Friday 16 October 1663
Up and to my office, where all the morning doing business, and at noon home to dinner, and then up to remove my chest and clothes up stairs to my new wardrobe, that I may have all my things above where I lie, and so by coach abroad with my wife, leaving her at my Lord’s till I went to the Tangier Committee, where very good discourse concerning the Articles of peace to be continued with Guyland, and thence took up my wife, and with her to her tailor’s, and then to the Exchange and to several places, and so home and to my office, where doing some business, and then home to supper and to bed.
16 Annotations
First Reading
jeannine • Link
Oh thank goodness, an entry without any of the Wheatley ..... and no complaints from Sam about his health. Hopefully this means he is on the mend!(of course the .... are always great fun, but not when the poor guy is feeling so miserable)
Also, seeing him out and about with Elizabeth is a nice change of pace.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...where very good discourse concerning the Articles of peace to be continued with Guyland..."
"All we are saying...Is give Guyland a chance."
"What the devil?" Sir John looks out the window to the grassy field below where an extremely sober group of men and women are singing, hands-in-hands.
"Quakers at it again?" the Duke comes to window, Sam beside Minnes.
"Tell the bloody peacemongers we'll show them and the damned Turk how a proper peace is made." Prince Rupert calls...Twirling one of the few locks left of his once famous curls that defined both a generation and a cause. "Our fleet'll shock and awe 'em! Make a devastation and call it peace we will!!"
"Rupert." York sighs. "That's the plan for Case Holland. We have a treaty with Guyland."
"Oh. The damned Dutch. Right." Rupert nods. "Well...We'll shock and awe those wooden shoe-wearing burghers right back to the Bronze Age." Fist on table.
"All we are saying..." from outside.
"Duck there, fellow!" Rupert calls at Sam who dives...The Prince heaving a shoe at the window which flies out.
"There's the Way, you damned rogues!! And we'll serve the little Dutch boys the same!!"
"Rupert. This is the Tangier Committee. Peace with Guyland. Please focus, old fellow. We'll get to Case Holland later." York calls.
"Just saying. Anyway I say we hit the damned lot of them together...Right now with both fists!! They're probably in league at that. Shock and awe 'em all with a few good shot!!"
Last time we listened to cousin Rupert, Father lost his head...York quietly notes to Charles, sitting in today on the Committee.
Pedro • Link
"where very good discourse concerning the Articles of peace to be continued with Guyland"
The term "Articles of peace" are only for the short term. On the 10th September Sam had said...
"Mr. Moore, who tells me of the good peace that is made at Tangier with the Moores, but to continue but from six months to six months,"
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Guyland had requested a truce because he was on the back foot and Teviot had accepted as he saw an opportunity to increase the defences around the city. After a banquet a six month peace was signed and Teviot took the chance to take six months leave. For reasons behind Guyland's request for a truce see Tangier background...
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
At one of the Committees Charles had told Teviot that he should not agree any further peace which did not give him the liberty to continue the fortifications. (Childs...The Army of Charles II)
Pedro • Link
The King on the way from the Committee...
"Oddsfish James! Where on earth does Rupert get those phrases from?"
Glyn • Link
"Guyland had requested a truce because he was on the back foot" - a cricketing term meaning on the defensive, under strong attack. You are under too much pressure to go forward and hit out, instead you have to go on the back foot and defend your wicket.
Bradford • Link
England expects every man to defend his wicket.
Note too that Elizabeth is at the tailor's again, quite soon after the purchase of the gold lace! Refresh our memories: does she have a wardrobe for her wardrobe too?
Terry F • Link
"does [Elizabeth] have a wardrobe for her wardrobe too?
Bradford, after today's visit with Elizabeth to her tailor's it would be a surprise if she won't.
Bradford • Link
See tomorrow's entry for Elizabeth's "closet," which one would think can mean only a physical roomlette, without the double-sense "wardrobe" conveys.
john • Link
The vigil for Sam's flatulence reminds me of many a night spent on the same for horses but never people (thankfully).
dirk • Link
The Rev. Josselin's diary...
"a very wet week, a great flood a sad season to sow in, the lord seems to be very angry with us. he justly may. said strange libels cast about in London against the King, who is forced to give up house(,) his table served by a cook. his Cavaliers very sadly debauched and unruly. a good natured prince but sadly yoked with followers."
Todd Bernhardt • Link
Re: the Rev
"a good natured prince but sadly yoked with followers."
Ain't that still the way? Don't blame the leader, blame the people around them (I won't go into examples, for fear of sparking a political argument, but just read the headlines...)
I, for one, hold the leaders responsible. Good nature means little if you're responsible for a nation, a government, and its people.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
John Unthank was usually Elizabeth Pepys' tailor, and he had a large shop at Charing Cross. Pepys doesn't give us a name or location today, so we don't know where she went.
Nick Hedley • Link
I note that it Sam (and sometimes Sam and Elizabeth) who make the purchases mentioned in the Diary but not Elizabeth by herself. Given that Sam is conscious that Elizabeth is "companionless" and seeking a role, it seems strange (to modern minds) that she could not get out a bit more by herself, especially to go shopping for household goods for example to buy candle snuffers a few days ago. Were women not given control of money or would it seem strange them going into shops alone?
Terry Foreman • Link
"Were women not given control of money or would it seem strange them going into shops alone?"
As I understand it, women of the Pepyses' class do not go shopping alone. Pepys often reports delivering his wife to a place of business when she has no companion. (Her having a companion, which, during the diary, she mostly does, changes things.)
Ever one who budgets and is an accountant professionally and in his private life, Pepys sometimes remarks at month's end on how well or poorly his wife has managed her household account. If poorly he may report complaining with, ah, vigor: he's more given to sticks than to carrots.
Elizabeth Pepys seems to be given an allowance of sorts -- above and beyond operating expenses (food, laundry, etc.) --, which Pepys expands as needed. She consults her husband before ordering major fashion-items from Unthank's, where Pepys has an account. He also has accounts (and makes occasional cash purchases, which he notes) at certain retail stalls at the New Exchange (a sort of shopping mall) and Westminster Hall.
Managing money is about control: he is now 30 years old, she 23 in a week. She does not come from the merchant family he does (a tailor's son), and may not be an instinctual manager: her tumultuous relations with servants may bear this out. He, too, is set off by certain issues, what he regards as intemperate money-management among them.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
"intemperate money-management" could, and often did, lead to debtor's prison, even for the upper classes.
Admiral Sir William Penn's eponymous son, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, was imprisoned for debt in 1707, partly because he could not pay his own son's debts!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wil…
San Diego Sarah • Link
The streets were not safe; no police force, etc. SPOILER ALERT: They are out shopping in a few day's time, and Elizabeth is attacked as she waits in the carriage. You try defending yourself wearing a big skirt like that. Wealthy women's clothing was designed -- intentionally or unintentionally -- to make them vulnerable and helpless.