Thursday 28 May 1668

Up, to set right some little matters of my Tangier accounts, and so to the office, where busy all the morning, and then home with my people to dinner, and after dinner comes [L&M have a blank space here. P.G.] about a petition for a poor woman whose ticket she would get paid, and so talked a little and did baiser her, and so to the office, being pleased that this morning my bookseller brings me home Marcennus’s book of musick, which costs me 3l. 2s.; but is a very fine book. So to the office and did some business, and then by coach to the New Exchange, and there by agreement at my bookseller’s shop met Mercer and Gayet, and took them by water, first to one of the Neat-houses, where walked in the garden, but nothing but a bottle of wine to be had, though pleased with seeing the garden; and so to Fox Hall, where with great pleasure we walked, and then to the upper end of the further retired walk, and there sat and sang, and brought great many gallants and fine people about us, and, upon the bench, we did by and by eat and drink what we had, and very merry: and so with much pleasure to the Old Swan, and walked with them home, and there left them, and so I home to my business at the office a little, and so to bed.

13 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

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

May. 28. Letter from Prince Leopold [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leop…'_Medici ] to Ld Brounker. Comenius Letter & book i.e. via Lucis vestigata & vestiganda [ http://goo.gl/vpJKl ]

Boyle portable baroscope.[ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bar… ] )

Dr. King acquainted the Company that he wth mr Hooke had Repeated the Expt. appointed to try what time a dog would liue wthout fresh air, obseruing the directions Lately giuen him about it by the Society. and that it had killd the Dog. As also that he had tryd another Anat: Experiment in priuate. (Boyle queryd whether air fit for breathing might not be made)

Dr. Pr. Dumoulins [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete… ] Letter about reforming the Year
71
There was tryd the Expt. ordd. the Last Day concerning the Dilation of Bodys wth. [aqua fortis] . glutted wth [mercury] . the weight of the [aqua fortis] imployed was 3 [ounce] and 3/4. wherewth was mixed half the weight of [mercury] .the weight of the glasse ball in the air was 5 drams & 7 gr. and of the same in [aqua fortis] alone was 100 gr. and of the same in the mixture was 12 gr. the curator was orderd to bring in the next meeting a full account of this tryall in writing.

The same was orderd to try in priuate the Expt of the floridnesse of Blood when passed from the right ventricle of the Heart to the Left through the Lungs. & Dr King was desired to Ioyne wth him in the making the Expt.

(Beals letter about the variation of the needle obserued by [Capt. Samuel] Sturmy. it was desired the same obseruations should be made here in Iune and to obserue the Solstices) to the Doing of which the Pt. Sr P Neil. Mr Ball & Mr Hook were particuarly desired to attend.

(D Coxes scheme for composing a history of Vegetables. to be read next meeting. mr Skippon said mr wray had with much of this subiect

At this meeting there was also tryd the expt. of precipitating the [mercury] in the [aqua fortis] . by putting in some white salt but in
this short space of time it did not precipitate.

It was orderd that this tryall and the statick expt. should be presesented the next Day. as also that the Rarefying engine should be brought hither & the expts. formerly proposd tryed therein.

http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/cell/Ho…

Chris Squire  •  Link

‘ . . and took them by water, first to one of the Neat-houses, . . and so to Fox Hall, . . and so with much pleasure to the Old Swan, and walked with them home . . ’

A merry pub-crawl!

‘ . . pub-crawl v. intr. to go on a pub crawl; to drink at a succession of different pubs.’

Peter Taylor  •  Link

In Sam's code what does basier mean?
Someone had to ask.

Matt Lee  •  Link

Baiser = Kiss. Sam does his risque writings in French or a mix of French and English.

Clement  •  Link

...and Spanish, and I think other Romance languages...

Robin Peters  •  Link

n. Archaic, pl., neat.
A cow or other domestic bovine animal.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/neat…

Could this Neat House be a seventeenth century steak house or burger bar ?

Claire Lee  •  Link

"Neat"--neatsfoot oil comes from the lower leg #but not the foot# of cows.

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

May 28. 1668
The Bristol,
Nore.
Capt. Dan. Heling to the Navy Commissioners.

The great neglect of [Hen.] Maidman, my purser, forces me to complain;
ever since coming to the buoy of the Nore, the steward has been forced to go from ship to ship, to borrow candles, cans, and platters, and some of the men have to take their peas in their hats.
I desire you will appoint another.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 240, No. 152.]

At least they've got peas, Capt. Heling.

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May 28. 1668
Glentworth.
Earl of Ogle to Williamson.

I beg you to present a letter enclosed to Lord Arlington, about a great concern, namely my pension;
my address is Glentworth, to be left with the Lincoln postmaster.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 240, No. 153.]

Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle (19 January 1663 – 1 November 1680), so he's 5. If this sounds familiar, he wrote to Arlington previously on May 12.
https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

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May 28. 1668
Portmouth Yard.
Ben. Johnson to Williamson.

Arrival of ships;
there is a great press for seamen at St. Malo.

A ketch has come in with seamen for the Cambridge, so that she will soon be ready.
A thatched cottage in Portsmouth took fire and was pulled down,
and the like happened at Elmsworth to a barn and some other outhouses.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 240, No. 154.]

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For more, see
'Charles II: May 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 369-418.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Stephane Chenard  •  Link

At the Old Swan Sam finds the latest Gazette (No. 262, articles datelined through May 25). By now it's gone through a lot of greasy fingers and is a bit tattered, but with all these travels Sam hasn't seen it this week, and anyway at the Office it disappears as soon as it comes in.

Mercer and Gayet scan it as best they can and immediately hit upon the one story (on page 1, for once) most likely to make the rounds in the taverns, and have Sam read it for them:

"Lisbon, April 20 (...) From Braſille we have advice of the arrival in the Bay there of two very considerable Ships from the East Indies; which may in probability be expected here in June or July following. By them were brought Letters from the [Portuguese] Vice-roy of India, giving an account that being on his way from hence to Goa, upon the Coast of Perſia, he met with two ſhips from some of the Iſlands of India, one of them having on board a Princesse intending for Meccha, with Jewels, Gold and Silver to the value of a Million of Crowns, which she designed as an Offering to Mahomet; both which ships he ſeized and carried with him to Goa, expecting a considerable Ransome for the Princeſs."

(Williamson may have thought the month-old story didn't deserve to take up so much space on page 1 from the more interesting visit of the Prince of This to the Duke of That, but Muddiman insisted: "Gold, jewels, a captive princess - THAT is how you sell a Gazette, Joseph!")

Wow, Sam thinks. That letter has gone Goa to Melacca, across the entire Pacific, round the Magellanick Islands, up to Brazil, and across the Atlantic... Those Portuguese do get around.

The Mahometans make gold offerings, at Mecca? No wonder the pirates are starting to line up, out there... And if this happened, say, six months ago... The winds in the Indian Ocean would have been just right to go east to west, and deliver the ship to their ambush down the Red Sea.

"Ooooh", Mercer says, making a face, "Susan, imagine if our Sam was a pyrate! Would he give the treasure to the King and keep the princess, or the reverse?"

"And would he give us any of the jewels", Mercer adds.

"Hmpf, I'd keep everything of course", Sam says.

But the story has called up the faint, almost exactly decade-old memory of Francisco the venturesome Spanish marquis, captured with his treasure also... God only knows where his friend is now, back to his Indians in America maybe. If the damn stone hadn't kept him pinned in England, Sam could have... Ah, but the Providence decided otherwise. Roads diverge. Maybe someday.

Mercer rescues Sam from the gathering funk - not helped perhaps by all the drink. "Let's sing another!"

[On how the capture of Indian treasure ships coming to and from Mecca would very soon become one of the biggest rackets in history, we recommend Jan Rogoziński's fantastic study of late 17C piracy, "Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean"; Stackpole Books, 2000].

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