Tuesday 21 July 1663

And so lay long in the morning, till I heard people knock at my door, and I took it to be about 8 o’clock (but afterwards found myself a little mistaken), and so I rose and ranted at Will and the maid, and swore I could find my heart to kick them down stairs, which the maid mumbled at mightily. It was my brother, who staid and talked with me, his chief business being about his going about to build his house new at the top, which will be a great charge for him, and above his judgment.

By and by comes Mr. Deane, of Woolwich, with his draught of a ship, and the bend and main lines in the body of a ship very finely, and which do please me mightily, and so am resolved to study hard, and learn of him to understand a body, and I find him a very pretty fellow in it, and rational, but a little conceited, but that’s no matter to me. At noon, by my Lady Batten’s desire, I went over the water to Mr. Castle’s, who brings his wife home to his own house to-day, where I found a great many good old women, and my Lady, Sir W. Batten, and Sir J. Minnes.

A good, handsome, plain dinner, and then walked in the garden; which is pleasant enough, more than I expected there, and so Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, and I by water to the office, and there sat, and then I by water to the Temple about my law business, and back again home and wrote letters to my father and wife about my desire that they should observe the feast at Brampton, and have my Lady and the family, and so home to supper and bed, my head aching all the day from my last night’s bad rest, and yesterday’s distempering myself with over walking, and to-day knocking my head against a low door in Mr. Castle’s house.

This day the Parliament kept a fast for the present unseasonable weather.

26 Annotations

First Reading

Pedro  •  Link

“wrote letters to my father and wife about my desire that they should observe the feast at Brampton, and have my Lady and the family,”

To be paid out of the £5o allowance?

TerryF  •  Link

Yesterday in Lords

Fast to be observed.
ORDERED, That the Lords do meet here To-morrow Morning, and go together to keep the Day of Humiliation in the Abbey Church of Westm.

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 20 July 1663', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 565-67. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… Date accessed: 21 July 2006.

daniel  •  Link

"unseasonable weather"

What could this be? drought?

Terry  •  Link

"Unseasonable weather"
Sam has been complaining for weeks about the "foul weather" - raining and not very warm.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"and sworn I could find my heart to kick them down stairs,which the maid mumbled at mightly"
Now I can see where Naomi Campbell found her inspiration!

A. Hamiltonaham@erols.com  •  Link

Maybe its the Puritan in me

but I trace Sam's mounting complaints (Monday "overwalking," Monday night "weary and feverish," Tuesday up grumpy,later knocking his head against a low door, and to bed head aching)

to Saturday night's frolic with Mrs. Betty, ("I by water to the Temple, and thence walked home, all in a sweat with my tumbling of her and walking, and so a little supper and to bed, fearful of having taken cold") and a psychosomatic guilty reaction.

Stolzi  •  Link

"observe the feast"

What feast is this? Sam's stone feast is in March, and Midsummer Day is past. And the King was crowned in April.

And incidentally, is he angry with the servants for not waking him up earlier, or for not getting rid of the visitor so he could sleep later, or is he just angry because he feels bad and takes it out on them?

Mysteries, mysteries.

Mary  •  Link

Anger with the servants.

I suspect Sam is annoyed that his brother (who he is always urging to greater industry and a more business-like attitude) should find him still abed at 8 o'clock (or even later?) on a weekday morning in summer. The servants get the blame for his embarrassment. No doubt they would also have been blamed for waking him unnecessarily early ..... he's having one of those mornings.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Very fine indeed, Mr. Deane. I'm sure I'll be able to master the designs with a little hard study."

"Thank ye, Mr. Pepys. I must say it is a far superior draught to those I've seen about the Navy Office."

Conceited little bastard, both note within...

Pedro  •  Link

Brampton feast.

“being a little vexed that my brother Tom, by his neglect, do fail to get a coach for my wife and maid this week, by which she will not be at Brampton Feast, to meet my Lady at my father’s.”

Terry F. on Sat 23 Jul 2005, 11:56 pm | Link
“Brampton Feast”
L&M note: A parish feast….

http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

Aqua  •  Link

Lack of sleeping companion can cause an unbalance in hormones that lead to irrational behaviour. All the humours must be in Balance, the weather be unpleasant , the lanes be befouled, the meals not adequately supervised. The night aire be yuck, to say the least, the air be smokey and be chock a block full of soot, sulpher, acids from tanning , on and on, enough to render thy breathing to wheeze. For any one that remembers the good old days when thy hanky be black each time thy sneeze, will know the feeling, no bed warmer , and the toddy be ill made.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...swore I could find my heart to kick them down stairs, which the maid mumbled at mightily."

"Oh, aye sir...Kick me down the stairs?" rises to her full height as Sam looks up.

"You and what army of little clerks, sir?" arms folded.

Hmmn...No, best not to include that in today's entry, Sam thinks.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"observe the feast"

Sam is keen that his father should be seen to be conforming to the new social norms (Parish Feasts had been banned under the Commonwealth)and not have a hint of Commonwealth sympathies (in Cromwell's own country) and also to be able to offer hospitality on a par with their supposed social standing. If Sam is urging this for social and political reasons, I hope he pays! (as Pedro notes). For what Parish Feasts were like (and to see why perhaps they were banned in the 1650s) see the URL I posted on the annotations page cited by Pedro. (when we last discussed this).

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

" my brother['s]..chief business being about his going about to build his house new at the top, which will be a great charge for him, and above his judgment."

Tom had on 14 June told Pepys of his thriving condition. The house was the one in Salisbury Court in which Pepys had been born. Tom was given permission at the end of July to 'lay and frame his timber' in the churchyard in order to 'new build part of his house that lies neere the churchyard door'. The work was completed by 19 October, when Pepys admired the results.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… Whether much rebuilding had been done is doubtful: Tom rented the house, and he seems to have left no building debts at his death. (Per L&M footnote)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... the feast at Brampton, and have my Lady and the family, ...' To be paid out of the £50 allowance?"

No, Sam sent supplies last week:

Thursday 16 July 1663

"Up and dispatched things into the country and to my father’s, and two keggs of Sturgeon and a dozen bottles of wine to Cambridge for my cozen Roger Pepys, which I give him."

He just didn't tell us the things to his father were for the annual Brampton Feast on July 22.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... a weekday morning in summer." To quote Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham: "What's a weekend?"

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"At noon, by my Lady Batten’s desire, I went over the water to Mr. Castle’s, who brings his wife home to his own house today, where I found a great many good old women, and my Lady, Sir W. Batten, and Sir J. Minnes."

Martha Batten Castle, aged 26, was married to William Castle of Redereth Wall, Surrey, shipwright, widower, aged 34, on Sunday, July 5, 1663 in Walthemstow. I suppose this is a welcome-to-my-house-after-the-honeymoon party. I wonder where they went. Southend-on-Sea?

JayW  •  Link

Having travelled to Temple for the past 2 weeks to attend Court proceedings I wonder who had the better journey. Sam (by water and/or foot in pouring rain) or I (by overground and underground trains in scorching heat)?

Jonathan V  •  Link

JayW: While reading today's journal entry, I began to wonder how long Sam's days are. Today he got up late (although he never says whether it was later or earlier than the 8 o'clock that he thought), and still managed to pack in a full day of social visits, office work, and letter writing. It would be interesting to try and reconstruct one of his days, although I suspect there aren't many water taxis left in London, correct?

JayW  •  Link

There's even a regular river boat service run by Transport for London which is used by commuters as well as tourists.

Jonathan V  •  Link

Yeah, as soon as I posted that, I figured that there had to be at least one water taxi service. Very cool, thanks.

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