Wednesday 27 June 1666

Up, and to my office awhile, and then down the river a little way to see vessels ready for the carrying down of 400 land soldiers to the fleete. Then back to the office for my papers, and so to St. James’s, where we did our usual attendance on the Duke. Having done with him, we all of us down to Sir W. Coventry’s chamber (where I saw his father my Lord Coventry’s picture hung up, done by Stone, who then brought it home. It is a good picture, drawn in his judge’s robes, and the great seale by him. And while it was hanging up, “This,” says Sir W. Coventry, merrily, “is the use we make of our fathers,”) to discourse about the proposition of serving us with hempe, delivered in by my Lord Brouncker as from an unknown person, though I know it to be Captain Cocke’s. My Lord and Sir William Coventry had some earnest words about it, the one promoting it for his private ends, being, as Cocke tells me himself, to have 500l. if the bargain goes on, and I am to have as much, and the other opposing it for the unseasonableness of it, not knowing at all whose the proposition is, which seems the more ingenious of the two. I sat by and said nothing, being no great friend to the proposition, though Cocke intends me a convenience by it. But what I observed most from the discourse was this of Sir W. Coventry, that he do look upon ourselves in a desperate condition. The issue of all standing upon this one point, that by the next fight, if we beat, the Dutch will certainly be content to take eggs for their money (that was his expression); or if we be beaten, we must be contented to make peace, and glad if we can have it without paying too dear for it. And withall we do rely wholly upon the Parliament’s giving us more money the next sitting, or else we are undone.

Being gone hence, I took coach to the Old Exchange, but did not go into it, but to Mr. Cade’s, the stationer, stood till the shower was over, it being a great and welcome one after so much dry weather. Here I understand that Ogleby is putting out some new fables of his owne, which will be very fine and very satyricall. Thence home to dinner, and after dinner carried my wife to her sister’s and I to Mr. Hales’s, to pay for my father’s picture, which cost me 10l. the head and 25s. the frame. Thence to Lovett’s, who has now done something towards the varnishing of single paper for the making of books, which will do, I think, very well. He did also carry me to a Knight’s chamber in Graye’s Inne, where there is a frame of his making, of counterfeite tortoise shell, which indeed is most excellently done. Then I took him with me to a picture shop to choose a print for him to vernish, but did not agree for one then.

Thence to my wife to take her up and so carried her home, and I at the office till late, and so to supper with my wife and to bed.

I did this afternoon visit my Lord Bellasses, who professes all imaginable satisfaction in me. He spoke dissatisfiedly with Creed, which I was pleased well enough with. My Lord is going down to his garrison to Hull, by the King’s command, to put it in order for fear of an invasion which course I perceive is taken upon the sea-coasts round; for we have a real apprehension of the King of France’s invading us.

18 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Gresham College — from the Hooke Folio Online

Iune 27. 1666. Dr. [John] Barwick [Dean of St. Paul's 1661 - 1664] cured of the Plague by Saliuation)
mr Boyle acc: about Thunder)
mr Hooke produced a new substance fit for a hygroscope http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hyg…
mr. Stronger & better than the beard of a wild oate, it was the cod of a vetch which was tryed before the company and answerd expectation.
The same [ Mr Hooke ] produced his obseruations Lately made about Iupiter. vizt Iune 26 wth. a 60 foot glasse. It was ordered to be Registred.
There was also presented to the Company the obseruations of the Late Solar Eclipse made by mr. Willoughby by Dr Pope mr. Hooke and mr Philips which was likewise orderd to be registred.

(Dr. Pope brough in the Dimensions of an oxe of vnvsuall bignesse weighing 23 68ll. being 5 yards long wanting a handfull. 2 yards & an handfull high. 3 yards & [In margin]Vz one handfull girth)
Dr. Crone Antient Niter) from steno about hyperbolik glasses) about Salamander) & water newtes).
spring saddale wth 2 wheel.

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

"where I saw his father my Lord Coventry’s picture hung up, done by Stone, who then brought it home. It is a good picture, drawn in his judge’s robes, and the great seale by him. ..."

"portrait, [in robes] ... , shows him with the bag of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and the mace of the speaker." circa 1639.
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections…

Thomas Coventry sat for Johnson numerous times; Oliver Millar in the L&M footnote suggest that William Coventry may have owned a copy by Symon Stone, a professional copyist; he notes that William Coventry's copy may now be the one at Longleat, dated 1634.

Paul Chapin  •  Link

"cured of the plague by salivation" (from Hooke Folio - thanks TF)

This intrigued me enough to send me googling. It turns out that a treatment for the plague was to induce excessive salivation, this based on the theory of expelling harmful humours from the body. The way they did this was to have the patient ingest compounds of mercury. You can imagine how beneficial that was. I'm astounded that Dr. Barwick survived. He must have had the constitution of an ox.

Ruben  •  Link

Ogleby:
this interesting citizen has a good site in http://www.antiquemaps.com/uk/roa…
better than the one in Wikipedia. In this site you can see interesting maps, and buy them.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

You have to love Coventry and his dry sense of humor. Love to see Colin Firth playing him in a Pepys miniseries.

JWB  •  Link

Seeing the clown costume his father wore, we can deduce wherefrom his humor derived.

cgs  •  Link

shy by "wanting a handfull" 4"
handful[l] n
[OE. handfull str. fem., plur. handfulla, f. hand + full adj.: cf. ON. handfyllr, Ger. handvoll.
Though composed, like mouthful, of n. and adj., the compound was in OE. and ME. a true n., inflected as a whole; hence its plural is properly handfuls, not handsful.] 1. a. A quantity that fills the hand; as much or many as the hand can grasp or contain.
a700 ...

b. Through later analysis into n. + adj., the plural has been improperly made handsful.
1480

...1664 PEPYS Diary (1879) III. 1 Of ye flowers of St. John's Wort two Handsfull, of ye Leaves of Plantan, of Alehoofe, of each three handfulls.

2. A small company or number; a small quantity or amount. (Usually depreciative.)
1525...
1588 SHAKES. L.L.L. IV. i. 149 His Page atother side, that handfull of wit. 1633 EARL OF MANCHESTER Al Mondo (1636) 148 The longest liver hath but a handfull of dayes.
3. a. A lineal measure of four inches; = HAND n. 20. Obs.
c1450...1600 HAKLUYT Voy. (1810) III. 134 A tree..foureteene handfuls about. 1707 SLOANE Jamaica I. Pref., Raised some few handfuls high.
b. spec. used in measuring the height of horses.
1535 Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 6 §2 Two mares..of the altitude or height of .xiii. handefulles at the least. ...
1676 Ibid. No. 1080/4 A bay Gelding 14 handful high.

4. fig. As much as one can manage; an affair or person with which one has one's hands full.
1755 JOHNSON, Handful..4. As much as can be done.

slang
Hence {sm}handful v., to deal out by handfuls.
1625 BP. HALL Serm. Wks. (1837) V. 215 Not sparingly handfulled out to us, but dealt to us by the whole load.

Geoff  •  Link

May I recommend this wonderful map, drawn in 1658, just 2 years before the start of Samuel's Diary, for following his movements around London and Westminster.
Examples from today's entry -
The Old Exchange (Royal Exchange) can be seen on this sheet. It is the courtyarded building on the north side of Cornhill.
http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/newc…
Greys Inn, with delightful gardens and orchards on the northern edge of the suburbs, is on this sheet.
http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/newc…

The Navy Office, and Sam's home are on this sheet. Seething Lane runs from Church No. 98 (St Olave's) down to Church No. 2 (All Hallows, Barking).
Maybe the houses as drawn are just a stylised representation of built up areas, but Sam's house, the smallest of the Navy houses, would be situated at about the forth or fifth house down on the right of that street.
http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/newc…

St James's and Westminster Palaces, the grand riverside mansions on The Strand, with their formal gardens, and also many of the down river suburbs to the east, are included on this map.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Hooke's "Dr. Crone" refers to the Founding FRS Fellow Dr. William Croone (also Croune) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will… whom Pepys will meet 14 November 1666 http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

***
Niter (US) or nitre (UK) is the mineral form of potassium nitrate, KNO3, also known as saltpeter (US) or saltpetre (UK). Historically, the term "nitre" – cognate with "natrium", a Latin word for sodium – has been very vaguely defined, and it has been applied to a variety of other minerals and chemical compounds, including sodium nitrate (also "soda nitre" or "cubic nitre"), sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niter

Paul Chapin  •  Link

Thanks to Ruben for the link to the Ogilby map site. I have a couple of Ogilby road maps that I bought in London in 1964 for a few dollars, just because I thought they were neat. I still enjoy them, hanging on my walls. It's interesting but not surprising to see that their price has gone up a bit since then. It's been more interesting to see the occasional references to Ogilby in the diary, and to learn of his other accomplishments.

GrahamT  •  Link

Handfull:
As Hooke is talking about the size of a beast of burden, doesn't handfull here equate to the modern Hand used to measure horses, i.e. 4 inches? So , "5 yards long wanting a handfull. 2 yards & an handfull high. 3 yards & ... one handfull girth) "
would be 14'8"(14foot 8inches ) long, 6'4" high, 9'4" girth (4.47m x 1.93m x 2.84m)
Of course, he could be using it in the same way as we use "a bit", so a bit less than 5 yards long and 2 and-a-bit yards high, which is a bit (handfull?) vague for a scientist.

Michiel van der Leeuw  •  Link

"the Dutch will certainly be content to take eggs for their money (that was his expression)"

This is still a commonly used expression in Dutch. I wonder if Coventry used a Dutch expression on purpose...

Geoff  •  Link

Correction to map reference above.
Seething Lane is on sheet 22. Also St Olave's is Church No. 86 if you read it the right way up, and not 98.

http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/newc…

Sorry for the confusion.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"My Lord is going down to his garrison to Hull, by the King’s command, to put it in order for fear of an invasion "

Belasyse (Governor of Tangier) was also Governor of Hull, 1661-73. Fears of an invasion by the French and Dutch (particularly of the North Country) were now common: see the 'Advice from the Hague', 30 June/9 July, which Pepys preserved (Rawl. A 195a, f. 169r). ...Alarms of this sort were frequent throughout the war. (Per L&M note)

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Esther Watts St. Michel lost her baby after a fall on May 30. Assuming Balty's income allowed for it, this is the last day of her lying in month -- if such things existed for accidents and miscarriages??? Of course, the timing of this visit might just be a coincidence.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"My Lord is going down to his garrison to Hull, by the King’s command, to put it in order for fear of an invasion which course I perceive is taken upon the sea-coasts round; for we have a real apprehension of the King of France’s invading us."

Perhaps they had heard about a small French fleet assembled at La Rochelle?

In need of support from Portugal against their mutual enemy, Spain, in 1666 Louis XIV arranged a marriage between 20-year-old Dona Maria Francisca of Savoy, Mademoiselle d'Aumale (his cousin, and an important member of the French nobility), and the new Portuguese king, Alfonso VI, an ill young man who was paralyzed on his left side and mentally unstable.

Dona Maria Francisca of Savoy, Mademoiselle d'Aumale was married by proxy to Alfonso VI (who she had never met) on June 27 at La Rochelle, and departed from La Rochelle aboard the Vendôme under the command of the Marquis de Ruvigny on June 30, 1666.

Upon Dona Maria Francisca of Savoy, Mademoiselle d'Aumale’s arrival in Portugal, she became known as Queen Maria Francisca Isabel de Sabóia.

https://www.google.com/books/edit…

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