Sunday 21 May 1665

[Continued from yesterday. P.G.] …Lord’s day, in the morning writing letters to the fleete and elsewhere, and my mind eased of much business, home to bed and slept till 8. So up, and this day is brought home one of my new silk suits, the plain one, but very rich camelott and noble. I tried it and it pleases me, but did not wear it, being I would not go out today to church. So laid it by, and my mind changed, thinking to go see my Lady Sandwich, and I did go a little way, but stopped and returned home to dinner, after dinner up to my chamber to settle my Tangier accounts, and then to my office, there to do the like with other papers. In the evening home to supper and to bed.

13 Annotations

First Reading

Australian Susan  •  Link

Why is Sam keeping his Tangier papers in his home office and the rest at his proper office? Does this really show us how he divides up his work? Wonder what else is kept at home and what at the office? This is typical Sam behaviour to me - tidily dividing things up. Wouldn't he have loved looking at modern office furniture and storage systems?

Miss Ann  •  Link

This isn't like Sam to be so indecisive - not going out to church, maybe going to see my Lady Sandwich, starting out then returning home. I wonder what's happening in his sub-conscious. I know when I'm beset with worries I sometimes carry on like this, not really knowing what to do next - not being able to choose from the myriad of options, all equally important but none urgent or essential. Maybe the pressures of work are piling up inside his mind.

JWB  •  Link

Miss Ann

Perhaps, as a serious & prudent man, he's contemplating a similar ill presage as Clarendon:

"All serious and prudent men took it as an ill presage, that whilst all
warlike preparations were made in abundance suitable to the occasion,
there should be so little preparation of spirit for a war against an
enemy, who might possibly be without some of our virtues, but assuredly
was without any of our vices." [Footnote: _Life_, ii. 352.]

"The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon V2", by Henry Craik

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/ete…

Phil  •  Link

It's almost as if he is alone. He records no comments by others on his new suit, no mention of anyone else planning to attend church or going with him to visit Lady Sandwich. No one dines or sups with him.

When Sam writes you can almost feel his happiness but his writing today is pensive or distracted or he's on a low ebb in energy level. Maybe, as Miss Ann suspects, there's something subconciously bothering him but I think he's just tired - physically and mentally tired.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"I think he’s just tired - physically and mentally tired."

Phil, I'm at least with you, recalling yesterday's entry, whenever he wrote it -- "Up, and to my office, where busy all the morning. At noon dined at home, and to my office, very busy."

That last "very busy" is one more than is comfortable; and no mention of supper, or even bed until the entry that Minor or Wheatley has chosen to begin today's. L&M show the two entries blurred together.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... there’s something subconciously bothering him ..."

This is the first free since Friday evening " ... not being fit for business ... then to bed, my mind not settled what to think."

SP's Friday: first the prospect of losing 300L p.a. that he thought in the bag and counted -- "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." -- We have seen how much agony SP suffered over over a six month period with the possibility of having to let go a single payment of 100L lest he get caught out in the review of Povy's Tangier accounts.

Second, the great man you have just been "arguing so greatly against" for your 300 L., Arlington, procurer of the King's mistresses no less, inquires not very subtlety if you want to lose the new job and tells you to get the Duke to write a note if you wish to retain it:

"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."

Third, you are holding the first group of tallys ever issued to you "fearful every step of having one of them fall out, or snatched from me."

and you can't get to the bottom of who is up to what or talk to anyone involved in problem 2 ...No wonder wearing expensive new clothes to Church does not please and perhaps having to chat to the other Navy Board Members (which one might have passed the untrue gossip to Arligton, all have motive?), the prospect of chatting with Lady Sandwich does not delight lest you inadvertently say something ...

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Out for dinner...Back for dinner...Damnit, make up your mind." Bess grumbles under breath.

Though it does seem like Sam's alone at home today. Perhaps Mum and Bess are visiting around town and stayed with friends.

JWB  •  Link

The again, perhaps his dithering is just the business with the new suit. He's had it picked up on a Sunday morning causing servant & taylor to break Sabbath and then embarrassingly caught himself going off to show it off.

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"there is something subconscioulsly bothering him"
Methinks Sam is worried that moths and cockroaches are going to damage his brand new silk suit.

jeannine  •  Link

Off topic but perhaps of interest to those in the Boston area (I also asked Phil to add information about this but, if you are like me, sometimes you miss those links)

Seven Times Salt
A Brave Barrel of Oysters: the music of Samuel Pepys' London

Samuel Pepys, one of history's most prolific diarists and a secretary of the Royal Navy during the reign of Charles II, was a man of his time and enjoyed all the cultural delights of the Restoration. He frequently heard some of the finest musicians of his day and often enjoyed music-making with the very same musicians in his drawing room after dinner. With music and dramatic readings from Pepys' diaries, Seven Times Salt revives the bustling energy of Restoration London, as described by English Literature’s quirkiest and most beloved “man on the street”.

Karen Burciaga, violin and viol; Daniel Meyers, recorders; Joshua Schreiber Shalem, viol and Matthew Wright, lute. With special guests Michael Barrett, tenor and lute, and Kyle Parrish, narrator

Tuesday June 10, 2008 8:00 PM St. Peter's Church, 320 Boston Post Rd., Weston MA

Wednesday June 11, 2008 8:00 PM The Chapel At West Parish, 129 Reservation Rd., Andover MA

Thursday June 12, 2008 8:00 PM Lindsey Chapel, Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St., Boston MA

And the ticket link is on this page

http://www.mktix.com/mktixrun/sha…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"Bess? What the devil are doing in my new silk suit?"

"Well...If you're too embarassed to wear it Mother and I are off to see my Lady."

"This be a gentleman's suit?" Margaret, staring at suit, then Sam.

"Mother. A man of the world must cut a good figure."

"I'm sure the gentlemen of the Court will find ye irresistible. And that thing on ye head looks like it'll eat ye brains."

"Some would say..." Bess nods.

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