Sunday 17 July 1664

(Lord’s day). All the morning at my office doing business there, it raining hard. So dined at home alone. After dinner walked to my Lord’s, and there found him and much other guests at table at dinner, and it seems they have christened his young son to-day — called him James. I got a piece of cake. I got my Lord to signe and seale my business about my selling of Brampton land, which though not so full as I would, yet is as full as I can at present. Walked home again, and there fell to read, and by and by comes my uncle Wight, Dr. Burnett, and another gentleman, and talked and drank, and the Doctor showed me the manner of eating, turpentine, which pleases me well, for it is with great ease. So they being gone, I to supper and to bed.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Hmmmm ... no church, no reading of vows, no evening prayers with the staff. Careful, Sam. God might punish you by making you think it's a good idea to eat something dreadful.

cape henry  •  Link

Perhaps the punishment you suggest will arrive sooner than might be looked for, TB, as "...the Doctor showed me the manner of eating, turpentine, which pleases me well..." Just how well pleased he may continue after following this instruction remains to be seen.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Mmmn, mmn...Bring on that tasty turpentine.

I wonder how it is on wings?

***
Say, why is Uncle Wight hanging round with Dr. Burnett?

"Heh, heh...Well done, Burnett. Yes, a few doses of this 'medicine' and I shall be comforting the stricken widow, heh, heh."

Hmmn...Maybe now we know the source of his eye trouble.
***

"I got a piece of cake."

He's funny, that Pepys...As Josephine Bonaparte might say.

Say. Bad enough you didn't get any for us...How was it?

***

jeannine  •  Link

"and talked and DRANK, and the Doctor showed me the manner of eating, turpentine"

...mix it with enough alcohol and the taste won't bother you at all......???

Terry F  •  Link

"Say, why is Uncle Wight hanging round with Dr. Burnett?"

26 May 1661 "After church home, and so to the Mitre, where I found Dr. Burnett, the first time that ever I met him to drink with him, and my uncle Wight and there we sat and drank a great deal," http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

1 January 1663/64 "Thence to my uncle Wight's, where Dr. of -----, among others, dined, and his wife, a seeming proud conceited woman, I know not what to make of her, but the Dr's. discourse did please me very well about the disease of the stone, above all things extolling Turpentine, which he told me how it may be taken in pills with great ease." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

21 January 1663/64 "to my aunt Wight's to fetch my wife home, where Dr. Burnett ...." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

L&M say they were friends.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Now it really sounds like a fiendish plot to me.

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

Not to be drunk raw: [not from turpis]

1. a. A term applied originally (as in Gr. and Lat.) to the semifluid resin of the terebinth tree, Pistacia Terebinthus (Chian or Cyprian turpentine); now chiefly to the various oleoresins which exude from coniferous trees, consisting of more or less viscid solutions of resin in a volatile oil.

Turpentine:[turpin] from pine trees: verb to rub:
Pliny : in Syria they used to pluck the barke from the Terebinthe tree.[C10H16 now good for cleaning lead based paints from brushes]
1660 BOYLE New Exp. Phys. Mech. xxiv. 188 Common Oyl or Spirit (for in the Shops..the same Liquor is promiscuously call'd by either name) of Turpentine.

728 CHAMBERS Cycl. s.v. Turpentine, What is commonly sold under the name of Oil of Turpentine, or Etherial Oil, is only a Distillation of the Rosin called Galipot, fresh from the Tree.

1799 Wilmington (N. Carolina) Gaz. 12 Dec. 2/1 Will be sold..at Public Sale... Two *turpentine stills.

1935 Z. N. HURSTON Mules & Men I. iv. 86 One woman had killed five [men] when I left that turpentine still where she lived.

Turpentiny
Containing turpentine; having the smell or other properties of turpentine; smeared with turpentine.
1. A cathartic drug prepared from the root of East Indian jalap, Ipoma Turpethum, an Indian and Australian plant; also, the plant itself, or its root.
1658 PHILLIPS, Turbith,..a red Mineral, which being beaten to powder, is used in physick. 1675 Phil. Trans. X. 299 Mercury..having been..reduced into water, turbith and ashes.
1735 Dict. Polygraph. I. Sij, The best wood for this purpose,..provided it be not turpentiny. 1866 Treas. Bot. 718/2 Manna of Briançon, a turpentiny saccharine exudation from the larch

not to be confused with turpitude moral or other wise.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Mr. Pepys? Not feeling too well again?"

"Sorry to bother you Hollier. I saw Dr. Burnett just yesterday and took his prescription but if anything...Oh..."

"Why, what did he prescribe?" Sam hands bottle of turpentine pills.

"Pepys? This is turpentine."

"Aye. Dr. Burnett said..."

"Are you telling me you actually took some of these...?"

"Oh, just five or six. Why?"

"Boy! Go to the Tower!! Fetch Sir John Robinson!! Tell him to bring his men!!! And send some of them immediately to the home of Alexander Burnett!!!"

"Hollier?!"

"Pepys, old fellow, there's nothing I can do now, it's just a question of time. I'm afraid this is a matter for the authorities..."

"Hollier..."

"Pepys. You were murdered."

Uh...

Hmmn...Why would the doctor friend of my wealthy uncle who is desperate to have my wife and of whose shady underworld practices I was the sole man fully aware poison me?

***

Mark Time  •  Link

"Brampton land"

Land belonging to Pepys's late uncle sold to meet the charges and debts on it. The executors were required to obtain the consent of Lord Sandwich and Thomas Pepys of Hatcham before it could be sold.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"Queen, Queen Caroline,
Washed her hair in turpentine,
Turpentine to make it shine,
Queen, Queen, Caroline"

Children's skipping rhyme as used by me in childhood. Haven't a clue what it means!

Bradford  •  Link

It means that rhyme is delightful and logic not required.

A piece of cake, and turpentine---
"Wot no ice cream? Or gelatine?"

Terry F  •  Link

"Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (later Queen Caroline; 17 May 1768 - 7 August 1821) was the queen consort of George IV of the United Kingdom from 29 January 1820 to her death....Remembered in a children's rhyme beginning: *Queen, Queen Caroline / washed her face in turpentine"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro…

Glyn  •  Link

Jeannine posted Pepys' father's letter about Brampton last week, so presumably this is at least partly in response to that letter?

Glyn  •  Link

Jeannine posted Pepys' father's letter about Brampton last week, so presumably this is at least partly in response to that letter?

Patricia  •  Link

What? Am I the only one here who has taken turpentine? Twenty-odd years ago I had pneumonia, my own doctor was away, and the sadistic old relic on call prescribed a cough syrup which did actually contain turps. I had to take it every 4 hours. I would start crying when I saw my husband coming with the bottle & spoon.

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

political stories that kids espouse and the adults doth glow to hear.

"Children's skipping rhyme as used by me in childhood. Haven't a clue what it means!"

6-7 generations of hand me downs [1821- 1970's] nursery rhymes no longer no longer passed on. shame but may be some enterprising 8 yr old will record some on his gooseberry device or is that blackberry.

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

political stories that kids espouse and the adults doth glow to hear.

"Children's skipping rhyme as used by me in childhood. Haven't a clue what it means!"

6-7 generations of hand me downs [1821- 1970's] nursery rhymes no longer passed on , shame but may be some enterprising 8 yr old will record some on a gooseberry device or is that blackberry.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Poor Patricia! That sounds truly terrible. I never had that, but ran through the gamut of other usual remedies/preventives in the '50s: cod liver oil, syrup of figs and liquid paraffin. Also warm olive oil poured in the ears for earache. And one that was palatable: NHS dispensed orange juice in medicine bottles with a cork. And there was also Gripe Water for babies with colic which used to contain opium and still had alcohol in until recent times: sad nannies used to drink it by the bottle.
What was the turpentine supposed to do for Sam's bowels?

Mary  •  Link

"Queen, Queen Caroline...."

One of George IV's reported objections to Caroline of Brunswick was that she was negligent about personal hygiene and, presumably, this rhyme alludes to that. Another version of the rhyme substitutes 'face' for 'hair'.

Cumsalisgrano  •  Link

more on cleaning of thy esophagus at :
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terebintine.
eating it ; may this be why: it was used to was up the ingredients.
An ointment made by boiling the herb in olive oil with Adder's Tongue and thickening the strained liquid with wax and resin and turpentine was considered to be very valuable for application to sores and ulcers.

http://www.botanical.com/botanica…

Senhor Pedro  •  Link

The Rev Ralph's Diary for the 17th July...

July. 17. season set in wet, lord reserve the harvest weeks to us. smallpox much in the country, such abundance of cherries, brought by carts one in Colne July. 15 sold 3 pounds for 2d. uttering a load in our street, a sickly fruit, and great sickness feared, but where is the preparation for it. Coxal sermon bell sounded very light for morning sermon into my study, which is accounted a sign of rain. god was good to me in his word and worship this day for which my soul blesses him.

http://linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk/earl…

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... they have christened his young son today-called him James."

Makes sense, since Sandwich said he plans to sail tomorrow. And calling the baby James is a nice nod to the Duke of York. I hope it helps the political situation.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Sasha Clarkson, you've opened my eyes to my past: I drank some Retsina more than once in Greece more than 50 years ago. Not unpleasant but, as you say, an acquired taste.

Its relation to turpentine never occurred to me.

(The turpentine Pepys is prescribed is appropriately from what is required to build a ship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nav… )

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

‘Turpentine . . is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from live trees, mainly pines . . (it) is used for thinning oil-based paints . . (and) medicinally since ancient times, as topical and sometimes internal home remedies.

Taken internally it was used as a general cure-all treatment for intestinal parasites, and candida because of its antiseptic and diuretic properties. Sugar, molasses or honey were sometimes used to mask the taste, and bait parasites . . At levels of 800 ppm, turpentine is immediately dangerous to life and health.’ (Wikipedia)

Steven Scrivener  •  Link

At least in the 19thC, if not before, turpentine enemas were used to treat cholera. Such a versatile medicament!

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