Friday 26 October 1666

Up, and all the morning and most of the afternoon within doors, beginning to set my accounts in order from before this fire, I being behindhand with them ever since; and this day I got most of my tradesmen to bring in their bills and paid them. Dined at home, and busy again after dinner, and then abroad by water to Westminster Hall, where I walked till the evening, and then out, the first time I ever was abroad with Doll Lane, to the Dog tavern, and there drank with her, a bad face, but good bodied girle. Did nothing but salute and play with her and talk, and thence away by coach, home, and so to do a little more in my accounts, and then to supper and to bed.

Nothing done in the House yet as to the finishing of the bill for money, which is a mighty sad thing, all lying at stake for it.

18 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

The Dog Tavern...

"Ah, Sir Sam...Ye knows I loves thee..." Doll in Sam's lap, pinches cheek.

"It's Mr., Doll...Oh, but I am old, old Doll...And life wearies me."

"Nay...Say not so, Sir Sam...Me little bug-eyed knight of a CoA. Lets us have a song and more wine. Call mine host, girl! Mr. P. would have wine!!"

"Wine!!!!...." a rather drunk Betty Martin echoes from the corner where she'd recently passed out, about an hour after joining Sam and Doll...

"What be that racket in the front, mine host!?" Sam calls.

"Mr. Pepys! Let me through, I know the man and loves him." Hewer, red-faced, staggering, appears at the door...

"Back yer dog...Yer whoreson rascal!" mine host tosses Hewer back.

"Hewer! What...Let him come forth!"

"Oh, don't lets us be bothered with that rascal knave, my lovely." Doll, stroking...Hmmn...Always thought it didn't look natural...She replaces periwig.

"But tis mine chief clerk, do ye hear...Tis' mine chief clerk. Mine host, let the boy come forth! Hewer!"

"Aye, Hewer be I..." red-faced, drunken glance to Doll who snarls. "Hewer, whose wood is upright and strong... Jade, thou are not fit for thy presumptive place." Pulls at Doll who fiercely shoves him back. "Leave off yer machina...Mach...Your ways, wench...And let us...Hic...Men of the world to our...Ooooohhh..."

The boy just will never learn to drink, Sam sighs as Will runs for the nearest bucket. "Hewer I told you to go home and sleep it off, lad."

"Sleep, sir? Nevvver...In the steadfast formance of his duties, Hewer is the man for the work...Hic...Sir." Glance to Doll... "Ready to assume yer duty station, sir...If ye'd be thinkin' on headin' home...To the dear one...Hic...Sir." Pats Doll's shoulder. "For Hewer's upright and read..."

"Out upon the dog!!...Toss him out, mine host!" Doll fumes. "I be meat for your master."

"Is he there?" Charles, behind door to the inn's tap room, in waiter's apparel hisses to Jamie...Who, a tad reluctantly, nods. "With his doxies and young Hewer...Who appears rather smashed."

"Come, Jamie...Grab your tray...Lets in. Oh, Jamie..." Charles eyes his brother's disapproving face, standing in very reluctantly donned serving apron. "The jest will be to see what our little Pepys has to say about us when he feels himself safe from all prying eyes."

Hmmmnn...

"All right...As I told Coventry, it's a form of intelligence...You do need to know what a top subordinate like Pepys is or maybe leaking in public, right? Let it be work in your case, if that makes you happy."

"Can't believe Pepys would frequent such a place..." frown.

"Neither can I...I must say I'm a bit more impressed with the lad. Quite a piece that girl..."

"Her?" Jamie eyes Doll through the cracked door...

"Not so much on the looks perhaps but very nice form...And a sharper tongue than Barbara's." Charlie notes, admiringly.

"Anon, anon..." Calls mine host. "Where be the service for Mr. P's party?!"

"We're on, come on Jamie!" Charles, gaily, shoving door open. "Anon, anon, sir!"

Anon...Jamie, curtly, frowning...Keeping tray up to hide face.

***

CGS  •  Link

Damn popeish ones interfering again with royal prerogative as head of church.
Expel them, get rid of them, send them back to Douai
"wot a bludy bunch of t word they be", as said in the rookeries.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

luvely double talk in Whitehall, to say one thing to please the money men but playing kneesy with the brothers of the Vatican. [ casa atrium]

Wim van der Meij  •  Link

Does Sam take chances here to be seen with Doll Lane? I suppose in London, being a relatively small town then, rumours would be going to get 'round at some point. Or is sam already above that?

language hat  •  Link

My guess is that it was taken for granted that men with money/power would be seen about town with young women they were not married to; I would suspect Sam would be more worried that onlookers would think her not up to snuff ("a bad face") than that they'd see him with arm-candy.

Mary  •  Link

Doll and Betty
One trusts that the sister have come/will come to an amicable agreement about the extent to which they share Mr. Pepys's favours.

CGS  •  Link

a little luxury is a very enticing element in daily life of grind, still goes on, see how girls from uneconimic countries in this modern age of excess, still accept favours for giving a favour, those that have control and/or have a credit card can avoid the temptation of carpe dieme

CGS  •  Link

"...but good bodied girle..." a nice expression for well endowed.

CGS  •  Link

good news travels slower than bad. Thanks Michael.
Terry Foreman : well I am forbidden to peep.

CGS  •  Link

T[h]anks

Second Reading

Marquess  •  Link

A nice shapely girl never goes amiss to get an evening going.

Peach  •  Link

Doll Lane would probably fit into what we modern folk not-so-nicely call a "butterface", as in, "everything about her was attractive but..."

Perhaps the veneer of respectability Sam has as a Navy Office manager puts some of his behavior above suspicion. This is war-time, hundreds of London's finest lads at sea or in Danish prisons, lots of war widows crying out to be heard by the gentlemen who sent their sons/brothers/husbands to the ships. Would it be so awful for a bureacrat in such a position to be seen with a woman? No telling they're talking of anyhing but the unwholesome conditions faced by the pressganged sailors... Even if they weren't, I wonder how many everyday Londoners would think poorly of a woman they suspected was trading on her assets on behalf of an absent husband or lover, or even condemn the man she was with for expecting the trade. There was very little that could be had for nothing in exchange, and bribes fly fast and thick in the Journal as a part of normal life.

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