Sunday 27 March 1664
(Lord’s day). Lay long in bed wrangling with my wife about the charge she puts me to at this time for clothes more than I intended, and very angry we were, but quickly friends again. And so rising and ready I to my office, and there fell upon business, and then to dinner, and then to my office again to my business, and by and by in the afternoon walked forth towards my father’s, but it being church time, walked to St. James’s, to try if I could see the belle Butler, but could not; only saw her sister, who indeed is pretty, with a fine Roman nose. Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields; but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington, to the old man’s, at the King’s Head, to eat cakes and ale (his name was Pitts) that I did not know which was the ducking-pond nor where I was. So through F[l]ee[t] lane to my father’s, and there met Mr. Moore, and discoursed with him and my father about who should administer for my brother Tom, and I find we shall have trouble in it, but I will clear my hands of it, and what vexed me, my father seemed troubled that I should seem to rely so wholly upon the advice of Mr. Moore, and take nobody else, but I satisfied him, and so home; and in Cheapside, both coming and going, it was full of apprentices, who have been here all this day, and have done violence, I think, to the master of the boys that were put in the pillory yesterday. But, Lord! to see how the train-bands are raised upon this: the drums beating every where as if an enemy were upon them; so much is this city subject to be put into a disarray upon very small occasions. But it was pleasant to hear the boys, and particularly one little one, that I demanded the business. He told me that that had never been done in the city since it was a city, two prentices put in the pillory, and that it ought not to be so.
So I walked home, and then it being fine moonshine with my wife an houre in the garden, talking of her clothes against Easter and about her mayds, Jane being to be gone, and the great dispute whether Besse, whom we both love, should be raised to be chamber-mayde or no. We have both a mind to it, but know not whether we should venture the making her proud and so make a bad chamber-mayde of a very good natured and sufficient cook-mayde.
So to my office a little, and then to supper, prayers and to bed.
34 Annotations
First Reading
Matt • Link
"...but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington, to the old man's, at the King's Head, to eat cakes and ale (his name was Pitts) that I did not know which was the ducking-pond nor where I was. "
The above sentence is interesting becomes it's potentially revealing about Pepys's intention for writing the diary: if he was only writing it for his personal use, why bother supplying the reason why his father used to carry them to Islington? Surely, if he could remember this event after several decades, he could expect to remember it for a long time to come. Furthermore, if Pepys knew the old man's name, Pitts, why bother to include it?
Perhaps Pepys is intending to use his diary in his old age, which reflects Rider's mention of long-term diary keeping yesterday. Or, maybe he realised that someone else might read his diary, and was therefore providing a few aids to understanding.
Equally likely is that this post is reading too much into the entry, and that Pepys included such detail simply because he liked writing.
Terry F • Link
"it being fine moonshine with my wife an houre in the garden"
Mais ou sont les plombes d'antan?
Before the renovations they would walk on the leads, and talk.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...wrangling with my wife about the charge she puts me to at this time for clothes more than I intended."
"What about your new coat? And that damned perriwig?!"
"For business, Mrs. Pepys. Solely for business." indignant, rather martyred look.
"...and very angry we were, but quickly friends
again."
Something tells me Sam must have the ability to make fun of himself...At his own clotheshorse tendencies, at his stinginess...I can't believe he could cool Bess off so quickly in these spats any other way.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields; but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington, to the old man's, at the King's Head, to eat cakes and ale (his name was Pitts) that I did not know which was the ducking-pond nor where I was."
Delayed reaction to Tom's death? Trying to view the old places where they were boys together?
Robert Gertz • Link
"We have both a mind to it, but know not whether we should venture the making her proud and so make a bad chamber-mayde of a very good natured and sufficient cook-mayde."
Didn't I see a similar debate on an episode of "Upstairs, Downstairs"? Hang in there, Besse...The revolution(s) is(are) coming.
cape henry • Link
"...wrangling with my wife..." An interesting word that Pepys has employed previously several times. He seems always to use it in the context of real but inconsequential matters involving small amounts of money or odd disputes. The word itself is very old and comes down to us meaning much the same thing it did in Middle English.
Terry F • Link
"But it was pleasant to hear the boys, and particularly one little one, that I demanded the business. He told me that that had never been done in the city since it was a city, two prentices put in the pillory, and that it ought not to be so."
What a splendid, fearless and direct news-reporter is our Mr. Pepys!
Cactus Wren • Link
" ... and so make a bad chamber-mayde of a very good natured and sufficient cook-mayde."
The Pepys Principle!
Bergie • Link
Matt . . .
"The above sentence is interesting . . . why bother supplying the reason why his father used to carry them to Islington? . . . if Pepys knew the old man's name, Pitts, why bother to include it?
The sentence reads as if Pepys couldn't recall the name at first and nudged his memory by writing down details of the visits. It worked: the name came to him before he reached the end of his sentence, but it appears later in the sentence than if it had been available immediately.
Mary • Link
ducking-ponds.
These are not the kind of ducking-ponds where one might discover a ducking-stool, but rather ponds where the sport of setting dogs to chase ducks was practised. L&M notes that there were ducking-ponds in both Islington and Clerkenwell.
Dudley • Link
St James the Less Clerkenwell.
Paul Dyson • Link
"wrangling with my wife"
At the University of Cambridge, a wrangler is a student who has completed the third year (called Part II) of the Mathematical Tripos with first-class honours.
The highest-scoring student is named the "senior wrangler"; the second highest-scoring student is the "second wrangler"; the third highest is the "third wrangler", and so on.
(From Wikipedia)
Perhaps this term derives from the time when examinations were conducted orally, and (in the good old days) in Latin!
cape henry • Link
The memories at the ducking-ponds might also be merely a case of encountering a once-familiar landscape that has been altered and clicking into place, sort of one by one, those things and incidents formerly associated with that place. These would seem to be pleasant boyhood memories jotted down perhaps simply to recall them. Who hasn't returned to a place to find it much changed and done, more or less, the same? This observation, however, does not make any less interesting the intriguing question of whether or not Pepys was writing for posterity.
Bradford • Link
Thanks, Mary---one had been pondering the juxtaposition of the belle Butler and ducking the eye-wandering tight-fisted husband. Drat.
Wouldn't it be easier, then as now, to find a new chambermaid than another good cook?
Terry F • Link
"Wouldn't it be easier...to find a new chambermaid than another good cook?"
Perhaps not: if the chambermaid is to be Elizabeth's intimate and companion on some trips abroad (shopping, etc..), Elizabeth is seeking a compatible and Samuel her contentment? Personality upstairs, technical skills down.
jeannine • Link
"Personality upstairs, technical skills down"
Plus with Sam's love of a good meal there could be hell to pay if he traded in his great gourmet cook Besse for a lesser skilled run of the mill cook, now if he traded her in for someone from the Julia Child gene pool, it might just work out....but it's doubtful he'll risk it.
JonTom Kittredge • Link
Trading the "Gourmet Cook"
But Besse is the sous-chef, isn't she, rather than the chef de cuisine? Or, at least, I assume cook-mayde here means kitchen maid, rather than cook.
Australian Susan • Link
I think "cook-mayde" means she was a maid AND a cook or it could just be that all female servants were called "maydes" of one form or another in the 17th century and it was only later that the more important female servant was called just "cook".
Mary • Link
cook-mayde
Australian Susan's second thought looks the better; that 'cook'modifies'mayde, cf. cook-maid; chamber-maid, lady's-maid, parlour-maid etc.
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields; but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington, ... that I did not know which was the ducking-pond nor where I was.
(la forme d'une ville
Change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel)
Pedro • Link
Again in the absence of Dirk. In Earls Colne Ralph Josselin...
March. 27: Cold but good weather, god be praised, the lord abundant in his goodness towards us, a cheerful Sabbath, god good in the word, his goodness, christ, pardon(,) presence sweet to my soul. lord quicken my heart to walk with thee
When I come to review the ways of god towards me in the year past, I find it mercy and truth, he still smiles on us, he has added a little Rebekah to our number and the rest grow up. my public liberty strangely continued to me, and people, I have purchased this year a close cost 28li. for my son Thomas , my receipts more than expenses by 8li. received. 168li.18s.4d. laid out. 160li.13s.2d. my stock as good as last spring. my debts were than due to me 20li. more than now. so that I have saved clearly about 8li. and my building which was at least 40li. now I have about 15li. in money and my tenants owe me. 70li. blessed been god
http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earl…
Terry F • Link
"But, Lord! to see how the train-bands are raised upon this: the drums beating every where as if an enemy were upon them; so much is this city subject to be put into a disarray upon very small occasions."
Methinks Pepys lacks the perspective of the authorities on yesterday's felonies. Cf. this post: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Second Reading
Bill • Link
“Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields; but they are so altered since my father used to carry us to Islington”
In Ben Jonson's "Every Man in his Humour," there is an allusion to the "Citizens that come a-ducking to Islington Ponds." The piece of ground, long since built upon, in the Back Road, was called "Ducking-pond Field," from the pool in which the unfortunate ducks were hunted by dogs, to amuse the Cockneys, who went to Islington to breathe fresh air and drink cream. The King's Head tavern stood opposite the church. Islington was classic ground to Pepys, as he speaks of the house in which he had been nursed at Kingsland.
---Diary and correspondence of Samuel Pepys, the diary deciphered by J. Smith. 1854.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Before the renovations they would walk on the leads, and talk."
And I bet they will again, Terry -- it's March in London. It's cold, windy, rainy and miserable (it snowed last week and there was a downpour yesterday) -- and it gets dark quite early, even if this particular evening was fine and they could get bundled up and see their way around the garden by the light of the moon and the lights coming through the windows opening onto the area. There's nothing like falling off the edge of your roof in the dark because you can't see something dangerous.
San Diego Sarah • Link
A reminder that Lady Day was the end of the final quarter of their fiscal year (like our April tax deadlines):
"I have purchased this year a close cost 28li. for my son Thomas, my receipts more than expenses by 8li. received. 168li.18s.4d. laid out. 160li.13s.2d. my stock as good as last spring. my debts were than due to me 20li. more than now. so that I have saved clearly about 8li. and my building which was at least 40li. now I have about 15li. in money and my tenants owe me. 70li. blessed been god"
I wonder what the purchase of a "close" for his son means.
Louise Hudson • Link
I suspect that Sam has some person or persons in mind, perhaps unborn, someone "out there" to whom he is directing his writing, perhaps a son or daughter, or anyone who might come across his writings after his own demise--someone who might be interested in knowing what life was like in 17th Century London. I doubt he thought all of us would be reading his writing 500 years later, but it's not hard to believe he wanted his writing to be read by someone, so he was addressing that unknown entity. I remember when I wrote a diary, I always thought of some unknown person, perhaps a descendant in another century reading it, so I wrote to that person, assuming that he or she would need some things explained. I'd wager that the Rev. Josselin did, too. A little like acting to an empty house. You can't help hoping someone is listening.
Maids who were "Jills of all trades" and could handle most household chores were called maids of all work, at least in subsequent centuries. They went where they were needed and didn't specialize.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Louise, I found a wonderful explanation for the outbreak and popularity of diaries during the 17th Century, which I have posted for the first day of the Diary. The idea that resonated for me was that some people missed having a father figure to confess to, so they wrote diaries in which they could perform self-examination.
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Today, for Sam, is 6th April Gregorian, and the moon is waxing gibbous, with the full moon due in four day's time.
The Navy Office garden faces west.
Sunset would be at about 7:40pm, and moonset would be approximately 4 am (no daylight saving time). Therefore, after sunset, the moon would be bright but not full, fairly high in the sky, and shining from the southwest, illuminating the walls of the Navy building, an the pale stones of St Olave's north end. Perfect for an hour in the garden before retiring.
As it happens, the moon phases this year (2017) are fairly close to those of 1664, Gregorian dates, pretty closely; so all of this can be checked. :)
http://www.astropixels.com/epheme…
http://sunrisesunsetmap.com/
Sasha Clarkson • Link
Re Lady Day: when the Gregorian calendar was finally adopted in Britain, in1752, the Julian Calendar had slipped another day back, making 11 days' difference between the two. As the Treasury wanted to make sure it collected 365 days of revenue for that year, the tax year was moved forward by 11 days, now starting on 6th April, and ending on 5th April - sometimes known as "Old Lady Day".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lad…
Gerald Berg • Link
Fighting in the morning.
It seems they fight more in the morning than at night. A function of the lighting perhaps? I do recall sometimes SP going to bed angry but whether it was with Liz, the help, or work related I can't remember. These morning spats do seem to get resolved fairly quickly.
Louise Hudson • Link
San Diego Sarah, Your explanation makes a lot of sense.
Sue Nicholson • Link
San Diego Sarah, a 'close' in this context is a field or piece of agricultural land surrounded by a hedge or wall. The son in question was around 20 years of age, I think.
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ‘ . . Lay long in bed wrangling with my wife . .’
‘wrangle, v. < Old Germanic . .
1. a. intr. To dispute angrily; to argue noisily or vehemently; to altercate, contend; to bicker.
. . b. Const. about, against, anent, over, and esp. with (a person).
. . 1650 tr. J. A. Comenius Janua Linguarum Reserata §795 They wrangle anent..that universal and present remedie, whether it bee to bee had or no.
1725 D. Defoe New Voy. round World ii. 202 Quarrelling and wrangling about their Wealth . . ‘
…………
Re: ‘ . . Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields . . ‘
‘ducking-pond, n. . .
a. A pond on which ducks may be hunted or shot.
. . 1664 S. Pepys Diary 27 Mar. (1971) V. 101 Thence walked through the ducking-pond fields . .
. . b. A pond for the ducking of offenders. (The senses cannot always be discriminated.)
1625 Sess. Bk. Middlesex in Jrnl. Chester Archæol. Soc. (1861) 6 224 The inhabitants of the parishe of St. James, Clerkenwell, shall erect and place a Cocqueane-Stoole on the side of the ducking ponde . .’
.........
Re: ‘ . . I have purchased this year a close cost 28li. . . ’
‘close, n.1 < French . .
. . 2. In many senses more or less specific: as, An enclosed field (now chiefly local, in the English midlands) . .
. . 1712 J. Arbuthnot John Bull Still in Senses vi. 24 We measur'd the Corn Fields Close by Close . . ’
………….‘
(OED)
Bill • Link
A CLOSE, a piece of Ground fenced or hedged about.
---An universal etymological English dictionary. N. Bailey, 1724.