Thursday 3 October 1667
Up, and going out of doors, I understand that Sir W. Batten is gone to bed on a sudden again this morning, being struck very ill, and I confess I have observed him for these last two months to look very ill and to look worse and worse. I to St. James’s (though it be a sitting day) to the Duke of York, about the Tangier Committee, which met this morning, and he come to us, and the Charter for the City of Tangier was read and the form of the Court Merchant. That being done Sir W. Coventry took me into the gallery, and walked with me an hour, discoursing of Navy business, and with much kindness to, and confidence in, me still; which I must endeavour to preserve, and will do; and, good man! all his care how to get the Navy paid off, and that all other things therein may go well. He gone, I thence to my Lady Peterborough, who sent for me; and with her an hour talking about her husband’s pension, and how she hath got an order for its being paid again; though, I believe, for all that order, it will hardly be; but of that I said nothing; but her design is to get it paid again: and how to raise money upon it, to clear it from the engagement which lies upon it to some citizens, who lent her husband money, without her knowledge, upon it, to vast loss. She intends to force them to take their money again, and release her husband of those hard terms. The woman is a very wise woman, and is very plain in telling me how her plate and jewels are at pawne for money, and how they are forced to live beyond their estate, and do get nothing by his being a courtier. The lady I pity, and her family. Having done with her, and drunk two glasses of her meade, which she did give me, and so to the Treasurer’s Office, and there find my Lord Bruncker and [Sir] W. Pen at dinner with Sir G. Carteret about his accounts, where I dined and talked and settled some business, and then home, and there took out my wife and Willet, thinking to have gone to a play, but both houses were begun, and so we to the ’Change, and thence to my tailor’s, and there, the coachman desiring to go home to change his horses, we went with him into a nasty end of all St. Giles’s, and there went into a nasty room, a chamber of his, where he hath a wife and child, and there staid, it growing dark too, and I angry thereat, till he shifted his horses, and then home apace, and there I to business late, and so home, to supper, and walk in the garden with my wife and girle, with whom we are mightily pleased, and after talking and supping, to bed. This noon, going home, I did call on Will Lincolne and agree with him to carry me to Brampton.
17 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online
Oct. 3d. 1667. Society met on Summons.
mr Boyles 2d Edition of the origine of formes Dr. needham de formato foetu
[ http://bit.ly/9dkZWM ], presented)
Haak mastick made by wasps ants in franconia) Colepresse his Account of tin mines. Burtons of petrifying water &c. to be filed vp). Sr. Theo: de vaux paper about Refining suger) [ Milanese Manfredo ] Septalios Letter about Cockle shells digged out of a hill in Italy &c.) a box of curiosity from Colepresse -
Dr Crone mentiond that mr Gascoyne Instrument might be further considerd. orderd that it be produced next meeting
And mr. Hooke mentioning that he had contriued an Instrument for the same purpose performing the thing with more conueniency and to be made wth more ease and farr lesse charge, he was desired to produce that contriuance the next Day which he promised to Doe.
mr Packer moued that an Engine might be considerd of more conuenient and proper to make Cyder than that which is now Imployed for that purpose and mentioning that he vnderstood that mr Hook had thought vpon such [In margin]Vz a one capable by one motion to break the apple, to putt aside the husks and to cause the liquor to Run out. The Company desired mr. Hooke if he had such a contriuance that he would bring in a module [In margin]127. of it as soon as he could which he promised to doe.
The Expt. to be made the next Day by the Curator, was the opening of the thorax of a dog to blow wth. Bellows into his Lungs. and thereby to keep him aliue, which Experiment [In margin]Vz might conduce to the discouery of the nature & vse of Respiration, the operator was Orderd to prouide a dog.
The Curator was also orderd to prosecute the Expts. in the Rarifying engine
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacu… ] capable to hold a man, as also to endeauour the making of the expt. for measuring the compasse of the earth moued soe long agoe and pressed soe often to be performed in St. Iames Park.
http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…
Terry Foreman • Link
"mr Boyles 2d Edition of the origine of formes," sc Origin of Forms and Qualities according to the Corpuscular Philosophy http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/p…
"[I]t is he who introduces the concept of the element in its modern sense, suggesting that such entities are 'primitive and simple, or perfectly unmingled bodies'. Elements, as he imagines them, are 'corpuscles' of different sorts and sizes which arrange themselves into compounds - the chemical substances familiar to our senses. Compounds, he argues, can be broken down into their constituent elements. Boyle's ideas in this field are further developed in his Origin of Forms and Qualities (1666)."
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldh…
Robert Gertz • Link
"This noon, going home, I did call on Will Lincolne and agree with him to carry me to Brampton."
Certain country matters weighing heavily on your mind, Sam?
***
Nice to see Sam retaining his respect for Coventry and his reformist zeal without any cynicism.
john • Link
"the coachman desiring to go home to change his horses, we went with him into a nasty end of all St. Giles’s"
What is all this about? Brought to a "nasty" area and forced to wait about.
language hat • Link
Yes, you'd think he'd simply have gotten a different coach.
Robert Gertz • Link
No doubt the coachman assured him it was just a short hop over and would only take a moment... Sounds a little like something from the Out-of Towners.
"Sam'l?"
"Sam'l?"
"Samuelllll!"
What a lovely girl...Hmmn... "Bess?"
"Where are we going?"
"Just over to the driver's place, he wants to change horses."
"It's taking a long time? Are you sure the man knows where he's going?"
"He said in St. Giles...This is rather far. Say, driver?!"
Deb looking graver than ever...
"Just a bit more, sir...Over that way." pointing.
"It's getting dark, Sam'l. And where are we? I don't like the looks of this place."
Right...Well, I'll just go and drive the damned coach myself. Sigh...
"Just a minute, Bess. Driver? Are we almost there?"
"Just a bit more sir, nearly there now."
"I think he's up to something, Sam'l. You should give him a talking-to."
"Right, talking-to..."
Jostle...Oh!!...
"Oh, this is taking so long...It's dark now, Sam'l."
"Yes, yes... Driver?! Either get us there or turn back!!"
"Almost there, sir. Just a bit more."
"He's up to something, Sam'l. Jane says some of them take you into the ruins or some dark place and they have their gang waiting there and..." garroting motion.
Hmmn...
"Driver!!"
"Almost there, sir, yes sir..."
Oh...Grrr...
"We're going to be rob and murdered...I know it. Papa always said one shouldn't display one's valuables or let any one know you have anything. And everyone in town knows how well you're doing, Sam'l. All the musicians and the parties..."
"Bess, please...You're frightening Willett."
"I'm frightened, Sam'l." icy edge. Narrow look at grave Deb.
Hmmn...
Uh-oh...Sam eyes the look of She Who Must Be Placated...
Before She Suspects Anything...
Not that there is, as yet, anything to suspect...
"Now, now, Bess... Driver!!"
"Just a moment, sir, turning in the way now. Bit more and we're there, sir."
Ohhh...Bess groans.
Coach stops...At last.
"There we are, sir. Just a min while I open her up, then inside, change the girls, and we're off."
Driver climbs down.
"Hello, lovely lady..." voice from outside tapping at Bess' coach door. "Out for a night on the town are we? Not the best place for it." Leering hiss...Chuckle. Clawlike hand suddenly resting on open coach window.
"SAM!!!!!!!"
Robert Gertz • Link
Here, now, Lemeul...Be off wid' ye!" driver's voice at carriage side.
"Don't be minding Lemeul, miss. Bit cracked in the head, but no harm in him."
"I want to see the lovely lady..." Lemeul's voice, plaintively. "Show her the sights, I will."
"Get...Me...Out...Of...Here..." Bess, grim hiss to Sam now at her side.
Deb sitting, hands gravely folded. Nervous eye dart to open window.
"Lets be getting in, then..." driver resumes his seat. "Have you out in a minute, mum."
Carriage moves in the dank fog into a small stable. Gate bar lifting at angle without visible support but loud creak.
Ah, the technological age we live in, Sam notes approvingly...
"There we are...Safe and sound..."
Sound of gate bar crashing down...
"Oh!" Bess jumps. Deb, head bowed...Slight tremble.
What a delightfully grave girl...Sam sighs.
"Sam'l...Samuel!..."
Hmmn?...
"Help me out." grimly.
"Of course, dear."
Driver appears out of fog...
Hmmn...He is bigger than I'd thought seeing him in seated position, Sam notes. Much bigger.
"Come on in sir and ladies and have a seat whilst I change the girls. Just a mo and we'll be right off."
"In? Where?" Bess peers into fog as Sam helps Willett out. Putting hand out for Sam to...
"Ah, the lovely lady..." Lemeul's voice as the hunchbacked little man rather daintily takes Bess' hand...
She staring, eyes bulging nearly so much as her dear husband's...
"Lemeul!" the driver grabs him, pulling him back... "Leave off and take the girls inside...The horses, Lemeul." frown as Lemeul hopefully
reaches for Bess' paralyzed hand again.
"All right. We'll see the lovely lady later." Lemeul nods...Eyeing Bess head to toe... "Yes, we will..."
"No harm in him, mum...Bit touched in the head. Me sister's boy, you know."
"Bess?" Sam pats her shoulder.
"The little fellow meant no harm...I think..." he tries, reassuringly.
Bess, blinking... "I want to go home..." little gril whisper...
Deb nodding, rather vigorously for the first time since Sam's met her.
"Right this way, sir. Ladies. Just in and have a sit and we'll be right along."
"Come on, Bessie..." Sam tugs. "There's nothing to worry about."
She eyes him.
"Do you want to stay here in the coach? With Willett?"
Deb, slight gasp, looking round.
"No...In..." Bess chokes out...
"All right, then...Now,driver, lets not be too long...The ladies would like to get home."
Home... Home to my little closet and my warm bed...Far from here...And Lemeul...Oh, yes...Bess sighs.
But, recovering, notices Sam taking Deb's hand.
Het. Hum.
"Just wanted to see Willett safely in..."
Narrow look...
"...after you, Bess..." takes her grimly offered hand.
And off we...Ugh...Go...Sam pulls shoe out of manure heap...
"Mind how you go, sir. The girls are a bit busy about the place."
"Right...Thanks...."
***
Robert Gertz • Link
High-pitched scream as shrieking old woman thrusts herself at them at the entrance to the house attached to the stable...
Sam'l...Please...Bess frowns... A little dignity...
"The wages of sin is Death! Death!!!" the old woman howls, wailing.
"Mother, stop that. Now be good for the gentry here..." the driver frowns.
"Mother a bit touched as well?" Sam asks, politely. Eyeing the woman waving what is clearly a tattered Bible in her gnarled hands.
"Ever since the Plague, sir. Yes, sir. Lost quite a few of the kids we did, mother and I..." the driver notes.
Oh...? Sam peers at the woman...Hair matted and gray but in the bit of light from the house, clearly not so old as she'd seemed at first.
"Sorry..." he notes to the driver who makes polite bow and shrug...
"Life, sir."
"I'm sorry." Bess, rather kindly now. The woman eyeing her.
"All six...Gone..." the woman sighs. "Wages of sin..."
"I'm sure they're with God in Heaven..." Bess patting her arm gently...
"Aye, mum..." nod back. Oh...? Eyes the nervous Deb...
"Your little girl?...Hello, precious."
"No, my companion...Say hello, Deb."
"Hallo...Ma'am..." Deb, softly...
Like the tinkling of some divine virginal...Sam thinks...
"Take the ladies and gentleman in now, Mother..." the driver, kindly... "Don't want em to get cold out here..."
"Or worse..." Mother notes, grimly.. "Come in, then..."
In...There?...Bess stares at door...A loose collection of sticks tied together...
Almost the exact image of the murderers' den Jane had
described...Smelling about like what she'd described as well... Or of the thieves' hideaway in her latest French novel..."Raoul, Gentleman of the Black Road...Though in that case, not quite the scent
of rich spices looted from the High Seas described in the novel...
"...before it's too late..." Mother, carefully arch look...With glance at Sam...And Deb beside him...
Uh-huh...
Poor sweet thing...She eyes Bess...
***
Having politely declined an offer of some leftovers from the family supper...Ugh...Sam eyes dishes and bones...Sam seeks to find an engaging topic of conversation to enliven the rather gloomy
proceedings...
As always one ready at hand...
"You know...Back in 58..." he begins...Addreessing their hostess, who seems a bit less befuddled when occupied in making others comfortable... Offering Deb a shawl, declined gravely, then Bess, accepted gratefully...
Oh, Lord...Bess groans...
Tell me he didn't bring the box along...
Whoa!...She jumps as something moves on theground...Under what appeared to be a pile of old rags...
Robert Gertz • Link
"Who's that, Mum?" a voice from the moving pile.
"Angel...Strangers in the house...Come here and say hello, me lovey..." Mother beckons as two more figures emerge from the pile...
"Angelina...Balthazar...Say hello to the nice people..."
Hello, you imps of Hell, you...Sam eyes the ragged, dirty children...
"Balthazar?...I have a brother Balthazar...." Bess, beaming...
"So...These are yours?"
"Me last few..." Mother sighed...
Yes...Pity God didn't finish the job while he was about it...Sam notes inwardly...
"Perhaps we should be waiting outside...Your husband must be nearly done, now."
God willing...
"Pretty girl..." Angelina eyes Deb... Moving her way...
Deb gravely backing away from the surprisingly tall, skinny, dirty heap of rags approaching...
"Oh, what a sweet girl..." Bess calls to her... "Angelina's your name?..."
"Aye..." turn to focus on Bess..Ohhh...
"Here's a queen, Angel..." she notes.
"No, just the wife of the Clerk of the Acts of the Royal Navy..."
Bess, arch grin at Sam...
Howl from outside... "The Royal Navy!...Argggh!!!"
"That be ole Dickum..." Angel nods, solemnly... "He won't like you..."
"Oh?..." Sam, a bit put out from being forced to end early his narrative of his epic struggle against Death...
"He was a sailor till he got his head blown off..."
"Head?..." Bess stares...Angelina now burying herself in the fine lady's arms...Dickum!...
Oh, Lord...Bess...Sam frowns at Bess comforting the dirty heap of a girl...It'll take a week to get that filth out of your dress...Not to mention the lice...
"Head..." Angel nods..."He's dead..."
"I should hope so..." Sam notes...
Especially if he holds such a negative view of His Gracious Majesty's Royal Navy...
***
Terry Foreman • Link
"The Expt. to be made the next Day by the Curator, was the opening of the thorax of a dog to blow wth. Bellows into his Lungs. and thereby to keep him aliue, which Experiment [In margin]Vz might conduce to the discouery of the nature & vse of Respiration, the operator was Orderd to prouide a dog."
This finding was published by Mr. Hooke very shortly
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikip…
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Books presented at The Royal Society today:
Boyle's 'Origin of Formes and Qualities According to the Corpuscular Philosophy' http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
Disquisitio anatomica de formato foetu By Walter Needham
https://books.google.com/books?id…
Terry Foreman • Link
"her husband’s pension, and how [Lady Peterborough] hath got an order for its being paid again; though, I believe, for all that order, it will hardly be;"
She must have kept at it: despite the Navy Board's concern whether it should be paid or not http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… L&M note a Treasury-warrant for payment of the pension was issued 21 April 1668.
Terry Foreman • Link
"they are forced to live beyond their estate, and do get nothing by his being a courtier."
L&M note Peterborough was an officer in the Duke of York's household: so that was chopped liver?! Whose choices are these? She's whined like this before: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"the Charter for the City of Tangier was read and the form of the Court Merchant. "
L&M: The charter (establishing civil government in what had been a garrison town entirely controlled by ita Governor) was not sealed until 4 June 1668: PRO, C66/3104. The court-merchant was the most important of the civil courts established under it. Routh, pp. 117-21.
Batch • Link
"we went with [the coachman] into a nasty end of all St. Giles’s, and there went into a nasty room, a chamber of his, where he hath a wife and child."
"Nasty." That's how the other half lives. Shame on him.
San Diego Sarah • Link
"Having done with her, and drunk two glasses of her meade, which she did give me, ..."
I called it; vows must have expired again; so he's drinking (the vixen forced him to do it!), and theater going.
Perhaps Pepys was still feeling mellow and lazy, so he didn't care to look for another coach, thereby subjecting the three of them to a sobering couple of hour's detour in the part of St. Giles where horses are stabled. How did he imagine a coachman lived?
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M: The charter of the City of Tangier (establishing civil government in what had been a garrison town entirely controlled by a Governor) was not sealed until 4 June 1668: PRO, C66/3104. The court-merchant was the most important of the civil courts established under it. Routh, pp. 117-21.
A court merchant ... in charge of victualling, presumably. Pepys way out of the quagmire. The only other mention I find was 13 April, 1663:
"... and anon to the Tangier Committee, where we had very fine discourse from Dr. Walker and Wiseman, civilians, against our erecting a court-merchant at Tangier, and well answered in many things by my Lord Sandwich (whose speaking I never till now observed so much to be very good) and Sir R. Ford."
So in 1663 a position by that name was not created.
L&M's comments are above; the Companion goes for pages without mentioning the position. Perhaps Pepys'll explain the concept later.