Saturday 25 June 1664
We staid late, and he lay with me all night and rose very merry talking, and excellent company he is, that is the truth of it, and a most cunning man. He being gone I to the office, where we sat all the morning. At noon to dinner, and then to my office busy, and by and by home with Mr. Deane to a lesson upon raising a Bend of Timbers,1 and he being gone I to the office, and there came Captain Taylor, and he and I home, and I have done all very well with him as to the business of the last trouble, so that come what will come my name will be clear of any false dealing with him. So to my office again late, and then to bed.
13 Annotations
First Reading
Robert Gertz • Link
Not exactly Talleyrand to Pepys' Napoleon but...
Robert Gertz • Link
"...my name will be clear of any false dealing with him."
"So you gave the money back?"
"Bess?! Have you gone lunatic?! I meant that I got him to give me all papers he had relating to me in the affair."
***
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sam'l? Is there still no word from my poor brother in Germany?"
"No, none yet, Bess. Though I've no doubt he's writing shortly to tell us how he's leading the victorious march of the Emperor on Constantinople. Amazingly though, I suspect the letter will turn out to have been miraculously posted at Dover."
Terry F • Link
"excellent company he is, that is the truth of it, and a most cunning man."
Why SP tolerates from Creed what he wouldn't put up with from others! Creed's temperament when in Pepys's company is evidently a rarity, and to be prized.
Gary J. Bivin • Link
Knee, or compass, timber was wood that had grown with a bend similar to the human knee. It was used in shipbuilding to reinforce joints such as where the beams met the ship's sides. Naturally-grown knees of the right size and shape were sometimes hard to find, especially as the demands of the shipbuilding industry increased and the natural stocks were depleted.
Shipbuilders were beginning to use iron plates as a substitute at the time of the Diary, but many, mainly by tradition, considered wood to be superior.
CGS • Link
on this day it be duly noted by Offialdom that Mr Hayter gets to be Samuells'c chief of clerks.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
In woodworking, a knee is a natural or cut, curved piece of wood. Knees, sometimes called ships knees, are a common form of bracing in boat building . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kne…
Terry Foreman • Link
The British timber trade was importation of timber from the Baltic, and later North America, by the British. During the Middle Ages and Stuart period, Great Britain had large domestic supplies of timber, especially valuable were the famous British oaks. This timber formed the backbone of many industries such as shipbuilding but not iron smelting which used charcoal derived from the wood of various trees. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bri…
Terry Foreman • Link
"with Mr. Deane to a lesson upon raising a Bend of Timbers"
L&M regard this as the drawing of an outline for the mould of a ship and reference PL 2910.
Cross-section of a 17th century sailing ship showing how knees were used
https://www.google.com/search?q=c…:
Terry Foreman • Link
"there came Captain Taylor, and he and I home, and I have done all very well with him as to the business of the last trouble"
L&M: Over the Eagle: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
and http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I to the office, and there came Captain Taylor, and he and I home, and I have done all very well with him as to the business of the last trouble, so that come what will come my name will be clear of any false dealing with him."
I find Pepys' growing habit of taking people home for these "private" conversations -- which now more often result in him receiving a commission -- leaves him open to just that charge of false dealings.
This is the behavior not so long ago he used to criticize in Mennes and Batten.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Just occurred to me the office must be crowded and noisy these days. If Pepys forgets to mention Mr. Hayter's promotion, he must be omitting a lot of other fascinating work details.
Chris Squire UK • Link
OED is silent about ’Bend of Timbers’ but knows about ’knees’ in ship building:
‘knee, n. < Common Germanic . .
. . 7. A piece of timber having a natural angular bend, or artificially so bent; also a piece of metal of the same shape.
a. Shipbuilding and Naut. A piece of timber naturally bent, used to secure parts of a ship together, esp. one with an angular bend used to connect the beams and the timbers; by extension, a bent piece of iron serving the same purpose; †formerly applied to any naturally grown bent timber used in shipbuilding . .
. . 1600 R. Hakluyt tr. in Princ. Navigations (new ed.) III. 864 Carpenters to set knees into her, and any other tymbers appertaining to the strengthening of a shippe . . ‘