Monday 17 October 1664
Rose very well and not weary, and with Sir W. Batten to St. James’s; there did our business. I saw Sir J. Lawson since his return from sea first this morning, and hear that my Lord Sandwich is come from Portsmouth to town. Thence I to him, and finding him at my Lord Crew’s, I went with him home to his house and much kind discourse. Thence my Lord to Court, and I with Creed to the ’Change, and thence with Sir W. Warren to a cook’s shop and dined, discoursing and advising him about his great contract he is to make tomorrow, and do every day receive great satisfaction in his company, and a prospect of a just advantage by his friendship. Thence to my office doing some business, but it being very cold, I, for fear of getting cold, went early home to bed, my wife not being come home from my Lady Jemimah, with whom she hath been at a play and at Court to-day.
9 Annotations
First Reading
Robo • Link
Not a hint of jealousy at the antics of the dirty stop-out?
Andrew Hamilton • Link
"Rose very well and not weary"
"it being very cold, I, for fear of getting cold, went early home to bed"
I think in this passage Sam by "weary" means having sore and stiff muscles. His overall fatigue from the four-day, 150-mile horseback journey to Cambridgeshire, with perhaps 25 hours of riding, may explain his uncharacteristic decision to seek bed at an early hour.
Michael Robinson • Link
"... a prospect of a just advantage by his friendship."
'Just advantage'- is this an interesting new euphemism for cash contributions to the Pepys' benefit fund?
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... went early home to bed, my wife not being come home from my Lady Jemimah, with whom she hath been at a play and at Court to-day."
So Elizabeth has gone to a play with Lady Jem. Now that there's 1,000 pounds in the basement, all vows are off for Elizabeth?
And at Court ... it's after dark and she's not home yet??!! I don't recall Elizabeth going to Court before, besides two Christmases ago when she and Sam slept in Sandwich's bed at Whitehall. I'm surprised Sam's not calling out the guard. And what did she wear? The velvet with lacings? Mary Mercer must be with her, but she's only 17 -- almost the same age as Lady Jem.
This all sounds way too casual for Pepys. Is he guilty about something, or planning to do something? Or just to tired to care? We shall see ...
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I saw Sir J. Lawson since his return from sea [the Mediterranean] first this morning, and hear that my Lord Sandwich is come from Portsmouth."
I suspect Charles II, James, Duke of York and the Privy Council will meet with them to discuss what to do now the Dutch are having fun unopposed off the Guinea coast. The weather is about to turn nasty, so they just may wait until next Spring, guarding all the new ships and training their new impressed seamen.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Thence I to him [SANDWICH], and finding him at my Lord Crew’s, I went with him home to his house and much kind discourse."
A wealthy man, John, Baron Crew of Stene bought a large house in Lincoln's Inn Fields during the 1650s.
Wednesday 20 January 1664 "Up and by coach to my Lord Sandwich’s, ... My Lord did also seal a lease for the house he is now taking in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which stands him in 250 per annum rent." The house is now nos 57-8, Lincoln's Inn Fields (built c. 1640; rebuilt c. 1710). http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…... For comparison, Chancellor Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon paid £400 p.a. in rent for Worcester House; Sir George Carteret's official residence in Broad Street cost £70 p.a.; the Navy Commissioners, displaced from their official residences in 1674 and 1686, were each allowed £80 p.a. (L&M)
So Lord Crew and Sandwich lived in mansions close to each other.
Jon • Link
SDS says "I suspect Charles II, James, Duke of York and the Privy Council will meet with them to discuss what to do now the Dutch are having fun unopposed off the Guinea coast. The weather is about to turn nasty, so they just may wait until next Spring, guarding all the new ships and training their new impressed seamen."
J D Davies in "Pepys's Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-89" says "The three-deck First and Second rates were intended for summer operations alone, and for relatively short cruises in home waters." ".....they were not designed or intended to withstand winter weather,....."
This must have restricted the options available to Charles and James, so I can imagine that sitting tight and making preparations for the Spring was a reasonable choice for them at this point.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Thanks, Jon.
Chris Squire UK • Link
Re: ‘ . . a just advantage . . ’
‘just, adj. < Anglo-Norman . .
. . 3. Based on reasonable or adequate grounds; well-founded; justifiable.
. . 1697 E. Stillingfleet Answer to Mr. Locke's Let. 81 I have a just Esteem for the Invention of such who can spin Volumes barely out of their own Thoughts . . ‘