I doubt is overreached in thinking that he has got a rich wife, and I fear she will prove otherwise."
SMELL - to guess, suspect (L&M Large Glossary), to sense, surmise..
Terry Foreman • Link
Balty St Michel "thinking that he has got a rich wife, and I fear she will prove otherwise"
L&M note: "She proved both poor and improvident....": Family Letters, passim.