Friday 13 March 1662/63

Up pretty early and to my office all the morning busy. At noon home to dinner expecting Ashwell’s father, who was here in the morning and promised to come but he did not, but there came in Captain Grove, and I found him to be a very stout man, at least in his discourse he would be thought so, and I do think that he is, and one that bears me great respect and deserves to be encouraged for his care in all business.

Abroad by water with my wife and Ashwell, and left them at Mr. Pierce’s, and I to Whitehall and St. James’s Park (there being no Commission for Tangier sitting to-day as I looked for) where I walked an hour or two with great pleasure, it being a most pleasant day. So to Mrs. Hunt’s, and there found my wife, and so took them up by coach, and carried them to Hide Park, where store of coaches and good faces. Here till night, and so home and to my office to write by the post, and so to supper and to bed.

22 Annotations

First Reading

TerryF  •  Link

"no Commission for Tangier sitting to-day as I looked for"

Has the Duke gone aglee unannounced again?
Have Pepys and the others received a message, or did he just find this out at Whitehall?

jeannine  •  Link

"where I walked an hour or two with great pleasure, it being a most pleasant day"..how many of us would love to show up for a business meeting only to find it canceled and then have 2 hours to go for a walk and enjoy a beautiful day! This type of thing rarely happens these days as most people would be scurring off to the next item on their overpacked work schedule. Good for Sam!

Eric Walla  •  Link

"... carried them to Hide Park, where store of coaches and good faces." What a lovely phrase! A pleasant day it must have been.

Leslie Katz  •  Link

The date

I've done no research at all about this, but, when noticing the date of the entry, I wondered idly about Friday the 13th. When, where and why was it first thought an unlucky day? Is it a superstition common to many cultures?

Mary  •  Link

"carried them to Hide Park"

Looks to me as if Sam is trying to make a good impression on Ashwell with a view to fostering and retaining her good will on Elizabeth's behalf, but without provoking extravagant social ambitions. Doesn't want a repetition of the Gosnell business. There will be treats (i.e. a coach-ride in the park from time to time, so as to observe the bon ton) but no expectation of frequent visits to Court.

jeannine  •  Link

Mary,Good points and I am sure there is a line that Wheatley didn't translate here explaining how Sam has bound Balty's mouth shut, so hopefully Ashwell will not be led to expect more! Sounds like she has it well enough as it is.

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

We have seen it before: Sam goes gallivanting off during the day-time and does his work at the office at night, or very early in the morning. That probably has to do with office hours that are not fixed, at least not for Sam. I wonder if that also goes for the ordinary clerk.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam, leaves the ladies of his household at the Pierces' whilst he goes off to his committee meeting. Having discovered it is off, he does not go back to the Pierces and join them ("Look! It's me! No meeting!"), but takes time to be alone. This is quite rare - Sam walking about in the Park and not even meeting anyone to exchange news or Court gossip with. Maybe he was very glad to have such a rare space in his day to, literally, re-create himself. But, second thoughts here - where was Wayneman? And, furthermore, interesting that Sam did not hurry back to the Pierces' and avail himself of more greedy contemplation of La Belle Pierce! (even with the sharp eyes of Elizabeth on him).

Robert Gertz  •  Link

St. James' Park...

"Boy? Don't dawdle."

Hhhh...ha...Hhhhhh...ha...A gasping Wayneman struggles to hurry along at the brisk-paced Sam's heels.

"Yessss...sir..."

"Boy, when I was a lad of your age a hearty walk like this was a rare treat. Come along, come along."

Oh, Lord...

Still one little blessing...Wayneman glances back to see a puffing, stumbling Will Hewer staggering after them...

"Mis...ter...Pepys, sir!" Desparate flailing wave...

Hhhhhhhhh...ha...

Leslie Katz  •  Link

Friday the 13th

Thank you very much for the reference, Dirk.

Leslie

Pauline  •  Link

“carried them to Hide Park”
We might also assume an understanding on Sam's part about what a companion to Elizabeth might hope for in joining his household. Also, Elizabeth's interests may lie in this social parade, and Sam may feel that that can only be indulged if she is accompanied by a suitable companion.

Second Reading

arby  •  Link

I wonder if "up pretty early" is earlier than "up betimes"?

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Sam has recovered from his cold a lot faster than I have mine this spring.

Bill  •  Link

“where store of coaches and good faces”

STORE, abundance; also Provisions or Ammunition laid up.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

Interesting speculation as to what Sam being "alone" actually means. I suspect that Wayneman was with the party which set out, and might well have been with Sam on his walk, but might equally have been left with the ladies.

Will Hewer on the other hand is a cross between apprentice, clerk and PA. I would expect him to be in the office, not only working at his own tasks, but also being Sam's eyes and ears.

There is so much the diary doesn't tell us.

Sandymac  •  Link

"I found him to be a very stout man"
OED - brave, doughty, resolute, sturdy, stubborn, strongly built.

Bill  •  Link

STOUT, lusty, hardy, bold, couragious.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

[I’ll go with lusty! Or maybe not]

LUSTY, strong, hale, healthful.
---An Universal English Dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘stout, adj. and adv. < Old French estout . .
. . 4. a. Of persons: Firm in resolve, unyielding, determined. Obs. . .
. . 1597 Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 338 Here come my executioners. How now my hardy stout resolued mates, Are you now going to dispatch this deede.
. . 1631 J. Done Polydoron 44 [An] old English proverbe, viz. I stout and thou stout, who shall carry the dirt out?
. . 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 6 Dec. (1948) II. 431 We reckon we have a majority of ten on our side in the house of lords; yet I observed Mrs. Masham a little uneasy; she assures me the queen is stout . . ‘

This is the sense here, I think.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

It's also what Keats meant here:

‘ . . Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.’

John Keats - On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
http://www.keats-shelley-house.or…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"At noon home to dinner...and...there came in Captain Grove, and I found him to be a very stout man, at least in his discourse he would be thought so, and I do think that he is, and one that bears me great respect and deserves to be encouraged for his care in all business."

L&M: Edward Grove, naval captain, acted as a river agent for the Navy Board -- an efficient onw, but fussy and boastful, to judge by his correspondence. On 21 February last, he had impressed Pepys by his willingness to defend the Board against the Exchequer's bailiffs. In 1665 he was guilty of cowardice during te Battle if Lowestoft, when Pepys write him off as a 'prating coxcomb...of no courage': https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… In 1664 Pepys had considered him as a possible husband for his sister Paulina: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.