Wednesday 23 December 1663

Up betimes and my wife; and being in as mourning a dress as we could, at present, without cost, put ourselves into, we by Sir W. Pen’s coach to Mrs. Turner’s, at Salisbury Court, where I find my Lord’s coach and six horses. We staid till almost eleven o’clock, and much company came, and anon, the corps being put into the hearse, and the scutcheons set upon it, we all took coach, and I and my wife and Auditor Beale in my Lord Sandwich’s coach, and went next to Mrs. Turner’s mourning coach, and so through all the City and Shoreditch, I believe about twenty coaches, and four or five with six and four horses.

Being come thither, I made up to the mourners, and bidding them a good journey, I took leave and back again, and setting my wife into a hackney out of Bishopsgate Street, I sent her home, and I to the ’Change and Auditor Beale about his business.

Did much business at the ’Change, and so home to dinner, and then to my office, and there late doing business also to my great content to see God bless me in my place and opening honest ways, I hope to get a little money to lay up and yet to live handsomely. So to supper and to bed. My wife having strange fits of the toothache, some times on this, and by and by on that side of her tooth, which is not common.

31 Annotations

First Reading

Pedro  •  Link

Shoreditch...Brewers Phrase and Fable

according to tradition, is so called from Jane Shore, who, it is said, died there in a ditch. This tale comes from a ballad in Pepys' collection; but the truth is, it receives its name from Sir John de Soerdich, lord of the manor in the reign of Edward III. 1
"I could not get one bit of bread
Whereby my hunger might be fed... .
So, weary of my life, at length
I yielded up my vital strength
Within a ditch ... which since that day
Is Shoreditch called, as writers say."


Duke of Shoreditch. The most successful of the London archers received this playful title. 2
"Good king, make not good Lord of Lincoln Duke of Shoreditch!"--The Poore Man's Peticion to the Kinge. (1603.)

Bradford  •  Link

This very night, Sam, you must sit down and write My Lord a nice thank you note, and send it by special messenger, or next time he'll make you take the hackney.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

So when did he return the coach and six?
He presumably didn't take them to the 'Change. Wish he'd told us, I feel a lack of closure.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Thinking it through a little further,
I guess when he was through with the funeral procession he simply left the coach, and the driver took it back.

Linda  •  Link

Isn't it interesting that Sam isn't talking about getting a Christmas tree or buying a Christmas gift for his wife. There is no frantic cooking of Christmas cookies or buying a goose for Christmas day. Was all of this outlawed in this time of religious oppresion?

Michael Robinson  •  Link

much company came, ... the scutcheons set upon it, we all took coach, ... through all the City and Shoreditch, I believe about twenty coaches, and four or five with six and four horses.

To the greater glory of Pepys's dead and living ... "Si monumentum requiris circumspice."

Ruben  •  Link

Linda:
in the background info there are excellent annotations about Christmas as seen by Pepys.

Rob  •  Link

Linda - the custom of Christmas trees was introduced to England by Prince Albert, not during Pepys' lifetime....

Bob T  •  Link

Sam is a person who lived in the seventeenth century, and does the same things as we do in the twenty-first. For the funeral he bums the use of a posh coach for himself and his wife, and he finds enough bits and pieces in his house to dress them in mourning. In other words, he did it on the cheap. Sound familiar?

Mary  •  Link

Elizabeth's toothache.

The L&M text reads:" sometimes on this, and by and by on that side of her mouth; which is not common."

This makes better sense. It is scarcely possible to tell which SIDE of a tooth is aching, though the appearance of a cavity could lead one to determine the cause of the toothache.

JWB  •  Link

"...and opening honest ways, I hope to get a little money to lay up and yet to live handsomely."

And so say all of us. Merry Christmas.

Ruben  •  Link

funeral
I think that Pepys has a ready set on his wardrobe for mourning. I retrieved this information from my memory, something not accurate as a written memo, but it did not take time from me.

Paul Dyson  •  Link

Being come thither, I made up to the mourners, and bidding them a good journey, I took leave and back again,

Sam's attendance at the funeral doesn't seem to involve participation in the service or burial, just being there for a time and putting on some show.

Terry F  •  Link

Peace, goodwill to all at Christmas!

no military, "the corps being put into the hearse"....

cumgranosalis  •  Link

Samuell wanted to make an impression "...we all took coach, and I and my wife and Auditor Beale in my Lord Sandwich's coach,..." 'Tis a way to emphasise his status in publick opinion.
Sam be thinking imprimo, imprimere, impressi, impressum: stamp of approval,
as long he not be an impresario.
A grand display all that clatter thru the City 20 coaches with all the citizens a wondering who be the dead one.
[see Beale for context]

A. De Araujo  •  Link

I understand the tradition of the Nativity Display at Christmas time was started by St Francis of Assisi in the 13th century; was it ever a tradition in England?

A. De Araujo  •  Link

Make it 14th century

Ruben  •  Link

Nativity Display at Christmas
From a Spanish site (translated and resumed by me):
After the first Nativity display in 1223 by Francis de Assisi the idea extended all over Italy.
But the oldest testimony with images instead of actors comes from the German monastery of Füsen (1252). In Spain the tradition was introduced by the Franciscan order in the XV century, but there is an old display (from 1300) that belonged to Barcelona's cathedral.
It was King Carlos III, in the XVIII century, who really introduced the Belen display to the general public, when he abandoned Naples throne to become King of Spain. He asked three Spanish artists to create 200 figures for his son Carlos IV. Many are still kept in the Royal Palace. They are of different sizes, to give an impression of perspective, once combined in the Nativity display.
see (in Spanish):
http://www.hispagenda.com/articul…

A. De Araujo  •  Link

Thanks Ruben and Pedro
Make it 13th century again.
I read that this year in Naples there is a figurine of a shepperd holding a tray with the head and the testicles of Berlusconi.

Ruben  •  Link

some 20 years ago, the best Christmas postcard of the year was one with a Santa in full dress hanging by his neck. I think it was published by the New Yorker.

cumgranosalis  •  Link

as a Caganer : my rumour: "to cag" ; dothe it come from Catalan?
slang to bum sumit:
"me old china [plate], got a fag that I can cag."
"not bludy likely,go and cag, sum ware else ........."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Pepys!!!!!"

"My...My...My Lord?!"

"Where in the blazes of Hell is my coach and six?!!! They never came back!!!"

"Well?!!"

Uh...Ah...Ha...Ha...Ummn...Knew there was something I forgot last night.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I and my wife and Auditor Beale in my Lord Sandwich’s coach, and went next to Mrs. Turner’s mourning coach, and so through all the City and Shoreditch, I believe about twenty coaches, and four or five with six and four horses....and setting my wife into a hackney out of Bishopsgate Street, I sent her home, and I to the ‘Change and Auditor Beale about his business. "

Auditor Beale rode in Lord Sandwich's coach as a distinguished relative of the Pepyses. http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

This was quite a send-off for Edward Pepys. According to the Encyclopedia, "He was buried in the church of Tattersett St. Andrews, Norfolk." He must have been known in the City for 20 coaches to turn out, and for Sandwich to think this was an appropriate use of his coach for the morning.

The next thing that puzzles me is that cousin Sam and Beale took precedence over Edward Pepys' two sisters, Jane Pepys Turner and Elizabeth Pepys Dike. Jane's husband, William Turner, was an important man.

"I made up to the mourners," -- I believe that means Sam paid the mourners, so maybe they were "professionals," paid to make lots of noise. Or maybe they accompanied the corpse to Norfolk?

-- More mysteries that will never be answered.

Sasha Clarkson  •  Link

I'm not sure that Sandwich's coach actually did take precedence over Mrs Turner's "mourning coach". Sandwich was a Pepys on his mother's side, and was making a extravagant gesture to honour Edward Pepys, who was the senior male of the senior Pepys line. By allowing Sam to use his coach, Sandwich, was effectively marking Sam as his representative. This public mark of favour from an an important Peer of the Realm would certainly have enhanced Sam's perceived status, and was also a sign of forgiveness from m'Lord.

Louise Hudson  •  Link

Anyone who has experienced the excruciating pain of a bad toothache knows that the sufferer often can't tell which tooth is the culprit or even which side it's on. Every tooth in the mouth hurts. One of the things it's so hard to know is the pain people suffered because modern dentistry had not been developed, along with other medical advances they had no access to in the 17th century. As Thomas Hobbes was to say only a few years later.
". . . the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

And pain, and often not nearly short enough.

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ’ . . I made up to the mourners . . ‘

‘to make up
I. . . 7. trans. To set out the items of (an account) in order; to add up and balance (an account).
. . 1616 Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. i. 142 Yet I can make my Awdit vp, that all From me do backe receiue the Flowre of all.
. . 1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. viii. 182 Who but an Atheist could think of leaving the World without having first made up his Account? ' (OED)

Same agreed with the professional mourners what services they had provided and the amount of the bill they would present after the funeral, ensuring there would be no hidden extras.

Mary K  •  Link

I made up to the mourners.

I don't think that this is anything to do with professional mourners. Pepys is explaining that, once the 'show' part of the transportation of the corpse had been accomplished, Pepys approached (made up to) the chief persons mourning the deceased who were about to leave London and start their lengthy journey to Norfolk for Edward's burial there.

He had not approached them personally before this; it was more important to get the order of coaches, questions of precedence etc. settled rather than offering personal commiserations.

To make up to someone: to approach them with a degree of deference, caution, hesitation in order to introduce oneself, deliver a private or personal message or greeting. It is a careful move, coloured by circumstance.

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