Friday 23 October 1663

Up, and this morning comes Mr. Clerke, and tells me that the Injunction against Trice is dismissed again, which troubles me much. So I am to look after it in the afternoon. There comes also by appointment my uncle Thomas, to receive the first payment of his daughter’s money. But showing of me the original of the deed by which his daughter gives her right to her legacy to him, and the copy of it attested by the Scrivener, for me to keep by me, I did find some difference, and thereupon did look more into it, and at last did find the whole thing a forgery; yet he maintained it again and again, upon oath, that it had been signed and sealed by my cozen Mary ever since before her marriage. So I told him to his teeth he did like a knave, and so he did, and went with him to the Scrivener at Bedlam, and there found how it came to pass, viz., that he had lost, or pretends to have lost, the true original, and that so he was forced to take this course; but a knave, at least a man that values not what he swears to, I perceive he is. But however I am now better able to see myself fully secured before I part with the money, for I find that his son Charles has right to this legacy till the first 100l. of his daughter’s portion be paid, he being bond for it. So I put him upon getting both his sons to be bound for my security, and so left him and so home, and then abroad to my brother’s, but found him abroad at the young couple that was married yesterday, and he one of the Br[ide’s] men, a kinswoman (Brumfield) of the Joyces married to an upholster.

Thence walked to the King’s Head at Charing Cross and there dined, and hear that the Queen slept pretty well last night, but her fever continues upon her still. It seems she hath never a Portuguese doctor here.

Thence by appointment to the Six Clerks’ office to meet Mr. Clerke, which I did and there waited all the afternoon for Wilkinson my attorney, but he came not, and so vexed and weary we parted, and I endeavoured but in vain to have found Dr. Williams, of whom I shall have use in Trice’s business, but I could not find him. So weary walked home; in my way bought a large kitchen knife and half dozen oyster knives. Thence to Mr. Holliard, who tells me that Mullins is dead of his leg cut off the other day, but most basely done.

He tells me that there is no doubt but that all my slyme do come away in my water, and therefore no fear of the stone; but that my water being so slymy is a good sign. He would have me now and then to take a clyster, the same I did the other day, though I feel no pain, only to keep me loose, and instead of butter, which he would have to be salt butter, he would have me sometimes use two or three ounces of honey, at other times two or three ounces of Linseed oil.

Thence to Mr. Rawlinson’s and saw some of my new bottles made, with my crest upon them, filled with wine, about five or six dozen.

So home and to my office a little, and thence home to prepare myself against T. Trice, and also to draw a bond fit for my uncle and his sons to enter into before I pay them the money. That done to bed.

23 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Thence to Mr. Rawlinson's and saw some of my new bottles made, with my crest upon them, filled with wine, about five or six dozen."

Chateau Pepys, 1663 an excellent year.

But meant to be drunk with good meat and good friends not selfishly and secretively alone at a McDonalds ala that jerk in "Sideways".

We can also recommend Chateau St Michel, 1663...a bit less bold and impudent but lovely bouquet.

***
"...went with him to the Scrivener at Bedlam..."

Innocently entered, I know...But all I can think of is that wonderfully gruesome Boris Karloff film about the sufferings at the mental hospital at Bedlam in the 18th century. One of his best.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Thence by appointment to the Six Clerks' office to meet Mr. Clerke..."

Nothing more needed to be said.

Terry F  •  Link

The legal matter in question is of course Uncle Robert's Will
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

10 January 1661/62 "Mr. Moore...tells me that an injuncon [sic] is granted in Chancery against T. Trice, at which I was very glad." As Mary explains in an annotation, "By means of this injunction, Trice's action at common law against Pepys in the matter of Robert Pepys' estate is halted and the matter is referred to the Court of Chancery; this will mean a lengthy delay in settling the dispute." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

I found no reference to an earlier dismissal of the injuncion/injunction, but mayhap others can.

Mary  •  Link

"my water being so slymy"

This sounds horrid. Has anyone an explanation?

DrCari  •  Link

...that my water being so slymy is a good sign.
Sounds like our Sam is suffering with a urinary tract infection. No wonder he has difficulty voiding completely....may be some calculi in that bladder as well.

Mary  •  Link

"my new bottles made ... my crest upon them"

This is a decided sign of Sam's increasing sense of hs own social and professional worth. How pleasant to be able to offer guests wine from one's own, crested bottles. Very U.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"my new bottles made with my crest upon them ..."

Kenelm Digby, privateer, naval administrator, alcemist, eccentric & inter alia inventor of the modern wine bottle, was someone Pepys very probably knew, either at Trinity House or the Royal Society:-

"Digby is also considered the father of the modern wine bottle. During the 1630s, Digby owned a glassworks and manufactured wine bottles which were globular in shape with a high, tapered neck, a collar, and a punt. His manufacturing technique involved a coal furnace, made hotter than usual by the inclusion of a wind tunnel, and a higher ratio of sand to potash and lime than was customary. Digby's technique produced wine bottles which were stronger and more stable than most of their day, and which, due to their dark color, protected the contents from light. During his exile and prison term, others claimed his technique as their own, but in 1662 Parliament recognized his claim to the invention as valid."

Kenelm Digby - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kene…

Aubrey wrote a fine elegiac "Life" of Kenelm and also Venitia --

" .. had he been dropped out of the clouds in any part of the world, he would have made himeslf resoppected. But the Jesuits spoke spitefully, and said it was true, but then he must not stay there above six weeks. ... The Pope said he was mad....

Much against his mother's consent, he married that celebrated beauty and courtesan, Mrs. Venitia Stanley ... He would say that a handsome lusty man that was discrete might make a virtuous wife out of a brothel-house...

Alas, I can not find a quick link to the full texts.

Martin  •  Link

Half a dozen oyster knives
My first reaction was, why six? Clearly he means an oyster shucking knife used for prying open the shell and loosening the oyster flesh in one motion. After that's done, there's no need for a knife to eat the oyster. The average household today would have zero oyster knives; I've got just one and see no need to have more. But winter's coming; in the past Sam has ordered oysters by the barrel, to be pickled and stewed as well as eaten raw. So with six knives available, he can have the entire staff attack them at once.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"saw some of my bottles made,with my crest upon them,filled with wine"
I suppose those are for the guests only,status symbol that is.

Lurker  •  Link

To LH: Tom'd probably be even more likely to go running out into the street calling him "a vile cur!", cloak or no, now.

Xjy  •  Link

A strenuous day for Sam
Great entry full of frustration - dunned for the legacy, new court troubles coming, no one where they're supposed to be, "my water being so slymy" - but with a couple of victories for balance - saw through his uncle's (!) forgery and cut him to pieces with his forensic skill, bought himself a big knife (swish, swish!) and some powerful small ones (I'd guess for his guests to use on platefuls of estuary oysters), and had dozens (!) of personalized wine bottles made and filled before his eyes.
I bet the knives felt the most satisfying (slit sliver n stab!)

Ruben  •  Link

New Bottles
I remember we delt already with the wine trade and the corks and bottles and butlers.
But, how much wine could Samuel's bottles contain and what was the shape of the bottles? A proposition about that can be seen in http://www.wineintro.com/history/…
Another interesting point from Pepys times is the special relationship developed with Portugal in his days and the origin and producers of the Port wine.

Bradford  •  Link

Mary, "slymy" suggests that Pepys is casting impurities which make his urine less than clear (however colored), perhaps cloudy or even oily on the surface---which does suggest some residual bladder infection. (With a kidney infection per se he'd have fever, &c.) Along with the pulse, a great deal of diagnostic attention was paid to the urine (see George III's case in the next century). DrCari mentions calculi---minute calcium deposits that he might be passing, as Pepys's system does seem to be the stone-forming type (viz. his bladder stone). He needs to drink more liquid of any sort, but we've already discussed the local water, and his oaths preclude the diuretic effect of wine, and he scarcely mentions tea or coffee---it's a wonder it isn't worse .

Terry F  •  Link

Following Michael's lead re Digby here online is not Aubrey's 2-page brief lives of him and Venetia, but a book by Digbie (sic) for the hungry.

THE CLOSET Of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie OPENED:

Whereby is DISCOVERED Several ways for making of Metheglin, Sider, Cherry-Wine, &c. TOGETHER WITH_Excellent Directions
FOR COOKERY: As also for Preserving, Conserving, Candying, &c.

**** Published by his Son's Consent. * * * * *

London, Printed by E.C. for H. Brome, at the Star in Little Britain. 1669. [With a long biographical inro by Anne MacDowell (1910)]
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16…

Capt.Petrus.S. Dorpmans  •  Link

23rd. OCT.1663.

"To Mr. Rawlinson's and saw some of my new bottles made with my crest upon them, filled with wine, about five or six dozen".

Daniel Rawlinson kept the "Mitre"in Fenchurch Street.

"Wine was offered, I only drinking some hypocras, which do not break my vowe, it being to the best of my present judgment only a mixed compound drink, and not any wine".

hypocras = Spiced and sweetened wine.

pepf  •  Link

"I found no reference to an earlier dismissal of the injuncion/injunction, but mayhap others can."

Thursday 9 July 1663:

Thence to my lawyer’s; up and down to the Six Clerks’ Office, where I found my bill against Tom Trice dismissed, which troubles me, it being through my neglect, and will put me to charges.

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

“ the young couple that was married yesterday, and he one of the Br[ide’s] men, a kinswoman (Brumfield) of the Joyces married to an upholster.”

"Philip Harman, of St. Michael, Cornhill, gent., bachelor, about 27, and Mary Bromfeild, of St. Sepulchre, London, spinster, about 20, consent of parents — at Little St. Bartholomew, London, 21 Oct., 1663" (Chester's "London Marriage Licences," ed. Foster, 1887, col. 627).
---Wheatley, 1893.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"...went with him to the Scrivener at Bedlam..."

'Bedlam' (Bethlehem) was the precinct, not the hospital, of that name. (L&M)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my new bottles made ... my crest upon them"

Pepys's crest was a camel's head erased. In this case thew crest would probably be made in the form of a glass seal (per L&M note).

A recollection of Pepys recording in his diary and graphical representations of his crest and arms: https://armorial.library.utoronto…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Pepys's crest was a camel's head erased."

Erasure in blazonry, the language of heraldry, is the tearing off of part of a charge, leaving a jagged edge of it remaining. Due to the usual construction of blazons, this is most often found in its adjectival form (i.e., erased), usually applied to animate charges, most often used of heads but sometimes other body parts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... instead of butter, which he would have to be salt butter, ..."

I thought it was always salt butter in those days.

"Butter affords good Nourishment; the best that is for the Stomach, is made from May to August it's very wholsom, if eaten moderately with Bread or with Herbs, Roots, or the like. Take good Butter and melt it thick, and put it to your H•rbs, as you do Oil, and it eats as well and pleasant, and can scarce be di∣stinguish'd from Oil: This (I believe) a great many may have cause to thank me for: All Butter ought to be well seasoned with Salt." -- Thomas Tryon (1634-1703) – in his “The Way to Live for Two-pence a Day”

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo…

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