Sunday 14 June 1668

(Sunday).

Up, and walked up and down the town, and saw a pretty good market-place, and many good streets, and very fair stone-houses. And so to the great Church, and there saw Bishop Montagu’s tomb; and, when placed, did there see many brave people come, and, among others, two men brought in, in litters, and set down in the chancel to hear: but I did not know one face. Here a good organ; but a vain, pragmatical fellow preached a ridiculous, affected sermon, that made me angry, and some gentlemen that sat next me, and sang well. So home, walking round the walls of the City, which are good, and the battlements all whole. The sexton of the church is ________. So home to dinner, and after dinner comes Mr. Butts again to see me, and he and I to church, where the same idle fellow preached; and I slept most of the sermon. Thence home, and took my wife out and the girls, and come to this church again, to see it, and look over the monuments, where, among others, Dr. Venner and Pelling, and a lady of Sir W. Waller’s; he lying with his face broken. So to the fields a little and walked, and then home and had my head looked [at], and so to supper, and then comes my landlord to me, a sober understanding man, and did give me a good account of the antiquity of this town and Wells; and of two Heads, on two pillars, in Wells church. But he a Catholick. So he gone, I to bed.

18 Annotations

First Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"Bishop Montagu’s tomb"

The Montague Tomb

The splendid tomb of James Montague, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1608-16. He was one of the Abbey's most generous benefactors
http://www.bathabbey.org/4.htm

Michael L  •  Link

Ah yes, the Baby-Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Mary  •  Link

"had my head looked at"

For lice and/or nits, presumably.

john  •  Link

The entries now being full again, are there examples of rough notes and their subsequent full entries?

Mary  •  Link

We aren't quite back to full entries yet, though these notes are fuller than those made earlier in the journey. Normal service will resume with the entry for 18th June.

One item that is not included in the scanned edition of the diary, but which is shown by L&M, is the preliminary workings of a letter to a Mr. Thomas Hill, a merchant located in Lisbon at the time of writing. This appears at the end of the notes to events of 13th June. It's an interesting piece of writing in that it demonstrates the lengths that Pepys went to to ensure the best way of expressing his thoughts (many phrases are adjusted and re-worded until he is satisfied with the result).

It's quite a long piece. I don't have the leisure to transcribe it here, nor am I sure how the copyright question would apply as the text has been extensively edited, so have to leave all those readers who do not have the benefit of the L&M edition in a state of frustration. Sorry about that.

language hat  •  Link

"a vain, pragmatical fellow": "pragmatical" here in the OED's sense 3.b. "Conceited, self-important, pompous; opinionated; dogmatic, unbending" (the first couple of citations: 1660 H. More Explan. Myst. Godliness iv. xiii. 131 "The leguleious Cavils of some Pragmatical Pettifoggers"; 1668 J. Glanvill Blow at Mod. Sadducism Pref. sig. A2, "With a pert and pragmatical Insolence, they censure all").

Kate Bunting  •  Link

The sexton of the church is what? Has a word been omitted here, or did Sam tip the sexton a shilling and it's been wrongly transcribed?

Kate Bunting  •  Link

Having looked at yesterday's entry, the latter is obviously the case.

john  •  Link

Mary, I do have the L&M version and I shall look for that. Thank you.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"The sexton of the church is." should be The sexton of the church 1s.
(one shilling)

Mary  •  Link

Thank you for finding this, Phil. I haven't checked to see whether all the editorial marks here match those in the L&M edition, but it certainly gives a good idea of how Sam's draft version of a letter gradually evolved into what, presumably, became the fair copy that would be entered into the letter-book.

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Lady Jane Waller's tomb , Bath Abbey - Somerset.
The tomb provided by Sir William Waller for his wife Jane, who died in 1633. Their effigies lie together and show signs of deliberate damage. Sir William was a leading Roundhead general in the English Civil War, 1642-47. He lost Bath to the Royalists after a crushing defeat at Roundway Down in July 1643. The Royalists occupied the city and showed their opinion of him by attacking his effigy. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bri…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"and of two Heads, on two pillars, in Wells church."

L&M: The heads of a king and a bishop, on the capital of two pillars on the n. side of the nave of the Cathedral. 'It was foretold, when a King should be like that King, and a Bishop like that Bishop; that Abbots should be put down. and Nuns should marry. . . . This Prophecy was Writ in Parchment, and hung in a Table on one of those Pillars, before the Civil-Wars. . . . It was Prophecy'd 300 years before the Reformation. Bishop Knight, was Bishop here at the Reformation, and the Picture (they say) did resemble him': John Aubrey, Miscellanies (1696), p. 95.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'Charles II: June 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 418-468. British History Online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

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June 14. 1668
Chatham.
Commissioner Thos. Middleton, Navy Surveyor, to Sam. Pepys.

The captain of the Newcastle lent a master of a Bristol vessel his stream cable and anchor in the West Indies.

Nothing appears for his Majesty's security but a small note under the master's hand, and I know not where to find the vessel or master.

I think that Capt. Bowen's wages ought to be detained till recompense be made, as no order appears from his flag for the loan of it, and as he took no course to serve his Majesty by an obligation from the party.
I hope he has not been paid.
[S.P. Dom., Car II. 241, No. 123]

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June 14, 1668
Chatham.
Col. Middleton to Sam. Pepys.

There has been a dispute by whom the men of the galliot hoy, who have not been paid these 3-½ years, should be paid; if it is ended, for how long shall I pay them?
[S.P. Dom., Car II. 241, No. 124.]

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June 14. 1668
Warrant to the Duke of Ormonde [Lord Steward of the Household], and to the Board of Greencloth,
to appoint Francis, Lord Newport comptroller of the household, in the room of Sir Thos, Clifford.
[S.P. Dom., Entry Book 30. f.37.]

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June 14. 1668
Like warrant for Sir Thos. Clifford
to be treasurer of the household, in the place of Charles Viscount Fitzharding, deceased.
Minute. [S.P. Dom., Entry Book 30. f.37.]

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June 14. 1668
Newcastle.
Rich Forster to Williamson.

Forty ships have sailed,
and more would have done so but for a man-of-war at the bar, which troubled some of them.
[S.P. Dom., Car.II. 241, No. 125.]

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June 14. 1668
Deal.
Rich Watts to [Williamson].

Sir Jer. Smith, Vice-Admiral of the Blue, with 7 ships and a ketch,
and Thos. Allin, with 15 or 16 of his Majesty's ships and 4 or 5 ketches,
have arrived in the Downs.
[S.P. Dom., Car II. 241, No. 126.]

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