Wednesday 8 June 1664
All day before dinner with Creed, talking of many things, among others, of my Lord’s going so often to Chelsy, and he, without my speaking much, do tell me that his daughters do perceive all, and do hate the place, and the young woman there, Mrs. Betty Becke; for my Lord, who sent them thither only for a disguise for his going thither, will come under pretence to see them, and pack them out of doors to the Parke, and stay behind with her; but now the young ladies are gone to their mother to Kensington.
To dinner, and after dinner till 10 at night in my study writing of my old broken office notes in shorthand all in one book, till my eyes did ake ready to drop out. So home to supper and to bed.
14 Annotations
First Reading
tel • Link
So Sandwich, in spite of appearing to have taken note of Sam's warnings, is still enjoying the strumpet Betty. And the war is approaching, and the relations with the Duke of York so delicate!
No wonder poor Sam is stressed.
cape henry • Link
"...who sent them thither only for a disguise for his going thither..." If true, a most callous use of one's daughters.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...before dinner with Creed, talking of many things..."
Oh, oysters...Come and walk with us.
***
"No!"
"But, Pepys..."
"For the last time, Howe, no! You write the damned letter this time!!"
***
Cumsalisgrano • Link
When besotted, thoust only see life thru thine rose tinted glasses
Miss Lizzy • Link
No word on Elizabeth. Does that mean she is better or that Sam is too caught up with 'My Lord' to tell us?
Terry F • Link
John Evelyn's Diary
June 8 I went to our Society, to which his Majestie had sent that wonderfull horne of the fish, which struck a dangerous hole in the keele of a ship, in the India Sea, which being broake off with the violence of the fish, & left in the timber, preserv'd it from foundring:
Surely the horn of a narwhal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narw…
Cumsalisgrano • Link
Known range of the Narwhal be wrong for this incident, but on the other hand, may be some found the north west passage but never let on.
Terry F • Link
CSG, good point; and a fishy account of the origin of a curiosity wasn't unknown.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"but now the young ladies are gone to their mother to Kensington."
L&M: At Dean Hodges's: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
For Sandwich's affair with Betty Beck, see esp http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Bridget Carrie Davis • Link
Was Sam's "shorthand" a cryptogram? I know that keeping diaries in code has been popular throughout history.
Terry Foreman • Link
Not sure what a "cryptogram" is, but the Shorthand Pepys used was what was used by clerks (he was one) at the office for speed and efficiency, specifically http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Bridget Carrie Davis • Link
Thanks, Terry, those are wonderful links.
Chris Squire UK • Link
BCB: cryptogram, n.= ‘A piece of cryptographic writing; anything written in code or cipher.’ (OED)
‘ . . The seemingly impenetrable shorthand of the six volumes marked ‘journal’ discouraged examination until, it seems, the successful publication of Evelyn's diary (1818) prompted Magdalene to have Pepys's manuscript deciphered. An impecunious undergraduate of neighbouring St John's College, John Smith, was hired, and learned the characters by comparing Pepys's shorthand of Charles II's escape story with the longhand version. He did not know that the manual for the system, Thomas Shelton's Tutor to Tachygraphy (1642), was in the library . . ‘ (DNB)
Thank you, John Smith.
eileen d. • Link
hear, hear! re: John Smith and all the impecunious lovers of knowledge, who've bequeathed us such a rich legacy in every arena of scholarship.