Monday 9 January 1664/65

Up and walked to White Hall, it being still a brave frost, and I in perfect good health, blessed be God! In my way saw a woman that broke her thigh, in her heels slipping up upon the frosty streete. To the Duke, and there did our usual worke. Here I saw the Royal Society bring their new book, wherein is nobly writ their charter and laws, and comes to be signed by the Duke as a Fellow; and all the Fellows’ hands are to be entered there, and lie as a monument; and the King hath put his with the word Founder.

Thence I to Westminster, to my barber’s, and found occasion to see Jane, but in presence of her mistress, and so could not speak to her of her failing me yesterday, and then to the Swan to Herbert’s girl, and lost time a little with her, and so took coach, and to my Lord Crew’s and dined with him, who receives me with the greatest respect that could be, telling me that he do much doubt of the successe of this warr with Holland, we going about it, he doubts, by the instigation of persons that do not enough apprehend the consequences of the danger of it, and therein I do think with him.

Holmes was this day sent to the Tower, —[For taking New York from the Dutch]— but I perceive it is made matter of jest only; but if the Dutch should be our masters, it may come to be of earnest to him, to be given over to them for a sacrifice, as Sir W. Rawly [Raleigh] was.

Thence to White Hall to a Tangier Committee, where I was accosted and most highly complimented by my Lord Bellasses, our new governor, beyond my expectation, or measure I could imagine he would have given any man, as if I were the only person of business that he intended to rely on, and desires my correspondence with him. This I was not only surprized at, but am well pleased with, and may make good use of it. Our patent is renewed, and he and my Lord Barkeley, and Sir Thomas Ingram put in as commissioners. Here some business happened which may bring me some profit.

Thence took coach and calling my wife at her tailor’s (she being come this afternoon to bring her mother some apples, neat’s tongues, and wine); I home, and there at my office late with Sir W. Warren, and had a great deal of good discourse and counsel from him, which I hope I shall take, being all for my good in my deportment in my office, yet with all honesty.

He gone I home to supper and to bed.

32 Annotations

First Reading

cape henry  •  Link

Ouch! That must have been some acrobatic fall if a thigh bone was broken. A good deal of torque is required to break a bone that size, shielded as it is by muscle and fatty tissue. Normally, slip-and-falls are disastrous to joints. Then, considering the state of orthopedics at that time, this unfortunate woman has just begun her ordeal I fear. --Now that I think about it, the break could have been at the hip. That would make sense.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I saw the Royal Society bring their new book, wherein is nobly writ their charter’ and laws, and comes to be signed by the Duke as a Fellow; and all the Fellows’ hands are to be entered there, and lie as a monument; and the King hath put his with the word Founder."

"The Charter Book, probably the Society’s most important single historical document, was created in 1663 after the second Royal Charter, establishing the structure of the Royal Society, was granted. Since the earliest days of the Society its vellum pages have recorded the signatures of each new Fellow and Foreign Member, as well as those of each Royal patron, as they were elected year by year." http://publishing.royalsociety.or…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Holmes was this day sent to the Tower, —[For taking New York from the Dutch]—"

The passage in square brackets is false; this view has appeared before. Holmes had attacked the Dutch in Guinea without prior authorization. L&M note he was released in March, after the Dutch declaration of war, and compare this to [Sir Walter] Raleigh's 1618 execution after having attacked the Spanish in South America [in what is now Venezuela]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"we going about it, he doubts [= he suspects]"

Mary  •  Link

"he doubts..."

Sam often uses 'doubt' to mean 'fear'.

Pedro  •  Link

—[For taking New York from the Dutch]—

Is this from Sam or the author's addition?

"Holmes had attacked the Dutch in Guinea without prior authorization."

A very debateable statement if the small print of Coventy/Duke of York's instructions are read. Also when the elation of the Duke, Secretary of State and the shareholders is noted as news of the progress filtered home. As far as the Company were concerned it is not until they discover that Holmes has not brought home the bacon/gold that they turn against him.

So Holmes is allowed to get his land-legs back with a stay in the honeymoon suite at the Tower.

Capt.Petrus.S. Dorpmans  •  Link

9.January 1665.
"...Holmes was this day sent to the tower..."

Holmes was imprisoned, and later held in custody, for his attack on Dutch West Africa. He was released and pardoned in March, after the Ducth declaration of war. Ralegh had been executed in 1618 after attacking Spanish territory in South America.

Capt. Petrus.S. Dorpmans  •  Link

9 January 1665.

"...where I was accosted and most highly complimented by my Lord Bellasses, our new governor..."

John Belasyse, second son of Thomas, first Viscount Fauconberg, created Baron Belasyse of Worlaby was a Roman Catholic, and therefore was deprived of all his appointments in 1672 by the provisions of the Test Act, but in 1684 James II, made him First Commisioner of the Treasury. He died 1689.

language hat  •  Link

Phil: The bracketed addition should be deleted as false and misleading.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"The [false] bracketed addition" is in the Gutenberg scan of the Wheatley edition.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

A note by Lord Braybrook to 29 September 1664 reads
1. Captain (afterwards Sir Robert) Holmes’ expedition to attack the Dutch settlements in Africa eventuated in an important exploit. Holmes suddenly left the coast of Africa, sailed across the Atlantic, and reduced the Dutch settlement of New Netherlands to English rule, under the title of New York.....(Campbell’s “Naval History,” vol. ii, p., 89). How little did the King or Holmes himself foresee the effects of the capture, — B. http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

This is an interesting piece of fiction.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Capt. Petrus.S. Dorpmans, "Before posting an annotation please read the annotation guidelines", esp. the part regarding copyright.

cgs  •  Link

Now we have ways of reviewing conflicting sources, for a long time we relied on a good memory and the perfection of status.
omnia cum grano salis:[sic]

one source, full of spoilers.
The second African expedition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robe…

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"broke her thigh in her heels"
I can't really quite understand,but anyway in those latitudes vitamin D deficiency was rampant;one should be reminded that in the beginning we were all dark skinned and lactose intolerant, migrating out of Africa and in the northern latitudes light skin and lactose tolerance helped to survive.

Pedro  •  Link

“Holmes was this day sent to the Tower”

Well we know that Holmes walks free in March from L&M and the Captain, but both are a little misleading, and so to put the record straight may need a couple of spoilers.

Holmes was taken into custody on this day but released under surveillance on the 23rd January, and on the 14th February recommitted to the Tower. (More information entered on days concerned.)

Perhaps a little pedantic, but the term Dutch West Africa may be taken to suggest that the Dutch lay claim to territories there, when, as with other nations, it was trading factors.

Judith Boles  •  Link

"In my way saw a woman that broke her thigh, in her heels slipping up upon the frosty streete." I think the sentence makes more sense reading...In my way, saw a woman that broke her thigh, in (that) her heels slipping up upon the frosty streete.

cgs  •  Link

When thee win
thee get knighted
if thee lose
thee get indited
when thee win
thee get the prize
when thee lose
thee then be despized

Robert Gertz  •  Link

What gives with the sudden holiday generousity towards the aged ps, St. Michel? Sam no doubt coughed up a few shillings.

"It would be so nice if I had a decent gift to bring my parents for the New Year, Sam'l."

Errr...

"I mean it might be a distraction when I explain how I managed to whack myself in the eye..." Gentle feel of bruise...

Hmmn....

"Well, Mrs. Pepys, I think perhaps, it being the season, tis time to be large and forget old antagonisms."

language hat  •  Link

"“The [false] bracketed addition” is in the Gutenberg scan of the Wheatley edition."

So? There's no law requiring the site to preserve every jot and tittle of the scan. If it's false and misleading, it should go.

Brian  •  Link

According to L&M the gift of "apples, neat’s tongues, and wine" should be "apples, neat’s tongues, and brain." Yummy!

Cactus Wren  •  Link

Given the state of orthopedic medicine at the time -- traction wouldn't be invented for another two and a half centuries -- that poor woman is likely to spend the rest of her life in bed and in agony.

Amanda French  •  Link

"Broke her thigh" doesn't mean "broke her thigh _bone_." Pepys is using this mostly obsolete definition of "break":

5. c. "To crack or rupture (the skin); to graze, bruise, wound, as in phrase 'to break one's head.'" (Oxford English Dictionary Online)

The poor woman probably just had some painful aches and bruises and scrapes for a few days from falling on the ice in her high heels. Language has changed a lot more in the last 350 years than the laws of physics or the density of the human skeleton.

language hat  •  Link

Ah, thanks, Amanda -- that's obvious once you point it out, but we're so used to the modern meaning it doesn't occur to us!

cgs  •  Link

As Language Hat brings to our attention [or be that to take to our brain] the words of yesterday have evolved.
Take " brave frost " it does not mean that Jack could be cowardly.
So Thanks to Amanda for the entry.
See I took it literally as I knew someone that would when she had caught her spring chicken would literally take the head in hand and wind up the chicken till the neck snapped.

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

All I know is, given his actions last time Sam crowed about "a brave frost," the woman who broke her thigh should be happy he didn't stop to "help"!

Amanda French  •  Link

You're welcome. :) It was interesting -- I also started thinking about the word "thigh" and how much the meaning depends upon the context even today:

"She broke her thigh [bone]"

"She has thin thighs [flesh]"

"Her thighs [skin] are white as milk"

I'll let y'all continue from there.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Tangier Committee...my Lord Bellasses, our new governor....Our patent is renewed, and he and my Lord Barkeley, and Sir Thomas Ingram put in as commissioners."

Belasyse was appointed Governor on 4 January. The commissioners' patent of 1662 q.v. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… was now redrafted but not sealed until the following summer. Berkeley of Stratton , one of the Commissioners of Ordnance and Steward of the Duke of York's household, had umtil recently been a Navy Commissioner. Ingram was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Both were Privy Councilors and members of the Council of Trade.
(L&M note)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

The picture of Belasyse in his orange suit on Wikipedia makes me wish once more that we had a picture of Pepys in his red Court suit.

Hilary  •  Link

For those with access to BBC iplayer,there was a lovely programme on 3 January called A Stitch in Time which features clothes of Charles II including his wedding suit which is actually preserved in the Victoria amd Albert Museum ( I didn't know that before!)

Chris Squire UK  •  Link

Re: ‘ . . he do much doubt of the successe of this warr with Holland, we going about it, he doubts, by the instigation of persons that do not enough apprehend the consequences of the danger of it . . ’

‘doubt, v. < Middle English
. . 2. a. trans. To be uncertain or divided in opinion about; to hesitate to believe or trust; to feel doubt about; to call in question; to mistrust.
. . a1616 Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) v. v. 171 Doctors doubt that.
1680 Earl of Mulgrave & Dryden tr. Ovid in Dryden et al. tr. Epist. 163 He..The Beauty doubted, but believ'd the Wife.

. . 6. In weakened sense (apparently influenced by I.):
c. With infin. phrase or clause: To apprehend; to suspect. arch.
. . Remarks & Coll. 28 Sept. My Flax [was] I doubt willfully fir'd and burnt . . ‘
……………….
‘apprehend, v. < French . .
. . 8. To lay hold of with the intellect:
a. to perceive the existence of, recognize, see.
. . 9. a. To understand (a thing to be so and so); to conceive, consider, view, take (it) as.
1639 T. Fuller Hist. Holy Warre iv. ix. 183 They apprehended it a great courtesie done unto them.

11. To anticipate with fear or dread; to be fearful concerning; to fear.
a. with obj.
. . 1609 Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iii. ii. 71 O let my Lady apprehend no feare.
1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §54 Which makes me much apprehend the ends of those honest Worthies . .

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