Saturday 22 June 1667

Up, and to my office, where busy, and there comes Mrs. Daniel … [and it is strange how merely the putting my hand to her belly through her coats did make me do. – L&M] At the office I all the morning busy. At noon home to dinner, where Mr. Lewes Phillips, by invitation of my wife, comes, he coming up to town with her in the coach this week, and she expected another gentleman, a fellow-traveller, and I perceive the feast was for him, though she do not say it, but by some mistake he come not, so there was a good dinner lost. Here we had the two Mercers, and pretty merry. Much talk with Mr. Phillips about country business, among others that there is no way for me to purchase any severall lands in Brampton, or making any severall that is not so, without much trouble and cost, and, it may be, not do it neither, so that there is no more ground to be laid to our Brampton house. After dinner I left them, and to the office, and thence to Sir W. Pen’s, there to talk with Mrs. Lowther, and by and by we hearing Mercer and my boy singing at my house, making exceeding good musique, to the joy of my heart, that I should be the master of it, I took her to my office and there merry a while, and then I left them, and at the office busy all the afternoon, and sleepy after a great dinner. In the evening come Captain Hart and Haywood to me about the six merchant-ships now taken up for men-of-war; and in talk they told me about the taking of “The Royal Charles;” that nothing but carelessness lost the ship, for they might have saved her the very tide that the Dutch come up, if they would have but used means and had had but boats: and that the want of boats plainly lost all the other ships. That the Dutch did take her with a boat of nine men, who found not a man on board her, and her laying so near them was a main temptation to them to come on; and presently a man went up and struck her flag and jacke, and a trumpeter sounded upon her “Joan’s placket is torn,” that they did carry her down at a time, both for tides and wind, when the best pilot in Chatham would not have undertaken it, they heeling her on one side to make her draw little water: and so carried her away safe. They being gone, by and by comes Sir W. Pen home, and he and I together talking. He hath been at Court; and in the first place, I hear the Duke of Cambridge is dead; which is a great loss to the nation, having, I think, never an heyre male now of the King’s or Duke’s to succeed to the Crown. He tells me that they do begin already to damn the Dutch, and call them cowards at White Hall, and think of them and their business no better than they used to do; which is very sad. The King did tell him himself, which is so, I was told, here in the City, that the City, hath lent him 10,000l., to be laid out towards securing of the River of Thames; which, methinks, is a very poor thing, that we should be induced to borrow by such mean sums. He tells me that it is most manifest that one great thing making it impossible for us to have set out a fleete this year, if we could have done it for money or stores, was the liberty given the beginning of the year for the setting out of merchant-men, which did take up, as is said, above ten, if not fifteen thousand seamen: and this the other day Captain Cocke tells me appears in the council-books, that is the number of seamen required to man the merchant ships that had passes to go abroad. By and by, my wife being here, they sat down and eat a bit of their nasty victuals, and so parted and we to bed.

18 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Up, and to my office, where busy, and there comes Mrs. Daniel; and it is strange how the merely putting my hand to her belly through her coats do make me do.".

L&M text.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Brodrick to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 22 June 1667

The Dutch have captured, near Aldborough, a good frigate with her attendant fire-ship. ...

The writer watches, "almost like a spy, his excellent patron [ Clarendon ], although he had, from his infancy, reason to believe him a right good man; and, from elder observation, a right good Statesman" ...

[ Now ],- he "never saw so miraculous an immovableness. Sometimes, it suggests a good omen; otherwhiles, [ the writer ] thinks of Cato, or of that excellent representation of Horace, in the broken sphere - 'Impavidum feriunt [ ruinae ]'.
_____

Sir William Coventry to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 22 June 1667

Not only will the Dartmouth presently await the Lord Lieutenant's commands, but so many other ships will be stationed upon the Irish Coast, as may not be likely to draw a greater enemy after them. ... But if the enemy should send thither in great strength it is not possible to struggle with then, - as it may be presumed, all the world is but too well satisfied, after the affront received at Chatham.
_____

William Legge to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 22 June 1667

Notices the death of the Duke of Cambridge; the departure of the Dutch from the river, "with the 'Royal Charles' in their Company" and the great difficulty of finding money to repair the public losses. The writer fears that "our punishments are not ended"; and is utterly "weary of seeing what is daily done here" [at Court].

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/s…

Bradford  •  Link

Does L&M also say "they sat down and eat a bit of their nasty victuals"? One might hope for "tasty."

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...she expected another gentleman, a fellow-traveller, and I perceive the feast was for him, though she do not say it, but by some mistake he come not..."

Bess, you sly boots...

Todd Bernhardt  •  Link

Wow ... on the 31st, Sam said of Mrs. Daniel that "she is so lean that I had no great pleasure with her" ... I guess he doesn't mind so much after all!

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Hmmn...So this thing with Ms. Daniel is what? the standard way a busy administrator of 17th century England greets a visitor? "Mrs. Daniel...Welcome... Now we've had the obligatory feel through your coats, have a seat. What can I do for you?"

Gee I wonder if our mysterious gentleman would've felt obligated to greet Bess the same way.

Certainly King Charles would support making it customary.

James in Illinois  •  Link

Bradford:

L&M also have "nasty."

cum salis grano  •  Link

So not tasty: must have extra nutrients added by father time.

Australian Susan  •  Link

Nasty

Sam rarely misses an opportunity to diss down any aspect of the Penn household.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

JOAN'S PLACKET (IS TORN). AKA and see "Jumping Joan," "Jumping John," "Cock o’ the North [1]" (Scottish), "Aunty Mary" (Irish). English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 or 6/4 time): Scottish, Scottish Jig. A Major (Kennedy, Watson): G Major (Emmerson, Merryweather, Wilson): F Major (Scott). Standard tuning. One part (Scott): AAB (Emmerson, Kennedy, Wilson): AABBAAB'B' (Merryweather). In conventional usage the word placket is a slit at the top of a skirt or petticoat which makes it easier for the wearer to put it on and take off. The word also refers to petticoats themselves and aprons, and also for women in general. In the political ballad song, Joan's placket has been "rent and torn." The earliest mention of the piece was in Samuel Pepys' diary for June, 1667, but it has been rumored that a trumpet version of the tune was played at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. Chappell (1859) cites the Rev. G.R. Greig's Family History of England and Miss Strickland's Mary Stuart (which also says the tune was "sung, with appropriate words, to brutalize the rabble at the burning of witch") as reporting the tale but the story has never been substantiated, and Kidson (1915), for one, scoffs at it. He does think the tune originally a trumpet tune, by reason of its structure, which had the odd fortune to "have been used in defiance or ridicule". Kidson and Winstock both cite Pepys who recorded that it was played in derision by the Dutch whose fleet sailed up the Medway in 1667, burned the English men‑o‑war lying there, and towed off the Royal Charles (which the English had deserted) with a Dutch trumpeter playing the tune from the captured vessel. The wit is apparent when ‘placket’ is taken in the sense of a woman--the Dutch have stolen her from under the noses of the English. Political lampoons thereafter were attached to the melody. It appeared in the 1686 edition of Playford's "Dancing Master" and in all subsequent editions, as well as the ballad operas of Achilles, The Bays' Opera, and Colley Cibber's Love in a Riddle (which was translated {or stolen, as Scott asserts} by Bickerstaff to "Love in a Village" in the early 18th century). In Loyal Songs (1685 & 1694) it is entitled "The Plot cram'd into Jone's Placket." At some point the tune was transformed into the Scottish "Cock of the North" (though Emmerson {1971} thinks the English tune a version of the Scotch one), which is very similar, if not nearly identical in some versions. The phrases of the tune are punctuated in the manner of the Scotch Measure, though, since it is in 6/8 time, the form is called a 'Scotch Jig'.

***

When I followed a lass who was froward and shy

I stuck to her, stuff

Til I mad her comply.

I took her so lovingly round the waist,

And hugged her tight and held her fast;

When hugged and hauled,

She screamed and squalled.

But, tho' she vowed all that I did was in vain,

I pleased her so well, that she bore it again.

I pleased her so well, that she bore it again.

Hoighty toity, whisking frisking,

Green was her gown upon the grass,

***

Oh, those were the joys of our dancing days,

Oh, those were the joys of our dancing days.

***

Emmerson (Rantin’ Pipe and Tremblin’ String), 1971; No. 84, pg. 161. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), vol. 2; pg. 36. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 311 (“Cock of the North”). Kidson (English Folk Song and Dance), 1915; pg. 32. Merryweather (Merryweather’s Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; pg. 42. Playford (Dancing Master), 13th ed., pg. 30. Scott (English Song Book), 1926; pg. 28. Simpson (British Broadside Ballad), 1966; pg. 389. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 182. Walsh (The Complete Country Dancing Master), vol. 1, 1731; No. 30. Watson (A Rollick of Recorders or Other Instruments), 1975; No. 9, pg. 10. Wilson (A Companion to the Ballroom), 1817; pg. 106.

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/J…

Andrew Hamilton  •  Link

The nasty bread lies on the shelf, Dandoo, Dandoo
The nasty bread lies on the shelf
If you want any more you can get it yourself, Dandoo.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Much talk with Mr. Phillips about country business, among others that there is no way for me to purchase any severall lands"

L&M: Enclosed lands; usually pastures enclosed from the common.
--------------
Enclosure (sometimes inclosure) was the legal process in England of consolidating (enclosing) small landholdings into larger farms[1] since the 13th century. Once enclosed, use of the land became restricted to the owner, and it ceased to be common land for communal use. In England and Wales the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land is fenced (enclosed) and deeded or entitled to one or more owners. The process of enclosure began to be a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century. / In each of the two waves of enclosure, two different processes were used. One was the division of the large open fields and meadows into privately controlled plots of land, usually hedged and known at the time as severals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enc…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"that the City, hath lent him 10,000l., to be laid out towards securing of the River of Thames; which, methinks, is a very poor thing, that we should be induced to borrow by such mean sums."

L&M: The Lord Mayor and Aldermen had been summoned to a Privy Council meeting on the 21st, and had agreed to make this loan for the erection of a fort at Sheerness and other works: CSPS 1667 p. 247...;
cf. https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
The smallness of the loan was said to be due to City's losses in the Fire.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"if we could have done it for money or stores, was the liberty given the beginning of the year for the setting out of merchant-men, which did take up, as is said, above ten, if not fifteen thousand seamen: and this the other day Captain Cocke tells me appears in the council-books, that is the number of seamen required to man the merchant ships that had passes to go abroad."

L&M: The passes are listed in the Privy Council trgisters. Pepys (and others) received fees for their issue: see the minute (19 May) in PRO, PC 1/1/8.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

“The earliest mention of the piece was in Samuel Pepys' diary for June, 1667, but it has been rumored that a trumpet version of the tune was played at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. Kidson (1915) … thinks the tune originally a trumpet tune, by reason of its structure, which had the odd fortune to "have been used in defiance or ridicule"."

Who knew the history of the trumpet was so obscure:

"Until the middle of the 17th century the trumpet was essentially a fanfare instrument, used in armies and at courts to invest ceremonial with grandeur. Trumpeters usually played in bands, supported by timpani, using a semi-improvised repertory based on one or two chords.

"The first experiments with using trumpets in composed music were … in German church music around 1620, although it seems that they were not used in instrumental music until after 1650.

"The earliest datable sonata for trumpets and strings is by Vincenzo Albrici and was written between 1652 and 1654 when he was director of the Italian musicians at the Swedish court.

"Albrici is important for the history of English trumpet music because he worked in London in the 1660s; he is probably the individual Samuel Pepys referred to in his diary for 2 November, 1666 when he wrote that ‘the King’s Italian here [at Whitehall] is about setting three parts for Trumpets and shall teach some of them [the royal trumpeters] to sound them, and believes they will [be] admirable Musique’. Pepys’ diary entry is the first evidence that English trumpeters were at last beginning to play composed music, although we do not have any surviving trumpet parts in English music until the late 1680s.

Information from: http://www.goear.com/listen/c021d…

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