Monday 17 September 1666
Up betimes, and shaved myself after a week’s growth, but, Lord! how ugly I was yesterday and how fine to-day! By water, seeing the City all the way, a sad sight indeed, much fire being still in. To Sir W. Coventry, and there read over my yesterday’s work: being a collection of the particulars of the excess of charge created by a war, with good content. Sir W. Coventry was in great pain lest the French fleete should be passed by our fleete, who had notice of them on Saturday, and were preparing to go meet them; but their minds altered, and judged them merchant-men, when the same day the Success, Captain Ball, made their whole fleete, and come to Brighthelmstone, and thence at five o’clock afternoon, Saturday, wrote Sir W. Coventry newes thereof; so that we do much fear our missing them. Here come in and talked with him Sir Thomas Clifford, who appears a very fine gentleman, and much set by at Court for his activity in going to sea, and stoutness everywhere, and stirring up and down. Thence by coach over the ruines, down Fleete Streete and Cheapside to Broad Streete to Sir G. Carteret, where Sir W. Batten (and Sir J. Minnes, whom I had not seen a long time before, being his first coming abroad) and Lord Bruncker passing his accounts. Thence home a little to look after my people at work and back to Sir G. Carteret’s to dinner; and thence, after some discourse; with him upon our publique accounts, I back home, and all the day with Harman and his people finishing the hangings and beds in my house, and the hangings will be as good as ever, and particularly in my new closet. They gone and I weary, my wife and I, and Balty and his wife, who come hither to-day to helpe us, to a barrel of oysters I sent from the river today, and so to bed.
13 Annotations
First Reading
A. De Araujo • Link
"and how fine to-day"
Mirror mirror on the wall....
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sir W. Coventry was in great pain lest the French fleete should be passed by our fleete, who had notice of them on Saturday, and were preparing to go meet them; but their minds altered, and judged them merchant-men..."
Presumably they were misjudged as English merchant-men? I would think France being at war now, French merchant ships would be considered easy, valuable prizes and eagerly sought.
Robert Gertz • Link
Or has the advent of the Fire propelled Sam and us into a parallel universe where this stupid war is being fought strictly for noble purposes (Ummn, like bringing democracy? (stop chuckling there) "But Sire, we're a vaguely constitutional monarchy." "No, damnit, we're an technocratic autocracy!" Coventry insists. "Fine, we're bringing Constitutional Monarchy or Technocratic Autocracy to a benighted Republic. Whatever..." Charles sighs.) and such tawdry stuff as gain through prizes is rejected?
Phoenix • Link
Calendar of State Papers:
"...31 merchant ships from the Straits and 4 from Guinea have passed, and probably joined the English fleet before coming to the Isle of Wight. It was at first supposed to be the Duke of Beaufort's fleet."
Terry Foreman • Link
"such tawdry stuff as gain through prizes is rejected?"
Nice timing, RG. Turned out, L&M say, that last year (1665) Clifford was rewarded with a prize-ship for, i.a., having prevented the embezzlement of prizes.
(To be fair, he also provided Arlington, the Secretary of State, with valuable intelligence, and organized the relief of the wounded in the west country.)
Ric Jerrom • Link
Sir Thomas Clifford " who appears a very fine gentleman, and much set by at court for his activity in going to sea, and stoutness everywhere, and stirring up and down..." methinks Samuel is hitting a strong vein of irony here: a tad envious perhaps, or just able to spot a jackanapes or bullshitter?
language hat • Link
As I said before when somebody suggested Sam was being ironic, I have seen no evidence that he ever uses that (today heavily overworked) mode of discourse. Sam is one of the most straightforward writers I know; if he likes something, it is the best he has seen in his life, and if he doesn't, he doesn't spare the opprobrium. The knowing wink is not his style.
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"wrote Sir W. Coventry newes thereof; so that we do much fear our missing them."
L&M: News from the Duke of York of the approach of the French reached the fleet off Dungeness on the 15th. They found a small force of eight sail which were chased by frigates, two being drawn ashore and burnt. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
San Diego Sarah • Link
"... barrel of oysters I sent from the river today, ..."
I bet they cost a pretty penny.
Timo • Link
Substitute the word ‘Sam’ for ‘Language Hat’
Timo • Link
This may be posted elsewhere but, as Sam begins to pick his way through the still smouldering streets, it is nice to consider the new city which will rise from the ashes. This very old BBC History page by Dr John Schofield gives a nice summary. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/brit…
john • Link
"Up betimes, and shaved myself after a week’s growth"
Normality returning after a week of terror, shaving off the fear with the hairs.
San Diego Sarah • Link
An article explaining Pepys' shaving challenges and what being clean shaven signified ... The human race would do itself a great favor if it stopped over-thinking things!
"After the bushy beards of the Protestant Reformation, being clean-shaven had become the marker of a man of note. This vexed Pepys. Over the years he tried to tackle the interminable task by visiting a barber, having the barber come to his home and even shaving himself. First, he tried a pumice stone. While ‘easy, speedy, and cleanly’ at the beginning, it wasn’t better than a barber. Then came the razor, but that too had its pitfalls: ‘I have cut myself much, but I think it is from the bluntness of the razor’.
"While a seemingly simple chore, the number of objects required to shave reveals how cumbersome a job it was. Razor, soap and shaving brush, of course, but Pepys would have also needed a leather strop to keep the razor sharp, an expensive mirror, water to be collected and heated over a fire, linen to be regularly laundered and candles for an evening trim. Money was needed to buy the kit and to pay the servants or the barber. Predictably, wealth and social standing were inextricably linked. Shaving was an amenity for the moneyed and a marker of a ‘Polite Gentleman’.
"The ‘Polite Gentleman’ was an archetype against which men could position themselves. It was, like the ‘Household Patriarch’ before it, the dominant masculine norm to which most men aspired. It dictated the mainstream male fashion, which is why Pepys kept himself beardless and periwigged.
"Adhering to this fashion was the easiest way of getting by."
We can see how much money and time Pepys spends on 'getting by' and establishing his right to be a 'Polite Gentleman' of means. This article explains how the trend became quite outrageous for men in the 18th century.
https://www.historytoday.com/misc…