Friday 15 May 1668
Up, and betimes to White Hall, and there met with Sir H. Cholmly at Sir Stephen Fox’s, and there was also the Cofferer, and we did there consider about our money and the condition of the Excise, and after much dispute agreed upon a state thereof and the manner of our future course of payments. Thence to the Duke of York, and there did a little navy business as we used to do, and so to a Committee for Tangier, where God knows how my Lord Bellasses’s accounts passed; understood by nobody but my Lord Ashly, who, I believe, was mad to let them go as he pleased. But here Sir H. Cholmly had his propositions read, about a greater price for his work of the Mole, or to do it upon account, which, being read, he was bid to withdraw. But, Lord! to see how unlucky a man may be, by chance; for, making an unfortunate minute when they were almost tired with the other business, the Duke of York did find fault with it, and that made all the rest, that I believe he had better have given a great deal, and had nothing said to it to-day; whereas, I have seen other things more extravagant passed at first hearing, without any difficulty. Thence I to my Lord Brouncker’s, at Mrs. Williams’s, and there dined, and she did shew me her closet, which I was sorry to see, for fear of her expecting something from me; and here she took notice of my wife’s not once coming to see her, which I am glad of; for she shall not — a prating, vain, idle woman. Thence with Lord Brouncker to Loriners’-hall, by Mooregate, a hall I never heard of before, to Sir Thomas Teddiman’s burial, where most people belonging to the sea were. And here we had rings: and here I do hear that some of the last words that he said were, that he had a very good King, God bless him! but that the Parliament had very ill rewarded him for all the service he had endeavoured to do them and his country; so that, for certain, this did go far towards his death. But, Lord! to see among [the company] the young commanders, and Thomas Killigrew and others that come, how unlike a burial this was, O’Brian taking out some ballads out of his pocket, which I read, and the rest come about me to hear! and there very merry we were all, they being new ballets.
By and by the corpse went; and I, with my Lord Brouncker, and Dr. Clerke, and Mr. Pierce, as far as the foot of London-bridge; and there we struck off into Thames Street, the rest going to Redriffe, where he is to be buried. And we ’light at the Temple, and there parted; and I to the King’s house, and there saw the last act of “The Committee,” thinking to have seen Knepp there, but she did not act. And so to my bookseller’s, and there carried home some books-among others, “Dr. Wilkins’s Reall Character,” and thence to Mrs. Turner’s, and there went and sat, and she showed me her house from top to bottom, which I had not seen before, very handsome, and here supped, and so home, and got Mercer, and she and I in the garden singing till ten at night, and so home to a little supper, and then parted, with great content, and to bed. The Duchesse of Monmouth’s hip is, I hear, now set again, after much pain. I am told also that the Countess of Shrewsbury is brought home by the Duke of Buckingham to his house, where his Duchess saying that it was not for her and the other to live together in a house, he answered, Why, Madam, I did think so, and, therefore, have ordered your coach to be ready, to carry you to your father’s, which was a devilish speech, but, they say, true; and my Lady Shrewsbury is there, it seems.
14 Annotations
First Reading
Robert Gertz • Link
"I am told also that the Countess of Shrewsbury is brought home by the Duke of Buckingham to his house, where his Duchess saying that it was not for her and the other to live together in a house, he answered, Why, Madam, I did think so, and, therefore, have ordered your coach to be ready, to carry you to your father’s, which was a devilish speech, but, they say, true; and my Lady Shrewsbury is there, it seems."
One learns so much from the upper classes...
classicist • Link
'A devilish speech' indeed, particularly given that it was only a year ago (3rd March 1667) that the duchess did so much to try to rescue her worthless husband from the Tower.
pepfie • Link
"O’Brian taking out some ballads out of his pocket, which I read, and the rest come about me to hear! and there very merry we were all, they being new ballets."
OED ballad, n.
(ˈbæləd)
Forms: 4–6 balade, 5 balaade, -adde, 6 balat(e, -ette, ballat, -att, -ed, -ete, -ette, -ytte, 6–7 ballet, ballade, 7– (Sc.) ballant, 6– ballad.
[ME. balade, a. OF. balade (mod. ballade) dancing-song, ad. Pr. balada dance, dancing-song, f. balar:—late L. ballāre to dance: cf. bale v.1 In 16th and 17th c. the termination -ad was commonly changed into the more familiar -at(e, -et (cf. salad, sallet), and this in Sc. further corrupted to -ant. Cf. ballet n.1, the adoption of which has probably tended to restore the spelling ballad, and the revived form ballet n.3 The primitive meaning of dance was in Pr. and It., but the word was adopted in Fr. and Eng. only in transferred senses. See also ballade.]
...
2 A light, simple song of any kind; now spec. a sentimental or romantic composition of two or more verses, each of which is sung to the same melody, the musical accompaniment being strictly subordinate to the air.
...1664–5 Pepys Diary 2 Jan., I occasioned much mirth by a ballet I brought with me, made from the seamen at sea to their ladies in town [i.e. Ld. Dorset's ‘To all you Ladies’].
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
Loriner's Hall
"Who were Loriners?" I asked myself and Google:
Worshipful Company of Loriners is one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London. The organisation was originally a trade association for makers of metal parts for bridles, harnesses, spurs and other horse apparel; hence the company's name, which comes from the Latin word lorum through the French word lormier.
The company's first ordinances originate from 1261, which predate those of any other existing livery company, although its current ordinances were issued in 1741.
The company was incorporated by a royal charter of 1711 in the reign of Queen Anne. It ranks fifty-seventh in the order of precedence of City Livery Companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wor…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Sir H. Cholmly had his propositions read, about a greater price for his work of the Mole, or to do it upon account"
The cost of building the Mole at Tangier had been greatly under-estimated iun the otiginal contract of 1663. Cholmley (one of the contractors and also the engineer in charge of the work) later persuaded the Committee to cancel the contract and to manage the work themselves, with hinself as Surveyor-General -- 'to do it', as he here proposed, 'upon account'. The new arrangement came into force in August 1669. See http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Routh, pp. 344+, esp. p. 348. (L&M)
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Loriners’-hall, by Mooregate, a hall I never heard of before"
Lorimer Hall from at least 1668-1647 (map date) is N of where Basinghall Street ends at the London Wall - left of the dark square left of the Second Postern and West of Moorgate, wh/ is at the far east (right) edge of the map.
http://www.motco.com/map/81002/Se…
Terry Foreman • Link
"at Mrs. Williams’s, and there dined, and she did shew me her closet, which I was sorry to see, for fear of her expecting something from me"
As a house-warming present: she had raised that expectation last August: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1… (L&M)
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Sir Thomas Teddiman’s burial, where most people belonging to the sea were. And here we had rings"
For funeral rings http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"But, Lord! to see among [the company] the young commanders, and Thomas Killigrew and others that come, how unlike a burial this was, O’Brian taking out some ballads out of his pocket, which I read, and the rest come about me to hear! and there very merry we were all, they being new ballets."
A drama: street-ballads (phonetically, "ballets") were read, very non-traditional; then the corpse was taken down to the Thames...and then...to sea?
Terry Foreman • Link
"to Mrs. Turner’s, and there went and sat, and she showed me her house from top to bottom, which I had not seen before, very handsome"
The house recently hired for the Turners by the Board: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
"Thence with Lord Brouncker to Loriners’-hall, by Mooregate, a hall I never heard of before, to Sir Thomas Teddiman’s burial, where most people belonging to the sea were. And here we had rings: and here I do hear that some of the last words that he said were, that he had a very good King, God bless him! but that the Parliament had very ill rewarded him for all the service he had endeavoured to do them and his country; so that, for certain, this did go far towards his death."
L&M: Teddeman had been criticized for his conduct in the Bergen fiasco and accused of cowardice in the Four Days Battle. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/… and https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…
He held no command in 1667
Terry Foreman • Link
""But, Lord! to see among [the company] the young commanders, and Thomas Killigrew and others that come, how unlike a burial this was, O’Brian taking out some ballads out of his pocket, which I read, and the rest come about me to hear! and there very merry we were all, they being new ballets.""
We should note Recollecting Samuel Pepys - English Broadside Ballad Archive
https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/pag…
Mary K • Link
"did shew me her closet..."
If one was invited to see the treasures and curiosities that such a closet housed, it was considered only polite or de rigueur to add something equally interesting to the collection. Presumably Pepys had not expected to be granted the honour of this private view, and so went unprovided.
Marquess • Link
Probably the reason for the extinction of the dukedom of Buckingham, his grace's appropriation of another man's wife.