Wednesday 7 August 1667

Up, and at the office very busy, and did much business all the morning. My wife abroad with her maid Jane and Tom all the afternoon, being gone forth to eat some pasties at “The Bottle of Hay,” in St. John’s Street, as you go to Islington, of which she is mighty fond, and I dined at home alone, and at the office close all the afternoon, doing much business to my great content. This afternoon Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, comes to me about business, and tells me that though the King and my Lady Castlemayne are friends again, she is not at White Hall, but at Sir D. Harvy’s, whither the King goes to her; and he says she made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, and promised to offend her no more so: that, indeed, she did threaten to bring all his bastards to his closet-door, and hath nearly hectored him out of his wits.

I at my office till night, and then home to my pipe, my wife not coming home, which vexed me. I then into the garden, and there walked alone in the garden till 10 at night, when she come home, having been upon the water and could not get home sooner. So to supper, and to bed.

10 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"This afternoon Mr. Pierce, the surgeon, comes to me about business, and tells me that though the King and my Lady Castlemayne are friends again, she is not at White Hall, but at Sir D. Harvy’s, whither the King goes to her; and he says she made him ask her forgiveness upon his knees, and promised to offend her no more so: that, indeed, she did threaten to bring all his bastards to his closet-door, and hath nearly hectored him out of his wits."

Ah, the burdens of kingship...

I can see why the sophisticated lifestyle of the aristocracy is so appealing. Why, what man wouldn't relish such elegance and pleasure in his life?

Bradford  •  Link

"gone forth to eat some pasties at “The Bottle of Hay,” . . . of which she is mighty fond," as well she might be, since that seems to be the plat du jour this hot summer season. What, she didn't take away one for you, Sam?

Carl in Boston  •  Link

and hath nearly hectored him out of his wits Is this where the aristocratic fascination with bondage and domination starts? (To the King: You've been a naughty boy, down on your knees and kiss my black boots.)

JWB  •  Link

Musing on the 'whipped' monarch led naturally in my mind to my fraternity brother James Thurber's (w/EB White) "Is Sex Necessary?"; and, in turn, this off-topic link that I'm eager to share which I recently came across:
http://www.barbaroandnicanor.blog…

Carl in Boston  •  Link

What a link, most off the topic, but noble. Sam is noble, we are noble too. I just saw an oil painting of two French wonder dogs sold at auction. They were hunting dogs, estimate was $500. The internet went wild, hundreds of bidders, but it was sold in the room for $5,500. Now I understand a little more about what was going on at the auction. No steals for us that day, we're bottom feeding vultures, but noble vultures.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

One does wonder how Pierce came to have such 'eyewitness info" on the King's abject surrender...Did Charlie want his surgeon in attendance in case Babs threw something heavy or sharp?

Seriously our good and able Pierce seems not especially bothered by things like patient confidentiality. Though of course this is not a medical matter per se...

Assuming no tykes get their heads bashed by our elegant lady.

nix  •  Link

Elizabeth has done a lot of traveling for a Lady with no coach, and with only a ladies' maid and footman in tow -- the Bottle of Hay looks to be quite a distance from Seething Lane, and and even farther from the river. I wonder where else she wandered to wind up coming back by water?

cum salis grano  •  Link

Communication at Carlos deux Casa was a simple, it has taken 300 years to used the ether to whisper in the ear of someone of interest via a cell phone et al, then a cell was a room for having an intimate moment with desirable another or pray, and as walls have ears then by using ones ear, now we use cookies, we can find the intimate thoughts of those that do not want to share..

Second Reading

Gerald Berg  •  Link

Noble? All this time I thought we were lovable!

"I was loveable, Jocie was loveable, the Senator was loveable, the days were loveable, the nights were loveable, and everybody was loveable - except, of course, my mother."

Raymond Shaw
Manchurian Candidate

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