Wednesday 4 May 1664

Up, and my new Taylor, Langford, comes and takes measure of me for a new black cloth suit and cloake, and I think he will prove a very carefull fellow and will please me well. Thence to attend my Lord Peterborough in bed and give him an account of yesterday’s proceeding with Povy. I perceive I labour in a business will bring me little pleasure; but no matter, I shall do the King some service. To my Lord’s lodgings, where during my Lady’s sickness he is, there spoke with him about the same business. Back and by water to my cozen Scott’s. There condoled with him the loss of my cozen, his wife, and talked about his matters, as atturney to my father, in his administering to my brother Tom. He tells me we are like to receive some shame about the business of his bastarde with Jack Noble; but no matter, so it cost us no money.

Thence to the Coffee-house and to the ’Change a while. News uncertain how the Dutch proceed. Some say for, some against a war. The plague increases at Amsterdam. So home to dinner, and after dinner to my office, where very late, till my eyes (which begin to fail me nowadays by candlelight) begin to trouble me. Only in the afternoon comes Mr. Peter Honiwood to see me and gives me 20s., his and his friends’ pence for my brother John, which, God forgive my pride, methinks I think myself too high to take of him; but it is an ungratefull pitch of pride in me, which God forgive.

Home at night to supper and to bed.

20 Annotations

First Reading

Terry F  •  Link

"my new Taylor, Langford, comes and takes measure of me for a new black cloth suit and cloake, and I think he will prove a very carefull fellow and will please me well."

If you know how suits are made (and Pepys does,) and have been measured for one by a careful tailor (as he has, more than once), then you'll know how to attend to the doing of it by someone new. (I've been there, and it's a delightful experience, though I'm not a tailor's son, but a suitmaking-seamstress's grandson.) A very nice sentence, and a pleasure to read: takes me back.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"to attend my Lord Peterborough in bed"

Man ... Sam will do *anything* for his job, won't he?

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"I perceive I labour in a business will bring me little pleasure; but no matter, I shall do the King some service."

I hope Charles appreciates this...

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"The plague increases at Amsterdam."

Uh oh.

"Only in the afternoon comes Mr. Peter Honiwood to see me and gives me 20s., his and his friends' pence for my brother John"

Why is Sam loathe to take this? Is it a collection that Honiwood and his friends have taken up upon John's death to help his next of kin, and well-off Sam doesn't want to accept their charity?

Sorry 'bout the shotgun posts...

Conrad  •  Link

Todd, it was Tom who died not John. I've got no idea why John's friends have taken up a collection for him, or why they are giving the 20 shillings to Sam. Maybe someone else has an idea of what's going on here?

Terry F  •  Link

"the 20 shillings"

Fortunately, L&M have an idea: this allowance for John while at Cambtidge is evidently provided by the Honywoods' rent of rooms at the Pepys's Salisbury Court house.

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Be-spoke be a gratifying experience, for sure.
"...comes and takes measure of me for a new black cloth suit and cloake, and I think he will prove a very carefull fellow and will please me well..."
The firm that I had dealings with,way back when, got it start over 400 years ago, the name not be Pepys, still thrilling those with the gold.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"The plague increases at Amsterdam."

Dutch State Council meeting at The Hague.

"Tou know gentlemen...We didn't ask for this war the Englanders have foisted upon us. If they'd just let us rule the world outside Europe, we'd get along fine. Still...So long as they're making war on us...And we have the dratted plague in Amsterdam. All these old clothes and items from the deceased. And the English merchants are still buying from us..."

"And the Englanders so love a bargain..."

"Exactly. Not as if we were deliberately firing plague-bearing items into England. Just selling off a few items suddenly available at great prices."

Pedro  •  Link

"Thence to attend my Lord Peterborough in bed and give him an account of yesterday's proceeding with Povy."

The previous Governor Lord Peterborough lies in bed, while Lord Teviot lies in "some corner of a foreign field".

On May 4th a composite battalion of 500 men, commanded by the Governor (Teviot) marched towards Jews Hill, 2 or 3 miles out of Tangier. Once on Jews River, Teviot met a force of 3,000 Moors, and these he beat off. It seems the advance was a calculated risk...

After repulsing the first attack, Teviot was sufficiently confident to advance further inland... but he was moving into a trap. The Moor's first attack had been a decoy luring the British into a heavy wooded upland where another 8000 lay hidden. Unable to assume their stylised order of battle, the British were defeated in clusters of hand to hand fighting where pikes and hangers were no match for scimitars. Teviot rallied his battalion at the summit of Jews Hill where they were cut down to a man. 30 out of the original 500 escaped to Tangier.

(Childs, The Army of Charles II)

A. De Araujo  •  Link

Thank you Pedro, I've always thought Tangiers was a part of Queen Catherine's dowry and had been "democratised" already.

Bradford  •  Link

As Pepys seems a man who, today, would not scruple to pick up a penny in the street, his backwardness over twenty shillings---which is, after all, twenty shillings---bespeaks a true mental reservation.

Mary  •  Link

Langford's tenancy.

According to an earlier note by L&M, Langford was a sub-tenant in the Salisbury Court property, with John Pepys Sr.the principal tenant. The landlord was a certain Mr. Frank, whom we may eventually meet in 1669.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Oops! Thanks for the correction, Conrad. I got my brothers mixed up (or, more correctly, Sam's brothers)...

cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Hear Ye Hear Ye:
Do not get a constable to arrest a Lordly onem whom refuses to pay a debt, not only do thee lose thy original stake but then thee have go on bended Knee and beg forgiveness and hand over more monies.

HP: Lords "Walker who arrested Lv. Petre, to be discharged.
Upon reading the Petition of James Walker; confessing, "That he, being a Servant to the Knight Marshal, did receive a Warrant from William Joyce, to arrest the Lady Elizabeth Petre, Wife to the Lord Petre; for which he implores their Lordships Pardon, and acknowledgeth his hearty Sorrow for committing the said Offence, as being contrary to the Privilege due to the Peerage of this Realm; and desiring to be released of his present Restraint which he lies under."
It is ORDERED, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, upon his said Submission, That the said James Walker be brought to this Bar To-morrow Morning, and receive the Reprehension of this House for this his high Offence to this House, and his Breach of the Privilege of Peerage; and afterwards, upon his making Submission to the Lady Petre, he shall be discharged from any Restraint he lies under by any Order of this House touching this Business."

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 4 May 1664', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 606-07. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 07 May 2007.

Cactus Wren  •  Link

Thank you, Todd. It's a relief to know I wasn't the only one to react to that line with a startled, "Good heavens."

(Hmm. Pepys/Peterborough slash?)

Terry F  •  Link

Also in Lords's: Seamen and Navy Stores Bill.

Hodie 1a vice lecta est Billa, "An Act for preventing the Disturbances of Seamen and others, and to preserve the Stores belonging to His Majesty's Navy Royal."

From: 'House of Lords Journal Volume 11: 4 April 1664', Journal of the House of Lords: volume 11: 1660-1666, pp. 591-92. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Date accessed: 09 May 2007.

Pedro  •  Link

"News uncertain how the Dutch proceed. Some say for, some against a war."

(de Witt).., But his was not a mind to leave things to chance, and whosesoever the primary responsibility, the Dutch took the decisive step which made retreat towards peace almost impossible. Their fleet was first at sea that year, and their armament ahead. The Admiralty noted in April that de Ruyter greatly outnumbered Lawson in the Straits; Tromp went off to meet the East Indiamen returning by the Orkneys: their dockyards were working on Sundays, and working overtime. In May the States resolved to put 30 ships in the Channel.

(British Foreign Policy 1660-72...Feiling)

Second Reading

Jonathan V  •  Link

"Todd Bernhardt on 4 May 2007"
"to attend my Lord Peterborough in bed"
Man ... Sam will do *anything* for his job, won't he?"

I was struck by this, as well, but I had a different response. This is not the first time he's carried on business with someone while they were still in bed. Or, he's been there while Sandwich is getting dressed, for example. I've often wondered how he was able to pack so much into his days, and I guess that's one way to do it!

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