Thursday 30 April 1668

Up, and at the office all the morning. At noon Sir J. Minnes and I to the Dolphin Tavern, there to meet our neighbours, all of the Parish, this being Procession-day, to dine. And did; and much very good discourse; they being, most of them, very able merchants as any in the City: Sir Andrew Rickard, Mr. Vandeputt, Sir John Fredericke, Harrington, and others. They talked with Mr. Mills about the meaning of this day, and the good uses of it; and how heretofore, and yet in several places, they do whip a boy at each place they stop at in their procession.

Thence I to the Duke of York’s playhouse, and there saw “The Tempest,” which still pleases me mightily, and thence to the New Exchange, and then home, and in the way stopped to talk with Mr. Brisband, who gives me an account of the rough usage Sir G. Carteret and his Counsel had the other day, before the Commissioners of Accounts, and what I do believe we shall all of us have, in a greater degree than any he hath had yet with them, before their three years are out, which are not yet begun, nor God knows when they will, this being like to be no session of Parliament, when they now rise. So home, and there took up Mrs. Turner and carried her to Mile End and drank, and so back talking, and so home and to bed, I being mighty cold, this being a mighty cold day, and I had left off my waistcoat three or four days. This evening, coming home in the dusk, I saw and spoke to our Nell, Pain’s daughter, and had I not been very cold I should have taken her to Tower hill para together et toker her.

Thus ends this month; my wife in the country, myself full of pleasure and expence; and some trouble for my friends, my Lord Sandwich, by the Parliament, and more for my eyes, which are daily worse and worse, that I dare not write or read almost any thing. The Parliament going in a few days to rise; myself so long without accounting now, for seven or eight months, I think, or more, that I know not what condition almost I am in, as to getting or spending for all that time, which troubles me, but I will soon do it. The kingdom in an ill state through poverty; a fleete going out, and no money to maintain it, or set it out; seamen yet unpaid, and mutinous when pressed to go out again; our Office able to do little, nobody trusting us, nor we desiring any to trust us, and yet have not money for any thing, but only what particularly belongs to this fleete going out, and that but lamely too. The Parliament several months upon an Act for 300,000l., but cannot or will not agree upon it, but do keep it back, in spite of the King’s desires to hasten it, till they can obtain what they have a mind, in revenge upon some men for the late ill managements; and he is forced to submit to what they please, knowing that, without it, he shall have no money, and they as well, that, if they give the money, the King will suffer them to do little more; and then the business of religion do disquiet every body, the Parliament being vehement against the Nonconformists, while the King seems to be willing to countenance them. So we are all poor, and in pieces — God help us! while the peace is like to go on between Spain and France; and then the French may be apprehended able to attack us. So God help us!

14 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Here end the entries in the fifth volume of the MS. Five ruled and four unruled pages follow." (L&M after the entry above.)

Terry Foreman  •  Link

The Royal Society today at Arundel House — from the Hooke Folio Online

Ap. 30. mr Boyle suggest the heads of his continuation of Expts. about the air.)

mr. Hooke read his answer to Dr Needhams Letter concerning the Expt. of preseruing the Dog aliue by the wind of Bellows and by keeping the Lungs distended wth. fresh air though not moued. orderd that the Expt mentiond by the said Dr. seeming to him to disproue the consequence deduced by mr Hooke from his Expt. should be made next day. the Curators for it being absent and that the Oper: should speak to Dr. Lower & Dr King to take care of the expt. at that time.

mr Hooke proposd an Expt. to see whether the blood doth circulate when the Lungs are subsided he was disired to cause it to be made before the Society.

the same mentiond that it had been obserued that blood though of a dark blackish colour would when exposed in the air become presently very florid and that florid surface being taken off and the subiacent part exposed againe would acquire the like floridnesse, and that therefore it might be worth the observing by expt. whether the blood when from the Right ventricle of the heart it passeth into the Left coming out of the Lungs, it hath not that tincture of floridnesse before it enters into the Great artery, which if it should haue it would be an argument that some mixture of air wth. the blood in the Lungs might giue that floridnesse

(Sr R Southwell Pietra di Coura [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serp… ] )

Walsh about Ariconium [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aric… ] in Herefordshire) Wallis 5 mechanick mentiond

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Mary  •  Link

"but I will soon do it."

Yes, we all know that feeling and the longer the delay, the less enthusiastic we feel about getting down to the accounts. However, it would be interesting to know how Sam's finances stand these days; he's been spending pretty freely and although he hasn't noted any major individual purchases, the continual outflow of cash on smaller items (e.g.books, tableware, theatres, dinners, coaches etc.) can add up to a tidy sum. Let's hope he makes a thorough examination of his finances before he finally decides whether or not he will run to his own coach, coach-house, horse and coachman.

Mary  •  Link

Nell Pain's lucky escape.

L&M reads: " I should have taken her to Tower Hill para talk together et tocar her."

Australian Susan  •  Link

Sam is here talking about Beating the Bounds of his Parish. He's mentioned this before. Typical of Sam to be both fascinated by the local custom and also eager to note what high-standing company he was in. Here is a good summary of the custom:
http://cholesbury.com/beatbounds.…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"this being like to be no session of Parliament, when they now rise."

L&M note the Commissioners' terms were to run three years from the end of the current session, which would end were Parliament prorogued, but not if it were merely adjourned. The current session will in fact end 9 May and the Commissioners will report in Oct 1669, after the Diary's end.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Following on Australian Susan's post, more detail:

Beating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in some English and Welsh parishes. Under the name of the Gangdays the custom of going a-ganging was kept before the Norman Conquest. A group of old and young members of the community would walk the boundaries of the parish, usually led by the parish priest and church officials, to share the knowledge of where they lay, and to pray for protection and blessings for the lands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bea…

psw  •  Link

Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys along is supposed to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible.[3]
WIKI above

Terry Foreman  •  Link

I wrote (above): L&M note the Commissioners' terms were to run three years from the end of the current session, which would end were Parliament prorogued, but not if it were merely adjourned."

I wonder if I got it backwards: L&M say "If Parliament were now to be adjourned instead of prorogued, their term would be so much the longer. In fact, the session did end now, on 9 May, and the Commissioners reported in October 1669."

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"So we are all poor, and in pieces — God help us! while the peace is like to go on between Spain and France; and then the French may be apprehended able to attack us. So God help us!"
-------------------------------------

Below today's last line L&M have printed: Here end the entries in the fifth volume of the MS. Five ruled and four unruled pages follow.

Dorothy  •  Link

If the beating the boys took when they were "beating the bounds" was more than a symbolic tap, I'm surprised there were any boys left around when the time came for the procession!

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

Oh woe, woe and boo-hoo-hoo, and God help us! If only Sam could soothe his poor aching eyes with this letter which the Venetian ambassador to Spain, Catterin Belegno, is writing to the Doge and Senate today to report the much happier state of mind of My Lord, far removed from all the pettiness and squalor that Sam deplores in chilly London:

******************************
All the way through the kingdom to the frontier of Castile the Ambassador Sandovich has received unspeakable honours, acclamations of the people, universal blessings and applause. From England he has the ratification of the treaty and is making ready for his departure. He is puffed up with vanity at having brought three important negotiations to a successful conclusion, to wit: the ratification of the peace and of commerce; the affair of Portugal and this last, the most important of all, the peace between the crowns, of the conclusion of which he is confident. (https://www.british-history.ac.uk…)
******************************

And we suspect that in 1668 a Venetian ambassador to Madrid would have seen enough vanity to know it when it was of "puffed up" quality. Remember when being sent on this embassy was considered exile, infamous sanction, a second Fall from Heaven and into some lice-ridden third world court? Sandwich has had his recall for some time now, but "making ready" will take him another three months. Protocol aside, he must have known well enough what awaits him at home to be in no particular hurry to go.

Sandwich seems to have reaped the glory of various sherpas' backstage work on the treaty of Lisbon ("the affair of Portugal") after it had been substantially completed, but that's what ambassadors do. However his role in "the peace between the crowns", described as still imminent and so clearly that between Spain and France, has been a lot more discreet, with that work generally credited to Paris/Brussels-based diplomats such as Temple, so the allusion is interesting. Even if he played no major role there is certainly even more to be gained by being in that picture. Not everyone in Parliament might even know where Portugal is, but peacemaking with France... pretty unimpeachable.

Mike Zim  •  Link

Following on Terry, Australian Susan, and psw's posts regarding Beating the bounds
"Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys along is supposed to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible."

Coincidentally, this week I was contacted by a 90 year old man, who was 12, when he delivered newspapers to my (pro wrestler) father in 1943, in Toledo, Ohio.
He shared wonderful stories about dad living in a small camper trailer with two other wrestlers. He delivered the Toledo Blade in the afternoon, and the 3 men were often weightlifting outside, in their swimming trunks (to get that tan), laughing and drinking beer.
An amazing connection! (Unlike Gangdays, he remembered without being beaten.)

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