Wednesday 31 January 1665/66
Lay pretty long in bed, and then up and to the office, where we met on extraordinary occasion about the business of tickets. By and by to the ’Change, and there did several businesses, among others brought home my cozen Pepys, whom I appointed to be here to-day, and Mr. Moore met us upon the business of my Lord’s bond. Seeing my neighbour Mr. Knightly walk alone from the ’Change, his family being not yet come to town, I did invite him home with me, and he dined with me, a very sober, pretty man he is. He is mighty solicitous, as I find many about the City that live near the churchyards, to have the churchyards covered with lime, and I think it is needfull, and ours I hope will be done. Good pleasant discourse at dinner of the practices of merchants to cheate the “Customers,” occasioned by Mr. Moore’s being with much trouble freed of his prize goods, which he bought, which fell into the Customers’ hands, and with much ado hath cleared them. Mr. Knightly being gone, my cozen Pepys and Moore and I to our business, being the clearing of my Lord Sandwich’s bond wherein I am bound with him to my cozen for 1000l. I have at last by my dexterity got my Lord’s consent to have it paid out of the money raised by his prizes. So the bond is cancelled, and he paid by having a note upon Sir Robert Viner, in whose hands I had lodged my Lord’s money, by which I am to my extraordinary comfort eased of a liablenesse to pay the sum in case of my Lord’s death, or troubles in estate, or my Lord’s greater fall, which God defend!
Having settled this matter at Sir R. Viner’s, I took up Mr. Moore (my cozen going home) and to my Lord Chancellor’s new house which he is building, only to view it, hearing so much from Mr. Evelyn of it; and, indeed, it is the finest pile I ever did see in my life, and will be a glorious house. Thence to the Duke of Albemarle, who tells me Mr. Coventry is come to town and directs me to go to him about some business in hand, whether out of displeasure or desire of ease I know not; but I asked him not the reason of it but went to White Hall, but could not find him there, though to my great joy people begin to bustle up and down there, the King holding his resolution to be in towne to-morrow, and hath good encouragement, blessed be God! to do so, the plague being decreased this week to 56, and the total to 227.
So after going to the Swan in the Palace, and sent for Spicer to discourse about my last Tangier tallys that have some of the words washed out with the rain, to have them new writ, I home, and there did some business and at the office, and so home to supper, and to bed.
21 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Today John Evelyn writes Pepys (see "Also on this day" above) the sequel of the chat of the 29th:
"Particularly he entertained me with discourse of an Infirmary, which he hath projected for the sick and wounded seamen against the next year, which I mightily approve of; and will endeavour to promote it, being a worthy thing, and of use, and will save money." http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
jeannine • Link
"my cozen Pepys and Moore and I to our business, being the clearing of my Lord Sandwich’s bond wherein I am bound with him to my cozen for 1000l. I have at last by my dexterity got my Lord’s consent to have it paid out of the money raised by his prizes. So the bond is cancelled, and he paid by having a note upon Sir Robert Viner, in whose hands I had lodged my Lord’s money, by which I am to my extraordinary comfort eased of a liablenesse to pay the sum in case of my Lord’s death, or troubles in estate, or my Lord’s greater fall, which God defend!"
I think L&M left out the line about Sam breaking open a bottle of fine champagne on this one! What a relief for him.
cgs • Link
I dothe "tink" Customers be the farmers collectors of income or revenue?
cgs • Link
Oh! Samuell thanks for the warning "I'm alright Jack me k401 is ....."
cgs • Link
More redundancies, find more creeks to rest the hulks, How? can government not pays its obligations, send the buccaneers to get more silver from Vera Cruz, do "sumthin'" "...where we met on extraordinary occasion about the business of tickets....."
cgs • Link
"...it is the finest pile I ever did see in my life..."
Oh! Gosh how many times I have heard that expression about a 14 bedroom cottage and other squatters digs .
cgs • Link
pretty a selection from OED
A. adj.
1. a. Originally: cunning, crafty. Subsequently: clever, skilful, able.
1450....
"...he dined with me, a very sober, pretty man he is. He is mighty solicitous..."
or ...
b. Cleverly or elegantly made or done; ingenious, artful, well-conceived.
not as in "1665 S. PEPYS Diary 16 July (1972) VI. 160 A little pretty daughter of my Lady Wright's most innocently came out afterward, and shut the door to."
could be?
3. Used as a general term of admiration or appreciation.
a. Of a person: having all the requisite qualities, etc.; bold, gallant, brave; polite, respectable, etc.; worthy, admirable, splendid. Now chiefly U.S.
another Pepsyan :
1664 S. PEPYS Diary 1 Aug. (1971) V. 229 Mrs. Harman is a very *pretty humoured wretch.
A.Hamilton • Link
OED Customer
†2. An official who collects customs or dues; a custom-house officer. Obs.
[See custom n. 4a 1st quot.] 1448 Act 27 Hen. VI, c. 2 Chescun Custumer Countrollour Sercheour & Surveiour. a1483 Liber Niger Edw. IV in Househ. Ord. 27 Corouners, custumers, countrollers, serchers. 1486 Act 3 Hen. VII, c. 8 The Customer or Comptroller of the same Port. 1509 Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) 11 He shall be made a common Customer+of Lin, Callis, or of Deepe. 1548 Udall etc. Erasm. Par. Mark ii. 22 Sitting at the receipt of custome, for he was a publicane or customer. 1609 [see custom n. 4a]. 1651 Bedell in Fuller's Abel Rediv., Erasmus (1867) I. 74 All the gold he brought with him+except five pounds, was seized+by the customers [at Dover]. 1748 St. James's Evening Post No. 5982 Lord Petersham+to be Customer, Collector, etc., in the Port of Dublin.
Mary • Link
"the finest pile....."
This house (Evelyn referred to it as a palace) was built on the north side of what is now Piccadilly. According to L&M, Clarendon House became a model for English country houses for a generation - yet it was demolished a mere 16 years after it was built.
L&M offer a reference to "The Early History of Piccadilly" by C.L. Kingsford.
tonyt • Link
'Seeing my neighbour Mr Knightly walk alone from the 'Change, his family being not yet come to town.'
On 29th January, Charles II had written the following to his sister in France. 'I have left my wife in Oxford, but hope in a fortnight or three weeks to send for her to London, where already the Plague is in effect nothing. But our women are afraid of the name of Plague, so that they must have a little time to fancy all clear.'
Mrs Knightly may well have had the same misgivings as Queen Catherine.
jeannine • Link
"Mrs Knightly may well have had the same misgivings as Queen Catherine."
(Spoiler about Queen Catherine) From Davidson’s “Catherine of Bragança”. She quotes tonyt’s letter above from Charles to his sister Minette, and then adds:
“Catherine, it would seem, did not share the fears of her ladies, or at least disregarded them where Charles’s society was concerned. She made every preparation for journeying to Hampton Court, after him, but, unluckily was detained by miscarriage, and was kept in Oxford until February 16. To add to the keenness of her disappointment, Lady Castlemaine was at the same time rejoicing over another son, whom Charles acknowledged. It will hardly be credited that, though, the doctors in attendance on Catherine declared that the sex of her expected infant could have been judged, some of the women swore to the King that it was all a mistake, and she had not been ‘enceinte’ at all. They so far convinced him that at the time he fully believed she was unable to have children, which destroyed much of the pleasure he was beginning to feel in her society, and drove him to seek that of others. It is impossible to doubt that this was a plot, either of Lady Castlemaine herself, or of her partisans.” (page 219)
JWB • Link
Lime
" London’s Privy Council issued new Plague Orders in May 1666, which banned the burial of future plague victims in parish churches and small churchyards, enforced the use of quicklime at designated burial sites, and strictly prohibited opening graves less than one year after interment as a safeguard against the spread of infection".
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contag…
Quicklime is Calcium Oxide, made by heating limestone, calcite=CaCo3, in a kiln. A nasty, caustic substance used to make mortar and whitewash, and to dissolve flesh form bones . It is the lime in "limelight". Left stand in the open it will revert back to Calcium carbonate by reaction with the CO2 in the air. Add water you get slaked lime & heat (canned heat). Also it's the canning lime used in pickling and to remove the skin from corn to make hominy.
Robert Gertz • Link
Plot indeed as to Catherine...We probably can never know but I would not put it past Barbara to have taken far more sinister action to secure her position. A woman ready to dash her baby's skull against a wall to get it acknowledged would likely not have hesitated at inducing a miscarriage if her tracks could be covered and she would have had some access to Catherine and her staff as her lady-in-waiting.
Lest the "Fans of Palmer" denounce me for impuning Barbara's rep, it is all of course speculation...But not impossible speculation.
***
So Knightly in fact or fiction tends to live up to his name?
cgs • Link
Most interesting read : J.E.-S.P. correspondence
A.Hamilton • Link
For those like me initially baffled by JWB's reference to limelight, here's the OED:
1. The intense white light produced by heating a piece of lime in an oxyhydrogen flame. Called also Drummond light. Formerly much used in theatres to light up important actors and scenes, and so direct attention to them. Hence freq. fig.
Terry Foreman • Link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"Good pleasant discourse at dinner of the practices of merchants to cheate the “Customers,” occasioned by Mr. Moore’s being with much trouble freed of his prize goods, which he bought, which fell into the Customers’ hands, and with much ado hath cleared them."
A.Hamilton
OED Customer
†2. An official who collects customs or dues; a custom-house officer. Obs.
Valuables (the prize goods) had to be declared and duties paid on them (unless a warrant identified them as duty-free) to clear customs at their port of entry.
Terry Foreman • Link
"my cozen Pepys and Moore and I to our business, being the clearing of my Lord Sandwich’s bond wherein I am bound with him to my cozen for 1000l. I have at last by my dexterity got my Lord’s consent to have it paid out of the money raised by his prizes. So the bond is cancelled, and he paid by having a note upon Sir Robert Viner, in whose hands I had lodged my Lord’s money, by which I am to my extraordinary comfort eased of a liablenesse to pay the sum in case of my Lord’s death, or troubles in estate, or my Lord’s greater fall, which God defend!"
The signing of the bond: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"blessed be God! to do so, the plague being decreased this week to 56, and the total to 227."
L&M: In the previous week thre had been 79 plague burials.
arby • Link
Thanks, A.Hamilton 2009, I never thought to wonder where the word customer came from. Are the " "s around the word in the diary, or added by the editors later, and what do they indicate?
San Diego Sarah • Link
"we met on extraordinary occasion about the business of tickets." This conversation had been going on for a while:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Wednesday 10 January 1666
"It grieved me to see how slightly the Duke [of Albermarle] do everything in the world, and how the King and everybody suffers whatever he will to be done in the Navy, though never so much against reason, as in the business of recalling tickets, which will be done notwithstanding all the arguments against it."
L&M note: In this, Albemarle was pro and Pepys against the recall of these chits of uncertain value with which seamen had long been paid. I think prudence and equity were on the side of Albemarle, who, as a military man, was concerned about reliable and loyal manpower.