Thursday 26 November 1663

Up and to the office, where we sat all the morning, and at noon I to the ’Change, and there met with Mr. Cutler the merchant, who would needs have me home to his house by the Dutch Church, and there in an old but good house, with his wife and mother, a couple of plain old women, I dined a good plain dinner, and his discourse after dinner with me upon matters of the navy victualling very good and worth my hearing, and so home to my office in the afternoon with my mind full of business, and there at it late, and so home to supper to my poor wife, and to bed, myself being in a little pain … [in one of my testicles, – L&M] by a stroke … [I did give it – L&M] in pulling up my breeches yesterday over eagerly, but I will lay nothing to it till I see whether it will cease of itself or no.

The plague, it seems, grows more and more at Amsterdam; and we are going upon making of all ships coming from thence and Hambrough, or any other infected places, to perform their Quarantine (for thirty days as Sir Rd. Browne expressed it in the order of the Council, contrary to the import of the word, though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it) in Holehaven, a thing never done by us before.

27 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"being in a little pain in one of my testicles, by a stroke I did give it in pulling up my breeches yesterday over-eagerly" - so L&M.

Bradford  •  Link

"quarantine" (short etymology): from the French "quarante," "forty"---i.e., forty days' (and nights') detention. (How Biblical.)

Glyn  •  Link

The Dutch Church still exists and is open for services and for people to visit. You'll find it at Austin Friars Passage, a couple of minutes walk from the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England.

Terry F  •  Link

The Dutch Church shows its street address is
7 AUSTIN FRIARS, CITY OF LONDON, LONDON EC2N2HA
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UT…

Sorry to practice this at your expense; I've learned to anchor the Google map one wants is to click on "Link to this page" in the upper right.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it"

Huh? Could someone help parse this? Thanks.

Nate  •  Link

I think SP means that the word "quarantine" is now used to state the fact of isolation, 30 days in this instance, not the number of days of isolation which, as Bradford points out, means 40 days (and nights).

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Geesh Sam...You might have said good plain old women as long as you said for the house and the dinner.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...his discourse after dinner with me upon matters of the navy victualling very good and worth my hearing, and so home to my office in the afternoon with my mind full of business..."

Why do I think there is much more to this plain but pleasant little dinner in a plain but good house with two plain old (but good) ladies and dear Mr. Cutler the merchant that Sam is not telling us? What discourse could our good Cutler have had that would be so worth our hero's hearing that he'd settle for such a luncheon?

"You're a young man meant to make your way in the world, Mr. P. Isn't he Mother?"

"A clever young man, he is, certainly Cutler."

"The sort of clever young man who knows not to let a good chance pass 'im by, eh Mr. P?" sly smile from Cutler. "Yes...I was saying to Mrs. Cutler here and Mother..." leans back in chair. "'Mr. P is the one for us.', I says, 'Will back a man up to the hilt with none of that roguishness Batten and the other sirs give one.'"

"Aye, son. Ye did." Mother Cutler nods solemnly.

"More boiled beef, Mr. P? Wife, more beef for Mr. P here." Cutler pressing more of the plain but good fare upon
our boy.

"Thank ye, ma'am. Now Cutler...As to your business proposal."

"Now there's the man hisself, ladies. Straight to the hart, he goes. 'As to your business proposal, Mr. C.' he says."

Hmmn...I see now why it takes so long even for men like Carteret and Batten to acquire through graft, Sam thinks, eyeing the darkening sky outside.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Dinner with Mr. Cutler
I'm a little surprised that the official garbler of spices would serve a "plain" dinner. Sounds like going to a Thai restaurant and being served meatloaf.

cumgranosalis  •  Link

Why waste good profits, when monies could be put buying more cinnamon cloves and ginger etc..

andy  •  Link

Ouch!

thankfully they hadn't invented the zip.

Rod McCaslin  •  Link

I wonder why Sam was in such a hurry to pull his pants up yesterday? He doesn't mention meeting Mrs. Lane.

a plain woman  •  Link

A Plain Woman's quandary..

Is it better to be written of as plain, or not to be written of at all?

Bob T  •  Link

by a stroke ... in pulling up my breeches yesterday over eagerly

The image of this and what happened immediately afterwards, has stuck with me all day. Not a good thing when you're driving at 110 klicks down a highway. Love this guy.

Philip S  •  Link

As a public servant I was interested to see Pepys criticising the wording of the quarantine notice. Apart from anything else, it shows what a fine analytical mind he had, loose wording would never have got past him.

DJC  •  Link

I don't think he is criticising the quarantine notice, his remark is directed at the change of meaning of 'quarantine' from a direct reference to the biblical episode of 40 days, to a more generaly meaning of a period of isolation. That he notes this innovation is good evidence that this is, for him, in his time, a neologism.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

discourse ...upon matters of the navy victualling very good and worth my hearing, ... my mind full of business

[Spoiler]

Pepys propositioned himself for a new position, ... 'Surveyor General of Victualling,' in effect an inspector general of the system ... He held the position from November 1665 - February 1667 ... Pepy's most important and lasting contribution to the victualling system was a reform of the system of pursery. ... Under the pre civil war system, to which the Navy reverted at Pepy's urging, the purser was automatically allowed on his accounts the full value of victuals for the ship's authorized compliment ... but nothing more. He had an incentive to economize ... but much to loose by padding the musters., which would earn him nothing but awkward questions. Captains and pursers now had motive to expose one anothers' misdeeds, not to connive with one another. The system was designed to cause the purser to loose rather than gain by defrauding the men of their victuals, and to put the captain on the men's side rather than the purser's if they had a grievance. Though by no mans perfect, this system of pursery ... continued to work into the nineteenth century. ... It is worth noting that the revised English system of pursery was markedly superior to those of foreign navies."

N. A. M. Rodger The Command of the Ocean A Naval History of Britain, 1649 - 1815 NY: 2005 (London: 2004)
pp. 105 - 6

Pedro  •  Link

Meanwhile out in the sticks.

(In the absence of Dirtk)...Ralph the vicar of Earls Colne...
26: On Thursday morning about seven of the clock or before, my dear wife after many sad pains, and sadder fears, in respect of the unkindliness of her labour. was yet though gods mercy, delivered of her 10th child, sixth daughter . and now our seventh child, and 5th daughter living, for which mercy my soul blesses him, and my heart desires further to trust in him at all times, to ordain things for me and mine for the best: when this 7th was born, I remembered the use, and blessing on 7. in the scripture, and my prayers were god would use, and bless them all, as I trust he will.

dirk  •  Link

Remember the Rev. Josselin, and his contemporary diary? Here's his entry for today:

"On Thursday morning about seven of the clock or before, my dear wife after many sad pains, and sadder fears, in respect of the unkindliness of her labour. was yet though gods mercy, delivered of her 10th child, sixth daughter . and now our seventh child, and 5th daughter living, for which mercy my soul blesses him, and my heart desires further to trust in him at all times, to ordain things for me and mine for the best: when this 7th was born, I remembered the use, and blessing on 7. in the scripture, and my prayers were god would use, and bless them all, as I trust he will."

Congratulations!

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"we are going upon making of all ships coming from [Amsterdam] and Hambrough, or any other infected places, to perform their Quarantine (for thirty days as Sir Rd. Browne expressed it in the order of the Council, contrary to the import of the word, though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it) in Holehaven"

On 11 November the Council ordered the Admiralty to have two small ships stationed as low in the river as possible to enquire of all incoming vessels whether they came from infected places. If they did, they were either to turn back to sea or to stay in quarantine in Hole (Holl, Holy) Haven, a creek on the s.-e. coast of Essex: PRO, PC 2/56, F. 311r-v. For certain other ships and goods, the period was forty days: ib. f. 300v. Hamburgh was the port from which Bohemian timber was shipped. (L&M footnote)

Bill  •  Link

“there met with Mr. Cutler the merchant, who would needs have me home to his house by the Dutch Church”
The Dutch church in Austin Friars. Pepys on September 29th, 1664, stated that Mr. Cutler had "bought all the Augustine Fryers."
---Wheatley, 1893.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re:‘ . . to perform their Quarantine . . ’

‘quarantine, n. < Anglo-Norman
1. Christian Church. The place where Jesus fasted for 40 days. Obs. . .
2. Law. A period of 40 days during which a widow who is entitled to a dower is supposed to be assigned her dower and has the right to remain in her deceased husband's chief dwelling; Obs. . .
3. A period of 40 days set aside or used for a specific purpose, as penance or service; a set of forty (days) (rare). Obs . .

4. a. Originally: isolation imposed on newly arrived travellers in order to prevent the spread of disease; a period of time spent in such isolation . .
. . 1663 S. Pepys Diary 26 Nov. (1971) IV. 399 Making of all ships coming from thence..to perform their Quarantine (for 30 days as Sir Richard Browne expressed it..contrary to the import of the word; though in the general acceptation, it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it) . .
1796 E. Darwin Zoonomia II. 265 This dreadful malady* might be annihilated by making all the dogs in Great Britain perform a kind of quarantine, by shutting them up for a certain number of weeks.
. . 1855 Dickens Little Dorrit (1857) i. ii. 12 ‘Now, I ask you,’ said Mr. Meagles... ‘I ask you simply as between man and man..did you ever hear of such damned nonsense as putting Pet in quarantine?’
. . 2000 Independent 28 Feb. i. 5/1 The pet travel scheme, which came into effect at midnight last night, allows pet owners to bring their cats and dogs back into Britain from 22 countries without the need for quarantine.’
(OED)

* probably rabies

Third Reading

Ruslan  •  Link

I found this quite difficult to parse:

"The plague, it seems, grows more and more at Amsterdam; and we are going upon making of all ships coming from thence and Hambrough, or any other infected places, to perform their Quarantine (for thirty days as Sir Rd. Browne expressed it in the order of the Council, contrary to the import of the word, though in the general acceptation it signifies now the thing, not the time spent in doing it) in Holehaven, a thing never done by us before."

So ran it through ChatGPT:

It seems the plague is worsening in Amsterdam. Consequently, there is a plan to enforce a thirty-day quarantine on all ships arriving from there, Hamburg, or any other infected places, at Holehaven. Sir Richard Browne described this in the Council’s order, though he used the term quarantine inaccurately to refer to the act itself rather than strictly to the time period. Nonetheless, the general meaning is understood, and this will be a first for us.

This is slightly different from the annotators interpretations in 2006, but makes good sense to me.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'"quarantine" (short etymology): from the French "quarante," "forty"---i.e., forty days' (and nights') detention. (How Biblical.)'

'... there is a plan to enforce a thirty-day quarantine on all ships arriving from there ...'

Sir Richard Brown was using "quarantine" in a modern way. I suppose he could have used 'isolation' instead.
During COVID we were hard-pressed to observe 14 days in California! The Governor closed down a different section of the economy on consecutive days, so the first to close came out of quarantine maybe 2 days after the last section closed. I don't know if that was his intention, but it seemed inefficient if he wanted to stop the infection.

I thought ships used to stay at the Scilly Islands for their quarantines -- Holehaven Creek is located between Canvey Island and Corringham in Essex, which is uncomfortably close to London IMHO.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

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