Monday 21 August 1665
Called up, by message from Lord Bruncker and the rest of my fellows, that they will meet me at the Duke of Albemarle’s this morning; so I up, and weary, however, got thither before them, and spoke with my Lord, and with him and other gentlemen to walk in the Parke, where, I perceive, he spends much of his time, having no whither else to go; and here I hear him speake of some Presbyter people that he caused to be apprehended yesterday, at a private meeting in Covent Garden, which he would have released upon paying 5l. per man to the poor, but it was answered, they would not pay anything; so he ordered them to another prison from the guard. By and by comes my fellow-officers, and the Duke walked in, and to counsel with us; and that being done we departed, and Sir W. Batten and I to the office, where, after I had done a little business, I to his house to dinner, whither comes Captain Cocke, for whose epicurisme a dish of partriges was sent for, and still gives me reason to think is the greatest epicure in the world.
Thence, after dinner, I by water to Sir W. Warren’s and with him two hours, talking of things to his and my profit, and particularly good advice from him what use to make of Sir G. Carteret’s kindnesse to me and my interest in him, with exceeding good cautions for me not using it too much nor obliging him to fear by prying into his secrets, which it were easy for me to do.
Thence to my Lord Bruncker, at Greenwich, and Sir J. Minnes by appointment, to looke after the lodgings appointed for us there for our office, which do by no means please me, they being in the heart of all the labourers and workmen there, which makes it as unsafe as to be, I think, at London. Mr. Hugh May, who is a most ingenuous man, did show us the lodgings, and his acquaintance I am desirous of. Thence walked, it being now dark, to Sir J. Minnes’s, and there staid at the door talking with him an hour while messengers went to get a boat for me, to carry me to Woolwich, but all to no purpose; so I was forced to walk it in the darke, at ten o’clock at night, with Sir J. Minnes’s George with me, being mightily troubled for fear of the doggs at Coome farme, and more for fear of rogues by the way, and yet more because of the plague which is there, which is very strange, it being a single house, all alone from the towne, but it seems they use to admit beggars, for their owne safety, to lie in their barns, and they brought it to them; but I bless God I got about eleven of the clock well to my wife, and giving 4s. in recompence to George, I to my wife, and having first viewed her last piece of drawing since I saw her, which is seven or eight days, which pleases me beyond any thing in the world, to bed with great content but weary.
32 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Some L&M notes about terrain
"from the guard" = from the guard-house at Whitehall.
"Sir W. Warren's" = at Rotherhithe
"labourers and workmen there" = those who were rebuilding Greenwich Palace.
"Coome farme" = "Probably in the marshes east of the palace....There were several combes in this distrct."
Terry Foreman • Link
combe:
a deep narrow valley; a valley on the flank of a hill; from the Old English cumb
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/netwit…
cgs • Link
Coome farm on the road to Wool[w]ich from 'Grenich' before yee get to hanging wood [see Motco at Woolwich]
cgs • Link
"...a dish of partriges ..." I wonder how many braces there were in the pie, I wonder if Samuel ever saw a covey. A luverly dish, better than Cornish hen.
cgs • Link
"...the rest of my fellows..." anybody have the list of lads?
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... what use to make of Sir G. Carteret’s kindnesse to me and my interest in him, ..."
Appears that none of SP's relationships are financially, or otherwise, disinterested.
Michael Robinson • Link
" ... so I up, and weary ..."
Given the distance SP rode yesterday and prior, am surprised that someone who does not spend time on horseback every day can walk comfortably at all.
tg • Link
"So I was forced to walk it in the darke, at ten o’clock at night, with Sir J. Minnes’s George with me" Luckily no moon direction problems tonight.
"being mightily troubled for fear of the doggs at Coome farme, and more for fear of rogues by the way, and yet more because of the plague which is there." A triple threat to walking at night, the dogs, the rogues and the plague. It's a jungle out there.
Eric Walla • Link
And George gets 4s. Does he also get a place to spend the night, or is it the long trek back for George?
Terry Foreman • Link
“…the rest of my fellows…”
SP says "Called up, by message from Lord Bruncker and the rest of my fellows, that they will meet me at the Duke of Albemarle’s this morning" and "By and by comes my fellow-officers," -- so, might we assume the Navy Officers are his "fellows" -- 'tis not a stretch; then a Navy Board meet with the Lord High Admiral in wartime -- "and the Duke walked in, and to counsel with us; and that being done we departed"
Ruben • Link
"with Sir J. Minnes’s George with me”
Such a possessive way of refering to George... is it possible he refers to an African slave?
Mary • Link
Well, it's possible but by no means necessary. Will Hewer could just as easily be referred to as 'Pepys's Will" and he's no slave, African or otherwise.
Robert Gertz • Link
"...where, I perceive, he spends much of his time, having no whither else to go..." Plague constraints or a wry comment on Bruncker's general ineffectiveness?
Seems rather petty of idle milord to fill his time harassing the poor Presbyterians so.
***
"...obliging him to fear by prying into his secrets..." Carteret did seem a mite too talkative the other day with that speech about always being on the receiving end of anything Charles gets his hands on. Wonder if Warren is quietly hinting that he and George have a few deals that should be kept mum should Carteret let his tongue slip.
Mary • Link
harassing the poor Presbyterians.
The combination of the plague and the Dutch war made the court and government particularly anxious about the activities of dissidents and supposed plotters at this time. There was a lively fear of sedition, so this particular instance can't really be described as petty oppression.
Michael Robinson • Link
“with Sir J. Minnes’s George with me”
Would have been ordinary usage in non-metropolitan England in the third quarter of the C 20th. to characterize a particular factotum, from personal knowledge; but very probably too far from pc now to be used in other than private conversation.
JWB • Link
Escher's world
A combe in a marsh?
JWB • Link
Presbyter people:
"...but now when the ministers in the city-churches fled, and left their flocks in the time of their extremity, several of them pitying the dying and distressed people, who had noone to help them to prepare for another world, nor to comfort them in thier terrors,...were convinced that no obedience to the laws of man could justify their neglecting men's souls and bodies...Therefore they resolved to stay with them, enter the foresaken pulpits...The persons...Mr.T.Vincent,Chester,Janeway,Turner,Grimes,Franklyn & others."
"The Nonconformist's Memorial",E. Calamy & S. Palmer, p55-6
http://books.google.com/books?id=…
dirk • Link
From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Lady Sandwich to Lord Sandwich
Written from: [Apparently from Hinchinbroke]
Date: 21 August 1665
After mention of many domestic affairs, notices the improvements made in the house and gardens, and finds them "very handsome much beyond what I could expect... There is every day company in the bowling-alley of the better sort of our neighbours".
Rex Gordon • Link
"They used to admit beggars, for their owne safety, to lie in their barns ... "
This reminds me of people in New York and other large American cities who tolerate a homeless man sleeping in their street-parked automobile overnight. His presence deters thieves. I've read an account of one such relationship where the car owner, realizing that someone was sleeping in the car overnight, left a pillow and blanket for him. The blanket was neatly folded, the pillow on top of it, in the morning. One of my witnesses in a murder trial in the 1990s was living this way in Baltimore.
JWB • Link
Mary:"...so this particular instance can’t really be described as petty oppression."
Just storing up the grapes of wrath.
Robert Gertz • Link
I don't know...Bruncker's action following on Sam's description of his idleness seems a little like an seat-holder looking for something to do. Sam's tone seems to me mildly disapproving of a man he once thought tolerably well of.
Pedro • Link
On this day Sandwich writes...
Wind East. We weighed and came to anchor in Southwold Bay at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Thence I wrote to the Duke of Albemarle to Whitehall for men and provisions, and to Mr Pepys.
Paul Dyson • Link
“They used to admit beggars, for their owne safety, to lie in their barns … “
In "The Lady in the Van" (1990), published both as a work of prose and as a play, Alan Bennett tells the story of Miss Shepherd, an elderly homeless woman who lived in his driveway for 15 years.
A. De Araujo • Link
"they used to admit beggars"
It might have changed quite a lot in New York because quite recently one particular church had to go to Court to keep the police from rounding up the beggars that were sleeping in her stairway.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"some Presbyter people that he caused to be apprehended yesterday, at a private meeting in Covent Garden, which he would have released upon paying 5l. per man to the poor"
The fine for first offenders under the Conventicle Act of 1664; only one-third of it was in fact supposed to go to tne poor. (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
"but it was answered, they would not pay anything; so he ordered them to another prison from the guard."
L&M say this was the guard-house, Whitehall, which I take it was probably the Porter's Lodge on the ground floor under the Gate [to Whitehall Palace], which was occasionally used as a prison. https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
A plan of Whitehall Palace showing where the Gate is at top center:
http://www.londonancestor.com/map…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence to my Lord Bruncker, at Greenwich, and Sir J. Minnes by appointment, to looke after the lodgings appointed for us there for our office, which do by no means please me, they being in the heart of all the labourers and workmen there, which makes it as unsafe as to be, I think, at London."
Greenwich Palace was now being partially rebuilt: see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The Board met there for the first time on 26 August and continued to hold meetings there until 9 January 1666. (L&M note)
Terry Foreman • Link
The word coombe is of Brythonic origin and means "hollow".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coo…
San Diego Sarah • Link
“… the rest of my fellows …” I assume Lord Bruncker had rooms at Whitehall, and sent runners to all the other available members of the Navy Board. It took a while for the messenger[s] to row/sail to Deptford and Greenwich, find their lordships, and for them to row/sail back to Whitehall. Plus I would add Lord Craven, given the comments the other day.
Gerald Berg • Link
And then there is a "hollar" which is neither a valley nor a marsh but a hollow between 2 mountains that isn't deep enough to be called a valley.
San Diego Sarah • Link
“harassing the poor Presbyterians”
Monck had his hands full keeping the peace in London. For instance, a Baptist preacher and known conspirator, Col. Henry Danvers, was finally apprehended after a 3-year man hunt on August 5, 1665, but he was rescued in Cheapside by a friendly crowd which is thought to have included numerous Baptists and Fifth Monarchists.
SPOILER: On 30 August 1665 Danvers will be charged with high treason and summoned by proclamation to stand trial. The Sheriff of Leicestershire will be ordered to secure his estate in that county pending the outcome of the trial.
The plot in which Col. Henry Danvers is alleged to be involved (usually known as the Rathbone Plot) was supposed to go into action on 3 September, 1665, when Charles II would be assassinated, the Tower seized, London put to the torch, a republic established, and property redistributed.
The Restoration wasn't to everyone's taste.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Being sent to prison in the middle of a pandemic is, of course, extremely dangerous. The following quote might refer to the Monck arrests yesterday ... both took place in Covent Garden around this time:
"During the Plague of London, in 1665, a few Christian friends were gathered for prayer in a private house in Convent Garden; but, as it was an unlawful assembly, the soldiers broke in with drawn swords and arrested the worshippers. The Puritans were committed to Newgate prison, where the pestilence was raging; and an old minister from the country, Mr. Richard Flavel, and his wife caught the infection, and were released only to die."
Rev. Richard Flavel was the father of Rev. John Flavel, the Puritan divine who preached at Dartmouth, Devon, for many years and wrote some still inspiring books.
https://www.the-highway.com/bio_F…