Tuesday 1 November 1664
Up and to the office, where busy all the morning, at noon (my wife being invited to my Lady Sandwich’s) all alone dined at home upon a good goose with Mr. Wayth, discussing of business. Thence I to the Committee of the Fishery, and there we sat with several good discourses and some bad and simple ones, and with great disorder, and yet by the men of businesse of the towne. But my report in the business of the collections is mightily commended and will get me some reputation, and indeed is the only thing looks like a thing well done since we sat.
Then with Mr. Parham to the tavern, but I drank no wine, only he did give me another barrel of oysters, and he brought one Major Greene, an able fishmonger, and good discourse to my information. So home and late at business at my office. Then to supper and to bed.
11 Annotations
First Reading
Terry F • Link
Dirk absent, here is a Carte Calendar entry
William Coventry to Sandwich
Written from: St James's
Date: 1 November 1664
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 75, fol(s). 239
Document type: Holograph. Addressed to the Admiral at Portsmouth.
Notifies the progress of the manning of the ships at home. Sends a list of those which, it is expected, will be ready to sail at the end of the week. Adds in a Postscript, that "there are various reports in Holland about De Ruyter's being gone, & wages laid upon it".
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Pedro • Link
“there are various reports in Holland about De Ruyter’s being gone, & wages laid upon it”.
On the 29th Sam says...All the talke is that De Ruyter is come over-land home with six or eight of his captaines to command here at home, and their ships kept abroad in the Straights; which sounds as if they had a mind to do something with us.
The gossip in Amsterdam is reliable enough to put your shirt on
cgs • Link
"...he brought one Major Greene, an able fishmonger,..."
OH! how one likes to be known by thy highest title obtained to date. The foibles of the human psyche.
There be Sam in his best bib and tucker trying to out dress the sitters at the office and be noticed by the super betters the other day.
So many means and ways to disguise our failings.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...and there we sat with several good discourses and some bad and simple ones, and with great disorder, and yet by the men of businesse of the towne."
Scary, isn't it, Sam? And from Cicero to you to Henry Adams to present day commentators, it never changes... Maybe the amazing thing in the end is how much actually does get done.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"my report in the business of the collections"
See http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Gerald Berg • Link
That idea of Sam eating a goose for lunch seems like an awful lot of heavy food. But then, as I sit here eating my breakfast, I realize I have no idea what breakfast consisted of for Sam. Has he ever mentioned eating breakfast? Up early and what for fuel? If dinner is at noon and I were up at 4 or 5 AM and went abroad without breakfast I could eat a goose for lunch too!
Georgie • Link
"A barrel of oysters"?
A whole barrel? Oysters for breakfast (@Gerald Berg) for the next month - except they'll go off within a day, two at the most, won't they?
Mary K • Link
Oyster barrels.
For discussion of oyster barrels, go to the Encyclopedia (food), where is it suggested that these were small barrels (tubs) about 7 - 13 inches high. Not so very different in size from the pint and half-pint pots that shrimp, cockles etc. used to be sold in in 20th Century England. You bought such shellfish by volume, not by weight.
An additional wrinkle to the oysters is that they were often transported and sold as pickled shellfish in pre-20th Century days when they still offered a cheap snack or meal.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"I have no idea what breakfast consisted of for Sam."
At this time people did not sit down to breakfast, but drank a morning draught, either at home or, as for Pepys, often at a tavern. Even women and children took a morning draught of small beer, but their morning draughts would have been consumed at home. Beer was widely available, not only from taverns but also from small, local ale-houses. The brewing of ale was widely practiced and in larger households would have been done in-house. In the 1660's the morning draught was expanded to include whey and hot chocolate. See http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Gerald Berg • Link
Yup, I could eat a goose for lunch too...
Thank you friends of Pepys!
psw • Link
RG comment takes the cake. How' s that French zinger go? Monkeys us all.
BTW: the 2007 crowd is the rock here...well done you all...very well done. This has been inherently entertaining with excellent annotators to boot. Even treating well the few trolls who have shown up.
This was the early internet...I am so happy we are only about 1/2 through.
Muchas Gracias.
BTW: it is only post 1/2 way that post 2007 comments applied...was it the BLog award thing...bet it was.