Friday 19 May 1665
Up, and to White Hall, where the Committee for Tangier met, and there, though the case as to the merit of it was most plain and most of the company favourable to our business, yet it was with much ado that I got the business not carried fully against us, but put off to another day, my Lord Arlington being the great man in it, and I was sorry to be found arguing so greatly against him. The business I believe will in the end be carried against us, and the whole business fall; I must therefore endeavour the most I can to get money another way. It vexed me to see Creed so hot against it, but I cannot much blame him, having never declared to him my being concerned in it.
But that that troubles me most is my Lord Arlington calls to me privately and asks me whether I had ever said to any body that I desired to leave this employment, having not time to look after it. I told him, No, for that the thing being settled it will not require much time to look after it. He told me then he would do me right to the King, for he had been told so, which I desired him to do, and by and by he called me to him again and asked me whether I had no friend about the Duke, asking me (I making a stand) whether Mr. Coventry was not my friend. I told him I had received many friendships from him. He then advised me to procure that the Duke would in his next letter write to him to continue me in my place and remove any obstruction; which I told him I would, and thanked him.
So parted, vexed at the first and amazed at this business of my Lord Arlington’s. Thence to the Exchequer, and there got my tallys for 17,500l., the first payment I ever had out of the Exchequer, and at the Legg spent 14s. upon my old acquaintance, some of them the clerks, and away home with my tallys in a coach, fearful every step of having one of them fall out, or snatched from me.
Being come home, I much troubled out again by coach (for company taking Sir W. Warren with me), intending to have spoke to my Lord Arlington to have known the bottom of it, but missed him, and afterwards discoursing the thing as a confidant to Sir W. Warren, he did give me several good hints and principles not to do anything suddenly, but consult my pillow upon that and every great thing of my life, before I resolve anything in it. Away back home, and not being fit for business I took my wife and Mercer down by water to Greenwich at 8 at night, it being very fine and cool and moonshine afterward. Mighty pleasant passage it was; there eat a cake or two, and so home by 10 or 11 at night, and then to bed, my mind not settled what to think.
16 Annotations
First Reading
Carl in Boston • Link
Sir W. Warren, he did give me several good hints and principles not to do anything suddenly, but consult my pillow upon that and every great thing of my life, before I resolve anything in it.
Teenage and 21 year old hotheads can't understand this, I couldn't, but it is sound advice from our Great Leader. We read in Isaiah 30:15 "In quietness and confidence shall be our strength" and it is so odd to think and yet so true. Abraham Lincoln said much the same.
Terry Foreman • Link
"I was sorry to be found arguing so greatly against [Lord Arlington]"
-- perhaps not least because he was close to the King and of "pleasant and agreeable humour" (so the Wikipedia article about him).
Interesting (and vexing indeed) how Lord Arlington tests Pepys's bona fides, though they've been together on the Tangier Commission for a long while.
tg • Link
"It vexed me to see Creed so hot against it, but I cannot much blame him, having never declared to him my being concerned in it."
Despite the "pillow time" with John Creed, our Sam still has many tentacles in the fire that come up against his friend and rival.
Ira • Link
"consult my pillow" - Is this the Restoration-era equivalent of sleeping on it?
Jonathan Addleman • Link
I love that expression! I'm going to consult my pillow about all sorts of things tonight.
andy • Link
whether I had ever said to any body that I desired to leave this employment
Always a rather pointed question in my experience! An enemy makes himself known: Sam has to prove his leadership qualities now. Good advice from Warren.
Ruben • Link
"in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength"
The Prophet's words sound good but what to do with the continuation?
"in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not."
I do not know.
Phil • Link
"But that that troubles me most is my Lord Arlington calls to me privately and asks me whether I had ever said to any body that I desired to leave this employment, having not time to look after it."
Whodunit? A subtle rumour which could cost Sam his job. There is no question Sam has been busy but nowhere in his diary, thus far, has he ever made a negative remark about the time he invests in the Tangier account. The person who planted the false seed of discontent would appear to be someone with an axe to grind or someone who covet Sam's job.
Could it be Povy trying to get back his old job? I'm thinking it's someone who had direct access to the King's ear...someone like Sir G. Carteret. Perhaps Carteret got wind of the Sam / Sir Philip Warwicke conversations of May 3/65 and Apr 18/65.
It is amazing how Sam comes across in his diary as a person who wishes no harm on anyone, expects fair play and honour and yet, when you think about his past writings, has developed enemies galore.
Robert Gertz • Link
Hard to imagine a thief could make good use of the tallys unless for ransom back to the government. Surely no merchant or innkeeper would accept one as payment-the one knowing all too well what they were and that they must be stolen, the other seeing only a notched stick presented to him.
Mary • Link
Worries about losing tallies.
But think how very awkward, even dangerous, it would be to lose one! Sam would then have lost the prime official record of the sums of money approved. The whole point about tallies is that one has to tally with another. Sam could swear as much as he liked that he was giving a true account of his dealings, but if he couldn't produce his corroborating tally then he wouldn't have a leg to stand on. What price his career then?
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
After my appeal for help discovering when Anne Hyde and her bevy of ladies visit James, Duke of York aboard the fleet at Harwich, I did find this excerpt:
https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en…
"The Duke of York’s work on behalf of the navy did not begin and end in St. James’s or in the Admiralty buildings near the Tower. Later we shall see him on board his flagship at grips with the Dutch, but meanwhile he took care to visit many ships, and Anne was often with him on these expeditions.
"On 19th May, 1665, Lord Peterborough, writing from Harwich, mentions that he is going on board "to compliment the Duchess.”2
2 Earl of Peterboro’ to Williams.
"The ship on this occasion was the Royal Charles, and a few days later Sir William Coventry seems to be suffering acutely, for, addressing Arlington, he says “The Duchess and her beautiful Maids are departing, therefore long letters must not be expected from me under such a calamity, would visit their desperation on the Dutch were not the victualers as cruel as the ladies.”1
1 Calendar of Domestic State Papers, ed. By M.A.Everett-Green.
"There’s Geordie the drinker,
There’s Annie the eater,
There’s Mary the daughter,
There’s Willie the cheater."
Page 197
Lord Peterborough = Gov. Sir Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough, who returned home after fortifying Tangier. He served in the Second Dutch War, at first as a volunteer in the fleet of Admiral Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich ...
No idea who Geordie, Annie, Mary or Willie are.
The poem leaves me wondering if the water and beer Pepys was chasing down last week ever arrived.
JayW • Link
Possibly.....
Geordie the drinker = George I
Anne the eater = Queen Anne
Mary the daughter = Mary II
William the cheater = William III
Mary was daughter of James II. She and her husband William took the throne in the Glorious Revolution.
Anne was a stout lady. Was George I a drinker? Does this verse come from the time of George I?
San Diego Sarah • Link
Good try, Jay, and if this is a ditty composed in the 18th century about people in the 17th, then plausible. But as I understand the context, this was composed at the time about Anne Hyde, Duchess of York's courtiers, so Anne and Mary were not born yet, or babies.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Just occurred to me that 'Annie the eater' is Anne Hyde who, between so many pregnancies and hearty eating, became very over weight.
Bryan • Link
Geordie, Annie, Mary & William
According to Hogg, this song as written in 1688 by Lord Newbottle. It is about the Glorious Revolution. Mary, Willie, and Annie refer to the prince and princess of Orange and princess of Denmark. Although in the text of the song, it is "Menie the daughter".
Geordie isn't identified but an earlier verse mentions "sweet Geordie Brodie".
Here's Hogg's full commentary on the song:
"Cakes of Crowdy
This is another production of the same year, and likewise of a nobleman, having been written by Lord Newbottle in 1688, as the MS. bears. The author was eldest son to William, first marquis of Lothian; and notwithstanding this satire on the revolutionists, he closed with that great measure. Here are two noble authors whom Walpole knew nothing of. The following are some of the heroes mentioned in this song.—Chinnie; Lord Melville, called Chinnie from the length of his features.—Rethy; Lord Raith.—Little Pitcunkie; Melville's third son.—Leven the hero; who whipt Lady Mortonhall with his whip. He is the Lord Huffie of Dr Pitcairn's " Assembly," where he is introduced beating fiddlers and horse-hirers.—Cherrytrees Davie; Mr D. Williamson, who did lie with Lord Burke's daughter.—Gteenock, Dickson, Houston; taxmen of the customs. They were, Sir
J. Hall, Sir J. Dickson, and Mr R. Young.—Borland; this is Captain Drummond, a great turn-coat rogue, who kept the stores in the castle.—Grave Burnet; old Gribo.—Mary, Willie, and
Annie; prince and princess of Orange, and princess of Denmark. —Argyle; he was killed (received his death's wound, at least) in a brothel near Newcastle.—So says an old commentator on my
Lord Newbottle's elegant and witty song!"
The Jacobite Relics of Scotland; Being the Songs, Airs, and Legends of the Adherents to the House of Stuart collected by James Hogg, 1819, page 184.
See page 20 for the song.
URL: https://archive.org/details/jacob…
Liz • Link
Tally sticks. ‘ In 1834, the Exchequer was faced with the problem of disposing two cart-loads of wooden tally sticks. These were remnants of an obsolete accounting system that had not been used since 1826.’ https://www.parliament.uk/about/l…
This interesting short article shows the disposal caused the Great Fire of 1834.