Friday 16 September 1664
Up betimes and to my office, where all the morning very busy putting papers to rights. And among other things Mr. Gauden coming to me, I had a good opportunity to speak to him about his present, which hitherto hath been a burden to me, that I could not do it, because I was doubtfull that he meant it as a temptation to me to stand by him in the business of Tangier victualling; but he clears me it was not, and that he values me and my proceedings therein very highly, being but what became me, and that what he did was for my old kindnesses to him in dispatching of his business, which I was glad to hear, and with my heart in good rest and great joy parted, and to my business again. At noon to the ’Change, where by appointment I met Sir W. Warren, and afterwards to the Sun taverne, where he brought to me, being all alone, 100l. in a bag, which I offered him to give him my receipt for, but he told me, no, it was my owne, which he had a little while since promised me and was glad that (as I had told him two days since) it would now do me courtesy; and so most kindly he did give it me, and I as joyfully, even out of myself, carried it home in a coach, he himself expressly taking care that nobody might see this business done, though I was willing enough to have carried a servant with me to have received it, but he advised me to do it myself. So home with it and to dinner; after dinner I forth with my boy to buy severall things, stools and andirons and candlesticks, &c., household stuff, and walked to the mathematical instrument maker in Moorefields and bought a large pair of compasses, and there met Mr. Pargiter, and he would needs have me drink a cup of horse-radish ale, which he and a friend of his troubled with the stone have been drinking of, which we did and then walked into the fields as far almost as Sir G. Whitmore’s, all the way talking of Russia, which, he says, is a sad place; and, though Moscow is a very great city, yet it is from the distance between house and house, and few people compared with this, and poor, sorry houses, the Emperor himself living in a wooden house, his exercise only flying a hawk at pigeons and carrying pigeons ten or twelve miles off and then laying wagers which pigeon shall come soonest home to her house. All the winter within doors, some few playing at chesse, but most drinking their time away. Women live very slavishly there, and it seems in the Emperor’s court no room hath above two or three windows, and those the greatest not a yard wide or high, for warmth in winter time; and that the general cure for all diseases there is their sweating houses, or people that are poor they get into their ovens, being heated, and there lie. Little learning among things of any sort. Not a man that speaks Latin, unless the Secretary of State by chance.
Mr. Pargiter and I walked to the ’Change together and there parted, and so I to buy more things and then home, and after a little at my office, home to supper and to bed. This day old Hardwicke came and redeemed a watch he had left with me in pawne for 40s. seven years ago, and I let him have it.
Great talk that the Dutch will certainly be out this week, and will sail directly to Guinny, being convoyed out of the Channel with 42 sail of ships.
42 Annotations
First Reading
Lurker • Link
Pepys' standard of education was evidently Latin, given he earlier expressed his contempt for Pen (?)'s inability to read SPQR.
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... to buy severall things, stools ... household stuff, "
For a period set of joint stools:-
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/…
Joint stools and table: a generation before us, perhaps, but since not everyone was like Povey and concerned to be to the minute, gives some idea of interiors Pepys came across:-
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/…
The series of illustrations of recent acquisitions includes a number of items, furnishings & painting both, from about the diary period. The last item on the page is a plain 'capstan form' unlined cast silver small salt, London 1580 -- this was the usual form still in Pepys' day ( http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… )and to the end of the C 17th.; survivals in silver are of extraordinary rarity, the majority are pewter.
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/…
Robert Gertz • Link
Seven years? It must have been some watch.
Michael Robinson • Link
"to the Sun taverne, where he brought to me, being all alone; 100l. in a bag, ... I was willing enough to have carried a servant with me to have received it, but he advised me to do it myself. "
Pepys learns the everyday customs of contracting folk at the 'Bada Bing.'
cape henry • Link
An interesting and fairly accurate picture of Russian life at that period.
Australian Susan • Link
Several days have gone by since Sam sacked Besse (without really intending to) and she took him at his word. Elizabeth must have been fed up at this (one down on the hired help, so more work for everyone else)but we haven't heard any domestic grumblings, have we? Maybe the delicious gift of jingling coins has driven all such concerns from our Sam's mind, but surely it will catch up soon. Watch out for fireworks. Let us also hope that Sam did not wax lyrical about the condition of women in Russia, not observing sour lemon looks from his own woman.
Terry F • Link
"Mr. Gauden coming to me, I had a good opportunity to speak to him about his present, which hitherto hath been a burden: to me, that I could not do it, because I was doubtfull [suspicious] that he meant it as a temptation to me to stand by him in the business of Tangier victualling;"
The present in question was the "pair of the noblest flaggons that ever I saw all the days of my lifewhether I shall keepe them or no I cannot tell; for it is to oblige me to him in the business of the Tangier victualling" that arrived on 21 July http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
and which he has proudly set before guests despite his misgivings.
Terry F • Link
"met Mr. Pargiter...and then walked into the fields as far almost as Sir G. Whitmore's, all the way talking of Russia, which, he says, is a sad place;"
L&M refer us to other contemporary accounts depicting Russia as poor and superstitious, e.g. The Present State of Russia In a Letter to a Friend at London; Written by an Eminent Person residing at the Great Czars Court at Mosco for the space of nine years. London, 1671. by Samuel Collins
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=ca…
An excerpt
http://artsci.shu.edu/reesp/docum…
The entirety is also available by torrent download http://torrentz.ws/search/the-pre…
Cum grano salis • Link
Samuell mentions in 20 entries the word Stool; Once it be the chair for a Tripos,
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
another, be a rest for the coffin of his rich Uncle,
then it was used to mean a chair with a commode, and its 'anky panky,
and rest of the time it be about being irregular and its effects.
Today it could mean a seating object, but I suspect it could be more commodes for the hired help.
[hence why in my old dilapidated household of yesteryear, it was said "we were going to the throne room " ; the cabinet with a commode being called a stool and a stool being a fancy chair fit for a king;]
Stool
1. a. Any kind of seat for one person; often, a chair of authority, state, or office; esp. a royal or episcopal throne. (Hence occas. = SEE n.1 2b.) Obs.
porphyry stool: cf. porphyry chair, PORPHYRY 5b.
b. A church pew Obs.
2. a. A wooden seat (for one person) without arms or a back; a piece of furniture consisting in its simplest form of a piece of wood for a seat set upon legs, usually three or four in number, to raise it from the ground.
The OE. instances belong properly to the general sense 1. Often with qualifying word indicating its form or use, as round, three-legged, camp-, music-stool and the like.
b. A high seat of this kind for convenience of writing at a high desk; more fully office stool. Hence, a situation as clerk in an office.
1836 \
c. A low short bench or form upon which to rest the foot, to step or kneel. Chiefly = FOOTSTOOL. Sometimes used as a child's seat.
a1225
3. fig. a. Proverb, to fall, come to the ground, sit between two stools: to incur failure through vacillation between two different courses of action.
1390
5. a. A seat enclosing a chamber utensil; a commode; more explicitly stool of ease. Also, a privy.
For groom of the stool (stole), see STOLE n.2
1410-1869 [see CLOSE-STOOL]. 1\
1645 MILTON Colast. 13, I send them by his advice to sit upon the stool and strain.
b. In phrases originally meaning 'the place of evacuation', now (without the) the action of evacuating the bowels.
1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. I. ii, They..write as men go to stoole, for needes. 1676 MARVELL Mr. Smirke 33 Though they be reading Papers of State, or at the Stool more seasonably [he] obtrudes his Pamphlet.
c. The action of evacuating the bowels; an act of discharging fæces. by stool: by fæcal as distinguished from other means of evacuation.
1533
V. i, I fear this loss of honor will give him some few stools. 1663 PEPYS Diary 24 May, Having taken one of Mr. Holliard's pills last night it brought a stool or two this morning.
Verb: 1. trans. To put or set (a person) on a stool. a. To condemn (a person) to the stool (of repentance). nonce-use.
of course there be Toadstool.
Mary • Link
horseradish ale.
Horseradish ale was made with a mixture of horseradish, wormwood and tansy; sounds sufficiently unpalatable to be esteemed as a useful nostrum.
Horseradish was also regarded as a cough expectorant and a treatment for scurvy, food poisoning, tuberculosis and colic. This last may have prompted Pargiter to recommend the 'ale' to Pepys.
Its culinary use as a relish to accompany roast meats, especially beef, had also gained popularity by this date.
Michael Robinson • Link
"... I suspect it could be more commodes for the hired help."
CGS suggestion of more commodes for the hired help assumes that Pepys with his love of furnishing, immediately on receipt of a large sum of cash, is exhibiting a previously unarticulated interest in and concern for the individual sanctity of the bowel movements of his household (in the context of his health he is, at times, explicitly obsessed with his own but not with their being separate) and neglects the existence of the 'house of office' probably used by all. Indeed I wound not be too surprised were SP to take to inventorying, weighing, measuring, microscopically examining, perhaps, the turds of individuals, measuring input against output, to see how small the daily victualing requirement could be reduced "without the least wrong to the King" and the profit on the Tangier contract increased - but such has yet to occur.
Alas, using both the diary search engine and google, I failed to unearth any explicit diary text reference to 'stool' used in the sense of a "chair with a commode," a 'close stool,' or 'closestool.'
Cactus Wren • Link
Sam's in fine and flourishing form today: the second and third sentences together total 306 words.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...by appointment I met Sir W. Warren, and afterwards to the Sun taverne, where he brought to me, being all alone; 100l. in a bag, which I offered him to give him my receipt for, but he told me, no, it was my owne, which he had a little while since promised me and was glad that (as I had told him two days since) it would now do me courtesy; and so most kindly he did give it me, and I as joyfully, even out of myself, carried it home in a coach, he himself expressly taking care that nobody might see this business done, though I was willing enough to have carried a servant with me to have received it, but he advised me to do it myself."
Nice to know the unpleasant business of having to remind Sir William of his promised kickback...Wonder how Sam phrased his request for a "loan of 100Ls"...Has resulted in a happy outcome.
Seems like Warren is nearly as astounded at Pepys' innocent insistance that he's done nothing underhanded and has no great need to conceal matters as we are.
Robert Gertz • Link
Mr. Gauden's "present"...
"...I was doubtfull that he meant it as a temptation to me to stand by him in the business of Tangier victualling; but he clears me it was not, and that he values me and my proceedings therein very highly, being but what became me, and that what he did was for my old kindnesses to him in dispatching of his business..."
Wonderful. Now try raising an objection with Gauden to the current victualling supplies on the grounds that the garrison's health is being undermined. Count how many seconds pass before he puts the screws to you as to how King and Parliament might react to hearing of your unfortunate acceptance of "gifts" from a supplier.
Gauden and Warren, no doubt well-experienced old hands at this sort of thing, must find Pepys and his prevarications rather amusing.
Not that anything has changed much...
Andrew Hamilton • Link
Re Gauden
Didn't Sam strike a deal with Alsopp et all to try to get them the Tangier victuals contract in exchange for a regular annual kickback (See July 14, where in a 15-minute conversation he agrees that if he can get them 3 shillings a head, he gets L150 a year, but if he can get them, 3s 2d, he gets L300) and wasn't he successful in getting them a contract? Presumably Gauden knows this, and may be working on Sam's guilty conscience. Do he and Warren go off for a drink to snigger?
language hat • Link
"An interesting and fairly accurate picture of Russian life at that period."
Indeed, but just a few years later the death of the tsar Alexei's first wife would lead to considerable modernization under the influence of his second, Natalya Naryshkina, whom he met at the home of his advisor Artamon Matveev, a Westernizer who married a Scottish woman, Mary Hamilton (the daughter of a Scots royalist who had left Britain after the execution of Charles I). Matveev was too young in 1664 (not yet 40) to be the Secretary of State Pepys refers to, but he almost certainly knew some Latin and would become the tsar's chief counselor in the early 1670s (alas, he was banished as a result of the jealousy of boyars, and when he was recalled in 1682 he was immediately torn to pieces in the streltsy revolt of that year).
Bradford • Link
One pauses to think about "the kickbacks and gratuities" (see yesterday's annotation) Pepys got, albeit with mental reservations and temporary scruples, vs. what others, innocent of such impediments, must have been receiving. Any data on others' rake-offs?
Roboto • Link
"where he brought to me, being all alone; 100l. in a bag"
of small unmarked bills
Cum grano salis • Link
"...going to stool and breaking of wind..."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
I read it as 'going to the John [Jacques, throne, Lou] and finding relief in reduction of gas pressure'.
Our ambivalence over a natural action gives the Medical practitioners, conniptions.
An aside when in my youth I fell from a great height, the clergy who found me, were so relieved, that the aire was passed by this inert body that they were relieved that the internals were functioning reasonable well. That was the story told to my poor mother to placate her anxieties over the state of her son.
Or as assign to Robby Burns ,
" were ere ye be,
let the aire flow free."
Australian Susan • Link
"100l in a bag"
Heavy brown paper bags used to feature in 1980s Queensland political culture when it came to getting Govt contracts.
Russian pigeon racing
Sam describes this quite carefully, but makes no reference as to whether he knew of it in the UK. This sport became a strong part of urban working class culture in the UK (along with brass bands, choirs, the WEA, whippet racing et al) largely because of the spread of railways. It seems to have been just a development of the 19th century. For a particularly evocative picture of 19th c pigeon racing and urban working class culture, see http://www.upnorthcombine.com/for…
Cum grano salis • Link
Compass a pair of?. Would that be a like a pair of dividers for drawing circles or be it a pair of compasses for estimating thy position where one for the north seeking and t'other for the angle of
dip.
To Compass, be to measure,plan [not to pile up stuff on a heap for decaying vegetation ]
LH covered this recently:
"I [LH] would have said confidently "Oh, it's from Latin compassus" and thought no more about it.
http://www.languagehat.com/archiv…
OED has a nice dicitation.
Pedro • Link
Compass a pair of?.
From Jeannine's entry from the Sandwich Journal on the 12th...
"This noon was exactly the equinox and we saw the sun set and observed him [with] the azimuth compass, by which the sun set about one degree to northward of the west. Therefore the variation of the compass should be Iº 00' westwardly.
The tide of ebb ran E.N.E. northerly. We made one sit at the top-masthead, and when the body of the sun was quite immersed from us on the quarter deck he on the top-masthead saw it for one minute of time longer.
...Perhaps the second one is for the bloke on top of the mast.
Jesse • Link
"about his present"
My impression is that there are no underlying issues or 'guilt' beyond Pepys concern about not being able to deliver. I.e. acceptance of "presents" was not 'unfortunate' if it became widely known but business as usual, met mostly w/indifference by 'King and Parliament' - unless there was mishap as a result.
Cum grano salis • Link
Magnetic azimuth dials came in pairs;
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/…
Pedro • Link
"Great talk that the Dutch will certainly be out this week, and will sail directly to Guinny, being convoyed out of the Channel with 42 sail of ships."
From the introduction to Sandwich Journal normally posted by Jeannine...
The Dutch had intended to sent 10 ships to convoy merchantmen to Guinea and to escort this squadron down the Channel by a fleet of 39 ships under Obdam. This plan fell through.
Harvey • Link
Compass bearing of sunset.
At the equinox the sun sets exactly in the West, no matter where on earth it is seen from. Thus if the (magnetic) compass was showing it one degree northwards, then that is the compass variation at that place, to be allowed for in future.
This was important as sailing was by 'deduced reckoning' on the compass, and 1 degree unknown variation introduces a 1 mile error for every 60 miles sailed. No-one can steer to within one degree in any case, but now they do know that their compass is reliable and the variation is almost negligible.
"... when the body of the sun was quite immersed from us on the quarter deck he on the top-masthead saw it for one minute of time longer.. "
This would always be the case at that time of the year, could be calculated and would be known to the navigator, so I'm not sure why it was mentioned.
Any navigators out there know a reason to measure this?
Harvey
Pedro • Link
"... when the body of the sun was quite immersed from us on the quarter deck he on the top-masthead saw it for one minute of time longer..."
Sandwich is very interested in astronomy, as we will see later, also mapping and navigation. I have a feeling that he was carrying out a practical experiment to his personal satisfaction.
Maybe he was trying to verify how much father the horizon appears from the top of the mast? The height of the mast he knows, and the distance can be calculated by trigonometry.
Kevin Peter • Link
Sam: "I'm not sure if I should keep your present, Mr. Gauden, I wasn't able to do what you wanted."
Gauden: "Why Mr. Pepys, that would be a bribe! I would never sink to that level. You should consider it...a token of appreciation for being such a great guy. Yeah, that's it."
Sam (beaming): "Great! Sounds good to me!"
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"met Mr. Pargiter...and then walked into the fields as far almost as Sir G. Whitmore's, all the way talking of Russia, which, he says, is a sad place;"
L&M refer us to other contemporary accounts depicting Russia as poor and superstitious, e.g. The Present State of Russia In a Letter to a Friend at London
[ Robert Boyle ]; Written by an Eminent Person residing at the Great Czars Court at Mosco for the space of nine years. London, 1671. by Samuel Collins
http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewconte…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Great talk that the Dutch will certainly be out this week, and will sail directly to Guinny, being convoyed out of the Channel with 42 sail of ships."
In fact, it was not this fleet but the Dutch Mediterranean squadron under de Ruyter which was to sail (under secret instructions) to Guinea. The fleet off Texel, which England was so anxiously watching, was mostly recall into harbour in November. Downing, English ambassador at the Hague, was quite deceived as to which fleet would move: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… and http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (Per L&M footnote)
Marquess • Link
Drinking in Russia during the cold winters, what elsewhere is there to do?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Do I understanding the situation correctly: England has a fleet watching Texel (under who?), and Sandwich is strategically stationed in the Channel to cut off the Dutch fleet when it sails for Gambia (which it never does)?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Do I understanding the situation correctly: England has a fleet watching Texel (under who?), and Sandwich's small fleet is strategically stationed in the Channel to cut off the Dutch fleet when it sails for Gambia (which it never does)?
Terry Foreman • Link
Indeed, San Diego Sarah. As I wrote above:
"In fact, it was not [the fleet in Zeeland] but the Dutch Mediterranean squadron under de Ruyter which was to sail (under secret instructions) to Guinea. The fleet off Texel, which England was so anxiously watching, was mostly recall into harbour in November. Downing, English ambassador at the Hague, was quite deceived as to which fleet would move: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1….
Pedro posted this: Meanwhile in Zeeland...
(The knowledge of the activities of Holmes had already reached the United Provinces.)
Zeeland, where many shareholders of the WIC resided suggested that 12 warships should be equiped by the States General and lent to the WIC. The proposal was excepted [sic]. To prevent Downing hearing of it the descision [sic] was taken by only seven members and that De Ruyter should be ordered from the Med.
(Life of Admiral De Ruyter by Blok)
Terry Foreman • Link
"shareholders of the WIC"
The West India Company (WIC) was organized similarly to the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, abbreviated as VOC). Like the VOC, the WIC company had five offices, called chambers (kamers), in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, Middelburg and Groningen, of which the chambers in Amsterdam and Middelburg contributed most to the company. The board consisted of 19 members, known as the Heeren XIX (the Gentlemen Nineteen).[3] The institutional structure of the WIC followed the federal structure, which entailed extensive discussion for any decision, with regional representation: 8 from Amsterdam; 4 from Zeeland, 2 each from the Northern Quarter (Hoorn and Enkhuizen), the Maas (Rotterdam and Dordrecht), the region of Groningen, and one representative from the States General. Each region had its own chamber and board of directors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dut…
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks, Terry -- interesting.
However, my question really was this: Is it Sandwich watching Texel, or is there another English fleet in the Channel (under who?) blockading Texel, with Sandwich providing back-up (a good idea because you never know which way the wind will be blowing when you need to intercept those damned Dutch)?
They can't be totally dependent on Downing's intelligence ... he's in The Hague, not Texel, so that would be inefficient at best. Or is he in Amsterdam?
I need to read something more meaty than Wikipedia about the Second Dutch War so I don't have to ask these elementary questions! Any suggestions?
Terry Foreman • Link
San Diego Sarah, finding online sources superior to Wikipedia and the annotations here -- which in many cases rely on Latham and Matthews notes, as I do -- is, ah, challenging. My annotation above regarding de Ruyter's dependence on secret instructions and Guinea is a L&M note. They cite The manuscripts of J.M. Heathcote, Esq., Conington Castle by Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts; Fanshawe, Richard, Sir, 1608-1666; Heathcote, J. M. (John Moyer); Lomas, S. C. (Sophia Crawford), d. 1929 https://archive.org/details/manus… ;
Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1664-5, p. 11 [subscription only]; and J Beresford, Godfather of Downing St. pp. 172-4 [not available online]
In this run-up to what will be the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the roles of forces and theatres of conflict are as yet ill-defined and poorly understood, especially on the English side.
San Diego Sarah • Link
You are the fount of info, Terry. Perhaps J.D. Davies will come to our rescue, if he can retire from rescuing the archives around the country. Mold seems to be getting into everything.
mountebank • Link
This caught my eye:
"This day old Hardwicke came and redeemed a watch he had left with me in pawne for 40s. seven years ago, and I let him have it."
Does "watch" mean "timepiece"? If so was it working? I recall reading a number of times annotators asking how our Sam would know the time when getting up during the night or very betimes.
marinetti • Link
The Russia part is hysterical :-D
Jonathan V • Link
re Pigeon racing - When I was a kid I used to hang out and help a guy with his pigeons, back in the 60s. It's kind of a fascinating thing, and it's interesting to find a description of it as taking place in Russia. I had no idea, and I was a Russia specialist in a past career.
Terry Foreman • Link
"met Mr. Pargiter, and he would needs have me drink a cup of horse-radish ale, which he and a friend of his troubled with the stone have been drinking of, which we did and then walked into the fields as far almost as Sir G. Whitmore’s,"
L&M: Baumes House, Hoxton: the house of Sir George Whitmore (Lord Mayor 1631-2: d. 1654), which Pepys had know as Whitmore;s house in his boyhood rambles across these fields.
Images of the house: https://www.google.com/search?q=b…: