Saturday 21 September 1667

All the morning at the office, dined at home, and expected Sheres again, but he did not come, so another dinner lost by the folly of Creed. After having done some business at the office, I out with my wife to Sheres’s lodging and left an invitation for him to dine with me tomorrow, and so back and took up my wife at the Exchange, and then kissed Mrs. Smith’s pretty hand, and so with my wife by coach to take some ayre (but the way very dirty) as far as Bow, and so drinking (as usual) at Mile End of Byde’s ale, we home and there busy at my letters till late, and so to walk by moonshine with my wife, and so to bed. The King, Duke of York, and the men of the Court, have been these four or five days a-hunting at Bagshot.

12 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Ossory to Ormond
Written from: [London]
Date: 21 September 1667

Has received the Duke's letter of September 6, with the enclosure for my Lord Chancellor.

Finds, by general talk, that the Duke "will be pushed at this next session, but can learn neither the particular persons that contrive the thing; nor upon what grounds they will move" in it.

One Thornell (a pitiful person, adds the writer, who failed formerly in an endeavour to be made Solicitor to the Duke of York) has been introduced into the King's cabinet, by Sir W. Coventry, "to evidence the ill condition of the affairs of Ireland."
_____

Ormond to Anglesey
Written from: Kilkenny
Date: 21 September 1667

Further particulars of Barker's Case. Notices of the Examination taken of one Bleckett. Revenue affairs of Ireland.

http://www.rsl.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwm…

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"...so another dinner lost by the folly of Creed..."

Sounds almost Bibical...

A flip version is a famous Roosevelt story. About 1915 Eleanor and FDR were in Washington as he was Assistant Sect of the Navy and one evening when they were in sleepwear...And getting ready for rather early bed (pre-Lucy Mercer days), a ring at the door and a couple on doorstep in evening clothes. Theirs or Eleanor's calendar had gotten a screw loose and they'd come to dinner. Though ER made the one dish she knew, scrambled eggs, the party was not a major success, though FDR enjoyed telling the story, with embellishments as to their state of bedtime prep, much to ER's annoyance...When young. As an older woman she took up the tale and rather enjoyed adding Franklin's embellishments to her adult children's stunned surprise.

Robert Gertz  •  Link

"That's Bide's Ale, Shoreditch's finest..."

"Bess, I'm not putting that in my journal. This Diary is my legacy to Posterity, should it survive. I only read you a few of the week's pages for company."

"Bide's offering a shilling per product mention. He said it's the same deal he offered to John Evelyn."

Don't have the heart to tell him Bide actually said he offered Mr. Evelyn 4s each referral, Bess sighs.

"Perhaps we could squeeze it in somewhere..."

cum salis grano  •  Link

"...and so with my wife by coach to take some ayre (but the way very dirty) as far as Bow,...and so to walk by moonshine with my wife,.... "
Are those moonshine [harvest moon I dothe thinke so large]nights after the smoky evils of all those hearths and furnaces and the added "bachy" smoke, handkerchiefs full of black residue.

Jesse  •  Link

"moonshine"

The coincidence that our lunar phases are almost in sync after all these years may have been noted. NASA ( http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phas… ) has Pepys' full moon tomorrow (if I've my calendars straight) and we're due in less than a couple days.

GrahamT  •  Link

More Moonshine:
The Nasa Calendar starts from year zero, not year one, so for 1667 I assume you have to use the 1666 calendar. This gives full moon as 13 Sep Gregorian style, which is 23 Sep 1667 Julian, (10 days out in Pepys time, but 11 by the time Britain embraced the Gregorian calendar) i.e. the same date as at present. This also happens to be the Autumn Equinox.
The moon in southern England was very bright last night, though not yet full, and certainly bright enough to see ones way without needing a link boy.

Jesse  •  Link

YMM (yet more moonshine)

Thanks for noting this. I checked and it seems it's only the BCE years that need 'correction'. You can also verify by looking up their date for this year's coming full moon and noting the match w/your local source. I suppose if they just had to do this that picking BCE would cause less confusion. One year and esp. the ten days does make a difference!

GrahamT  •  Link

YMM2
OK, I see now, I also made a mistake with the conversion from Gregorian to Julian by adding 10 days instead of subtracting them. Pepys full moon is thus 22 Sep 1667 (Julian), so 1 day ahead of ours. Still remarkably close.

Mary  •  Link

Brilliant Harvest Moon over London last night as the full moon coincided with the equinox.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"The King, Duke of York, and the men of the Court, have been these four or five days a-hunting at Bagshot."

L&M: They went on the 17th and returned on the 20th: BM, Egerton, 2539, ff. 112v, 120r.

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