Saturday 8 July 1665
All day very diligent at the office, ended my letters by 9 at night, and then fitted myself to go down to Woolwich to my wife, which I did, calling at Sir G. Carteret’s at Deptford, and there hear that my Lady Sandwich is come, but not very well. By 12 o’clock to Woolwich, found my wife asleep in bed, but strange to think what a fine night I had down, but before I had been one minute on shore, the mightiest storm come of wind and rain that almost could be for a quarter of an houre and so left. I to bed, being the first time I come to her lodgings, and there lodged well.
7 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sir G. Carteret’s at Deptford"
L&M say this was his official residence at the royal dockyard.
Michael L • Link
Sam is arriving at Woolwich at midnight. How did he get in? Would he have a key, or did a servant have to get rousted out of bed to open the door for him?
Robert Gertz • Link
"By soft, what light through yonder..."
"Ahhh!"
"Ahhhhhhhhh!..." fading scream of Sam as he falls from ladder shoved back from her bedroom window by the startled-out-of-sleep Bess...
"Sam'l?! Are you all right?! What the hell were you doing?!"
Minnes and his bright ideas...Sam groans to self as he clambers out of the mud. "'Romeo and Juliet, Pepys,' he says. 'Just the ticket to get the old fires roaring'."
"Pepys, Pepys...Why foreart thou Pepys? You sweet thing, you." Bess' voice from the window.
Hmmn...Well, sorry Sir John.
Andrew Hamilton • Link
fate, chance, kings and desperate men
Sam ponders his close call with a dangerous storm
"strange to think what a fine night I had down, but before I had been one minute on shore, the mightiest storm come of wind and rain that almost could be for a quarter of an houre and so left"
cgs • Link
How dothe Samuell get upstaires?
There could be an old soldier/sailor from the late conflict of interest, with an infliction donated by a roundhead/cavalier whom be expecting at least a farthing for being disturbed from his snoring of better times doing his level best to prevent the bad guys from disturbing the peace.
dirk • Link
From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Advices of the movements or expected movements, of the Dutch Fleet
Date: 8 July 1665
Document: copy [endorsed by Lord Sandwich]
Contains: Advices of the movements or expected movements, of the Dutch Fleet and of the appearance of merchant-ships, given by Nicholas Perry, Master of the ship Golden Crown of St Malo's, upon his Examination.
Second Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Would he have a key, or did a servant have to get rousted out of bed to open the door for him?"
Keys had been invented, but they and locks were big and unwieldy. We know Pepys had one locked room in his house, the wine cellar.
The front door of a well-built home probably had a large log slotted into brackets on the inside. The houseboy or a maid would remove it when an expected guest arrived. Since Pepys intended to be late he probably sent his boy ahead to alert the household, and to wait up for him.