Monday 11 September 1665

Up and walked to the office, there to do some business till ten of the clock, and then by agreement my Lord, Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Doyly, and I took boat and over to the ferry, where Sir W. Batten’s coach was ready for us, and to Walthamstow drove merrily, excellent merry discourse in the way, and most upon our last night’s revells; there come we were very merry, and a good plain venison dinner. After dinner to billiards, where I won an angel, and among other sports we were merry with my pretending to have a warrant to Sir W. Hickes (who was there, and was out of humour with Sir W. Doyly’s having lately got a warrant for a leash of buckes, of which we were now eating one) which vexed him, and at last would compound with me to give my Lord Bruncker half a buck now, and me a Doe for it a while hence when the season comes in, which we agreed to and had held, but that we fear Sir W. Doyly did betray our design, which spoiled all; however, my Lady Batten invited herself to dine with him this week, and she invited us all to dine with her there, which we agreed to, only to vex him, he being the most niggardly fellow, it seems, in the world.

Full of good victuals and mirth we set homeward in the evening, and very merry all the way. So to Greenwich, where when come I find my Lord Rutherford and Creed come from Court, and among other things have brought me several orders for money to pay for Tangier; and, among the rest 7000l. and more, to this Lord, which is an excellent thing to consider, that, though they can do nothing else, they can give away the King’s money upon their progresse. I did give him the best answer I could to pay him with tallys, and that is all they could get from me. I was not in humour to spend much time with them, but walked a little before Sir J. Minnes’s door and then took leave, and I by water to Woolwich, where with my wife to a game at tables, and to bed.

18 Annotations

First Reading

JWB  •  Link

"a leash of buckes"

That's a brace and a half, three bucks in all- an affectation of sporting crowd.

Bradford  •  Link

"with my wife to a game at tables, and to bed."---Is this billiards, as Pepys will play on the morrow? If so, did we know he had a pool table in the house?

language hat  •  Link

"Tables" = backgammon. OED s.v. table:

In pl. The game of backgammon; (also, esp. in early use) a similar game; any board game played with dice. Freq. in to play at (the) tables. Formerly also: the pieces used in playing such a game (obs.). Cf. sense 4 ["The board on which chess, draughts, backgammon, or another similar game is played"]. Now hist.
The common name of the game until the middle of the 18th cent. In later use, esp. in to play at tables, often associated with sense 4b ["each half of each leaf of a backgammon board, forming together the four areas in which the pieces are moved"].
[...] a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 28338, I ha me liked.. Til idel gammes, chess and tablis. c1405 (c1390) CHAUCER Parson's Tale (Ellesmere) (1877) I. §2. 793 Now comth hasardrie with hise apurtenances, as tables and Rafles, of which comth deceite. [...] 1595 W. JONES tr. G. B. Nenna Nennio f. 26, Others sitting still, plaied at chesse, and at tables. 1611 R. COTGRAVE Dict. French & Eng. Tongues, Renette, a game at Tables of some resemblance with our Doublets, or Queenes Game. [...] 1665 S. PEPYS Diary 21 Sept. (1972) VI. 236 After losing a Crowne betting at tables, we walked home. 1700 S. L. tr. C. Frick & C. Schweitzer Relation Voy. E.-Indies 10 Tables & Draughts are allowed, yet must they not play at them for Money. [...] 1808 SCOTT Marmion I. xxii, Full well at tables can he play, And sweep at bowls the stake away. [...]

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"though they can do nothing else, they can give away the King's money upon their progresse."

progress

A journey of state; a circuit; especially, one made by a sovereign through parts of his own dominions.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pro…

as though "they" were royals!

CGS  •  Link

"...to give my Lord Bruncker half a buck now,..."
inflation or be it deflation, now half a buck be 50 cents?

A. De Araujo  •  Link

"and a good plain venison dinner.........to give my Lord Bruncker half a buck now,and me a Doe for it a while hence when the season comes in"
Are there any deer herds left in England?

JWB  •  Link

BBC news 2004:

"Some experts believe that the deer population in England is at its highest level for a millennium.

At present, 160,000 deer are culled each year "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_new…

CGS  •  Link

There be deer, fallow, usually in many a private or laudly park. In my old neighborhood deer would leave their comfort zone and help the local poacher make a living, I was never partial to hung game. To see deer grazing at dawn was a pretty site, but eating the farmers profits was not, so they were not popular amongst us clods, as if one be caught with their entails, that could get thee a nasty fine that was hard to find.

Australian Susan  •  Link

We have lots of feral deer here. When Queen Victoria learnt that the new state in Australia has been named Queensland in her honour, she gave the state a present of deer from Windsor Great Park. And some of them went feral. Of course. Recalling the prize prat who released bunnies into NSW.

Talking of Queensland, I was surprised to read recently that Brisbane had an outbreak of plague in 1904 which resulted in 34 deaths (and was one of the catalysts for starting a District Nursing Service - originally one woman and a bike). I had thought plague in Australia only reached Sydney.
Quick further research has now found: "The occurrence of plague during 1900 was primarily limited to coastal areas at ports in WA, Victoria, and
Queensland. In Brisbane “rodent and human infection persisted every year from 1900 to 1908. In other
parts of Queensland human cases appeared at: Ipswich (1900, 1904, 1905, 1907), Maryborough (1904,
1905), Childers (1905), Bundaberg (1902, 1903, 1906), Mackay (1908, 1909), Gladstone (1902),
Rockhampton (1900, 1903, 1906), Townsville (1900, 1902, 1903, 1905, 1907), Cairns (1900, 1903-6, 1908),
Port Douglas (1907).” J.H.L. Cumpston, The Health of the People, A study in federalism, A Roebuck Book Canberra 1978, p. 17".

dirk  •  Link

From the Carte Papers, Bodleian Library
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Sir George Carteret to Sandwich

Written from: Salisbury
Date: 11 September 1665

Mentions the King's great satisfaction at the expedition with which his Lordship caused the fleet to be got ready for sea. Encloses a communication [not now appended] from Colonel Wyndham with respect to the wardship of a "young Irish lord", unnamed. Adds that he has the King's commands to transmit to Lord Sandwich £500, from the Privy Purse, towards his Lordship's late extraordinary expenses in the service, besides a grant of £2,000, herafter to be realized, "out of the profits of the decayed provisions, in the several Yards".

Communicates, in a P.S., that Mr Spencer, a nephew of the Lord Treasurer, is to succeed Edward Montagu, in the place of Master of the Horse to the Queen...

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my pretending to have a warrant to Sir W. Hickes (who was there, and was out of humour with Sir W. Doyly’s having lately got a warrant for a leash of buckes, of which we were now eating one) which vexed him"

L&M: Warrants issued by a secretary of state were required for the grant of a buck from royal forests. Hickes's jealousy arose perhaps from his being Ranger of Waltham (Epping) and so having a prior claim to Doyly's.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"however, my Lady Batten invited herself to dine with him this week, and she invited us all to dine with her there, which we agreed to, only to vex him, he being the most niggardly fellow, it seems, in the world."

L&M: Hickes. For his house: http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"my Lord Rutherford and Creed come from Court, and among other things have brought me several orders for money to pay for Tangier; and, among the rest 7000l. and more, to this Lord, which is an excellent thing to consider, that, though they can do nothing else, they can give away the King’s money upon their progresse."

L&M: Treasurer's warrant, 7 September. Rutherford was the heir of the late Governor of Tangier. The court was now at Salisbury: it moved to Oxford on the 23rd.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"by agreement my Lord, Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Doyly, and I took boat and over to the ferry, where Sir W. Batten’s coach was ready for us, and to Walthamstow"

Batten had a country house there. (L&M note)

Nate Lockwood  •  Link

Lo and behold Youtube tempted me with a video of how a woman of wealth in 1665 in Delft would dress. It's well done and I suspect women of wealth in England would have dressed the same.

https://youtu.be/uIod2n234Zw

Hope  •  Link

Lovely video, Nate.

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