Tuesday 19 September 1665

About 4 or 5 of the clock we come to Greenwich, and, having first set down my Lord Bruncker, Cocke and I went to his house, it being light, and there to our great trouble, we being sleepy and cold, we met with the ill newes that his boy Jacke was gone to bed sicke, which put Captain Cocke and me also into much trouble, the boy, as they told us, complaining of his head most, which is a bad sign it seems. So they presently betook themselves to consult whither and how to remove him. However I thought it not fit for me to discover too much fear to go away, nor had I any place to go to. So to bed I went and slept till 10 of the clock and then comes Captain Cocke to wake me and tell me that his boy was well again. With great joy I heard the newes and he told it, so I up and to the office where we did a little, and but a little business.

At noon by invitation to my Lord Bruncker’s where we staid till four of the clock for my Lady Batten and she not then coming we to dinner and pretty merry but disordered by her making us stay so long.

After dinner I to the office, and there wrote letters and did business till night and then to Sir J. Minnes’s, where I find my Lady Batten come, and she and my Lord Bruncker and his mistresse, and the whole house-full there at cards. But by and by my Lord Bruncker goes away and others of the company, and when I expected Sir J. Minnes and his sister should have staid to have made Sir W. Batten and Lady sup, I find they go up in snuffe to bed without taking any manner of leave of them, but left them with Mr. Boreman. The reason of this I could not presently learn, but anon I hear it is that Sir J. Minnes did expect and intend them a supper, but they without respect to him did first apply themselves to Boreman, which makes all this great feude. However I staid and there supped, all of us being in great disorder from this, and more from Cocke’s boy’s being ill, where my Lady Batten and Sir W. Batten did come to town with an intent to lodge, and I was forced to go seek a lodging which my W. Hewer did get me, viz., his own chamber in the towne, whither I went and found it a very fine room, and there lay most excellently.

10 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"all of us being in great disorder"

The Navy Office crew and their fellow-refugees/enablers from London are spending WAAAAY too much time together.

Australian Susan  •  Link

"...I was forced to go seek a lodging which my W. Hewer did get me, viz., his own chamber in the towne, whither I went and found it a very fine room, and there lay most excellently..."

So where did poor Will sleep? On the floor? And will Sam now be suspicious he's paying WH too much if he can afford such a "very fine room" ?

Patricia  •  Link

Well, is Cocke's boy ill, or isn't he? It sounds like Sam stayed over there when the boy was sick, then the boy was well, and now he's sick again? So Sam and the Battens have to stay elsewhere?
And imagine having to be so afraid of catching an illness (or of being quarantined in a house of illness.) I think the last time Canada saw home quarantine imposed was in the Spanish Flu epidemic.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"they go up in snuffe to bed"

Sam gets an OED mention for this one:
5. A fit of indignation; a huff, pet, rage, passion. Used with a, the, or without article. Now Sc.
(a) 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier Wks. (Grosart) XI. 279 These were going away in a snuff, for beeing thus plainly taunted. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. i. 26 Either in snuffes, and packings of the Dukes, Or the hard Reine which both of them hath borne Against the old kinde King. c1620 Bp. Hall Contempl., O.T. xiv. (1628) 1145 Abners duty+not to flye out in a snuffe. 1607 S. Collins Serm. (1608) 184 Smothering the talent that he lent thee+in snuffe, and pelting discontent. 1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. iv. v, He went away in snuffe, and I followed him. 1665 Pepys Diary 19 Sept., I find they go up in snuffe to bed without taking any manner of leave of them. 1886 Stevenson Kidnapped iii. 18 Dinnae fly up in the snuff at me. 1898 J. M. Cobban Angel of Covenant xi. 124 The mighty high snuff and dudgeon ye gaed aff wi'.

CGS  •  Link

snuf said

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"The Navy Office crew and their fellow-refugees/enablers from London are spending WAAAAY too much time together."

Indeed Terry...Today we get Restoration social comedy. At least (So far...And, so far as we know) no one is getting romantically involved with each other.

Wait a mo? Where did Will Hewer go?

"Bess, my darling!"

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

"At noon by invitation to my Lord Bruncker’s where we staid till four of the clock for my Lady Batten and she not then coming we to dinner and pretty merry but disordered by her making us stay so long."

They may be spending way too much time together, but this strikes me as pretty patient -- I would have rung the dinner bell no later than 1:30, I think...

A. Hamilton  •  Link

"Today we get Restoration social comedy."

Aye, and with Mr. Boreman as the bone of contention, Restoration comedy names as well.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"... then to Sir J. Minnes’s, where I find my Lady Batten come, and she and my Lord Bruncker and his mistresse, and the whole house-full there at cards. But by and by my Lord Bruncker goes away and others of the company, and when I expected Sir J. Minnes and his sister should have staid to have made Sir W. Batten and Lady sup, I find they go up in snuffe to bed without taking any manner of leave of them, but left them with Mr. Boreman. The reason of this I could not presently learn, but anon I hear it is that Sir J. Minnes did expect and intend them a supper, but they without respect to him did first apply themselves to Boreman, which makes all this great feude. However I staid and there supped, all of us being in great disorder from this, ... where my Lady Batten and Sir W. Batten did come to town with an intent to lodge, and I was forced to go seek a lodging ..."

From this I gather that rooms were limited at Mr. Boreman's house. At first Pepys thinks he can stay there, but when he finds that Admiral and Lady Batten, and Admiral Mennes and his sister are all there for the night, there are insufficient rooms. Rather than find themselves roomless, the Batten skip dinner and quietly go to bed (probably taking the nicest rooms), leaving the rest to fight it out.

Pepys doesn't want to go to Woolwich, or back to George Cocke's, so it's Hewer to the rescue, again.

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