Thursday 24 August 1665
Up betimes to my office, where my clerks with me, and very busy all the morning writing letters. At noon down to Sir J. Minnes and Lord Bruncker to Greenwich to sign some of the Treasurer’s books, and there dined very well; and thence to look upon our rooms again at the King’s house, which are not yet ready for us. So home and late writing letters, and so, weary with business, home to supper and to bed.
17 Annotations
First Reading
Gus Spier • Link
At last, a quiet, routine day for Our Lad after large dose of hurly-burly.
Carl in Boston • Link
look upon our rooms again at the King’s house, which are not yet ready for us
It's amazing how government can move quickly and in a big way. Here is Pepys with his office removed to safety in just a few days.
Consider the Manhatttan Project in the USA in WWII, which started from some letters by Albert Einstein to F D Roosevelt and which shortly became a huge project in six secret locations, culminating in (like it or not) the atomic bomb. I bring this up only to point out that the government can move in huge ways, and very swiftly, and our Sam Pepys is an early exemplar.
Martin • Link
"...my clerks with me, and very busy all the morning writing letters."
I'm just wondering, what do the clerks do when Sam's out on his very frequent rounds? Surf the Web?
Res Ipsa • Link
Martin, I'm just guessing here, but I'll wager the clerks are making copies (by hand!) and writing rough drafts of letters, documents, etc.......Remember Scrooge's clerks in "Christmas Carol"?
Robert Gertz • Link
Perhaps they all watch old movies like the boys at Sam Lowry's ministry in "Brazil".
Seriously, though...Is the whole team still hanging in there with Sam? I know it's probably their careers and starvation, even imprisonment, a distinct possibility if they headed off but it's impressive none seem to have panicked and ran from London yet.
Lets see...Team Pepys...We have Hewer, Hayter, Tom Edwards probably helping out and learning the ropes, Gibson (a clerk I think, as opposed to the older one whose little girl fell prey to our boy...Though his mention may be a spoiler, sorry, since I think his big moment diarywise comes around the time of the Medway crisis)...I have a feeling there's at least one more...Taylor, perhaps?
Paul Dyson • Link
"It’s amazing how government can move quickly and in a big way."
For a relatively recent example, didn't Stalin move whole industries to eastern areas of the Soviet Union to enable it to carry on despite the German invasion?
Barry P. Reich • Link
Recent essay on Pepys by Maurice Earls from the Dublin Review of Books can be found here: http://www.drb.ie/apr08_issues/hi…
Robert Gertz • Link
Hopefully one day a more balanced view of a well-run government's ability to do useful work will prevail over here once again.
"We don't want competence and experience...We want an outsider who knows nothing!"
Anyway, back to you, Samuel.
Mary • Link
Many thanks for the reference, Barry.
steve valliere • Link
“It’s amazing how government can move quickly and in a big way.”
Four words: alternate energy manhattan project
CGS • Link
A Granta lad be testing his thesis about now but has not let on to SP his laws of
:I: Government in stand-still stays in stand-still until lack of personnel income of politicians becomes apparent.
III: Every penny government gets, has someone begrudging it.
II: More Politicians there be, slower there be action
Government size times rate of agreement is what gets done
good government be the inverse the number of Parties sitting
i.e. tends to zero
So prorogue Parliament.
Twas why SP be so good, the others let him get on with it , Samuel had more motive to get things done, other members of the board were not as hungry [or shortage of cash flow].
Pedro • Link
On this day Sandwich says...
"...Mr Knight the King's chirurgeon, was aboard me and says August 17 that week's bill was 3880 died of the plague in London."
Linda F • Link
Yes, it does seem surprising that so many people remain in Sam's plague-ridden London, and he is clearly ready to make the move to Greenwich, but I wonder how many of his clerks, house servants, and so forth would have liked to evacuate but lacked the means to do so. Would Government's moving the naval offices have included lodging and transporting the clerks, or Sam's household, or was the office to bear the one cost, and Sam the other?
dirk • Link
From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…
Lady Wright to Sandwich
Written from: Dagenham's, Essex
Date: 24 August 1665
Can now, gratefully, give a good account of my Lord Hinchinbroke, who was extremely ill until the smallpox came out. Dr Lenthall has visited him twice daily, for twelve days, and now there is hope that danger is past...
Second Reading
JayW • Link
For another example of moving government offices, the colonial government in India used to move every year from the heat of Delhi up to Shimla, in the hills. Eventually they built a railway but at first they (and their files) travelled by carts or on horseback.
jude cooper • Link
"We don't want competence and experience. ..we want an outsider who knows nothing!" Prophetic words ten years ago, Robert! Greetings from the age of Trump. What would Sam have made of these times i wonder
Tonyel • Link
For an appalling example of moving government, the European parliament moves every six months between Brussels and Strasbourg for no good reason beyond national pride. Give a bunch of bureaucrats an almost unlimited budget and they'll find a way of spending it.
At least Sam seems conscious of not wasting public money, even if some does get diverted into his pocket.