Wednesday 3 May 1665

Up betimes and walked to Sir Ph. Warwicke’s, where a long time with him in his chamber alone talking of Sir G. Carteret’s business, and the abuses he puts on the nation by his bad payments to both our vexations, but no hope of remedy for ought I see. Thence to my Lord Ashly to a Committee of Tangier for my Lord Rutherford’s accounts, and that done we to my Lord Treasurer’s, where I did receive my Lord’s warrant to Sir R. Long for drawing a warrant for my striking of tallys. So to the Inne again by Cripplegate, expecting my mother’s coming to towne, but she is not come this weeke neither, the coach being too full. So to the ’Change and thence home to dinner, and so out to Gresham College, and saw a cat killed with the Duke of Florence’s poyson, and saw it proved that the oyle of tobacco1 drawn by one of the Society do the same effect, and is judged to be the same thing with the poyson both in colour and smell, and effect. I saw also an abortive child preserved fresh in spirits of salt. Thence parted, and to White Hall to the Councilchamber about an order touching the Navy (our being empowered to commit seamen or Masters that do not, being hired or pressed, follow their worke), but they could give us none. So a little vexed at that, because I put in the memorial to the Duke of Albemarle alone under my own hand, home, and after some time at the office home to bed.

My Lord Chief Justice Hide did die suddenly this week, a day or two ago, of an apoplexy.

24 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Today at Gresham College -- from the Hooke Folio Online

May. 3. 1665. Dan Cox discourse of oyle of Tobacco. effects of it tryd)
mr Howard an account of macassar poyson calld Ippo. in the Island Celebes)
mr Palmer pesented. cervus volans, humming bird, Rattles of Snakes, Racoon pizzle)
mr. Th: Cox abortiue in Spt of Wine These was deliuerd to mr Hooke.
mr. Hooke produced a module of a chariot, wth 2 wheels & short double Springs, to be drawn wth one horse, the chair being soe fixt vpon two springs that the person sitting Iust ouer the one or a little behind the axe, was (when the Expt. was made at Co: Blunts house) carryed wth as much ease as one could be in the french chariot wthout burthening the Horse. He shewed 2 draughts of this modul hauing this circumstantiall Difference that the one of these was contriued soe that the boy sitting in a seate made behind the chair, and guiding the reines ouer the top of the Chair driues the horse the other by placing the chair cleer behind the wheels. the place of entry being likewise behind and the saddle on the horses back to be born vp by the shafts. that the boy riding on it and Driuing the horse should be Little or noe burthen to the horse.
(about may dew.

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

CGS  •  Link

mea culpa mea culpa, she dothe take a coach;
"...expecting my mother’s coming to towne, but she is not come this weeke neither, the coach being too full...."
I should not assume.

CGS  •  Link

"...I put in the memorial to..."
Memo:< MEMO n.]

trans. To convey (information) in or as a memorandum. Sometimes with direct speech as object. Also: to send a memorandum to (a person).
1961

3. a. A record, chronicle, or memoir; (in pl.) a record, often containing personal reminiscences, of the history of a person, place, or event; memoirs, observations.
b. A note, a memorandum. Now rare.
c1450

dirk  •  Link

The Rev. Josselin's diary...

Mr Eldred's recovery from the stone - cont'd

"This day employed in returning thanks to god for Mr Eldreds deliverance, wherein my soul was hearty, god accept. season cold windy dry: strange a wife never pitied him ill, nor once said prayers for him. nor spoke a good word of god in his recovery."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...saw a cat killed with the Duke of Florence’s poyson..."

"That's my last Duchess on the wall..."

Florentines...Poisons... Somehow they just seem to naturally fit together.

Beware, inconvenient or troublesome mistresses of Samuel.

***
"Very fine. Now...As to today's real subject, gentlemen..." Hooke waves to see all doors secured, all curtains closed. "One both of entrancing interest...And practical utilization."

"How to commit the perfect...Murder."

"Here now, I know the way to that..." one young gentleman raises hand. "I just send two of my thugs to beat the damned life out of the rascal. A bag of gold takes care of any troublesome witnesses."

"Yes...But perhaps in the case of those of us who for various reasons prefer a more delicate approach..."

"Indeed..." Creed notes to Sam, giving solemn nod. "A pleasant walk, a friendly talk...Never any need for discourtesy. Then one disposes of the matters over strong waters."

"Like this poison...?"

"Actually I meant the Thames, just under London Bridge there's a superb spot."
***

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Oil of tobacco killed the cat - yet people took up smoking.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

yet people took up smoking

Two generations prior, James I had published the diatribe 'A Counterblaste To Tobacco,' London: R. Barker, 1604:-

"That the manifolde abuses of this vile custome of Tobacco taking, may the better be espied, it is fit, that first you enter into consideration both of the first originall thereof, and likewise of the reasons of the first entry thereof into this Countrey. For certainely as such customes, that haue their first institution either from a godly, necessary, or honorable ground, and are first brought in, by the meanes of some worthy, vertuous, and great Personage, are euer, and most iustly, holden in great and reuerent estimation and account, by all wise, vertuous, and temperate spirits: So should it by the contrary, iustly bring a great disgrace into that sort of customes, which hauing their originall from base corruption and barbarity, doe in like sort, make their first entry into a Countrey, by an inconsiderate and childish affectation of Noueltie, as is the true case of the first inuention of Tobacco taking, and of the first entry thereof among vs. For Tobacco being a common herbe, which (though vnder diuers names) growes almost euery where, was first found out by some of the barbarous Indians, to be a Preseruatiue, or Antidot against the Pockes, a filthy disease, whereunto these barbarous people are (as all men know) very much subiect, what through the vncleanly and adust constitution of their bodies, and what through the intemperate heate of their Climat: so that as from them was first brought into Christendome, that most detestable disease, so from them likewise was brought this vse of Tobacco, as a stinking and vnsauorie Antidot, for so corrupted and execrable a Maladie, the stinking Suffumigation whereof they yet vse against that disease, making so one canker or venime to eate out another. ...

... Haue you not reason then to bee ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noueltie, so basely grounded, so foolishly receiued and so grossely mistaken in the right vse thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming your selues both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the markes and notes of vanitie vpon you: by the custome thereof making your selues to be wondered at by all forraine ciuil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse."
http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/jam…

JWB  •  Link

"...talking of Sir G. Carteret’s business, and the abuses he puts on the nation..."

It should be remembered that the nation is in the 5th year of a 28 year economic depression brought about in no samll part by the restoration itself- Commonwealth debt repudiation & those stupid merchantilist Navigation Acts.

JWB  •  Link

oil of nicotine

I remember my father's bottle of "Black Leaf 40" with it's prominent skull & corssbones. A water soluable concentrate of nicotine sulfate, used as a garden spray; it was outlawed here in the US in the early '90's.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"macassar poyson calld Ippo. in the Island Celebes)"

"Antiaris toxicaria (Upas or Ipoh) is an evergreen tree in the family Moraceae, native to southeastern Asia, from India and Sri Lanka east to southern China, the Philippines and Fiji; closely related species also occur in eastern Africa. It produces a highly poisonous latex, known in Java as 'Upas', from the Javanese word for 'poison'." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upas…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"may dew"

English Folklore: May dew

"There is a widespread belief, in Britain and abroad, that dew gathered on May Day morning is particularly good for the complexion, and countless people have acted on this knowledge over the last 500 years. Samuel Pepys's wife Elizabeth clearly believed that any time in May would do, as he records her going out on 28 May 1667, and 10 May 1669. In some areas there were extra stipulations: dew gathered under oak trees or off hawthorn bushes being specially good. May dew was also believed to be particularly effective for certain complaints, first mentioned in 1602 for sore eyes and in Launceston, ‘poor people say that a swelling in the neck may be cured by the patient, if a woman, going before sunrise on the first of May, to the grave of the young man last buried in the churchyard, collecting there from the dew by passing the hand three times from the head to the foot of the grave, and applying the dew to the part affected. If the patient be a man, the grave chosen must be that of the last young woman buried in the churchyard’ (N&Q 1s:2 (1850), 474-5). Other ailments such as consumption and weak joints and muscles could also be treated with May dew, or even with May rain." http://www.answers.com/topic/may-…

Lawrence  •  Link

I know this is not current! but having visited Boarstall Duck Decoy today, discovered that Charles II built one in St James' park in 1665! a very interesting visit! I just wondered if anyone knew of it's construction, and if it was sucessful?

Pedro  •  Link

The Month of May.

“It is in the dew they shake from the pink May that our simple country maidens love to bathe their faces, believing that it will give them the complexion of the warm pearly May blossoms, which they call the Lady May. What a refreshing shower-bath, when well shaken, a large hawthorn, heavy with dew, and covered with bloom, would make!

http://www.thebookofdays.com/mont…

CGS  •  Link

many indirect references to the Park of St James by Evelyn and Sam.

from http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

"...then to walk in St. James’s Park, and saw great variety of fowl which I never saw before..."

"...To Sydrach Hilcus for ye contriving of the Decoy in St. James Park, £30.
For oatmeal, tares, hempseed, and other corn for the birds and fowles from September, 1660 to June 24, 1670, £246 18s.
To John Scott for carpenters work done in wharfing and making bridges in the Island and borders, and for boards used about the Decoy and other work, £45 15s. 4d. (Signed by Charles II.)..."
from

http://www.decoymans.co.uk/chapte…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"mr. Hooke produced a module of a chariot, wth 2 wheels & short double Springs, to be drawn wth one horse, the chair being soe fixt vpon two springs that the person sitting Iust ouer the one or a little behind the axe, was (when the Expt. was made at Co: Blunts house) carryed wth as much ease as one could be in the french chariot wthout burthening the Horse."

Hooke's constant use and study of springs.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"So to the Inne again by Cripplegate"

? the White Hind. (L&M note)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"My Lord Chief Justice Hide did die suddenly this week, a day or two ago, of an apoplexy."

Sir Robert Hyde (Chief Justice of the King's Bench) had died of an apoplectic fit at Serjeant's Inn on 1 May. (L&M note)

arby  •  Link

The internet tells me I'm wrong, but "Suffumigation" sounds to me like it could have been made up by Homer Simpson, much like saxamaphone.

Robert Harneis  •  Link

It would seem that which ever baddies failed to knock off the Skripals should have used tobacco oil. Porton Down take note.

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... a cat killed with the Duke of Florence’s poyson, and saw it proved that the oyle of tobacco drawn by one of the Society do the same effect, and is judged to be the same thing with the poyson both in colour and smell, and effect."

The Folger Shakespeare Library offers Fellowships, and Renée A. Bricker, a Professor of History at the University of North Georgia, published a short article about the importance of smell at the Court of Queen Elizabeth as a result of her month with them.
See it at https://www.folger.edu/blogs/coll…

Three examples she sites to illustrate Early Modern attitudes to smell and aromas:

Queen Elizabeth is a perfect example to examine for the intersections of smells with larger consequences than personal disgust or pleasure.
Why? As monarch, her personal tastes affected the economy and diplomacy.
The medical context of miasma, the belief that sickness happened either by foul odors or from the porous emissions of infected people,
meant smells could be a matter of national security.
Prof. Bricker examines this political thread of the intersection between olfaction and context.

On the one hand, smells could be protective, as in the recipe below for "A Perfume for the Howse against Plague, from Medical Miscellany":

"Take a quart of Vineger, Seeth therein the Leaues
of Angelica, Bay Leaues, Rue Centory the lesse,
Camomill, the berries of Iuniper, some ryndes
of Oringes, and Lemmons, Some Elycampane
Roote and Rodoana;
Putt some of this Liquorice vpon an hott fire shouell,
and take the fume of it.
The smoake of a Linke when the Light is out
is very good."

And sometimes fumes could be deadly:

Thomas Arundell noted to himself, on a paper found in his chamber in 1597, that he might “Learn of Mr. Platt his way to poison air and so to infect a whole camp.”
Thomas Arundell. Vol. 50. Hertfordshire: The Marquess of Salisbury, 1597. https://www.proquest.com/governme….

In both cases, the air was poisoned, but Arundell’s letter offers an example of weaponizing air, something not usually associated with premodern conflict.
In both cases, air was the arena for fighting odor with odor -- which is what perfumes and deodorants do, also.

For an exposition of smells and the plague, she recommends Holly Dugan, “Smelling Disease: Rosemary, Pomanders, Shut-in Households,” in The Ephemeral History of Perfume: Scent and Sense in Early Modern England (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011): 97 – 125.

Holly Dugan, “Seeing Smell,” in The senses in early modern England, 1558–1660, ed. by Simon Watts, Jackie Watson And Amy Kenny (Manchester UK: Manchester University Press, 2015), 91 – 123.
https://sixthsensereader.org/abou…

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