Wednesday 22 July 1663
Up, and by and by comes my uncle Thomas, to whom I paid 10l. for his last half year’s annuity, and did get his and his son’s hand and seal for the confirming to us Piggott’s mortgage, which was forgot to be expressed in our late agreement with him, though intended, and therefore they might have cavilled at it, if they would.
Thence abroad calling at several places upon some errands, among others to my brother Tom’s barber and had my hair cut, while his boy played on the viallin, a plain boy, but has a very good genius, and understands the book very well, but to see what a shift he made for a string of red silk was very pleasant. Thence to my Lord Crew’s. My Lord not being come home, I met and staid below with Captain Ferrers, who was come to wait upon my Lady Jemimah to St. James’s, she being one of the four ladies that hold up the mantle at the christening this afternoon of the Duke’s child (a boy).
In discourse of the ladies at Court, Captain Ferrers tells me that my Lady Castlemaine is now as great again as ever she was; and that her going away was only a fit of her own upon some slighting words of the King, so that she called for her coach at a quarter of an hour’s warning, and went to Richmond; and the King the next morning, under pretence of going a-hunting, went to see her and make friends, and never was a-hunting at all. After which she came back to Court, and commands the King as much as ever, and hath and doth what she will.
No longer ago than last night, there was a private entertainment made for the King and Queen at the Duke of Buckingham’s, and she was not invited: but being at my Lady Suffolk’s, her aunt’s (where my Lady Jemimah and Lord Sandwich dined) yesterday, she was heard to say, “Well; much good may it do them, and for all that I will be as merry as they:” and so she went home and caused a great supper to be prepared. And after the King had been with the Queen at Wallingford House, he came to my Lady Castlemaine’s, and was there all night, and my Lord Sandwich with him, which was the reason my Lord lay in town all night, which he has not done a great while before.
He tells me he believes that, as soon as the King can get a husband for Mrs. Stewart however, my Lady Castlemaine’s nose will be out of joynt; for that she comes to be in great esteem, and is more handsome than she.
I found by his words that my Lord Sandwich finds some pleasure in the country where he now is, whether he means one of the daughters of the house or no I know not, but hope the contrary, that he thinks he is very well pleased with staying there, but yet upon breaking up of the Parliament, which the King by a message to-day says shall be on Monday next, he resolves to go.
Ned Pickering, the coxcomb, notwithstanding all his hopes of my Lord’s assistance, wherein I am sorry to hear my Lord has much concerned himself, is defeated of the place he expected under the Queen.
He came hither by and by and brought some jewells for my Lady Jem. to put on, with which and her other clothes she looks passing well.
I staid and dined with my Lord Crew, who whether he was not so well pleased with me as he used to be, or that his head was full of business, as I believe it was, he hardly spoke one word to me all dinner time, we dining alone, only young Jack Crew, Sir Thomas’s son, with us.
After dinner I bade him farewell. Sir Thomas I hear has gone this morning ill to bed, so I had no mind to see him.
Thence homewards, and in the way first called at Wotton’s, the shoemaker’s, who tells me the reason of Harris’s going from Sir Wm. Davenant’s house, that he grew very proud and demanded 20l. for himself extraordinary, more than Betterton or any body else, upon every new play, and 10l. upon every revive; which with other things Sir W. Davenant would not give him, and so he swore he would never act there more, in expectation of being received in the other House; but the King will not suffer it, upon Sir W. Davenant’s desire that he would not, for then he might shut up house, and that is true. He tells me that his going is at present a great loss to the House, and that he fears he hath a stipend from the other House privately.
He tells the that the fellow grew very proud of late, the King and every body else crying him up so high, and that above Betterton, he being a more ayery man, as he is indeed. But yet Betterton, he says, they all say do act: some parts that none but himself can do.
Thence to my bookseller’s, and found my Waggoners done. The very binding cost me 14s., but they are well done, and so with a porter home with them, and so by water to Ratcliffe, and there went to speak with Cumberford the platt-maker, and there saw his manner of working, which is very fine and laborious. So down to Deptford, reading Ben Jonson’s “Devil is an asse,” and so to see Sir W. Pen, who I find walking out of doors a little, but could not stand long; but in doors and I with him, and staid a great while talking, I taking a liberty to tell him my thoughts in things of the office; that when he comes abroad again, he may know what to think of me, and to value me as he ought. Walked home as I used to do, and being weary, and after some discourse with Mr. Barrow, who came to see and take his leave of me, he being to-morrow to set out toward the Isle of Man, I went to bed.
This day I hear that the Moores have made some attaques upon the outworks of Tangier; but my Lord Tiviott; with the loss of about 200 men, did beat them off, and killed many of them.
To-morrow the King and Queen for certain go down to Tunbridge. But the King comes hack again against Monday to raise the Parliament.
43 Annotations
First Reading
TerryF • Link
"breaking up of the Parliament"
Message from the King, about a Recess.
The Lord Chancellor acquainted this House with a Message from the King: "That His Majesty did hope both Houses should have had a Recess before this Time; but His Majesty is resolved to come on Monday Morning next, to pass such Bills as are ready, and then to make a Recess."
From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 22 July 1663', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 567-68. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… Date accessed: 22 July 2006.
daniel • Link
"to my brother Tom’s barber and had my hair cut, while his boy played on the viallin"
This seems a mid-seventeenth century form of barber shop quartet.
Joe • Link
"but the King will not suffer it, upon Sir W. Davenant’s desire that he would not"
Theatrical politics or political theatrics?
Xjy • Link
Busy, busy, boring, boring...
Angus • Link
"...he christening this afternoon of the Duke’s child (a boy)."
Presumably this infant will, in time, turn up as the Old Pretender in 1715?
Frank G. • Link
"Presumably this infant will, in time, turn up as the Old Pretender in 1715?"
The Old Pretender will not be born till just before James II is turfed out. This child cannot have survived infancy.
tel • Link
but to see what a shift he made for a string of red silk was very pleasant.
Can anyone throw some light on this expression?
J A Gioia • Link
while his boy played on the viallin
indeed barber shops were traditional centers of music and instruments were available for customers to play while waiting their turns for a trim. barbershop quartetes are the later iteration of the custom.
my barber here in chicago keeps a quattro handy, a small spanish instrument with four pairs of strings, which he plays when business is slow. he has a six-string classical guitar also.
heigh-ho, the old world...
daniel • Link
Tel
though strings for the violin family were normally made of (sheep) gut, variants made out of wire or silk existed.
Still, I am not entirely convinced that this is what Sam refers to.
Robert Gertz • Link
So my Lord Sandwich is finding pleasure "...in the country where he is staying now..."
and..."...whether he means one of the daughters of the house or no I know not, but hope the contrary..."
Lets hope that country seat is nowhere near Brampton. Sam might find he has cause to wish it were "a daughter of the house..."
I assume Sandwich would be staying in a private house or small inn somewhere, still using the cover of recovering from the illness that he'd had earlier.
I wonder if Lady Jem's dad, Lord Crew's sudden seeming loss of his famed hospitality might be due to concerns about his son-in-law's behavior? Perhaps he suspects Sam knows more than he does and is a tad irritated for Jem's sake. Of course, I suppose at the time many in Crew's spot would have ignored the rumors as normal behavior for a "great man of affairs" unless the scandal became too serious.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...the Moores have made some attaques upon the outworks of Tangier; but my Lord Tiviott; with the loss of about 200 men..."
Substantial losses. If the Tangier Wikipedia link (see the Tangier link in the entry) is right the garrison ranged from about 1300 (1676 census) to 2500 soldiers over the years until its increase to 3000 in 1680.
E • Link
I assume that the string of red silk was the boy's promised payment for playing the violin.
JWB • Link
red silk string
Eastern intruments stung w/ gut & metal strings on one intrument. Perhaps barber's boy had gut & silk.
TerryF • Link
"In discourse of the ladies at Court, Captain Ferrers tells me...."
And his wife's family thought she had married 'beneath' her; like his fellow, Pepys, he has a way of making and working his connections to good effect.
Bradford • Link
Might the red string have been to tie as an ornament round the violin's neck? Have seen this done with ribbons on acoustic guitars, &c.
Aqua • Link
HACK , the King be hiring an old nag rather than use his own?
hack OED[the OED does not mention my old hacker that I be wearing on me old nag]
10 entries n 5 hack- hack v
noun 3 :
I. 1. A hackney horse; = HACKNEY 1 and 2. a. A horse let out for hire; depreciatively, a sorry or worn out horse; a jade.
b. spec. A horse for ordinary riding, as distinguished from cross-country, military, or other special riding; a saddle-horse for the road.
The word implies technically a half-bred horse with more bone and substance than a thorough-bred.
cover-, covert-hack, a horse for riding to the ‘meet’, or to the covert, where he is exchanged for the hunter. park-hack, a handsome ‘well-mannered’ horse for riding in the park: so town-hack. road-hack, a horse for riding on the road, travelling, etc.; a roadster.
2. A vehicle plying for hire; a hackney coach or carriage; = HACKNEY 5. Now only U.S.
3 . The driver of a hackney carriage. Obs.
4. a. A person whose services may be hired for any kind of work required of him; a common drudge, = HACKNEY 3; esp. a literary drudge, who hires himself out to do any and every kind of literary work; hence, a poor writer, a mere scribbler.
b. slang. A prostitute; a bawd.
5. a. Anything that is in indiscriminate and everyday use, and is ‘hackneyed’ or deprived of novelty and interest by such use; a hackneyed sermon, book, quotation, etc.: cf. sense 9. Obs.
noun 1
41. A tool or implement for breaking or chopping up. a. Variously applied to agricultural tools of the mattock, hoe, and pick-axe type
1616 SURFL. & MARKH. Country Farme 655 Such seeds may be sowne in little furrowes made with a hacke or grubbing axe. 1620 MARKHAM Farew. Husb. II. ii. (1668) 4 With these hacks you shall hew and cut to pieces all the earth formerly plowed up furrow by furrow.
1606 SHAKES. Tr. & Cr. I. ii. 222 Looke you what hacks are on his Helmet.
4. Hesitation in speech.
noun 11
noun 2 1. Falconry. The board on which a hawk's meat is laid. Hence applied to the state of partial liberty in which eyas hawks are kept before being trained, not being allowed to prey for themselves. to fly, be at hack, to be in this state.
2. A rack to hold fodder for cattle. to live at hack and manger, i.e. in plenty, ‘in clover’. Usually HECK; see also HATCH. ? Obs. exc. dial.
3. A frame on which bricks are laid to dry before burning; a row of moulded bricks laid out to dry.
4. = HAKE n.3 1.
5......hack-hawk, a hawk kept ‘at hack’
noun 3 = HACKLE n.1 3, cover of a bee-hive.
1658 EVELYN Fr. Gard. (1675) 100 Like the cover or hack of a bee-hive.
noun 5 = HACKLE n.2 1, a flax-comb.
1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Magick IV. xxv. 156 [Flax] kemmed with hackes, till all the membrans be pilled clean.
to hack verb: I. Transitive senses.
1. To cut with heavy blows in an irregular or random fashion; to cut notches or nicks in; to mangle or mutilate by jagged cuts. In earlier use chiefly, To cut or chop up or into pieces, to chop off. Const. about, away, down, off, up.
1596 SHAKES. 1 Hen. IV, II. iv. 187 My Sword hackt like a Hand-saw. 1653 H. COGAN tr. Pinto's Trav. 212 Causing them to be hacked very small.
2. To make incisions or jags in by other means. a. Said of frost: To chap or crack the skin. dial.
4. Applied to various agricultural operations involving cutting or chopping; as, to break up the surface of the ground, to hoe in seed, to cut up by the roots, to reap pease, vetches, or the like.
1620 MARKHAM Farew. Husb. II. viii. (1668) 4 When you have thus hacked all your ground, and broke in pieces all hard crusts and roughness of the swarth.
1660 SHARROCK Vegetables 23 Drawing trenches in the soyle, and then drawing the earth over them with a hoe..and hacking in the seed with the same instrument.
7. fig. To mangle or ‘make a hash of’ (words) in utterance. Also absol. Obs.
12. a. To hesitate in speech; to stammer. Cf. HACKER v. 2. Obs. exc. dial.
1604 MIDDLETON Father Hubburd's T. Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 54 Yours, If you read without spelling or hacking, T. M
verb 2 1. trans. To place (bricks) in rows upon hacks or drying frames.
2. Falconry. To keep (young hawks) ‘at hack’ or in a state of partial liberty.
verb 3 1800's versions of slice and dice bluntly
verb 4:= HACKLE v.3
1577 B. GOOGE Heresbach's Husb. I. (1586) 39 Flax..combed and hacked upon an iron combe.
hacker : 1. One who hacks; one who hoes with a hack.
1620 MARKHAM Farew. Husb. II. ii. (1668) 4 One good hacker, being a lusty labourer, will at good ease hack or cut more than half an acre of ground in a day
Aqua • Link
"...But the King comes hack again against Monday to raise the Parliament..." I guess the King be hacking out those useless MP's , so that he can weed out those that oppose his wishes? Parliament be at the beck of His 'ighness, not of those, that had the democratic voice of the Home owners, or was it too wet to sit in the chamber?
Aqua • Link
Charles rules by himself , without help from the the elected ones for the next 8 months. Must be enough monies in the till to keep Palmer and Stewart happy, and tell the houses to rest their weary minds.
A. Hamilton • Link
he being a more ayery man,
You can't say "ayery" 'cause it aint in the dictionary -- OED at least. Transcription error? Any help in L&M?
King comes hack -- I read back-- another transcription issue?
Stolzi • Link
"as soon as the King can get a husband for Mrs. Stewart"
Nowadays, a man would probably want his lover unattached. The King wants a complaisant husband to serve as father of any children Frances Stewart might have, I take it.
TerryF • Link
L&M to the rrrrrescue again!
ayery: airy, sprightly, stylish.
(Select Glossary)
"But the King comes back again against Monday"
language hat • Link
ayery
An old spelling of "airy." I suspect this is the OED's definition 8.b:
Of a good air, manner, bearing, presence.
1689 Gazophyl. Angl., An ayry man, from the Fr. Aire, comliness, or a good presence. 1699 GARTH Dispens. iv. 60 The Slothful, negligent; the Foppish, neat; The Lewd are airy; and the Sly, discreet.
But it could be 6.c:
Lively, sprightly, merry, gay, vivacious.
1644 MILTON Educ. 136 Others.. of a more delicious and airy spirit.
jeannine • Link
"as soon as the King can get a husband for Mrs. Stewart"
a foreboding spoiler perhaps, but I think that Sam's gossip is off here. Charles is becoming more and more infatuated with Frances Stuart and therefore the men of the court (including his brother James who finds her quite attractive) will be smart enough to take a "hands off" approach to her, for fear of getting on the bad side of the King. His feelings for her will intensify as will his jealousy at the mere thought that she may have any interest elsewhere, so this entry surprises me. On the other hand, I am sure that Lady Castlemaine would LOVE to get rid of her and marry her off ~~the sooner the better from her perspective.
Aqua • Link
"King comes hack — I read back— another transcription issue? I do not think so.
Hack in my simple mind, be the word, a nondescript horse flesh, not up to par for Charles.
jeannine • Link
"Must be enough monies in the till to keep Palmer and Stewart happy"...
Aqua- just a little obscure fact. Frances Stuart was never on the "payroll" like a Castlemaine and never asked for anything from Charles. She was just not that type of person-but rather funloving, perhaps a little "flakey", flirty, etc. but in no way after money, status, politics, etc. Her "flaw" would be that, like so many others she tended to be vain enough to really relish all of the attention that her looks and charms brought her way. She got some preferential treatment in terms of better living spaces and as I recall (will have to double check later) that the only piece of jewelry that Charles ever gave her was when he chose her as his Valentine. When she ends up leaving the Court (won't detail it) she will return this piece too. Part of her appeal is that she is SO unlike Castlemaine and the rest of his court. But don't despair your thoughts above as Castlemaine more than made up it for grabbing at any penny that could be squeezed out of any fund that CII could get his hands on.
aqua • Link
Jeannine So very glad to note that paraders of the rush besotted Galleys, be not tarred with same greedy brush. 'Tis the exception that makes it the rule.
Australian Susan • Link
Frances Stuart
Jeannine is describing a mature and sensible person: but FS was only 14 - who was advising her? How did she keep her head and her own standards in the hedonistic society of the Court? She must have been very strong-minded and very sure of her decisions. Did she have a mentor?
jeannine • Link
Frances was a favorite of Henrietta Marie and by now her mother had also come over from France. At this point she's still getting "light" pressure from Charles, but as she grows and matures (and becomes more beautiful) his desire for her will grow as will the pressure for her to be his mistress. General spoiler (nothing specific) but there are those people in life who just sort of "float" through situations and fate happens to work to their benefit, as will happen with her. She wasn't mature at this point and had such a childishness about her way that it set her apart from those plotting, cunning ladies who were out for the gold. While the mistresses gambled away Charles' money, Frances loved building card houses, playing blind man's bluff and other "younger" activities -sort of like she may not have "gotten" what was going on around her. Frances is also fond of Catherine.
aqua • Link
Wisdom or wise beyond her years. Wisdom is not age related,[I should know, I still be unwise] it is a genetic defect [instinct , self presevation] or defense against the evil.
The Maxims of Syrus
"Sensus, non aetas, invenit sapientem"
Sense, not years, brings wisdom or another by Sy, very important whether a man is wise or only looks the part.
"Vultu an natura sapiens sis, multum interest."
Or as Petronius, from Satyricon, 94
doth write "rarem fecit mixturam cum sapientia forma."
Like water and acid it burps.
or Beauty and wisdom infrequently coalesce.
Pedro • Link
"but my Lord Tiviott; with the loss of about 200 men, did beat them off, and killed many of them."
In July 1663 Lord Teviot takes 6 months leave in Scotland, and then returns to Tangier in January 1664.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"his and his son’s hand and seal for the confirming to us Piggott’s mortgage"
See Thomas Pepys and his son to Piggot, 20 July, giving their consent (as heirs-at-law) to Piggot's proposal to sell land in order to pay the mortgage owed to the executors; witnessed by Hewer. Copies (in hands of Pepys and Hewer) in PL.
(Per L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
" Lady Castlemaine is now as great again as ever she was; and that her going away was only a fit of her own upon some slighting words of the King, so that she called for her coach at a quarter of an hour’s warning, and went to Richmond;"
To a brother's: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… For her recent absence from court see: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… She gave birth to a boy (later 1st Duke of Grafton) in September. (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"I found by his words that my Lord Sandwich finds some pleasure in the country where he now is, whether he means one of the daughters of the house or no I know not"
He was at Chelsea, living with the Beckes. For his affair with Betty Beck see:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"Ned Pickering...is defeated of the place he expected under the Queen. "
In August 1664 he was appointed a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber in ordinary to the King. (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"but the King will not suffer it, upon Sir W. Davenant’s desire that he would not, for then he might shut up house, and that is true. "
According to the letters patent issued to Davenant in 1662, an actor who withdrew from one of the two London companies could not be recruited by the other. Harris was popular and influential, and the Duke of York, whose company Davenant managed, persuaded Davenant to accede to Harris's demands: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (Per L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"Mr. Barrow, who came to see and take his leave of me, he being to-morrow to set out toward the Isle of Man"
Philip Barrow, Storekeeper of Chatham yard, had quarreled with his colleagues: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
"I hear that the Moores have made some attaques upon the outworks of Tangier; but my Lord Tiviott; with the loss of about 200 men, did beat them off, and killed many of them. "
The Moors attacked the troops working on the fortifications during their dinner-hour on 14 June. '200' is presumably a slip for '20' reported by Enid M.G Routh, Tangier, England's lost Atlantic outpost, 1661-1682 (1912), p. 39.
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/p…
The numbers of both English and Moorish casualties given in different accounts vary slightly. (Roth footnote, p. 39). (Per L&M footnote)
Terry Foreman • Link
'To-morrow the King and Queen for certain go down to Tunbridge."
According to the French ambassador, the Queen went to take the waters in the hope they would cure her sterility. The King probably went to be near Frances Stuart. They traveled on 25 July. Tunbridge Wells was at this time one of the most fashionable of the spas, and its waters were highly regarded, though 'the wits maintained that it was the gallants and not the waters that cured barrenness'. R. Lennard, Englishmen at Rest and Play, M. Barton, Tunbridge Wells pp. 137+ https://books.google.com/books?id…
(Per L&M footnote)
San Diego Sarah • Link
I was researching Richmond Palace, and found this story:
"In 1662 Queen Henrietta Maria was back again in England, and her son, who did not care to have her at Court, where her silent disapproval would have been a check upon his reckless dissipation, assigned Richmond Palace, which as a matter of fact was already her own property, to her as a residence, and she lived there in great seclusion until 1665, ...
"The story goes that when the unfortunate Queen Henrietta Maria was at Richmond Palace this last time she was one day suddenly intruded on by the notorious Lady Castlemaine, who had run away from London in a fit of temper with the King, and, in spite of the cold reception she received from her lover's mother, insisted upon remaining for the night at the Palace.
'The next morning Charles II himself appeared upon the scene, eager for reconciliation with his beloved mistress and regardless of the remonstrances of Henrietta, who must indeed have wondered that his early troubles had taught him nothing, he achieved his purpose, the reconciled pair, after a somewhat stormy interview, going off happily together."
So much for the uncle story!
From THE ROYAL MANOR OR RICHMOND, WITH PETERSHAM HAM AND KEW by Mrs. Arthur G. Bell, 1907
San Diego Sarah • Link
George Villiers (later the 2nd Duke of Buckingham) was born at Wallingford House, in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on 30 January, 1627. (The Admiralty now stands on the site of the mansion in which he first saw the light.)
San Diego Sarah • Link
Today is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, and therefore the Brampton Feast. But the Sandwichs' are staying with the Crews so they can be at the Christening. Pepys' dinner idea didn't happen.
"I found by his words that my Lord Sandwich finds some pleasure in the country where he now is, whether he means one of the daughters of the house or no I know not, but hope the contrary, that he thinks he is very well pleased with staying there, but yet upon breaking up of the Parliament, which the King by a message to-day says shall be on Monday next, he resolves to go."
This is the first time Pepys notes there may be trouble in the country (presumably Chelsea). Maybe this is why Lord Crew was quiet at dinner.
I think the "he resolves to go" means Sandwich will be off to Hinchingbrooke after next Monday.
David Garfield • Link
The son born to the Duke of York and his wife in 1663 did not live until 1715 t be the Old Pretender. That son was the one born in 1687/8 to Mary of Modena and part of the reason the Glorious Revolution occurred when it did, the Catholic monarch now had a legitimate Catholic heir. Come on over William and Mary.
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ‘she looks passing well.’:
‘passing, adj., prep., and adv. . .
. . passing, adj., prep., and adv.
. . 1633 J. Ford Loves Sacrifice i. i, The French are passing courtly.
1671 Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 155 Many are in each Region passing fair As the noon Skie.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. xii. x. 266 He swore 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange . . ‘
………………………
Re: ‘ . . he being a more ayery man . . ’
‘airy . . 8.d. Light, delicate, graceful in style or execution. Also, of a person or work of art: ingenious, witty.
1664 Duchess of Newcastle CCXI Sociable Lett. xliii. 89 Salt Wit is Heavy and Searching,..whereas Fresh Spring Wit is Light and Airy, Running with a Smooth and Quick Motion.
1674 J. Playford Introd. Skill Musick (ed. 7) i. 59 The Æolick Mood, was that which was of a more Airy and soft pleasing sound.
1711 J. Addison Spectator (1712) I. No. 9. 51 The Learned and Illiterate, the Dull and the Airy, the Philosopher and the Buffoon, can all of them bear a part.
………………………
(OED)