Friday 3 July 1663

Up and he home, and I with Sir J. Minnes and Sir W. Batten by coach to Westminster, to St. James’s, thinking to meet Sir G. Carteret, and to attend the Duke, but he not coming we broke up, and so to Westminster Hall, and there meeting with Mr. Moore he tells me great news that my Lady Castlemaine is fallen from Court, and this morning retired. He gives me no account of the reason of it, but that it is so: for which I am sorry: and yet if the King do it to leave off not only her but all other mistresses, I should be heartily glad of it, that he may fall to look after business. I hear my Lord Digby is condemned at Court for his speech, and that my Lord Chancellor grows great again. Thence with Mr. Creed, whom I called at his chamber, over the water to Lambeth; but could not, it being morning, get to see the Archbishop’s hearse: so he and I walked over the fields to Southwark, and there parted, and I spent half an hour in Mary Overy’s Church, where are fine monuments of great antiquity, I believe, and has been a fine church. Thence to the Change, and meeting Sir J. Minnes there, he and I walked to look upon Backwell’s design of making another alley from his shop through over against the Exchange door, which will be very noble and quite put down the other two.

So home to dinner and then to the office, and entered in my manuscript book the Victualler’s contract, and then over the water and walked to see Sir W. Pen, and sat with him a while, and so home late, and to my viall. So up comes Creed again to me and stays all night, to-morrow morning being a hearing before the Duke. So to bed full of discourse of his business.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Bradford  •  Link

"yet if the King do it to leave off not only her but all other mistresses, I should be heartily glad of it, that he may fall to look after business."

One can almost imagine a Lerner & Loewe ditty on this theme: "Why Can't the King Be More Like Sam Pepys?"

As for the rumor about La Belle Castelmaine, I'll see it when I believe it.

TerryF  •  Link

“Why Can’t the King Be More Like Sam Pepys?
And be content to dally with whoever keeps
Sam's libido satisfied when his wife's not around -
Tousing Fat Betty and whoever can be found
He procreates not
With a secret lot;
What Charles Rex sows, all of England reaps -
Why Can’t the King Be More Like Sam Pepys?"

(Jeannine's better at this.)

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Well...Long as we're in Eliza Doolittle territory...

"Just you wait, Sam'l Pepys...
Just you wait...
You'll be sorry but your tears'll be too late.
You'll be broke and I'll 'ave money,
Will I 'elp ya...Don't be funny.
Just you wait Sam'l Pepys...Just you wait.
Oooh...Sam'l Pepys...Just you wait until we're swimmin' in the sea.
Oooh...Sam'l Pepys...And ya stone cut gives whiles a lil' way from me.
When ya yell "Bess, don't lemme drown!"
I'll get dressed and go ta town.
Just you wait, Sam'l Pepys just you wait.

One day Bess will be famous, a great lady like Jem...
Go to King James so often he lets me calls him...Jim.
One day then King James will "Bessie old thing...I want all of England your praises to sing."

"Next week on the 20th of May...I proclaim Elisabeth St. Michel Pepys day. All the people will celebrate the glory of you...And whatever you wish and want I gladly will do."

"Thanks a lot Jim." Says I in a manner well-bred. "But alls I wants is my lil' Sammy's head."

"Done!" Says King Jamie with a stroke. "Guards to the Naval Office, fetch in the bloke!"

Then they'll march you, Sam'l Pepys to the wall...And King James will say "Bessie, sound the call."

As they lift their rifles 'igher...I'll shout "Ready, aim...."

"I am gonna do it, Sam! Stop writing those stupid notes! 'Cause I am gonna...What are you writing, anyway?"

"Oh, just trying to get the scene down properly. How beautiful the day is, how pleasant my talk with Will Penn, Jr. back from France was, how sorry I am for how badly I let things get between us though my own fault, how you exceed even Castlemaine at her best today, how the Office should really consider equipping our sea marines with those new light French muskets..." he points at the guns facing him. "...How I miss our mornings together and would rather be dead than like sad ole Palmer without you...How at dinner Hooke told me about this new concept he has about objects falling to Earth...And how well that new hat suits you with the yellow gown."

Oh...Merde... "Hell with it, put them up, boys." Heads over. "And you best behave yourself from now on, little man." offers arm.

"You know I think Jim'd give you Bess St. Michel Pepys day off if I asked...It still bein' early morning and all." smile.

"Just you wait, Sam'l Pepys...Just you...Wait."

***

(Yeah, on thinking, a little future spoiler sigh is unavoidable...)
***

dirk  •  Link

As you say Terry: Jeannine is better at this - but nevertheless...

"If Pepys were King
and Charles were him,
things would on the whole
be looking grim:

"No heir to fill the country's throne
when Good King Sam be dead and gone.

"The Navy's treasure chest all spent
on pretty Ladies came and went.

"Mere royal yachts left to resist
the greedy Dutch when they insist...

"...on sharing foreign trade and wealth
by divine right for Albion's health.

"And then the diary of course:
Charlie's methinks would be rather worse."

Xjy  •  Link

hearse
Intrigued to see if it meant the same as today, I looked it up. Here's a first brief etymology from Etymology On-Line

hearse -- 1291 (in Anglo-Latin), "flat framework for candles, hung over a coffin," from O.Fr. herce "long rake, harrow," from M.L. hercia, from L. hirpicem (nom. hirpex) "harrow," from Oscan hirpus "wolf," supposedly in allusion to its teeth. The Oscan word may be related to L. hirsutus "shaggy, bristly." So called because it resembled a harrow, a large rake for breaking up soil. Sense extended to other temporary frameworks built over dead people, then to "vehicle for carrying a body," a sense first recorded 1650.

It's another of those words that has come a long way...

jeannine  •  Link

Terry and Dirk-the thought of Sam being king is too scary for me! Loved your versions! As for Charles ~~"that he may fall to look after business." Keep dreaming Sam!
As Buckingham once said (don't have book for exact quote here, but something like this)
"Charles would do things if he would
James would do things if he could"

language hat  •  Link

hearse
Possible meanings from OED, with a few sample citations:

2. a. An elaborate framework originally intended to carry a large number of lighted tapers and other decorations over the bier or coffin while placed in the church at the funerals of distinguished persons; also called castrum doloris, chapelle ardente, or catafalco.
1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VIII, 1b, The body was taken out, and caried into the Quire, and set under a goodly Herce of waxe, garnished with Banners, Pencelles, and Cusshions. a1678 MARVELL Wks. III. 510 And starrs, like tapers, burn'd upon his herse.

b. A permanent framework of iron or other metal, fixed over a tomb to support rich coverings or palls, often adapted to carry lighted tapers.

c. A temple-shaped structure of wood used in royal and noble funerals, after the earlier kind (2a) went out of use. It was decorated with banners, heraldic devices, and lighted candles; and it was customary for friends to pin short poems or epitaphs upon it.
1639 HORN & ROB. Gate Lang. Unl. xcvii. §962 Gravestones (toombs) and herses are rear'd up, and epitaphs.. written on them. 1659 T. PECKE Parnassi Puerp. 119 Shall I to pin upon thy Herse, devise Eternal Praises; or weep Elegies?

3. A light framework of wood used to support the pall over the body at funerals. It fitted on to the parish bier, and was probably adapted to carry lighted tapers.

4. A hearse-cloth, a funeral pall. Obs.
1603 KNOLLES Hist. Turks 1200 This coffin of the great Sultan.. covered with a rich hearse of cloth of gold downe to the ground.

5. A bier; a coffin; vaguely, a tomb, grave. Obs. or arch.
11651 DAVENANT Gondibert I. v. (R.), When she with flowres lord Arnold's grave shall strew.. She on that rival's hearse will drop a few.

7. A dead body, a corpse. Obs.
1633 MAY Hen. II, V. 775 Her hearse at Godstow Abbey they enterre.

8. a. A carriage or car constructed for carrying the coffin at a funeral. (The current use.)
1650 B. Discolliminium 2 It is hung about with as many.. trappings, as Coll. Rainsboroughs Herse and horse were at his fine Funerals. 1672 WOOD Life (O.H.S.) II. 245 Thomas Moor hath a hearse.. for the carrying of dead corps to any part of England.

Glyn  •  Link

Pepys - the musical. Needs a bit of work though.

The Church of St Mary Overy, now Southwark Cathedral, is one of the few buildings in modern London that he would instantly recognise.

By the way, we're about 2 months away from London Open House weekend (please google for info) in case anyone's interested.

jeannine  •  Link

As a follow on to yesterday’s annotation regarding Bristol, now we look at the spilt between Castlemaine and Charles in today’s entry (from “The Royal Whore” by Allen Andrews), slight spoiler.

“By the accidents of Barbara’s Castlemaine’s private life she could hot help him [Digby, Earl of Bristol] greatly. She was seven months pregnant, which she did not magnify into any monstrous disadvantage. She was then bearing the King one child a year, and had to learn to take gestation in her stride without conceding it too great an effect on her temperament if she was to maintain a dominating position among the men in her own salon. But she had momentarily lost that command [by supporting Bristol]. She knew the King’s nature well enough to give Bristol strong advice to go no farther, but she could make no personal plea to the Monarch on his behalf. Bristol’s suicidal gaffe occurred at the end of the three-week’s struggle in June and July 1663, when Charles and Barbara were spilt over the status of Frances Stuart.
The King had demanded that Barbara should continue to invite Frances [Stuart] nightly to supper. Barbara, her sensitivity increased by the contract between La Belle Stuart’s slim taille and her own big belly, refused, sulked for some days out of favor, stormed away to Richmond and was finally wooed back.” (p 104-105).

From “The Illustrious Lady” by Elizabeth Hamilton, Clarendon’s friend, Daniel O’Neill “told Ormonde that Bristol had done himself little good by his ‘great courtship’ of the Countess [Castlemaine].’ He has I believe lost his hold as well as she’ O’Neill reported” (p 68)… Also, in line with today’s entry Hamilton mentions of Pepys quoted from above and then reaffirmed with the following, “’O’Neill had been able to tell Ormonde that she [Castlemaine] was on the brink of ruin-forced to concede victory to Miss Stuart. ‘The Lady’, he wrote, ’whose violence and spirit can ill endure a rival, is ready to leave the Court, and your lodgings much finer than you left them.’ The Lady publically announced that she would never again invite Frances Stuart to her apartments, and the King for his part declared that he would never set foot in them again unless she was there. After some slighting words from the King, the Lady called for her coach and went off in a flurry to take refuge with her uncle at Richmond.” (p 69-70)

Background on Stuart & Castlemaine is in part I of this article
http://www.pepysdiary.com/indepth…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

St Mary Overy ... he would instantly recognise

" ... What one sees today, however, owes much to the C 19th. restorers."

Buildings of England London 2:South

in Aqua episctula  •  Link

" he would instantly recognise' ? Clink street? "...and I spent half an hour in Mary Overy’s Church, where are fine monuments of great antiquity,..."

Pedro  •  Link

? Clink street?

Would that be the origin of the slang word for prison?

A. De Araujo  •  Link

I mean it is a free country but isn't epistula instead of episctula?

Michael Robinson  •  Link

Clink; the cadence of Creed's coin?

A. Hamilton  •  Link

I spent half an hour in Mary Overy’s Church, where are fine monuments of great antiquity

An instance of why I like this man

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Backwell’s design of making another alley from his shop through over against the Exchange door, which will be very noble and quite put down the other two."

On 30 December 1668 Backwell obtained from the Fire Court the award of a lease for 45 years from 29 September 1668 of the site of a house and shop described in 1662 as at the s. end of 'the new alley called Exchange Alley next Lumbard Streete in the Parish of Saint Mary Woolnoth'. Though its frontage on Lombard St was only 26 ft, it was 60ft deep and in a key position, as is clear from its (presumably rack) rental of £140 p.a. when in the divided tenures of the goldsmiths Charles Everard and Joseph Hornby. The 'other two' alleys were alleys only in name, being narrow passages from Cornhill to Lombard St, running on either side of Exchange Alley. The westernmost, Pope's Head Alley, later Swan and Hoop Passage, was renewed after the Fire. The easternmost seems to have lost its exit onto Cornhill, becoming a leg of Exchange Alley. In the rebuilding, Backwell's foresight was rewarded, Exchange Alley being described as 'a place of very considerable Concourse of Merchants, Seafaring Men and other Traders." Stow, Survey, ii, 149. (Per L&M footnote)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"over the water and walked to see Sir W. Pen, and sat with him a while "

Penn lay ill at Deptford. (L&M footnote)

Bill  •  Link

“and meeting Sir J. Minnes there, he and I walked to look upon Backwell’s design of making another alley from his shop through over against the Exchange door, which will be very noble and quite put down the other two.”

Mr. J. Biddulph Martin's valuable work, " The Grasshopper in Lombard Street," 1892, contains much information about Edward Backwell. "Backwell carried on business at the Unicorn in Lombard Street, adjoining the Grasshopper; but there is some obscurity on this point. Backwell seems to have occupied both these premises, and the Grasshopper is stated to have been formerly in the tenure or occupation of Edward Backwell, Esq., afterwards of Charles Duncombe, Esq." (p. 31). Mr. Martin supposes that by "the other two" are meant "Pope's Head Alley to the west, and the alley opposite Abchurch Lane to the east" (p. 185). The "London Gazette" of June 1st, 1682, contains the following notice: "The creditors of Edward Backwell, Esq., are desired to take notice that the said Edward Backwell hath published his proposals, and that they will be delivered to them or any they shall please send for them by Mr. Richard Snagg, or by some other person, at Mr. Valentine Duncombe's shop, where the said Edward Backwell formerly dwelt in Lombard Street"
---Wheatley, 1893.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The former Archbishop of Canterbury on that hearse was:

William Juxon (1582 – 4 June 1663) was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death. As Lord High Treasurer and First Lord of the Admiralty, Juxon was the last English clergyman to hold both secular and clerical offices in the medieval tradition of clerical state service. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

On the same site it says Juxon was buried on 9 July 1663, at the Chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, so the hearse was setting out on a long journey today after lying at Lambeth Palace for a month. Maybe the Duke went to see him off and Pepys wanted to be seen??? We shall never know ...

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

CORRECTION: I got carried away again ... Pepys couldn't see the hearse (and presumably Juxon's body) because it was morning. So the last paragraph above should read:

On the same site it says Juxon was buried on 9 July 1663, at the Chapel of St. John's College, Oxford, so the hearse would be setting out on a long journey soon after lying at Lambeth Palace for over a month.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

I was thinking it was a long time to keep the Archbishop's body there, then I remembered the awful weather, which could account for the delay.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I was thinking it was a long time to keep the Archbishop's body there, then I remembered the awful weather, which could account for the delay."

L&M say Juxon's body was lying in state between his death and its burial. Given Pepys's eagerness to view just the hearse as it passed, the public for the viewing as the body was at Lambeth Palace must have been, ah, huge.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

OED has:

‘clink, n.2 < The evidence appears to indicate that the name was proper to the Southwark ‘Clink’, and thence transferred elsewhere; but the converse may have been the fact. If the name was originally descriptive, various senses of clink . . might have given rise to it . . later used elsewhere . . for a small and dismal prison or prison-cell . . Now used generally for: prison, cells.
c1530 A. Barclay Egloges i. sig. F, Then art thou clappyd in the flete or clynke.
. . 1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses I. 325 Our author..was committed first to the Gatehouse in Westminster, and afterwards to the Clink in Southwark.
. . 1890 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 20 And I'm here in the Clink for a thundering drink and blacking the Corporal's eye . . ‘

‘clink, v.2 < Northern form corresponding to clinch n.1 . . trans. To clench, rivet, fix or fasten with nails or rivets.’

‘clinch, n.1< A variant of clench n. . .
. . 1. A fastening in which the end of a nail is turned over and driven back into the substance through which it has passed, or in which the end of a bolt is beaten down and flattened upon a metal ring or washer put round it for the purpose . . ‘

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" so to Westminster Hall, and there meeting with Mr. Moore he tells me great news that my Lady Castlemaine is fallen from Court, and this morning retired."

L&M: Her fall was attributed in the French despatches (25 June) to the rise of Frances Stuart: Ruvigny to Louis xiv, 15/25 June: PRO, PRO 31/3/112, f. 31r. But it was only temporary: https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Thence with Mr. Creed, whom I called at his chamber, over the water to Lambeth; but could not, it being morning, get to see the Archbishop’s hearse:"

L&M: Juxon had died on 4 June, his boldy had been embalmed and after lying in state was taken to Oxford for burial in St John's College chapel on 9 July.

Log in to post an annotation.

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