Monday 23 July 1666

Up, and to my chamber doing several things there of moment, and then comes Sympson, the Joyner; and he and I with great pains contriving presses to put my books up in: they now growing numerous, and lying one upon another on my chairs, I lose the use to avoyde the trouble of removing them, when I would open a book.

Thence out to the Excise office about business, and then homewards met Colvill, who tells me he hath 1000l. ready for me upon a tally; which pleases me, and yet I know not now what to do with it, having already as much money as is fit for me to have in the house, but I will have it. I did also meet Alderman Backewell, who tells me of the hard usage he now finds from Mr. Fen, in not getting him a bill or two paid, now that he can be no more usefull to him; telling me that what by his being abroad and Shaw’s death he hath lost the ball, but that he doubts not to come to give a kicke at it still, and then he shall be wiser and keepe it while he hath it. But he says he hath a good master, the King, who will not suffer him to be undone, as otherwise he must have been, and I believe him.

So home and to dinner, where I confess, reflecting upon the ease and plenty that I live in, of money, goods, servants, honour, every thing, I could not but with hearty thanks to Almighty God ejaculate my thanks to Him while I was at dinner, to myself.

After dinner to the office and there till five or six o’clock, and then by coach to St. James’s and there with Sir W. Coventry and Sir G. Downing to take the ayre in the Parke. All full of expectation of the fleete’s engagement, but it is not yet. Sir W. Coventry says they are eighty-nine men-of-warr, but one fifth-rate, and that, the Sweepstakes, which carries forty guns. They are most infinitely manned. He tells me the Loyall London, Sir J. Smith (which, by the way, he commends to be the-best ship in the world, large and small), hath above eight hundred men; and moreover takes notice, which is worth notice, that the fleete hath lane now near fourteen days without any demand for a farthingworth of any thing of any kind, but only to get men. He also observes, that with this excesse of men, nevertheless, they have thought fit to leave behind them sixteen ships, which they have robbed of their men, which certainly might have been manned, and they been serviceable in the fight, and yet the fleete well-manned, according to the excesse of supernumeraries, which we hear they have. At least two or three of them might have been left manned, and sent away with the Gottenburgh ships.

They conclude this to be much the best fleete, for force of guns, greatnesse and number of ships and men, that ever England did see; being, as Sir W. Coventry reckons, besides those left behind, eighty-nine men of warr and twenty fire-ships, though we cannot hear that they have with them above eighteen.

The French are not yet joined with the Dutch, which do dissatisfy the Hollanders, and if they should have a defeat, will undo De Witt; the people generally of Holland do hate this league with France.

We cannot think of any business, but lie big with expectation of the issue of this fight, but do conclude that, this fight being over, we shall be able to see the whole issue of the warr, good or bad.

So homeward, and walked over the Parke (St. James’s) with Sir G. Downing, and at White Hall took a coach; and there to supper with much pleasure and to bed.

29 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"with Sir W. Coventry and Sir G. Downing to take the gyre in the Parke"

gyre

–noun
1. a ring or circle.
2. a circular course or motion.
3. Oceanography. a ringlike system of ocean currents rotating clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
Origin:
1560–70; < L gy?rus < Gk gy^ros ring, circle
Dictionary.com Unabridged
http://dictionary.reference.com/b…

Methinks 1. or 2. satisfies what the carriages "take" in St. James's park.

Michael Robinson  •  Link

with Sir W. Coventry and Sir G. Downing to take the 'gyre' in the Parke” (?)

Both the text above and my copy of L&M read 'ayre'-- perhaps in the context Terry is unconsciously incorporating the well known verse:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats, The Second Coming
http://www.poetryconnection.net/p…

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... then comes Sympson, the Joyner; and he and I with great pains contriving presses to put my books up in: they now growing numerous, and lying one upon another on my chairs, I lose the use to avoyde the trouble of removing them, when I would open a book."

A new epoch opens for bibliophiles: the first surviving record of the bookcase as a purpose made independent piece of case furniture. If SP and Sympson are not their inventor, the form is sufficiently undeveloped at this date for the two of them to have to put their heads together and 'with great pains' contrive.

Spoiler
The two delivered later survive, with ten others similar, in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene.
http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/images/…
http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/images/…

Margaret  •  Link

Those bookshelves look a lot more expensive than my Ikea bookshelves.

Margaret  •  Link

"I could not but with hearty thanks to Almighty God ejaculate my thanks to Him while I was at dinner, to myself"

...at least it was to himself!

(I find it fascinating how words change their meanings over the centuries.)

Michael Robinson  •  Link

" ... did also meet Alderman Backewell, ... by his being abroad and Shaw’s death he hath lost the ball, but that he doubts not to come to give a kicke at it still, and then he shall be wiser and keepe it while he hath it. But he says he hath a good master, the King, who will not suffer him to be undone, as otherwise he must have been, and I believe him."

See:
"... Sir G. Carteret told me one considerable thing: Alderman Backewell is ordered abroad upon some private score with a great sum of money; wherein I was instrumental the other day in shipping him away. It seems some of his creditors have taken notice of it, and he was like to be broke yesterday in his absence; Sir G. Carteret telling me that the King and the kingdom must as good as fall with that man at this time; and that he was forced to get 4000l. himself to answer Backewell’s people’s occasions, or he must have broke; ..."
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

For Backewell's trip abroad on confidential business:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…

cgs  •  Link

OED entre:
sudden impulse.

2. To utter suddenly (a short prayer; now in wider sense, any brief expression of emotion). Also absol.

1666 PEPYS Diary 23 July (1879) IV. 22, I could not but with hearty thanks to Almighty God ejaculate my thanks to him.

1. trans. To dart or shoot forth; to throw out suddenly and swiftly, eject. Obs. in general sense.
1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3) Ejaculate, cast out. 1661 LOVELL Hist. Anim. & Min. 102 They [Porcupines] have..prickles..which they ejaculate.

moira  •  Link

PRESS--- a word still used in Ireland for a cupboard (usually with a door) eg hot press = airing cupboard

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...did also meet Alderman Backewell, who tells me of the hard usage he now finds from Mr. Fen, in not getting him a bill or two paid, now that he can be no more usefull to him; telling me that what by his being abroad and Shaw’s death he hath lost the ball, but that he doubts not to come to give a kicke at it still, and then he shall be wiser and keepe it while he hath it."

I wonder if this is the earliest recorded use of football analogy.

A. Hamilton  •  Link

The Loyall London ...hath above eight hundred men.

I looked up some modern warships for comparison. The Nimitz, at over 101,000 tons displacement, has a ship's company of 3,200 according to Wikipedia, of which nearly 2500 are for the air wing. The Yamato, largest battleship ever commissioned at about 72,000 tons, had a crew of about 2,700, typical for large surface combatants of its time. But with the exception of aircraft carriers, modern surface combatants are designed to be operated by relatively small crews. The Arleigh Burke class destroyers, at 8,500 tons, have a crew of 273. The proposed new Zumwalt-class destroyer, at 14,564 tons -- larger than top-of-the-line battleships a century ago -- will have a crew of only 140.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japa…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arle…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumw…
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/arch…

Nix  •  Link

"taking the gyre" --

Made me think, not of Yeats, but of Carroll:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe

cgs  •  Link

“presses to put my books up in"
not to press the point see 3.10
press :

press, n.1 [13 versions of effecting change]
[< Anglo-Norman pres, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French presse, prese, Old French, Middle French presce, Middle French prece (French presse) crowd, crush in battle (late 11th cent.), pressing device (late 11th cent.), trouble, difficulty (late 12th cent.), haste (c1200),
cupboard for clothes (1371, now regional (Normandy)), printing press (end of the 15th cent.),
printed products (especially newspapers) collectively (1738) < presser PRESS v.1 Compare post-classical Latin pressa clothes-press (1393 in a British source),
printing press (1501 in a British source), Old Occitan preensa (1412; Occitan premsa), Catalan premsa (1399 as prempsa; the -m- is apparently after prémer to press < classical Latin premere), Spanish prensa (1380-5; < Catalan), Italian pressa (a1300), all in sense ‘pressing device’, Portuguese pressa haste, urgency (13th cent.); also Middle Low German perse, presse pressing device, torment, fierce opposition in battle, Middle High German presse pressing device (German Presse pressing device, the press), Old Swedish präs pressing device (Swedish press act of pressing, pressing device, the press).
..........
3b. A place of business centred on the printing press, in which all the stages and processes of printing books, journals, etc., are carried out; an establishment (including its staff, offices, and equipment) that produces books; a printing or publishing house. Freq. with capital initial, esp. in the names of such businesses.
1579

....
d. With the. Newspapers, journals, and periodical literature collectively. Freq. with modifying word.
This use of the word appears to have originated in phrases such as the liberty of the press, to write for the press, to silence the press, etc., in which ‘press’ originally had sense 3c, but was gradually taken to mean the products of the printing press. Quotations before 18201 reflect the transition between these senses.
1661 A. BROME Songs & Other Poems 129 And carefully muzled the mouth of the press, Least the truth should peep through their jugling dress.

III.

III. 10. Now chiefly Sc. and Irish English. A large (usually shelved) cupboard, esp. one placed in a recess in the wall, for holding linen, clothes, books, etc., or food, plates, dishes, and other kitchen items. Sometimes attrib., esp. as press cupboard. Cf. CLOTHES-PRESS n., linen-press n. at LINEN adj. and n. Compounds 2.
{alpha} c1387-95 CHAUCER Canterbury Tales Prol. 263
......
1658 in W. Cramond Ann. Banff (1891) I. 140 Thoue brak wp ane of the dors of the prese. 1693 in Household Bk. Gr. Baillie 165, 5 duble preses for books.
....
1600 J. PORY tr. J. Leo Geogr. Hist. Afr. III. 125 Each chamber hath a presse curiously painted and varnished belonging thereunto. 1686 Inv. in Essex Rev. (1906) 15 172 Two chayers, one presse cubbord.
...

Press n3
1. a. The impressing of men for service in the navy or (less frequently) the army; compulsory enlistment. Cf. IMPRESS n.2, IMPRESSMENT n.2 Now hist.
In quot. ?1592 perh. : a crowd (= PRESS n.1 5a).
. 1667 London Gaz. No. 154/2, The Press for Seamen is great, and several Captains are imployed to raise men both in Denmark and Lubec.

1cc. Money paid to a sailor or soldier on enlistment; = PRESS MONEY n. 3. Obs.
a1630 Faithful Friends (1975) I. ii. 19 Marc. Hold thee heers gold, furnish thy selfe with speede... These shall along with vs too, receive your press.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"But he says he hath a good master, the King, who will not suffer him to be undone, as otherwise he must have been, and I believe him."

Uh-huh...Touching faith. Just call him Stafford.

"Alderman Who is off to debtors' prison?"

Australian Susan  •  Link

Stafford?

Strafford?

Wentworth?

One of Charles I's most awe-ful betrayals

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Sorry, missed the typo, you're right it is Strafford.

I've always wondered if part of Charles II's distancing from people was due to watching Charles I's agonizing over the forced betrayal of Strafford and Laud and others.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Alderman Backewell...tells me of the hard usage he now finds from Mr. Fen, in not getting him a bill or two paid, now that he can be no more usefull to him; telling me that what by his being abroad and Shaw’s death "

L&M: Robin Shaw, his principal assistant (an old friend of Pepys) had died in July 1665. For several months in that year Backwell had been in Antwerp raising money for subsidies which were to be paid to the allied forces of Münster: see https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"But he says he hath a good master, the King, who will not suffer him to be undone, as otherwise he must have been, and I believe him."

L&M note the Exchequer had helped to save him from bankruptcy a year earlier.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"one fifth-rate, and that, the Sweepstakes, which carries forty guns. "

L&M: Her normal war-time complement was 36 guns. She was made a 4th-rate in 1669: Cat. ., 1. 279.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"He tells me the Loyall London, Sir J. Smith (which, by the way, he commends to be the-best ship in the world, large and small), hath above eight hundred men;"

L&M: This was the new 2nd-rate launched in June:
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
Her normal war-time complement was officially 730 men: Cat., i. 267.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"At least two or three of them might have been left manned, and sent away with the Gottenburgh ships. "

L&M: The Hamburg and Gothenburg fleets had been lying some weeks at Harwich, Awaiting escort. After the battle on St James Day (25 July) , two ships were sent from the fleet to convoy them. CSPD 1666-7, p. 6.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"The French are not yet joined with the Dutch, which do dissatisfy the Hollanders"

L&M: Cf the similar report in London Gazette, 23 July.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"They conclude this to be much the best fleete, for force of guns, greatnesse and number of ships and men, that ever England did see; being, as Sir W. Coventry reckons, besides those left behind, eighty-nine men of warr and twenty fire-ships, though we cannot hear that they have with them above eighteen.

"The French are not yet joined with the Dutch, which do dissatisfy the Hollanders, and if they should have a defeat, will undo De Witt; the people generally of Holland do hate this league with France."

What a contrast to the pessimism Pepys has been reporting for the last month. The French fleet not honoring their Treaty -- your cousin likes you, Charles!

I wonder why they didn't let some of the less qualified/healthy/cooperative impressed men go home.

Keeping some ships in reserve sounds like a good idea ... you never know what's going to happen, and they may be needed to clean up after the main battle, or stop an invasion.

I wonder if James sent the fake Dutch numbers to the fleet, as they discussed on Wednesday 18 July 1666. The necessity to do that seems even more questionable now. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Pat McCann  •  Link

Fascinated by the 'lost the ball' and 'come and give it a kicke' references. I guess this is a reference to some form of sport akin to modern football, so a very early reference, but equally, 'lost the ball' is close to a modern day phrase 'drop the ball' (Cricket?), also meaning ' not been keeping your eye on the current business of the day'

Peach  •  Link

If anyone is interested, and perhaps it has even been mentioned here and I am just missing it, English historian Ian Mortimer has a wonderful series of books called "The Time Traveller's Guide To" Specifically, there is a "The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration England", in which our man Sam plays several prominent roles as a reference and citation. I bring it up because there is an entire section dedicated to 17th century entertainment, including sports. He also has books for Medieval and Elizabethan England.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

"By July 22, 1666 the fleet was again at sea.

"Severely as it had suffered, the refitting had been conducted with remarkable celerity, and Charles II and James, Duke of York showed such an active interest in the preparations that Rupert swore that they were the best officers in the navy.

"The fleet went out 'in very good heart,' Rupert's ship boasting 'a dancing-master and two men who feign themselves mad and make good sport to a bag-pipe.'[42]
[42] Dom. State Papers, Clifford to Henry Bennet, Lord Arlington, July 5, 1666.

"Unluckily, the day after putting to sea, the 23rd, came a violent thunderstorm, which damaged the ships so severely that Prince Rupert declared himself more afraid of the weather than of the enemy."

Highlights from Rupert, Prince Palatine -- by EVA SCOTT
Late Scholar of Somerville College, Oxford
WESTMINSTER -- ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE & Co.
NEW YORK -- G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1900
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/ep…

Pepys must have written his diary later, and forgot to mention the violent storm which both Rupert and Rev. Josselin report on.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Sir William Temple to Ormonde
[William Temple is Envoy to Brussels]
Written from: Brussels
Date: 23 July 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 47, fol(s). 288
Document type: Holograph

The likeliest concert of our enemies seems to be that the Dutch shall fight us alone, with the utmost of their forces; and in case a battle ends but as the last did, with both retiring for a time to recruit in their Havens; then, the French fleet, left without control at sea, shall back some descent. ...
The interests of all Europe, adds the writer, seem to be now at sea with the fleets. ...
________________________________________
Encloses:
A news-letter, chiefly narrating political and military incidents in France. Sent to Sir W. Temple at Brussels
Written from: [Paris?]
Date: [July] 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 47, fol(s). 290
Document type: Copy

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Ormonde to Kingston, Lord President of Connaught
Written from: [Dublin Castle]
Date: 23 July 1666
Shelfmark: MS. Carte 144, fol(s). 83
Document type: Copy [in Letter Book]

Communicates the purport of orders, given to Major Nicholas Bayly, for the defence of the island of Boffin.

Adds particulars concerning the contributions to be raised from his Majesty's subjects residing in or near to those parts "towards easing his Majesty's charge", for the works of fortification now in progress.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

SPOILER: Evidently Gov. Nicholas Bayliffe didn't think he received enough money, or was still sufficiently Irish, to later tweek the nose of his Whitehall paymasters. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Log in to post an annotation.

If you don't have an account, then register here.