Tuesday 11 August 1668

Up, and by water to Sir W. Coventry to visit him, whom I find yet troubled at the Commissioners of Accounts, about this business of Sir W. Warren, which is a ridiculous thing, and can come to nothing but contempt, and thence to Westminster Hall, where the Parliament met enough to adjourne, which they did, to the 10th of November next, and so by water home to the office, and so to dinner, and thence at the Office all the afternoon till night, being mightily pleased with a little trial I have made of the use of a tube-spectacall of paper, tried with my right eye. This day I hear that, to the great joy of the Nonconformists, the time is out of the Act against them, so that they may meet: and they have declared that they will have a morning lecture1 up again, which is pretty strange; and they are connived at by the King every where, I hear, in City and country. So to visit W. Pen, who is yet ill, and then home, where W. Batelier and Mrs. Turner come and sat and supped with us, and so they gone we to bed.

This afternoon my wife, and Mercer, and Deb., went with Pelling to see the gypsies at Lambeth, and have their fortunes told; but what they did, I did not enquire.

15 Annotations

First Reading

Robert Gertz  •  Link

Lambeth...

"So foul and so fair a day I hath not seen..." Pelling shakes head.

"How much farther to...Whoa!!" Bess stares at the three gypies in the road waving at the coach.

"Hail!"

"Hail!"

"Ahh! Damnit, you bloody idiot driver, watch where you're going! Damned tourists..."

"Excuse, ladies...Grandmother's a bit tetched in the head. Hail, Madame Mercer, famed that is to be!"

"Hail, young Willet...Famed that is to be..." slight frown...

"Is that the hussy?" Grandmother hisses... "Shhh, Grandmother..."

"Hail, Madame Pepys, daughter of St. Michel, wife to the famed Clerk of the Acts...Hail thou that shalt have thy fondest wishes for travel and thy husband's advancement granted and shalt be immortal hereafter!"

"Question..."

"Speak and we'll answer..."

"Tis a shilling per session..."

Mercer, eyeing Bess. "Good lady, why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? You, three there...In the name of truth, are ye fantastical or that indeed which outwardly ye show? Our noble friend you greet with present grace and great prediction of noble having and hope,that she seems rapt withal. If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear your favors nor your hate."

"I think we ought to go..." Deb, nervously...Eyeing the grandmother giving her a gimlet eye...

Hussy...

"A shilling?" Bess, blinking... "Oh, forget it...Sam'l would be livid. Pelling, lets go."

The three gypsies stare at the departing coach...

"Well, so much for tellin' her to avoid la Rue do Saint Martin in Paris." the first shrugs.

***

Terry Foreman  •  Link

325. Marc Antonio Giustinian, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.
The arrival of the Sig. Colbert in London and further the announcement that he has in hand the conduct of the most important affair that has been negotiated in this century gives the Lords States matter for consideration and compels them to be most attentively on their guard. They feel confident that if France makes liberal proposals to England for disturbing the commerce of Holland, she will not find them ready to listen to her there. If by offers of cash she attempts to detach that kingdom from the States, the latter hope that the knot of the alliance will stand in the way. They protest that the jealousies which are being disseminated among the allies will serve to turn their thoughts to Holland to derive the benefit of new friendships and to unite closely with them. If the designs of France upon the Low Countries alone had the power to facilitate the alliance between England, Sweden, and Holland, other attempts would induce them to join themselves in alliance with other princes with redoubtable forces. The Ambassador Meermen, who has returned from London, asserts however that he left things in the best state of security and that no change was to be feared.
Paris, the 11th August, 1668. [Italian.]
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"In the early period of the war between the king and the parliament, a course of sermons or lectures was projected in aid of the parliamentary cause. These lectures, which were preached by eminent Presbyterian divines at seven o’clock on the Sunday mornings, were commenced in the church of St. Mary Magdalen in Milk Street, but were soon afterwards removed to St. Giles’s, Cripplegate."

After the Civil War the Morning Exercises were continued, with many collected by Samuel Annesley being subsequently published in six volumes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mor…

Morning exercises at Cripplegate [ed. by S. Annesley] St. Giles in the fields [ed. by T. Case ... https://archive.org/details/morni…

Terry Foreman  •  Link

"This day I hear that, to the great joy of the Nonconformists, the time is out of the Act against them, so that they may meet"

L&M: The Conventicle Act of 1664 was due to expire at the end of this parliamentary session. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con… The King did not in fact end the session until 1 March 1669, but no further meetings of this parliament were held. Nonbcomformist in London now met fairly freely until the summer of 1669.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

'Charles II: August 1668', in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1667-8, ed. Mary Anne Everett Green (London, 1893), pp. 516-565. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…

@@@
Aug. 11. 1668
Portsmouth.
Hugh Salesbury to Williamson.

The Resolution and 2 others have arrived at Spithead to be paid off.
Sir Thos. Allin remains here, expecting some more ships from the Downs
to join him.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 140.]

@@@
Aug. 11. 1668
M. Wren to Sam. Pepys.

Pray think of carrying the papers about Acworth to the Speaker,
who will hasten out of town after tomorrow.

I cannot come to the Board tomorrow, as the House of Commons is
sitting;

I must remind you of the account which the [Treasury] Commissioners
expect. [ABOUT THE MAST CONTRACT]
Also the state of Mr. Pett’s business, for his Royal Highness to present to
the King;

and the proposition for sounding the Galoper, Kentish Knock, &c.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 145.]

@@@
Aug. 11. 1668
The Sovereign.
Capt. John Hubbard to [the Navy Commissioners.]

I have got to anchor within the Longsand Head, and hope to get further
tomorrow.
The boat sent by Sir Jeremy Smith is only a water boat, and no way fit to carry and fetch an anchor on board;
if I lie wind-bound here, one of the great boats ought to be sent to us from
Chatham.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 147.]
---
Long Sand Head is in the Thames Estuary, and appears to be a sandbank off
Ipswich https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/no…

Matt Newton  •  Link

The tube? Any views on this theory for helping with Sam's poor eyesight?

Mary K  •  Link

If you read tomorrow's entry and click on the highlighted "paper tubes" you will find a brief explanation of their size and intended function.

Mary K  •  Link

Paper tube:correction

That should read the highlighted "tube-spectacle of paper" in today's (11/8/68) entry.

Wherever terms, names etc. are highlighted in the text, clicking on them produces further information, perhaps with reference to an entry in the blog's encyclopaedia of elsewhere within the site.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

How's this for unravelling the Venetian Ambassador to France's assessment of what the French Ambassador, M. Charles Colbert, is doing in London:

325. Marc Antonio Giustinian, Venetian Ambassador in France, to the Doge and Senate.

The arrival of the Sig. [CHARLES] Colbert in London and further the announcement that he has in hand the conduct of the most important affair that has been negotiated in this century gives the Lords States [DUTCH???] matter for consideration and compels them to be most attentively on their guard.

They [DUTCH?] feel confident that if France makes liberal proposals to England for disturbing the commerce of Holland, she [DUTCH] will not find them [ENGLAND AND FRANCE] ready to listen to her [DUTCH] there.

If by offers of cash she [FRANCE] attempts to detach that kingdom [ENGLAND] from the States [DUTCH], the latter hope that the knot of the alliance will stand in the way. They [DUTCH] protest that the jealousies which are being disseminated among the allies [DUTCH, ENGLAND, SWEDEN] will serve to turn their [THE ALLIES] thoughts to Holland to derive the benefit of new friendships and to unite closely with them.

If the designs of France upon the Low Countries alone had the power to facilitate the alliance between England, Sweden, and Holland, other attempts would induce them to join themselves in alliance with other princes with redoubtable forces. [PROTESTANT GERMAN COUNTRIES]

The Ambassador Meermen, who has returned from London, asserts however that he left things in the best state of security and that no change was to be feared.
Paris, the 11th August, 1668. [Italian.]
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
***
Johan Meerman is the recalled Dutch ambassador to London. See https://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/…

Google gives no help on who “the Lords States” were, but the rest of the sentence appears to refer to the Dutch.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Aug. 11. 1668
M. Wren to Sam. Pepys.

Pray think of carrying the papers about Acworth to the Speaker, who will hasten out of town after tomorrow.

I cannot come to the Board tomorrow, as the House of Commons is sitting;

I must remind you of the account which the [Treasury] Commissioners expect. [L&M: The mast contract of 1664.]

Also the state of Mr. Pett’s business, for his Royal Highness to present to the King;

and the proposition for sounding the Galoper, Kentish Knock, &c.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 244, No. 145.]

@@@
Pepys must have received this letter early in the morning, because his first entry is to talk about the 1664 mast contract with Coventry.

Then presumably he delivers the Acworth information to the Speaker's office, but is more interested in what's going on with Parliament than the reason for his visit. He's not just wandering around town to avoid work.

"... the proposition for sounding the Galoper, Kentish Knock, &c."
The Galloper https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…
The Kentish Knock https://www.pepysdiary.com/encycl…

Not sure how much use sounding (the depths???) of these Channel phenomena will be. Surely the sand bars and debris move around with the tides and currents?
And maybe that's the point, so long as they do it regularly.
The English captains will have a more accurate maps showing where they are than the opposing fleets from the Continent.

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